Feast: Human Will

#FT18-05
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 28-Sep-18; 79 minutes

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As you may be aware, Arizona Senator, John McCain, had two funeral services after his death this past month from brain cancer. The first was in Phoenix at the church he attended, which is the North Phoenix Baptist Church. The second funeral was a much larger one at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

The Phoenix occasion was the public funeral for family, friends, and supporters, while the Washington, D.C. was a hot ticket. It was an event to see, and to be seen. It featured several former presidents; many people from Congress; past and present political figures; and celebrities all of whom suddenly liked and respected John McCain.

Now, these funeral services both had the usual eulogies, and reading of Scripture, and various songs that were played or sung. But at the end of the Phoenix funeral came a parting shot from John McCain himself. As his casket was being carried out in the recessional back to the hearse, people inside the church could hear the strains from Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way.”

I have heard that he personally chose the song to be played at his funeral; he was bragging in a way about his well-groomed lifelong image of being a maverick. That was John McCain: He was the Maverick in Congress, in the Senate; that is, he was unconventional; he was his own man; he would go his own way; no one would tell him what to do; he was maybe a Republican, but he was non-partisan. What that really meant was that he had no principle. Well, that is the way it came across.

I do not know if you know very much about the song, “My Way.” It was written by Paul Anka, maybe about 1961 (do not quote me on that). But he wrote it in about four hours! And, he just had to write the words, he did not write the melody. It is from a French melody that is a little bit different. He used Frank Sinatra as a template for the song, because he was writing this specifically for Frank Sinatra. He thought this was how Frank Sinatra was.

“My Way” is a song about a man who is about to die, reflecting on his life. And on gazing back through the years, he is proud of what he had done, because he had carved his own path. He never bowed to the will of others.

Let me read you some partial lyrics; this is not the whole song:

Regrets, I’ve had a few

But then again, too few to mention

I did what I had to do, and I saw it through

Without exception I planned each charted course

Each careful step along the byway

And more, much more than this

I did it my way.

To think I did all that,

and may I say not in a shy way.

Oh no, oh no, not me!

I did it my way.

For what is a man, what has he got?

If not himself, then he has naught

To say the things that he truly feels,

And not the words of one who kneels

The record shows I took the blows

And did it my way, Yes, it was my way!

“My Way” is now the top choice of funeral songs, believe it or not (well, at least in Britain). I guess it is now passed “Stairway to Heaven (and Highway to Hell)” as favorites. It beats out perennial favorites like “Wind Beneath My Wings,” Bette Midler’s song; “You Raise Me Up”; “You will Never Walk Alone” had been on the top funeral charts for over 50 years: “Amazing Grace” has been on there for probably 400 years; “My Heart Will Go On”; and “Hallelujah!”

Unlike these songs, “My Way” has an edge to it. As a matter of fact, even though the song was written basically to Frank Sinatra, and about Frank Sinatra from Paul Anka’s point of view, he (Frank) did not like to sing the song because he said it made him feel bad, because “that’s not how I am.” But it was such a hit, it was expected that he would sing it in every concert that he gave, because it was associated with him so strongly.

“My Way” has an edge to it, because it is about pride, and individualism, and self-sufficiency. And, it is sung in a way that is passionate, and truly arrogant: “I did it my way! Even though I took the blows, I did it—my way!”

To me, it speaks of the singer’s (or the person’s) massive ego, and narcissistic drive, and his unbending will to get his own way. It is totally self-centered. It tends to give the hearer, the listener the feel that the singer is thumbing his nose at everything—at tradition, at convention—just everyone. He was going to bulldoze through life without thought or care about anyone else. It is my way, and only my way (or the highway).

What does this say about our society and from where we have come that the idea of themselves that many people want to leave in the minds of their loved ones, or in the case of John McCain with the public, is I did it my way?

What does that say about us? Sure, America has long prided itself on its rugged individualism. We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps in this country. We do not need anybody else. But even back many decades or a century or two ago, this feeling was still there, in its infancy I guess, people who believed that when they thought about their funeral, their dying, they wanted to be remembered in not so selfish or egotistical a way. They were more thinking along religious lines and whether they would make it into the afterlife, one way or the others. Hopefully up, and not down. People back then at least superficially were more pious; more humble you might say, at least on that account.

But now, people want to be remembered as having made their mark in their own distinctive, often unapologetic, and certainly unchristian, way. They are like John McCain, aggressively one of a kind. They want to be the ones who break the mold. “There will never be another senator like John McCain,” and that sort of thing.

Turn to II Timothy and read some very familiar scriptures where Paul lists the attitudes of the perilous times of the last days.

II Timothy 3:1-5 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come [It is going to be stressful, and dangerous. Then he tells us why]: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

I think any Christian would want to turn away immediately. Those kinds of attitudes would turn them off and make us run the other way. These are the kinds of attitudes we live among. People out there display these attitudes all the time. Now it is just a little bit more in-your-face than it was a few years ago, but really, truthfully, they have been around since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden.

But as the end approaches Paul is warning us that the frequency and the intensity of such attitudes are increasing to levels we have never seen before. This is making or composing the milieu of the time of the end; this is when these attitudes are given license to be played out loud in the streets or wherever it happens to be.

If I can summarize these attitudes with one over-arching term, I would say that mankind is generally becoming more willful. The dictionary would define “willful” as, “Obstinately and often perversely self-willed.” People are stubbornly doing whatever they please, no matter the consequences, whether those consequences are short term or long term, or whether to themselves or to others around them. We have heard this at the Feast of Tabernacles before, the Nike’s slogan, “Just do it.” Do it wherever, whenever, however. People want what they want. They will do what they do, no matter what. They have no care for others; no sense of being under judgment—especially God’s judgment. And hey, do not let them know that you are evaluating them in any way—"You judging me?” They do not like that because they are guilty, and they know it!

In the last sermon we considered some aspects of God’s will, seeing how perfect, holy, and righteous it is; it conforms to His character, though He does not always reveal that will to us, we found that out too that He has a will He reveals, and there is a secret will too that He has left to when He will divulge it.

But, today, we are going to turn the spotlight so it shines on ourselves—upon mankind. In most ways, human will is contrary to God’s will. And, because we follow our own will, we tend to get either personally, nationally, or globally into hot water all of the time. But there is a smidgen of hope for us in Christ.

Let us go back to the beginning. It is always good to start there. I want to show a link if I can in a small way between God’s will and our will.

Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

So God purposefully made mankind to be like Him. He stresses it in these verses. We are after His image. And it goes further than just physical likeness. We resemble Him in the way we are made—head, two arms, two legs, attached to a torso. He made us after His kind, but physical. He made us to look like Him.

But He also made us to have many of the same abilities and traits that He has, just on a much lesser scale. So He made us so that we know His ultimate purpose, to make children in His own image. He wants ones like Himself to live with forever. So, He made us in a small way a lot like Him. He gave us these traits and abilities and He wants us to use these God-like traits and abilities as He does. He wants us to grow in them, in a way that will please Him, so that we can become ever-more like Him. If we would go back to Ephesians 4, we would find that is what we are doing. We are growing into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So, He starts us off at a low level, and slowly gives us more abilities, gifts, more strength to do that, and we (when we have His Spirit) become more and more like Jesus Christ.

He also gave humanity powers, such as dominion. He tells us to subdue what He has made. So, God gave man the earth, and He gave him all kinds of powers and abilities; and through the spirit in man, we have the ability to speak with language, to communicate with one another, and we also have the ability to communicate with Him. And then we add to all these other things understanding and the ability to think and plan, all that stuff—devise and invent so that we can make life around us better.

So, He gave us the tools that we could have used to perpetuate Eden. It was there, if they wanted it. And then from there, if we/they would have followed God’s way, we could have made the whole earth a paradise. Just with the tools He had given us. Life on earth could have been wonderful, and peaceful and prosperous for everyone.

But no, Adam and Eve used their gifts in disobedience. We know the story. And all their descendants but Jesus Christ have followed their examples. And so we get the world that we deserve with all its riots and protests, wars, suffering, want—it was all avoidable. But we humans could not do it because of sin and the corruption of self interest, not to mention the influence of Satan, our very natures have changed into carnality. And that has altered our will.

Remember from the last sermon, a being’s will is essentially his or her decision-making processes. From the conception of whatever it is in the mind, whatever that desire may be, through its enactment, it is the whole process. You can intend to do something, and that might be your will, but if you never actually do it, it does not come to fruition. But, when you finally do it that is your will in concrete form you might say, when it has been fully made.

So, our will is the choices we make, and the actions we take.

And, because of our selfish desires our human will is decidedly tilted toward evil. It starts out a little bit tilted toward evil, because we are selfish. Even when we are born, we want food, we want to be changed, we want our desires whatever they happen to be, and as we grow in carnality, those same types of infantile selfish desires grow into adult selfish desires. Most of the time, it does not change. All of this is pointed away from God. It is like we are still running out of the Garden. We are always trying to leave Him and get far enough away that we do not have to be reminded that He is there.

We would see this immediately if we would go to Genesis 3. Adam and Eve sinned. They were willing to follow Satan. She was willing, being deceived, and he was willing to follow her whatever she did. And then, they were willing to point the finger at one another. She did it. No, the snake did it. God said, you are all guilty. You all have sinned. And then we flip over to chapter 4 and what do we find? The first two children recorded as being born on the earth are arguing, and Cain kills Abel through jealousy. He was envious that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and not his own.

And then it just ramps up from there as more and more people are born on the earth. They get into more conflicts. And it comes down to us. and here we are in a world that is just chaotic—everyone doing his own thing.

Turn to Psalm 14.

Psalm 14:1-3 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.

Psalm 10:3-7 For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire; he blesses the greedy and renounces the LORD. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts. His ways are always prospering; Your judgments are far above, out of his sight; as for all his enemies, he sneers at them. He has said in his heart, "I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity." His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue is trouble and iniquity.

Psalm 10:13 Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, "You will not require an account."

If you noticed, none of these verses directly mentions human will. But they do reflect human will. “That none does good,” indicates that it is—both personally and globally—humanity’s will not to do good. They do not want to do good. They have chosen to do evil. All of them! Remember, God looks down on the children of men, “Is there anybody down there doing anything good? Nope. Not one.” This is not a blanket judgment. This is God’s judgment looking at everyone, and saying they all fail. They all get “F” on their tests. Their will is always directed away from God’s commands and toward fulfilling whatever selfish desires they have. That is the beginning of their will. We see it most clearly in Psalm 10:6 where the will of the wicked is blatantly expressed. “I shall not be moved. I shall not be in adversity. I am going to be safe. I am going to be comfortable. I am not going to give up anything that my hand has wrested from somebody else.” That is their will—“I will not!”

This, as the psalmist says, is the desire of his heart. That is where the will begins.

So, this wicked person’s actions (who stands for just about everybody unless they have been converted), all the wickedness he performs is the expression of his inner will—his evil heart, which Jesus Christ mentions in the gospels: “How do you being evil give good gifts to your children?” These were people who were trying to follow Him. Everybody has self-serving choices and they far outnumber the more outgoing serving choices.

In a nutshell—human will is generally a mirror-image of God’s will. Remember, when you see something in a mirror it is reversed. Man’s will is generally evil. God’s will is righteous. Man’s will is generally negative. God’s will is positive. Man’s will is carnal and fleshy. God’s will is godly and spiritual. Man’s will is self-centered. God’s will is outgoing. Man’s will is profane. God’s will is holy.

See what I mean about the mirror-image?

Psalm 10:13 Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, "You will not require an account."

This suggests why human will is so perversely anti-God. People in their heart of hearts believe way deep down that no one, and certainly not God Himself, will ever make them accountable for their choices—no one. They will not have to face up to any sort of judgment seat of Jesus Christ. They do not believe in it. They do not think it will ever happen. And even if they have heard that it will happen, they doubt it. Deep down, they doubt it. They feel that they will never have to answer for their sins.

So, why should they make any effort to conform their will to God’s? Why make it hard on themselves? Why not just do what they want to do? That is what they want, so they might as well do it. They want to please themselves. There is no thought in their heart about pleasing God. Pleasing someone you do not even believe exists? In fact, along with verse 4, “The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts,” when we put these two verses together (4 and 13), what we get is an idea that they do not hardly ever consider God at all. He is in none of their thoughts. They do not care what He thinks. That is just the way it is.

Do you want to know one of the big reasons why they do not consider God? They are fixated on themselves. They are fixated on their own pleasure, self-satisfaction; as Herbert Armstrong used to put it, they are fixated on their own getting. They are fixated on the way of get. It is all about them. “What’s in it for me?” This is, again, a mirror-image of God’s will—the “give” way, versus the “get” way—the way of getting for the self versus the way of out-going concern for others. We could go through much of the Bible and give you examples that God Himself made sure were recorded for our admonition.

What about Pharaoh? God said, “Let My people go!” “No! They’re my slaves!” That was essentially it. They were a part of his power. It was all about him. And he had that stiff neck and stubborn heart that God had to battle against.

What about the children of Israel themselves? How many times were they stiff-necked and wanted to go in the opposite direction that God wanted them to go in?

What about the Pharisees and their opposition to Christ? Here was the very God of Creation, the One they were supposedly worshipping telling them what His will was for them, the way that they should believe, should think, should treat one another—and they killed Him. He did not conform to their will. That is what they wanted. They wanted God to conform to them, not they have to conform to Him. That is stubborn, human will; self-centered human will.

Many of us came out of the Worldwide Church of God in the late 1980s, early 1990s. We had a group of administrators who wanted their will, not God’s. And so they changed the doctrines for the church so that they could feel comfortable amidst all the other professing Christians in this world. They did not want to be different. So they imposed their will on the church of God. And look what has happened! Hundreds of splinter groups, because human will is still happening. We each have our own way of doing things.

Now, as I have intimated, this problem with human will is a problem for us, because this is the state that God called us from. Think about it. We thought like the world thinks all the time, back then, whenever that was, however many years ago it was, really, in the scheme of things, not all that long ago. He plucked us out of the world, and said, “Try thinking like Me for a while.”

It is shameful to admit, but we often do not think like He does yet. Our wills are not aligned to God’s will as they should be. Even after all this time, perhaps decades trying to learn His will, we are still inclined to follow our own wills, rather than God’s.

And I could bet that almost every time our own will stands up first. And we take that first initial movement toward our own will before we catch ourselves, because it is such an ingrained thing to do what we want. And we have to say, “Whoa there, Nellie. Let’s think about this! What does God want?” Rather than it being a response that we just do what God wants us to do, because the flesh—our carnality—is still pulling at us with all the vigor that we allow it to have. And oftentimes, we allow it a lot of free rein.

Turn to Romans 7.

I do not want to make you feel too bad, so I have added this in here. Someone as righteous as the apostle Paul had these same feelings, desires, and impulses toward the flesh like we do. I bet he had them a lot less than we do. He was a righteous man. God used him greatly. God beat it out of him, humbling him.

Romans 7:14-23 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Then he goes on and says, “Thankfully we have Jesus Christ who gives us the strength to overcome and delivers us from all this.”

Paul calls this impulse a law in his members. He means a power—an influence—within him, in his mind, in his body that causes him to sin, even though he really wants to do good. He has good intentions. He is thinking that he should do this good thing, and then he goes and does something bad, which he really does not want to do. But it is this drive, this influence, this power that he calls a law that is beating him up from the inside out, and sometimes he succumbs to it. And does what he wants to do rather than what God wants him to do.

He speaks of his old human nature, honed over many years of carnal living, to a fine point. And you know, that old man tends to be stronger than his new man. That old man is stronger than the new godly nature that God is trying to build in him. And because it is stronger, it often gets the upper hand. Once we are converted, once we are baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit, and begin this walk with God, we find, and are ashamed to say, that in reality our godly will is rather weak; feeble, and easily overcome by the old man—our carnal nature. It is easy to give in to it.

Do you know why it seems that way? It is not necessarily because your carnal nature is strong. It seems strong. But it does not take a strong will to sin. In reality, you merely go with the flow. You really let go. Remember the old adage about any dead fish can float downstream. Live, strong fish swim upstream.

That is the thing about it—it is easy to go the way of sin. It really does not take much will to go the way of sin. It is just giving in. But to do what is right, you have to swim hard against the current. That is what is so hard. That is why we need God’s Spirit to give us the help, so we can live righteously; that we can live according to His will.

Please turn to Galatians 5.

Galatians 5:16-17 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Galatians 5:24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So, there is a war going on within us and God has given us the help that we need. He has not left us short on anything. If He called you into the church, and gave you His Spirit, and set you on this path, you have the tools and the strength to overcome. You just have to apply what you know, use a bit of willpower and faith, and just do it.

You have to use what you have been given, apply it to your problems, and then follow God’s will in faith. Take the step! And then another step, and another step, and another until you strengthen your faith, just like your muscles in exercise. The book of Hebrews talks a bit about that. You have to exercise your senses in the ways of God in order to strengthen yourself. But it takes faith. And it takes an application of godly will along with the other gifts that He has given.

All right, let us get a little practical here.

Please turn back to Romans 12 again. We go to these scriptures often. But they are so very helpful. There are many different ways we could look at it.

Now, something you need to know—it has already been mentioned here at the Feast of Tabernacles once. The first eleven chapters of Romans is pretty much all doctrine. He is laying down the foundation of what it is to be a Christian and the Christian walk—what you need to know about this Christian life. So he goes through things you need to know—baptism, receiving the Holy Spirit, and place of the law, and the place of Israel—that is all doctrinal. He lays all that foundation for us.

Chapter 12 is when it begins to turn practical—when we begin to apply these doctrines. So, here he is opening up the Christian living section of the book of Romans with these few verses in chapter 12.

Romans 12:1-3 I beseech [urge, implore] you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

And then he starts really getting into the practical matters.

But this is the foundation for applying the practical things. This is basic. This is foundational material that applies to all of the Christian living instruction. This is what we have to have as a baseline to be able to apply these things.

Paul provides three essential keys to aligning our will to God’s will. And they are all found there in these three verses. It is not easy, it is not quick, it is not painless, it is not effortless this process that we are to commence. It is just the opposite. It is very difficult. It is the most demanding and difficult thing we have ever done! And Paul realizes this. But he says that if you start with these three keys, then you should be able to follow through. You should be able to do it with what God has given you.

However, even so, it is very hard. A lot of people cannot do it for one reason or another. I mean, by the time of the first resurrection, only a handful of humanity will have accomplished this task. We understand that about 144,000 will have become firstfruits. And even they will have done it only in part, and with a lot of help. As Peter says, the righteous are scarcely saved. So, please do not get overwrought about any of this. You have it in you to do it. You have it in you because God has put it in you to do it. It is not going to be by our power, but by God’s Spirit. That is how it is going to be done. And, He has chosen you to do it, because He knows you can do it! Despite how difficult it may be. But certainly we want to join all those other firstfruits in going on to perfection. And so, we must put these three things into practice in response to God’s mercy in intervening in our lives. He did choose us, He forgave us, and He set us on this path to His Kingdom. And so, this is our reasonable response to what He has done for us.

The first of these three is in verse 1—Sacrifice, as it is only right and proper, and reasonable; considering that all that God has done for us. And he says that we must do this sacrificing as we live. We are living sacrifices. A dead sacrifice learns nothing. There is no growth in a dead sacrifice. It cannot learn, it cannot overcome, so you must do it while you are alive. And so we must sacrifice. We have to give up much of what we have desired.

Sometimes, it may be just about everything we have ever desired, whether it is certain people we have desired to be with; plans that we may have had; prosperity as we imagined it; power as we wished to wield; prestige among our crowd that we once desired to have; plus a lot more: All of our mistaken ideas; a whole bunch of stupid opinions; and most if not all of our worldly aspirations.

It is a total makeover. You start with something undesirable, and when you come out at the end, it is something very desirable. But it is what God desires, not what we desire.

I know a lot of you watch HGTV (Home Garden Television—a U.S. cable channel). You have watched the shows where they flip a house or something, and they go in there, a totally trashed house, and they buy it for pennies, “I can make this into a nice livable place,” and the show goes through all the things and problems; and they spend thousands of dollars renovating this place until it is livable; but they have also spiced it up with a nice kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and everything looks peachy; and they sell it for 450,000 and they are on their merry way to find another one to flip.

Well, that is what God is doing with your life. He is “flipping” you! It is true. You are being turned upside down. Is that not what people said about the apostles and their message, “They who turn the world upside down”? That is what God is doing with each one of us, personally.

He does not want the old you. He wants to trash the old you and He wants to make something worthwhile with what is left. That is what He wants. He sees something in you; that diamond in the rough; and He is willing to do whatever it takes to flip you to that point where He buys you. He has bought you, has He not? Already! And He likes the job that He does so much, that He keeps you! I will put it that way.

Turn to Luke 14.

Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”

Pretty strong words there! Unless you are willing to give up everything, starting with those closest to you, then you cannot do it. You cannot be His disciple. It will not work. You are going to be drawn away. Jesus Christ says here that we must be willing to give up everything all the way to our own life to follow Him. He implies that we must sacrifice the life we thought we would have, and almost everything in it, for the life He wants us to lead. At the very least, if He does not ask us to get rid of everything, we must be willing to get rid of everything.

There is that word—willing.

Such an overwhelming sacrifice, Paul says in Roman 12:1, is our reasonable, spiritual service. A more recent understanding of this phrase, ‘reasonable service,’ Paul suggests not necessarily that it is our reasonable or spiritual service, but it is our true worship. That is how we truly worship God. We worship God through sacrifice.

Two thirds of our book, here, that we use as the manual for life is the “Old Testament” is it not? What did worship contain in the Old Testament? Lots and lots of sacrifice. They sacrificed animals. That is how they worshipped. They would take a goat to God and sacrifice it to Him, in whichever form it needed to be—sin, whole burnt, peace, etc. Maybe it was a lamb, or bullock, or what-have-you. They were constantly killing animals to symbolize the sacrifice that God requires.

But God does not want a bunch of dead animals. He wants sacrifice of a living being; a sacrifice of a heart given to Him. Sacrifice is the essence of worship. And so, you need to ask yourself how much sacrificing are you doing in your worship? Or is it easy for you? Maybe you really are not sacrificing? But, then again, spending or giving a whole day to God on the Sabbath, is a sacrifice. You are sacrificing one/seventh of your life for Him. That is a good sacrifice.

Are you sacrificing yourself for your brethren? Are you giving them the things that they need? That is more sacrifice. But we are supposed to be laying ourselves down for Him and for the brethren. That is the essence of worship.

Let us move to the second. I will read it again:

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The point is that we must actively participate in becoming transformed. This is in the passive tense. “Do not be conformed but be transformed.” It is something that is happening to you, but we need to be active participants in the process. It will not happen if we just go “uh.” God will not work with us. He wants us to be involved in our own transformation process. And this transformation process is a process of renewing the mind—making the mind new, brand new.

So, we are adjusting our way of thinking, because I am talking about will here. We are adjusting our way of thinking to parallel God’s way of thinking. We are inculcating His will into our minds. We are taking on the mind of Christ. If you want a note for that, it is I Corinthians 2:16, where Paul says that we “have the mind of Christ.” A lot of the times we just do not use it. It is there. It is available to us through His Spirit, and through His Word, but we do not make use of it. And when we do not make use of it, we do not put it in our mind. We are not actively participating in the transformation process. And this process also entails, as Paul says here in verse 2, proving what the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is.

You know, they have proving grounds for things? That is where they go out and test things, do they not? They have proving grounds in racing. They have tracks where they go out and test the cars, tires, or a new configuration of racing. It will be interesting! It is in the chase. There will probably be a lot of cars on a wrecker.

That is what we have to do with our own lives. We have to go out there and prove the will of God. We have to use our lives testing these things out, one after the other. We prove God’s will by living it.

God says we should do this thing—do not lie. Okay, have you proved that one? You know it is God’s will, but are you living it? Are you proving it to yourselves? You could have a mental acceptance of these things, but are you actually going through the process of rooting out any kind of deceit from your speech, or your actions, or in any other way?

Remember, I read this to you last sermon, God cannot lie! Are you to that point yet? No! I will answer that question for you! I know you are not. We all have that tendency to want to obfuscate. Even if we are not outright lying, many of us tell “white” lies. “Oh, it’s just a little thing.” Oh no, it is not! God would never tell a white lie. Are you proving that particular precept in your own life? Are you making it part of your character so that you can approach that superior way of living in terms of deceit, truth?

So we must try it out. We must put it to the test. We can truly know how wonderful the life of God is only by experiencing the difference between it and the sinful human life we have been living. We can only realize how good it is to live like God by doing it.

The third point is found in Romans 12:3 and Colossians 1:9-13.

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Colossians 1:9-13 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

The third key is that we must employ three essential attitudes: humility, clear headed thinking, and faith. These are fundamental baseline attitudes that every Christian must have all the time—must show all the time. We should be known for these things—humility, clear headed thinking, and faith (not to mention love and all that stuff too). But these are the three that Paul mentions in Romans 12:3.

As in the Sermon on the Mount I am talking about these three essential attitudes), Jesus Christ gives ‘poor in spirit’ as the first. Such people realize that they are nothing, they have nothing, that in relation to God, they are destitute. They do not know spit. And they need whatever God is going to give them so that they can learn and grow and be like Him.

So, one who is poor in spirit is not proud at all but very humble! This is why I think Jesus used it as the first thing. This is the very foundation of Christian living—humility. You have got to be humble and willing to be taught. You need to realize that you are needy—spiritually needy. You do not know anything; your opinions are stupid—especially in comparison to God’s opinions, truths.

The second one, clear headed thinking—back in Romans 12:3, he uses the word “soberly.” Soberly is the opposite of drunkenly.

So, let us think about what happens when we get drunk. When drunk we cannot think straight. That is one of the things that happens. And do not fool yourself into thinking that you think better with an ounce of Jack Daniels in you. You do not! It starts affecting you.

You are more easily duped when you are under the influence of alcohol. How many guys have figured that out? Why do you think they go pick up women in bars? You cannot walk a straight line when you are drunk. You cannot see the little subtle imperfection in the street, or whatever, and you stumble frequently when you are under the influence of alcohol.

I have watched people’s personalities change. They will be going on, taking a drink, or whatever, and after 15 minutes, or 15 drinks (I do not know), they suddenly go morose! Others get giddy. But it is not their true personality. We claim, “Well, that’s the drink talking.” That is what happens—we are not ourselves anymore when we are drunk. Paul is urging us to think soberly—that is, to avoid anything that will muddle our thinking. I am not talking just about alcohol, but anything that will muddle your thinking, any kind of opinion group, which are all over the internet. And we get in there, and we join a group, and pretty soon we are thinking like the group. And our thinking is actually muddled because we are not thinking like God, we are thinking like the niche group people.

God want us to make sound rational godly choices that are according to His will. And we cannot do that if we are distracted or if we are being pulled or pushed in one direction or another. So, avoid confusion, and think from only what is true. I know this is difficult, because we are being influenced left and right, up and down, inside and out. These influences are hard to avoid. But Paul is giving us a standard that we are to think soberly—to have a clear head and evaluate and judge these things with a mind that is not going to be swayed away from God.

The final clause here in Romans 12:3 has to do with, “As God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” I just put it under the single word “faith.”

This clause makes commentators scratch their heads, because they cannot figure out how it fits in with what he has just said. The Greek is a bit confusing. But, if I can put it simply without having to go into all the details, it essentially means that our thinking and our lives need to stay within the bounds of the faith God has given us.

What is that faith? I mentioned Ephesians 4. We are to grow to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Well, the faith that we have is the faith of Jesus Christ. So, we should measure ourselves in terms of faith against Christ and His faith. He is the gold standard, and it is an unreachable standard—because He is perfect. He is God! And we are silly human beings. This is opposed to measuring ourselves against somebody else’s faith.

The standard of faith is given in Scripture, not in the life of another person. We probably all know II Corinthians 10, verse 12:

II Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

So, do not measure yourself against somebody else in this room. You may see their lives and say, yeah, that is very good, I can follow that example. That is fine. But, actually measuring yourself and judging yourself as righteous because you are as righteous as the person next to you, is not wise. You are both falling in the ditch. That is a problem. We have to measure ourselves against Jesus Christ, and no other. So it all comes back to having faith in Christ, and living up to that standard as we are able, but always working to increase our faith, because we are all going to fall short against standard, and we should never stop trying to reach that standard.

In this sermon, that standard of faith we are talking about has to do with training our will to parallel God’s will. If you are comparing yourself against somebody else in his ability to follow God’s will, that is not good. Always measure yourself against God’s will as a perfect will, that hopefully we have been proving by the way we live.

Now, as we do these things—sacrifice, renewing the mind, and employing humility and clear thinking in the faith, our wills will begin to change! If you follow this three-step process, you are going to see growth. If you are diligently trying to make your mind and your will more like God’s, you will find that you are actually progressing. And do you know what one of the big keys is, how you can see that you are progressing?

One simple word: Submission.

If you are growing in the will of God; if your mind is becoming more like God’s; its affect is that you will submit. We will defer to the will of God. Our wills will be subsumed into His will. We will say, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and mean it, and do it!

Let us conclude in James 4.

James 4:13-17 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. [that is humbling] Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Now, the overall teaching here is that we must always take God into consideration in whatever we do. Remember when we were in Psalm 14 and Psalm 10, they did not consider God at all. He was in none of their thoughts. They thought there would be no judgment. So, they did not give Him the time of day. But James is teaching that that idea should be anathema to us; we have got to be on the whole other end of the spectrum and have Him under consideration all the time, never out of our thoughts! Not even for a moment! It is always in our thoughts. He always comes first. To leave Him and His will out of our thoughts, activities, and plans, is arrogance, boasting, and evil. Have you ever thought of it that way? Not thinking about God in your own life is arrogant, boasting, and evil? But it is! James says so.

It is sin! The word is ‘hamartia,’ which means we are not hitting the mark; we are not making the standard. We are not coming up to snuff. As children of God, we have been called to live and think like God all the time, 24/7.

So, all of our lives must be lived precisely following God’s will, and we must always be prepared in humility and faith to jettison our will for His.

I have not done this yet. I am sure you have not done this yet. We have done it maybe a time or two in terms of “kind of.” But we are not to the pinnacle of success in actually living God’s will all the time. We are not there. But this should be our mind-set; always be considering God first, and what He wants for us.

So, James ends his paragraph with a proverbial saying—a maxim, here in verse 17: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” Many do not think that it suits what comes before it. But it does. It is actually very apropos. It sets an extremely high standard for us. Essentially, the apostle is telling us that we are sinning, we are missing the mark if we are failing to practice any known bit of God’s instruction. Think of that! I will say it again: The apostle tells us that we are sinning, we are missing the mark if we are failing to practice any known bit of God’s instruction. If you have heard it; if you have learned it; and you are not practicing it; you are sinning.

That is tough, because there is usually a lag between knowing and doing, because we do not understand, or we are weak, or we are whatever. But if we know God’s will about something, it has been taught to us, which defines what is good, and we are not doing it, to us it is sin. That is really tough.

How many of us have read the Bible through? Probably all of us. We know what is in the Book. But how many of us are actually doing what is in the Book? Not doing what you know to do that is good, is sin. That is an extremely, extremely high standard!

During that time between our knowing, and the time of our doing, we are not submitting our will to Him. And so it is sin. It is that simple. And it is that discouraging.

So, we have a long way to go to getting rid of our perverse human will. And we will never get rid of it fully. But God wants to see progress along the way. He wants to see that we are taking His will seriously. That we are considering Him all the time, and what He wants from us, and making efforts, striving to do what is right and good. He gives us high marks for that. But He knows that we will fail. We will not succeed in everything. But He is merciful and gracious and gives us a lot of rope to hang ourselves. But He also gives us a lot of strength, and a lot of gifts that will help us. And, if we apply those three essential attitudes—humility, clear head thinking, and faith—we can go a long way.

Let us be glad that God is patient, and merciful, and faithful towards us; remember that we are being transformed. He is doing most of the heavy lifting. He will succeed. That is His job right now. He will succeed in transforming us into His character image, and what we need to do is employ faith in Him.

RTR/rwu/drm