Good morning, everybody. You having a good day so far? I hope you've had a great week. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we now begin a new series called Control Out Renewed, I pray, Lord, that above all may our minds be transformed by you. In Jesus name, Amen.

So we'll be transparent. We had a totally different series lined up for this month and then we realized it doesn't fit. So we called an audible. Bill in a moment of wisdom, was going through his yearly reading and he was really fascinated by with Romans 12. And there's a lot that we can take from it and ultimately how can we serve the Lord? So this month we're going to be going through Romans 12.

Now, how many of you like to be in control? Only a handful of you. So if I have the opportunity to drive, I will drive. Why? Because I want to be in control of where I'm going. I get to choose my destiny. Or so I think.

Many years ago when I was in college, I was invited by a friend to go to his house and have food with his family and some of our other friends. And we thought, great. So went over. His parents were good friends with my grandparents. And as the afternoon progressed, we thought, hey, we'll just hang out. But I knew later that evening I was gonna go watch a movie in Tri Cities. Tri Cities is about maybe 45 minutes from where I was in school. And the afternoon went on and my friend said, hey, I'll take a quick nap. I had ridden to his house with him in the car and just let me take a quick nap, take a 20 minute power nap until he knocks out. And 20 minutes was not 20 minutes, it was more like 30 minutes. And sunset was coming.

And I kind of poked him like, hey man, I got a time. I got to meet some people. We're going to head to Tri Cities. Oh yeah. And he falls back asleep.

I poke him again, he falls asleep again. And I didn't hit him, but I was like, dude, I gotta meet my friends. So we finally, finally got back to the school, hopped in the car with my other friends and went to go watch a movie. And it just, to me, I realized, man, I don't like not having a car. I don't like not being in control.

Because oftentimes I think we try to map out our lives. You know, when you're going through college or maybe even earlier, you decide what do you want to be? Do you want to be a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, whatever. We schedule vacations, we organize our days, we try to make life as predictable as possible. We want to see and know what's coming ahead.

But no matter how much we actually try to carefully plan, can we totally, absolutely control our schedule? Not always, because life will sometimes throw a curve ball. At one point we will probably, well, we will meet our fate, or Jesus will return.

There was a study published by the Annals of Palliative Medicine and explored this very tension where they got together hundreds of people and they asked a very simple question. How would you like to die? That's a very dark question. And the overwhelming answer. Anybody want to take a guess? Sleep, right? So I just want to sleep. Somebody said, I just want to go peacefully without ever waking up. Another person said, I want it to happen quickly. Somebody else said, I just want to have a sudden heart attack while I asleep. And again and again. And some said that want to die peacefully at old age, free of pain.

They did not want to suffer. Researchers call this the avoidant acceptance. People know death is inevitable and they accept the fact in our heads intellectually, but emotionally, they would rather avoid thinking about the actual age process of aging and passing away. And as they continued to explore this, they realized it wasn't really about sleep. What was it about?

It's about control. Their fate, their destiny. One person put it, the control factor is the main struggle because we do not know how or when the end will arrive. And the other admitted the end of life is probably the one thing on a personal level we just cannot control. So there's some who, for sure, they wanted to have the ability to say goodbye to their loved ones, and yet they still wanted it to happen quickly.

So do you hear this struggle, this tension that they're experiencing? We want to control. We want to know the timing. We want to choose the circumstances. And sometimes, well, ultimately, we want to avoid suffering.

We don't want to be a burden to our families. We want everything to happen on our terms.

And yet scripture also reminds us the final chapter of our lives is never ultimately what it's not in our hands. The gospel does not call us to face death and sleep unaware. It calls us to face it with faith. It invites us to entrust our lives and deaths to a sovereign God who already knows the number of. Of our days.

So let's open the passage to Romans 12. Let's go to the Scripture, Romans 12. We're going to try to hit all these verses today as much as possible. But Romans 12, and for context, those of you I know we've gone through Romans. For those of us who've been here a bit. The first eight chapters of Romans is all about the fact that Paul is trying to help them understand that we are not saved by the law, were saved by grace. There's this tension within the Roman church of the Jewish believers. Unfortunately, at one point had to leave. There was a diaspora where they had to go to other parts just to be safe, so that they would not be murdered or beaten or taken into prison. And who filled the gap of the Roman church? The Roman Christians were previously Gentile Christians. Okay? They didn't grow up in Judaism. And those who had believed, who were Jews and then became Christians, come back home. Well, this is our church, but they're not acting like we did. We want to change it. They don't think like we did. We need to change their minds. And the Romans are like, hey, you guys bailed. So there's this tension here, right?

And Paul has to help them out. You have the Jews who are trying to be more legalistic. The Roman Christians are like live and let live. And Paul tries to bring them together.

And in chapters 9, 10, 11, he then goes on to help them to understand.

You are all a united bunch. You're like two trees coming together. You were grafted in. And after all of that, what's the first word that pops up? Therefore.

Okay, and when you use therefore, what does that signal? There's a transition, there's a change coming. And what does this change? In the next verse, chapters 12 through 15, Paul then talks about how you can live. And the first thing he talks about is how you can be transformed by God.

So therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a what a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Don't conform to, to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Now in our series, Ctrl + Alt + Renewed. Control, we've talked a little bit and alluded to this already. We try and prefer to control things. We try to control our destiny. We want to have a measure of control when we're feeling fear and anxiety. Because when we have this sense of control, we can again, we can try to head in the direction we want to. And maybe it also, when we know where we're headed, it might give us a little bit of motivation, some competence and maybe even some self worth. But it's also control can Be an emotional self protection. Oftentimes we think control. Really, what is it? It's an illusion because at the end of the day, we can't control everything.

I went online and I asked, what are some of the top influences that are shaping people's values and just shaping people, period? And of course, the first one, it's not a surprise, is technology and AI okay. In many ways it's positive because people are learning at a rate far faster than we could ever have imagined. And this is just happening within years. Right?

Okay. In fact, we were talking about this. I was with our youth today and talking about, y' all are lucky because we didn't have these tools when we were in high school growing up. Right. But it's so fascinating.

It takes me three times now to read a book. Three times longer to read a book because I can Google the place that they're talking about. I can have visuals now. But then I realized, you know what, though? Before, there was still a sense of mystery that I could think about. I could imagine what I want. Have you ever read a book? We were so fascinated about this book. And then they make a movie and the movie is horrible because it ruined all of the pictures of what you thought were in the book. It's like, that's not what he said.

That's not how she acted. They completely combined a couple of characters. That's not right. Very rarely. I'm sorry, I'm such a skeptic. And I have such. It's hard for me to watch. I'm scared to watch a movie of a book that I'm very passionate about. Right. There was one book that was written and they made a movie of it.

And I'm so glad I didn't go into the theater, watch it because I literally would have walked out angry because the only thing that they took from that book into the movie was the character's name. They completely wrote a new plot story and just called it the name of the book. It's not anywhere close. And I could not control the director, I could not control the producers, I could not control the actors or to Willem for how I wanted them to act. And not only that, like the actor, the lead, he's a really great actor. And his performance, like the way they were acting, you could tell that they did not put the effort into this movie. And it was something I was so passionate. It's one of my favorite books of all time. And they butchered it. Control.

I wanted to control.

But it can also lead to screen addiction. We're going back to technology and AI. Okay. Distractions, privacy concerns. You all hear the news about privacy concerns, but maybe some cameras, maybe the replacement also of some jobs by automation.

We also have social media. People are able to share ideas, which is great. You can build a community, stay informed about what is happening in the world. At the opposite end, could it lead to misinformation? Could it create unrealistic expectations?

For instance, you know, I have several nieces and I worry that they're young girls and what they see online, they may think that's what's real and it is not a healthy perspective. I worry about that.

Distractions. It encourages comparison. Comparison is a thief of what? joy. And ultimately it creates anxiety and loneliness. We are so connected and yet we feel so alone.

We have a loneliness epidemic that is happening. There's also money and economy that we're influenced by. We want a strong economy. We want to be able to create jobs and opportunities and have everybody overall have a better quality of life. But yet we're racked with inflation, we're debt, financial inequality, climate change and environment.

Our world is changing with rising temperatures, pollution, natural disasters, shortages. We then have families, which is great. We can have positive, healthy families who provide support, guidance, and maybe also a sense of belonging. But at the flip side, there are some who have broken relationships, conflict. They're not willing to be humble, to try to work together and to come to a solution that leads as well.

When you lack a relationship, it leads to mental and emotional health. When it comes to education, education can open doors and opportunities, skills and careers. But not everybody has the same access or have to make decisions. They have to make huge sacrifices. And then of course, we have the health and mental well being.

Advances in medicine have become great. We're able to treat diseases that we never thought would be able to be treatable. But yet there's also confusion of we're dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, unhealthy lifestyles are becoming increasingly common. We have culture, we have faith, we have personal identity. These things help people find purpose and meaning for their lives.

But yet there's also confusion about all of this too. Politics and leadership. Good leadership can lead to an improved society, freedoms, protection and solve important questions. And yet right now we also see corruption, we see divisiveness, decision making. It damages trust and creates conflict.

And lastly, we have global events. Sometimes when we work together as a community, things can grow. We can solve problems and trade, have humanitarian aid, but yet we also have wars, we have conflict, we have economic crisis, pandemics that Impact everyone.

So control, I would say control. Take control of what controls you.

The first verse that we read, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. And this is a, this is an image to the Old Testament where people would bring a sacrifice to the Lord and as it says, it would be pleasing to the Lord.

How can we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God where it would be pleasing to the Lord? As a Christian, when we offer our bodies to the Lord, we're losing that sense of control and we're ultimately surrendering. And so we're surrendering our inputs, our habits and our reactions to God and allowing Jesus to be in control or the Holy Spirit to be in control of our lives. We surrender to God so that we can move forward with peace, with confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ.

So some of the questions that you have in your life, okay, that I want you to be thinking about, what are some of the influences in your life that are shaping your values as well? What are they shaping the most right now? What influences you the most right now?

And I pray that the biggest influence, I pray that the biggest influence will be Jesus. Because in that God's mercy moves us now from self rule or control to surrender.

Okay, put a pin on Romans 12. Put a finger on Romans 12. Let's jump over to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians is a couple of books over to the right. Okay, I think you're gonna go through Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and then Colossians chapter 3, Colossians 3, verse 1.

Well, there, okay.

Since then you've been raised with Christ. Set your heart on things where above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Another way of saying this is set your mind on the kingdom principles.

What are the principles of Jesus? The heavenly kingdom. Grace, love, compassion, empathy, justice, stewardship.

Verse 12, sorry, verse 2 says, do not conform to the pattern of this world. In this world, what do we have? Often people will maybe say, just follow your feelings, man. Truth can be relative. Do what's popular.

Live for yourself. Oh, this phrase that comes up, I hate that I'm saying it. But you only live once. Okay, peer pressure. We're influenced by others to say and do things that maybe goes against our character. God says, follow who? Follow Jesus. Live by principles of Jesus. And ultimately how can we serve or be a blessing to others? We live in a world that we're in the world, but we're not of the world.

Okay, that's another passage that we could read. And sometimes. Are we going to stand out? Yeah, but that's okay. How are people going to recognize us? How are people going to be able to know who Jesus is if we don't stand out? But there's a difference between standing out and. There's a difference between standing out and being weird. All right? Y' all know who those individuals are.

Look, I know I can be weird, but I do not intentionally try to do that, Okay? I am a unique character. I know that. Okay? But some people like to take it to the next level. I don't think we need to do that. I simply think we just need to be who we are, who God made us. Okay, so be yourself now.

The alt key. Okay, we're control, alt key. The alternate key allows us to access this alternate function. Christians are called to live differently from around the culture that surrounds them. Okay. All right,

Ephesians, let's jump over to Galatians. Ephesians, Philippians, let's jump over quickly to the left as well. Ephesians, chapter 4. Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 22. Okay. Ephesians 4, verse 22.

It says you were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your. What? Your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Meaning when we surrender, we take on something new that Jesus will ultimately, as we're going to talk about in a second, is to be renewed or to be transformed. And when you're transformed, does that mean you're going to live the old way? The old life? It's a new life. Okay? You're going to get an upgrade. When you hit control, alt deletes, what does it do? It erases everything. Sometimes you need to just put a new operating system in. And as you do so, are those desires of the things of old, are they going to want to try to keep pulling you back in this world? Sometimes. And that's why we have to say, no, I don't want to live that life anymore. I want to live a new life where I've been restored by God and transformed. So as you're renewed, let God transform your mind.

Okay, you've hit control. I don't know where the renewed button would be, but just imagine your index finger tapping that. Verse 2 of Romans 12. The second half of 2 says,

Be transformed by the renewing of Your mind,

Meaning you're going to have new thoughts, you're going to have new priorities, you're going to have new attitudes. Your perspective of the world, I pray to God, will be different in a good way. Meaning being transformed. Do you have a new heart and a new mind, a new way of thinking? As you move forward, may you be influenced by God and the Holy Spirit be transformed.

There's a story told of two individuals, two women of the same age, same socioeconomic status, the same educational level and even the same temperament. Okay? Two peas in a pot. You hire both of them and you say to them, you're now a part of an assembly line and I want you to put part A into slot B and then hand over what you have to the next person in the assemblage. Okay?

And I want you to do that over and over and over for eight hours a day. How does that sound? For some that sounds miserable and tiring. And for others it's like, oh, that's easy, I can do that. Okay, you're getting paid.

You're, you're from the same place. You put them in identical rooms with identical lighting, temperature, ventilation, everything. Okay? You give them the same number of breaks every day. It's very boring work for some.

Their conditions are the same, though, except for one difference. You see, you tell the first woman that at the end of the year you will pay her $30,000 to assemble this. Okay, $30,000. And then you tell the second woman that at the end of the year she will earn $30 million. That's a rather aggressive, steep price.

And after a couple of weeks, the first woman will say, isn't this tedious? Isn't it driving you insane? Aren't you thinking about quitting? And the other individual says, well, this is perfectly acceptable. In fact, I whistle while I work. What's going on? You have two human beings who are experiencing identical circumstances in radically different ways. Amen.

What's the difference is the expectation of the future. And this illustration helps to see that. Not intending to say that we all need a good income, although that would be nice, right? It shows, though, how our view of the future completely controls how we also act in the present. You see, we're hope based creatures, as someone once said. We want to know where we're headed, where we're striving for. Now, $30,000, it's a lot of money, but then it's not, especially if you live in LA. Okay, that's hard to live on. $30 million, I'm taking a vacation.

What are we moving forward to in our transformation? Do we have hope for a positive future? I hope and pray you have hope. Are you living a life ultimately though, that Jesus is working on your heart? And so as Jesus is working on your heart, are you being a reflection of Jesus? Do you even want to be a reflection of Jesus? Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't because that means what? I have to act in a manner that I don't necessarily want to.

When you should be kind, maybe you have a snide remark.

The last thing that I want to also talk about here is as we talk about letting go of control and surrendering that control to Jesus and alternatively choosing a different life, being renewed, we can't go back to that old life, right? Something has to change.

Question I have is, what do you feed your mind and your body? What you feed your mind and your body will shape your life. Now, we're committed to Christ, we make a decision for Christ, but we also have to be mindful of do we allow what's around us to influence us or do we allow God to influence us? And well, let me rephrase that. Okay, we want God to influence us, but we also want to be influential to others.

But that also takes influence. But we have to make sure we sift through that. We don't listen to bad advice. But what influences you? Going back to what is the biggest thing that influences your life? Is it your family? Is it your work? Do you love being a workaholic but at the expense of something else in your life?

That should also be important? Are we doom scrolling all day and trying to hide the pain that we're running from? Because I'll admit social media, it's a great dopamine hit until it consumes your whole life.

At one point I was cycling a lot, but I realized it was also distracting me from other more important things. I'm going to ask a very challenging question. Could serving the Lord at the expense of our family and everything else, is that healthy? No amount of anything. I love the church and I will serve God, but my wife comes first for the church. I serve God, my wife, and then I serve the church. Does that make sense? You can serve God with everything, but if you lose your family and those that you've been called to care for, to love and to nurture, was it worth it? Relationships are key. So not only are you being influenced, how are you also influencing others?

Let's go to Philippians 4. Philippians 4. It's to the right, I think. Yeah, it's between Ephesians and Colossians. Philippians, chapter 4, verse 8.

One of my favorite passages. If you're ever wondering, this is a good benchmark.

Okay, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

Now. I don't think Paul is then trying to say that we ignore all of the bad because we have to deal with things here on earth. And is the world perfect? No. But ultimately focus on the things that are of good, that are true, that are noble, that are lovely, that which is admirable. The more you influence this, do you think you're going to have a better day versus if you just watch the news all day, what energy are you bringing into your life? Is there anything usually positive in the news? Do people call 911 to say that they're having a great day? When firefighters and police officers respond to an accident, are they responding to a pool party or a tragic accident? It's a tragic accident, usually something bad. And imagine having to live that over and over and over and over and over. I say all this, think a first responder, because they do things that most of us never have to think about.

I'm either related to, or I have a number of friends who are first responders and they try to hide it well. Let them know you're thinking about them because they need to know, what is it that we're consuming? Is it uplifting?

Now, again, as I said earlier, it doesn't mean that we then avoid that which is difficult, but go into the headspace of bring joy into your life. At one point, I was kind of bummed, and I came across a couple of cleen comedians. And I just remember sitting down and just laughing for hours, and I realized I hadn't laughed in months. It's not a good space, is it? Find joy in life. I think we were meant to laugh. I think Jesus had a sense of humor. In fact, you read scripture, you read sometimes the way that he talks, he's like, I think Jesus was trying to be funny right there. He's trying to make a little joke there. Bring joy into your life.

Romans 12. The last part of 2 says, Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is.

So as we land the plane, as we Journey through Romans 12, may your life. I encourage you, May your life be transformed. I want you to reflect now. Okay? How are you Using your time, your energy and your physical presence at your work, in your relationships, on your screens. How can it be an act of worship? Or is it a compromise? Ultimately, as a living sacrifice, we're offering ourselves to God to be a living sacrifice. Well, other than to die to Christ. But how can we then also serve and be a blessing to others? How can we honor God in our daily lives, in our home, in our neighborhood, at the post office, at Ralph's, at Starbucks? When you make an order at 7:30 in the morning, are you feeling awake? Are you chipper? I love to go watch people early in coffee shops and get their order. Are you honoring and living a life that honors God and is a blessing to others?

This week, this week I want you to pick one source where your thoughts live, whether it's social media, the news, your internal dialogue that headspace, your workplace conversations, et cetera, wherever, and ask yourself, okay, does this align with what is true, that is honorable, just, pure, lovely and commendable? That is. Go back to Philippians 4 through 48 this week and actually let's not just do it this week, let's do it for the rest of the month. And if the answer is no, eliminate it or replace it. Does this cause you joy? Does it bring you down? Is it sadness? Does it align with what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and commendable? Can we do that?

I hope and pray that this will be. Well, at least try. You can always try. We're never perfect and sometimes it takes a few mistakes to get things right. But learn from your mistakes.

My hope and prayer, my friends, is that you will leave renewed and transformed. This is going to be a theme that we're going to be expanding not just this month, but in the future.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, sometimes life can bring us down.

And yet also Lord, you've called us to be a blessing to serve others as well as Paul encouraged the believers in Rome. Lord, we give ourselves to you as a living sacrifice. Show us the way, provide opportunities to be a vessel for you and help us, Lord, to be mindful of the influences around us. Help us to stay true to you, to honor you, to love and to serve others, to be a blessing to others. And ultimately, Lord, transform us from the inside out, transform our minds, transform our hearts, transform our bodies that we can serve you well. In Jesus name, everybody said amen,

Grace and Peace, everyone.