How to Get God’s Best for Your Life

Have you ever wondered why there are so many decisions and so few disciples? What I know historically, right now, in the next twenty-four hours, tens of thousands of people all across the world will make decisions to follow Christ. They’ll get it.

Where you realize: I’ve sinned before a holy God, Christ died in my place, He rose from the dead. And you place your faith in Him, and He takes you from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light.

But I’m guessing that we all have either a short or a long list of friends, and for many of us – I’ve certainly been there myself – where that’s a reality. His Spirit came into your life, you began to make some progress, you started to grow, but then things kind of got not so good. And the great majority, at least statistically, of people that genuinely know and love God, who are followers of Christ, their life isn’t quite matching up.

I got an email from a lady that’s a picture of this, and it’s interesting. She said, “Thank you for your message this morning on Romans 12:1.” And then now, listen to her story and see how much you can identify with. “I came to Christ when I was thirteen, but I’ve gone through a lot of hard times throughout my college, and my relationship with God has been up and down ever since.

“Lately I’ve been feeling lethargic and distant from God. I woke up this morning, and I asked myself this question: If I died today, would people say that I was a Christian? That I was a messenger of God? Or would they even say or know that I follow God at all? Well, I happened to turn on your program, and as I, in my inner life have struggled both with alcoholism and immorality, I heard what it meant to go all in,” bold letters: “I decided to give all myself to God and completely surrender to Him. So thank you, and God bless.”

Now that email is, there are some really wonderful, neat parts, but isn’t it kind of sad that someone would come to a saving knowledge at thirteen and have the next plus or minus twenty years described by up and down? “Distant.” “Lethargic.” Looking for the satisfaction that only God can give, and for reasons maybe she didn’t understand finds herself relying on alcohol and then multiple sexual relationships, only to discover, Oh! God has a good plan. God wants to give me the best. And for many people, they didn’t know it does require a moment where you say to Him, I’m going to trust you.

And here’s what Romans 12:1 said: “Therefore I urge you, my brothers, in view of God’s mercy,” remember eleven chapters of His love for you, “offer your body a living and holy sacrifice, well pleasing to God. This is your spiritual service.”

In other words, that’s what God really wants. But here’s the question. It’s one thing to give God what He really wants. The second question is: How do you get the very best from God? And it’s interesting. That’s verse 2. He’s going to say, “And do not be conformed any longer to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that your life,” in other words, your lifestyle, what you actually experience, “would be the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

We are going to ask and answer the question that I think is one of the most important for any Christian: How do you get the very best from God? What you’re going to see – the structure of this passage – there’s a negative command.

Stop, literally, allowing the world to conform you to its mold. And then there’s a positive command: But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then there’s this purpose clause. There’s a reason why. So that you personally – not someone out there – so you could experience the good, well-pleasing, perfect will of God.

Let me do a little Bible study. It’s a bit more technical than normal, but I think it’s worthwhile. The negative command is, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world,” and the main verb is, “do not be conformed.”

It’s grammatically in what’s called the passive voice. The passive voice means the subject is being acted upon. The active voice would be the subject is doing something. The subject is being acted upon. The imperative simply means that it’s a command, and the present tense means the subject that is being acted upon – it’s happening continuously.

And so what I did is, I took that and gave you the Chip Ingram translation from that grammar to just fill it out a bit. Literally, the apostle Paul is saying: Stop allowing yourselves to be molded by the influence and pressures of this present world system. Now, by the way, when he says “world system” or “the values of this world,” he’s not talking about the world, the geographical world.

He’s talking about a system of values, a mindset, a worldview that’s energized by the enemy of your soul, whose goal is to kill and to steal and destroy. To mess your life up. To ruin your relationships. To separate you from God. To make you be emotionally depressed. To cause you to physically go into areas that will ruin your life. The whole goal of the world system is to destroy you.

And so the apostle Paul says: Stop allowing this system, this set of values that’s antithetical to everything God wants for your life – stop allowing it to squeeze you into its mold. So, grammatically, he’s telling us this is currently happening in the church at Rome, and we know it’s happening right in our lives. Imagine a little boy or a little girl, or a young woman, or an older man. You hear about Jesus the Messiah, you come to Christ, you live in Rome.

There’s an emperor, there are the gladiators, there are idols everywhere, there are brothels everywhere. You can have any kind of sex with any person, anytime, anywhere. It’s a violent culture. Eighty percent of the entire people group are slaves that are treated as less than human beings. Women don’t even make it. They’re just a piece of property. Babies are killed because of gender with no thought. He says: Stop allowing the values of this present world in Rome – and now today, in America or wherever you are in the world – to squeeze you into its mold.

Now sometimes there’ll be a phrase in Scripture, and someplace else in Scripture it’ll define it very clearly. So the application, very clearly, is that we are to be separate from the world’s values. If you want to understand how to give God what He wants the most, we need to be surrendered to God. But when you want to understand how to get God’s best, we need to be separate from the world’s values.

And then in 1 John 2:15 through 17 – I put the text right in your notes – He will literally define and explain: what are the world’s values, and how does it work? Follow along as I read: “Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

And now he’s going to define: So what’s the world? “For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life – is not from the Father, but it’s from the world.” And then notice this commentary: “The world is passing away, and its lusts,” or, “passions. But the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

Now if you have a pen, I’d like you to pull it out, and every time you see the word love, why don’t you circle it? Sometimes, at least historically in the Church, when people have talked about the world system, or the world’s values, or worldliness, it somehow gets translated into: Here’s a list of things you can’t do, or here’s another list you can’t do, or it’s all these external things.

I want you to understand the values that he describes and the powers that pull at your flesh and mine are far deeper. It’s about relationship. It’s about: Where is your love, where are your affections?

And he says the world system has three components. You notice I put it in bold. There’s the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh is merely the passion to feel. It’s this desire we have for pleasure. And that pleasure can come out in sex, it can come out in food, and, by the way, all these desires are legitimate.

But what the enemy wants to do is create a world system to deliver legitimate needs in illegitimate ways to destroy your life. The lust of the eyes is the passion to have, or to possess. “I’ve got to have that.” The boastful pride of life is the passion to be. It has to do with position. “I’ve got to be a somebody.”

And so, in summary, the world system seeks to seduce us from our love for Christ by pleasure, possessions, and position.

Some people put it this way: The world is really about sex, salary, and status.

Here’s what I want you to get. There is a system that comes on almost every commercial, every billboard, in every magazine, where you work, that tells you that if you could possess that, if you get this position, if your kids get in this school, if you can have these things, that security, and significance, and meaning, and happiness, and purpose – it’s all for you.

In fact, every time you walk out of the check-out stand, it screams the world system. Because here you are and you’ve got your little groceries, and you’re at the local grocery store, and they’ve got all the magazines, and this magazine number one is either Cosmo or Men’s Health. And all the girls – literally, they’re all the same from the neck down when you look at the cover of Cosmo.

And it just says, Sex, man! If you have that! We’re just told, we’re just told: “Your body – you’ve got to be attractive, and sexual, and beautiful.” And there are whole industries – multi-billion dollar industries. I mean, all you’re trying to do is buy some groceries, and it says, You don’t look like this. You ought to look like this.

And as you get a little older, some of you are going Oh, forget that! Well, there’s Forbes, and there’s Fortune. If you had that, man! Right? And so: Money, sex, power, position. And then we create worlds so that our kids can get money, power, sex, and position. So we work like crazy, don’t see one another, spend most of our time staring at screens, have relationships that don’t work, work hours that are insane, be in the gym for long hours to become and look like “someone” so someone will love us.

And all the while, the people who have the most money, with the sexiest bodies, with the largest houses, who’ve won the lotto, or are the celebrities – when we look carefully at their life, we see the highest percentage of depression, divorce, suicide, and emptiness. It’s like this crazy picture of everyone following the great rainbow for the pot of gold, with possessions, and power, and position. And those that have it would come out and say: “It’s empty.”

The great majority of Christians are not experiencing God’s best because their heart has been seduced away from their Savior. And we have bought the lies that these things will fulfill, and they don’t.

And God brought you on this day to say to you, “I want to give you the best.” So, negative: Stop allowing yourself to be molded by the world. So get aware. Second, he’s going to say, “Start allowing yourself to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Notice the positive command. He says, “be transformed.”

Do you remember – I think it’s about ninth grade biology – metamorphosis, right? Meta, the Greek word: after. Morph is: to change. But you know the little caterpillar that puts itself in its cocoon, and then this beautiful butterfly comes out? What do we call that process? Ninth grade biology? Metamorphosis. It’s changed from the inside out.

This is what God’s saying. Don’t allow the world – the externals – to squeeze you in their values, into this false belief and system of lies that lead to death. But allow yourself, by the transformation of your mind to be changed from the inside out. Then notice the grammar; it’s exactly the same. It’s in the passive voice. Well, what’s that mean? It means – so in other words, God has to! You can’t change yourself. But it’s a command. So God says, There’s a part that you have, that you cooperate with Me, but I’m the one who does the changing.

And then notice it’s in the present tense. So notice the translation here of this command is: “But allow God to completely change your inward thinking, and outward behavior” – how? “by cooperating whole-heartedly, moment by moment, with the Spirit’s renewing process.” It’s supernatural. It’s not self-effort and trying hard. No, no. It’s internal. It’s supernatural.

It’s the Spirit of God taking the Word of God, renewing your mind, in the context of community of real life relationships, where the very personality of Jesus and His character – where you’re loving, and kind, and peaceful, and gentle, and generous, and others-centered, and have self-discipline. And the fruit of the Spirit – which is really the life of Christ – progressively becomes more how you think, and how you act. It’s not trying hard to be like Jesus. It’s allowing the Jesus living in you, by the Holy Spirit, to transform you from the inside out.

And so the application is really – I put it in the form of a question: “Are you shaped more by the world or by the Word?”

So before we just go on, let me just ask you, okay? Ready? If I just put a little stick man on a line, and an arrow this direction, and an arrow this direction, and on this side would be the Word’s influence in my life – truth, God’s Word, God’s people. You’re the little stick man or stick woman, and this is the world. Which one is having the most influence?

The world is saying, “Get, get, get. Accumulate, accumulate. Impress, impress, impress.” The Word is saying, “Give, give, give. Be authentic, love, care.” The world is saying, “It’s how you look.” The Word is saying, “It’s who you are.” The world is saying, “You don’t measure up unless you ‘have.’” The Word is saying, “You already measure up, and your value is in how you care.”

The Word comes to you in the beauty of nature, primarily the Bible, the Word of God, and out of the relationships of other believers where Jesus lives inside of them. All those things wooing you and drawing you to allow Christ to be formed in you.

And the world comes at you in smart phones, computer, TV, Netflix, billboards, romance novels, relationships where people look at you and say, “Unless you have this, unless you look like that, unless you can do this, unless you conform there, you don’t really measure up.” And you’re in the battle of your life. External forces like this saying to you: Conform, conform, conform. And an internal, supernatural power saying: Be transformed, be transformed.

And I don’t say this – this is not like, “Oh, I want everyone to feel guilty for thirty seconds.” I just want you to look at the little stick man in your mind and say, Is the input of God’s Word, and God’s people, and those things, influencing your time, your priorities, and your focus, or is it more the world? Now nationwide, it’s pretty obvious. About eight-to-nine out of ten Christians, it’s more this.

Can you imagine, in heaven, how God must feel about that lady, and about us, as a thirteen-year-old girl that comes to know Jesus and is loved, and He’s got this amazing plan for her? But she hears that unless you sleep with your boyfriend, you don’t measure up, and so she does. Then she feels guilty because when the Spirit lives in you, there’s this battle. And she did it to be loved and – well, then she feels bad about it, and so to get to sleep at night she starts, you know, drinking a little bit. And she wants to be a part of things, so she hangs with the crowd.

And down deep inside of her soul, she has this lack of peace, and then finally she just realizes, I’ve spent twenty years with the Spirit of God living inside me, and I’ve never gotten God’s best. I wonder how many Christians sitting in this room today are living right there today? Because, boy, I’ll tell you, I’ve been there.
You know it’s interesting. This isn’t new. If you take the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and if we could take a video camera back to Genesis 3, Adam and Eve, and you study the passage very carefully, Adam and Eve, how are they tempted? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.

Take the video camera out of time, go over to Jesus with Satan in Matthew chapter 4, and He’s being tempted. Three temptations. How’s He tempted? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. How did He win? They lost, He won. Why? “It is written.” “It is written.” “It is written.” Each time. From memory. He reached back into Deuteronomy.

And the lie came: Bam! He knocked it out with the truth. And so in Matthew 4:4, it says, “He answered Satan and said, ‘It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

You cannot experience God’s best for your life without making this truth a part of your experience on a very regular basis. You don’t have the power. I don’t have the power.

You must take the raw material of God’s written Word, and get it into your mind, and share it with other people so the Spirit of God can take the written Word and make it the living Word, and change you, and change your desires in ways that you can’t understand. It’s supernatural. In fact, the apostle Paul would say it’s not only supernatural, but it’s a process. It’s not like you can just turn a switch, and now, “I’m like Jesus,” you know?

What does he say? In 2 Corinthians 3:18. I put the passage there: “But we all,” speaking of the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Between the law when it was given in Sinai and now with the Spirit living in us. “But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord,” – notice the tense of this verb – “are being transformed.” How? “From glory to glory. Just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

He’s saying, Moses, when he was up on the mountain with God – see, you become like whoever you hang out with. And after forty days hanging out with God, he just glowed. He just radiated with the glory of God.

And so when he came down, people couldn’t take it, so he put a veil over his face so he could talk to them. And then, in his hypocrisy, when it started to fade he kept the veil on because he wanted people to think he still had it. None of us ever do that, of course. We don’t do any image management or any or those sort of things, but Moses did.

And Paul says, “We, with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror,” it’s not direct, but we get these reflections and snapshots and moments where Jesus reveals Himself. And a passage comes out of the Word, and you’re in a Bible study, and someone speaks a word or accepts you in a way that you’ve never been accepted. And you were vulnerable or you’re supported.

Or someone, in love, actually rebukes you and calls you on the carpet for something that in your heart you’ve known, and you realize that, “open rebuke is better than love concealed.” And you find a safe place, and God changes you. But it’s from glory to glory. That’s like four steps forward, two steps backward. We’re all in process. And notice, who brings about the change? From the Lord, the Spirit.

And so here’s the key. What I want you to get. Review: Stop allowing the world to conform you. Start being transformed. Here’s what I want to camp on: How? What’s your part? We said we can’t change ourselves. Allow yourself to be transformed. How? Here’s our part: The renewing of our mind.

Mind renewal, I think, has three key components. The first component of mind renewal, is renewing your mind as a continual refocus of the Romans 12:1 perspective. Colossians 3 says, “Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.” It’s a worldview. It’s a mindset that has eternity in mind, that has in Christ in mind, about what matters in mind.

See, when you come to that moment where you say, God, I’m all in, I will do whatever, it’s authentic, it’s real, it’s sincere. You make great decisions in that moment. But then there’s Monday morning.

And so you renew your mind to keep that focus, and all of us have different issues that we face that keep us conformed to the world.

Let me give you an example. As I grew up in my home, my family of origin – I have one, you have one – the enemy uses the world in some ways in my life different than yours. There are people that can walk into a bar, love friends, have no problem, never think about this, this, that.

My dad was an alcoholic. Alcohol shaped our home. There are some people that: You’re not performance-oriented at all. Man, you are just balanced, and laid back, and you go to work, you shut it off, no problem. You’re not a people pleaser. You’re just so healthy, relationally and emotionally. And I envy you.

And so I realized that I was a workaholic, that I was insecure, that I was always trying to please people and then, after I got married, that I was very insensitive to my wife. Other than that as a Christian, I was really doing well.

No, I’m dead serious. I didn’t have a porn addiction. I wasn’t putting cocaine up my nose, OK? But I’m saying those were real. And when I started reading the Bible some, and I wanted to follow Jesus, and I kept trying hard. I tried hard not to be a workaholic, I tried not to be insecure, I tried to be more sensitive to my wife.

On my best days – and I’m pretty disciplined, willpower – I could only keep that up for about two weeks because I didn’t understand. Transformation isn’t about just trying hard. It’s renewing your mind.

And so I wrote down on some cards the truth. And now I prayed, and I asked God. Does it mean there’s not self-effort – of course I had to make effort. But, for example, I thought, Am I going to be insecure my whole life, or am I going to get my mind renewed?

And so I wrote this down on a card. I read it in the morning, the night, put it in my pocket, read it multiple times a day: “I’d like to be more authentic in every aspect of my life.”

I was trying to please everyone, and, “I am what I am by the grace of God. And His grace didn’t prove vain toward me, but I labored more than all of them, yet not me but Christ in me.” When you keep reading over, “I’d like to be more authentic in every relationship,” you know what happens? That gets in your mind. You catch yourself when you’re posing. You catch yourself image managing, and God begins to birth, where you say, I think I’m just going to like who God made me. Got a long way to go. Transformation.

My people pleasing. I wrote this on a card: “I want to stop caring what others think, and apply myself and my schedule to what will make me the best I can be to honor God the most. I want to grow free of the invisible expectations that I allow to hinder my joy, my freedom, my schedule from pursuing the best.” These invisible – like I had this gun to my head. I still struggle some, but if you live your life to please people, it’ll kill you. But it’s the world. So you refocus.

My next one was on my workaholism. I just thought working a lot, performing, getting stuff done, I got approval, and so that was how I did everything. I even did the ministry like that.

And so I wrote on this card, I read it over, “I want to learn to take time and schedule in enjoyable, fun, refreshing activities without feeling guilty about them or caring what other people think.”

Anybody here feel like you should have more margin? That you’re not enjoying life enough? That it’s work, work, work, and yeah, you’re going to do that later? But you’re just so focused, and so geared, and you pick up your kids, and you’re on your phone, and everybody’s kind of an interruption?

But are you seeing how it works? Are you seeing how you refocus? Your mind gets renewed?

Second thing is, I want to tell you it’s a battle. The spiritual life, the battle for your soul primarily is happening between your ears. The apostle Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 10:4 and 5, “The weapons of our warfare,” – listen to that language. He’s in a battle for his soul. “The weapons of our warfare are divinely powerful for the pulling down of strongholds and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.”

People pleasing, workaholism, having, possessing, working like crazy, accumulating, impressing, image management, addictions. The weapons of our warfare, he’s talking about the power of the Word of God. Community, fasting, prayer. The world is powerful. There’s a battle, and it’s for your soul.

There’s a reason why the second most optimal time for couples for divorce is about between twenty and twenty-five years, because she buys the lie that, It’s me and the kids, and all that I do for them, and he buys the lie that, Someday, someway, if I can work, work, work, do, do, do, do – and then they wake up twenty, twenty-five years: They don’t know each other. They’ve not shared anything.

And he feels middle-aged and like he doesn’t have “it” anymore, and what makes him feel like he might have “it” is if some young, good-looking chick is interested, and he’s got some money. He can pay his way. Try and make it happen. And he does stuff, either online, or actual in the office. And she starts realizing, I don’t look the way I used to look, and I don’t feel very attractive, and she signs up and gets a personal trainer, and now she’s going to go at it again. And they don’t have anything, and they both bought a lie.

And they used to teach a Sunday School class, and they’ve been married thirty years, and their kids now are young adults who grew up in that home, and Mom and Dad divorced, and they’re going, “What in the world? I guess this Jesus stuff isn’t true.” That’s reality, people. That’s, for some of you, that’s your experience.

The third thing you need to remember is that renewing your mind is supernatural. It’s a work of the Spirit. The Spirit of God has to take the Word of God and do something in you. All of these things are about a heart-love relationship with Him.

Romans 8 says, “The mind set on the flesh is death. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” And so in summary, let me just tell you: For me, for you, for every believer, you are what you eat. Period. You are what you eat physically, and you are what you eat spiritually and intellectually. You tell me how much time on your phone, how much time in video games, how many movies you watch, and the messages in those movies – time.

What are you putting into your mind, over against how much truth, how much of God’s Word, how much renewing relationships, and you know what? It’s pretty easy – I can tell you your lifestyle because you are what you eat.

So my question is: What’s your diet? Are you getting God’s best? Now let me walk through now and give you some very practical, specific ways to renew your mind. Because it’s one thing – those are the principles. That’s the truth. Here are some practical methods for renewing your mind. To say “no” to the world, say “yes” to God.

First, hearing God’s Word. Romans 10:17 says “Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.” On a regular basis, you must hear God’s Word. It births faith. One way to do that is to – this is a novel idea for some of you – come to church regularly. I’m not down on you. I just, the first three years I was a Christian, if I made it twice a month, I’m high-fiving myself, Way to go, Chip! I never did that before.

Second is: use your time in the car wisely. Hear God’s Word.

My seminary training hasn’t stopped.

Third, read God’s Word. Revelation 1:3 says, “Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near.”

And in your notes, if you don’t know much about the Bible and need some structure and a plan, for the first fifteen years, at least, that I was a Christian, I read the Daily Walk Bible.

And I just tell you, it was just like okay, here’s the structure, here’s what it means, here’s an overview, but you dig in for yourself. Or go on the Internet. There are enough reading plans. Just log on, on the App Store: Bible. Believe me.

Study. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman that need not be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of truth.” God wants the best for you.

Some of us have been so trained, we eat all processed food. Can you imagine if you ate just only processed food instead of the organic, real good stuff?

It’s a good start, right? But processed spiritual food is like – there’s a little book, and it’s a good little book – and it has two or three verses, and then someone who’s studied a lot, tells you a little inspiring story, and tells you a little something about those two or three little verses, and says, “And now here’s what you might do,” and you read for like – it takes almost three minutes to read these little things. And then you go, Oh, Jesus, Jesus, help me. Help me really follow you. I’ve really renewed my mind.

Now I spent, forty minutes in The Wall Street Journal. But now I’ve spent my four or five minutes, and what I know is what someone else thinks of that passage. I learned this from a missionary about thirty years ago. I think it was Brazil. It’s called the 2PROAPT method, and that’s just an acronym.

If you would choose a New Testament book – the book of John, the book of Mark, one of the small ones – and just read a paragraph or maybe two. And the P, pray. God, please help me. The second P, preview it. Read it quickly just to get a feel. And then the R is read it slowly. Methodically.

And then the O is read it one more time and underline maybe words that are alike, or thoughts that you have. The A, then, is that, What application from this paragraph is God showing me? Then, realizing since I don’t have the power to do it, you pray again. God, will you help me to…it says be generous in this passage, so will You help me be generous in some way specifically today? And then the T is tell someone. It’s just a very simple way to study.

Here’s what I can tell you. Processed food is helpful, and if you’re just beginning, that’s fine. When you are tempted sexually, when you want to break out of habit patterns, when there are addictions, when there’s a crisis in your marriage, when you’ve got a kid who’s going through a terrible time, and you’re trying to cling on to God, you have to have Him speak directly from His Word to you because that’s where convictions come from.

It’s great that those people who wrote those little devotionals – that’s what they believe. What do you believe? And what do you believe under pressure? It’s birthed in study.

The next is memorization. Notice it says in Psalm 119:9-11, “How can a young man, a young woman, keep your way pure? By guarding it,” or, “keeping it according to Your Word. Your Word I have treasured,” or, “hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” I don’t know if there’s any greater return in the Christian life than memorizing Scripture or one that’s probably more neglected.

The final thing he says is that you meditate. And the word meditate here, it’s the idea of ruminating. This is reading, and God speaks to you through a verse, and you write it on a card, and you stick it in your pocket, and then as you’re driving to work, you try and see if you can remember it.

And so you’re at a light, and you’re in at a doctor’s office, and you just bring it up. And something happens. “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you should mediate on it day and night in order that” – what? “so you can obey it. For then you’ll be prosperous and have good success.”

Can I just close with this? Why, why, why? Why do this? If you’re listening, you’re thinking to yourself, You mean I’m going to limit my games, and limit my movies, and limit this, and limit that, and limit that, and limit that, and say “no” to some stuff that are just a part of my life, and start saying “yes” to God’s Word, and do some things probably some of you have never ever done? Why would I do that?

So that you could get the best from God. So that you could experience and taste what He wants normally for every person: His good. His good. It means winsome, beautiful, attractive, richly satisfying, well. Well pleasing. Well pleasing to Him, and well pleasing to you. Perfect.

There’s a will that’s according to a specific design just for you that when you fulfill it, you explode with joy, live with peace. How does that happen? No, I won’t be conformed to this world. Yes, I’ll be transformed by the renewing of my mind, so that…Would you like that?

As I close, here are two questions, because you could feel overwhelmed. I don’t want that. What one thing do you sense God is saying you need to say “no” to? What’s going into your mind, or what relationship, or what? What’s one thing that woos your heart away from God?

And just say – first step – “no.” And what one thing of all the hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, meditating – because we’re all in different places. What one thing do you sense God would want you to take a baby step and begin to renew your mind?