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Paul opened chapter 12 of the book of Romans with the following verse,
I appeal to you therefore, brothers,[a] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.(v1)
He is basically saying to his listeners, in view of the kindness of God toward you, expressed by his mercies, calling you out darkness into light, redeeming your life from the pit, saving you from His wrath, cleansing you from all unrighteousness, bestowing upon you His perfect righteousness through Christ, giving you His Spirit. In view of all these mercies, your reasonable response is to consider yourself dead to sin, and alive in Christ to bear fruits of righteousness, by being set apart for God, to be used by God. You can almost hear his listeners saying, how do we do that Paul? And He gives the practical answer to this process in v2, see video below ( I'll invite you to watch the presentation in its entirety).
Scripture References:
Romans 12:1-2
Leviticus 1
2 Cor 10:3-5
James 1:1-4
1 Peter 4:7
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hello good morning this is taiva
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types.com i hope you've had a great
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weekend
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and welcome back to uh this channel and
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today we are going to look at romans 12
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verse 2. and the title of the studies be
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transformed by the renewing of your mind
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and this is we're going to be talking
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about the process
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so i'm going to jump in and start a
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presentation
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so this is a call to be a living
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sacrifice
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okay paul opens on chapter 12 of the
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book of roman
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in verse 1 he says i appeal to you
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therefore brothers
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by the mercies of god to present your
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bodies
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as a living sacrifice holy and
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acceptable to god
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which is your spiritual worship that's
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verse 1
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so basically paul is saying to his
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listeners in view of the kindness of god
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towards you expressed in his mercies
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which is calling you out of darkness
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into light redeeming your life from the
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pit
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saving you from his wrath cleansing you
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from all unrighteousness
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be stoned upon you his perfect
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righteousness through christ
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giving you his spirit and much more in
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view of all these mercies
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your reasonable response is to consider
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yourself
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dead to sin and alive in christ
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to bear fruit for righteousness by being
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set apart for god
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to be used by god so you can almost hear
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his listener saying paul
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we hear you and we hear everything that
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you're saying and we like that and we
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want to do that but
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how do we do that practically prac
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practically like
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how do we what's the practical answer to
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this process how do we leave that out
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how do we live this call to be a living
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sacrifice how do we do it
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and that's what we're going to be
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looking at today but before we do that
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i want to tell you exactly what paul was
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talking about when he
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mentioned to present our bodies as a
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living sacrifice because his audience
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knew exactly what he was referring to so
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we're going to look at that
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and we're going to look at the
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connection with the burned
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offering now paul was most likely using
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a language
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his listeners were familiar with and he
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was probably making a connection with
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the parent offering
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that was mentioned in leviticus one it
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was a voluntary offering that
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represented the offerer or worshipers
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intention of being
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totally devoted to the lord so the offer
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was basically the same by bringing his
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burnt offering
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all that i am belongs to
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the lord so when you brought your burnt
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offering
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that's what you meant once you laid your
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hand and pressed your hand on the head
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of the
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whatever you were bringing you were
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basically saying all that i
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am is the lord and the burnt offering
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was totally burned
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everything was burned so basically you
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was you were saying
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i am totally devoted to the lord
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everything that i am
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every aspect of my being is being
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devoted to the service of god
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and that's what you meant by bringing
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that burnt offering
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and and there's a guy on youtube his
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name is the tabunaku man he does a great
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breakdown of
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all these offerings like the piece
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offering the burnt offering
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the sino-thing and the meal offering and
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every one of those offerings
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so i'll encourage you to go and watch
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his youtube channel he does a
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really good break breakdown gives you
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the background so you can understand why
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this is so
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significant to us as christians today
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okay
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so now that we understand the connection
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with the brand offering we are going to
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go
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and talk about the process to be
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transformed
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okay now verse two and that's what we
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are looking at today
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verse two says do not be conformed to
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this world
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but be transformed by the renewing of
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your mind
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that by testing you may discern what the
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will of god
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what is good and acceptable and perfect
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what is the will of god
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what is good and acceptable and perfect
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before god
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so do not be conformed to this world
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will be transformed by the renewing of
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your mind
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and you need to understand why this
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process is vital
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and necessary to our spiritual growth
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like it's imperative that we understand
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that until our regeneration up until you
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become
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a lover of god every inclination of your
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heart
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is toward evil like every inclination of
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my heart before i became a christian a
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believer
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is toward evil and the holy spirit is
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the one that changes the way i
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think and he changes the disposition of
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my heart so i can have
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love for god up until that time
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every inclination of your heart and my
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heart is toward evil
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pleasing ourselves basically doing what
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i want to do doing what pleases
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me okay and now that you've been called
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by god
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he begins the process of changing your
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way of thinking or my way of thinking
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so we come into this world like i say
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sdoa
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and sdoa is basically spiritually dead
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on arrival so when you come out of your
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mother's womb and you you let
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let out that little cry you are
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basically
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i mean this is my own interpretation
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you're basically saying i hate god
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basically you come into this world you
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love yourself
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everything is about you you and you so
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from the day
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you enter this world until the time you
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are called into the family of god
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your life follow after the ways of and
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thoughts
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and processes of this world basically
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when i say this world i'm not talking
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about like the physical
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like the the philosophies of this world
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like the way of thinking of people of
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this world that we live in
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which are by nature hostile to the
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things of god
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and and paul is going to mention a
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couple of things in the book of
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corinthians but
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after that point up to the point of your
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regeneration
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everything about you is about
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selfishness
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pleasing yourself and pleasing your own
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little agenda so you come into this
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world
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with the way of the world because you
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have that adamic nature
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we are born with natural sin we are born
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with the sin of adam when he
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when he when he ate the apple being led
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by his wife
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eve sin entered the world and then
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therefore we inherited
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that sinful nature from adam so we come
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into this world wanting to be god
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wanting to be our own god and this is uh
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how we are conformed to the pattern of
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this world which is
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me me and my own little thing
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so now we are going to look at and what
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paul mentions in
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in the book of corinthians okay so paul
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says
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in second corinthians 10 verse 3 and 2
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or verse 5
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for though we walk in the flesh we are
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not waging war according to the flesh
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for the weapons of our warfare are not
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of the flesh but have divine power to
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destroy strongholds
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and he explains what the strongholds are
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he says we destroy
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arguments and every lofty opinion raised
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against the knowledge of god
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and take every thought captive to obey
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christ
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being ready to punish every disobedience
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when your obedience is complete
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so basically what i was saying before we
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come into this world
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and accumulate lies after lies
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since we are being shaped by the
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philosophies and arguments
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of this world and when we enter into the
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family of god
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god begins the process of reshaping our
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minds
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by injecting his truths in us through
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the sanctifying work of the holy spirit
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in us so it's a pelican right progress
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a daily grind and paul explains how this
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process works in the life of a genuine
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believer
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in verse 2 of romans 12 and that's what
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he was saying
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be transformed by the renewing of your
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mind by no longer conform to the pattern
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of this word but by
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being transformed by your mind being
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renewed every day
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okay so we are going to look at
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the process of transformation okay so
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it's it's a long process lifetime
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process because until jesus comes back
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we are going to struggle again again
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with the flesh because god is
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doing away with our sinful nature and
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replacing the old with the new so
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and one of the process and one of the
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ways god renews our mind it's not the
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only way but one of the ways that he
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does it
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is uh through um what james talks about
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in james 1
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verse 1 to 4 james says canada join my
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brothers
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when you meet trials of various kinds
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for you know
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that the testing of your faith produces
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steadfastness and let steadfastness have
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its full effect
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that you may be perfect and complete
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lacking
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in nothing so one of the ways god
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changes us and changes our way of
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thinking is through
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trials i know nobody likes going through
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a tough time but
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this is one of the way god disciplines
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his children
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so god changes our minds or renews our
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minds
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through trials the trials are meant to
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test
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our faith okay and the testing of our
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faith
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produces steadfastness or perseverance
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and earnestness and then earnestness
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changes our character
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because through the trials god
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weed us out of the old nature's ways and
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patterns
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so he prunes us so that we can bear
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fruits
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that have eternal value so the pruning
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is meant to transform us so that our
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asking in prayer
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is according to the will and purposes of
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god
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it isn't a very pleasant process because
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the flesh which is the old nature
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is opposed to the things of the spirit
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of god
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and it doesn't have the power to submit
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to it
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so this is why the lord has to put the
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old nature to death
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in order that we might be living
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according to the new nature
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for the new nature is being transformed
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to be conformed to the
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image of christ i'll repeat that again
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this is why the lord has to put the old
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nature to death
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in order that we may be living according
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to the new nature
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for the new nature is being transformed
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to be conformed
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to the image of christ so the end
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purpose
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is that we might be christ like
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and pray according to the will of god if
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our minds
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aren't transformed our prayers are
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corrupted
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and don't reflect the will and purpose
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of god this is why we are to pray
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in the spirit for the flesh never
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wants to please god but the flesh wants
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to please the flesh
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and what is the end purpose of being
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renewed
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in our minds what why is god changing us
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why is he doing it is what we need to
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ask ourselves
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so the end purpose
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now i've already mentioned it like the
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end purpose
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of being renewing our mind is so that we
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may be conformed to the image of christ
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why why why do we want to be conformed
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to the image of christ
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in order that we may know the will of
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god
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that the purposes of god may be
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accomplished for the glory of god
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and peter said in 1st peter 4 7
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the end of all things is at hand
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therefore
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be self-controlled he didn't say be
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self-control
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be self-controlled and sober minded
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for the sake of your prayers this is
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important to understand
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be self-controlled and sober-minded for
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the sake of your prayers
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soberness of mind is a key ingredient
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in victoria's prayers a sober mind is a
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mind that is free
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of the control of the old nature
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okay a sober mind is a mind that is free
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of the control of the old
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nature it is the mind that has been
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renewed to be conformed
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to the mind of christ so
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that he can receive joyfully and gladly
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the things of god this is why jesus said
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god seeks those who will worship him in
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spirit and in truth
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the spirit of god loves the things of
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god
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and only enters it for the saints
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according to the will of god
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which is truth so paul said
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to those misusing the gift of tongues
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he told them pray in the mind
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pray in the spirit but also pray in the
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mind and the reason why we're saying
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this is because this
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when we pray in the spirit sometimes now
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pray in the spirit doesn't mean that you
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have to
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speak in tongues now some people pray in
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tongues
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but he was telling those people praying
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in tongues you have to be able to pray
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in the mind so that way your mind knows
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what your spirit is saying so you can
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interpret it so that other people can be
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edified
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now praying the spirit doesn't
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necessarily mean you have to pray in
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tongues you can pray
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use your native language english you can
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use french or whatever language you
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speak
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and the spirit directs your prayers so
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you begin to pray
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in accordance with the spirit because
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now your mind is transformed so now you
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are
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thinking the thoughts of god and you are
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praying like jesus will pray
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so that's the end purpose because we
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have to be transforming our mind
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to be able to know what the will of god
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is because god wants us to know what he
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wants to do with our lives
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but if you are not transforming your
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mind then your prayers do not reflect
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the character of god
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so you have to be changed in order to
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pray
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god's will okay so soberness of mind is
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very important
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this is what paul and peter said it be
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sober-minded and self-controlled for the
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sake of your prayers
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because he prepares us for prayers that
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glorify god
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and peter knew that when our minds are
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clustered with the desires of the flesh
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our prayers become man-centered instead
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of being god-centered
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so be transformed by the renewing of
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your mind
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in order that you may know the will of
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the lord so
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this is what i will say to you i wanted
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to i want this to be
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pretty short i i i'm gonna say
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the only way we can achieve this is by
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totally giving ourselves to god that's
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why paul said in the beginning
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in verse one how do you set yourself up
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for that because by
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giving yourself totally to god say all
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that i am belongs to you lord
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you do as you please and this is the
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rest of god
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because that's when god takes over and
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he begins to change you
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now it's not going to be an easy process
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because the old nature wants to cling on
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it's a hard process painful process
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sometimes because the pruning is never
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fun
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but i guarantee you once you go through
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it
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there's light at the end of the tunnel
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you know i know it's cliche but
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there is really because your prayers
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begin to really reflect
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the mind of christ and you begin to pray
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and you see fruit
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in your life that bear fruit for
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eternity
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i would strongly encourage you to ask
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today say to the lord
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change me whatever it takes
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however painful processes sometimes is
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necessary
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but because guess what no discipline is
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pleasant
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at a time but later it leads to a
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harvest of righteousness
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for those that have been trained by it
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so i encourage you to seek god
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while he may be found so that you can
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enter that rest
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alright have a wonderful day and i'll
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see you next time
#Religion & Belief