Romans Review 12 (#54.2026.10.18)

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:02

Hi, if you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the Bible to discover rock-solid truth for life and living from the God of the Bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go to the show notes and download the blank insight sheet Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on how you're listening to this, there will be a link to the episode website at beholdingbibeltruth.com, and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode. So thank you all for prayers and support. I, uh, we always said there's no better time to appreciate the body of Christ than when you're broken or hurting.

Scott Keffer [: 00:00:56

Right, then all of you've been there. Thank you, everybody, for cards, prayers, messages. And it also feels weird to be sort of the center of the spotlight. Do you want to say no? I'll pray for you. I'll pray for you. But, uh, horrid. So did you want to say anything, Beth? No. Okay.

Scott Keffer [: 00:01:15

So as best I can, although she'll help me with the details because I never get the details right.

Speaker B [: 00:01:22

give you kind of an update. And the Lord's providential prints are all over this. Yeah. And yeah, it was, it was just stunning. So it was Friday, 2 weeks ago, from 2 days ago to Friday, that Friday, and we were literally working out. We have a strength trainer, so we were working out and he was pushing Beth. She was doing Chest press, and then we're doing squats. And she said, you know, I don't feel so well.

Speaker B [: 00:01:53

And she sat down, and we're in the middle of workout. I'm thinking like, come on. Okay, come on. Let's go. Let's go here. You know, let's go. She said, no, I don't feel too well. So we sit down and, you know, we wait a couple of minutes.

Speaker B [: 00:02:03

And she said, I think I'm— I have indigestion. So I ran up and got her some Tums. I brought it back and said, you okay? No, I'm not so okay. She went upstairs and spit out the Tums and came back down.

Scott Keffer [: 00:02:16

She said, my jaw is hurting and my back, and this is, you know, not good. I, I think I should go to the emergency room. And I'm still like a guy, okay, come on, like, like, let's, let's get on with it, you know, what, what is going on here? And I'm still thinking we're gonna go because I don't think you said heart, but I didn't think heart. I just thought, okay, we'll just go and move Make sure somebody's jumping in here. Roger.

Roger [: 00:02:42

So, I did say heart, but anyway,

Speaker B [: 00:02:45

you did say heart. Uh, we decided to go to, um, Cannonsburg because it was closer, and we literally got halfway there and Bess said, you have to call the ambulance. I cannot make it. I cannot make it. I cannot make it. We got to Cannonsburg and, uh, they hooked her up to the EKG and Lights are going off. And I said, what does that mean? And they said, well, she's having a heart attack. I said, you mean she had a heart attack? So, Renee, you know, right? Some of this stuff.

Speaker B [: 00:03:14

They said, no, she's having a heart attack. So they put her on blood thinner, and they said, we need to find a cardiocath lab that's open. So they checked, and we said, is AGH open? Because they're part of the AGH family. No, but Cannonsburg's open. The doctor who was on staff— what's that? Jefferson.

Roger [: 00:03:35

Jefferson.

Speaker B [: 00:03:36

Yeah, the doctor who's on staff said, I know the cardiologist down there. I'm going to call him. I have him on my cell phone calling. He said he's ready. He's waiting in the cath lab. So they, you know, helicopter fired up. They came in, and the team on the helicopter were great. They were super great.

Speaker B [: 00:03:55

They were just great. Very They took over. Get out of the way. You know, they took over. They had her on blood thinners. And then, you know, I'm watching her take off. You know, she takes off in the helicopter. I'm just thinking, Lord, be at work here.

Speaker B [: 00:04:10

You know, took her right into the cath lab, and they put a stent into her circumflex artery, which is on the left side of the heart. Circumflex. It was 90% blocked. They found out later that one of the vessels that came off, it was 100% blocked. So they put a stent in that. And then Friday, went down there. That took what, an hour, hour and a half, right, Beth? And Friday night she said, I feel, I feel really good. You know, I feel really good.

Speaker B [: 00:04:41

And so Friday, Josh came down. And He, you know, he visited. Where is that? And he said today, Josh is— Josh and his wife are Catholic, who said today is the feast, this Friday, of the guardian angels. And the, and the psalm is— is that 41, Beth? In your opinions, I will protect you from—

Speaker D [: 00:05:10

No, 91.

Speaker B [: 00:05:12

91. Thank you. Not working. So, so Josh starts to— and his mother-in-law texted him the scripture for the, for the feast, and it was Psalm 91. So he starts to read, you'll be afraid of the— you will not be afraid of the terror by night. So he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. And as he's starting to read this, Beth and I look at each other because when she had her surgery for her colon section.

Speaker B [: 00:05:44

That's the scripture. There was a lady with MRSA right next door, so she was very fearful. So I'm reading on for you. Delivers us from the snare of the trapper, from the deadly pestilence. He'll cover you with his pinions. Under his wings you may seek refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark. And he goes on to say, he'll give his angels charge over you.

Speaker B [: 00:06:06

They will bear you up in their hands. that you do not strike your foot against a stone. They will tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down. Because he has loved me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him securely on high because he has known my name. He will call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him.

Speaker B [: 00:06:30

With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see my salvation. So the, um, is that— that's not it, is it? Yeah, we'll protect you anyway. So we look at each other and smile. He didn't know that that's the very same scripture. That was Friday. Friday night I go home and go on. The Lord gives me Psalm 40, verse 17. Since I am afflicted— well, first of all, let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.

Speaker B [: 00:06:59

Let those who love your salvation say continually The Lord be magnified. Since I'm afflicted and needy, let the Lord be mindful of me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, O my God. So that's Friday. And then they said, oh, by the way, we found there's another artery, um, 80% blocked, and it's the lower—

Roger [: 00:07:23

Left anterior descending.

Speaker B [: 00:07:25

Left anterior descending, which is known as the widowmaker, right? 80%, and we need to do that on Monday. Yeah, we need to give her a couple days rest, and we'll do that one on Monday. 80% block. So Saturday came around, and the question was, do we stay here at Jefferson and get that done or go somewhere else? Best, uh, both of Best's sister-in-laws are nurses, so the one at Presby said, no, come here, come here, I'm going to get you a little cough drop off. So we're trying to figure out So walked into the room on Saturday, and Beth's, uh, our great-granddaughter, uh, Josh's daughter, uh, Beetsie, um, Therese, brought her, um, rosary. Rosary beads. So Beth put them around her neck just so she wouldn't look, because we're moving stuff around. So she put them around her neck.

Speaker B [: 00:08:18

So man walks in, and he's got a, he's got a, uh, uh, jacket on like this and a tie, and he's got a cross on his lapel. So he said, oh, I'm here to visit you. I'm Deacon Joe. And he said, I remember you. You're in my parish, right? And Beth says, well, no, no, you must think, you know, I must look like somebody else. And we're Protestant, you know, we go to the Bible chapel. So we start chatting. He said, well, Psalm 77 is what I'm to share with you.

Speaker B [: 00:08:47

So he starts to share from Psalm 77. I said, well, How'd you get here? And he said, well, I was supposed to visit 5234. I said, this is 5134. So he goes through Psalm 77. I said, you know, you're not here by accident.

Speaker D [: 00:09:04

Amen.

Speaker B [: 00:09:04

And he said, I can feel the Spirit here. I can feel the Spirit here. I said, well, Lord bless you, you know. He goes on the way. So it was a way of the Lord confirming that we're in the right place, part of it. We continued to pray. Am I missing anything, Beth? Sunday, Saturday, Sunday.

Roger [: 00:09:23

Well, the hospitalist came in and told us about what was going on at Presby and stuff, which we felt was another confirmation.

Speaker B [: 00:09:31

Yes. Yes. So yeah, the hospitalist, he was very nice. The cardiologist was a jerk. The hospitalist was very nice. And, uh, I made him really mad like I do a lot of people because I asked a lot of questions, too many questions. Anyway, Monday comes around and The, um— Oh no, no, no, Saturday, Saturday night he gives me Psalm 41:1-3. How blessed is he who considers the helpless! The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.

Speaker B [: 00:10:03

The Lord will protect him and keep him alive, and he shall be called blessed upon the earth. Do not give him over to the desire of his enemies. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed. In his illness, you will restore him to health. The Lord doesn't speak, does he?

Roger [: 00:10:20

Mm-hmm.

Speaker B [: 00:10:20

People always say, well, how's the Lord gonna answer? How's he gonna tell you something? You know? So that was really clear. And then Sunday, Monday came around and she went down at 7:30. The, uh, the operation was supposed to be 8:30, hour and a half. Anyway, at 8:30 they said, oh, it's another hour before she gets in. The lady before was taking longer. So the Lord said, fast and pray, fast and pray. And as I'm praying, he brings to mind the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Here I am in battle, so it felt like a battle.

Speaker B [: 00:10:55

So I'm praying in battle. It's the, it's the Feast of the Guardian Angels. Guardian angels come to minister. They minister to us. So minister, praying. An hour went by, 2 hours went by, 3 hours went by. Now noon, and I don't hear anything. Thinking, what's going on here? So I said, nurse, what's happening? She said, oh, it's good news.

Speaker B [: 00:11:16

It's great. The doctor texted. All is great. So 12:30, Beth comes back in. She's on the, you know, gurney. They pop her into bed. She said, I do not feel well. My back is really sore.

Speaker B [: 00:11:28

And she starts to shake. And all of a sudden you hear rapid response team for 5134. I'm thinking, oh, that's our room. So they come in, they can't find a blood pressure anywhere, and there's, you know, it's filled with nurses, and they— yeah, you're shaking your head. What is going on here? So they take her down, and it turned out that the Saturday group that Josh is a part of, this prayer group, one of the guys texted another guy in the group who's a cardiologist. He said, oh, there's a woman, and he, he thought he would check in because he works at Jefferson, and he was actually consulting on Bess that morning, Monday morning. He was looking at it. They had no idea it was Josh's mom.

Speaker B [: 00:12:14

So he texts Josh. He said, oh, that's your mom. I'm gonna go down. He comes in. When they took her back down, she was bleeding internally. So he was checking the doctor portal, I guess, and it kept saying she's in procedure. Which he said after, after half an hour or so, that means she's either coded bad or something's wrong. So I called the hospital, said, what's going on? Blood, blood pressure.

Speaker B [: 00:12:40

So he comes in and he goes in and takes over. The 2 of them, the 2 cardiologists, are working for 6 hours trying to stop the bleeding. They can't stop the bleeding. They keep seeing blood. They keep seeing blood. Then they think it's other vessels, so they need to bring in another unit. The, um, interventional radiologists who do the really thin ones, because they can do coils inside of the thin ones, they take— of course, they're wherever they are, they take an hour to get there. And they finally come and say, we can't, we don't see anything, we're just going to let it go for the night.

Speaker B [: 00:13:17

And that's probably 8:30 or 9 o'clock, something like that. And I just keep standing on this verse, Lord. Uh, and so as I'm praying, I said to the Lord, I'm not commanding that promise, but I'm standing on that promise. Because you don't command the Lord. He could take her home. He could do whatever he wants. So I said, I'm not commanding you. You said you will heal her on her sickbed, right? But I am standing on it.

Speaker B [: 00:13:45

I'm trusting and standing that you will do that. So that was Monday. They kept her for a couple of days. And then let us go. So we went home and she was still, you know, just kind of— and then on Sunday she said, my armpit is really hurting under my armpit. You know, again, do we go? Do we don't go? And all that stuff. Where do we go? We go to St. Clair? Do we go— Lord help us.

Speaker B [: 00:14:13

And we're thinking, if this is heart-related, it's probably better to go back to St. Clair or to, um, Uh, yeah, Jefferson, because the cardiologist there. So we go back to Cannonsburg and they said, oh yeah, take all the tests. Yeah, she has blood clots in the lung. Okay. That doesn't sound good. And so we were there, I don't know, 8:30 till 5:30, I think, before they finally sent the ambulance and the nurses and the ambulance. I mean, it was like a comedy of errors.

Speaker B [: 00:14:46

It was like a comedy of errors. The first nurse, she takes her blood pressure. The first nurse comes in and says, oh, this is bad. This is bad. Yeah. Wow. Didn't she say that about— you're going to need another stent for sure. And are you a doctor? Are you a cardiologist? Like, why would you even share that? And then they're coming in saying, This isn't working.

Speaker B [: 00:15:13

This— do you know how to do this machine? I don't know how to do this machine. I don't know what's going on with it. Holy smokes. So I said, Lord, are we in the right place? Are we doing the right thing? And he reminded me, I'm not impressed by the legs of man. I can, I can take care of this. So we went back down on what day? Sunday, right? And then the question was, it turned out she had a big clot in her right lung. The question was, do they have to extract it? If it's putting pressure or straining the heart, they have to extract it. So the good news was there's no— there was no bleeding internally, and the test on the echocardiogram and the test on the heart said there's no strain.

Speaker B [: 00:16:01

So we're going to watch it overnight, and we think we'll just use blood thinners and medication to kind of, uh, take that away. So that was Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. They kept us till Tuesday. Is that right, Beth? Yes. Tuesday, Wednesday. I don't know. You lose track of days. And, uh, um, yeah, so, uh, she came home and still curding.

Speaker B [: 00:16:30

And so there was particularly painful Thursday or Friday. So we went into our regular position again, because you don't know. Do an EKG, you know, you're not really sure. The first 2 times I was really— it's really painful. We went in, something was wrong, you know. Do I respond to every pain? Or you— some of you know, right? You don't know. So we went in and, and it looked like everything's stable. So that's where we are.

Speaker B [: 00:16:54

That's where we are. Wow. So the Lord reminded me, you saw my providence throughout this entire journey because I let you see it. But the fact is, I'm as providentially engaged in all your life. You just don't see it most of the time. So he showed us in a very visible way. And one of the things he was showing me was, you know, just like the arteries blocked And the heart's trying to pump, but we need our arteries open, our faith arteries opened. That was one of the things we were saying, so that, so that more, more, more of the, the Spirit of God and the presence of God can flow in our life.

Speaker B [: 00:17:41

And so that was the other thing I was praying in the midst of this, not just heal the physical heart, but heal our, our spiritual heart as well, right? So that there's always blockage, right? There's always blockage that gets in the way. So did I miss anything, Beth? I think we wrote it down just to make sure we wouldn't forget. No. So we are, we are very, very grateful.

Speaker E [: 00:18:09

So are we.

Speaker B [: 00:18:10

To the Lord for that. There's— my wife is very courageous. She's a warrior. She is a warrior to come through that, uh, because she said she was on the table For almost 12 hours on that Sunday. And she said when I came out of that, I want to remind her, it was like an ordeal. She was saying, I can't, I can't, like, this pain is so bad. So they were managing, giving her pain, but not wanting her blood pressure to go so low, giving her pain meds. So she is a warrior.

Roger [: 00:18:43

So you're awake. You know, it's like—

Speaker B [: 00:18:46

I don't want

Roger [: 00:18:48

to be awake. But you are.

Speaker B [: 00:18:51

So yeah, little adventure to write in our book. And you know, it's interesting, I even looked in ahead of that. The Lord was— it was like a couple of times he was reminding me, you know, things won't always be the same. Life doesn't stay the same on this side. It doesn't stay the same. So it's as if he was kind of prepping me. You all know you've had stuff come out of nowhere. You know, all we have is this day.

Speaker B [: 00:19:20

Who knows what's going to happen tomorrow? But he's in it and through it and over it and on it. He's before it and after it. And right, for from him and through him and to him are all things, all things. And so he asked me, you know, can you trust me any more than you could trust me before? But his grace allows him to show us, doesn't it? To show us so that we can say. Yep. And of course, the first thing when you're done thinking, what happens if this again? Gotta do it again. What happens? Oh, now what about this and this and this and this and this and this? He said, remember, today has enough worry for itself, right? You only get grace for tomorrow when tomorrow comes. Let me get grace for the day.

Speaker B [: 00:20:08

So thank you all for your prayers, your texts, your cards. All that means It means a whole lot. It does mean a whole lot. The body of Christ is so helpful when you're hurting. So class done. That's the lesson. Yeah, somebody said you're going to do Sunday. I said, oh yeah, for sure, I got to share that.

Speaker B [: 00:20:30

And what's he say? In the— to share in the presence of the great congregation, right? To share what God has done, his faithfulness to us. He has been ever Ever so faithful. All right, how about other prayer requests and praises? So you continue to pray for Beth. There's still pain, and, uh, um, just how do you— you know, what's the next step? And her lungs, you know, for the clots to be, uh, dissipated, uh, naturally, no new clots to form. And just yet that she'll get back. I think that because the other thing is you just are scared. Yeah. You know, is it going to happen again? What happens if it happens again? Is this it? Is that— you know, so all the, all the fear.

Speaker B [: 00:21:18

I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. That's a very— that's a verse that I quote in the middle of the night, because in the dark, that's the only thing that comes to mind, isn't it? You wake up in the dark, it's— you're fearful, right? You're fearful. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me From all my fears. Okay, well, we're going to move with speed today, see how far we get. Okay, so we're doing a summary of the book of Romans to get us caught up to where we were. So we're looking at Romans 12 and 13. Hopefully these summaries have been helpful to you. No, they have for me just to kind of walk through and see what's going on.

Speaker B [: 00:22:08

So let's, uh, let's look at Romans 12. So Romans 1 through 11 are deep, deep, deep theological truths, and they move from theological truths, they move from things up here in our head to heart to life, and in hard times they become absolutely essential. And at the core of that, if we cannot see and trust in the sovereignty and providence of Almighty God in the midst of, of hard situations, it's hard to remember that, and oftentimes it's hard to see that. And the Lord showed me, I showed you my, my fingerprints, but you only saw a few of them. Because my fingerprints were in and on and through the entire event. And it's stunning to see that our God, who sits upon the throne, who, who, where heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool, can have his fingers on all people. Good, bad, indifferent, right? And be in and through all of it, right? And that it's all working together for good. And he reminds me, it's not what you think is good, it's what I know is good.

Speaker B [: 00:23:28

God knows what is good, and that's what he brings about. God knows what is good. So he— we're going to move from doctrine to devotion, from doctrine to devotion, because the question is, what is true? And then The idea is, okay, so how do I respond to that? So he closes Romans 11 with, with, for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory. To him be the glory. Amen. That's how he finishes. After all that doctrine, he says, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

Speaker B [: 00:24:11

And so I think about this, this Visual picture of all things. Here's the Lord. For from him and through him and to him Are what? All things. For from him and through him and to him are all things. That's the picture of the sovereignty of God. For from him and through him and to him are all things. I work all things together for good. All things is a power concept in scripture.

Speaker B [: 00:25:01

We have to understand— what do we understand about all things? All things from him, through him, and to him are all things, right? He will work all things together for good. All things, all things, right? And so what do we do with that? He says, well, that this demonstrates to us the mercies of God. This demonstrates to us the mercies of God. So he asks this question. He says, therefore, and if you study scripture for a while, they always tell you when you see therefore, you ask, what is it therefore, right? But it's always pulling. It's always summarizing. It's always pulling from what came behind it and what goes forward to it. So therefore points from the mercies of God.

Speaker B [: 00:25:55

Okay, as a result of that, Therefore, by the mercies of God, by the mercies of God, not singular mercy, but mercies of God. And of course, mercies has this idea of compassion and pity and favor, undeserved favor to it. And he's saying, if you go back and remember 1 through 11— justification, peace of God, grace, union with Christ, Spirit, adoption, security, sovereign mercy— If you laid all of those out, those are all the mercies of God. So these are what I would call foundational mercies. These are indeed foundational mercies that are yours in Christ, right? There are all these foundational mercies that make up who you are in Christ. We stand in those. Like the footers of our faith. The more they— the deeper the footers, the more secure you are when the wind blows.

Speaker B [: 00:27:02

And the wind will blow. The Lord reminds me, the wind will blow. The wind will blow. But then, of course, also then you also have what I call his manna mercies. His manner mercies are daily, and they're custom, and they're sufficient for all that you will deal with today. They come to you. God is giving you custom mercies. It says that if you think of— if you understand the thoughts of God toward you, his thoughts toward you are as many as the sands upon the seashore.

Speaker B [: 00:27:45

How many grains of sand do you think there are on the earth? More than a couple. Innumerable. It says that's how many thoughts he has toward you, and those thoughts are about bringing manna mercies, all for your Good. All for your good. Man of mercies. So he says, therefore, therefore, what do we do with the man of mercies of God? He said, present your bodies. Present your bodies. And I thought, what does that mean? Present your bodies.

Speaker B [: 00:28:30

Present your bodies. I thought it's similar to You know, in the midst of a battle, right, you would come to the king and say, here's my sword. Here's my sword. It's here to serve you, right? You would say, here's my sword, my sword. Right? Here's my sword. Present your bodies. And then I thought, we know how to present our bodies to sin. Right? So he says, do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God.

Speaker B [: 00:29:02

As those alive from the dead, your members as instruments of righteousness to God. So he says, present your bodies as if to say, here's what I have, right? I got my body. That's it. And it's a— it's by grace from you, but it's here. It's here to be used by you. It's literally here. Here I am, right? Here I am to be used by you. And he says, this is your spiritual service of worship.

Speaker B [: 00:29:31

Worship. It's literally rational. And so reasonable response— underline those. In other words, the Greek says if you're thinking and you're a thinking man or woman, the only reasonable response to the mercies of God is to surrender your bodies. And it struck me with And this one, this one's hard because I knew this. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. And I'd say, oh, I know what that is. Oh, Jesus is, Jesus is my Lord.

Speaker B [: 00:30:07

Like, Jesus is Lord. Jesus, right? Wear it on a t-shirt, whatever it is. Jesus is Lord. But it refers to Isaiah. In Isaiah, it has a different version. Isaiah is where it's from. I have sworn— let's read this. I have sworn by myself, the word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to me every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance.

Speaker B [: 00:30:41

Oh yeah, wait a minute. That's a little different than just saying Jesus is Lord, right? And the word literally means to seven oneself. What's seven mean in scripture? Fully, right? Complete, total. It means to total yourself, as in complete allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag, which we would do, right? They don't do that anymore because I pledge allegiance now to myself. I don't know what we pledge allegiance to, but pledge allegiance. Like, here's my sword. Here's, here's me and my sword, my life and my sword.

Speaker B [: 00:31:24

It's yours, Lord. You could say the king, they would say, my, my, here's my sword. Here's me and my sword. We're here, right, for you. He said, that's your spiritual service of worship. I thought that means show up and sing. show up in church, show up. He says, no, no, no, because all of your personal worship, all of your corporate worship, right, is, is surrounding allegiance, right? You pledge allegiance, if you will, right? You swear allegiance, and that is the essence of your personal worship, which is the essence of your service, and then your corporate worship.

Speaker B [: 00:32:19

All right, see, it all flows. It all flows inside out, just like you live inside and out. It all flows. So we surrender body and soul, swore allegiance to the Lord, and that's the essence of our personal worship. Personal worship is the center. Why? Because I need to hear from the Lord in hard times, right? I need to hear from the Lord. Lord, I don't want— I don't want to be— I don't want to break glass in case of emergency, which is what he says. There's a lot of Christians who have break glass, you know, if I need you, Lord, I'm coming, which is okay.

Speaker B [: 00:32:55

Do not— I always say to people, that doesn't mean don't come in emergency. Yeah. It just means don't just come in emergency. Because if you find yourself in trouble and say, well, I haven't been close to the Lord, I haven't been near the Lord, I'm not going there. No, no, no, you go there every time you need him. Regardless, because he doesn't respond to you because you've done the right thing or sought him enough or any of that. He responds because of who he is. He responds because of his character and his love and his nature.

Speaker B [: 00:33:26

That said, this is the picture. We swear allegiance. And how often do I need to do that? Personal worship regularly. How do I do that? I confess my sins and I re-swear my allegiance. How often do I have to do that? Every minute of every day sometimes. But, you know, that's why daily. Why? Because I don't live in allegiance, right? I live a broken, sinful life. So I confess and I re-swear my allegiance.

Speaker B [: 00:33:58

Does that make sense? So that's why this is critical here, and this is the power for service and corporate worship. That making sense? So then he says, as it flows out into the world, do not be conformed to this age. Do not be conformed to this age. And it's the difference. Ellicott said the difference between— underline— outward conformity. And by the way, it's outward conformity to things that have no value. Outward conformity or inward assimilation. Not to copy the fleeting fashions of the present time, but to be wholly transfigured in strict accordance with God's will that he has chosen.

Speaker B [: 00:34:56

So it's saying, do not be— you know, some have said the Greek looks like, do not be squeezed into the mold. You know, it's like the Jell-O mold you do at Thanksgiving time. You pour the Jell-O into the mold. Depending on which mold you pour it into, it'll look different. That's the whole idea here. Do not be squeezed into this age. Do not be squeezed into this age. And of course, this age It talks about the zeitgeist, which is a German word for the, the, the, the, the, the— what's the right word? The times that we live in.

Speaker B [: 00:35:33

And I always say they are carbon monoxide times. In other words, carbon monoxide, you can't smell it. You can't taste it. You can't see it. But if you breathe it enough, you will fall asleep, and then you will die. You'll fall asleep because you have to have your carbon dioxide— carbon monoxide tester, right, on a regular basis. So the present age is a carbon monoxide world, isn't it? Yeah. We breathe it all the time, you think, right? What do you read? What do you hear? What do you see? Even if you're guarding those— guard my heart, for from it flow the, the, the, the springs of life— There, it's all around, right? It's just all around.

Speaker B [: 00:36:18

So he's saying, do not be conformed to this age, this age, this system, right? It's the world system, because the prince of the power of the air is the prince of the power of the air, and it's broadcasting all the time, isn't it? But there's a big but. Do not be conformed, but be transformed by the renewing of your Mind. What are you feeding your mind? What are you feeding your mind? And we live in a time where we are being taught to not think, right? This is teaching you to not think, teaching you also to not even like to think, right? It's teaching you to just scroll, scroll, baby, scroll, scroll away your life, scroll away your life. But what you're doing is surrendering the ability to think. And the biggest danger to AI— we can talk about that at some point in time, having studied it and used it— biggest danger in AI is that you surrender You surrender decisions to AI for convenience. Surrender decisions to AI for convenience. Hey, what should I do? Never ever ask AI what should you do, because it's neither artificial— it's programmed— or intelligent. It ain't.

Speaker B [: 00:38:01

Right. That doesn't mean it isn't— it can search all the stuff, but my My point is, do not surrender your ability to think. So as we move through these times where people are just in wholesale droves surrendering their ability to think, they just don't. Why? Because it's convenient. I want quick answers. And it's in direct opposition to seeking the will of God because I don't want to wait. What do I want to wait for? I just get the answer over here. Well, this is a— this is— this is— yeah, right.

Speaker B [: 00:38:32

But scrolling and searching and asking, just be careful. So, so the ability, right? The ability to renew your mind, renew your mind, renew your mind, right? So 2 things. You are transfigured. It's the same word used when the Lord Jesus was up on the Mount of Transfiguration. It's the Mount of Metamorphomai. It's the Mount of Metamorphosis, if you will. That's the Greek word. It's used here only in 3 places.

Speaker B [: 00:39:03

So you can be metamorphomized, um, and you are renovated. We need our mind renovated, renovated on a regular basis, right? Renovated on a regular basis. So yeah, understanding, knowing the truth, as Chris said, know the truth. So he said you're transfigured and you're renovated in your mind so that— underline so that, remember? So that— what does so that say? This is the point. So that also tells you what's the point of this. The point of this is that you may prove. Yeah, they may prove. And even more, right? Even more, know to prove.

Speaker B [: 00:39:45

No. So it's know plus to prove what the will of God is. So first of all, number 1, under, above that, will able to discern. Right. Number 1. Discern or discriminate. That's one. Number 2 is approve, and approve has a 3rd component to it.

Speaker B [: 00:40:04

3 is do, right? So you have to have your mind renewed so that you can be transfigured, so that you can prove. Prove is able to discern the will of God. Number 2 is want to do it. approve of it. And number 3 is to do it. And approve, by the way, in the Greek has both of those components to it, but I just separate them out. Like, number 1, because it's the will of God, oftentimes doesn't appear to be what I want to do. Have you noticed that? That's because it is good and acceptable And perfect.

Speaker B [: 00:40:51

And that is because in me, I don't always want what is good, acceptable, and perfect. Because I want to do what I want to do. I want to do what I want to do. It says, so you may prove it, and you would understand, discern, discriminate, approve, and do the will of God, which is good, acceptable, and perfect. Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind. He's righteous and kind. He has better qualifications than I do to know what is good, what is acceptable, and what is perfect. And by the way, his good and acceptable and perfect will could be bring Beth home.

Speaker B [: 00:41:46

And, and it will be one day. And, and it's good, acceptable, and perfect. What would it be to bring me home one day and to bring you home one day? Because that is that which is good and acceptable and perfect, along with some bumps along the way. So then he says, okay, now you understand that. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. He said you need to think about yourself so as to have sound judgment. Well, I don't need the Lord to tell me to do that because I think about myself often. And of course I have sound judgment about myself.

Speaker B [: 00:42:34

I think about me often. But he says you got to think about yourself as to have sound judgment. And this is in the context of how he's wired you to serve. This is in the context of how he's wired you to serve. So he says, don't be high-minded, but be sober-minded. So the Greek literally means don't— not to be high-minded beyond that which you ought to be minded, but to be minded unto sober-mindedness. It's literally the Greek. So in other words, think of yourself with reasonable-mindedness, which includes the fact that he has wired you with gifts, and those gifts are for the common good.

Speaker B [: 00:43:24

Yes, common good. So he says, one member, one body, many members, different gifts. Though there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are a variety of ministries and the same Lord. There are a variety of effects, but the same God who works all things. There that thing is again, those darn all things. They just show up everywhere. God is the God of all things.

Speaker B [: 00:43:50

Isn't that good news?

Speaker D [: 00:43:51

Mm-hmm.

Speaker B [: 00:43:52

He's the God of all things. There's not a thing he misses. It's not a thing in your life you say, Lord, are you, you getting this? Do you see what's happening? Do you know what's going on? Do you see it? You see, I, I am the God of— I am the Lord of all things. I am the Lord of all things. For from him and through him and to him are all things. Hmm. And of course, underlined, for the common good. So you have a gift.

Speaker B [: 00:44:21

You have a gift for the common good. The gift is irrelevant Usage of it is. We used to say to the kids, I don't care if you have a 90,000-volt battery or a 9-volt battery, because if it's up on the shelf, it's irrelevant. There's a 9-volt battery put into a carbon monoxide detector is more valuable than a 90,000-volt battery that ain't in use. So it's not how many volts you have, it's whether you are employing it. Which is what he says here, right? Each one has received a special gift. Employ it. Employ it.

Speaker B [: 00:45:05

There should be no unemployment among the gifts of God. No, zero unemployment. Employ the gifts serving one another as good stewards of what? Underline the manifold. Oh, so here we see manna mercies, and they are also manifold mercies. Manifold mercies. So you serve according to the grace given you. You serve according to the grace given you. Serve according to the grace given you.

Speaker B [: 00:45:53

So that flows into a love without hypocrisy, sincere love. And so the— at the bottom here, grace-powered love. Grace-powered love. Transforms. It transforms how we treat believers, right? We serve each other, strangers and enemies. And then he's got— again, these are, um, these aren't checklists. What these are, are— in other words, he's saying this is what the fruit looks like. So he's describing what the fruit looks like.

Speaker B [: 00:46:39

So if grace is powered in your life, this is what you'll see. This is kind— this is the kind of behavior. So it's not set as a checklist, check, check, check. More like, this is the characteristic. Of course, who would it be the characteristic of? It is the Spirit of God who is— Right. Mimicking the Son of God who is Revealing the Father. Right? So the Spirit says, I, I do nothing of my own initiative. I take what I hear from the Lord Jesus and make it known.

Speaker B [: 00:47:13

Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So they're all glorifying each other, right? Making known the nature. So grace-powered love transforms how we treat believers, strangers, and enemies. So he says, bless those who persecute you. He's— oh man, not fun. Then he says, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Thank you for doing that for us and with us. That's what we do as believers, right? If possible, underline, so far as it depends on you, be at peace.

Speaker B [: 00:47:51

Be at peace with all men. Sometimes you can be, sometimes you can't. Never seek vengeance. I'm gonna get them. I'm gonna get them. You cut me off, I'm gonna get you, right? You did me dirty, I'm gonna get you, right? There's that desire in you. And you— I, I, I love to watch movies where they get even, don't you? I mean, there's just part of us that wants to get even. I'm gonna get those.

Speaker B [: 00:48:27

And the Lord says, I get it, but vengeance is mine. Every deed will be paid for directly or on the cross. Every deed will be paid for either directly by the people or on the cross. It will all be taken care of. I will repay, the Lord says. Amen. So he sums up, in an evil world, do not be overcome by evil. Do not be overcome by evil, but conquer evil.

Speaker B [: 00:49:03

The word means conquer, be victorious, prevail. But underline overcome evil. How do we overcome evil? With good. With good. What's good? The will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect. We overcome it with the will of God. See how it ties together, right? We overcome it with the will of God. All right, that's good for today.

Speaker B [: 00:49:30

So write down something you get from Romans 12, walking through Romans 12. The mercies of God. Spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed, be transformed. Prove what the will of God is— that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. Think about yourself. Have sound judgment. Use your gifts to serve.

Speaker B [: 00:49:52

Let love rule. Grace-filled love, let it rule. Here's what it looks like. Live in a work zone. Live in a what? Work zone. Live in a work zone. Never done Live in a work zone. If you're still here, he's still got work for you.

Speaker B [: 00:50:21

Who else? Yeah, and you know, I think in, in, in concert with that is, so what keeps me? That's the question, you know. And sometimes I need the Lord to reveal that. So what is that in me that keeps me from surrendering? I'm afraid. I'm afraid to trust you. I'm afraid what you're gonna ask me to do. I'm afraid of what you're gonna do. I'm afraid, right? There's some sort of fear. And then you ask, what's the fear? I'm afraid that's gonna be hard.

Speaker B [: 00:50:51

I love comfort. How many like comfort? I love comfort. And I also like things to be the same. I noticed we came home and I thought, okay, what do I have to do to get things back to the way they were before? The Lord reminded me they aren't. the way they were before, right? I'm your comfort on this side. Circumstances aren't, because they're, they're changing. They're changing, right? Yeah. So it's a good question to ask the Lord.

Speaker B [: 00:51:19

So what keeps me? Fear. Okay, what am I afraid of? Am I afraid of— and it flows out of Romans 8 when he said, he who did not spare his own Son, but he delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give you all things. Rhetorical question to say, the Father sent his Son, the Son came. What are we withholding? If I sent my Son, if I bought you, if I bought you, right, by the mercies of God, if I chose you by the mercies of God, if I called you by the mercies of God, if I'm keeping you by the mercies of God, what am I doing that for? For the eternal mercies of God. Can you trust me? No. Okay, why? Lord, help. Help my unbelief. I mean, better just name it.

Speaker B [: 00:52:17

He knows it anyway. Help my unbelief, Lord. I'm having— I'm having a hard time trusting you. Help me. That's a, you know, that's what the mer— you know, calling upon the mercies of God honors God. Calling upon the mercies of God to understand, to believe, to trust the mercies of God honors God. I can't do this, Lord. I can't do this.

Speaker B [: 00:52:37

You can't. I can't do this without you. You're called by the mercies of God. You're kept by the mercies of God. You're called and kept for the mercies of God eternal. Does that make sense? Yep. So help me, Lord. Help me.

Speaker B [: 00:52:55

Help me, Lord. Well, Father, today we, as all days, stop and consider your mercies— many, manifold, amazing, hard to comprehend, hard to trust, hard to believe. So, Father, I do pray For each of us, the eyes of our heart would be enlightened, that we would know the hope of your calling. We would know the riches of the glory of your inheritance in us, the saints, and the surpassing greatness of your power toward us as we believe. The power that you demonstrated clearly when you raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, seated him at your right hand far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and you gave him a name above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow and every tongue swear allegiance. Amen. Well, we need your mercies to surrender to your mercies, Lord. We need your mercies to help our unbelief.

Speaker B [: 00:54:04

We need your mercies to trust you. We need your mercies to rest in you as a weaned child rests upon his mother, Lord. We need Your mercies to do that. So be pleased today. Be pleased today to help us rest in you. So bless and keep each person here. May the God who is the God of all mercies, may he bless you. May he keep you.

Speaker B [: 00:54:32

May he cause his face to shine upon you. May he lift up his countenance and give you shalom. Amen. Deep in your soul so that you would, you would just rest in the mercies of God, the mercies that, that named you, called you, keep you, for the mercy is eternal. May he bless you and keep you always.

Speaker E [: 00:54:57

Amen. Amen.

Speaker B [: 00:54:58

Amen. Thank you for letting us share our journey at the beginning. Really appreciate it.

Scott Keffer [: 00:55:09

Thanks for listening. I hope you have greater hope, assurance, and confidence in your life and a deeper trust in the God of the Bible and His Son, Jesus Christ. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you His peace, His shalom, in your soul and in your life. Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.