TRANSCRIPTION | Renewing Your Mind Series | The F.A.I.T.H. Express | Sunday, May 22, 2022

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

One thing I'd like for you to think about as you turn with me to Romans Chapter 12, Romans Chapter 12 Have you ever wondered how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly? I know that if we've done very much schooling at all, at some point someone has walked us through the process and that process is called metamorphosis. And it's just hard to even comprehend how a butterfly as beautiful it is could start as a caterpillar, as ugly as it is.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But metamorphosis makes that process possible. And to this day, that process of 

metamorphosis still baffles many biologists. Romans Chapter 12 verse one says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercies, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's interesting that in direct translation that word transformed is very similar to the word metamorphosis that describes a Caterpillar's transition transformation into a butterfly but the transform experienced metamorphosis by the renewing of your mind. And then you will be able to test and approve what is God's will is good in His pleasing and is perfect. We'll pray with me, Father.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I ask you to help me to preach. I ask you to help me to teach. I pray God you'll help me to be able to share your word. With an anointing, a special grace from heaven. The God you'll show me where it appears and you'll show me where to heal. Lord, let it be done in Jesus name in this church said amen.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I found that Romans Chapter 12 is a fairly common passage of text to most Christians. Seems like that most modern day believers in some way shape, form or fashion have some type of a reference point with this particular text. And so I'd like to read it again, just for the sake of emphasis. Maybe just because you don't happen to be at that place of awareness with this verse, and it's important today for you to have a context of it.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Now, I'm not going to read verse one I'm going to read verse two, Romans Chapter 12, verse two. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is His good, his pleasing, his perfect will. Now, our emphasis this morning is going to be on the first portion of that verse do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Paul was a brilliant theologian Romans is his masterpiece, if you will. In this particular text, he is presenting a contrast do not conform to the pattern of this world verses the renewed mind that a Christian is transformed by. So you can be conformed or you can be transformed. And what Paul is encouraging is that you would not settle for being conform formed to the world, but that instead you would be transformed into the plan and the image that God has for you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Now, two words that stick out are the words transformed and the word renewed, transformed and renewed. It's interesting that the Greek word that is used for the word renewed. It combines two words together, if you would, in our language. New and again, so so what's saying here is that the type of renewal is what prevents the believer from conforming to his current day I want to say that again.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's a type of renewal that keeps the believer to conforming to his modern day, to the day that he lives in, to the culture that he lives in. And it's new. And again, in other words, if you're not going to be conformed to this world, you're going to have to be made new again and again and again and again and again.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Probably every time you scroll through Facebook, you're going to need to be made new again. And every time that you cycle through the news, you're going to need to be made new again. And every time you wind up in a conversation with, you learn, Freddie, you're going to need to be made new again. And every time that that one person catches you at the end of the frozen foods aisle, you're going to need to be made new again.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Who I'm trying to help this morning, but I'm trying to help somebody become new again to be renewed. And it's going to be something that's going to need to happen in your life over and over again in your mind, to be made new again. Otherwise, you're just going to increasingly become like the world, whether you intended to or not.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The second word we talked about bringing emphasis to is transform. And I've already pointed out that that that has a context of metamorphosis. It has a context of you start out as a caterpillar, but you end up as a butterfly. It's it's something that is experiencing change. And in fact, maybe the the purest translation of this is simply changing form.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's also interesting that Jesus used a very similar Greek word in one of his messages, and he he was using it to describe repentance that, in other words, were going to be made new again and again and again. And again. And the result of being made new again and again and again is we're going to look less like the world and more like God we're going to change form that.

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We may come into this thing one way, but we're going to end up a very different way. And what might have originally been a negative through the hand of God is going to ultimately become a positive. In fact, this word transformed, and it implies that you would experience change in your appearance change in your character, change in your condition, change in your function, change, change once you just look over at somebody until to be made new again.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Now tell them and again and they're going to get on Facebook as soon as I get out of here. So tell again, in fact, some of you on search online, you've already named it three times just because of something you saw over there in the side window you shouldn't had open anyway. Just tell somebody in a new again, believers are constantly tempted, constantly tempted to let the things of the world shape their minds rather than the things of God.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The the the translator of the message translation. He makes this statement in reference to Romans Chapter 12. He says, don't let the world around you squeeze you into it's mold. That's what you might describe. Peer pressure is it's why so many young men have so much trouble in the locker room. Is because they get into a situation where that there is pressure put on them to look like and act like everyone else.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And what's happening is that whether they even realize it or not, they're not in a battle against flesh and blood, just against some random personality. They're in a spirit show battle that's trying to squeeze them in to being conformed to a world that feels like pornography's OK to being conformed into a world that is completely confused in regards to its sexuality, to be conform, to be squeezed in.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So the reason that that so many young women might struggle in regards to their purity, because at some point there's going to be a pressure that's going to try to squeeze them in to what the world says they should look like and who they should be instead of what God says they should look like and who they should be.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

God wants to make you new again and again and again. I came to tell somebody, if you've been making the wrong decisions in the locker room, you can be made new again. And I came to tell somebody, if you've been struggling in your purity, you can be made new again. And I came to tell some, if you've been cheating on your taxes, you can be made OK and see some.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Y'all were loving it when I was hitting on your teenagers. And then I came into your office and you didn't care so much about it. But still somebody to made new again. 11 reviewer of this text, he says that really what God is asking for is that we would give ourselves holy w h o l l y that we would give ourselves wholly incomplete to God to be made new again and again.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And again. Kevin, Gerald, Will recognized pastor in the Western United States. He wrote a book called Mind Monsters, and in it he made some really solid points. One of the things that he points out is that there are three things that worldly thoughts do. So in other words, when the world is trying to squeeze you into its way of thinking, when it's trying to conform you to the way that the world wants you to think, it will steal your joy and your peace.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You ever noticed how often when you start thinking like the world, that you lose your joy and you lose your peace, that the world, it will disrupt your relationships and it will steal your contentment. It's three worthwhile points that the enemy wants to steal your joy in your peace. He wants to disrupt your relationships, and he wants to steal your contentment in ways in which that the enemy does that is to try to get you squeezed into the world's way of thinking.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And one of things that Gerald points out is that the way it happens is the enemy puts us on the wrong train. He talks about the fact that there are trains of thought and you guys know what that's like. You start thinking about something, and before long you have ridden that train way, way down the road in your thought process.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Trains of thought. He talks about how that the enemy has a way of, in the most subtle of ways to get us to board the train of thought called worry. And and you're in you're just you're just sitting there. And then all of a sudden there's just this thought and it came into your mind of, man, I wonder if my child is OK right now.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And then the next thing you know, you are envisioning all kinds of crazy things that could possibly happen to your child because you rode that train of thought. It can happen with guilt that we get on that train and we start reflecting on a mistake that we made at some point in our life. And and all of a sudden, as we're riding through that train, we start to see the scenery of shame and we start to feel as though we would never be able to get off of this train because surely everyone else is seeing the same scenery associated with our lives, and we just keep writing and writing and riding guilt.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Others of us, we really struggle with boarding the train of thought associated with insecurity, and we don't even realize it. Like, if you struggle with pride, you are struggling with insecurity. If you struggle with anxiety, you are struggling with insecurity. So what happens is the enemy gets us on this train and we start stepping into these mindsets of entitlement that are directly connected to the insecurity.

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And before we know it, we can spend extended minutes, if not extended hours riding the train. And the problem with these kind of trains is that we don't even know where their destination ends. We just know it's going to get worse and worse. It's going to be bad. When that thing finally pulls into the station, you ride that train long enough and you'll end up transferring to suicidal thoughts but you'll probably make a transfer to depression before you make any sense to anybody.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So you got to be careful which train you get on in your mind because the enemy fully intends to bring you to the wrong destination with your life, with your life. You know, one of the things that that research of the brain has proven is that human beings are naturally disposed to process, understand and learn from negativity. Rather than positivity.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's partly because our literal survival depends on it. But even when you think about a child the way that a child, an infant even begins to learn, think about it. A toddler learns that the stove is hot from a negative experience of touching a painfully hot surface. That's the way that we learned. We had a negative experience and now we learn, OK, if my fingertips are going to survive, I'm not going to want to touch that thing again.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

One researcher said it this way that your brain is like Velcro for the negative stuff, and it's like Teflon for the positive ones. For those of you that don't cook you, somebody help me for just a minute. We get it. Velcro sticky. Sometimes you just feel like you got to make it really plain Teflon is that nonstick skillet that's in your cabinet that it allows you to burn the stuff and lived to tell about it because it's just going to scrape right off.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Nothing sticks to it. And in our life, it's like our mind too often is like Velcro to all the negative stuff, just like everything sticking to it and like you can't even hardly tear it off all the positive stuff. It's like we can't even remember what somebody said to us in a positive light because all we're thinking about is the -10 people say something positive, one person say something negative, and we'll go home and wallow all day in the train of worry and guilt and insecurity.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Because that's because of what stuck, you know? So I was thinking about if we're riding the wrong train how do we get on the right train? Like, how do we be transformed from that old ugly caterpillar into a destination that makes us more resemble that beautiful spiritual butterfly, if you will, and this is the concept of the Faith Express.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The Faith Express. Tell somebody you got to get on the right train to be something great, to throw in the confidence right now. You got to get on the right train. So if you're going to get on the right train, if you're going to ride the Faith Express one of the first things you're going to have to do is you're going to have to learn to focus on the positive because what's going to happen, all that negative stuff is going to stick to you like Velcro so you're going to have to be intentional about saying, OK, I'm going to focus on the positive.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

There's something I want to point out to you. Like in fact, I want to circle back in order to do it. I think this point's worth making if we're talking about that. The negative sticks like Velcro and the positive, it comes off of us like Teflon y'all with me. Then think about for a second how hard it is to think about the right thing because we are so predisposed to the negative and to the worldly way of thinking that one researcher put it this way.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He said, If you were to try and just think about to to not think about a polar bear, OK, everybody in here, everybody search alone. Do not think about a polar bear.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Like I'm telling you. Do not think about a white bear. Do not think about a big polar bear in the zoo. And if you could talk about it, I could think about it. Well, the truth of it is you wouldn't, because when you try not to think about something, you're almost guaranteed to think about it at least once a minute, because well, one side of your brain is making the decision.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I'm not going to think about that. The other side of your brain is checking in to make sure you're not thinking about it. And the moment that that side of your brain tries to check in, it's like make sure you're not thinking about that. It makes you think about it. And so it's really almost impossible to not think about these forbidden things.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So what you have to do is you have to learn to replace the thought. So instead of just saying I'm not going to think about it, I'm not going to think about it. I'm not going to think about I'm not I'm not going to I'm not going to think about what they said about me. I'm not going to think about all the stress I'm going through at work.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I'm I'm not going to think about these kids that are driving me crazy. I'm not going to think about the fact that I'm three weeks late on my refrigerator. Bill. I'm not I'm not going to it doesn't work. That's what Paul told you. What will work? He didn't tell you to not think about the negative stuff in the world.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

This stuff he told you to think about the positive stuff and the godly stuff. And he said it in Philippians chapter four of our say finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If anything, is excellent or praiseworthy, helped me think about such things like you got to learn to think about the right things.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In other words, you got to get on the right kind of train. You got to get on the Faith Express, you got to focus on the positive. That's what Paul was saying. Think about whatever is true. Think about whatever is knowable. Think about whatever is right. Think about whatever is pure, lovely, admirable, excellent. Praiseworthy. That's what you got to think about.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The world is going to constantly invade your mind and invade your life with all the things that are going wrong and all the negative stuff, and you will never be able to not think about it. So you got to get your mind on the right way of thinking and be new again and again and again. And every time you think about something true, it's making you new again.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And every time you think about something that's right, it's making you new again. And every time you think about something that's pure, it's making you new again and again and again. Focus on the positive. I love to our favorite verses in all scripture. I'm sure you guys love it as well. At Second Corinthians 48, Paul talked about the fact he said, We are hard pressed on every side, yet we are not crushed, we are perplexed, but we are not in despair.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We are persecuted, but we are not forsaken. We are struck down, but we are not destroyed. In other words, I can focus on the fact that their is they're trying to squeeze us in, trying to conform us, but we're not crushed. I can focus on the fact that we have a lot of reason to be perplexed, but instead I'm just going to tell you, we're not in displaying despair I get it.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's first mistake I made all morning considered in my hillbilly vernacular. It's a miracle that even anything past four syllables comes out right struck down but not destroyed. So instead of focusing on I'm struck down Paul said. I'm going to focus on the positive. We'll focus on the fact that my God has not allowed me to be destroyed.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

They give you something, a great place to praise God you give you something good to think about. If you just keep loving God and keep obeying His purpose and calling in your life these promised in Romans 828 that everything will work to your good you can't you can't praise God for anything else. You praise him for the fact he called you and you keep loving him and in due time, you'll see to it that even the bad works for your good.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The faith expressed focus on the positive. Here's another way to make sure you get your ticket on the faith express. Affirm others, affirm others, some might would say here that you should affirm yourself. And I don't necessarily know that there's anything overly wrong with that, but I think it's even more beneficial to affirm others I heard the story of a lady who was swimming and she loved to swim, and it was a form of her exercise.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so every morning she would go out for her swim and there would be other swimmers that would come to do the same. And she noticed that day after day she started to enjoy her swim less and the reason was because she started comparing herself to the people that were swimming to the left and to the right, and she started to become discontent with her performance because she wasn't as good of a swimmer.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so she started to get really negative about the morning swim to the point she was almost ready to quit because she was so bothered by how much better these other swimmers were. And then after a time, a prayer, one of the things that she felt like the Lord led her to do is that in the morning when they would be arriving and getting ready to get into the water, she just started walking around and just started looking at people and telling them, I just hope you have a great swim.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Today. And I just I hope you have a wonderful swim today and I hope you really enjoy your swim today. And I hope that you beat your personal record today with your swim. And she started talking about how that it just took all of the pressure to compete off and it took away all of the discontentment. And she was just able to once again enjoy that thing that she loved some of us cannot enjoy the house we live in because we can't stand it when the neighbor puts in some new landscape and does this gutter or finally gets the shingles he's needed for 25 years.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And maybe you just ought to send a confirming text and an affirming text and let them know God bless you, so proud of you and do it. And I don't know who. And I can't I don't know who I'm trying to help this morning. But you knew what they said to me. You knew what they did to me.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Bless those that spitefully used you and it will heap coals of fire up on their head to affirm others. Here's another way to get your take it on the Faith Express. Imagine God doing something good in your situation. And that's not just some self-help nonsense. Ephesians chapter three verse 20 says this that God desires to do exceedingly and abundantly above all you could ask or think according to the power that he's deposited on the inside of you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And it does not mean that something will not go bad. In fact, if you live God, that you will suffer persecution but I'll promise you this God will take that thing that the enemy meant for evil, and He'll use it for your good. So in spite of everything that's happening around you, just start imagining my God is going to use this for good.

 

In my situation. Another way to punch your ticket on the Faith Express is to trust God in all things. Trust God in all things. David walked up to a giant and He let that giant know that you're bigger than me and you've got a lot going for you. But he said, You come to me with a spear and a sword but I come to you in the name of the Lord.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

There is no giant that will ever face you down that you will not be able to trust God in. You can stand and stare case cancer down and begin to trust God. You can stand and stare poverty down and trust God. I don't know who I'm trying to help this morning. But I feel like somebody just needs a reminder to trust God in all things.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

When they're backbiting and they're saying all manner of evil against you. Trust God in all things. Isaiah 26, 13 says you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you Pastor Royal is preached in a couple of locations last week. And one of the things that he said, he said, the Bible tells us that God will give us the mind of Christ but the Bible also tells us that we must put on the mind of Christ.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So it's not enough to just say, I have the mind of Christ. You have to make a decision to put on the mind of Christ and make your mind new again and again and again. It's a decision that you have to make. If I'm going to think the way God wants me to think instead of the way that the world wants me to think, one more ticket to the Faith Express Hope for the best, hope for the best.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Well, the most pivotal moments I've ever had in pastoral ministry I got a phone call to go to a hospital for a tragic event. Young girl, teenage girl had had a car accident and I knew it was going to be bad. And if I'm not mistaken, we took at least two pastors with us because this was a really, really bad deal.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And we'd known the family for years. They had attended the church since it was very small in nature. And I walked in and I was not prepared for what I saw this this girl to this day up until the end. And from then for I've never seen that many tubes in somebody's body and we arrived and the mother was in the room by herself and she was crying profusely weeping uncontrollably so we began to pray with her but halfway through that prayer stopped and I said, I feel a strong unction from the Holy Spirit to tell you this there is no such thing as false hope when God is involved and then she began to weep in a different way. And she said, The reason I was crying when you all came in is because right before you alive arrived, I was trying to speak positive in front of a doctor. And he told me, Ma'am, all you have is false hope.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Today. That's right. That girl not only rose up out of that sick bed and graduated high school, but graduated college and is now fully employed and serving God with her life. And I came to tell somebody there is no such thing as false hope. When God is involved, hope for the best so you can keep riding the wrong trains.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You can keep settling for being squeezed into the world's way. I think it or you can decide to get on the Faith Express. I preached this at my house in a different tone and way all the time, telling my kids, do not settle for being conformed to the world. You are called of God to come out from among them and be separate, say, at the Lord.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And some days they listen and sometimes they don't. But I'm going keep preaching it because if I don't get to be anything else in my life, I want to be a conductor. For the Faith Express. It's helping people get on board and realize you don't have to serve for the world perspective. God's got something better for you. Imagine the destinations that He's going to take you to.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I'm not just talking about to make you famous or to make you rich. I'm talking about to bring glory to his own name as he uses you and your influence to plunder hell and to populate heaven in Jesus. Would somebody give God praise somewhere. Somewhere the faith.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Express due to every head bowed, every closed, they're going to play some music softly. Come on. Whether you're in church, online, or in this auditorium, I want you just to give. Got him in it. You know what some of you need to understand that the greatest new again moment you will ever experience is that initial moment in relationship with God and Christianity.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We report we refer to it as the born again experience. It's the moment when we come to the realization that Scripture has a promise for us that we can escape our sin.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We can escape the eternal death and damnation associated with sin if we will simply acknowledge the goodness of God's grace in our life. And believe that God so loved the world that He would give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. And today, if you need to be made new, if you need that first fresh start in God I want to present you as an opportunity to put a hand in the air.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Not so a preacher can see it, or a church can count it nearly as much as so that you can communicate to heaven. I need I need grace. I need the touch of Jesus. I need what only the blood of Jesus can make possible right now. I want you to begin to pray in your own way. If the Holy Spirit's dealing with your heart and leading you, then right now just begin to confess your sins of the Lord poor amount.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Don't hold anything back. Confess all the places you've been conformed to the world. Confess all the places you've been thinking like the world act and like the world and believe in like the world. Even in church online. I would challenge you even just say it out loud. You don't have to scream, you don't got to yell it. But just confessed Lord as you have in this moment of surrender before the Lord, I want you to understand that He will reach further down than you can reach up.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He's the engineer of the strength and he's got heaven plan for you but it starts with a salvation experience I want to get you to continue to pray in your own way. But I want to pray with you. I want to pray for you, Father. We are so thankful for your cross. We are so thankful that you would love us so much that you would give your son and that God through faith we would be able to see our sins perpetuated from us onto him that got everything that was due us he received and he took on our behalf.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Thank you for Jesus. Thank you that you allow us to escape Wrath. Thank you. You give us the promise of Amazing Grace. God, I pray that coming out of this moment that there's going to be a recognition that we are not just called to conversion, but we are called to become a disciple. So, Father God, may we take the steps to become a true disciple of you, to know your word and to know your word in such a way that we take captive every thought of the world and drag it off and make it obedient to you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Christ, God, may we receive the mind of Christ and may we be intentional about putting it on to be made new again and again and again. Give us the courage to confess this decision to somebody before this day is out and to be done in Jesus name in this church, said a man and a man. I'm going to ask you all across this room to stand with me to your feet and wherever you're at church on line, in person.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I want you right now to put your hands together, and I want you to bless God for the fact that somebody, by the grace of Jesus Christ, just pass from death to life. Come on. Bless God for the fact that He'll say that he referred the down. Then we can reach up. We bless you, Father. We bless you, Father.