Transformed Nonconformist

Hello men, I am posting the outline from Thursday's Power Lunch for you to read and consider if you choose. The point is to encourage us all to let the transforming power of God give us the strength, desire and ability to stand against the flow of evil and societal pressure to be like everyone else. God calls us to find our voice and speak His truths from the platform we are on.

Enjoy! God bless, Billy

REAL Men Bible Study

Transformed Nonconformist

3/25/10

Romans 12: 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I. The Flow of our Culture

Ø One with most toys wins

Ø Might makes right

Ø The one that has the gold is the one who rules

Ø Competence; not character, is what counts

Ø Marriage was never meant to last a lifetime

Ø You only go around once; so grab for all of the gusto

Ø All truth is relative and morals/ethics are situational

Ø Go along to get along

Ø Tolerance is a cardinal virtue

Ø Faith is narrow mindedness; God is irrelevant

III. Which Path will you choose?

Ø A thermostat or a thermometer?

Ø The hammer or the nail?

Ø Accept the culture or go about transforming it?

Ø An untransformed nonconformist?

III. Where Does the Believer Stand in this Culture?

A. We have dual citizenship – here and in eternity

Philippians 3: 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

B. We do not find our fulfillment here

Matthew 10: 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

C. We focus simply and solely on honoring God by being like His son, Jesus

Philippians 1: 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Joshua 24: 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

IV. This Gives us Enormous Power

Romans 8: 31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 1: 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.