Transcript
Speaker: If we fail to maintain this renewed mind, our focus will shift away from the Word of God to worldly and carnal pursuits. Instead, we'll concentrate on our carnal mind. Our mind is renewed when we allow a price mind to dwell in us and be the predominant source of our thinking. Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 are very familiar.
Speaker: of passages Paul's writing to the church of Rome and he says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice In other words, we don't have to die because Jesus died for us, but we still should present ourselves to the Lord as a sacrifice.
Speaker: and We give ourselves fully over to Him. Life, our all, all our our possessions, all of our doing, we give to the Lord. And we do it as holy vessels, acceptable unto God, which the Word says is your reasonable service. well So some of us that find ah reasons and excuses not to,
Speaker: It's simply because we've conformed to the world and not to Christ. And verse 2 tells us why. and Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In other words, we really can't prove God's will in our life. We can't make it consistent and stable in our life until we've had our mind renewed.
Speaker: Amen. We are born with a sense of death and deadly thinking, and that we have to have a spiritual mind that springs up in Welcome to Grace Talk, a podcast by Grace Temple Church Louisville.
Speaker: Experience biblical encouragement in every aspect of life as you see God through the truth of the scriptures. Our mission is to help save the lost and encourage the saved.
Speaker: Hosted by our senior pastor, Apostle Aisham Cordery, and the Grace Temple Church ministry, it's time for Grace Talk.
Speaker: Well, praise the Lord and and welcome to Grace Talk. This is Apostle Eishem S. Cordery. I'm Senior Pastor of Grace Temple Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and we're certainly thankful that you joined us for this short talk.
Speaker: We've come to the last month of 2025, and during 2025, we spent significant time encouraging the church to be renewed and revived.
Speaker: Our 2026 theme will be giving God our all. But before we begin that emphasis, let's take a final look and review our 2025 emphasis. We focused on four specific areas in our Sabbath school lessons.
Speaker: The first one was renew my mind. Renew means to renovate. We must allow an inward renovation to create a changed outward behavior. In other words, your mind has to change. Your mind has to be renewed before you can really present a consistent holy behavior.
Speaker: well I think the reason that most people continue in sin is because their minds are still sinful. So we we must prepare our minds to be in a constant state of readiness to do service to the Lord and to be obedient to his word.
Speaker: This will empower us to endure the trials of life. If we fail to maintain this renewed mind, our focus will shift away from the word of God. to worldly and carnal pursuits.
Speaker: Instead, we'll concentrate on our carnal mind. Our mind is renewed when we allow Christ's mind to dwell in us and be the predominant source of our thinking. Romans chapter 12, verses one and two very familiar ah passages. Paul's writing to the church of Rome and he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
Speaker: In other words, we don't have to die because Jesus died for us, but we still should present ourselves to the Lord as a sacrifice. We give ou ourselves fully over to him. Our life, our all, all of our possessions, all of our doing, we give to the Lord. And we do it as holy vessels, acceptable unto God. which the word says is your reasonable service. So some of us that find reasons and excuses not to, it's simply because we've conformed to the world and not to ah Christ. And verse two tells us why. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In other words, we really can't prove God's will in our life. We can't make it consistent and stable in our life until we've had our mind renewed.
Speaker: Amen. We are born with a sense of death and deadly thinking, and we have to have a spiritual mind that springs up in us.
Speaker: The second point was we ask God to help us to renew our faith. Faith in itself is essential for any spiritual increase. If we don't trust God, then we cannot expect to improve our spiritual condition.
Speaker: Our spiritual faith must be quickened to be effective. In other words, if it doesn't have life, if our spiritual faith has no life, it cannot be effective faith.
Speaker: We must work toward keeping our faith renewed and energized. It's something we have to do continually. It's something that we we can't do and say it's done, but it is a continual process of re-energizing our faith continually. So we seek to revive it.
Speaker: We will take on more of the character of God and we'll develop a closer relationship with him. Luke chapter 17, verses five and six. And the apostle said unto the Lord, increase our faith.
Speaker: increase our faith. Now, I want us to be clear. You either have faith or you don't, but the faith that you have has to be strong. And so when the word of God says to increase our faith, it's not saying give me more faith. It's saying strengthen the faith that I have.
Speaker: Verse six, and the Lord said, if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed. in others that He's not talking about you don't have it or you have it. He's talking about the size of it or the strength of it.
Speaker: You might say unto this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea and it shall obey you. And it is amazing as much people of faith as we have in the church.
Speaker: This is a feat that I have never seen. And so I think what it's telling us is that most of us don't have faith, even the size of a mustard seed. But the faith that we have in God, we continue to strengthen it and it continues to oh Invoke God to do wonderful and mighty things. I'm not one of those that believes prayer changes things directly.
Speaker: I believe prayer touches a God who is able to change things. The third point was we ask the Lord to renew our prayer life. In other words, energize our prayer life, make it more consistent, make it more palatable to you, make it a stronger communication with our God. We can't afford to be apathetic in our communication with the Lord.
Speaker: We must initiate dialogue with God through effective prayer. This is an indication of the passion that we must have in order to touch the Lord. We can't just have faith and not ah make requests or make prayers.
Speaker: Our moderation known that we want to be in communication with the God that we love and that we serve. When we initiate prayer, it's an indication that we trust that it will provide access for us into the presence of God. So because of the grace of Jesus Christ, we come before him boldly.
Speaker: Isaiah 56 and 7 says, Even then will I bring to my holy mountain. Aren't you glad about that?
Speaker: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall'll be accepted but accepted upon mine altar from mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people aren't you glad about that It doesn't matter what color, doesn't matter what status, doesn't matter how much money you have. God's house is a place of inquiry for whosoever will come and make inquiry there.
Speaker: And then the last point we talked about was we asked the Lord to renew our worship. There just seems to be less excitement about real worship. I think we get caught up in the process. We get caught up in the the experience. we We rejoice in it kind of like we did when we would up go to the parties. We enjoyed that experience. But real worship is an act of surrender and devotion to God.
Speaker: It expresses a feeling of awe that we have for the Almighty and and shows our complete adoration to our sovereign king. We offer sincere worship and marvel at his glory. Worship expresses the reverent love and devotion we have for God.
Speaker: It's the proper response. I say the proper response to his divine presence. When God comes and he comes, when ah we praise God, the scriptures tell us that he inhabits the praises of Israel.
Speaker: He will come and sit down in that praise. And so worship is the proper response to the very presence of the Most High. ah Worship is the basis of our relationship with God because man's purpose in creation was to glorify his creator.
Speaker: In other words, we weren't created for our ourselves. We were created to give glory to him. John chapter four, verse 21 says, Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither end this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem. And John, I tell you, that's why I don't look to the hills.
Speaker: Nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. so There was a time God dwelt in the high place. He doesn't dwell there. praise a hor ye worship ye know not what we worship we know what we worship for salvation is other jews but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipper shall worship the father in spirit And in truth.
Speaker: In other words, it's really not worship. We can talk about praise, but it's really not worship. It doesn't really give God glory. It really doesn't honor him. It really doesn't glorify him or or exalt him.
Speaker: If it's not done in spirit and in truth. For the father seeketh such to worship him. This is who the Lord is looking for. He's looking for those who love him enough to enter into the spirit and to serve him in truth.
Speaker: Verse 24 says, God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So this spiritual revival and renewal is an ongoing process for every believer.
Speaker: We continue to increase our spiritual thinking and the intensity of our faith, prayer and worship. And we encourage you to do the same. We've come to the end of 2025, but I would encourage you to continue this process.
Speaker: Continue to seek God and allow him to increase your relationship with him. God bless you. Grace and peace.
Speaker: Thank you for listening to Grace Talk. It is our prayer that you were encouraged through the Word of God. Listen in next time as we continue to help save the lost and encourage the saved.
Speaker: Please find us on social media or join us for one of our weekly Sabbath services at effectivegrace.org. If you would like to contact us with questions or comments, please email us at church at effectivegrace.org.
Speaker: Thank you again. Grace and peace.
Speaker: Thank you for listening to Grace Talk. It is our prayer that you were encouraged through the Word of God. Listen in next time as we continue to help save the lost and encourage the saved.
Speaker: Please find us on social media or join us for one of our weekly Sabbath services at effectivegrace.org. If you would like to contact us with questions or comments, please email us at church at effectivegrace.org.
Speaker: Thank you again. Grace and peace.
