Let's pray. Father, would You make the truths that we just sang the total reality of all of our lives. That there would be nothing in between, no sin, no secret, No good thing that keeps us from the most excellent thing, which is You. May You truly be our all in all. May You be the vision of our heart, our wisdom, our hope, our shield, our everything. Please, Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, fill me that I may feed these souls. and glorify Your great name. In Jesus' name, Amen. Open your Bibles to Romans chapter 1. And we are going to be focusing on verse 28 this morning. Romans 1, 28. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. I want you to do a little thinking exercise with me. What could shock an angel? What could cause them to be surprised? Think about all that angels have seen. They were there when Satan fell. Remember in Luke 10, 18, Jesus said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. And you have to think, well, how did this happen? And you remember that God created the heavens and the earth. And Job 38 tells us that the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. The only sound was praise. The only activity was worship. These heavenly beings conducted themselves and spent all their time worshiping, loving, adoring, and serving God. And then something unbelievable happened. Isaiah 14, 12. How you are fallen from heaven, O day star, son of dawn. How you are cut down to the ground. You who laid the nations low, you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of assembly. In the far reaches of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. It is understood that this, while speaking of a human king, is also, as the Ethiopian eunuch saw, speaking about someone else as well. That this is speaking about Satan, when he was Lucifer, and how pride exalted him, and where he looked at the throne of God and said, that should be mine. And in Revelation 12.3, the great red dragon with seven heads His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth." The understanding is that the devil not just rebelled against God, but he took some angels with him. And think of the angelic host that saw this. The holy, holy, holy God we just sang about. They see Him as He is in His full majesty and splendor, and then they see some of their fellow created beings turn and rebel against Him. What a shock! After you see something like that, you have to say, well, it would be hard to surprise them. But they were also there when man fell. And you think of the creation of man. Once again, God in His majesty, He makes this world six days, and then He makes man in His image. After His likeness, male and female, He created them. And He gives them this world, and gives them all the joys that come with life. And He gave them marriage. Not like we have with sin and conflict. They were naked and unashamed. Ladies, that means He loved her perfectly. Brothers, that means she respected him perfectly. They had no selfish desires, no lust, no lies, no shame, no guilt, no problems, no misunderstandings. They both put the toilet paper on the right way, and they squeezed their toothpaste the right way, which is from the bottom, right? They knew no conflict or disagreement. And the greatest kindness of all is that the Lord was theirs. He was their treasure. He was with them. And the angels beheld this. And they also saw, when they chose to listen to the serpent, Heaven has witnessed such things that cannot be fathomed, and yet, Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 12 and 13 says something that would be unbelievable if it wasn't written. And I want you to put a little bookmark in Romans 1 and turn to Jeremiah 2, because I want your eyeballs to behold this shock. Jeremiah 2, 12. Jeremiah 2.12 says, be appalled, which means to be astonished, to be disgusted. Oh heavens at this. Be shocked. Be utterly desolate, declares the Lord. What does the Lord declare is worth the full attention, shock, and awe of heaven itself? We continue to read. for My people have committed two evils." Two sins committed by human beings is shocking enough, appalling enough, astonishing enough to still shock angels who saw the fall of the devil and the fall of man. Two sins. What were they? The first, they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water. Forsaking God. Turning away from God. Throwing Him away as though He was trash. It's treating God as less than old clothes. What do we do with our old clothes? We take them to Salvation Army, maybe a yard sale. We sell them. But this is to treat God as less than something that you would give away. No, this is to treat Him as something that you would throw away. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. And this is the idea of a fountain, a river, a spring, not near a waterfall, but in a desert. Not only have they forsaken the fountain of living water, but they have hewn out, built for themselves broken cisterns, broken wells that hold no water. God says the most shocking thing is that these human beings who were created in my image, after my likeness, would forsake me, the fountain of living water, treat me as worthless, and go after that which satisfies. That shock in Jeremiah is the same shock in Romans 1. And remember, this is what we have been seeing. What can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. Verse 19. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. And sadly, this morning, we are confronted with the exact same thing again. Even after everything that has already been said and done, what do we see here? Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God. What does that mean? They didn't see fit. That is a testing term. Now, that's not like a test that you take in school, children. That is the test to see if something is valuable or not. All right, children, let me ask you a very simple question. How much is a penny worth? One cent, very good. Now, did you know that there are some pennies that are worth much, much more than one cent? Depending on when they were made, what they're made of, they can be very, very, very valuable. For example, you all can go through your pennies when you get home. The 1958 double die Lincoln penny is worth about $336,000. Yeah. But that says nothing compared to the 1943 bronze Lincoln penny, about $1.7 million for one penny. Now, how would you find this penny, right? Maybe you have a cup and when you get home, and you're gonna go through them and you're gonna look, no, look, examine, no. And if you find a dirty 1992 penny, you're just gonna throw that to the side. It still has value, it's one cent. But what if you found a little paper drawing of a penny? Well, that's worthless. You would discard that. You would test. No. That's the idea of what we're being shown here. Mankind has examined God for worth, for value, for worthiness. And all of us in our sin did this, and if you're still in your sin, this is what you're doing currently. It is to examine God, it's to test God, it's to see if he has any value, and then conclude he's not worthy to be worshipped. That is why they worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. Why? Because they say he's not worthy to be worshipped. God is not seen as beautiful to behold, to set your eyes and the eyes of your heart and your soul upon Him. And that is why the eyes are used to lust and covet after the things of the world. God is not important enough for the world's time, for their energy, their mind, their heart, their effort, their obedience, which is why they give their lives and give their energy and give their time and give their mind to everything else, because they've tested God and they say, He's not fit. He's not worthy. They didn't see fit to acknowledge God. To acknowledge God means to have Him in their minds. to think about Him, to learn about Him, to give Him a thought in a real genuine way. He's not worth it. In other words, to acknowledge God is a waste of time. Have you ever said anything like, why should I obey the Lord? Why should I read my Bible? Why should I pray? Why should I even try any more? What is being communicated with such questions? Why should I do this? Because there's no benefit. There's no value that comes from it. As Psalm 73, 13 says, all in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. The psalmist was tempted to say this, and he said, if I have thus spoken, I would have betrayed the children of men. But he's basically saying these are the thoughts, the temptations that are coming. I've obeyed God, I've honored God, I've kept my hand clean, and it's been a waste. It's vain, it's vanity, it's led to nothing. Let's be more specific. Y'all ready for some difficult questions? Husbands, have you ever been tempted to say, why love unconditionally? It doesn't lead to anything anyway. Wives, have you ever been tempted to say, why respect unconditionally? It doesn't benefit me in the long run. Children, why obey my parents? They don't even notice what I do. Parents, why continue to train? They don't listen to what I say anyway. Laborers, why work hard for this boss? He's unjust and he doesn't reward my work at the end of the day anyway. Have you ever been tempted to think or ask these questions? Why even try? Has the thought come? It's vanity. It's meaningless. It does nothing. It profits nothing. It has no value. When we think this way, we realize what we're saying. We're ultimately saying that God himself is not motivation enough to obey, to honor, and to serve. Malachi 3.14 says, You have said it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping His charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? You see, this is the question that comes up when God is tested and seen as not fit to be acknowledged. It's looking at and saying, well, not worthy enough. not valuable enough, not motivation enough, not inspiration enough. He's not enough. There needs to be some other benefit that comes, but if all I get is God, if all I get is His smile, if all I get is His pleasure, if all I get is more of Him, that's not enough. And it's easy to sing, all I ever need is found in thee. But when we're tested, when our obedience is tested, and we realize I obey, but there's no temporary reward, do you continue to obey? Do you continue to look at the commands of God and say, the reason that I will do this is because God has commanded and He's worthy? Why ascend the hill of the Lord? Because the Lord is there. Why read the Word? Because it's His Word. Why pray? I pray and I don't get answers. Why pray? Because He's speaking to you in His Word to talk to Him through prayer and you get to spend time with Him. Why obey even if things fall apart when you do? Because He's the Lord and He's commanded you. Why continue to serve when people are ungrateful? Why continue to pour out, give, and work, love, train, submit, and everything else? Because He told you to, and if He's precious enough to you, then that'll be enough. But when we conclude, I won't continue to obey these commands, I won't continue to practice these disciplines, I won't continue to press on, we are concluding He's not enough. But He is. He's worthy. He's precious. See, these group of people in Romans 1.28 concluded that God was not valuable enough to be acknowledged. They measured Him. They tested Him and determined He was not enough to live for. My question for you is, do you do the same thing? Remember, Paul was eager to preach this message to those who were in Rome who were already saved. This is for us too. Because we become discouraged and unmotivated to see, be thou my vision. Why? Because I can get distracted and let you and this and that become my vision. And when that begins to totter and shake and not fulfill what I desire, then my efforts and my obedience and my motivation and my faith and everything else begins to crash. But if the Lord is our motivation and we keep our eyes on Him, then we see Him over the shoulder of others and we continue to press on because we see Him, and He's the reward. And the truth of the matter is, this is a struggle for me, as I trust it is for you. In Job 34 9, the statement is made, He says, it profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God. Do you think this way? We would never come out and say that, right? But the proof is in the pudding, isn't it? Is He valuable enough to you to worship with all that you are and all that you have, no matter what? Or is He only valuable to you and to me if He does what we want? When He feels far away, will you keep walking with Him? When honoring Him seems unrewarding, will you keep honoring Him? Well, the majority of people do not see fit to acknowledge God. What is God's response? What is God's response to this? Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. What is God's response to human beings treating him as though he's unimportant? I want my elbow room. You're crowding my space. You're beneficial when I need you, but stay over there. He gives them up. Because the worthy one was counted as worthless, because the greatest treasure has been concluded to be called and seen and treated as the most worthless trash, he gave them up. If you take a rubber band, hold it in one hand, and pull it as far as you can, and you keep pulling, and you keep pulling, hey, my son's doing it, and you keep stretching, and you keep stretching, eventually, what's going to happen? Well, it's going to snap. It's either going to get released from your finger or it's going to break. There's going to be a reaction. When something is stretched beyond its limits, when something is pulled and pulled and pulled, there comes a point when there is a reaction. There is a response. And for three verses, we have been told that God gives up. We sang this morning, holy, holy, holy, Isaiah 6.3, that area, right? Holy, holy, holy. Why? Because it emphasizes that God is not just holy. He's not just holy, holy, but he's holy, holy, holy. He's different. He's beyond us. He's separate. He is foreign. He is farther than the east is from the west and the earth is from the heaven. So is his ways from our ways. It emphasizes the importance of it. Likewise, when we see the repetition of this, God gives them up. God gives them up. God gives them up. It is emphasizing, it is It's highlighting, it's underlining, it's circling, it's putting it in bold, a thousand exclamation marks, emojis, all of that to emphasize this is what God does. God is reactionary. He does react. He does respond. He is impacted by your choices and mine, by your thoughts about Him. And there's a dangerous mindset about God as though He's this unfeeling it. This thing out there that just is not in any way affected or impacted, but the Bible says that God can be grieved, that God can grow angry, that God weeps and desires. There's rejoicing before the throne of heaven when one sinner repents. The joy of the Lord is our strength. God has joy. God has anger. And God gives up as a response to him being forsaken. So what are you doing with your life? using the illustration of the pulling and the stretching, are you pulling and stretching and testing God? Are you making choices to move God to respond to you in such a way? Children, many of you are growing up in a home that is very different from the home that your parents grew up in. Parents that are giving you the truth about God and seeking to walk before Him, not perfectly, but faithfully. And they're pointing you to the Christ, and they're showing you the fruit of the Spirit as they daily live with you. And they're trying to keep you from the error and the darkness and the evil of this world. But there is a reality that in some children in homes like this, there's a desire to rebel against it, to push against it, to fight against it. And the question that is on the table for us is, are you pulling and pushing and stretching in such a way that provokes God to give you up? Are you pulling more and more towards the world and godlessness? Brothers and sisters, is there a flirtation with sin? As each day goes on, are you getting closer and closer to the Lord or to the world? Ask yourself, are you becoming more godly each day? Or are you becoming more worldly? Is your heart growing fonder and softer as a heart of flesh, or is it hardening and becoming a heart of stone? Is there a sensuality to you, or a purity about you? How's your conscience? Is it getting more sensitive to the Spirit of God, or is it being seared? In Acts 7.51, as we were taught last month, Stephen, you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Is there a resisting of the Holy Spirit? We've gone through this a lot, as I said, throughout the past week, so I don't want to spend too much time on it, but it's worth remembering 2 Kings 22.17. because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods that they might provoke me to anger." You see what I'm saying? There's a response. God can be provoked. How? By being forsaken and idolatry. Therefore, my wrath will be kindled against this place. Are you in any way provoking God to give you up? Now, our brother said it earlier, no one knows how many times is one too many. No one knows the number that it takes to get to the point of Hebrews 6. But the point is that there is a number. There is a point of no return. The rubber band does get pulled and it does snap. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Is there any intentional disobedience of the Lord? making excuses for your rebellion, blaming others, saying, well, I would, but I'm exhausted. I would, but I'm discouraged. I would, but I'm frustrated. I would, but this is unjust and unfair. These desires are too strong, and therefore I give in. Beware, God gives them up who don't acknowledge Him as fit. Well, what does God give up to." It says, to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done. God gives sinners who don't see fit to acknowledge Him up to a debased mind. I've called this sermon, Is Your Mind Worthless? Why? Because that's what that means, debased. He gives people up to a certain way of thinking. And it's actually kind of a play on words. In a sense, it says, since they thought it was good to cast God out of their mind, God gave them over to an outcast mind. Since they abandoned the knowledge of God, God gave them up to an abandoned mind. Paul is saying that the mind that finds God worthless becomes worthless itself. The rejecting mind becomes a rejected mind, and thereby becomes spiritually depraved, worthless, and useless. And that's actually language that is used from Romans 3, verse 12. All have turned aside, together they have become, what? Worthless, that's what this means. It speaks of a mind that is so clouded by sin that it is no longer able to make reliable moral judgments. Here we have gone beyond deliberate iniquity, I'm quoting a commentator here, to something much more frightening. At this stage, man has lost the desire and the ability to think clearly. He has lost his mind and doesn't even know it. The result is a world that has left God far behind. It is a society with all restraints removed, a culture devoid of all sense of right and wrong, where every man is doing what is right in his own eyes. Does that sound familiar in the year 2022 at all? I want to tell you all about some headlines to illustrate this broken, debased mind. Laziness is a virtue. The anti-work movement. is a sign something's rotten in the workplace. So there is something called the anti-work movement, and the writer of this article says not that the anti-work movement is evidence of something rotten inside of mankind. No, the problem is the workplace. In an interview with Fox News, one of the leaders of this movement, which is in the millions, by the way, Doreen who works 20 to 25 hours a week as a dog walker, but would like to work less. Either that or become a philosophy teacher, which is pretty much the same thing. She explained because she obviously has a lot of wisdom to pass along. This is not parody. This is not satire. She told Waters, the one who interviewed her, I think laziness is a virtue in a society where people constantly expect you to be productive 24-7. Now, I know what you're thinking. COVID, Biden, America. No. Listen to this. In America, it looks similar, still talking about the anti-work movement, to similar youth-led movements against work in other countries, especially China, where young people are lying flat by de-centering to drive, a drive to constantly be more productive and competitive at work, instead find happiness in their own lives and relaxation. Quote, I don't really want to work anymore. I don't want to have any meetings, deadlines, goals, quarter, seminar. I don't want to do any of those things anymore. The anti-work movement. Here's another one. It pays to be homeless. A man moved from Texas to San Francisco. Why? Here is his quote. I get paid to be homeless in San Francisco. He's being paid by the city government to live on the streets, $620 per month, and hundreds of food stamps, which he, while he sells drugs and enjoys Amazon Prime and Netflix on his phone. When God has forsaken, when he is forsaken, he forsakes the mind and you can't even think clearly. You've all heard of postmodernism, relativism, which roughly says, there is no such thing as truth. And of course, the response is, is that statement true? And you say, this is obviously a foolish way to think. What is wrong? How can you not see that to say there's no absolute truth, you're making an absolute statement. You're contradicting yourself. But this is what people are being taught, not on playgrounds, in higher education. There is no right. There is no wrong. Relativism, roughly put, is the view that truth and falsehood, right and wrong, standards of reasoning and procedures of justification are products of differing conventions, frameworks. In other words, it's just a personal choice. If you think rape is wrong, that's fine. If you think slavery and murder and stealing and all that stuff is wrong, that's your truth. You heard that? What is this? This is a debased mind. Why? Because they did not see fit to acknowledge God, who is not just the source of all truth. But Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is truth itself. He communicates truth. All truth and all foundation finds itself footing upon the solid rock that is God himself. And when you abandon him, you abandon logic. When you abandon him, you abandon truth. When you forsake him, he turns you over to a mind that does not work. Math is racist. A professor in New York City claimed the equation 2 plus 2 equals 4 reeks of white supremacist patriarchy. Yeah, you think this is sketch comedy? Someone wrote this. This is a debased mind. And this professor is not alone. Harvard PhD. candidate, Kareem Kar, said, people say it's subjectivism, meaning it's a personal choice, not objective, true for all, to ask if math is Western. I don't get that. It's an objective fact that some groups were more involved in the creation of modern math than others. In other words, all these Western, European, white, they're the ones who came up with these ideas of math. And that is racist to put that expectation upon these quote-unquote people of color. More seriously, murdering babies is health care. From amnesty.org, an abortion is a medical procedure that ends a pregnancy. It's a basic healthcare need for millions of women, girls, and others who can become pregnant. Statement alone. A medical procedure that ends pregnancy. Hitler's responsible for murdering over how many? Six million. Joseph Stalin, responsible for murdering over, how many know? About 20, 14, 20 million. Combine those numbers, they don't even come close. Since Roe v. Wade, roughly 61 million babies have been murdered in the wombs of their own mother. This is legal, taxpayer funded, and celebrated. Why? Because God has been forsaken. He's given them up to a debased mind. that says murdering a baby in the womb is the right thing to do. And the majority of the reason for this is not, it's the opposite of the anti-work movement, it's career. I don't want to get in the way of my career. I wanna be successful. I wanna make an impact. I wanna have wealth. I wanna have a name. And so a child gets in the way and I will do whatever needed to protect my career. And you know what, in Paul's day, It wasn't abortion, it was infanticide. What they would do, as I've told you many times, is it was the father's right, his responsibility to, when a child came out, as Caesar would do in the Colosseum, either give a thumbs up or a thumbs down, and if this child was in any way unappealing or not pleasing to that father, he would say, to exposure. and they would take this newborn child, put it in the public square to either be eaten by wild animals, to freeze to death, to be exposed to the elements, or what would usually happen was picked up by some wicked person to go to the brothels or the temples, which were pretty much the same thing. The President of the United States said this, the idea that an 8-year-old child or a 10-year-old child decides, I want to be transgender, it'd make my life a lot easier. There should be zero discrimination. Brothers and sisters, do you see, wherever we look, we see this debased mind. and education. You all know that I've been teaching this going on 12 years. Teach children. Everything comes from nothing. You are the result of a cosmic accident. There is no ultimate purpose or meaning to your life. You are related to animals. You are basically an animal. As Richard Dawkins said, DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is, and we dance to its music. Whether we look in politics, economics, the religious world, we see the debased mind. But it doesn't stay in the mind. As Jesus taught us, murder begins where? In the heart. Adultery begins where? In the heart. But it never stays inside the heart, does it? That anger, as Jesus taught, will eventually find its way to the mouth and to the action. Adultery doesn't just stay inside. It will find its way out with a look or an action. And likewise, here in Romans 128, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind. Notice how it goes from the mind, the thought, to action, to do what ought not to be done. Sin never stays inside. The thought will find its way out into the life. And what you can see here is that the Lord is concerned about not just your thought life, but He's also concerned about what you do as a result of that thought life. Because a debased mind will result in a debased life. It's not enough to say that Christ is worthy, is there a life that matches that? What is your life like? Well, we know this, that there's a direct connection to what your thoughts are like. That's why scripture repeatedly tells you, Christian, to set your mind where? On things above. If you've then been raised with Christ, that's where we should be thinking. That's where our heart should be. And Paul goes from the mind to the action. Philippians 4.8, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Is that what you're thinking about? Is that what is going on in the mind? Or are you thinking about other things? What is the greatest sign of this broken mind, this debased mind? Paul's going to get into a whole laundry list of sins that show what this leads to. And I wanted to dedicate an entire message to that laundry list, as it's called, this horrible description of mankind and all of our evil. I really wanted to focus here on this being turned over to the debased mind and what it looks like. So the greatest sign of it here is the inability to see the beauty of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 2.14 says the natural person, and again this goes right back to they did not see fit to acknowledge God, since they did not retain God, they did not honor Him as God. This is all what Paul is saying and this is the result. It's a blindness. It's an intentional blindness, but it's a blindness nonetheless. 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. You see, either you have the mind of Christ or you have a debased mind. Either you have a mind that sees spiritually and recognizes, or you have the mind, as Romans 8 says, that is set on the flesh, that is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. the debased mind, the debased life, which tells us that the problem here is a spiritual problem. The problem is the problem of the soul. The problem is supernatural. And we see this very clearly when Jesus came to the district of Caesarea Philippi. He asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said to them, who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And how does Jesus answer? He said, blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who was in heaven. So what can we conclude from this? The problem is spiritual. There's a blindness. This debased mind which leads to debased life, to do what ought not to be done, comes from not acknowledging God and seeing God as He should be seen. So how do you make yourself see what you don't see? Jesus reveals it. It comes from the Father. It's a gift. He opens the eyes. So who do we need? We need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit raises the dead, He gives life. And that's what we saw earlier in the book of Acts. It is the Spirit of God who opened the eyes of the Jews, who opened the eyes of the Samaritans, who opened the eyes of the Gentiles. It's the Spirit of God when He came upon them through the preaching of the Gospel that their life came, the mind changed. Those who were doing these works of magic, they had all these books. When the Spirit of God came through the preaching of the gospel and they believed on Jesus Christ, they changed their minds, repentance. What did they do with their books? They burned them. Why? Because they saw clearly, they saw this is not good. What we once thought makes sense, what we once thought was good and wise, we now see as foolish and disgusting. And who was responsible for this? The Spirit of God. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. None of us can change our own heart. None of us can change our own mind. And if we could free ourselves from sin, we would have done that a long time ago. The truth of the matter is that we are powerless to change our mind. And the truth of the matter is that all of us have not seen fit to acknowledge God as He deserves to be acknowledged. And there's a reality of this broken, worthless mind in all of us. And if there's anything in you that sees clearly, if there's anything in you that values God, that walks before God as holy and worthy, it's because the Spirit of God has opened your eyes to see the preciousness of God. And that is what those who we love who are lost need as well. 2 Corinthians 3.17 says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is what? There's freedom. Where does freedom come from the debased, broken mind? It doesn't come from education. It doesn't come from changing political views. It doesn't come from even coming to church. It doesn't come from spending time with Christians. It comes from believing the gospel and the spirit of God wakes up those who are asleep, opens the eyes of those who are blind, changes the heart of stone into a heart of flesh, and would you have your mind fixed this morning. If you see any, like I was talking about, playing around with these things or getting close to these things or not seeing God as ultimately valuable enough to work for, serve for, live and love for, then we need more of the Spirit. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. In the Spirit of God, His work is about glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. And where Jesus is proclaimed, the Spirit of God comes. And when the Spirit of God comes, He brings freedom. This is why Paul says, I am not ashamed to preach the Gospel. This is why Paul, again, is eager to preach the Gospel. This is why, again, Paul is under obligation. And this is why you and I need to, as we sang, Help me more Thy cross to see." Remember the Lord Jesus. We're going to do the Lord's Supper momentarily. Remember Him. He came. He lived. He died. He suffered. He rose again. This is the message of hope. This is the message that brings the Spirit of God to awaken us. This is the message that helps us and frees us and renews our mind so that we can think clearly about who God is and live in a way that is consistent with that. How are your thoughts? How is your mind? Have you done an assessment recently to see if you are in any way provoking God to turn you over? The Lord Jesus Christ in all His mercy and His riches and His wisdom and infinite kindness is ready to forgive you and to help you and to free you. Call out to Him. Father, thank You for The sobering reminder that there is a response that comes by not seeing you as worthy enough to worship. And now this can creep in even into the church and even into our own hearts. Father, we can hear the things that are going on in the world that debase mind and shake our heads, but Lord, help us to remember, one, that we are spared that only by Your mercy, and we deserve to be right there. And secondly, the only hope for these people who have been turned over is Your Spirit, Lord. And Your Spirit is only going to come where the Gospel is preached. So may we preach the Gospel and live in light of it. In Jesus' name, Amen.