The Bible Study | How are we called to be different and set apart? (Ep 7)

In this week's episode Pastor Josh sits down with Libby Bennington and talk about Romans 12:1-2. Are you conforming to this world? Are you transforming the way you think? Lean and let God speak to you in this episode. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

What is going on, y'all? We are here with episode seven of the Youth Bible Study Podcast. I'm here with our creative assistant.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hi, my name's Libby.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Libby, Libby Bennington. Um, I'm excited to have her on. Little side note, I just thought of this. Like we went to school together for a short period of time. Barely knew each other.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Barely brief stint.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Barely, barely brief stint. You were the great before me, right? Yeah. Okay. And uh yeah, so we we've known each other for a while. Yeah. I feel like our families have also part of each other for a while.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Like weird memories of you from like when we were little, little before you moved to Arizona.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

See, I don't have any.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Because of your dad. Yes. Because he worked at the school.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

My dad was PCS. Shout out mainly.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Shout out to those PCS kids out there.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

You went the entire life. I was a lifer. Well, I was like fifth grade till and then senior year for one semester.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah, your story is funny. You're like, I was there three different times for different things.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

For different lengths, it's fine. It's it is what it is. Anyway, so we've known each other for a while, so I'm excited for this to sit down. Libby is super excited.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yes, thank you for having me. This is my dream.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

It is her dream. She loves podcasts and talking in front of cameras and people.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

No, she's gonna be great. And so today we're talking Romans chapter 12, uh, verses one and two. And so we're gonna read it and then we'll just talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

So, chapter 12, starting in verse 1, says this I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. And so I love this. We're talking about sacrifices and how we should live. But Libby, just off the top of your head, man, I know you got some notes and I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

I'm a note taker.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

I love it. Give me your thoughts. What is this kind of sharing with you?

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Yeah, I don't know. When you first asked me about this, um, to do this part of scripture with you, I was excited because I had just listened to a podcast kind of diving in a little bit deeper. And it was cool because they were talking about like context. I love like knowing the context of scripture. So, kind of, you know, chapters one through twelve, Paul's kind of writing about what God has done for us through Christ. And then here in chapter 12, it kind of shifts, and he's writing about practical application of how we should live in response to God's mercy. So that's kind of how this starts out. And a part that really stood out to me was um when it talks about being a living sacrifice.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Because I feel like when you think of the word sacrifice, you think of like maybe animal sacrifice, which that sounds morbid, but that's the first thing that comes to my mind of like I'm laying this animal down and I'm killing them this one time, and then it's like it's done and over with. Whereas like the difference between that and being a living sacrifice is like here it's saying, I have to die to myself every day, constantly. It's not a one and done, yeah, but it's uh I'm going to die to myself, my flesh, things of this world kind of sacrifice all the time.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Right. Yeah, and I love how then it continues after you said that holy and acceptable to God. Like, so we're called to be this living sacrifice to live our life for God, but we're supposed to then he tells us how to do it.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

I want you to be holy and I want you to be acceptable. And some of us look at that and have like a huge, I feel like weight to care. Like, how am I gonna be acceptable to God? Yes. Well, it's just like when we read our Bible and we talked in the last podcast episode, just Robin said, just get into your Bible, right? Yeah, like that's what God wants us to do is to get into our Bible to see, man, what does God want us to do? How does he want us to live for him? Because we are called every single day um to live for him, and then it goes on into this. And I don't know if you have notes for this, but then it talks about which is your spiritual worship. Yeah, like I think that's just interesting because that's how we worship God. Like, yes, you see worship on a Sunday morning or on a Wednesday night, and you there's songs being played or whatever, or you listen to worship music, like that is worship, but it's interesting that he adds this it's our spiritual worship every day to just be a sacrifice to God in our life, yeah. Live for him to be holy and acceptable. I don't know. What are your thoughts on the spiritual worship side of that, if you have any?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Another translation says that it's our reasonable service, and I had kind of had that jotted down in the side, and I think that that was just like a funny, like a different way of looking at it of like it's our worship, but it's also just a reasonable, like way for us to respond to the ultimate sacrifice that Christ paid for us.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yes, that's good. I didn't even I need to learn to look at more translations. I've never done that. I literally just read ESV. So I've started to get into different translations, but I like that, like how it tells us to do that, and then it kind of goes on in verse two as we continue, just like break this down like do not be conformed to this world. And I think that's interesting that it it says that because it's so easy to like I've kind of compared it to this. I've seen in ministry for a long time, and as you we've both grown up Christian, right? Went to Christian school. We my parents worked at a children's home, it was Christian-based. Like, we've all been around it, and we've seen like the highs and lows, I think, of people. Like one moment you're really high for God and you're following Him, and then the next moment you're like falling, people are falling off and they're not as as high. And I think I like how I put it in this because I think the reason why people do that is because we conform to the world. We see what our friends might be doing, and we don't want to not be a part of that, or we see what um maybe our work friends are doing, whatever that might be. And so we conform ourselves to the world, and so I like how I put it. It says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Yeah, renewal of your mind.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yes. Yeah, I love that part too. And a word that kind of stood out to me that I dove a little deeper into also was just the word transformed. And again, I feel like I'm sounding so nerdy because I'm like context and other translations, and but I was also looking at like the Greek word that transformed came from is, and I'm gonna butcher how you say this, but metamorpho or something like that, which is the same root that gives us the word metamorphosis. And I think it's cool because it's really saying here like a complete transformation, like not just the way we look on the outside or the way we act with our friends at at church, but it's a complete transformation of like our heart, our mind, our inmost thoughts, like the things that nobody else is gonna know about. Right. It's a complete transformation that God's asking for.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

I like how you said that because too, like when you think about it, I think we get so caught, we can get caught up in the idea of just transforming the way we look instead of transforming really what's going on. Yeah. And the Bible talks so many different times when I've read Matthew this past week. There's just been different times where God challenges us to deal with our heart, our heart issues, our heart, where is your heart posture? What like so God talks about this all the time, and so this is just another way, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Like it's interesting he doesn't say be transformed by the renewing of your body or whatever. Like, no, just specifically your mind. Yeah, because I think if he would have put body and mind, we would just focus on the one and not the other, because it's easy to to change the way you do things, but not change the way you think about things. Yeah. Right. And I've had to kind of live this one out too, because I think I I remind that I like literally pray this over my mind all the time because I think there's so many different times where I'm speaking negatively about a situation, or maybe my thoughts aren't in the right place, or like I'm still doing things that God is not happy that I do. And so I'm constantly praying that because it's not a sometimes it's a physical thing that I'm doing or physical thing that's happening, but most of the time it's an internal like battle. And so I love that he says be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And then it goes on to say that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. And I love this too because I love the part that says by testing. Um, because to me that just tells me, and what I believe this is speaking, is that you're gonna be tested in this, yeah, right? You know, you're going to be tested. Are you being conformed to the world? Are you actually transforming your mind? Are you being a living sacrifice to me? And through this testing, you're gonna discern what God has in store for you, right? If you are doing those things that He's asking us to do in this, then we will see the life that God wants us to live. But if we don't do it, we're not gonna see what that what that is, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, it's like if you're intentionally aligning your thoughts and your thought patterns with scripture and God's truth, and you're making that intentional choice, the more it's gonna just kind of come naturally of like now I'm in this really hard situation, but I have this verse that's coming to mind because I have been intentionally renewing my mind, like he's helping me be more equipped for this situation or whatever that comes in the future.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

And I like how you just said that too, because I think with being transformed and renewing your mind, you almost have to replace it with something, right? So, like if you are battling something and God is asking us to transform the way that we think, you have to replace it with something else. Right? If you if you think negatively, well, to renew your mind and transform it, you gotta replace the negative thoughts with positive thoughts. And so I like how you kind of just said that, like you have to be prepared to know what God says. Like you have to know his word, you have to know what um he says about you, he says about your life, what he wants for you, so that way you can transform it to the right thing. Yeah. Because we could look at this and go, Oh, I just need to transform the way that I think. Okay, I'll just stop thinking negative thoughts. Yeah. Well, it's easier said than done unless you replace it with something that's positive and and good, you know? Yeah. So I like how you said that.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Yeah. Uh a prayer that I've been praying a lot lately, um, and this is just like on a personal level, is God get in my head before I do.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Oh, that's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

And I think that that, like, the more I was thinking about it, like that was even something I wrote in my journal this morning, just something that I've been trying to intentionally do in the morning because I'm like, it's so easy for me to quickly revert back and not have my thoughts be in alignment with what God's truth is. So it's just been cool. And it kind of I was like, I feel like that kind of applies here, you know. It does, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

No, and I think that's important when we do trend need to transform the way that we think because God wants us to put him first. And in order to transform the way we think, we have to bring him into it because he's the only one that's gonna really be able to help us, right? We can try to stop thinking negatively, but ultimately it's not gonna work unless you have Jesus coming alongside of you. And so I love how you prayed that prayer in the morning. Like, that's a good way to start your day, or even to, I mean, I know I talk about it all the time to people when I tell them to read their Bible, but like either start your day like that or end your day like that, whatever that might look like, so then you're prepared for the next day, or do it in the middle of your day, whatever that looks like, or do it all the time. Yeah, all throughout the day, do it. Literally throughout all the time throughout the day, because it's just so important to constantly be putting Jesus first, because if you don't, the enemy will attack you left left and right. And so, um, yeah, I love the scripture verse. Can you just like what's like one thing I think either A, you're being encouraged with, or that people how we can apply this? I know we kind of talked about it a little bit, but like, yeah, maybe for you, like what's something that you could do with this scripture verse that you can apply to your life daily, or maybe that other people can.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Sure, yeah. I think there's like I have a perfectionist side of me that's like, oh my gosh, this feels like a big thing, like renew, change everything, you know, and it's like it sounds really nice, but I think it's really hard. So I don't know if there's anybody out there that's kind of like me that needs the reminder of like God isn't asking for your perfection, He's just asking for your surrender.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

And maybe that looks like kind of what I was saying of being a living sacrifice and having to intentionally offer that up and sacrifice all of that daily. Like maybe you have to be very like black and white about it, like that. But yeah, I don't know. I I just think it's important to r also remember that just surrender it to him and he will help you do this work. It's not like he's just saying figure it all out on your own, you know.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

No, it's good. Ultimate surrender is literally the best thing. And I just think this is what last thought I have too to transform something takes time, right? Like I think I always go to working out because I love working out, but if you have a sp certain type of like workout that you like to do or being able to lift a certain amount of weight, you have to transform your body to be able to do those things. If you like to run, which I used to love to run, yeah, you had to transform your body, you had to make it so you could do those things. I think it's the same thing with this that people don't like it. Takes time, it takes effort, and I think it takes sitting with Jesus, like you just said, surrendering to him daily so that way he can help you transform your thoughts and inviting him into it with you. Yes, every single time.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Because he knows your heart posture. If your heart posture is surrendered, like Lord, I want to be able to do what you're asking of me.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Like he'll see that and he'll honor that and he'll guide you through that, which is so so cool. But anyway, thanks, Libby, for coming on. You did great. It was awesome. You had great notes, great info, great stuff. Um, but thank you all for tuning in for episode seven of the Youth Bible study podcast.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Wow, thanks for having me. You're welcome. We did it.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

We did it.