Intro:Ephesians 4:17-24  

"17This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20But you have not so learned Christ, 21if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."

•         Ignorance alienates us from ZOE' Life.
•         Ignorance is a lack of information.
•         A touch from the H/S is NOT enough.
•         But we need to RENEW something deeper than the mind - that is THE SPIRIT OF THE MIND.
•         Same word for the H/S = Our true deep essence! The core of our Soul.
•         God is not asking us to acquire information only, but to allow this info to RENEW the SPIRIT of our minds.
•         The Spirit of our Mind is OUR ATTITUDE behind our Actions.

1. Obedience is better than sacrifice:

         Sacrifice is Repentance.

•         It's better to obey what God asked than have to repent.
•         Repentance is Plan B - to Obey is Plan A
•         But Obedience is NOT enough - it is only a step in the right direction.
•         Living a life of Obedience is a legalistic lifestyle.
•         Living obediently includes the idea that we are doing what God wants, not necessarily want WE want.
•         We obey, because God asked us to. (Tithing, Sex before marriage)
•         Obedience is NOT agreement - it's SUBMISSION.

•          Repentance leads us to Obedience.
•          Obedience leads us to Transformation.
•          And Transformation is the perfect WILL of God for us - Not Obedience.
•          Obedience is merely God's tutor to leads into the classroom of Transformation.
•          Obedience is a Holy form of Slavery
•          We must go beyond a life of Obedience in order to be free from Obligated living.
•          True Christian liberty is found in Transformation NOT Obedience.
•  
•           Our WILL must take on the WILL of God.
•           We need God's WILL and our WILL to become ONE.
•           True Freedom will come when we DO what God wants because WE want the same.
•           It is in this state of transformation that that we experience the ZOE life that God has intended for us. (John 10:10)

Romans 12:1-2 "1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be 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."

•         Repentance saves us!
•         Obedience protects and prospers us!
•         But Transformation FREES us!        
•         Transformation takes place by the RENEWING of the MIND.
•         Transformation is HIS perfect WILL.
•         Legalistic living is Obeying without knowing "why".
•         Find out the "Why" and you will free yourself to want to live God's way.   

• We can only find out "Why" by STUDY of the WORD.

John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

•         Jesus was the 1st example of Transformation = The Word becoming Flesh.
•          But He was not meant to be the last!
•          Mary Transformed when she answered the Angel and Said: "Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38)

       We must make the same prayer!

Conclusion:

2 Corinthians 3:18 "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

                             Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just

                             as by the Spirit of the Lord.

•         The mirror is the WORD
•         As we gaze into the WORD, we get Transformed into it.
•         Study makes the WORD become FLESH.
•         ONLY this type of transformation makes us free!

2 Corinthians 3:17 "17Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is,

there is liberty.