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Amen. So keep your place there in Romans chapter 12, the verses that we're going to be looking at, particularly verse number two, but look down at verse number one and we'll start there. But right before I get started, I'm going to make a bold statement this morning and this morning is before I start the sermon. The bold statement is this, and I wouldn't make this statement for necessarily every sermon, but the bold statement is this. If you can successfully apply the sermon this morning, it will change your life, literally. So that's a bold statement, but that's true about this. Now look at Romans chapter one and look at verse number one and let's look at what I'm talking about this morning as an introduction. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So in Romans chapter 12, we're talking about things that we do in our body. We're talking about actually things that we do as saved believers in Romans chapter 12. Look at verse number two and this will be the main verse, and I'm going to ask you to save your place here in Romans chapter 12, but in Romans chapter 12 and verse number two is going to be the main verse that I'm going to explain to you this morning where the Bible says, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So the point I need to make before I'm getting into the sermon this morning is Romans chapter 12 in verse number two is there's something happening there. All right, there's something happening to this person in verse number two, and that's what I'm going to try to get across to you this morning. And if you can realize what I'm talking about this morning and actually act upon it, like I said, I'll say it again, it'll change your life. It'll change your life. The title of the sermon this morning is Escaping the Box. Escaping the Box. Now there's this saying out there that I'm sure you've all heard before where it's like you need to get outside the box. Or you know, this guy is, this guy's really good at thinking outside the box. It's actually, you know, an interview question that, you know, I've asked many times and many places will ask is give me one example of a problem that you solved or a time in your life when you had to think outside the box. Now the irony of that interview question is that most people can't or don't think outside the box. Most people don't. So if you were going to hire somebody based, you know, solely on the answer to that question, you wouldn't hire too many people because, you know, most people just don't think outside the box. So just a simple way to demonstrate what I'm talking about is this little brain teaser as it would be called I suppose. Here you have, now let me just demonstrate this concept of thinking outside the box and what I'm talking about. Then we're going to apply that spiritually to our lives this morning. But here we have nine X's. We have nine X's in a matrix, in a square matrix, and the brain teaser or the challenge is this. It's to connect, there's two criteria to the challenge. It's connect these nine X's using four lines and you can't remove your pen from paper or your marker from the whiteboard in this case. This is the challenge of this brain teaser that demonstrates kind of thinking what I'm talking about this morning. Most people right away will just look at this problem and right away they'll start doing things like they'll go okay, well this is easy, one, two, three, oh, oh, five. You know that's one, the first thing most people will do is try to just kind of go outside and just draw lines to get it. Well you say oh, well I must have to use diagonal lines. Then a lot of people will just go okay, it's one, two, three, four, oh, five, right? Or sorry, five. But the point is that most people will try these approaches like this and they realize that it can't be done with just four lines and keeping your pen on the paper. So most people have a difficult time with this. It's not until you realize that the constraints that I gave you were to keep your pen on the paper and draw four lines, it was not to necessarily stay inside the box. This is why this is such a good demonstration of what I'm talking about. So the answer becomes if you start outside and you don't constrain yourself by the square because did the square that I draw really have anything to do with the challenge itself? No it didn't. So if you start out here and you go like this, so now you see that all we have to do is go outside the actual boundaries itself and we can solve the problem. But most people, they kind of just give themselves this constraint that they have to stay within the boundaries of the box even though that wasn't, you can take the board back, Garrett. But most people, they'll struggle with that because they're staying within those boundaries. But that wasn't one of the boundaries. As a matter of fact, the whole point of the sermon this morning is that the boundaries of that riddle, they were made up in people's minds. So most people will just not be able to solve that because they've given themselves that boundary of the box itself. Whereas somebody that just comes at it and they listen to the instructions of the challenge itself and they realize that hey, that wasn't one of the rules. They'll realize that most people will say okay, well it obviously can't be these simple, basically the two simple solutions and they'll start looking for other ways that they don't have the constraints of what other people give themselves. So that's the whole idea this morning is Romans chapter 12 and verse number 2 is talking about something that happens to people that it will take some getting outside of the box in order to accomplish Romans 12.2. So a lot of people will think, people will go to work and they'll see people do things in their lives. As a matter of fact, if I could have done that a little quicker, people will say oh, why didn't I think of that? So they'll see a riddle like that and they'll say why didn't I think of that? But the problem is they'll see the next challenge and the next challenge and they still won't think of a way that's outside the box itself because they put themselves in boxes is the point I'm trying to get at. So the short answer is this, success in the Christian life, Romans chapter 12 and verse number 2, it depends on you getting outside of the boxes in your life. So you think about how this applies to church and how this applies to your Christian life, this is the main goal of the Christian life is to not be constrained by boxes that we put ourselves. Look, folks, we live in boxes unfortunately. That was a small example, a little brain teaser, but we literally live in boxes in our life. And most people are in more boxes than they even know or realize. Most people are in a lot or maybe even care to admit. So I want to talk to you about boxes that we live in this morning and how to get out of those boxes. These boxes that I'm going to talk to you about this morning, they'll completely hinder or literally stop your spiritual growth, your spiritual life. I'm going to give you some examples this morning. Obviously we can't go through a comprehensive list of boxes, but I'm going to give you some examples of boxes, but there's really two main problems with the Christian today. Either people don't know that they're in the box, they don't know about the box, or they do know and they won't leave the box. Those are the two problems in Christian's lives today. So I'm going to give you some examples. The first thing I'm going to do this morning, all that was means of introduction. We're talking about getting outside the box in your Christian life. So I'm going to give you some examples of boxes that people are in, in their Christian lives. Then in the back end of the sermon, I'm going to give you some benefits to if you get outside of those boxes, what will actually happen to you in your Christian life. The benefits that you will be able to accomplish in your life. Turn to Matthew chapter 4. Turn to Matthew chapter 4. So let me just give you some examples of boxes. Let me give you some examples of boxes and this first one doesn't really apply to us because obviously, you know, we're here, you know, we're in church, you know, we're soul winning, you know, we're, you know, doing what we need to do in a good church in the Christian life. But the first box that I want to use as an example that is a major box for people in their lives is where you live. Okay, look at Matthew chapter 4 in verse number 18. Look at Matthew chapter 4 in verse number 18. Where you reside in your life is a box for many, many people, for many Christians. Look at Matthew chapter 4 in verse number 18. The Bible says, And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. This is where Jesus, he calls the very first two disciples right here in Matthew chapter 4. And he saith unto them, look what he says right away. He said, follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. Look at verse number 20. It says, a straight way they left their nets and followed him. Right after this, he calls James and John, and the same thing happens. But turn to Luke chapter 9. So basically, Jesus, he comes along and he sees Peter and Andrew's brother, they're fishing. And the first thing Jesus says is like, come with me. He's saying, leave where you are right now and follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. Now look at Luke chapter 9 in verse 58. Now you say, follow him where? You know, follow Jesus where? Is he asking them to like move to a different city? Is he asking them, hey, you know, leave your home and let's make another home over here in Jerusalem or whatever? No, it's an extreme case with these first disciples because look at Luke chapter 9 in verse 58. Look what Jesus says here to somebody that wants to follow him. Here's somebody that comes up to Jesus and says, hey, I want to go with you. I want to do what you're doing. I want to go along with you. Look at verse 58. He says, and Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. So think about this for a second. Jesus was not asking Peter and Andrew to move. Jesus was literally asking them, hey, leave your home, leave your place of business, leave everything that you have here and become wanderers with me is what Jesus says to Peter and Andrew. He's like, look, here's the point. The point is where you live, and most people would agree with this, I think, whether they're in a box or not in a box here, where you live should solely be driven by where you can best serve the Lord with your life. I mean, that's a statement that I believe that most Christians should at least believe because the Bible says that very thing. So you should be in a church that preaches the whole word of God. You know, you should be, you know, what does that mean? Where can I best serve the Lord with my life? You can, you should be in a church that preaches the whole word of God, the popular parts and the not popular parts. You should be in a church that sends out soul winners. You should be in a church that is, that its main focus is just getting the lost of this world, the gospel. And there's so many people headed to hell, you know, and the Bible tells us, you know, preach the gospel to every creature. We should be doing that. You should be in a church with that focus and where you live should be, should be completely dependent on just that. I mean, it's not, most people, it's not rocket science finding a good church. Most people that aren't even in a good church know where a good church is. All right. Most people actually know this. That's, that's not the part that they struggle with. The part that they struggle with is the box that they're in, which is where they live. Okay. Look, but here's the irony is when you find a church, a good church, you will find people in that church that have forsaken all else that have gotten out of that box, that have left everything behind and they've just relocated on that criteria itself. You will find, as soon as you find a good church, you will find people like that in that church, guaranteed. But here's the thing. Most people can't do that. Most people can't do that. They, they just, they just can't. They, they, it's not that they can't. I mean, this is America. You can move wherever you want. It's that they won't. Why? Because they're in that box. That's why. They'll stay in that mediocre church. They'll maybe even cause trouble in a mediocre church. They'll complain in a mediocre church because why? Because they're in the box of where they live and they can't get out of that box. So they won't leave that box. Look at Matthew chapter 19, Matthew chapter 19. I mean, maybe they don't know they're in a box. Maybe they think that the situation that they're in is different than the situation that anybody else that's gotten out of that box, but that's not the case. That's a fallacy actually. Look at Matthew chapter 19. How do I know that? Because Jesus literally says that there should be nothing that stops you from climbing out of that particular box. Look at Matthew chapter 19 verse 29. Jesus says, and everyone that has forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name's sake shall receive an hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life. Jesus here is saying that no matter what, he's like, no matter what, if it's houses, if it's money, if it's family, if it's even children, he names there or, you know, inheritance. Look, he's like, none of that should keep you in that box is what Jesus is saying. So the point is, is the person that's inside that box and the person that is outside that box, the only difference between those two people is not those things. And the people that are still inside that box of where they live and they just find it hard to move to a good church, and this just, this is one example folks, is because they think they tell themselves, well, the people that were able to move, they didn't have that house. They didn't have that job. They didn't have that 401k. They didn't have that inheritance. That's not true. Those people had all those things. Those people had all those things. The difference is, is those weren't walls to those people. They climbed out of the box. They stepped out of the 401k box. They stepped out of, you know, whether it was grandma or whatever, they stepped out of those things. They did, you know, they just didn't see the same boundaries that other people saw. Look, we all have the same boxes to jump out of as Christians. It's a little insulting actually to somebody, you know, somebody that hasn't moved should never go up to somebody that has moved for a church and say, well, I can't move because of this, because they've jumped out. They've over, the only difference between those two people is one has overcome the boundaries and the other has not and the other will not. All right. The difference is they hopped out of the box. Turn to second Corinthians chapter six. We're a separated, let me give you some more examples. We're a separated Baptist church. The Bible teaches separation. So you'll hear sermon after sermon in this church about how you should be separated from this. You shouldn't be involved in that. You shouldn't be doing this, you know, TV, media, whatever other institutions are out there, you know, we should, we should be separate from those things. As Bible-believing Christians, we should separate from things. Look at second Corinthians chapter six. The Bible says in verse 17, wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. Look, separation is an action. Separation is something, it's not something that you do in your mind. Separation isn't something like where you see something and you're like, I think that that's bad. I think that that's evil and I don't agree with that. No, separation is actually moving away from something. It's, I mean, it's the word. Separate is an action that you take. Look, and if no action is taken and you just think things are bad and you just feel bad about things, then look, Christian growth will be stopped. No growth will happen. Example, just raising children. Just think of all the different philosophies over the last couple of decades and I'm sure the philosophies are changing today about, you know, parenting trends. What you should do and what you shouldn't do raising children. Look, parenting trends are a box that people are stuck in. Parenting trends are a box. Turn to Proverbs 13. I'll just give you one example. Proverbs 13 verse 24. This one was pretty big when our kids were small, when we were raising kids. It's probably getting worse today. I can only imagine, but parenting trends are a box. How about this, you know, this box of discipline or no discipline on your kids, right? I mean, people are saying, oh, you shouldn't, you know, don't be, don't be, you know, harsh and discipline your children physically, but look at Proverbs 13, 24 says, the Bible says, he that spareth the rod, hateth his son, but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes. See, this is where like the true meaning of love and hate needs to be known for a parent right here, because hate isn't a feeling that I have. Love isn't some feeling that I have. It's action. Love is action. Hate is action. And the Bible says, you're like, what? I don't want to spank my, my child because I love him. No, the Bible says, literally, if you don't spank your child, you hate him. He's like, but that's not how I feel. It doesn't matter how you feel. The actions you take define whether you love or hate your child, but people will, people will get stuck in these, these cultural norms. And that becomes a box for them. I've met plenty of Christians today who are literally under fire for disciplining their children, according to the Bible, spanking their children. It's just, look, disciplining your children according to the Bible is just another form of separation. It's just, and it's one that you have to leave the box of what this world is telling you and just do what the Bible says. You have to climb outside of that boxes. Separate, separation is a warehouse full of boxes. Every aspect of separation, look, separation means you're leaving what the norm is. You're leaving what the mass majority of the population is doing. By separating from that, you're climbing out of those boxes. You're leaving those boxes behind. Here's another one. Education today. I'm going to say that in quotes. Education today is a box. This is a big box. This is a, this is a strong box. What am I talking about? I mean, how to educate your children. That's what I'm talking about from daycare to public school, to college, to university. That's a box today. That's a strong one. I'm surprised, you know, just a note on that as we call it education. And the reason I put it in quotes there is because I'm surprised more and more every day, how little people that have stayed in these boxes, how little they actually know. They say today, they say today that 25% of high school graduates in the public school system are functionally illiterate. 25%. That's one in four. That's one in four. I mean, what does that, what does functionally illiterate mean? Functionally illiterate means that you can't use, it's more, it's a more broad statement than you would even think. And it's a little scarier than just not being able to read. But being functionally illiterate means you can't use reading, writing, or calculation skills in your life to benefit your life or benefit society. That's the actual like dictionary definition of being functionally illiterate. One in four children that come out of just high school, can't, they're functionally illiterate. College today is no different. I mean, I'm, I'm, I am literally shocked at, you know, seeing kids that come out of college for four, six years and they don't know the very basics of the degree that they studied. See, but what it's become, this box, the scary thing about this particular box is that it has not become about education. In, you know, the college and university system, it's more about a title now. It's more about a piece of paper now, and it's less about education. But you know what? It's easy to see why this is happening. It's easy to see why this is happening because as somebody spends their whole life just hopping from box to box to box, like what do I do? Well, I, I, they're in, they're in pre-K, they go here. Okay, now they start first grade, they go full days and they go here and then they go into grade school and then they go into middle school, they go here. And then after they're out of middle school, they go back over here and they just go, they're just marching from box to box to box. Now we graduate from high school and I can, I can't read, but where do I go? I go here and then I stay there for four years, six years, eight years, however many years it takes. And you know, basically guess what? You become, your, your mind becomes atrophied. You become an institutionalized person. And it's, it's not, look, these institutions, and then these institutions tell you there could be no success anywhere else. They tell somebody, they tell somebody that doesn't go through those institutions. Oh, you want your kids to be uneducated? The, the big, the big swear word, right? You must want your children to be uneducated. But what does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Is that what we want? No. What the Bible says is that real education should be the goal. That's what the Bible says. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter seven and look at verse number 12. Ecclesiastes chapter seven and verse number 12, the Bible says, for wisdom is a defense and money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. The Bible literally says, turn to Proverbs 16. The Bible literally says that wisdom is life. I mean, that's pretty serious. In Proverbs chapter four, verse 13, you turn to Proverbs 16. The Bible says, take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go. Keep her for she is. Again, it says thy life. It's saying that instruction, education is thy life. It sounds pretty important to me from the Bible. Proverbs 16, 16, look at what the Bible says about wisdom. It says is much better. How much better is it to get wisdom than gold and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver. So the Bible is saying, no, it's like, get outside of these boxes where there's no real education happening. Look, even though it's a wrong education and it's teaching anti-God, anti-Bible things, even if you did successfully learn it, the problem is they're not even successfully learning it. It's a loss on both sides. But the point is, real education should be the goal, not pieces of paper, not titles, real education. And the Bible says, and we just need to have, look, when you get outside boxes, you just need to have faith that the Bible is true. You just need to have faith that the Bible is true, that if you do get real education and you do really learn wisdom, that it's going to be more valuable than gold. That in itself is going to be your life. Look, these are all things that will hinder your spiritual growth. These are just a couple of examples. Just separation, where you live, how you raise your children. People are stuck in these boxes. They're stuck in these boxes and they literally, they can't get out. They can't get out of these. Now, here's a trend. Here's something that I've noticed on people that have gotten out of these boxes in their life. Here's a trend that I've noticed. I love trends. I love noticing patterns in things. Here's a trend that's pretty much 100%. I was trying to think of a person that I knew that was outside of this trend. I couldn't think of one. But here's a trend that I've noticed. Here's the trend that everyone that has escaped the boxes in their spiritual lives. Example, like where you live. Anyone that I know that has literally moved for a church, like relocated themselves to go to a good church, whether that's Faithful Word, whether that's Verity Baptist Church, wherever that is, anybody that I actually know personally, they're very successful in life. Just like in their lives. They're very successful at supporting their families. They're very successful business people. They're very successful at whatever job that they have, if they have a job. But that's not an accident. That's not some weird coincidence. The reason that they're very successful at all the other things in their lives when they've gotten out of these boxes in their spiritual lives is because once you get out of boxes and you start leaving boxes, you're going to realize that it's easy to do it. The more you do it, the easier it's going to get to get outside boxes. If you would just sit there and you would do brain teasers like that all day long, you would get better at it. You would see the next brain teaser and you'd say, okay, what's the constraint that I'm right away trying to tell myself is here that really isn't here? What way can I get outside the normal process that could solve this problem? See, just think about an example of somebody that starts a job and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Somebody starts a job, they don't know how to do the job. So what do they do? They go and some senior person, you know, starts training them in that job. They say, okay, you know, here's how we do it. We do this step and then we do this step and we do this step and they give you all sorts of things to read. They give you all sorts of instructions, manuals, all these different things and you're going to learn how to do these processes at this job. But guess what? So as you learn those things, every process, every job, every company, no matter what you do, has problems. It has challenges. There's issues that they have to overcome. People that solve those problems are people that don't live in boxes every time. They're people that even though they learned the process to do it this way, they learn the process to do it this way, they realize, hey, that process shouldn't be a constraint for me. I should think of things outside of that process. Maybe there's a way to rearrange the process, do things a different way. You know, I just, I had one of these yesterday. I went to get a haircut. I went to get a haircut and I had an appointment at like 3.40. I can never find time to get a haircut. I don't know what's wrong with my life or I can never find time to get a haircut. But I had this appointment at 3.40, just happened. I was doing all these things and I showed up at like three o'clock and I walk into the haircut place and there's nobody there. Like nobody's waiting, nobody's there. There's just these three ladies that are in there and I had this one specific appointment with this one gal and she's over there. She's kind of cleaning up her little station or whatever you call it and I was like, oh, could I just get a haircut now? There's nobody here. And the manager was there and she said, well, no, because she can't because she's got a break now and, you know, and I was like, oh, well, just like slit me right before her break and she could take a break 10 minutes later and I'll give her a little extra tip there. You know, she's like, well, you know, we can't because you can only, and then she starts like rattling off all these rules on like how you can only do so many haircuts before a break and then if that haircut is like over seven haircuts, then the other person has a chance at the appointment. I'm just like, I'm so confused. I'm like, I'm like, hey, I'm like, ladies, let's just think about this for a second. Just slip me in. She takes a break 10 minutes later. The schedule's all the same and they all kind of like, and you know, I'll tip her and she can, I'll pay for her lunch, you know, and they're all like, okay, okay. You know, and look, we worked it out, but like, they're just, they're stuck. Everyone's stuck in this. We do it this way. Then we do it this way. Then we do it this way. Everyone's in a box. Everyone's in a box. Look, and here's the thing. Here's the thing you need to realize in your Christian life is going to be the same. The box people, the box people are always going to fight against the people that have escaped the box. That's what you need to understand in your Christian life. So if you do get out, if you do climb out of that first box, just remember that the people inside the box are going to holler at you. It's the same at work. You know, you start thinking of things outside the box. You're going to have all these naysayers and you can't do it that way because we've always done it like this. But then, you know, if it's really a truly good idea, you know, it'll stand on its own. 2 Timothy 3 12 says, yea, all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's the box people being upset at the people that have escaped the box. That's what that is. I was thinking about just crazy stories in the Bible about crazy stories of people. Turn to Hosea chapter 1 of people that just did these just wild things just because, you know, that's what God, they knew that's what God wanted them to do. So our example is, you know, being just full blast on the Christian life, just being living the Christian life without all these boundaries, with all these boxes that are trying to keep us away from doing what the Christian life says. I was thinking about some crazy stories and the craziest one I could think of was Hosea. If you turn to Hosea chapter 1, Hosea chapter 1, look at verse number 2. So God, Hosea was a prophet and he was a prophet during the last days of the northern kingdom of Israel. So obviously they were during the last days of the northern kingdom of Israel, they were some wicked people. They had turned on the Lord and God was going to judge them and he judged the northern kingdom in a much harsher way than he judged any other nation. Then he judged the nation of Judah, I should say. But look at, so he's trying to make a point to these people with his prophet Hosea. Look what he tells Hosea to do. Look at verse 2. It says, at the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea, and the Lord said to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms, for the land hath committed great whoredom departing from the Lord. Look at verse number 3. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblion, which conceived and bare him a son. So God's like, I'm going to need you to make this point that I'm going to make to the people. I'm going to need you to go marry a prostitute. Not only are you going to go marry a prostitute, but you're going to have to go and have children with her. And he's like, what? No, look at the very next verse. He's like, he just went and married her. Because why? Because he has no, he had no boxes. He had nothing. Can you imagine what his brother was saying? Can you imagine what his parents were saying? I mean, can you imagine, you know, you bring your, you bring, he brings Gomer and he's like, it was like, what? What are you doing? You know, she's a woman of whoredoms. And then the very next chapter, he has three kids with her. The very next chapter, she like goes back to her whoredoms and like she just leaves him. But that is the point that God was trying to make. And he literally told Hosea, go do this. And Hosea didn't have any boundaries in his life. He didn't have any fake constraints in his life. What the Lord said he did. And the Lord told him to do something very extreme that the Bible doesn't tell us, but I'm sure people were fighting against him, arguing against what he was doing, calling him crazy, whatever. We need to just expect that when you leave the boxes, people that are still in the box want you back in the box. So if you do start escaping boxes, just be prepared for that. Just be prepared for that. You know, so look, people that aren't bound by, you wonder how these people in the world, back to the main point of the sermon, you wonder how these people in the world that these great inventors, these, you know what, it's not that they're geniuses. It's not that they're, there's some like these people that just like are just like have so much more brain power than everybody else. The main difference, Elon Musk kind of reminds me of this. He just thinks of these wild, wacky things. You know, just these completely, why? Because he's out of the box. He doesn't have constraints. You'll find that, you'll find, by the way, you'll find another, here's another trend that you'll find just from secular people that are very successful and have come up with some very wild, successful things. They did not go to college or they went to college and they quit because they're like, this is lame. There's no education here. They wanted to actually go and pursue things in their life. They literally, they aren't bound by walls. They consider everything. And if we apply that to the Christian life, it's, we don't even have to consider anything because God tells us what to consider. God tells us what we need to do. God tells us where we need to go. God tells us where we need to live. God tells us how to raise our children. God tells us how to do all these details. All we have to do is just get out of the boxes that are telling us not to. That's it. That's all we have to do. When you think about the person that's operating in their life in a box and the person that's operating outside of the box, if you just look at it from the worldly perspective of the guy at work, the guy at work, you've got one guy at work. He's out of the box. The other guy in the box. It's not fair. It's not a fair competition. This guy will destroy this guy because he doesn't have all these fake constraints on his life. And that's what the Christian does in his life. He takes what God says. He doesn't even have to come up with the next machine or the next invention. All he has to do is take what God says and just quit making fake boundaries. Quit listening to boundaries that people are trying to convince him or her exist. So it's all about just putting aside these fake constraints that God literally tells us there should be no constraints in your life. The boxes, now go back to Romans chapter 12. The boxes that we are in, look at Romans chapter 12 now and look at very closely at verse number two of Romans chapter 12. The boxes that we are in, they literally stop the conforming of our minds. The Bible says we're conformed to the world already. The Bible says you're already conformed to the world. So in order to not be conformed from the world, there needs to be a change that happens there with what? With your mind. This is why people hear preaching. This is why people hear Bible preaching. You wonder why. I had to ask myself this question like a thousand times. You wonder why people will hear hard preaching and they'll say, great sermon, pastor. They'll say, great sermon, pastor. They'll say, boy, you really got me on that one. But then they don't apply it in their life. They hear a sermon and they literally, they agree with it and they literally forget it before they walk out the door. You say, why is that? It's because they live in boxes. That's why. That's why that happens. That's why people read the Bible. People understand the Bible. It's not that they don't understand it. They read the Bible. Look, if you're saved today, you can read the Bible. You should. You'll understand the Bible and they'll agree with the Bible because the Holy Spirit within them, they'll agree with the Bible, but they don't act on it. You say, why? Because they live in a box. That's why. Because they won't leave their box. That is why. Look, I'm well aware that most people will not apply this sermon. You're like, what? Look, I had to get over that years ago or I wouldn't have survived, you know, in this position. You know, I had to get over that years ago that I would preach sermons and that it would have literally driven me crazy. But look, I'm well aware that people just will not apply this sermon. You say, why preach it then? Because here's why. Here's why. This topic that I'm talking to you about this morning, why preach it? Because to give that one person that might apply it a chance. That's why. That's why I preach it. A chance to what? A chance to completely change their life. A chance to live according to the Bible without walls. Look, you want to do great things for the kingdom of God? Who would say no to that? Turn to Romans chapter 12. Are you in verse number 2? Here's what needs to happen. And be not conformed to this world, but here's the key. Be ye transformed. You literally have to transform from where you were. It's not like you were in the right place and you need to stay in the right place. You literally need to be transformed. You need to take that action to leave those boxes that you're in. By the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Look, you know what? You can change how your mind works. Even science will tell you that. You can literally change how your mind works. It's more than just deciding. It's more than just deciding. I thought that was a good sermon. It's more than just reading the Bible and believing it. It's actually doing it. But most people can't. They want to. They say they want to. They say they're going to. You say why? Because they're in boxes. They're in boxes because of Matthew chapter 19 that we read. They're in boxes because of the houses, because of the brethren, because of the father, the mother, the wife, because of the children. I know people that are in all of these boxes. Every single one that I that I listed, you know, or lands, you know, great possessions. Basically any material thing is a box. Anyone related to you can be a box. You know, relatives are a weird thing. Relatives are a weird thing. I'm telling you, like all of a sudden you're born and you just happen to be related to people. And so you just have to live according to that culture for the rest of your life. What in the world? This is what Jesus is saying. Get out of these boxes. Get out of these boxes. Even property. But look, you just didn't have as much to give up as me. You have no idea how much people have given up. You have no idea. Jesus is saying any amount of anything in this world. Any amount of anything in this world. Big things. Retirement. Inheritance. They're all boxes. They're all boxes. And as you step out of boxes, folks, here's what you need to understand. As you step out of boxes, your mind will be renewed. This is why you see success in people that have gotten out of boxes. Because they're good at it. They figured out how to do it. And they're better at, they don't, they don't jump into other boxes, first of all. But once you escape one, you can get out of many of them. It's easier to do it the second time, the third time, the fourth time, the fifth time. Pretty soon you become a person that literally just questions everything. This is why, this is also why you'll find many people that don't live in boxes in their life that have made major changes to just like my spiritual life and the spiritual life of my family. That's all that matters. I don't care where I have to go. I don't care where I have to live. I'm going to this church because I agree with that pastor and I want to be my children to grow up with children that believe those things and believe the Bible. I want to live this un, this unboundaried Christian life. What you will find is you will find those people, you'll find a lot of them are conspiracy theorists too. Why? Because they question everything. They question everything. They're like, I don't believe something's true just because you told me it's true. I don't believe something's true just because the news said it's true. Look, I'm not saying we should all be over the top conspiracy theorists, but this is why you see this trend because these are people that have left boxes in their life. That's why. That's why. That's how you get out of the box. It's a learned thing. It's not something that's going to magically happen to you. It's learned. You have to, you have to ask yourself this morning. You have to ask yourself, am I hearing but not growing? You have to ask yourself, am I attending but not changing? You have to ask yourself, am I simply not being transformed? Am I conformed to the world and I'm not being transformed? So if the reason that you are these things, it's because there's a box that you're in. That's why. You need to identify it. You need to hop out of that thing. You need to get out of that thing. You want, look, you want great achievement for the kingdom of God in your life. I ask that question sometimes to people out-souling after they get saved. And nobody has said no. Nobody has ever said that they don't want to do great things for the Lord in their life. Everybody wants that. So if you want it, look, you can have it. That's the good news this morning. The good news is you can have it. But the problem is, is that you're conformed, as Romans chapter 12, verse number two says. That's the problem. And the transforming is going to take getting out of those boxes. It's a renewing of your mind that will do it. That's the tool. That's the tool. It's looking at that puzzle and saying, he didn't mention anything about the square. He didn't mention anything about the square. That's not a constraint. That's only a constraint unless I make it a constraint. It's only a constraint unless I believe it's a constraint. It's only a constraint unless I'm not willing to draw outside of it. That's it. It's just, look folks, it's a different way of thinking. It's a different way of thinking. It's literally a renewing, meaning you have to change the way you think. It's a renewing. It's a change. Turn to Philippians chapter four, Philippians chapter four. It's a change. And guess what? Here's the nice thing about boxes. Here's the nice thing about boxes. Once you identify the boxes, look at Philippians chapter four, look at verse number 13. Philippians chapter four and verse number 13. I had somebody bring this verse up to me yesterday. But look what the Bible says. The Bible says literally here, it says, if you're saved, look, if you're saved, if you're in Christ, this applies to you. Okay. The Bible says in Philippians 4 13, it says, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. You know what the Bible is saying here is like, every box has an escape hatch. Every box you can get out of. It's like, I'm in this box and I can't get out. That's not true. Every box has a way out. You need to identify it and just get out of that thing. Know you're in it. And really what it is, is just knowing you're in it and be willing to leave it. Know you're in it and be willing to leave it. Get yourself out of boxes in your life. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.