Text: Rom. 12:1-2
Let us please open our Bibles to the Book of Romans, chapter 12, verses 1-2...
I believe with all my heart that every sincere Christian wants to live and walk in God's perfect will. We often desire to do God's will but are not doing it. We've confessed sin, dealt with self, but drift back into the same kinds of defeat as we've had before. The devil says, "There wasn't anything to your decision. It was just an emotional thing..."
Illus: A convict in prison for 40 years was finally going to be free. On his way out a guard asked him: "Jack, what is it like to be free?" He said, "I don't know, but I'll let you know." As he headed for the boarding house that had been prepared for him where he could begin a new life, he turned it over in his mind: "What is it like to be free after being behind bars and in bondage for over 40 years?" When he got to the boarding house he was down in the basement and found a tall bottle and put it up on a shelf. He decided to try an experiment. As he went to work each day and other activities and came back to the boarding house, he looked for pieces of wire and dropped them down into the bottle--some stiff and fine, others straight and curled--until it was full. It was so full that it took on the shape of its imprisonment. He then used a hammer and smashed the bottle to see what it was like to be free. Some wire was free but the main part was still the shape of the bottle--its former bondage. When God does a liberating work we sometimes experience the same. Some of the strands of my mind are still locked into the same old shape. The mind is a very interesting thing and our text says we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Over the years we develop many patterns of sinful thoughts of the mind, and they are still within us; they can grip us with tremendous power. When we come to Christ, either to be saved or to yield our life to Him, confessing our thought patterns not pleasing to Him, God cleanses and forgives us, but we find that our thought patterns are not totally free. But we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Trans = to be changed }
formed = shape } Trans-formed means, "to be changed in shape."
God wants to change the shape of our life and reshape it into the image of Christ.
Col. 3:1-3,9-10 - "...renewed in knowledge..."--the memory system of the mind--after the image of Christ. How? By the renewing of the mind. "Set your affection [mind] ...things above" Phil. 2:5 - "Let this mind be in you..."
The mind is important because:
1. Everyone thinks.
-We may say, "I wasn't thinking." It is not that we are not thinking when we get ourselves into trouble. We were just thinking about the wrong things.
2. The thoughts of the mind are not limited by time, by space or by circumstances.
-I can get down on my knees in prayer and in my thoughts I can go around the world praying for missionaries.
-The most important thing about the mind is that what we think shapes our lives.
-You can think things in your mind that you would never think of doing. But it says in Prov. 23:7, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..."
-Gal. 6:7-8 "...he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."
-The mind is like a computer. The most complicated computer that man will ever create is only something like the human memory system--and what you put in it is what you will get out.
Someone said, "Garbage in, garbage out." Scripture memorization, meditation, application is important!
-If you don't deal with the renewing of the mind your life will not change and be like Christ. There is no spiritual experience on earth that will change your life into the image of Christ if you neglect the renewing of your mind.
-We often blame others, saying it is my husband's fault, wife, boss, etc. We say, God why don't you change me, help me? But the real problem is that until we deal with the renewing of the mind, God can't change us. There is only one person to blame--that's me.
-How can I change? It says we are to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
Con = to be like }
formed = shaped } Con-formed means, "to be shaped like."
-Don't be shaped like the world, but be reshaped by the renewing of your mind.
-We are shaped like the world by thinking the thoughts of the world after them. When we fill our minds with thoughts, attitudes and the philosophies of the world, our minds are shaped like the world. What are you putting in your mind? People read books, hear music, watch TV with the world's philosophies, read a worldly magazine or book to get their own marriage together.
-Ps. 1:1 "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly..."
-Acts 19:17 - books burned, etc. Years ago pastor Sipley took all the books of his library that were dishonoring to the Lord and burned them so God could cleanse his life. No more garbage to go into his mind--that meant his reading, TV and thinking habits had to be changed. God cleansed his mind. Then there was victory.
-II Cor. 10:3-5 "...mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds" - Mighty through the power of God. "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing...every thought..." If I become like the world by thinking thoughts after them, how can I become like Jesus? Instead, think thoughts after Him--the Bible, Scripture. If I am conformed to the world by thinking thoughts after them, then I am conformed to Christ by thinking His thoughts after Him.
-Ps. 1:2 "...his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night." - Let God change your mind by the Word of God. Be hungry to fill your mind with God's thoughts by being in S.S., church, Wednesday mid-week service, etc. with the Word. You can't get too much of the Word of God.
We don't want evil thoughts and would like to be free, but some of you say that you are not free. Sometimes an old thought pattern comes back and suddenly an old thought pattern is triggered and we realize we are in it. And then you hear in your conscience the Holy Spirit saying no to that thought pattern. Sinful thought patterns can control us. So you say, "Confess it as sin." If you have confessed it as sin and put it away, God knows that. Right up to the point when you are conscious of what you are thinking of evil thoughts, you have not sinned, you've only been tempted. The Holy Spirit suddenly causes you to realize that you are into those old thought patterns, and up to that point it is not sin; you now have the choice for victory. Deal with it as temptation--not sin: In Jesus' name I refuse those sinful thought patterns, and turn to the Word of God. Then the next time it comes, the Holy Spirit will stop you sooner, and the next time, sooner, until finally they are gone.
Now if you have a problem where it doesn't go away, then it is the devil tempting. Matt. 4:10 - Satan tempting Jesus--3 times! Jesus said, "Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written..." and applied Scripture to that temptation.
Phil. 4:8 "...whatsoever things are pure..." - Can use this Scripture for temptation in your thoughts.
Phil. 4:6-7 - Scripture for worry. "In Jesus' name, Satan go away." or, "In Jesus' name I command Satan to go away." Then quote Scripture that applies to the temptation.
Face your temptation and then your mind will be changed.
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