06-19-11 Renewing The Mind

ROM 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

ROM 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Several weeks ago we began our study

of the 12^th chapter of the book of Romans,

and with it we began also

our study of the 1^st of six principles

that govern life within the Church,

the Body of Christ.

No matter what organizational church structure we may be associated with,

no matter what denomination,

or doctrinal orientation,

no matter whether a group is charismatic,

or non-charismatic,

no matter whether it is Calvinist,

or Armenian,

or high church,

or low church,

or pre-trib,

or mid-trib,

or post-trib,

and no matter what type of governmental structure may be in place,

when the individuals within any local body of believers

understand and apply these principles to their lives

and to their relationships with one another,

that local fellowship will know the life and leadership of Christ within it.

And to the degree these principles are not understood and applied,

to that degree those involved will fail to achieve the kind and quality of Christian life

our Lord wants us to know.

Two weeks ago we got half way through

Paul’s presentation of the first of these 6 principles.

We called this 1^st principle “understanding the battle we fight”,

and we heard Paul summarize that battle

by calling us to, “present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship...”.

We saw in our last study

that, in that call, Paul is reminding us once again

of the source of the resistance we continue to face

that fights against the new life God created within us when we came to Him through faith in Christ.

Something huge,

something eternal changed within us

at that time we came to Christ.

It isn’t just that God poured out His grace upon us

and removed our sins from our account

and transferred them all

onto the account of Christ.

It isn’t just that we were forgiven

and delivered from the wrath of God forever.

We were actually, literally recreated at the heart level of our being.

Anticipating this remarkable recreative work,

the Spirit of God led the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah to write,

JER 31:33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

JER 31:34 "And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

And He led Ezekiel to write,

EZE 36:26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

EZE 36:27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

That is the child of God at the heart level.

That is the recreative work of God

sovereignly performed within us by His Spirit

when we turn to Christ.

You know the way I put it.

Before we come to Christ we think we should be good.

After we come to Christ we wish we could be good.

A hunger and a thirst for righteousness is

created within us at the heart level by God Himself...

And now, when God looks at us,

and when He speaks to us,

and when He speaks about us

He calls us “His holy ones”.

More than 50 times He addresses us as His holy ones, because that’s who we are.

At the heart level,

recreated in Christ,

we are absolutely and eternally holy.

But then why, if this recreative work

truly has already been accomplished within us,

why do we still at times fight such intense performance battles in our lives?

Two weeks ago we saw

that the source of those battles

is this physical body in which our new, recreated spirit now lives.

It’s not that our physical bodies are in any way inherently evil.

Far from it.

They are truly remarkable creative works of God.

But, though our bodies are in no way evil in themselves,

yet they have the ability to contain evil.

And because our bodies,

including our physical brains,

and all of our emotional responses,

and reasoning processes

were all trained and recorded within us

under the jurisdiction of our old heart,

our old inner spirit that was hostile to God,

we now live with tremendous tension

between our holy inner spirits

and the mental and emotional training that already exists within our physical bodies.

I don’t think I mentioned it two weeks ago,

but this is why God’s redemptive work within us

will not be complete

until He gives each of us a new body at Christ’s return.

It isn’t just because these bodies we currently live in

will wear out and die.

Even if they didn’t die

they would be completely unsuitable

for the eternity God has in store for us.

Complete freedom from the consequences of sin in our lives

will not be ours

until our recreated spirits

will be placed into new bodies

that have never learned an emotional response

or a reasoning pattern inconsistent with truth.

Paul put into words

what every growing Christian feels

when he said,

ROM 8:23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

All of which is to say

that the heart of all true Christian growth

is the daily calling of bringing our mistrained physical bodies

under the leadership of the new heart God has placed within each of His children.

It is a short term calling,

one given to us only during the years that we remain on this earth,

but it is a calling that forms the foundation

for everything that happens between us and our God here and now.

And so Paul says,

I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Now, that’s where we stopped two weeks ago,

but it is not where Paul stops.

In the next verse

he goes on to explain to us

the process through which our Lord leads us

in order to accomplish that calling.

ROM 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Rarely have I struggled so much

with the best way to teach a passage

as I did in my preparation with this verse.

I experimented with a number of different approaches,

but in the end I threw them all away.

25 years ago

I think I could have taught this passage

with very little trouble.

But, even though the truth contained in this verse

is far clearer to me now

than it ever has been in the past,

knowing how to share it with you

in a way that is both consistent with the truth,

and at the same time

of real value to you

has just really thrown me

because I have come to understand

so much more of what is really involved

in this whole process of being renewed in mind.

You see, I know what it is we long for

when we come to passages like this.

At least, I know what it is that I long for.

I long for a formula,

for a series of steps I can take

that will guarantee mind renewal

if the steps are followed carefully.

The really frightening thing

is that, at one point in my preparation for today,

I even wrote up a formula

and was ready to share it with you this morning.

But when I came back and read it over the next day

I saw it for what it was -

just another attempt to equip the flesh

to accomplish the work that only God Himself can really accomplish in our lives.

In the end

I have decided to be honest with you

about what I believe is happening in this verse

and simply leave it at that.

I want to begin

by pointing out what is obvious -

Paul tells us in this verse

that true life transformation

comes into our lives

through renewing the mind.

And, if we see nothing else in this verse,

that alone is worth our time.

For, this one truth,

if we accept it,

will become our great defense and protector

against a multitude of religious lies

that flood the Christian world.

The tremendous power of all man-made religious systems

is based upon the assumption

that there is something we can force ourselves to do

that will bring about spiritual growth and maturity.

Everyone of us have our own mental “to-do” list.

Would you like a little mirror to help you know

what’s on your own “to-do” list?

If a new Christian

were to ask you, “What do I need to do in order to become a strong, mature Christian?”,

what would you say?

Whatever you would put on that list

is very likely part of your own personal religious alternative

to the renewal of your mind.

“Read your Bible for 15 minutes each morning,

pray for 15 minutes each day,

attend church every week,

clean up your speech,

read Christian books and listen to Christian music

and keep yourself accountable to some Christian.”

So then what?

Am I saying we shouldn’t read our Bibles,

or pray,

or go to church

our feed our minds on truth?

Of course not.

But what I am saying

is that our flesh always gets it upside down.

The flesh longs to believe

that there are certain things we can do

that will then bring about changes in our lives.

But the truth is,

as God brings about changes in our lives,

as he renews our minds,

we will find ourselves doing the things He wants us to do.

And the very first thing I want us to see

in this 2^nd verse of Romans 12

is that all true, enduring change in our lives

comes not from anything we do,

but rather from God changing the way we think,

that is, by renewing our minds.

Which brings us, then,

to the really big questions -

what needs to be renewed,

and how does that renewal take place?

The first of those two questions

is the easier of the two for me to answer.

And, actually, the verse itself gives us plenty of insight into what needs to be renewed

in the first phrase of the verse,

“And do not be conformed to this world...”.

What needs to be renewed

is every area of our thinking process

that has been shaped by the society in which we live.

At the top of the list

is the answer to the first question every one of us asks

when we enter this world. “Who am I?”

We don’t ask it in words,

but we ask it with every contact we have with the world around us.

How did you find the answer to that question?

By listening to the voices of those around you.

Prior to our union with our Lord

every one of us delegates to those around us

the right,

and the authority to tell us who we are.

And many,

in fact most of the answers we have received from one another

are wrong.

What other areas of our thinking

have been shaped by the society in which we live?

Who is God? What is He like?

What does He require of me?

What does it mean for me to be successful?

What will make me truly happy?

How can my basic needs in life be met?

What does it mean to be a husband?

What does it mean to be a wife?

What do I have a right to expect from my marriage partner?

What type of family structure is right?

How should I view those in authority over me?

And on, and on, and on.

In truth, what needs to be renewed in our minds

is our entire basic body of assumptions

about virtually all of the key issues of life.

Which will help you to better understand

why I found myself wrestling so much with this verse.

And, by the way,

isn’t it interesting what man-made religious systems do with this phrase.

“And do not be conformed to this world...”

In my experience

they reduce that statement down

to a few specific cultural sins

that can then be placed onto “the list”

so that our flesh can then avoid those sins

and feel good about how we’re doing.

And in the process

we skillfully hide from the underlying life attitudes

that are really driving our behaviors.

Then we come to that other question,

how does our Lord go about accomplishing within us

the renewing of our mind?

Most of you here this morning

know the answer to that already.

You just don’t know you know it.

What does the verse tell us?

It tells us that God will “transform” us,

He will bring about profound and permanent changes in our lives

as a result of the renewal of our minds.

If you want to know how He does that,

look back at some point in your life

where you realized God had brought about a profound and enduring change in your life.

Then ask yourself,

“What were the ingredients involved in that change?”

What were the tools God used

to accomplish that work?

What did He have to do

in order to renew your mind

to the point where it brought about

a true transformation within you?

I’ll share with you

what I believe to be the typical pattern he uses

in order to bring that about.

First, He begins by opening our eyes

to the existence of some area of wrong thinking within us.

And usually that happens

by our being forced to recognize the wrong thinking

through pain.

Some time-tested technique for meeting our needs

suddenly blows up in our face.

Some deeply ingrained relationship technique we have been using for years

causes us to damage or loose

some very important relationship.

We get caught in some favorite deception,

or some destructive behavior

bringing devastating consequences.

Something happens

that forces us to open our eyes

and recognize

that what we’ve always believed,

what we’ve accepted,

what we have built our life upon

is just simply not right.

Then,

after God has given us eyes to see ourselves honestly in some area,

the Spirit of God also gives us eyes to see the truth,

to see His alternative,

to see the way He designed our lives to work.

This is one of the crucial roles of the Word of God in the world.

It is His Word that has the power

to feed our minds the truth we so desperately need

at those points when we have come to see

that what we have believed and built our lives upon in the past

is just simply not true.

PSA 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

PSA 19:8 The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

PSA 19:10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

And then, finally,

the Spirit guides us through the slow,

ongoing,

daily process of choosing to replace the lies we have believed

with the truth He has shown us.

And when I do with this truth

what I just did

it sounds easy, huh?

Just see the lie,

and then allow the Word to point us to the truth,

and then let our Lord replace the lie with the truth.

The problem is

that letting go of our lies

is the most terrifying and frequently pain-filled process of our lives

because we have built our entire sense of security and fulfillment on those lies.

What are you stressed out about right now?

What is it that’s churning around inside you

causing you to lay awake at night?

Maybe it’s that child that you are just certain

cannot survive without your oversight and control.

And in the name of love and “good parenting”

you are frantically trying to do for them

what they have both the right and the responsibility to do for themselves.

Maybe you’ve allowed yourself to believe the lie

that you must be God in their life -

you must be the one who protects, and guards, and supervises and micro-manages their existence.

But the truth is

what your God is asking from you right now

is that your replace control with trust - trust in Him and His ability to work in your child’s life,

and trust in your child to find their own way into a living walk with their God.

Now, is that easy?

Is it easy to let go, to trust God, to trust your child?

Sheer terror! Welcome to the renewal of the mind.

You see, with every significant life assumption within us

there comes everything we’ve built upon that assumption -

every relationship, every choice, every goal.

And when the life assumption is challenged

it creates within us

our own internal earthquake

with all of the turmoil that comes with it.

And with all of us,

in most areas,

we must go through an extended process of learning

and then forgetting,

and then relearning,

and then forgetting and relearning again.

And why does He do all of this in us and for us?

So that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Do you know what that is?

That is His offer

to His people

of a life of hope,

a life of reduced stress,

a life of growing freedom and security

that can only exist when we have finally begun to live

as if our God truly is who He says He is.

And we’ll know we’ve seen it

when our soul sees what He says

and knows deep inside that it truly is good and acceptable and perfect

and, even more, that it is what we long for.

So there its.

That is the first pillar of successful living within the family of God.

ROM 12:1-2 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.