Transformed (Pakistan)

Introduction

Thank you for the opportunity to share

About myself

Work

Family

I want to talk about the Renewing of the Mind

Someone once said, “Satan is a headhunter, your mind is his battlefield, your imagination is his trophy.”

Whatever controls your imagination, controls you.

What starts in the mind eventually begins to be acted out

This generation is being constantly attacked in the mind.

Worldly influences through technology and social media

Access to all kinds of unfiltered and harmful information

Music, movies, and pop culture that can so easily make the wrong thing seem so appealing.

Mental Health Crisis

Statistics show:

Rise in anxiety

Rise in depression

Rise in trauma

Persecution

Statistic - More Christians have been martyred in the last 50 years worldwide than in the first 300 years of Christianity’s existence

60% of all martyres after the death of Jesus lost their lives in the 20th century.

Our own insecurities and negativities that we are constantly battling against.

All this to say......there is a lot of outward pressure on our mind.

This pressure can feel crushing, overwhelming, impossible to escape.

What do we do with that? How can we live as a Christ follower with all that pressure?

Scripture

I want to read a verse that many of you might be familiar with.

But if we are going to live in courage and stand for Christ in our generation, we have to understand this.

Romans 12:2 “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 and acceptable and perfect.”

Three things I want to point out

Don’t do This (Conformity)

Do This (Transformation)

This is How (Renewing the Mind)

So let’s simplify this

Conformity

Conformity - Has to do with external

It has to do with outward actions

Conform means “to comply with, or to be similar in form or type to something else”

If you act one way with your church friends, and the complete opposite way with your School friends, that is conformity.

You are just conforming to whatever crowd you’re with

This outward pressure dictates your thoughts and actions

Conformity to the World

“World” signifies the spirit of sin and rebellion against God

1John 2:16 “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”

Coveting, Greed, Lying, Arrogance, Gossip

The Bible says we are not to comply with and be conformed to this worldly value system

But do you know what is just as dangerous as conformity to the world.....conformity to the church.

Notice the Bible does not say. “be conformed to the church”....it says be transformed.

Church Conformity

Conformity, even to the church, is still and outward form of pressure that will crush you.

If all I’m ever doing is conforming....I haven’t gotten to the heart of the issue.

Conformity doesn’t change you and I

Conformity to the world is fleshly living

Conformimty to the church is empty religion

Transformation is a relationship with Jesus

Conformity to the church is what 2 Timothy 3:5 calls “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”

Many young people make the mistake of thinking conformity to church culture is transformation. You might conform to the church because:

You grew up in a Christian home

Because your parents want you to

Conformity to the church simply means you are similiar in type on the outside

This is dangerous because people can be convinced they are something that they are not.

Conformity to church might look good, but it can’t save you.

It might look like transformation, but it is emptied of all it’s power.

Transformation

Transformation - Has to do with the internal

It is an internal pressure (or power) that results in outward action.

When a caterpillar changes into a butterfly, it doesn’t just pretend to be a butterfly with external features,

As hormones change and genes are activated on the inside, it produces something on the outside.

While conformity uses pressure from the outside....transformation is The Holy Spirit releasing power from within.

That is transformation.

The Apostle Paul shows this In Galatians 5:22-23

Galatians 5:22-23ESV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

In other words, there is something that happens on the inside that begins to manifest itself outwardly!

It starts when we become a new person in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

We don’t inherit new values, new motives, new purpose without first becoming a new creature.

Then that transformation begins to take place through the renewing of the mind.

Renewing of the Mind

Renewing of the Mind

When we have submitted ourselves to God by faith, he changes our destiny in an instant, but He changes us day by day.

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face

Speaking of a relationship

beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image

Transformation takes place from beholding the glory of the Lord

We are transformed as we allow the Spirit to reveal Christ through the Word of God.

from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Renewing the mind is a process, but as we submit to the process by beholding the glory of the Lord, we begin to change.

Bible Reading

Prayer

Being an active part of the Church (the Body of Christ)

Let me show you what begins to happen

Soccer Ball Analogy

As the outward pressure is put on the soccer ball, there is not enough inward pressure or power to counteract.

What happens is the soccer ball is deflated, it caves in, it is formed based on the outward pressure.

and it can’t operate or be used in the way that it was intended.

This is us when we don’t have the power of the Holy spirit within us.

Pumping up Soccer ball

This is what happens as we behold the Glory

Every pump is one degree of glory to another.

Closing

The pressures of the world that are creating this battle in your mind, don’t have to be the end of the story.

God has power available to you and I everyday

It’s not limited to youth conferences

It’s not limited to Sunday morning Church

It’s not limited to Bible Schools.

Because you and I can Behold the Glory everyday.

Training and Application

With the power and help of the Holy Spirit, we have to Train our Minds toward truth

It’s hard…training is hard

To understand training mind—Think train body.

Ask yourself these two questions:

What lie is holding you back?

Wrong mindset hostage?

Always battle w/ depress.

Never overcome this addiction

Never feel close to God.

Always going to be left out.

What Scriptural truth demolishes that lie?

Application: Write it—Think it—Confess it—Until you believe it!

Have you ever thought something that you knew wasn’t true, but it felt like it was true.

Sometimes when we are renewing our mind with truth, deep down inside, we might know it is truth, but it doesn’t feel true.

God doesn’t love me - He sent his son

Battling worry - I can cast my cares upon Jesus

Fearful - God has not given me a Spirit of fear

Lust - I’m not a slave to my thoughts

You have to confess it, until every part of you believes it.

Declarations

You are not your past. You are not what you did. You are who God says you are. He says you are forgiven. He says you are redeemed. He says you are free.

You are not a hostage to your unhealthy thoughts. The weapons you fight with are not the weapons of this world. You have divine power to demolish strongholds.

You have the mind of Christ directing your thoughts. You have the Word of God guiding your steps.

Worry is not your master. You trust in God. His peace guards your heart, guards your mind,and guards your soul in Christ Jesus.

Your God has not given you a spirit of fear, but a Spirit of power, of love, and of a soundmind.

You are not a slave to your habits or sins. You are not a prisoner to an addiction. You have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of God’s light.

Nothing can separate you from God’s love. Not death. Not demons. Not the present nor the past. No power on earth will ever separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesusour Lord.

Behold the glory of God, and watch his power keep you.

Battle of the Mundane

ABC’s

Admit - I’m a sinner in need of a savior

Going to church won’t save me

Conformity to church culture won’t save me

Not based on external accomplishments

Believe - Believe God made your salvation possible through Jesus death and resurrection.

Confess - Confess him as Lord of your life. This is where we say :

I’m not going to be conformed to this world and it’s ideals

I’m led by the ideals of God and His purpose and calling for my life

When you do these three things, the Bible says that you’ve been born again.