Renewed In Mind
Renewed Christian • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
It is so encouraging seeing everyone here once again this evening.
What a privilege it is for me and my family to be with you all this week.
We have grown to love you all so much over the last almost 13 years and have been truly blessed by ya’ll.
We began this meeting on “Renewed Christian” by looking at…
Renewed By The Spirit: Titus 2:4.
From God’s perspective what we look like when we decide to sin and separate ourselves from him and the difference when we choose to love him.
Renewed Day By Day: 2 Corinthians 4:16.
How we love appreciate and strive for those “spiritual mountaintop moments” but understand we live on this old sinful world and the good fight of faith is down here on the Valley Bottom.
Considering we will be spending as much time in the valley as we do, and will be needing that “day by day renewal” it’s important we realize how to be “Renewed In Mind.”
For those inevitable moments when we neglected our spiritual mentality and find ourselves in a spiritually mental funk we must be careful not to fall victim to the spiritually disastrous…
Selfish Mindset
Selfish Mindset
Satan’s Lie.
Satan’s Lie.
One of the great lies or misdirects of Satan has been getting people to believe that when they obey the gospel they are “still themselves but just a better version.”
By that I mean many people actually don’t change that much and go on about their daily life in much of the same, if not the same way did before but with the mindset of “I’m saved now.”
Jesus told the parable we call “The Sower & The Seed” found in Matthew 13:21-22.
In this parable Jesus describes two types of soil or souls that hear the word, but due to Satan and/or a desire for their old wordly life they quickly lose the word of God.
Matthew 13:19–21 (NKJV)
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
This is the great lie Satan tells us and has his messengers preach.
That if you are going to obey the gospel that all you are doing is become a “better version of you.”
It’s better, not because of any significant changes made, but because now you are saved.
Is that what is supposed to happen when you become a Christian though?
Are you only supposed to become just a “better version of your old-self?”
No, when you obey the gospel…
A Major Change Happens.
A Major Change Happens.
God tells us that we are now a “better version of ourselves” but a completely “new creation.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Romans 6:6 (NKJV)
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Ephesians 4:22 (NKJV)
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts
Colossians 3:9 (NKJV)
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds
Many babes in Christ, in particular, struggle after obeying the gospel because they did not fully realize the commitment required by God to be faithful to him.
I”m not talking about the general lack of knowledge that is associated with being a babe in Christ but that actual point we talked about this morning on “counting the cost.”
Yes, they were taught they had sinned and were separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2).
Yes, they were taught they needed a Savior and Jesus was willing to save them (Titus 2:10-12).
Yes, they were taught the need to obey God’s plan of salvation not man’s (Matthew 28:19-20).
No, they didn’t count the cost “being everything” (Luke 14:33).
Now because of this their mindset was not really where it needs to be.
Their mindset ended up as…
Self-Absorbed.
Self-Absorbed.
What does a spiritually selfish mindest look like in a child of God?
They are ignorant of what is true and therefor assume that whatever they want is true.
22 I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.
19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’
Because they are ignorant of “truth, and “assume they are truth,” they go about unstable mentally and seeking others to boost their mental instability.
2 Peter 3:17 (NKJV)
17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked
2 Timothy 4:3–4 (NKJV)
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
This mentality always leads to destruction.
2 For wrath kills a foolish man, And envy slays a simple one.
18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Summary
Summary
Brothers and sisters the worse part about having a spiritually selfish mindset is that it is very hard to think you are in the wrong.
It takes a lot of humility and dedication to the truth to be “renewed in mind.”
Thankfully, however, no one is doomed to being stuck in a selfish mindset.
Thankfully, we can be renewed in mind to a…
Selfless Mindset
Selfless Mindset
A God First Focus.
A God First Focus.
I don’t know who coined this phrase but it certainly is a biblical one…
“What consumes your mind controls your life.”
23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
If Christians who have got caught up in a selfish mindset see the error of their way and seek to correct it, how do they go about “renewing their mind.”
First, we must make the proper preparation of the heart.
Job 11:13 (NKJV)
13 If you would prepare your heart, And stretch out your hands toward Him
Ezra 7:10 (NKJV)
10 For Ezra had prepared his heart…
Second, we must put away those things that will hold us back from a selfless mindset.
1 Samuel 7:3 (NKJV)
3 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
Third, we must become rededicated to God’s word.
Ezra 7:10 (NKJV)
10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord…
Colossians 3:16 (NKJV)
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NKJV)
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Fourthly, we must be willing to then live by God’s word.
Ezra 7:10 (NKJV)
10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it…
Fifthly, we must become rededicated to teaching others about God’s word.
Ezra 7:10 (NKJV)
10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.
2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Summary
Summary
…
Conclusion
Conclusion
v
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
