Heavenly Minded
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Renewed
Renewed
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
God’s will includes everything we are and do externally, but more important it comprises everything that we are internally.
Look at the words used here about the end result of the mind of God
Good - that which is pure and right, truthful, genuine
Pleasing - acceptable or satisfying
Perfect - having attained the end purpose; complete, mature
We have all heard it said, “so heavenly minded but or no earthly good!”
I want to propose today that the only earthly good we can accomplish is being heavenly minded!
Let’s look at of verse today
Being worldly minded is to adopt the ways and philosophies of the world system
The teachings of the world are generally rooted in the person. The world says the purpose of life is work hard and obtain objects and 'position' to be admired by others and satisfy your desires and so on.
The Scripture reminds us that
Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].
[That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot.
So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.
Can you see it? The end of the road of this world is death!
Jesus came to take us to the opposite place, life!
The word “minded” here is the Greek word meaning “the inner part; the center of thought; the inner organ of spiritual and intellectual experience.”
Notice that it is not governed by the emotional but rather the emotional is subject to the intellectual, that which is rational
That my friends is the issue with the world philosophy today. Feelings are governing logic!
Look at what our verse says about that situation
[That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot.
Ahh! We see the word submission!
It seems to be recurrent theme in all that God has been speaking to us about the last few weeks! the verse goes on to tell us
So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.
Paul warned the church at Rome where the road of rejection of God leads
For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification],
Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves].
And by them the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God were exchanged for and represented by images, resembling mortal man and birds and beasts and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own] hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin],
Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it).
For this reason God gave them over and abandoned them to vile affections and degrading passions. For their women exchanged their natural function for an unnatural and abnormal one,
And the men also turned from natural relations with women and were set ablaze (burning out, consumed) with lust for one another—men committing shameful acts with men and suffering in their own bodies and personalities the inevitable consequences and penalty of their wrong-doing and going astray, which was [their] fitting retribution.
He goes to say
They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
So we see that the life driven by passion and emotion leads to the judgement of God
But all is not their own fault!
Remember the verse in Romans?
[That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot.
The only hope for the sinner is a transformational encounter with Christ
And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake.
Remember our opening verse:
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
“give you bodies” which hosts or emotions and passions!
We are controlled by pour thoughts
Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies;
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
Notice that the place of motivation is the heart!
Before the cross our thought controlled our heart, now our heart should control our thoughts!
We are called to
[Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),
Do you see it? “WE LEAD EVERY THOUGHT AND PURPOSE”
The wonderful thing about Grace is that it is our choice. The challenge about grace is making the right one!
