A Renewed Mind
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Big idea: anxious minds miss the good. Prodigal minds can see the good.???
What does a renewed mind look like?
Introduction
Introduction
Big idea: anxious minds miss the good. Prodigal minds can see the good.???
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
What does a renewed mind look like?
READ LUKE 15:25-30
READ LUKE 15:25-30
Why was the older son so angry?
First, the father is being unfair.
Everything left in the estate is his inheritance.
That was his fattened calf that got slaughtered.
There is nothing the father can give the younger son without taking it from the other son.
There is nothing the father can give the older son to balance things out.
Second, the son feels unappreciated.
Not only is the younger son getting more, but he’s the worse son!
How the father treats the two sons informs their relative worth.
To the son, his father is dismissing his value—he’s choosing the younger son over the older.
A mortal mind worries constantly about GETTING enough and BEING enough. (Luke 15:25-30)
Notice something else about how he tells the story:
I’ve been “slaving” for you.
“This son of yours”
The older son isn’t thinking of them as family. He’s seeing them as threats.
The younger son is a competitor—anything he gets takes something from the older son.
The father is a judge—he observes the sons’ performance and assigns them worth.
An anxious mind sees every situation as a competition, and every person as a COMPETITOR or JUDGE. (Luke 15:29-30)
Talk about anxious mindset.
We don’t view others as humans.
We assume they have bad motives, they want to take from us, defeat us, etc.
We assume they are judging us—we have to perform for them in order to get their approval.
We react by behaving the way we think they are behaving.
We chase expectations, or we feel threatened by failure.
We end up treating others in very cold, heartless ways.
The son is so angry about this that he is willing to separate from the father and brother over it.
READ Luke 15:31-32
READ Luke 15:31-32
Notice about the father:
He is never anxious.
He is never worried about whether there will be enough.
He is never threatened by his sons’ behavior.
He is never worried about being enough or having enough.
That might just be because he is obscenely rich.
How do we get there?
But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A renewed mind trusts in God’s GENEROSITY and LOVE. (Romans 8:10-11, 38-39)
“ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
The father sees the situation more accurately than the older son
He validates the older son’s expectations
Yes, you have been faithful to me
Yes, everything I have is yours.
But he also sees the truth about his younger son:
But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”
He was dead, and now he’s alive.
A renewed mind can see PEOPLE and SITUATIONS as they really are. (Luke 15:31-32;
Because he sees things as they really are, he can see what the older son could not:
We HAD to.
This was his brother too—
He had just as much reason to celebrate, but he couldn’t see it because he was focused on himself.
Look at how Paul describes the renewed mind in Romans 12-13
Romans 12:3-8—see yourself as you really are: a valued part of the body. Do the thing you’re made for.
Romans 12:9-21—radical maturity and compassion.
Romans 13:1-7—be subject to the authorities who are in power. Don’t object to being ruled over. God is the one who has allowed there to be authorities. This is about being too prideful to be governed.
Romans 13:8-10—in general, love others.
See, this is the thing about God’s will. It’s not secret, it’s not complicated, it’s not encoded. It’s just that God’s will goes against the instincts of our flesh.
