Thankful for Grace

Scripture Reading: Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 NKJV

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

Theme: What fills your mind determines what shapes your life. Big Idea: A mind filled with the world leads to conformity; a mind renewed by the Spirit leads to transformation. Punch line: “You can have a mind full of the world - or a mind renewed by the Spirit. You can’t have both.”

Introduction

What’s own your mind today?

Let me guess, maybe you got up this morning and turned on Fox News and saw where ………

Or maybe you got on InstaGram or Tic Tok and saw the reel where the mayor of Dearborn Michigan, Abdullah Hammoud, who is a professed muslim, tell and American born citizen of Dearborn, who did not agree with a street being renamed in honor of a Hezeballah terriost, that even though he lived in Dearborn, he was not welcome and should move out.

Or maybe you woke up this morning and turned on NBC news talk about the end of the government shutdown and the new info concerning Donald Trumph and the Jeffrey Epstein emails.

My point is that in the days we live in our minds are constantly being filled!

Filled by the news media, social media, the music we listen to, the entertainment business, and endless opinions.

So the question is not,

“Is your mind full?”

The question is, “What is it full of?”

Because, and listen very carefully -

What fills the mind, eventually forms the life.

That is why Paul warns in Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 NKJV

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

The verse is about the battle ground of all spiritual warfare.

Church, we must be reminded that we are in a battle. There is a war going on and we dare not be ignorant about it.

What is the war over?

Where is the battleground”

You may be surprised to learn what the battleground is, because the battleground is your MIND!

Because if the enemy, Satan and his demonic angels, and listen to me, we better be putting aside all of our silly little jokes about a little devil with horns and a tail and pitchfork and leave that thought behind us, because our enemy, Satan and all his demonic forces are powerful and want nothing more than to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ, to destroy the creation of God, to destroy your Life.

And if he can fill your mind with garbage, he can lead you around like a little Chihuahua on a leash.

Have you ever thought about how Eve was deceived in the garden?

Let’s turn there and just look at what the scriptures tell us.

Let’s discover how our great enemy, Satan, introduced death, sickness, hatred, selfishness, bitterness, envy, strife, into this world.

Genesis 3:1–4 NKJV

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

First notice the serpent was cunning. That means he was skilled in deception, he was skilled in entering one’s mind and creating feelings of detachment and uneasiness having adverse effects on one’s relationships.

And the first thing he does it cause Eve to think.

Now there is nothing wrong with thinking. God gave us the gift of intelligence where we could think and plan and understand things.

But the problem is, the serpent, by means of deception, is leading Eve to think about alternatives to the truth without her even knowing what she was doing.

Satan was deceiving Eve, causing her to question her philosophy, her view on the word’s that God had spoken.

Surely one would not die by simply eating of such a beautiful tree. Surely God would not kill us because we simply want to taste of the things of this world.

Surely that would not bring death.

Satan subtly introduced death and sin into God’s creation by getting into Eve’s mind and filling it with garbage.

The Battleground of all spiritual warfare is not the flesh, not the emotions, but the mind.

Satan doesn’t have to destroy you if he can deceive you.

The world doesn’t have to persecute the church it it can persuade the church to think like the world.

The great tragedy that I am seeing in today’s churches is that too many believers have a mind full - but not renewed.

Full of information, but not transformation.

Full of culture, but not conviction.

Full of content, but not Christ.

The question we may ask is, “How can I live in a world filled with information and not be conformed by it’s deception?

Do I need to get rid of the TV, delete all social media from my phone?

How do I stand in a world that is bent on bringing confusion into my life by attempting to modify my behaviors?

How do I protect my children from Satan’s deceptive ways of conforming their precious minds to the ways of the world?

To answer these questions, Paul tells us that there is a way, a way that we can stand firm in our faith, teaching our children and others by allowing our minds to be renewed in a way that can discern and live out God’s perfect will.

Let’s look at three truths that Paul teaches us here in Romans 12:2 about how to move from a mind full to a mind renewed.

The Danger of a Mind Shaped by the World

Romans 12:2 NKJV

Do not be conformed to this world.”

Explanation

Now what exactly does Paul mean when he warns us not to be conformed to this world.

The Greek word for conform actually means to form or mold one’s behavior in accordance with a particular pattern of set of standards.

Now as parents or grandparents there are at least two play things that we buy for our little children that we quickly wish we had not.

The first is legos. Somehow these little building blocks get scattered throughout the house and are never picked up.

And as many of you know, we tend to find those cruel little things on the floor in the middle of the night as we are walking through the house in the dark to get a drink of water.

But the other is Play Doh.

Now I like play doh. But I know many moms and grandmothers that do not because it does have a tendency to get on everything, It’s in the couch, on the refrigerator handle, you may even find some of it in the toaster.

But the neat thing about play doh, is that you can squeeze it and press it into a mold making it become just whatever you want it to be.

Kim bought little Posie one of the neatest play doh toys the other day where you put the play doh inside this little head and push a handle down and the head began to grow hair. And then with the scissors that came with the toy, you gave the thing a hair cut.

Somehow the whole toy disappeared in the night. nowhere to be found the next morning.

This world has its patterns

how it thinks, what it values, and how it defines success. Those patterns are subtle and persuasive. They fill our minds through media, conversation, and even through the redefinition of truth itself.

And the real danger is that none of this seems wrong. Conformity doesn’t feel wrong - it feels normal.

That’s what makes it so dangerous.

Illustration

The other morning I poured me a big glass of chocolate milk and as soon as I poured it I knocked the glass over. Looking there was no paper towels to clean it up with so I grabbed this little sponge on the sink and began to soak up that chocolate milk. And I would go to the sink and squeeze out the sponge and guess what came out, Chocolate milk.

If we take that same sponge and soak up orange juice and go to the sink and squeeze it out, orange juice comes out.

Whatever that sponge soaks up is what comes out of it.

If you soak you mind in worldly thinking, worldly reactions will come out when life presses you.

But if your mind is soaked in the Word, truth and grace will come out under pressure.

Argumentation

You may want to argue with me all you want but let me warn you, the entertainment world, social media, the music we listen to, they all a have an agenda and that agenda is to fill our minds, the minds of our children with garbage so that it can conform us into the false ideologies of this world. The world is set out to modify the way we think and how we believe.

And do you know what the strongest of all influences is, the Television industry, movies.

It is a fact that TV watching is declining across the United States.

But this is a small comfort as movies, videos and various forms of electronic entertainment are on the rise.

Do you know the average American will have watched tyhe equivalent of nine years of television in his lifetime.

Maybe that don’t sound to bad to you, but compare that to the mere months the average Chrisitan spends in Sunday School and church services over a lifetime.

Let me give you three lies coming out of Hollywood:

It’s only entertainment - it doesn’t influence anybody. Billions is spent on advertising to influence viewers. How much more the movies and TV series watched by us and our children. Allow me to provide you with some truth: More than sixty major university studies indicates that “prolonged exposure to violent images on television does lead to more hostile, violent and aggressive attitudes and behaviour in real life. I we see it all playing out right in front of our eyes. Gun violence, school shootings, workplace violence, etc.

We just reflect reality. Don’t blame us; blame society. Let me ask you a question, How many murders does the average person see in real life? I praise the Lord Jesus that I have never witnessed a murder in real life. But how many murders does a person see on TV? Out of an average of 350 characters on primetime TV each night, seven of them are murdered, and we watch with excitment. And I’m not going to get into the sexual promiscuity, the portrayal of immoral priest; preachers as money grabbers, churches filled with mindless fanatics the entertainment industry fills our minds with. But let me just say this out loud. Movie producers have no difficulty bashing Jesus, but they wouldn’t dream of trashing Muhammad or Islam. “Freedom of expression” in the media has its limits.

We give the public what it wants. If people don’t like it, they can always turn it off. The fact is that many moviemakers have a culture-changing agenda. For the most part, they see themselves as “Change Agents” and deliberately attempt to foster a value-neutral if not an antireligious, antitraditional-value perspective. TV critic Michael Medved writes: “for 20 years, movies rated G and PG have done better on average than R-rated movies by a ratio of more than two to one. And yet the number of R-rated films has risen to over 60 percent of movies. Why? Because Hollywood hands out prestige and recognition based on the absurd notion that artistry is not the ability to inspire but the ability to shock.

Application

In Revelation Chapters 2-3, three churches illustrate the dangers of becoming conformed to the world:

Pergamum - compromised truth by tolerating false teaching.

Thyatira compromised purity by accepting immorality.

Laodicea compromised devotion by embracing comfort. Which is maybe the most dangerous and numbing of all forms of conformity.

Each church thought it was fine - their minds were full, but not renewed.

And that’s the danger, Conformity creeps in when our minds are unguarded and our discernment grows dull.

So ask yourself:

What am I letting shape my thought?

Do I measusre by convictions by Scripture of by culture?

Am I becoming more like Christ - or more like the crowd?

Please listen, you can’t have a renewed life with a worldly mind. The call of God is to reject conformity and guard your thought life.

What you allow to fill your mind will eventually form your life.

The first truth Paul teaches in Romans 12:2, It is to dangerous to allow our minds to become conformed to this world.

The second truth:

The Power of a Mind Renewed by the Spirit

Romans 12:2 NKJV

“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Explanation

As we saw, The Greek word for conform actually means to form or mold one’s behavior in accordance with a particular pattern of set of standards.

The Greek word for “Transformed” is derived from two words, “Meta” meaning change, and “morphis,” meaning form.

It is were we get the word Metamorphosis.

If we are conforming we are making external changes to fit in with external pressures or patterns.

If we are transforming we are making internal and fundamental changes that creates a new substance.

Conforming is pressing play doh and shaping it into a Christmas tree, but it remains play doh.

Transforming is like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, which is a complete change from the inside out.

So if we are being transformed by the renewing or our mind we are not going through some behavior modification; we are being Spiritually transformed from the inside out.

Illustration

Most of us may have studied all about metamorphosis in high school biology class. We studied the caterpillar crawling up into a cocoon. He goes through a metamorphosis, and he comes out a beautiful monarch butterfly. What is the nature of that caterpillar after this transformation? It is a monarch butterfly. The inner nature comes to the surface. That’s what metamorphosis is.

What is the inner nature of a Christian?

Jesus.

Satan is trying to stuff Jesus in. He doesn’t want Jesus to come out. He’s trying to “conform” you, so you won’t be transformed, metamorphosed; he doesn’t waant you inner nature to come to the surface. The inner nature of a Christian is Jesus. And when you present yourself as a living sacrifice, you are transformed, metamorphosed. Jesus comes to the surface and that is what people see. I want people to see Jesus in me. Don’t you want people to see Jesus in you?

If so we must be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Argumentation

Look up here on the screen and let’s look as Paul warns the Ephesian believers that they cannot continue living conformed to the world, living as they once lived; God has called them to a new and righteous lifestyle.

Ephesians 4:20–24 NKJV

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

So often Christians get the impression that life consists only of negative prohibitions, thou shalt not do this, thou shalt not do this, thou shalt not do that.

And we need these prohibitions to keep us walking between the lines.

But the Christian life should also be directed toward positive expressions of Christian character. All of Paul’s ethical teaching is chaeracterized by this twofold approach of putting off the old self and putting on the new self.

We can think of this twofold approach as represented by the two blades of a pair of scissors.

A single scissors blade is useless as far as doing the job for which it was designed. The two blades must work in conjunction with each other to be effective. And we must work both at putting off the characteristics of our old selves and putting on the characteristics of the new selves. One without the other is not effective.

Far to many times we as believers focus on putting off sinful practices but give little attention to what we are to put on. Too often our lives become hard and brittle and maybe self-righteous, because we tend to equate godliness with a defined list of “don’ts.”

Or we take the other extreme and focus on putting on certain positive traits such as love, compassion, and kindness, but we can become careless in morality and ethics. We nee the dual focus of “putting off” and putting on” - each should receive equal attention.

Application

May we make a conscientious effort to let God’s Word reshape our thought patterns by:

Putting off fear and putting on faith by meditation on the Promises of God

Putting off anger and putting on grace by remembering His forgiveness

Putting off confusion and putting on clarity by soaking in the Scriptures

And be transformed by the renewing of our minds under the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit can’t renew a mind that’s never still long enough to llisten. Take time daily to let Him reprogram your perspective.

Renewal happens when we let God’s truth replace the world’s lies.

And now the last truth of Romans 12:2.

The Proof of a Mind Aligned with God’s Will

Romans 12:2 NKJV

“… that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Explanation

The Bible tells us that when we recognize that we are sinners and truly repent of our sins, become sorrowful for the sins we have commited and make that choice to turn from the live we are living and toward a Christ like life, and confess that Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings and believe that he suffered and died, was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.

At that moment God delivers us from the power of darkness and conveys (metamorphosed) us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

Before coming to Christ you are like one walking in completer darkness in a room that you do not know. Running into things, stumbling over objects in the floor, having no understanding.

But when you come to Christ it is like someone immediately turns on the light and you see the wickedness in the room, all the things that you ran into, all the objects that caused you to stumble are now brought into the light.

And when your mind is renewed through the presences of the Holy Spirit who now lives in you, your discernment sharpens.

You begin to test or prove what is truly of God.

Really, it is not so much that you will be able to test or prove things, but that you will test and prove what is righteous before God.

And by finding out through the testing and proving God’s good will, we then put it in practice.

Illustration

Think of it as the tuning of the piano here. If even one key is off the sound of the music Barbara is playing becomes distorted. But when every key on that piano is tuned correctly, the music is clear and beautiful.

A renewed mind tunes your heart to the will of God - so your life plays in harmony with His purpose.

Argumentation

James 1:22 NKJV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Every one of us in here who have been regenerated through the power of the Holy Spirit, been spiritually reborn and are now children of the One true God, delivered from all unrighteousness through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ,

We know when we are into something that is not right.

Our mind has been tuned to the music of salvation

And when something out of tune is being played, something attempting to conform us to the ways of the world, we know it.

But we can, and do still let it lead us astray, and our hearts become dull, our ears become hard of hearing, and our eyes become closed and we cannot see nor hear and we cannot understand with our hearts and we slowly, unawares, become conformed to the world.

It is happening in our churches all across this great nation. Everyone of us are guilty of not heeding to the words of Romans 12:2 in one sense or another.

And it is time that we wake up, confess our sins, get on our knees and pray for forgiveness and become transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Application

Do your decisions reflect God’s Word?

Is your thought life leading you closer to Christ or farther from Him?

Are your responses under pressure Spirit-led or self-led?

The renewed mind doesn’t just know God’s will - it lives it.

The proof of a renewed mind is a life that practices God’s will with clarity and conviction.

Conclusion

Let’s be honest with ourselves - our minds are crowded

We’re full of opinions, images, worries, arguments, and distractions. But God didn’t save us to have a mind full - He saved us to have a mind renewed.

Romans 12:2 isn’t a suggestion; it’s a spiritual survival strategy in a world determined to deceive.

The Spirit is asking today:

What’s filling your mind?

What mold are you fitting into?

Are you thinking the world’s thoughts or God’s?

If your mind has been cluttered with worldly noise, if compromise has crept in, or if you’ve stopped renewing your mind daily - it’s time to come and let God cleanse and renew you again.

Pray,

“Lord, cleanse my mind form the clutter of this world. Renew me by Your truth. Transform me by Your Spirit. Help me to think like you, live like You, and walk in Your will.”

A mind full lead to conformity.

A mind renewed leads to transformation.

Choose today which one will shape your life.