Transformed

Key Elements

In Romans 12:1-2, the Apostle Paul gives a command to the believers in Rome to give their whole selves to God recognizing that this is the only response to the mercy God has granted and it is the ultimate act of worshipping Him. This surrender brings transformation and that transformation begins with God renewing our minds daily.

Main Idea: To be truly transformed into the people God has created us to be we must surrender our thoughts to God and allow Him to renew our minds daily.

I want my audience to develop the daily discipline of surrendering their thoughts to God by allowing Him to renew their minds daily.

Intro

We’ve all heard the old saying “You are what you eat.” It’s actually become almost a cliche’ in our health-conscious culture. What that phrase implies is that what we put into our bodies matters. That a steady diet of junk food will produce very different results than a diet that is rich in nutrients and whole foods. Parents have used this principle to coax their kids into eating vegetables, doctors have used it to motivate patients towards healthier choices, and fitness experts have built entire programs around this concept. And no matter whether we like it or not, science backs it up-our physical health, our energy levels, and even the longevity of our lives are directly connected to what we consume.

But this morning, as we kick off 2026 with a new sermon series entitled Mind Games, I want to suggest that there’s an even more powerful truth we need to grasp and it’s this- “You are what you think.” You see, just as our physical diets shape our bodies, our mental diets shape our lives. The thoughts we consume, the ideas we entertain, the narratives we rehearse in our minds, these things don’t just pass through our minds harmlessly having no affect on us whatsoever. They form us, they mold us, and ultimately they determine the trajectory of our lives. They form patterns in our brains that guide the way we think and the way we act and the way we respond to others in every situation of our lives. And ultimately, if not surrendered to God daily, those patterns of thinking will lead to destructive actions that harm us and the people we are connected to in our daily lives.

So, over the next four weeks, we’re going to be talking about taking our thoughts captive, we’re going to be focusing in on allowing God to renew our minds. And we are going to be looking at the affect that that renewal of our minds has on our daily lives. We’re going to explore what Scripture says about being offended, being distracted, and ultimately being renewed by God and we are going to see how all of this transforms us into the people that God has created us to be.

Message

So, open your copy of God’s Word with me today to Romans 12:1-2 as we begin today by looking at what it means to be “transformed.” So, this past summer I read a book entitled Taking Every Thought Captive by Pastor Kyle Idleman and it was life changing for me. I had been battling some anxiety and some fear over different situations in my life and ministry and I needed to really zero in on some truths and concepts that would help me as I navigated these mind games that I was dealing with. And as I began to read this book, the Lord began to speak to me in some incredible ways. I began to apply the truths from Scripture that were being pointed out and I began to identify some patterns of thinking that I had developed over the years that were leading me to think certain ways and respond with specific actions in certain situations. And ultimately what God showed me is that I had not really been allowing God to renew my mind daily. I was spending time with God daily and I was praying and reading His Word but I was still struggling greatly with these overwhelmingly anxious thoughts. And as I began to really walk through and think about what it means to truly allow God to renew my mind, to rewire my patterns of thinking, it began to transform my life and how I respond to certain situations. And I still deal with anxiety and fear at times, but I’m learning daily how to intentionally surrender that to the Lord.

And that’s what the Apostle Paul is emphasizing in this part of his letter to the believers who are a part of the church in Rome. Look with me at Romans 12:1-2, it says...

As Paul approaches this part of his letter in Romans, his focus is on transformation. But it’s not transformation as the culture or the world would classify it, it’s transformation how God describes it. You see, in God’s economy, transformation doesn’t happen by changing our behavior or by being determined that we are going to do something different or speaking positively. Transformation doesn’t even come by holding to our new year’s resolutions. True transformation begins in the heart and the mind. According to Scripture, true transformation happens from the inside out. It comes as we stop conforming to the patterns of the world around us and we allow God to transform our hearts and renew our minds.

So, our main idea that will be our focus for today is this: To be truly transformed into the people God has created us to be we must surrender our thoughts to God and allow Him to renew our minds daily.

And this morning, as we consider what it means to be transformed, we’re going to discover that lasting change begins when we surrender our thinking to God and allow Him to reshape us by His truth. And our prayer today is that we will develop the daily discipline of surrendering our thoughts to God by allowing Him to renew our minds daily.

Looking at Romans 12:1-2 today, we see three realities of a transformed life that come about by God daily renewing our minds.

1. A transformed life begins with daily surrender of ourselves to God. (vs. 1)

Have you ever noticed how difficult surrender is? I mean, surrender for us as human beings is a negative concept because us giving up in any form or fashion brings with it a sense of losing and defeat. But it’s interesting that in Scripture, whenever the concept of surrender is talked about it’s not in a negative light. It’s not looked at as loss or defeat, surrender in Scripture is God’s way of leading us to the life we were created to live. It’s the first step for us becoming the disciples of Jesus that we are called to be. So, whether it’s Jesus teaching on how to find true life or, like here in Romans, it’s Paul showing us how to live as true followers of Jesus, surrender is at the center of all of it.

And that’s what’s happening here in Romans 12. Paul begins with a word that connects everything that he’s about to say with everything that he has said up to this point. He begins and he says, “Therefore,...” He’s saying “pay attention because something is coming that you need to zero in on, something is about to be said that is going to tie all of this together.” You see, in the first eleven chapters of Romans, Paul has laid out the breathtaking scope of God’s grace-he’s explained our desperate condition in sin, he’s talked about God’s incredible solution for our sin problem in sending Jesus Christ, he’s explained our justification through Jesus by faith, our freedom from condemnation, and the security we have in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And now, in Romans 12, Paul is saying in light of everything that God has done for you, here’s how it practically plays out in your life as a follower of Jesus. He’s saying “if you want to live the transformed life you were created to live, then it starts with total and complete surrender of your entire self to God.” That’s the only way it’s possible. Defeating the mind games of the enemy, the devil, begins by being transformed by the Holy Spirit of God and that transformation starts with the daily surrender of ourselves to God. And there are some unique characteristics about this surrender.

a. Surrender is a response to God’s mercy.

Look at what he says in Romans 12:1 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God,...” He says “you don’t need a reason to surrender yourself to God but if you need one, here it is-it’s because of God’s mercy that He has shown you in your life.” Leading up to this verse, Paul has talked about and mentioned God’s mercy at least ten times and he mentions it at least two more times following this verse as well. Because he wants to emphasize to the believers in the church in Rome and he wants us to keep this at the forefront of our minds as well-it is only by God’s mercy, that He has shown us, that we are saved. We are who we are only because of the mercy of Almighty God on our lives.

One theologian puts it this way, “Mercy is that compassion-based response of God to the plight of humans that causes him to forego what they deserve, punishment for sin, and give them what they do not deserve, forgiveness.” (Kenneth Boa)

Mercy from God is the only way we make it in this life. We actually deserved judgment, but God gave us forgiveness. We deserved separation, but God gave us adoption as His sons and daughters. We deserved condemnation, but God has justified us through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ for us. We deserved death, but God has given us life. And when we see our lives and God through that lens, surrender is the only option for us. It is the only response to a God who loves us and wants to transform our lives. When we begin to understand the mercy of God on us, surrender stops being about what we have to give up and starts being about what we get to give back to God. Surrender is a response to God’s mercy and...

b. Surrender involves offering everything.

Paul says “in response to God’s mercy, offer everything to God.” Look at the rest of Romans 12:1 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.”

Paul says “don’t just give part of yourself to God, don’t just give this part of your life or that part of your life and keep certain things. True surrender that brings transformation means offering everything to God.” We are to be wholly consecrated worshippers of God with every realm of our lives committed to Him. But that’s not how we live is it. Even as followers of Jesus, we struggle to offer everything to God. We give this part and that part of our lives to Him but there are certain things we think we need to hold onto and be in control of. But that’s not the language Paul is using here. To emphasize the entirety of the surrender he is talking about here, Paul uses the word “sacrifice.” Now, this would have been a startling image for Paul’s first century audience because they were familiar with sacrifices. The pagan religions of Rome in the culture that surrounded these Christ followers made sacrifices to their gods as a sign of dedication of themselves to them. But Paul introduces something revolutionary here: a living sacrifice. Think about the tension that’s in that concept. Sacrifices aren’t alive, they’re dead. In the OT, the Jewish people had to offer sacrifices to God to atone for their sin. They killed lambs in certain ways as instructed by God and the blood of those lambs covered their sin. God was worshipped in the OT by the sacrifice of animals owned by those who believed in Him but here Paul is saying that God is worshipped by the sacrifice and the surrender of the believer themselves. Instead of making a sacrifice to God, we are to be the sacrifice, living sacrifices.

And this requires us offering everything. It requires a daily surrender. So, back to defeating the mind games of the enemy. Surrendering everything to God may look like us surrendering our anxious thoughts to Him, it may look like surrendering our bitter thoughts sacrificing them on the altar of forgiveness, it may look like surrendering lustful thoughts and sacrificing them on the altar of purity and pursuit of something better that God has for us. Winning the mind games of the enemy begins with us daily surrendering everything to God and when that happens that leads to the transformed life that the Bible is talking about.

A transformed life begins with daily surrender of ourselves to God, and...

2. A transformed life resists being squeezed into the mold of the culture. (vs. 2)

This past summer on our mission trip to Honduras, we got an opportunity to do something that we had not been able to do before. On one of the days we were there, we went into a trade school in the community where we were serving and we were allowed to minister and share the Gospel with all of the students in that school. There was a huge courtyard in the center of the school and they gathered all the students together and our team shared testimonies and presented the Gospel to them and it was amazing to see the response of the students and the instructors and how powerfully God moved that day. After we were through ministering that day, the head of the school gave us a tour of all the areas and we were able to see all the specific careers that students were being trained for: there was a cooking school and welding and plumbing and so many different skills that the students were learning; but probably what was the most interesting and where we spent the most time was in the glass molding shop. This was an area where students were learning to create practical household things out of everyday glass objects. They would take glass bottles and mold them into products that could be used in practical ways in homes. And we got to see the process up close. The bottles would be placed into a machine that was super hot and they would be melted to a state where they could be molded into anything. And the students were learning how to press them into a mold to form objects like glass coasters, different decorative art pieces, and objects to be used in the kitchen. The key was placing them into a mold and applying enough pressure so that they would take on the shape of the mold they were being squeezed into.

The Apostle Paul continues with a warning to the believers in Rome and to us as followers of Jesus. He says in vs. 2...

He says “transformation begins with the call to the daily surrender of ourselves to God and the daily resistance to the conformity of the culture around us.” A way to put what Paul is saying here in common terms is this “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold.” (Phillips) Because that’s what is constantly happening, the culture around us is constantly trying to mold us into the shape it wants us to be. And the main way this happens is through influencing our thoughts and our minds. The mind games the culture plays with us are a constant battle we will face and if we don’t take our thoughts captive through daily surrender to God and daily resisting the pressure of the culture, it’s a battle we will lose.

Think about it, the culture around us is constantly pressing us into its mold and it’s attempting to do it one thought at a time. From social media algorithms to advertising strategies, we face sophisticated systems that are designed to influence us. Through media, entertainment, education, social pressure, and the relentless repetition of certain messages, the culture is working hard to shape how we think, what we value, what we pursue, and how we live.

But here’s the good news, God offers a different mold. God gives us a different pattern and blueprint for our lives. And it’s not one that shapes us and forms us into the mold of the culture, it’s one that shapes us and forms us into the image of Jesus Christ. But the choice is up to us. Because the pattern we allow our thoughts to follow will be what shapes our minds and ultimately the direction of our lives.

When it comes to conformity, here’s what we have to realize...

a. Conformity is a result of unchecked thinking.

That’s why the Apostle Paul begins with the mind. Because where our minds go, so goes everything else. It’s interesting what Paul does here. The word for “conform” is the Greek word meaning “to be molded into a certain pattern; to become behaviorally or socially similar to.” The Greek root word it stems from means “the outward form.” It’s the part of a person that changes from day to day depending on their surroundings. Think like a chameleon changing colors depending on its environment. And Paul says “don’t be like this, don’t try to match your life and your behavior to the surrounding culture.” And the way we resist this pattern of living is to daily take our thoughts captive, to keep our minds in check and surrendered to God and His Word.

So, I’m going to get a little scientific for a minute. Thousands of thoughts pass through our minds each day and each one leaves an impression. Some of our thoughts come and go but some are repetitive leaving deep grooves in our patterns of thinking. It’s like water flowing over a rock, eventually it will form a channel where the water naturally flows. And the same is true in our brains. Those repetitive thoughts form those neural pathways where our future thoughts naturally follow. Every worry we have, every truth we focus on, and every lie we believe creates pathways where our minds naturally go to. If we repeatedly have thoughts of failure, our mind becomes wired for defeat; when we replay past hurts, our mind gets programmed for pain; Even how we respond to stress is shaped by these pathways.

Conformity to the culture doesn’t just happen with one dramatic decision, conformity happens gradually through thousands of small compromises and moments of unchecked thinking in our lives. And this is nothing new, and it’s exactly what Paul is addressing as he writes to these Jesus followers in Rome. You see, these Christians in Rome are surrounded by a deeply pagan culture. The Romans worshipped many false gods and were steeped in ungodly practices in their daily lives and in their religion. Even Caesar was considered a god to be worshipped by the people. And as Paul writes to these believers in Rome surrounded by this pagan culture, he says “don’t allow your mind to think like the culture around you, which leads to living like the culture around you. Instead, think differently, live differently. Keep your heart and mind focused on God and His Word so that random, unchecked thoughts don’t lead you astray.” And the same is true for us, as those who have been redeemed from thinking like the culture around us, we must not let the culture’s messages and customs shape our way of thinking. Because when we leave our minds unguarded and allow the culture’s messages to seep in unchecked, that’s when conformity happens.

Conformity is a result of unchecked thinking, and...

b. Resisting conformity requires intentional discernment.

Paul says in vs. 2, “Do not be conformed to this age,...” It’s an urgent command and it’s actually in the present tense which means that Paul is saying “stop allowing yourself to be conformed.” It implies that it’s something that is currently going on. And for it to cease, there has to be an intentional action on the part of the Christ follower that keeps it from happening. Because resisting conformity requires intentional action. It requires an active, ongoing resistance to what the culture is offering us. It requires us recognizing that there is a battle for our thoughts and our minds taking place and that we are caught in the middle. And if we don’t intentionally discern what God calls us to do and how God calls us to live and if we don’t actively resist, what happens is we will naturally drift towards the way the culture wants us to live by default.

You see, the culture exerts pressure from the outside by trying to squeeze us into its mold but resisting that pressure and intentionally discerning how God has called us to live, comes from the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. While to world is trying to change us from the outside, God is wanting to transform us from the inside. So, we take our thoughts captive as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10. We don’t let things go unchecked but we examine our thoughts to make sure they align with God and His Word. This is how we actively resist conformity to the culture and pursue the transformation that only God can provide.

And when we do that, what we come to realize is that...

3. A transformed life is shaped by the daily renewal of our minds. (vs. 2)

Look at what the rest of vs 2 says...

You see, God has not created us to spend our lives living like the culture around us. He has not created us to settle for what this world considers pleasure. He has created us for a relationship with Him and He desires to use us to bring Him honor and glory. He has not called us to live like the world around us but to stand out from the world around us. And to point others to Him. And that only comes to us as we allow God to transform us into the people He has created us to be. But that’s a process. It begins with salvation and it’s a constant journey we will be on for the rest of our lives. But we’ve got to want it. We’ve got to want to live differently, we’ve got to see what God offers us as more valuable than what the culture offers us and we’ve got to recognize that God’s way is best. It’s only then that we will not settle for what the culture wants for us but we will pursue the transformational life God has for us.

So, if we are not to be conformed to this world, the only other option is to be transformed by God. And that transformation only comes by the daily renewal of our minds by God. The Greek word for “transformed” here is where we get our word “metamorphosis.” For me, that naturally brings to mind a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. What’s interesting is this is the same word that’s used to describe Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain when His appearance was radically changed before Peter, James, and John. It describes a transformation that is so radical that the result is dramatically different from the original.

And that’s the kind of transformation God is calling us to. It’s a transformation that is drastically different from the way we were before we surrendered our hearts and lives to Jesus. And it happens as God renews our minds day by day. So, practically, what does that look like for us?

a. First, Renewal is a result of filling our minds with God’s Word.

You see, we can’t expect our minds to be renewed if we are filling our minds with the same content over and over again. If we continue to take in the stuff of the culture, we’ll experience conformity and not transformation. For us to be truly transformed requires the renewal of our minds and the renewal of our minds requires us to change the content that we are putting into our minds. And that only comes to us by filling our minds with the Word of God. It’s why daily time with God in His Word is so important. Actually, if you’re a follower of Jesus that desire to live a transformed life, daily time in God’s Word, is not optional for you. You see, we can’t expect to have our mind renewed on Sundays alone. We can’t expect to live the transformed life God has called us to live by listening to a sermon on Sunday only and not connecting with God and His Word the other six days of the week. If we spend the other six days of the week filling our minds with everything but God’s truth, we will never experience the transformation God desires for us. Renewal of our minds requires daily, intentional, consistent intake of God’s Word. This is why we are reading through the Bible together this year. This is why we have D-Life groups and Life Groups. It’s because we want to give you as many opportunities as possible to engage with God’s Word every day. And when we do that, the result will be God renewing our minds daily and our lives being transformed by His Word.

Will we live perfectly? No. Will we still struggle with the mind games of the enemy? Yes. But will we be better equipped to win that battle? Absolutely. So, if you’re not spending time in God’s Word daily, start now. If you find yourself wrestling with anxious thoughts, stop and read the Word of God. Download a Bible App on your phone and take the Word of God with you so it is constantly accessible.

Renewal is a result of filling our minds with God’s Word and...

b. Renewal aligns our lives with God’s perfect will.

One of the greatest struggles we seem to have as followers of Jesus is figuring out God’s will for our lives. But Paul says here that when our minds are renewed by the Holy Spirit of God, it aligns our lives with God’s perfect will. You see, the pathway to discerning God’s perfect will for our lives isn’t primarily through how we feel. It comes through the renewal of our minds. Paul says in the last part of vs. 2…

When our minds are filled with God’s Word, it aligns us with His values, and when our hearts are aligned with God’s heart then we develop spiritual discernment.

I love the way one theologian puts it, “It is the will of God-His standards, his desires, his motives, his values, his practices—which gradually pull the monarch butterfly of the believer out of the world’s cocoon into which he or she has been squeezed. It is a knowledge and practice of the will of God that leads to spiritual growth and maturity in the Christian’s life.” (Boa)

Look at how Paul describes God’s will-he calls it “good and pleasing and perfect.” So, why would we want anything else? Why would we settle for anything else in this life? Again, it is coming to the realization that God knows and wants what’s best for us, so living by His standards and seeking His values and setting our hearts and minds on Him in pursuit of Him is the best way to live. And when that happens, we come to know and we are guided by God’s perfect will for us in every situation. And that becomes what we seek first. And we do that because our minds are focused daily on Him and that focus aligns our lives with God’s will for us.

And when that happens, it gives us the ability to know what God has called us to do, to live how God has called us to live, and to think how God has called us to think, which ultimately gives us direction in our lives and guides us on the pathway to the abundant, transformed life God has called us to.

Closing

Every single day we have to make the choice to surrender ourselves to God. Every single day we have to resist being squeezed into the mold of the culture. Every single day we have to fill our minds with God’s Word and allow Him to renew us. Transformation is not instant, it’s a daily process of taking these steps and as we do that, daily, we will experience the transformed life God has created us to experience.

So, here are some practical question for us to think about:

1. Have you truly surrendered your everything to God including your mind? First and foremost, is He your Lord and Savior. Or are you trying to maintain control of certain areas and, all along, your losing the mind games the enemy is throwing at you?

2. What messages from the culture are you allowing to shape your thinking?

3. Are you being transformed daily by God and His Word or do you find yourself going down the path of conformity?

The choice is ours-will we choose conformity or will we choose to be transformed?