Renewal of the Mind
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How Can We Present Ourselves Living Sacrifices?
How Can We Present Ourselves Living Sacrifices?
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
The question for us is, how do we do that?
Rebel Against the Culture
Rebel Against the Culture
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The first way that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice is by now allowing ourselves to be conformed to the image of this world.
31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
There are two different parts to this phrase which will serve us well to understand:
1 corin
Do not be conformed-- μὴ συσχηματίζεσθε
The word that Paul that we get the word “conform” from is the greek word
μὴ συσχηματίζεσθε
To the image of this age/culture/world-- τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ
τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ
Be Transformed by Renewing our Mind
Be Transformed by Renewing our Mind
A Greek-English Lexicon μεταμορφόω
μεταμορφόω
To be transformed…
If we desire to offer up lives to the Lord as pleasing sacrifices, it will only happen if we first—Rebel against the world’s system—and be transformed into God’s system--
And the way we do that is the key to this verse and what I want us to discuss tonight...
Paul tells us that the way we are transformed is by renewing our minds...
So we need to ask a couple of questions at the outset, here. Why do we need our minds renewed? What does it mean to renew our minds? Finally, how can we renew our minds?
Why do we need to renew our minds?
The mind is the center of who we are as human beings. In many ways, the way Paul uses the word, “mind” here is very similar to how other Biblical writers used the word heart. In fact, I would say that these two words are getting at the same thing. They are both words that the Biblical writers used to describe the innermost parts of a person. Our character, our will, our affections, our desires…these are the things about us that make us who we are. This is what Paul means when he uses the word, “mind”
Often times in the
And the reason we must renew our minds is found in what we are told about the state of our hearts and minds prior to being converted that we find in
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
From these vereses, we see that the human mind, apart from divine intervention, is enslaved to worldly passions and patterns of thinking. No is capable of choosing the things of God, because God has given our minds over to what our hearts truly wanted…sin.
In fact seems to give us at least 26 reasons why our minds need to be renewed:
Our Minds:
Suppress the truth about God
Don’t honor God
Don’t worship God
Is futile in it’s thinking
Foolish
Darkened
Attracted to idols
loves sin
worships and serves the creature rather than the creator
Bent toward sexual promiscuity
Filled with Unrighteous
Evil
Covetousness
Gossip
Slander
Hates God
is insolent
haughty
boastful
inventive of evil
disobedient
full foolishness
faithless
heartless
ruthless
and celebratory of sin
This is “system” or form of the world that Paul tells us to avoid…and the truth is that we are all born into that way of thinking. And therefore our minds have been discipled to think like this from birth until the moment of our conversion.
Therefore we must renew our minds if we desire to offer up our lives as living sacrifices to the Lord…because our minds havent been born to think this way...
I want to just take one second here and say that the “why” for renewing our minds is self-evident to the believer. The reason why is because as Paul says in we have put off the old-self, which belonged to our former ways of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires—and as a believer—we are putting on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
We renew our minds because being transfomed into the likeness and character of Christ was the entire purpose for which we were saved in the first place. tells us that the entire purpose for our salvation was for the purpose of becoming holy and blameless!
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Therefore, let me just say this outright—if you lack having any desire at all to be transformed by the renewal of your mind so that you can become submissive to God’s will for your life—you probably arent actually a born again Christian. If there is no desire, whatsoever, in your heart to be transformed by God—if you are just okay with being conformed to the image of the culture, you just dont know the Lord yet....and we can fix that tonight…but I dont want you to be wondering why you dont really care about being transformed or why youre just okay with living in your sin…it’s because you aren’t a Christian and you don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside you.
ephesians 1:4
How do we renew our minds?
So this is the really cool part in my opinion…this is one of those “ah-ha” moments where science really does line up with exactly what scripture says in a really cool way.
You see God designed our brains—our minds— to be transformed. Over and over again, if you look at the scientific discoveries about the brain you will find that our brains have this remarkable capacity to “rewire” itself—literally. Like what you feed your mind creates these neurological pathways that shape your emotions, desires, your thoughts, your dreams, and your passions. So quite literally, what you put in…you get out…and what you put in…you will want to put more of it in…Your brain will literally remap itself to like the things you make it like…it’s called nueroplasicity—im over simplifying the process—but you get the idea.
There are these sections in our brain that are designed for pleasure and pain. When we experience pain, or anxiety, or stress…our patuitary gland signals to our prefrontal cortex that our body is in a fight and sends a fight or flight chemical called cortisol. Cortisol isnt bad…it’s God’s way of making us focus really well. (this is why some of you procrastinate…because you are a machiene under the influence of cortisol…it’s like the bodies built in ADD medication).
Here is how we renew our minds: we allow God’s Word to transform us....
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The way that God transforms us by renewing our minds is through the power of His word!
His word teaches us, reproves us, corrects us, and trains us for righteousness—it makes us complete and equipped for every good work.
So here is the take-away tonight...
If we desire to be living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God…we need to rebel against the culture and be transformed by allowing God’s Word to renew our minds.
Read scripture, listen to scripture, sing scripture, memorize scripture, be held accountable to scripture, hear scripture preached, read books about scripture…because the Holy Spirit uses His scripture as a scapula to transform his people…by the renewal of their minds...