The First Step in Renewing Our
Minds
Romans 12:2
October 9th 2011 AM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
I.
Introduction (Psalm 119:9)
A.
We are told
that we must renew our minds as Christians.
1.
Revive our
minds from apathy, and sinful tendencies
2.
Restore our
minds to their proper use and purpose
3.
Daily!
B.
Our minds
FIRST need to be cleaned up!
1.
The things
that occur between our two ears are hurting us more than we admit – and yet
we spend very little time and effort making sure this most marvellous organ
of our body is clean and functioning well!
2.
When any of
us got born again, we didn’t leave our minds behind… we just had them fixed,
washed, cleansed, renewed – so that we can use them for right!
3.
It’s like
putting all kinds of grunge, and dirty petrol and diesel into your engine
and thinking it will just keep running. I mistakenly put petrol briefly in
our diesel van there several years ago, and nearly ruined the engine – the
diesel had to be flushed out, the fuel filter had to be replaced. If I had
driven it very far at all, the cylinders would have melted, and the fuel
pump would have burned out because of lack of any lubricant.
C.
So many
people live with filth-filled minds, and need a good flushing out – a good
cleaning
D.
I aim to do
that this morning! With the aid of this Book! Pay attention to what the
Bible says about fixing the mind, and you will have a life, a clean
conscience, a walk with God that carries no guilt or shame!
II.
Background
A.
What is the
Mind?
1.
Our mind is what governs our life
a.
We are not vegetables, or blobs of skin and bones
b.
We have a mind that can mould and shape the world around us to match what we
envision in our heads!
c.
Our mind decides what our heart can feel
d.
Our mind decides what our lips say
e.
Our mind is what decides where our feet take us
f.
Our mind decides what our eyes look at
g.
Our mind, is what governs, and directs our whole life!
2.
It is how you think. It’s the way you think about things.
3.
It is the source of all your thoughts – what you think, why you think them.
4.
It is your memory storage unit
5.
It is your realm of dreams and design – our imagination
6.
It is the courtroom where you weigh evidence and make decisions.
7.
It is where your will is decided upon.
8.
It is our conscience
9.
It is the most marvellous thing!
a.
It can store and remember memories from our earliest childhood
b.
It can remember smells, textures
c.
It can instantly weigh up facts and make decisions
10.
It is what we love God with (Mark 12:30)!
a.
We do not love God with just our hearts or just our minds, but both.
b.
Not just being "intellectual" about our faith, but thinking and feeling
about what we believe.
B.
What’s Wrong
With the Mind?
1.
We all start
off with messed up minds. Blinded, darkened, lust driven, animalistic,
defiled, ruined
a.
Gen
6:5,11,12 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. It leads to all violence and corruption, tyranny!
b.
You may
think your mind is doing pretty good, but God sees our thoughts and
imaginations as they really are – vain, selfish, sinful (Ps 94:11)
c.
What goes
through your mind are not just “thoughts” but the seeds to all your actions
1)
If you hate
someone, you will end up hurting them
2)
If you lust
after someone, you will end up committing adultery
2.
It is
defiled by our heart – which is ruined beyond repair (Jer 17:9; Mark
7:20-23). Wicked Thoughts Come from the Heart
3.
It is fed by
our flesh (Ephesians 2:3). Be careful what you allow your flesh to do – your
eyes to watch; your ears to hear!
C.
There are
basically only two kinds of minds (Rom 8:6)
D.
Which mind
do you have, and which kind of mind do you want this morning?
E.
I would like
to show you this morning how to clean up your mind, and how to live with a
clean mind, and a clear conscience, and have strong, simple thinking that
gives no place to the devil!
III.
Message - How to Clean Up a
Wicked, Filthy, Sin Infested, Dark, Damned Mind
A.
What Does It Mean to Clean Up
the Mind?
1.
For the
pagan, the religious but lost, it is called Illuminating the mind (2Cor 4:4)
– filling with truth where once was only ignorance of God and especially
Jesus Christ!
a.
Not like the
cults!
1)
Here are the
thoughts of a man named Clarence, on a blog he wrote on the Mind.
2)
“In A New
Earth, spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now)
advocates present moment awareness and the dismantling of the ego as the
path towards awakened living. A New Earth gets its title from a Bible verse
referring to the rising of "a new heaven and a new earth." According to
Tolle, "heaven" is the awakened state that will bring about "a new earth".
3)
This book
will make you an intellegent life form. It will open your mind to the
transporter, black hole input and white hole output. The Universe is a
machine and only through understanding, working within the machine, is deep
space transport possible. The nature of symmetry is the truth mathematically
and spiritually.
4)
Ah, huh!
b.
But like
Jesus!
2.
For the
Christian, cleansing is referred to as Renewing the mind (Rom 12:2)
a.
Revive our
minds from apathy, and sinful tendencies, to think right thoughts like
Christ did
b.
A constant
maintaining of a clean conscience, wild and wonderful imagination, joyful
attitude, and powerful, victorious decision making!
c.
Steve Jobs
should not be a rare innovator in the world today!
d.
Bible
believing Christians who learn how to renew their mind in this Book, will
change the world far greater than any ipod or ipad ever could!
To Clean Up
Your Thinking…
B.
Jesus is the First Step
(Mark 5:15)
1.
Cleansing is
NOT going to happen by sheer will power
2.
Only with
Jesus, comes a new mind!
3.
He is the
repairer of the breach – of all that is broken (Isa 58:12; 53:4-6)
4.
As the
perfect and final Lamb of God (John 1:29; 19:30)
5.
He offers a
new, clean, sound mind to every person on this planet!
6.
He already
did what had to be done to clean up your mind, your thoughts, your whole
life
7.
Get born
again. Invite HIM into your life, and you are 99% of the way to a clean,
stable, sound mind!
C.
Identify – Take Inventory of
What is in Your Mind (Psalm 139:23,24; Eph
2:2,3; 4:22-31)
1.
That’s a
scary request!
2.
Quit
ignoring what is in there
3.
Start taking
a good hard look at the thoughts that come out of your heart, and are thrown
around in your mind
4.
Your heart
feeds into your mind
5.
Your flesh
fulfils your mind’s desires
6.
These two
influences on your mind ruin your life!
7.
YOUR MIND
should be what influences your heart, and your MIND should be in charge of
your body! Not the other way around!
8.
Do you have
any idea what is IN your mind?
a.
All the past
images, conversations, experiences, feelings, successes and failures
b.
Every
hurtful word you ever heard – and every hurtful word you ever said –
recorded
c.
Every TV
show, and movie you have ever watched
d.
Every sinful
act you ever participated in
e.
Every
emotion and feeling that you felt when you were doing any of the above!
9.
All that
stuff has an effect. It produces guilt, sorrows, fears, and sometimes joy.
10.
But, if you
are not careful about what you allow to roam free in that head of yours, it
will all only harden your heart and mind, and sear your conscience, and ruin
your life!
a.
Eph 4:19
“past feeling”
b.
1Tim 4:1,2
“their conscience seared” – burned out
D.
Hate What’s In Your Mind and
Heart
1.
A carnal
mind is any mind that tries to live its own way – by its own rules
a.
It is an
animal’s mind – only seeking to eat and reproduce
b.
It is a way
of thinking that ignores God
2.
We allow in
our minds what we would never allow in our actions
3.
You cannot
ever love God AND still love the sins that easily flow in your heart. No
worldly way of thinking can co-exist with the new mind of Christ (Luke
16:13)
4.
God already
KNOWS is in your heart and hates it
5.
He is
waiting for US to hate it too!
6.
You cannot
compartmentalise your mind
a.
Have some
ungodly thoughts in one corner
b.
Have some
godly, clean thoughts in another corner
c.
The
Christian governs all thoughts by their relationship with Jesus Christ
7.
Repentance
begins in the Mind. 1Ki 8:47 Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the
land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication
unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have
sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;
E.
Mortify What is In Your
Thoughts (
1.
To mortify
is to render lifeless, to starve out, to allow to die, and then bury!
2.
You WON’T
kill off what you still love, so change your mind about what you are loving
in your mind and heart! That’s where Biblical hatred comes in!
3.
Cast down
whatever should not be there (2Cor 10:5)
a.
Describes
the pulling down (deposing) of a wicked ruler
b.
So that the
rightful Lord of your life can take the throne again!
4.
Purge –
apply the blood of Christ – it sterilises all sin! Memorise these
Scriptures!
a.
1John 1:7
b.
Rev 1:5
c.
Hebrews
9:13,14
F.
Overwhelm What’s In Your Mind
– the most important thing
1.
The Bible
never commands us to CLEAR our mind, but to CLEAN it!
2.
The
principle is to overwhelm evil with good (Rom 12:21; Gal 5:16)
3.
People are
so used to turning to drugs and drink, and to wild parties to overwhelm…
boredom, depression, guilt!
4.
What should
we get to overwhelm our minds???
a.
The Mind of
Jesus Christ – with HIS way of thinking (Philp 2:4-7) – let it blow you away
b.
The Words of
Christ (John 15:3;
c.
The Love OF
God (Rom 5:5)
1)
So many
people struggle day after day simply because they have never been loved, or
even known that they are loved!
2)
Allow
yourself to be loved by God, as you are! Messed up and ruined!
3)
Accept the
fact that He loves you, and gave Himself FOR you (Gal 2:20)
4)
Just sit and
thank God for loving a sinner like you!
d.
Your own
love FOR God (Mk 12:30)
1)
Hey, start
loving God back
2)
It cleans
you when you start using your heart on GOD instead of on sinful things!
e.
A load of
praise
1)
I can’t
emphasize this enough!
2)
No more
complaining, fault finding. Spend a load of time remembering only the
goodness of God
3)
1Sa 12:24
Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider
how great things he hath done for you.
4)
Psa 94:19 In
the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.
f.
All these
following efforts cleanse the heart – no matter how filthy!
G.
Believe It Works!
Reckon it all to be so (Rom 6:11)!
1.
God
Overrules Men’s Imaginations! (Gen 50:20)
2.
It doesn’t
matter how you feel, as much as what God feels and says in the Bible (1John
3:20)
3.
2Tim 1:7 God
constantly gives us a Sound Mind
4.
Don’t let
the devil or any other creature ruin your clean mind now – protect it. Build
it up (as we will learn next week)
5.
And if you
ever are struggling in your mind again, just remember…
a.
Jesus took
the First Step (Mark 5:15)
b.
So
constantly Take Inventory of What is in Your Mind (Psalm 139:23,24)
c.
Hate What
gets in Your Mind and Heart
d.
Mortify What
is In Your Thoughts (
e.
Overwhelm
What’s In Your Mind – don’t just try and replace it
1)
With the
Mind of Jesus Christ – with HIS way of thinking (Philp 2:4-7) – let it blow
you away
2)
With the
Words of Christ (John 15:3;
3)
With the
Love OF God (Rom 5:5)
4)
With your
own love FOR God (Mk 12:30)
5)
With a load
of praise
6)
Believe It
Works! Reckon it all to be so (Rom 6:11)!