Renewing Our Mind - Renovation of the Heart

Welcome to Trinity Sermons. Thanks for joining us today here at Trinity Church

Streetsville as we journey together to love Jesus, live like Jesus and lead

others to Jesus. This is episode 3 of our sermon series, Renovation of the Heart,

and we're excited to have Rob Hirkmans back with us today. In our message today,

Rob is going to be talking about the need for the transformation of our minds,

or in other words, the importance of changing the way we think if we want to

transform our lives spiritually. Definitely a relevant and relatable talk

today that you don't want to miss. Just before we get started, please make sure

to follow our podcast so we can better reach even more people with the good news.

God bless.

Our reading from Romans, chapter 12, verses 1 to 3.

Romans 12:1–3

Copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a

new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will

for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Because of the privilege and

authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning. Don't think you are

better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring

yourselves by the faith God has given us. The word of the Lord.

Amen.

So when it comes to home renovations, I am definitely no Scott. I've done a

little bit of plumbing, maybe done some flooring or something like that.

But definitely when it comes to wiring and electricity, I steer clear of that 100%.

In fact, even the other day I went and I got a new shirt at the store and I came

home and I found it was picking up a whole lot of static electricity.

And so I took it back and they gave me a new one, free of charge.

Oh yeah. No, no. Electricity is no laughing matter. In fact, when our kids

were growing up, if they were playing with electricity, you know what we would

do? We would ground them. Oh gosh. Okay, enough, enough. You know, when it comes

to electricity, I mean, it is kind of mysterious. It is kind of dangerous. You

know, I look at this and I don't even know what, I mean, what do these wires mean?

There's a red wire, there's a black wire, there's a white wire.

I actually don't even think electricians know what these wires mean.

They just kind of like stick them around and plug them in places and they hope for

the best, right? But today we're not here to talk about renovating your house.

We're here to talk about the work that God can do in renovating our hearts.

We're in the middle of a teaching series called Fixer Upper.

And the idea of this is, is how do we renovate our spiritual lives, renovate our

hearts? You see, a lot of us, we walk around and we look at our spiritual life

and it feels a bit like this. It feels run down and worn out.

And we've kind of gotten used to that. Like, we don't have a lot of joy,

we don't have a lot of satisfaction or peace in our life. But we kind of say,

that's just my life, that's just the way it is, that's just the way I'm going to

have to get used to things. But that's actually not true because there is this,

this spiritual process called spiritual formation that we can intentionally

embark upon, which allows us to change our worn out spiritual home into something

far more beautiful where we can actually experience the peace and the joy and the

contentment and the delight that God had in store for us.

Now, it takes work and it takes time and it takes the power of the Holy Spirit.

But wouldn't you rather live in this house than the other house?

So that's what we're talking about here at church these days,

a spiritual renovation. Now, you might say, well, this sounds great, Rob.

I love to do a spiritual renovation like that in my life. Where do I start?

Should I start by trying to change my behaviors and actions?

Is that where I should start? No. We're going to talk about that in a few weeks.

Maybe you say, oh, maybe I should start by changing some of my feelings,

some of those feelings I've got deep down inside of me. No, we're going to talk

about that actually next week. Or what about the relationships in my life?

Because some of those relationships have a lot to do with how I'm doing

spiritually. And we're going to get to that as well.

But that is not the place that you start.

A spiritual renovation of your heart always begins with a rewiring,

a rewiring of your thoughts. Or as the apostle Paul would say,

he'd say, don't be conformed to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed through the renewing of your mind.

Or the more contemporary version that we read this morning said,

don't be conformed to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by changing the way that you think.

So that's right. When you begin a spiritual renovation in your life,

it begins with rewiring your thoughts and rewiring your mind.

Some people, I think when they come to church, they come and they want God

to start the work on the outside already. They want God to change their circumstances.

They want God to change their situation or maybe some of the problems

that they're facing in life. But God actually always has to address

what's happening inside of you. And I would argue to a great extent,

no real change will happen in your life until change has taken place

in your thoughts. Why is that? Why does God begin this renovation

in our lives by beginning with our thoughts? Well, there's a few reasons.

First of all, your thoughts control your life, right?

Every single action that you do begins with a thought.

If you don't think it, then chances are you don't do it.

Good thoughts or bad thoughts. Good thoughts lead to good actions.

Bad thoughts lead to bad actions. As the writer of Proverbs says,

be careful how you think because your life is shaped by your thoughts.

If your thoughts tell you you are ugly and you are no good

and you'll never amount to anything, those thoughts will shape your life.

But if your thoughts tell you you are a child of God, you are so valuable

to God and you have been gifted by God, those thoughts will also shape

and change your life. So that's one of the reasons why we got to start

by talking about our renovation with our thoughts because our thoughts

are the things that control our life. But secondly, it's also true that

in our minds, there is a major conflict going on. Our minds are a battleground.

Everybody wants control of your mind. The world wants control of your mind.

Advertisers want control of your mind. Politicians want control of your mind.

Culture does. Social media does. Influencers does. God wants control

of your mind. And the evil one, Satan, also wants to get control of your mind.

And you might not even be aware that this battle is going on for your mind,

but they all are aware that whoever gets your mind, whoever gets your attention

gets you. So as Paul writes in Romans 7, he says,

there is this power within me that is at war with my mind.

This is warfare language. There is a battle going on for your mind

and for your attention. And then the third reason why we got to start

this renovation by talking about our thoughts and our minds is because

your mind is the place of true contentment and happiness.

Your happiness depends to a large extent upon your thoughts.

The way you think will make a difference whether you're a person who is tense

or tranquil or whether you're chaotic or confident, whether you have

a pressured approach to life or a peaceful approach to life,

that a renovated mind has a peace of mind to it.

So again, as Paul writes, if your sinful nature controls your mind,

there's death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind,

then there is life and peace. So we have to talk about our minds.

Our minds is the place where we experience control.

It's a place that's a highly conflicted space, and it's also the source of our

contentment. And if you can, therefore, renovate your mind according to the way

that God intends and with the Holy Spirit's help, you'll live a life of

self-control and peace and contentment. But if you don't, you know what?

You'll live a life that feels out of control and conflicted and very unhappy.

So I don't know which you would prefer. I know which I would prefer.

Now, a lot of people, though, will immediately object and they'll say,

well, Rob, that sounds very good, but my mind doesn't work that way.

I can't change my thinking. I've tried. You know, my mind can't be changed.

You know, like for example, don't think of a pink elephant.

Oh, see? Now I'm thinking of a pink elephant.

See, I can't tell my mind what to do. My mind keeps going back to kind of old

thoughts and negative memories. And the more I try to steer my mind away from

those things, the more that's where it goes. And so that's why we come up with

expressions like, oh, you can't teach an old dog new tricks or I'm just stuck in

my ways. But this is simply untrue. And we have to debunk this this morning

because not only does God say that you can change your thinking, but science

today tells us that you can change your thinking. For decades, you see,

scientists thought that the human brain was pretty much set in its way,

like you developed in childhood and then it solidified like concrete and there was

virtually no changing it. But that's just not true because neuroplasticity is a

scientific fact. Your brain can restructure itself. Old neural pathways

can wither and die. New neural pathways can be formed. And that means that old

thoughts and old habits and old addictions and old hurts in your life, in

your mind, in your thoughts can be replaced and renovated into something

new. It was like a hundred years ago that one of the first neuroscientists said

this, any man could, if he were so inclined, be a sculptor of his own brain.

Because now we know that where attention goes, neural connection grows. That is

all to say that science and faith are lined up on this one to say that you can

change your thinking, you can change your mind, you can change your thoughts, or as

the Bible puts it, you could be transformed through the renewing of your

minds. So how do we do it? How do we do this? Well, we do it the exact same way

that Scott was doing in the video that we saw there. We rip out and replace, rip

out and replace. We're gonna rip out the old wiring that kind of makes up our

minds and our thoughts and replace it with something new. And actually,

coincidentally, I want to talk today about three specific wires that we need

to rip out and replace from our thinking. First, we have to rip out and replace the

old ideas, replace them with new ideas, rip out our old, the images that occupy

our minds and replace them with new images. And thirdly, finally, we've got to

rip out some of that misinformation and that just the wrong stuff that

we're believing these days and replace it with God's truth, real information

instead. So that's all we're going to talk about this morning is how do we

rewire our ideas, our images, and that information in our minds. Let's start

with ideas. Ideas are so essential to how you approach life. You don't even, we

aren't even aware of the ideas that are so deeply embedded in our minds. When I

say things like freedom, an idea of what that is just comes to your mind. When I

say things like politics or truth or if I say happiness or justice, these ideas

just fly to your mind, right? They're in there. They're just deeply

embedded in there. If I say things like Christianity or God or Jesus, you have

ideas, each and every one of you have a deeply held idea of what those things

mean. And maybe you got those ideas from culture, maybe you got those ideas from

your teacher or from media. I don't know where it came from, but we hold on to our

ideas very, very, very, very tightly. We have ideas about everything. Ideas about

ethics, ideas about politics, ideas about life and death. They're not just opinions.

I'm not talking about opinions. I'm talking about ideas. And trying to

change someone's ideas is so hard. It is like ripping out wiring from a wall with

all your strength. That's why changing your mind when you've got your mind made

up about something, it is so incredibly painful. You've got an idea about

something and another idea comes along. You are gonna reject that other idea

because the prospect of changing your mind, the prospect of actually thinking

of a different idea is just so painful and so taxing that you would just rather

not do it. I was trying to think of an example of people who have, you know, very

very tightly held ideas. You know, there are some people out there these days who

really do believe that the earth is flat, right? And this is an idea that has

gotten into their mind and is a very, very, very deeply held idea and it's very

hard to convince them otherwise because it's right in there. I should say that

actually for four years I too thought the earth was flat, but then I turned five.

So, but changing your mind is a very, very painful, painful process.

That's actually why when people come to Christianity, I mean we just heard Nicole

give her story about coming to Christianity. It sounded like a

beautiful experience for her. That's not the case for everyone. Sometimes when

people come to Christianity it's absolutely wrenching. It's like a

mental breakdown is happening. It's a revolution in your mind. Why is that?

Because you're having to rip out all the old ideas of who you thought you were

and who you thought God was and what you thought life was all about. Those all

got to be ripped out and put new wiring in its place, but it's absolutely

essential to the process of spiritual transformation, changing these ideas

around. Dallas Willard, he said, we need to replace in ourselves those idea

systems of evil with idea systems that Jesus Christ embodied and taught. Not all

ideas are created equally, my friends. Let me give you an example of how a bad

idea can lead to destruction, how a good idea can lead to life. You've all

probably heard the story of Adam and Eve in the in the book of Genesis. You know

that Adam and Eve ultimately they ate the forbidden fruit. They turned their

back on God and it was just a catastrophic falling away and rebellion

from God. But what we don't realize is it all started with a very tricky, sneaky,

pernicious idea. When Satan wanted to draw Eve away from God, he didn't hit her

with a stick, he hit her with an idea. The idea was this, hey, did God really

say that you shouldn't eat from these this tree over here? Oh, you know, God, he

is actually hiding something from you. And just in that moment, Satan planted an

idea, the idea that God couldn't be trusted, an idea that God's keeping

something from you. God doesn't have your best interests in mind. You're gonna

have to look out for yourself. God isn't who you think God is. And the idea took

root in Eve's mind and and just like that she said, oh yeah, you know, I think

you're right. I think God is hiding something from us. I don't think he

really does care for us. You know, many people still have that idea in their

minds today. They still believe deep in their minds God can't be trusted. God is

somehow depriving you of something or God is up to something and he's keeping

secrets from you or and we have to take matters into our own hands. That is a bad

idea. Those are bad ideas, wrong ideas. We need to rip those out. Let me give you an

example of a good, a great, a life-giving idea. And that was, Jesus had this great

idea called the Kingdom of God. He said, it was a crazy idea, he said, in God's

kingdom, what if, what if the first were last and the last were first? What if the

greatest were least and the least were greatest? What if those who really were

seeking to save their life, they're the ones who lose their life, but those who

lose their life, for my sake, are the ones who truly find what life is all about.

It was such an upside-down idea. It was a mind-blowing, beautiful idea. Needless to

say, most people couldn't handle it and they killed him, right, because it

conflicted with their idea of how the world should be, their idea of how power

should be brokered. Even today, I have to tell you, Christians around the world,

they are persecuted and they are killed. Why? Because their ideas are coming into

conflict with the ideas, systems, and the people and the powers of the world. Those

who can't change their minds can't change anything. So let me ask you this, when was

the last time you changed your mind? Whose idea, whose ideas are you believing

these days? Have you embraced the idea of Jesus Christ? Have you kind of really

rewired your thinking with his idea of the kingdom of God? Or do you still

have the bad wiring, the outdated wiring of Adam and Eve in there? I'm telling you,

that stuff is older than knob and tube. It is going to blow up and burn

down your whole soul, right? It's gonna kill you. So we've got to rip out our old

ideas and put in God's new ideas. That is the first wire that needs to be replaced.

Let's talk about the second one though. It's not only that our ideas need to be

replaced, but also our images. The images that we have in our mind need to be

ripped out and replaced. Those images that I'm talking about are like, you know,

so for example, if I were to say to you the word cool or lame or beautiful or

successful or ugly, it isn't just an idea that would come to your mind, it's an

image that would come to your mind. What does cool look like? What does ugly look

like? What does lame look like? And these images we use not just to...they

don't just kind of come this way, we actually use images as well to

communicate things to others. The way we dress is an image. How long our hair is,

the color of our hair, the flags that we fly, the cars that we drive, these are

all images that we are using to communicate ideas to the world around us.

Even in church, even in church images are pretty powerful. Casual dress versus

robes, that's a powerful image, right? Drums versus pipe organs, right? Incense

versus smoke machines and laser beams, right? These are all powerful and often

conflicting images about how we see the world and what we see as important. Why

are images so important? I'll tell you why images, because images appeal to our

emotions. They claim our attention without uttering a word. They can

persuade and repel and charm us and this is what I love. They could be so absorbed,

instantly absorbed by anyone and all you got to do is see. No one's got to argue

with you about this. You just see the image and all of a sudden it's doing its

work on you. And we live in an image saturated world. There are images

absolutely everywhere, but when we take in the wrong images in our minds or

the distorted image, it really, it hurts our soul. There are two images in

particular we got to get right and that is our image of ourself and our image of

God. Here's what I mean. If you got the wrong image of yourself, it will destroy

your spiritual life. You may have a greatly inflated image of who you are,

but also you may have a greatly diminished image. Maybe you grew up in a

household where you're constantly being rejected or abused and told you were no

good and you would never amount to anything and you started to believe

those voices and that changed your self-image, right? And now that's still

how you feel today. That's how you see yourself today. Or how about social media?

Social media is another huge culprit in the distortion of our own self-image.

Time magazine 2021 had this headline, Instagram makes teen girls hate

themselves. Because why? Because Instagram is so based on images. It causes teenagers

to feel really, really bad about their bodies because they can't achieve the

images that they're seeing out there even though they're all doctored, that

they feel awkward and they feel ugly and they feel unlovable. It's a distorted

image. You get a distorted image of who you are and those images, all of them, they

need to be ripped out of our minds and they need to be replaced with the true

image of who we are. And what is the true image of who we are? That we are created

in God's image, the image of God. And because we are all created in the image

of God, we have beauty and we have dignity and we have a worth that no one

can take away. If you pull that thought through your mind in place of those old

images, if you can run that wire through your mind that I am made in the image of

God, that will renovate your soul. You're a child of God. You are a new creation

made in His image. But the second image that we got to get right is not just

our self-image. We got to get right our image of God and we've got a whole bunch

of messed up, incorrect images of God that are floating around in our mind. I

wanted to just name a few of them for you this morning. How about this one? The

divine traffic cop image of God. That image is like, oh God is just hiding out

there behind a cloud waiting to pull us over for the things we've done wrong. You

got to rip that one out of your mind, right? Or how about this? God as the

non-judgmental drinking buddy, right? God doesn't really care how we act. He'll

just support us no matter what, right? You got to rip that image out of your mind.

That is not the right image of God. Or how about God as the cosmic vending

machine? As long as you put in enough prayers, as long as you put in enough

Bible reading, as long as you do what God wants, then He will give you whatever you

want. Rip it out. Rip it out. That is a false image of who God is. Or how about

God the puppet master? God is the one who causes all these things to happen.

Natural disasters, that's Him. Cancer, that's Him. Letting kids die, that's God.

You got to rip that image out of your mind. That is not the image of God. Or

how about this one, last one? God the party pooper God. He is just there to

make your life miserable, right? Rip it out. Rip it out. All these images of God

are just bad wiring. And I don't know whether you got them from grandma or

from some priest back from when you were just a kid, but it needs to be ripped out

and replaced by the true image of God. And you say, well Rob, that'd be really

easy if we actually had a true image of what God was like. Who can say what God

is really, really like? Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the

exact imprint of His nature. He, Jesus Christ, is the visible image of the

invisible God. Whatever image of God you have in your mind, in your head, if it

does not line up with what you can see Jesus doing or what you read Jesus

saying or what you experience about Jesus, then rip it out and throw it away

and replace it with Jesus. Jesus is the image of God. He's the exact imprint of

God. So we're rewiring our thoughts. We're rewiring our ideas. We're rewiring

our images, our images of ourself and our image of God. And finally we need to

rewire the information that we have in our hearts and minds. We got to rip that

out and replace it too. Here's the thing. Without good information there can be

no spiritual transformation and no soul renovation. If you don't have the right

information to work with, how can you possibly make the right decisions in

life? We all know what it's like to have the wrong information. I missed the bus.

Darn it. I had the wrong information about the schedule. Or I failed the test.

I guess I didn't study the right thing or I didn't understand the concepts. I had

the wrong information. Or I took the wrong medication. Oh my goodness, I thought

I was supposed to take two pills and I was only supposed to take one. I had the

wrong information. Or how about even more dire? Somebody marches an army into battle

into certain destruction. Why? Because they had the wrong information. They

didn't realize the enemy was waiting for them. They didn't realize that they were

that strong. All because they had the wrong information. But the stakes have

never been higher than when it comes to the information that we have about God.

Without knowing who God is and what God is like, how can we experience any kind

of spiritual transformation? Or how can our society experience something better?

That's why the prophet Hosea once wrote this. He said that my people are just

destroyed for lack of knowledge. Man, if you Google what is God's like, I did this,

you get 3.5 billion results. But how the heck do you know who's right,

who's wrong, right? That we live in this world that is full of misinformation, of

false information, of fake news, and alternative facts, right? Yes. So yes, our

minds are so wonderful. They can take in and they can process information. But if

we don't have access to the right information, then we're done before we

start. The old saying is true. Garbage in, garbage out. How do we get the right

stuff in our minds? Which wires are the live wires and which ones are the

dead ones? Which ones have truth and which ones are just lies? Where do we get

what we need to be a renewed people? Well, I want to just close with a couple

thoughts here. Jesus at a time in his life, he also was puzzled and worried

about who to believe. Who to believe. He was being tempted by all sorts of

different ideas. And in his moment of weakness, he remembered this, that people

do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

And that means there is no getting around this idea. That transforming your

thoughts and renewing your mind and renovating your spiritual life means

reading and meditating and memorizing the words in these scriptures. And that's

why one of the best investments you can make if you're serious about renewing

your mind and transforming your life is a good Bible. A good Bible and a

translation that works for you and a good reading plan that works for you as

well. Now you may say, oh but Rob, I'm not a good memorizer. I've never been good at

reading the Bible and I've never been good at kind of taking things in like that. But

if we've learned nothing else from today's sermon than this is that that's

just not true. That is a myth. Our minds are capable of far more than you're

getting it credit for and that there's amazing possibilities of growth and

potential if we would just be disciplined and start to form some of

those new pathways in our minds. Our minds can be renewed and they will be

as we meditate and memorize these words. A renovation will begin to happen. That's

one of the reasons why we so encourage people here at Trinity to join life

groups. Because one of the things they do in life groups is when they gather they

gather around these words and they open up this book and they say, God show us

something that is true and real. God teach me the truth about who I am. God

teach me the truth about who you are. God with all the misinformation that is out

there and tries to hurt me, God give me some truth and rewire my mind to heal me.

If you're interested in joining a life group I would strongly recommend visit

Sally out at the welcome desk after the service and she can point you in the

right direction. And so in closing I don't know how all this is gonna sit

with you. You know I remember that one of Jesus very first disciples Peter when he

heard about all that Jesus was offering and his ideas of rewiring your mind and

thinking differently and replacing old images. Peter was like I'm gonna walk

away. I can't handle this. This is too much. This is too painful. I can't go

through all that work. But just at the moment that he was gonna walk away he

kind of stopped and he turned around and he said, oh gosh now who am I kidding?

Who am I kidding? Where am I gonna go? Of all the voices out there in the world

only your words Jesus give us eternal life. So rip out and replace. Rip out the

old ideas and put in some new ideas. The ideas of Jesus kingdom. Rip out and

replace the worn-out images and put in the right images of God's image and your

true self image. And then finally rip out all the misinformation and replace it in

your life with the truth of God's Word. That's a renovation of your heart and it

starts with the rewiring of your minds. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us today and it's our hope that together we can

change our ideas, images, and information in our minds to better reflect the truth

of our world and the truth of God's kingdom. And if you enjoyed the show

today please take a minute to rate and review our podcast so that we can

continue to spread the good news to others. Today's sermon was taken from the

June 25th 2023 10 a.m. service at Trinity Church Streetsville in Mississauga

Ontario. Come again soon and thanks again for listening.