Becoming a New Creation Part 2

If you've not been with us, if you've not been with us, our theme for this year is come and see.

If you'll kickstart my slideshow there, Lisa, there we go.

And we say that come and see, an invitation to come and see is an invitation to transformation.

We believe that. And so a couple weeks ago, we started a new sermon series on

becoming a new creation in Christ, becoming a new creation.

And we talked about that last week. I want to go a little more in depth this

week because last week, if you'll remember, we talked about how you can rewire your mind.

Science has finally caught up with what the scripture taught us thousands of

years ago is that we can rewire our mind.

We're going to talk about doing that with the word of God this morning.

So Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 says it this way.

Romans 12:1

It says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, this is brothers and sisters,

this is to all of us, this church, to the Roman church.

He says, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.

Now notice here, he's writing a letter to the church and he doesn't tell them

to be transformed by what you wear.

He doesn't tell them to be transformed by the places that

you frequent he doesn't say to be transformed by the

group you hang out with i believe that when

transformation happens all of that will change but he

says but be transformed by the renewal

of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of god in other

words your mind is going to be so transformed that over time as you continue

to practice this you're going to find that i continue to sometimes now here's

here's what he's saying sometimes early on i didn't choose the will of God.

And there was a witness in me that said, Nope, that was the wrong choice because

you got a renewed mind now.

But he said, by testing, eventually what you're going to find is there's going

to be a difference in you because of the renewal of your mind.

He says, by testing, you may discern what is the good, the will of God,

what is good, acceptable and perfect.

But he said, all of that takes place because of the renewal of the mind.

And that's, that's what we're going to talk about this morning.

This morning was our second part in our three part series, Becoming a New Creation,

we're going to talk about renewing your mind.

I know some of you guys in here, you're like, well, I like my mind.

I think it's pretty good.

No, all of us, there's a Christian song that's out there, and it's a great song.

Ashley, she criticizes me because I don't like the song, but there's a line

in that song that says that he looks at me and he wouldn't change a thing.

No, no, there's always something in us. The Apostle Paul, you won't find him

on Caleb, but he said that he looks in him, in his flesh, there is no good thing.

Things about us that need to change and so everybody in here

we need the renewal of our mind the renewing

of our mind this morning and so let's let's pray as we open up father in the

name of jesus we just thank you so much uh for your goodness we thank you for

your your word into our lives and holy spirit i just ask you right now uh that

you would speak to our hearts that you would you would say something to us that

that would enlighten us to your will and your word and your desire.

Holy Spirit, speak to us in this place. Speak to me.

Speak to every individual according to your heart, and we thank you for your

word. In the name of Jesus, we pray.

And the church said, amen.

That's a little weak on a time change Sunday, but you get by since we had to

spring forward in the middle of the night.

Okay, so thinking, talking about this subject of renewal of the mind,

I get this reminder very often that I need a renewing of the mind.

I get a reminder very often that I don't have it all figured out yet.

Most of the time it's while I'm driving. Most of the time.

And how many other people that you just kind of get irritated sometimes while

you're driving? I was thinking about this was coming back, uh.

Uh, yesterday from Knoxville, me and Ashley and Carter and Breeze.

He went down to Knoxville and, and watched, uh, uh, Jesus's favorite team, the Tennessee balls.

And, and so we were on our way back on 81. one.

And is there something, and I think that the Lord does this because the Bible

says the trying our faith work is patience, right?

And so I think the Lord puts certain people to drive slow in the left-hand lane,

or he places a tractor trailer riding right beside of another tractor trailer

in the left-hand lane up a hill, right?

Has anybody ever been in one of those situations? and I got to ask,

I got to ask, how many of you guys are you saying things that you want to say

to those truck drivers in your car out loud?

I mean, am I the only one? Am I the only one that says, what in the world are you doing?

You know, it happens. It's the trying of my faith in the middle of that car.

What I realize about myself in those moments is that I don't have everything figured out.

And I do have parts about me that gets frustrated when really there was no sense getting frustrated.

When it wasn't a life-changing situation, it was just going through traffic.

What that shows me, what that shows you, what that shows every single one of

us in this room right now is we can't live a transformed life with an untransformed mind.

That's what we're going to talk about this morning. And all of those little

hints that we get, all of those little times we do things or say things and

the Holy Spirit just, you shouldn't have done that.

Those are those reminders that we cannot live a transformed life with an untransformed mind.

No matter how small, how minor, those little things that the Holy Spirit uses

to point out those little imperfections in our life,

that is him trying to show us that we cannot live a transformed life with an untransformed mind.

I started thinking about a story that I heard years ago,

and at this point in my life, probably decades ago, I started hearing the story

about the old Cherokee chief who sat with his grandson and told him about a

battle that happens in every single person.

That old Cherokee chief told his grandson that are two wolves on the inside of us.

One is evil and full of anger and full of greed and full of arrogance and full

of pride and full of lies and full of everything you don't want to be in your life.

He said the other one is full of love and full of joy and full of peace and

full of humility and full of kindness.

About that time, his grandson looked up at him and said, grandpa.

They looked at this wise old chief and said, grandpa.

He said, if they're in a war, which wolf wins?

And the grandpa said, the one that you feed. See, that's the same way on the

inside of every human being that's in this building right now.

There are spiritual forces at war in our members. The Bible tells us that,

that there's a warring among our members.

The apostle Paul says, the things I want to do, that's the things I find myself not doing.

He said, the things I do is the stuff I don't want to do.

He said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?

Paul is showing us that there is a war going on on the inside of us,

dark and light, good and evil.

God and the spirit of this age are at war for every thought,

for every action, for every word that you say.

And which one's going to win? The one that you feed.

Amen. The one that you give the honor to, the one that you give the most attention to.

That's why the Bible says to think on these things, because the Bible,

the Scripture is trying to teach us, the one we spend the most time with is

the one that will have the loudest voice in our life.

Oh, man, I need to repeat that right there. The one who you spend the most time

with is going to have the loudest voice in your life. Man, have you ever been

around somebody that they don't usually say words and bad words and whatever else?

And I have. I remember one time that I was around somebody and a bad word slipped

out of their mouth. And I just kind of looked at them because, you know.

In the world, but not of the world. And I hear things and it happens.

And like believers, we know we clean that stuff up because we don't want to

be a bad representation of Christ. Amen. Right.

But this particular person, they were a believer and it slipped out.

And, you know, the worst thing that could ever happen is it slips out in front of the preacher. Right.

And I was just like, and they started to explain to me, well,

you know, I've been watching a lot of this series we've been watching,

and it's got this, and I didn't even think, and the Bible says out of the abundance

of the heart, the mouth will speak.

This is not a sermon on TV shows, but what I am trying to show you is that what

we, remember this, is that what has your attention,

what has the dominant thought, the dominant image in your mind,

that is what you'll gravitate toward. We said that last week.

See, the problem is most of us, we know there's something better.

We know there's something different, but still we spend years feeding the wrong thoughts.

We feed to the consumer in us.

We feed to the one that's looking for a way out in us.

We neglect the grace of God instead of trying to turn to the truth.

See, we think the problem is our circumstances, our past, our struggles,

but the real issue is the battlefield of our minds.

Years ago, I think it was Joyce Meyer that wrote that book.

The battlefield of the mind. And I read that years ago, and I remember then

thinking it was a great book.

I may have to go back and reread that again because it is a reality in our life.

Romans chapter 12 tells us that we are transformed.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

The way we're transformed is not by an external mechanism, but the way that

we are transformed is by the renewal or the renewing of our minds.

That means that if we want to experience the fullness of God's power,

it begins with the way we think it's not the way you act in church.

If we want to experience the fullness of God's power, see, I say that because

I have met people that know how to do church.

I have met people that will come and church it up on Sunday morning,

but they live and defeat the rest of Monday through Saturday.

And I want to say this right now.

I would rather lay on this altar

all Sunday morning and everybody kind of wonder what all my issues are,

but get up off of this altar and walk in victory in Christ the rest of the week

than I would to come in here and play church and act like I got it all figured

out and then struggle through the rest of my week.

That is not the will of God for our lives.

The way to the fullness of God begins with the way that we think.

And we got to get back to that old fashioned doctrine of sanctification.

See, sanctification is the process by which we are made holy as believers.

The renewal of the mind is a part of this doctrine of sanctification that I

feel like that our modern church age, we don't talk about enough.

See, we used to sing a song when I was a kid that says, he's still working on

me to make me what I ought to be.

What was the old, I had the words go, took him just a week.

Oh, so you guys sung that too, huh? All right, well, good.

I'm glad because I got somebody that if he still, if he did all of that, if we sang it as a kid,

so I hope it kind of makes its way in there to make us realize that,

yes, he's still working on us and he's doing it while we're trying to teach

those children where the doctrine of sanctification.

It's not just a one-time change, but it's a daily transformation that occurs

in the believer's life. We see this, that it applies to every area of our life.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 says, For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

Abstain from sexual immorality. You know what that means? There's things that we have to abstain from.

There's things that we have to stay away from. I know people say,

well, Scott, you know, you're being strict with this, telling us to stay away from that.

No, the Bible says that a part of our sanctification in the will of God is to

abstain from some things.

Philippians chapter two and verse five says this, says, have this mind among

yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

The Bible is telling us that there's something about our mind that we must align

with the will of God, but it's a daily walk.

It's a daily decision that we have to make.

There's many out there who think the only problem with the human mind is it

doesn't have enough intellect.

It doesn't have enough education that they're not intelligent enough.

So education becomes the great instrument of redemption, personal and social.

We think that if we can just learn enough, and you know this,

I'm not against education.

Both of my children are in college, and I spent enough years,

so I don't want to go back to school.

I spent enough years in college myself. I'm not against education.

Go and get education. Go and become everything you can be and get every degree you can get.

But at the same time, as believers, we must realize that our salvation is not an intellect.

People think that if they just got more education, then they would use their minds.

But instead, what they do is they use their minds for elaborate scams and sophisticated

plots and all of these other things, instead of conforming their mind to the

image of Christ, when you rely on the mind only,

when you realize, now I'm not saying that the mind is not a valuable thing,

because the same people that realize their salvation is not in their intellect

can use that education to do powerful things, to feed millions,

to change communities, to make a lasting impact in the lives of people.

But the Bible has a deeper analysis of this problem.

In Ephesians chapter four and verse 23, Paul uses this phrase,

and I love this phrase right here, and it parallels Romans chapter 12 and verse

Romans 12 · chapter mention

two that we read at the beginning of the service.

He says this, says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Everybody say that. Say spirit of your mind.

Man, that was great for a leap forward Sunday morning. I like that right there.

He said, be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

See, I look at that and I think, what in the world is the spirit of your mind?

I think it at least means this. It at least means that your mind is not a sophisticated

computer managing data and ones and zeros and inputs and outputs and all of that.

I think what it means and what it tells us, what the Bible is teaching us,

is that the mind has a spirit.

It doesn't just I'm not saying your mind is a

separate person but what I'm telling you is your your

mind doesn't have a view it has a viewpoint your mind doesn't just have the

power to perceive and detect but it also has a posture and a demeanor and a

bearing and an attitude and a will that it tries to impose upon your life that's

why he tells us that we must be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

And that is the primary work of sanctification.

See, sanctification is the lifelong process by which believers are set apart

from this world and made holy and acceptable and useful in the kingdom of God.

You said, Pastor Scott, are you saying that I'm not useful in the kingdom if I'm not sanctified?

That's exactly what I'm saying because we must, the word sanctified means set apart.

I know I make that statement right there and people were like,

well, that's offensive.

Well, you know, pat yourself on the back. All right, there we go.

You got your, you got your, you got your pat moment right now.

This is not one of those, what's that new parenting called, Ashley?

The gentle, okay, this is not a gentle parenting place right here.

Paul probably wasn't into gentle parenting. All right.

I'm not, I'm not here to lay down beside of you while you're crying and say,

I realize you've got big feelings right now. That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about if we want to be used by God, then we got to get,

I know I got way off right there.

If we want to be used by God, we've got to get to the place that we realize

that we can't have one foot in the world, or sometimes in this modern day church,

two feet in the world, and yell back across the line about what we want to do

and how we love Jesus and everything else going on.

We've got to be set aside for the cause of Jesus Christ.

We've got to understand that sanctification is not just a one-time event.

The old-timers used to say, I'm saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost.

And I love those testimonies. But the reality was they were saved,

but they had not yet been fully saved.

And they were sanctified, but they had not yet been fully sanctified.

Because we're taught by the scripture that salvation and sanctification is both

instantaneous and progressive and will ultimately be ultimate on the day that

he redeems us and returns.

See, we've got to realize there's sanctification that we're taught about in

the Bible, three different types of different levels of sanctification.

Let me get there. First of all.

Positional sanctification. That's justification by faith. That's what that is

right there. That occurs on the moment that we become believers, that we are justified.

That word justified, it means that you had been made righteous,

made pure, justified, never sinned.

You were positionally sanctified in that moment.

1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 11 says, you were washed, you were sanctified,

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. and by the spirit of our God.

That happened at salvation.

But also the Bible teaches us of progressive sanctification.

That's the one that we say you are sanctified and you are being sanctified.

That's what happens when, you know, some people say they have that temper still left in them, right?

We know how that is, don't we, Junior? I mean, Junior talk about that from time to time.

And some people got that temper left in them. And when that big rig pulls over

in that left-hand lane, I'm sitting there and I'm doing my, like,

listen, all my fingers are extended, okay? I never do separate any of them.

But I sit there with my hand and I'm, you know, I'm giving them this right here

and I'm doing, you know what that means?

There's still some sanctification that needs to be done right there.

I may have been sanctified upon salvation positionally, but there's some more

where he's still working on me to make me what I ought to be,

all right? Just think about this. Just think about how challenging you are.

It took him a week to make everything he spoke into existence,

and he's still working on you.

Okay, sorry, I'm going to move on just a little bit right now.

Philippians chapter 1 says it this way, and I'm sure of this,

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.

That means that there's something that's still progressively being done in our

lives that is not being completed yet, but will be completed one day,

and we call that that ultimate sanctification.

Not just positionally sanctified, not just progressively sanctified,

but ultimately sanctified one day.

And the Bible says in 1 John 3 and verse 2 that when we appear,

we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.

That means that one day I'm not going to be waving my hand at that truck driver in the left lane.

One day you're not going to be wanting to backhand your husband when he gives

you that look. Look, one day there's going to be a new nature about all of us

that is final and complete and ultimate.

See, here's just a kind of final thought about sanctification before we move on.

Sanctification is not just about external behaviors.

It's a transformation that begins in the mind.

It has to begin in the mind first. as we grow in holiness, our thoughts,

our desires, our truth, everything begins to align with the truth of the Word of God.

That's why when people say, well, you know, I have my truth.

I want to say this right now.

I'm not downplaying your trauma. I'm not downplaying what you've been through.

I'm not downplaying the emotional or the physical toll.

But what I am saying, There is only one truth, and that's the truth of the Word of God.

And if that truth says you can be healed, you can be healed.

And if that truth says you can be set free, then you don't have to have another

truth that says you've got to live with all this anger and with all this trauma and with all that...

That is the truth of the Word of God. Transformation, though, is a continual process.

The early church believed this. The early church, we know this because they

struggled with leaving behind their old sinful ways.

They struggled with having a new mindset.

Many had come out of pagan lifestyles. Many of them had taken place in idol

worship and had really a lot of sin in the cultures they came out of.

And because of that, the apostle Paul told them, don't be conformed to this world.

He was telling them that I know that there's a lot that you came out of.

I know there's a lot that you used to do that you thought was normal,

but we can't be conformed to the world that we're living in right now because

we've got to have something different about us.

I started thinking about the Israelites as they wandered through the wilderness.

And the problem was, see, the Israelites were physically delivered from Egypt,

but the problem was their mentality was that they were still slaves.

So what they had was a wilderness mentality. That's what I started,

I've called this for a number of years now, that they had this wilderness mentality.

And it's evident because in Numbers chapter 13, Moses sends 12 spies into the

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

land of Canaan, the land that God had promised to the children of Israel.

And when the spies came back to give a report, 10 spies said,

we are like grasshoppers in our own eyes.

In other words, that land is so much bigger than we are. The moment is bigger

than we are. We can't function in this land.

The occasion is too big for us. We would never survive there.

And yet two people that had a renewed mind that were in line with the will and

the heartbeat of God, Joshua and Caleb said, we're well able to overcome it. Amen.

I hope in your household there's at least one person that's got a renewed mind

And that when everybody else says, no, we don't want to do that.

We can't live like that. They'll call us fanatics.

People will make fun of us. We were sitting in the food court at the mall yesterday,

eating a fancy Chipotle lunch in the food court mall yesterday.

And we looked over and we kind of chuckled.

But after our chuckle, it really was a concern for me about the way our culture

sees this. we saw a man with his young son that was sitting at a kind of an

elevated table over from us.

And the man had closed his eyes and began to pray.

And the guy, listen, that guy was getting down with some prayer.

I mean, that was probably some great chicken tenders or whatever he had by the

time he was sitting down with that prayer. That man was getting after it.

But the little boy, the little boy, you know, he had an athletic shirt on.

He's dressed kind of trendy. And the little boy, he's got his eyes open.

He's looking around to see if anybody can see his dad praying over this food

at this elevated table that they're sitting at.

And I started thinking, number one, son, I hope that you see one day that there's no shame in that.

There's no shame in showing that you're a follower of Christ and giving God

thankfulness for the provision that he has given you.

But also I started thinking, thank God for a father that loves his son enough

that even out there in the midst of that community.

In the midst of that food court with hundreds of people around,

he's going to bow down and he's going to call upon the name of the Lord and

thank him for that provision.

Pray. There's someone in every house that's got a Joshua and Caleb spirit that

says, no matter what this world says, we are well able, well able.

Three steps I want to leave you with this renewing your mind, okay?

Three steps to renewing your mind. This is not exhausted, all right?

So I want to go ahead and point that out right now.

First of all, first step, step one, recognize Recognize the lies.

Recognize the lies. All that means is you've got to identify what needs to change,

right? If you don't know, ask your wife.

I'm sorry. It just kind of, it came out and there we are.

But no, you've got to be able to recognize. And here's the great thing about

it, is that the Holy Spirit, if you pray, the Holy Spirit will let you know

what it is about you that needs to change?

As a matter of fact, I've been driving down the road before just meditating

on scripture and everything.

I'll meditate on the scripture and the Holy Spirit say, yeah,

that's what you need to tighten up right there.

You see, it's amazing how he works on that. If you ask him, he,

the Holy Spirit, will let you know what needs to change.

Before you can change your thinking, we got to identify the lies that we believe

and the lies that we're struggling with.

A lot of believers, I believe this, a lot of believers are struggling because

they've never taken the time to examine their thoughts.

John chapter 8 and verse 44 says it this way, when he Satan lies,

John 8 · chapter mention

he speaks out of his own character because he's a liar and the father of all lies.

That means he is trying to lie to you every single day.

But 2 Corinthians chapter 10 says, we destroy arguments and every high and lofty

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

opinion raised against the knowledge of God. and to take every thought captive.

In other words, Satan's lying, but we've got to take that thought captive.

Satan's lying, but there's a truth that's greater than that lie.

I ran across an article. Actually, it was on a business page on the University of Virginia.

And I ran across an article on it and I kind of went back to it and started

thinking about it, about this idea of believing in lies and what it can do to you.

There was a lady by the name of Elizabeth Holmes, and she established a company called Theranos.

And Theranos claimed it had the technology that they could run multiple tests

with just a few droplets of blood.

And instead of the way that the medical community used to do it,

where they would take samples and they would send those to different labs looking

for different things than And then what Elizabeth Holmes said was she had devised a system,

and she actually devised this while she was still in college and then marketed

it after college. And there was people...

Millions of dollars into her research. Robert Kraft and one of his investors

put over $900 million into her research over a period of years.

And so they put these stores or these machines in Walgreens where you could

go in and you can do a quick blood test and the Theranos machine would give

you the results of your blood test right there.

But you know what they found out, they found out that the technology never really worked.

They knew from the beginning that it was flawed. They knew from the beginning

that it was giving back false readings.

And there were physicians that were trusting this equipment with people's diagnoses and their lives.

And so physicians would send it to the Theranos lab because they knew that they

could have an array of tests run out of this one lab.

In reality, what happened was in the early days, they

were getting inconclusive and inaccurate results and

then later on what they were doing is Theranos was getting the

test and then they would take it and send

it to different labs and get the report on it

and come back and charge a big rate

acting like they had all of this technology just so that you know this lady

was convicted she's currently in prison she lost her appeal in 2023 and she

will not get out until 2032 because I always wonder about those stories I don't

want you to be Googling in the middle of my preaching, so I had to give you that.

See, here's the problem is just like Theranos lies and misled people.

Satan is the father of lies, and he deceives many people, and he's looking to deceive me and you.

False beliefs can lead to destruction, but 2 Corinthians 10 and 5 reminds us

to take every thought captive.

See, a 2019 study found that 80% of people's thoughts are negative and 95% of

our thoughts are repetitive.

80% of their thoughts are negative and 95% of their thoughts are repetitive,

which means that we are thinking on the lies of Satan more than we think about

anything else if we're not intentional.

So the first thing we got to do is identify the lies.

We've got to find where it is that we have a problem when one preacher called

it their stinking thinking. Amen. That's what we've got to identify.

But number two, what we've got to do is we've got to reprogram our mind with God's words.

We've got to replace the lies with the truth. That's what that comes down to.

You can't just erase thoughts. You've got to replace them with something.

Right? You can't just erase thoughts. You have to replace those thoughts with something.

Your mind is like a garden. If you don't plant the right seeds,

then the weeds will take over. That's what happens in our mind.

If you don't fill your mind with the truth of God's word, then the lies of the enemy will take over.

But Psalms chapter one and verses two and three, I love this,

says his delight, the one that trusts in the Lord, his delight is in the law

of the Lord. That's the word of God in the Old Testament.

His delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law, on the word,

he meditates day and night.

That's why you need to be reading the scripture. That's why you need to be listening to the Scripture.

That's why when you're driving down the road, I love music. I do.

I love turning me on to some Maverick City and worshiping the Lord and whatever,

but there's nothing like putting on a good preacher and a podcast and listening to the Word.

I'm not talking about one of those preachers that just talks about their grandkids

or their car or whatever.

I'm talking about somebody that digs into the Word and preaches the Word and

listen to the Word of God, know the Word of God,

know that you're a new creature in Christ, know that you call not to be conformed

to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind.

That's why the Bible says in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16,

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

We've got to replace the lies with the truth.

There's a man that was a rock climber. He had a devastating accident that caused

him to lose one of his legs. As a result, Craig DiMartino, he became dependent upon painkillers.

He became addicted to...

Through this. He actually, the reason why I use those two scriptures is because

he referenced those two scriptures and he started to replace his dependence, pain medication,

with a dependence upon the word of God and the healing power of God and the

motivating power of the scripture.

And he accredits Psalms chapter one and Colossians chapter three as a major

part of his recovery because he said he had to replace those old thoughts,

those old cravings, those old ideas with something new.

And he said that I found transformative power in the word of God. See, that's God's word.

If the church would get a hold of the power of God's word again,

we would become a transformative force in our community.

If you believe that, give the Lord a hand clap of praise because I believe that.

We got to get back to the word of God. And then finally, this one,

and I hope you can come help me on this one.

Refuse to conform. Man, this is a big one right here.

This is where the rubber meets the road, because we can say that we've identified the lies,

and we can say that we're replacing it with something different from the Word

of God, but where the evidence comes,

and this is the evidence, is are we

living differently than the world because identifying

the lies is internal and replacing it

with something different is internal because the battle begins in the mind but

remember this that the body does whatever the mind dictates right not the other

way around the body does what the mind dictates,

now I've seen sometimes my mind wants to do things my body don't cooperate with,

I was trying to step over a seat at the college I was going to jump over a row

into the next seat and for whatever reason this knee will raise up higher these

days than this one will I don't know if it's a hip or a knee but I was trying

to get this leg up and I knew all I got to do is another couple inches and this

leg is going to go over that seat,

my mind was telling it to do it.

And the body's like, nope, not doing it. But still, the body had to attempt

what the mind was commanding the body to do.

It's the same way in our lives, in our spiritual lives, our natural lives.

Renewing our mind is not just thinking differently. It's about changing the way that we behave.

We've said this for a number of years. Brother Burke Clendon is the first one I ever heard it.

He said, there has to be a correlation between what we believe and how we behave.

That's how we know we're believers. There has to be a correlation between what

we believe and how we behave.

If your thoughts change, but your actions stay the same, you'll never grow.

You'll never be sanctified in the spirit, renewed in the spirit of your minds.

Unless your actions change as well. 1 Peter 1 verse 14 says it this way.

1 Peter 1:14

Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance i love it right there.

See what he was really saying was don't be doing that dumb stuff you used to do,

that's really what that's probably what the message bible says but as he who

has called you is holy you also be holy james chapter 4 and verse 4 says it

James 4 · chapter mention

this way do you not know that your friendship with the world is enmity with God.

You got to be different. You got to be different. And I know sometimes it's difficult.

I know being different is difficult sometimes when everybody else is complaining

about the boss and you know that you shouldn't be running down your boss.

It's hard just to get up and walk away, isn't it? It's hard being different.

It is when everybody's acting out of anger and you know you shouldn't be acting

that way it's hard to act different.

I was getting ready to use as an example but I don't know we're all people of a certain age,

I was starting to say when all the crowd is going certain places and engaging

in certain behaviors and you know you shouldn't be engaging in those behaviors it's hard to say no,

I was thinking about that this week and I thought about Bonhoeffer and And it

was during Hitler's rise, a lot of churches were conforming.

But what Bonhoeffer said was this. He said, I refuse to cave in to the Nazi regime, to hate.

He said, I refuse. And so what he did, because he was a pastor and a theologian,

he founded a church called Confessing Church.

He opposed the Nazi corruption he did everything he could to resist those efforts,

he was imprisoned he was eventually executed in 1945.

But I believe he saw the fulfillment of that sanctification,

positional, progressive, ultimate.

He saw ultimate sanctification. You know why? Because he didn't conform.

He didn't conform. Now, I'm not going to say I'm not here saying you're going

to have to lose your life because of it.

But shouldn't you be willing to?

I mean, that's a tough question. I know it's 9 a.m. on a spring forward.

You probably won't have to lose your life over it as far as death.

But you may have to lose your life as far as desire.

Right? Because really that's where he hits most of us. It's not death, it's desire.

That we have to end up seeing come to the final conclusion.

So what are you willing to do to make sure that this is taken care of?

Let's all stand up all over the building.

1994, Oz Guinness wrote a book called Fit Bodies, Fat Minds.

I know the title's enough. But he said that we've become so obsessed with our

abs and our cardio that we had neglected.

We had neglected to love people the way that Jesus had commanded us to love people.

We failed to embrace the greatest commandment, to love God and to love people.

See, what it comes down to is this. We can't live a transformed life with an untransformed mind.

That's the end of it. We've got to be transformed.

No matter how much you want to do better, until you transform this mind by the

word, then you can't do different.

You're just turning over a new leaf every day. It's never going to work.

Every head bowed, every eye closed, nobody looking around.

But if you're here this morning, you'd say, pastor scott i'm i can identify

with that i'm gonna be honest with you i can identify with that,

i can identify with it because there's things about me that i know still needs to be transformed,

but you're here this morning you'd say i know because the

holy spirit's speaking to me there's some areas in my life that i still need

to apply his word to if that's you there's hands already going up that's you

i just want you to raise your hands that's me yeah so here's what we've done

church we've we've acknowledged that that's us so now we're accountable we're accountable,

so my challenge to you we're going to pray about this right now my challenge

to you is this this week and beyond let's start applying god's word to those areas of our life.

The renewing of our mind. Let's pray right now. Father, in the name of Jesus,

we come before you. We thank you for your Holy Spirit.

We thank you for the goodness of God that we feel in this place today.

We thank you for the power that we can only get through your truth, God.

And Father, right now we pray for every individual. We realize there's people

here that we have struggled with behaviors.

We have struggled with thoughts. we have struggled because we're living below.

The provision that you have given us through your

word and so father right now i just pray for every

believer in this place well the area you've identified in their life that we

need to change god just allow us to find that in the scripture this week allow

your holy spirit to speak to us about it this week god let us help us to develop

that habit jesus of applying your word to every,

situation that we face Lord let us not go to our own intellect but let us think

about your word first and foremost,

Lord we thank you for your word we thank you for your truth we thank you that

we don't have to live the way we were in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus,

I challenge you I challenge you when there's a struggle that you have this week,

I challenge you to think what does the word of God say about that what does

God say about that first I remember I'll let you go on this but I remember when Dr.

Renfro came and he told me he was first diagnosed with cancer he came and told

him the diagnosis and what the prognosis was,

and Linda you'll remember this Pastor Sturgill looked at him and said doctor

let's see what the Lord says about this.

Every situation we need to see what the lord says about this amen amen god bless

you guys we love you guys we'll see you back on wednesday night have a great

week this week be transformed in the renew of your minds.