Last week, we talked about surrendering to God because we believe that God has our best in mind.
• When we honestly confess our willingness to submit to Him as Lord, He steps in and guides us in ways we do not expect and we will experience His greatest blessings.
• We believe it because God has our best in mind and at heart, and He does not “guess” what is good but knows it as a fact.
But we need to open up our hands in order to receive from Him.
• We need to learn to let go of what we are clinging on to – the second-bests in life, the things we thought best – and allow God to show us His best.
• Obedience to God is the best policy.
We closed last week with the mentioning of Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899), an ordinary man who came from a very humble beginning, without proper schooling, but was fully surrendered to his God.
• God made him into a great evangelist who made a great impact in America and England - started schools, a church and a seminary – and touched millions of lives.
• You cannot tell what God can do with a man who is fully surrendered to Him.
I was just reading about him this week and these are some of the words of Moody:
• Character is what you are in the dark.
• If I take care of my character; my reputation will take care of itself.
• Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all.
• The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe.
• God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves
• Small numbers make no difference to God. There is nothing small if God is in it.
• There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do little things.
• I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And that which I can do, by the grace of God, I will do.
• Temptations are like tramps. Treat them kindly, and they will return bringing others with them.
• Sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will keep you from sin.
• If I walk with the world, I can't walk with God.
• Forgiveness is not to bury the hatchet with the handle sticking out of the ground, so you can grasp it the minute you want it.
God has given him great insights and wisdom. A surrendered life is a blessed life.
• I believe many Christians want to follow Christ, but they are too distracted by this world; too tempted by what this world has to offer.
• Listen to what Paul has to say in Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
To truly experience the BEST of life there is – to know and experience God’s good, pleasing and perfect will for us, something needs to be changed – our thinking.
• What do you usually think about, on a regular basis? What preoccupies your mind? What is your mental diet?
• We are what we think. If we do not guard that, we will naturally and slowly conform ourselves to the pattern of this world.
• John describes it this way - 1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Transformation starts with the renewing of your mind.
• NLT: “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”
• Our behaviour will change when our thinking changes. And our thinking can only be changed by the truth of God’s Word.
• JESUS: “… you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32); “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4)
Pastor Chip Ingram said it well: We need to saturate ourselves with the Word of God if we want to experience life change.
• That’s the only way to counter the deception that comes from the devil Satan.
• Satan’s goal is clear. According to Jesus, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” (John 10:10) Imagine this, we are living in this toxic, sinful environment, where Satan (the most intelligent angelic being God has created) is working tirelessly to deceive and destroy our lives.
• Occupy your mind with the truth, or the enemy will fill it with his lies.
(1) WATCH WHAT YOUR MIND FEEDS ON
What is your mental diet? What do you think about every day? That will make you who you are.
There was a TV documentary about the food we eat. Someone decided to test the quality of food in one of America’s most famous fast-food restaurants. The 30-day plan was to eat nothing but fast food – morning, noon, and night.
Tests were done prior to the experiment and would be done after the experiment to evaluate levels of fats, weight gain, Cholesterol levels, and overall health.
Unfortunately the experiment did not last 30 days. After 20 or so days of a steady diet of only fast food, the man’s body began to shut down. The high-sugar, high-fat, fried, and processed food began to build up toxins to such a degree that the man had to be hospitalized.
Ironically, the food tasted great; tragically, it almost killed him.
[Taken from Chip Ingram's book, Living on the Edge, p. 71.]
What tastes great does not mean it is good for us. Researchers tell us we can acquire a taste for certain foods (like sugars and sweets) that can actually become addicting.
• It looks good, smells good, and tastes good, but that does not means it is good.
• It gratifies us, it makes us happy, we love it, but a steady diet of such food can literally kill you. Someone said it, “You are what you eat!”
The same is true with our spiritual diet. You are what you feed on.
• You put garbage in and you’ll have garbage out. The battleground is in your mind.
• If we fill our minds with junk food – borrowing John’s words - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – we will end up in misery.
• Like fast food, it tastes good, looks good, and promises to give us a wonderful time, but at the end it leads us to despair.
Erwin W. Lutzer: “The difference between worldliness and godliness is a renewed mind.”
• Paul says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor 10:5)
• So STOP the flow of toxins into your thinking (the deceptions and lies that , media, etc.) and FILL your mind with the truth of God’s Word.
You need to take some radical steps to shut off the supply lines of the bombarding messages of worldly values.
• If you continue to fill your mind with messages that promote lust, greed, pride, desires of the flesh, or whatever, you are giving lots of room for these thoughts to become a mindset – a mind set on the things I fill it with.
• A worldly mindset is a mind filled with the values of this world, conforming to the pattern of this world.
You have to shut off that supply line, and renew your mind with the truths of God’s Word.
• You will experience something amazing – your thinking will change.
• And because of that, your desires and attitudes will begin to change. You’ll find your behaviour changing because some things just don’t appeal to you anymore.
You see, the change in your behaviour did not come by focusing on your behaviour.
It comes by changing your thinking. Here are some practical ways to renew your mind:
(1) Hear God’s Word – faith comes from hearing the Word (Rom 10:17)
(2) Read God’s Word – we grow in the knowledge of God (Col 1:10)
(3) Study God’s Word – Paul says to Timothy, so that you can “correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15)
(4) Memorize God’s Word – Psalm 119:11 “I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
(5) Meditate on God’s Word – the one who meditates “is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” (Psa 1:3)
Josh 1:8 “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
(2) DO NOT QUENCH THE SPIRIT (1 Thess 5:19)
The Holy Spirit is our Helper, the Lord says. He reminds us of the truth. He prompts and enlightens.
• Jesus says in John 16:13-15 “13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
• “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” (Phil 2:13)
It is interesting to note that this word “renewal” in Romans 12:2 is only used one other place in all the Greek Bible - Titus 3:5 where Paul says this: “[God] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”
• It is renewal “of the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit renews our mind with the truths of God’s Word. It is decisively His work.
• Transformation is not switching from the To-Do List of the flesh to the To-Do List of the law (the Bible). When Paul replaces the list — the works of the flesh, he does not replace it with the works of the law, but the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:19-22).
The Christian alternative to immoral behaviours is not a new list of moral behaviours. It is a trust in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ.
• So each time the Spirit prompts you, don’t resist Him. When He enlightens you, don’t ignore Him. When He guides you, listen! When you “know” the truth, OBEY the truth.
• Eph 4:30 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
The Holy Spirit has the power to transform you into the likeness of Christ. Allow Him!
