Rebooting Our Minds
lanny smith
Reboot / Transformation; The Beatitudes / Romans 12:1–3
• Reboot - still a term we use though no longer accurate.
• Comes from the earliest days of computing. Computers didn’t just start up. There was a process.
• Card readers. Top card came to be known as a “boot card.”
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• From “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.”
• When the computers crashed (a lot) it had to be rebooted. Built back up to optimal state by reloading the programs.
• We still do this today but it’s much easier.
• Call customer support - did you power the unit off and on?
• We swipe up to close programs and reopen them on our phones/tablets.
• Ctl-Alt-Del to “soft reboot.”
• It’s annoying but necessary. Small errors accumulate in the s/w. We do something that the app never expected. Power spikes/outages. Bugs in the s/w. Occasionally, we just have to start the device over.
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• As we move into the 3rd calendar year of pandemic life, we need to reboot.
• By now, we all recognize the interruptions, outages, changes that have become “normal.”
• There’s a cumulative effective on our hearts and minds as well.
• I believe it is time for us to individually and corporately to “reboot” our hearts and minds.
• We need to return to the optimal spiritual condition that we were designed for.
• To get our systems reset, we begin with our minds.
Romans 12:1–3 NLT
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t 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. 3 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.
• Let’s note a few things that Paul has urged us toward:
Responding to the Good News
• (V. 1) We are responding to the good news that Jesus has saved us and brought us into His kingdom.
Romans 12:1 NLT
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
1 Corinthians 4:20 NLT
20 For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.
Rejecting Brokenness
• We are rejecting the “system errors, malware and bugs” that enter into us from a broken world.
Romans 12:2 NLT
2 Don’t 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.
1 Peter 1:14 NLT
14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.
Willing To Be Transformed
• (V. 2b) We are willing to reboot (be transformed) by God daily. This happens when we change the way we think.
We are returned every day to our optimal state of being (in a manner of speaking).
Romans 12:2 NLT
2 Don’t 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.
2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT
18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
Evaluating Our Allegiance
• (V. 3) We need an honest evaluation of our allegiance to the king. (faith = loyalty)
Romans 12:3 NLT
3 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.
Guidelines
• Jesus gives us a way to evaluate our allegiance and be encouraged to live the daily transformed (rebooted) life that Paul talks about.
• It’s in the Sermon on the Mount. In particular, the Beatitudes.
• The Beatitudes:
• Describe a transformed life that honors Christ as King.
• Show us how to be transformed into His image.
• Sends us on a countercultural mission.
