EXTREME MENTAL MAKEOVER
EPHESIANS 4:20-24
INTRO.: The important word in our society today is "makeover."
1. It is a phenomenon that has swept our country by storm.
2. Some people are having radical surgeries, some go on extensive diet and exercise plans, and some are having their hair redone, all in search of that perfect look.
3. Others are having a room in their house or even their whole house renovated!
4. These processes take a while, from a few hours, to a week, to even years.
5. More important than our physical looks and comfort are how we think and act.
6. More than any of these, people need a mental makeover, an extreme mental makeover.
BKGD.: As we see from out text, Paul reminds us that we did learn a different way.
1. As Christians we are to look, talk, and act different from the world.
2. Our acceptance of Christ means we have accepted a new lifestyle.
3. And, as Paul tells us, that new lifestyle begins in the mind.
4. Just as the unbeliever is controlled by his vain, darkened, alienated mind, so the mind of the believer is the place where the control of his new life starts.
5. The mind is not fallow, but fertile soil, and so must be cultivated, or it will become a briar patch of tangled thoughts.
6. Believers are renewed in their mind, and this process begins a whole new life.
I. What is Renewal of the Mind?
A. Where we come from
1. The old man has been put off.
a. The old man was a process of corruption.
b. That old man has been crucified with Christ.
Romans 6:6 – "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin . . ."
Galatians 2:20 – "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 5:24 – "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires."
c. The old man has been reckoned dead.
Romans 6:11-12 – "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."
2. It was the old man who controlled our minds.
a. Futile, darkened, and ignorant. (Ephesians 4:17-18)
b. Depraved.
Romans 1:28 – "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done."
c. Corrupt.
I Timothy 6:3-5 – "If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain."
d. Blinded.
II Corinthians 4:4 – "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
B. What we are talking about
1. Renewal
a. It is in the continual and progressive voice.
b. Means continually undergoing a restoration process.
2. Mind
a. The mind is the seat of reflective consciousness and intelligence.
Some have compared the human brain to a sophisticated computer, but technology hasn’t come close to duplicating its capabilities. Dr. Gehard Dirks, who holds 50 patents on the IBM computer, said that he acquired most of his ideas from studying the functions of the human brain.
1) Faculty of moral judgment.
2) Spirituality centers in the mind.
b. It is that attitude and disposition which determines behavior and conduct.
1) With the mind we have the power to refocus the way we live.
Matthew 15:19-20 – "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man `unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean.’"
ILL.: The Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, said, "Our life is what our thoughts make it."
2) Right thinking precedes right action.
ILL.: In my room I have a quote from the great Greek scholar, B. F. Westcott. After I put it up, I was asked by a number of my students what it meant, giving me a chance to explain its meaning. It says, "Right action is true thought realized."
3. Spirit of the Mind
a. It refers to the higher life principle in man by which the human reason viewed on its moral side – the organ of thinking and knowing – is informed.
b. When the spirit of the mind is changed, it radically alters the sphere and business of the inner mechanism of the mind.
Romans 12:2 – "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."
C. What we need
1. The new birth, referred to as regeneration, brings about a new way of thinking.
a. Reasoning is now from God’s standpoint.
b. The mind now directs its bent and energies Godward.
2. Renewal involves the continuing process of readjusting our thinking.
a. It is an adjustment of our moral and spiritual thinking to the mind of God.
b. That moral judgment is related to our moral actions.
c. It is the gradual conforming of the person to the new spiritual world in which he now lives.
d. In this process the person is not passive, but is a fellow worker with God in the process.
II. What are the Resources of Renewal?
A. The Agent – The Holy Spirit
Titus 3:5 – "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit . . ."
1. Renewal is the constant operation brought about by regeneration, which comes through the Spirit.
ILL.: It is not a putting of new clothes on the old man, but a putting of a new man in new clothes!
2. The Holy Spirit applies salvation to us, including its continuous effect of renewing our mind.
Ephesians 3:16 – "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being . . ."
3. Through Him we subdue sin, perform service, and walk in God’s ways.
4. He gives us spiritual perception of the things we learn.
B. The Instrument – The Bible
1. We are to be constantly and continually appropriating new truth.
I Peter 2:2-3 – "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."
I Peter 1:23 – "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."
2. As the Word of God comes into our souls and gives us life, our human viewpoint is replaced by a divine viewpoint.
C. The Subject – Christ
1. It is a learning about Him as well as a fellowship with Him.
2. It is the study of Christ as He is revealed in the academic facts about Him.
III. What are the Results of Renewal?
A. It is being restored to the image of God, becoming moral representations of what God is.
Colossians 3:9-10 – "Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."
B. It is being repaired of the total loss of righteousness and holiness, which are attributes of the truth.
C. It is being returned to true obedience of God, living a life pleasing to God.
CONCLU.: Do you resemble God, or do you need a mental makeover?
1. Are you being transformed, by the renewing of your mind, into the image of God?
2. If you are, you cannot conform to this present world.
3. You have renounced all of its affections and lusts.
4. You bear the image of the heavenly. (Next Page)
5. John Wesley said: "Ye know that the great end of religion is to renew our hearts in the image of God, to repair that total loss of righteousness and true holiness, which we sustained by the sin of our first parents. Ye know that all religion that does not answer this end, all that stops short of this, the renewal of our soul in the image of God, after the likeness of Him that created it, is no other than a poor farce, and a mere mockery of God, to the destruction of our own soul."
