"how To Change Your Mind"

“How to Change your Mind”

Matthew 5:6; Romans 12:1-2

Happy New Year! I think we would all agree this morning that the Bible is the most important book ever written. I read a total of 72 books last year including the Bible. I love to read. I read many interesting books but none of them compare to God’s word.

This is one of the most amazing things that sets this book apart from all the others. The Bible is composed of 66 books, OT and NT, inspired by God himself-written by 39 different authors and it took 1500 years to complete. Yet all of these writers are in complete agreement with one another because all of them were inspired by one person--God himself-- and in this book there is a thread that runs all the way through Scripture; a scarlet thread of redemption that leads to Jesus Christ. We see it all the way from Genesis to Revelation. It starts in the garden where the Tree of Life was, right in the center and Adam and Eve were to have their lives centered on God. In the final chapter of the Bible Revelation we find the tree of life again. So it starts in a garden and it ends in a garden.

But one thing is for sure-the Bible is a book about change. Once man was placed on this earth, everything began to change. Is a book that tells us how to change so that we can become mature; complete holy servants of Jesus Christ. This change doesn’t happen all at once-it is a work in progress until one day we will stand before Christ and we will then be free from all our hurts, all of our habits and all of our hang-ups. We will be free from temptation; we will be free from sin and will therefore be free from the effects of sin as well. I can hardly wait.

Jesus said in Matthew, “Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires.” Paul said in Romans “I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you offer yourselves as living sacrifices, which is your reasonable service. And be ye not conformed to this word, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know what that good and acceptable and perfect will of God is.” Romans 12:1-2. That is real change.

Now this is real change. It is transformation. It is a complete change. It’s new. It’s like walking in one direction and suddenly turning and heading in the opposite direction. It is like a sculptor who takes a large rock and makes something amazing out of it; like an artist who takes a blank palette, a blank slate and paints a beautiful picture and here’s the deal... The end product in no way resembles the original one. Only God can do that.

I want us to think together today about three questions.

One. How did we get in our current condition? Other words, how do we get to where we are today? Perhaps you’re in a good place. Perhaps you’re not in a good place. We could place some of the blame for how we turned out, on our parents.

1. Our heritage. Did you know that your parents contributed 46,000 chromosomes to make you who you are today? 23,000 apiece. It is the reason you look like you do and could be the reason you do some of the things you do. Someone at some time or another has likely said to you: “you are just like your father or you are just like your mother.” Perhaps that was a complement, perhaps, not so much.

2. Our circumstances. The circumstances of how you were raised and what you saw as you grew up -- these things matter--they contribute to your character to your personality and how you see life. They contribute to who you are today. Much of what you learned-both good and bad--you learned from your parents. When you grew up, you learned from watching others-friends, parents, your teachers. Your circumstances can hurt you or they can help you-they can make you bitter or they can make you better but either way they will impact your life in a huge way.

3. Our choices. This factor is extremely important because this is the one area you and I CAN control. You can’t go back and change your parents were. You can’t go back and change the environment of your childhood. You can’t go back and change circumstances that may or may not have happened to you as you were growing up. But with God’s help, you can the choices you make every day. In other words you can learn to change your mind.

You see, we develop some of these hang-ups we have and live by constantly repeating bad choices. You have heard the definition of insanity— doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Why do we do that? It’s like I know this square peg didn’t fit into this round hole the last 10,000 times I tried it. But just maybe it will this time so I think I’ll keep trying. We do it for so long that it simply becomes what we call a bad habit.