The Renewal of the Mind

I. Don't give yourself over to anything or any person but Christ. (vs. 19-21)

A. Put off the old man. (vs. 22)

B. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. (vs. 23)

C. Put on the new man. (vs 24)

II. The renewal of the mind involves four principles that must be practiced.

A. You must be committed to becoming "like Christ."

1. It is the desire of God's heart for you and the heart of His eternal purpose. (Rom. 8:29)

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

2. It is what Jesus meant when he gave the command, Follow me. (Matthew 4:19)

3. Three times Paul exhorts the church to follow (imitate) him. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 

4. The greatest way to earn respect from others. (1 Peter 2:15; Philippians 2:14-15)

For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2:14-15)

B. You must learn to live your life by the principles of the word of God. (Mt. 4:4)

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

1. You must change your thoughts before you can change behavior by conforming your thoughts to God's thoughts. (1 Corinthians 10:4-5)

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

2. You must allow the Holy Spirit to develop five attitudes of Christ in you. (Philip. 2:5-8)

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 

3. You must put God's word as true against every word to the contrary. (Romans 3:4)

God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

4. You must learn to receive the impartation of life through the word. (John 6:63)

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

C. You must present your body as a living sacrifice unto God. (Romans 12:1-2)

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

D. You must live with the awareness that you are alive to God and dead to teh world. (Galatians 2:20 and 6:14)

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

III. God wants you to start to day a renewal of the mind that will effect all of your entire life. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

A. What is the most needed change in your thinking at this time in your life?

B. What is the one greatest change you need in your behavior?