Romans 12:1-2 A New Mind for a New Year Sermon preached January 12.

2014 Opening Its one of the most powerful scenes ever in a movie. The end of Saving Private Ryan Capt. Miller, played by Tom Hanks, leads a squad to find Private Ryan to send him home after his four brothers are killed in combat - Millers squad lands on D-Day and gets their orders to find Ryan and they head out into the battlefield, a man is killed along the way, they find Ryan, he wont leave his squad and they all get cuaght up in a battle with the Germans and with some last-minute air support hold them off, but Capt. Miller is fatally wounded and Ryan goes over to Capt. Miller and Millers last words to him are Earn this; since men have died to save you from battle, do something with your life that is worthy of the sacrifice made for you. The great therefore A sacrifice made for us - in our reading from Romans, Paul begins with the Greek word meaning therefore - and the therefore refers back to everything Paul has written about in the previous 11 chapters - Paul begins by describing humankind's rebellion against God, and God's wrathful response where he says, "You want to live without me? Alright, go ahead." And apart from God, we plunged the world into violence, brutality, exploitation, immorality. But God didn't give up on us. He began again with us, choosing Abraham and Sarah to be the founding father and mother of Israel, the chosen people who were going to show the world how great was life with God. Paul describes how it was by faith Abraham got right with God, and writes of how God through his grace makes us right with him through faith in Christ. He writes of how we are free from sin because we died to sin in baptism; he goes on in chapter eight to assure us that nothing in the entire world can separate us from God's love and care; in chapters 9-11 he describes the fate of Israel and says that in the end, even Israel shall be saved. Paul goes from creation to the end of all things, describing the mysterious, grand plan of God - a plan of grace where God saves us, guides us, protects us. And the therefore that begins chapter 12 means - now that God has done all this for you and me, what is our response to be? Its to allow God to transform us into new and better people who will one day be like the risen Jesus Christ in his goodness and glory. Its to allow God to do this, its to cooperate with God in this, and its a commitment to be transofrmed, to change - by the renewing of our minds.

We are all in the process of transformation Whether we admit it or not, we are all constnatly changing Our bodies are changing did you know that ninety-eight percent of the atoms in your body are replaced every year? Your liver completely replaces itself every six weeks, your skeleton, every three months.1 If you are a man, your whole body changes every five years; if you are a woman, every seven years. On a purely physical level, your body is made up of entirely new matter than it was five, or seven, years ago. The question is not, if were changing or not - the question is, what are we changing into? Like it or not, we change - and Im reminded of what Richard Halverson, the late chaplain of the United States Senate, said: Youre going to meet an old man someday! (And that old man will be you!) Down the road - 10, 20, 30 years, youll catch up with him, waiting for you there. So heres the question - what are you changing into? What are you becoming? Is it for better - or for worse? Battlefield of the Mind Paul says that the opportunity before us is to be transformed for the better by the renewing of our minds. Now, the Greek word that Paul uses for mind - nous - is far richer than our word. We hear mind, and we think mostly of intellect; but the nous is the power of intellect AND the faculty of judgment and insight that allows us to recognize and honor the good God wishes us to do.2 Its not so much about raw brainpower - about being to do differential equations or getting a perfect score on your SATs - its like a kind of spiritual intelligence - the capacity to discern what God is up to, in our lives and in the world. and to get with Gods program. And remember - in biblical thinking, there are two great battlefields inside us - the heart and the mind - which is more important - Im not sure - but think of it this way - think of a train - The engine is our thinking, and it pulls first the car of emotions, then the car of behavior; and then the car of consequences. Good thoughts will influence our emotions for the good, which in turn will influence our behavior and produce positive consequences. Negative thoughts will have the same influence in the opposite direction. What we think will determine the course of our lives. It works like this - if you think people are rotten, life is unfair, you will dislike and distrust people and be bitter and cynical about life. If you learned messages that you are worthless, a failure, you will live down to those messages and be afraid to 2

try to achieve anything; you will have trouble with relationships because you think yourself unworthy of the love and respect of other people. But if your mind is filled with grace and peace, with hope and love, with faith and goodness, with the notion that God can do anything in and through you, that you indeed are a creature of glory through whom God intends to love others, well, then, life is a little more interesting, isnt it? And even more important than your own transformation, you will find that God uses you to transform the lives of others. This is why the Great Commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength - MIND...Loving God with your mind - have you considered this? First thing we must do is DEFEND our minds Now Paul sets this up as a choice we make - we can be transformed by the renewal of our minds, or we can be conformed - that is, shaped - by what he calls the pattern of this world. What he means is that the world around us - culture, family, the media - all have tremendous power to shape our minds and influence the course of our lives. Some of it for good, and some of it for evil. We like to flatter ourselves that we are smart, discerning people who can recognize and reject the bad stuff of the world - but we are shaped by the world in hundreds of different ways we never even realize. A historical example - Abraham Lincoln - was under pressure from people who wanted to let the South go and under pressure from people - the Radical Republicans - who saw Southerners as evil, as an enemy to absolutely crushed were righteous, theyre evil - and Lincoln said to them about Southerners - They are what we would be, if our positions were reversed. A trivial example - Complete this sentence: Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.... Or this one: Winston tastes good.... Now those little jingles are about forty years old - yet we still remember them! That should tell us something. For you younger people - The best part of waking up... You know how crows are attracted to glittering pieces of trash, like aluminum foil, and bring it back to their nests? Our minds are the same way, stuffing all kinds of glittering pieces of information, good, bad and indifferent, into the crevices of our minds.

Example of food labeling And a lot of the influences of the world, are junk, are harmful. When you guys go food shopping, how often do you look at the nutritional information on the packages of food you buy? We do it all the time now - checking for saturated fat and sodium and preservatives and the calorie count. Were very conscious of what we put into our bodies. Athletes know this - many have personal nutritionists. College football teams have nutritionists - where in the old days the team would dig into a pre-game meal of fried chicken, now they eat fish and vegetables and salad. Following Jesus is strenuous and demanding, too. And to follow Jesus...we need to be wise and discerning about what we put in our minds. Junk in the mind Maybe a typical day - wake up, turn on the TV to morning show, pictures of floods and disaster...drive to work listening to morning shock jock...go to work and negative, gossiping people around you...rumors that company is going down the tubes and youre going to get laid off...guy at water cooler telling dirty jokes...highlight of intellectual day is getting an emailing linking to a Youtube video of two baby twins yammering at each other...go home, got the TV on again to the news programs where people basically shout at one another...then watch you some Real Housewives and then head to bed and read People magazine and then its lights out and you try to fall asleep while rehashing in your mind all the crud that happened during the day. What youre doing to your mind...putting trash into your mind - its like the mental equivalent of having a Cinnabon and triple caramel Macchiato for breakfast, snacking on potato chips, having a piece of Food Lion bakery cake for lunch because its somebodys birthday at work, then a Hardees mega-bacon-triple burger with jumbo curly fries for dinner washed down with a quart of Coke...not good....need healthy inputs for the mind as well as the body. I mean, how do you feel after a day of eating junk? You feel lousy. What do you think it does to our minds if we fill them with junk all day long? Why do pay so little attention to what we put into our minds? Why do we keep filling them with the equivalent of cheetos and twinkies? Or even worse, toxic stuff like pornography or gossip? Why do we keep doing this to ourselves? So the first thing we have to do, to cooperate with God in the transformation of our minds, is to cut out the junk. How do you know whats junk? I think most of the time we can tell. But heres a test - does what we put into our minds produce the fruit of the Holy 4

Spirit as Paul lists them out in Galatians: Refer to handout- Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control Or does what we put into our minds produce: Irritability, depression, discouragement, negativity, grumbling, hatred, a bad attitude? Put good stuff into the mind Now, on the positive side - what do we do? Paul helps us again, over in Philippians where he tells us what to fill our minds with. Philippians - refer to handout and read in unison - Romans gave us the what, Philippians helps us with the how - lets read this in unision: Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8 We have to go on a search for what is true and good and beautiful and put that into our minds. Truth Only have time today to think with you about what is true. For instance, thinking on what is true - Jesus in John 8:32 - You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Staggering promise - first, that you can know the truth, with a capital T - not just relative truth as culture construes it today - you have your truth, I have my truth but truth that transcends our feeble minds and can free us from our endless selfpreoccupation, our slavery to sin, and free us to become whom God intended us to be study and meditation of scripture as source of truth Were pretty good at thinking over in great detail, worrying over, the problems that face us Use some of this capacity to read and think on scripture - chew it over slowly 5

were told to chew our food what forty times? Read scripture, doesnt have to be a lot, and repeat over and over again some of the great truths in the Bible: For instance: I can do all things through the One who gives me strength! If anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creation - the old has gone, the new has come! The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love... I know the my redeemer lives... In all things God works for the good of those whom he loves. And this will sink down into the bedrock of your mind and give you a strong foundation in Christ and begin to change you - remember, transformation is the goal - from fearful, to confident, from prideful, to humble, from burdened, to free...internalizing new truths, the deepest truths about God and you, can and will change your life. You will find strength to endure trials like when the doctor says theres something suspicious on the MRI...when your job disappears...when a friend turns against you... You will find wisdom to offer a friend in despair, to guide you as you raise your children, as you struggle with the challenges of life. And as your life ends, as you lay on your deathbed and the darkness begins to close in, as your breath grows more shallow and your vision contracts and your heartbeat slows, you can remember and hold on to the words of Jesus to the thief on the cross - today you will be with me in paradise; his words I am the resurrection and the life, anyone who believes in me, even though the die, will live (forever) and you will close your eyes for the last time not with fear frozen on your face but a slight smile...because of your assurance that youre going to be with the Lord. The truth that will set you free, the truth that will transform you - is in here (Bible) - its sitting on your bedside table, on your bookshelves, in your Kindles and iPads, its taught here in Sunday School and small groups - well study it during Lenten Wednesdays in a couple of months - its up to you whether youll grab hold of it and be changed.

Got some practical stuff for you (refer to handout) Personal study - get a good study Bible with interpretive notes - three recommended in your handout Life Application Study Bible Harper Collins Study Bible NIV Study Bible Daily Devotional Guides Lloyd Olgilvie, Quiet Moments With God Brennan Manning, Reflections for Ragamuffins Daily reading Bible apps Olive Tree BibleReader Biblical Commentaries NT Wright series, Mark for Everyone (most New Testament books now available) Group Study - SS classes on front of bulletin. Starting Womens Lenten Group. Friday morning mens study group. Following Jesus is about transformation - the promise, if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creation - its true - you can be changed, you can become a better man, woman, you can make a difference in the world, you can be a better spouse, parent, son, daughter, you can live such a life that when you stand before the Lord at the end of all things, you will hear the words, Well done, my good and faithful servant. Closing There's an old sea story about a ship's Captain who inspected his sailors, and afterward told the first mate that his men smelled bad. The Captain suggested perhaps it would help if the sailors would change underwear occasionally. The first mate responded, "Aye, aye sir, I'll see to it immediately!"

The first mate went straight to the sailors berth deck and announced, "The Captain thinks you guys smell bad and wants you to change your underwear." He continued, "Pittman, you change with Jones, McCarthy, you change with Witkowski, and Brown, you change with Schultz." Not all change is for the good...but the change God wishes for us will transform us into new and better people. Amen. Endnotes 1. Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami, p. 73. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999. 2. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Colin Brown, ed., vol. 3, p. 127. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.