# Renewing of your mind

September 29, 2025

Turn your Bible and say we’re going to Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter number 12 in God’s Word. And we, for just a bit here, we’re going to talk about this renewing of the mind, renewing of the mind. I’ll be honest with you: personally, I did not want to go this way. I don’t think I am maybe as equipped as I would like to be for this sermon, the message, but just felt like God said it was the way I want you to go. So sometimes you just obey, let the Lord work, amen, or try to obey all the time. And so that’s what we’re doing this morning. Romans chapter number 12. And we’re going to read those first two verses of God’s word, renewing your mind for just a bit this morning.

I want you to sincerely ask the Lord, “Lord, speak to me about this subject here.” I think there was so much more to it than I know, and that will cover this morning. But it’s such a very, very important subject here of renewing your mind. And that’s a biblical phrase. We’ll look at it here in just a minute. Romans chapter 12. If you’re there this morning, would you say amen?

Would you please stand together if you’re able to, just to show the word of God respect? Romans chapter number 12.

Romans 12, look at verse number one of God’s word. The Bible says, “I beseech you”—that means I beg you—“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

After he did walk the shores of Galilee, lay down his life like Brother Bradley sang about, after he did that for us, purchased our salvation, it’s only reasonable that we serve him.

But now look at verse number two, where we’re going to focus that this morning. Look at verse number two right there.

And he says, “And be not conformed to this world.” Well, that’s interesting, just that there long. “And be not conformed to this world.” You know, the world’s trying to make you conform.

You say, “That’s true, but teenagers.” And it is true. Boy, these boys and young ladies, young men, excuse me, young men and young ladies, the world is trying to make you to conform to its image. It is. But it’s not just after teenagers; it’s after 30 years old, right? Come on, how many of you are 30 and in your 30s? All of us are lying. There we go, amen, you know.

It’s after 50s, 60s, even 80s. Brother Raymer is not here this morning, but he’s 100 years old, and I guarantee the world is still trying to get him to conform. Yeah. And God says, “Be not conformed to the world.”

That’s interesting, but watch what he says: “But be transformed by the”—what?—“by the renewing of your mind.” That you may prove—let me finish it, I’m sorry—“that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

I think that last part has to do with when you have this renewing of your mind, because it’s renewed, you can transform your life. You can prove or show to the world God’s wonderful will for your life. Like, wow, God used them. God had a plan. It was good, and acceptable, and perfect. By the way, it’s not three different wills. No, no, what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God? And look,

but it all goes back to this renewing your mind. That’s key. We’re going to just focus on that part right there for a little bit this morning.

Would you pray with me that God would speak to your hearts as I pray the same? Father, Lord, I am trying to obey you, Lord. Forgive me; sometimes I don’t want to go that way out of my fear. Forgive me for that, Lord. Father, this is the way I believe you’re leading. I pray you to accomplish all your will in every one of us. Lord, we’re hungry. We want to hear from you today. Father, give your people what they need through your word. And Lord, specifically through this little phrase, renewing your mind, make that come alive to us, Father. Give us a desire for it. And Lord, we’ll thank you for what you do. It’s in Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

How do you remember back in the day the Play-Doh? You know, Play-Doh? Help me out. Come on. You ever use Play-Doh? Yeah. Come on. Your arm does work. You used Play-Doh before. Amen. Come on there. Good, good, good, good. All right. And remember back of the day, they had those things—I don’t know what it’s called, maybe they still have it nowadays—but it was this: you’d pull the handle up, and you’d put the Play-Doh in there.

And then you have this slide where, when the Play-Doh comes, you push it down and it would make it look like a star or like a circle or like a box or like—oh, anybody help me out? What all the different designs? Spaghetti! Spaghetti, good, good. Some of you like spaghetti, I can tell that. What else? All these different forms or shapes it would be conformed to as it’s pushing it through there.

Now, that’s what the world—the world is always trying to conform you to its image. Here’s the amazing thing about it: the world often gets mad at us and says, “Well, you Christians are always preaching it, everyone trying to get you to look like this.” And the other night, I always think, isn’t it so true, often when people are doing something, they’ll accuse you of doing what they’re doing? There’s a psychology name for it, and I don’t know what the name is, amen.

But the world is always just busy doing this: trying to conform you to its image. And that’s all that’s going to be going on till the day you go home. All right.

But on the other side, God is trying to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ, the image of a Son. I don’t know if these—maybe these, Brother Josh, could you turn the monitors or maybe turn them down to touch? Are they owned very much or what? Just me.

And there’s this constant battle going on, you know, between the world trying to make you into the world and God trying to make you look more like Jesus all the time. And you’re stuck in the middle of this battle. By the way, you’re going to be in this battle whether you want to be there or not. It’s just going to happen. You’re right in the middle of this.

And the Spirit of God’s working on you, and your flesh and the world, the devil. And there’s this battle going on, all right? And I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care, you know, how macho you are. I don’t care how much you are. I don’t care how good of a Christian you are, all that stuff. Friend, it’s just going to happen. You’re going to be caught in this battle: the world trying to conform you into its image and the Lord trying to conform you into the image of Jesus Christ. That’s the battle. You all what I mean?

We could say the image—some of you, the image of Christ would be like spaghetti. All right for some of you now. And that was a joke. I hate it when I have to tell you that was a joke. All right.

But there’s a battle going on. Now what does he say about this battle? He said, look, there’s a battle going on. And he said, “Don’t be conformed to this world, but be ye”—what’s the next word?—“be ye transformed.”

Now that word comes from the Greek word, really the root meaning metamorphosis. It’s the caterpillar going in there and coming out like a butterfly. The major deal there is salvation. You become a new man through Christ. You were dead in your trespasses and sin. You were lost. You’re a child of the devil. You got saved. You became a child of God, and he regenerated. He regained you. You’re transformed. It’s a total change of you.

Adam Clarke’s commentary says this: “The word implies that radical, thorough, universal change, both outwardly and inwardly.” It begins at salvation, but it should always be going on in our life.

He said, “Now don’t be conformed to the image of the world, but be transformed.” But how in the world can we be transformed in our day and time? By the way, the world, I think, has more avenues to try to get you to conform than it ever has.

I mean, you ride down the road, there’s billboards everywhere you go. It used to be the radio. We have radio—praise the Lord, we have a Christian radio station here—but we’ve got radio. The world uses that for the most part. But now, people don’t use radio because you’ve got a portable radio on your side. Not on the portable radio, you got portable TV. You know, some of these people got these folds. I mean, Brother Bill Johan has got the folding cell. You got your cell phone with you? Can you show it to us in church, brother? Oh, my goodness. Amen, it’s off. It gets on, but good, good. He’s got it on silent.

But nowadays, see how it folds up like that? See that? Like that? Now they have them like where it’s straight out and then it folds the horizontal, the long ways, if you will. And it’s like a TV screen. Man, you’ve got a movie screen right there in front of you. Huge. Somebody’s saying, “I want one of those right there,” you know?

But I’m saying we got that, and then it’s got all the social networks on there, and you can find out who said this about that and whose friend. And it’s got so many—the world’s got so many avenues always trying to get you to conform. But then the Lord over here trying to get you more like Jesus, and this battle, he says, “But be transformed,” totally, totally different than the world. You’re transformed.

Figured, you’re different outside and inside. How am I supposed to do that in 2025 with all this, you know, pressure trying to conform you? Well, it tells me that—we’re going somewhere. Stick with me. What does it say there? He says, “But be transformed by the”—what’s the next four words?—“renewing of your mind.” Renovating your mind is so very, very important.

You know the Bible? 95 times the Bible uses the word mind. Often it talks about your mind. That’s just the exact word, not even thoughts and minds and so on, but just the word mind 95 times in the Bible. Let me read a couple of those verses just—just listen as you would please.

Romans 7:25: “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Romans 8:7: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.” This is a classic verse, you’ll know it.

Isaiah 26:3: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.”

Philippians talks about the peace of God keeping your hearts and minds from going crazy. You can get cold and bitter, your heart, your heart, your mind. But over there in Isaiah, he says, if you keep your mind stayed on him, he’ll give you perfect peace. Your mind—God puts value on your mind. It’s so very, very important.

Now your mind—just for a second, let’s talk about the mind for a little bit here, all right? Some of you probably know much more about this than I, but your mind, your brain. The average person, they say your brain weighs around three pounds. Let’s say a newborn baby, it’s about three-quarters of a pound, maybe a half of a pound. And it grows. It is amazing; the skull grows with it.

We have some grandparents here. They’re a three-year-old grandson got hit on the playground, and a part of the skull got broken, fractured, an indentation, and praise the Lord, it’s going to be okay. He spent a night or two advantage of the Children’s Hospital. It was okay, they say, and they think that’ll grow out. But your brain’s just amazing how it grows, and God gives us protection around it.

But your brain has 86 billion—not million, 86 billion—neurons in there. Now these neurons, many of you have heard this phrase, a very popular day and time, a lot of studies about it, but your neurons, they say when they fire together, they get wired together. Now I’m jumping ahead, just very basic here, but it has to do with your decisions and the things you do, the patterns in your life. And when these neurons, 86 billion of them, when they start—you make the same decision over and over again—they’re fired together; they get wired together. All right? And through that, you have neuron pathways in your brain.

How many of you got up this morning and had a cup of coffee? I backslid. I’ve been doing green tea in the morning. I know I’m backslid. You let me know that. I did have coffee in Sunday school. Okay, I’m trying to get right with the Lord. All right now, you know.

But look, that is a pathway in your brain. You’ve been doing that. Ms. Brenda’s been getting up, getting coffee in the morning, and at noon, and an evening. She’s only 30 years old, so, you know, she’s been doing about 30 years. But look, that forms. You don’t have just a little two-lane pathway going; you’ve got a six-lane interstate going in your brain, a neuron pathway. And your brain is such a habit of getting up in the morning. By the way, if you get up and you don’t have that cup of coffee, how many have a headache? Yeah, because that pathway has traveled very good. It’s an interstate, you know.

And you have these neurological pathways that have formed in your brain over the years. You’ve formed them.

It’s interesting. Brother Bradley did a great job playing the guitar, and Brother Ted, but they’ve been playing for years. I don’t want to say how long because I might reveal their age a little bit there, you know. I got to visit Brother Glenn yesterday in the rehab center, and he’s been playing for years and years, and they do studies in the parts of your brain that begins to move when you play the guitar. If you’ve been playing it for years and years, years, it’s thicker. Those neurons have been fired together so many times. Remember, it’s fired together; it’s wired together. They’re thicker. And it’s like they’ve got a, you know, not just a little bit of footpath. For me, I played twice in my whole life. Amen. I didn’t play; I just strummed a little bit, you know. I don’t even have a pathway. But maybe someone that plays every once in a while, they got a little bitty like walking path. But those guys, they’ve been playing for years, they have an interstate through the brain of playing the guitar because they’ve been fired together so many times; it’s wired together, these neurons. Y’all want me out there? Is your neurons firing right now, amen?

And all of our brains are like that. By the way, it’s so important, by the young people, that’s why you have a brain that doesn’t have a whole lot of pathways in it right now. It’s so important what you do with your brain right now. So vital. It’s key.

That’s why people—you’ll learn coping skills. Maybe you’re depressed, and so you cope with it maybe the wrong way. That’s why eating disorders get formed. That’s why someone—your coping skill becomes pornography. And that’s why that pathway gets formed. And smoking is that some people have such a hard time with that because they deal with stress like that.

I think of a man that was trying to stop smoking, and he said, “I’m doing pretty good.” But he had a loved one pass away, and he said, “I couldn’t help it. That’s just my way of dealing with stress.” And he’s formed—he’s formed interstates through his brain. That’s the way he copes. And it’s very, very important how you handle problems and trauma because you’re forming these neuron pathways in your brain. Y’all out there?

And it’s vital. Now, here’s the good thing, especially as the Bible there says, “renewing your mind.” All right. They’re beginning more and more—let me say if I can say this word—to talk and do studies about the plasticity. Don’t ask me to say it again. I said it one time. Amen, that’s about all I do. The plasticity—the—

They say even 80-year-old people can rewire their brain. And sometimes I’ll never change, but they’re saying now the more studies they’ve formed, that may be hard—different brains, different ways. And if it’s, you know, is it a 12-lane interstate or a two-lane road, or how long have you traveled that? All those things matter. But even people that’s been going down that road for years and years can rewire the brain.

Now it’s going to take a while because maybe you have these neurons that’s really grown together because they’ve been firing together for years. But here’s what I’m going to get at just briefly here on this thing here: The Bible says, “renewing the mind.” You say, “I’m stuck. I’ve been battling pornography since I was 12 years old. There’s no way I can overcome. I’m stuck. I’ve formed the interstate in my mind.” According to the Bible, you can renew your mind. That’s the main thing right there, friend.

But even science is beginning to catch up with the Bible. Hey, it doesn’t matter how long—you can renew or rewire your brain. You don’t get anything else. It’s really just my desire. I want to give you hope, friend. It doesn’t matter. Maybe you say, “I’m just so prone to negativity. It’s just the way I grew up. It’s the way I’m wired. I’ve been doing this for years. I’m so negative.” Friend, you can renew your mind.

You say, “It’s my way of dealing with things. I’m critical of everybody and everything, and maybe that gives me a little comfort, and I’m feeling insecure so I put everybody else down in my mind, and there’s no hope for me.” Friend, there is hope for you. You can renew your mind. God will not put that in the Bible if there wasn’t a way for you to renew your mind. Renewing the mind—the Bible says, “Hey, be transformed.” How do you do that? By renewing your mind. There’s hope for you.

You say, “Preacher, I have problems with my temper, and there’s no way I can overcome that. I’ve been wired that way.” No, you can renew your mind. There’s hope for you.

The man that preached our men’s retreat a couple weeks ago said he battled temper for years and years and years and didn’t win over it. They began to realize it really had to do with a major trauma in his life. We’ll get to this in a minute here when his little sister died, and he had just this interstate built into his mind very quickly because of trauma.

But your mind—there’s hope for it. It’s amazing how the brain will rewire itself. There’s a man in Hickson, Tennessee. You don’t know where Hickson, Tennessee is? Everybody about Chattanooga. Steve Cape passed up for years and years. One of his daughters, named Heather—I don’t know how old Heather is; I would think pushing her 40s now—but Heather, when she was young—I can’t remember how it started; it was just natural if she had fell or whatnot—but she has over and over again strokes. I remember saying it right: strokes. Yeah, just, just, I mean, sometimes she’ll have, you know, 30 mini strokes an hour and just continue on. Sometimes she can’t even function; sometimes better, sometimes worse.

She’s had so many surgeries that came to a point, they said, “Well, she’s just not going to be able to make it.” So the side of her brain that is having these major strokes—we’re going to take it out. She was at Vanderbilt, and we went up and visited the family. It was like an all-day, maybe all-day, all-night-long, major, major. Literally, they took out half of her brain—one of the hemispheres of her brain, they would call it—in.

And they were concerned because that certain side has been years ago, 10 years ago, so I won’t get all the details right. I want to say that side affected her speech and different motor skills and whatnot, so they didn’t know how it would be when they took that half out. They took it out successfully. And over the years, this is what they were hoping would happen: the brain rewired, and other things began to form neuron pathways to her tongue and her motor skills. And the doctors were very pleasantly surprised. They were hoping for this, but that this is the plasticity of the brain—how it adapted and it began to do other things of the brain that doesn’t usually do that, began to do that and begin to form new pathways.

And I’m saying the Bible says, “Hey, I want you to renew your mind.” There’s hope for you renewing your mind. And say, “No, I’m stuck.” Don’t get stuck in the “I can’t because of…” No, say, “I can.” The Bible tells me to renew my mind, and I can renew my—

Somebody says, “I can’t witness.” So-and-so has got that gift. By the way, it’s not a gift; it’s a command in the Bible. All right. And that’s not my gift. You’ll never find that list in the spiritual gifts. Never will. No, it’s a command from the Lord. And so, but you say, “I can’t do that.” No, you can. You can renew your mind. You can rewire your brain.

One of our men was telling me he had—I couldn’t—it was just briefly—but he said someone came to either pick up a mattress, buy it on an awful marketplace, or they were telling them—yeah, they were picking. They were going to buy it. And he said, “The Lord said, ‘Hey, man, you didn’t talk to him.’” And he said, “I gave him a tract.” And the Lord had that man just set up ready to go, and that man asked the Lord to be his Savior. And that man, just before church time, man was back here telling me, he said, “Man, God just had him ready.” But he had to say, “I’m going to step out of my comfort zone and I’m going to witness.” And he’s a good soul in here, but, but, but, well, I’ve got to step out. I’m going to renew my mind. I’m going to form some new, new pathways, and I’m going to begin to talk to someone about getting saved. You know, there’s people out there just need someone to lovingly tell them about Jesus. Practically lovingly tell them how to get saved. You say, “I can’t do that. That’s not me.” Friend, it can be you. There’s hope. You can renew your mind.

Ever think about it? Moses was 80 years old when he began to be used by God greatly. 80 years old? Wow. We got anybody here? Well, okay, I better not go there; get in trouble.

Paul had his mind renewed when he stopped murdering Christians and became a Christian. Half of the apostles were fishermen, and Jesus said, “Hey, I’m going to renew your mind. We’re going to take those neural pathways from catching fish; now I’m going to start catching men.” Just don’t give up and say, “Well, there’s no hope for me this way I am.” No, there’s hope for you. You can renew your mind.

Matthew, Levi, sometimes called, was a tax collector. He worked for the IRS. The Lord really had to rewire his brain for him. Yeah.

Now here’s the interesting thing, just adding to it a little bit: trauma. Some people will say it this way—and this is just a terminology they have made up—but they say when trauma happens, your fear circuitry kicks in. And it’s like, it’s like when trauma happens, it may take years and years and years to form a highway, a neuron pathway highway—years and years of drinking coffee every morning. We’ve got a 12-lane highway. But they say trauma will put your mind on such a hyper-alert that you can form that highway in seconds because of trauma. And trauma… it’ll rewire your brain just boom in certain ways. It’s so very, very important.

By the way, I wish T. Dot will learn how to do that, amen. Let me ask you to build another highway in and out of Nashville in seconds. Amen, I like that, you know.

But your brain rewiring, renewing your mind. Now, usually we hear bad about trauma, and that’s true, but you know, sometimes trauma can be good. I don’t want to be inappropriate here, but they say when a husband and wife is together and having intimacy together, that your brain goes in maybe the fear circuitry a little bit, and you’re wired to your spouse. By the way, that may give you hope. Well, if somebody’s been in pornography, they’ll never recover it. You can’t overcome it. I’m not saying that’s the only way, but I’m just saying there’s some good things there. By the way, that’s why it’s so very, very important: the Bible says, “Flee fornication and remain pure until the time you’re married,” because you’re wiring your brain. That’s why somebody will date a creep, and yet if they’re together, their brain has already wired each other, and they can’t see all the problems in that person. God always knows best, by the way. You see worse than that on TV every day, amen, you know.

But I’m just saying that there’s trauma that does affect the renewing of your mind. Now let me talk about trauma for just a second here. You know, sometimes someone called it the fear circuitry. And when your brain gets on hyper-alert, if you will, you know, when you get a true glimpse of God, it’s almost like good trauma—boom. Someone gets saved, and maybe they’ve just been a, a, oh, they’ve been having all kind of addictions and problems. They get saved—not always does it work like this—sometimes they get saved, they really got a glimpse of God when they got saved, and boom, it just rewired their brain. It’s a wonderful thing.

Isaiah, over there in Isaiah 6—we don’t know, but we think maybe Isaiah was maybe part of the family of royalty, or he worked in the palace, but he knew the King so well. And so somehow he was associated with the kings. And Isaiah, he saw the Lord in Isaiah 6, high and lifted up. And before that chapter is over, he says, “Hey, here am I, Lord, send me.” And that was just called a preach, and we rewired his brain when he saw the Lord.

I’m talking about good trauma here. And the book of Hebrews, it talks about seeing Him who is invisible. When you get a good glimpse of God, sometimes it rewires your brain in a wonderful way.

By the way, Moses is talking about Moses 80 years old. And what happened? Moses was 80 years old, and he saw the burning bush. And I went, “Whoa!” I mean, he saw the Lord, and that rewired his brain from being a shepherd out there in the backside of the desert for 40 years, and now he becomes this great deliverer, and he’s willing to go to Pharaoh and say, “Let my people go.” I’m just saying there’s some good things that can be—Paul saw the light from heaven. He said, “Whoa.” He was blind for three days; that rewired his brain. Y’all out there this morning? I know it’s a little different message on a Sunday morning.

Oh, but friend, there’s hope. I hope if you get anything out of this message, there’s hope. You just get—there’s hope. You can renew your mind.

I think about my Uncle David. You’ve heard me talk about him from time to time; it’s been a little while. My brother’s with us today. Well, my brothers—my older brother—and Steve knows Uncle David very well. Uncle David was saved. He’d tell you about his salvation and give you a pretty good testimony, whatnot, about it. He was saved. But Uncle David, he had, for years and years, he had his weakness. He would smoke and he would drink. And…

I’ll never forget one of the first times, at least for me—Steve may have stories about it, I’m sure, too—but Uncle David, and he lived with my granny; he was handicapped and couldn’t move his right side very good, his right hand like that. And so he lived with my granny, and we would go stay with my granny, and I remember one of the first times for me that Uncle David got drunk, and he wanted me to read the Bible to him. And I thought, “Man, we got revival going on.”

I read the Bible to him for a good long time. Granny had the—remember the old family Bibles, you know? And I get that, man, this is amazing, you know. I don’t know how old I was, 12, 14 years old, who knows, you know. And I’m reading the Bible. Man, this is awesome, you know. And I read the Bible to him, you know. And I thought, “Boy, Uncle David is a changed man.” And we woke up the next morning, and I was kind of like waiting for Uncle David to say—I don’t even think he remembered anything about me reading the Bible to him that I before.

And I’m just saying it was kind of wired. He had an interstate going through his brain. And he would be defeated over it. He wouldn’t win, and that was just his weakness. And he would try to win over it. And you would think, you know, he’s 40s—I don’t know how old he was; I’d say around 40s, in the 40s. Man, there’s just no hope; he’s been there for years and years, years.

And an interesting story—I’m telling all these stories this morning—but my aunt, she lived up north, and she was going to come down and visit. And she said that she wanted to bring her friend, but her friend was a Christian, and she was a little preachy. You don’t know what I talk about? Anybody out there know any Christians that are a little preacher here there, you know? And I see somebody who raised your hand there. But she said, “No, if I bring her down, David—David, he’s got his weakness; he smokes and he drinks—and they’re going to fight the whole time because she’s going to preach at here.” And she said, “I don’t want to bring him down or not.” But she said, “Oh, what are you going to do?”

She brought her down, and my Uncle David and this preacher Christian, they ended up getting married. I had the privilege of being his best man in that wedding, and it was up north, and I was up that way. And, you know, she was in church, and through that, my Uncle David got in church, and he stopped drinking.

He told me later on—he got cancer; he passed away; he’s in heaven—but he told me, he said, “Paul, he said, the drinking, you know, just God helped me, and I overcame that.” But he said the smoking was a heart. And I’ve had so many people say that smoking’s harder to overcome than the drinking over the years. Had a lot of people say that. And he said, “God just had to deliver me from that one there.” And God did.

Now here’s the reason I tell that story: He was in his 40s, been doing some of this stuff from forever. But God renewed his mind. And he went home to be with the Lord, and he didn’t smoke; he didn’t drink, and he overcame those things. In fact, he was the greeter at the church that his wife went to, and he got in there, got involved, became the greeter, and he was just an old country boy, my Uncle David. Country the day is long. You think I pronounce words bad? My goodness, you already hear my uncle, you know.

But he won. God helped him rewind. And so many people like that—what happened that guy, the greeter? And I’m just saying he got involved in church, and God renewed his mind. So don’t say, “Well, there’s no hope for me. I just—that’s the way I grew up. If you hit your finger with a hammer, you cuss.” But you don’t have to cuss. You can renew your mind, friend.

You don’t have to lose your testimony around the coworkers. Look, I’m saying you can renew your mind. So very important: renewing your mind.

Now, just a thought about it. We’ve got to hurry along here. Go back to that verse, would you please? Romans 12. Romans 12. Look at verse number two. Romans 12, verse number two. Notice what he says: This battle is going on. “Be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by”—what’s that next? Say it. Say it the whole—“by the”—what? “By the”—

Now, I want you to get this: notice it says renewing. It’s an ongoing action. It doesn’t matter if you’re 80 years old, 90 years old, 100 years old; you’re still working. It’s not going to be, “Boom, I rewired it, everything’s good.” You’re going to have to always be renewing. You have to work at it, and it’s going to be an ongoing thing.

The program some of us men went through—it’s very good about addictions, particularly pornography—and this spring, Conqueror Series, and we met on Thursday, I think of us and whatnot. But they’ll say if you’ve been addicted to that for years, it’s going to take two to five years to rewire your brain. That’s going to be different for everybody in all kinds of different circumstances, whatever your thing is. But you can rewire your brain. But it’s renewing; it’s an ongoing thing. It’s something you’re working at.

Now, let me give a couple thoughts here. We’re going to go home. We’ll go to a restaurant somewhere like that, amen. How many are you going to a restaurant? How many of the restaurant is at home? Amen, it’s free. That’s better. Amen, now, you know.

Let me give you some helps. Let me give you some helps about this thing that helps in renewing. There’s a battle; you’re stuck in it, and if you’re going to be transformed, you’ve got to renew your brain, your mind. All right? So how do you do it? Let me give you a couple of helps on number one. Number one: Dwell on His love. Here’s what I want you—here’s what I want you to dwell on: the fact He loves you when you’re at your lowest.

When things end up, “while we were yet sinners,” was the first John—the book of Jude. Most will say the theme of the book of Jude is “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.” Earnestly contending—you got to fight! And there’s some truth; you’re in a battle. But about halfway or old, I think it’s verse number 21. He says this: “It says, ‘Keep yourselves in the love of God.’”

Now, the next verse talks about compassion, have compassion, making a difference. Here’s what I’m getting at: in this fight, if you’re not careful, you’re going to get cold-hearted, mean, bitter. And God says you’re going to have to keep yourself—it didn’t mean keep yourself lovely. If you’re saved, He’ll always love you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is Christ Jesus. There’s nothing that you can do to make you get loved. You are loved if you’re saved. You always will be loved, but you keep yourselves in the love of God. God loves me. And in this battle, because you’re not going to be perfect, in this battle, number one, dwell on the fact that God loves you even at your lowest point. If you’re going to work at the renewing your mind, that’s a key part, and I don’t have time to dwell on the whole lot. We’ve got just a few minutes before churches out, but dwell on the fact that God loves you. All right, that’s number one.

Number two. Number two: Be in your Bible. Bible, when you’re trying to renew your mind, it’s like Popeye eating spinach. How many—how many of you know who Popeye is? Okay, you guys know—you guys know about Popeye too? Can of spinach? Oscar’s like, yeah, okay, all right, just wondering if it’s still out. I didn’t know if it was, you know, that’s what the Bible is. You know, they say eating right, if you’re just eating vegetables, eat your veggies, some of that is because you’re getting something living inside of you—live enzymes, they call it, salads and whatnot. You know, you shot that deer four years ago, kept it in the freezer; it’s been dead a long time. And, you know, the Bible says—the Bible, the Bible talks about the Bible says, “Liveth and abideth forever.” And you’re putting something living in your brain: the Word of God, the Bible.

Let me read for you this. We’re going to take time for this here. We didn’t come to leave, amen. He said, “Well, I did while you’re stuck here,” amen, you know.

Let me give a couple of things. Recent study: 4,000 North American people, this study is from 8 years old to 80 years old. They said reading your Bible one to two times a week, there’s really no significance to it. They’re studying the brain. If you read it three times a week, it’s slightly better, but if it’s four times or more a week, they were a little surprised: there’s drastic change reading your Bible.

Let me read for this. There’s a drastic change if you read your Bible four or more times a week: feelings of loneliness fall by 30%; anger falls by 32%; grudges in your marriage or with your children fall by 40%; alcoholism falls by 57%; contact with pornography falls by 61%; acts of sharing your faith grow by 200% just by reading your Bible at least four times a week.

You’re talking about a super vitamin in wanting to renew your mind as being in the Bible. You’re putting something living in your mind. It’s so very, very important. Say, “I want to renew my mind.” All right. What do you do? Dwell in the love of God. Stay in your Bible.

Number three: Be in church. Be in church. Help me out. Hebrews 10:25, you know, “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together.” Now, I’m for—if you can’t go to church, Brother Glenn is stuck in a rehab center down there in Murfreesboro, some other people in the hospital that just can’t get out. All right, watch it on YouTube; that’s better than nothing. But the Bible says, “Not forsaking the assembling.”

And there’s something about going to do it. First of all, when you go to church, you get up, you get dressed, you brush your teeth, hopefully. You’re telling God, “I’m setting aside some time for you and to hear from you. I’m making this happen. I want to make time for your house, God.” That’s number one. Something to do that. I want to go meet with God, so I want to look good the best I can. I mean, there’s all ugly faces, I still want to look the best I can because I’m going to meet with God in His house.

And then there’s the fellowship. How many of you were checking on college football games yesterday because you know so-and-so at church cheers for that team? I woke up this morning; I checked out if Penn State won or lost because of Brother Josh. I was keeping up with Tennessee and Mississippi State. I like Tennessee, of course, but I knew Johnny and Kelly—I said, “Oh, my goodness, one of them is Mississippi State, one of them is Tennessee.” And I wanted to see if their marriage was still intact. No, I’m joking. I’m joking. Great people, great marriage. I’m joking.

But I’m just saying some of it is you just—you have fellowship, you come and shake hands. By the way, that brings accountability. All that is part of church. Then you come sing songs. And by the way, if you ever want to raise your hand in church and sing the song, I’m all right with that. Don’t do it to be seen of men, but you’re doing it before the Lord, the Holy Spirit leads you to do it, man, do it. Nothing wrong with that, friend.

But you’re singing the songs of Zion. Preaching is part of it. You hear preaching. By the way, it’s one thing to sit at home with all the distractions by watching preaching; it’s another thing to be sitting in the auditorium and the preacher’s yelling straight at you. It’s different. The invitation—we’re trying to draw by the invitation is a good thing, amen. We’re inviting you to come meet with God and make some decisions in your life. That’s a good thing.

But if you enter—someone said—someone said if you go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night for six months straight, you’ll never be the same for the rest of your life. It rewires your brain. Renewing your mind: dwell on His love, stay in the Bible, be in church.

Number four. Number four: Tune out the world when you can. Now I say that you can’t always. Isn’t it interesting? Matthew 6 talking about when you enter into your prayer—this is always interesting. The Bible puts it in there. He said, “When you enter into the closet, shut the door.” That’s interesting. God could just say, “Go to the prayer closet,” but he said, “When you get in there, shut the door.” You know what he’s saying? Tune out the world. You need some time, if you can, every day where you tune it all out—yes, you and God. I want to get a good glimpse of you, and I want you to renew my mind. The best you can, tune out the world when you can. That may be getting rid of some music, getting rid of some movies, but the best you can. By the way, Satan, he’s good at using every pipeline he can in our mind.

I’ve got to hurry along. Number five: Pray and ask Him to renew your mind. “You have not because you ask not.” Lord, Lord, would you rewire my brain? This area here, when this happens, I’m so prone to this right here, or maybe whatever it is in your life, but you say, “Lord, I need rewiring here.” Ask Him to do that. Renew my mind. Ask Him. He didn’t put it in His word for no reason. He said, “He’s going to be transformed; you got to renew your mind.” Ask Him to renew your mind.

Number six, and we’re done: Ask to see the Lord in an unusual way. Lord, I want to see You. I want to see You. I mean, I want to get a good glimpse of You. Now, that starts at salvation. By the way, if you’re not saved, you’ll never see Him like you want to. Jesus, when He was on the cross of Calvary, who took our sin on Him—you know what happened? He said this: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” God Almighty turned His back on His only begotten Son because He, Jesus, had our sin on Him. And God is separate from sin.

So when I say, “God, I want to get a good glimpse of You,” and God says, “No, you’ve never had your sins placed on Jesus’ account by faith. You’ve never had Jesus’ righteousness put on your account.” You’ll never see God like you want to. Oh, friend, it starts at salvation. It can be over and over again. But, oh, when you get a good glimpse of God, I don’t think Isaiah was ever the same man. He said, “I saw the Lord high and lifted up.”

By the way, the first thing when you get a glimpse of God, you don’t criticize others. You say, “Well, always be—I got problems, Lord.” And then remember over there in Isaiah 6? They took the live coal off the fire and touched his tongue. God purges you. Then Isaiah says, “Oh, here am I, Lord, send me.” And the course of his life got changed. This was called a prayer, called a ministry.

I said, “Lord, I need to see.” Seeing when I was a teenager—I think it was years ago—I heard a preacher preach from that verse over in Hebrews, “seeing Him who is invisible.” And that preacher just talked about times in his life where God just showed up in a real way in his life. And every once in a while, Lord, I need to get a good glimpse of You. And when God shows up, He’s so awesome, friend, it turns that brain into, “Whoa.” That’s part of you renewing your mind. Oh, it’s possible. Don’t believe the lie of the devil: you’re stuck the way you are; you cannot change. He’s a liar.

Too many people in the Bible that God changed their life. Too many people I’ve seen God change their life. And the Bible says, “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your—”

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes just a minute? I’m going to ask you three questions here, just trying to draw us to some conclusions here. But you’re here this morning. You say, “Preacher, I’m going to work. I’m going to work. I’m going to ask. I’m going to try to apply some of the six, but I’m going to work at renewing my mind. God spoke to my heart about that. I need to renew my mind.” God’s speaking to me about that. I’m going to work at it this morning. You lift a hand, that preacher—that’s me. I’m going to work at this thing of renewing my mind. My hand is up.

My hand is up with you too. Oh, God bless you. God bless you. He can rewire it. He can renew it. He didn’t put that in His word for no reason. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. God bless you. God bless you. Many, many, many hands. Renewing your mind. God bless you. Thank you so very much. And put your hands down.

You said, “Preacher, I have been stuck kind of in the no-hope stage. I didn’t think there was any way I can change. And I just kind of got used to it and said, ‘Well, this is the way I am.’ I’ve been stuck. And God spoke to my heart. I’m going to say, ‘All right, Lord, I’m going to ask you to get this rut out of my mind.’ But I’ve been stuck, and I’ve been kind of just wallowing in the rut. But this morning, I said, ‘No, no, no. There is hope.’ And I’m going to get going in God rewiring, renewing my mind in a certain area. But I was stuck in this thing, and I’m going to get back in this thing, renewment.’ That’s me this morning. That’s you this morning. Just lift a hand up, preacher. That’s me. That’s me.” God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. That’s me. God bless you. That’s me. God bless you. Thank you. That’s me. That’s me. You can put your hands down.

One more question. One more question. You said, “Preacher, I can’t get a good glimpse like you mentioned because I don’t know that I’m saved. I need to get saved. I thought I could get rid of enough sins; maybe He’d accept me.” No, no, no. You’ll never get rid of enough sins. Jesus, you give all your sins to Him; He pays for them all, and He’ll take them all the way. He’ll wash them with His shed blood and give you His righteousness on your account.

If you hear this morning, said, “Preacher, I need to get saved.” That’s my first thing. I need to accept Jesus as my way to heaven, my personal Savior. If that’s you, with their heads bowed and eyes closed, if that’s you, just lift your hand up. Just lift your hand up. Just lift your preacher, “I need to get saved.” Anybody like that? I need to just slip it up. I won’t call your name; embarrassed. I just slip it up. I need to get saved. Anybody like that? Anybody like that? I don’t see any hands.

Hey, Christians, let’s ask Him: “Would you renew my mind?” Would you please stand? We won’t be long. We’re going to pray, and we have an invitation. You’ll be obedient to the Lord however He wants you to do—maybe stand there and spend time with Him, maybe coming an old-fashioned way. There’s something special about that. But however He leads you, you’ll be obedient. But let’s spend some time: “Would you renew my mind?” You do that.

Father, thank You for Your word, Lord. I just make this thing alive and real about renewing our minds. Thank You. You’re able. You’re capable. You can rewind, renew our minds. We ask You to do that. Help us to set course to that. Bless the invitation that we would be obedient. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Would you come? You’ll be obedient to the Lord. It’s an ongoing thing, renewing, renewing, renewing your mind, working at that thing. It’s not a one-time deal; it’s renewing, ongoing, ongoing.

There’s hope. Well, I handle everything by going on from my own, getting away from everybody, everything. But your spouse may need you to talk to them. There’s no hope? Oh, there is hope. You can renew your mind. Well, I handle everything with anger. Been doing it for years. Oh, He can renew your mind. I handle it by listening to music. I’m not listening to—He can renew your mind. It’d take a little while to get a new appetite. He can grow an appetite for the right kind of music.

Now, how many of you have your brain wired this way after church Sunday morning: “Let’s go eat”? How many like that? That’s a good wired right there. Amen. Come on. We’re firing together, and we’re going to be wired together on that one for a long, long time. And glad you’re here this morning, honored to have every single person here. And just remember that phrase in the Bible: renewing your mind. And God can do it. So glad to say—have every single person here, honored to have you. And thank you for being with us today. What a blessing. Father John Sharp, would you dismiss us with a word of prayer, please, brother?

Original File: 2025-09-29 - Pastor Paul Chisgar - ＂Renewing Of Your Mind＂ Sunday AM 09⧸28⧸2025