Be Renewed in the Spirit of Your Mind

Ephesians 4.23 "...and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds." Obviously, you're picking up there and with a conjunction, this is connected back. If we're really going to pick this up more in its entirety, we probably need to move back to v. 20. That is not the way you learn Christ. Even there, we're assuming something that's gone before. How is the way that we haven't learned Christ? Well, if you go back to v. 17, "...This I say and testify in the Lord, you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do." That is not the way you learn Christ. "...Assuming that you have heard Him and were taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus." Here is the truth that is in Jesus. If you've been taught in Him, this is what you've been taught to put off your old man. Anthropos. Man. Anthropology. Study of man. This is the old man. This is how you learn Jesus. If, in fact, assuming that you have, it's to put off your old man which belongs to your former manner of life. That's what Gentiles are. That's why you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do because you've put off this old man which belongs to your former manner. In other words, when you were Gentilish, put off your old man which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new man created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Several things excite me about having the privilege of being able to preach to you all on a regular basis. For one, I get to learn all the time. When I open up to a new text, it's, Lord, teach me. But I also, even from my days as an engineer, one of the primary things we did when I was in engineering school and then when I worked as an engineer is problem solve. And I love that. Scripture is full of problems. And I also like the unexpected. You know, when I'm listening to preachers, I'm often thinking, what are they going to say next? What are they going to say next? I like it when the preacher says something next that I'm not anticipating. Like catches me by surprise. I find that happens in Scripture on a regular basis. I like when Paul surprises me. These are some of the things that I enjoy about being able to study God's Word. Unexpected things. Why am I saying this? Because v. 23 is what we're dealing with today and that just seems unexpected. I think you can see here in this portion of Scripture, we are being confronted by two primary exhortations. One in v. 22. One in v. 24. I think you can see that. Put off the old man, v. 22. Put on the new man, v. 24. But inserted right between these two exhortations, we get v. 23. I mean, Paul's obviously transitioning from the one put off to the other. Put on. It's the negative. Put off. Put off the old man. That's the negative exhortation. Put on the new man. That's the positive. He's transitioning from that negative to that positive. And bang! V. 23. Why is that there? Is that even necessary? Now, I know you could say this. Well, it's in Scripture. That's inspired. God knows better than we do. Obviously, it was necessary. Yes, I know that. I know that. But I'm talking about Paul as a man is communicating. Yes, he's inspired. Yes, he's being carried along. But Paul is a man who is using his logic. He was using his brain to communicate. Why does he have to say this? Why is this statement even necessary? Before getting to the positive exhortation of putting on the new man, why does he have to go say to be renewed in the spirit of your minds? Why the interruption? And here's the thing that strikes me about this. It seems to me like if I'm going to say to put on the new man, well, by default, doesn't that include v. 23? I mean, you see what I'm saying? If I put on the new man, doesn't that mean to put on the new mind? Doesn't the new man have a new mind? Why single that out of all the things that are true of the new man? Why does he feel like he has to lay that foundation before he can go on? I mean, isn't new mind being renewed in the mind? Isn't that part of the package? Don't you think? I think so. And then there's something else about this that should surprise us. Now, you don't see it in the English. It doesn't just jump out at you. But you remember how last week I emphasized to you that to put off the old man, that's not a passive verb. Remember? I mean, that was a big emphasis. It's your responsibility. Now, it's in the middle voice. Look, you have basically three voices in the Greek. You have passive. You have active. And I was really stressing last week this is active. Well, it's actually in the original in the middle voice. But middle voice is active. It simply means you have to do it to yourself. And that's what putting off the old man is. You have a responsibility. It's active in that sense. It's middle voice meaning you have to do it to yourself. And as we could probably anticipate, v. 24, putting on the new man, saying, you've got to do it. Now that's probably two weeks from now. We're really going to nail that. Our responsibility there. But you know what is so interesting about v. 23? You would think, okay, Paul's hitting you. This is middle voice. You've got to do this. You're responsible to take off that old man. That's you. This is you. You can't just let God do this. This is your responsibility. Same with putting on the new man. But you know what's happening here in v. 23? Paul cuts in right at this point and says you need to be renewed in your minds. Renewed in the spirit of your minds. And he suddenly throws a passive at us. Like you don't do this. So you've got a responsibility putting off that old man and then being renewed in the spirit of your mind. Passive verb. You don't do it. God does this. And then right back to our responsibility to put on the new man. That's surprising to me. It just feels like a bump in the road. The truth that we are taught in Jesus is this, to put off your responsibility, the old man. To be renewed in the spirit of your mind, God's responsibility, and to put on the new man your responsibility. That's how we're taught in Christ. That's what He's teaching here. That's the flow. So, as we're thinking about this, v. 23, let's just for a moment forget about the verb here and what's communicated by that. But let's think about the verb itself. Stop thinking about what voice it's in or what tense it's in, but just renewal. Renewal. As we're thinking about this, what is Paul talking about in v. 23? Renewal. Being made new again. Re. I mean, you can hyphenate it. R-E. Hyphenate that. New. We're being made new all over. The idea is that we're being restored to a... What does renew mean? Being restored. It's one thing to be new. It's another thing to be renewed. Re-new. It means you're being brought back to a former condition, a previous condition that we once had. It suggests that there's been some kind of departure from where we once were. Some kind of previous condition to which I must be brought back. That's the idea. It suggests that there's been a departure. And now, okay, let's come back to the verb. It's in the continuous present. Which means what? You say, I didn't know each verb had so many things. Can it actually be passive and it can be continuous and can be present? Yes, those are all identities that are held in a verb. It's continuous present, which means what? It carries the idea that it's something that has to happen now and it goes on happening. The Christian must go on being renewed. It's not something that happens once and for all and it's all over and that's the end of it. The idea is that this is something that is continuous. I've got to go on being renewed. You've got to be renewed today and day by day. Doesn't Scripture say that? You remember where Paul says these words? We do not lose heart, though our outer self or outer man is wasting away our inner self or inner man or just inner. In the original, it's just inner. The inner is what? The inner is being renewed day by day. Again, passive. God does that to you. Don't you like that picture? Every day you rise up and newness. There's a renewal. God is renewing day by day. I like that thought. Every day you rise up, God is working, powerfully working, actively working. He's bringing renewal. Do you understand the power of God that is at work in the life of the Christian each day? Sometimes it's almost like watching your children grow from one day to the next. You don't hardly notice it, but you've got to stand back and recognize what's really happening in the life of the true believer. Something amazing. Something miraculous. Literally, our inner is being renewed. It's being acted upon by another. It's passive. Now, brethren, the other classic text, you've got this one here in 2 Corinthians 4, which day by day we're being renewed. You've got this text over in Ephesians 4 that talks about the renewal of the spirit of the mind. But you know, there's another classic text. Jeff actually mentioned it. This one's found in Romans 12, v. 2. And let's look over there at this. We're going to jump back to Ephesians in a second. But I want you to see this. You know, one of the things that jumped out at me is I'm searching this week for every place in Scripture that I can find where it's speaking about renewal, where it's speaking about renewal of the mind. And what I'm finding is that this whole idea of renewal in Scripture, every place where it's coming up, you're just... I mean, I know, somebody can always find some exception somewhere. Obviously, there's responsibilities that we have concerning the mind. I recognize that. But it's amazing how much you just find passive verbs used here. In other words, it is something that God has to do to us. But I'm taking you over to Romans 12, v. 2 because again, Paul surprises us. If you haven't studied it closely, I know that Andre has. We've talked about this one before. Listen to this. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. But what I'm wanting you to focus in on is this. Be transformed by the renewal. You see the renewal. He's not saying the spirit of your mind. Here, he leaves spirit out. It's the mind and it's renewal. Okay, again, the verb is passive. Active, passive. Active, you do it. Passive, it's done to you. But I know I'm giving you lots of verbal information. This verb is an imperative. Okay, let's just think about imperative passive verbs. Just think with me. What's an imperative? The command. What's passive? You receive. You are acted upon. Okay, is anybody kind of feeling a tension between something that would be imperative and passive at the same time? You are basically being commanded to have something done to you. How do you do that? That's what we want to talk about today because that's the issue. Imperative, it's a command. Command. Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. It's a command. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. But it's passive. You don't do it. So you're being commanded to do what you don't do. You like that? See, those are the kind of surprises, those are the kind of unexpected things you get in Scripture that I just love. Passive means that we do not perform the action. It's performed on us. Paul is commanding us to be changed by God so that our minds are renewed. And I just ask this question, how does one go about submitting themselves to such a command? How do I obey a command that I'm not even supposed to be actively involved in performing? You should be asking questions like this. If you want to take this book seriously, we need to ask questions like this. Because you know what we're dealing with here in Ephesians 4? We are dealing with three of the most fundamental verses in Scripture that have to do with our sanctification. I know there's others, but if you want to figure out this life of pursuing holiness, this life of becoming Christ-like, here are some of the foundational principles. And so one of the things you better figure out is how do I do verse 23? How can I be commanded to do something that is in the passive that I'm not even supposed to be doing to myself? Well, here's the thing. Oftentimes when you get an imperative passive, they come with the word let. That's often, not just in Greek, but in English. If you get an imperative passive, it's often accompanied by the word let. Let me give you an example. If I say, Joshua, let me cut your hair. Well, I just gave him a command. But that's passive, because he's not going to cut his own hair. I'm going to cut it. You don't want me to cut your hair? Probably not a good idea. But that's the sense that we have when we have an imperative passive verb. You're being, here's the thing, you are being commanded to let someone else do something to you. That's the idea here. That's the sense of Romans 12 too. Let God perform His transformational work in the renewing of your mind. What we need to recognize at once is that as a Christian, my mind is the workmanship of God. Brethren, I'll tell you on the one hand what this confronts us with is the absolute dependence that we have on the Lord in this. We need Him. Oh God, renew my mind. I need You to transform me by the renewal of my mind. We're dependent. It's passive. Being renewed day by day. Lord, I need You to do that. Totally dependent. And yet, it seems obvious by the way in which Paul presents us with this doctrine of the renewal of the mind that he's indicating that this is something that we have to strive to let happen. That's the sense of it. You have a responsibility in it even though you don't perform it on yourself. You have a responsibility to strive to let this thing happen. Although it's done to me, I am not without responsibility here. That's the issue. Paul seems to be indicating that we can hinder this from happening. We can hinder this work. So even though the main emphasis is upon the fact that our being renewed is something that's done to us, we must be careful that we don't in any way frustrate this. And my question to you right now is this, are you doing anything in your life that's frustrating this from happening? Because I'll tell you this, Paul doesn't stick this in here needlessly. If he puts this before putting on the new man, then be guaranteed of this. Without this reality happening in your life, you are not going to successfully put on that new man. And so the question is this, are you in any way frustrating this from happening? The renewal of the Spirit of your minds. Are you frustrating this? We don't want to do that. We want to strive to let this work of the Spirit of God freely happen to us. It's an imperative passive. It's a command like this, have this done to you. That's the idea. Do all you can to do to promote it and encourage it. I mean, what does renew mean? What does it tell us? What does it tell us about what the Christian needs? What is our need? Paul says it's to be brought back to where we once were with respect to the mind. Our mind needs to be renovated, refreshed, revived, renewed, made new again as it once was. Suggesting at once what? That our minds have departed from that which they once were. Departed when? I mean, in the course of a day? I think it's obvious, certainly the fall of man. I mean, we've already been in Genesis 3, but it takes us back there. Because the reality is what do I need to be renewed back to? What is it that I've departed from? Often we think of Adam there in the garden and he's eating that fruit. And yes, he sinned. Yes, he rebelled. But what you've got to recognize is back there in the garden, man's mind was wrecked. We don't really see it. We don't apprehend it so much. We know that man fell into sin. But do you recognize what the catastrophic result is of that fall upon man's whole outlook in his mind? It's all gone wrong. Brethren, it's the spirit of the mind that is wrong. It's gone wrong. It's wrecked. Our fundamental way of thinking and reasoning has become twisted. It's become perverted. It's become distorted. Renewal. Doesn't that just sound desirable? I mean, oh God, bring renewal. We talk about revival. And renewal is so close to revive, to live again. Renew, to be made new again. To restore. Sounds very desirable. Being caused to become new, different. But you know what the idea here is? There's a specific emphasis on not just new, not just different, but the definite implication is that we're becoming superior over and above to take on a new mind. Not just a new mind, but to be renewed in the spirit of the mind. Think about this. Spirit. Often we think of spirit, but you know if you know about the original. When you come across spirit, it literally means breath. Or it means wind. I like that imagery. To be renewed in the wind of the mind. Because when I think, especially here in this heat in Texas, you know what it's like when that cool breeze hits you? Zeke and Craig and I went for a bike ride on Tuesday and we stopped at some point. And when we were stopped, all of a sudden this wind came. You just think of that reviving, refreshing wind. And wind speaks of power. Recently when we were coming back from Colorado, we were driving through the northwestern Texas where you've got all those big wind turbines, thousands of them, propelled by the force of the wind. That's the idea, the power of the mind. It's not just the ability of the mind, it's that power behind what's happening in the mind. People can have tremendous mental capacity, high IQ's, high intellects. The world is full of people who can think and they can do intricate mathematical problems. We're not talking about that. We're talking about the power behind the ability. That's the issue. Paul is not saying that the natural man is not a Christian because he doesn't have a brain. That's not the issue. He has a brain. The problem is that his brain is of no use to him. Why? Because it's broken. Scripture says the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They're folly to him. He's not able to understand them because they're spiritually discerned. You can take guys like Stephen Hawking or Richard Dawkins. I don't know if any of you have seen this guy, this psychologist, Jordan Peterson. His ability to logically reason and argue is tremendous. And yet, when you watch him, once in a while, it seems like his stuff comes up and it crosses my path. And yet, you watch him try to reason with the resurrection or something. He's so fluid. He's so masterful. You get to something spiritual, it's... Why? The Spirit of his mind. That's the issue. It's the Spirit of the mind that's gone astray. No man needs to have a new brain to become a Christian. It's the Spirit of the mind. It's got to be changed. Have you ever considered when you go back up to v. 17-19? We can go back to Ephesians now. Ephesians 4. You go to Ephesians 4 and you look at what Paul begins to say in v. 17, 18, 19 when he talks about the fact that now this I say, I testify in the Lord you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. You see, their understanding is darkened. Ignorance that is in them. How many of those things have to do with the mind? Ignorance. Futility of mind. The understanding is darkened. Do you recognize the typical thing we think about? You know, the lost world around us. Sensuality given to impurity. But do you realize Paul doesn't even get to sensuality, impurity until you get down to what, v. 19? You see what all comes before? It's the mind. The Spirit of the mind has gone astray. When the mind and understanding are ignorant and crooked, the whole man's crooked. Doesn't Scripture say? At least many translations do. As man thinks in his heart, so is he. The tragedy of every man who is not a Christian is at the very pinnacle, the very highest point. I mean, when God created man, He gave man a mind unlike any of the other creatures. And the Spirit of his mind, it's wrecked before a man ever gets to the sensuality and before he ever gets to the impurity. His mind is all wrong. Do you recognize what Paul's doing? Jeff was talking about things in the first hour. I think he was alluding to trying to be an elder and we're dealing with discipline situations. But do you recognize? Do you recognize what's being said? What Paul is saying to these Ephesians and to us is don't be amazed that people go off into all sorts of sin and they're not able to put off the old man and put on the new. Why? Because they haven't been renewed up here. Something's wrong. Something's gone astray. Something changes in a man and in his thinking when he walks by a massage parlor and he's like, a dog on a leash! I've got to get in there! Versus the thinking of a mind that says, run! Flee! Christ is precious. I don't want to interrupt this. I mean, something's happening in the thinking. Something's happening in the way the Spirit of the mind operates. This is critical. And Paul recognizes it. You've got to undo that wreckage in the mind before you're ever going to escape all the sensuality and the impurity, the perverseness of man that demonstrates itself on the outside. Unless that Spirit of the mind is renewed, transformed, changed, we cannot do this ourselves. That's a big issue. We need to let God do this. And we might almost cringe hearing that kind of language. Let God? What's that? I mean, God is great. God is big. God is sovereign. What business do I have talking about letting God do anything? Doesn't God always do precisely what God wants to do? Certainly. But what I'm talking about is this. Let God's Spirit work in your life and in your mind in an unquenched state. Does Scripture say don't quench the Spirit? Certainly it does. Can we say with imperative authority allow God to work in your life in an unquenched fashion? Certainly. Even right here in Ephesians. We're going to get to it very shortly. It says, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do you know that's also a passive verb? The Spirit does that to you. And yet, it's being presented to you in a way where there's response. What do I have to do to have the Spirit more fully fill me? Influence me? How do I unquench, ungrieve the Spirit? How do I keep my relationship with the Spirit so open and free and powerful that the full extent to this renewing of the mind, the Spirit of the mind, can happen in my life? How do I do that? Brethren, if you're commanded to let God's Spirit transform your minds, then don't do anything to prevent yourself from having the Spirit operate on the Spirit of your mind in the most unquenched fashion possible. You know what you want to do? I have a raised bed garden at home. Victor just brought me a bunch of wood shavings to put in my compost pile. Brethren, if I plant plants there, I want to make that soil so inviting for seeds planted in it or seedlings to thrive. I want the Spirit of my mind to be like that, the most fertile soil possible and present it to the Spirit. Please, Lord, I want to see the fruit. I want to see the plant flourish. I want to see the wind, feel the wind of the Spirit blow in my mind with greatest effect. That's what we want to have happen. We want to do all, all, make everything, our mind, a place for the winds of the Spirit to breathe and blow. This is obviously no side issue with Paul. He sees this as absolutely essential to putting on the new man. The Spirit of the mind must be made right by the Holy Spirit. Have this done to you. Allow this to happen. This is essential. Because Paul is not calling for mere mechanical conformity. You know, somebody can come in the church and they can see how we act. They can see how we talk. They can listen to people who have studied Scripture. A parrot can imitate what we say. I've more than once felt people say the right things, but something's wrong with them. And it comes back to this, the Spirit of the mind. Paul is not looking for mere external mechanical conformity. He's asking us to put into practice an intelligent change. You see what's happening when we get to putting on the new man? Clothing ourselves with the new man? It's not just external conformity to GCC. Or external conformity to what we think Christianity looks like. It's got to happen at a deeper level. This is an intelligent conformity. Something is happening in the brain where we think different. Our thinking is superior to what it was before. There is actually an intelligent change taking place. It's put on the new man, yes. But the Christian must not do anything without knowing why he's doing it. Intelligence is essential. Knowledge is essential. The Spirit of the mind operated on by the Spirit of God is essential. If you do not know why you are living the Christian life, you're not equipped to put on the new man as you ought. This comes out everywhere. One of my favorite places is there in Romans 6. What does Paul say? Paul says you must count yourself, reckon yourselves to be dead to sin. Then he goes on to say, don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies. But before he says don't let sin reign, he says you've got to consider yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God. You've got to think the right way. And if you don't think the right way, you don't fight the right way. And it all becomes external and all you do is come walking in and anybody can come in here and say, I see the way they homeschool, I'm going to homeschool that way. I see the way they dress, I'm going to dress that way. I hear the way they talk, I'm going to talk that way. And we get people like that that come in here and they're doing that. But the spirit of the mind. You get talking to them very closely. You get watching their life and it seems like something's wrong. They're seeking to conform, but it seems like it's external. It seems like something's not right here. And ultimately, something isn't right there. Because brethren, I'll tell you this. There was a day. Friday night came. I was like a caged animal. You put me away on a Thursday night or a Friday night or a Saturday night or it even got to be Sunday night. My weekends grew longer and longer the more I spiraled down into sin. But on a Friday night, if I couldn't go out, I was like a caged animal. And if I would have driven by, I mean, there were certain places where we hung out. There were certain places where we partied. On a Friday night, if I'm going by there, it's like everything in me is drawn there. But you know what? Once I became saved, I could drive by that place and I could even see all my friends' cars over there. But you know what? The thinking was different. I mean, I had been renewed in the spirit of my mind. I thought different. I had a knowledge now. I had a knowledge about things. Something else was happening up here. I wasn't like, oh, I've got to get over there. Oh, I've got to be with them. Oh, my life wraps around them. Oh, my life is nothing and empty unless I can do that. There's been a change. A radical change. This is the kind of thing that Paul is referring to. So what can we do? Here's a question. How can I invite the Spirit? How can I put myself in the place to where the Spirit of God will most actively engage in the work of renewing the spirit of my mind? The truth is, if we're honest, there are a handful of brothers and sisters in here that over the last year have been most, most renewed in the spirit of their minds. I mean, among all the true Christians that are here. There are those that have most. You don't want to just relegate that to the sovereignty of God. You know why you don't want to? Because there are verbs that are imperative. That means your success or lack of success comes back to you. What can we do? Certainly, if we're commanded to have this done to us, if it's an imperative, Paul's thinking is that it does go beyond the sovereignty of God. And I've always loved the illustration described by Mary Jones. Maybe some of you have seen it in Charles Leiter's book. In one of her parables taken from Welsh farm life, Mary Jones, she's gone to be with the Lord now. She was a close friend of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I know that Mona Leiter visited with her when she was still alive. She wrote parables. And living there in the mountains of Wales, far from normal means of electricity, those farmers got innovative and they took advantage of the water flowing off the mountains to produce electricity. This is what Mary Jones says. A dam had been built across the stream to divert the course of water to the intake. It was an intake into a tube way up on the side of the mountain. Water would go in that tube, shoot all the way down the side of that mountain into turbines at the bottom and create power for these farmers. She says this, A dam had been built across the stream to divert the course of water to the intake which was covered by a grating. Like a screen, a mesh. Grating. For obvious reasons. Through this ran the water. The full force of it directed to a pipe which led through a drop of some 500 feet to the turbine. Channeling the water in this way gave it a great increase of pressure and power to drive the turbine which turned the dynamo that generated our electricity. In spite of this convenient arrangement, Mary and her husband occasionally found themselves in darkness or semi-darkness. Well, they knew what they had to do. They're in Wales. It rains all the time. I mean, the situation wasn't drought. The situation wasn't that the water wasn't there. The situation isn't that the Holy Spirit isn't here. The situation is what? Why did they find themselves in darkness or semi-darkness? Not because the waters of the stream failed, but because high up on the mountainside the grate had been blocked by sticks and debris. In such situations, the process of blockage often just begins with a small stick and then another. Soon other branches follow. Eventually the influx of power from above is stopped almost completely. Only when the rubbish is removed from the grate will the water begin to flow through the channel again and the lights shine brightly. And so it is with the Christian life. What a perfect picture. Allow the Spirit of God to send that water down into the turbines of your mind with full force. That's the issue. That's how you get a passive imperative verb. Let this happen to you. Don't put debris needlessly in the way. We're called upon to remove the sticks and debris that are blocking this free influx of the Spirit's power. What can I do? You've got to get the debris out. Take it away. I'll tell you one thing. You can do this. Create in me a clean heart and renew. There's our word. Renew a right spirit. There's our word. Renew a right spirit in me. You can ask. You can pray. If you want to invite the Spirit in, invite Him to come in. Holy Spirit, You are most welcome to work on the spirit of my mind. Please come and do that. But do it honestly. Do it honestly. Don't ask God to help you lose weight and then gorge yourself on chocolate fudge. It's the same principle. You're not even being honest if you say come dwell, but then you throw your mind into the garbage. It's not being honest. You need to repent. That's really what it comes down to. Is there blockage here? Be honest. That might be a good place to start. You know the thing I've found about blockage? Is most Christians already know it's there. They've just been trying to justify it for too long. The Spirit's already convicted them. You're trying to quiet it. I would say this. Scripture. We're talking about sanctification here. Sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth. I mean, the Spirit works in the atmosphere of Scripture. If you think about the washing of the water of the Word. Just think about all the text. Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. We're born again through the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Scriptures are able to make one wise unto salvation. Jesus says the truth will set you free. Or He said to His disciples, you're already clean because of the Word that I have spoken to you. The Word of God is living and active. God says it's not My Word like fire declares the Lord. Or listen to this. This is probably the most applicable verse in your Bible. The law of the Lord is perfect. Reviving the soul. Or renewing or refreshing the inner. Renewing. You want something to renew you? The law of the Lord. That's where the Spirit operates. Brethren, I'll be honest. Pastorally, my assumption has been in pastoring this church, I really believe that the vast majority of you come to this church because you believe the church is biblical. You believe we preach the truth. But every once in a while, I am staggered to hear that one of you or some of you almost make it a habit to not be in your Bibles. When I hear that, I think, wow, they came here, they moved here, they did this, they did that. They want to be under the preaching, but they're not in their Bibles? You are not making that soil a place for the Spirit of God to work through the wind of your mind. If the mind is not being constantly washed and fed and immersed in the Word of God, any of you who have come to believe that you can be a healthy Christian and not live in the Scriptures, you are wrong. You are wrong. Your thinking is wrong. Change your mind. Repent of that. That's not right. Sanctify them by thy Word. Thy Word is truth. Or sanctify them by thy truth. Thy Word is truth. You can't get away from that reality. You want sanctification? You want to grow into the likeness of Christ? It's coming from the Word of God. It's active. It's powerful. It's like a hammer. It's like fire. It moves. It's the power of God unto salvation. Faith comes by hearing. You want your faith increased? Hear the Word of God. You want to grow? Brethren, you can't get away. You read about this. You behold the glory of the Lord, you're transformed from one degree into the other. I tell you this, you're not beholding the glory of the Lord. I recognize you can see glories of the Lord in the firmament, in the creation, but you don't see it near as clear as you see it in the four Gospels. No way, no how. Creation itself will not lead you to the truths that you'll find in this book. Nowhere near the depth of the truth. How about this? We're told in Scripture, all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Led by the Spirit. You want to be in the place where the Spirit is most unquenched and ungrieved in your life? Then, be led by the Spirit. Follow convictions. Follow your conscience. Be led. Be sensitive to the Spirit's leading. Brethren, we sang this song. That may have been the first time we sang I am His and He is Mine here. Maybe we've done it before. Maybe it's just been years. But, I love, something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen. Do you know when you take the parallel passage over in Colossians, what you find is this, that the new man is being renewed. Again, it's passive. Unto knowledge. Or to knowledge. Or in knowledge. But the idea is, that as the Spirit works renewing our mind, we grow in knowledge. And I'm not just talking, this isn't that your IQ increases. This isn't that you learn how to speak Spanish or how to do a mathematical equation. It's not that. We're not talking, we're talking a spiritual knowledge. Like a man knows. Heaven above, the grass, sweeter green. I remember singing that song out at community. I was always affected by that. Because that's true. You begin to look up. You see the Christless eyes. They can see the grass. They can see the sky. But we know. Suddenly we look and we know. Suddenly I can look at my friend's house over there where all my friends are gathering and I know. Everything is put in. I have a perspective on things. I know. I can look up at the firmament and I see His handiwork. I know something. Suddenly there's a perception. I come face to face with sin. I know. You are not my master any longer. I can say no to you. See, I know this up here. And so I can say no to it. I'm fighting you and I've got the tools to kill you. And I'm doing that. Whereas before, we're led around by it. Always me. Trying to justify my sin. The Spirit of the bind. Oh, Spirit, change us. Christless eyes. They don't see. And you know, we're going to get on this. As we move through this, you just think about something like this. Let the thief no longer steal. Let him work with his hands. Why? So that he can give. You see, before you even get to doing this, it's about knowing. I mean, all of a sudden there's a knowing. You know what the thief does? He looks at the poor man. He says, I like this mower. I'm going to steal it. The Christian, it's the Spirit of the bind. And suddenly he looks at his poor neighbor and he doesn't see his lawnmower. He sees his poverty. He says, you know what, I'm going to go work with my hands so that I can give to Him. You see, Christless eyes don't see like that. We see different. We see everything different. We see the mountain range different. We see the sunset different. Because we know. Suddenly we have a knowledge. God is real. God is the most incredible reality of all. God created all this. He spread out these stars. We know something and there's worship that accompanies all this. Hawkins didn't have that. Carl Sagan didn't have that. The Spirit of the mind. And this is something, it's a continuous present. It's got to happen today and it goes on happening day by day, day by day, day by day. See, this is something you need to have, not just on Sundays when you come into the preaching, day by day, this needs to be happening. Don't, brethren, like the weight lifter, you know, he really wants to get in shape. But all of a sudden you catch him over here and he's eating this hot fudge sundae. Don't do that. Don't do that. Invite the Spirit to come in and do everything to leave those channels. The Spirit, the wind of the mind. Blow, blow, blow. I want to see things. I want to see Christ. I want to feel it. It's the kind of thing where, I don't know, I think oftentimes about coming up to Clark and Martin Luther King and there's a Catholic church there and they've got this painting on the wall over there and it shows Mary like as Queen of Heaven with this crown on and this little baby. And the Catholic church always does that. They minimize Christ. I think you can drive by that all day long, but when the winds of the mind are being renewed, restored, refreshed, and they're blowing you, look at that and you're angry because you feel, you see, you know there's a knowledge. I'm being renewed on the knowledge. I know that Mary is small. She's a sinner saved by grace. And I know Christ is great and He's on the throne. There's been a change in my mind and I want to feel it and I want to know it. And I don't want to hinder it. And I'm going to go get everything off the grating and I'm going to keep it away so that the lights don't go into semi-darkness. You know what? There are genuine Christians here. And you know this for a fact. For Paul to come along both to the Thessalonians and say don't quench the Spirit, to the Ephesians saying don't grieve the Spirit, you know what the reality is? True Christians can quench and grieve the Spirit. And some of you are living in half-darkness right now. It's because you've let things pile up on that grating. But I'm going to tell you, Paul sees this as absolutely essential and he's not going to take us on to putting on that new man until you get this straight in your minds. This is essential. And some need to make radical changes. We need to make changes. Don't dismiss, don't justify the stuff that clogs the grating. And I fear, I fear, that many minimize the degree to which the Internet clogs that grating. You be careful. You see, we're moving. We as Christians, we're moving into a new era. People before us, they didn't have to deal with this. We're in a new generation. Where are those Christians that are going to take this kind of teaching serious and unclog the grating? Brethren, I don't want to be in that position to where on judgment day I found out I could have been so much further beyond where I am, but I didn't take the imperative seriously. And I left the debris on the grating and I lost out on a lot of opportunities to glorify the Lord, be more fruitful, to be more joyful, to be more used. But I let that stuff pile up on that grating so that I basically lived my life at half power. God help us. Two weeks, put on the new. Created in the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. Father, I pray that You'd help us. Help us grow. Help us in the spirit of our minds. May the winds of revival blow. So often we think of blowing through the church, but blow through our minds, the spirit of our minds, the wind, the breath. Breathe on us, O breath of God. Breathe. I pray in Christ's name, Amen.