The following points are highlights of Pastor Conway’s 11-minute sermon excerpt, Key to the renewed mind:
- The battle is in the mind: our thoughts have to be subject to Christ; permeated by the word of God
- The apostle Paul has been holding up the Gentiles for your analysis; for you to think about [not clear the passage he is considering]
- He puts it before your thoughts so you can analyze, and can say that the Gentile life is futile, my life was once like that
- When you are tempted to go back to the worldly stuff that ensnares, you can think, “I don’t want to waste my life.”
- This is where the battle is won
- If you are floundering around in your Christian walk, then you are not thinking right
- When you fill your mind with the word of God, it will sanctify you. That truth will grip you, constrain you, in ways which God approves
- The old man is driven by corrupt desires
- The new man is driven by truth, by a mind that sees things straight
- When we were lost, we tried not to think about truth, future judgment, consequences of sin….
- Our minds have been enlightened by God’s word, we may use God’s truth to rightly describe our old love of sins; we can assess our old experiences rightly and see that we never got what sin promised us [but we were duped into transgressing God’s commands]
- Those who abide in the word, come to think thoughts such as, Jesus came into the world to deliver me from this present evil age…there is power in me; if I don’t have holiness in my life, then I’m not a fit vessel for the Master’s use…; then, if I want my life to be profitable, I need to be striving for holiness….
- John – We don’t know what we’re going to be, but when we see Him, we will be as He is, and having this hope, we purify ourselves
- Bible understanding and self-understanding will help us to see that there are things which we may do that will hinder the work of Christ’s Spirit in us
- As we grow via abiding in the word, truth will make us want to live in accord with it and resist doing things that hinder
- The scriptures are therefore, absolutely necessary
- God’s holiness, and how that was shown via the cross briefly explained
- If you prayerfully form a habit of abiding in the word, over a lifetime you will learn of God’s uprightness and will be impacted by your knowledge
- Paul prayed that our soul might have a revelation of God [in neglecting His word, you will forfeit such great blessings]
Please explore this blog via categories such as Study Helps; Spiritual Disciplines; Justification… to learn more about the Bible and its doctrines. The earliest posts in categories such as Study Helps contain foundational information for that particular category.
In categories such as Jonathan Edwards, you may start in any post that catches your eye.