Study Notes

Foundation Statement: To live in character we must renovate our way of thinking-Romans 12:1-3

 

I.   Renew the mind-This doesn’t mean fill your brain with a bunch of new stuff

A. The word is not calling for us to just be renewed in what we know, but to be renovated in how we think

B. We have to take what we know and change the way we think 

II. Words are building blocks that form your way of thinking

A. We can’t make light of the building blocks of words

B. Words are building blocks that build fortresses of thought called strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

1.  Stronghold – Greek word ochuroma that describes a fortress.  Ancient fortresses had exceptionally thick, very high, impregnable walls that were designed to intruders outside. They also used this word to describe a prison.  Prisons keep insiders from getting out. 

III.            In renovation something has been done that has to be undone

A. Something has been built that has to be torn down

1.  That old way of thinking has to come down before a new way of thinking can be built up

2.  There are in all of us ways of thinking that have been built up over time through words that have been sown into us

B. An over exposure to unchecked carnal words has produced ways of thinking that are carnal and in opposition to God’s Word (2 Timothy 2:15-16)

1.  If you’re walking in ungodliness you must be ungodly in your way of thinking

a. These common, ungodly, empty, useless words build up ways of thinking in people

2.  These evil words start off by infecting the mind. The mind becomes so infected that it leaks over into the words of your mouth. It leaks from the words of our mouth to your actions.  Now those words are effecting your finances, your body, your relationship and they’ll eat at you until you are destroyed or living in hell on the earth.

a. Canker – A disease by which any part of the body suffering from inflammation becomes so corrupted that, unless a remedy be seasonably applied, the evil continually spreads, attacks other parts, and at last eats away the bones

C.Too many words went in you that were wrong and unchecked with the source of right

1.  Number 13:28 – Where did this way of thinking come from? They exposed themselves to unchecked carnal words and it produced a way of thinking in them that led to them not acting in the character of God (Their afraid, their in unbelief, they’re being disobedient)

a. Exodus 33:1 – This is right concerning that land

2.  Genesis 3:6 – Where did this way of thinking come from? An overexposure to unchecked carnal words. 

a. Genesis 2:17 – This is right concerning that tree

D. That way of thinking didn’t come from no where; you were exposed to the wrong words

1.  A carnal way of thinking has been built up and it has to come down

IV.            In renovation something new and better has to be built up

A. A new way of thinking is built up through a consistent overexposure to the right words, that will in turn produce a way of thinking that’s in line with God’s Word (2 Timothy 1:13, Proverbs 4:20)

1.  A new way of thinking is built up one word at a time

B. God’s whole message to the children of Israel was hearken (Psalm 81:8-16)

1.  8-If you’ll hearken to God He’ll speak to you

2.  9-His words won’t give them those thoughts and lead them in that way towards other God’s

3.  10-Ask me all your heart desires and I’ll fulfill your every request

4.  12-They wouldn’t receive God’s words consequently they stayed in their same stubborn way of thinking and in turn the went their own way

5.  13-IF ONLY! They would have received His Words they would have went His ways

6.  This is where God’s words, His thoughts, and His ways lead you to:

a. 14-They would have gotten a speedy victory

b. 16-They would have got the best wheat

c. 16-They would have been satisfied

7.  The whole problem was they wouldn’t hear, attend to, and obey his words

C.The question is not what do you think you believe or what do you think your way of thinking is or what do you know, but what words do you spend the most time exposing yourself to? 

V. In renovation a blueprint is required

A. You have to go to the source of what is right and then build that 

1.  The word will tell you how to think;  it won’t renew your mind for you

a. The blueprint doesn’t build the house

2.  You’re going to have to work and build in your mind what you see in the blueprint of this word

a. All words and ways of thinking in me have to be checked with the source of right

B. Don’t argue with the blueprint, just build up what it says

1.  You’re not the drawer of the plans you’re the builder of them

VI.            You tear things down and build things up with the words of your mouth and with the words of your mouth

A. You cast down imaginations that raise themselves up against the knowledge of God and His Word (2 Corinthians 10:5)

1.  Our greatest weapon in warfare is our mouth (Proverbs 18:21)

a. Mighty-The words of my mouth are powerful and strong through the Word and they will pull down strongholds

2.  Tearing Down-With the words of my mouth I destroy and demolish every thought that rises up against the Word of God

B. You take the thought and you say it (Matthew 6:30)

1.  Building Up-With the words of my mouth I force every thought I have to comply with what my master has said.