Key Scriptures: Jeremiah 1:9-10, Romans 12:2
Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Romans 12:2, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
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Lesson One: Change in our lives begins by thinking differently.
• Thinking differently always leads us to living differently
• Any worldview, religious path, or way to peace with God that isn’t Jesus—we want to take that way and reshape it into the way of Jesus
Romans 12:2, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
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Lesson Two: God has given us stewardship over our minds and gives us the ability, through the power of his Spirit, to garden and cultivate well.
Jeremiah 1:9-10, Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
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As the gardener of our minds, we need to plant these thoughts:
I am a part of God’s story.
• Life isn’t about me and it didn’t begin with me. It begins with God—and that is the reference point for my life.
Genesis 1:1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
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I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
• I am jaw dropping, heart trembling created—and I am distinctly a reflection and an image bearer of the Almighty God
Psalm 139:14, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
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My life has purpose.
• I was made to know God and to make him known
Psalm 139:14, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…
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The cross has the final word.
• The cross has the final word—about God and about my life (the cross defines my life)
5:13, Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends.
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I serve at the pleasure of the King.
• The transformational work of the cross means that my life no longer belongs to me—it belongs to God
1 Peter 2:9, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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Jesus is Lord.
• God is seated on the throne. His kingdom is forever and his plans are unassailable and sure
Philippians 2:9-11, Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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God turns evil into good.
Genesis 50:20, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.