Christian, You Have a New Mindset

In elementary school, Starter jackets were the thing that everyone wanted. The Starter jacket was a winter coat for each major NFL or NBA team. It had that team's colors and logo. Eastbay magazine sold Starter jackets for each NBA team along with basketball shoes, and I can remember combing those magazines circling my favorite shoes and jackets. My parents, busy investing their hard-earned money in private Christian education for their three kids, were more focused on whether I had a jacket.

My mom, not entertaining the ridiculous price of the Starter Jackets, but knowing I loved the Chicago Bulls, bought me a winter coat with the Chicago Bulls logo on it. I pretended to be grateful. It was a Bulls jacket, which was good, but it was not a Starter Bulls jacket. I remember I wanted to be like those guys with Starter jackets so much. I wanted to fit in. I wanted people to like me, and I thought I could get all of that from a winter coat.

I remember at recess one time people were being separated by the brand of their jackets and my best friend, who was also like the alpha male of the group, declared that my non-Starter jacket was a Starter jacket in his eyes, and because of that I got to hang out with the “Starter jacket” crowd.

This mindset I had as a kid is not much different than the one we can often have as teens or adults. We are tempted to want to fit in with the world around us, to view ourselves as better than those around us by comparison or conformity to what the world values. We feel like we must have a phone, a video game system, the right house, the right look, the right stuff. Further, we will not associate with certain people because we find them different, strange, uncomfortable.

We are still like the kids on the playground but in more sophisticated ways. Yet we find ourselves in a diverse setting, the church. We are a group of people from all types of backgrounds, socio-economic statuses, personalities, ethnicities, those who are new and unknown and those who have been here a while and have their group. And we still battle the temptation to live with the mindset that focuses on living to “fit in.”

Do we really want to be a church where we are living with this mindset?

No, we don’t.

In Romans 12:1-8 we are reminded that we have a new mindset in Christ because God’s mercies in Christ transform us; we must have a new mindset of service to the body of Christ. This week’s Discipleship Weekly is just going to home in on the first part of verse 1 of Romans 12.

Because God saved us by grace and mercy in Christ, we must have a new mindset.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,” – Romans 12:1a

His appeal is “by the mercies of God.” Paul has just spent the last eleven chapters describing God’s sovereign grace to sinners through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He appeals to these mercies as the source for the Christian to live with a new mindset.

Note that Paul’s appeal is not based on fear, punishment, or penalty, but God’s mercy. He is saying that we must have a new mindset because we are mercifully new.

The mercies of God are that man has been justified by grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:23-24). The mercies of God direct man to receive Christ’s atoning work by faith (Rom. 3:25). The mercies of God tell us that Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:8). The mercies of God save us from what our sin deserves and instead gives us eternal life in Christ (Rom. 6:23). Because of the salvation we have in Christ he works all things together for the good of those who are called by him for his purpose (Rom 8:38).

The lengths that God went to save us reveal not only His great love but also the bankruptcy of the mindset with which we were born. Paul’s appeal is not from a place of God’s judgment, but God’s mercies, His unfathomable grace.

You know that old pair of shorts you have that you love, but your wife and kids are embarrassed every time you wear them? Or that threadbare shirt from high school or college that reminds you of a time that is long gone. Every time you wear them, they develop more holes, and they are barely worth wearing for any intended purpose of covering the body. You don’t need a patch and thread; you need a new shirt! New clothes! What is so amazing is what Paul is appealing to, our merciful God. Our position before God has been eternally changed by His mercies.

As our hearts are so easily drawn to works, conformity, comfort, and effort, we need to listen and be drawn to the foundation of Paul’s appeal: God’s mercies.

Paul’s appeal to God’s mercies brings us all to the altar with the same position.

Unlike the different kinds of status in school and in the workplace, in the church we are not all on different levels of value; we are on the same level in God’s economy, all of us recipients of grace. Our joy for God’s mercies is our social status! We are tempted to want to fit in with the world around us, to view ourselves as better than those around us by comparison or conformity to what the world values.

But because God’s mercies in Christ are transforming mercies, we must have a new mindset in this life. We have a new world view. We have a new way of seeing the world, ourselves, everything.

So, we need to become aware of this new mindset God has given us especially in relation to each other.

Persevere, Joey Turner Pastor of Student Ministry