Our lesson today is a little longer than normal but it holds biblical truths that will set

the foundation for the rest of the study. Let's begin by reading Romans 12:1-2

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. NASB

What three things does Paul tell us to do in these verses?

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2.

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How are we to be transformed?

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In this passage, Paul tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. The Greek word used for sacrifice is thusia. This word is also a root in the Greek word for the altar the Jewish people sacrificed their animals on. When Paul uses the word sacrifice here, he's not just talking about putting up with a little inconvenience. He's talking about giving up everything. When I think of Christians making sacrifices, my first thoughts are of persecuted Christians living in countries hostile to the gospel. Our brothers and sisters in those countries endure hardships we can't even begin to imagine. The things we give up as Christians living in a free country seem small in comparison, but they're still sacrifices and they still please God.

Can you think of any sacrifices you've made for God?

Another interesting thing in Romans 12:1 is the use of the phrase "spiritual act of worship." The Greek word translated spiritual is logikane. The definition of logikane is "rational, belonging to the sphere of reason." Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice is a rational, thought-out process. It's not just saying, "Lord, I'll do whatever you want me to do," and then sitting back to wait for a feeling of what we should do. Instead, it's taking a rational look at our lives. What sins need to go so we can better reflect His love to others?What activities need to go so we can put Him first in our lives? What thoughts need to go so we can keep our minds pure before Him? Worshiping God like this involves sacrifice as we give up anything that gets in the way of serving Him. It's far easier to say, "Lord, just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it. I'm willing to do anything. When this is our focus, we can feel noble even though we're not really doing anything. After all, we're willing to do anything; we just don't know what God wants us to do yet. This is another trick of Satan's-_getting us to focus on searching for the specific thing God wants us to do while ignoring all the things He's already told us to do in His Word.

• How would it change your walk with God if you focused as much energy on doing the things God has already told you to do in the Bible as you do on trying to discover His individual will for your life?

Many people have been turned off by Christianity because of the things they see Christians doing. When they see Christians being judgmental, self-centered, impure, and unloving, they think, Why would I want to be a Christian? They might have those same characteristics themselves, but they feel like Christians should be different. After all, shouldn't Christians practice what they preach?

• How would you answer those critics of Christianity?

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God calls us to be different, and He has empowered us to be different. It grieves Him to see us living like the world and giving the old "oh, this is just my personality" excuse over and over again. We also grieve. We feel bad about living defeated lives. We want to break free from our sin. We want to let go of our anger and worry and all the other emotions that trip us up. But we just can't seem to change no matter how hard we try. What then can we do? How can we break out of this self-centered pattern to live the life God calls us to live? The answer is found in Romans 12:2: We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Paul tells us more about the renewing of the mind in Ephesians 4:22-24. Read the passage below and then do the following: Circle the words deceit and truth, and put a box around the phrases "lay aside the old self* and «put on the new self. Underline "be renewed in the spirit of your mind"' and then answer the questions that follow.

That in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. NASB

What two things does Paul tell us to do before we put on the new self?

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When we get dressed each day, we always take off the old before we put on the new. It wouldn't even cross our minds to put our clothes over our pajamas because it would make us look fat! Not to mention being very uncomfortable. We take off one outfit before we put on the next because life just works better that way.

It's the same way with our minds. They work better if we get rid of the old thoughts before we put on the new thoughts. I learned this lesson the hard way. When I became a Christian in junior high school, I already had a lot of thoughts going on, a lot of ungodly thoughts if truth be told.

As I read my Bible, I began to take on new thoughts. The problem was that I didn't get rid of the old thoughts. I lived like this for almost thirty years, experiencing some success in my walk with God, but mostly a lot of failures. He was a part of my life, a very good part, but He wasn't the center of my life.

It wasn't until I started renewing my mind on a regular basis that I began to experience growth in my character. I needed to get rid of those old thoughts in order for the new thoughts to take over. Paul calls this process "getting rid of the old self and replacing it with the new self."

What does Paul say is corrupting the old self?

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This is very interesting. The word deceit in the Greek is in the genitive case. This is the noun case of possession or belonging. For example, in the phrase " word of God," word is in the genitive case.

That means that the word belongs to God and comes from God. It's God's Word. In the phrase "lusts of deceit,"the lust belongs to the lie (deceit) and comes from the lie. This is how it and works in practice: The lies we believe create intense desires in us. Those intense desires (lusts) lead to corrupt, old - self behavior. We could show the relationship with this diagram.

Lies Deceit) -> Intense Desires (Lusts) -> Corruption (Old Self

In Ephesians 4:24, truth is also in the genitive case. From what you know about the genitive case, what is the relationship between truth and holiness in this verse?

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Isn't that interesting? The holiness belongs to and comes from the truth. We could show this relationship by the following diagram:

Truth -> Right Desires or a Lack of Intense Wrong Desires -› Holiness (New Self

• Now look back at the two diagrams and read the Bible passage again. What will happen if you put on the truth without taking off the lie?

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Truth gives us the right desires, but if we don't take off the lies before we put on the truth, then we'll still struggle with those wrong desires. It's essential to take off the old before we put on the new. If we don't, we'll struggle with those wrong desires for the rest of our lives.

• Can you think of any examples of people having wrong desires and actions because of the lies they believe?

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Now let's tie this idea into our struggle with emotional eating. Just as lies cause wrong desires and actions in other areas of our lives, they do the same in the area of eating. The reason we overeat is because of the lies we believe.

Can you think of any lies you believe about life or food that make you want to eat too much? __________________________________________________________________________

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One of the lies I used to believe was "I deserve a reward for doing hard things." This was a problem because I was a stay-at-home mom, and no one was rewarding me for the hard things I was doing. I solved the problem by rewarding myself with food.

This made it hard for me to lose weight and keep it off. That lie and others were creating such intense desires in me that I didn't have the self-control to follow my boundaries long-term. Sooner or later, I'd give up and go back to my old ways.

Now you might be thinking, "But is there anything wrong with rewarding yourself for a job? That doesn't sound like a lie to me." This is where Satan is so trick. He's the master of partial truth.

Here's the whole truth:

There is nothing wrong with rewarding ourselves for a difficult job, but it's not true that we deserve a reward. God never promised us an easy life. Instead, He warned us that we would go through tough times. And He never said, "But after the hard times, you will deserve a treat."

Do you see how a lie can make us eat too much? It can also keep us from going to God for help. It seems like such a little thing a bowl of ice cream after the kids go down for their naps, a bag of chips after work, a few doughnuts after tackling that big project- what's the big deal? But it actually is a big deal. Because we're forming a habit of depending on food for our emotional needs rather than God. Let's go back to the "I deserve a treat when I do something hard' example. When that thought enters our minds, we have several choices. We can: 1. Try not to have a treat, even though we believe we deserve it.

2. Forget about the boundaries and eat that great treat.

3. Eat some carrots and celery instead.

4. Do something to take our minds off food.

5. Renew our minds: Take off the lies that make us break our boundaries and replace them with the truth that will set us free.

• What are the benefits of choosing the fifth option? __________________________________________________________________________

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This is what the fifth option looks like: Every time we think, "I deserve a treat," we tell ourselves, "No, God said that life would be hard. Suffering is to be expected, and I'm not even suffering compared to many people in the world," or something else along those lines.

If we do this every time that lie pops into our minds, one day we'll hear the truth as soon as we hear the lie. Eventually, we won't even hear the lie. And when that day comes, we'll do something hard, and we won't feel like rewarding ourselves with a treat.

This may seem simplistic, but it's not easy. You may renew your mind today and believe the exact same lie tomorrow. To experience victory, you'll have to keep renewing your mind every time you hear the lie until you believe the truth at the core level. You'll know this has happened when your desires change.