Galatians 5:1 (NIV84) It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Our minds are troubled, corrupt, anxious, rash, confused, deluded, depraved, dull, restless and evil.
Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV84) 9 The heart (mind) is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Our minds have a full time job and that job is deception.
Our minds lie to us about who we are.
Our minds spiral to dark places.
Broken minds lead to broken lives.
Romans 12:2 (NIV84) 2 Do not conform any longer 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.
Colossians 2:8 (NIV84) 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Colossians 3:1–2 (NIV84) Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Colossians 3:5,8 (NIV84) 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry . . . rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
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Galatians 5:1 (NIV84) It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Our minds are troubled, corrupt, anxious, rash, confused, deluded, depraved, dull, restless and evil.
Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV84) 9 The heart (mind) is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Our minds have a full time job and that job is deception.
Our minds lie to us about who we are.
Our minds spiral to dark places.
Broken minds lead to broken lives.
Romans 12:2 (NIV84) 2 Do not conform any longer 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.
Colossians 2:8 (NIV84) 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Colossians 3:1–2 (NIV84) Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Colossians 3:5,8 (NIV84) 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry . . . rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
#alivewesleyanchurch
For the latest sermons, stories, & training: https://alivewesleyan.com/sermons/
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Newsletter: https://alivewesleyan.info/weeklyupdate
Oh man, just got back last night from Ohio. Hit up tomorrow morning door. Lando, anybody from Ohio? That's the worst state ever that is like,
Speaker 2:yeah,
Speaker 1:my goodness. I mean it is dark and cloudy and I got left depressed. Um, but this week's Orlando, so I go to Orlando this weekend, um, to, um, to a conference. That's what I'm going to Orlando and I'm, if I come back with a Tan, the conference was at the pool, but, so anyway, just be some sunshine, uh, three, three inches of snow anyway. Got Back last night, leave tomorrow morning. So I'm, I'm kinda tired. Uh, but this week's message has kind of been written in, in like the little, little times sections this week instead of a focus time. So I'm excited to share with you, but it has been a laborious thing for me this week. Does that make sense to you all was traveling and writing and hotel room and all that kind stuff. So, and I, I saw my brother and we roomed together. I have my older brother, I have several brothers and my older brother and I roomed together and I, I'm sorry, this is being recorded. I'm going to anyway. Um, do you know, like, I shouldn't be saying this, but, but I'm going to, so, um, do you know how as brothers, if you have brothers, you grew up with a certain kind of underwear.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I know everybody's uncomfortable right now, but that's true, right? I mean, we all know, well that's the thing. My brother who's 50 some odd years change underwear, like not changed it like day to day. Cause I mean that, but change the style and it was a big, it unnerved me. I was like, I just, so what did that, do you think your aqua man, what did that, what does that all, I just gave you a visual, didn't I? Yeah, I'm a little worried he's gonna see it and I realized he never watches my messages. He's not going to see it. Yeah. Well, if you're gonna send an email now you know what it's going to be about. So this is go ahead and get it out of the way. So probably should pray. That'd be a good thing to do. So let's do that. Lord, thank you so much for these great folks and the high honor of being with them. And I do pray that you would help us with the message on the that's on my mind this morning in my heart. And the Lord use it for your good and your glory. And that make us just all a little bit more like you. A big way, small way. Now we want to be more like you. You're the most incredible, beautiful relationship we have and some of us and some of us are intrigued by it. Some of us are interested, some of us doubt it, but if it's a reality, we have to be faithful and pursue this, this journey. So, uh, we love you lord. In your name. Amen. No, the series we've been doing has been based on Galatians chapter five and this is the verse we've been talking about in this series and it's basically this, um, it is for freedom that Christ, well, there it is. Nope. It is for freedom that Christ actually has set us free. This is kind of what Christ does. This first part, it's for freedom. Christ has set us free and then comes what we do. So Stanford then don't let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of this is a pretty big deal. Christ does this and this is our response. So if Christ did this, set us free than our response is to embrace that freedom. And that's the whole dynamic of this entire series. And today, in order for this all to work, we have to start with this admission together. And, and, and, and, and this is what it is. Here's the admission. Our minds are broken. We, we, we have what's been scientifically defined as stinking thinking. Everybody has it. We have a sprained brain that's also the other scientific term. So what I want to do is kind of start with that. And you turn your neighbor and say you're mind's jacked up. Go ahead and tell him. Just tell him your mind is jacked up. Tell him cause that's true. That's true. Now. Now some of you are thinking it's not well. By that admission in and of itself, you have proven that it is indeed jacked up. And I'm gonna try to convince you that, and I, and I get, I'm not talking about how intelligent you are, that's between you and the person you're sitting beside. But I am talking about how we process information. I'm talking about how we see ourselves, how we see the people we love, how we see strangers, how we see happenings in our lives, how we see our past presence, future, how we see our bodies, how we see our morality, how we your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, all of those things we see through what I have described, a stinking thinking because our minds are jacked up. I read recently this to describe the human mind. Our minds are troubled, corrupt, anxious, rash, confused, diluted, depraved, Dole, restless and evil. Don't you feel good about yourself, aren't you? Did anyone else have names to go with each one of those characteristics, right? Oh yeah, that's, well that's my brother. You know, and whatever that is, you just rash. She was me, my brother. Here's the thing. You know where this comes from the Bible. This is what the Bible says about your mind. So the one thing it would add is it what I had sinful. All these terms are used to describe our minds in the Bible. That's what God's word teaches about our minds and the way we process and perceive things. So pause just here long enough to get a grip on this. This is what the Bible says about how you process information right there. Now I'm going to share with you another verse and this verse, I've got to give you a little Hebrew lesson. So in Hebrew, when it uses the word heart, it's not referring to the organ that pumps blood. It's referring to the what we would call our mind or our intellect, our sense of emotion, our decision making place. So when you see the word heart, we could accurately use the word mind. Now here's the verse I want to share with you. The heart or the mind is deceitful. I told you is in there above all things and beyond cure who can understand it?
Speaker 3:Okay,
Speaker 1:well I guess it's time for closing prayer. I mean that's kind of, it's beyond cure who can understand it? This is what Jeremiah is saying about my mind in your mind. And he says, our mind has this full time job and do you know what it is to deceive us to lie. So if Jeremiah is correct, if he's correct, our minds are constantly working to deceive us, deceive us from what I would suggest. It's from what is truth. And even more specifically I would say for believers from what God says is right and true. So the mind is constantly engaged, trying to deceive me from what God says is right and true. And that causes me to ask, well, how exactly am I being deceived
Speaker 3:my mind?
Speaker 1:I've got a couple of examples. See if you agree with them. First of all, I think our minds lied to us about who we are. Identity type issues. Sometimes our minds say this, everything's okay even though things are truly not okay. Fair families, I've seen families fight. There's, oh it's okay. Dad's drinking. Mom's drinking her. The Mom and dad had grown apart. The kids are acting out. They say, hey, everything's okay, but it's not okay. And everybody knows it. Sometimes our minds go immediately to the worst case scenario. Anybody got one of those? Yeah, I got that mind too. It was like, oh my goodness, the sky is falling and it's probably going to hit me in the head. You know? That's kind of the our minds. But sometimes our minds tell us this is the last time, but I discovered in my own mind is this is the last time. Is it true? Because I said that the last time. That's right. And so our minds will say, this is what I know. It's not. I'll tell you what else our minds do. Our minds compare and contrast all the time. We've already done it in this room show many times. And so naturally we can't help. It's just part of who we are. And so these messages getting on repeat in our broken minds and our mind continue to lie to ourselves over and over and over again, minute by minute, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. And eventually we start to believe our own lies and we started to believe our lies and now we take them as Gospel. Help unpack this. I hope the scripture would say, Tom, you're forgiven. You're made in God's image. You're fearfully and wonderfully made and the mind tells us we're damaged fat, ugly failure, stupid. Never good enough. I'm the only one who ever, I'm the worst sinner. I have no value. I'm a fraud. I'm the only righteous person on the planet. Those are all things are mind is telling us. They're lying to us all the time. When you look at yourself in the mirror, your mind is lying to you. Second example that I see it and see if you agree mind. I think our minds naturally spiral to darker places than they should. The messages that naturally come out of our minds are rarely good messages. We start to believe our own junk mail. We have a bad situation with a kid. We overreact. I'm a bad parent. I'm the worst parent on the planet. My kids are gonna be in therapy their entire lives and my internet is, they probably will, but at least I'll know whether they are for. So that's kind of how this whole thing goes and we start thinking I'm the worst parent and it spirals down, spirals out of control. Something happens in the marriage were over. We can't make it. We're never going to get over this together. We're never gonna make it. And it spirals out of control, goes to dark places. I'm a bad person. My family deserves better and it spirals. I can't provide, my friends deserve better. I don't have anyone because I'm a bad person or I'm not enough. I'm afraid everything's out to get me. I'm anxious because I worry about everything. I am unlovable. My world is ending. And of course, none of this makes any sense, which is exactly what Jeremiah says. Your mind is jacked up and none of them make any sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Not to this point. You're probably trying to stifle a yawn for those of you that at least tried to stifle it. Some of you are just blatantly yawning and I understand that. That's fine and that's because most likely all of you can agree with the majority of what I've been saying so far. I don't have to really convince you that the mind is sort of jacked up in some ways and I'm not really sharing anything new, but this is the reason I bring it to your attention today and may you wait, you may want to lean in because if what has been set up to this point is true, then we have a huge problem in society. We got a huge problem in this room. If what we have been talking about is true because of this, I would suggest broken minds actually lead to a broken life.
Speaker 2:Okay?
Speaker 1:Now you have to decide whether you agree with me on that, but I think when people's minds get jacked up, their lives end up following suit. My mind is jacked up and if I choose to do nothing, the people I love the most, my spouse, my children, my family, the people I do live with, my friendships, my close friends, the people in my sphere of influence get this, are all vulnerable. Now to my broken mind. Let me say it again. If my mind is messed up and it's producing a broken life, then all the people I am doing life with or in my relationships, fear have this potential of being touched by my broken mind. Now you picture that taking place all around this and all of our spheres of yeah, influence because according to scripture, that's the dynamic that's happening and if it's true for me respectfully, it's true for you as well are broken minds not only lead to personal brokenness, but it can lead to brokenness and those people around me and that friends has my full and undivided attention to hear what I just said. So if it's my broken mind and I got to deal with it myself, okay, I deal with it myself. But if my broken mind actually starts to impact the lady I'm married to and my three children and my close friendships and my broken mind actually starts to play out in the people that I lead are people I have, I'm a pastor for. That's a big deal to me and respectful. It should be a big deal to you. The truth is especially alarming because the majority of the message that I'm receiving from co pop culture, pop psychology, at least as Tom, listen to your heart, and that is probably some of the dumbest advice I've ever followed in my life. Fair. Oh, just listen to your heart. My Heart's jacked up. My mind's messed up. Find listened to my mind is probably not going to be somewhere good. Don't follow your heart when it comes to relationships. Follow your heart when you're watching the hallmark channel, but don't follow it when you're trying to form a lasting relationship. It doesn't work. Don't follow your heart when it comes to financial decisions. If it did at least, and I would own a huge boat and have nowhere to float it because I would just follow my heart. Oh Lisa, we need this boat. Okay, let's go buy it. Don't do that. Don't follow your heart. It comes to how you care for your body, how you do relationships, cause it'll create a mess. All right, so Paul writes this and I've been non on this week. He says, don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world. What's that? What I just said to pop psychology pop culture whenever. Don't conformed but be transformed. That's the same word we use for metamorphosis. By the way, that's changing in the essential nature of look at this. Don't conform any longer to what's going on the world. Don't think like that, but be transformed. Metamorphosized how by the renewing, none of your body. If your mind of your heart, it's bare, the renewing of your mind. In other words, change the way you're thinking and then what will the result being, look at this then and only then once this first part is taking place, then and only then will you be able to test and approve what God's will is. Lists. So we've got a whole bunch of people in culture telling us what God's will is that haven't done this. And so as an individual, there's people who are seeking to follow God at the individual level. Allow the renewing of our mind and then determine what God's will is. You know why? Because our minds jacked up. And if I tried to take a jacked up mine to determine what God's will is, it will never happen. Polishing. And you and I both know that to be true. So scripture teaches we are to change. We are to change the essential nature of our minds. Now, if scripture teaches that that needs, that leads to this question for me.
Speaker 3:How,
Speaker 1:how are we going to do that? I mean really it has gotten me so far. I mean I'm, I'm fine. So you're saying Tom, uh, who were saying the mines kind of jacked up and I can see those areas of my life where the mind hasn't made great decisions. And then Paul says, you can be transformed by the mind changing. Okay, now I want to know how. So there's just little church Paul writes a letter to and this little church had formed and they started following Jesus. At that time it was just called the wave. It started following the way and in the church they were battling because there were people in the church that we're still trying to teach more like psychology pop psychology. Of the day. And so they were, they were having this huge clash between Jesus. What Jesus said is right and true and what pop psychology say says is right and true. And so it's very much kind of in the descriptive of our society, if you will. Right now combining these two ideologies and it's leading to conflict and confusion in the church. So Paul writes this letter to Colossi and he absolutely demolish is this idea that Jesus plus anything else as needed. Now listen, I know that statement is, are going to be offensive to some of us. I get that. I'm just trying to tell you what the scripture teaches. You can decide whether it works for you. Okay? Whether you think it's true, what Paul said is Jesus plus anything else is not truth. So this is how he said it. This is cautions to eight. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human history, human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather as opposed to Christ. So if anyone claims to say, this is the way for you to be fulfilled and happy in this life, but they don't mention anything about Jesus. Paul says, don't buy it. It's a scam. There's some snake oil up in here and whatever they're selling he sang won't transform you. It will actually trap you. Again, I don't know if you believe this or not. Only if you buy it as truth or not. What's important to understand is this is what scripture teaches as truth. Anybody chasing and then I could give you examples from my life, but I won't cause it'd be embarrassing. So let me ask some questions. Anybody in the room ever chased the relationship that you knew did not involve God? Hoping it would make you happy? Yeah. I never did either, but I read about it to people. Yeah, come on now. All y'all looking all Christian and stuff. I know all y'all did it. I know he did it. I know what. How about this? Anybody ever chase the behavior? Say like a chemical romance hoping it would make you happy. As you know, the problem with the highest is always comes fall by down. Anybody ever chase a paycheck to the neglect of the things you value the most? Anybody ever chase or acknowledgement or recognition on the altar of personal morality, personal sacrifice in that way? See, most of us can offer examples of empty pursuits of happiness and fulfillment because that's what our culture is doing. Jesus lists, attempts at happiness are idle, uses ideas. Paul says, and so then he lays out this strategy for how to, how to change our mind. He says this, since then you had been raised with Christ. Those who believe set your hearts. Just pause. Now we're in the Greek part of the Bible, so hearts is actually desires here. This isn't the same word as mind. You followed. I said, okay. Since set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. This one is set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Now, this is amazing to me, just long enough for me to say this. If you read that verse and you should read it for yourself. Paul is saying, we can actually change our stinking thinking. We can set our minds in a different direction and place. You have been raised with Christ. You set your hearts on things above you where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Then it says you set your minds. I think you English people, I think it's an assumed subject, implied subject. You set your mind on things above. So Tom, you do this. Okay, I'm going to try this. What does it look like? This is really something because when you read this, you think Paul's lost his mind. If you really read what he's employee saying here, you think he might have lost his mind because Paul is cautioning us about reacting to the thoughts that our minds are having because our minds might be lying us.
Speaker 2:Okay?
Speaker 1:Essentially what Paul is saying is this, take time to think about your thoughts because it could be lying to you. So then comes the process. Galatians three put to death, whatever belongs to the earthly stuff. Like what? Sexual immorality just paused long enough. I think it's important for me to tell you sexual immorality, not sexual, just sexually morality. Okay? Don't put to death, that whole thing. Just all that together.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Children in the room cause you didn't go to kid's kid's, kid's ministry. So sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil. If you don't know what let's do is ask your mom and the way home, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry, and look at this ridge yourselves again, the implied you. You read yourself of all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. Now, this is the first part of the process, but I've got a problem with this process so far because if you tell me not to think about something, the first thing I do is think about it, right? If I said don't think about peanut butter, girl scout cookies,
Speaker 2:okay,
Speaker 1:we got word to pray all y'all leave and it don't think about the chocolate and a little layer of peanut butter and a crispy cookie in the metal. Don't think about that at all. Dipping them in a coffee or milk or just throwing them down. Don't even think about that. Well, the first thing that we're going to do is we're going to think about that. So Paul says, don't think about lust. Ah, don't go on it and you don't get, you don't have to try again. You know, don't think about greed or impurity. Well, what he's doing in this first part is saying, hey, don't think about these things, but don't miss the next part. He says, replace them now. It's something better. Three 12 as God's chosen people, he says, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues, he says, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let me tell you just what happened. Here's the thing that you know about leadership. If you're involved in leadership at all, if a leader leaves an organization, something will fill that void with me. Coach a boss, whatever, something fills that void. He's saying the same thing is true with our minds. It's not enough to say Tom, stop thinking that way. He's saying stop thinking on those things and start immediately thinking on these things. He's telling us how to transform our minds have to transform our minds. Now that's good, that's good. But I want something more concrete. I don't do ambiguity. Well, so give me something more concrete. A Gaba and Naima. Jp Moreland writes a book and we wrote a book called Love The Lord your God with all your mind. And uh, the gist of what Moreland's getting out in this book is that Christians of all people need to be using our minds and God given reason in this life. You don't become a Christian then check your brain at the door. If we can't actually bring our brain into the sanctuary, then we really shouldn't be here. So what's going on? He and in that book, Moreland Refi refers to something he calls the Empty Self Syndrome.
Speaker 2:Okay,
Speaker 1:stay with me here. The idea is this, over the past few decades, you can determine how many of you believe believers have actually, and I think it's true for all of culture, but believers have become more concerned about external factors such as possessions, celebrity status, how many likes, how many friends, uh, image and power as opposed to the development of the interior life. What he's saying is Christians had become more concerned about how they're being perceived than how they really are. And you could probably agree with that, couldn't you? I, I, that means something to me. I could see that being true. How there really are the self he says used to be defined in terms of internal traits.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So if you were going to talk about Tom, you would say, here's who he is internally and we would use words of virtue and morality and honor and reputation, person with deep character. But now it's changed. Now we're actually using external things. And scripture actually would affirm this empty self. First Peter writes that Peter writes this, for this reason, make every effort to add to your faith. So, so this is who we are. Now. Add to it. He says goodness and to goodness, knowledge and the knowledge, self control and self control, perseverance, perseverance, godliness and to godliness, brotherly kindness and her brother Kyle in this love and for if you possess these qualities he writes and increasing nature, they will keep you from being any effective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, how do we know if he had the empty self? Well, the book offers like, I don't know, seven, eight, nine things that you could look at. I brought just a couple of for you to consider. Morlan rides the empty self seeks and even needs instant gratification and comfort. The person who has the empty self seeks and needs empty gratification, instant gratification and comfort. In other words, if it feels good to me, it must be good. If I want food and it feels good, I'll have food. If I want drink and it feels good, I'll have drink. If I want sex and it feels good, I'll have sex, instant gratification if I want entertainment and it feels good. Pornography, money, power, success, popularity, all these things to try to provide comfort in the midst of a difficult life if that US Morlan says that's empty self and as you know the problem is did you play that out? As we're trying to make ourselves more comfortable, we're hurting people around us that we love.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Another example of, of of empty self, he says the empty self is obsessed with self image and what others think about us.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:We live in this constant state of comparison and we compare everything. I was eating a meal a couple of weeks ago with some friends. It used to be my friends until they spent 45 minutes talking about hair, which as you can tell, isn't a big priority for me at all. Unless they're talking about the kind of growing in your, nevermind I don't, he didn't just had to know she, we compare and contrast everything. We compare and contrast sports. We compare and contrast body shape. We compare and contrast haircuts, outfits, cars, houses, beards. I've heard people talk about their beards, number of likes, occupations, experiences, children, families, spouses, pets, moles, you name it. We compare absolutely everything. You know, Lisa shared me a few weeks ago cause she's reading the smart book and she was, she shared with me that in that book it said that the number one shame producer for a man is to be perceived as being weak. Keyword is perceived. Number one, shame producer for a man's perceived as being weak. Number one shame producer for a woman is body image. Both of those things are based on comparison. Do you see and if for this society of empty cells, apparently we're doing this epidemic portions. We're comparing ourselves constantly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Last thing he says is this, the empty self is passive. He said, school children, elementary school children watch an average of 25 hours of television a week. High schoolers spent six times as many hours watching television as they invest doing homework. My phone now tells me how many hours a week I've spent on my phone.
Speaker 2:Okay,
Speaker 1:I want to turn it off, but I got to go on my phone to figure out how to exactly turn that feature off on my phone. Now what he's saying is right. This is right for me. I hope it's right for you. You ever find yourself sitting down in front of the television or Netflix and just watching whatever comes. It doesn't matter whether it's good or not for you, it doesn't even matter if you agree with it morally, I feel I'm just so tired. I one of this is one that's what I use. I just want to veg out and I'm doing this because it usually involves food, right? Ice Cream or a Prangle or something, right? I'm sorry, or celery or an orange. We do that though, knowing in fact, we find ourselves being entertained by things that if there were a friend of ours, we would actually be trying to counsel them away from that thing. We're being entertained by now. Here is the, here's why you should never read this book I'm talking about because he says that we are so busy being in this empty self that the overall product of an empty self as we ended up leaving living hurried and busy lives because the empty self has this deep emotional emptiness and hunger because it has devised these inadequate strategies to try to fill its emptiness. So we now live these frenzied lives and the reason he suggests that we're living them is to actually keep the pain and emptiness suppressed in our lives. He writes this one less jump from one activity to another and not be exposed to quiet for very long or the emptiness will become apparent. And I see that all through our culture. And to be honest with you, sometimes I see it in me that, okay,
Speaker 2:so
Speaker 1:does the Bible work
Speaker 2:with this?
Speaker 1:I mean really not, not like the Sunday school answer. Does the Bible actually work if you have to identify with anything we've been talking about? So what I want to do to wrap this up is I want to go through our change paradigm that we've been working together and I'm actually going to share a little bit of personal illustration and how some of my stinking thinking has been changed through this process. And so see if you can identify, our whole process begins with grace and this change paradigm. And we said grace, there's two kinds. There's restoring grace and there's revealing grace. Those are the two kinds of grace. This is God's part in the equation. And basically it's this grace reveals we're holding onto something that what God says is not, is not right and true. We're holding onto something other than what God says is right and true. Here's what I want you to do. If you want to play along with me, ask God in this moment. Give me one thing. Give me one thing I'm holding onto in my thinking that is different than what you say is right and true. It can be forgiveness for your past, it can be forgiveness, three present. Um, it can be the way you see yourself. It can be the way you're holding on to anger. It can be the way you see someone else, I dunno, whatever it is. Just ask God to give you one thing that you can now work through this process. It's different than what God says, right and true. Because what we've been saying in this whole series, if we can change the internal than the external will change. So does God work when it comes to my mind? So we start, God reveals something that's different, right and true. And we admit there's a place in our minds that is held captive, something different than what God says is right and true. How about this? Just a anxiety might be a great one. A lot of folks in the room, a lot of stress, stress over anxiety and the things we can't control. Well, do you believe that God says he's got the whole world in his hands. He'll take care of you. The sparrow falls to the ground. I know it. If you do believe that, if you know it's what God says is right and true and you still struggle well that may be the thing that stinking thinking for Ya. For me, number of years ago, I'm betting maybe 2025 years ago, I don't know. My mind believed that God always had me on trial. So what that meant was, um, I could never be good enough for God and basically I felt God was basically was waiting for me to screw up, which didn't take long and, and so then he'd write that down and keep record hot Tom's or screw up. Now let me ask you something. Can anybody connect the dots for a husband who thinks he's a screw up and God thinks he's a screw up and how that might impact my marriage?
Speaker 3:You see,
Speaker 1:I need some feedback. Come on, give me a little love or something. Are you, are you tracking with me or not? How about this? Anybody see how it might impact the father who thinks that he's never good enough and how he raises his children? Anybody? Anybody think what it might be like to go to a church and sit under the teaching of a pastor who believes he or she is never good enough for God and how that might make you perceive God. That was my deal. That's what I live with. This constant thin ice, and this is what Grey's revealed in my mind that did not match with what God says is right and true. God says, and you've heard me say this a number of times in our services and now you know where it's coming from, God says, is that you're my son. You're my heir. Your family, your adopted, right? Not that you're on trial. That's some jacked up, stinking thinking. This is who I say you are fearfully and wonderfully made. I got your picture on the God Fridge in heaven, but my mind was telling me something different than what God says is right. True. Now, the restoration of that was a long process of focusing on God's acceptance, but I'll get to it, but right now that's what grace revealed to me. So then I started to think vision. If you listened to what God says is right and true for that one area I asked you to identify a few minutes ago, how would your life be different?
Speaker 2:Okay,
Speaker 1:and I started to get that vision for what I was wrestling with. If you think about who you would be if you thought about your anger before acting or you thought about your insecurity or your anxiety or your whatever it is, you thought about your lust, whatever, just before acting. So I became attracted to the freedom of a life that I didn't feel or didn't think I currently had. Does that make sense? When I'd read scripture and I'd read what God says is true and the way people responded to grow God and I realized that what he did for them, I didn't seem to have. I started to wonder what it would be like for me to actually want to be with Jesus as opposed to feeling like I was always on trial with Jesus. I was constantly waiting for the latest screw up and so I started to think, what would a life be like if I actually wanted to be with Jesus? My wife helped me a lot here because I asked her one time during this process how she thought about God and she said sometimes I think about me and God splashing each other in the water.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I realized,
Speaker 2:okay,
Speaker 1:I thought about God as sticking my head under the water.
Speaker 2:Right
Speaker 1:as it does, thinking, thinking. And so I started to think what God and I might do together and I thought it would be like to golf with God. He could help me find my ball cause he knows, right. I started thinking it'd be like to ride around town with God, ride my bike with God.
Speaker 2:Yeah,
Speaker 1:go to eat and have a great meal with friends with God. What would that be like? Sorry. Start to get a vision for what it looked like. Now I'm going to tell you what my mental image was and I know this is going to be really weird to some of you in the room. So I get it. At this stage of my life, I was wrestling a lot with this stage in my life. Is it that, okay now wasn't this church but it was still a stage. And so, um, I got this visual in my mind now back before, like today we had to have something to record videos on besides our phone because the phones, it was horrible. There was still attached to the wall. So we had these things called video cameras. They are about this big, you remember uncle that pulled him out fam Christmas. But anyway, so we had these video cameras. So my mental image during this time, my vision for what it would look like is I pictured this room totally empty with the exception of one video camera and God running the camera. Not in the sense of, Oh, I can't wait for Harding to screw up. But in the sense of, I can't wait to tell the boys and having about what my son is doing. Do you see, do you see the different thinking? And that began the vision for what I think God, how he begins to see me. How begins to think about me. So then came the intent part. Tom, you know, it's different than what God says is right and true. You have a vision for what it might look like if God was doing this. If you saw yourself the way God sees you, are you willing to do whatever it takes for the renewing of your mind? Become a reality. Ready you dad gum, right? I was willing because I was so tired of the way that had poured out in my life and the people I love. Do you follow? It wasn't just me, but it was impacting lease and my children and the people I was pastoring. I'm sorry. I said, Lauren, I'm done with this. Show me how line in the sand from this point forward, things are going to be different. And I borrowed a term from Beth Moore's Bible study, uh, breaking free or something. She did, and in that Bible study she used these terms, re wallpaper your mind and that was good for me. It worked with me, not because I have a lot of experience with wallpaper, but for some reason it worked for me and I started to picture in my mind who God was and who God says I am. Who's things you hear me say so frequently now you know your child of God, you're an heir of God, dropped it in your family. All were part of with re wallpaper in my mind. Then came the strategy. What am I going to do to change the way I'm thinking about this from this point forward? At that point, I took a strategy right from the pages of scripture, in fact, from the same chapter in the same book I've been sharing with you this morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Collage in three, six and 42 it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, but the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Then watch this and devote yourselves to prayer. And maybe I'm in danger of oversimplifying. So think of this as one beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread if you will. But that became my strategy. Do Study and pray and that was it. Study and pray. What'd you study? I studied what God says is right and true. Studied it over and over and I learned it and I began to talk to God about it and I never had before because I didn't want to talk to God because I thought it was on fair. No, I'm sorry. This is really more my thing, but I'm hoping it will apply to some whatever you're carrying. But I actually started myself trying to talk to God and we are looking for my golf ball. Hey God, when you said this, how does that make me different when I dealt with this, how does it make me different? So I started to study and pray not once, not like just on Sunday, but I started to study, pray when I, when I started getting through this, I started study praying every day. I did it every day. That week. Everyone forget. I didn't know what to study. I opened a bible. I just started reading until I found something. I'm sorry, talking to God about it, and then I went into the next weekend, did it, and then all of a sudden became a month that I had done this. I had studied in prayed and I started to change the way I was thinking and then it became a year studying. Pray. Now I'm 2025 years down the road, studying and praying, studying and praying, studying, praying. Every day had been transformed by the renewing of my mind. So you want to change the stinking thinking. Tada, study and pray. What should you study? Montclair state, whatever you want, just find a book in the Bible and read it. I don't know what to start with. Well, let me just say, don't, don't start numbers or Leviticus. That's probably going to be a negative. Don't start there. That'd be cut. A tough, I wouldn't start in revelation either. I'm still give me the Heebie. Jeebies happened there. I like, I like, I like starting in the Gospel. Matthew, mark, Luke, John Acts. Those are good books. I like reading. Joshua was your fun books? Just study the Tom. I don't know what. Well, here's what you could do. Listen, how about this. I'm in the notes today. Every week we put out those sermon notes. If you want to study, well, read those verses that we talked about that week. Read them every day and then go look for golf balls with God. Go pray with God. Hey God, what do you think that meant? And just talk to him. There's do whatever. If you do that every day, well you know by the end of the year you'd have 52 weeks that you actually studied different scripture with God and it would change the way you think. I'll tell you what else we got for you today. If you download the, if you've got the notes, I'm really going to show myself illiterate here, but if you have the notes at the bottom, there's a link to our blog and on the blog is our Linton readings. So if you want to read scriptures for Lindt Lindt, not lint, that's something different with Lindt. Lindt, Lindt.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I bet you was the last time they asked me to preach after traveling all day the day before cause anyway, lint and um, and uh, you can read those. Just study them, read them and pray. Well God show you something amazing most of the time. No, but sometimes yes, studying, pray it. Change the way you think. Laura, thank you so much for these good folks. Thank you for the high honor of being able to share with them today. They're still, they're so kind to me Lord. And the way they listen, the way they engage and uh, I'm grateful for them. Thank you lord for the way you continue to change the way we think. I'm Lord. Right now I pray you'd just be our pastor all around this room. All of us have stinking thinking in one particular area. And would you, would you make it clear that that's the area? Give us the grace reveal, restore. Give us a vision for what we would look like if that area was changed and how we think then get us this line in the sand moment. We put skin in the game. Okay, I'm done with this and then let us study and pray and changes change the way we think. Change our community. In your name. Amen.