Conditions of the Mind. Part 1. | Sunday Series. Open Doors. Part 8.

Join Pastor Brook as she begins to explain what an unrenewed mind looks like.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Good morning, good morning, everybody. So good to see your smiling faces. It's a beautiful day. I thought it was gonna be cold and I walked outside and I was like, oh, it's really nice. So it's uh not quite cold yet, but it's cool enough that I'm gonna enjoy the day, right? Yes. Okay, so we've been in a series called Open Doors for about eight weeks now. And it is an in-depth series. So if you have not, um, or if you've missed a week or if you've not caught up, um you can go onto our YouTube channel and you can catch up. Um it's under Mercy Church, Colorado, so you can go and listen to all of those. Um, they will also be up on the podcast maybe in a couple of weeks. One of the most important things that we can understand in our spiritual life is how the enemy works. And open doors is how the enemy gets access to our lives. They're the cracks that he slips through, the footholds that let him come in and set up camp and start running his mouth. And what do I mean by open doors? I'm talking about things like addiction or pride or anger or fear or unforgiveness or sin and and yes, even the occult. And every time we believe a lie from the enemy, we're basically saying, come on in and make yourself at home. And you better believe he will.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Right?

SPEAKER_02 1:20

He's not gonna give up an opportunity. The Bible says, Don't even give him a chance, don't even give him a foothold. So um let's look at a few of these lies and kind of examine the process. So when that door is open to the enemy, he comes in and he feeds us more lies. So I want to show you how the process works. No matter what lie it is, the process is the same. So somebody says something like, I only need one little hit, I only need one little drink, one little drink won't hurt anything. And maybe that one little drink, that one little thing that you do doesn't hurt somebody. But before long, the one little hit becomes every weekend, then every night, then every time life gets hard, and now you're depending on some something other than God to calm you down. That's not peace, that's bondage. So let's look at another. I have the right to be angry. What was done to me was wrong. Okay, you're right. It probably was wrong. But holding on to that anger doesn't punish them, it poisons you. So you get revenge, but then you're still miserable. Now you're not just mad at one person, you're mad at everybody. That's how bitterness becomes a stronghold. The enemy starts with one lie, but he catches us in a web of lies. So a stronghold is a fortress of lies built by the enemy. Now, the devil doesn't physically trap us, his lies are tricks of our minds, he traps our minds. The battleground of spiritual warfare is the mind. The weapons are lies. We're going to talk about the mind actually for a few weeks. And I want to ask you today, before we begin, do you know where your thoughts come from? The most obvious answer is our thoughts come from ourselves. However, thoughts in our mind come from one of three sources. And um, I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 16 real quick, and we are going to look at a passage where Jesus is talking to Peter. So when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is? And they replied, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But what about you? He asked, Who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. So what was revealed? That Jesus is the Son of God. And who was this revealed to? Simon, by whom? God. So Simon didn't come up with this thought on his own. God also gives us thoughts and places thoughts in our head. Let's keep reading. Verse 18, and I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, and the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him and say, Never, Lord, this shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You don't have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. So what happened? Jesus told Simon that he was going to be killed. He said, Things are going to happen. And what was Simon's response? Never, Lord, this won't happen to you. And what was Jesus' response? Get behind me, Satan. Why did Jesus say this? Because Simon repeated the thoughts Satan placed in his mind. Lies come from one of three sources ourselves, God, the enemy.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Can you recognize which thought comes from whom? Because most Christians can't. Think about it. The enemy is a spirit. He doesn't get you physically. He can't. Even if he could, the method wouldn't work. Why? Because his methods work best in covert operations. Right? We need to think the lies are our own, our own thoughts, our own ideas. If he just came right out and told us this is what you need to do, we'd say no way. He can't get us that way. This is how he gets us. His lines, lies are designed to make you think it's your idea. We think his thoughts are our thoughts. They end up wearing us out. It's not just one lie, right? It's multiple lies over a period of time. He wants you stuck. He wants you addicted. He wants you angry, afraid, self-focused, isolated, useless to God. He does this by poisoning our minds with his lies. And that literally that is what he is doing. Before we go any further, let's pray before we get started. Dear Lord, I thank you for this day. I thank you for this series. I thank you for this word that you're that I'm about to give, Lord. And I just thank you, Lord, for each and every person here, Lord. And I thank you, Lord, that faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of God, and that this seed is planted into good soil, that the enemy won't steal this as we go throughout our day, Lord. And that you you guide us in what you want us to learn, Lord. Help your Holy Spirit to open our eyes and our ears so that we know what you're trying to reveal to us, Lord. And keep this word protected as we go throughout our days and throughout our weeks, Lord, and just plant it in our hearts. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Amen. So I want to first talk about the transformation process that happens when we become a Christian. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. So when we are saved, we become new creations. And in order to understand what new creation means, first I want to talk about man as a creation. So we are a soul. This is the part of us that makes us us. It's our identity, it's our personality. That is a spiritual being who at this moment lives in a physical body. Okay, so three parts: body, spirit, soul. All of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short, and this sin taints our body, our spirit, our soul. It taints all of us in all three parts. That's why our physical bodies die. And that's why without Jesus, our souls and spirits face eternal separation from God. When we accept Jesus, we are described as being born again. And God does something supernatural inside of us. And he explains the step-by-step process uh through Ezekiel. Let's turn to Ezekiel 36, verse 25. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean, your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols, and I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you, and I will take out your stony, stubborn heart, and give you a tender, responsive heart, and I will put my spirit in you, so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. So when we become Christians, when we become born again, we are reborn as new creations. God gives us a new spirit, our old spirit, the one that's stained by sin. I can't live in heaven with God. So God replaces it with a brand new one. And God places his spirit inside of us as well. And his spirit speaks to our spirit. So our souls have two parts that govern our being our hearts and our minds. Okay. But listen to me. And this is where a lot of people miss it. A lot of people misunderstand that your mind is not born again when you get saved. Your spirit is, your heart is, but your mind, the part of you that thinks, that reasons, that remembers, still needs to be renewed. So what is the heart? Let's talk about the difference between the heart and the mind. Your heart is the core of your being. It's where your values live, it's where your motives come from, it's where your affections and your wills and your desires are shaped. And that is your heart. Proverbs 423 says, Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. So now what is our mind? Our mind is the place of thought and understanding. It's where we process our ideas, our beliefs, our choices. It's where you decide what you're going to think about, what you're going to believe, and how you're going to live. Proverbs 19 21 says, Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. And Proverbs 28 26 says, Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. The mind governs knowledge, logic, and belief. And listen, your mind is shaped by what you meditate on. And we've been talking about this for a while. So, but let's let's go back to the beginning for a second. What did Cain meditate on? A lie from the enemy. And he kept thinking about how his brother did him wrong. He kept thinking about how God didn't accept his sacrifice. And he turned it over and over and over again until that thought, that lie, took root in his heart. He meditated on it until the lie became his truth. And then he acted on it, right? What did Eve meditate on? The words of the serpent, the lie. And she rolled those lies around in her mind until she believed them. And that's how the enemy still works today. And I want you to understand this: your mind and your heart work together. The mind thinks, the heart feels and chooses. They're a team. And whichever one you let lead will determine your life. For example, when you read God's word, your mind understands it, your mind thinks about it, your mind stews on it, your mind chews on it, it fills your heart, begins to fill your heart, and your heart begins to believe it. And God's word, that thought or that lie, begins to take root into your heart and plant into your heart. And then you act on it and your life starts to reflect it. And then fruit grows from it. And the same process happens with a lie. You hear a lie, the enemy speaks it to you. It begins as a thought, and your mind understands it, and you chew on it, and you think about it some more. And maybe she really doesn't like me, and maybe maybe she doesn't, and maybe like and it gets more and more extreme, right? And you keep chewing on it, and before you know, it fills your heart, and that lie is rooted into your heart, and you begin to believe it, even if it's not true. And then you begin to live that lie out. This is why Jesus said Matthew 22, 37, and Jesus replied to him, You shall love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. So upon salvation, we are given a new heart and a new spirit and his spirit, but not a new mind. Let me ask you, in what condition is your mind? Have you noticed that your mind can change in any second? One minute you're having the best day ever, you're singing along with the radio, smiling, full of joy, and then somebody cuts you off in traffic and suddenly it's the worst day of your life. Mercy. One minute you like Berks with stock with socks, the next minute you don't, right? Ladies, how many times have you changed your hair, right? And fellas, how many times do you change the channel? Okay. So let's be honest. What couple doesn't have trouble deciding what what to eat for dinner, right? Where do you want to go? I don't care, you pick. Okay, Mexican, no, not that. Okay, Italian, no, that's too heavy, right? So sometimes we make a decision and we're sh and we're sure of it. And then an hour later we're thinking, oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that. We believe God with all our hearts for some things, but then we struggle to believe him for others. We believe him for salvation, but struggle to believe him for healing. We trust him with eternity, but not with our finances or our relationships or our future. Your mind plays a crucial role in how your life turns out. So let me ask you a question. What should our minds look like as believers? Is a critical, judgmental, suspicious mind normal for a believer? What about a fearful, worried, anxious mind? How many of you know a believer who walks through life in one of these mentalities? Right now, what if I told you that being critical or being worried or being fearful or being anxious is a stronghold the devil uses to keep us trapped? Spiritual warfare is a battle that happens in your mind. And that's where the enemy fights you in your thoughts. And since we don't get a new mind, when we become a Christian, the Bible gives us clear instructions on what to do. We have to renew our minds. And guess what? God says that's our job. Romans 12, 2. And do not be conformed to this world any longer with its superficial values and customs, but be transformed and progressively changed as you mature spiritually by the renewing of your mind, focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes, so that you may prove for yourself what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect in his plan. So, how do we do this? How do we renew our minds? And first of all, let me remind you: your mind does not renew itself. The Holy Spirit will help you, but you have to choose to cooperate with him. It's a partnership. God provides the power, but you have to provide the willingness. The word renew means to restore something to its original condition, to make it new again, clean, pure, and focused on God. So if you want a renewed mind, you've got to cooperate with God's process. Bill Johnson says this the transformation of a person's life is no greater than the transformation of his mind. If the mind wasn't important, it wouldn't be worth renewing. Our minds are important to God. He has gone through a great effort to preserve our minds. Throughout history, he's given us the freedom to think, to choose, and to decide. All thinking the same way, all making the same decision, and that would have been much easier. None of us would ever fall away, and none of us would perish. But God didn't do that. And Jesus suffered greatly to predict, to protect that freedom. He died so he could choose life, choose truth, and choose him. So once we become Christians, we do still have our minds, but it's our job to renew it. Ephesians 4 22 says, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So we have to intentionally take off our old self and our old mindset and put on a new one by renewing our minds. An unrenewed mind is a mind that still thinks like the world, it's a mind of the flesh. And the Bible says that the flesh is hostile towards God. Let's read Romans 8, starting in verse 1. So now there's no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving himself, by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the spirit. Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things. But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. Okay? So our physical minds have never obeyed God's law, and it never will on its own. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature cannot please God. And God took a risk when he gave us the freedom to think for ourselves. Why? Because he values our mind and he values you and he values your ability to choose him out of love, not force. See, our minds were originally created to be good, to be pure and whole, but sin, our fleshly nature, has polluted them. Our thoughts are corrupted. And even though our spirits and hearts are made new when we're saved, it's our job to renew our minds. Think of it like a daily factory reset. The mind has to be trained, transformed, and brought under the Holy Spirit's control. And right now we live in a world, in two worlds, one's natural and one's spirit, right? Our feet are in both worlds. We're a spirit inside a natural body. We can't always see the spiritual world, but we still live in both worlds. The natural mind, the flesh, is corrupted and it cannot understand the things of God. It just doesn't have the capacity. It's like asking an Apple computer to run Windows. It just doesn't have the capabilities. Unless you program a specific software, and when you renew your mind, that is exactly what you're doing. You are reprogramming your mind to run spiritual software. The Bible says the natural man is hostile to God. But when you become a new creation, when God's spirit comes to live inside of you, your spirit starts speaking to his spirit. And suddenly things that used to be hard to understand start to make sense. And all of a sudden you speak his language because his spirit is translating it to yours. First Corinthians 2, verse 10. But it was to us that God revealed these things by his spirit. For his spirit searches out everything and shows God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except the person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit. And we have received God's spirit, not the world's spirit, so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. And when we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them, and they can't understand it. For only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others, for who can know the Lord's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him? But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. So we can have the mind of Christ when we train our minds to listen to his spirit. This isn't natural to us, it's not always easy. We have our own minds, not Christ. We think our own ways and we've thought these ways for a long time. Until we are born again, we only did and thought physical things. And so our minds need to be activated and trained spiritually through renewal. The renewed mind is essential. Why? Because it creates healthy soil, a healthy environment for faith. See, faith doesn't come from your head, it comes from your heart. Romans 10 9 says, if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, for it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. But here's the thing your heart can't grow faith if your mind is full of weeds. The renewed mind creates good soil, an environment that allows faith to take root and grow. I talked two weeks ago about the parable of the sower, and so I'm going to read a portion of it real quick. Matthew 13, verse 3. A farmer went out to sow his seed, and as he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up, and some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. When the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they were withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear. So the seed is the word of God, and a renewed mind is good soil. It allows the seeds of God's Word to take root in our hearts, to grow strong, and to produce fruit in our lives. Without a renewed mind, without good soil, the seed just sits there, gets choked out by things, it gets eaten by the enemy. The lies and the distractions and fleshly attitudes are growing in an unrenewed mind. So for the next two weeks, we are going to focus on the unrenewed mind. What happens when we don't renew our minds? What exactly does this look like? What exactly are these thorns that grow up in our minds and how do they choke our faith? See, there are conditions of our minds, ploys of the enemy, strongholds that the enemy uses to keep us from renewing our minds that holds us back. And stepping into communication with the Holy Spirit, it holds us back from doing that as well. The first condition of the unrenewed mind the enemy uses against us is busyness. Number one, a busy mind. A busy mind often keeps us from the things of God.

unknown 24:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

It definitely has kept me more than once from renewing my mind. And man, we were busy this week, right? Maddie was in town, we spent time leaf peeping and then sightseeing in the springs. We went to a concert yesterday, we had a Bible study, we had a barbecue, we had a small group, we went to a football game, we had a football party, we had construction on our house, and I'm telling you, it was a battle just to get some time in this week with God. And honestly, I mean there were days I didn't feel like a whole person because I didn't get enough time in with God. I like to spend the first parts of my mornings with God, so when we leave early in the morning, it kind of disrupts my cycle. Like, and and I do feel different. The enemy loves to keep us busy. Yeah, he doesn't even have to get you to sin if he can just get you distracted. Sometimes, or let's be honest, most of the time, we're too busy to listen to the Holy Spirit. We just don't have time. Our schedules are packed, our minds are noisy, our emotions are out of control, our problems get too much airtime, and everything just gets loud. We're overloaded, overworked, overwhelmed, and the Holy Spirit is trying to speak to us, but we can't hear him because we won't quiet down long enough to listen to him. Luke 10, 38. Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled by many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. So all of us have been there at some point, all of us have been Martha, right? We just get too busy to spend time with God. Too busy to just sit at his feet like Mary. Busyness has been causing problems since Jesus' time. We have to choose to be intentional despite distraction, despite our busyness, to make time with God. If you know you have a busy week, schedule time, right? We have to take time to intentionally renew our minds by syncing ourselves up with Him through reading His Word and spending time in prayer. Our minds aren't like a subscription to Netflix. They don't renew automatically on their own. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He's not going to scream and yell at you. Most often he speaks in a still small voice. First Kings 19, verse 11. Go out and stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And the voice said, What are you doing here, Elijah? You have to make time to hear him. If you don't, you will miss him. You have to choose to turn down the volume of your life so you can hear the whisper of God. Part of renewing your mind is learning to quiet out all the other voices. Psalm 46, 10 says, Be still and know that I am God. You have to intentionally shut down the outside noise, the internal drama, the endless to-do list, in order to hear the Holy Spirit speak to you. We can't have the mind of Christ if we can't hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. The Holy Spirit is a mind-aiding spirit. That means your mind has to be available. First Corinthians 14 10. Then what am I to do? I will pray with my spirit by the Holy Spirit that is within me, but I will also pray intelligently with my mind and understanding. The Holy Spirit is your advocate. He's your counselor, he's your intercessor. He knows the mind of God and wants to reveal it to your mind, so your mind can't be on vacation. Your mind has to be prepared, it has to be calm and clean enough to hear him. David said this, Psalm 131, 2. But I have calmed and quieted myself. I am like the weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child, I am content. Notice David didn't say that God did it for him, that God calmed him. David made a choice and he did it. So we must make a choice to stop, quiet ourselves, and make time for God in our lives, and make time to renew our minds as well. The next condition of an unrenewed mind that the enemy uses against us is a wandering mind. Have you ever heard the phrase or maybe seen a t-shirt that says, Not all who wander are lost. I just want to tell you that a wandering mind is a lost mind, right? What does it mean to wander? To move or to walk aimlessly. And if you don't know or care where you're going, you will end up lost. In small group, or a lot of times we say, you know, our mission here is helping people find and follow Jesus, and they're always like, Well, is Jesus lost? No, you are. So let's talk about the wandering mind for a second. A wandering mind is a mind that cannot stay focused on what God is saying or what God is doing. It jumps from one thought to another, from faith to fear, from peace to worry, from God's promises to what-ifs. And if we're honest, most of us at some point have been that way. Um, and many Christians spend years letting their minds wander from thought to thought, from good thoughts to bad thoughts, and whatever pops into their mind they're okay with. No filter, no discernment, no discipline. James 1, verse 5 says this if any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God, who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or fault finding, and it will be given to him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering, no hesitating, no doubting, for the one who wavers, who hesitates, or who doubts, is like the billowing surge out at the sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything he asks from the Lord, for being as he is, a man of two minds, hesitating, dubious, irresolute, he is unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything he thinks, feels, and decides. So the Bible calls this a man of two minds. He can't make up his mind. One day believes, the next day doubts. One day goes one way, another the next. One day he's sure, the next day he's second guessing. A man of two minds is uncertain about everything. Some people wander because they have trouble choosing a destination. Either they don't want to make a choice or they are unsure which way to choose. And some people have trouble concentrating because they've gone years without mental discipline. They've let their minds think whatever they want, and now their minds run them instead of them running their minds. But focus takes discipline and discipline takes practice. You don't develop a strong mind overnight. You must train, just like you train your body, you must train your mind. And if you've got a wandering mind, if you fall asleep every time you read the word or you pray, if you can't seem to absorb what you're reading, that's not a you problem, that's a spiritual problem. Remember, your mind is a battlefield. The enemy is a strategist. He knows that if he control your he can control your thoughts or just let them wander, he can control your life. Hebrews 12, 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. The main point of being a Christian is that we take our direction from God and place our focus on Jesus. We can't wander from thing to thing. We place our focus on Jesus. We don't wander aimlessly. The Amplified says it like this Let us run with endurance, an act of persistence, the race that is set before us, looking away from all that will distract us, and focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of faith. Does this sound like wandering aimlessly? It's the exact opposite. We are running a race with endurance, with our focus being on Jesus. And focus requires the renewing of the mind. We can't do it on our own. It is a discipline practice. Have you ever ran a race? If you've ran a race of any sort, or a long race of any sort, I mean, maybe maybe not a real short one, but but if you've ever ran a marathon, what happens? Your body at some point's gonna want to give up, right? And so you have to continually refocus all over and over again your mind to what's my destination, right? God sets our destination. And as Christ followers, we just have that one in mind. Psalm 3723 says, the steps of a man are established by the Lord when he delights in his way. So we are pursuing the Lord and He sets the way. Proverbs 69 says, the heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. The inability to concentrate or make a choice is a tool of the devil to keep your mind distracted so you don't hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.

unknown 35:05

Right?

SPEAKER_02 35:05

You're so focused on the squirrel you can't hear the Holy Spirit talking to you. Okay. The devil knows that if he can't, he can keep your mind busy enough or unfocused enough that you'll miss the direction of God. If I'm just loud enough, he won't hear the Holy Spirit, she he or she won't hear the Holy Spirit, right? And you will just be wandering aimlessly throughout life, and you'll miss the path and the calling that God has for your life. Colossians 3 2 says, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. So listen to me. Your thought life matters. Your thoughts create the environment, they create the soil of your mind. And here's the truth sin begins with a thought. It's essential as Christians that we learn to discipline our thoughts. God doesn't want you wavering back and forth, a wave tossed by a wind. He wants you stable, rooted, grounded, and confident in his word. Ephesians 5 17. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And that requires a focused, disciplined mind. Your mind is always wandering, always filled with random thoughts. If it is, if if you're always trying to solve everything, and if you're always daydreaming about the past or worrying about the future, you're going to have a hard time hearing God's voice. Your mind doesn't have to wander. You can take control of it. I think a lot of Christians, no one has ever told them that they can do that, that they shouldn't be thinking these certain things, that they shouldn't have all of these thoughts back and forth. Most people don't know that. You have to train your mind to stay on God's word. Just like you train your body to stay healthy. We are learning what a renewed mind is by what an unrenewed mind is not. A renewed mind is a focused mind. A renewed mind is a disciplined mind. And a renewed mind is a still mind. And the next condition of an unrenewed mind that the enemy uses against us is a confused mind. If the enemy can keep can't keep you busy or make your mind wander, he will try to confuse you. Wandering and confusing confusion often go hand in hand. And let me tell you, confusion is one of the preferred methods of the enemy. But here's the thing: most of the time, the devil doesn't even have to do much to confuse us. We do a pretty good job of it ourselves. Our minds are made of flesh. We can't come up with the truth on our own. So if we aren't staying aligned with the truth teller, the Holy Spirit, his word, then we get confused easy. We don't even know what truth is. So when the enemy presents us with something that looks like the truth, sounds like the truth, we think, oh, it probably is the truth. And then he's in because we don't know what we don't know that we don't know. So we take the attitude that if it sounds right, it probably is, but normally it's not. And when we start reasoning and thinking according to our own human capacity, the next thing, we're spiritually dizzy. We are confused, and we're going in circles trying to figure out things we were never meant to figure out. I want us to look at an example real quick. Jesus and the disciples took a trip and they're talking. And so Jesus mentions yeast, and the disciples realize all of a sudden that they forgot the bread. Okay? So they realize that they forgot the bread, and then they all freak out. So that's where we're started at. Matthew 16, verse 5. And the disciples having come to the other side forgot to take bread. And Jesus said to them, Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, It is because we did not take the bread. But having known this, Jesus said, Why do you reason among yourselves? You of little faith, because you did not take bread. Do you not yet understand nor remember the five loaves for five thousand and how many hand baskets you gathered, nor the seven loaves for four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How do you not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? And then they understood that he did not say to beware of the leaven of the bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus says to the disciples, Will you quit arguing about the bread? I'm not even talking about bread. But even if I was talking about bread, why are you trying to reason this out in your own heads? Why are you debating among yourselves instead of trusting me? Don't you remember what I just did? I think I just did it yesterday, right? Don't you remember I just fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread? Oh you of little faith. In other words, you're trying to make bread appear with your own logic when I'm God that made bread fall down from heaven. Right? We will never be able to figure out why God does the things he does or how he does them on our own. Isaiah 55, 8 and 9 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. God made a donkey talk, He made the sun stand still, He split the sea, He allowed a 90-year-old woman to give birth to a baby. So why do we think we can logically explain or figure out why God does what He does? And here's a simple way to say it reasoning happens when you try to figure out the why. Reasoning makes your mind go around and around and around the situation, trying to figure out every little detail. And if it doesn't make sense to you, then you reject it. And that's how the enemy steals the will of God from your life. Because very often God will ask you to do something that doesn't make sense at all. He might ask you to give when you're struggling, right? He might ask you to forgive someone who doesn't deserve it. He might ask you to take a step of faith that seems impossible. And our unrenewed mind literally cannot understand spiritual concepts. Our unrenewed mind doesn't, it does not understand faith. So if we don't renew our mind and bring it into alignment with his mind, when we read and hear the word of God, we are going to be confused. We are not going to be able to understand it. And that's completely natural to our natural mind. In an unrenewed mind, faith is a foreign concept. So let me ask you what is the difference between a wandering mind and a confused mind? A wandering mind is unfocused. A wandering mind is a mind that can't stay put. It jumps from one thought to another, one feeling to another. It's here, then it's there, it's thinking about the future, thinking about the past, thinking about lunch, thinking about bills, then the dog, and what if this happens? Maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll do that. A wandering mind is distracted. It's the kind of mind that says, I'm going to pray, and then 10 seconds later you're thinking about your grocery list, right? That's a wandering mind. Isaiah 26, 3 says, You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. And the word stayed means fixed, focused, set. A wandering mind is the opposite of a stayed mind. It can't focus long enough to hear God clearly or receive his peace. First Corinthians 14 33 says, For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. A confused mind is divided. It tries to reason or explain the things of God in natural terms. And that's just not possible. A confused mind is not just unfocused, it's conflicted, it's chaotic. The Greek word for confusion in this passage means instability, commotion, disorder, tumult, and chaos. And that's what the enemy loves confusion. Because confusion brings chaos. And if God is not the author of confusion, then who is? The devil. Right? Satan loves twist of truth to cloud your mind, to distort God's word until you're not sure what is true anymore. He doesn't have to destroy you, all he has to do is confuse you. A confused mind is a chaotic mind, and a chaotic mind is one that's constantly racing, overthinking, worrying, analyzing, stressing, and trying to control everything. Reasoning, trying to figure things out on your own without God's help. In general terms, chaos means disorder, confusion, or complete lack of peace. It's when things are out of alignment. There's no clear direction, no stability, no calm. It's opposite of Jesus, who is peace, structure, and rest. And that's definitely not the mind of Christ. The word chaos comes from a Greek word. Meaning gulf, void, or formless. So chaos is what you have when something isn't in order or isn't shaped. Confusion. So when everything is mixed up without boundaries or purpose, and spiritually speaking, chaos is what happens when God's order is removed. It's when the mind, the heart, or life itself is out of alignment with God. Under chaos, a mind feels like a whirlwind. There's too many thoughts, too many emotions, too many what-ifs. God did not design your mind to live in chaos. He created it for peace, order, and stability. James himself says confusion exists in the unrenewed mind. Um, this is actually James 3, it says five up here. James 3, verse 15. For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly and spiritual and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. So wherever there is jealousy and selfishness, and those are things from the devil himself, and there you will find disorder. And the word for disorder here is the same word chaos. So you will find disorder, confusion, chaos, every evil thing. And another version says it like this for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. And the Amplified says it like this. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be arrogant, and as a result, be in defiance of the truth. The superficial wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, secular, natural, unspiritual, even demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder, unrest, rebellion, and every evil thing in morally degrading practice. So the natural mind has superficial wisdom not given from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic from the enemy. And the Amplified describes the confusion of the mind here as having disorder, unrest, and rebellion. The natural mind will not understand the supernatural things, which means it's in constant rebellion to God. It's sinful and it's filled with lies, which is why we have to renew our mind on a regular basis. And we are constantly seeking our minds with God. God is the opposite of confusion. And if we keep reading in James chapter 5, verse 17, it says, But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, and good fruit, impartial and sincere, peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. And I think that this next story actually gives us a perfect understanding. It's Jesus again, Mark 4. As evening came, Jesus said to the disciples, Let's cross to the other side of the lake. So they took Jesus in a boat and started leaving the crowds behind, although other boats followed. But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion, and the disciples woke him up, shouting, Teacher, don't you care? We're going to drown. And when Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the slaves, Silence, be still. And suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. And they asked them, Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? And the disciples were absolutely terrified. Who is this man? They asked each other. Even the winds and waves obeyed him. So Jesus, like here, calms the storms of our minds. He is our peace that passes all understanding. But we can't have his calm and his peace and his order and his stability without renewing our minds and taking on the mind of Christ. Any mind without him will end up with confusion and chaos. And the devil knows that if he can control your mind, he can control your life. He can keep you from aligning yourself with God and all the good things that he has for you, because he does. That's a promise of God. He has good things for you. You will never be set free because you will never hear the truth if you don't align your mind with God unless it's revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals the truth to us. And that's why the enemy uses every distraction he can to confuse us, to wear us out. He keeps you, he uses busyness to keep you running so fast that you don't have time to hear God's voice. He uses a wandering mind to keep you unfocused, thinking about everything except what God is saying to you. He uses a confused mind to keep you doubting, wondering, wavering. And when none of that works, he'll try chaos. Right? Erasing mind, constantly thinking, overanalyzing, and trying to fix what only God can fix. But God's word is clear. First Corinthians 14, 33. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. And Isaiah 26, 3, you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. And 2 Timothy 1, 7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. A sound mind is a mind that is settled, focused, disciplined, and at peace. It doesn't wander, it doesn't waver, it doesn't have chaos. A sound mind thinks like Jesus, and the Holy Spirit speaks to it and allows the mind to believe what God says. Chance is going to continue to talk about this, the conditions of the mind this week, so we'll have a part two. But it's time that we take our mind back and we stop letting the devil run wild in our thoughts. And we stop being distracted. We stop being confused and too busy. And that we make that decision today to renew our minds with God's words and that we are intentional. We don't let any of these things get away. David, would you come up and pray?

SPEAKER_01 49:55

He will keep them in perfect peace whose mind is set on him. Are you busy? Are you wandering? Are you confused? As a blind guy, when I'm trying to navigate the world around me, right? Brenda's not always walking with me. Like when I was on campus at Ames, whatever. I'm trying to wander around. I can't be on my phone while I'm trying to navigate using my cane doing all this stuff. I can't be busy, right? And I can't go out there and not know where I'm going. I've got to know which building I'm going to, what's my route. I can't just be wandering. Because otherwise, I get super confused. I get turned around. Somebody inevitably will stop and talk to me. And if I turn to the left where they're at, and I sit there for too long, then I forget where I'm at. Where was I? And I'm confused. I'm lost. How long have you been blind? See, Jesus said, I was anointed, this is Jesus, to preach the good news to the poor and to restore sight to the blind. He wasn't just talking about the physical blind. So today, if your mind is not stayed on Jesus, if you're still blinded because you haven't come and received Jesus as your Savior, if you haven't come into that relationship, it's not about religion here in Mercy Church, okay? With God, it was never about religion, it's about relationship. If you haven't started that relationship with Jesus, man, that's what we're here to help you do today. So that He can open your blinded eyes, so that you're not so busy with all the things that get thrown in your face, so that we're not wandering because we don't know where we are, and we're not confused because we can see and we're focused, led by the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives us. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit when we come to Him and receive Him, right? So the prayer team is gonna be up here. I'll pray to dismiss here in a second. The prayer team will be up here to help you pray, to agree with you for anything. You know that God will help you remove the busyness, that He will light up the things in your life, right? Because it's our job, it's our job to renew our minds, but the Holy Spirit, He has given us the Holy Spirit to help guide us in that direction. But I want to ask you right now, actually, I'm gonna go ahead and do this now. I'd like everybody to close your eyes, please. Everybody close your eyes. If there's anybody here right now that hasn't received Jesus, that hasn't started a relationship with Jesus, haven't been focused on Jesus. Maybe, maybe, maybe you went to church when you were younger, maybe you prayed the prayer of salvation before. But if you want to receive Jesus today, if you want to be saved, if you want to set your feet on the path to know Him deeper and be led by Jesus, if you want to do that today, I want to ask you to slip up your hand. Nobody's looking around. I can't see you, don't worry. Whoever it is, I'd like you to raise your hand and we're gonna we're gonna pray with you today. And we're all gonna agree in prayer in just a second. Give you one more second. Hey, if you've again, if you've come to Jesus before and you walked away, if you got busy, if you started to wander, if you got confused, if you believed the lies that the enemy told you that you know God's not real, God doesn't really love you. If he loved you, this wouldn't have happened. Whatever it is, if you walked away from Jesus and you're ready to come back, just slip up your hand. If this is your first time and you've never known Jesus, slip up your hand. I'm gonna give you three more seconds. Alright. We're gonna pray this together. Will y'all do that for me? Can we pray together? Alright. So keeping your eyes closed, we're gonna focus on Jesus right now. We're not gonna focus on my voice, we're not gonna focus on anything else, but we're gonna focus on who God is. The truth of Jesus that he wants to have a relationship with. God is a father and he wants to have a relationship. He's not the earthly father that you knew or grew up with, he's the perfect father. So we're gonna pray this prayer. I'd like you guys to repeat after me, if you don't mind. Lord Jesus, I come before you right now. Lord Jesus, I come before you right now. I realize and recognize that I have sinned and fallen short of your glory. I realize and recognize that I have sinned and fallen short of your glory. Lord, I want to turn away from everything that I did that was against you.

SPEAKER_00 54:28

Lord, I want to turn away from everything I did that was against you.

SPEAKER_01 54:33

I want to receive you into my life. I want to receive you into my life. I want to be guided by you and your Holy Spirit. I want to be guided by you and your Holy Spirit. Jesus, right now I believe that you came, lived, and died.

SPEAKER_00 54:51

Jesus, right now I believe that you came, lived, and died. And that you rose again on the third day. And that you rose again on the third day.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

You did all this to pay for my sins.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

You did all this to pay for my sins.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

I receive forgiveness right now. I receive forgiveness right now. I receive you into my life, Jesus. I receive you into my life. Thank you for making me whole. Thank you for making me whole. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. I dedicate my life to you. I dedicate my life to you. My every decision. My every decision. And I declare today. I declare today. I will be renewed. I will be renewed. In my mind, in my heart. In my heart. Thank you, Jesus, for freedom. Thank you, Jesus, for freedom. We pray over you guys all right now, and then we'll dismiss at the same time. Lord, I thank you, Jesus. I praise you for all that you continue to do. Oh, you are so good. Your mercy and goodness follows us all the days of our lives. Thank you, Lord, for those of us that have that have come to you for the first time, for those of us, Lord, that have that have renewed those vows with you today, Lord, whatever it might have been. Lord, I thank you today that you are clearing our minds, that you are the Prince of Peace. Thank you, Lord, that you are clearing away the busyness, that you are focusing our thoughts, helping us focus our thoughts on you today. Thank you, Lord, because you have given us a sound mind and we receive your love, glory, and power. We will go throughout this week, Lord. In your name, Jesus, we will go throughout this week and tell others about who you are and what you've done for us. Thank you, Lord, as you continue to strengthen us to renew our lives. Love you, Jesus, in your name.