FIVE-A-LIVE ! THINK

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Now, what I want to do today is simply briefly introduce the series we're going to be in now for several weeks about rethinking your life, about your thought life, your mind, because we need to shape up our minds. We need to bring our thoughts under control. We need to get them right in the right direction. And I'm going to give you this weekend nine truths or nine pillars on which we're going to build this series on rethinking your life. So let's get right into it. Number one, if you want to write down the first pillar of rethinking my life, it's this. My thoughts control my life, but I can control my thoughts. Now, this is a very profound statement. My thoughts control my life, but I can control my thoughts. That is something that sets you apart, made in the image of God as a human being. My thoughts control my life, but I can control my thoughts. Proverbs 23, verse 7, the King James Version says, For as a man thinks, so is he. As a man thinketh, so he is. You are the sum total of your thoughts. Now let me show you a verse. Proverbs 423, New Century Version says this. Be careful what you think about, because your thoughts run your life. Circle that. Your thoughts run your life. Today's English version says, Be careful what you think about, because your life is shaped by your thoughts. Now, this single verse teaches two very, very important truths that we're going to look at over and over again in the weeks ahead. One of them is that your life is determined by what you think. If you think bad thoughts, you're going to have a bad life. If you think dumb thoughts, you'll have a dumb life. You have smart thoughts, you think a smart have a smart life. If you think good life, good thoughts, you have a good life. You are what you think about. So your thoughts do control, they do shape, they do run your life. But it also says, be careful what you think. Be careful indicates you have a choice. And that's the second thing. While you do have your thoughts running your life, you can choose what you think about. That's your choice. And one of the reasons I want to do this series is because you need to exercise that choice more often. You don't exercise your choice in choosing what you think about as much as you should. A lot of your thoughts you just let other people filter through your mind, or the media filter through your mind, or Satan filter through your mind. And what I want to say as we start this series is you need to start thinking about what you think about. You need to think about your thoughts. Do I really want to think this? You see, many of your problems in life, if not most, many of your problems in life come because you're allowing other people to put thoughts in your mind instead of choosing them yourself. And you're not, you're not being discriminatory about them. And you let other people suggest thoughts. The media suggests thoughts, and the radio suggests thoughts, and television and books, and magazines, and friends, and peers and enemies, and Satan. They all are suggesting thoughts. Just because you have an open mind, you don't want everybody putting stuff in it. You need to choose to think correctly more often. You need to choose your thoughts better. When you don't choose your thoughts, you're gonna have a lot of thoughts that are bad, they're wrong, they're hurtful, they're self-defeating, things like that. And so in this series, what I'm gonna do is teach you how to be less passive, less passive about your thoughts. I want to teach you how to be more intentional about what gets your attention. Because it's your choice. Your thoughts control your life, but you control your thoughts. And you need to take stronger control of your thought life. You know, we're all worried about air pollution and water pollution, and but we need to be worried about mind pollution too. Would you agree that there's a lot of stuff out there that really shouldn't be in your mind? Yeah. And you need to choose not to listen to it, not to look at it, not to not to have it, not to let it enter into your mind. So we're gonna teach you how to be more intentional about what gets your attention. I want you to write this question down. You want to ask this question, do I really want to think about this right now? If you'll learn to ask that question every day, it'll change your life. Because you think about stuff all the time without stopping to ask this question. Do I really want to think about this? It's a choice. You start to get worried. You should stop and say, Do I really want to worry about this right now? You start to get fearful. Do I really want to be fearful right now? You start to get upset about something. Do I really want to be upset about this right now? You start to obsess over something. Do I really want to obsess? Nobody's holding the gun to your head. You start to get discouraged. Do I really want to think discouraging thoughts right now? It's your choice. A lot of times we act like we don't have any choice over our feelings or don't have any choice over our thoughts, but you do. You're made in God's image. Number two, here's the second pillar. Any change I want in my life must start in my mind. Any change that I want in my life must start in my mind. So many of the things you've tried to change in your life, you've tried to change by changing your behavior. Wrong place to start. You don't start by changing your behavior. You start by changing the way you think about whatever you want to change. It all starts in your mind. And that's why God says this in Romans 12, too. Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world. In other words, what the world says is important. Don't conform yourself to what the world thinks is important, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Now notice you're going to either be conformed or you're going to be transformed in life. You're going to be conformed, you're going to be like everybody else by listening to everybody else. Or you're going to be transformed, you're going to be different. You're going to be great by letting God renew your mind, by letting God change your mind, by rethinking your life. Here's what Jesus said. I I love this. One of the Beatitudes in the message paraphrase, Matthew 5.8, says this. Then you can see God in the outside world. See that it starts on the inside. Any change you want to make in your life starts in your thoughts, not in your feelings, not in your behavior. Now that leads me to the third pillar of rethinking my life. And this is a big one. I can change how I feel by changing how I think. I can change how I feel by changing how I think. A lot of times we try to change our feelings, but that doesn't work. Have you noticed that your feelings are quite resistant to your will? You know, you don't want to feel a certain way, and you try to force yourself to not feel that way, but you still do. Your feelings often rebel and they are resistant to your will, and you can't command them. You can tell yourself, stop being sad. How's that working? It doesn't work. Or I command you to be happy. It's like telling a little kid who's crying, you know, stop crying. I'm trying, money, I'm trying. You can't force a feeling. Feelings many, many times are uncontrollable. You can't control your feelings all the time, but you can control your thoughts, and your thoughts determine your feelings. If you're feeling fearful, you're thinking fearful thoughts. If you're feeling depressed, you're thinking depressed thoughts. If you're feeling angry, it's because you're thinking angry thoughts. If you're feeling bitter, it's because you're thinking bitter thoughts. You can't change the feeling, but you can change the thought. And when you change the thought, you're gonna feel a whole lot better. So you just choose. I have a choice. I can stop, start thinking about what I am thinking about and be more intentional. I mean, let me just parallel this. If you're sitting at home and you're watching TV and there's a commentator, TV news commentator on there, who you totally disagree with, and you're getting more and more and more and more frustrated with them. How do you get rid of that frustration? Go, I'm not gonna be frustrated. I'm not gonna be frustrated. I'm not no, you just turn the channel. And the same is true with your mind. I don't want to worry, then change the channel. I don't want to be depressed, then change the channel. I don't want to lust, then change the channel. I don't want to be bitter, then change the channel. You don't resist it. Whatever you resist, persist. You simply refocus. We're gonna talk about these in depth in the weeks ahead. I'm just giving you an overview of where we're going. And the third thing I want you to understand is that I can change how I feel by changing how I think. Let me give you a couple examples right out the Bible. Here's one from David, Psalm 42, verse 6. David says, My heart is breaking. Now that's strong emotion. So he says, I turn my thoughts to God. Notice, I turn my thoughts to God. That's a choice. My heart is breaking. I'm not gonna be thinking about what's breaking my heart. I'm gonna turn my thoughts to God. That's a choice. Look at the next one. Jonah. In Jonah 2.7, he says, When I'd lost all hope, that's an emotion. I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord. Some of you need to write that verse down. You need to memorize it, you need to put it on a card. Maybe we'll make it our memory verse this week. When I had lost all hope, I once again turned my thoughts to the Lord. Jonah 2.7. Let's just say that together, okay? Say it with me. Jonah 2.7. When I'd lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord. Will you take this verse home? Write it down and make it your memory verse this week. Take it home, write it on a card, put it in your windshield visor, on your bathroom mirror, on your refrigerator, something. Let's read it again. When I had lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord. And where is that? Jonah 2.7. Do you think you'll use that verse maybe in the next month? Yeah. And when you file it there, then God's Spirit can bring it to mind when you'd lost all hope. I turn my thoughts. That's a choice. Now here's the fourth pillar in rethinking your life. The fourth pillar of rethinking my life is to realize that every behavior is based on a belief. The Bible has a lot to say about this. Every behavior is based on a belief. Anytime you do anything, you're doing it because there's a belief beneath that. Anytime you see anybody doing anything else, good or bad, right or wrong, it's because they have a belief beneath that. All of your behavior is based on unspoken beliefs. So, as I said, if I'm acting scared, is because I'm believing scary thoughts at that moment. If I'm acting resentful, it's because I'm believing maybe that I've been devalued. And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, defend myself. If I'm acting prideful, it may be because I'm secretly believing I'm not good enough. So I'm trying to compensate by being boastful, by being proud, because really I feel insecure. I don't feel like I measure up. Behind everything you do is a belief. Do you know what those beliefs are? And if there's something in your life you don't like that you do, or there's some feeling in your life you don't like that you feel, then you need to go to the source and change the thought, change the the the um the idea that's in your mind. This is why, notice here the Bible says in Haggai chapter 1, verse 5, God says this think carefully about your behavior. Think carefully about your behavior. And if you will start thinking about what you think about, and you start being honest and evaluating why am I acting that way? What am I believing beneath that behavior? In other words, what thought triggered that response? What what assumption is behind that action? What belief is beneath that behavior? And what you need to stop and think about what you're thinking about. Now, confession is good for soul. You ever been in a conflict? Let's just pretend you you've probably never had this, but let's say you've had a conflict with your spouse. Okay, and you're disagreeing with your spouse about something, okay? And you're disagreeing, and and you're actually having an okay disagreement, and you're being logical, and you're being adult, and you're you're kind of listening to both sides, and then all of a sudden, something in the argument triggers, and all of a sudden, emotions are engaged. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, I'm really ticked. And we've gone from zero to 100 in emotional intensity in like two seconds. Y'all look like me, like this has never happened to you. Come on, liar, liar, pants on fire. All right, happens to you all the time. You're in an argument and you're just talking about something, and all of a sudden, something triggers, and bam, you're out of control, or you're upset, or you're nervous, or you're fearful, or you're sweating, or your voice goes up, or tears come down your cheeks. What in the world's going on here? Okay, if you've ever been in a situation like that, you need to ask this question, write it down. What am I believing right now? Because something just triggered an unspoken belief. You may believe they're gonna leave you, you may believe you haven't been heard, you may believe that your idea isn't being given validation and you're not being treated with respect. You're believing something that all of a sudden triggered an emotional response. Do you even know what that is? A lot of times you get in an argument, you get in a conflict, and you get upset, you don't even know why you're upset. I'm begging you, as your pastor, as your friend, to start looking at the beliefs beneath your behavior and go, why did that tick me off? Why did what he say or what she said all of a sudden just trigger something in me? Did it trigger something that my mom used to say or my dad used to say, or or a feeling of I feel like a little girl again, or I feel like a little boy again? This is how you grow. You grow by examining what's going on in your mind. And the the truth is, when you when you actually do that, you may be overreacting, you may be misreading what your spouse said, you may be making assumptions that they said this and you think they meant that, and they didn't mean that. But you made an assumption, and what you believed raised your emotions. That's why the Bible says this in Proverbs 14, verse 15. A fool, a foolish person will believe anything, but a wise person thinks about what he does. You gotta think about what you're thinking about because that's affecting your emotions and your actions. All right. Number five, fifth pillar is this anytime I sin, at that moment, I'm believing a lie. Anytime I sin, at that particular moment, I am always, always, always believing a lie. Now, Satan, when he wants to tempt you, always uses the exact same four-step process. He's done it since the very first couple, Adam and Eve. And I'm going to teach you in this series how Satan tempts always in these same four steps. I don't want to do it right now because we're looking at other things, but I will tell you that the third step is called deception. And in the third step of temptation, Satan starts getting you to doubt what God has said is the truth and to start believing that what you think or feel is the truth. And Satan will say to you when he's starting to tempt you some things like, This won't hurt you. Come on, you're an adult. You can handle this, it's no big deal. Everybody does it. You know what'll make you happy more than God does. Those are all lies. Everything I just said was a lie. Every time you sin, it's because you have believed a lie. And if you want to stop an habitual sin in your life, if you want to stop an habitual bad habit in your life, then you've got to get to the root of it and you've got to get to the lie that you're believing that I'll be more happy if I do what God says don't do. I'll be more wealthy if I do what God says don't do. I'll be more sexy if I do what God says don't do. I'll be more fulfilled in life if God says I if I do what God says don't do. Or vice versa. If I don't do what God says to do, I'll have more money. If I don't do what God says to do, I'll have more friends. If I don't do what God, and you're believing a lie every single time. Now, if you understand this, it's gonna stop giving sin such control in your life. It's gonna stop giving bad habits such control in your life because you're gonna stop and go, okay, what am I believing right now that just isn't true? And because it isn't true, I'm acting on this, and I think I know better than God. Proverbs 14, verse 12 says this There are many ways that we think are right, but they lead to death. You ever gone down a dead end road? Yeah. You ever had any dead ends in life? Yeah. Have you ever had something you thought was gonna work out that didn't work out? Yes. There are a lot of things we think are right, that we think are good, that we think will make us happy, that we think will be the secret to our fulfillment in life, that satisfaction and meaning and purpose, but they're not. It's a dead end. It's a it it's it's a lie. And God says, you know, this is what happens when you don't believe what I tell you, you end up in dead ends. You end up dying, you end up perishing. Now, you know what I'm talking about here. Have you ever seen anybody continue to keep on doing a self-defeating behavior, even though it's killing them? Yes, you have. Why? Because at that moment they're believing a lie. They're believing a lie about their addiction, they're believing a lie about their habit, they're believing a lie about their lifestyle, they're believing a lie about every sin is always based on a lie. That's why the truth sets you free. That's why Jesus said the truth sets you free. But there are many ways we think are right, but they lead to death. And why can we keep being believing a lie? One of the common lies that we often believe is this that whenever I'm tempted, it's because something out there has tempted me. And we tend to think that temptation is something external, like it's out there in society, and if that wasn't there, then I wouldn't be tempted. That the real problem is not me, the real problem is the tempting situation or the person or event or whatever it is. That it's that we want to externalize the temptation. That's a lie. Because the Bible says, no, it's the exact opposite. A temptation starts inside you. If there's no magnet in you, it'll it don't even tempt you. It starts inside. Here's what the Bible says James chapter 1, verse 14 and 15. Temptation comes from the lure of our own inner desires. He's not talking about outside there in the world, it starts inside us, our own inner desires. And these evil desires lead to evil actions, and the actions lead to death. Remember, what you think determines how you feel, what you feel determines how you act, and it leads to actions, which lead to death. Now, he's saying here that I would not be tempted by stuff out there in the world if there wasn't something out of order inside me in my thinking. I've got some thinking that's out of order. And I think, well, I'll be happier if I'll do that, I'll be more fulfilled if I'll do that, I'll be more pleasing if I do that or whatever. Again, it starts on the inside with your own thoughts. So stop blaming your circumstances for temptation. Well, I can't help it. I'm in this situation. Can't help. There wouldn't you wouldn't even be tempted by it if there wasn't something inside you. It's like a magnet. The magnet has to have something against it to pull it together. And if there wasn't any pull in your heart, you wouldn't even be tempted by by whatever that is. So you don't blame the circumstances. So again, when I start to be tempted, and I know this is not the right thing to do, but I'm being tempted to do it, I need to stop and ask this question. What lie am I believing? You might write that down. What lie am I believing? I believe that if I leave my spouse and go have an affair with this person, I'll be happier. I believe that if I do this and God says, don't do it, I'll be happier. So you need to ask yourself, what lie am I believing? You know, my dad was a fisherman par excellence, and he a day without fishing was a wasted day to him. He would manage, no matter what he was doing, to figure out if he could go fishing at least for 30 minutes. And I used to watch my dad catch fish after fish, and I would catch nothing. But one of the things I learned real quickly is this no fish bites a bear hook. You can't just throw a hook out in the water and expect a fish. No fish will ever come by, oh, there's a piece of metal. I think I'll swallow that. No. What do you have to put on that hook? Bait. Bait. And and and different bait catch different kinds of fish. And a good fisherman knows, well, we're fishing for trout today. They like this stuff. No, we're trout cat, you know, we're fishing for catfish today. They like that kind of bait. And and no fisherman just throws an empty hook out in the water to hook them. Neither does Satan. Satan does doesn't stand up on the weekend and say to you, hey, come sin with me. It'll be fun. You'll be evil. He never does that. He baits the hook. And you know what? Satan knows exactly your favorite flavor of bait. And we all have different flavors. And what baits you doesn't bait me. But what baits me doesn't bait you. Satan is an authority on bait. He knows exactly what gets your attention. He knows exactly where to poke you, where your sore spot is, where your weak spot is, where you are still pain, you've never grown out of that hurt from childhood. He still pokes it. And that emotional need, that unfulfilled need, that empty tank in you, he knows exactly, exactly what kind of bait to put on that hook. And that's why you gotta think about what you're thinking about. And you know, what what's the lie he's giving me right now? What's the bait? What's the hook? I know what the hook is, it's sin, but what's the bait? It's the truth that's not true. If you do this, you'll feel better. If you do this, it'll be rewarding. If you do this, everything will be okay, nothing'll nothing'll go wrong. You know what's amazing to me, what's crazy, is that even when you identify you're being tempted by something, and you know the lie. You know the lie, and you're and you're being about the temptation that I'll be happier if I do this. You already know it. And you know there's a hook beneath the bait, but we still keep nibbling. Why? Because of the lie, because we buy the lie, that's the deception. I can keep nibbling and it won't hurt me. I won't get hooked. Who are you kidding? Satan's been hooking people for thousands of years, but I can handle it. I'm an adult. I I I that's the lie, that's the deception that you won't get hurt. All right, let's go to the next pillar. Number six. By the way, why is it so hard when you know what the hook is, you know what the bait is, and you still start giving into it? Because you're in a battle and you're fighting uh against spiritual powers. So you're not just fighting against another human being, there's spiritual powers that are powerful, more powerful than you, that are coming against you. And that leads us to number six, the sixth pillar. And Pastor Anthony's gonna come and talk about this. Here's the sixth pillar: an unseen war is going on in and for my mind. An unseen war is going on in and for my mind, in my mind and for my mind. This is an invisible war, but it's a real war, it's a brutal war, and it's a constant war. Anthony, come and talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

So I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but whether you realize this or not, we're in this war. There's a war and there's an enemy that is after your mind. And so we so too many Christians for too long, we just think that we're like casually going along, becoming casual, uh cavalier in our walk. Right? We we put our spiritual flip-flops on and we put our swimsuits on, and we walk on this cruise ship to heaven thinking everything's okay. Well, I have news for you Christianity is not a cruise ship, it's a battleship. We are at war, and there's an enemy after your mind. It reminds me of the story I was I was watching on the National Geographic about this lady who bought this snake. It was a bowl constructor, and she brought it home and was living with her for a while, and she took it to the vet because the snake stopped eating and she thought the snake was sick. So the vet came in and examined the snake and and was asking some questions, said, ma'am, so where do you where is this the snake sleep? Where do you put the tank? And she said, My bedroom. Okay, your bedroom, right? So, ma'am, do you ever take the snake out of the cage and play with it? Oh, yeah, all the time. Betsy loves me. I love Betsy. We play all the time. In fact, Betsy sleeps with me sometimes. Oh, the snake sleeps with you. Okay, ma'am. Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night with a snake stretched out next to you? Has that ever happened to you? She's like, Yeah, that happened to me the other night. Okay, ma'am. I have good news and bad news. The good news is there's nothing wrong with your snake, it is perfectly fine. The bad news is your snake is trying to eat you. This is why I don't do snakes. Don't do snakes. The snake was trying to eat her. It's a snake. That's what snakes do. He was starving himself to to create room in his stomach to fit her in her stomach, and then he was stretching himself to make room for her size. The snake was trying to eat her. This is what the devil's trying to do every single day. The devil is a devil. He's trying to destroy you. That's my snake impression. He's trying to destroy you, he's trying to destroy your reputation, he's trying to destroy your relationships, he's trying to destroy your influence, your witness. The devil's trying to destroy you. Students in here, the devil's trying to destroy your future. He does not want you to grow up and do great things for God. He's trying to destroy you. We're at war and we have an enemy, and the enemy is the devil. And see, the devil is so smooth and so slick with his attacks. See, we think, we think we're just watching TV ads, and he's actually sending missiles of seduction. We think that we're just looking at Facebook and Instagram posts, but he's actually throwing grenades of comparison and and envy. Right? We think that we're just, you know, just watching the news at night. That's what we do every day, just regularly watching the news, but he's actually sneaking in torpedoes of fear. The devil is so smooth in the way he attacks. And we not only have this attack around us, this an external attack for our mind, but we also have this internal attack in our mind. Look at this verse that Paul mentions in Romans chapter 7. He says, This it seems to be a fact of life. While what I want to do is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I want to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned, but there's something else deep within me that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that's inside me. In my mind, I want to be God's servant, but instead I find myself a slave to sin. I think we all can relate to this. We want to do what's right, but we find ourselves just keep on going back to this old person that we were freed from. And some of you right now is like, man, this is depressing stuff, man. This is terrible news. I told you I had bad news to tell you, but I also have good news to tell you. Here's the good news God has given us everything we need to defeat this enemy. He has given us everything we need to defeat this enemy, which leads us to the seventh pillar of rethinking my life. Write this down. To win the battle in and for my mind, I must have God's spirit and God's word inside me. I must have God's spirit and word inside me.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

If I depend on my own personal power and energy to handle this, I'm gonna lose. Because I don't, I'm never gonna win this war on my own strength. The enemy is too powerful. You actually have three enemies the world, the flesh, and the devil. You have the world around you, culture is fighting you, it doesn't want to make you better, it wants to tear you down. The world around you, you have your old sin nature inside you, and you have Satan against you. That's the unholy trinity, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And all three of those, when they pile up against you, you're not strong enough to handle them by yourself. So you need what Anthony just said, you need two key weapons. To win the battle in my mind and for my mind, I must have two things God's spirit in me, and I must have God's word in me. Now notice what the Bible says. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3 to 5. While we live in the world, we don't fight the same way the world does. Okay? How does the world fight? With politics. That's not our battle. We don't fight the same way the world does. We fight with God's weapons, not worldly ones. Our weapons have God's power. God's power to demolish the enemy's strong places. He's talking about the mental strongholds in your mind, those places that just won't let go, those areas of hurt, of pain, of habit in your mind. He says, the devil has strongholds in your mind. He says, we have weapons of God's power to demolish the enemy's strong places. We can knock down all the worldly arguments and all the prideful defenses that set themselves up, talking about in our minds, against the knowledge of God. And in this war, we capture every rebel thought and we make it give up and we obey Christ. Make that thought obey Christ. Now, I want you to, this is a very powerful passage. We'll come back to it in other weeks, but I want you to notice several things just in this introduction. First, it says, the enemy's strong places. What's he talking about there? That's a mental block. It's a lie that you believe. It's a false thing that you believe about yourself, a false thing you believe about the world, a false thing you believe about God, about your past, about your present, about your future, about your worth. There are a lot of things you believe that just aren't true. And those are strongholds. They're mental blocks in your mind. Can be a worldview, materialism, think that's works, or hedonism or secularism, or it can be a personal attitude like worry or envy. It could be resentment, could be pride, could be self-pity. So those are those things get built up in your mind. And then it says that in our minds we have rebel thoughts. Circle that rebel, we we capture every rebel thought. Have you noticed that your mind often rebels? It doesn't always do what you tell it to do, it doesn't always obey you. Sometimes your mind has a mind of its own. Sometimes your thoughts just go out hayward and haywire, and they go off in directions that I don't intend. Have you ever had this? When I need to pray, my thoughts stray away. That ever happened to anybody? They rebel, they don't want to pray. When I want to pray, my thoughts stray away. When I want to ponder on the word, I want to ponder, my thoughts want to wander. They want to go off the reservation. They want to go off the range, off the ranch. They want to do whatever they can do. They are rebel thoughts. And it says, notice the phrase, we capture them. What does that mean? The literally Greek word there, which means akmalotizo, literally means we take them prisoner. They're prisoners of war. We take our thoughts prisoner. We can't, we conquer them, we bring them under control. We're going to talk about how you do that. How do you bring your wild thoughts under control? And it says we make it, we make our thoughts give up, we bring them in some submission. Hupakoe in the Greek. We bring them into submission. How in the world do you do that? How do you make your mind mind? How do you do that? Well, we're going to talk about the details in this series. But today I just want to mention two weapons. What Anthony just said, the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, the Bible. These are two weapons you have to make your mind mind. First, you need God's Spirit inside of you, because without Him, you are defenseless. You can't control your mind if you wanted to. It's got a mind of its own. Romans 8, verse 6 says this. If your sinful nature controls your mind, there's death. In other words, it's a dead end. It's going to go nowhere. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace. This is why you need Jesus in your life. Because without the Holy Spirit inside you, without God's spirit of love inside of you, you're powerless. There's no way you can control the rogue mind that you have. Your sinful nature controls your mind. It's going to lead to all the wrong places. So I need God's Spirit in me. And the second thing I need is the Word of God. The Bible says in John 8, verse 31 to 32, Jesus says this. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Isn't it interesting how the world loves that second part but don't doesn't like the first? You could go to college and university campuses all around the world and see plastered on buildings, the truth will set you free. What they don't put is the verse four where Jesus says, It's my word. If you continue in my word, you you listen to, you live in, you do, you practice my word, then you're my disciples, and then you know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We want the truth without God's truth. God is the source of all truth. And so you can't separate verse 31 and verse 32. There is no freedom without truth, but there is no truth without God's word. The truth is right here in this book. God's given it to us. And he said, Well, I don't want that. Well, then you don't want the truth. Okay, number eight. The eighth pillar in rethinking my life. It's time to rethink your life. The eighth pillar in rethinking my life is this my goal is to learn to think like Jesus. My goal in all of what we're doing here and thinking about what you're thinking about is to learn to think like Jesus. He's the model. Jesus is the model for healthy thinking, for happy thinking, for holy thinking, for holistic, whole thinking. He is the model. There's nobody who's a better model for healthy thinking than Jesus Christ. And here's the good news Jesus Christ understands all the mental problems that you have. He understands all of the fears, all of the deceptions, all of the difficulties, all of the barriers, all the blind spots that we have. You know why? Because he's been there. He came to earth and lived, lived here. The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 1, since Jesus went through everything you're going through, and by the way, and more, learn to think like him. It's not like he's saying, think like Jesus, who never had a problem, never was stressed, never was discouraged, never had conflict, never had people against him, never had enemies. No, he said, since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Philippians 2, 5. Your thoughts and your attitudes must be the same as that of Jesus Christ. So my goal is to learn to think like Jesus. We'll come back to that. Number nine, the last pillar in rethinking my life is this. Rethinking my life to match how Jesus thinks. That's what we want to do. Learn to think like Christ does. Rethinking my life to match how Jesus thinks is called repentance. Repentance. Rethinking my life to think like Jesus thinks is called repentance or repenting. The word repent comes in the Bible, in the Greek word, mean is the word metanoia. Meta noia. Meta means to change or about, it's to reverse, like a U-turn. Meta change. Noia is from the word noose, which is the Greek word for your mind. Do you know what the word repent means? It means this change your mind. That's all it means. The word repent means change your mind. A lot of people think the word repent means stop doing bad stuff. It doesn't mean that. There's not a single Greek lexicon on planet Earth that if you look up the word repent, it will say, stop doing bad stuff. It doesn't mean that at all. That's the fruit of repentance, that's the result of repentance. Repentance simply means to change your mind. Metanoia. You're thinking this way, and now you think this way. And it is the most positive change in life. I used to think guilty thoughts. Now I think forgiven thoughts. I used to think damnation and discouragement. Now I think life and peace. I used to think stress. Now I think of serenity. I used to think of hell. Now I think of heaven. I used to think of no meaning, no purpose in life. Now I think of meaning and purpose of life. When I repented, it was the most positive change in my life. If I had understood all of the benefits of changing my mind about God, I would have done it earlier. I love the amplified version of Acts chapter 3, verse 19, because it gives the true meaning of repentance. And it says there, repent and change your mind and return back to God, so that all your sins may be erased, blotted out, and wiped clean, and so that times of refreshing and recovering and reviving may come from the presence of the Lord. Anybody here need a little refreshment in life? Anyone here need a little recovery of joy in life? Anybody here need a little reviving of your spirit in life? You know where all that comes from? Recovery and revival and rejoicing and renewing and refreshing and revitalizing. You know where it all comes from? Repenting. Changing my mind. All of a sudden they start thinking, I'm going to believe the truth, not the lies. I'm going to believe what's right, not what's wrong. I'm going to believe what God says about me, not what everybody else says about me. I'm going to repent. I'm going to turn my mind. Change of mind. And I invite you to go with me on this journey in the next weeks. We're going to rethink your life. Because a lot of the things you've thought about your life are flat out wrong. And not only that, they're self-defeating. And they're keeping you locked up in a self-imposed prison that God doesn't want you in. You let your parents put you in those prisons, or partner in a prison, or peers, or professionals. You let somebody put you in a prison because you start paying attention to what they said, not what God said. And it's time to change your mind. It's time to repent. It's time to rethink your life. I don't know that when I've been more excited about a series, because I know that if we can change the way you think, it's going to change the way you feel. You're going to feel a whole lot better. And if it changes the way you feel, it's going to change the way you act toward other people, toward yourself, toward God, and everybody else. So this series, Rethinking Your Life, is really a series on repentance, on what it really means to change my mind. I used to think this way, but now I'm not going to believe that lie anymore. I'm going to think this way because the truth will set you free. And it's true and it's positive, it's transforming, and you get all the blessings that come with it. Now, one last thing I want to say. In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, at the very beginning of that book, Jesus sends a letter to seven very famous churches that were in Asia Minor. That would be, today would be modern Greece, the Eastern European bloc, and Turkey. And Jesus sends these seven letters to these well-known churches. One of those seven churches was called the Church at Ephesus. This is a church that has a legacy. It's started by the Apostle Paul himself. You don't get a better pedigree than that. There's a book in the Bible called The Book of the Letter to the Church at Ephesus. It was pastored by the guy Paul personally trained, Timothy. So the pedigree of this church, this is a world-class church. It's made history, it's had a great legacy. It's like Saddleback has had a great legacy all around the world. This is a great, great church. And in Revelation 2, Jesus says this. Verses 2 and 4 and 5. Jesus says to this church in Ephesus, I know your good deeds. In other words, you've done a lot of good in the world. You've done a lot of good. And he says, and I know your hard work. You guys, you're hard workers. You serve the Lord. You do the right thing. He says, I know your perseverance. He says, I know what you've put up with. I know you've even put up with suffering. I know you've put up with persecution. But then he says, This.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

But I've noticed this. You don't love me as much as you used to love me at first.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

That's heartbreaking. This is a good church. He says, You got so many fine qualities. But you know what? Jesus says, you don't love me like you used to at first. You kind of lost your passion for me. You're doing all the right things. But but but you've lost your love for me. That's heartbreaking. You don't love me as much as you.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

Let me ask you, do you love Jesus as much as you used to?

SPEAKER_00 48:03

Was there ever a time in your life where you were closer to God than you are right now? Oh yeah, I can remember when I was really close to God. So you're you're you're admitting there was a time when you were closer to God than you are right now.

unknown 48:22

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

Then you know what you need to do? You need to change your mind. And you need to have re revitalization and revival and renewal and refreshing and all those things that come from renewing your mind. Now here's the rest of the verse. He says, You don't love me as much as you used to at first. So, and then he gives three things. Remember, remember what it was like before it fell away. Number two, repent, change your mind and attitude. Okay, get that, get a check up from the neck up. And number three, return, return to doing the things you did with me at first. Now, let me just pause here and make a little aside. This, these three steps are the key to revitalizing your marriage. Just gonna make this a little side point here. Have you lost your first love in your marriage? And you don't have the fire in your marriage you used to have in your fire, then you need to do these same three things. This is how you restore a lost love. How do you restore a lost love? I don't love my husband, I don't love my wife like I used to. What do you do? First, you remember. You remember why you married them in the first place, and you remember all the good times. You remember the fact that they stuck with you through thick and thin, and they're still with you. And you remember all the good things, and you distinctly forget the bad ones. I'm choosing to forget the bad ones. But you remember why you married in the first place. Then, second, you you repent. In other words, you change your mind. You start acting loving and thinking loving, and you know what? The feelings will come along. If you say, Well, I'm waiting to feel it, and then I'll do it. No, they won't ever come. It's easier to act your way into a feeling than to feel your way into an action. Just start thinking loving thoughts toward your spouse. Change the way you think about your spouse. Stop being so critical. Stop being so critical and start saying, you know what, they're still with me. They've hung in there with me. That says something. Oh, faithful. It's not the tallest geyser in the world, but it's faithful. And then it says, return and do the things you did at first. You know, all the stuff that caused you to fall in love, you just stop doing that stuff. You don't go out on dates anymore. You you you want to return the love to your marriage? Date your mate. Do the stuff you did when you were falling in love, spend time together, get flowers, have fun, have fun together. You you can have work and take the fun out of your marriage. Now, those principles that I just gave you for restoring the lost love in a marriage are how you fall in love with Jesus again. You remember, you repent, and you return. First, you remember, do you remember what it was like when you first came to know the Lord and the excitement and the energy and the specialness and how you spent time with the Lord, and everything was fresh and new, and and you remember feeling God's closeness in your life, and you had never felt that before. You need to remember that. And then you need to repent. And you see, God, I I I've allowed my mind to wander, and I've thought about everything else except you. And I want to I want to change my mind. I want you to be number one in my life. And then you do the things you did at first. You read your Bible and you pray, and you get involved in the small group, and and and you do the things that you did at first that you kind of stopped doing. Trusting God, asking God in prayer for things. You don't ask God in prayer, you just go buy it yourself. If there's ever been a time in your life where you're closer to God than you are right now, you need revival, you need restoration, you need to return to your first love, you need renewal, you need recovery. And all of these are available in changing your mind. So as we start this new series, I want to invite you to take these three steps that he gave to the church at Ephesus. I'm gonna take them, and I want to invite you to take them with me at Saddleback Church, our church. It's a church with a great legacy. And to the other, we're gonna remember what it was like when we were closer to God. Repent and turn our minds and thoughts and stop letting other people fill our minds. Fill our minds, spend more time with God than we do watching TV or social media, and return and do the things we did at first to your first love. Would you bow your heads with me? Would you pray in your heart? Would you say, God, I I I want to be close to you again. Say, Lord, I want to be closer to you than I've ever been before in my life. I want to fall in love with you all over again. Lord, that is the cry of my heart that you will renew and refresh and revive my relationship with you. Bring revival in my life through this series. And God, I want to repent in the true meaning. I want to metanoia. I want to change my mind. I've allowed a lot of things of the world in my mind, and they're not correct, they're not right. I want I want the truth to set me free. I want to change my mind about you, about life, about what matters, about what's important, about how I spend my time, how I spend my money. I want, I want to think like Jesus. And I want to return to doing the things that I did with you when I first fell in love with you, Lord. If you've never opened your life to Jesus, say, Jesus Christ, come into my life right now. I invite you in. Make yourself real to me. I want to learn to love you and trust you. Father, I pray that this series will be life-changing for all of us. That we will renew our minds. We will be transformed by the renewing of our minds as we rethink our lives. I pray a blessing on all of our family in all of our locations. At Saddleback Church, together, we will rethink our lives in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And everybody said, Amen.