It's Okay to Talk to Yourself

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Transcript

Welcome And A Texas Football Memory

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Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in the Word. I'm Ronnie Cooksey. When I was a little boy, I grew up in small town Texas, and on Friday nights in the fall, everyone, it seems, was at the high school football stadium. My friends and I would find some grassy area and we would play football all night long, imagining that we were like those high school football players big time under the lights. Well we weren't. We weren't on the field, it didn't

No Condemnation And A New Contrast

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count. We looked last time in Romans chapter 8, the first few verses about that if we have come to know Christ as our Savior, there's no condemnation. He has paid for the penalty and power of our sin. But we look at this next section beginning in verse five, and there's a contrast between those who have the Spirit of God living inside of them and those who don't. And he begins in verse five, he says, For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace. So if you don't have Christ living inside of you, you have not become a believer in the Lord, his spirit isn't indwelling you. You can set your mind on nothing but the flesh, the things of the world, the things that

Choosing The Spirit In Real Life

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are contrary to God. And so when Christ comes to live inside of you, as you place your faith in him, now you have the Spirit of the living God in you, changing you from the inside out little by little. And then as a believer, we still have choices all throughout the day to continually put our mind on the things of the Spirit. This can take many forms. It could be in regard to temptation or discouragement or anger or greed or any number of things that we have to choose by God's grace and his power to take our mind off the things of the flesh, put them on the things of the spirit. There was a time nearly fifteen years ago that I was going through a difficult health situation, but it was affecting everything else. And this verse meant so much to me that I had to choose to put my mind on the things of the spirit. And D. Martin Lloyd Jones said in his 1965 book, Spiritual Depression, have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Well, what did he mean by that? Talking to yourself with the things of God, reminding yourself of God's truths rather than listening to the discouraging thoughts, or again, it could be tempting thoughts or thoughts toward anger or any number of things that we have to set our mind on the things of the Spirit, because the mindset on the Spirit, Paul says, is life and peace.

Why The Flesh Fights God

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He goes on in the next verse to say, Because the mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And so we're reminded that you've got to come to know Christ as your Savior, because without doing so, you cannot know God or please God or think his thoughts. Verse nine. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Coming

Walking In Strength That Is Not Yours

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to know Christ is not in your strength. Walking with Christ is not in your strength, it is in Him and in His strength. Just like walking next to a treadmill. You ever tried to walk next to a treadmill and to push the carpet back behind you like the treadmill does? Well that would be a very frustrating experience, and you would do nothing. No, the treadmill is pushing the surface, the walking surface back because of its power, and the one walking on the treadmill is not doing it. And so you can't do this. You have got to trust God to save you, to make you right with him, and then you've got to walk in his strength and in his power because he's living inside you and he's helping you to please him. Here's

God In You Pleases God

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a neat thought. Just in the way that God killed God to accomplish your forgiveness of sins. God pleases God by living inside of you. It's God in you that pleases God as you have the Spirit living in you, and as you keep choosing over and over to place your mind on the things of the Spirit. God bless you in this today. I'll see you back here next time.