- Hi everybody, I wanna thank you for your prayers as I've been recovering from surgery and bein' in the hospital. The doctor told me he wanted
me to take one more week off before coming back to teach,
but then he also told me that I could speak at one
service if that's all I would do. And so I was so anxious to
get back to this series, I couldn't wait to be back with you. I wanna say hi to all our
campuses, hi everybody! Hi Manila, hi Hong Kong,
hi Buenos Aires, hi Berlin! And everybody else, we love you so much. And we're gonna continue in our series on rethinking your life. Now let's begin with Romans 12, verse two, if you'll take out your message notes. Now Romans 12:2 is one of the theme verses for this series and let's begin with it. In the New Living
Translation is says this. Do not be conformed to
the pattern of this world, but let God transform
you into a new person by changing the way you think. And that's what this
whole series is about, changing the way you think. You know, God is far more
interested in changing my mind than he is in changing my circumstances. We always want God to
change our circumstances. God wants to change your mind. Now before we look at
how to manage your mind, how to make your mind
mind, have you ever noticed your mind doesn't always obey you? Well, we're gonna look at today
how to make your mind mind, or how to manage your mind,
but first I wanna review why it's so important
that I manage my mind. Now I gave you about 11 reasons
in the very first message of this series, but let me just
mention a couple in review. I need to learn how to manage
my mind because number one, my thoughts control my life. My thoughts control my life. You have good thoughts,
you're gonna have a good life. You have bad thoughts,
you're gonna have a bad life. If you have sick thoughts,
you're gonna have a sick life. If you have sinful thoughts, you're gonna have a sinful life. Proverbs 4:23 says, Be
careful how you think. You're life is shaped by your thoughts. We control what we eat, we
control what we believe, we control what we drink,
but we don't always control what we allow in our minds. And the Bible tells us that every action in your life starts with a thought. If you don't think it, it doesn't happen. If you think good things, then
good things are gonna happen and you're gonna do good things, but if you have bad thoughts, you're gonna tend to act in bad ways. So your mind controls
and shapes your life. There's a second reason
that you need to learn to manage your mind and it's because my mind is the battleground for sin. It's where every temptation happens. It's where every sin actually starts. The sin of pride starts in the mind. The sin of lust starts in the mind. The sin of hatred starts in the mind. Fear starts in the mind, resentment, jealousy, envy, they
all start in the mind. Worry, being stressed out,
that's all in the mind. The battlefield for sin is thought. Not around you, it's thought in your mind. Romans chapter 7, verses 22 and 23, Paul talks about this battle
that's constantly goin' on in our minds and he says this. I love to do God's will so far
as my new nature's concerned. But there's something else deep within me that is at war with my mind. And it wins the fight and it makes me a slave to the sin within me. Paul says, In my mind, I
wanna be God's servant, but instead I find myself
still enslaved to sin. You know, the habits, and the hurts, and the hangups that mess up our lives. Now, notice the words in that sentence. I want you to circle the
word war, the word fight, the word enslaved, circle the word mind. These are battles that are
goin' on in your brain. Now sometimes your conscious
of this mental battle that's goin' on, and at other times, you're not conscious of it. But it's one of the
causes of mental fatigue. We're in a constant battle for your mind and your mind gets tired
because of the battle of things you wanna think and things you don't wanna think. You know, the reason
this battle is so intense is because your mind
is your greatest asset, and Satan knows that whatever
gets your attention gets you. And so he starts with the
mind, not with your behavior, not even with your emotions,
he starts with your thoughts. Now there's a third reason why you have to learn to manage your mind and it's because it's the key to peace. It's the key to happiness,
it's the key to life. An unmanaged mind leads to tension. A managed mind leads to tranquility. An unmanaged mind leads to pressure. An managed mind leads to peace. An unmanaged mind leads to stress, but a managed mind leads
to strength and serenity. An unmanaged mind leads
to conflict in your life. It leads to chaos in your life. But a managed mind leads to confidence. The Bible says it like this in Romans chapter eighth, verse six. If your sinful nature controls your mind, then there's death. In other words, it's a
dead end, you're gonna die. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, then there's life and peace. Now this is why we're
doing this whole series on learning to manage your mind and how to rethink
every area of your life. Now what I wanna do just today, again, is set up where we're
gonna go in the future. In the future, we're gonna
look at specific areas of your life that you need to rethink. Some very specific areas rethinking what happiness is all about,
rethinking your response to situations and problems and suffering, rethinking relationships, rethinking your future,
rethinking your past. But today I just wanna
look at three choices that you have to make every single day, in fact, you're gonna have to
make 'em several times a day. These are three daily
choices that you have to make for a healthy mind, in order
to get your mind to mind, in order to manage your mind. And those three choices are
these, they all start with F. You have to feed your mind,
you have to free your mind, and you have to focus your mind. The Bible teaches all three of these all through the New Testament. I have to feed my mind,
I have to free my mind, and I have to focus my mind. Let's look at 'em, number one. If I want to learn how to
manage my mind instead of having it manage me, first I
must feed my mind with truth. I must feed my mind with truth. Jesus said, it's one of the
most famous things he said, The truth will set you free. But, you know, a lot of
people quote that verse and don't realize that he's
talking about the Bible. The Bible, this is the truth. Matthew four, verse four says,
People need more than bread for their life, they must
feed on every word of God. This is soul food, this is
the owner's manual for life. This is the truth that sets you free. There's a lot of things that are true that won't set you free. I could teach you how
to program a computer, that won't set you free. I could teach you all of
the biology of fruit fly, but that's not gonna set you free. There's a lot of truth
you can learn in life, but it's not gonna set you free. The truth that sets you free
is the truth of God's word in the owner's manual for life. And so I've gotta feed
my mind on the truth, which means I've gotta
feed my mind on this book. How often? All the time. Psalm 119:147 says this. I rise early, I rise
early to cry out for help and to put my hope in your words. I love that word, hope. You know, I've said this many times, there are over 7,000 promises
in this book, in the Bible. Somebody's counted over
7,000 promises of God. And if you need hope and
if you're feelin' hopeless, it means you're not spendin'
enough time in this book. Because if you get these
promises into your life, you're gonna be a hopeful person, if you'll become a promise person. These promises are the
truth and if you'll become a promise person, you're gonna
have all the hope you need. Look at this next verse, Psalm 119:97. Lord, how I love your word, I
think about it all day long. Take your pen and circle
the phrase all day long. That's feeding my mind on
the truth all day long. Do you think about
God's word all day long? No, you do not. You might not even think
about it once a day. But the Bible says if you start your day with the word of God,
then you can think about it throughout the day, and
then you can be pulling it back into memory when you need
it in difficult times. Psalm 16, verse seven says this. Even in the darkest of night,
your teachings fill my mind. You know, for many, many
years, I had the habit of keeping my Bible right by my bedside and I actually would
leave it open like this so that the last thing that I would read as I was goin' to bed at night
would be the word of God, and the first thing I
would see when I'd wake up in the morning was the word of God opened. Somehow I find that if
I leave my Bible open, it's easier to pick it up. If it's laying there
closed on the bed stand, I might get up and walk away from it. But if it's open, I have a tendency to just pick it up and keep reading. Now let me show you how serious this is, and how serious David was
about being in the word, that the truth sets you free. There was time when David
had so many enemies, he was actually a fugitive,
he was on the run. He was running for his life,
he was hiding in caves. And no matter what happened in his life, he fed himself with the truth of God. Psalm 119:95 is one of
the Psalms that he wrote during this time and he says this. When wicked people hide
to ambush and kill me, I quietly keep my mind on your decrees. When you look at all of the
things that are in the world, it's easy to get discouraged. If you pick up a newspaper,
you listen to the talk radio, you watch TV news or read
the news on the internet, you're gonna get discouraged. You're gonna feel hopeless. But I quietly keep my mind on your word. I need to feed my mind with the truth. Now, David says, I do that even when I'm runnin' from my enemies. Do you do that in a crisis? That's managing your mind. So the first thing I have to do, is I have to feed my mind with truth. Second thing I have to do
to learn to manage my mind instead of having it manage me, is I must free my mind
from destructive thoughts. I must free my mind from
destructive thoughts. Your mind has to be liberated. Your mind has to be delivered. Your mind need to be set free. Your mind needs to be released. Now, this is not easy. It's easy for me to tell ya
that it needs to be done, it's not easy for it to happen. But how do you liberate your mind? How does God deliver or
release or set free your mind? And why is it so hard? Well, because, as we
said, we're in a battle. There's a battle for your mind goin' on from the moment you wake up
to the moment you go to sleep. And there are three forces in that battle that work against all
your best intentions. You have good intentions to fill your mind with the truth on a daily basis. You know, I wanna live the
way God wants me to live. I wanna know God better. I wanna fill my mind with truth. I wanna feed on the word of God. But none of that ground
is given up easily. Satan is gonna fight you on
it, he's gonna battle you and you're gonna have to
fight to free your mind. Why? Because of these three enemies. What are the three enemies
that battle your brain? Well, number one, enemy
number one is my old nature. In other words, it is my sinful
nature to think of myself, not to think of what God wants. Romans 7:23 says this. I see in my body a principle at war with the law of the mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells inside of me. Look at that, he says
there's a battle in my mind and this law of sin
takes captive in my mind. In other words, I'm a
hostage to my thoughts. Have you ever felt that? I just can't get this
thought out of my mind. I'm a hostage to my thoughts. Do you often find yourself
doin' things you don't wanna do? Yeah, well, that's what
that verse is saying. You ever knowingly engage
in self defeating behavior? You go, I know this is not good for me, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Yes, that's the battle in your
mind and you're losing it. Your old nature is not your friend, it is the source of all your bad habits. It's the source of all
your self defeating habits that tend to take you down. I want you to write this down. Here's an important point
and we're gonna go over and over in this series
on this, write this down. I don't have to believe
everything I think, okay? I don't have to believe
everything I think. Why? Because the truth is, your
mind lies to you all the time. Just because you think something is true doesn't make it true. Just because you feel something is true doesn't make it true. Your mind and your
emotions often lie to you. And part of maturity is growin' up and learning to know the difference between is that really true? One of the most important
questions you can ask in life is to challenge your
own thoughts and to say, Well, I know what I'm thinkin',
but is that really true? Nobody likes me, is that really true? I'm never gonna get any
better, is that really true? My life is worthless, is that really true? You need to ask that question, is that really true, over
and over in your life. Romans chapter eight,
verse five says this. Those who are dominated
by their old sinful nature think about sinful things,
but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the spirit. So the first enemy is inside
and that is my old nature. The second enemy is the enemy
around me, that's Satan. And Satan is the second enemy and he wants to change your mind in
all the wrong directions. Now, let me say this very clearly. If you have Christ in your life, then you have power greater than Satan. Satan cannot force you,
if you're Christian, Satan cannot force you to do anything. The only way he can influence and control your life is by suggestion. And when he puts those
suggestions in your mind, we call that temptation. So he can't force you to do
anything, but he can suggest, and when you don't learn
how to control your mind or to manage your mind,
make your mind mind, then you're gonna let that stuff in. Satan is continually
planting negative thoughts, negative ideas, negative impressions. The moment you wake up,
he's tellin' you to do the exact opposite of
what God wants you to do. Go ahead, do that, you
deserve it, get angry. Go ahead and get angry,
you deserve to get angry. They're stupid, you need to
get even with that person. How dare they say that about you? You need to get back at them. And he's given you all, where do you think that's comin' from? He's just feedin' you ammunition. The Bible says in Second
Corinthians chapter two, verse 11, Paul talks about a guy who
had sinned in the church. He says, I've forgiven that man. I didn't hold onto a grudge. Why? So that Satan won't outsmart us. For we're very familiar
with his evil schemes. Did you know that anytime you
refuse to forgive anybody, you've fallen for Satan's trap? God is not the one who
wants you to hold onto hurt, Satan's the one who wants
you to hold onto hurt. He wants you to hold a grudge, he wants you to be unforgiving. Anytime I won't forgive
somebody, I've given in to a thought, a suggestion
that Satan's given me. So I've got the self,
an old nature within me, and then I've got Satan
around me, against me, and then I've got the third
enemy, which is the world, and that's the world's values. Now the world's values are constantly in opposition to everything God wants and they're promoted all around you. Advertisers promote the world's values, movies promote the world's values. TV, music promotes the worlds values. Celebrities promote the world's values. Everybody around, there's
not anybody around you in the world who's
actually encouraging you to do the right thing. They're saying, You gotta
do what's best for you. Think of yourself. That's why when I wrote
Purpose Driven Life and the first sentence,
It's not about you, it's the most counter cultural
statement you can possibly be because everything in this
world says it's all about you. It's all about you. You don't need to think
about anybody else, just think about yourself. The Bible says in First
John chapter two, verse 16, All that is in the world, and then it lists what's in the world, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the father, but it's of this world. Have you noticed that
there's nothing around you that encourages you to be disciplined? Nobody encourages you to disciplined. It says give into the lust of the flesh, give into the lust of the eyes, give into the pride of life, give into passion,
possession, and position, give into sex, salary, status, give into living for yourself. I wanna feel this way, I
want everybody to worship me. So how do you fight that mental battle? Second Corinthians chapter 10 tells us. Second Corinthians 10, verses
three to five says this. Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons that we fight with are not the weapons of this world. The weapons of the world
today are primarily political. We don't use those weapons. The Bible says our
weapons have divine power. And what do they have divine power to do? To demolish strongholds. Now, if you're takin' notes,
circle the word strongholds, 'cause I'm gonna come back to
that word in just a minute. Our weapons have divine power
to demolish strongholds. We demolish any argument
and every pretension that sets itself up, like in our minds, against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. In other words, we're in a
wrestling match with our thoughts and we gotta pin em down,
it's a mental battle. Now it says that in your mind you have what are called strongholds. Circle that again,
strongholds, or underline it. What is a stronghold? (exhaling deeply) Well, a stronghold is a lie that I believe and I'm acting on the basis of that. Anytime I believe a lie, and
all lies come from the devil. Satan's the father of lies. Anytime I believe a lie about
God, that's a stronghold. Anytime I believe a lie about
myself, that's a stronghold. Anytime I believe a lie about the world or about the future or the past or the present, that's a stronghold. Anytime I believe a lie about
money or I believe a lie about sex, that becomes
a stronghold in my life. It can be a false value, it could be a worldview, like hedonism, live for pleasure, or
materialism, live for money. Those can become strongholds. When money becomes the most
important thing in my life, that's a stronghold. A stronghold can be a personal attitude. I've met people who the stronghold
in their brain was worry. I've met people who the stronghold in their brain was depression. I've met people who the stronghold was resentment or envy or
pride or self conceit or ego. Now I want you to notice
two phrases in that passage. It says, We take captive, which means We bring it under control,
we conquer it, we capture it, that's a war term, we have to
bring our thoughts captive. We don't just let em
go all over the place. And it says, We make it obedient. In other words, we bring
it into submission. And you say, Well, that's great,
Rick, I'd like to do that. I'd like to have more control
over the way that I think, how in the world do I do that? How do you make your mind mind you? Well, first you just admit that
they don't always mind you. You confess, you know what,
my thoughts disobey me, they rebel, my mind has a mind of its own. It often goes off in a different direction I don't intend to. In other words, have
you ever started praying and you're praying and want
to pray about something and all the sudden, the worst idea starts comin' in your mind? Your mind is goin' off
in a different direction. I said it a few weeks ago, when I need to ponder,
my thoughts wanna wonder, and when I wanna pray, they drift away. The reason most people are
ineffective and defeated in life is they don't know how to
fight the battle of the mind. Now, in the weeks ahead, we're
gonna go into great detail in this series, specifically
about how temptation captures your attention
and the simple steps that you need to take to beat it. Because once you know
how temptations works, it can't defeat you anymore
because you know how to stop it before it gets to step
two or three or four, you get it stopped at step one. But I will tell you this, this weekend. The best time to win the battle in your mind is before it happens. And that means you choose to do what we've just talked about, to feed your mind the truth
before we you get into mess. You choose every moment to free your mind from destructive thoughts
by learning to control. And we're gonna talk about that more and more in the weeks ahead. Psalm 119:112 says this,
I've made up my mind to obey your law forever, no matter what. I've made up my mind to obey
your laws no matter what. Now, I wanna mention a third and final step in this introduction. First, I have to feed
my mind with the truth over and over and over if
I'm gonna remake my mind. Second, I have to free my
mind from destructive thoughts by choosing to mentally shift channels. And third, I must not only
feed and free, I must focus. I must focus my mind on the right things, and that's how you get the freedom. Focus my mind on the right things. Now, a couple weeks ago
in a previous message, I talked about a dozen or 11 things to have the mind of Christ. Let me just mention three things that will make the biggest
difference in your mental state. And if you'll just work
on these this week, and next week, in our next session, we'll come back and talk
about further steps. But here's three simple steps
to get you started today on how to manage your mind
and make your mind mind. Number one, think about Jesus, okay? Write that down. If I wanna learn how to manage my mind, I need to actually develop the habit of thinking about Jesus,
thinking about Jesus Christ. You've heard it said, you become whatever you think about most. Well, Second Timothy 2:8 says, Keep your mind on Jesus Christ. Keep your mind on Jesus
Christ, so think about Christ. Hebrews 12:3 says, Think
about Jesus' example. He held on while people were
doing evil things to him. So do not get tired and stop trying. What gives you the power to keep on goin' when you feel like givin' up? Think about Jesus, keep
your mind on Jesus. Number two, think about others. Do you realize what a
radical statement that is, when I say it's not about
you, you think about others? Philippians two, verse four, says this. Don't just think about your own affairs, but be interested in others too, and in what they're doing. So what I'm saying is when
you're in a situation tomorrow, or even today, and you
stop and first I say, Okay, think about Jesus, what would Jesus do in this situation? And then second, think about others. What do other people
need in this situation? Stop and intentionally think about Jesus and intentionally think about others. Would that transform
your life if you thought about each others and other people first? Oh yeah, yeah. Hebrews 10:24 says, Let
us think about each other and let us help each other to show love and to do good deeds. Anybody who starts
thinking about other people is gonna shine in this world
because most of the world isn't thinkin' about other people, they're just thinkin' about themselves. Think about Jesus, think about others. And number three, this will
radically change your life, think about eternity. You don't do that very often. You're so caught up in the here and now and the what's happening right now, you don't think about eternity. And yet, Colossians chapter
three, verse two says this. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Don't only think about
things down here on earth. In other words, you've heard people say, Well, they're so heavenly
minded, they're no earthly good. You know what, that's a bunch of bologna. It's impossibly to be so heavenly minded you're no earthly good. What is possible is to
be so earthly minded you're no heavenly good. You can't help anybody 'cause you're just thinkin' about earth. The truth is, the heavenly minded people always have done the
most good in this world for thousands and thousands of years. So think about heaven,
think about eternity, think about this life is not all there is, that there's more to life
than just here and now. That the stuff that I'm so worried about, what people think of me, it's
not gonna matter in five years much less in 50 or in a
thousand years or in eternity. First Corinthians two,
verse nine says this. No eye has ever seen, and
no ear has ever heard, and no mind has ever imagined
what God has prepared for those who love him. One of the reasons we have a hard time thinking about eternity,
it's a mindblower, because it's in a dimension
we don't even understand. We understand 2D and 3D, but there are dimension
we don't even know about. And if God had created this
world with so much beauty and color, spent seven
days figurin' this one out and he's had all of
eternity to prepare heaven, think about how amazing
heaven is gonna be. The guy who invented
sunsets and ocean views and all of the beautiful
things of the world, that God is the God that's created heaven. Now, when you start thinkin'
about all of your problems and the little nitpicking
problems are gonna just seem so big in your life, but
when you start thinkin' in light of eternity,
that my life here on earth isn't really that long,
and even if I had problems my entire life, it's nothing
compared to the glory or the joy or the
pleasure and the enjoyment of the things we're gonna have to look forward to in eternity. Everything else is
inferior compared to that. So let me sum it up. I need to feed my mind on truth everyday. I gotta get in this book. I need to free my mind
from destructive thoughts by catching em, and we're gonna talk about that in the weeks ahead, and mentally shifting the challenge. You don't have to think a thought. Nobody's holdin' a gun to your head. You don't have to think
depressive thoughts. You don't have to think worrying thoughts. You don't have to think hurtful thoughts, you don't have to think
resentful thoughts. Nobody's holdin' a gun to your head. You can change the channel
of your mind quite easily. And so I refocus and I choose
not to think about them by changing the way I think, and then I focus my
mind on the right thing. I'm gonna focus it on the right thing, then I don't have to pay
attention to the wrong thing. When I'm watching television
and I don't like what I see, I just flip the channel and
I just changed the attention so I'm no longer upset by that. It's very, very simple. Now I want you to work on these this week. Next week I'm gonna be
back for the next part and we're gonna be talking
about how to rethink major areas of your life
in the sessions ahead. But I want you to remember
these three things. Everyday, feed my mind with truth and focus my mind on eternity and forget all the other stuff. Just get it out of my
mind, rethink my life, return to what God wants me
to do and change my attention. Let's pray together. Can I pray for ya? Let's bow your heads. Father, you gave us our minds
and we're made in your image and the only reason we're created is we're made in the image of the creator. This is the greatest gift
that you've ever given us, the gift of intellect. And we realize that because our minds are our greatest asset, then it's also the greatest battleground. And we realize that a lot of times, there's a battle goin' on and we don't even realize
that it's goin' on. But that the world and
the flesh and the devil are all teaming up before
our best intentions. And so we need your help. Now I'm gonna ask you to pray. Why don't you say a
simple prayer like this. Just say, God, help me to put into practice what I've just heard. Help me to put into practice
what I've just learned. Say, God, help me to do
what you've called me to do, to make these choices on a daily basis. I wanna feed my mind with truth, I wanna free my mind
from destructive thoughts by turning the channel and
taking every thought captive. And I wanna focus my
mind on the right things. I don't want my mind to run wild. Help me to be wise to temptation. And God, today I'm gonna make
up my mind to obey your word and to believe your truth no matter what. Help me to think about Jesus,
help me to think about others, help me to think about eternity so that my life may be truly transformed. I pray this in your name, Jesus, amen. (upbeat music) - Thanks for checkin' out
this message on YouTube. My name is Jay and I'm
Saddleback's online pastor. I wanna invite you to take your next step by checking out our online community or help get you connected to
a local Saddleback campus. Three things we have
to offer you right now. First, learn more about
belonging to our church family by taking class 101. Second, don't live life
alone and get into community with others by joining
an online small group or a local home group in your area. Third, join our Facebook
group to be more engaged with our online community
throughout the week. Take your next step and
learn where a local campus is near you by visiting saddleback.com/online or email online@saddleback.com. Hope to hear from you soon.
