Mental Health: Choosing A God Controlled Mind in a Godless World

[Music] let's open our Bibles to the book of Titus and to celebrate with me we're in chapter 2 and this morning we're making it to the fifth verse now that might not mean anything to you unless you realize we start in verse one in January and so it's been a long time but we're in the fifth verse and as you turn there to Titus 2 and verse 5 this morning we're looking at God discussing now I want you to listen carefully this morning because I shocked you God is discussing our mental health this morning you say why would you bring up that topic we don't usually hear about that in church because the Bible is vitally concerned with your mental health most people don't realize that our bodies and the organic parts of our mind are kind of like computer hardware spiritual life is the software there are only two providers of the software for the hardware you have of your body and your mind there's only two providers one provides defective software he came to kill and steal and destroy and you operate in his system and sooner or later you will destroy parts of your life the other provider came to give us life and life that's more abundant and the world understands that there's something going on because just this week California was surveyed with the whole budget crunch they're going through out there and one out of every five Californians said that they had a mental illness now they're doing better than the rest of the country because the Surgeon General the United States of America says that 26 percent of all adults suffer from mental illness you say what is that that's poor spiritual mental health and if you I mean I I told Bonnie I've never learned more in my life than studying this week I mean I read the the 50 different mental illnesses in America which are all around us one of every four people more than one of every four have them acute stress disorder adjustment disorder agoraphobia alcohol dependence Alzheimer's or dementia amphetamine dependence anorexia nervosa antisocial personality disorder Asperger's syndrome disorder attention deficit hyperactivity disorder autism and autistic disorders avoidant personality disorders bipolar cyclic disorder borderline personality disorder brief psychotic disorder bulimia nervosa and that's only sixteen and there are 50 that are diagnoseable and one of every four people in America that's an adult 18 and over has been diagnosed in in the year 2010 are suffering from some form of mental ill-health God is very interested in us realizing that there are only two mental health providers in the universe the first one says he came to give us a life that is endlessly having new beginnings and even though our hardware might suffer and you understand that it doesn't mean when you get saved that you get new hardware and new software you only get new software and has to run in an old system and sometimes it doesn't run well and there are Christians that suffer with many of those on that list of 50 it doesn't you're gone you're perfect no doesn't work that way we got to run the new software on this old broken-down fall in sin curse system but the provider gives us endless hope life and new beginnings with any of those 50 and I don't think they've catalogued them all I told baniyas that I have several they don't even have on their you know the the avoidant work syndrome or whatever you know they don't put all those down but but here we go the other mental health provider came only to steal hope to kill true happiness and joy and to to rob and SAP any knowledge of the infinite God so God and Satan are the only two mental health providers in its salvation each who are saved go from the Destroyers control to Christ Jesus life that is endless and abundant however those who are saved still live in fallen human bodies in a cursed and sinful world often unsaved unbelievers have no idea who's controlling their minds if you wonder who's controlling their minds it says in Ephesians chapter 2 that people that are unsaved walk according to the course of this world under the jurisdiction of the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience that's God's description of the provider of the spiritual life of the majority the vast majority of people on this planet it's Satan there there are not other providers it's God or Satan there's no middle ground he's the god of this world Satan is God has allowed him at this time to to be the Prince of the power of the air either you're under his provision and his care or your transformed as Paul called it the marvelous transformation from the domain of Satan into the kingdom of his dear son there is no other place to be unsafe people do not realize that sin always pays everyone back with boredom guilt shame loneliness confusion emptiness loss of purpose and finally death death in the form of conscious endless punishment separated from the presence of God in a place called Gehenna or hell that's the result of sin but it's equally tragic that the reality is that many saved believers do not focus on the one who wants to be the one controlling their minds the the spiritual mental health provider that God wants to be many believers do not knowledge and focus on him and thus those believers do not obey what God word God's Word tells them to do to avoid the consequences of sin now you have to understand that whether you're lost or whether you're saved sin always pays back even if you're a Christian sin will pay you back remember I've told you many times that my parents we lived in Lansing we work through the Lansing City rescue mission we housed born-again men who lived at the rescue mission and who graduated from their program and they would come to our house and their liver and their stomach and many other of their systems were totally shocked now where their sins forgiven absolutely were there consequences to their sins that were inescapable absolutely every time you sinned and every time I sinned there whether I'm a believer or an unbeliever there is an in escapable consequence Christians use drugs you will have an organic penalty in your mind even if the Lord forgives you for sinning and using it Christians drink you will have an effect upon the very cells of your body you get involved as a Christian in promiscuity you will as likely get STDs sexually transmitted diseases as an unbeliever and you will pay the consequence for the rest of your life you see there's a consequence to sin whether you're saved or lost it's just for us the ultimate consequence when we're in Christ we do not have that separation that endless payment for our sins but for believers they don't realize to avoid the consequences of sin that are in effect of their life even as a believer that sin will always pay back a believer with boredom you neglect God and you get involved in something else to take your time away you'll get bored with whatever you do and boredom is in that result of neglecting God with guilt you commit a sin even if it's forgiven you still feel guilt with shame with loneliness with confusion you feel that God is far away and you don't know what he wants you to do Christian's sin always pays back with emptiness loss of purpose but most terribly for believers loss of rewards so this morning God is vitally concerned if you look in Titus chapter 2 and verse 5 the very first word is God desires that we maintain healthy spiritual mental health ok healthy spiritual mental conditions in our lives now you say does that mean you get saved in every every single problem that you have that this all of these different phobias and disorders and and and everything else goes away no but the capacity to deal with them to have a new beginning and to have God renew your minds it's what we have that the world doesn't have you see the world can chemically put something out of their mind for a brief time but it never solves the underlying spiritual problem it never closes the door to the devil's accusations you know what was really sad was I was reading in the surgeons general's report and he said something I strongly disagree with he said that that people should realize here we go when people understand that mental struggles are not the result of moral failings or limited willpower but our legitimate illnesses that are responsive to specific treatments then they will get well what he didn't realize is that some mental struggles and especially spiritual illness is caused by moral failings and that guilt that comes from sin has a long-term deadening effect on the human mind and we try and get rid of it by chemicals and by substances and by experiences and that's why one mental illness of the 50 is suicide you might have said suicide usually accompanies though who come to hopelessness because of substances drugs or because of physical illness or whatever but they cannot cope with life and so they end their life well God is vitally concerned about your mind he wants you and me to stay in tip-top spiritual health our spiritual and mental health are vitally linked think about that if you think of the mental part of you your mind and your emotions as a part of your body that is part of the hardware you were born with and God inserts into that a new running system a new operating system it's called the new creation that we are in Christ and God wants you to allow that system our mind to be subject to him because he designed it to operate in a certain way our minds are the gateway into the spiritual world and most of the verses in the Bible that challenge us about our minds challenge us to consider the fact that the choices we make the choices we make teether obey God or disobey Him affect our operating system and in our operating system is our mind our mental processes that's the gateway to the spirit world and God says what you choose to do deeply impacts your spiritual life your choices well the first word look at Titus 2:5 in English it's three words it's one word in Greek in English it's to be discreet or sensible or self-control depending on what version translation of the Bible you have but those words designate that God wants to control our minds in fact this this one word we've seen it before it's the only universal word it's in the older men list older women lists the younger women list right here and then the younger men list so this is the only universal quality of the 24 qualities that God spiritually wants us to cultivate but this word so Fran you've heard me use it many times is derived actually from two Greek words so that means healthier sound and friend means mind pH REM friend is the one of the Greek words for mine so God wants us to have a sews healthier sound friend mind so from is the Greek word and that's the very first word of verse 5 God wants all of his children to have healthy minds mental health is vital to our spiritual lives all of our communication with God is spiritual it's through our mind in our spirit it's not physical and so for us to be able to operate we have to make sure that channel is always open and it's clear in Titus 2:5 this word describes a woman you notice what it says that that it's talking about the younger women verse 4 admonished the younger women and then continue in verse 5 to be so fraught to be having a mind surrendered to God's control you know that's what it's all about the ultimate spiritual mental health of our lives is based on whether or not we give our mind back to God's control what happens when we do that well it's the same thing that that I talk about every time I pull my phone out every time I do something wacky I have to hook my phone up and I have to get an updated operating system or even sometimes I've even flushed the whole thing and reinstalled it because I've done too many bad things and it won't work did you know that we get to equally connect with God and it says in Romans 12:2 that we can be transformed by the renewing of our what yeah do you realize you're supposed to surrender your mind hook it back up to the creator and allow him to redownload and renew and transform your mind your mental health spiritually is completely connected to God now organically there are many other things remember Elijah he got sick he got scared he got discouraged she got tired he hadn't eaten and he got into a complete one of these I read about the the you know end of life seeking disorder you no I mean he did wanted to die he was he was so completely depressed he wanted to die by any means it is very possible for our hardware our physical bodies to completely affect our spiritual lives and those can be lifelong some of the greatest Christians and I've told you this before in the life of David we're doing in Sunday night's David was a man that was struggling lifelong with what would be called is a ma D or GA T general general anxiety disorder that was David he's anxious about everything his enemies is anxious about those seeking his life he's anxious about his family who's gonna take care of them he was anxious about how he's gonna have his next meal and those Psalms flow from a lifelong struggle but you know what he did he kept reconnecting he kept saying my soul Cleaves to dust quick and me according to your word and Lord your word is as we saw with the kids this morning a lamp to my feet I don't know where to go just light my path the next step I don't know what to do I am totally confused but only you can light my path you see we have to learn to surrender our minds back to the Lord what's amazing is you look at Titus two in the space of just six verses Paul describes this same quality as a part of everyone's life if you see an in verse 2 it is part of the godly older men's lives in verse 4 the godly older women's lives that word admonish was the same word right here in verse 5 the word to be discreet is for the younger women and then for the younger men it's right there in verse 6 so young men to be sober minded it's the very same word to every group within the church and then if you keep going in verse 12 it's also the same thing for the church in general teaching us to deny ungodliness Titus 2:12 and worldly lusts we should live soberly we should live with a healthy surrendered mind that is controlled by God that's the only way to make it through this world so as you look at verse 5 from God in its context it should be the personal life choice for every younger woman she should say Lord I want to cultivate as a young woman whatever it takes to have spiritually healthy mental communication and and communion with you I want to have the lines open I don't want to do what grieves you quenches you what keeps you I don't want sin to bring about the consequences of me feeling bored and guilty and distant and hopeless I want you to renew my mind secondly it should be what older women spend time nurturing younger women and how to do how to show them ways that they are not cultivating that lifestyle and finally for every one of us for every man woman and child it is what we should seek as we delve into this verse God says one thing clearly I want your mind under my control if God has your mind he has your body remember it's our mind that tells our body what to do if God has your mind he has your emotions if God has your mind he has your appetites your time your money more than anything else God wants to saturate influence fill direct dominate and control your mind because whoever has the mind controls the person God desires healthy minds in the immensity of the impact in our lives of our mental health is hard to understate the constant dangers to our mental health the impact of that spiritual world that constantly can have on our mental health is largely unknown by most believers they just go through life and they go home I don't feel very good today I know I are I can't concentrate or the Bible seems like like nothing to me I don't get it and they don't realize that there are that there are corresponding choices they've made that has made the most powerful influence on your mind God's word to be shut off it's like you've clicked it you've unplugged the connection the US government National Institute of Mental Health States as I've already told you 26 percent of American adults have some form of mental illness the LA Times said 20 percent of Californians so there must be a higher percentage than the rest of the country because only 20% of the Californians are affected but whatever the statistics God wants to help you keep your mind healthy and God wants to warn you of the dangers of allowing yourself to drift into self induced mental illness our sins can induce a form of spiritual mental illness if we choose to go that way just as there are diseases and sicknesses that can be prevented by simple antiseptic choices proper hygiene and safe handling of pathogens in the physical world there are unsanitary unhealthy and dangerous spiritual choices that humans can make that robbed them by their own actions of their mental health you say what do you mean by that well those who have unhealthy or sick minds spiritually are called by various terms in God's words Luke 12 calls them anxious Minds Romans 1 calls him debased Minds second Corinthians 3 calls him blinded Minds 2nd Corinthians 11 calls him corrupted Minds Philippians 3 calls him earth set minds and James says watch out you can have double Minds a mind that has two operating systems and you keep going back between them and he says if you do that you're completely unstable the battle is for our minds Satan is seeking to steal the minds of God's children your piece is the key to knowing God only a mind stayed on the Lord can have perfect peace a mind devoted to Christ is on the road to God's plan for your life most often mental health is only thought of in a negative way like someone who has a phobia or paranoia or a mood swing and we say they have some form of mental illness or they lack mental health but there's the other side God was way ahead of modern psychiatric medicine when he instructed that Christ Church cultivate habits that lead to spiritual mental health the Bible's terms we Passover without really considering their implications are in second Timothy 1 a sound mind that's the word healthy a guarded mind that's Philippians 4:7 a right mind that's mark 5 when Christ renewed them a staid mind Colossians 3 2 a girded mind by the way that we're girded in 1st Peter 5 means a mind that's completely protected it's guarded it's the word used for a garrison that surrounded a prisoner and they were locked in and they were chained and they were kept behind every barrier and then the garrison stood around them God says that's what I want to do for your mind if you'll let me I want to guard your mind and then Romans 12:2 says that as we go through life and struggle and have all of the struggles with our old hardware and our bodies and our emotions in life and sin and Satan that God wants to renew our mind so that we can have as Romans 8 says a spiritual mind God wants your mind given to the pursuit of his kingdom and so God has given us a mental health guide and if you'll turn back right now to Colossians chapter 3 just before we celebrate communion I'd like to walk you through Colossians chapter 3 which I like to call God's mental health guide Colossians 3 and I'm going to rapidly read through all 25 of these verses I love to read a whole chapter for some of you it's first time I've ever heard a whole chapter read in Bible and the other times it's first time some of you've ever been exposed some of the great chapters of the Bible but Colossians 3 and let's stand together and as you stand we're gonna read this and then we're going to quickly hasten into wrapping it up and going to communion but it says in Colossians 3 if then you are raised with Christ seek those things which are above so this is obviously addressed to believers where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God here's a command it's an imperative set your mind on things above not on things in the earth so it's a choice we make for you die your life is hidden with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life appears then you will appear with him in glory verse 5 therefore put to death your members which run the earth these are all conscious mental choices here they are fornication uncleanness passion evil desires covet to which is idolatry because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves also once walked when you lived in them verse eight but now you yourselves are to put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy language out of your mouth do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in the knowledge according to the image of him who created him where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcised or uncircumcised barbarian Scythian slave or free Christ is all-in-all verse 12 therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved put and all these are mental choices and thought patterns and allowing the spirit to energize our lives put on tender mercies kindness humility meekness long-suffering bearing with one another forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another even as Christ forgave you so you also must do I look up for your Bibles for a minute verse 13 I just read that would solve about half of all the struggles that the twenty six percent of Americans go through because the struggles are over what is talking about there about someone that was not tender mercy not kind verse twelve not humble not meek not long-suffering didn't bear with them didn't forgive them had a complaint against them and they didn't forgive them and they are suing them and they are pursuing them and they're gonna get even with them and it consumes them and it saps them and it destroys them that's why he says you must do these things look at verse 14 but above all these things put on love which is a bond of perfection and allow the peace of God to rule in your minds to which also you were called in one body and be thankful and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly again in your mind in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts the Lord and whatever you do in word or deed don't do anything verse 17 says that you can't do in the name of the Lord Jesus now look up again there's a great rule you planning to do something today tomorrow the rest of your life if you can't in front of group people say I'm gonna go and you put in the blank what you're gonna do in the name of Jesus Christ I mean not as a joke and not as a curse if you can't say that solemnly and it says don't do it whatever you do verse 17 in Word or in deed do all the name of Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him and then he goes through all the relationships wives submit to your own husband's it's fitting in the Lord husbands love your wives and don't be bitter toward them children verse 20 obey your parents in all things this is well pleasing to the Lord father's don't provoke your children lest they become discouraged verse 22 bondservants our employees obey in all things your masters or employers according to the flesh not with eyeservice as men pleasers but in sincerity of heart fearing God verse 23 and whatever you do do it heartily as to the Lord not to men knowing that from the Lord you'll receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ but he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done and there's no partiality let's bow together father I thank you for your spiritual mental health guide and I believe that this morning that each of us need to more cautiously pursue what's going on with our minds lest we allow guilt and shame and boredom and emptiness and loss of meaning and loss of direction to overtake us and we get neutralized and our effectiveness for you open our hearts to your word and prepare us to choose your way as we commune with you in the name of Jesus we pray amen as you're seated I want you just to note with me three points from this passage don't close Colossians 3 because Colossians 3 basically distills down God's three steps to having spiritual mental health number one he says focus on God that's the first three verses verse two says it clearly set your mind on things above put your focus aim on God that's what we talked about last week in the Lord's Prayer focus on God make that choice say God focused me even driving over this morning I came over early and the mist and the the sunlight was streaming through the trees through the mist all the way down red arrow and I thought about what a wonder it was to know that I could right there in that car hurdling along at fifty three and a half miles an hour or whatever I was going I could commune I could focus on God number one Colossians 3 says the first key to spiritual mental health is focus on God number two starting at verse four is repent of all known sin that means we have to do a constant regular self-examination I'll never forget my Haslett junior high school anti-smoking faculty member in the 60s when I was in junior high we had this this faculty member that was rapidly an anti smoke person and what he said is your lungs are kind of like wet Kleenex and he got some Kleenex and he got it wet and it was pure white and he says but look what happens and he would put various substances on it he showed how its stained and he said try and clean that stain off that wet Kleenex he says and and then he showed us all the components of smoke you know the tar and all the trace poisons and any drag that Kleenex through a pile of dirt and stuff and he says try and get that out of there he said that's what your lungs are like he said they're like pure white wet Kleenex now I'm glad he wasn't a biology professor because he was a little off on the color okay but you know he was right on the concept but you know what's more delicate than your lungs and boy we've got I mean it's against the law to smoke you know in all these places because we're going to protect people's lungs but what about your mind your mind is pure white than your lungs spiritually speaking and everything we see and everything we hear and everything we do goes through that wet pure white Kleenex of our mind and it stains and it sticks and it begins to destroy that God says you want to get it cleaned repent of all known sin verse four army verse five put to death your members which around the earth and he lists off all these these life dominating sins verse eight also put off these these are all horrible attitudes anger and wrath and malice and blasphemy and filthy language out of your mouth and don't lie repent of all known sin and then finally starting in verse 10 surrender obediently to God's plan put on the new man so he has a three-step program number one focus on God he's the mental health provider that is the only one can renew your mind and connect to him and say Lord in your sight search me I want to repent of all known sin you won't repent means change of mind that leads to a change of behavior and I say no to that sin and then starting in verse 10 I surrender obediently to God's plans this morning God wants you surrendered to him repent of all known sin and connect to him with all your heart and focus you know what God can renew our minds it doesn't make us happy he doesn't solve all of our problems it doesn't say that you're gonna walk around like Charlie tremendous Jones the rest of your life clicking your heels together but he gives us a new beginning knowing that we are not condemned that there is nothing we have to be guilty of that there is no sin he will not forgive and that he is the one that renews our minds moment by moment day by day let's bow before the Lord and word of Prayer as you bow the men are going to prepare to serve us the Lord's Supper but this is going to be a little little different communion it's going to be a time when we commune about our minds God says I want your mind under my control during this communion somewhere in the bread and the cup just make that conscious choice to say Lord I do present my mind back to you as it says in Romans 12:2 I want you to transform my life by renewing my mind and once you start that don't stop you need constant renewing let's bow before him in prayer father in heaven I thank you for your word I thank you that Paul addressed spiritual mental health long before the medical community realized the hardware organic deficiencies that that really a hundred percent of us have not just twenty six percent we were all born alienated from you we were all born walking according the course of this world and we all bear the effects of the sin cursed world in our fallen bodies but we can have a perfectly functioning operating system through our struggles through our weaknesses through our illnesses through our deficiencies and that is the new creation we are in Christ and I pray this morning every one of us would surrender repent and allow you to renew our minds thank you for this bread because it portrays the one who died in our place to make us new creations to give us a new beginning a fresh new start thank you for being oh Christ our new beginning thank you for the bread we celebrate it with gratefulness for our salvation in Jesus name we pray amen the minute

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Length: 34min 48sec (2088 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 23 2018