Mind | The Core

i'm good how are you um well how was your week it was really good so i got to spend some time with my adorable niece maggie she's my favorite little person on the planet she's three going on 13 so can definitely relate we're both a little bit sassy but hey that's what fun ants are for i got to spend some time with my sister so yeah that was awesome they're actually preparing to get a puppy in a couple of weeks so i was able to get down there before their house went a little bit crazy with a brand new puppy uh so so i never had a puppy before a couple years ago we did the whole puppy for christmas thing yeah i did not know how much work they are it's like another kid it's so much work yeah yeah so like i have kids that i know but from what i know it is it's a lot of work you're not wrong so i i hope they're ready but but speaking of puppies i mean puppies are adorable i'm sure they're gonna love you know all the fun there is and that actually ties into something we said last week on the countdown that we decided to do a contest amongst lh staff and determine who has the cutest pets yeah so so we asked people send in pictures and we actually voted on staff to get down to the top four cutest pets and then today we're actually gonna invite our community in and ask them to help us determine who is the cutest pet sounds like a terrible game show well it sounds like so here's i don't know if you guys know this but on staff here at lighthouse we're all pretty competitive like we all we all like to to win so we love each other we do and we want to win a healthy competition and so even just voting for the top four was an interesting experience but i'm excited to see who's gonna win yeah now one of the things that that i also asked people along with this was who is a cat person or who is a dog person so before we get to the voting i just want to ask our online community who is a cat person and who's a dog person throw it in the chats i i want to hear this cause i was pretty surprised at how few people there are on staff at lighthouse who call themselves a cat person what are you a cat person a hundred percent okay but here's here i have a question uh-huh because you call yourself a cat person but in the pet contest you submitted your dog mm-hmm so help me figure that out oh that's that feels like you're a dog person why would you submit your cat if you're a cat person no that's because i was trying to win and nobody nobody's going to vote for a cat in a cutest pet contest that would dogs are going to win our studio manager cam he loves cats i bet you he would do that well but cam okay so kim and i have this conversation because kim is is insisting that he's a cat person but he doesn't have a cat so so he's that makes you a cat or a dog you have to own one that's that's my thing question for our audience what do you guys think i don't think so i think you can have a natural bend because an affinity to one or the other but not like i grew up with dogs i'm a dog person but i don't have a dog right now okay well m m you know what maybe i'm wrong or maybe everyone else is wrong you were wrong last week when we were talking about the graham crackers everyone everyone disagreed disagreed with us yeah people have the same thing you know what i'm just gonna do what the apostle paul said and just live in love and unity with everyone as much as that person yeah absolutely and listen my my cat is the greatest cat who ever lived i love her so much she's a very old lady now 17 years old there's no way she's winning accused pet contest i i can show you a picture of her you want to see a picture i would love to see it all right here's a picture of my cat her name is tikka adorbs that's she's not but but she's not she's a beautiful cat she's adorable she she is she's beautiful cats if you call a cat cute it will scratch you they don't want to be cute they want to be adorable and and not adorable they want to be they would be regal you're agreeing with me i did i actually agree with you it's my normal habit but anyways uh my dog though did not win i told her i told her that that the staff didn't think she was cute and she laid down in the snow and was very sad i have a picture of that moment where her heart broke oh poor thing poor cutest pet in the world that she is but sadly ginger had to go to the side and i'm gonna show the four finalists and we're going to ask our community you can if you want to put it in the chat which one you're like that's fine but if you want your vote to count you got to jump over to our lh online community facebook page we'll throw the link to that in the chat right now and we're going to give you this week to vote and next week maybe we'll have a special guest here on the countdown we'll see so so brittany why don't you just kind of introduce the four dogs who are in the running for cutest staff pep all right well first up we have toby toby's sporting some christmas festivity super cute so toby belongs to our communications director jenna um jenna was pretty vocal about who is going to win win this one so she definitely has a huge heart for her dog toby um but not to be outdone by jax so jax i think this photo actually mimics the owner um this is our student director ryan minter um so if you guys know ryan i mean i think i'm just kidding ryan's one of my best friends love you buddy um jax is a super sweet dog i've had the privilege of meeting jax and so personality matters to you just saying jax is really cute then we got willow willow is a new addition to the lh fam so willow belongs to our creative designer matt cashman willow is just such a sweetheart those eyes get you as soon as he showed me a picture i was like instantly in love i need to meet her very very soon and then rounding out the bunch we got carl and carl belongs to abby krueger abby is one of our executive assistants she just helps keep everything running around here and carl has a personality too i was looking through some other photos of carl smiles in his photos so those are your four we got toby jacks willow and carl strong name game huh yeah well i was actually gonna say i felt like they're all dog names then you get to carl sounds like sounds like carl's on a coffee break from his job and just taking a quick picture but i feel like that makes like carl's name that's part of his adorability okay i like that word i'm taking is that a real word adorability it is now well i you know i love jake and abby who have carl i think carl looks like an ewok and it's not actually a dog but whether or not you think he's cutest well that's going to be up to you we look forward to all of you voting and so that somebody here on staff is going to get some kind of prize i don't even know what the prize is no we'll figure that out okay we have to stated yeah well there has to be a prize like we're big into trophies around here so oh we do some kind of trophy to display proudly if you're gonna be competitive you gotta have something away yeah we always do so well listen i'm excited about that we're gonna find out about that next week yeah but as you know brit here on the countdown the thing we love to do is share stories about our community what jesus is doing in us and through us and so this week we're actually talking about community outreach at lighthouse because i don't know if you know this actually i do know you know this i want to make sure everybody knows this that we have love weekend every month the first weekend of the month we used to do love week once a year and our community outreach director katie warner she said you know what why don't we do it more regularly and amen yeah we want to do that and so every month we have a love weekend and so katie actually came in she recorded a little interview with someone who has been involved in these love weekends just to ask what is your heart behind it what happens in the midst of these and so why don't we check out that interview let's do it what is up lh my name is katie warner and i'm the outreach director here and it is love week in february and i am so excited to show you what is going on so come with me as i show you so right here we are packing 750 care packages for our community for grocery stores we just want to show and share the love of jesus with them we had a school supplies drive that we were doing for title 1 school park elementary and because your generosity we're able to make that happen and we had so many other projects happening all over anne arundel county and i got kelly over here that's going to share a little bit about her heart and why she's here serving today so why are you serving today kelly oh i'm serving this is what we're here to do yeah to serve in it serving people uh not only makes them feel good it makes me feel amazing i love it definitely and that's why we do what we do it's not just for us but it's to help share and show that love of jesus with so many people in our community that have never experienced jesus so help make us help make that possible by joining us for love week in march we need your help to make it happen first weekend of every month we'd love to see you there come join us you know it's such a privilege to get to see stories like that week after week and be able to share them with our online community and i just love what kelly said about her heart and why she serves that she gets more out of it by giving them by receiving and that's really why we do this right to go out into our communities to love like jesus and to show others his love so we want to know what projects are you setting up for this love weekend you can go to our website they're now live we've got projects here locally in maryland but also super cool we've got online projects you can do so no matter where you're watching from you call lh online home if you're part of our lh family you can participate in love weekend so we're really excited to see all that jesus does this love weekend yeah and and uh if you sign up for me we want to know it or if you've done one in the past talk tell us about what projects you've done in the past i mean we just like you said we love hearing the stories of what god is doing in and through our community because the point of lighthouse is not just what happens on sunday right it's about jesus transforming us as people right wherever we go whenever that is and can i just take a moment to say thank you so much to everyone who volunteers for love weekend projects you give of your time you give of your energy and to everyone who invests financially in the lighthouse we're able to bless our community because we have the resources to do so especially in the season where a lot of people are in need and they're hurting a little bit totally totally and we always say this we can't do what we do without you so it's such a privilege to be part of this community and you know i say it week after week i'm really just excited to see all that jesus is going to do throughout our worship service this week we're going to get ready to go into our sanctuary in a few moments but hey if this is your first time checking out lh online or checking out lighthouse church we just want to say welcome we are so glad that you are here we love new people we don't call them new people we don't call them visitors you're a guest to us and we just want to get to know you a little bit so you can let us know in the chat if this is your first time or you can text the word lhconnect all one word to two four five eight seven we'll send you a link you can fill out a form and we can be in touch that way but man yeah i say it every week you picked a great week to be here yeah in fact pastor john is gonna be preaching the next message on our current series called the core it's been a pretty incredible series so far one of my favorites we've done in a while actually for me personally it's like challenged me it's convicted me to go deeper so i'm seeing fruit and transformation in my own life through it yeah i mean hey the words of jesus you know when he was asked what's most important and he said love god with your heart your soul and your mind i mean just digging into those aspects like what jesus said is so simple but it is so deep yeah and there is so much that he wants to do in us so that we can have joy and peace in the midst of all all those areas so that we can go out of this building we can you know step off of lh online and bless others because we're full jesus has filled us up amen amen but before we hear from pastor john we're going to worship together so whether that means you like to stand when you worship maybe you like to sit and just prepare your heart all i say is let's get into a posture of worship where we can welcome jesus and worship him together with us please we worship jesus together well hey everybody people come together stranger's neighbors our blood is one [Music] children of generations of every nation of kingdom come so don't let your heart be troubled hold your head up high don't fear evil fix your eyes on this one truth god is madly in love with you [Music] so take courage hold on be strong remember where help comes from [Music] our salvation [Music] his kingdom come so don't let your heart be troubled hold your head up high don't fear no [Music] evil [Music] [Applause] to take courage hold on be strong remember comes from [Music] i need you [Music] come on sing us out [Music] repeat the his name is jesus [Music] swing wide or you have it let the praise go up as the walls come down all [Music] all creations children clean hands good grace good god his name is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] all these children [Music] jesus our salvation [Music] is friend forever his kingdom comes [Music] i saw satan fall like lightning i saw darkness run for cover but the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in head come on i believe in signs and wonders i have resurrection power yes i do still the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven yes my praise belongs to you forever this is my testimony from death to life cause grace rewrote my story i'll testify by jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] [Music] washed in water our god will finish what he by jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony if i'm not dead then you're not done things are still to come oh i believe if i'm not dead then you're not done greater things are still to come is this is my testimony from dare to lie cause grace rewrote my story i'll testify by jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony oh i'm alive this is my testimony whose christ rewrote my story this is my testimony i've done [Music] he's been so good to us amen i just want to read a passage from ephesians ephesians 1 it's the message translation but as i'm reading this i want you to receive what i'm saying not as a collective not just as a collective thing but as an individual thing that this is what jesus did for you individually so i'm going to read this ephesians 1 it says how blessed is god and what a blessing he is he's the father of our master jesus christ and takes us to the high places of blessing in him long before he laid the earth's foundations he had us had settled on us as the focus of his love to be made whole and holy by his love long long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through jesus christ and what pleasure he took in planning this he wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift giving by the hand of his beloved son because of the sacrifice of the messiah his blood poured out on the altar of the cross we're a free people free of penalties and punishments chalked by all of our misdeeds and not just barely free either abundantly free he thought of everything provided for everything we could possibly need letting us in on the plans he took such a delight in making he said it all out before us in christ a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him everything in the deepest heaven everything on planet earth it is in christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for it is in christ that you once you heard the truth and believed it found yourselves home free by the holy spirit this is our identity this is where we stand now and i love in in that passage all of these subjects and all the verbs all the actions are god toward us it's not based on our actions it's not based on getting it together oh i'm i'm i've gotten it all together it's based on who he is and what he's done for us that jesus came to die for us long ago he decided to adopt us the scripture says while we are still sinners he died for us because he knew he knew the nature of our heart he knew us beginning to end that he still died for us and pursued us amen that's that's who we are jesus [Music] we were made we were made to be with him to dwell with him to be blessed by him and to worship him that's why we were made if anything else we chase after is a counterfeit and so as we worship him this morning lay everything at his feet lay everything aside receive the identity he's given us receive the promises that he's given us and let's worship him and spirit and truth amen let's worship him fully in christ alone my hope is found he is my light my strength my soul this cornerstone solid ground firm through the fiercest drought and storm what heights of love what dance is [Music] i'll stand [Music] is [Music] is as he stands in victory since curse has lost his grip on me [Music] [Applause] is [Music] this is the power of christ in me from life's first cry to final breath jesus commands my destiny no power of hell no scheme of man ever pluck me from his head [Music] in christ [Music] [Music] when darkness falls [Applause] [Music] i sing this song to christ alone the king of kings [Music] [Music] crystals [Music] [Music] amen i just want to say real quick thank you so much to the worship team what we uh what we just did and what you let us in so beautifully is really important the scripture says in the book of hebrews let us fix our eyes on jesus and what i think happens during worship is that's god's time in your heart and your spirit in my heart and my soul where he lifts our gaze to his gaze because you can go through the week and you can just get focused on man what's happening tasks at hand take care of the kids here's a school project this is what's happening and it's during worship where god says hey look back up here remember how much i care about you remember that there's a purpose in your life right now remember that you're more than a machine that just cranks out tasks remember that you're an eternal soul that i put my fingerprint on and some of us came in here this morning or some of us are watching online right now and your gaze isn't here your gaze was here because it's been a hard week or a discouraging week or a hard month or a hard year and it's during worship that god like a father puts his hand under your chin to raise your gaze to meet his eyes and he says there's a purpose and i'm with you and i'm a solid rock and i will not let you down that's what happens during worship and so thank you worship team for lifting our gaze if you don't know me my name is uh john smart i get to be one of the pastors here and uh thank you so much for joining us for church this morning in-house and if you're watching online our online family can we welcome those that are watching online we call you our online family because that's what you are you're not spectators you're not just watching you are part of this church family wherever you're watching this whenever you're watching this and we're so glad that you're joining us for church this morning as we gather together we've been in a series called the core where we've been working through jesus jesus greatest commandment he says is to love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind we've been sort of working through what that means this is going to be week three of the core i'm going to pray and then we're going to jump right into it and it's really it's really my heart that this would be a message of hope i feel like what god has to say to us today [Music] is encouraging it's hopeful and ultimately it's gays lifting and so i just want to pray for us as we get started jesus thank you for today thank you for everything you do for us thank you that you are a solid rock thank you that you do lift our gaze and lift our eyes to you thank you for the way that you work and you move and you speak i pray you'd speak to all of us not just as a family but you'd also speak to us individually those in this room those gathered online those watching with friends and family those while watching all by themselves even on a weekday evening that you would speak to them individually the way a father speaks to his son or daughter speak to us jesus in your name we pray these things amen so um how you doing no so uh so a couple weeks ago uh we had a snowstorm um i love snow i mentioned this before i i'm a big snow enthusiast um i know there's those in this room that that you hate snow and you should just move somewhere south i think because i i pray for every snowstorm that might possibly happen and it's very clear that god has not heard many of my prayers recently but a few weeks ago uh we got a little bit of a snowstorm and i not only do i love snow but we have mary and i and our little family we've worked out a pretty good snow day routine which i'm going to tell you that is the key to in to enjoying a good snowstorm um what we do is typically we'll wake up and uh there's an incredible donut shop buy our house it's almost always open pretty sure everybody that that that works there just lives there and so the donuts are always ready if we can't get donuts we might have some cinnamon rolls that are ready to go we'll create something like that for breakfast um then you'll put on some sort of snow themed uh kids movie frozen is very acceptable for the kids at this point but sometime after naps after breakfast in the afternoon what we'll end up doing is we'll go over to mary's uncle's house because his house sits on top of a hill and the hill is perfect for sledding and so we'll head over there it won't just be our family but it'll be all of our families you know kids and all that friends will come over mary's grandma at some point will make soup and bread if you if you like cozy i'm telling this is like a thomas kincaid painting at the end of the day i mean it's windows look rosy and it's just unbelievable however when it comes to sledding i was watching you know these kids sled and uh though the hill is perfect for sledding it's not to say that it's that it's without obstacles there's something there's some rocks there's some landscaping that needs to be avoided there's a fence there's a few trailer hitches there's a lot of things there's a lot of one-way tickets to the er that you can find on that little sledding hill and so i spent most of the afternoon you know trying to redirect concussions away from rocks and fences and all these types of things kicking sleds to try to kick kids out of the way um but after this is going for a few hours i finally thought you know what i think i'm gonna i'm gonna try this i'm gonna sled you know they don't really know how to steer let me show them how it's done so i sat down in this sled it was our sled i put calvin in my lap he's about a year and a half years old and um year and a half years old i don't know if that's how you say that but i don't know how it's a year and a half old is that better anyway he's in my lap and uh we get ready to go i barely fit in this sled just so you know i'm like scrunched up in there calvin's on my lap and i sort of scoot to the edge of the hill we start going down and very very quickly i realize this is impossible to steer it's not just that it's hard to steer it just doesn't those little strings on the end of sleds they don't work they're just for show those are just aesthetic there i couldn't leak cabins on my lap so it's not like i could lean or do anything and as we start going faster and faster we're headed straight for a fence and so i'm thinking okay you know pulling on the strings it's just moving like like rotating in the sled not turning anything nothing's happening we're headed towards the fence i try to lean over what happens is we don't turn we just fall out of the sled and so i have calvin on my chest i'm on my back hitting every rock and ice and like like hitting the whole thing down the sled he thinks it's great because now i'm just the sled it doesn't matter to him it's just a change of sled so now we're sledding down the thing we stop before we hit the fence i'm just got oh man snow down you're the back of your neck just that's the worst and i realized this is actually a lot harder to steer than i thought i say that because i think that sort of picture of getting on the sled and uh you kind of try to point it a direction but then after that you know it's just it's just up to the lord which direction you end up going you have no idea you have no control you just start going i think in some ways that describes how so many of us live our days what i mean by that is we wake up and then in many ways we find ourselves just at the mercy of how we feel meaning whether it's a good day or a bad day we don't really have too much control of that whether whether we feel close to god or far from god don't really have too much control of that whether we feel patient that day or frustrated that day whether we make good decisions or bad decisions we really don't have any control we sort of push off the ledge and then see where things go and i would argue that that if that resonates with you and i'm not just saying man there's some people i all of us have days like that i've had days like that where you just feel like i'm at the mercy of how i feel i would argue that that is the result of living in a culture that is obsessed with emotions and feelings now hear me emotions and feelings are not bad if you ever sort of get yourself in a in a realm of christianity where they'll say ignore emotions or repress every emotion that's not healthy because you have emotions because god has emotions god feels you feel you're made in his image so you have emotions and so emotions are not bad emotions are just a difficult way to try to navigate and steer your life helpful analogy for me is the lights on the dashboard emotions are like the indicator lights on your dashboard they're not a good way to steer but they tell you what's happening inside they tell you important things that are happening in your heart in your soul however you don't steer the car with the dashboard you don't steer your life with emotions because what happens is this day you're up this day you're down this way we feel this way that evening we feel that way it's a very unstable way and it's a very very difficult way to steer and what ends up happening if we live our life based solely on emotion like so much of our culture tells us to do basically you wake up and you feel at the mercy of how you happen to feel that particular morning and it's a scary way it's an unstable way it's a really difficult way to live life but i think there's a better way and the better way is sort of laid out for us in our theme verse for this entire series as i just quoted the beginning in matthew chapter 22 jesus says love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind that the past two weeks we've talked about heart we've talked about soul this week we're going to be talking about your mind and i would argue that the mind is actually how you steer your life that the mind is actually how you can begin to take back some control if you're listening to this or if you're watching this and you feel out of control or you just feel i'm at the mercy of however i feel today i would say the mind is how you begin to take that control see this is what paul would do the apostle paul as he was preaching the gospel the first missionary the first you know church planter of the ancient world he planted churches all around the mediterranean rim what he would do is he would go into towns and as he shared the gospel he wouldn't just he wouldn't just go hey there's this thing called christianity and i think you guys would really like it so let's just form a church and let's just start you know let's get some small groups happening and he wouldn't he would when he went to the various towns people that had never heard about jesus what he would do the place he would start is engaging the mind so what he would do is he would come into a town and he would say hey i want to tell you about a man named jesus and if they knew the bible he would use the bible if they didn't know the bible he would use culture and philosophy and poetry and ultimately what he would say is this man named jesus said he was the messiah he died he came back to life i've seen him he's radically changed my life and i think he could radically change yours see what he was doing is he was speaking to and engaging their mind with the hope of changing their heart you see you can't really change emotions head-on it's actually really really difficult to just speak to the heart on i don't really think it's possible i wish i could get up here on a stage or any pastor can get up here and just project joy and then we all go home or peace or love or hope like everybody got it good like that would be my job would be so much easier but i can't i can't simply just speak to your heart what i have to do what all of us do is we speak to the mind in the hopes that it seeps in and it changes the heart see there's a lens that i want to give us as we begin to think about what it looks like to um love the lord your god with all your heart soul and mind here's the the big idea here's my my presupposition if you will the mind feeds the heart the mind feeds the heart that when you think about it at least in in my life i can't change my thoughts like i can't go man i don't like how i think right now let me just be happy let me just hit the happy button that doesn't really work what we can do is we can go man i feel really discouraged let me change how i'm thinking and then sometimes oftentimes feelings follow see what i'm saying is the mind what we think about oftentimes leads emotions rather than trying to get emotions and shift emotions to try and lead the mind that doesn't really work the big foundational idea is the mind feeds or leads or sets the stage or pulls the heart along with it therefore what we do with our mind is extremely important when jesus said love the lord your god with all your mind that was not just a throw away like hey i said heart and soul i need a third thing to put in here mind mind is a really cause threes are better that would be cool when people quote it in 2000 years no he was the mind i'm going to argue is an absolute key to having a strong core it's really really hard to have a healthy heart and a healthy soul if we neglect the mind because the mind feeds the heart the mind is how we steer our life that said what i want to do is i want to begin to just unpack a few ways that we can love god with all our heart soul and specifically mind see this is why by the way if you feel like some of this is interwoven this is why in week one going all the way back to talking about the heart this is why sammy said we have to become students again we have to become kids again we have to learn again because all of these things are so interwoven you can't have a healthy heart without a healthy mind without a healthy soul it all works together and so as we focus on mind what does it mean to love the lord your god with all your mind i think it means at least three things that are really really practical this is why i say it's hopeful is if you're watching this and you feel overwhelmed or you feel out of control or you feel like you have you you have no way to steer your life or steer your emotions i just i just want you to feel hopeful that there is a way that you can take back control and it's by paying attention to your mind and loving god with all your mind and i think it's practical as to what we do to do that here's the first thing number one if you want to love god with all your mind number one is watch your intake watch what you allow into your mind this is why the apostle paul said in the book of philippians finally brothers and sisters whatever is true whatever is noble whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things paul says be very careful what you allow into your mind so a few weeks ago before we got that big snowstorm there's a lot of snow analogies today just so you know i don't know if it's like warming up and i got to get them all out of my system but a few weeks ago uh before we got the it was supposed to be a much bigger storm than it ended up being and so i was trying to warm up we have a snowblower and um it was it is an absolute beast i'm going to tell you that right now this is a big honkin snowblower that we have at our house it was given to us as a gift it's i mean it's absolutely unbelievable i'm about to take it up to i don't know some place where they get snow and use it up there but i took it out and i just wanted to start it i just wanted to see if i could get it moving again it'd been a little bit since i used it and uh i couldn't get it to start the thing's only two years old it's bright shiny new uh it's only been through one storm in its entire life i couldn't get it started pulled the thing couldn't get it started check the oil couldn't get it started it's got an automatic start that couldn't even get it going primed it none of these things were working then i remembered the last time i used this thing was when we got a big snowstorm which was two years ago and i still left the fuel in the gas tank that whole time and i know right mr j i'm sorry you should have been there to tell me to take the gas out of there um so drain the gas out put fresh gas in used engine started the whole thing finally got it running all that to say regardless that this was an incredible machine regardless that it was brand new regardless that it didn't have a spot of rust on it none of that mattered because there was bad fuel in its intake it's the same thing sammy said last week that if you have a car that's designed to run on premium doesn't matter how well engineered or how incredible that machine may be how complicated how sophisticated none of that matters if you put bad fuel how good the machine is is irrelevant if there's bad fuel and we understand this when it comes to snow blowers we understand this when it comes to cars and we understand this when it comes to diets i know man it's almost spring time some of us you're trying to think about that summer physique some people in here maybe you're getting a little keto diet right trying to try not trying to lose the the the coveted 19 you know what i'm talking about little adkins little south beach little because we understand man my intake matters physically but somehow there's a disconnect between our intake mentally and emotionally and spiritually and will think well it doesn't really matter i can watch whatever i want or i can listen to whatever i want or i can read whatever i want i can scroll through whatever i want and it doesn't really affect me that much or i'm mature enough to sort through all that and then we wonder man why do i feel so discouraged and why do i feel so distant from god and why do i feel like my perspective is just down and a lot of times it's because our intake is just bad fuel isn't it crazy that you know even though i read recently that the viewership on the nfl has gone down that the price for advertisements continues to go up that uh in this past super bowl the the price tag for a 30 second slot was was just about six million dollars all right so 30 seconds 6 million dollars so here we are as believers as christians who believe that we're not just physical beings that we have a heart that we have a mind that we have a soul and we recognize man there's a supernatural part of that god god designed me to run on a relationship with him that that i have an emotional aspect to my being and then we will i will neglect my intake emotionally but then there's secular organizations that aren't even christians that have done the research to recognize nope 30 seconds is enough it's worth 6 million dollars this is why dallas willard theologian said when satan went to tempt eve he didn't come at her with a club he came at her with an idea because ideas and that intake it's the most powerful thing you'll encounter our intake matters let me just tell on myself personally because the goal is that this would be hopeful and not that this would be a guilt trip uh mary and i we've gone through seasons where we've really got into like true crime shows okay or we like watching through man who what happened you try to solve it and there's a mystery and you know you try to figure out what's going on put the pieces together and construct theories and it's you know it was really interesting but then i started to realize after going through this watching some of the big name ones that came out on tv or came out on netflix watching through it i started to feel like man why do i feel sad or why do i feel discouraged or why do i just feel distant from god and then i paused and thought well maybe part of it is i'm watching people get murdered for entertainment maybe that is impacting me somehow maybe that's affecting my perspective and the lens through which i see life and you can come up with all the arguments now you're mature enough no i just like justice that's why i'm watching this but at the end of the day your impact your intake affects the way you see things your intake determines how clean you'll run and if it's bad fuel it's a bad result let me just say this real real real quick part of the challenge of being a pastor right now or part of the challenge of just being a christian right now is we could have church you know we have we have church about an hour on the weekend or whenever you watch this if you're watching this online about an hour a little bit of worship a little bit of sermon all right an hour where we focus on jesus lift our gaze we focus on his truth but then some of us will go home and compared to that hour we have 20 to 30 hours of news or social media or entertainment or music that is completely antithetical to everything we just listened to and so you have one hour verse 20 to 30 hours and then we wonder man why do i feel distant from god why do i feel like this isn't working maybe maybe it's not a problem with the machine maybe it's not a problem with your mind maybe it's not a problem with god maybe it's just your intake and so if again this is not to be a guilt trip may if you if you are interested in this here's what i would ask just take one week to put yourself on a mental and emotional diet and see if you feel better afterwards just take one week and this is not to be you know legalistic or hard and fast rules just take one week and this be your standard whatever is true whatever is noble whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things let one week that be your standard and see if it changes your perspective how do we love the lord with all our mind number one watch our intake this is so important because our intake determines what we have for the second step which is to practice captivity that's what i mean by that the apostle paul said in second corinthians 10 the weapons with we fight with are not the weapons of the world on the contrary these weapons they have the divine power to demolish strongholds we demolish arguments in every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of god and we take captive we take captive every thought to make it obedient to christ i just say reading that passage what paul is describing is a completely different view of the mind than than many of us have naturally the way i for for a long time the way i viewed my own mind was i just essentially viewed it like a forest okay whatever grows there grows there i don't really have a whole lot of control over it i can't really change things and so i'm more of an observer as to what grows in the mind rather than a manager paul goes no your mind my mind it's not like a forest he goes your mind is much more like a garden it's not just whatever grows no you have an active role in what takes place in there i don't know about you but i'm getting excited for gardening season i went to walmart yesterday walk through the gardening section i love the way it smells in there man you know what i mean that gardening section it's just got a smell there's birds up there i think they're paid by walmart just to add to the ambiance but it got me thinking man i can't wait till things warm up and i can start working in the garden again and i started thinking through man what do i want to grow there i'll grow a little zucchini a little cucumbers last year i grew kale didn't eat any of it not growing kale again that was the best plant in my whole garden didn't even eat it felt bad for it started thinking what do i want to grow paul goes your mind is like that you cultivate your mind to grow the things that you want it's not just you don't just let it run wild for thorns and thistles and weeds and you go no no no think about things you take captive thoughts to make them obedient to christ you manage we manage the thoughts that take place in our mind this is radically different than the way a lot of people view their mind it's an active role rather than just a passive role and i think the way this is why uh dallas willard again says the ultimate freedom that we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell on he said your ultimate freedom you can't control circumstances you can't control the economy you can't control politicians you can't even control man what your kids do what you can control is what you think about your mind is a garden it's cultivated it's intentional you might say well what does that look like to take captive every thought and make it obedient to christ what does this mean to practice captivity i think it means at least two things number one it's to pause and number two is to replace pause replace what does that mean it means when there are things thoughts whole trains of thoughts in your mind that you don't like or is not beneficial you pause you step back and then you replace them let me give an example let's say you find yourself in a situation where you're just complaining constantly it's a bad day you woke up you had a flat tire you got into work your boss had an attitude you get to school your professor is being rude uh your friends don't answer you they don't text you back why don't why is my life like this why am i friends like this why is the professor like this why is my boss like this why is this day so difficult i thought this week would be different all these complaints start stacking up what you do number one is you pause to go do i like this train of thought and do i like where it's leading me because if i follow this where's it gonna take me i'm just gonna keep complaining and i'm gonna get more discouraged and more depressed and i'm gonna become more angry so i don't i'm gonna take that thought captive i'm not just gonna let it run wild i'm going to pause and then i'm going to replace it with a new train of thought so maybe instead of complaining maybe i'll thank god for all the gifts that he's given me the fact that man my heart is beating and i'm not controlling that the fact that i'm healthy enough to stand up under my own power the fact there's a roof over my head while it's raining things that i'll take for granted i'm going to pause this thought i'm going to replace it with that this works really well i think this is a much more effective way to deal with temptation rather than simply resisting or fighting i think there's a better element to it if you feel tempted maybe to return to an addiction or you feel tempted man to to do something you know you shouldn't you feel tempted by uh let's say pornography there's something that you feel tempted to number one you pause hey i'm not gonna i'm not letting these thoughts run wild why because this is my mind and i have the power to choose god has given me this gift and i'm not abdicating my responsibility so i'm not i'm not letting my thoughts run me i'm running them i'm going to pause this but i'm not just going to resist because pure willpower runs out so i'll replace it so what's something i want more than pornography well i i really want a healthy marriage what's something i want more than complaining well man i want to be filled with joy what's something i want more than succumbing to an addiction or to returning to using well i i want to live out god's purpose in my life you see you replace the thought you fight desire with a greater desire we pause we don't let our thoughts run wild we take it captive and then we make it obedient to christ by replacing it with a better thought this is how you begin to cultivate your mind and this might sound like a lot and let me be honest this takes hard work this isn't just a hey you flip the switch and now you think perfectly why because if your mind is like a garden it takes time to pull out weeds and it takes time to plant seeds and it takes constant watering and fertilize it takes time and it takes effort but hear me you are not doing this alone god has given you the holy spirit he's given you a new heart and a new mind so it's a clean slate and now he partners with it so now you're on your here on your hands and knees working in the garden jesus is next to you in the garden working as well it takes time but hear me it is so worth it that when you wake up one day and you don't feel like you're just at the mercy of your emotions but you realize man i've cultivated healthy thought patterns that now lead me closer to jesus now make me a better husband now make me a better friend now i've cultivated things and they're starting to bear fruit it takes time but it's worth it it takes time but jesus is with you it takes time but man you look back at the end you go it's starting to bear fruit and i'm so grateful i didn't abdicate my responsibility but like paul said i take every thought captive i pause do i like this thought do i like where it's leading me do i like the person it's forming me into and then i replace it with thoughts that lead me closer to jesus number one watch your intake number two practice captivity i almost forgot what number two was can you believe that launcher intake practice captivity oh man number three and finally don't lose your aspiration apostle paul says in romans 12 2 do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve what god's will is his good pleasing and perfect will paul says it's not just about intake it's not just about captivity he said but your mind should be renewed what he's talking about is is new new fresh insight that comes in and renews your mind most often times we'll use this verse we've preached it here many many times to refer to scripture and that is absolutely foundational that i would say the number one way we renew our mind is by washing our mind and filling our mind with god's word why because what happens is the more you fill your mind with god's word the hope is that it trickles into your heart and then it changes your life and so we begin to transform our mind number one by focusing on god's word and that is foundation i would say man if you want to grow if you want to renew your mind reading just one chapter a day is a foundational practice one chapter from the bible doesn't have to be from leviticus all right it doesn't have to be dietary laws read it from the book of psalms read it from the book of proverbs extremely practical read it from the gospels from the life of jesus but one chapter simply to give our mind fresh insight fresh truth from the word of god it's foundational but that's not all i'd say renewing our mind has to include the word of god but it should be more than that it should be an aspiration we should be led see that the puritans used to talk about mortification and vivification mortification was the practice of killing sin of fighting temptation but vivification was the process of stirring up in their life the love for jesus for his church and for his purpose and so vivification is not just church and vitification can be watching the beautiful sunrise what what what paul is saying is find ways to transform your mind so for me i love reading books about what it looks like to follow jesus from people that maybe have gone before or more mature that's that's really really helpful for me that renews my mind not everyone here is a book reader and i understand that right if you're not a book person you still have to find ways you still have to find find fresh insight and ways to lift your gaze to jesus it could be conversations with people that are maybe more mature it could be conversations with people that you're leading to help follow jesus it could be podcasts it could be man stories or inspiration whatever it is find ways to lead your mind closer to jesus with fresh insight because there's no middle ground either your mind is growing closer to jesus or it's drifting farther away and it's that fresh insight some of us we're here and you feel so stale and it feels like man i'm just checking boxes because there hasn't been anything fresh that you've fed your mind in a long time there hasn't been anything fresh that you've given insight inspiration encouragement challenges questions none of that has come up and now you feel like man i just feel like it's stale your mind is an incredibly powerful gift given to you by god and it's designed to be activated and engaged so you might ask me why why do i just feel like it's not going anywhere maybe you've lost your aspiration maybe you your gaze has dropped and you've just kind of settled maybe you stopped asking questions that lead you close to jesus maybe there's no resources that are noble and pure and praiseworthy and good like paul says to lift our gaze i just want you to know that we have a number of incredible resources um here at the church number of them that are active currently right now that you can participate in and a number that are actually forthcoming um that we're going to tell you about in just a second but before we do that what i really want to do is i don't want to talk about this all by myself i want to talk about this with our lead pastor sammy foster and i also want to invite rob shepard up on stage rob is a small group leader actually you're a coach right now him and his wife mary beth have served here at the church for a long time remember you were making coffee over at pasadena faithful parts of the family and so rob and sammy if you wouldn't mind coming up we're going to talk about some of these resources [Applause] well guys thanks for coming over i really appreciate you uh stopping by thanks for having us buddy um i appreciate being here thanks john and so rob um you are the director of the c.s lewis institute which we're going to talk about in just one second um but before we do that sammy let me ask when it comes to that idea of discipleship and resources here at the church what what does that look like or what are we talking about right i think um number one number one i just want to say that was if i've ever been inspired to engage my mind it's right now amen so good so good you know when we say around here simple church simply jesus is you know the the how to what we do yeah we want to keep things simple we want to keep things clear we don't want to convolute we don't want to make over complex that's the how the what we do is is the the question that you just asked me how it is that we engage the mind and that is on every front of lighthouse church when we think through simplicity we still know that our mission is to reach the lost and make disciples yeah so when it comes to lh kids just to clarify maybe some of you didn't know this that's not just babysitting back there that's that's not like daycare some people just drop their kids off they'll be back in you know going to costco right right they go grocery shop and then pick the kids up some people are like don't do that i know some people were like i kind of just planted a seed everybody's like wait a minute get that out of your garden um that is our means and way of discipleship of engaging the minds from toddlers all the way to 12 years old fifth grade and the like that's our means of discipleship when it comes to cr what we want to do there is engage the mind by way of those that have succumbed to addiction or um some hurt habit or hang-up that's our means and way of engaging the mind ultimately to lead the life change when it comes to small groups that is done in the name of community and we often say that circles are better than rose but that is our means of discipleship because we believe that's a deep dive into the text in the scripture and the you know whether it's subject matters when it comes to sunday mornings this is a means of discipleship where as john said we pick our gaze up we focus on jesus we engage the word that is our means of discipleship and then recently john and i have been working on what we have really felt like if there's ever a day where we believe that discipleship is all the more needed right now with the inundation of intake that so many of us are being washed with even when you intentionally try not to get overwhelmed with intake you're still being influenced and so what we want to do is we want to develop a curriculum that we can take in bite sizes that will engage the mind so we've developed what's called lhu and those are classes that can be you know six or seven installments of 10-minute classes around subject matters john built one on how to connect with god i did one on growing healthy then we then did one called um the bible didn't say that is that right that's pretty close something close like that um and so that's our means of discipleship and then and then we got rob yeah and so where rob comes into play is is that not only has rob been a staple in the house but rob is also uh a small group coach but he has recently become the executive director director one more time city director city director of the cs lewis foundation based right here in annapolis and and it is an absolutely incredible organization yeah yeah uh thanks sam i really appreciate that yeah the csos institute is a it's a really special organization uh in the legacy of c.s lewis who came to faith predominantly through intellect um the institute tries to take disciples folks that want to walk more closely with jesus and give them some resources to articulate defend share and then live out that life in both public and private life uh and let your faith just come out that way uh to the point of this uh mind point you know mind focus here there's a a lot of resources that the institute provides discipleship resources small group resources that sort of thing our flagship program is called the fellows program and it's a fairly intensive somewhat intellectually based you know academically based if you will um program that uses different themes uh such as being transformed by scripture walking with the holy spirit um receiving god's grace things like this where you get to read and you then you grow also very intentionally in community with other like-minded followers of jesus uh to deepen your you know deepen your walk and and let that let that um intellectual intake trickle down into your heart and then flow out in everything that you do uh and it's an intentional program uh the again the fellows program is just one of the resources that we have available though but uh it's it's that's the one that gets me most fired up i guess you might be able to tell that yeah and this is the cs lewis institute in so many ways it's it's kind of next level discipleship for those that are really looking to grow like you said they want to articulate their faith they want to understand it from different angles um but that said who uh you know what type of person are you looking for in regards to the institute yeah that's a wonderful question because the fellows program in particular uh you have to have you have to be somewhat a mature follower of jesus because we do delve into some topics that are um i don't want to say intense because that scares some people away but you're really challenging you do so you do a lot of introspection and some of the stuff we read is somewhat challenging uh we look at the seven deadly sins for instance you know and when you start looking at sin in your life you you need to do that in order to see the separation we have from god you can't really receive god's grace unless you understand how far you already are from it yeah but looking at that can be kind of can be kind of challenging yeah uh so the fellows program looks for a more mature believer but there's a program called heart and mind that is actually being used by one of our small group leaders this semester in a small group situation in a small group setting it's a wonderful way of taking people who are maybe fairly new you know we've reached the loss that's wonderful you get them you get them to come and start realizing how much they need jesus and then this is maybe the thing that takes them to the next level right and to prepare their hearts and their minds and their souls uh for the for what is coming what jesus has for them so the institute really looks for a broad spectrum we have some some long-time followers of jesus obviously that are part of part of the institute's uh orbit if you will and they're still learning and growing along with the rest of us which is it's awesome to see that too seasoned believers uh growing you know in their faith in their walk with jesus amen rob you know how first of all i and i i don't know this how many people in and among lighthouse church have gone through the fellows program we have quite a few i guess we should have done the count on that shouldn't we it's it's uh maybe seven or eight okay uh we have myself and mary beth have gone through both the the program we have uh a couple of others here that have gone through the entire fellows program and are currently mentoring in the program we actually have one couple that is going through the fellows program right now and i have an application uh i just received an application for next year's uh fellows program from a lighthouse member uh so that we have a lot of people that are that are affiliate or are familiar with the institute but we also were blessed with sammy coming our last in person we used to have a spring banquet every year and our last in-person one that we had coming up on two years ago now sammy was our he was our speaker for that and it was again you talk about something something cool to see these seasoned believers that are really getting into we have an 89 or 80 maybe 90 year old uh retired pastor who was amending about every third his mouth word george is a pretty reserved guy so uh you know it's it's great to see that that all these folks can be reached that way uh and we do have some in the in the church uh that have gone through the program amen so hey there's a lot of it to unpack with the c.s lewis institute i know like you said there's a longer feller's fellows fellers that's the glen burnie version of it um and we're okay with that there's a longer fellows program there's a there's more abbreviated ones and so but it's absolutely world-class training and discipleship here's the point that we're trying to get to is wherever you're at with your um walk with jesus whether you're just starting or whether you're more advanced there's always a next step there's always a way to engage the mind there's always more growth that could be done and so uh we're going to have a meet and greet over there after this service is going to be there rob's going to be there he's uh he's going to he's going to have some resources if you have more questions or anything like that to unpack that amen um guys thank you so much for joining me we're going to practice out in worship yeah thanks for coming over thank you guys so we're going to close out in worship um let me just uh share a quick story with you as we get ready to wrap up um the first um and this is to the cs lewis institute in the in the impact it can have if you're considering it um the first missionary that we ever sent out as a church uh actually went through the c.s lewis institute but before she did that she was attending saint john's grew up in a completely secular atheistic family she was absolutely sharp as a whip super intellectual um but none of this seemed to satisfy her and found herself in college addicted to heroin felt really as if life had let her down didn't really know where to go and it was in that moment that jesus got a hold of her heart she was radically transformed by an encounter with jesus but then started looking around for who could help her walk this thing out as she followed jesus specifically because she had that intellectual bent and it was there that she ended up in the c.s lewis institute and not only did they disciple her but they led her they loved her trained her up and now she is actually a missionary i can't even tell you where she is i can't tell you where she is but she's reaching people discipling people and pointing people to jesus in an incredible way none of that would be possible without the c.s lewis institute and so thank you so much to that organization [Music] and uh man if you're interested please stop by talk to rob we'd love to see you at the meet and greet afterwards that said i'm going to close us out in prayer and then we're going to end in worship and so jesus thank you for the way that you lead us thank you that relationship with you it's it's so multifaceted it's not just one dimension it's not just heart it's not just soul it's not just mind it's all of it interwoven because you change all of us and so i pray jesus that you'd help us to devote our mind to you that we look at our intake jesus we'd look at how we allow our thoughts to operate we take captive the ones that lead us away and we'd encourage the ones that lead us closer to you and we'd always have an aspiration that you'd lead us towards the next step thank you for rob for mary beth thank you for the institute thank you for lh kids and lh students and crs and everybody in this church who labor so faithfully our small group leaders our small group coaches jesus everybody who takes time not only to follow you but to lead others to take that next step as well help us jesus to love you with all our heart with all our soul with all our mind in your name we pray these things amen [Applause] [Music] i was lost but he brought me [Music] sets free always [Music] his grace [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] i [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] yes man a powerful message by john as always and i don't know about you i'm kind of a mind person i'm a very rational you know you know thoughtful person i sound like i'm just trying to compliment myself right now but but talking about loving god with your mind that that hits me in a powerful place and so you know the practical thoughts john gave so so useful and i just want to say if you heard this message and you want to talk about it you want to dig in a little bit more if there's something we can do to help you if you're looking for more scriptures or resources or you want prayer anything you can jump onto our website or our app and we have lhchat you can send us a message and uh on sundays and throughout the week we have people who are available to talk with you pray with you and so we we would just love to hear from you if you feel like god's saying something you just want to process it with us yeah absolutely you know i love what you said earlier in the countdown that church isn't just on sunday it happens all throughout the week and so in this series we have daily devos monday to friday we're going to do them again we're going into week three they're available in our lh app i just encourage you to do the daily devos that has been so helpful for me and just continuing to strengthening my core throughout this week so again lh app they'll be out every single monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday and then you can catch up throughout the week all right well before we wrap up why don't we just join our hearts together once more and pray jesus thank you that you give us the opportunity to love you thank us that you help us love you thank you that you you teach us how to love you and that you ask us to point our heart our soul and our mind to you because you know that we find wholeness and healing when we connect to you in all these areas so jesus we just thank you for your word we thank you for your wisdom and we ask that this week as we continue to lean as we continue to point our minds towards you that you would renew our minds you would transform our minds so that jesus we can carry out the purposes you created us for we love you and we pray all this in your name amen amen well we love you guys we love spending today with you and we will see you back here next week 9 50 a.m for the countdown you

Channel: Lighthouse Church

Views: 3,041

Rating: 4.7714286 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: bm9tZQBjUF4

Length: 82min 47sec (4967 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021