Taking Control of Our Thoughts– Dr. Charles Stanley

we should be thanking God's thoughts what does he think how does he want us to think how does he want us to live and in the process of doing so remember this when you're thinking his thoughts you're thinking the most powerful thoughts there are when you're thinking his thoughts you're thinking and beginning to see what he's thinking about you next on InTouch taking control of your thoughts our mind is the control tower of our life whatever happens in our life starts right here all of our decisions of air and the truth is whatever we are today is the result of what we've been thinking about all those years the Bible says as a man thinketh in his heart so is he so if you don't like what's going on around you maybe you should ask yourself the question what am I thinking about what do I think about myself what I think about other people because what we think about is really what controls us for example a relationship to God a relationship to each other a sense of direction in life whatever we accomplish have failures in life all of that is a result of the way we think and oftentimes we forget that that this is a control tower that everything else is a result of how we think that we can't control everybody else in control of all of our circumstances but we are going to respond to circumstances in one way or the other and so when I think about how this affects us I think about the fact that many people of where they are because of the wrong thinking and so they don't like where they are other folks are where they are because of right thinking because they've been thinking the right way what you have to ask is this what is it that determines what I think is it the Word of God or is it something else I'll read something else that I watch and I'll think about how many people sit down and open their mind to our television program what did the news or what it might be not realizing they are sitting there being a programmed in their mind to think a certain way you say well does that include preaching too yes and I want you to listen carefully because I want you to be programmed to think the way God thinks program to understand the Word of God programmed in such a way that you will live and the fashion that's pleasing and honorable to God and that the very best that God has for your life you'll be able to experience that yes but on the other hand you're watching some program it's full of sensuality or just crime and all of these movies and so forth that you see and programs that I don't watch them I can't name them but I can tell you a lot of is just pure junk that you do not need in your mind in your thought life and certainly it's a part of your life so what I want to talk about in this message is controlling our thoughts because this controls everything and that's where our thoughts are from so if you turn in your Bible to Colossians chapter 3 and I want us to read these first eight verses and look at this they're not want to answer the question how do we control our thoughts which determines our life and Paul begins in this particular chapter and he says for example therefore that it's based on what he's been talking about if you have been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your mind on the things above not on the things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is our life is revealed that is when he comes then you also will be revealed come with him in glory therefore watch this consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality impurity passion evil desire and which amounts to idolatry but it's because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience and in them you also once walked when you were living in them but now you also put them all aside anger wrath malice slander abusive speech from your mouth and so on he goes so I want to sum look at this passage for a moment I'm gonna come back to it till the end of the message but notice what he says therefore if you've been raised up what in the world does that mean when you were saved it's as if the Bible says you die to your old way of life and you rose to walk in newness of life that's what baptism pictures you died the old way of life you're buried in Christ Jesus risen to walk in newness of life and these says therefore keep seeking since this is a new life keep seeking the things above spiritual things that doesn't mean that you forget everything that's in this life we have responsibilities and joys and whatever it may be but keep seeking those things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God so you understand that quality of those things set your mind on the things above not on the things that are on earth which is an awesome statement set your mind you're gonna set it on something set it on things above things that are holy and righteous and good and godly and helpful for you've died and your life is hidden with Christ in God that is you died your old way of life when you said I'm trusting Jesus as my savior you didn't just say well I just want to add Jesus to my present life and I'll keep going now this is what people do when they living in areas of idolatry and they have all kinds of idols in their house and unless they fully understand what they do when you explain Jesus to them they said oh yes and they've got a god to this they've got an idol to this god this God this God that they want to know what kind of a lay put up here Jesus add to their religion know when you trust the Jesus you died to your old way of life and when Christ who is our life is revealed when he comes then you also will be revealed come with an ink Lord now watch this next verse therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to illicit sex to moral impurity of all sorts passion that is that drive within you that causes you to do things that are not right and he says evil desires greed which amounts to adultery and in those days in what you'll find in the scripture oftentimes when the Bible talks about immorality he also talks about greed because he puts them together and in the days in which Paul was writing to the Colossians and to the Romans and so forth that Roman society adultery and sensuality were all sort of mixed up together their gods and their prostitutes in the other temples and so forth and so it was all a mixture so he says it's because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience and in them watch this in them you also once walked at that's past when you were living in them that is that was your lifestyle then he says but now you also put them all aside that is anger wrath malice slander and abusive speech that is you change so it's time to put away the things that don't fit your new life in Christ Jesus now I'm going to come back to that and show you something about that passage in a few moments but I want to see I'm gonna give you three ideas three points to this message and I want to end up with the last one being how do I control this control tower of my life how to control my thoughts is it possible to do so but the first point is simply this the pathway that controlling our thoughts begins with an understanding of our relationship to Jesus Christ you don't understand that you'll never understand this idea of controlling your thoughts that's where it all begins because he says here we were raised them with Christ Jesus referring through our salvation there was a change that place when you were saved and as a result of that God intended for our thinking to change our mind to change because this this mind of us controls everything else in your life you say well what about all the other parts of my life we respond to the way we think and so if we think right we're gonna have one response we think wrongly we're gonna have another very important that we understand how that works so this requires me to understand how to control my thoughts if I want to think right if I want to thank God Lee if I want to thank holy if I want to think righteously right here's where it starts and many people lose it right here they don't think right they don't think godly they don't think like they're worth anything and they say well you know I just never had the opportunity or I just never will be that or I'm just this and I'm not that this is why people who are very beautiful can think they're ugly and people who are very skinny can think they're fat and they refuse to eat because they think they look in the mirror and they don't see what's reality and so your mind controls every aspect of your life in fact what you think determines how you live what you think determines how your relationship to God as we said relationship to others your relationship to yourself and many people start out in life defeated because of the influence of their parents their grandparents that tell them they'll never amount to anything oh this is wrong with them well that's wrong with them and as a result they go through life what having heard written in their minds impressed in their thinking if my mama said it my daddy said it and my grandmother said it it must be true therefore and oftentimes people are ruined as a result of what they have been taught of what they have been what they've heard from someone that they value very highly so with that in mind I want to come to the second point which is the challenge to controlling our thoughts because once you're saved as I say your environments the same it could even get worse but we're to live godly in an ungodly society in an ungodly environment and some people's environments worse than others I'll think about people who grow up in families they get saved nobody else in the family is a Christian that family uses foul language they never read the Bible they drank the corrals may be unfaithful to each other all kinds of things and here's this Godman life that now is surrounded by very ungodly circumstances and I think about some situations and people that I've met and they tell me where they've come from and how God has worked in their life and how they live where they live in the circumstances they live in it is very difficult for them especially unless they're trained less they're taught and I think oftentimes people go to church year after year after year and nobody tells them or explains to them or helps them understand this is the way you think and you can only think this way if certain things are true and so this morning my goal is simply this to say there challenges to thinking godly but thinking godly is absolutely essential to our success in life learning to live with ourselves and learning today live with others and accomplishing whatever God has in mind for us and when I think about that I think about two verses of Scripture for example turn to a 2nd Corinthians for a moment and look in this look in this fourth chapter of 2nd Corinthians and the fourth verse he says in this fourth verse he says speaking of the gospel and so forth he says in verse 3 even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbeliever so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God watch this Satan blinds the mind of the unbeliever so that they can't don't want to have no desire to see the truth if you turn to the 11th chapter of 2nd Corinthians and look if you will in the 3rd verse now he blinds the minds of the unbelieving but listen to what he says in the 3rd verse but I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ he blinds the minds of of the unbeliever and he deceives believers this is why people who profess to be Christians oftentimes live a life that we know is absolutely not biblical because they're deceived well so-and-so says it's ok Oh so-and-so says it's all right they're deceived by what they hear by what they see about what they feel so Satan works he doesn't work on your toe your leg or somewhere else he works in your mind it's the battlefield in every person's life whatever goes on right here is going to affect every single aspect of your life and so this is why it's so important and why Paul is talking about it here and so what happens is Satan working in your mind will enable you to recall things that happened years and years and years ago maybe things that were bad something somebody did you somebody molested you somebody mistreated you whatever it might be and it's still there you can keep recalling it and when you recall it it's a bad feeling and so we have the power to recall but if that mind is filled with things that are unpleasant ungodly or ziba says here we've been blinded and so forth then we suffer the results and so the mind is very important and can be easily deceived by the devil unless you fill it with the truth of the word of God and I'm not talking about just reading the Bible once in a while which will - we'll see in just a few moments so when I think about this and I think about what is a reprobate mind a reprobate mind is one watch this carefully that has looked at life looked at particular sin in their life and decided that's what I want that's what I'm gonna do and I'm giving myself to that no matter what somebody else says I want anybody else likes they can say anything that wasn't say that's what I want to do and that's what I'm going to do and it is something that the scripture teaches there is specifically it's an act of disobedience to God when you give yourself over to a particular sin and you say that's what I'm gonna do that's where I'm gonna live then what you have is a reprobate mind it starts right here only you can decide that about yourself a reprobate mind I remember one of my friends who had been ahead of the Baptist's in a particular state where I was and he and I were good friends and I remember one day we were eating lunch and he said I remember he was down a little bit that day and I asked him what was going on he said you know he was in the service and he was in another country and he was there over there for a pretty good while he said you know I don't want to tell you what but he said in those few years I think he was there about three years he said I did a lot of things I saw a lot of things I experienced a lot of things he said I just sort of did what I wanted to do and he said now these years have passed by and I'm in the ministry and I'm still suffering the results of my sins because somehow I can't get them out of my mind he said because I was so indulged to myself and those three years of doing what I wanted to do what I thought I wanted to do he said it has happened me ever since so I'll just say this to you it makes a difference what you think and you may think of today and think well it's not going to ever happen or it's not going to hinder me in the future what you that watch this what you think is imprinted on your mind well how long does it take you to forget it it may not take you but two weeks to forget but remember this it is still in your mind this is why things crop up in your thinking that you hadn't thought about in years and years and years and years then on the other hand something happens this morning you can't remember it so the mind is a strange thing but one thing about it whatever you put in there is there to stay until Jesus delivers you from it so the mind is a powerful part of your body and the truth is your life is an expression of what you think if you don't like what you're thinking you can change your thinking you say well now I don't know that I can change my thing yes you can for example if you're angry you don't you can lay it down if you feel that you are nobody full of unworthiness you can lay it down if you are jealous of somebody you lay it down and we can just go through a whole list of pride and and criticism rejection fear and greed all of these things that people feel they can lay it down if they choose to now if you don't think you can and you just convinced you can't you say well I've felt this for years and years and years remember this one thing and you listening say Amen you have the Holy Spirit living in you as a believer when you trusted Christ as your Savior the Holy Spirit came to live in your life and remember what Jesus called him he said I'm gonna send the helper and when he comes he'll be in you with you and upon you you and I who are believers trusted Christ as their Savior we have the Holy Spirit living within us and one of his responsibilities is to as a helper is to enable us that is in our thinking to bring that back to our minds what we think and how we think and to help us to remember Scripture and so forth but he's there to be a helper and to help us to think right about God about Jesus about our life about others about ourselves he is her helper so you can walk away you do not have to keep remembering things that you say well do you just sit it'll be there it doesn't mean you have to remember it doesn't mean you have to bring it back when somebody says to me well I can't help myself yes you can yes you can't help yourself and I'll live long enough to know the times when I thought I couldn't help myself finally God got through to me say yes you can you are responsible but what you think and how you think it because as a believer you have the Spirit of God living within you to enable you to think right but it's important we understand what God says how he says it so I want you to think about this and this will be on the screen so you can jot it down if you'll do it quickly and simply this we saw a thought and reap in action we're going to respond we saw in action reap a habit because we keep sewing the same action we saw a habit and Reaper character because habits in their life determined our character we saw a character we become something we read we reap a destiny this is who we are and this is our future and then remember this idea unseen thoughts produce visible consequences unseen thoughts produce visible consequences in their life that was whatever we think nobody else in the world knows exactly what you think but the way you think is going to be visible at some point of the other and if you feel unworthy you feel like nobody cares and what it loves you it's gonna be visible upon your face you're not gonna have any peace at joy your happiness you think nobody really cares for you it's gonna show it's gonna be a part of your life but it came from your thinking don't think less of yourself than God thinks and he died for you no matter what somebody else says about you you are a child of God once you've trusted Christ as your Savior so we're the ones who determine what we gonna be and so forth because it's the way we think and this is why people can come from nowhere the worst kind of situation circumstances you'd think they'd never met anything in their life and they excel excel excelled the young even their imagination what they started thinking rightly about themselves and about the Lord and about his place and position in their life so unseen thoughts produce visible consequences in their life now I said all that they can render saying this how do we control their thoughts how do we control them well when the thought comes to your mind one of several things you're gonna do you're going to accept that thought and you're gonna express it in some fashion or you may just wrestle with it for a while or you may deny it and this is the way a signal defeats you if you're thinking something and you deny it it just gets deeper and deeper and deeper so you can accept it and express it you can wrestle with it denied or you can control it because you have the Holy Spirit working within you you can control what you think and that's if I'm going to control my thinking I have to understand that you have within you the power of the Spirit of God to enable you to think rightly if you find for example yourself somebody on your job you don't like them you don't want to be around them you can change your thinking about them you say how can I change my thinking about a mind I think that well you can say Frank first of all you know God created them he loves them and I can talk you out of being bad to them right now in other words if you just think about you think about people the way you choose to think and we are the products of our choices and how we handle these things in our life now one of the ways you overcome whatever that sin is in your life or whatever's going on one of the ways you overcome this thinkI is by asking yourself some very impacting questions not just questions but questions that'll make a difference in your life and I would just encourage you to write these down you ask yourself these questions about whatever you're thinking and the first question you ask is this where will these thoughts lead me where will these thoughts lead me if I keep thinking the same thing well the littleit it's gonna lead you somewhere very important question if I keep thinking this when's it gonna lead me another question is what will these thoughts get me where I want to go then you have to decide where do I want to go where do I want to go in life well what I'm thinking get me where I want to go and if you say I'm just not important I'm a nobody I don't have any gifts and talents and skills in life and give yourself a lot of excuses you won't get anywhere so you have to ask yourself the question if I keep thinking this where will this get me in life then ask yourself the question are these thoughts scripturally acceptable in other words let's say for example you sitting in front of the TV and something comes along you know it's not and the world is full of pornography and pornography is the world's photography they have diluted the truth and they put all kind of stuff out there for people to watch and you ask yourself the question are these thoughts scripturally acceptable and here's somebody committing some sexual acts on television you know or whatever you may watch mistake septa will scripture no they're not then you shut it down cut it off you you know once you don't watch you do not have to watch what you know it's not right you shut it down somebody says but I'm so weak you're weak because you're talking about being weak you don't have to be weak you have the Spirit of God within you who will enable you to do whatever is necessary tell overcome whatever's there so what you do yeah what we're doing is giving these questions and say let's look at reality what's reality reality is where will these thoughts lead me I have to answer that question well these thoughts get me where I want to go I need to answer that question are these thoughts scriptures accepted like an answer that will these thoughts build me up or tear me down and they're gonna do one of the two they're not neutral our thoughts are gonna build us up a tears down when you sit through this message these thoughts are to build you up not tear you down when you look and listen to stuff that you know is not right ungodly unscriptural sensual whatever it might be you know the real truth is they're gonna tear you down spiritually so you have to decide whether you gonna watch look a listen listen to your friends or whatever they're saying because they're gonna have some impact in your life and then could I share these thoughts with someone else whatever you're thinking could you share with somebody else always said that one of those thoughts that no you couldn't well I'm not saying you should tell everybody everything you know in life about yourself or whatever it might be but on a daily basis what I'm thinking could I share with somebody else and they'll tell you where you are in your thinking and then where did these thoughts originate and some thoughts did not not originate with the Word of God they did not originate in heaven they did not originate in godly living they did not originate in anything that's holy and they did not originate in anything that is good for you so when you analyze the thoughts where did this come from why am I thinking this what's what's the source of this what is this gonna do in my life watch this all of those questions you have the right and the power to answer for your life nobody else can answer them for your life you have the power to answer them for your life and we're just talking about how you think about yourself and the power of your thoughts and you just think just these questions alone and then the question is do I feel guilty thinking these thoughts what do you know the answer to those things you know for example if you thought about taking something that didn't belong to you how would you think about it you should feel guilty if you don't feel guilty you have a major problem then you need to think a little deeper if I have been saved what's going on in my life so we said your thought life is in your mind this is the control tower of your life and because it is we make the decisions and we suffer the consequences or we glean the blessing of making right decisions in life whether it's about money or whether it's about marriage or whether it's about six our friendship relationships here's where all starts and this is this it this is going to control your life and the truth is all of us up to this point in their life where we are as a result of how we've been thinking all these years so have you been thinking about yourself all these years have you been thinking about God have you been thinking about the Lord have you been thinking about your friends your relationships about our nation there was how do you what are you thinking about all that and you see you can't take your mind out and put somebody else's in there except Jesus when he says we have the of Christ that it watched this when you trusted Jesus as your personal Savior he gave us the power to think the way he thinks that doesn't mean we'll be as wise as he is all that we'll have all the knowledge that he has but he gives us the right and the power to think godly as his creations so we have the power to think right we have the gift of Almighty God and someone to protect us in the process then you might ask yourself this question watch this do these thoughts that who I am as a follower of Jesus these thoughts did who I am as a follower of Jesus if not a follower of Jesus anything goes but once that trust Christ is my Savior that some thoughts don't fit you there's some thoughts that do not fit you once you trust Christ as your Savior they don't fit you once you trust the Lord Jesus as as the lord of your life they don't fit you any longer and so you and I make choices they still watch this who we see ourselves to be a follower of Jesus Christ and therefore there's some things that don't fit us there's some places that don't fit you there's some words that don't fit you there's some thoughts that don't fit you there's some clothes that don't fit you there's some actions and attitudes and habits that do not fit us once we trust Christ as our Savior this one the Bible says come out from among them and be ye separate says the Lord I'm to think differently and if I think differently I'm going to act differently and probably gonna look differently if I'm following Jesus into the world we're in deeper trouble than we realize because after you go to a certain point and then you decide that you want to you're gonna you're gonna change how long do you think it would take for us to change our views in this country of sex how long do you think it would take could you think he could ever be possibly turned around that's just one aspect but honesty and truthfulness where's truth whereas honestly where is purity where's godliness that things that made us the nation we are we've decided and I'm going to show you a little contrast in a moment we've decided between two choices and the choices we are making a choices that are destructive in their nature and remember this you can't change this we reap what we sow more than we sow later than we sow and it's getting at very late now what I want to do is I want us to compare the difference between true genuine love and lust and those thoughts are they come from the control tower how do we think and so I want you to jot these down because oftentimes you hear people say well I got in trouble because he or she said they really love me and if they love me that you're to bed with me and so now I'm pregnant and on and on and on we go I want you to think about how many precious little children are born in America without a father it is a tragedy of tragedies in this country that sex is so important that nobody seems to care about well the consequences so I want us to I want to give you a little example of the difference between love and lust so I'm gonna have a chart now I put up on the board in just a moment and love is an awesome blessing of God and lust is something totally different but when somebody says but feeling this way if somebody wants something from you and they say well look I love you well here's some things for you to think about love is listen love is from God lust is from the world now remember that lust listen lust is desire out of control that's what lust is it's out of control if you get stronger and strong and strong and let you deal with it so you have to decide is this love or lust love can wait and lust has got to have it now I think about people who get themselves in a position this is why you have to watch where you go watch what you watch be careful who you in other words you have to be careful about choosing your friends well if you love me you would do the sand so no if I loved you I wouldn't dare do it if I loved you I would not touch you if I loved you no I wouldn't think that if I loved you I want because lust is destructive love is selfless not thinking about itself but it's listen lust is selfish I want what I want because that's what I want it's all about me lust is all about me not about love not about the other person love for example is giving now you hear people say well in fact if you'll recall probably almost half a generation ago maybe generations ago we heard a lot about free love so once you're listening carefully there is no such thing as free love no such thing let's start with the gospel the gospel of Jesus Christ is free but it costs Jesus his life on the cross there's nothing free it's free to us now by faith but it cost Jesus his life and true genuine love has a price tag it's not free if you love somebody you may have to sacrifice you love somebody you may have to give you love somebody you met to be in other words it lots of different ways that love can cost you something so free love that's what the world talks about and usually if they're talking free love they're talking drugs and other things that go with that because they've given themselves over to a lie they have been deceived by the devil and their thinking so love is giving and lust is taking I want this then love is purity and lust is sin it's just that clear disobedience love develops and lust destroys destroys relationships destroys families destroys people you name it it's a destroyer lust is a destroyer because let says I've got to have it I want it and this is why people commit all kind of crimes they want something and they wanted now and then of course the difference is that love is peaceful and lust is full of anxiety lust creates anxiety and love is peaceful lust is anxious I want it now have to have it now and that's their attitude now we have to choose to obey the commands of Christ that's going to take us back to our scripture we read a few moments ago in these first few verses because if I'm going to live a godly life and I'm going to make my mind the control tower that I want to be I have to be obedient to God's Word so when we talk about what he says in a few moments we're not talking about just a little Bible reading here and there so listen carefully and what I want to do is I want to go through the scriptures and give you a little insight into what Paul says that's not always there in English but it's there in the language in which he wrote it and so when he says for example let's look at this first verse therefore if you have been raised up with Christ he says keep seeking now he uses he uses a form of the verb that says keep seeking continually seek and habitually do it that is keep seeking is to keep on doing it not just once but is it's a lifestyle you read the Word of God you have bit early and you are continually keeping the Word of God before you it's a part of your life you feast on it's a part of your diet and he says speaking of seeking those things above well what's he talking about he's talking about for example he says where Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father seeking things above doesn't mean that I don't have anymore relationships and then I get holy and hole in I don't think about anything else no it means that I've set my mind on things that are pleasing to the Father keep seeking those things above that is what did Jesus teach so if I want to keep seeking things above I'm going to find out what he said and how he lived and how he said I'm to live and I'm gonna keep he says habitually do it and no matter who you are the devil will see to it that you don't remember much if you don't read the scriptures continually I don't mean every single day all day I mean when he says keep seeking those things above that is well here's what he's saying make up a most in your thinking make a big part of your thinking what God thinks keep thinking of those things above where Christ has seed the Father's right hand and what kind of thinking is that Jesus is always thinking concerning us personally in your life he's thinking what's best for you what's the best for you this morning what's the best for you in your job what's the best for you with your friends what's the best for you how you spend your money what's the best what's the best what's best for you he says keep seeking those things above at the throne of God and then he says not only that set your mind and both of these use a form of the verb which means habitually and continually set your mind on things above that is as believers followers of Jesus we died the old way of life and so we should be thanking God's thoughts what does he think how does he want us to think how does he want us to live and in the process of doing so remember this when you're thinking his thoughts you're thinking the most powerful thoughts there are when you're thinking his thoughts you're thinking and beginning to see what he's thinking about you and when you focus on what God thinks about you that he loves you that he's forgiving you that he cares for you that he wants the best for you things begin to happen in your life and that's why he says he seek habitually continually and he says seek and then he says set your mind then he says you've died now watch this here's the difference when he says seek and set your mind he says seek and say my habitually when he says you died you died in your old way that is you were saved once and then habitually seeking and setting your mind on Christ like something that goes on continuous in your life so why does he say that because he wants us to think the way God wants us to think and so we can see what that's all about when we read the Word of God then he says consider the members of your body dead to these thoughts now he uses another term of form of the verb here when he says put it to death notice how he says it he says therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead watch this dead to immorality dead to impurity did the passion strong insatiable desire evil desires grief but put them to death you say well what does that mean here's what it means let's say for example that you just have this you just got to have more money and you draw maybe you've maybe you've seen something you've just got to have you've got to have you've got to have it well what do you do you wrestle with it you can just go ahead and express it or you can you can put it to death you can control it watch this the Spirit of God within you will enable you to lay it down you do not have to fulfill temptation if you had to it would be an absolute awesome gross mistake on the part of God that he's asking me to do something he knows that I absolutely can't do it but we have the Holy Spirit now if you if you don't have your mind on the things of God this is why he says set your mind on the things of God keep it listen keep them habitually before you so when Satan attacks you you've got ammunition one of them is I don't have to do that thank you Jesus that you've given me the strength to say no to sin and to obey you now watch this if you say well I got to think about it that the Satan loves that because what happens when you say I've just well I got to think about it why are you thinking right here and where Satan working right here yeah this is a battlefield you hand your feet nothing else a battlefield the battlefields right here and so you decide your victory or defeat in your mind and your feet and your hands travel where your mind has already gone you set your mind on somebody or something or some place you set your mind on that and you keep thinking about that thing about thinking about next thing you know listen your mind is not on there but you have fit you are there your feet are going to travel where you set your mind and so therefore we have to guard what we think then he says consider the members of your body dead to the out did all of these things and so he says these things we once walked in this is the way we once walked back yonder but remember we died to that if somebody died and we brought the casket right in here and set it down here it could be a hundred thousand dollar casket you know what they're dead and you can do anything you want you can take the coffin top off you can talk to them sing - shout Holly and you know what they're not gonna move because they're dead and there are things in life and their times in life when you and I to meet need to be just as dead to what we've seen of what we've heard remember this Satan will bring back what you've seen heard felt touch experience that you name it and so what do we do to put that to death thank you Jesus says no that doesn't fit Who I am so we say no and you can say no when somebody says but I'm so weak listen when you hears watch this when you say I'm weak you have thought you have just cited up of the devil I am weak and Satan says that's right say it again say it again I'm weak no you're not weak you choose to think it at the moment but you have the power of God within you to make a wise decision then when he says for example watch this and I just love this he says the word of Christ richly dwells in you in the third chapter look at that look at the third chapter in the sixteenth or us let the word of Christ richly dwell in within you with all wisdom look at this with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your hearts okay I wanted what an awesome thing that is he says let the word of Christ richly dwell on you and I love this Greek word the word is pluteus and here's what it means it means extravagantly let the Word of God when he says richly extravagantly dwell in you that is you've got the Word of God care what you you can't think about much without quoting some scripture or thinking about some scripture or the Spirit of God will bring to your mind some verses scripture he says let it dwelling within you he says he says extravagantly which means if it's gonna drilling me extravagantly it's gonna have a powerful effect on my life but secondly it's not gonna dwell extravagant in me by just reading it once in a while so please don't raise your hand it's a question how many of you take your Bible home I know that wouldn't be true of you take your Bible home after service and close it till next Sunday surely nobody this congregation will do that amen well some of you don't sound very convincing amen you wouldn't do that you know that's not filling your mind abundantly and as he says in this passage so beautifully he says extravagantly the Word of God filling our mind and heart so that what we have this awesome reefs listen when you do that you know what God thinks about everything that you confront every aspect of your life you know what he says and listen when it's overflowing in you when the word of truth is overflowing in you you come against anything no matter what it might be what happens you know what the right response is and if it's overflowing in you then what happens is you since the strength and the power of God to help you in that situation no matter what it is but you just read the Bible once in a while and when I think about that word richly extravagantly overflowing in you that's all to be our lifestyle so we begin by saying your mind is a control tower so you have to decide how you gonna live your life and what you're gonna see what you're gonna read what you gonna look at and so forth and we said we make choices not think about that 119th some a couple of verses I'm sure I learned a long time ago in the hundred nineteen summoned the ninth verse says how can a young man how can the young man keep his way pure by keeping it listen according to your word how can you keep you away pure keeping it according your word then he says in that later verse night eleventh first your word have a treasured in my heart that I might not sin against God treasure not just drop it in treasured super abundantly overflowing overflowing in our heart the Living Word of God because what that means is up in the control tower is truth and the control tower is the right sense of direction control tower yet you're evaluating things as they are not as they appear to be and the control tower is what you're thinking there are consequences to sin whatever I do today I'll reap tomorrow words you're gonna be thinking right superabundant as he says extravagantly so if there is some particular area of your life in which you're having a real problem ask yourself the question where come from it didn't come from this extravagantly awesome word of truth in my mind in heart and if it doesn't fit that it doesn't fit me remember this you decide who you want to be you decide what you want to accomplish you decide how you want to live all right here you decide whether you want to be accepted or rejected you make a lot of decisions in your life all right here and I remember right here's a battle feel in your life Satan's wants to pull you one way God the other Satan has never done you any good he's lied to you deceived you and made you promises not a single one of them has ever come true but the deception he says you'll enjoy this but what he doesn't tell you is you'll enjoy the only for a season there are consequences there is a cost there's a payday someday you have to decide right there what come later you're gonna live what kind of future you're gonna have and he says if you was you'll make right decisions you'll ask those questions that I gave you about situations that arise in your life and in the process of making a decision it's my prayer you make the right decision a wise decision and you'll be glad if Father how grateful we are for your love for us and thank you thank you thank you for your forgiveness thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable us strengthen us overshadow us and guide us and I pray for every person who hears this message especially for those who've never trusted you as they're saving and living in defeat that you will assure them that if they are willing to trust you Lord Jesus as their personal Savior you bring about the death to their old life you bring about the changes in life you promised it and you always do I pray for those Lord who have trusted you as their Savior but they're living in sin miserable obeying the devil and temptation make them so miserable dear God they'll turn around realizing I don't have to live this kind of life I want God's best and this is not God's best thank you father you know what all of us need thank you for y'all some power to provide it and we praise you and bless you for loving us the way you do in Jesus name Amen [Music]

Channel: In Touch Ministries

Views: 7,904,266

Rating: 4.7828088 out of 5

Keywords: Charles F. Stanley Dr. Charles Stanley Dr. Stanley In Touch InTouch God Jesus Holy Spirit Christian, Charles Stanley, Christianity (Religion), Thought (Quotation Subject), Jesus Christ (Deity), Holy Spirit (Deity), God (Deity), Church (Project Focus), Control, Mind

Id: 9bLgDoFkdqo

Length: 51min 35sec (3095 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 12 2015