The Battle for Your Mind

hi everybody I can't tell you how deeply disappointed I am to not be with you tonight I was really looking forward to it you know in 2010 I had only accepted three outside speaking engagements here in America and I really wanted to be with you and with my friend John Piper who is one of the most godly and price centered men that I know and I look forward to coming back to Minneapolis and doing a an extended interview with John and of course in April we're hosting the desiring God conference out on the west coast to put it briefly the last three weeks of my life I've been in a very strong spiritual battle unlike anyone I've been in I probably in my entire life specifically in the last week I've had to go to the emergency room with members of my family three different members on three different occasions in one week first about a week ago I had a family member who was feeling a little chest pain we went to the emergency room discovered that he had a 99% blocked artery and had to have emergency heart procedure done then yesterday a member of my family was involved in a literally life-threatening incident and we had to call 911 and get the ambulance and go to the emergency room again and then as I was coming home from Pasadena today I got a third call said another family member had been rushed to the hospital because of an allergic reaction to an injection and I literally it's about 10 o'clock at night then I'm taping this I literally just came from the hospital for the third time in a week my family needs me and I've always believed that if you put your family first God will honor you in your ministry and as he has in my life and so I wish I could be with you but I know that I'm needed to be here with my family right now you've probably heard the expression waiting for the other shoe to drop well the shoes have been dropping in my life the last three weeks so much it's been like a tap dance but I'm confident that God has given me a message I believe that Satan didn't want me to teach it to you and I believe that Satan didn't want you to hear it it's so ortant but because of this facility of video I'm able to be with you tonight and so I'm going to ask you to listen intently I'm gonna ask you to listen as if your life depends on it and the lives of your members depend on it because it does I'd like us to begin with just a word of Prayer would you bow with me father I want to thank you for your love for us and I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart will be acceptable to you O Lord in Jesus name I pray amen friends there is a violent battle going on in your life and around your life 24 hours a day 1965 Donald Gray Barnhouse wrote a book about it it's called the invisible war it is the battle for your mind and that battle is vicious it is intense it is unrelenting and it is unfair but the Satan never plays fair and the reason why it is so intense is because your greatest asset is your mind I have seen the face of mental illness I have seen what it's like to see people not be able to hear God because their minds are broken and aren't connecting to God even when they want to connect the gut I have seen that happen and I know that whatever gets your mind gets you so one of the most important things we have to do to teach our churches to teach our members to teach our disciples is that they must learn how to guard how to protect how to strengthen how to renew their minds because the battle for sin always starts in the mind now you know there are many many passages in Scripture that we could look at tonight I want us to just read one passage from 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 if you have a Bible you can open the second Corinthians chapter 10 and we'll start with verse 3 though we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does in other words we know fight with Armour we don't fight with politics we don't fight with money we don't fight with all the humanistic ways it says the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds and we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ now the Bible says that our job in this battle is to demolish strongholds you know what a stronghold is it's a mental block this is a mental battle here it's talking about pretensions arguments that set itself up against the knowledge of God this is a mental battle and he says we tear down we demolish these strongholds now stronghold can be one of two things it can be a world view which is materialism hedonism Darwinism secularism relativism communism there are many methey isms that all of the different isms are mental strongholds that people will set up against the knowledge of God but a stronghold can also be a personal attitude worry can be a stronghold seeking the approval of other people can be a stronghold anything you idolize that you make an idol in your life to be a stronghold fear guilt resentment insecurity all of these things can be strongholds in your mind and the Bible says that we are to tear them down now because of the shortness of time tonight I don't have time to go into all of this passage I just want us to look at the very last phrase it says we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ we take captive every thought now you know take captive take captive every thought equality is out there means to to to control it means to conquer it means to bring in the submission we take captive we make it submit every thought to make it obedient to Christ obedient to Christ make it obedient who poco a means to to bring in the submission to to bring under control now the question I want us to look at is how do you do that and how do I teach my people to do that how do I make my mind mind I don't know about you but I've noticed my mind doesn't always mind in fact my mind is often disobedient in fact it's often very rare Bell yes it wants to go in a different direction and and when I want to think a certain way it what belet's to go another way when I need to ponder it wants to wander when I need to pray my thoughts want to float away Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 7 and he says you know all the things that I want to do I end up not doing and all the things that I don't want to do that I know are wrong I end up doing a wretched man that I am the fact is the reason we have so many ineffective Christians today is because they don't know how to fight the battle of the mind and I blame us for that the pastor's we must spend more time teaching our people how to fight the Battle of mine as a pastor it is your job to equip them for this battle now I've been studying this subject for 33 years I did my first study through the Bible on the book of on the on the on the mind through all the books of the Bible in 1977 and the truth is I could teach on this subject for a week there's so much material on what the Bible has to say about strengthening our minds renewing our minds submitting our minds you know bringing them into captivity the thoughts into captivity there there are at least a hundred principles in God's Word that have to do with what we are to do with our brains with our minds as I said they are your greatest asset all I want to do tonight is give you six simple principles six of the many many principles that we have to teach our members we have to teach our people if they're going to be effective for Christ if they're going to live the Christ life so let's look at these number one if you're taking notes the first thing you have to teach your members this don't believe everything you think don't believe everything you think you see we naturally feel that if we think something it's got to be true because it comes from within us but just because you think something doesn't make it true as I said I've seen the face of mental illness and I've seen when people can't get the right thoughts now there are many different suggestions that come into mind certainly the world puts suggestions in our minds that that are false and and we're bombarded with those false ideas all the time and of course Satan makes suggestions all the time but your problems all a lot deeper than that and the problem of your members there's a whole lot deeper than that and I don't mean to shock you but everybody has a mental illness we're all mentally ill what I mean by that the mental illness is called sin and the Bible uses at least a dozen different phrases for our minds it says our minds are confused Deuteronomy 28 anxious closed job 17 they're evil they're restless Ecclesiastes 2 they're rash they're deluded the Bible talks about troubled mind depraved mind sinful mind dull mine blinded mind corrupt mind the Bible says that our minds are broken by sin now what does that mean it means that's why we can't trust what we even think ourselves Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says this the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked who can know it what does that verse mean it means we have an amazing ability to lie to ourselves you do it all the time and so do I we lied at we tell thing we tell ourselves the things aren't as bad as they really are we tell I think ourselves the things are better than they really are we tell ourselves that we're doing ok when we're not doing ok we're telling ourselves it's no big deal when it is a big deal in fact the Bible tells us that you cannot be trusted to tell yourself the truth that's why you need to question and you need to teach your pee well don't believe everything you think just because you get a thought doesn't mean it's correct this is the reason we have so many fallen leaders and another one fell just this last week because all sin begins with a lie the Bible says Satan is the father of lies and if he can get you to believe a lie he can get you to sin anytime you sin you're thinking that you know better than God God has said this but what about this and so you have to question what you think first John 1:8 says if we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us we deceive ourselves all the time you know i I've noticed that in the next generation growing up one of the big values is authenticity well I'd like to say first when was I in authenticity ever in style I don't know that it's ever been and authenticity has always been an attractive quality but a lot of guys who are proudly promoting their authenticity don't realize what it really is you're not authentic until you can publicly admit how inauthentic you are most of the time authenticity begins when you start by admitting that you're inauthentic much of the time and the reason why we can't believe what we tell ourselves there's a number reason I've put 8 just a tit reasons there on your outline I don't have time to go into these but we all have blind spots some of us have bald spots but we all have blind spots we can't always tell ourselves the truth because we don't stop to really think a lot of times we make snap judgments we fail to notice important details we all have background biases far more than you realize we jump to conclusions and the Bible talks about this in Romans chapter 2 we get trapped by categories like it's this or this when who said there are only two categories are only three categories we miss the big picture but one of the real big reasons why you need to not believe everything you think is because we see what we want to see I constantly am reading about the brain one of these I just learned is that the optic nerve which is the only nerve that goes directly to your brain that when you're looking at something studies have shown there are actually more impulses coming from your brain forward than from your eye backwards when you are seeing what does that mean it means your brain is telling you what you see it's already pre conditioned you that's why you even put four people at an accident and each of us see something different why because your brain is telling you what to see you must teach your members don't believe everything you think the second thing you must teach your members in this battle for the mind you must teach your members to guard their minds from garbage you must guard your mind from garbage now the old cliche from the computer early days guy go garbage in garbage out is still true today the amount of garbage you put in is what you're gonna get out if you put bad data into a computer you're gonna get bad results out if you put bad garbage mental garbage in your mind you're gonna get garbage out in your life proverbs 15 verse 14 I love this in the New Living Translation a wise person is hungry for truth while the fool feeds on trash that might be a good verse to put on a post a note and put on your television the next time you think about going to a movie the fool feeds on trash now you know you go to any nutritionist they'll tell you that there are three kinds of physical food for your physical body and the same is true mentally there's there's brain food that makes you smarter there are actually foods that can make you smarter there's junk food which is simple calories it's not poison but it's just empty calories and and then there's toxic foods which is poison that stuff will kill you now the same is true in material the same is true in what you see and what you hear and allowing your mind some food is brain food there's material that'll make you smarter they'll make you more godly that'll make you a more mature emotionally and then there's junk food and there's a lot of stuff you can fill your mind with that really is just stuffing it's neither good in their bed but as the Bible says all things are lawful but not all expedient in other words some things aren't necessarily wrong they're just not necessary and if you fill your mind with trivia and some people know more about the NFL a race than they knew about parle Paul and Barnabus or or the seven guys who traveled with Paul in his traveling seminary and they can give you the stats on every baseball player but they couldn't tell you you know who half the people in the Bible are the Bible tells us we need to fill our minds with the right thing if you want to be successful in your ministry and what's the alternative failure no I think God wants you to succeed in your ministry by the way people say well God doesn't call me to be successful he's called me to be faithful you know what that's just not true the Bible says God expects you to not just be faithful but fruitful God demands fruitfulness studied off your Scripture I've called you to go and bear forth fruit Jesus cursed a fig tree because it didn't bear fruit that's how important fruitfulness is faithfulness is only half the equation God expects fruitfulness too and the Bible says in Psalm 101 verse 3 I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless now I know you would never invite a couple to come over to your house tonight and sit down and say why don't you commit an act of adultery in front of us but you do it every time you watch a TV program that has that you'd never invite somebody to come over so why don't you murder somebody right here in my front living room but you do it every time you watch a TV show where somebody murders somebody how do you guard your mind against garbage how do you train your people to guard their mind against garbage you see some people so open minded their brains fall out they just think I can allow anything into my mind and isn't gonna happen you're kidding yourself now there are two ways to guard your mind and both of them are covered in Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 to 8 the two ways to guard your mind from garbage are number 1 conversational prayer and number 2 concentrated focusing conversational prayer and concentrated focusing here's what the scripture says don't worry about anything instead pray about everything tell god what you need and thank him for all he's done if you do this you will experience God's peace which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand by the way how do you know when you've got the peace that passes understanding when you give up trying to understand why God does what he does and you just trust him then you get the peace of passes understanding now he says his peace will guard your hearts and minds if you're taking notes on the outline circle that guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus so the first way you guard your heart and mind is to pray about everything and his peace will guard your hearts and mind and then he says fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise now notice he says pray about everything which by the way if you prayed as much as you worried you'd have a lot less to worry about he says don't worry about anything but pray about everything and he says that you maintain a running conversation that means I'm not on my knees I'm not closing my eyes I have trained myself to do this I talked to God all the time I'm talking to him while I'm talking to you you can have a two-track mind that's why people can be thinking about the roast burning in the oven while they're listening to you preach the sermon or they're thinking about stock market or something else the average person talks 150 words a minute but the average mind can hold about 350 words a minute which is a 250 word per minute boredom factor so you could certainly talk to God and talk to somebody else at the same time he says pray about everything maintain a running conversation and then he says fix your thoughts how do you do that by concentrating focus now let me tell you here's one of the keys to overcoming temptation don't resist it replace it whatever you resist persist the more you hit a nail the harder you drive that into the wood and when people say I don't want to think about this I don't want to think about this I don't want to think about this what are they doing they're thinking about it and whatever gets your phone just get you James tells us that and sin when it is conceived brings forth death so he says you don't resist it it's like when I was a little kid and my my mom would bake cookies and I'd go up to the edge and and mom would say now Ricky don't eat those cookies I said I'm not mom I'm just looking I'm looking I don't want it I don't want it I don't want it I don't want it and then I grabbed it need it well if that's why you did what's the key don't resist replace you just changed the channel you refocus don't resist you refocus it is the the power explosive power of a new affection that turns your mind away from the things that the devil wants you to focus on to the things that God wants you to focus on now guard your mind from garbage is the second key the third thing we have to teach our members in this battle for the mind is to never let up on learning never let up on learning in other words you must become a life long learner you must love knowledge you must love wisdom you must love the act of learning you know the word disciple means learner you cannot be a disciple of Christ without being a learner jesus said come to me those of you who are weary and and and heavy laden by the way that's a felt need and I will give you rest that's a felt need take my yoke upon you and learn of me what do you do when you take on a yoke you share a burden with with another animal you lighten load and he says learn of me God wants us to learn of him you know a lot of people act like their education ended when they graduated I've met some pastors who haven't cracked the books in seminary I'm sure that's none of you but they've never studied anything else you've never taken another class since you got out of school are you kidding me to learn means to be a disciple all leaders are learners the moment you stop learning you stop leading growing churches require growing pastors the moment you stop growing your church stops growing now you can learn from anybody if you just know the right question the Bible says counsel in the heart of man is a deep well but a man of understanding will draw it out in other words you can learn from anybody if you just learn to draw it out and how do you do it you draw it out by asking questions why because everybody's ignorant just on different subjects you know some things I don't know I know some things you don't know and the person sitting next to you know some things that neither of us know that's the way that my Bible says iron sharpens serpents iron but if you're gonna learn you got to have one quality in your life you got to be humble why does God resists the proud and give grace to the humble because the humble are teachable I'd rather admit that I don't know it all than to pretend that I know it all and not learn you can learn from anybody I learned from churches larger than Saddleback I learned from churches smaller than Saddleback I learned from guys older than me and like guys from younger I learned from guys who don't like me I learned from critics I learned from people who totally misunderstand me why because you can learn from anybody actually I'm smarter than my enemies why because my enemies only learn from themselves but I learn from them and me so I know more than they do I learn what they know plus what I know now the Bible says this in proverbs 18 verse 15 the mind of a smart person is eager circle that eager to get knowledge that's a mark of intelligence but the wise person listens to learn more you got to be eager and you got to be willing to listen you know the old cliche that God gave us two ears in one mouth so we should listen twice as much as we speak proverbs 10:14 wise men store up knowledge Circle that word store up that phrase so you know in Scripture that's the only thing we're supposed to store up Jesus told us don't store up money don't store up treasure don't start material possessions where moth and rust doth corrupt but the Bible says store up knowledge why because knowledge is far more important than money you can always get more money but knowledge is something you're going to take with you if you store up knowledge in yourself you're taking you to heaven you're leaving all the wealth behind you're leaving all the material things all of the stuff behind now one of the ways you can store up knowledge there's a couple ways to do this but one of the ways you store up knowledge is to start a family library a godly family library and leave it as a legacy to the next generation I know this because four generations back gave their library to three generations back gave it to two generations back my dad who gave it to me I began collecting books when I was 16 years old for many years of my life I read a book a day you say how did you do that big print lots of pictures real thin but I read book today I have over 20,000 volumes in my library why because when I was 16 years old I read a book that said the impact on your life will be largely from the people you meet and the books you read so I decided to get very intentional about both of those who I would meet in life and what I would read in life and when you begin to build a library of godly Christian books you're leaving a legacy for the next generation you know twice on the book of Proverbs the Bible says store up my commands within you well your if you're going into eternity you're gonna take that with you you know in December I'm actually gonna start a new webcast called the pastor's library in which since I've read so many books I can tell you all the ones to skip over because there's a lot of worthless ones and you only need to read the really great ones the great classics in fact here I would suggest you do this if you're serious about growing and knowledge and growing in your mind you need to read 25% of your books from the first 1,500 years of church history the first 1500 years twenty-five percent of you're reading a lot of people act like nothing happened between Paul and Luther God was at work all that time he was and it's a it's a disk it's a dismissal of the the Church of God that God was not having his faithful during those times you need to be reading those people and then you need to read 25% in the last 500 years since the Reformation then you need to leave 25% I recommend in the last 100 years and I recommend that you only read 25% of contemporary say in the last 10 years a lot of people know all the contemporary books I know none of the classics it's not like God began the church in 1990 he's been working in his body for 2,000 years and you can save yourself a lot of time if you read those it's wise to learn from experience but it's wiser to learn from the experiences of others it's also easier it also saves a lot of time I don't have all the time to make all the mistakes myself so I'm constantly reading the classics I'm constantly reading and every year I read through the the systematic complete works of a great thinker last year I read through the 26 volumes of Jonathan Edwards which took a lawful lot and the volumes about that thick this year I'm reading through the church dogmatics the complete works of Carl Bart and I've read through Wesley and I've read through all of these different leaders why because it's it's it's prideful to think that these people can't teach us what we need to know there's really nothing new Under the Sun by the way if it's new it's not true because truth is eternal it's been around it was a true a thousand years ago be true a thousand years from today truth is never invented it is only discovered and if God has shown it to as truth somebody else has seen the in the body before you in fact if you ever come up with the truth that nobody else has ever seen I can tell you this you're wrong because God speaks to his body the Bible says the wise man stores up knowledge look at this next verse proverbs 19 verse 8 those who get wisdom do themselves a favor and those who love learning will succeed you've got to make time for think time you've got to plan it in your life that there's this balance between doing and between thinking and and and you have to have both of them in your life now let me give you very quickly I could do an entire simin on this but I'll just briefly over a overview what I call the five levels of learning this is the pedagogy of discipleship that we use at Saddleback we've used it for 30 years and it's the reason why we've brought so many people in the front door but sent so many out the back door on ministry and mission see I believe you judge the health of a church not on its seating capacity but on its ending capacity you don't judge the health of an army by how many how many soldiers sit in the mess hall and eat every week and listen to your Bible study you judge how many your this health of an army by how many on the front end out on the on the front line doing battle in the world at Saddleback Church in the last 10 years we've baptized over 22,000 new believers I don't believe there's a church in America that has done that 22,000 new believers baptized in the last 10 years i baptized 25 last week 32 the week before on the other hand we know how to bring them in build them up train him for and send them out and in the last eight years we've sent out almost 15,000 I think it's fourteen thousand eight hundred and eighty two of our members have gone overseas to literally every nation in the world we decided to be the first church in history to go to Tov Nina I know what that means but we used the national boundaries of the hundred and ninety five nations and we are now four nations away from completing to every nation and we will finish it by October 10th that we will have been the first church to send nearly 15,000 members on mission to literally every nation in the world how do you do that well you got to teach people not just love the word but to do the word now there are five levels of learning and here's what they are knowledge perspective conviction character and skills knowledge perspective the Bible calls it wisdom conviction character and skills the first two have to note have to do with knowing the second two have to do with being and the third one has to do with doing now we use these as a template for all of our discipleship moving people from come and see to come and die at Saddleback Church first you have to teach your people to learn knowledge Hosea 4:6 says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and because they don't know the Word of God there they're destroyed not only that they don't know church history that's why I bet you don't know that it's Saddleback Church on the back of our bulletins we have a church figure from history every week a little bio Minar bulletin a great person from church history we have a theological word of the week on the back of our bulletin why because I want the people Saddleback Church to know Theological words and I want them to know the great saints of history that's part of knowing the knowledge and the fact is you can learn the Bible without really knowing it because you know all them facts but you don't really know the content you haven't applied it you don't really know it until you do it that's why Jesus said to the Pharisees you know fellas your problem is you don't know Scripture know the power of God now think about what a put-down that was because to be a Pharisee you had to memorize the Pentateuch Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy you had to memorize it and Jesus says you know your problem guys you just don't know the scripture why you can have it memorized and not know it you must teach your people knowledge to love knowledge to get rid of this anti intellectualism we need great Christian intellectuals today more than ever before people are a lot brighter than me to be intellectuals to to battle on the that level in the world views of life then the second thing you need is perspective now the Bible calls perspective wisdom wisdom is seeing life from God's viewpoint it's seeing from God's perspective knowledge is knowing what God does wisdom and perspective is knowing why he does it knowledge is the bottom rung perspective is the next building block a little bit higher some churches are great at Bible knowledge but they don't teach people perspective they don't teach them wisdom the Bible says in Isaiah 55 verse 8 I love this in the message paraphrase God says I don't think the way you think and the way you work isn't the way I work well obviously that's true Psalm 103 verse 7 King James says the Lord revealed his acts to the children of Israel and his ways to Moses did you get that God revealed his acts the children of Israel saw the miracles now they saw the Red Sea split they saw the water at Marah they saw the doves and the manna and they saw all all of these different things they saw the acts of God but Moses knew the ways of God he knew why God did it he got they had knowledge he had perspective you see in knowledge the goal is to know the Word of God but in perspective the goal is to have the mind of God we must help people develop the mind of Christ then the third thing you need is conviction conviction is the third building block and they build on each other you get knowledge of the word and then you get perspective on why God does what he what is God's perspective on temptation what does God's perspective on evil what does God's perspective on my past my present my future what does God's perspective on sin what does God's perspective on Satan once you start getting perspective you start developing convictions now what is a conviction well it's not an opinion opinion is something you'll argue about a conviction is something you'll die for and what we need today are men and women of godly biblical convictions if you know anything about history you know that the people who've had the greatest impact on our world for good or for evil we're not the smartest we're not those who have the most knowledge we're not the wealthy it's not the most talented but those who had the deepest convictions for right or wrong Hitler Buddha Marx Gandhi whoever had the deepest convictions and of course Jesus had the deepest convictions of all if you want to know how much Jesus loves you look at the cross with arms outstretched and nail-pierced hands Jesus says this is how much I love you I love you so much it hurts I love you so much I'd rather die than live without you I love you so much at every drop of blood that's falling to the ground is saying I love you I love you I love you that's conviction now the Bible talks about in 1st Corinthians 7 about being settled in your own mind that means you've got godly convictions faith is the conviction of things we do not see let me give some examples nothing can separate me from the love of god that's a conviction it's not an opinion it's a conviction all things work together for the good of those who love God who are called according to his purpose for those he did foreknow he predestined to become conformed to the image of his son that we might become the firstborn among many brothers that's a conviction that's not an opinion it is more blessed to give than to receive that's a conviction that's why Kay and I give 91% of our income and live on 9% it's a conviction I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day that's a conviction we need men and women of conviction because most people don't stand for anything today let me tell you the greatest conviction though he slay me yet will I trust him I don't have to understand it I'm gonna trust God no matter what now in conviction we want to get the heart of God you see I don't want to just see what God sees I want to feel what God feels about the world about the lost about his word about his church I need to learn knowledge then I need to add on to that perspective then I need to add on to that the convictions that come out of knowing the mind of God now once you begin to develop convictions you start developing habits and the sum total of your habits is what we call character character is just the sum total of your habits you can't say you have the character of honesty unless you are habitual be honest you can't say you have the character of integrity or kindness unless you are habitually kind it means you're kind all the time if I were to say to my wife honey I'll be faithful to you 29 days of the month partial faithfulness is unfaithfulness it's only faithfulness if it is my habit to always be faithful to her how do you develop character by developing the habits of love and joy and peace and patience those 9 qualities gentleness goodness faith meekness self-control that what is the furtive spirit it's a perfect picture of the character Christ you want to become like Christ put on the fruit of the Spirit in your life the grohl has to become more like God in our character not to become gods you're never gonna become God you're never gonna be a mini God you're no God you're not even a mini God that's the oldest lie in the book you shall become as God's if you're a God why don't you change all the world I just can't fix your own problems much less the world but you've got to learn character now when you begin to develop character and you begin to do things habitually like daily Bible reading regular fasting regular prayer regular days of Prayer regular witnessing that these are the habits of your life the spiritual habits the disciplines the devotional habits of the heart when you begin to do that the more you do them better you get and then you get the last level of learning and that is skill skill is when you good get good at it because you do it over and over and over the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 10:10 if the axe is dull and it's edge is unsharpened more strength is needed but skill will bring success it's one of my life verses I love this verse because it says if you're sure if you're chopping wood it helps to have a sharp axe says if you got a dull axe it takes more energy to cut the wood but it says if you have a sharp axe it doesn't take as much if the axe is dull and it's edged unsharpened more strength is needed but skill will bring success did you hear that it didn't say prayer brings that yes it didn't say desire will bring success it didn't say dedication I know a lot of people are dedicated skill will bring success I could pray all I want as a farmer and if I've got a wheat field and I use a great picker it isn't gonna work no matter how much I pray and if I'm out there and I'm trying to harvest tomatoes and I'm using a corn or a wheat Columbine guess come by and guess what it isn't gonna work it isn't gonna work you have to have the right skills I know a lot of guys who are godly and love the Lord and preach the word and their churches are dying on the vine the Bible says skill will bring success you are never wasting your time when you're sharpening your ax that's why I challenge you to go to conferences like these to come to conferences at Saddleback to go to conferences or learn from anybody and everybody why because we don't want to just know the Word of God we don't want to just have the mind of God we don't want to just have the heart of God we don't want to just develop the character of God we want to do the will of God the Bible says be doers of the word not hearers only I have been misquoted more times than you could imagine when I said that we need another Reformation and this one needs to be about deeds not Creed's and everybody said Oh Warren doesn't believe in Creed's anybody who listens to my sermon knows that I preached on the Creed's about every other year I do a series on the Creed's of course I believe in the Creed's but the issue is not Creed's alone Creed's must be turned into deeds it's not one or the other it's both the Bible says you must teach them the kind of behavior that goes with sound doctrine we must be doers of the word would you write this down you only believe the part of the Bible you actually do you say I believe in witnessing do you do it no then you don't believe in it I believe in tithing do you do it no then you don't believe it I believe in having family devotions do you do it no then you don't believe it you only believe what you actually do and the problem today is that we know far more than and we're teaching people too much listen this we're teaching them too much we're teaching them so much that they can't apply it for instance in the background I grew up in a southern baptist church first in Sunday morning I would go to Sunday school and I supposed to get an application that changed my life then I would go to morning service and I get another application supposed to change my life then I would come back Sunday night to a thing called church training where I supposed to have another application to change my life and then easing evening service with another application to change my life that's four on one day then I'm supposed to come back to midweek prayer and Bible study where as to get another application and maybe a Thursday morning study which was to have another application and then I was to have a quiet time seven days a week that's about 14 applications a week friend your life can't change that much and neither can mine I'm good if I get one good application a week and what's the problem in a lot of our churches is before they apply last week's message or this morning's message we're already coming back and teaching them something else and they're taking notes and they're filling notebooks and they're thinking that because they're writing it down they've got it they don't and there's a wide gap between knowing and doing in American Christianity and it's caused by too much teaching before people actually apply what it is they actually go to the next thing and there and there and they can't handle it they can't change that much now another weakness of the church today when it comes to learning is that we're not teaching the people to be self feeders we're doing all the feeding instead of teaching them how to feed themselves now you guys I hate it when conference speakers get up and they promote their books and I hate that but there is a book that you need to teach your congregation it's called Warren's Bible study methods I wrote it 34 years ago 34 years ago it's in 17 languages and it it teaches you how to do a systematic Bible study a fanatic study how to do a book synthesis what are the nine steps of chapter analysis what are the steps on how to word study what are the steps on how to do a biographical study how do you do a chapter summary what are the six ways to meditate you see we we do a lot of aught to preaching without giving them the how to's I grew up when my dad was on the staff of a seminary so I've heard probably more sermons and most people have growing up and as I heard all these sermons I used to write up to the edge of the message so I'd write my Bible ybh y bh ybh yes but how interpretation without application is abortion we're teaching people to have big heads and little hands and little hearts and little feet we must apply the Word of God Jesus always gave the how to's he always taught people how to do it now the Bible says in Isaiah 26:3 you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you whose thoughts are fixed on you your mental state is totally dependent upon what you think about keep your mind fixed on the Word of God the will of God the convictions of God the character of God the skills of God now there's one other area and this is a big one that I think we need to talk about as we close if you're going to teach people how to fight the battle for the mind you must teach them how to let God stretch their imagination this too is a part of the battle this too is the part of thinking let God stretch your imagination you see everything that happens in life begins with a dream somebody has to imagine it first it's a gift that God gave to us a vision and imagination when a every building you see an architect imagined it before it was built every piece of art every song was imagined before somebody wrote it or are painted it every athletic award that's ever been won every gold medal the the athlete imagined it before it ever happened every church that's ever been started somebody either group of people or church planter imagine that church first nothing happens till somebody starts dreaming and we as pastors need to help our people become great godly dreamers proverbs 29 verse 8 says where there is no vision the people perish you know that word vision it means dream it means revelation it means vision from God it means you've got to have a dream and since where there is no vision the people perish literally that word there you know in the Hebrew means they're out of control when you don't have an overarching vision for your life you don't have an overt overarching dream for your life you don't have an overarching goal for your life your life's out of control where there's no vision the people perish and what we need today are great dreamers and my pray prayers that Acts chapter 2 will be true in your church verse 17 and the last days God says I will pour out my spirit on all people and your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams let me ask you quite frankly what's your dream for your next 10 years have you even written it down thoughts this and when tangle themselves when they go through the lips and the fingertips if you haven't written it down you haven't thought about it writing makes a man more precise what's your dream for your church what's your dream for your family what's your dream for you personally not just what do I want to do what do I want to be how are you gonna be different ten years from now we're getting ready to start in two weeks what we're calling decade of destiny at Saddleback and we're actually writing out our dreams for the character changes we want to see in our lives over the next 10 years what would you attempt for God if you knew you couldn't fail you see what we need today are great imaginers each generation needs it CS Lewis's needs its jr. R Tolkien's needs its Chesterton's needs its Tolstoy's does gas we need these great dreamers these great Imagineering people some of you should be that some of the we need these in science we need we need the the the the the boils we need the pascal's we need those who who have created all of the Maxwells and physics and the Kepler's and the kelvins all of the great scientists the the men of God who did their science for the glory of God we need it in business we need entrepreneurs who dream great dreams and and make a lot of money for Kingdom uses now I'm not talking about dreaming great dreams I'm not talking about changing doctrine the Bible says in the book of Jude it's the truth once delivered for the Saints it's there you don't st. you to change it as heresy but if you intend to be a leader what you don't see is far more important than what you do see let me just tell you that after nearly 40 years of leading what you don't see is far more important than what you do see and we can only do the impossible if we see the invisible now it is an overstatement is an exaggeration you've heard people say what the mind can conceive the hand can achieve that's just not true but there's a kernel of truth in it Einstein said this he said imagination is more important than knowledge because he said what you imagined has no limit logic will get you from A to B but imagination will take you everywhere he also said that imagination not knowledge is the evidence of intelligence it was Napoleon who said imagination rules the world and what we need today are people creating new innovations in a new society to reach new generations the message must never change but the methods have to change with every generation what is innovation after all it's simply asking the right questions the only difference between an innovator than anybody else is innovators see what everybody else sees they see what everybody else sees but they questions that nobody else asks what if what for why not they ask those questions what if got what could God do you see the biggest limitation to your ministry is your own imagination God cannot fulfill your dream if you don't have a dream God cannot bless your vision if you haven't got his vision for your life God can't help you reach a goal unless you've got to go a goal is a statement of faith and the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God the Bible says whatsoever is not of faith is sin the Bible says that according to your faith it will be done unto you and when you set a goal you're saying god I believe you want me to accomplish this by this such a time what I'm doing is I'm challenge you I'm daring you I'm begging you dear brothers and sisters dream great dreams for God and teach your members to dream great dreams for God it's not enough to just not believe everything we think it's not enough to just guard our mind from the garbage it's not enough to to keep on learning and and developing character we must also let God develop our imagination and what does why do we need it is because we must out think we must out dream and we must outsmart the world why do we do this for the glory of God we do it not for our benefit but for the glory of God the Bible says in Ephesians 3:20 now God be glory be to God who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we had ever dare to ask or even dream of cheer that it says infinitely beyond our highest prayers desires thoughts or hopes I love this in the Living Bible let me read it again now glory be to God who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of now I don't know about you but I'm a pretty big dreamer nobody's ever accused me of small dreams like the late one of those five years ago let's be the first church to go to every nation in the world and we did it and now our next dream is to plant a church in every major city in every one of those nations and to finish the task of going to every unreached people group by the end of the decade that's a big dream I can dream some pretty big dreams but God says Warren you think of the biggest thing you could think of and I can top that I can outdo that infinitely beyond your highest prayers desires thoughts or hopes may he be given glory in the church glory for ever and ever through in the stage because of his master plan of salvation for the church through Jesus Christ now I need to wrap this up some of you are naturally thinkers and you love the world of thoughts and ideas you really don't like people but you love the world of thoughts and ideas and your idea of ministry is stay in a study all week and then go through a vacuum tube out to the pulpit preach and then vacuum-tube back and that would be heaven for you and you're naturally great thinkers God wired you that way some of you are naturally great doers and you're figuring out how to do it and you're winning people to Christ and you're baptizing them in large numbers and you're you're planting churches and equipping servant leaders and you're assisting the poor and you're caring for the sick and you're educating the next generation and you're going out into the hurts and and highways and byways of life and taking up the cross where people at least expect it and you're a doer and here's what I want to say to you my friends those of you who are thinkers you need to do more those of you who are doers you need to think more it's not one or the other it's both and now as we close in this conference on think I want us to make a covenant together you know I'm a Baptist Saddleback Church is built for covenant some membership covenant maturity covenant ministry coven mission coven most people couldn't join Saddleback because they wouldn't be willing to keep the covenants and and most people don't know we do church discipline if you don't keep the covenants but I want us to have a covenant together and it's a covenant for the mind a mental covenant and I want to remember these five things that are important to do and so just write on your outline there th i NK here's a little acrostic to remember these five things that we must teach our members and we must live in our own lives T stands for test every thought test every thought Psalm 139 23 and 24 says search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting ask God to search and to test your thoughts don't believe everything you think test every thought the H stands for helmet your head helmet your head put on the helmet of salvation you know in California you can't ride a motorcycle that wearing a helmet now that you you need you don't have to wear an elbow pads you'd have to wear knee pads but you do have to wear a helmet why because if you get your head hurt you're in serious deep kimchi and the Bible says put on the helmet of salvation why because until you're saved you don't have any any protection against the fiery darts of the devil that he puts in your mind the Bible by the way the word for changing your mind it's repentance repentance means to change the what you do there's not a single lexicon Greek lexicon that says repentance it's changing what you do it's changing the way you think metanoia it is a mental shift and boy could we get into that but put on the helmet of salvation I in think stands for imagine great thoughts imagine great thoughts think about that all the great promises of God everything is possible to him who believes what an amazing blank check that is imagine great thoughts in stands for nourish a godly life nourish a godly mind make sure that you're growing that you're developing psalm 119 15 I will study your Commandments and reflect on your way study and reflect and the K stands for keep on learning the Bible says in first Timothy 4:15 be diligent in these matters give yourself wholly to them so that everyone may see your progress are you remember seeing your progress or your sermons more powerful more meaty more deep more strong more practical more touching lives if it doesn't touch you it's not going to touch them you've got to look at your messages and saying what is the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the word that they're learning in the sermon what is the perspective I'm teaching them in this sermon what is the convictions what are the convictions I want to get across what are the character I want them develop what are the character qualities and what are the skills because the Bible says that the Christian life is not just knowing it's being and it's doing let's bow for prayer I want to pray for you Heavenly Father I want to thank you for these men and women who've come to this think conference and I pray that you would raise up a new generation of godly intellectuals who know the Word of God understand the mind of God feel the heart of God live out the character of God and do the will of God through godly skillfulness give us a new generation of Imagineers like the tolkien's and the and the and the louis's give us new imaginations in science and in business and in missions and in architecture and make Christians be known for out thinking outsmarting and out loving the rest of the world I pray a blessing on every man and woman here god bless their families bless their churches bless their ministries protect them from the evil one and as the battle for sin is fought in their minds may they not resist but refocus and may they fill their minds with the washing of the water of the word may they be transformed by the renewing of their minds but they may know the will of God that is good and pleasing and perfect in Jesus name I pray amen god bless you you

Channel: Desiring God

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Keywords: Conference Message, John Piper, Desiring God, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Christian, Christianity, Church, Bible, Jesus Christ, God, Scripture

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Length: 61min 18sec (3678 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 02 2013