The Mind - Nathan Marinau

[Applause] thanks guys why don't we just give a round of applause for jesus jesus thank you lord wandering around applause for our wonderful worship team here who uh i said this in the first service and we're in the second service now they wake up so early to come here on on sunday mornings and just willing and able to serve with the gifts and talents they've got uh and it's just amazing we really appreciate you guys ushering into the presence of the lord i was sitting there during the worship and my daughter was getting a nappy change i was trying to be spiritual and um and i was just you know seeking the lord for a word for you guys because i got a word for the first service people and i wasn't getting anything for you guys sorry i'm not joking but it doesn't end like that so i was trying to get a word you know i was sitting there like lord what do you want to speak to to your to your family this morning and um i was getting nothing and then i just got this sense of oh man and then god just said to me nathan you're trying too hard i'm a try um you know trying too hard and uh and i also got this sense of peace and and rest in that that sense of stop trying so hard and i felt the lord was saying that for me but then encouraging all of us man we strive and we struggle we try so hard to you know to make something happen and to be spiritual and to get a word and to pray and to do whatever we're doing i just feel the lord saying stop trying so hard it's not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the lord and so i just want to encourage you guys with that word this morning that you don't have to strive and struggle and god doesn't call you to that whether it's in your marriage whether it's in your workplaces whether it's in you know your own personal finances whatever you're striving and you're struggling and the lord is calling you to peace he's calling you to a place of rest you know those who have faith enter into his rest you know so we can do that this morning and i pray and hope that this word encourages you to do that this morning so um why don't we put up the first slide there who's excited to be in church this morning i know we're kind of questioning whether we're going to do it or not so it's great that we're actually all here this morning and who's blessed with pastor justin and chrissy i'll tell you man like one of the things that what amen when i when i first came to this church when my wife and i walked in um you know one of the first things we noticed was the genuine leadership in in pastor justin and christie chrissy and their genuine hunger and seeking the lord and you know that's something that really attracted us to this this church and i want to be genuine and authentic with you this morning as well and just share some things that i've learned over my journey as a psychologist and um also be able to share some personal experiences and practical things that i pray and hope will encourage you in your relationship with the lord this morning so let's get into it um so why can i talk about mental health for the believer and that's what i really wanted to speak on this morning because it's something that's so important you know like um ken was saying we've all got a mind sometimes i question whether i've got a brain but some of the things i do and say it's like man how stupid was that but you know we've all got in mind we've all got a brain we've all got the um you know this this personal experiences that we all go through in life that we struggle with we go through troubles and triumph and tr and i'll start again and traumas and things that we go through in life and how we deal with it is really important in terms of how we uh experience our life in our world my personal experience i went through a whole bunch of stuff as a teenager and mental health issues and all sorts of things and a lot of it was tied in with religion a lot of it was tied in with my religious background and what i'd gone through as a kid and being indoctrinated with a religious mindset of god and i saw god as like a a lawmaker someone who would tell me off someone if i stepped out of line and didn't read the bible one morning i'd be i'd be in trouble you know something bad was going to happen to me that day so it was kind of like i was fending off the devil by doing good works you know um and and god was just this like you know really strict father figures for me and it just you know what i shared this this morning by the time i was about 11 12 i was just over it and i had this um experience which seems funny now but uh i was i watched this movie from back in the 60s i'm not that old but i watched it when i was older you know but i watched it in his old movie about the rapture and i don't know if you've watched that um oh what's it called i can't remember now but his old movie um left behind i think it was called or something like that and i was about 11 12 and i'd watched this movie at church and then i i kind of had this experience when i was at home i didn't realize everyone had just gone to the local milk bar remember those they'd all gone to the local milk bar and i was left at home and i didn't realize that so i thought everyone got raptured and i was screaming i was crying i was like oh no i've been left behind i wasn't good enough you know again this horrible religious mindset with god and that just made me so bitter towards god even though it wasn't true it wasn't it was rubbish it was not true and obviously my family came back it was fine i'm okay it wasn't abuse um and you know and then i was able to you know obviously learn what they actually did but something inside me that planted a seed of bitterness and negativity toward god and you know from that point i stopped reading the bible i didn't really want anything to do with god i didn't want anything to do with church when people talk to me about god i just shut down i was like yeah whatever um you know and i just had a negative mindset and an experience and a relationship with god that was my own personal experience so i started trying to figure stuff out on my own just do my own thing go through life whatever do what makes me happy and then all the same time trying to you know ignore this voice in my mind and the spirit of god drawing me back to him in a real way just ignoring it so that caused a lot of anguish in me and and in my own journey as in my teenage years and i started going into an academic experience so in my early 20s i went to uni and trying to figure myself out like trying to understand what on earth is wrong with me that's a bad thing to try to do sometimes so it sent me down a real rabbit trail and i ended up going into psychology and studying studying that area trying to figure me out and using the world's principles and strategies and ways to do that so philosophy 101 and going through all the topological reasoning and asking questions about this and why and that and that and trying to answer these questions that you know the academic side of things can't actually answer those deep questions those meaning what's the purpose and meaning of my life and if you try to get so cognitive on things you know there's nothing wrong with thinking in fact that's my whole profession but it's about understanding that those the science the psychology is not designed it's not meant to answer those deep meaningful questions that we all have and so what i realized after my lightning fast mind after a number of years i realized i need a spiritual experience right i need to encounter god and so that's what i started to do i started to seek god through different religions and different things and ended up opening the bible again after you know since you know i was like 11 12 years old not wanting to touch it started reading the bible again it just hit me in a place that i never been hit before it's like oh man this is something real this is true this is something inside of me is waking up right now no one knew that i was doing it wasn't about boasting or anything like that it was just personally for me seeking and god said when you seek him you will find him you know and if you have a genuine heart and a desire to know god to seek him to you know have that experience man he is seeking that more for you than you are for him you know so if you desire then you're seeking him this morning he's here he's willing he's wanting to do that and he sent his son you know over 2000 years ago to prove that how much he seeks us and wants us to be in a relationship with him so i had a spiritual awakening and an experience and i started to do the word and writer says in james like don't just be a hero of the word actually try to do it so in my ignorance in my stumbling way i started to do stuff that i was reading so go pray for people to be healed i you know go share my faith with colleagues at work or i just do stuff and it was great i was actually experiencing this transformation in my life and i was starting to to actually have that seep into every other of my life as well and this transformation was happening in my life that i couldn't deny you know the textbooks at uni weren't saying that this is the way or anything or you know other you know experiences or professors i was talking to or whatever they they you know they would disregard this experience but for me it was it was like wow this is real this is personal and it's continued to be that way for the last i don't know 12 15 years or something i should actually have worked that out sorry but you know for a long period of time now and praise god you know his word is true and his word does transform us and i'll touch on this a bit later but romans 12 2 says don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the amen we're in church aren't we so we know that scripture right and so that's what continued to happen in my life i got completely changed turned around my mom was very happy um and you know then i had this this awareness of okay i can actually use what i've learned academically and spiritually in a clinical setting in a clinical experience so i rejected psychology completely and went to bible college and then god actually led me back into it to be able to utilize the skills and tools and strategies and you know the heart to want to see people changed heal delivered and set free and i i've been doing that for last you know over 10 years now and it's been amazing and i've worked in lots of different settings so it's been really good it's been a journey as well as to like how do i figure that out and i want to share some of those experiences with you this morning practical things that have helped me personally and in in the private practice that i've uh had and have at the same time so let's go to the next slide so what is mental health just to define that term there's a lot of confusion there's a lot of media stuff hollywood and all that and this can be a lot of misconceptions around what mental health is now the world health organization whatever you think of it currently i'm not too fond of it but back in 2015 before i got sold out to china um it says a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential and can cope with the normal stresses of life can work productively and fruitfully and he's able to make a contribution to her his community it sounds very similar to spirit soul body you know the the you're having balance in your life and what scripture talks about is in first sorry chapter five let's go next slide sir in first thessalonians chapter five right that's that's right there you know i feel like the world health organization plagiarized the bit but he says now may the god of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our lord jesus christ and that was paul's prayer right he paul superstar apostle his prayer was for balance in the thessalonians church and he wants that for us as well god wants that for us this morning as well that balance often i'll have people come to me and they're asking to you know fix their child but their home life is a wreck and you know the unit the family the ecology of what they're experiencing is a result of that with this with their child or they want me to help them with their thought patterns but you know they're not sleeping or they got you know they're not having a healthy diet or whatever it might be it's actually about having balance you know in your life spirit soul and body so let's go to the next slide there so what does psychology seek to do you know and this is again really important and sometimes and look for me personally i've been through this journey many years ago so um i had to figure this stuff out on my own so what does it actually want to do and seek to help people with the number one thing psychology suke psyche is about helping people think about what they're thinking about right so i mean we are so blessed to be in a church where we get essentially we get like these you know christian motivational talks every week and we get pumped up for the week you know and just amazing preaching and teaching and everything we have here but often we don't actually stop and think about what am i thinking about you know what am i filling my mind with and you know what am i actually you know recognizing those patterns of thought and psychology essentially it's about helping people do that in a in a more healthy helpful productive way and as a christian what i try to do you know i don't push my faith on people or anything like that but i try to help people explore that if they're a christian to explore it from a biblical foundation does that line up with the word of god does that line up with you know your true identity in christ or is it a lie like is it like me like when i was going through um like religious thing that i went through as a kid you know believing lies and deceptions about god led me down a path that i didn't need to go was it was completely unnecessary had i known the grace and the goodness of god the gospel of jesus christ you know and so that's what i'm really passionate about helping people develop healthy healthy thinking habits so it's not just one thought it's about a habit it's a habitual way of thinking and that always comes back to your belief systems about yourself and belief is just what you've accepted to be true so if you accept that something be true about yourself that's you know not true or unhelpful or negative and you know you're you're defining your life experience through that event or through whatever it might be you're going to have a pattern of thinking that's coming out of that that's being expressed out of that and god's word is so powerful and amazing that you can redefine your identity through him through christ right who sets us free number three is express emotions in constructive ways so i mean you know again we get amazing preaching and teaching in this church but we don't necessarily hear about emotions and you know how to express them effectively and as a bloke myself um you know my wife can certainly attest to this i'm probably one of the worst emotional expressers ever like i just shut down i isolate i don't do emotions very well i don't even i didn't even know that i had emotions to be honest i yeah i was just pathetic and i still am learning in that area because it's easy to teach it it's another thing to actually do it but you know to be honest that's something that i've grown and learnt and helping others as well in that so identifying i feel angry well no do you feel fearful maybe you feel stressed do you feel anxious maybe you feel um you know disappointed frustrated whatever it might be no i just feel angry no no no let's just go deeper layer here and understand what's really going on and then with the awareness this is what i used to think it was weak you know the emotional stuff i don't need that stuff but actually understanding what's going on emotionally helps you to have strength and awareness so you can actually do something about it you know if it's all under the carpet you're you know shifting sands and all this stuff's happening and you're actually you're still coming out of that space but as you become aware you can actually change it and so for me that's a real weapon in fact that's a phrase i like to use with people is that you know understanding your emotions and expressing them is a weapon in in terms of a better relationship a better lifestyle a better healthy way of living so expressing emotions in constructive ways and another thing even as christians we love god you know we've we've come encountered his presence but we still have to live in the world right we still go about our day in our workplaces we deal with personalities that conflict with us we deal in relationships as much as you love your spouse there's going to be problems if you've been married for a minute um you know as whatever's going on you love your kids but there's going to be problems there too you know so it's about learning how do i be assertive in my communication how do i put up healthy boundaries in in toxic relationships how do i you know and not feeling guilty for that as well you know when it's justified to do so all these sorts of ways of being able to express and identify and and be able to deal with that in constructive ways the next point there is dealing therapeutically with past traumas and unhealthy thinking patterns we all deal with trauma obviously to differing degrees and what's traumatic for someone might not be for another and whatever it might be but being able to deal with it in a therapeutic way what that means is actually being able to process it be honest about it and then being able to move through that experience learn from it go through the grief cycle and come to a place of acceptance that also is a place of growth you know and and being christians we have an amazing opportunity to do that in a community the way we trust each other where we love each other we can actually share things and not get condemned for it like i've gone through journeys where i started to lose my faith you know i'd be like where is it going you know i can't find it no but um you know i used to question god are you even real you know when when things happen in my own personal life like is god real does it you know i don't even believe this stuff anymore like do i really beli so just going through that journey and being able to share that with brothers and sisters in my life at the time um and that weren't condemning me that weren't going to put me down was key to my transformation that's the key to being able to be willing to get the right answer and a lot of the time you have the answers inside yourself but you know not being able to express it and share keeps it you know isolated i feel like the lord's saying like there's strength in numbers you know there's strength don't ever forsake the gathering of the body of christ you know often we we we think that oh i can skip church this week or you know the government's saying not to do this or that but you know there is strength in numbers and i feel the lord wants us to not ever forget that don't ever forsake the gathering of believers you know and when we're being true to his word he will protect us he will keep us safe he will help you with whatever the circumstance if you're being true to his word you can rest assured hold your head up that i'm doing what god's called me to do now don't be a widow and just you know do weird stuff but at the same time you know just be true to his word and and let yourself listen to to other mentors and people around you to help you fulfill that word that he has for your life the last point there is having strategies for dealing with areas of concern so things like again we don't necessarily learn this in church future planning problem solving um conflict resolution all that sort of stuff right and you can use that in your workplaces you can use that in your homes and so psychology this is what it seeks to do it tries to help in these areas it's not about answering the deep and meaningful things and going into all this stuff and putting psychology above god and all that sort of stuff that i used to think you know in my ignorance so it's that's what it tries to help people to do next time so what psychology cannot do it can't replace your relationship with god right he cannot do that it's not intended to do that just like any science isn't meant to or any fields like anything is not meant to replace god in fact it can't and i tried to do that for many years and who else has been in that place come on um you know try to replace god and try to figure things out with your mind and whatever it just doesn't work i'm sorry you know and i thought i was like really smart when i figured it out like i need a spiritual experience um you know i'm not the first person and all of us in the in this room have also been on that journey no doubt so it can't replace god it can't answer life's deep questions it can't meet your spiritual needs right and it can't heal your heart for me personally that was something that i and all of us we need our heart healed through the traumas and things we go through the troubles of life just being you know we are fallen creatures on this earth you know we are not perfect um and and all of us have a heart that's been affected um in our journey of life and the number one thing that i realized like when i became a christian fully really gave my life to god was peace like for the first time my life i felt this peace that i could not get anywhere else from anything else it was just a piece man like i could just sit down for a second and just stop you know and just relax and be okay in my own skin for the first time you know it's just amazing and i who else has felt that that piece before who else is living in that place and look we have seasons when we're in that and we come out of it because of stuff happening and we get diverted and you can always come back to that place even this morning as i'm speaking you know that peace that god has for you that rest by faith we can enter into that there's strength in his peace let's go to the next slide what psychology should not do is be used as a vehicle for promoting your own agenda and i feel that's the case with a lot of stuff um but you know political social or religious so again like as a christian that number one first and foremost i'm not going to try to push that on someone else who's not willing to receive or wanting to or in a different mindset or whatever so the same thing goes for someone who's a muslim or a buddhist or a non-christian atheist and unfortunately what's happening these days is more and more the atheism side of things or the buddhist side of things is promoted as this is the way to go and a christian if you say oh you know we should pray in schools or we should read the bible man you're just like excommunicated from you know like and so unfortunately it's very biased against god against christianity in particular but the reality is that you know when you're going to see a psycho or a therapist or whatever just be careful and cautious as to what they might be trying to push on you um and you know you don't have to just take it all as if it's gospel because it's not um you know and be just aware of that you know so if you don't feel comfortable with what they're sharing that you should try to do um you said okay to question that it's okay to you know to say look i'm not comfortable with that i'd rather stick on this side of things like for example i have a friend who went to a therapist and they were trying to encourage her to do like meditation and all these other yoga stuff and she wasn't comfortable with that you might be and that's your choice but she wasn't comfortable doing those things and she said look i'd rather stick to cbt like cognitive behavioral therapy and just stick on my thought process belief systems and stuff that's really what i'm here for and you know thankfully the therapist was like yeah absolutely that's fine you know so again a good psych should be able to do that and meet you where you're at and help you with what you're coming to within your value system within what you need rather than you know pushing on top of you saying oh you're a christian oh that's stupid you know and i hear that i hear that's happened many times unfortunately in any profession but in this one the same so just being aware of that and that shouldn't be happening right so for whatever viewpoint the second point there is it should not result in codependency i had a guy come to me and he'd been seeing a psychiatrist for like over 20 years using the same medication for over 20 years for anxiety and stuff and he's like man like this is just fully codependent it's not healthy we're going to make some changes brother so it's about helping him realize what anxiety is understanding the emotions and working through that and i'll get into this a bit later around you can get better you can change you can improve you don't have to be co-dependent on your therapist or on a medication or something like that um you know so uh co-dependency as well it happens in relationships in couples counseling that i do i often use the example of a triangle so you know you know that movie um i can't remember now but it says you complete me oh you know i need you when you leave the room i'm so empty you know all that stuff and you know that's rubbish that doesn't work in real life right those sort of things so a triangle think of a triangle that's unhealthy you don't want that you don't want that dependency on the other person what you want is a h h for a healthy household you know household a healthy relationship so you're both standing up in your own feet and you're connected in the middle um in that h symbol so that actually and that connection point if it's based on good foundation good solid ground like the gospel like jesus christ your faith you know not like oh we like the same tv show that's not a good connection like that's not a stable thing you know what happens when the tv series ends i'm only joking but you know what i mean so things that we become co-dependent on are just silly sometimes and just be aware of that that you can actually stand on your own feet you're okay in and of yourself and again as christians we have that firm foundation identity based and founded in christ isn't it great isn't it good come on who's excited this morning um and the last point there is on the second last point he should not enable destructive behavior i sort of touched on it before what cultural norms and things are saying is not destructive as christian as a christian i believe is destructive certain relationships certain permitted you know things that are happening these days i disagree not just me i believe the bible is very clear on certain things so again as if you're going to a therapist if you're going to csi be aware that you know they're not encouraging down a path that is destructive according to scripture um and they should not be doing that of course so the last point there is should not lead to the belief that a person cannot change and again this is i've actually heard colleagues say this and i've heard people say it hollywood i don't know where it comes from but i've been diagnosed with depression and i've got it for life rubbish you can change you can get better it's very the statistics every the evidence is very clear you know you don't yes you have a personality style or you have something that's an enduring way of thinking or whatever it might be but you can actually come out of that mental health issue that you're struggling with and get better and improve and develop and and have hope for your future and all the more as a christian as well that you can actually you know get better and improve and change praise god so let's go to the next slide this is funny because you know dr william james he was the father of psychiatry and he was an amazing philosopher psychiatrist doctor everything back at the turn of the 19th century and he he used this phrase and he got all these awards and rewards and and all this sort of stuff um and he said the greatest discovery of my generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude i was like wow that's amazing you know when i first read it and then i started reading the bible and i was like hang on a second let's go to the next slide in proverbs chapter 4 verse 23 above all else guard your heart for everything you do flows from it oh yeah like dr william james just plagiarized that one too uh so and in proverbs chapter 23 verse 7 as a man thinks in his heart so is he you know your heart when you get healed by the gospel of jesus christ you can actually have a new identity a new way of thinking you know you don't have to keep living in the past you don't have to keep living in that space that is broken the deception and the lies of the enemy and the enemy man like he just everything the devil says is a lie he's the father of lies so if you flip it you've got the truth when he comes to you he says you're never going to make it look at your relationship now look at we'll look at what you've done look at how you just sinned look at what you've just you just flip it and you've got the truth i am going to make it i am going to succeed in this relationship i can do it in christ jesus who gives me all strength and you can start to encourage yourself in the lord you know so don't believe those lies from the enemy and if you allow yourself to accept the gospel that you are a new creation in christ jesus old things have passed away all not a little bit not apart not no no that part of my life is still it's still with me and all things have become new come on like how amazing is that you know if i sat here and i kept reflecting and ruminating on my past i wouldn't be up here even bothering to share anything because in myself i'm nothing but in christ jesus we are something we are amazing in him and he gets all the glory for it come on so let's go to the next slide then so the takeaway basically it all boils down to the way you see will determine what you see and therefore how you experience it right so two people looking at a rain cloud one sees a storm coming again oh it's raining again i kind of felt like that the last few days but you know another person looking at it going hey it's a rain that's awesome you know the farms are going to get a bit of rain you know fill up the pool a little bit give my car a bit of a wash when i drive into work whatever you know just once is a problem another sees a solution so how you look at things will determine your experience of it so important next slide have you heard of that guy nick you know no arms no limbs that man when i watched that that wrecked me like in a good way made me realize like how self-centered i get how you know i put my own limitations on me so many times like i can't do this can't do that this guy's got no arms no legs and he's just kicking goals literally like he's yeah doing an amazing stuff for god because he's allowing the lord to use him and so many of us too man like you can stop condemning yourself stop putting yourself down let the lord take you to a better place let him let him take you to a place of ministry let him take you to a place of strength you know let him use you in the gifts and talents and stop comparing yourself to others you know don't compare yourself to anyone else just keep in a relationship with him with the lord and just feel like there's an excitement when you spend time with him you know let the lord you know let you dream again dream again let him excite you in the sense of you know look beyond what what has happened in your past look beyond that stuff and let him take it to new places come on and write it down if you don't write it down it doesn't exist it's like you know you just keep it in your head one of the keys is to write stuff down that the lord speaks to you honor it you know store it reflect on it come back to it six months later and you know praise god when the you know the promise has been fulfilled so practical tools so can a christian benefit from using psychology i hope that's coming across that yes absolutely you know absolutely you can you know you can get practical tools to help you communicate dealing in a relationship conflict um you know marriage counseling going to a person that can help mediate the discussions that you're having because sometimes it's so hard to to do that just when it's you two i'm not getting over spiritual you know i've had the privilege and the honor to help ministers pastors people that have been burnt out and you know struggling in their faith but they've been in ministry for a long time and we can get caught up in being over spiritual and praying and fasting about everything or you know avoiding things by using spiritual practices for example for me just to be fully transparent early on in my marriage you know my wife and i having a discussion a heated discussion and you know i would be like okay what stop i'm gonna go pray i'm gonna go pray about it and you know she'd be like what are you doing like we're just talking you know we've got to figure this out i was like no i'm gonna and i realized that was just me being avoidant i didn't want to deal with the conflict they didn't want to deal with the truth and so you know not over spiritualizing things is so important and often we can do that and not just in christian world in any world like in any whether you're christian or not you know avoidance is one of the things that you know our defense mechanisms from wanting to deal with the hard facts sometimes you know it's one of the things that i find in counselling is that when someone comes they're so fearful of sharing the truth as if i'm going to condemn them as if i'm going to put them down or something like that it's just this thing inside of us that we have this guilt complex you know and words condemn ourselves you know it's just so important to to not let that happen you know and just be like hey it's okay you know we all struggle we all go through stuff and being able to share and express yourself in a safe environment is the key to start to make some changes so it's imagine if you went to a doctor right and and you have a broken leg or something and you're like they're going to condemn me for having a broken leg like it's just silly you know so it's the same sort of thing and unfortunately i know how that can happen in in certain communities and stuff like that as well and we've all gone through um situations like that unfortunately but i pray and i hope that in this church you find that safety you find that ability to express and share things with the pastors or with mentors or leaders that you trust and you can actually share things and open up and be healed um and the third point there is about creating balance for your life spirit soul and body you know the soul the mind your will your emotions being able to identify and become aware of how that interaction happens you know your behaviors are an echo of your belief systems so if you've accepted something to be true about yourself that isn't in line with god's word you know you can actually line that up this behavior the way i'm acting the way i'm treating my spouse my kids that's not who i really am if it was then i wouldn't have a problem with it you know me yelling at my kids that's that's not how god's called me to interact with my kids you know or me you know making some shady deals on the side at work or something like that's not how god's called me to live my life either so you know that doesn't line up with my true identity in christ so my behavior comes out of my identity so if i see myself as as as jesus sees me as righteous as redeemed um you know by his grace man like i can actually start to change how i act and how i even think about myself and that's going to determine the expression of that that's good stuff i needed to hear that so the next point there is about um training for areas that no one really teaches us and again like you know i can't remember really you know going through church or my parents or whatever teaching me how to have a conflict resolution you know we kind of pick it up by osmosis but often we don't you know we don't learn these things in life but future planning problem solving um you know relationship advice conflict resolution even parenting skills and the you know scripture is chock full of all this stuff but we sometimes need help to extrapolate it to actually be able to apply it and for me personally just having the space and the time to go and talk to someone it's powerful you know like you actually separate yourself for a time to do that it can be really really useful and again doing it you know just in your mind or in yourself can be really difficult to identify what even needs to change or how to make that happen so taking that time to do that can be really useful next slide should believers be suspicious of psychology and all the anxious people said amen i'm joking sorry um but you know absolutely absolutely because help greatly depends on who your treater is who your therapist is so just like you wouldn't go and this works with everything it's not just psychology obviously i'm not bagging out the field if you've got a real estate agent and they're trying to make a shady deal on a property or something you're not going to want to interact with them as a christian i hope not you know even though you might get money or whatever it's not worth it from your value system it's not worth it selling your soul to that sort of stuff so it's the same thing with any any profession anything it's just it really does determine who's giving you that service you know and the kind of service that you're receiving always have the word of god as the final authority it's so important to never put you know anything above the word of god as the truth you know even your feelings you know unfortunately we've become so feelings driven in this culture today that i don't feel like going to work i don't feel like talking nicely to my spouse i don't feel like dealing with with all feelings feelings man like feelings will change from i wake up in the morning sometimes i feel miserable by lunchtime i'm having the best day ever you know so your feelings will shift and change throughout the day depending on what you're thinking you're focused on on your environment where you're putting yourself whether you're allowing yourself to receive um you know positivity from those around you encouragement you know number one from from the lord you know what he thinks about me we've all got a constant source of goodness from the lord you know um so know what type of help you want as well isn't psychology infused with eastern religions and meditations look to be honest more and more it's becoming that way it's been that way for a while now but certainly it's becoming more mainstream and there's certainly evidence out there for you know the power of meditation um you know the importance of being mindful all that sort of stuff and i'm not against that stuff at all don't hear me wrong but in joshua chapter one it says god was calling his people to meditate all right you're all thinking like what's nathan saying meditate on the word so you know it's just important what you're meditating on chewing the cud so to speak right meditating on the word allowing yourself to to be in that place with the lord and thinking and focused on him i'm not against mindfulness either and look a lot of mindful practices grounding techniques breathing there's good stuff you know like the first thing that goes out the window when you get anxious is you're breathing right you stop breathing you go into fight flight response and all of that sort of thing and that then increases um you know more and more of the uh you know the anxiety that's there so it's really important to um it's really important to uh you know allow yourself to go into that place with the lord just doing a situation there praise god bless you brother bless you brother bless you brother hallelujah thank you lord um so yeah it's really important to let yourself go into that place where you know you allow yourself to be mindful and meditate on the on the things of god you know it's a mindful i love it because it's being full in my mind of him so the next next point there is around picking and choosing what's going to work for you so some people deal really well with cbt others don't others prefer dbt or act act different methods and and types of therapies and it's really about you being aware and addressing those things in the way that you feel comfortable and there's nothing wrong with picking and choosing it's like if you go to a doctor they'll give you a range of options on different types of treatment different kinds of medication and you know you can choose what's going to be most effective for you personally based on your values what you feel comfortable with right so it's important to do that the last point there is do not take any psychological practice as a form of godliness right and again i've i've just put that there because i personally went through that and you know discovering like these things and thinking oh my goodness uh this is better than prayer or this is better than god you know and that was my own ignorance and at the time and sort of putting those things above god and that's not obviously that's unhealthy to do and um i would encourage you not to do that so the next point the next slide sorry some practical examples of helpful psychology so just to really bring home that that message around okay where does psychology fit in the bigger scheme of things and perhaps even in your own personal world as a christian so for example um this was taken from a study back in 2015 and what what the study was around is non-communicable diseases ncd kill nearly 40 million people each year 82 of these deaths are accounted for by four gripes four groups of diseases cardiovascular disease cancers respiratory diseases and diabetes research shows that 80 of heart disease stroke and type 2 diabetes and over a third of cancers could be prevented by eliminating these four risk factors what are they poor diet excessive alcohol smoking and inadequate physical activity so simply by making some life changes lifestyle choices you can actually reduce your risk of dying being one of those 40 million people that die from those non-communicable diseases as in like it's it's in a sense it's it's internal it's you don't you can't um transfer that disease to someone else so it's so important where psychology can assist it comes in to help people develop these healthy um these effective health promotion behaviors right and you know i've helped people with obesity try to reduce weight coming to a healthier weight level so they can be more functional more engaging with their family and kids and coming you know just changing your mindset we all know how powerful exercise is physical exercise physical activity um for you know your mindset your positivity all of that and you know so important in those areas so the next point i want to go a little bit deeper now and really specific on something that i might do in a in a counseling session looking at unhelpful thinking styles so these are like uh signs on a road so you go on 100 on the motorway or 110 some of you a little bit faster and you're coming to uh you know get off coming off the pass there and you start to slow down because you see the 80 sign right and this is the same sort of thing we're all going to do this in one way or another um just part of the fallen nature of man but you know when you become aware of the stop sign you become aware of the speed sign it helps you to start to slow it down so if you're becoming aware of doing some of these unhelpful thinking styles you can actually start to tailor it and do the opposite or try something different so the first one there is all or nothing thinking sometimes called black and white thinking if i'm not perfect i have failed who's ever said that before or i'm not even going to try unless i can do it perfectly right who's done that before and all the procrastinators in the room say amen you know we don't even bother trying because i can't do it perfectly or i'm afraid that i'm going to fail you probably will and it's okay just get started you know and so that can be something that really holds us back another unhelpful thinking style is over generalizing where you might say something like everything is always rubbish right we're using those generalizations you know everything always and that's just not true it's not always rubbish not everything you know there's certainly rubbish that happens but not everything so it's being aware of the truth that is you know hidden away in that unhelpful way of thinking the next point there is mental filter so only paying attention to certain types of evidence so an example of that is noticing your failures but not seeing your successes you know it's they say that it's a it takes um seven positives to make up for one negative right so it's like it's we're kind of at a bit of a loss sometimes you know but encouragement positivity noticing your successes it's it's a work that takes you know you need to work at it to be able to build yourself up to encourage yourself just like king david in the scriptures he was depressed he was downtrodden he was in despair and he put on the ephod the the worship garment that represents the worship garment and he put it on to to enter into the presence of god and encourage himself in in the lord that's what he literally says in a place of praise in worship we can encourage ourselves in the lord so it's noticing your successes rather than always noticing your failures and the biggest thing in that is condemnation you know so often um i've dealt with people in the christian community that just condemn themselves so much from a messed up view a skewed view of of of god and and the gospel and you know if you have that awareness of your righteousness in christ of his grace of his goodness um you can be free of that even this morning i pray that that starts to happen if you have that um let's go to the next one i'm not going to belabor these because they're quite quite lengthy but there's a whole bunch there you know jumping to conclusions one of my favorites uh happens in church all the time um i said hi to justin he didn't say hi to me you know he just walked past me he didn't even notice me how dare he you know i started thinking because he you know it's because he doesn't like me or oh he's thinking this or that i'm jumping to conclusions two plus two equals five no it's not true you know i'm assuming i'm emotional reasoning i'm i'm thinking something that's not true and we can often do that we all do it come on um you know so it's just being aware of that and you know allowing yourself to be like okay just because i think something doesn't necessarily mean it's true and in that situation i would you know just go up to just and say hey man how you going you know just really engage with him rather than just you know passing by and just find out you know is there anything wrong you know hey man how you doing just talk and you know be able to engage and matthew in i think with matthew 5 i can't remember exactly where but in the book of matthew it says you know if you have an issue with your brother go and talk to him can't confront him go have a chat you know so it's the same thing with this stuff is just being aware that you know you can actually change that pattern of thinking let's go to the next one and then labeling so assigning labels to yourself or other people things like and again this comes back to the enemy man like he loves to label you in a lie in a deception he loves to say things like and you'll hear it as if it's your voice if you're not careful i'm a loser you know i'm hopeless i'm never going to make it all that sort of stuff and it's a it's a lie that is not the truth about who you are you know it's so important come back to scripture one of the things that really transformed my my life is coming back to the word of god and what he says about me rather than on my external experience so even though i'd messed up i'd done something i shouldn't have done i kept coming back to know i'm i am in in jesus i am in the lord i am in him that wasn't that's not cool i shouldn't have done that that was a behavior that's that's my old self that's my past and i'm still growing and learning and developing but that's not who i really am i'm really as jesus as i am and that's a journey and that takes time to develop and grow in that in that space in that maturity and as you grow in it it becomes easier and easier it just becomes a default it becomes a default in the sense of you do something that's that's not true or someone does something to you you know and and you start to immediately go back to that place of the holy spirit reminding you of his word of his promises of who you really are in christ and it's powerful let's go to the next one someone getting something out of this morning come on amen amen me too it's good so i know if you if you if you're preaching or you're saying something and you don't even listen to yourself then you probably shouldn't say um you know it's important so these are the things that you know some practical examples i was going to do some grounding and distraction stuff but i don't think we got time for that let's go to the next one so i'm almost done but in romans chapter 12 verse 2 maybe i'll get the uh the musician uh so just the keyboard player thank you um romans chapter 12 verse 2 it says and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good acceptable and perfect will of god right so in scripture that's why i've got a job because god said it it actually works when we renew our mind we can actually be transformed right and when we do that through the word of god it's not fickle it doesn't change it doesn't shift like today this is cool tomorrow it's not you know in the word of god it's in black and white it's very clear what's okay what's not okay it helps give us a path it says in in the psalms that your word is a light unto my feet and you know it helps us to know the way to go it helps us to see clearly and so when we allow the word of god to to seep in and like in it says in the parable of the sower you actually let the seed the word of god start to germinate start to produce in your life you can actually let it you know develop fruit and be reproductive in your heart and it starts to change you and transform you who's experienced that come on who's experienced the word of god transforming their lives amen we've all been through stuff man like we've all been through trials and troubles and we're going to keep going through stuff jesus didn't say you're not going to go through a storm he goes i'm going to be with you in the storm you know he gives us peace through the storm he goes through the situation he's in the boat with you he's in the situation with you and one of the things that i i really just love about god is that look i'd rather go through stuff in life with god than without him come on like it's so often we we allow ourselves to go through stuff without him and he's just sitting there waiting like come on i'm here for you i'm i'm wanting and even using me this morning i hope as a mouthpiece to to let you know that he's there with you whatever the situation whatever the trial the struggle whatever it might be you know and maybe he's calling you to be that person for someone else you know he loves us so much he loves us so much so why don't we do romans 12 verse 2 right now and just stand up and we're going to read through romans chapter 3 verse 21 praise god we're going to read through romans chapter 3 verse 21 and we're just going to let the word of god just renew our minds this morning so if that's your heart that's your prayer this morning just let the word of god seep into your into your soul into your spirit this morning why don't we do that right now verse 21 it says but now apart from the law the righteousness of god has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify this righteousness this right standing with god is given through faith in jesus christ to all who believe not one of you is without not one of you is excluded from that promise come on thank you jesus there is no difference between jew and gentile for all have sinned we've all fallen short of the glory of god and we're all justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by christ jesus god presented christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith he did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time so that we could be made just so he so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in jesus verse 27 where then is boasting it is excluded because of what law the law that requires works no because of the law that requires faith for you maintain that a person is justified when we say i maintain that i am justified by faith apart from the works of the law or is god the god of jews only is he not the god of gentiles too yes of gentiles too since there is only one god who will justify the circumcised by faith you uncircumcise it through that same faith do we then nullify the law by this faith not at all rather we uphold it we do more in relationship with god by mistake than when we try to do it on purpose in our own strength not by might nor my power but by my spirit says the lord if you want that relationship with the lord this morning i want to encourage you to come up the front we're going to pray with you and you're coming up the front not because you know anything special is going to happen up here but just as a sign as a declaration in your own heart you know what's happening i did it it felt awkward when i first did it you know many years ago but i just came to a point of saying i don't care what anyone thinks i don't care i'm going to throw myself out there and let myself dive into god's love dive into his presence dive into his grace because i'm tired i'm sick i'm tired of living in my own strength in my own self if you want his peace you want his rest this morning if you want to do things by his righteousness be made right standing with him right now you can do that by faith and you can rest assured that that is the case in his word many many many of us have experienced that right many of us have experienced that in this place and as the musicians come up we're just going to spend some time in worship and if that's you this morning and you want to experience that relationship with the lord and come into a place of union with him i would encourage you to come up the front and we're just going to pray for you guys in a moment so let's just worship him as we just spend time in his presence a few more moments this morning thank you jesus thank you lord we just thank you jesus if you've already received the lord then amen that's amazing that's such a blessing and you know it is but just let the word of god encourage you this morning let that word just seep in deep and produce fruit in your life holy spirit we just thank you we just thank you so much for what you're doing right now in jesus name hallelujah come on why don't we just worship him thank you jesus thank you lord r holy spirit

Channel: Presence Church AU

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Id: h4tNSw9HMfc

Length: 51min 42sec (3102 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 03 2021