We began a few weeks ago on a
series on Friday nights called Transformed. Transformed. And our main text is right here
in Romans the twelfth chapter. Romans 12:2 says, "Be not
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Here he says there is something
that will transform you and enable you to know the will of
God. Are you interested in this? In the New Living translation,
the New Living says, "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this
world, but let God transform you," everybody say it out loud,
"Let God transform you. How is He going to do it? Now when people think about God
doing an amazing thing in your life often times they don't
think of their involvement. They just think God could just
send a lightning bolt of transforming power and wappo
zappo. Behold the new me. And it is His will to do an
amazing, miraculous transformation with you and me,
but it requires our involvement. Transform you, "Into a new
person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know
God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." Knowing, perceiving, discerning,
identifying, being sure of the will of God is a part of this. I became convinced in my early
teens, teenage years, that if I could find out the will of God,
I had it made. I know that to be true today
because I had already made up my mind if I could find out and say
I know this is the will of God for me to do, I'm going to do
it. And if I'll do it I'm convinced
He will bless me. He's going to take care of me,
He's going to help me, and in essence, I'll have it made. Right? Well, here is the key, if you
will, of finding and knowing the perfect will of God. We need our minds changed. In the God's Word translation he
says, "Don't become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you
think. Then you will always be able to
determine what God really wants," do you want to always
determine what God really wants in your life? "What is good, pleasing, and
perfect." Today's English version says it
like this. "Do not conform yourselves to
the standards of this world," let's just stop right here. When the Bible says don't do
something, what should we do? Don't do it. What did he say don't do? Don't conform. Now conform means literally to
fashion alike. Are there pressures, are there
things at work in this world to make you conformable? To make you like everything
around you? I mean you hear people talk
about peer pressure, and other pressures, and public opinion,
and politically correct and on and on. These are conforming pressures
to mold you into a cookie-cutter copy of everybody else. But the truth is, you're not
supposed to be like everybody else. You're supposed to be different. Very different from those who
are not born-again, those who don't follow Jesus, those who
are not a part of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is to be a marked
difference between you and the unsaved. True? And one of the big things that
makes that makes that difference is how you think. What you think and how you
think. He said it will transform you. If your mind is renewed, if you
change the way you think, it says it will transform you. That word transform is the word
we get our word metamorphosis from. Like caterpillar to butterfly. Could you change that much? Now he's writing to people that
are born again. They've already been born again. If you go back to the beginning
of the Book of Romans, he's writing to the Saints that are
in Rome. And he's telling born-again
people that they can be transformed? Yes. And how would it happen? By the renewing of your mind. How could you tell if you
believed these great truths? You would not yawn when I read
them. If you really believed that the
Lord can and will change you into another person from where
you sit right here tonight -- we're talking about a better
person, a greater person, a more glorious just like Jesus person. Do you believe it? How is it going to happen? Of course it's going to involve
His goodness and His power and His grace, but it's also going
to involve us changing what we think and how we think. Can you say amen? Thank You Master. Go with me, if you
would, to the Book of Psalms and the tenth chapter. We asked the question in
previous services, what is a thought? And where do thoughts come from? What are they actually? It's something we are so
familiar with -- I mean, from the time we had any self-
awareness or consciousness, that was with a thought. Whether it was a thought of I
want a bottle, or I like popsicles, or whatever -- you
had a thought. And until this present hour,
you're sitting there, you might not be doing a whole lot
physically, but you're doing something. And if you didn't understand
English, then this wouldn't mean anything to you. But if you do understand the
English language, thoughts are being conveyed right now. What is a thought? Words are simply thought
carriers, thought vehicles. If the word doesn't convey the
thought, it's a useless word. It means nothing, just letters
strung together, what would it mean? Languages vary, but the thoughts
are the same. But what is a thought? I'm saying something, you're
understanding something. What is that thing? A thought? The same Hebrew word that's
translated thought, and also imagination, is translated frame
and make, as well. Thoughts are not, how can I say
it, they are not nothing. Thoughts are something. Thoughts have substance. Thoughts have spiritual
substance and thoughts are the framing of what's to come. Thoughts are the forms of what
is to follow. God formed man from the dust of
the earth; let's just stop. Where was man before that? He was in the mind and heart of
God. God formed Adam, formed man, his
nose, his eyes, his ears, his fingers, his toes, exactly the
way He saw him inside. We know how it works because He
has made us in His own likeness and image. An artist, a potter, a painter,
a sculptor does the same thing, just with stone and canvas and
lesser materials. But when a potter is forming a
vase, before that vase is finished and drying in the oven,
where was that vase? That vase was in the potter's
thoughts. Can you say that what was in
them was nothing? It existed there before it
existed here. If it hadn't existed there, it
would have never existed here. So you're going to say that a
thought is meaningless and nothing when it's where the pot
came from. And we understand, according to
Hebrews 11:3, that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. So that everything you see and
touch was created and made from things you can't see. Things that don't appear. A very, very big part of who we
are and what we are is what we think, and how we think, much
bigger than we realize. The reason why you're here
tonight in church instead of somewhere else doing something
else, is the result of what you think and how you think. Other people that could be here
are not here because they don't think it's worth their time. They don't think it's valuable
enough to them. They don't think the Word would
have that much impact on them, or being in the presence of God
would have that much change, cause that much change, they
just don't think that. But you thought enough of it to
drive a distance, even if you were tired, clean yourself up,
and get here and focus and pay attention, spend money, exert
energy, because of how you think. You think God is everything. You think the Word is life. Eternal life. You think the Word will do
everything; God will heal you, and fix you, and meet your
needs, and that the presence of God is the most amazing
experience and place you can never be. And you think right. You're right about what you
think. I didn't say you're right about
everything that you think, but you're right about that. Can you say glory to God? Psalm ten. What are we after? We're after God's thoughts. God's thoughts. Psalm 10:4 says, "The wicked,
through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after
God: God is not in all his thoughts." There are folks they go for
years at a time and don't think about God. Have no interest thinking about
God. God is not in their thoughts. And that is a huge part of what
makes them who they are, and what they are. Because if God is not in your
thoughts, God is not in your life. And He is not influencing the
person you are. If you have a godless thought
life, you'll have a godless life. Remember in Romans twelve,
transformed by the renewing of your mind -- the simple and
powerful truth is change the way you think, change you. You change. This hasn't been real enough to
us. If you're thinking changes
significantly enough, you change into a different person. This is amazing. Why? Because what you are right now
was formed in your thinking last year, ten years ago, twenty
years ago. Things, thoughts you got from
your parents, grandparents, teachers and coaches at school
or in university, or in meetings, or churches, all these
thoughts -- some of them you rejected, some of them you kept,
but these thoughts -- because when you came into this world
you were a blank sheet of paper. You didn't have a bunch of
thinking and thoughts. You got these thoughts from
people. And the reasons you do and I do
what we do is because of how we think. Why do we do this instead of
this? Why do we go here instead of
there? Why do we do it this way instead
of that way? Because before we did it, we
thought it. And we thought that would be a
good thing to do. That would be a good major to
take. That would be a good job to get. That would be a good trade and
skill to learn. That would be this -- before you
ever became that, you thought that. Maybe in the beginning you
didn't think it was so hot, but before it was over with you
thought to give years to that and learn and develop, but your
thinking has led you to the point where you are now. And we have become what we are
today, not what we have to be. No matter what you become, that
doesn't mean you're locked into that. People say, "Yeah, but I just
always thought..." Well, that's what we're talking
about. You can change the way you
think. "Yeah, but I just always
believed..." That doesn't mean it's right. Look at Psalm fifty. Psalm 50:21 the Lord says,
"These things have you done, and I kept silence," just because
the Lord didn't say anything or judgment didn't fall on you
immediately, doesn't mean He approved of it. "You thought I was altogether
such an one as yourself," God is saying you've done some stuff,
you were some ways, I didn't stop you. I didn't say anything to you
about it, and so you assumed that I was like you. But He said I'm going to,
"Reprove you," I'm going to correct you, I am not like you. Do people get to thinking wrong
about God, and how He is, and who He is? And this is one of the biggest
problems is that people, churchgoing people and unsaved
people, think wrong about God. You know, just like this guy
that called Rob and he thought we're charging people to come to
church and they had to fork out money to even come and be in
service and be a part. Now, that was never true. That never even came across my
mind. I never even thought anything
like that. And he really did think that. So he thought we were that way. Are y'all with me? But it was wrong thinking. See, people think all kind of
stuff about God. They think He's that way because
they heard a preacher say it, or they heard grandma say it, or
things they came up with something on their own. They read half of a verse and
twisted it around backwards and misunderstood it and said,
"That's how He is and that's what He said," but He never said
it. And that's not how He is and
He's never been that way. But you have all kinds of people
thinking He is such a one as they are, and as they think you
should be, or He is, but we need our minds renewed. Are you hungry to have your mind
renewed so that you don't think wrong about Him? That you see Him as He is? And you know Him truly, and what
you're thinking about Him is right. Now the only way you will get
that is to have a willing heart and to allow yourself to be
immersed in His thoughts night and day and not just for a day
or two. Or for a week or two. Or for a year or two. That's why He told Joshua, "This
book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you will
meditate in it day and night." Why? Because you do that and you're
going to start learning how God thinks. What He thinks and how He
thinks. And when you do that, you're
going to start thinking like He does. You're going to become
like-minded with the Most High God. And instead of being deceived
and being all messed up in your thinking and thinking He thinks
like you, you can get renewed and actually think like Him. And as we do, it will transform
us into different people. Transform us. Not just slight improvements,
different people. Different people. Glory to God. Somebody say thank You Master. Thank You, thank You, thank You,
thank You, thank You. Thank You Lord. You know, God's thoughts
revealed in His Word, show Who He is as a Person, and what He
is as God, and what His will is and what His ways are. I remember I was reading the
Bible through from the beginning in the Old Testament as a boy,
for the first time. And I got into reading about
David and about his mighty men and about the exploits and about
the miracles. And the way the Lord helped him
to conduct himself. He had an opportunity to kill
his enemy that was making his life miserable and he would not
touch him. He said no, he's the Lord's
anointed. Something could happen to him,
but it's not going to be by my hand. And some things about honor and
about integrity -- I couldn't explain it all, but I could tell
something was getting in me. Something was changing my
insides. I could not try to explain it. But, these are God's thoughts. And when you think His thoughts
after Him, and don't reject them, believe them and receive
them, they actually have the power to conform you to think
like Him. And if you think like Him, you
become like Him. Because a huge part of what God
is and who He is, is what He thinks and how He thinks. Are y'all with me friends? And we have the privilege of
having a Book full of His thoughts. Now see, that's why the enemy
pushes so hard to try to convince people "Oh, that's not
divinely inspired. No. Maybe amazing poetry,
outstanding life stories." No. No, no. This was not written of men's
personal, private interpretation. Holy men of old spoke, and it
was written down as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This is something beyond man's
intellect. This is God's thoughts. God's thoughts. Now if you don't have that
respect for the Word, you're in trouble because you can't get
out of it what's there if you're an unbeliever. If you study the Scriptures to
argue, to try to disprove God, I don't care how brilliant you
think you are, it's a closed Book to you. You'll get nothing of life. But if you'll open up your
heart, the Bible talks about different states of mind. One of them is a willing mind. One of them is readiness of
mind. And if you'll do that and open
up yourself, the very thoughts of the Almighty Who sits on the
throne tonight in glory, will come into your mind and you will
think the same thoughts God thinks. You will think in the same veins
and same ways He has always thought. And those thoughts are
transforming. They change you. As you meditate on what He said,
and you think what He has always thought, and you think in the
veins and ways, your insides are being changed; you are becoming
someone else. That's the power of His Word. Can you say I believe it. Thank You Master. Transformed by the renewing of
your mind. The Lord was reminded me about
this in recent days about the way of thinking, let's just say
in this country, in the US. The laws of our land, so much of
the thinking about what's right, what's fair, what's not, it came
from God. Now a lot of it's been twisted
in recent times, but this country was founded to be a
Christian nation. Don't let somebody tell you it
wasn't, it was. And I'll say something real bold
and it's not politically correct, and I don't care. But we don't need freedom of
religion, we need freedom to worship the One true living God
and His Son Jesus. All the other stuff is a scourge
on our country and can bring judgment and curse on us. You read what happened when they
allow the worship of other gods in their nation. There's nothing good about it. Somebody said, "We need to be
open-minded and we just need to be tolerant." We've had problems in our
country, too. Cases where God couldn't fully
protect us. Cases where God couldn't fully
provide for us. Not because His arm is short. No. The laws on so many of our
books, that's why the Ten Commandments were in the court
houses and all kind of stuff. It's why 'In God We Trust' is on
the money, it's just all over the place. You just have to be willing --
you don't want to know the truth to try to turn it into something
else. But the law revealed what's fair
and just and right. I want to give you quick example
of it. You go to Exodus twenty-two and
I'm going to read to you from another passage and I will make
my way over there. You're going to Exodus
twenty-two but I'm reading from Deuteronomy for a moment. He said, "For what nation is
there so great, who has God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our
God... what nation is there so great,
that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law,
which I set before you this day?" This is Deuteronomy 4:8. The law revealed what's right
and what's fair, down to details. And you do yourself a disservice
if you never read the Old Testament. You need to read it because
there are so many things in there about how God thinks. Our approach to Him has changed. We no longer need to sacrifice
animals. We no longer have to try to go
through a priest, we have the Great High Priest and He's
already made the sacrifice. Come on are you with me? But yet what God said is still
true and He's never changed. And if He thought that way then,
He thinks that way now. He doesn't need to change
because it was perfect. And He said, "What nation is
there so great, that has statutes and judgments so
righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" To even know what is fair, and
what is right and good versus what is unfair, where did we get
the concept? How did we ever find out? "I learned from momma and them." Where did they learn? "His daddy taught him." Where did he learn? Going back generations how did
anybody ever have a concept of right and wrong? It was all over the map until
God made it plain. And in Exodus twenty-two, just
notice this one little example. Exodus 22:14. He's telling them details about
how to live. He said, "If a man borrow ought
of his neighbor, and it be hurt, or die, the owner thereof being
not with it, he shall surely make it good." He'll pay for it. Verse fifteen, "But if the owner
thereof be with it, he shall not make it good," he won't pay for
it because it's, "a hired thing, it came for his hire." If he's paying for the man's
time, and this man brings his ox, and his ox dies while
working at his job, then it's not his responsibility. But if he borrowed the man's ox
and he's working the man's ox and the ox dies, it is his
responsibility. Now that doesn't mean you
couldn't love the guy and help them get another ox even if it
was a real job, but how would you know what's right in the
situation? This kind of revelation is
throughout the whole Word of God. How to think. What's right. What's the right thing to do. What's the fair thing to do. What's the good thing to do. You wouldn't have a clue unless
you got a hold of His thoughts. And the amazing thing is now big
born-again and receiving the Holy Spirit, you have the Author
Who penned this through the human instrument, inside you
twenty-four seven. And even if you didn't know one
Scripture and you just got born-again yesterday, if you
follow the leading of the Spirit, He would lead you in
line with that verse if that was your situation, and it might be
years later you'd find out about the verse and I think that's
exactly what He led me to do. Say it out loud, "Right
thinking. Righteous thinking. God thinking." If you don't think like Him,
what needs to happen? That's exactly right. You need to change your little
mind. You need to change the way you
think. When you come up against you and
He thinking differently, you need to change. Do you reckon you have arrived
at total Christ likeness in all your thought processes tonight? Well then what needs to happen? The reality is that a lot of the
way you think is not in agreement with Him, the way He
thinks as you sit right here, right now. Either that or you have already
arrived at Christlike perfection. Now which one is it? Then where you sit and where I
stand here tonight, there's a lot of stuff that we have
thought even up until five minutes ago, that is wrong. And here's the problem. It's not just that it's wrong,
is that it's wrong and we think it's right. See, if it's wrong and you know
it's wrong, then you know to deal with it. But if it's wrong to you think
it's right, that's what deception is. It's wrong but you don't think
it's wrong. It's actually contradictory to
Bible verses, but you think it's Bible. It's in disagreement with God
thinks, but you think He thinks just like you. But this ignorance and deception
leaves the door open to the destroyer in that area of your
life, and that's why people keep having problems in the same area
and are pulling their hair and wondering why. Because they see no need to
change that area because they are sure me and God think the
same about this. But the truth is, He has never
though like that and you're wrong. And the solution is for us to be
changed, renewed in our mind. But for that to happen, we have
to have a different thought, don't we? We have to have some thoughts
come in that slap us and go hey, hey, hey! This is not right. What you and momma and them, and
great grandmomma and them have thought for the last hundred and
ninety years, it was off the wall 200 years ago, and it's off
the wall today. It was messed up then, and it's
messed up now and you have to change. And some of these things, my
friends, poppa and them would fight you and beat you down over
it. And it was engraved in their
preachers and they were just sure it was God and will fight
you over it. And some of it is like cutting
off a hand, it's like pulling out an eye, because it's a part
of who you are and what you are. But it's a part of what's wrong
with who you are and what you are, and needs to be removed and
replaced and mind renewed. Are you willing? Let me go over this again real
slow. Have you arrived at thinking one
hundred percent like God in every area of your life right
now where you sit? No, you have not. So what does that mean? That means there are multiple
areas in your thinking that are wrong, right now, not right and
need to change; better if they would have been changed twenty
years ago, forty years ago, when you were three years old. But you can't change it any
sooner than now. Are you willing to change
anything that the Lord would show you? Come on put your hands up and
pray out loud with me say, "Father God I desire this. Show me where You and I are not
in agreement in thinking. Show me anything and everything
I have received, I have assumed, I have believed, I thought was
You, thought was the Bible, thought was right, and it's not. I want to know. Open my eyes. Open my ears. Give me understanding. Reveal it to me, I'll receive
it. And by your grace, let me be
renewed in the Spirit of my mind and think like You, in Jesus'
name." Hallelujah. Thank You Lord. Did you pray it in faith? Are you expecting? Expecting? Do you believe that He desires
it? Is this His will? Count on it; He'll do it. He'll start showing you things
immediately. Now when He does, don't get mad. Don't get wrangled, don't get
distorted and out of shape. Let Him do it, let Him show you. Let Him show you. Make sure you're not defending
something that's not God. Watch about that. Go over to the Book of Luke. Thank You Master. While you're going to the Book
of Luke the eighth chapter, I'll read another verse to you, while
you're going there. Don't want to waste any time
when I can get another Scripture in. You're going to Luke eight. We read this last time I
ministered to you on this. Psalm 139:18 he said, "How
precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!" Is that true in your heart? How precious are Your thoughts
to me. You hear people talk about, "I'd
like to talk to this person or that," maybe that's been dead
for hundreds of years. "I'd like to pick their brain,"
I've heard people say, "hear what they think." No, I tell you Who you want to
know, their thoughts- the Almighty. And the amazing thing is, you
can. You can. And this Book can be just dead
letter, and King James English, and mean very little or nothing
to you, or, you can have a living relationship with Him,
and He can speak to you right out of this Book. He can speak to you right by His
Spirit. And something can come up in you
and you can go wow, wow. I never saw that like that
before. That's what's happening here
and now. "The Most High would reveal a
greater revelation. The Most High would expand our
insides. He would enlarge our mind and
our Spirit to comprehend things He's known from eons past. To grasp and embrace glorious
light, glorious truth, that most have not embraced and seen nor
care to know. But if you desire, if you covet,
if you reach for, I'll show it to you." Hallelujah! Do you believe it? Thank You Master. He would show us things we've
not known were there. He would show us, oh my Lord. He just said to me, "I would
show you things previous generations missed." I would show you things previous
generations overlooked, missed, didn't see. Hallelujah. And you know some things have
been lost the first generation in the church, it was real, this
was how they lived. But then by 500 years later, it
had been lost. And the Lord hasn't changed. He hasn't changed. Just because people changed and
lost things, He hasn't changed. Now think about the patience and
mercy of God. He's wanted His people in the
Earth to think certain ways for hundreds of years that they
lost, and He just keeps being willing and ready if somebody
will open up to Him to show it to them, and bring them into it. But what we've already prayed is
a significant part of us. This wrong thinking is in the
way of the right-thinking. It's in the way. It is taking up place in our
life, in our values, our morals, our standards that should be
occupied with the real. And the Lord will help us. We're going to have some things
pulled out of us. And the glorious thing is it's
going to make room for the real. Hallelujah. That's going to change us. That's going to make us
different people. Better people. Luke eight, are you there? Luke eight in this part of the
chapter deals with the madman of Gadarenes who ran through
cemeteries screaming at night, cutting himself. You hear nowadays about people
cutting themselves, where did that come from? The Spirit of God leads you cut
yourself? Never. That's the devil. And people say, "I can't help
it," that's a lie. That's a lie. How do people get to the place
where they cut themselves? Before they cut themselves what
happened? Thoughts came to them about
cutting themselves and sometimes they might've went months and
years and not cut them self, but the thought kept coming back to
cut yourself. And then the pressure, cut
yourself, cut yourself. Where is that coming from? Who would bring thoughts and
pressure you to cut yourself? That's the devil. Same one that was motivating the
madman of Gadarenes to cut himself. Do we, as born-again Believers
with the Greater One inside, have to let the devil conform us
into a self-mutilating, foolish person? No. You're a child of God. Young person, teenager, adult,
you are a born- again child of God, greater is He that's in
you, than he that is in the world. And if something comes to you
and says cut yourself, you say, you cut yourself. I'm not stupid. I'm thankful for this body God
gave me. I'm not going to scar it and
deface it. "I'm just so troubled and I'm so
vexed." Honey, cutting yourself is not
going to make you feel better. There is peace in Jesus. That's what you don't -- cutting
yourself is not going to fix anything. It's going to cause all kind of
other problems. And I assure you, you're going
to wish you hadn't. "I have cut myself a lot." The Lord will forgive you, it
could be behind you. Just quit listening to it now. Realize where it's coming from
and stop it. Stop it. He was running through the
cemetery, screaming, naked with no clothes, and he came and fell
down on Jesus and Jesus set him free. And verse thirty-five, "They
went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the
man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of
Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid." They should have been glad. It's amazing when people see the
power of God and they get scared. They should be glad, no more
screaming idiot in the cemetery. Naked jaybird. Now think about this. If he is in his right mind,
where was he earlier that day? He was not in his right mind. What does it mean not in his
right mind? Now we use that phraseology
limitedly, but I want you to understand, there are all kinds
of degrees of being in your right mind or being in a wrong
mind. He was in such a wrong mind that
he's not even living in public. He's not holding down a job, he
doesn't have a family. He's running, a crazy man,
through the cemetery naked. Lost his mind. But how did that happen? Before he was the madman of
Gadarenes, he was some mama's baby. He was some daddy son. He was somebody's brother. Might've been somebody's
husband, somebody's coworker. How did he become the madman of
Gadarenes? Thoughts came to him. Nobody might have known it on
the job or at home for months or even years, but thoughts came to
him like that thought about cutting yourself. Thoughts came to him, perverted,
wrong, distorted thoughts. And he thought on them and
yielded to it until he became obsessed with that thinking. That means you think about it
night and day. Does it matter what you think
on? Well, if we think on what the
Lord is telling us, we're transformed into being like the
Lord. What if you think on this ugly
stuff, this evil stuff, this perverted stuff? Will it also change you? It will conform you into being
like the enemy. The enemy wants you to make a
fool of yourself. Run around naked in the cemetery
and try to destroy yourself and kill yourself. That's what he does. He can't just come in and force
you to do something, but he can bring thoughts and bring
thoughts. Do you agree we're foolish if we
think them, if we sit around and think them and meditate on them? Wouldn't that make us foolish? Especially a child of God who's
got the Greater One inside. And so now, he's in his right
mind. Somebody say, "Right mind." How would you know you're in
your right mind? Well first off you put some
clothes on. That's a good indicator. One good indication. And he's not screaming through
the cemetery, he sitting quietly at the feet of Jesus with peace. When you get in your right mind,
you want to be close to Jesus. Don't you? It even goes on to say that the
Lord told him what to do and to go out and tell, and he said I
want to stay right here with You. When you get in your right mind,
you want to be as close to Jesus as you can. If you think you don't, you're
not in your right mind. Simple. That doesn't mean that you are a
lunatic, you can be at different degrees not in your right mind. Are you with me friends? And if you're not in the right
mind, or right-thinking, or right mindset, what needs to
happen? You need to change. And you need to quit trying to
change all the outside, change the way you think. And the transformation will come
in your life on the outside. Just receive those new thoughts
and those different thoughts, and begin to think them, and
think that, and think like that, and transformation, the
Scripture says, will result. He changed. You're there in Luke, go over to
Matthew. Now was that guy a little bit
off in his thinking or was he way off? Running through the cemetery
naked, screaming, cutting yourself. That's way off. That's out there. Aren't you glad you're not out
there like that tonight? Thank You Master. But if the Lord could take him
and within minutes, he's sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed
and in his right mind, then if you've been to a lesser degree
out of your right mind, He could sure get you back easily. It doesn't matter how far you've
been out of your right mind, He can get you right back in a
hurry, in a hurry, minutes. You can be -- thinking like you
need to think. And when you think like you need
to think, life looks different. It doesn't look hopeless, it
looks amazing. You heard the testimony of the
lady. You could tell she was thinking
about quitting. Thinking about quitting family,
marriage, relationships, occupation. She was thinking about that, and
it didn't look good, didn't look worth getting up in the morning
to go to try to do. But now she's excited. She said it's better than it's
ever been. And yet she says not everything
changed, she changed. She's thinking differently. And what changed her thinking? She said the Word did. The Word of God got in her and
changed the way she thinks, so she's not just enduring daily
life, she's enjoying daily life because she sees it differently. You see young people, and older
people as well, get to the point where they think about suicide
because life is not worth living. Why? "Because my girlfriend broke up
with me... My wife had an affair... My husband and affair... Because they just don't love me
anymore... Life is not worth living." That's a lie. "Yeah, but you don't know what
they've done to me." It doesn't really matter. I know some things are hard to
deal with, I'm not saying that we don't care, but you not being
able to go on, that is not the determining factor. The psalmist said, Even if my
mother and father forsake me, the Lord will take me up." Does He have the ability if
people fail you, forsake you, betray you, does God have the
ability, is He big enough to come up inside you, heal your
broken heart, fill your mind, and not just help you to
survive, we're not just survivors, we are thrivers. We are overcomers and more than
conquerors. Because that's how big God is. If He can get you to think with
Him. I know just in the last several
years my thinking is changing, changing, changing. I'm so thankful for it. A lot of stuff that used to
shake me, doesn't shake me anymore. I don't see it the same. What is getting bigger and
bigger and bigger in me is how big God is. He is filling up my windshield. Anybody know what I mean by
that? I don't know that I've ever said
that before. When something fills your
windshield, what does that mean? That's all you can see. God is filling up my windshield. You think about - get it? Think about what kind of Being
can make a solar system. Can make the vast expanses. It's challenging for us to even
begin to try to wrap our minds around what's there. This is not a figment of
somebody's imagination, just look up in the night sky. It's there. Look through telescopes. What kind of Person can make
that? What kind of Person? And the same Person made bunnies
and puppies and kittens. Who makes a puppy? Everything that is in that
puppy, cold nose, wagging tail, floppy ears, wants to run and
jump and slide, that all came out of God. That was in Him before it was
out there. That's a part of Him, that's a
part of who He is. Solar systems and puppies and
everything in between. That's God. Curly hair and strawberries. The smell of vanilla. Chocolate. And alligators. The scope and breadth of His
Person and diversity -- Who He is, what He is, how He thinks,
we will never begin to tire of it. It is so vast, it is so amazing. And you don't have to wait until
you get to heaven to begin to tap into it, you can begin to
learn more about Who He is, what He is, what He thinks, how He
thinks, and I'm telling you if you let Him fill up your
windshield -- people can fail you. People can mess up. People can hurt you, they can
say and do things that they should not have done, but if He
is filling up your windshield, you will not let it cause you to
become hopeless. I didn't say you wouldn't shed a
few tears, you wouldn't have to talk to yourself some, but He
can be so big and you that if everything went wrong, you still
have your soul anchored, and He can help you see a brighter
tomorrow anyway. "My friend left me." He could bring them back and
they can be a better than before it was over, or He could just
give you a better friend. Or ten better friends. Do you believe He's that big? If you do, then you won't just
roll up in the bed, and cry your eyes out, and say it's no use, I
just want to die. That's when God is not filling
up your windshield. You are filling up your
windshield. And no wonder you feel bad
looking at all that sorrow, and junk, and problems and failures. If we would discipline our minds
and certain things we just wouldn't let ourselves think on,
no matter how pressing or real they are, we just say no, I am
not thinking -- I don't care that it happened, I'm not
thinking about that. If you do that, we would spare
ourselves from untold pain. So much stuff we just wouldn't
go through. And I'm telling you, the Lord is
working that in us. He's helping us with that. That is happening inside of us
until we'll become different people. We become so strong that people
look at you and go on, "Why aren't you crying? You need to take off work, and
you need to do this, and do that," and you'll go no, I'm
fine. And you really are. And they'll be amazed and think,
"How in the world can you be fine?" Because God is filling up my
windshield. Everywhere I look I just see
Him. Solar systems and puppies. Somebody say glory to God. Where are you? Are you holding a place? I don't think I have time for
all of that tonight. Go to Jonah the third chapter. Maybe you can come back for
another time or if you can't, you can go for the rest of the
series, you can download it for free off the Internet if you're
from out of town or whatever. Go to Jonah the third chapter. Jonah chapter three. Now God sent Jonah to preach
which was his call in his job and he's preached before,
probably lots of places. But He sent them to preach at
Nineveh. And Jonah didn't like Nineveh. And he didn't want to go preach
in Nineveh. So, he ran. He booked a cabin on a ship and
went for a cruise to get his mind off of this preaching at
Nineveh stuff. The Bible said he fled from the
presence of the Lord. How are you going to run from
God? How are you going to flee from
the presence of the Lord? I mean you could take the
fastest jet go to the furthest remote island and hide behind a
Palm tree and as soon as you get there, He's going to go, "Hey. What are you doing over here?" You can't get away from God. He's everywhere. But, that's what he tried to do. And you know that he had that
workshop with the great fish, worked some things out in
himself, got clearance on his goals. And when that fish spit him up,
he hit his feet and headed to Nineveh to preach. You know you can do things the
easy way or you could do things the hard way. So many choose the latter. But he did, he did exactly what
the Lord told him to do which he did not want to do, but he did
it. And He told him judgment was
coming and he preached it, and he preached it hot and strong,
and he went back outside on the city limits edge to watch and
see the judgment fall. Because he's a prophet, and when
prophesies, it comes to pass. But, in verse nine they all
repented, and verse ten, "God saw their works, that they
turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that
He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not." Yeah, but God said judgment was
coming in X amount of time. Yeah, but He said no, they
changed so I'm going to change what's going to happen. See, a lot of things are not set
in concrete are they? They're not etched in stone. Maybe something was going to
happen, but if they changed, it can change. But it made Jonah furious
because his prophecy didn't come to pass and when a prophet
prophesies and it doesn't happen well, then the word gets out. And your reputation -- it's
Jonah the prophet. Yeah, I know. You know that last prophecy he
made? Nothing. Zippo. Nothing happened. That's bad for your reputation. False prophet. He could just hear the names
now. And verse one of chapter four,
keep reading. "It displeased Jonah
exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed to the Lord, and
said, I pray You O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet
in my country?" Before I left the home, before I
took that cruise, I told You, "I knew that You are a gracious
God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and You would repent of the evil." I knew it. I knew this would happen. I show up over here. I preach my heart out, they
repent, okay. No judgment. Jonah is a liar. Prophecy is a dud. I knew it before I left. That's why I took the cruise. And so, "O Lord, take, I beseech
You my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to
live." Isn't this just what we were
talking about? Is Jonah in his right mind? he's not. Is he thinking right? I want to die. Why? Why does he want to die? Because his pride has been hurt. His reputation. "Everybody at school will know
she broke up with me... All the other kids will see that
picture of that stupid hairdo... Everybody will know..." That is not the end of the
world. People that have been alive for
a while, help me out. Is that the end of the world? It is not. Go have you an ice cream, take a
nap, you'll feel better. Right? It is not the end of the world. Come on, help me out. Is it? Older people, experienced
people, help me out. It's not the end of the world. "Yeah, but I loved him..." Much as you know, but you don't
know much. And it's real, I'm not saying
it's not real, the pain is real. It's a real. And caring about somebody and
them not caring about you, it's real and it's painful. I'm not discounting that. But it's not as bad as you think
it is. I know it feels like it, I know
it feels like it's the end of the world, but it's not. And the best stuff in life, you
haven't even touched yet. Don't quit before you get
started. But Jonah wants to go. Lord, just take me out. Please. It's better for me to die than
to live. That's wanting to die. Keep reading. "The Lord said, Do you do well
to be angry?" The Lord asked him a question. Are you doing well, are you
doing good? Is it right for you to be so
mad? Do you have a right to be this
mad? A thinking person would pick up
on that, wouldn't they? And they would go do now, I may
not be seeing this right Lord. When God asks you, are you right
to be this mad, why would He ask you are you right to be this
mad? Unless you ain't right. And he's not in his right mind. Do you do well to be angry? Notice what he said, when you
get worked up like this, notice what he said. Verse five, did I miss it? Back up. I missed something here. That's not the whole verse, is
it? Verse nine, excuse me. He said, "I do well to be angry,
even unto death." Yes, I have right to be. He's talking to God now, God. You're so mad Jonah, do you have
a right to be so mad? He said I have every right in
the world to be mad. I'm mad enough to die. Now what had happened in the
previous verses, he's out there on the edge of the city, not in
the house, not even in any shelter, and the Lord caused a
gourd to grow and the leaves to come up and grow real fast, and
it provided some shade for him. So instead of just being out
there with the sun beating down on his head about to have
heatstroke, this leaf is over him and he's got some shade and
he's enjoying it. But then the Lord let a worm
come by, and just clipped the little vine and it died and
wilted and now the sun's beating down on his head. Things can change quickly, can't
they? Sometimes it doesn't take much
to change them in a big way. Then in verse ten, "The Lord
said, You had had pity on the gourd, for the which you have
not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night,
and perished in a night," and yet he's all concerned about
this gourd, and he's mad because his shade is gone, and is
prophecy didn't come to pass, and he just wants to die. And God tells him come on,
Jonah. Should you really be this mad? You have a right to be so angry? This gourd that you are so upset
about, came up in the night and is gone in the night. You didn't make it grow, you
didn't do anything about it, and He said, this city Nineveh,
"Wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot
discern between their right hand and their left hand," that's
little kids and children, "and also much cattle?" And what He's saying is you're
not thinking right. You're over here wanting to die,
mad about a gourd. You're not realizing all these
babies, all these children's lives have been spared. Whole city repented and missed
judgment. And all you're thinking about is
your reputation and this gourd. Was Jonah in his right mind? Jonah is a man of God. He's a real man of God. Called of God. God could have picked any number
of any thousands of other people to send to do the job, he picked
him; there's a reason why. And yet his thinking was so far
off that he's gotten distracted, and he's mad, and he's upset,
and he's depressed and he wants to die. Can you see what the Lord did? He had to use an object lesson
to get through to him because he was so mad. So He used a gourd and a leaf. And then the gourd and the leaf
went away. No gourd, no leaf. And He said let me help me out
here Jonah. Do you know what I see? What did he say? Sixscore thousands of little
ones that can't tell right from the left yet, and all these
animals, and all these people that are spared, they won't get
judged. That's how He thinks. Now Jonah is beginning to pick
up on how He thinks. Would it make any difference in
Jonah wanting to die, or Jonah being miserable, or Jonah being
upset, if he could see it the way the Lord sees it? If he sees it through the Lord's
eyes, if he thinks about the way the Lord's thinking of it, his
whole outlook, his whole perspective and therefore all
his feelings, his temper, his anger, melts away. Come on, can you see it? His concern about his reputation
is out the window. Joy begins to come because of a
whole city and all these thousands and thousands of lives
that have been spared. And instead of just seeing the
ministry as a failure, he sees it as a total success. Yes, He's a merciful God. Yes, He wants people to repent. It's why He sent you to start
with because the Lord was wanting them to hear this
message and repent so He could spare them. You're a success, Jonah. It worked out exactly the way
the Lord wanted it to work out. What more do you want? Come on, can you see it? The difference between wanting
to die and shouting. Being glad, being thankful. The difference between being in
your right mind, being in the wrong mind. Everybody stand on your feet.
