"What Do You Think? (Streams of Light #3) - Pastor Doug Batchelor

[Music] [Music] thought the voice of angels from heaven [Music] my name is is [Music] and then me thought my dream was changed the streets no longer rain hushed with a glide hose the little [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] and once again the seed was changed new heart there seemed to be i saw the holy city besides [Music] and all [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] amen thank you so much camilla that was beautiful one of my favorite songs well good evening friends and i'd like to wish you a happy sabbath and again i want to greet our friends that are watching on three abn and lifestyle tv streaming on the internet uh if earlier this week we had three thousand people i'm guessing we probably have twice that number just streaming at one of the many websites that uh are carrying this right now i i hope that you'll pray for me right now as i share with you because i'm going to be talking about something that's going to require your concentration the title of the message tonight is what do you think and i want you to think about what you think about and so you've got to really tune in i want to challenge you in your thinking now how many of you would like to go to heaven you would like to experience eternal life if you look at the people around you right now none of those bodies are going to be there nobody here will be in heaven make you nervous that's true flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god my body is not going to heaven i don't want this one either i want a new one older i get the less i want it what is going what's going to make it to the kingdom is the essence of who you are here in a new model and so when the bible talks about our being saved that's really happening in your mind you love the lord with your mind a person might have a broken foot or broken leg or be paralyzed from the neck down and they can still have an active life of ministry and serve god but if you lose everything from the neck up you've got problems the lord wants us to love him the great commandment with all of our heart our soul and our mind salvation conversion involves in a change of heart another way to say that is a change of your mind the bible tells us as a man thinketh in his heart so is he well you all know we don't think with the pump even in bible times they knew you don't think with the pump they knew you thought with your brain if a person got hit too hard on the head they didn't think right anymore so they knew it was a figure of speech so what do you think about for most of us thinking just sort of happens without our thinking about it your brain is a miracle it is an electrical chemical computer and the more they study it the more they know that they don't know about the brain we understand ten times more about the surface of the moon than we do about the human brain i found an amazing fact this week or a couple weeks ago actually they estimate based on computer storage capacity today that one human brain is capable of storing in the synapses of your cortex somewhere around one thousand terabytes of information which would be about a hundred times more information and all the printed books in the library of congress or if you understand dvd technology and you can put what 4.7 gigabytes on a dvd that would be 23 400 dvds your brain can hold all of that and i think then some that's miraculous evolutionists cannot explain why our brains supposedly evolved the capacity to store 10 times more than we would ever use in one lifetime there are even some people that will have an operation where a whole hemisphere of their brain is removed and the other side is able to compensate a lot of the function it's especially more successful in children and they're able to live normal lives it's a miracle i grew up one of my stepfathers worked for ibm and the slogan of ibm was one word anyone remember what it was think that was it i used to wonder my stepfather bill had on his desk think i said what does that mean national geographic's got a new slogan it's called think again one of the things that separates you and me from animals is our ability not only to think abstractly but we can think about what we're thinking about you think a dog's ever laying there kicking his leg during the dream wakes up and goes i shouldn't be dreaming that why am i thinking these things they don't but you and i think about what we think about got a few quotes for you that i thought were interesting plato said thinking is the talking of the soul with itself horus the philosopher said rule your mind or it will rule you do you rule your mind or is it running kind of rampaging around wherever it will lord byron said thinking is the magic of the mind thomas terrain nothing is more easy to think but nothing is more difficult than to think well do you think well less than 15 percent of people do any original thinking on any subject most of the time we're not thinking creatively we're just thinking whichever way the wind blows like a ship without an anchor without a rudder just whatever circumstances or however our mind daydreams are drifts that's what we think about now why is it important for us to think about what we think about because salvation and sin happens in the mind with your thoughts so often we're led to believe that sin is an action we think about what our bodies do and that's a sin you know you steal something with your hand cut off your hand and you won't sin anymore right jesus said if your right hand defends you cut it off we always think about it being external well do you steal with your hand or with your heart instead of your right eye offends you pluck it out he was using an illustration there sin begins with an attitude that's why jesus said it's not just the action of adultery if a man matthew 5 28 looks upon a woman he can commit adultery with her in his thoughts and again isaiah i'm sorry matthew 15 verse 7 jesus quoting isaiah said well did isaiah prophesy about she's saying these people draw near to me with their mouth and they honor me with their lips but their heart their mind is far from me what does god want from us we've been talking about prayer it says pray without ceasing what does that mean think about god if you're going to have a victorious christian life it's going to begin right here with what you think about you gain the victory right here in your mind yeah we can sin in our thoughts sometimes we congratulate ourselves that we've got a good diet but we're not saved it's not righteousness by garlic or whatever your favorite health food might be it's righteousness by faith which is what's happening up here in your mind matthew 15 jesus said those things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart that's what defiles a man it's not what com goes in your mouth that defiles you spiritually it's what goes in your eyes and goes in your ears and then how you process those things for out of the heart out of the mind proceeds evil thoughts murders adulteries fornication thefts false witness blasphemy these are the things that defile a man so if we're going to have victorious lives it has to mean a change in our thinking we look on the outside that's what samuel was told by the lord man looks on the outward appearance we always think about what the body is doing and what our actions are we forget to think about what's going on in the mind paul said romans chapter 8 verse 6 to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against god for it is not subject to the law of god neither indeed can it be paul tells us to present ourselves a living sacrifice for the renewing of our our minds now it's so hard for us to control our thoughts i don't know about you but my mind is just ricocheting off things that are happening around me all the time matter of fact uh i'd be afraid for you to know the kind of things that are going on in my mind even as i'm preaching a thousand different things i'm thinking about that clock right there i constantly have to look down there and think about that then they got a little red light on the camera and whatever camera's got a little red light on his live i'm supposed to address that i never do because i don't think about it and then sometimes there's little distractions that take place and i'm seeing all that and i'm thinking about what my next verse is and then i read something and i'm thinking oh doug i was supposed to read that earlier and i left it out and all this stuff is going on and that's not the half of it you ever been on one of those airplanes and the more modern planes have got a little ldc screen you know on the seat ahead of you it's not just the one monitor where everyone watches the pre-flight announcements they got every chair and some of the nicer planes now have their own little monitor and i've often thought what would what would you do if you had a little ldc screen on your forehead so everybody could think what you see what you're thinking with a speaker they can not only watch it they could hear what you're thinking your laughter already betrays that you probably have the same embarrassment that i would have but does the lord see what we're thinking does he hear our thoughts the lord knows all things but it's so hard because you know the devil he can't read your mind but the devil he can put things in your mind i think the devil can put a temptation in our mind and then stand back and watch our body language and our expression and tell whether or not it's getting through but that's not because he can read your mind your spouse can probably do that they can look at your expression sometimes and tell what you're thinking but god reads your heart he knows your heart better than you do he knows what you're thinking when you're not even thinking about what you're thinking and not only is it true that every idol word that we speak is recorded i believe in our our thoughts are recorded by the lord because god doesn't just look on the outside god looks on the inside well thoughts are so important because you in essence are who you think you are what you think when god gives you your new body the way we're going to recognize each other in heaven is not going to be by the outward appearance you realize grandma's not going to be old and gray and wrinkled in heaven she's going to have a new glorified body so how will you know grandma because of the essence of who that person is god is going to give us that spiritual discernment you're going to know them by their character that's all built on what you think now i'm a pilot and there's a simple rule in flying that your attitude determines your altitude have you heard that before your attitude determines your altitude the angle of attack at which a wing hits the air determines whether it's going to go down or it's going to go up the attitude of that wing determines its altitude up or down it is also true in the christian life your attitude is going to determine your altitude some people just go through their experience they don't have faith they don't believe they're going to make it they're pessimistic and they're going to end up getting what they believe in the end jesus said be it unto you according to your faith and yet so many doubt they're going to make it start believing that god is a better savior than you are a sinner you're not saved by faith in yourself you're saved by faith in him it's what he can do in changing your mind in changing your heart he created the human brain he knows how to recreate it and he can help us through this spirit think differently in essence what you think is who you are you will become what you set your mind on i've talked about whatever you focus on is what you're transformed into we are the sum total of our thoughts that's why it's so important for us to think about what we think about now tell you what whatever you do right now i do not want you to think about a purple monkey with yellow lips okay don't whatever you do don't think about a purple monkey with yellow lips climbing a polka dotted tree pink polka dots don't think about that any of you picture what i was just saying see how hard it is all right now i could describe cutting a lemon fresh lemon putting into your mouth biting down on it and just from the words of my describing that to you you will begin to salivate there's no limit in the room that i know of other than the message maybe and you will have a physiological reaction because of the power of the words in your mind some of you heard of the placebo effect it's a fact of science the power of the mind is so phenomenal that whenever they develop a new medication they've got to also take a group of test subjects they give them an artificial sample they don't tell them and they see if it's just as effective with a group that's not getting the real medicine because sometimes they think a person is getting better just because they believe the medicine is going to help it's called the placebo effect i read something that i saw it was from the new york times magazine january 9 2000 listen to this called the placebo prescription doctors in one study successfully eliminated warts by painting them with a brightly colored inert this colored dye and promising the patients the words would be gone when the color wore off and it worked because they believed it was powerful medicine in another study of asthmatics researchers found that they could produce a dilation of the airways by simply telling people that they were inhaling a powerful bronchiodilator even when they weren't it's just some kind of saltine mist but they were told this is a very powerful medicine that's going to help you breathe better and they inhaled it breathed a couple times their airways dilated because they believed it would get better patients suffering with pain after wisdom tooth extraction got just as much relief from a fake application of ultrasound as from a real one so long as both the patient and the therapist thought the machine was on 52 percent of those suffering with colitis were treated with a placebo in 11 different trials they reported feeling better and 50 percent of those who had inflamed intestines when they were examined with a scope it showed improvement because they were told that this medicine was going to help them feel much better 40 years ago a young seattle cardiologist named leonard cobb he conducted a unique trial it's a procedure then commonly known for angina it was malmory ligation in which the doctor made a small incision in the chest he tied knots and some arteries to try to increase blood flow to the heart and it seemed to work 90 percent of the patient said that it made their angina pain go away well the doctor became suspicious and so he did a surgery or two where he opened the person up sewed them back up told them they had the procedure ninety percent of those people felt better too they've abandoned the procedure i should have kept doing it it made people feel better but you can well understand why some people make a living as witch doctors people get better just because of the placebo effect now the reason i'm going to great lengths to emphasize this is to tell you how powerful faith is i don't believe that we are saved by faith in faith we are saved by faith in somebody but notice whenever jesus healed somebody he said he never said my faith has made you whole he said your faith has made you whole isn't that right god has dealt to all men a measure of faith so when god sends his son into the world and he says that he's got enough power to save whosoever believes in him are you one of those people will you choose to believe be it unto you according to your faith you remember the children of israel when they came out of egypt and god brought them to the borders of the promised land our sabbath school lesson just was going through this a little while ago book of numbers chapter 13 and 14 they sent out 12 spies 10 of those spies when they entered the promised land looked at all the obstacles and became very pessimistic their attitude determined their altitude two of the spies were very optimistic they said hey god said he'd give us this land that's why they call it the promised land he promised to give it to us we believe him brought us out of egypt we believe if he did that he can do this we don't know how there are problems but we believe that god can do it you're listening when they came back after 40 days of looking at the promised land ten of the spies were full of pessimism and you know bad uh reports oh the walls are so big the giants are so big there's so many obstacles i don't know how we could ever conquer this country two of them joshua and caleb said let's go up right now we're well able isn't that interesting 10 of them said we can't make it obstacles are too big they're all church members you're listening to me friends even in the church sometimes you get a messenger that gives a negative report on whether or not you can make it there's even some out there that are in ministry that says don't take yourself too seriously we're all sinners don't worry about overcoming we're not able you're listening but the message of jesus is i can do all things through christ you are able don't underestimate god he doesn't intend for us to stay in the wilderness he wants us to cross over and conquer in the promised land do you believe that you can take down the giants with god's help so those who believed joshua and caleb they made it the ten spies that didn't believe they got what they believed they died in the wilderness you can choose to believe you got to think about what you think about you're affected by your own words when you talk about your experience are you always talking about your failures are you talking about faith and victory that you believe you can have it's often true that you will become the sum total of what you think and your words reflect what you think that's why jesus said in matthew chapter 12 that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so whatever you're talking about is coming out of your heart matthew 12 34-37 oh generation of vipers how can you be in evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart now what is the heart again the mind the mouth speaks a good man out of the good treasure of his heart his thinking brings forth good things an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart or his thinking brings forth evil things but i say to you every idle word that men speak they'll give an account thereof in the day of judgment for by your words you'll be justified and by your words you'll be condemned why by your words your words are simply reflecting the audio thoughts that are going on in your heart in your mind someone said one time watch your thoughts they become words watch your words they become actions watch your actions they become habits watch your habits they become character and watch your character because it'll become your destiny and it all begins with your thoughts thoughts of faith lead to a life of faith thoughts that are worldly will lead to an experience of being overcome water when it comes down from heaven will naturally look for the lowest place and it will run and go into those ravines and it keeps on making its way down until it gets to the ocean unless something is done to interrupt that natural gravity the water will just run down water does not run uphill in this sinful world with our fallen natures without you making some extraordinary effort your thoughts are going down we're all carnal we're all selfish the colorado river just all ran to the ocean and then they spent a lot of time and effort and built one of the biggest dams in the world and nothing compared to the three rivers dam in china right now but hoover's a dam hoover dam was really something and when they finally interrupted the gravity of that water they captured and controlled that power it was able to produce a lot of good not only is it still generating electricity for southern california and irrigating crops and producing food and doing all kinds of wonderful things because they they control the flow your thoughts can accomplish great good but you can't just let them run wherever they will and it requires a little bit of energy to think about what you think about well i know it requires a lot of energy it requires effort how do we do that how do we make how do we harness the flow of our thoughts psychologists say that about ten thousand thoughts go through the human mind in one day i don't know how they ever counted that i probably had ten thousand the last twenty minutes that would be three million five hundred thousand thoughts a year if we must give an account for every idle word that we speak that's a lot of thoughts going on in our mind now you are not guilty of every sinful temptation that comes into your mind are you clear on that is it a sin to be tempted our offer tonight is tips to resisting temptation and we explain jesus was tempted everybody's tempted christians are tempted it's not the same as sin temptation happens when the devil plants or usually working through his fallen angels or minions he'll plant in your mind some forbidden direction or thought and in the world today especially with all the images and all the audio messages that are constantly is a blizzard of information that comes to us all the time most of it's not good it's really hard not to hear and be exposed to a certain amount of evil that's just in the world all the time so what do you do as a crash christian you just let it flow or do you put up barriers and stop it and channel and control if you put up no barriers when an evil thought comes to you king david was walking on the roof of his house nothing wrong with that while he was up there walking on the roof of his house getting a breath of fresh air and looking at the view he looked down into the courtyard of one of his soldiers by the name of uriah his wife was out there in the backyard bathing i'm assuming she wasn't fully clothed now david saw that that was no sin to notice that he was completely guiltless in seeing that and he might have even looked long enough to register that's a pretty woman but at some point probably within the fraction of a second the holy spirit spoke to david and said david come on now that's a little bit of voyeurism she doesn't know you're watching turn away job said i've made a covenant with my eyes why should i behold a young maiden it wasn't a sin when he first noticed but then he kept looking and that lingering look and those lustful thoughts it started with thoughts began to just stew in his mind pretty soon he got one of his messengers he said hey you know that girl lives around the corner who is she he already had i don't know a dozen wives it's like that wasn't enough well i won't say i don't go there anyway comes back says it's the wife of uriah that right there should have been enough he should have repented for the other thoughts and just stopped right there but because he allowed those first thoughts to go where they shouldn't go it led to the second thought oh you're right he's out of town on business right now probably no harm in having her come by see if she's lonely and it just progressed and it progressed from that lingering look and those thoughts to ultimately adultery murder of a friend a loyal friend the loss of the respect of his people a breakdown of respect in his family four of his sons died and where did it begin with what he was thinking about so we can't just let our thoughts drive us every which way by the grace of god through the holy spirit we need a filter in our brains so that's one thing we just need to pray for god's spirit to help us think god's thoughts amen so how do you know if you're converted there's a quote from the book steps to christ this is page 58 who has the heart what does the heart mean the mind with whom are our thoughts of whom do we love to converse our words reflect what's in the heart who has our warmest affections and our best energies if we are christ our thoughts are with him and our sweetest thoughts are of him thoughts thoughts that's what determines whether or not your heart has been changed all we have is consecrated to him we long to bear his image to breathe his spirit to do his will and to please him in all things so how do you curb your thoughts prayer we talked about pray without ceasing talk to god be aware of his presence you think about have you ever noticed that when someone asks you a question it automatically arrests your attention i use that a lot when i'm teaching i just did it it's called the socratic method socrates used to always teach by asking questions jesus did it i think socrates learned it from jesus even though he lived before jesus see what i'm thinking about right now so see i just asked another question because when someone asks you a question we're all kind of trained to we just keep huh if you're talking to god reason with him talk to him you'll find that when you're engaged in conversation with god it does something to your thinking and make a decision to choose what you allow to come within the channels to your soul that's what controls your thinking you obviously think about what you look at you think about what you hear you even think about what you eat all these things can have an influence on your thinking before i come and i do a meeting like this i'm careful not to eat too much because you know why i think slower so you can even to think better sometimes you got to think about what you're eating i was listening i was reading in history that one of the men who was involved in translating the bible he would eat less so he could think more clearly now i'm not trying to give you a hard time about how much you eat for thinking but all of that contributes to your victory in day-to-day temptation it's true that sometimes even what you eat will make a difference and how clear you think and how easy it is for you to resist temptation dr neil nedley does a nice seminar on depression recovery and he's got a lot of scientific facts that back up how eating wrong can lead to depression and negative thinking but what about the other food that comes into our minds i saw something very interesting it was actually reported on bbc march 6 2001 bbc was reporting on a study done in the united states on listen to this quote when you watch tv you are in a semi-conscious state where you're really not doing any learning watching television no watching too much television and too little physical activity has been linked to alzheimer's disease dr freeland said the brain is an organ like any other organ which ages in regard to how it is used so learning is important for the brain when you're watching television you're not really being involved in using your brain it's doing all the processing for you you're simply beholding it it's like a story i heard one time about a man that ordered some contraption that needed assembly and he pulled out the instructions and he read through him a couple times and he couldn't get this object assembled but there was a man in the neighborhood that happened to be working next door he was an old fella but he was a handyman he said i'll ask elmer he might be able to help me with this and he called elmer and he said i can't figure out these instructions so elmer looked at it he studied all the different parts in a few minutes he had it all together he said that's amazing how you did that without even reading the instructions and the old guy said truth is i don't know how to read so i have to think you have met someone like that they got to think a little harder to be creative to compensate if i ask you to paint a picture you're gonna have to think a lot harder than if i hand you a picture when people are watching tv they're not painting they're not creating they're just sitting there soaking it up you can be in a semi-subconscious state while you're watching tv matter of fact i remember hearing george vandeman say that they did a study where television has proved to be one of the most ideal states for hypnosis because hypnosis appeals to the optic nerves it appeals to the auditory nerves and television appeals to both those mediums and you sit there for a while and you just zone and it's planting all kinds of messages and you don't think that has any effect on your thinking and if you're feeding your soul bad food that is going to have an effect on what you think about it's like computers i mean we all sort of understand computers today they've got an old proverb garbage in garbage out you ever get a virus on your computer you know how you get that virus usually you're not being real careful what you're putting in or what you're downloading or what you're opening right you get a virus and it freezes up the whole computer some of us have a spiritual virus going through our lives right now because we're downloading things we shouldn't download does that make sense so there is something you can do to think better make a conscious effort to choose what you're allowing to come in and you may not notice the change right away but you will see a change i like to work on springs we've got a little piece of land in the hills of northern california we've had for 30 years and the house is fed with a gravity flow spring and nothing is more exciting than a dry summer to find discover water running out of the ground and when you dig in a spring because you want to develop it and get more of the water and there's less back pressure on it when you're digging in it it kind of stirs it up and it actually it's cloudy and you can't even drink it right away but you wait a little bit it'll start running faster and it starts getting clearer you start making a conscious decision now to read the right kind of spiritual material to watch the things that will be edifying if you're going to watch something to have friends you'll become like your friends and the multitude of counselors their safety that's assuming that they're good counselors my father used to say if you sleep with dogs you'll get fleas and you might have friends and their conversation is always in the gutter you don't think that's going to affect your thinking a wise man will choose wise men as their friends so some of you might need to make some adjustments in your relationships all of that is ultimately going to play out in what you're thinking about and your relationship with the lord what are you feeding your soul if you've got two dogs and not that i endorse dog fighting that's been in the news a lot lately but just an illustration you got two male dogs same breed same size same age and you chain one of them up for three days no food no water the other one gets the best food best water exercise and then you put them in a yard and make them fight we had a church member one time that passed away live by himself it was three days before anyone knew we weren't too sad because he died in his garden he was in his 90s i mean that's the way to go be out there and just kind of fall over right like moses you climb a mountain your eyes are clear and then you die but the poor guy had a dog and the dog was chained up when he died in his garden and we found the dog three days later it was still alive but he was in no condition to fight no food no water is really sad you put those two dogs in that yard one has been fed and the other one has been starved and you tell them to fight which one's gonna win every time you have two natures that are at war it's called the spirit and the flesh it's very clear all through romans to be spiritually minded is life to be carnally minded is death it's minded thinking whichever one you feed is going to win when you're tempted you might not notice the difference like i said feeding one after the other in five minutes but you wait you keep starving one and you feed the other and you'll be victorious when the battle comes now friends i just gave you a key that if you really want to be victorious if you do what i just described that will make a tremendous difference in your life you believe that the reason you're quiet right now is you know it's true but you're afraid of what it means and making the changes it might mean oh you know i can't watch that program soap opera in the middle of the day i've been watching for 20 years anymore just full of all kinds of adultery and murder intrigue and lying you know it's not nourishing your soul come on now you want me to tell you the truth i get to get on a plane and fly back home and so i'm going to tell you the truth you got to make tangible changes in what you're feeding your soul starve the bad carnal side of your nature feed the good side of the nature and you will discover a change in your thinking it works every time because you are in essence what you've taken in to your mind over the course of your life that's why you speak english most of you so all those things are going to affect your thoughts you will ultimately be judged by your thoughts and the lord even knows the motives of our hearts first corinthians 4 5 therefore judge nothing before the time until the lord come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels the motives of the heart see it's not only what you do it's why you do what you do god looks at the heart as well so these things can make a tremendous difference in our experience friends and there's something we can do about that so how do we change our thinking that's what we're talking about second corinthians 10 verse 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god casting down everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of god bringing listen bringing every thought how many thoughts wow every thought bringing every thought into captivity to obedience of christ how do you do that well without the holy spirit you can't do it but through christ you can do all things again romans 12 2 do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind now that that word renewing means it's an ongoing process of cleansing through choosing to think about the right things and focus our mind on that which is good that you might prove i'm gonna back up and read this verse again because i want you to get it all together do not be conformed to this world we already know where the thinking of the world is but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god what does the word proof mean test that means that you are testing and evaluating your thoughts constantly that it might be according to god's will that you might prove these things oswald chambers said the majority of us recognize the necessity of receiving the holy spirit for living but we don't recognize the need of drawing on the resources of the holy spirit for thinking what is one of the gifts of the spirit who is the wisest man that ever lived solomon i sort of think jesus was wiser but you knew what i meant that's the right answer up until up until solomon's time it says he was the wisest that had ever lived what did he ask for when he prayed he asked for wisdom when you pray for wisdom from god what are you really praying for the holy spirit you know the bible tells us about the seven spirits of god in revelation it mentions that a couple times that doesn't mean the holy spirit is got this personality disorder and he's divided seven different ways but seven facets of the holy spirit you can find those in isaiah 11 verse 2. one of them is wisdom james says if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of god how often do we need help with our thinking every day moment by moment we need that help and so since we need that help all the time how often should we be praying praying without ceasing is the the key for that victory ephesians 4 22 for you ought to put off the old man according to your way of living before who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you might put on a new man who according to god was created in righteousness and true holiness romans 12 21 do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good so if we're having problems with evil thoughts we need to substitute them with good things yeah i grew up in the world grew up an atheist there's very little about sin that you could lecture me about that i have not seen or experienced i grew up in new york city my mother would let my brother and i go play on 42nd street and broadway i mean we were hyper exposed to the sinful side of the world and i listened to all the wrong kinds of things and wrong kinds of music and i know those songs at least the old ones and some of them have very catchy melodies and uh the devil makes it attractive he makes it appealing and so i'll be walking through the store someday and say i mean it's everywhere now right can't even watch a commercial without the the music is there to help sell the product walking through the supermarket also and i'll be hearing this old song and i don't even think about it because it's almost in the subconscious part of your mind also and i'm a humming in this song and i don't want to and i try and stop but it comes back so you know what i do i find another song and i started humming this other song and i found that you can displace the bad song with a good song you overcome evil with good you got a problem smoking cigarettes get a box of toothpicks you're better off looking like a beaver than a chimney right and so just pray that god will give you wisdom if you're reading the wrong kind of books get the right kind of books keep reading you eat too much of the wrong kind of food you can't really eat too much celery matter of fact karen told me that it requires more energy to digest celery than you actually get in calories so i think i could probably say no i don't know i better not say that someone will try and gorge himself on celery can you tell that i'm thinking as i'm preaching right now about what i should say next and i'm praying right now [Music] but the principle is you overcome evil with good so you apply that to your lives whatever your struggles are and you'll find there's some way that you can find something good overcome evil with good romans 12 21 ultimately we want to think the thoughts of god what a privilege that god is inviting us to think with him philippians 2 verse 5. now listen carefully let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus why is paul saying let this mind be in you because christ wants to be in you but we typically put up a force field we're resisting his mind we're afraid of his mind it's against our carnal natures to be spiritually minded our selfish side doesn't want the things of god but analytically logically we know it's true we know it's right you know one of the first things that you need to do if you want to experience victory in your christian life is be honest with yourself when i first learned the truth up in the hills i'd read something and i'd become convicted i smoked i drank and all kinds of things i won't itemize for you and one by one god convicted me about those things and so i would first i'd argue with the lord and i'd even try to use the bible smoking lord it says it's not what goes in your mouth that defiles you but what comes out and doug would say our lord would say doug but what goes in your mouth when you're smoking affects what comes out you got bad breath and it's not a good witness and i just i finally it's all right lord it's true i don't want to quit smoking i'm still young i don't have any health problems connected with smoking that i can observe i feel like i'm in good shape i enjoy it but i became convicted that it was wrong so i said all right i'll be honest lord i know you want me to quit it says on every pact this is going to kill you eventually but i don't want to quit but because i was honest with myself god wouldn't let me go and he gave me the victory it was that way with drinking i didn't drink a lot but i drank up until two weeks before my baptism i was still drinking and i knew that it was wrong because i had a lot of friends that were alcoholics father was an alcoholic and i knew god wanted me to stop and so i had to say lord i don't want to stop drinking but i know you want me to i had to make a decision in my mind that it was the right thing be honest with god and you know as soon as you do this with your thinking you are then giving god permission to activate his power in your life because you're saying lord without your help i can't do it but i know it's what you want me to do i know it's what i should do so help me do what i naturally don't want to do help me do what i naturally am not able to do by having your mind let this mind be in you stop resisting it you see what he's saying let it be in you be honest with yourself and he'll give you his mind that's good news friends isaiah 55 verse 8 9. god says my thoughts are not your thoughts my ways are not your ways says the lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts and your thoughts god is so different what a privilege that he's inviting us to think his thoughts a.w tozer said to do his gracious work god must have the intelligent cooperation of his people if we would think god's thoughts we must learn to think continually of god if you want to think the thoughts of god and think about god walk with him talk to him you'll become like him don't you become like your friends is jesus your friend the more time you spend with him the more you become like him and he wants to have a relationship with you you know i really enjoy one of the favorite things for me to do is when amazingfacts has our evangelism council as soon as i get back from this meeting pastor ross and i are going to go right in and meet with amazing facts evangelists adam ramden was one of our evangelists and i'll tell you there's very few things that are more invigorating than to sit around in a room full of evangelists and have them talk theology way it gets deep and we're you know we're all together when we're up there preaching the fundamentals of the message but when we sometimes get alone we got these questions and we challenge each other in these nuances and what about this theory and what do you think about that and wow boy it is so invigorating and we all sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron because we're thinking together we're all getting smarter collectively what happens if you think with god what happens if you reason with him i got on the internet today and talked to don mcintosh a little message told him i went to john wycliffe's place he said you need to go see isaac newton's place there was a deep thinker why was he such a deep thinker he spent a lot of time reasoning with god didn't he he's a very religious christian nothing will improve your intellect more than the study of god's word and reasoning with the lord and what a privilege that he's inviting us to do that friends come let us reason together oswald chamber says it will take all of time and eternity to experience the thoughts of god what do you think we're going to do through eternity so what should we think about jesus said blessed are the pure in heart what did he mean by that blessed are the pure in thought isn't that what that means lord give me an honest heart to think as an effort to think rightly is a great effort and to think as a christian ought to think is the greatest effort of a human soul that's also oswald chambers it takes effort to think uh kids that are graduating from elementary school to high school and then on to college do they find they've got to concentrate and focus their thinking a little more as they're cramming for some final exam well friends in case you didn't know it this life is your preparation for a final exam we need to be studying the word of god and thinking the thoughts of god psalm 119 verse 99 or 97 oh how i love your law it is my meditation all the day meditate on the things of god read his word and think about it it's one thing to just put food in your mouth and swallow it but you enjoy it a lot more if you chew it and that's the way it is with the truth of god read his word and then meditate think about it you know one thing i kind of regret is very few people we're bombarded with so many words these days that words don't seem to mean what they used to mean and we we abuse the profound words we make them common so pretty soon you get to the place where you grope for words to talk about how awesome god is a little while ago it was a cool thing for all the teenagers to say oh awesome man hey that was an awesome pizza awesome awesome everything was awesome and then you say god is awesome and it goes yeah i like the pizza it's like you couldn't find words anymore because they were all being kidnapped by the devil and the culture and the great poetry you you'll read the hymns you know right now so many of the songs and i like i like a new song i like i write songs i like praise songs and but you read some of those hymns the deep profound theology some of the english hymn writers every line not only did it rhyme they were sublime they they had great deep profound theology in them they had to think to create all that they sat and they meditated and god is inviting us to have that experience so what should we think about think about the word jesus said in john 14 the helper the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and he will bring to your remembrance all things that i have said to you you know there's a a psalm 19 verse 14. probably wouldn't hurt us to say this together i'll read it to you once then i'm going to see if you know it from memory let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my strength and my redeemer let's try that one more time let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my strength and my redeemer is that your prayer that you could think about what you think about that you might have the mind of christ that you could pray in sincerity lord let this mind be in me philippians 4 thought i'd save this verse 8 because it says finally listen to what paul says finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise listen think on these things i read that one time and it occurred to me he just described jesus is jesus true he is the truth is jesus honest is jesus just is jesus pure is he lovely is he good is he virtuous is he worthy of praise everything paul is saying here he's really describing the character of jesus so when he says finally brethren think about jesus walk with him reason with him invite him to put his thoughts in your mind do by god's grace what you can do to think new thoughts cooperate with heavenly agencies his spirit will help you his angels will help you say lord i'm going to need you today i want to think differently i want to be a new creature the bottom line friend is the great command the new covenant i'll put a new heart in you do you believe he can do that can he give you a new mind and a new heart can you love the lord with all of your heart all of your thoughts not by yourself but through christ all things are possible i'd like to invite you to pray with me that god through his spirit will help us think about what we think about that he'll give us a new mind and a new heart and that we can think his thoughts is that your desire friends those who are watching i trust that's your prayer let's all pray together this is the essence of a revival when god's people really pray for new hearts and new minds father in heaven lord we've talked about some heavy subjects tonight and in essence we've been talking about having christ inside having your spirit guide our thoughts lord we can ask for that but you've also made it clear there's things that we can do to participate in cleaning out the spring i pray lord that you'll give us grace and wisdom to know how we can avoid downloading the things that are giving us these spiritual viruses help us to commune and reason with jesus as our friend that we might become more like him we pray for your continued blessing on these meetings lord that you'll pour out your spirit and this will not simply be an exercise of a meetings and another program but it will have a tangible difference and bring revival to your people we can't do this except by your grace we pray this in jesus name amen [Music]

Channel: Aaron

Views: 1,856

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: gBJkgfLL1N8

Length: 62min 20sec (3740 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021