God s Process of Transformation Winning the Battle For Your Mind (Part 2)

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1 Intro: Video: The voice inside your head. God s Process of Transformation Winning the Battle For Your Mind (Part 2) I. Learn To Fight For Your Mind Our minds are the battlefield. Satan knows that if he can influence your mind he can control your life. Following Jesus means that we are engaged in a mental war. II Cor. 10:3-5 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (NIV) 1. Unless our thoughts are obedient to Christ our lives will never be obedient to Christ. The battle must first be won in our minds. There are too many followers of Jesus out there not engaged in this mental fight. 2. Many of the strongholds we face are mental / thinking strongholds. Because of painful events in our lives / disappointments / betrayals / heartaches at various levels, we develop wrong thinking that becomes entrenched. This wrong thinking then controls our behavior. It becomes a stronghold. 3. What does a stronghold of the mind look like? Wrong thinking about yourself can be a stronghold / wrong thinking about others / about God / about your marriage / about purpose / happiness / money / church / it could be anything. 4. It is an entrenched wrong belief that leads you down the path of wrong behavior. This wrong belief makes you a prisoner to your old life / destructive behavior / or simply robs you of the full life Jesus wants to bring you. (Life becomes a joyless journey) 5. Illustrate: Let s use wrong thinking about ourselves as an example. Often the mental stronghold are the wrong beliefs we hang on to about ourselves. Like what? Let s say you grew up in a home where you were constantly criticized made to feel you were never good enough Now throw in a few failed attempts at relationships and a career as you get older You feel worthless and actually believe you are not good enough. Negative Feelings = Wrong Beliefs Now you here us asking for help serve do something great for God. You refuse because you believe you re not good enough for anything. Stronghold! 6. So how do I fight for my mind? Stop putting the wrongs things in it Page 1

2 Col. 2:8-9 Don t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. (NLT) Notice it uses the word capture. It s a war! Probably the biggest place I see followers of Jesus ignorant of this issue is with the media and entertainment habits. People tend to be very naïve in this area. Do you really think you can watch countless hours of TV / Movies / and listen to hours of secular music and not be influenced by it? Let s not forget all the steamy novels out there. (Fifty shades of grey) I m not advocating getting rid of your TV and all forms of media. You d have to live in a cave! What I am saying is that it is time for discernment in this area from those who call themselves followers of Jesus. (Media stats once every 4 minutes Maybe it is time to ask the Lord, What shows make you leave the room? It s impossible to not be exposed the wrong things. BUT, we can be more intentional about our choices and the amount. We ve all heard the phrase: Garbage in Garbage out! It s true mentally. Be intentional with putting the right things in it Ps. 119:37 Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word. (NLT) We can t simply turn our eyes away from what is worthless, we must turn our eyes towards something else. We must be intentional with replacing it with the word of God. (give me life through your word.) How? 3 key areas The right instruction - The word of God Are you on a daily diet of the word of God The Truth! Do you have this habit developed yet? The right people People moving in the same direction / people who influence for good / other followers of Jesus with this same conviction who want to win this battle. The right environment This reinforces the first two. This is why Life groups are so important. This is why our Mighty Men s group is so important. If we have the wrong instruction / wrong people / and the wrong environment / there is no way we will win the battle for our minds. It s impossible! Are you willing to fight for your mind? II. Develop Mental Disciplines What is this? Mental discipline is simply choosing how God wants you to think instead of letting your feelings /circumstances / or culture dictate your thinking. Phil. 4:8-9 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that Page 2

3 are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. (NLT) I Tim. 4:7 discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. (NASB) This includes mental discipline. People who do not develop mental disciplines become prisoners. WHY? Because our behavior follows our thinking. Thinking controls behavior. Here are 5 BE s for developing mental discipline. 1. Believe you have a choice on what you think about. Some of you actually believe a lie that you don t have this choice. You do! Today I have a choice! 2. Be discerning evaluating your thoughts (right or wrong) Not every thought is a moral battle. (thoughts at work doing your job kids housework - etc ) BUT, many thoughts are wrong! What about those wrong mental journeys (lust / revenge / thinking evil of others / even fear and anxiety the what if journeys. 3. Be intentional with the thoughts you allow (FIX your thoughts. Here is our choice. We literally stop the play button on wrong thoughts and hit the play button on right thoughts. This is why if you do not know God s word you have no replacement. 4. Be prayerful God will help you develop mental discipline. Sometimes we need to stop asking God to remove thoughts temptation is a reality. Our fallen nature is a reality. Instead, help me take it captive help me fix my thoughts help me choose truth over error! It s not a sin to have a momentary bad thought pop into your head it s what you do with it. 5. Be tenacious. In other words, don t quit. You re going to have bad days. There are days I struggle more mentally than others. WHY? I have no idea! (fatigue / weariness / my own flesh / demonic attacks / exposed to the brokenness of this world / too much garbage in. Just decide to never quit. This is what mental discipline looks like. III. Don t Develop Affections For The Wrong Things Once we start developing emotional connections to the wrong things, winning the battle for our minds becomes much more difficult. Illustrate: As a youth pastor I would constantly tell my kids; Don t fall in love with the wrong person. Once you do, it s tough to do what is right. Once your heart and emotions are engaged, it s tough to backtrack. Hard to listen to reason. Guard your heart don t give it away to the wrong person. Prov. 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. (NASB) Once you give this part of your life away, it determines the course. The internal part of our lives determines the external. This is why as followers of Jesus we are warned about what not to love. Page 3

4 I John 2:15-16 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. (NLT) 1. If we try to follow Jesus while we have strong affections for the priorities of this world we will struggle and fail miserably. 2. This issue of where our affections lie is really a loyalty question. If I am more loyal to this world then I will follow my loyalties. If my affections are more with Jesus, then my loyalties follow Him. Therefore, if I develop affections for the wrong things, my thinking / my behavior / and my feelings follow. 3. If I have developed an affection for money and possessions, it s pretty tough to not think about it. If I have developed an affection for pleasure in a way that is outside of what God says is right (sex / porn / food / D&A / ) tough to not think about it. You will follow what you love! 4. How does one guard their heart above all else? Know and trust what God s word says to avoid. If we don t know that something should be avoided, we end up pursuing it and hurting ourselves. (Like with food: Twinkies and Ding Dongs probably shouldn t be a staple in your diet. WHY? They re not good for you! There are many things in this life that God says to avoid. WHY? Because it s not good for you! It takes life from you rather than gives life! God is not trying to ruin your fun. He s trying to protect you. Run away from the things that arouse your affections in the wrong places. (If you don t, your mind will become increasingly obsessed with it.) I Cor. 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (NLT) II Tim. 2:22 Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. (NLT) The key word is RUN! Whenever our affections are aroused for the wrong things, run away! Distance yourself from whatever it is. If you are developing affection for another person besides your spouse run. If you are getting drawn in to the fantasies of godless romance novels quit reading them. If you re with people who constantly gossip and run down others and it s impacting your opinion of them walk away. Daily cultivate your love relationship with God. If you are growing in your love for Jesus, it s just easier to be loyal. If you re not, the grass starts looking greener on the other side of the fence. (the world) So water it and keep it green! How? Daily in in His word Daily communicating with Him Daily walk in obedience with Him. This is how we protect ourselves from developing affections for the wrong things. Page 4

5 IV. Prioritize Spiritual Maturity Eph. 4:13-14 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. (NLT) 1. Not being able to control our thoughts and choose truth is a sign of immaturity. One of the key indicators of spiritual maturity is that we can differentiate truth from lies and not be influenced by it. 2. If do not grow up spiritually, we will continue to struggle winning the battle for our minds because we are remaining like children. Children are easily deceived / tricked / and led astray. Without spiritual maturity, we behave much like children in this life. 3. Far too many believers view spiritual maturity as some optional, I ll get around to it someday, kind of things. They do not understand that their life depends upon it. Without it, the course of their lives is not determined by the truth of God s word, but by the every changing messages of our culture. (People are tossed and blown about.) 4. To not prioritize spiritual maturity is to lose the war for your mind. You will be influenced more by the winds of culture rather than truth. So what does this look like? How do I prioritize spiritual maturity? Prioritize the time. We have to simply carve out time. Time indicates priority more than any other single thing we can do. If we cannot be intentional enough to set aside time, then maturity is not a priority. (What are we saying when we are too busy to take a class / group / read-study / serve / etc Prioritize a plan. The old saying is true: If we fail to plan we are planning to fail. Spiritual maturity happens because we are intentional with it. Your plan should include at least 2 focusses: An individual focus: What practices are you going to employ for growth? (bible reading plan / prayer plan / serving plan/ A group focus: Who are you going to spend time with? We grow best together. Life groups / men s-women s groups / consistent church services / serving / Sign up for something today! Prioritize accountability. Accountability is one of the greatest growth producing elements there is. Accountability makes us responsible for results! If no one expects results, why try so hard? Why sacrifice? Why exert so much energy? God expects maturity why should we not expect it in each other. What does accountability look like? I believe it happens at 3 levels. We all need someone who is older spiritually This has nothing to do with physical age. This is someone who is spiritually where we would like to be someday. We let them speak into our lives. Page 5

6 We all need someone at our spiritual level We all need people who travel with us through life. These are other believers with the same goal and direction as you. You hold each other accountable. (Explain accountability forms) We all need someone younger spiritually These are the people we are investing in. People we are encouraging to not quit. Where do you find all this? You can experience all this right here. All this exists at this church. BUT, you must be willing to move out of the comfortable blue chair and put yourself in environments where spiritual maturity can happen. This is how we win the battle for our minds and how God tranasforms our lives. So, do you want to win the battle for your mind? Will you learn to fight for your mind Will you develop mental disciplines Will you not develop affections for the wrong things Will you prioritize spiritual maturity This is how you win! Page 6