Thought Control Romans 8:6-11 Rev. Michael D. Halley July 16, 2017 Suffolk Christian Church Suffolk, Virginia Sixth Sunday After Pentecost ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I ran across the following letter 1 I would like to share with you. We can all use a little smile if not a chuckle, right? It goes like this: Dearest Jimmy, No words could ever express the great unhappiness I ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you! Yours forever, Marie. P.S. And congratulations on willing the state lottery. Thought control. A very scary thought, wouldn t you say? But for the Christian, it is an essential part of our growth in the Spirit. Listen again: The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:6-8, NIV) What our friend Saint Paul is saying is that there are two ways of living in this world. We can live according to the flesh... a life which leads to death... or we can live according to the Spirit... a life which leads to 1
eternal life. There is no other alternative. It is a choice of one or the other. And Paul makes it clear that these two ways of living are polar opposites. It is either the flesh or the Spirit. How does that work out in your life and in my life? Let me suggest to you some practical applications. Page -2- First, when we come to believe in and accept the claims of Jesus Christ on our life, God gives us a new way of thinking, a sort of godly mind control. Christian theologian and author Francis Schaeffer 2 helped bring the concept of world view 3 into Christian thinking. We all have a world view. It is our comprehensive philosophy of life 4. Our world view is how we look at life. Our world view is how we make ethical judgments about what is right and wrong. You could say that our world view is the lens through which we look at everything that happens around us. Dr. Schaeffer says that everyone has a world view whether they know it or not. The point is this: There are basically only two world views. There is a secular or humanistic world view and there is a Christian world view. There s a Christian way of thinking, there s a Christian way of speaking, there s a Christian way of acting, there s a Christian way of approaching the problems of life. It s a matter of a mind controlled by the Spirit of God. And God gives us a new mind so that we might develop a totally Christian way of thinking. Remember what Jesus said. The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark 12:28-30 5 ). When you meet Jesus Christ and begin to follow him, he will change the way you think. The second thing I would say is that being a disciple of Jesus Christ and
Page -3- following his teachings will lead to having our minds continually transformed. In Romans 12:2, Paul says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The word in Greek translated into English as transformed is a form of the word metamorphosis. We learned that word in school when we discovered what takes place in a cocoon, in which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. We Christians can also experience this if we let a mental metamorphosis take place in our mind, if we allow the very shape of our thinking be changed by the renewing of our mind. But how do we experience the renewing of our mind? I can think of only one way and that is that we fill our mind with God s Word. The renewal of our mind, our spiritual metamorphosis if you will, occurs by a careful, intentional, repeated, deliberate, and thorough study of the Bible. If the only time you read the Bible is in church each Sunday when the text is read, that s not enough. That s why I have encouraged you to bring your personal Bible to church with you. Your Bible should be your constant companion. Reading and studying the Bible, along with fervent prayer, will change the way you think. Your mind will undergo a metamorphosis. And as your thinking changes, so your life will slowly change. It s mind control. The control of our mind by the Spirit of God. A third thing I would say is that there is a great need for Christians who will serve God with their minds. Yes, we need our heart and our emotions to express our faith. But we also need our minds, controlled by God s Spirit. If you know and follow Jesus Christ; if you truly are his disciple, then it should make a difference in every area of your life. Christians speak differently than others. Christians talk differently. Christians write differently, including
and especially, what we say on Facebook and other social media. How we make decisions is different, as is how we make moral decisions. Page -4- For us Christians, our mind is controlled by God s Spirit and nothing we say, do, or think will ever be private or personal. The Christian faith is not and is not meant to be a purely private faith. Our Christian faith should affect all of our life, or else it may not be Christian faith at all. I have noticed over the years that there is a great danger, or maybe we could call it a great temptation, that somehow when we leave the church building on Sunday we get a case of amnesia. Inside the church, we think about Jesus, we think about the Bible, we think about living as a Christian. But when we hit the streets outside, there is a great temptation to become almost pagan in our world view. The world s culture, frankly, is not very impressed with the Christian faith in my opinion. And that may be because the world s culture so rarely sees the real Christian faith in action. I sincerely believe that if each one of us went forth from here and lived with our minds and our actions controlled by God s Spirit... practicing the fruit of the Spirit that Saint Paul speaks of in Galatians 5:22-23... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control... if we would just live like that, the world s culture would take notice and people would be attracted to Jesus. This very morning, as I read my daily devotional in Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest 6, and discovered it was covering this same material of our minds being controlled by the Spirit. Listen to what he says 7 : how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Matthew 7:11 Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct in this passage for those people who have His Spirit. He urges us to keep our minds filled with the concept of God s control over everything, which means that a disciple must maintain an attitude of
Page -5- perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek. Fill your mind with the thought that God is there. And once your mind is truly filled with that thought, when you experience difficulties it will be as easy as breathing for you to remember, My heavenly Father knows all about this! This will be no effort at all, but will be a natural thing for you when difficulties and uncertainties arise. Before you formed this concept of divine control so powerfully in your mind, you used to go from person to person seeking help, but now you go to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those people who have His Spirit, and it works on the following principle: God is my Father, He loves me, and I will never think of anything that He will forget, so why should I worry? Jesus said there are times when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but you should trust Him. At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the thought that the mind of God is behind all things strong and growing. Not even the smallest detail of life happens unless God s will is behind it. Therefore, you can rest in perfect confidence in Him. Prayer is not only asking, but is an attitude of the mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. Ask, and it will be given to you (Matthew 7:7). May God bless you. May God s love surround you. May the Spirit of God control your mind. And may you walk in the light of Christ. Let us pray together 8 : Dear Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I ask you to stir up within us the fullness of Your Holy Spirit. Help us to grow in our relationship with the Your Spirit and to live in His power and use His gifts. As Jesus said, Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and everything else you need will be given to you as well (Matt. 6:33). help us to let go of all our earthly attachments. As we walk away from the things of the world, give us the determination and the strength to let go so that we have no other gods than You, our Lord and our Saviour. It is because of Jesus Christ that we can pray
Page -6- this. Amen +==+==+==+==+==+==+ All Scripture references are from New International Version, NIV, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ Sunday Sermons from Suffolk Christian Church are intended for the private devotional use of members and friends of the church. Please do not print or publish. Thank you. Suggestions for sermon topics are always welcome! 1. Source unknown, found at http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/l/love.htm. 2. Francis August Schaeffer (1912-1984) was an American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is best known for establishing the L'Abri community in Switzerland. He is author of several books, including How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, first published in 1976. This book was the basis for a series of ten documentary films. 3. Sometimes written as worldview. 4. Quoted from Life in the Spirit, a sermon preached on June 20, 1993, by Dr. Ray Pritchard, found at http://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/life-in-the-spirit/. 5. Mark 12:28-30: 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Page -7-6. Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) was an early twentieth-century Scottish Baptist and Holiness Movement evangelist and teacher, best known for the devotional My Utmost for His Highest. (Wikipedia) 7. This devotion is entitled The Concept of Divine Control, and may be found at https://utmost.org/the-concept-of-divine-control/ (July 16, 2017). 8. Adapted from A Prayer to the Holy Spirit at Good News Ministries, http://gnm.org/holy-spirit/.