Rick Warren - Changing Always Starts With Choosing
Hello everybody. Today We're going to continue in our series on Resetting My Life with Part 2. Now, this weekend I'm actually visiting a couple campuses, but I wanted to begin by saying, I love you all. I love you so much; in fact, let me just say I love you to all of our campuses. I love you, Anaheim. I love you, Berlin. I love you, Brea. I love you, Buenos Aires. I love you East Vale campus. I love you, Espanol. I love you, Hong Kong. I love you, Newport Mesa. I love you, Irvine North. I love you, Irvine South. I love you, Laguna Woods. I love you, Lake Forest. I love you, Los Angeles. I love you, online Saddleback. I love you, Rancho Capistrano. I love you, San Clemente. I love you, San Diego, and I love you, Santa Rosa, Philippines, and I love you South Bay. That's a mouthful. We are all celebrating your Easter reports from all of our campuses.
Now, if you pull out your message notes, in Part 1 of this series last week we introduced the fact that God is in the transformation business, life transformation. And, by the way, so is this church. Saddleback is all about changed lives. We are all about that. Now, God didn't just create you. He wants to transform you into what he's always intended for you to become. Now, I mentioned this last week. This transformation has many, many different kinds of names. It's called salvation. That's when you first step across the line. It's called sanctification. That's the rest of your life, growing in Christ. It's called conversion. This life change is called starting over. It's called being born again. It's called getting a fresh start. It's called having a life reset. Our own Saddleback family here, hundreds of thousands of people, have experienced this spiritual reset in their lives. And every one of you could probably give a personal testimony, or most of you could.
Now, here's the point. After you experience the first reset of salvation in your life, where your life takes a big U-turn, you're going to have many, many other moments of change, transformation, life reset, and improvement in your life. You can have a reset in your connection to God many, many times in your life. You get disconnected in some way. You can have a reset in your health. You can have a reset in your relationships or in your marriage. You can have a reset in your career, in your finances. You can have a reset in your parenting, the way you deal with certain kids. You can have a reset in your energy and literally hundreds of other areas in your life. That's why we're doing this series called Resetting My Life.
Now, if you missed Part 1, I want to ask you to please watch it because in that message we talked about four preparation steps that have to happen in your life in order for you to have a transformation, a new leaf, a new life, a resetting of your life. Okay? So watch that message. Now, today I want us to look at how changing always starts with choosing.
Let me say that again. Pull out your message notes. Changing always starts with choosing. Until you start making some choices, nothing's going to change in your life, but changing always starts with choosing. Your ability to choose, your ability to make moral choices is actually one of the greatest gifts God has given you, and given to all of us as human beings. It's part of being created in God's image. The ability to make moral choices is what you different from animals. Animals don't have moral choices. They don't have right and wrong. Animals have instincts instead of the ability to make moral choices between good and bad, right and wrong, and better and best.
Now, your choices shape your life far more than your circumstances do. Let me say that again. Your choices shape your life far more than your circumstances do. You can overcome circumstances, anyone, by making good choices. And as I said last week, you're a product of your past, but you're not a prisoner of your past, okay? You don't have to stay stuck in the past. You can change. You can reset your life by making good choices with the help of the Holy Spirit. Now, if you do that, if you make good choices, you're going to see good results in your life. But if you make bad choices, you're going to suffer the consequences in your life. Bad consequences.
Now, in this series, we're going to look at many different kinds of choices, because choosing is what starts changing in your life. But today I want us to just focus on choosing what you think about, choosing what you think about. Choosing how you think. Choosing what you allow to be in your mind. Now, this is a starting point. The first step to a life reset is choosing to change what you think about. Now, there are many, many, many, many, many scriptures on this in God's word. Let me just give you one. It's there at the top of your outline. Romans Chapter 12, Verse 2 says this, "Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but let God transform you". Circle that. That' a reset. "Let God transform you into a new person". How? Circle this. By changing the way you think. By changing the way you think.
God says, "I will change your life when you let me change the way you think". So you have a choice to make. Am I going to choose to let God change the way I think? When people want to reset their lives in some area, or they want to get a fresh start, they often think that the first thing they need to do is to change their location. Okay? I just need a change of venue. I need some new scenery. I need a change of location. Well, a change of location might help you, but it's not the very first thing that needs changing in your life. It might take a while to change your location, but you could start changing your mind right there where you're seated right now.
To reset your life, to have this transformation, to get a fresh new start in any area, career, marriage, relationships, health, whatever, to reset your life, the first thing you need to work on is your mindset. What do you mean by that? How you see yourself, how you see your problems, and, most important of all, how you see God. If you don't change your mindset first, a change in your location or a change in your scenery, it's not going to help much. You know why? Because you could go to Tahiti, but you take you with you wherever you go. And so if the stress is in your brain and you go to Tahiti, or anywhere else, you're taking the stress with you, because the stress is between your ears.
As I said, you may need a vacation in some beautiful spot in the world because of the pressure that you feel in your mind, but if you don't deal with the mental stress first, you're just going to take it with you, even if you're laying on a beautiful beach, in a beautiful location, no matter where you go. So today I just want us to do two things today, this weekend. First, I want to look at three reasons. You have to begin any change in your life with change in your mindset. If you want to reset your life. Three reasons, you have to start here in your mind. And then I want to share three choices from God's word that you need to make every single day of your life that will reset your mindset. Okay? First, what are the reasons? Why must I begin with changing my mindset in order to reset my life? Three reasons. Write these down.
Number one, the Bible says this, because my thoughts direct my life. My thoughts direct my life. Proverbs 4:23 says this, today's English version, "Be careful how you think. Your life is," notice this, "shaped by your thoughts". Circle that word 'shaped.' Your life is shaped by your thoughts. Every action in your life, every reaction in your life, everything you feel, and everything you do starts as a thought. It all begins in my mind, in your mind. And if you don't think it first, guess what? It doesn't happen.
Now, you can use this truth, this fact, this reality, for good or for bad, because good thoughts lead to good behavior and good actions and bad thoughts lead to unhealthy behavior, unhealthy habits, unhealthy actions, and unhealthy reactions. You see, the truth is we don't realize how often we sabotage. We sabotage our own success by the way we think and by the way we talk to ourselves internally. You're talking to yourself all the time. You're talking to yourself right now going, "Does this make sense to me or not"?
Now, God tells us in his word, the Bible, as a man thinks so he is. So, you cannot reset any area of a relationship. You got a relationship problem? It doesn't start in the relationship; it starts in your brain. You got a problem with a habit? It doesn't start with the habit; it starts in your brain. You've got to start in your thought life. First changing how you think about money, how you think about sex, how you think about food, how you think about your life, the future, how you think about other people, God, your work, everything.
So, the first reason is it's the fact that my thoughts direct my life. Now here's the second reason. You have to start with inside your brain to make any change in you, and it's because my struggles happen in my mind. My struggles, your struggles, happen in your mind. That's where it all starts. Now, you may not realize it, but every second of your life there's a battle in your brain. Right now there's a battle going on in your brain constantly. It's a mental battle. It could be between right and wrong. It could be between what's easy and what's hard. It could be between good and evil. It could be between doing what's healthy, making a healthy choice, or doing what's unhealthy, making an unhealthy choice. This is constantly going on in your life.
Stress is a mental struggle. Depression, if you're feeling down. Depression is a mental struggle. It's a battle, and so is every other negative emotion. Anger is a mental battle; it starts in your mind. Fear is a mental battle; starts in your mind. Jealousy, resentment, loneliness is a mental battle; starts in your mind. Addictions, discouragement, low self-worth is a battle going on in your brain. All of your internal conflicts. And by the way, all of your external conflicts, the conflicts that you're having with other people right now, guess what? They're not starting in the relationship. They're starting in your mind.
Look at this verse. The screen tells us James Chapter 4, Verse 1, it asks the question, "What causes fights and quarrels among you"? In other words, why do you get in conflict with other people? And he says, the Bible says this, "They come from the conflicting desires that battle inside you". There's a battle going on inside your mind between conflicting desires, and that battle can continue in your mind, by the way, even when you are sleeping, and you have restless sleep or you have bad dreams, that battle in your brain can go on 24 hours a day. You know, one of the things I love the most about this book, God's word, the Bible, is how gut level honest it is about our human nature and about the internal battles that all of us face and fight literally every second of our lives in our minds.
We often battle in our minds over what's right. What's the right thing to do? And we're wondering: What's right? What's the right thing to do? And we're wondering, "Is it this? Is it this? Is it that"? And sometimes even when we know the right thing to do, we can't always get ourselves to do it, and that's a battle too.
Now Paul, the Apostle Paul, who was probably the greatest Christian who ever lived next to Jesus Christ himself was gut level honest about this mental battle in the brain that's going on. Romans chapter seven, look there on your outline. Paul gives a personal testimony of his battle in the brain. He says this: "I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned, but there's something else deep within me that is at war with my mind". War with my mind. That's the battle in your brain. "War with my mind and wins the fight, and it makes me a slave to the sin within me. In my mind," he says, "I want to be God's servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin".
Now, if you're taking notes, you got a pen and pencil right now, I want you to circle these words in Romans chapter seven versus 22 and 23. Circle the word war, circle the word, fight. War, fight, circle the word mind, and circle the word enslaved. That pretty much describes all of us. There's a battle in your brain, and sometimes you're conscious of it. You can feel the tension going on, but a lot of times you're totally unaware of the competing thoughts and competing desires and competing goals that are in your brain. But this is a major cause, my friends, of mental fatigue, and it's been on high all during COVID.
Now the reason this battle in your brain is constant and is intense is because your brain, your mind is your greatest asset. Without your brain, you're not you. You are your thoughts, your will, your emotions, your soul. Without your brain, nothing's going to happen. If you have God's spirit in you, now, listen to this, should be comforting you. If you have given your life to Christ and God's spirit is in you, Satan can't control your mind, but he can make suggestions. The only influence Satan has in the life of a Christian is he can put thoughts in your mind, he can make suggestions. He can get your attention, and that's pretty big deal because whatever gets your attention gets you.
So he can't control your mind, but he can put thoughts in your mind and you have to decide, am I going to accept or reject it? Why are we talking about resetting your mindset before we talk about resetting your life? Because my thoughts direct my life and number two, because my struggles happen in my mind, in my brain. Now here's the third reason you have to start changing the way you think to make any change in any area of your life. Number three, because it's where God's spirit works in me. Because it's where God's spirit works in me. Where does God's spirit work in your life? In your toenail, in your fingernail, in your spleen? No, God's spirit works in your brain, in your mind.
Now, it's interesting, both we, and of course the Bible does too, we often use the metaphor of our heart as being the place where God works. So you say, "I invited Jesus into my heart". Well, technically heart is just a symbol for your brain, because that's where you think. God works in your brain. God works in your mind. God works through your mind and God works suggesting thoughts too. It is in your mind that God begins the change process. It's where the reset takes place. Now look at this next verse, very important verse. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4:23 and 24, "Let the spirit change your way of thinking". You might underline that. "Let the spirit change your way of thinking and," what is the result of it? "Make you into a new person". That's how you reset your life. It starts in your thinking. You were created to be like God.
Now this verse right here, Ephesians 4:23 and 24 is one of the theme verses for this series on resetting your life. And I want to urge you to go home, write this verse down and then memorize it. So me read it again. It goes like this: "Let the spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God" Ephesians 4:23 and 24. Well, you say, how does this work? When Satan suggests an idea in your mind, we call that temptation. When God suggests an idea in your mind, we call that inspiration. But it's your choice, every moment of your life, what to choose. What ideas you're going to hold onto, which ones you're going to reject. Whether I accept or reject the temptation or whether I accept or reject an inspiration. You get to choose what ideas are going to control your life.
Romans chapter eight, verse six says this: "If your thinking is controlled by your own old sinful ways, it leads to death". It leads to death. "But if your thinking is controlled by the Holy Spirit, that leads to life". That leads to life. You get a choice. I'm going to have life and peace in my life or I can go to a dead end. Now these are the three reasons we had to start today by talking about your mindset, because nothing's going to change until you change your mind. Now, I want to quickly give you three very practical choices that you can start making every day to reset your mind and therefore, reset your life. Okay?
So write these down. These are three things you can start doing every day to reset your life and your mind. Number one, every day I must choose to feed my mind with the best thoughts. It's your choice. Every day I have to choose what I'm going to feed my brain. Am I going to feed my mind with the best thoughts, or am I going to feed them with bad thoughts? Philippians chapter four verse eight gets very, very here about what are the best thoughts, Philippians four, eight, "Brothers and sisters, fill your mind with thoughts that are," and here's the list: thoughts that are true, thoughts that are noble, thoughts that are right, thoughts that are pure, thoughts that are beautiful, you should have beautiful thoughts, thoughts that are admirable. Think about things that are excellent, and think about things that are worthy of praising, worthy of praise.
Now, to be honest, does that list of things to think about accurately describe what you typically think about most of the time? I don't think so. If you're honest, the answer is no. This is something you have to train yourself to do. To think thoughts that are pure, that are beautiful, that are right, that are true, that are noble, that are admirable. Think thoughts that are lovely. Think any thoughts that bring peace in my life. This is your choice. You get to choose.
Now, because it says, "This is what you should be thinking about". I need to pause right here for a moment and talk to you very frankly, about you monitoring and limiting your media intake, because that list does not represent the stuff that's on TV or on social media. It's not things that are true, noble, right, pure, beautiful, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise. If you're serious about letting God transform your life, if you're serious about getting a fresh restart, it is likely that the most practical thing you can do would be to number one, unplug your TV for a while. And number two, stay off social media and internet for an extended period of time. Why?
Think about this: in your mind, there's the scales. And on one side is the good news, the gospel, the truth of God's word, and on another side is all the junk and the poison and the stuffing that is put out by the media. If you came to church every weekend and you listen to a message that is maybe 45 minutes long, that's this much on the scale. But if you go home and you watch one or two or three hours of network cable news every night, where's your mind balancing out? If you get up and you read your Bible for five minutes in the morning, and then you spend hours on social media, hours reading the internet, hours in front of a screen, your life's out of balance, and it's not going to work.
So let me just show you a few Bible verses. This is so important for you to monitor your media intake. That means lower the stuff you're getting in your mind from the world and raise the amount of time you're getting stuff from the word. You're always listening to the world or the word. Let me just show you a few Bible verses, and then I'm going to ask you to consider some very personal questions about how much you allow in your mind and what you allow. Here's the first verse. It is Proverbs 15 verse 18. "A wise person is hungry for truth, while the fool feeds on trash". You could type that one up and put it on a card and stick it on your television. "A wise person is hungry for truth while the fool feeds an on trash".
Now here's the first question based on that: am I being wise or am I being foolish with what I allow in my mind? Are you allowing more from the world or more from the word to fill your mind? Are you wise? What does wise person do? Hungry for truth. What is the truth? The Bible says, "Thy word is truth". It's John 17:17. It's how we're changed. "Thy word is truth". What am I allowing in my mind? God says that the difference between a wise person to foolish person is what fills his or her mind. It's interesting, you can learn a lot about a person's physical health by simply looking at their physical diet. Are they eating a lot of junk food? Are they eating a lot of unhealthy food? You look at your diet, a doctor will say, "Tell me what you're eating". And then they'll know how your physical health is relating to that.
Same is true spiritually, mentally and emotionally. You can know a lot about your spiritual condition, about your emotional health, about your mental health by looking at your mental diet. So what's on your mental diet? Hours of talk radio? Hours of cable news? Hours of soap opera? Hours of social media? Hours of one internet troll, dissing and disregarding and pontificating and putting down everybody else? Hours of social media can have a mental diet of poison, of junk food, of stuffing. It's certainly not health food. So the question, am I being wise or foolish with what I allow in my mind? It all depends on what you're allowing in it.
Let me look at another verses, Matthew four, verse four, Jesus said this: "People need more than bread for their life. They must feed on every word of God". This friends, the Bible, this is the word of God, this is soul food. It's food for your soul. And he says, "You can't live by bread alone. You have to have soul food. You have to have the word of God". If you're not feeding on the word of God every day, you're starving to death spiritually. It's not like, "Well, I go to a church on Sunday and I get a banquet, and then I fast for the next six days and I don't get any of God's word in my life".
Here's the second question. Am I feeding my soul every day with God's word? Because if you're not, you're spiritually fasting from God's word, and it's no wonder you're spiritually malnourished. It's no wonder you have no strength against temptation. It's no wonder you get under stress and under pressure and get depressed and discouraged, because you're not feeding your soul. You are on a spiritual fast.
Now, think about this, friends. A lot of what we put in our minds is just temporary information. The stuff you read on social media, it doesn't matter an hour later, much less days, weeks, months, years. A lot of what we put on our mind is just temporary information. Of course, news channels make whatever's the latest news sound like it's the most important thing in history. But it's just temporary information. It's not going to last. But there's one kind of material that's going to last forever. What is it? It is this book. The truth of God. Let me show you some verses. Isaiah 40:8. The grass withers. That's temporary. The flowers fall. They fade. That's temporary. But the word of our God stands forever. Circle that last word, forever. If it was true 1,000 years ago, it'll be true 1,000 years from today.
Isaiah 40:8. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God stand forever. Jesus had, "Said heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away". Then, look at this verse. 1 John 2:17. This world and every desire that people want in this world is passing away. Okay? I want tickets to that game. I want to go see that concert. I want to have that meal. I want to go surfing. I want have that experience. Everything, all the desires that people have in this world, they're passing away. They're not going to last. But those who do the will of God will, circle this, live forever. Based on these verses, heaven and earth will pass away, my word will pass away, you can listen to temporary things, you can listen to eternal things.
Here is the next question. All right? Do I pay more attention to temporary news or to the eternal truth of God's word? How much news are you getting every day? Compare how much good news are you getting every day. It's not rocket science, folks. You're either putting the good news in or you're putting the bad news in, and what's in, garbage in, garbage out. Now, here's another verse. John chapter eight. This is Jesus talking. Verse 31 and 32. "If you continue in my word, that means you're constantly putting it in your mind and thinking about it, if you continue in my word on a daily basis, then you are truly my disciples". He says, "Then you will know the truth and the truth will make you free".
People take that verse out of context. Non-Christians quote this verse all the time not even knowing that it was Jesus who said it. The truth will set you free. Well, what kind of truth are you talking about? Look at the verse before it. It's the word of God. It's not mathematical truth, it's not musical truth, it's not physics truth. It's the truth of God. He said, "That's what will set you free". Now, He says, "If you continue in my word, then you are my disciple". Here's the question. Based on this qualification, you're in the word of God every day. Would Jesus say I'm a disciple? Would Jesus say, " You are a disciple? If you continue in my word, then you're truly my disciple". If you're not continuing in His word, you're not His disciple.
Then look at the next... My next question is this. Is my current media consumption creating freedom or frustration? He says, "When you know the truth, it will make you frustrated". No. He says, "When you know the truth, it will set you free". If you're feeling free, then you're getting a lot of God's truth in your life. If you're feeling frustrated, you're getting a lot of the world's truth in your life. You're getting it off of television or whatever, internet. Now, based on these things, that it determines who I am, it determines how I live, that what I put in my mind is going to affect every area, then I need to maximize the amount of truth in my life from God's word.
Here's the question. When should I feed my mind with God's truth? The answer is, all the time. All the time. Let me show you a couple verses. Psalm 119:97, here on the screen. Lord, how I love your word. I think about it all day long. If you're thinking about it all day long, then you're not going to be worrying. You're going to be worshiping. Psalm 119:147. I rise early to cry out for help and put my hope in your words. It's talking about early morning quiet time. I put my hope in your words. Hope. Where does hope come from? It comes from the over 7,000 promises in God's word. Become a promise person and your life will change. Get into this word every day and your life will change for the good. Every day, I have to choose to feed my mind with the best thoughts, and the best thoughts are God's word.
Now, here's a second. Daily choice I'm going to have to make if I want my life to change. First, I have to feed my mind. Okay? Feed my mind on the best thoughts. Second, I must choose every day to free my mind from destructive thoughts. I have to choose to free... This is a choice. I have to choose to free my mind from destructive choices. All right? Very important. Here's a verse on that. Romans 8:5. Those who are dominated by their sinful nature. That's my old way of doing things. The way I'm habitually trained to act. Those who are dominated by their sinful nature think about sinful things. It's what you think about. But those who are controlled by the holy spirit think about things that please the spirit.
Now, notice in that verse, he talks about dominated and he talks about controlled. You're either controlled by the devil, thoughts that he puts in your mind and you allow them, or you're controlled by God's thought, the spirit puts in your mind. Here's the point. Your mind has to be liberated. Your mind needs to be delivered. Your mind needs to be released. Your mind needs to be set free. Why? Because otherwise it's dominated by all those wrong things, all those wrong thoughts. It needs to be dominated, it needs to be set free. Now, this isn't easy, because there are three forces around you that battle in your mind against good intentions. None of us give up ground easily, and none of those enemies give up ground easily. You have to fight to free your mind.
What are the enemies? Well, there are three enemies that want to put wrong thoughts in your mind. First is your old nature. My old nature. The verse on the screen, Roman 7:23. I see in my body a principle at war. It's at war. I'm on battle with the law of my mind, taking captive to the law of sin that dwells inside of me. Your old nature wants to think wrong thoughts. Somebody puts you down, you want to put them down. The truth is, often you find yourself doing things that you don't want to do. Have you ever, ever knowingly engaged in self-defeating behavior? Yes. You knew it was bad for you, but you still did it anyway. Why? Because your old nature is not your friend. It's the source of all bad habits. That's the first thing working against you, your old nature.
Second thing working against you is Satan. He's the second enemy. As I said, he can't force you to do anything, but he can use suggestion, and he's continually planting negative thoughts in your mind about that person and about that person and about yourself. From the moment you wake up, he starts suggesting thoughts in your mind. Go ahead, you deserve it. Get angry with that person. Write something mean to them. Get even. How dare they say that to you? He's putting all those thoughts in your mind. Look at this verse on the screen. 2 Corinthians 2: 11 says this. Talking about a guy he'd forgiven, Paul says, "I've forgiven that man, so Satan won't outsmart us, for we're very familiar with his evil schemes". Interesting. He says, "I had to forgive that guy so Satan couldn't take a foothold in my mind".
Did you know that anytime, listen, anytime you refuse to forgive anybody, you've just fallen for Satan's trap. He just got a foothold in your mind. Any area of your mind that you're holding on to bitterness, any area that you're holding on to resentment, jealousy, envy, you've already yielded that part of your brain to the devil. You've fallen for Satan's trap. You got your old nature working against you, you got the devil working against you. The third enemy of your mind is the world's value system, which is constantly promoted by advertisers and movies and TV and music and celebrities. 1 John 2:16 says this. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, it's not of the Father. It's of the world. Did you notice it says, "Nothing around you encourages you to do the right thing. Nothing".
All the stuff in the world is trying to get you to go the wrong way. Nothing encourages you to be disciplined. Nothing encourages you to be unselfish. How do you fight this mental battle? Well, the Bible tells us. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, there on your outline. Though we live in the world, we don't wage war as the world does. He's talking about the mental battle. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. Our weapons have divine power. To do what? To demolish strongholds. Circle that, we'll come back in a minute on that. Our weapons demolish strongholds. That's a mental stronghold in your mind. We demolish any arguments, that's in your mind, and any pretension, that's in your mind, that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, that's in your mind, and we take captive every thought, that's in your mind, to make it obedient to Christ.
That whole passage is about the mental warfare. Spiritual warfare is mental warfare. It's in your mind. The battle for sin is won or lost in your mind. The battle for habits is won or lost in your mind. The battle for being like Christ is won or lost in your mind. Now, a stronghold. It says we tear down strongholds in our mind. What's that? A stronghold is a lie I believe. That's what a stronghold is. A stronghold is a lie that I believe about myself, about other people, about God. It can be a false value. It can be a world value system. Hedonism, live for fun, live for pleasure. Materialism, live for money and for things. A secularism, live for myself, make myself God. It could be a personal attitude. A stronghold could be worry. You could have a stronghold of worry in your life. You could have a stronghold of envy in your life. You could have a stronghold of resentment or pride or self-will. All of these are strongholds. We tear these down. This is a mental battle.
Now, I want you to notice two phrases in that passage. First, circle the phrase, "Take captive". We take captive every thought. Take captive. What does that mean? It means, the Greek word "aichmalotizo" literally means conquer, bring under control, capture. You're going to bring under control. You're not going to just let your mind run and let it go anywhere you want to. You bring it under control. We make it obedient. That's the other word. Circle that. That's hupakoe. Hupakoe in Greek means bring in the submission. We take my thoughts... I don't just let my thoughts go anywhere they want to go. I bring them into submission, to the truth. How do you do that?
Listen. How do you make your mind mind you? How do you make your mind mind you? This is a very important question. Let me give you a personal confession here. My thoughts often disobey... My thoughts often disobey me. Okay? My thoughts in my mind often rebel against what I want. My mind sometimes has a mind of its own. My thoughts often go off in all kinds of directions I don't intend them to do. Does this happen to anybody else besides me? You don't always have control, that your mind just go off in different directions? And a lot of times when I need to ponder a passage of scripture, and when I need to ponder, my thoughts start to wander. Some of yours are wandering right now. When I want to ponder a truth, my mind starts to wander away from the truth. When I want my thoughts to pray, they just drift away, and I start thinking about other stuff, even in my prayer. Now, I'm sure that never happens to you. But the reason most people are ineffective and defeated in life is because they don't know how to fight the battle of the brain, the war that's going on in your mind.
So let me just quickly review. I don't have time. This is a whole another message, but let me quickly review how temptation works in your mind. You need to know this. James 1:14-15 says this: "Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires". Doesn't start out there; it starts inside. Temptation comes from the lure of my own evil desires inside me. "These evil desires lead to evil action, and these evil actions lead to death". Temptation is a process. It's not simply an isolated act and it happens almost instantly in four steps. This could happen like quickly. I'm going to give you the four steps, but it could happen really quickly.
Step one is desire. It begins inside you, our own desires. And, by the way, any temptation often begins with a natural desire. You have a natural desire to eat. You have a natural desire to drink. You have a natural desire to sleep. You have a natural sexual drive. These are all God-given. There's nothing wrong with these drives, but temptation turns a routine desire into a runaway desire. And all of a sudden that desire becomes more important than other things and it's all you can think about. And, listen, anytime you have a desire out of control is destructive. Fire can warm a home or it can burn a home down. Water can slake your thirst or you can drown in it. Any desire out of control is destructive. The desire isn't necessarily destructive. For instance, sexual desire is a normal, healthy desire, but out of control, it will destroy you just like any other. Often, temptation is an attempt to fulfill a legitimate desire in the wrong way or time. But it's like steel and magnet. There's an inward pull. All temptation starts with a desire in you before it shows up outside.
Step number two, after desire comes doubt. These can come instantly and this is when you begin to doubt God's word and you begin to doubt God's love. We can see this in the very first temptation. When Satan goes to Eve, he goes, "Did God really say not to eat of this fruit"? We can see this in the temptation. Did God really say, "Anytime", you're wondering, "Well, I know the Bible says this, but did God really say this about sex? Did God really say this about food? Did God really say this about money? Did God really say this about it". Anytime you've already gone to the second step, which is doubt, you've moved from desire to doubt.
So step three is deception, and that's when you're lured and enticed away, that's a fishing term. You got to have bait, okay? And you start believing a lie. Now, I like to fish because my dad was a great fisherman, but one of the keys to fishing is you got to use the right bait. Okay? If you've ever gone fishing, how many of you ever caught a fish with a bear hook? Zero. None of you have ever caught a fish with a bear hook, but you catch fish with the right kind of bait.
What kind of bait does Satan use on you? He knows your weaknesses. He knows what'll get you. He knows what'll get your attention and move you from desire to doubt to deception. I call it deception because he always hides the hook. Sometimes you're in a temptation and you know there's a hook there, but you still keep nibbling. You keep nibbling and he go, "I'm an adult. I'm not going to get hurt. I'll be careful". No, you are being deceived. You've moved from desire to doubting God's word to deception. You're deceived. "I'll be careful," and you're nibbling on that hook. Friends, let me just tell you this: temptation always looks better than it is. Vegas is filled with very fancy, attractive lights. It's a giant lure in the desert and poor suckers get hooked and go blow all their money. You move from desire to doubt to deception.
This could happen in a second in your brain to finally, step four, is disobedience and defeat. Now, it's a sin. What began in the mind translate into action. What got your attention turns into attraction, and attraction becomes an attitude, and the attitude becomes an action. Attraction is not sin. Action is. Let me say that again. Attraction is not sin. Action is. It's when you move from "I'm being tempted" to behavior. This is why when people say, "What's the danger of a harmless fantasy"? Because it's not harmless. Whatever you flirt with, you'll fall for. Whatever you flirt with, you'll fall for. The Bible says after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and the end result is death, which is the tragic consequences. You're in a dead end. What is death? What is death? It's the exact opposite of living.
Friends, you are free to choose, but you're not free to choose the consequences. You're free to choose whatever you think about in life. You're not free from the consequences of your choices. And the best time to win the battle is before it happens. Psalm 119:112 on the screen says this: "I have made up my mind to obey your laws forever, no matter what". Have you made that decision? Have you made up your mind that you're going to obey God's laws no matter what. All right, let's review. I feed my mind with the best thoughts and I free my mind from destructive thoughts. And the third choice I have to make every day is this: I must choose to focus my mind on the right things. There are a lot of things you could focus on that aren't the right things. Let me just quickly close with three. Just write these down. I won't even talk about them.
Number one, think about Jesus. You've heard it said you become whatever you think about most? Well, 2 Timothy 2:8 says, "Keep your mind on Jesus Christ". Think about Jesus. Number two, think about others. Don't just think of yourself. Philippians2:4: "Don't just think about your own affairs, but also be interested in others too and what they're doing". Let me ask you this, would that transform your life? Would all our lives be transformed if we all thought about each other first? Yeah. If you thought about how your kids see it, how your husband, your wife sees it; if you think about how other people see it at work.
Hebrews 10:24, "Let us think about each other and let us help each other to show love and to do good deeds". So think about Jesus. Think about others. Here's a third thing you have to focus on: think about eternity. Colossians 3:2: "Let heaven fill your thoughts". Do not think only about things down here on earth. I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "Oh, she's so heavenly-minded, she's no earthly good". You know what that is? It's what you get when you cross a crocodile and an abalone. It's a crocabalone. The truth is the heavenly-minded people always do the most good on earth. The problem is most Christians are too earthly-minded to do any good. You can't be too heavenly-minded. The more heavenly-minded you will be, the more earthly good you'll do.
Now, I've loaded a lot on. You might have to listen to this message a second time, but let me summarize it. Today, we looked at three reasons you have to start with changing your mindset if you want to change your life. First, because your thoughts direct your life. Second, because your struggles that you're going through, they're happening between your ears. They happen in your mind. And, third, because your mind is where God's spirit will work inside of you. That's why you got to start with changing your thoughts. Knowing that, then you have three choices to make every day.
Number one, every day, I must choose to feed my mind with the best thoughts. Number two, every day, I must choose to free my mind from destructive thoughts. And number three, every day, I must choose to focus my mind on what matters most. Now, let me close by asking you a simple question. How serious are you about changing your life, about resetting an area or any or all of your life? Are you serious enough to start limiting television, social media, talk radio and other stuff that fills you up so much that you're not hungry for God's word? Are you serious enough to start reading your Bible every day? I'd pick the book of Psalms or Proverbs, just start there. This is one of those things, you know it, but it won't make any difference unless you do it.
Let's bow our heads for prayer. Father, you gave us our minds and you've given us the instruction on what to do with our minds. So now you pray:
Lord, I realize that my thoughts direct my life. Lord, I realize that the struggles that are going on me are actually happening in my mind, and I realize that it's in my brain where God's spirit works in me. So I really do want to change. I'm going to ask you to help me every day to choose to feed my mind with the best thoughts, to free my mind from destructive thoughts, and to focus my mind on what matters most: you, Lord, and other people, and eternity.
If you've never invited Jesus Christ in your life, that's the starting point.
Jesus Christ, come into my heart and mind. Fill me with your presence. Fill my mind, Lord, with your love, your grace, your mercy. I want to get to know you. I want to open my life totally to you. And I'm asking you to help reset my life in a new direction. And we humbly ask this together, in Jesus' name. Amen.