260419 Committed Mind

I don't care if you had a dad that kept telling you how stupid you were and you've begun to believe that. You've always believed it. Let me tell you something. Jesus doesn't make stupid. Jesus is saying to you, you're not stupid. You're mine. I love you. I created you. I made you like you are. You don't listen to them. Their thinking is futile. Their thinking is dark. They don't get it. I've given you a new way and a new mind. Start thinking like me. In fact, why don't you just let me do the thinking? That'd be even better. Just let God do the thinking. [00:55:15] (74 seconds)  #TrustGodsMind

Think about these things. Think how different your world would be if this is how you thought all the time. If everything was lovely, I feel funny even saying that word. Everything's lovely. Everything is honorable, just, pure. Read down the list. It's not positive thinking beloved. It's not waking up today. I see around town the little sign that says, today I choose joy. I would submit to you today, you have joy because Christ is in you. [00:56:52] (58 seconds)  #JoyBecauseChrist

Our mind is contested territory. It's contested territory. Our mind is a battleground. Listen to Corinthians, but I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. In other words, you're gonna be dragged away and there's a battle for the way you think. Our enemy Satan would love to have us think negatively. He accuses us of being unworthy. He reminds us of past sins in our life. [00:44:12] (50 seconds)  #MindIsBattleground

There's a big difference than being as positive as I can be in my world, or letting Jesus think for me in his world. I want Jesus thinking for me. I want him reminding me things above me are pure, just. I don't always experience it in my earthly relationships, but it's still true. [00:58:20] (42 seconds)  #LetJesusThink

You may be think I'm trapped to think this way. I don't like myself. Okay then. Let's take God's mind and start thinking about how much he loves you. Let him highlight for you all the good things he's doing in your life. Highlight all the blessed ways he created you, All the gifts you have. Let's let Christ's mind begin to do the thinking. [00:52:02] (34 seconds)  #ThinkGodsLove

I would submit to you today, you have joy because Christ is in you. I don't have to wake up today and say, now Lord, I am gonna think positive today. I'm gonna take this world, what was the old skid Joe? Piscobo used to say talking to himself in a mirror and he'd say, gosh darn it, people like me. Is that what you're gonna do is pump yourself up? Let me tell you something. There's a big difference than being as positive as I can be in my world, or letting Jesus think for me in his world. [00:57:38] (60 seconds)  #LetChristThink

We look around the world today and it stands to reason that is inhabitants of this world were concerned about, you know, minimally important things like eating, getting where we need to be, gasoline is going sky high. We have family relationships that are strained. You may have difficulty at the workplace. We know what it means to have problems. We know what it means to stress out. But we need to recognize that we just need to be thinking about the more important things. We need to be thinking about things above and God's given us that mind in Christ. [00:32:23] (61 seconds)  #ThinkOnThingsAbove

We have a hard time with our self image. It doesn't change much. The thinking changes, as we get older we may not worry about those things, but we still our brain is a contested turf. There's a battle going on. You see, we have an enemy who can't take our salvation but will gladly distort our thinking. [00:48:02] (37 seconds)  #BattleForYourMind

Listen, we have all kinds of ways that we try to conform, maybe even subconsciously. As we were younger, teenagers struggle with this more than any of us. Their image, self image is taking a punch and they're more worried about what people are saying on their their socials than they are about who they are. There's a time when they begin to listen to their peers more than their parents. We need to recognize that thinking like this world is dangerous and it's wrong. [00:43:21] (51 seconds)  #ResistWorldlyThinking

What's the word? Hallelujah. Yes. Get the picture. I'm created. I'm created in this world. I am from this world but through Christ I am saved from this world. I have taken from this world and I am placed in this new world, in this world of God's righteousness. I have become this living testimony of Jesus. The stuff that defeats me over here through the power of God, I get to just walk away from. I get to walk away from it. [00:54:20] (55 seconds)  #SavedFromTheWorld

So you don't wanna put your trust in me, but I'm telling you, you can fall back freely in the arms of Jesus. You can trust him. And so my ticket to being above the flesh, my ticket to living above everything that I'm struggling with is to trust in Christ. Turn my mind, my thinking over to him. Begin to think like he thinks. He'll do it. [00:35:53] (41 seconds)  #TrustChristWithYourMind

Now, there's so much there that we could just spend the day. But we're gonna move on, I promise. But first, I want you to notice a couple of things from that scripture. Number one, in Christ you've been given a new mind. As a follower and a believer in Jesus Christ, you have begun to think differently. God starts changing your mind. You start seeing things differently. You hear things differently. [00:30:42] (43 seconds)  #NewMindInChrist

Now, did you catch that? We live on a different plane. We live in a whole different level. God provides that for us. He gives us the mind that allows us to take focus off the flesh and put it on God's doing. God's will. God's ways. I can stop being stuck in the flesh and I can be free in the spirit. [00:33:55] (37 seconds)  #LiveInTheSpirit

Now, what many believers struggle with is when we don't fit in the world anymore, we struggle with how different we may appear to ours our friends and our family. We may even have to take a little criticism. Oh, now you think you're better than me? No. I don't because I've got the mind of Christ and he wouldn't think that way. He didn't make me better than you. In fact, he wants you to know what I know. We have the mind of Christ. So I challenge you this morning to let him live. Let him do the thinking. Give up your old way of thinking and let God open your heart and your mind this morning. Let's pray. [01:00:27] (74 seconds)  #LetChristLiveThroughYou

Because we get in our flesh, we don't really care what God wants. We don't really care what the spirit might be leading us to do. We want what the flesh wants. And we as believers in Christ are no longer ruled by the flesh. We don't have to give it a thought. We don't have to worry about where this world is going. You know why? Because my world is up there. My world may be right here. Heaven is wherever God is and that's where I'm going. [00:38:32] (45 seconds)  #NotRuledByFlesh

There are people especially when it comes to Jesus. Their thinking is completely wrong about God's love and the reason for the cross and the power behind forgiveness. They're completely locked in a worldly way of thinking that Jesus isn't even relevant anymore. And when you meet folks like that and you realize they're stuck in that thinking, then some of these scriptures we're gonna read this morning really begin to make sense. We realize how lost we are outside of Christ. How wrong our thinking is. [00:28:28] (55 seconds)  #RecognizeWorldlyBlindness

Listen, we we're in a battle for our minds and if you didn't get the joke, let me be clear, just because you're thinking about it doesn't mean you ought to say it. The bible says there is power of life and death. Power in the tongue. I can just say the word and crush your day. Listen, the mind is a battleground and we have to let God's mind take over. We have to be renewed. [00:50:57] (53 seconds)  #RenewYourMind

Now, I know this may strike you as funny but this world operates on its own plans. Its own doing. Humans have made up everything we do. I don't care which side of the aisle you're on politically, we're wrong. Both sides are wrong. In fact, I have told churches for years that when we vote, many times when we vote God has a will. He has a choice. He has a say in church matters. [00:37:24] (47 seconds)  #GodsWillAbovePolitics

Now, I'm gonna say that again and this is one of our hallelujah moments. Right? You know that when I preach, I like to have those hallelujah moments just thrown in there once in a while. Yeah. So, we're gonna have one of those. Alright? Listen to this again. We are no longer ruled by the flesh because you're not in the flesh. Hallelujah. How about that? Yeah. I don't have to worry about the flesh. I'm not ruled by it. [00:36:46] (38 seconds)  #HallelujahNotFlesh

You know, one of the weirdest things I've seen people struggle with, can I just throw this at you? We worry about what we think somebody else thinks about us. Oh, she doesn't like me. I know she doesn't like me. I know they were talking about me. When I walked up, they quit talking. Well, we just do that to Jack to do it to Jack. That's all. It's We don't We observe things, we see things, we get involved in things and we begin to draw conclusions. And sometimes, we can lay awake at night worrying about what we're thinking somebody else is thinking. [00:45:03] (63 seconds)  #StopMindReadingOthers