Think About What You Think About [Every Thought Captive] — Pastor Jason Burns

transformed by the renewing of your mind. Pause here for just a moment. This word transformed is interesting. This one is called the present imperative tense. This is a passive imperative tense which is weird because it means it's something you can't do but you must do. It's something you can't do on your own. It means you need God's help but you must do it And God wants to do this. You must be transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind. This word transformed is a fun word in Greek. It's the word metamorphoo. Metamorphoo is the word that we would transliterate in English metamorphosis. It is the process by which a caterpillar metamorphosis transforms into a butterfly. [00:17:57] (36 seconds)  #RenewYourMind

I tend to make my problems really big. I tend to give my focus to it. I tend to think about it. It wakes me up in the middle of the night because that's what I'm thinking about. But what worship does is it says, God, I'm seeing how big, how majestic, how powerful you are. I'm choosing to magnify you, which in turn reminds me how small comparatively my problems actually are. Paul says, set your mind. Go ahead and make a decision. God, I'm placing my mind on you. My thoughts are on you, but my heart, my focus, my energy, it belongs to you. And the things of this world, they just grow strangely dim. They just they just seem smaller in comparison. [00:24:59] (41 seconds)  #MagnifyGodNotProblems

this week I challenge you to what I'm calling an exposure experiment. An exposure experiment is I want you to think about what you think about. Here's why. Number one, our thoughts establish our emotions. If you were at church last week, Liz preached a beautiful message on our emotions and how they affect our relationships. And a lot of people wrongly think that I'm driven by my emotions. That is not true. Your emotions are a gift from God. They're wonderful, but don't put them in the driver's seat at all. And I want you to understand it's your thoughts that establish them. Some people are like, well, how is that possible? What you think about dictates your mood. [00:20:07] (35 seconds)  #ThoughtsShapeEmotions

Then he goes on. Next verse, he says, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. Okay. So listen. So what he's saying is anything you think about that is opposite or contrary to the word of God, we demolish those arguments. And then I love this line, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. What does that mean Jason? It means the average person has between sixty and eighty thousand thoughts per day. But you probably don't think you have that many thoughts. It's because 95% of those live below the level of consciousness. You think about things you don't even think about. You're distracted by things. Things happen. Things flash through your mind. You make lots of decisions you don't even think about. [00:16:28] (46 seconds)  #TakeEveryThoughtCaptive

I don't I don't need to know that. How about when you know something and someone asks you for information, just say that's not my story to share. How about you talk about your friends, but but just say the good stuff. Just bless them. Just honor them with your words and see what it does to you. And what if we just tried this for seven weeks and seven days and what if seven days turned into seven weeks and what if seven weeks became a habit and a lifestyle for us? Here's what I promise you will happen. What the Bible says will come true, which is we're no longer being conformed the ways of this world. But we're allowing God to transform us by the renewing of our minds. [00:27:28] (39 seconds)  #SpeakLifeNotGossip

What do you fill the gap in with? Trust or suspicion? Suspicion says, I'm here busting my tail and I can't even get them. They must they might be taking a nap right now. Trust says, if I'm this busy, they're probably just as busy. That's why I can't reach them. Can you see the difference of how it affects your relationships? Talk about marriage for a moment. Guys, get home and there's three Amazon packages at the door and you didn't order them. Oh boy. I'm stepping into something here. Okay. Don't elbow your wife. Okay. [00:23:23] (34 seconds)  #ChooseTrustNotSuspicion

We have a bad day and we fall right back into the habit. It's because behavior modification without thinking transformation doesn't lead to any change. Instead of paying attention to our behavior, we need to get to the root which is our thoughts. Our behavior flows from our thoughts. So here's what I'm gonna challenge you to do today. Today, I wanna challenge you to think about the things that you're exposing your mind and your thought life to. A moment ago, I told you what's called the law of cognition. There's another thing in social sciences called the rule of exposure. And what the rule of exposure says, it says whatever we're exposed to the most shapes our thoughts. [00:13:26] (38 seconds)  #ThoughtsAreRoot

Are you with me? I I I think that there's some stuff in your life that you probably need to take a break from. There's probably some friends. So you just need to hit pause with because all they do is talk negatively to you and about you. Here's something fun. How about you get off the gossip train this week and you stop talking about anybody in any way other than beautifully and positively? How about this week anytime someone comes to you with some gossip be like, oh, that's not my story. [00:27:01] (27 seconds)  #ExitTheGossipTrain