All right, everybody at New Life. Man, it is so good to see you. Are you guys excited to be here today? Are you? Are you excited to be here today? Come on. If you're excited, yeah, why not? Why not be excited to show up to church? You know what I'm saying?
Who came through the doors today and was like, "I don't want to be here, man?" Who woke up this morning and was like, "I don't want to wake up and go to church today?" Because if that was your attitude, then by all means, feel free. Go back home. It's okay. All right? And then hit the reset button and come back through the doors with this attitude, like, "I am so glad I get to be here today." Isn't it awesome I get another day to go and worship the Lord with my friends? I mean, come on, right? Come on. That's the way our attitude should be.
Oh, man. Well, guys, I want you to know it is good to see you. And if you're new here, my name is Jeff, and I get the privilege of being one of the pastors on staff. Today, we are wrapping up a teaching series that we called "Happy Heart." Come on, turn to two people and tell them "happy heart." Come on. Happy heart. It's a happy heart.
In the series "Happy Heart," we are focused on four things—four things that are habits of life that lead to a joy-filled life. How good is that? I don't know. My guess is that you're probably like me. You want to live a joy-filled life. Nobody wants to live a Scrooge life. There's a couple of you, right? But you don't want to do it on purpose. You got stuck there, and you don't know how to get out. So this sermon's for you. Most people want to live a joy-filled life. That's what we're all into. We're into figuring out how to be joy-filled people that encourage others to be joy-filled people.
And so through this series, we've been looking at these four life habits that I attribute to a joy-filled life. And today I want to focus on what it looks like to attack toxic thoughts. Toxic thoughts. You know, in this world, there's all kinds of toxins. In fact, the more that man creates, it seems like the more toxins there are. And we just don't put up with them.
Like, as an example, who in this room would put up with toxic water coming straight into your house? None of you would. You'd be like, "Look, I pay my bill. I want clean water." You wouldn't put up with toxic water coming into your house. Now, in other countries, toxic water comes right into their houses, and they can't drink it. They can't drink it like you and me get to. And they have to go through a whole other process, and it is a pain, right?
And if you've traveled overseas, many of you got sick. Why? Because you drank the toxic water. Yeah, and you'll never do that again, right? But then when you stop drinking the toxic water, you've forgotten. You brush your teeth with the toxic water. Same thing happens. Trust me, I know. Right?
But you wouldn't put up with toxic water coming into your house. You wouldn't put up with toxic air—toxic air flowing into our city. You would never do that. No matter where you live, you would never put up with toxic air flowing into our city. Now, I know, living here in Nebraska, there is a certain smell that will flow into our cities from time to time, and you think it's toxic. It's not toxic.
And here's what I learned. I learned this like the very first year I lived in Nebraska, which was like way back. I learned this: that smell is not a toxic smell. That's the smell of money. That's what I was told. I'm just glad my wallet and my wife's purse doesn't smell that way. But that's not toxic. If there was a plant that was producing a toxin, if there was toxic air, then, man, you would be upset. You'd be like, "Well, we have to—we're breathing this. My children, my grandchildren are breathing this." You wouldn't put up with that.
Just like you wouldn't want to have toxic gases in your house—carbon monoxide or radon. If you've ever dealt with that, you know it's incredibly dangerous and can kill people. You wouldn't put up with that. You wouldn't put up with, you know, toxic people being around your children or your grandchildren either. You wouldn't put up with it. If you knew it was a toxic person, you would be like, "I'm going to make sure that they stay away from them."
So why do we allow toxic thoughts to guide our beliefs and our behaviors? We wouldn't put up with all these other ones. So why do we allow toxic thoughts to be in our minds, to take root there, to have a home there? Why do we allow those toxic thoughts to live in our heart and in our minds that control our behaviors and even our beliefs?
See, some of you, you have hurtful words from your past that are still controlling your self-image. Toxic thoughts, hurtful words, controlling the way you see yourself. Some of you, you have hurtful actions that have happened in your past that still control the way that you trust others. Toxic thoughts in your life, toxic actions that have taken anchor in your life with beliefs and behaviors that now control how you see yourself, how you even love others.
See, anytime that you and I allow anybody to live rent-free in our mind—which means that someone said something, someone did something, and those thoughts and that imagery are still in our minds—anytime we allow those people to live in our minds rent-free, guess what happens to you? You're never the real you. You're always affected and controlled by what other people have said in your past because we allow these thoughts to live rent-free in our heads.
Like, look, it's almost Christmas, right? How many of you guys are going to have people spending the night in your house over the Christmas holidays? Can I just see your hands? Someone's going to be spending the night in your house at some capacity. Okay, all right. How about you're going to have people over to your house for an extended period of time over the holidays? Come on, let me see your hand there.
Okay, then you guys are going to definitely get this. Anytime you have people especially stay in your house, right? I'm going to have people stay in my house. Guess what happens? You act differently. Yeah, you dress differently, definitely. Thankfully. But you act differently. You'll pick up trash faster, right?
Can I just speak to the men for a second? All of a sudden, the men want to help clean. All of a sudden, right, ladies? If my wife was here, she'd be like, "Amen." But she's not here because she's not feeling good today. But yeah, we act differently. Like, we'll do things differently. We'll behave differently.
Look at this. We'll argue differently. Couples, come on, you know what I'm saying. That's what I'm talking about. If you've got someone else staying in your house, you argue differently, don't you? All of a sudden, your arguments turn into whisper arguments. "I can't believe you did that. How in the world? Why would you think that way?" Your arguments turn into this action. Like, you get everything because you're behind the wall, and everyone else is in the living room, and you're arguing in the kitchen. You know what I'm talking about? You behave differently. You're not your normal self.
And as soon as those people are gone, you take a big sigh of relief, and you become you again. The same thing happens. Same thing happens when you allow other people's thoughts, actions, behaviors that become toxic thoughts to live inside of your head rent-free. The same things happen. Some of you, right now, you're sitting here, and unfortunately, because of all of this toxicity of thought in your mind, you have forgotten who you are.
It's been so long. It's been months. Years. Decades, maybe. Forgotten who you are. You've forgotten what it's like to be happy. You've forgotten what it's like to feel confident. Your confidence got lost somewhere back there, and these toxic thoughts are holding your confidence captive. Others of you, you've lost what it really truly means to be full of joy.
You're kind of like a person that has experienced pain for an extended period of time. If you've ever had this happen in your life, let's say you got a pinched nerve or something like that, and it lasts for a long time, or you have an injury and it goes on for a long time, you hurt your shoulder, you know, or something else happened in your life, you hurt a knee, or your hips are bad. Then all of a sudden when you get that pain relieved, if you've ever had this happen before, I have, you get that pain relieved, and all of a sudden you go, "Wow, that's what it felt like to be pain-free? Why did I wait all that time? Why did I put up with this pain that restricted my movement? Why did I put up with this pain in my life for all this time when this is what it really felt like to be pain-free?"
See, for many of us, we've got these toxic thoughts that are running rampant in our minds and affecting our behaviors and our beliefs about ourselves, and they're restricting us, and we've forgotten who we really are. Well, today I want to help focus on that. I want to help focus on what it looks like to remove those toxic thoughts from your life that keep stealing the joy that God desperately wants you to have.
So look with me at Romans chapter 12, verse 2. It says this: "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by what? Changing the way you think. Then you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."
See, this scripture is going to be our anchor today. God's trying to do something with this scripture. He's trying to teach us something. He's trying to teach us a powerful lesson about the way that we think. God's basically saying in this scripture this: you can either conform or you can be transformed. You can conform. You can conform to the ways of this world and the thinking of this world, or you can be transformed by the power of God's spirit.
So toxic thoughts—listen to this—toxic thoughts come from someplace. They come from conforming to the thinking and the beliefs of this world. That's where toxic thoughts come from. They come from conforming to the thinking and the beliefs and the behaviors of this world. You took on something that was worldly, not godly, and it's infected you, and it's changed the way that you think.
So toxic thoughts, where can they come from? They can come from a lot of places. I'm just going to mention a few. They can come from the media that you take in. And I'm not talking about just the news media. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about all media. It can come from anything that we're consuming on a regular basis, and it creates toxic thoughts.
It can come from the books that you're reading, and you're reading these particular series of books, and they're just continuing to increase this toxicity inside of you as it sets up a false belief of what love looks like, or it sets up conspiracy theories, or it drives home lies in our lives. The media that we consume can create toxic thoughts in our lives.
Toxic thinking can also come from the people that influence you the most. I mean, watch out who you keep around you because those people and the way that they think, whoever they are, over time they have the ability to create a toxic belief system. I'm not saying that we get rid of all toxic people in our lives. I believe that we are to be the salt and the light to the world. I believe that. I believe that's what God calls us to.
But we also understand that there are certain moments and times when we recognize we are in the presence of a toxic person that when I'm around them, I become more toxic. How do you know that, men? You know that when you come home and your wife and your husband come home, and you're like, "There's something different about you."
How do you know that, women? When you come home and your husband says something that offends you, but it's true, and it says that, "Hey, you're not the same woman." We change when we're around certain people, and that's where toxicity comes from.
Toxic thinking comes when you don't use the Bible and faith to correct your reasoning. When you let your reasoning and the decisions that you make and the thought process that you have not be guided by the Bible, you're not going to be guided by biblical truth and by faith. Then toxicity creeps into our mind and into our heart, and it starts shaping and guiding who we're going to be.
So it's easy to conform. It's easy to conform. That's the easy road—to conform to the ways of this world. That's the easy road. And if you do, here's what I've seen: sooner or later, you're no longer following Jesus as your Lord and leader. I've seen it happen over and over and over and over again.
So what is Christianity? Christianity is saying, "No, I am not. I am not going to conform." Christianity is saying, "I'm going to do a 180, and I'm going to turn my life from conforming to the ways of this world to being transformed by the mind of Christ." That's what 1 John chapter 2, verse 15 drives home for us. It says this: "Do not love this world nor the things it offers to you. Don't be conformed by that. For when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you."
So God's saying to us again, look, it's one or the other. You can conform or you can be transformed. You can conform or you can be transformed. It's one or the other.
Now, for some of you, you're going to be traveling over the holidays. And when you get in your car, you have to make a decision. Obviously, you can kind of know where you're going. You've already made that decision to the house you're going to. But when you get in a car and you're going to go on a road trip, you got one of four basic directions you can travel, right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you got north, south, east, or west. I mean, those are the major directions you can drive.
You get in your car, you're going to go on a road trip. You have to make a decision. I'm going to go north or I'm going to go south. I'm going to go east or I'm going to go west. Here's what you can't do. You can't go in two different directions at the exact same time. You have to make a choice.
And I'm going to either be conforming to the ways of this world, or I'm going to be transformed into the mind of Christ. It's one or the other, but you can't have it both ways. You can't have one foot in conforming to the world and one foot in being transformed by the world. That's not possible. You're either going one direction or you're going the other direction. You're only fooling yourself if you think that you can actually go two directions at the same time because I dare you to do that with your car. It's not going to end well, my friends. Just like your spiritual journey is not going to end well.
So how in the world do you see transformation happen in your life? Well, transformation comes from the submission to the authority of Christ in your life. Transformation comes the more you submit to the authority of Christ, the more you are transformed. The more you allow the authority of Christ to control the way you think, the more you're transformed. If you control the way you love, the more you're transformed. The more you allow the control of your decisions, the more you are transformed.
Watch what happens when you choose transformation. Your brain—your actual brain—starts getting rewired as you digest God's word. The neural pathways of your brain—science has proven that as you digest God's word, as you study God's word and you get more of God's word into your life, the neural pathways of your mind literally start to change, and you start thinking differently.
I don't know about you, but if you want to be transformed in the way you think, the best solution you have is to get into God's word. It will change your— it will change your actual brain. You want to change your emotions? Watch what happens. You want to change your emotions? You'll find a balance of your emotions, or you'll change your emotions the more you spend time with other quality believers.
I don't know if you've noticed it or not in your life, but man, you can be very anxious and then be around the right Christ-centered people, and your anxiety decreases. You can be very depressed and get around the right Christ-centered people, and depression decreases. You can be wrestling with things and not knowing what the true answers are and not knowing what to do and uncertain about a lot of things. You get around the right Christians, and you start discussing things, and all of a sudden clarity starts to come.
So you want emotions to be transformed? Then get around Christ-centered people, and you'll find your emotions start to be transformed. You want your will to change, like the desires of your heart? You want your will to change. Your will changes as you submit yourself to a more Christ-like lifestyle.
So watch this. Pray more. Just test me on this. Pray more and see what happens to your desires. Just pray more and start to see what happens to the desires of your heart. Join a life group and see how your self-image begins to change. Just try it. Just try it. Just watch what happens. Join a life group. Get around other believers. It's going to start this next year. And watch and see how your self-image changes.
Watch this. Give God a tithe. Trust God with 10% of your income and see how your idea of money changes. Something that might stress you out, see how it changes. Like, trust God. Put God—trust God first in these things. Test God in these areas and see if your heart isn't changed. Pray more and let your desires be changed. Right? Join a life group and see if your self-image doesn't change. Honor God with your finances and see if money doesn't change for you.
See, transformation can happen in your life. It's just not going to go from like this to that. It's going to go from this to this, and then from this to this, and from that to that. And all of a sudden, you find your way over there. But transformation tends to happen a few different ways at a time. Transformation doesn't happen normally 180.
Oh, there are moments where God works miracles in our lives, and the 180 happens. I once had this desire. Now I have that desire. I once used to think this way. Now I think that way. But for the average person, it takes a slower burn. Stay in prayer and watch your desires change. Join a life group and watch your self-image change. Start honoring God with your finances and start watching how your finances change.
If you're looking for some kind of quick result of a transformation, you're looking in the wrong place. God's looking for obedience and faithfulness. And through obedience and faithfulness, then the transformation process begins. But watch what happens when transformation begins in your life. Transformation leads to revelation. Everybody wants revelation. Come on, say the word: revelation.
Everybody wants revelation. But as you transform the way that you think about yourself, life, and others, here's what happens: your eyes are opened up to what God has been trying to teach you the entire time. Revelation.
See, this is what's happening. It's like you living on planet Earth underneath the cloud cover of a very thick cloud cover, and it keeps raining, raining, raining, raining, raining, raining, raining, raining for days. You know what's up above the clouds? The sun. Something completely different's happening above the clouds.
And for transformation, when transformation takes place, it's like the clouds slowly start to move away, and you start seeing the sun that's been shining the whole time. God's been trying to say something to you. He's been trying to do something in our lives—something in your lives specifically—but you haven't been catching it. You haven't been catching it until we submit ourselves to the transformation.
When we submit ourselves to the transformation, God reduces the toxicity of our mindset, which opens up our eyes to a revelation of what he has for us. The answer to what you're looking for comes from the faithfulness of submitting yourself to being transformed by the likeness and the faithfulness of God—the image of God through his word, fellowship, belief, being with others, prayer. That's what happens.
So when toxic thoughts are taken captive, then what happens is that your mind is more clear to start hearing and taking in what God has for you. It just makes sense. When my toxic thoughts are allowed to rule me, it makes it really, really hard for me to hear what God's trying to say to me.
In fact, let me tell you what I notice that I think is one of the mistakes that Christians make. One of the biggest—one of the biggest—here's what they do. One of the biggest mistakes Christians make is that they try to jam God's voice into a space in their life where toxic thoughts rule. Instead of submitting the toxic thoughts to God first, they don't do that. They just hang on to those, and they try to force more of God's into this space, and they wonder why it doesn't work.
Here's why it doesn't work: because it's like driving your car with one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator at the exact same time. You go nowhere. And some of you have had to teach your kids that when they had to learn to drive. You got to take your foot off of one of them and commit to the other one. You either are braking or you're accelerating, but you're not doing both at the same time.
The only time you do both at the same time is when you want to peel out. And you have a real, real drive. If you don't, you're just going to look silly. Just trust me on this, all right? I'm just going to tell you that. And some of the older guys in the room, you understand what I'm saying, right? It doesn't work quite the same with a front-wheel drive. You get a rear-wheel drive car with a posi-trans.
Okay, that's enough. All right, we won't. And then you put—okay, we'll let it go. I mean, you can do some fun stuff there, but normally you don't drive with one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator at the exact same time. Amen? You guys with me on this?
In our lives, we don't see transformation happen when we're trying to hold on to the old while we're just trying to jam the new into our lives. So to learn new thinking, what we have to do first is we have to unlearn the old ways. You got to unlearn the old ways.
And guys, this requires long-term saturation of faithfulness to God's word in our lives to actually create a new habit. A new habit creates—psychologists tell us it takes like roughly 30 days minimum to start creating a brand new habit. That's what we're going to have to do. We have to start learning new habits so that we can crush the old and let the new have space to build in our lives.
Listen to what God's word says about creating a new habit. Philippians chapter 4, verses 8 through 9, it says this: "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing, okay? This is really important, by the way. One final thing. Like fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure, lovely and admirable. How do you create a new habit? You got to fix your thoughts on something, right?
Then watch what it says. Think about things that 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."
So he says this: like, you got to fix your thoughts on this. You got to think about these things. You got to keep putting into practice. That's what it sounds like to create a habit to me. Fix my thoughts on something, keep my mind focused on it, and keep putting something into practice.
Like, I can't back down. I can't water this thing down. There is no quick microwave fix to my issues in my life. If I want to be transformed, that leads to revelation, then I have to fix my thoughts on these things. I have to keep putting these things first. I have to keep doing the small things until the habit is built in my life and it becomes the norm.
And when it becomes the norm, then the God of peace will I sense in my life. Then the new thing, then the revelation will come. Transformation leads to revelation. So let me encourage you with this: stay consistent. And over time, you will experience the peace that a new habit can bring.
Stay in God's word. If you stay in God's word a little bit all the time, you stay in God's word—just a little bit. I'm not talking like hours every day. I'm talking a little bit every day. You stay in God's word, and you will experience transformation that leads to revelation.
Maybe for some of you, you need to seek out pastoral counseling, or you need to seek out professional counseling. Maybe that's what you need to change the behaviors or the mindset or some of the things you're stuck in in the past. But if you'll choose to seek out some pastoral or some professional counseling, here's what will happen: transformation eventually will lead to revelation.
Maybe it's this for you. Maybe it's striving to change with others and joining that life group in 2025. And can I just say this to you? If I could only suggest one spiritual habit for you to do in 2025 that has the potential to radically change you from the inside out, I would suggest this: do spiritual life with others.
I know you're thinking like, "Well, read the Bible more or pray more." No, I'm going to say to you that if you start doing spiritual life with others, I think you'll start to see these other pieces will start to fill in. Too many of us are trying to do spiritual life on an island, and we're wondering why we're not getting anywhere.
So strive to change with others. Join a life group in 2025, and here's what will happen: you will experience transformation that leads to revelation. For spiritual transformation to take an anchor in your life, it requires you to make another thing true, though. It requires you to say God's word is true.
I know it's something that we battle against in this world that we live in right now. We want what we agree with in God's word. We don't want what we don't agree with. We want to interpret God's word through our lens to fit our social settings. But instead, we don't want to just take God's word for face value with what God says.
I'm here to tell you today, you'll never experience transformation that leads to revelation unless you decide, "I'm going to go all in on God's word. I'm going to believe that God's word is true, that every word in there is true, and that what God teaches in there, I need in my life."
See, we got to stop taking just the easy parts, and we got to start wrestling with the hard parts. You got to go all in on God's word. If you don't go all in on God's word, transformation never—capital never, exclamation point—transformation never leads to a God revelation unless we go all in on God's word.
So watch what happens when you go all in on the power of God's word for your life. Second Corinthians 10:5 tells us this. It says this: "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ."
When you go all in with God's word, now you got the tools that you need to push back and not conform—not conform to things that are against the knowledge of God's word. Guys, this world's full of things trying to push against the knowledge of God.
How do you destroy arguments and every lofty opinion that's raised against the knowledge of God? You got to go all in on God's word. Get God's word into your life, then you can push back on not being on the conformity, and you can be transformed that leads to a revelation from God.
Jeff, that's really good preaching, buddy, by the way. That's solid, bro. Like, that's rock solid. I'm writing that one down because that one's really good. I say these things to you because I love you. I know that to some of you, you're like, "Well, it sounds like you're just beating the same drum all the time."
Listen, I don't know about you, but sometimes I need somebody to beat the same drum for me to get that truth. Other times I need somebody to get passionate and just challenge me once again to remind me that God's Word isn't just a book that sits on a nightstand or sits on a coffee table someplace.
God's Word is alive. God's Word unveils to us His heart for our lives, but that God's Word is an instrument God uses to bring transformation that leads to revelation.
So here's what happens for you. As God's Word takes greater and greater authority in your life, you obey God more. And the more that you obey God, the more revelation of God that you get.
Everything He says is good for others, but for some reason, I don't feel like it's good for me. What are the toxic thoughts that are holding you captive? What are the toxic thoughts about God? "My sins are too great for Him to forgive them all. I blew it a long time ago. I'm going to settle for something less than actually what God has for my life."
What are the toxic thoughts you have about God that are keeping you from Him? What are the toxic thoughts that you have about you that are holding you captive? "I'm not good enough. I'm not pretty enough. I'm not smart enough. I'll never amount to anything. Where I'm at is about as good as it gets. Why would anybody love me?"
What are the toxic thoughts that you have about you? What are the toxic thoughts that you have about others? I mean, what are the toxic thoughts that you have, right? Because can you see, can you feel it right now? Can you tell right now that those toxic thoughts are not allowing you to be transformed into the godly likeness and image God wants for you?
Your toxic thoughts are causing you—they're forcing you to conform to something that's less than what God has for your life. So what do you do when you identify a toxic thought? You find out what God's word says about it. That's what you do.
And if you don't know what God's word says about it, then you ask your life group leader. And if your life group leader doesn't know what God's word says about it, then you come find a pastor. Like, you find somebody that can help you. If you can't find it on your own, you find somebody who knows God's word enough that they can help you find, "What does God's word say about my lack of trust? What does God's word say about my self-image? What does God's word say about His grace? What does God's word say about whatever the toxic thoughts are that I deal with?"
Because here's what you're going to need to do. You're going to need to write that down. Because when your toxic thought comes, you need something to battle against it. You're not strong enough by yourself to battle against your toxic thought. Neither am I. I'm not saying that you're bad. I'm not bad. I'm just not strong enough to do it.
That's what God's word is. So when a toxic thought comes, I need to have a weapon to battle against it—God's word. This is what I think about myself. This is what God's word says about myself. And I allow it to tackle the other one, and I destroy the old thinking with the new thinking. I destroy the old toxicity with God's word and His authority in my life.
So you need to know, what does God's word say about your toxic thought? Because otherwise, right now, you've got a gun that has no bullets in it. And you're just dry firing against a toxic thought. And you can never kill it. You can never destroy it because you have no bullets in the spiritual weapon.
Put some bullets in the spiritual weapon. Put some scripture into the spiritual gun and collapse that toxic thought once and for all. Put it to death with God's word. It comes, you fire back. "But that's not who I am. This is who God says that I am. This is who I am."
"That's not who you are, God. This is what your word says about you." "That's not who everyone is, God. This is what your word says about loving others." And you attack the toxic thought with God's word. You keep driving that home and let that become your new habit.
And I'm telling you today, toxicity in your life will decrease, and a joy-filled life will increase. And it can start today.
So why don't you stand with me, and let's pray.
Lord, today, many of us, we're trapped in our own prison of thought. We're held captive by our own ideas of what we think about ourselves or what maybe even others have said about us. We're stuck. We're like a car stuck in the snow. You know, we spin our tires, and we spin our tires, and we try, and we try, and we try, and we try, and we get nowhere. All we get is more frustrated. We get more bitter. We get more angry. We trust less. We love less.
But, Lord, you haven't called us to conform to that lifestyle. You've called us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. You call us to push back on, to argue against, and to tear down these ideas—these ideas that go against the knowledge of God.
Lord, you call us to do that, but that can only happen as we know who you are, that you thrive in our lives, and your word is alive within us, and your spirit comes alive inside of us. It's only then can we push back and not be conformed.
So, Lord, I pray for this church, that there be a transformation that leads to a revelation—a fresh, new idea of who you are, how you see us, and how we are to love others. I pray that in the power and the authority of Jesus' name, amen.
on Dec 22, 2024
