GIVING IT YOUR ALL
MIND
[JESUS FREAKS PAGE 210]
-did you realize all that trouble happened just so you could hold that Bible in your hands?
-in this period of time, it was believed that Latin was the only language the Bible should be written in or read from (and some places still do it). The problem is most people, unless they were rich or kings, did not know Latin. They had to trust someone else to teach the Bible to them, they were unable to read it for themselves. It was even thought that us regular, average people could not, were not smart enough, to understand the Bible or have that relationship with Jesus so we would let the priests or pastors have it and we would blindly follow along
-now we can all use our minds for God, but do we?
**Mark 12:30 -> 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. (NCV)
-yesterday we talked about your heart, how whatever you focus on, whatever your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be, and if we have love, if we have God at the center of our heart, we should be out living it out, we should be showing that love to everyone.
-this morning we focused on the soul, the emotional part of you, your spirit, the part that no one can see and how there are things you can do to love God with your soul. How we can get to know God through our soul but also how we can bless God and live out God’s love through our emotions, sometimes simply by slowing down and calming our soul.
-so this evening we’re on the mind, the brain, the part of Christianity that worries me because it seems we have so many people who just tune out when it comes to matters of faith, like if we think it will destroy our faith.
-so we need you to do this:
1. DON’T SHUT OFF YOUR BRAIN
-God created you with a brain. He didn’t need to. He could have made you a jellyfish. He could still turn you into one if He really wanted to.
-but He didn’t. He made you with intelligence, with reason, with the ability to think.
**Gen. 1:27 -> 27So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. (NCV)
-I’ve always found it funny that we use this verse to tell how we have emotions, like God has emotions. How we have a soul and a spirit, like God is Spirit. But for some reason when it comes to we have the ability to think, we have logic, we are able to process thoughts and come to conclusions, people skip that part.
-I mean really think about it. Look around you. God created everything. He figured out how to make gravity work. He made light and designed it, gave it its speed. He put each star in its place with planets around them, forces at work that we don’t even know about yet. God is a thinking God, and intelligent God. Yet when it comes to us relating to God, too many times I’ve heard to go on faith not worry about thinking. That’s stupid!
-the problem is we try to figure out God. We try to define Him in our limited knowledge and for some strange reason He doesn’t fit. It’s like thousands of years ago if you asked someone what the sun was, they said it was a god that birthed us because we can’t have life without it. Years later we figured out it was like a star, but not quite a star and it rotated around earth.
-and now to think these things, we think it’s ludicrous. It’s stupid because our knowledge of the universe has grown. Well, our knowledge of God has grown, but not big enough to where we can figure Him out or explain how God works. And honestly, I don’t think we ever will, God’s pretty smart, understanding Him would take some brain power.
**Ro. 11:33 -> 33How great are God’s riches! How deep are His wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain His decisions? Who can understand His ways? (GNT)
-you are never going to completely understand God.
-but this doesn’t mean you give up on trying to understand, to learning about Him.
-we don’t understand the universe, we probably never will. We don’t know how gravity works, we don’t know what light is, we’re further than we were when people thought the sun was a fire god in the sky, but some days, I don’t think by much.
-and as a side note, this is why we can’t ever seem to understand how God fits in with science; because we know this tiny bit about God and we know this tiny bit about our universe, put them together and they don’t fit for some strange reason. I totally believe that if we understood God 100% and His creation 100% there would be no problem, they would fit together perfectly, but we don’t, and sometimes we need to remember that.
-anyway, but that doesn’t mean we shut off our minds. The last thing I would want is for you to leave here whenever you graduate from high school and go I believe in God because Troy said so. I don’t know anything else, but I don’t think he’d lie so it must be true.
-you know what, I’ll go one step further. I think at times it is okay to doubt God. Not because I want everyone to stop and go “Oh well, that was a nice run” but because people who never doubt what they believe go on blind faith, so do they really believe it? At least if you doubt God once in a while, you think about what you believe and hopefully come back stronger in your faith after using your brain.
-either way, believe in God with your heart, yes, but don’t shut of your brain. Believe in your mind that God’s real too, or else do you really believe it?
-so you can love God by using your brain, by:
2. KNOW JESUS
-obviously, if you want to know God, you should get to know Jesus. Because, well, He Is God!
-we’re supposed to have a relationship with Him, get to know Him emotionally, spiritually, but what about mentally?
**Col. 2:2b-3 -> 2I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ Himself. 3In Him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (NLT)
-do you see it? We’re supposed to understand what God’s mysterious plan is, not just accept it on blind faith. We’re supposed to know who Christ is.
-do you know why Jesus sent His Son to die on a cross? I mean, do you know logically why it had to happen? I do, I need to because I need to understand why God would do that in order for me to see more clearly His love for me.
-and then the second part, in Christ lie all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
-there are many, many things in our world that we worry about knowing, that we try and try and spend all sorts of time, effort and money on learning, but a lot if it doesn’t really change our lives.
-my favorite is aliens. I love space, I love that we’ve learned so much, but we spend millions and billions of dollars a year worldwide to look for life on other planets when right here we’ve got people starving to death. Or on a more spiritual level, people’s souls dying every day. They don’t know who Jesus is, but I bet if they did they would have more wisdom and knowledge on how to live their lives and treat others better.
-because that’s one important truth that you need to know. You need to know it in your brain, know it in your mind. Do you know that you are saved and loved by a Holy God?
-I mean it. I know a lot of you believe it in your heart or you’ve heard it so it’s ingrained in you a bit, but do you know in your head, do you truly understand what has been done for you and how now because of it you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?
**Eph. 1:13-14 -> 13It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. 14This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life. (MSG)
-it’s in Christ that you heard the truth, you found this knowledge of His ability to forgive you and give you a new life, and you believed it. And verse 14, it’s just a piece of what’s coming.
-if you have a relationship with Jesus, you need to know it!
-I mean, before God did this, put this plan into effect, He told people about it. He gave them the knowledge of what was happening. Before Jesus came, John the Baptist was sent to tell people the new message. His dad said this over him:
**Luke 1:76-77 -> 76“And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. 77You will tell His people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins.” (NLT)
-tell them, give them the information, use their brains.
-there’s another source we go to for God’s plan though:
3. GOD’S WORD
-last week we talked about II Peter where it says God gave us. Remember we were supposed to grow in self-control, in patience, and what was one? Knowledge!
-Paul tells us to grow in our knowledge of God.
**II Pe. 3:17b-18a -> 17Be careful so you will not fall from your strong faith. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (NCV)
-Christians seem to like the idea of growing in grace, growing in the idea of being forgiven, growing in God loving you, but so few seem to be that excited about learning about God, growing in knowledge of who God is.
-because anyone will tell you, emotions are great, emotions make the world go round, but if all you have is an emotional relationship with Jesus, what happens when times get tough? What about when you’re not “feeling” like being a Christian or acting as you should?
-I need to feel loved by God, but there are times where I’m just having a bad day and I don’t feel loved, so I have to fall back in knowing that I am loved, in knowing God is there for me even when I don’t feel like He is.
-because although emotions are great, your faith in Jesus does not grow because of emotions, it grows from getting to know Him better and part of that is learning about who He is and what He is like.
**Col. 3:17 -> 17Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. (NLT)
-we are to be rooted in Christ, we are to build our lives on Christ, but then our faith will grow strong in what? The truth we were taught. To have been taught something means at some point there was a teacher giving the information, that our minds were used.
-even the night Jesus was to die, He prayed this, He’s praying to His Father for us:
**John 17:17 -> 17Make them holy by Your truth; teach them Your Word, which is truth. (NLT)
-we are made holy by knowing the truth of who God is, by our minds comprehending and learning God’s Word, which is truth. Which also leads me to:
4. PURSUE TRUTH
-Jesus said He is the way to God, He is life, and He is also the truth.
-we need to have that truth in us.
**I John 5:10a -> 10Anyone who believes in the Son of God has the truth that God told us. (NCV)
-we are to have the truth God told us.
-everyone here should have an idea of what truth is and how hard you sometimes have to search or check things out to find truth. We live in the internet age. Anyone can make a website, it doesn’t have to be true. What about TV footage? We can see how that is faked, how movies have come so far that whole new worlds can be created that look new. Books can be written by anybody. There are tons of people out there that are promoting what they think and disguising it as truth, but we have to do what we can to seek God, because He has the truth.
**I Tim. 2:3-4 -> 3This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4Who wants all people to be saved and to know the truth. (NCV)
-we are supposed to know the truth, and like I said, there are tons of people out there who say things are true, and they just simply are not. Only by knowing God, by chasing after Him are we going to know what’s true and what isn’t.
-last week Lorie and I watched Hercules, the Disney movie, you guys seen it? I’ve only seen it once before because I hated it that much the first time. One reason, the story. You guys know the story, Herc is born, immortal, Hades takes away his immortality but not his strength, he gets trained to be a hero, beats Hades when he tries to set free the titans, yeah great. You know how much of that is in the original story? Nothing! And what drives me nuts is I’ve talked to kids, some high school people and they think that’s what the story is. Disney butchered it.
-but what drives me even more crazy, all through the movie there’s these women singing and what do they say in their songs? “And that’s the gospel truth.” It’s not gospel truth! It’s isn’t true at all, they butchered the story, and the original story isn’t true either! But people believe it, why? Because it’s in a movie, so it must be true? Or is it just the only version people have ever heard and reading is too darn difficult?
-this is why we push the Bible so much, why we push Home Bible Studies so much (insert plug here).
-we need to be learning God’s Word to look for truth. It’s in our theme verse for Home Bible Studies:
**John 8:31-32 -> 31Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, “You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings. 32And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (NLT)
-it’s simple, Jesus loves truth. All the time He says in His answers, “I tell you the truth…” If it’s true that God is God and that we can be saved of our sins, then there’s no fear of people looking for truth.
-a few weeks ago Pastor Aaron mentioned a guy named Rob Bell in his sermon, we have some of his videos. One thing I love about this guy is he simply tells people to look for truth, to find truth because if all truth is from God then any truth, no matter what it is or where it’s from, it will lead to God.
-I agree, search for truth and find God.
-then, after finding truth:
5. THINK RIGHT
-when you learn about God, when you find out who He is and spend time with Him, working on thinking well, controlling your thoughts, thinking as God would want you to.
**Phil. 4:8 -> 8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (NIV)
-I remember being in high school and I asked my youth pastor about this, you know how sometimes bad words pop in your head, how do you stop them. He gave me a “well, have you read your Bible?” and I thought, thanks so much for your wonderful insight to having a spiritual psyche. But he was right, he just didn’t explain it. But it’s true, if you think about something bad long enough, it’s always in your head. If you pursue truth, if you think about God, if you pray inside all the time, eventually it just takes over your thoughts and then you don’t have a problem thinking right.
-so here’s your exercise today. On the last page, right down all the influences on you in a day, and all the things you think about in a particular day and rate them on if you would like to keep them or not, then think about what you can do to train your mind, just like you train it to study and remember, how you can train it to think as you wish.
