How Are You Thinking
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
August 23, 2008
I’m not a morning person. How many of you are morning people? How many are not? I’m not a morning person. But in spite of that, I think I do hear what people are saying to me in the morning, although I must admit I’d rather people not talk to me at all for about an hour after I get up. But still, I hear people okay. And I have to admit, I have never once heard anybody say to me, “How are you thinking this morning?” Nor have I ever said that to any of my children, or to my wife, or to anyone else.
What do we say to people in the morning? We say “how are you _______________ this morning.” When someone has had a hard time with illness, or at work, or in their marriage, we do not ask them how they are thinking, we ask them how they are feeling. We define ourselves by what we feel. People get married because they have certain feelings for one another. We often make major purchases based on whether it feels right. Some of us live on feeling, getting upset or angry if we think someone doesn’t like us or approve of us. I would say that even many of those who would call themselves thinkers still live on feelings – it’s just that they believe their feelings are under the control of logic. Sometimes this is true, and sometimes it isn’t.
How are you feeling? Certainly you have been aware even since you came into this building how you are feeling. You might have come in in a bad mood. Perhaps you are excited to be here. Perhaps you have had certain feelings about who is and is not here, or how many are or are not here, or about the music so far today. Most of you are sitting in your seats right now having feelings about what I am saying, or even about me.
We define ourselves by what we feel, and there’s nothing wrong with this in any way. And even though there’s nothing wrong with it, that fact is responsible for the majority of our problems. How can this be? How can it be that we define ourselves by what we feel and there’s nothing wrong with it, but that that is responsible for the majority of our problems?
It can be, and it is so, because what we feel is determined by what we think. This is common knowledge. Psychologists and counselors know it. Pastors and teachers know it. Nearly every major religion knows it and teaches about it. Even when you heard it just now, you may have thought, “That’s nothing new.” And you’re right. It’s nothing new. It’s one of the oldest known facts, but it continues to destroy lives because we live as if it’s not true.
We say, “That’s just how I feel. I can’t help it. I can’t change how I feel.” But you can. You change how you feel by changing how you think. Now it’s true that you can’t change how you feel directly. You cannot force yourself to love someone, or feel patient, or to not have anxiety. But that doesn’t matter. Whether you do it directly or indirectly, you can, in fact, change your feelings.
Now this is a church, not a counseling office. I am not here to do therapy with you. But it just so happens that this matters in the Christian life more than almost anything else. Those of us who claim to be Christ-followers (disciples) must realize that the primary priority of our lives is changing how we think so that when we live by our feelings (which we will naturally do), the results will be good and not disastrous.
Fortunately God has left us plenty of things to put into our minds to help us learn to think differently. If we learned to focus on reality – not reality as defined by the world around us, but reality as defined by God – we would be people who feel, and thus who think, and thus who live, differently. It is that reality I want to talk to you about today.
Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV)
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Verse 1 says “set your hearts on things above.” You could read that and easily say, “How do I do that? I can’t control what my heart is set on. After all, what my heart is set on are the things I love, and I can’t control the things I love.” But if you are a Christ-follower, you can – and you must! And fortunately verse 2 tells us exactly how to set our hearts on things above. We set our hearts on things above by setting our MINDS on things above and not setting them on earthly things. In other words, we learn to feel differently by learning to think differently. And we learn to think differently not just by getting rid of stuff in our heads that’s not good for us (earthly things), but by actively filling our minds with stuff that’s good (things above).
But you don’t just decide to do this for the heck of it. We don’t start thinking differently just because it’s groovy, or fun. God tells us we need to learn to think differently because we are not living in the reality that is around us. The reality around us makes a certain way of thinking necessary, but God’s reality makes a completely different way of thinking necessary. See, if you are a Christ-follower, the most important thing about you is not your physical body. It is not where you live, or your salary, or your reputation. It’s not your job, or your legacy on planet earth, or how much you can bench or the size of your waistline. If you are a Christ-follower, you are defined by one reality, and that’s contained in verse 3. “You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
You died. When you came to Christ, you repented of your past life. To repent means to reconsider the way you have been thinking in light of new information and then live accordingly. When you came to Christ, you said, “Man, I now realize that the way I’ve been thinking about my life is messed up. I don’t have it as together as I thought I did. I’m in need of a Savior – I need help!” You died in that moment. In that moment, all you held dear in this world, everything you had invested your life in, all that once seemed so important to you, suddenly they were no longer the defining realities of your life. At the moment you turned to Christ, you cashed in all the chips you held that had names on them like reputation, control, prestige, money, power, success, beauty, etc. That’s not the kingdom you live in anymore. Those things belong, like I said last week, to a kingdom that is fallen and that is on the way out. Good thing you died to them. Good thing the precious currency of your life (time!) is no longer wasted on those things. Good thing you’re not filling your mind with those concerns anymore. Good thing you’re no longer focused on making things work out the way you want them to, and trying to be happy, and getting people to think well about you, and being noticed and esteemed, and caught up in being sexy and powerful. Whew – good thing we’re not thinking about that stuff anymore, since we know it all belongs to a kingdom we no longer live in that is dying and on the way out.
Or do we? Do we think about these things? Do you? Is your mind (and thus your heart) set on things above, or on earthly things? Having died to the values and priorities of this world, do you still live as if those values and priorities matter? I think in order to know this you have to check your feelings. Since our thoughts control our feelings, then you can check your feelings and find out if you’re setting your mind on things above. Are you learning to live free from fear and anxiety? Feelings of fear and anxiety come from thinking that something can happen to you that can cause permanent harm to you. Not the case. The reality is that your life is now hidden with Christ in God. You are beyond all harm! Are you learning to live free from anger? Anger comes from thinking we must have our own way and demanding that others recognize our “rights.” Not the case. The reality is that only God’s way matters now, and it’s not up to us to get God’s way for him. We have died to that kind of striving. Are you learning to love people more, even those who oppose us and mistreat you? Hatred and bitterness come from thinking people must feel or act toward us in certain ways. We don’t have to do this because we died to those techniques and ways of thinking. Do you live with a sense of peace and joy deep in your soul? Lack of peace and lack of joy come from thinking we have a stake in this world and its cares. But we are no longer invested here. If you have money invested with Chase Bank, then the future of Chase Bank is deeply important to you. You will think about it and consequently worry about it all the time. You will rejoice when it looks good, and worry when it looks shaky. But if you take all your money out of Chase Bank and deposit it in the credit union, you will suddenly (and very naturally) stop thinking about Chase Bank. Suddenly you will think often about the credit union and have strong feelings about it. If you are investing in this world, you will be directly connected to it emotionally.
Matthew 6:21 (NLT)
21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
What happens in this world will have major effects on your emotions, whether we’re talking about international relations or getting along with your boss. But if you have stopped investing in this world, if you have begun to set your mind on the things of God, then God’s kingdom will come to matter more to you than this world.
Matthew 6:21 (NLT)
21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
You took your money out of Chase, and put it in the credit union! Sure, you’ll still have emotions, and will still live from them, but that will actually work out WELL for you! Your emotions will always take you to good places and result in positive things, rather than taking you to bad places and resulting in negative things. You’ll care about God’s will being done on earth. You’ll care about loving others and treating them with dignity. You’ll care enough about people to stop holding people and circumstances hostage to your need for them to be the way you want them to be and your emotions won’t be ruled anymore by how things are going in your life at any given moment. You’ll care about seeing others succeed and do well, even if they have done or wished harm to you. That’s what it means to say you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. What it means is that whatever happens to Chase Bank no longer has any bearing on your life at all.
What we feel is determined by what we think. If we are Christ-followers, then the reality of our lives is that we died to our old life, and our real life is now hidden with Christ in God. Remarkable! But just like the Hebrews were freed from slavery in Egypt only to follow Moses into the desert, wander around, and die there over the next 40 years because they could not transition from thinking like slaves to thinking like free people, we continue living under our moldy ways of thinking. We ignore our new reality, that our life is now hidden, safely tucked away, with Christ in God!
We think “It would be terrible if I got cancer,” and we fear it. The truth is, in God’s kingdom even cancer is only temporary! It’s the precursor to a life of wonder and beauty and a disease-free eternity!
We think, “I need so and so to like me,” and we strive for it and get depressed about it. The truth is that God likes us, and if God is for us, who can be against us? I mean, who that really matters?
We think, “What if I lose all my money?” and we cling desperately to it. The truth is that we don’t have anything except what we have been given – and one day it’s all gonna burn – every last cent of it. See, unlike you, money is on its way out. But you – now there’s something truly magnificent! You are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe. My friend, you are just getting started!
We think, “What if I die?” and we fear it and deny it and do everything we can to avoid it. The reality is that one day you will close your eyes and will wake the very next instant in the Kingdom of your Father. You will find that your heart and your mind and your soul, all your relationships with those you love, your memories of life on this earth -- everything that makes you who you are – you will find they have all been preserved. And perfected. There will be no hint of sadness or loss and you will live for the rest of eternity in a world where you will never again feel threatened, or unsafe, or lonely, or afraid, or exhausted. You’ll never again even hear about bad news, or someone who has had a rough go of things. You’ll never again need something and worry that you might not get it. You’ll never again be abused emotionally or verbally or physically. You’ll never again be tempted. You’ll never again do or say something you’ll regret and you will live regret-free forever. You’ll never again walk into a room and feel awkward because of a strained relationship. You will never, ever again – ever – stand next to a casket and say goodbye to someone you have loved. Most of all, you will never again need to close your eyes to pray. You will instead simply look up, and God will be there – right there before your eyes. You will talk to Him like I am talking to you now. You will spend the rest of eternity involved in things you love and that interest you and that you are passionate about and you will find that the natural desires of your heart will lead you to live in ways that naturally benefit others and result to their good and well-being.
We spend so much of our lives mucked up in concerns about this world and its cares. But this world isn’t our home and we’re not going to be here very long. We are destined for a place we cannot even imagine!
1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)
9 …"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"—
1 John 3:2-3 (NIV)
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
Get it? You are not as you will be! God has a future – an eternal destiny – prepared for you that you couldn’t begin to conceive, and God has not yet revealed that to you. But we are to live in this hope – in this God-reality about who we are and how we have been called to think about ourselves and the world around us. We are not meant to spend our lives cowering and fearful and ridden by burdens and cares about every which thing. Rather we are to live in the center of this rich hope. See, it’s all about how you think. So how are you thinking tonight? My friend I want to encourage you to set your minds on things above. We’ll close with six ways to do that.
1. Turn off your television. TV is the #1 purveyor of a godless worldview. It’s not so much that it’s anti-God, it’s that it’s God-absent. But the reality is that God saturates your life and your world. Don’t go into discipleship training with a godless teacher.
2. Go outside. Nearly all the most impressive things you’ll see there are God’s handiwork and have his fingerprints all over them. Enjoy it. It’ll begin giving you a small taste for where you’re going to spend eternity.
3. Learn to live in God’s world. You will do this as you live in His Word. Bible, audiobook, devotional reading, music that draws you toward him – whatever. Just learn to live in God’s world.
4. Reject all thinking that leads to negative feeling. If you’re depressed, change the way you think. If you’re resentful, change the way you think. If you’re fearful, change the way you think. If you’re nervous, change the way you think. If you’re lustful or greedy, change the way you think. Do it prayerfully, let God love you and hold you in his grace, but do it!
5. Find out how you learn best, and expose yourself constantly to Godly teaching presented in a way that gets to you. Absolutely fill your mind with God’s thoughts, God’s heart, God’s ideas, God’s perspectives, and awareness of God’s presence and action and activity.
6. Impose structure on your life. The hectic, frazzled way many of us live gives us a feeling we can never attend to what’s most important. Impose enough structure (according to your taste and personality) to allow you to set the pursuit of God as a priority.
Let’s pray.
God, we talk often in the church about needing a change of heart, but most of us need a change of mind. There is so much negativity in our world and we absorb it like sponges. We worry and fear and lust and covet and jockey for position and gossip and fuss and manipulate. We do all these things like this is our life – like this is where we live and what matters. It’s not. For many of us have died and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. The problem, God, is that it seems sometimes like you hid it took well. It’s hard for us to find that life. May we clear out obstacles in our lives and allow you to be a bigger influence on us than the system of this world that is on the way out.
I pray for any tonight who are wrestling in their spirit with which kingdom they will belong to. I pray they would decide to live in YOUR kingdom and realize that the kingdom of this world is on the way out and is coming to nothing. May they commit themselves wholeheartedly to you and determine to follow you sincerely – right now. Amen.
