We need to protect our mind, because we are what we think.
• It will be garbage in, garbage out. The more trash we put in, the more trash we would see in words and deeds. You reap what you plant.
• We need to set up this “greenhouse” of the mind - to make sure that no virus or pests enter.
2 Cor 10:3-5 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Rom 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
That’s our battleground. Not with guns and bullets, but with the truth of God’s Word.
• We are fighting against the pattern of this world. It is a mind game between God’s truth and the devil’s lies.
• We are confronting arguments and pretensions that set themselves up against the knowledge of God.
Paul wrote to the Philippians and urged them to keep their minds full of the good things of Christ. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Phil 4:8)
• Our mind is a magnificent gift from God. It is perfectly suited for life and growth, but it has to be managed.
• Prov 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
• CEV puts it, “Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life.”
THIS IS MY HOUSE
Suppose I ask you to take care of my house while I am going for a trip to Japan. You promise to keep the place in great shape. But when I return, I find the place in shambles. The carpet was torn, the walls are smeared, and furniture is broken.
Your explanation is not impressive. Some tourists from Thailand needed a place to stay and so they came in, they sleep, bath, and cook. And then your school pals came for a year-end party, they drink and eat the night away.
When I return, I am going to ask you, “What happened? Why did you let them in? This is not your house.”
Do you think God wants to say the same to us? What are you letting into your life, and into your mind? This is my temple, the Lord says.
We need to make conscious efforts to guard our minds, with the same prudence we give to guarding our space, our room, our bed, our cubicle at work.
• If we are so caught up about management - business management, human resource management, time management, or financial management - then all the more we need to take not of our thought management.
• I want to guard what goes in, that which is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and good (cf. Phil 4:8).
• If a condominium ward off harmful people with a security post at the gate, if a country does that with custom checks at entry points, then we need to guard our minds right at the gate of entry.
This is God’s plan for us, to be JUST LIKE JESUS.
• Are we able to do that? Yes, because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
• God never requires what a person is incapable of being or doing. The moment God calls you (to become a Christian), He enabled you.
(1) Conviction and Commitment
God has already started a divine work in you at conversion.
• When we accept Christ as personal Savior, we are cleansed from all sin. God makes you a new creature,
• The Holy Spirit indwells you and a new nature desiring to be right and pure is imparted.
• 2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
(2) Confession and Cleansing
1 John 1:9-10 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.”
• Each time we admit our sin, we are saying NO to the devil. It’s like Jesus telling Satan off, when He looked at Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matt 16:23)
• If you keep quiet, you are not saying NO to the devil. And you are not saying YES to God either. The Lord is not taking over. You are struggling with it yourself.
• We are not saved by confession, we are saved by Christ, but if you do not confess your sin before God, you are not freeing yourself from its hold on you.
• David committed adultery with Bathsheba. He confessed, repented and was forgiven. God’s grace takes over, and that is his strength.
(3) Forsake and Flee
We cannot be taken out of this sinful world, but the Lord did say we can forsake and flee from temptations.
• Joseph did that while a slave in Potiphar’s house. He made a decision to stay pure and faithful to God.
• Dan 1:8 “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.”
Jesus expresses it in a strange way - He says the parts that sin, cut it off, and throw it away.
Matt 18:7-9 "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”
John Stott’s comments are helpful:
“The command to get rid of troublesome eyes, hands and feet is an example of our Lord’s use of dramatic figures of speech. What he was advocating was not a literal physical self-maiming, but a ruthless moral self-denial, to reject sinful practices so resolutely that we die to them or put them to death.
“What does this involve in practice?” asks Stott. “Let me elaborate and so interpret Jesus’ teaching: “If your eye causes you to sin because temptation comes to you through your eyes (objects you see), then pluck out your eyes. That is, don’t look! Behave as if you had actually plucked out your eyes and flung them away, and were blind and so could not see the objects which previously caused you to sin.
Again, if your hand or foot causes you to sin, because temptation comes to you through your hands (things you do) or your feet (places you visit), then cut them off. That is: don’t do it! Don’t go! Behave as if you had actually cut off your hands and feet, and had flung them away, and were now crippled and so could not do the things or visit the places which previously caused you to sin.’”
… John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, The Bible Speaks Today, p. 89.
Most of you are in such a susceptible age-group. You have to make an extra effort to keep yourself pure - in thoughts and behaviours.
• Every day we are bombarded with worldly thoughts. Sinful and lustful suggestions come to us constantly, almost unceasingly through the media, the tabloids, magazines, internet, and advertisements. You don’t have to look for them, they will look for you.
• Even the friends you hang out with. If they use dirty words or expresses filthy thoughts, and you hang out with them long enough, you will soon find yourself getting accustomed to these thoughts and worst still, blend in.
• No dirty words, no four-letter words. Don’t even use ‘shit’, damn or any curse words. Don’t let it have a chance to take root in the way you speak.
(4) Renew and Revive
Feed our minds with the truth of God. You cannot have an empty mind.
Matt 12:43-45 "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, `I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."
Fill our mind with God’s promise and truth, and the world’s trash would have no space in it.
• We cannot live in a vacuum. It’s not enough just to flee from temptations and avoid wrong influences, people and places.
• We must have the Word of God in our hearts and mind. To read and study the Word ensures little trash can be thrown into our minds.
And we have a Helper, the Holy Spirit. He is the Custom Officer, prompting us each time there is a threat to our safety.
• We must learn to live in the fullness of the control of the Holy Spirit - PRAY - who will fortify our minds and hearts and remind us of the words of Christ.
• Edmund Chan: “It is not the truth that changes lives; it is the truth APPLIED that changes lives.”
• We sin today not because of a lack of knowledge; we sin today because of a lack of power!
Conclusion:
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matt 5:8).
• And as kingdom people, we realize we are called to live a kingdom-of-God kind of life, and what God requires He enables.
• He gives us the will and the power to do his perfect will (Phil 2:13).
Let us look to Him. We can grow to be just like Jesus.
• Perhaps there are un-confessed sins in our lives today - thoughts, imaginations, or habits. Any wrong relationships with one another, whether in attitude or in inappropriate conduct, we confess to the Lord now.
• God is pleased if we are honest with Him. He will forgive us and will give us the strength to overcome.
