Introduction:
A. The story is told of a patient's family who gathered to hear what the doctor had to say about their dad’s prognosis.
1. The doctor said, “Things don't look good for your dad. The only chance he has is to have a brain transplant. This is an experimental procedure, and because it is experimental you will have to pay the cost out of pocket. Unfortunately, brains are very expensive.”
2. The patient’s daughter asked, “Well, how much does a brain cost?”
3. The doctor answered, “Well, for a male brain it is $500,000 and for a female brain, $200,000.”
4. The daughter’s husband nodded as if he understood and tried to hide his smirk.
5. The patient's daughter inquired, “Why the difference in price between male and female brains?”
6. The doctor replied, “It’s standard pricing practice. Women's brains have to be marked down because they have been used.”
7. Because I’m a man, I think I can get away with making us guys the brunt of that joke.
B. The truth of the matter is that the human brain is an amazing creation of God.
1. No matter whether we have high IQ or not so high IQ, our brain is an amazing machine and is always at work.
2. Each of us carry around a three-pound mass of wrinkly material in our head that controls every single thing we will ever do.
a. From enabling us to think, learn, create, and feel emotions to controlling every blink, every breath, and every heartbeat—this fantastic control center is our brain.
b. It is a structure so amazing that a famous scientist once called it “the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.”
3. Did you know that your brain has more information stored in it than the Library of Congress with all of its’ 17 million volumes?
4. As amazing as the modern computer is, it is still nothing compared with the human brain.
5. It is estimated that each person has about 10,000 thoughts a day.
C. So much about our brains is still a mystery to scientists and psychologists.
1. But one thing that is not a mystery about our brains is the way our brains influence our lives.
2. How we think and what we think makes all the difference in the world.
3. Our minds have the power to do great good or great evil.
4. Someone has said, “If you never learn to control your thoughts, you will never be able to control your life.” There is a lot of truth in that statement.
5. As you might expect, the Bible has a lot to say about the mind that I want us to consider today.
D. But before we talk more specifically about a “Wholly Devoted Mind,” let me say a few words of introduction about our new sermon series.
1. This summer I gave thought and prayer to what things we should address this Fall.
2. God put it on my heart that we should consider how we can each better live out the greatest commandment.
3. You will remember that when Jesus was asked, “Of all God’s commands, which is the greatest?” He replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
4. So I began to give thought to what it means to love God with all we are and have.
5. I have titled this series “Wholly Devoted – Serving God with All We Are and Have.”
E. So what does it mean to be “Wholly Devoted”?
1. The word “wholly” means: to the full or entire extent, completely; and to the exclusion of other things, solely, singularly.
2. The word “devoted” means: the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal.
3. So when we talk about learning to be “wholly devoted” to God, we want to be fully and completely dedicated and loyal to God.
4. But what does that mean and look like in everyday life?
5. What I hope to do in this series is break this amazing commitment “being wholly devoted to God” down into simple and practical components.
a. We will do this by allowing the parts of our body to represent ourselves and our lives.
b. We will give consideration to what it means to be wholly devoted to God in mind and heart.
c. We will wrestle with how to wholly devote our eyes and ears and tongues to God.
d. We will even get into how to wholly devote our hands, knees and feet to the Lord.
6. Will you join me in learning how to serve God with all we are and all we have?
F. Now that we have introduced the series, let’s return to a discussion about a wholly devoted mind.
I. The Importance of a Wholly Devoted Mind
A. So let’s begin by addressing the question of why it is important to have a wholly devoted mind.
1. As I said in the introduction, our brains are an amazing machine made by God.
a. Our brains have control over all that we do and say.
b. Therefore, what we think is basically what we are and what we become.
2. You have probably seen or heard this statement:
“Plant a thought, reap an action.
Plant an action, reap a habit.
Plant a habit, reap a character.
Plant a character, reap a destiny.”
3. But where does the destiny begin? It begins in the mind with our thoughts.
B. The Bible makes it very clear that there is a spiritual war is going on.
1. We constantly under attack from Satan, who is our enemy.
2. Guess where most of Satan’s attacks take place? In our minds.
3. The battle field is our brains.
4. Satan knows that if he can win the battle for our brains, then he will control our lives.
C. Here are some verses for consideration:
1. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul wrote: The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2. Later in the same letter, Paul wrote: But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Cor. 11:3)
3. In those two verses we see that Satan can have an effect on the minds of both believers and unbelievers.
a. Satan is able to work in people’s minds to blind them, deceive them, and lead them astray.
4. When Paul wrote about his own struggle with sin, he talked about the battle in his brain.
a. He wrote: 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:21-25)
b. All of us know that struggle – we want to do right, but we have another law at work in us that wages war in our mind.
c. Many times we lose the battle and give in to temptation and sin.
5. But it all starts in the mind, and that’s why it is so important to strive to have a wholly devoted mind.
a. The big question is: how can we develop a wholly devoted mind?
II. The Process of Developing a Wholly Devoted Mind
A. I chose the word “process” for this point, because having a wholly devoted mind is indeed a process.
1. It is not something that happens in an instant or overnight.
2. Although we all may start that process at different points or levels, we all start the process with a mind that is impure or less than devoted in one way or another.
B. The process begins with a decision and a commitment to have a mind wholly devoted to God.
1. We need to decide to offer our minds to God for His use.
2. We need to commit our minds to thinking the way God thinks.
3. We need to commit that our minds will be filled with only what God would want them to be filled with.
4. Our goal needs to be like Paul’s goal that he wrote about in 2 Cor. 10:5 - Paul wrote: 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.
5. So the process of having a wholly devoted mind begins with a decision and commitment to take every thought captive and make it obedient to God.
6. Have you made the decision and commitment that your mind would be wholly devoted to God?
7. I hope and pray that each of us have or will make that decision and commitment.
C. The process of developing a wholly devoted mind continues with the renewing of the mind.
1. Paul wrote about this process in Romans 12:1-2, which was our Scripture Reading today.
2. Paul wrote: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 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.
3. These two verses are packed with powerful spiritual truths.
a. Being wholly devoted to God is to be done in response to what God has done for us.
b. It is to be done in view of God’s mercy – where would we be without God’s grace?
c. In response to God’s mercy, we should offer our bodies and selves as living sacrifices.
d. Being wholly devoted to God is our ongoing spiritual act of worship.
4. Once Paul established why we should be wholly devoted, he then talked about how to do it.
a. Paul mentioned not conforming to the pattern of this world.
1. It is so easy to fall into the pattern of the world, isn’t it?
2. It is so easy to go along with the whim of our culture, right?
3. It is so easy to think and act like those around us in the world.
b. But as people who are trying to be wholly devoted to God, we must not conform to the pattern of the world.
c. Rather than conform, we must be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
D. How does the process of renewing the mind work?
1. The key to the process of renewing the mind is the Holy Spirit working in us and working through the Word of God.
2. The Bible says that “The Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword…” (Hebrews 4:12).
3. The Bible says that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
4. Filling our minds with the Word of God that is alive and active and useful is a key factor to renewing our minds.
5. For this reason, God gave a certain command over and over again in the OT: “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.” (Dt. 11:18)
6. The more we have the Word of God in our minds, the more we will be able to know God and understand His will and then be able to live in accordance with God’s will.
7. This is what Paul talked about in Romans 8:5, when he wrote: Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
a. Our minds must be set on what the Spirit desires, and what the Spirit desires is communicated in the Word of God.
8. A couple of my favorite Psalms about the Word of God are Psalm 1 and Psalm 119.
a. Psalm 1 says:
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers. (What a great promise is that!)
b. Psalm 119:11 says: I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
c. God’s Word that is planted in our minds produces abundant life and keeps us from sin.
E. Psychologists tell us that two simple rules govern the mind.
1. The rules are called The Law of Concentration and the Law of Substitution.
a. In the Law of Concentration, they tell us that whatever we dwell upon grows and becomes a part of us – that makes sense, doesn’t it?
b. In the Law of Substitution, they tell us that our conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time and so bad, unspiritual thoughts can be replaced with good, spiritual thoughts.
1. If I tell you that I want you to think about a monkey. Go ahead and think about a monkey.
2. Now what happens if I tell you to stop thinking about the monkey? You can’t stop thinking about the monkey by telling yourself to stop thinking about the monkey.
3. But what if rather than thinking about a monkey, I encourage you to think about a raccoon? It’s easier to stop thinking about the monkey if I think about a raccoon.
2. Think about these two laws in relation to renewing our minds using the Word of God.
a. The Word of God is something that we can concentrate on and it becomes a part of us.
b. The Word of God is something that we can use to substitute that which doesn’t belong.
3. That’s why the Bible doesn’t just tell us to stop thinking bad thoughts without telling us to think about good thoughts.
4. Paul wrote: Finally, 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. (Philippians 4:8)
5. When we concentrate on the good and holy, and substitute it for the bad and unholy, we experience the renewing of our mind.
F. Neil Anderson was raised on a Minnesota farm.
1. He was in the Navy, then became an aerospace engineer, and finally went into Christian ministry.
2. He founded Freedom in Christ Ministries to equip churches to enable recovery from addictions.
3. He shared the following about his experience with cleaning up his mind:
“When I was a young Christian, I decided to clean up my mind. I had had a good upbringing, for which I am thankful, and had become a Christian in my twenties. After four years in the Navy, however, my mind was polluted with a lot of junk. I had seen enough pornography aboard ship to plague me for years. Images would dance in my mind for months after one look. I hated it. I struggled every time I went to a place where pornography was available.
“When I made the decision to clean up my mind, do you think the battle got easier or harder? It got harder, of course. Temptation isn’t much of a battle if you easily give in to it. It is fierce when you decide to stand against it.
“Although you may despair, with all your steps backward, God won’t give up on you. Remember, your sins are already forgiven. This is a winnable battle, because you are alive in Christ and dead to sin, you can become all God has called you to be. The bigger war has already been won by Christ.
“As you set out to rid your mind of years of impure thoughts (and make it obedient to Christ), remember that merely trying to stop thinking bad thoughts won’t work. You must fill your mind with the crystal-clear Word of God. There is no alternative plan. We overcome the father of lies by choosing the truth!
“Picture your polluted mind as a pot filled to the brim with stale black coffee. It’s dark and smelly. There’s no way to get the pollution of coffee out of the liquid. However, sitting beside the coffeepot is a huge bowl of clear ice cubes.
“Your goal is to purify the contents of the pot by adding ice cubes to it every day. I wish there were a way to dump all the cubes (words of the Bible) in at one time, but there isn’t. Every cube dilutes the mixture, though, making it a little purer. Since you can only put in one or two cubes a day, the process seems futile at first. But over the course of time, the liquid begins to look less and less polluted, and the taste and smell of coffee decreases.
“The process will continue to work. But only if you don’t add more coffee grounds!”
Conclusion:
A. Will you join me as we continue to strive to be “Wholly Devoted to God”?
1. Can we begin today with a commitment to develop minds that are wholly devoted to God?
2. Will you join me in making a commitment to do the following:
a. First, to begin each day with a conscious surrendering of our lives to God – We might start with a simple prayer that says, “Dear Father, Today I recommit my life to serving You.”
b. Second, daily prayer and Bible reading are essential – these will require discipline and determination, because all sorts of things will demand our time, but we must make it a priority to spent time every day in God’s presence and in God’s Word.
c. Third, we must feed and fill our minds with only wholesome things. We must stop polluting our minds with thoughts and images that don’t belong. But we must not leave a void, because that which doesn’t belong must be replaced with something that does belong.
B. I want to end with a verse of Scripture from Romans 8:6.
1. Earlier, we looked at Romans 8:5 that said that those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
2. The next verse continues the thought with a promise: The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace…”
3. That’s what we all want, right – life and peace – and we receive them and experience them by having a mind controlled by the Spirit…a mind wholly devoted to God.
Resources:
“Revival of the Mind,” Sermon by Brad Beaman, SermonCentral.com
“The Power of the Mind,” Sermon by Steve Shepherd, SermonCentral.com
“In My Right Mind?,” Sermon by Alan McCann, SermonCentral.com
