“WHAT IS YOUR MINDSET”
Romans 8: 5-8 (p 800) January 20, 2013
INTRODUCTION:
I started thinking about this sermon when I was at lunch Monday…and I couldn’t wait to get back to the office and ask some of the staff this question….Ready…”Who controls your thoughts?”
Now we have a great mixture of youth and age…energy, zeal and wisdom in our staff…some said, God does, or the Devil does.” Others answered, “I do, but sometimes I don’t have complete control of the thoughts that enter my head.”
I also had the comment made that “People sometimes influence how I think and the thoughts I have.”
I knew exactly what they mean….”After contact with certain people...or people with certain attitudes I have thoughts…some of them not great…and if I let those thoughts run recklessly on their own like the rabbit down the hole…I feel…”angry, frustrated, guilty, hurt…or usually a combination of those emotions…
I also firmly believe Satan can influence our thoughts…whether its lust or hatred or self-loathing, or worry….He can influence our thoughts and does so on a daily….maybe hourly basis.
The temptation to sin…to choose that selfish way ( to feed the wolf the Twinkie) always begins as James says…”Each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full grown, gives birth to sin”. (James 1: 14, 15)
Temptation isn’t a sin…”Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, but never sinned.) (Heb 4:15)
But sin always begins with temptation…and that temptation begins in our thoughts, in our mind.
Here’s an important question…
I WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUR MINDS ARE CONTROLLED BY OUR SINFUL NATURE?
God’s word says in our text: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires.”
[My father-in-law, Ken has this metal detector that’s really cool…I mean its high tech and expensive…you can set it to identify the metal you want to find…you can get really specific with it…He’s found gold chains and coins because he can ignore all the beer bottle caps]
The human heart…because of Adam & Eve’s fall in the garden is set on “Sin”…my natural desire because of my disobedient grandparents is…Seek the things that make me happy…that feel good, that I want…my thoughts work that way…I can begin to formulate a plan and a scheme…and the beeper starts going off stronger and stronger the closer I get to what I passionately desire…
Yes I might know the law…yes I might know what’s right and what’s wrong…but my nature says “forget that…do what you want…” One of the most popular songs in our culture today says “f—you” that’s really its title…and the theme is…. I’m here for me….F-you. If you can’t see that (Cee-lo Green)
For the individual who has not been set free from the law of Sin and death by the Spirit of Life sin is the driving force for your decision making…selfishness is the filter for your direction…and it leads to one destination…Death
“The mind of Sinful man is death”
Listen…”The sinful mind is hostel to God…It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Here is one of the most damning sentences in the Bible…”THOSE CONTROLLED BY THE SINFUL NATURE CANNOT PLEASE GOD”
The two words that Jump out at me are in verse 5 “Minds Set”
For any of you that have ever worked in concrete…or ladies if you’ve glued something and you’ve waited for it to dry…you get what Paul is trying to communicate in the creek…”Minds Set….Phroneo”
Like concrete or set glue…someone who lives according to the sinful nature has a thoroughly hardened, predicted set way of thinking…Sin is approached, accepted and persuaded in the same pattern of thinking over and over and over again…[It’s easy for the truck tires to fall into the rut they’ve made in the road over time.]
Do circumstances influence my thinking…absolutely!!!? Do people influence my thinking…you bet ya!!!...Are we prone to let our thoughts run down the dark rabbit hole when we’re depressed, stressed, or grieving…yes we are...it’s our nature.
Here is the radical difference for those who are living there lives according to the spirit and not according to that nature….
II WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUR MINDS ARE CONTROLLED BY GOD’S SPIRIT?
“The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” Our thoughts can clearly be influenced by Satan…temptations, dark thoughts, hatred, evil movies, greed, coveting,…lies…and on and on and on…
That’s true whether you are a Christian or not. My definition of a Christian is someone who has been born again through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit…It’s a person, male or female who has surrendered themselves to Jesus, repented, confessed his lordship, been buried with him in baptism and risen to walk in newness of life through the gift of the “spirit of life” referred to in verse 2. God’s Spirit.
I’m gonna cheat a little bit and borrow from a sermon planned for Feb. 3 (you’ll forget what I’ve said by then anyways) Romans 8:13 says, “for if you live by the sinful nature you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live!!!.
I might not be able to control every thought and every temptation that comes into my mind. Satan, the schemer will use circumstances and people to “prime that pump”.
But since I am a born again, Spirit filled Christian I can put those thoughts and temptation to death…I can allow God’s Spirit to kill sins before it kills me…Will it be easy…no surrender never is!!...Denying myself…taking up the cross or not, and never will be easy…this side of heaven Heb 4:12 tells the Spirit filled person…”That God’s word judges the thoughts and attitudes of our minds.” (In fact God’s truth does this whether you are spirit filled or not)
God’s Word is the fetter of truth, not my thoughts, not my feelings, not my attitudes…even if we’re Christians…It’s His Word that is truth…and depositing it in our hearts can keep us from sinning…It won’t keep us from being tempted…but it can keep us from following that temptation.
I love the New American Standard version of scripture and it translates Prov. 23:7 this way…
“As a person thinks within himself, so he is...”
What I think plays an important role in forming my character, my personality, and my behavior.
Some individuals are locked into wrong habits of living and their thought processes are a big big part of the problem.
“Hey, Rick I can’t help thinking this way…I can’t help feeling this way…I know it’s wrong but those thoughts just keep coming back into my mind.”
Sure, it’s our nature isn’t it…it’s everyone’s nature…it’s easy to get our minds set that way…I know 80 year olds that have had the same thought process for 65 years…instead of allowing the Holy Spirit…to drive the car…the natural way of thinking has grabbed the wheel over and over and over…again. It’s easy…and simple for this to happen…but is also deadly…and robs you of joy, peace, and life.
Maybe these of us who say we are born again…spirit filled Christians should start realizing we’re at war…and the first shots of each battle are fired in our minds.
2 Cor 10: 3- 5 says 2 Cor 10: 3-5 (p821)
“For though we live in the world we do not wage work as the world does.”
Our weapons are different…they are heart and mind weapons…they are Spirit of life influenced weapons…it’s why we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
[Here’s a really simple example…suppose you’re at the Post office, you’re in a hurry and the person in front of you can’t find the letter they want to mail…and you think “what an idiot!!!”…you can let that thought run wild, free, unabandoned…and may do…or you can throw the captive not of God’s Spirit over that thought and take it captive…”I don’t know that guy, maybe he’s had a frustrating day also…and you pray for him and you.]
You see I believe real Spirit living and the putting to death of sin is much more like that than about what your worship is like on Sunday.
Truly…let me ask you who call yourselves followers of Christ…How much of your thinking is self controlled?...How much is Christ controlled?...And how much are you engaged in taking the self-controlled thought captive for the glory of God?
And if you haven’t ever accepted Christ’s Lordship over your life…surrendered and comitted yourself over to him, please realize “those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”
[It would be like trying to have a relationship after a divorce when either the child, or more likely the parent…never calls, never spends time with, never really hugs, loves, kisses or contacts the other, except for every now and then…a card, 5 dollars in the mail, or 1 visit (maybe 2 a year) and even then you know the contact is more about guilt than it is about love…
We have each divorced ourselves from God…we broke the relationship because of Sin….and because of that sin we are hostile to our heavenly father…but many believe in God…have a remembrance about him being their father as a child…so on Christmas and Easter they grow up, when a disaster hits they call him up for help and advice. But there’s really no submission, surrender, reconciliation…It’s a guilt centered relationship…every day they are still controlled by their own wants and desires…Dad’s not really in the picture.
But Man He wants to be… He doesn’t just want to come to visit…He wants to live in your house, guide you in a healthy way of living, Love you as a Son or daughter, and give you His inheritance of eternity..
When that happens…His spirit sets our minds on what please Him most…His Spirit signs the adoption papers…His Spirit makes us shout our “Abba Father” “Dad” “I’m Home”
