Mind Games
Ephesians 4:17-24
Three storms in seven years. I don’t know about you but after Katrina I was hoping for another 40 year span of no storms like we had between Betsy and Katrina. As Isaac was bearing down on the city, it was dredging up all kinds of bad feelings and memories from August 29, 2005. And after Isaac made landfall and we had assessed the damage, we totaled more than $250,000 of damage and months of rebuilding. But here’s the thing: you have a choice how you respond. You can let it get you down or you can choose to look forward and upward. You can look at it as a problem or as an opportunity. Our lives are determined more by our thoughts than they are our circumstances. That's why it says in the Bible, "As a person thinks within themselves, so they are." That’s why the battlefield for your mind is really so strategic and critical because your mind is the door to your heart that influences your character. It all begins in the mind. Whatever has your mind, has you. Your mind is the door to your heart which is the center of your character.
There are all kinds of scientific studies out there that have found the impact of a positive attitude. It results in faster recovery from surgery, a quicker recovery from burns. Your attitude even affects our immune system. Science has discovered that our attitude gives resistance to certain kind of cancers. The Bible backs this up when we see people ask Jesus to heal them and he in turn would ask about their expectations. He said, "Do you believe I can do this?" You receive what you believe. Then Jesus responded by saying, "Let it be to you according to your faith." This is the power of the mind and faith and why your mind is such a powerful battlefield because what you believe, you receive. What you think, you become. Our thoughts become the behaviors that become our life patterns. So whoever or whatever gets your mind, gets you. This is why the media and commercial advertising thrives on shaping your ideas, values and attitudes to influence your behavior. If you want an example see how South Korean men have begun to wear makeup as a sign of success. South Korean men spent $495.5 million on skincare last year, accounting for nearly 21 percent of global sales. One of the primary reasons is that men are barraged daily with messages in popular media featuring a group of exceptionally good-looking, smooth-skinned, fashionable sports stars and celebrities suggesting that flawless skin is a crucial part of any plan to get ahead at work and romance. Men wearing makeup to get ahead in their careers! Need I say any more. So you can see how important this battle for our mind really is. Whatever or whoever has your mind, has you. So in the battle for your mind, your values, your beliefs and morals - whatever has your mind, your thinking, has you.
We have lost spiritual sensitivity. In our Scripture today, Paul says in Eph 4:19 “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity…” In other words, we have lost the ability to experience the presence, purpose and will or voice of God in your life. I didn't say believe in God. When you lose spiritual sensitivity, you don't experience burning bushes. All you see are shrubs. When you lose spiritual sensitivity, you fail to see the hand of God active in the world and hear the voice of God for your life. You also fail to receive the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It’s this spiritual side of life that many have such great difficulty accepting in the United State and Europe? Why? We have been raised with a rationalistic worldview that relies on science and only things you can prove with it and rejects any spiritual interpretation of life. What this causes us to do is deny and negate the spiritual side of life and any revelation from God. And that begins to determine everything else in life.
There are three people who have primarily influenced your worldview and they are: Charles Darwin and science; Sigmund Freud and psychology; and Karl Marx and politics. Darwin's theory of evolution is based on random selection. Darwin said that all of this is by accident. And what is a theory which has yet to be proven is taught as fact in our schools. It is illegal to teach in most of our public school systems creationism or intelligent design which says God is the cause and the source of all things created. So Darwin is the first influence that everything is an accident. Second is Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. What Freud has done in psychology is that he has reduced human psyche to this closed mechanical view that we are biological beings that have been impacted by the environment of our childhood and our internal impulse. We are nothing more than matter and how that matter responds to the environment in which we were raised. Third is Karl Marx and secular politic. Marx was the first person that came up with a secular politic which means a government without God. America's politic is a secular and is becoming even moreso. The separation of Church and State was meant to protect the Church and faith from the government. That has been distorted now to protect the government from anything spiritual and revelatory. It is a politic without God, like when the Democrats at their convention voted to not mention God in their party or platform.
We have been raised and immersed in this system that has rejected a spiritual interpretation of life. It is a humanistic system that says human beings are nothing more than matter and we have to depend upon ourselves to determine our own values and meaning. This was exactly the strategy that the serpent used with Eve. The serpent said to Eve, "You can't trust this God stuff. You have to depend upon yourself, Eve, to determine your own moral destiny."
George Barna recently surveyed 1.2 million people and 77% of non-Christians said there is no absolute standard for morals and ethics. It's not surprising - non-Christians. What blows me away is how their mind games have affected believers because 64% of Christians agreed that morality is relative. Do you see how this has impacted our minds? The Bible says, in James, that this is double-minded thinking and that double-minded people will never experience anything from God because they are living with two contradictory beliefs. It is not that you can't be religious. The church is filled with religious people who believe in God going through the motions of faith. But faith isn’t about religion, it’s about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and so they have lost spiritual sensitivity. The Bible says that is a form of Godliness without power. What is happening, why so many of us get bored with God and they see faith as powerless is that this distorted thinking has neutralized our faith and it nullifies God’s work and revelation in our life. It keeps God’s miracles from happening in our life. Some people say that if God would just answer this prayer or do this miracle in my life, I would believe. The problem is that because of their thinking, they don’t have the spiritual sensitivity to see and hear God in their life even when he does act! Most Christians do not experience the daily supernatural power of God in their life. Not only has this thinking neutralized faith and miracles in our life and blinded God's presence and purpose, it's made us insensitive or blinded us to the needs of others and God’s prompting to serve.
When we lose spiritual sensitivity, we begin to seek life and meaning in material sensuality. "Let's party hardy" or "I'm going to Disney World." When we’re unhappy, we often turn to other things. We turn to the freezer for ice cream when we don't really need ice cream. We turn to cars or clothing. Some of us turn to drugs or alcohol. And where it really becomes blasphemous is when we use God for the pursuit of an earthly end like prosperity or success rather than be used by God for his eternal purpose. The problem is that all of those things are just a fix and never really provide meaning and purpose.
The solution? You must be born again. But here’s the Good News: we don't have to live as a victim of these mind games! For "We have been made new in the attitudes of our minds." We don't have to be controlled by sin or stinking thinking. We must be born again. Religion is not enough. Going through the motions is not enough. You must be invaded by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Bible says that when we are born again, we have the mind of Christ. In that same passage, it says that the spiritual person can make judgments about all things. That means we can have Jesus' perspective on every situation. We can possess the wisdom of Jesus but here's what we have to do because evil is still going to tap dance on our head. We have to take captive every thought that crosses our mind and make it captive to the Lord Jesus Christ. Any thought outside of the will of God is not acceptable.
In Philippians 3:13, the Bible gives us some very practical action steps. Here is the first one: let go of the past. Jesus said something on the cross. This is the most important words you will ever hear: "It is finished." Not only was his work of salvation finished but it also means, I am no longer defined or controlled by my past. But here’s the thing: something that is finished can still rule you, even though it is done. A couple of years ago, I went to my 25th high school reunion. Man, had those people gotten old! Let me tell you I am not who I was. You know what I mean? What was interesting was I saw a lot of the same old attitudes and interactions from high school starting to surface over the course of the weekend. And I felt some of the same insecurities that we all deal with in high school start to creep back in. But that's not who I am. I am crucified in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been raised to a new life and my past no longer defines me or controls me. The same is true for you too. You have been raised to a new life and your past no longer defines you or controls you. We have to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Jesus Christ. Your may hear things like, "I've never been worthy." No! It's finished! You have been crucified, dead, buried, raised to a new life; your past no longer defines you or controls you. Or "I have never been confident." Or “I am a nobody" No! You are a new creation in Christ of infinite value and one whom God cherishes. That’s who and what now defines you. We must take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.
Here is the second action step right in Philippians: picture the goal. "Straining forward to what is ahead." If you’ve got a problem or a burden or something that has plagued you and you can't see past the frustration of the present moment. What you need to do is picture the goal of who God says you are and who He wants you to become. Claim God's future! Proclaim that future and hope; and speak the things that are not, as if they were. You've got to look past the frustration of the present moment to the promise of God and claim God's future for your life in Him. Proclaim that future and hope and speak the things that are not as if they were.
The third action step is that you've got to depend upon God. Jesus himself realized that he couldn't go against evil in his own power. Did you know that? If Jesus realized that, how can we take it so lightly? He said, "The Son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the Father doing through him." We've got to get past these little religious sayings we have like - I can't, but God can - and really come to that place to realize that there is a force of evil that wants to have you for lunch and to convince you it is not there. We need to get serious in our commitment of God who can. I promise you when you do, that God, who has called you, is faithful and he is going to bring that work to completion in your life.
Pastor Philip W. McLarty tells the story of consulting with First Presbyterian Church, Texarkana, TX in the searched for a new pastor. At his first meeting one of the items on the agenda was to welcome their new elders-elect. That church had a long-standing tradition of asking each of the newly- elected elders to share their faith journey. One, he said, I'll never forget. A farmer-rancher talked about a living through a long drought in the 80s. With tears in his eyes, he talked about how helpless he felt watching his crops burn up in the heat of the sun. His stock tanks dried up, and he worked day and night hauling water just trying to keep his cattle alive. He stood to lose everything he'd worked for over the years. He said he finally collapsed in his chair one night and prayed, "Lord, I just can't do any more. If we're going to make it, it's going to have to be up to you." In that moment, he felt a peace come over him, as if the Lord were telling him, "Relax. I've got everything under control. Trust me." He said it was an experience that forever changed his life. Well, it didn't rain the next day, or the next. But, eventually, it did and life went on, in time, better than before. And the he writes, “When you reach the limit of your own strength and ability and have nowhere else to turn, it's then that you're most likely to experience the true power of God's grace and love. This is the essence….– not trying to do more to please God, but letting go of your independence and trusting God to…provide. Amen and Amen.
I am going to do a directive prayer with you. Right now, in your own words, in your own way, I want you to let go of the past - whatever that is. Jesus said, "It is finished" but you can still let something from your past rule you even though it no longer has power over you. Whatever that negative thing is in your life that is less than the perfect will of God, it is a leftover stronghold of your past. Let it go right now. In the name of Jesus, that is not who I am. I have been crucified with Christ. Raised to a new life and my past no longer defines me or controls me.
Now I want you to picture who God wants you to be. I press forward to the goal for which I am not there yet, but I press forward to the goal for which Christ has called me. I want you to picture yourself as the husband you want to be, the dad you want to be, the wife you want to be, the mother you want to be. A powerful Christian presence in the world. A dad or a mom who is so contagious in their faith that your children are going to follow you as radical disciples of Jesus Christ. A person who refuses to compromise truth. A person who's successful in all of God's endeavors. An over comer. Now, yield fully to God.
"Father God, compromise in any area of my life is totally unacceptable. Possess every part of my being, even dark places that I am unaware of and through Your Holy Spirit give me the power and the courage to take every thought captive, every thought that is not of You, negativity, procrastination, lust - anything that is not of You, to make it captive of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen."
