Introduction:
A. As you know, we are in a series that I am calling Extreme Makeover – God Edition, and we are addressing the question: is real, profound life-change is possible?
1. Can we stop being the way we have always been, and become people of more noble character?
2. Can we be freed from some of the destructive patterns we have fought all our lives, and be the people we really want to be?
3. The answer to those questions is an emphatic and faith-filled “YES”!
B. So far, in our series we have emphasized the following things.
1. We have discovered and declared that through the power of God our lives can be changed.
2. We have seen that God is ready and willing to help us – God will provide the way, but we must provide the will.
3. No change is possible unless we really want to change.
4. Today we are going to talk about the power and place of the mind in the process of change.
I. The Power of the Mind
A. The truth we want to explore today is this: For change to take place we have to decide to “think for a change.”
1. Somebody has probably told you that at least once in your life. “Why don’t you think for a change!” (My mother used to say that to me a lot!)
2. Well, “thinking for a change” is a very biblical idea.
3. Because the center of all spiritual bondage is the mind, then the key to transformation is also the mind.
4. We have to change how we think, before we can change how we live.
5. One comedian used to say “I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, but then I thought: What good would that do?” (Ronnie Shakes)
6. Sadly, that’s the kind of stinkin’ thinkin’ that we need to overcome.
B. Dennis Waitley wrote an interesting book called Empires of The Mind – Lessons to Lead and Succeed In a Knowledge-Based World (1995).
1. He tells interesting stories about how the power of the mind either liberates or imprisons people
2. One of those interesting stories is about a man named Nick Sitzman who worked in a railroad yard.
3. Nick was a competent worker, but had a very negative attitude. He was known as a pessimist.
4. One day, everyone got off an hour early to celebrate the birthday of a foreman.
5. Just before Nick left to go to the party, he went in a refrigerated car that was in the yard for repair and accidentally locked himself in the boxcar.
6. He began to shout for help, but by then everyone else was gone.
7. He began to panic and pounded on the door so hard that his hands became bloody.
8. What Nick feared was that if he stayed in that car all night he would freeze to death.
9. He began to get cold and began to shiver.
10. He figured that the temperature in the boxcar was 5 to 10 F at best.
11. As he realized that no one would be rescuing him, he found a pen in his pocket and an old piece of cardboard on the floor and wrote this note: “It is getting cold. My body is numb. If I don’t get out of here soon these will probably be my last words.” And they were.
12. The next day when the crew came to work they found Nick’s dead body in the boxcar.
13. The autopsy revealed that Nick had died of hypothermia.
14. But here’s the shocking fact: the reason that the boxcar was in the yard for repair was that the refrigeration unit was broken.
15. The temperature in the boxcar that night was only 61 degrees.
16. Nick froze to death because he convinced himself he was freezing to death – in that sense, he worried himself to death.
17. He expected to die and was convinced he had no chance.
18. He lost the battle in his own mind, and so he lost his life.
19. I did some research to verify the truthfulness of the story, and could not find anything definitive.
20. Can a person really think themselves to death? I believe the mind is that powerful!
C. In order to change, to be set free, to become who we are meant to be, we must win the battle of the mind
1. Romans 8:5-6 reads, “Those who live according to their 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. The mind of the sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.”
2. If our sinful nature controls our mind, then there is death. But if we allow the Holy Spirit to control our mind, then there is life and peace.
3. Behind every self-defeating behavior is a lie that the person believes. It took a long time for me to understand that.
4. For a long time I thought that if someone was doing something they ought not do, then all I needed to do was to show them that God wanted them to stop, and that would be that!
5. I didn’t realize that behind the behavior was a way of thinking that was motivating the behavior, and that that way of thinking had to be identified and crucified.
D. These wrong ways of thinking are planted and propagated by Satan, the father of lies.
1. Satan does most of his work through deception, because if we knew it was he who was planting these thoughts, we would have nothing to do with them.
2. One person said it this way, “Has it ever crossed your mind that every thought that crosses your mind is not your own?”
3. Our spiritual battle is won or lost in the mind, because that is where Satan operates.
4. This is why when the apostle Paul discussed the devil and his work, he focused on the mind.
5. For instance, 2 Cor. 4:4 reads, “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.”
6. 2 Cor. 11:3, “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.”
7. 2 Cor. 2:11, “In order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.”
E. Satan knows that a deceptive thought, planted in a mind, can soon become a mindset and a mindset can be the underlying source for bondage producing behavior.
1. That’s why Scripture gives many warnings about taking control of our minds.
2. Like Prov. 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (The mind and the heart are used interchangeably in Scripture)
3. 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 tear down 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.”
II. Reprograming the Mind
A. So, we need spiritual weapons to be able to tear down strongholds, demolish arguments, and take every thought captive.
1. What is a stronghold? A stronghold is an entrenched pattern of thought contrary to the truth of God that produces some kind of bondage.
2. All of us at one time or another have been in bondage to some erroneous way of thinking.
3. We all have at times operated under a system of lies planted by the devil.
4. Obviously, we didn’t realize that they were deceptions. None of us wake up in the morning and say, “Today I’m going to live according to lies.”
B. This explains why some of us stay in destructive behaviors that make no sense.
1. Why does an adult stick a needle in his or her arm? It’s not because they have been uneducated about the dangers of drug use.
2. Why does a young single person continue to be sexually promiscuous even though they know the danger of sexually transmitted disease?
3. Well, when a person has been raised in our country and taught from the first grade that they are just a complex germ, a cosmological accident, nothing more than highly developed pond scum, then what does it matter if your meaningless existence lasts a few more years or not.
4. See, the behaviors won’t change unless there is a change in the mind.
5. As I said in a previous lesson, “You can lecture the workaholic about not working so much, but if their mindset is: Your net-worth determines your self-worth. Nothing will change.”
6. Many of us in our spiritual journey have traveled along with a burden of guilt brought on by a system of thought called “legalism.”
7. A lot of us have lived with a mindset that said: If you don’t do enough good things, and if you don’t have all your doctrines in a row and do everything right, then you are in big trouble with God.
8. What that mindset produces is either guilt (because you don’t think you will ever be good enough) or pride (because you do think you are good enough).
9. Many of us grew up with and live lives with recordings going on in our heads saying, “You are bad, you are ugly, you are worthless and unlovable.”
10. We can be baptized and put forth all kinds of efforts to change, but if we don’t erase those tapes and record some new ones, then we will be in bondage to those strongholds.
C. Those strongholds of the mind cannot be overcome by secular psychobabble on afternoon TV.
1. Nor can we tell people to just stop thinking and behaving that way.
2. No, these strongholds must be addressed with spiritual weapons that demolish and take captive these ungodly thought systems.
3. Paul wrote to the Ephesians saying, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God…” (Eph. 4:22-24)
4. Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (Jn. 8:31-32)
5. Paul wrote to the Romans, “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.” (Rom. 12:2)
6. Strongholds of the mind can be removed and the mind can be renewed.
7. The truth of God can erase and replace the garbage and lies that held us captive.
8. And once set free from those strongholds, we can move above and beyond where we have been.
D. Sports Illustrated said that the two greatest sporting events of the 20th century were the climbing of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hilary, and the breaking of the 4 minute mile by Roger Bannister.
1. Let’s talk about Bannister’s accomplishment.
2. Bannister was a British medical student and a determined runner.
3. For years men had tried to run a sub 4 minute mile, but had been unsuccessful.
4. Many had decided that it just was not possible for humans to be able to run that fast. Bannister did not think that way.
5. On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes 59 seconds.
6. Here’s the really amazing statistic, once Banister broke that barrier, 336 men did the same over the next 10 years.
7. See, it hadn’t really been a limitation of the body that kept man from running a sub 4 minute mile, it had been a limitation of the mind.
E. So, how is the mind renewed and reprogramed?
1. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the Word of God.
2. We must first believe in Jesus and then we must learn to believe like Jesus.
3. We must trust completely in the truths of God’s Word.
4. We can develop the very mind of Christ. We can learn to believe and think like Christ.
III. Preparing the Mind
A. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:13, “Therefore, prepare your mind for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
1. We can prepare our minds by observing the law of concentration and the law of substitution.
2. The law of concentration says that whatever we dwell on grows in our life experience and becomes a part of us.
3. The law of substitution says that our conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time and that we can substitute a God ordained truth for a destructive deception of Satan.
4. To the Colossians Paul wrote, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set you minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and you life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (3:1-3)
5. To the Philippians 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.” (4:8)
6. Can you see how those verses employ the law of concentration and the law of substitution?
B. We have a part to play in this spiritual war of the mind and our victory in it.
1. God has provided spiritual weapons, but we have to use them.
2. Renewing our mind and preparing it for battle is an on-going effort.
3. We must daily die to self and keep our mind in subjection to God’s Word.
4. We must identify our wrong thinking patterns and replace them with God’s truths.
5. Trying not to think about something just doesn’t work. If I tell you to stop thinking about the pink elephant and you keep telling yourself to stop thinking about the pink elephant, then guess what you will be thinking about? Right…the pink elephant.
6. But if I tell you to start thinking about the green turtle and you tell yourself to think about the green turtle, then you will be able to stop thinking about the pink elephant.
7. Neil Anderson wrote, “As you set 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.”
C. Let’s employ an illustration - picture your polluted mind as a pot of stale black coffee.
1. The coffee liquid is dark and has a strong coffee odor.
2. How can we purify the contents of the coffee pot and end up with pure water?
3. Just like with our brains, we can’t just pour out the contents and start over.
4. Sitting beside the coffeepot is a huge bowl of clear, pure ice cubes.
5. Our goal and method will be to purify the contents of the pot by adding ice cubes to it every day.
6. I wish there were a way to dump out the coffee and put all the cubes in at one time, but there isn’t.
7. Nevertheless, every cube dilutes the mixture, making it a little purer.
8. Since we can only put in one or two cubes a day, the process seems futile at first.
9. But over the course of time, the liquid begins to look less and less polluted, and the taste and smell of coffee decreases.
10. This process will continue to work, but only if we don’t add more coffee.
11. I know that this is not a perfect illustration, but I think it is a helpful one.
12. By no longer adding evil or false thoughts in our minds, and by replacing them with pure and truthful thoughts, we will renew our minds and end up having a spiritual mind.
Conclusion:
A. Arnold Palmer, a well-known, retired golfer who has won many tournaments and received many awards, has only one trophy and one plaque in his office.
1. The trophy is the first he ever won as a professional, and the plaque has these words on it:
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win, but think you can’t, it’s almost certain you won’t.
Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger woman or man,
But sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
2. A key verse for us must be Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”
3. That verse is no empty promise. It isn’t just positive thinking. It is the truth!
B. Some of us came here this morning with issues plaguing our minds.
1. We came here thinking that our lives can never be different.
2. I hope that God will help us to change our mind.
3. God wants us to learn to think for a change.
4. Are we willing to change our minds?
5. Are we willing to develop the mind of Christ.
6. With God’s help we can have a spiritual mind and be free to live a spiritual life.
7. Through Christ we can do all things!
C. A.C. Green, former NBA star and strong Christian who proudly maintained his virginity until marriage, once wrote, “How can we win the spiritual battle? As a kid, when I was afraid of some bully, I yelled to my brothers, ‘Lee, Steve, come help me fight a bully.’ They would come and say, ‘where is he, Junior?’ I pointed the way while I trotted along behind, thinking, ‘Yeah, this is going to be good.’”
1. Brothers and sisters, there is a bully out there who is “beating up on us.”
2. Our best defense is to call on our big brother, the Lord Jesus.
3. In Him we are more than conquerors!
4. We can do all things through Christ.
5. That’s the way we can think for a change.
6. That’s the way we can have a spiritual mind.
Resources:
My original sermon series in 2006 was based on a sermon series by Rick Atchley.
