Guard Your Minds
Introduction: In Dr. David Jeremiah's sermon series “I never thought I would see the day” He depicts a Christian alternative to the popular AMC television series 'Mad Men' from the 1950's. In the last episode we see the ad agency 'Wyndam and Ridgestone' promoting a series of campaign ads designed to change the culture for their latest client, who unbeknownst to them is the devil. Although the agency believes it is a waste of time to try to change the culture they are getting paid well, so they do their best. They ask their client if he likes the campaigns so far and he replies “if this last campaign can convince people to give me control of their minds, I'll be very happy.” They quickly laugh it off, thinking he is joking and a young sharp executive stands up to give his pitch saying “If it is mind over matter, then it is the heart over what matters” A woman steps in and adds “Step beyond what others think possible and indulge in what is permissible.” another consultant says “Time does not stand still, your life is slipping away.” and the final pitch is given when the same executive that began the sales pitch re emerges to say “You'll never know what your missing until you just let go and follow your heart.”
The devil sits silent until the CEO says “Sir, do you have nothing to say?” to which the devil says “There will be a day when everything I wished for will come true, most of you will not be alive to see it happen, but your children and grandchildren will. I guarantee it, I promise you this culture will change to accept my plan, and where will it all start? In the mind. And once I have their minds, I will have their souls.”
The question I have for you is “Who or what are you allowing to shape your mind?” We read from the King James: Proverbs 23:7 “So as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..” If who you are is based primarily on what you think in your hearts then it is vitally important that you Guard Your Minds.
Transition: In this evil age when all kinds of wicked things are assaulting your Christian minds, I want to show you the resources you have to guard your minds and the ramparts that you must build in order to guard your minds, but first let's understand the reason for guarding your mind.
The Reason for guarding your Mind
God, Your flesh and the Devil, all three are at war for your mind. Let me first explain that there is a difference between your mind and your brain. The mind is what thinks, and the brain is what you think with, for example, A piano needs someone to play it. Without someone to play it, the piano won't play. But on the other hand, without a piano, the pianist has no instrument to play. Without a mind the brain can't think and without a brain the mind has nothing to think with.
Whatever a piano player wants to play depends upon their desire, if the pianist wants play praise and worship or classical, jazz or something else.. it all depends upon the heart of the pianist on what the piano plays. The mind controls what the brain thinks. The enemy knows this, and he finds it very useful to him if to corrupt the power behind the brain . . . That is the Mind. And this is where the battlefield is set. The reason for guarding your mind is simple. There is a war for your mind.
The term 'Psyops' is a military term that means Psychological Operations used in 'Psywar' which is another military term that means psychological warfare. According to Wickepedia it is a term used to denote any action which is practiced mainly by psychological methods with the aim of provoking a planned psychological reaction in people. The goal is to, not only, change your opinion, but your whole attitude to whatever or whoever is behind the psychological operation. I believe the devil is using a strategic psychological warfare through many mediums like music, magazines, television and internet to influence your mind.
There is a real struggle that goes on in the mind. No one in the world has a pure mind. The apostle Paul said:
“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.” Romans 7:23
We not only have to war against an outward enemy but there is also an inner enemy, a sort of civil war going on in our mind. Sin is fighting and wrestling against grace and the flesh is perpetually warring against the spirit. It is a constant struggle! So those who are struggling with terrible thoughts and its your deepest desire that if you could you would throw them to hell yourself and be done with the torment, I want you to take peace in the fact that you are fighting the good fight of faith. If you hate wickedness and your desire is to be away from sin it is a sign of your salvation. Because the holy spirit doesn't want to have anything to do with sin. In fact, if there are any who do not struggle or wrestle with such thoughts I would have to question if they were born again. The new desire to be holy is always attacked by the desire to Not be holy. David Jeremiah said “We do not drift toward holiness, we drift away.” Absolutely. There is a war in our minds, and the world is always pulling thoughts away from God.
We are strangers in a strange land and our minds should be about our father's business, so when the fiery darts of blasphemy, debauchery, immorality, begin flying at our minds we don't let it take root in our minds, when we allow thoughts to hang around longer than they should, like a weed it grows fast and begins to take over the whole garden. If we allow corrupting thoughts to stay in our mind too long those thoughts begin to turn into imaginations and then those imaginations begin to grow into fascinations that then grow into desires that then grows into an obsession. If thoughts of anger or jealousy stay any longer than just fleeting in the mind you begin to imagine scenarios of getting revenge, or if the arrow of pride penetrates your mind and you think too long on it, you begin to imagine yourself being lifted up in the esteem of others and praised, or if you entertain lustful thoughts it could lead to bigger problems. Did you know that a recent statistic shows that 55% of married Christian men look at pornography at least once a month! Let me say that Pornography is NOT a temptation – IT IS A SIN! Jesus said “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The desire to sin is the same in Gods eyes as the sin itself. These desires can be formed by the thoughts that we allow in our minds.
Transition: So you can clearly see because of this war for our minds there is good reason for guarding our minds, secondly it is not impossible to guard your mind, in fact, God gives you .. the resources for guarding your mind.
The Resources for guarding your Mind
“for though we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:3,4 The King James says “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal . .”
Paul mentions the helmet of salvation in I Thessalonians “. . . and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” I Th. 5:8 This helmet is made up of the hope that you are already saved and have eternal security and no matter what thought you may suffer it is received with the understanding that by the blood of Jesus you are saved. That wonderful hope has extinguished many fears
We are given weapons to fight this fight, but the weapons that we are given are not seen. Although Christ sent his disciples out unarmed physically, he did not send them out, without weapons. His kingdom is not of this world so neither are His weapons – they are spiritual. Since we are in a spiritual war, physical weapons aren't needed. In a spiritual war carnal weapons won't help you. Have you ever wondered what Chili con Carne is? “chili with meat” (Carne') - Carnal is the flesh. This war is not of the flesh, it is a spiritual war.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, . . . take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” Eph. 6:12,13 & 17
We are told to take the helmet of salvation . . . AND . . . the sword of the spirit. We need the grace of God and the word of God and we need to have faith in both. These are two resourceful weapons that we can use in the spiritual war that we are in. The word of God pierces us and changes us. Hebrews 4:12 - “For the word of God is living and active Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow it judges the THOUGHTS and attitudes of the heart.” As our missionary from Mexico said about the word of God “It hurts going in but heals coming out.” It is convicting but it is healing. The word of God has supernatural spiritual power that gloriously changes lives. I have seen radical changes in people that have come to Christ and during their adventure to study the word for themselves they have become radically different and amazingly new. The power of the word of God is indescribable. The word of God judges our thoughts, therefore when we read it and hear it because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Hear the word preached and read it and it will guard your mind.
A Spiritual weapon that's not mentioned specifically is prayer. Prayer is the easiest resource to use and yet it seems to be the least used resource there is. In a war we need to be able to communicate to the source for all our power. That communication is through prayer. Our relationship with our commander in chief Jesus Christ hinges on our communication with him. You can not have a relationship with those you never talk with.
John Piper wrote in his book 'Let the Nations be glad' “Life is war. That’s not all it is. But it is always that. Our weakness in prayer is owing largely to our neglect of this truth. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. It is not surprising that prayer malfunctions when we try to make it a domestic intercom to call upstairs for more comforts in the den. God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ advances in the world. Prayer gives us the significance of front-line forces, and gives God the glory of a limitless Provider. The one who gives the power gets the glory. Thus prayer safeguards the supremacy of God in missions while linking us with endless grace for every need.”
We read in 2 Cor 10:5 “...we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Nothing works greater in capturing those corrupting thoughts and making them obedient to Christ than prayer. And if prayer isn't enough we have the great weapon of prayer and fasting. If you want to see a difference then begin to fast when you pray and see what a difference it makes not only in your spiritual life but in your thought life as well.
Transition: God gives you great spiritual resources for guarding your minds, and in addition to that you must build up the ramparts for guarding your mind.
The Ramparts for guarding your Mind
A Rampart is a defensive wall, like around a castle or a fort. We can set up a rampart around our minds to protect us from the enemy. Paul wrote the Philippians
“Finally, brothers and sisters, 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.” Phil.4:8
You may have heard the phrase when it comes to your mind, “garbage in garbage out” there is a lot of truth in that; when we let all defenses down and allow whatever evil, wicked, or immoral thing to come in to our minds we can't expect it not to have an effect on how we live our lives, but when we fill our minds with things that are noble, holy, pure, admirable, true, anything that is praiseworthy, then we rob the devil of the ground that he wants to claim. We can not think two thoughts at the same time so when our minds are full of good things the enemy can not fill them with evil things.
Don't forget, you are a soldier at all times. No matter where you go, you are amongst the enemy. You may be surrounded by Christians, or you may be alone in a serene chapel but the word says to be “sober minded” because your enemy is always hunting you! He is always looking for you and looking for a moment when you have your guard down and your armor off. There are unseen evil spirits that wait for vulnerabilities to be exploited. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in spiritual places that may be unseen to the naked eye but are as real as every thing you can see in broad daylight.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test what God's will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” - Romans 12:2
When we are conformed, that means that we are allowing the world to mold us into its image. That outside pressure changes us. But when we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, this is something that happens from the inside. So conform is outside in and transform is inside out.
This is why you must build the ramparts of holy thoughts around your life. “As a man thinks so is he” If we are devoted in our thoughts we will be devoted in our lives. Many believers think that they are saved to go to heaven. No. You are saved to change the world and increase God's kingdom. What do you think the great commission is? If we were only saved to go to heaven, we would go there shortly after being saved. But our purpose is to win others to Jesus, not to make this world as comfortable to ourselves as possible until we get there.
We complain about politicians who make great promises to fight for our freedoms, liberties, and justice and once they get to Washington they become the very people we want them to stop! This is the way God must feel with us, He sends us out to change the world but instead of changing it, we let it change us. Instead of being transformed by the renewal of our mind, we conform to the pattern of this world.
Too many people think they can be a friend of the world and a friend of God at the same time. Its wrong to think that this much of our lives should be religious and this much of it should be worldly. God doesn't want any double agents. Decide which side you belong to and fight for that side!
We read in Romans 1 that God gave them over to a reprobate mind. A Reprobate mind is a rebellious mind, that says “I don't care what anyone says I don't care if it is wrong, I don't care what the church thinks or what the preacher says or what the Bible says “I am going to enjoy this sin and there is nothing you or anyone else can do about it!! Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:” 2 Cor. 4:3
Society tries and tries but society itself can't make itself better. The sinful nature is too strong. A change must occur on the inside - No one can force you to just think better thoughts. Adrian Rogers made the point of how ridiculous it is to call certain crimes “hate crimes.” He said “If someone murdered me I hope he didn't hate me first. . . . all crimes are hate crimes.” We can't legislate people to love one another. It is only by the power of Christ that we can love one another.
There was a mother that was getting aggravated at her son who kept standing up in the shopping cart and she said you need to sit down and he kept standing up so she said it louder, “YOU NEED TO SIT DOWN” he kept standing up so she put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him down. He began grinning real hard. She said “what are you doing?” He said “I'm still standing up on the inside.”
No one can control your thought life but you. Forcing someone to do something won't change their minds no matter how hard you push them. When dealing with our unsaved loved ones or lost people in general, arguments will never work. Arguments are designed to prove the other person wrong and you can't prove someone wrong if their definition of wrong is different than yours. We are fighting a spiritual war therefore carnal things won't work. You will do far more in reaching the lost with nothing more than the word of God with love and Prayer.
Conclusion: Romans 8:6 we read “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace.” The first thing we all must do to renew our minds is to give our life to Jesus confessing our sins and asking his pardon and then ask by faith that he will change us into his image and make us into the person he wants us to be.
When it comes to the economy of society to God, there is not one person who is less valuable than another. That is why he will leave the 99 to find the one. Everyone is precious to God. You are just as precious to God as the passionate preacher, great evangelist or the famous missionary. As Augustine said “God loves all of us as if there were only one of us.”
And for all the believers today, please know that there is not a single step that can be taken without conflict and strife. But the great news is that someday that battle scarred helmet that we wear in daily battle will someday be a crown, an eternal sign and a reminder that we fought a good fight, that we finished our race, and kept the faith to the very end. Amen.
