Spiritual Thinking
Colossians 3:1-3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (2) Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (3) For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
“Spiritual Thinking.”
The apostle Paul lays out this subject for us in the book of Colossians. First he says, “Set your hearts on things above.” The NIV is the only translation to use the word “hearts” in verse 1 here. Almost all the other translations use the word “seek.”
Notice that in it says, “hearts” not “heart.” So it is not speaking of the cardia “kardia,” which is the Greek word for heart but hearts.
“Kardia” relates more to our feelings than anything else.
The word also means, “the middle.”
The heart is the middle or center of our feelings. Obviously I’m not talking about the actual organ in our bodies we call the heart.
The way the word is used in this verse is that the heart or “hearts” is the center of our feelings and emotions.
So when the other translations use the word “seek” rather than heart, the difference is minimal.
The idea is that whatever we seek represents the desires of our heart. Therefore the little phrase “set your hearts on things above,” could, just as properly say, “keep seeking the things above.” In either case it’s talking about the things that occupy our heart.
Have you ever thought about what you think about?
I think a lot; at least I think I do.
I would much rather think than talk, unless, of course, I’m preaching.
...What do you think about the most?...
Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
In this verse King David is relating the heart to the things we think about the most.
Have you ever asked God to search you in order to know your heart?
Have you ever said, “God, show me my heart?”
How do you think God does that?
How does God reveal to us what is in our hearts?
I believe the second part of this verse tells us...
God examines what we give our thoughts to.
What we think about is what we are seeking, and that what we are seeking is the central thing in our lives.
In other words what we think about the most is what’s in our heart.
So in this verse there is a relationship between what’s in our hearts and what’s in our thoughts, just as Paul says in Colossians.
After dealing with our hearts he starts messing with our minds.
In verse 2 he says,
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
There are a lot of similarities between the heart and our minds – but there is a basic difference.
What the heart dwells upon and what the mind dwells upon can be quite different.
The heart is led by our emotions, that is why salvation is referred to as giving your heart to Jesus.
Salvation is more than just an intellectual decision.
Certainly, a person could reason the issue out and come to the logical conclusion that it makes more sense to live for Jesus than it does the devil. But true conversion is more than just a mental decision.
It involves the center of our emotions, the heart. Then when the heart is transformed, Romans says, our mind will be renewed.
I believe there can be some give and take on this issue.
I believe it’s entirely possible for a person to make a logical decision about salvation and indeed surrender their life to Christ.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now let us reason together. There are times when God says in essence, “If you’re not going to let your heart get involved then let’s analyze this.”
The mind is our reasoning or analytical side. To be a spiritual thinker one must first surrender his heart, or the things he thinks about, or his emotions, to God.
Then he must set his mind on heavenly things rather than earthly things.
The reason this is important is because there really is nothing about heaven that makes much earthly sense.
Christians Believe Some Incredible Stuff!
If you are a Christian, you believe some incredible things!
We believe that we were once we were a walking dead man — while we were still alive.
But even though dead, we are still alive in Christ —
Yet, while already dead, we are more alive than ever before.
and though we fully expect to die, when we do, we will be alive forever.
See, told you, incredible stuff there.
How about some more incredible beliefs.
-We believe that, though already dead we were one day slain on a cross with Christ.
-Yet, the very cross that slew us gave us priceless life.
-And though we were crucified on the cross we actually were not, because a sinless substitute, The Lord Jesus Christ, was there in our stead.
-now, when we see a cross it means death, and we glory in it, because it has given us life.
-We remain on earth to die and go to heaven to live, yet if we do not "die" before death, we cannot live after death.
-Though we are in the world, we do everything opposite to its general pattern.
-We hate the world so we can win the world.
-We tell people they are condemned and lost in there sin so that they might be found and saved.
Incredible stuff!
Heavenly-minded people will do things that earthly-minded people would just scoff at. There are many times that heavenly minded people will even turn down opportunities to make money through some business deal because they simply have no interest in doing what it would take to make the money.
I have been approached time and time again with sure deals that I have turned down simply because that is not my desire.
I have had many Christian men approach me with some business plan that is guaranteed to make me a millionaire in three weeks or less and the reasoning they use is; if I could just become independently wealthy I would not need to depend upon the church.
That makes perfect sense to the earthly-minded person – but the heavenly-minded person understands that his dependence should always be upon his God.
I don’t mean to infer that the spiritual man is not interested in making a living for his family. It’s just that some of these things that have been offered to me would be side-tracking from the true priorities of life.
I said all of that to get to this point.
To be a spiritual thinker one must turn over his heart and his mind to Jesus.
Now lets get into our main text for today, Acts 10
Acts 10:1-2 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. (2) He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
Cornelius gave and he prayed.
These two practices, giving and praying, force one into a more spiritual state of mind.
You cannot even begin to think spiritually until you are a giver and a pray-er.
My dad once told me that Pastor Cho in Seoul, Korea tells his church that unless they tithe their money they cannot even consider themselves Christian. You might say, “Isn’t that being a bit legalistic to say that we must tithe in order to be a Christian?”
My response to that is,
Only earthly-minded people worry about legalism. Heavenly-minded people worry about obedience.
Why not concern ourselves with whether or not we can be in obedience to the Lord and not give him what we owe Him.
Shouldn’t our desire to: be in obedience to His word; be the biggest concern in our lives?
To be a spiritual thinker you must set your affections, or your mind, on things above, not on things on earth.
To struggle with tithing is to be so tied to this world that you will not let go of the security blanket we call “money.”
If money is your security - you will not let God have it.
Giving releases you to think about heaven.
So we are talking about your hearts and thinking heavenly, Pastor, why are you talking about money again?
Because, Jesus put it this way in Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Jesus wants your heart, not your money. But if you are unwilling to surrender the lesser, your money, you won’t be willing to Surender the greater, your heart, either.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
That’s not just a cute little saying. It’s a divine principle.
The spiritual thinker must have his heart surrendered and his heart is where his treasure is.
The more you give to God the more you think about spiritual things.
I have never met a spiritual man who is not a giver.
In fact, I believe it is impossible to get close to God without desiring to obey Him in the area of giving.
I get tired of the teaching that says, “You can’t out give God, the more you give Him the more you will get back.” Though I fully believe in the law of sowing and reaping; if that is the only motive you have for giving to God then it’s possible for you to be earthly-minded while thinking your so spiritual.
Acts 10:3-4 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!" (4) Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.
We read for a second time how the combination of giving and praying has made an impression upon God. In fact the two have gone up as a memorial before God.
Not only did Cornelius think that God was worthy of obedience in the area of giving – he also had a heart for God, so he prayed.
He was a praying man.
What do many of our missionaries come back from the field saying? Many of them thank us for our finical support, but then they ask us to not forget to pray.
Even they realize that giving and praying are meant to go together.
We Americans are great at giving – but not so great at praying.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that giving alone will go up as a memorial to God. It must be giving combined with prayer. Because giving without prayer means the heart has not yet been transformed and without the heart – nothing impresses God.
Acts 10:31 'Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.
Three different times in the same chapter we read of this, which makes it quite noteworthy.
This is bigger than just giving. It’s not so much that God wants our money, it’s that God wants us taken up with spiritual things.
He wants us thinking about the kingdom of God and how we can help people gain access to it.
Every believer needs to ask themselves: why wouldn’t I (we) give to God?
Why wouldn’t we want the kingdom of God to have what it needs to operate?
If you we do not have a strong compulsion to help the kingdom of God with our finances the question must be asked of us: What kingdom are you living in? Jesus said, “Your heart is where your treasure is,” but the opposite of that could be said also, “Your treasure is where your heart is.” In other words, what we invest in, is telling of where our heart is.
Praying
Now we must deal with the second issue here and that’s prayer.
Giving men don’t always pray but praying men always give.
What prayer comes down to is presence.
The presence of God is what prayer is all about.
It’s not so much about all the things we pray about.
But I do believe we feel free to pray about those things we pray about because of we feel the presence of God and in Him there is freedom.
When you are in the presence of God your faith rises to the point where you actually believe that what you are praying for will indeed happen.
But it’s not the things we are praying for that matters. What I'm getting at is the presence of God helps us to believe.
Do you know or remember what the hour of prayer was for the Jewish faith.
Acts 3:1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer-at three in the afternoon. This is also referred to as the ninth hour of the day because the Jewish day began at 6:00am. So Cornelius was in prayer when he had a vision. An angel came to him and began to speak.
Acts 10:3,4; One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!" 4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.
Now lets look at where the Apostle Peter comes into the picture.
Acts 10:9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. Peter was in prayer when he too received a vision. Though his vision was quite different than Cornelius’ the two of them were actually related.
I believe it takes a certain level of spiritual thinking to understand some of the things God speaks to our hearts.
Acts 10:17-20 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. (18) They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there. (19) While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you. (20) So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."
Peter was a spiritual thinker and here we have an example of what spiritual thinkers do – they think, spiritually.
“While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision.” Verse 17 tells us that Peter was meditating on what just happened to him.
Now look at verse 19, “While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him…” The spirit of God speaks to us while we practice spiritual activities.
Peter was taken up with what God was trying to say to him.
He was wondering and thinking about the vision when the Spirit spoke to him.
Both of these visitations came while they were in prayer.
I am not trying to say that the Lord will only give us visions while we are in prayer.
I’m talking about what it takes to begin to think in a more spiritual way.
A person can certainly live any way they want – but if you want to hear from God, if you want to take on the mind of Christ and begin to see more spiritual things from God’s perspective then you must set your heart and your mind on things above, not on earthly things.
Why is this critical? Why is it important to be tuned in like this?
If you have ever traveled to a foreign country – it is really beneficial to be able to speak the language. If you don’t speak the language - all you can do is point to an item on the menu. You won’t even know what your ordering – in some countries, what you ate. But if you know the language – you can communicate, engage, and benefit form the interaction.
Heaven has it’s own language. The kingdom of God has a certain vernacular to it. I have sat down and talked to believers from time to time and when we were finished I thought to myself, “They don’t have any insight. They are in God’s kingdom, with the language and thought processes of a different kingdom.”
What kingdom are you living in?
What kingdom do you think about the most?
Where are your treasures stored up?
