I. Introduction
I know some of you will think less of me after I admit to you that I can remember when I was a young boy that when I went to bed, I did not want to sleep with my hand hanging off the side of my bed! I know I am supposed to be tough and courageous, but I was afraid that something would crawl out from under my bed and grab me. Don't look at me like that for some of you had to have that security blanket, stuffed animal or maybe for you it was the need for a night light. Or maybe you had to make sure every closet door was closed completely.
A few years ago, this childhood reality was captured and capitalized on in the movie Monsters Inc. In the movie the city the monsters lived in was called “Monstropolis” and it is powered by energy harvested from the screams of human children. So, at Monsters Incorporated (a.k.a. The Scare Factory), skilled monsters employed as "scarers" venture into the human world, through doors that are portals to children's bedroom closets. They sneak into the bedrooms to scare children and harvest their screams. The whole thing gets turned on its head when a baby girl comes back through the portal of her closet door into the Scare Factory. In the process she destroys the façade that these scary looking characters are actually scary! She discovers that some of them are actually nice, and they discover that she isn't toxic. In the end the monsters discover that they gain all the necessary power they need from children’s laughter, and they change their mission into the bedrooms at night.
It was a cool and fun movie. However, I think we need to admit that there is still a scare factory in existence today. If we would be honest with one another our minds are full of mind monsters.
Nikita Gill said it correctly when she said . . .
The monsters were never under my bed.
Because the monsters were inside my head.
Why do we struggle with mind monsters?
Let's go back to the beginning. Adam and Eve allow a scare factory to be built in our minds when they eat from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Text: Genesis 3:1-5 (NIV)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. (hear what the devil says) “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Adam and Eve fall for the lie of the enemy and in that moment mind monsters are created.
Then Paul comes along and says . . .
Romans 5:12 (TLB)
When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. His sin spread death throughout all the world, so everything began to grow old and die, for all sinned.
So, it is no wonder that their fall impacts us till this day. It is no wonder that those same mind monsters still operate to this day. So, we are living under the curse of the Scare Factory.
Jesus comes along on a mission to redeem/reconcile/restore everything that was lost in the garden and declares this in . . .
Matthew 22:37 (NIV)
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Lot here don’t have time to deal with. We are made up of three parts. Heart – flesh, Soul – spirit, and Mind – Man’s “Mind” is an organ of the soul and is his computer by which he stores information gained through his six senses. The mind, like the heart, is a separate but integral part of the soul.
Paul tries to explain how all of this works.
Galatians 5:17 - For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Romans 8:7 - Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So, he is teaching us that there is war going on inside of us. The spiritual part of us is at war against the mind that has been established in us. Then Paul comes along in Romans 7:25 and lets us in on a truth that we need to gain.
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with my mind, I serve the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin."
With my mind I serve the Lord. What determines if I serve God? My flesh doesn't. My Spirit has to overtake my carnal mind and when my mind is controlled by the Spirit of God, I serve the Lord with my mind. Another way to say this is that my flesh doesn’t determine where life goes. My mind determines where my life goes.
My soul wants to delight in the Lord, but my carnal mind is warring against my soul/spirit. So, where your mind goes your life goes.
So, we must deal with our mind. Before you get it twisted, I am not talking about will power. I am talking about learning to allow the spirit to override my mind.
So, we must understand I can have a new heart and a saved soul and have the same mind.
How is it you can come in here and praise the paint off the wall, dance the aisles, amen the message and then walk out of here and struggle with the same mind monsters you were fighting before we sang your favorite worship song and allowed a preacher to preach you into a frenzy?
Simply put . . . our mind must be renewed.
Romans 12:2 – Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
When the mind is renewed the mind is released. Free to operate as God intended.
So, I am glad you are saved. But is your mind transformed? If it isn't, then you need to know a that . .
A mind that is not influenced by God’s truth is controlled by Satan’s lies.
We are either being transformed, or we are staying the same. If we are staying the same, then our mind is carnal and therefore at war with the truth of God.
In your mind, you are constantly being fed lies. Who is our enemy? The Father of Lies! He can't tell the truth. If his lips are moving!
Listen to what he said in the garden!
“Did God really say?" He gets us to question the truth of God's Word. He goes on and he says . . .
“That’s a lie!” the serpent hissed. “You’ll not die! God knows very well that the instant you eat it you will become like him, for your eyes will be opened—you will be able to distinguish good from evil!”
You will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Eve listens to the lies of the enemy. Then in Genesis 3:6 - When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
So, our enemy gets us to question God's truth and then convinces us that we will know more than God. You will know. You will know. Knowledge. You will gain knowledge. You will gain mind power.
We lost more than relationship in the Garden. We lost more than power in the Garden. We lost more than dominion in the Garden. In the Garden we lost our mind!
Mind monsters start operating in the Scare Factory of our brain and so now in our mind we hear "you hear everyone is against me, I can't recover, I will always be like this, no one cares." It isn't reality it is his version of reality. But because we listen, we become paranoid. We become hopeless. We become helpless. We break relationships. We self-sabotage. Why? Because we have lost our mind! We lose our mind and think like our enemy!
Paul once again helps us learn this when he states in Ephesians 6:12 - For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
He says we are fighting against principalities. The root word for principalities is principles. We listen to him lie to us and when we believe what he says it establishes principles that we live by. We allow the principle of defeat. The principle of despair. The principle of anger. The principle of victim mentality to be established and set up and then we view everything through that lens.
We make monsters if we don't take action steps.
You must intentionally and diligently . . .
Filter
We must filter what goes in. We must recognize the voice that is talking to us. The Bible says, "My sheep know my voice." We must filter out any voice that isn't the voice of God. Therefore, I must cut off what feeds the principalities in my mind. Shifts require strategies. Shifts aren’t accomplished with strength. You need have a plan of action. If you just try to rely on will power, then you will fail. You have to intentionally strategize/monitor what you will allow in. You have to manage points of entry. The enemy will try to find points of entry. Christians get angry when someone says as believers you can't watch that and listen to that. You are full of despair and lack of hope . . . man if I listened to, watched, took advise from who you take it from I would be full of despair and lack of hope too! We better wake up we are feeding mind monsters. You absolutely must watch what/who you watch and listen to! You can’t feed a monster and kill a monster at the same time.
If my mind holds my future, then I need to pay attention to what is holding my mind. We make monsters when we don't filter.
Fight
Remember we lost our mind in the Garden. The Scare Factory is working overtime. So, must resist what is already in my mind. Fight those thoughts. We must retrain our brain. We must practice Mind Control!
Paul said to forget things that are behind – fight bad memories. David does this! When he faced an intimidating, fear inducing giant do you remember what he does? He remembers the bear and the lion that he killed with his sling shot. He doesn’t remember the misses. He doesn’t remember the sheep he lost. Then he uses godly imagination and says this to the giant . . . "I see you dead."
This is a battle. This is a fight. Our mind is the seat of memories and imaginations. If we don’t control our mind it will revert to our memories. And our mind magnifies or minimizes our memories. Some mind monsters come from parents and some from pain. Regardless they shape how we see things. Because of this our mind is set (mindset).
We must deal with mind sets why? . . . Romans 8:6 – For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Mindsets produce strongholds. Strongholds are established to keep truth out. The inability to receive truth is evidence of a stronghold. Haven't you met people (cause I am not talking about you) that always seem to resist truth? Something is arguing against truth. Teach on forgiveness but can’t seem to accept that – stronghold. Teach on living pure/righteousness but can’t seem to accept it. That is due to strongholds. Teach on filtering and won't accept that the songs coming out their car filled with cursing, carousing, drinking can't seem to be accepted! Evidence of stronghold.
This is a fight! Strongholds (principles) are only broken by spiritual weapons. You can’t just use positive thinking. We demolish arguments that rise up against the knowledge of God – Truth is trying to come in. That is why we must use what God gave us . . . "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 demolish 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. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. - 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
We capture every single thought and bring it into captivity. This is a war. Our thoughts must be captured. Prisoners of war. If it wasn’t a fight, then why would we be told that we need weapons?
You don’t change your life by changing your life! You change your life by changing your mind!
Proverbs 23:7 - As a man thinketh in his heart so is he. Your mind establishes the map for your future! A bound mind results in a bound life.
Mind monsters are made when we don't fight.
Focus
Isaiah 26:3 – You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
In other words, our focus is a force. Focus is essential. The enemy uses distraction to keep you from focusing. We must focus on the right things. The Word that frees your mind is not the Word you hear. In one ear and out the other. It is the Word that becomes the engrafted Word, accepted Word, focused on Word. Remember you are responsible for thoughts you sustain. I can keep a thought or cast it down. I can’t control ever thought that passes through my head, but I can control the ones that stay there.
Focus. The enemy knows that he can’t handle your purpose, so he fights your focus. Mind monsters are made when we fail to focus.
Philippian 2:5 - Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Let it – give permission for Jesus’ mind to overtake you mind. His thinking to overtake your thinking.
We can't just pursue the morals of Christ! We must also pursue the mind of Christ!
If we want to live like Him, then we must think like Him. We are not moved by what moved Him because we don’t think like Him. We don’t react like He reacted because we don’t think like Him. We can’t forgive like Him because we don’t think like Him. If we could ever learn to think like Jesus, then we would begin to live like Jesus.
A lot of us have let Him get in our heart . . . We need to let Him get in our head!
You must let same Jesus that saved your soul save your mind!
