27 Turn to Ephesians Chapter 4:17 So where was the problem with the Gentiles? In the futility of their minds. Their problem was in their thinking.
4:18 What keeps people from following Christ? They are blinded in their mind. When it says they have hardness of the heart, it means that their minds have become hardened. They have put God out of their thoughts and minds. Have you ever heard someone say, "I don’t want to hear it." That is a hardened mind.
4:19 They have become callous, they are hardened. People indulge in sin when they have lost their sensitivity in their mind. People who live in blatant sin have lost sensitivity to the things of God. In the story of the Prodigal Son what you find there is before he turned his life around and came back to his Father there is a phrase that is used there, it says "He came to his senses" Where do you come back to your senses at? In the mind. He came back into his right mind.
There is the law of diminishing returns. Everything has this law. Remember the first time you held hands with a girl? You were excited. But then in a short time, the only thing that happens is you have sweaty palms. Because the human mind wants more. So then you put your arm around her shoulders, but before long, all that happened was your arm went to sleep, because the human mind wants more. I want to tell you this, the human mind always wants more and the here is why the law of diminishing returns works. Fantasy or imagination can never be equated by reality. Reality can never match fantasy or imagination. Fantasy or imagination are always beyond imagination. The root word for fantasy is Fantasia. You thought Fantasia was just a name for a Disney film. I am sure Disney knew what the word meant when they named the film. You see, Fantasia means ghostly. And many people live in this realm of allow their mind, their imagination, to constantly run beyond reality, and here is the problem today. It use to be when they created movies leaving a whole lot to the mind, but now they show everything and it pushes the mind to overdrive because the mind always tries to out think reality unless it is disciplined and founded in the Word of God.
Let me tell you what happens when this takes place, and I want to be direct with you. We have all heard of people who abuse children sexually. I don’t understand how someone can do that, but I do understand how it works. The mind allows a person to be pushed to do what we might have considered unthinkable. If you are driven by your mind, you will do unthinkable acts.
4:20. How do you know Christ, in the mind, in the spirit.
4:21 Where are you taught, in the mind.
4:22 Your computer has been programmed. How many of you know you own the greatest computer in the world, it is your mind. How many of you know that you can program your mind wrong.
4:23 You need to reprogram your computer.
4:24-27 Don’t give the devil a foothold, where? In your mind. How many of you have ever climbed and you have to get a foothold. It is amazing how much you can push up with a little foothold. And the devil comes and he wants a little foothold, and when he has it, he will push everything that he has in your mind. DON’T GIVE HIM A FOOTHOLD IN YOUR MIND.
What are some of those footholds? (bitterness, music, television, any kind of innocent thing that could have an influence on your mind like books--its great to read but there is a lot of junk out there. Like Stephen King--he has a warped mind--. ect.)
Hebrews 4:12-13 states (READ) The Word of God divides the mind and the spirit. It judges thoughts and attitudes. Where do are thoughts and attitudes come from, the mind.
It says that nothing is hidden from God’s sight. God is video taping your mind, where would you like to have that video played? God not only sees, but He is also wanting an account.
Church, understand, feelings always follow thoughts and the word of God has the energy and power of God in it and it does this:
1. It discerns what you are thinking
2. It tells you why you are thinking it if you allow God’s Word.
3. It will tell you what is motivating your thinking. Nobody thinks a thought without motivation. Nobody does an act without motivation. People just don’t do things because there was nothing else to do. You do it because you are motivated. Why do you eat? Because hunger motivates you. Why do you drink water? Because thirst motivates you. There is something that motivates you for everything that you do. The word will tell you.
4. The Word of God has the power to change and get control. It cuts off other things to get control of your mind. Romans 12:1,2 (READ).
We are to be transformed by the renewing of out minds, by our thoughts. If you want to change you need to change your thinking. First, you need to think differently about God, second you need to think different about yourself, and third you need to think differently about your enemy Satan. Last Sunday night remember what I said, you need to know what God says about us, what God says about Himself, and what God says about the devil.
Where is Satan’s greatest battlefield? THE MIND What controls your hand, feet and body? THE MIND. If you want to control Satan’s greatest weapon, you need to control your mind. If you think in error, your feelings end up in error.
We have three enemies. Our carnal nature which is our wrong thinking. The world system which does not operate on Godly principles and the devil.
But we have four ways of victory. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and ourselves. We are such an enemy against Satan that is why he wants to immobilize you. How does Satan get in? He comes in through all of our senses. It’s practical. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, touch. Satan uses our senses so what do we have to guard? Our senses are the doorway to the mind. How many of you have seen something that you wish you had never seen? Church, you need to learn how to limit your curiosity. Romans says that I would rather have you simple to the things of the world. That means to be dumb to the things of the world. You need to limit your curiosity because once you have seen things how do you get them out of your mind.
There was a study done on pornography by the federal government. They discovered that when you are exposed to anything sexual, if you see something sexual, a chemical is released into your brain and it imprints the picture on the brain and they discovered there was better recall for that material than for any other type of material people have seen. They gave people all kinds of things to see. What is the difference between a color picture of Jesus and a colored picture of a naked woman? Is it the paper? Is it the ink? No, it is the mind. The mind is the difference and a chemical is released into the mind. Now let me tell you why that chemical is released. Because God designed man and woman, guy and gal to program each other in a process called marriage. And when two people program each other together, how many of you know they have a totally matched program. Now here is the problem. What happens when someone decides to push their programming into something that God never intended such as their sexuality into experimentation and relationships that are unbiblical, ungodly, not what God expected before marriage, and then this person marries? The program does not match. Did you follow this? Your choices will affect your whole life, it can corrupt your computer programming with a virus that will destroy. When they are with their mate, their mind is many times filled with images of another relationship because the program does not match. I am glad that I serve a God that saw this problem and made available the opportunity to erase the disk and reformat the program. The Bible says, Old things pass away, all things become new. Amen.
Only God can change those programs, old things are passed away, all things become new.
Here is how it works. A thought enters your mind. What are you going to do with it? You can get rid of it, or you can think about it. Now when you think about it, it moves into the brain. When you take it into your imagination, it does not just remain a thought, but it changes when it gets there. In your imagination, you can change the picture you have thought. That is why guys can undress a girl in his mind and you know it is happening. When it goes into the imagination, it has instant recall.
When you think about something in your imagination, you will act on it because you will never be satisfied with what you see in your mind, you want to try it, you want to experience it. So you have to cast it out when it first comes in, or you will have to deal with it later.
Now you can change pictures in your mind. Now if you have an imagine you need to get rid of in your mind, what would be a good picture to replace it with. Jesus on the Cross. I want you to close your eyes right now, and I want you to picture them driving the nails in Jesus hands (pound--pound). I want you to picture Him hanging there, the blood flowing from His body, from the crown of thorns. Picture Him there as He dies for you.
I want you to overlay that picture on the pictures of your mind when they come and they shouldn’t be there. Overlay them over that wrong picture. If you begin to do that on a regular basis, your mind will automatically do it for you, it will be an automatic reflex.
You can open your eyes now.
Here is key, I want to give you 5 quick questions that you need to ask yourself every time a thought comes.
1. Why am I thinking this thought. When a thought comes, ask yourself, why am I thinking this thought. How many of you know that if you ask yourself this question, it will jar you into reality? There is a story told in Rugder Kiplings book where he writes about Kim who is about to be brainwashed. This man has hypnotized Kim with this gold watch and he is trying to use mind control on Kim. The man takes this huge, expensive Ming vase and he throws it to the ground and it crashes and breaks and he turns to Kim and says now you saw me break that vase, but I am telling you that vase was never broken. Under hypnotism do you know what Kim begins to do? He recites the arithmetic scale, 2+2=4; 4+4=8; 8+8=16; 16+16=32; 32+32=64, ect. Do you know why he did this? Because the arithmetic scale is reality, its true. They never change.
Now what do you have to do when you start thinking a wrong thought. You need to start quoting absolute truth. What is absolute truth? It is the Bible. It is never going to change. It is the same today, it will be the same tomorrow.
2. What is the root of the thought that I am thinking.
Remember we talked about the 3 roots of all sins--
Lust of the flesh--wrong material values
Lust of the eye- impure thought
Pride of Life -
You have to get to the root. Last year if you picked an apple from a tree, the next year can you pick a pear from that tree? No unless you change the root. There are people who come to the alter and pray for a change in their life, but a month or two later they are in the same situation because they have picked the fruit, but they have not changed the root so the same fruit is growing back into their lives again.
3. If I keep thinking these thoughts, where will they lead me? If you are thinking right thoughts, you can answer that.
4. If I keep thinking these thoughts, will they lead me to where God wants me to go?
5. What Scripture did I memorize before I went to bed? Memorize Scripture. This will give you the ability to soar over your temptations. God has given us a way to win, with every temptation, God has given us a way to escape 1 Corinthians 10:13.
