What Kind Of Mind?

WHAT KIND OF MIND?

TITUS 1:8

It was in 1929 that a German scientist by that name of Hans Berger proved what many scientist had suspected for years and that was that there was electrical activity in the brain. He proved that some of us run on 220 volts while other are running on about 110. Just kidding.

But his discovery led to the development of the, (pay attention now because this is a really big word and you know how big words and I get along) elec-tro-en-see-fala-graph. What this device enabled medical personal to do was measure and record the electrical activity of the brain known as an EEG. This was found to be very helpful in diagnosing disorders and malfunctions of the brain. For the first time in history man was able to take a look at what was going on inside the brain.

We now have many modern devices which allow even a closer look at the brain. Thinks such as CAT scans and brain scans, all of which are very helpful to doctors. But while we can see the function of the brain we cannot know that thoughts of that are inside. We cannot know what another person is thinking. This of course is for the better. As you can imagine what would happen if we could each others thoughts. (Remember that Gilliagan’s island episode were they found those berries that let them read each other thoughts)

But let us say that it was possible for them to open up your mind and see what was in there. What would they find. I would say that if they could they would probably find some good stuff, but I also believe that they would find stuff that would bring to you much embarrassment and shame. I know they would with me.

Today I want us to take a look some of what the Bible states about our minds. Please turn with me to Passage for today, that would be Titus 1:8, that is page 1032 in your pew Bibles. Remember that we are discussing the qualifications of the elders or bishops of the church which Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is giving to Titus.

Titus 1:8 "but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled,"

We have taken a look at the first two qualifications which Paul has given to us, know let us take a look at the phrase "sober-minded".

First of all it has nothing to do with not drinking. Now the Greek word translated "sober-minded" is "SOPHRON". To those of you who may be unaware the reason I sometimes give the Greek word is because that is the language in which most of the NT was written.

But anyway "SOPHRON" literally means "prudent, thoughtful, or to be of sound mind". Now we are going to get back to what it means to be "sober minded" in a little bit.

But first I want you to realize that God cares a great about what goes on in our minds. God we must understand see all that goes on in our minds. So let us ask ourselves "What Kind of Mind Do I Have?".

The Bible speaks of various kinds of minds. Know very briefly may I say that for the most part the heart and the minds as far as the Bible is concerned are one and the same. The mind is made up of our feelings and our thinking. It is our reasoning and judgements. It is our thoughts and that which we will to do.

So we can see why the God is so interested in what kind of mind we have.

In our message for today we are going to look at 8 different minds that are mentioned in the Bible. Some are good some are not so good. Now we are going to be looking at a quite a few Bible verses. We are not going to take the time to turn to each one this morning but you may want to jot down the references.

The first type of mind that I want us to see is the "reprobate, debased, or depraved mind". This type of mind is seen in Romans 1:28 which reads; "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;" The KJV uses the term "reprobate". The NIV reads, "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done."

Now the word that those three translations translates "Reprobate, debased, or depraved", literally means "not standing the test". The word originally had to do with metals. A debased metal is one that has been mixed with other metals or impurities, and therefore fails the test.