What Movies Are Playing In Your Mind? Series

What Movie Is Playing In Your Mind?

Rev. Rodney Johnson and Rev. Barry Johnson

NOTE: New Light Faith Ministries and Barry Johnson Ministries, founded by Rodney V. Johnson and Barry O. Johnson, respectively, are partnering to offer Bible studies for Christians who are seeking to grow in their relationship with Jesus. This is a Bible study lesson, not a sermon. The Bible studies teach foundational truth that are designed to challenge, encourage and, most importantly, flame the fire of hunger in the Christian who wants to learn more about who they have become in Christ Jesus. The Bible studies you find on this site contains the written version of the lesson. However, these lessons also include a video and an audio file of the study, a PDF version of the lesson and a sheet for note taking. If you would like any of the additional resources for these studies, please email us at newlightfaithministries@gmail.com or bjteachingltr@gmail.com for more information or contact us at the email provided on both of our Sermon Central pages. Please visit our YouTube Channel (Barry Johnson Ministries; New Light Faith Ministries, Inc.) to watch or listen to these lessons as well as other available sermons. Be blessed.

Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to this month’s Bible study lesson. We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with families and friends that was laughter-filled, stomach-stuffing, and sleep-producing. We also hope you are looking forward to celebrating the most important and recognized day of all days – the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Christmas Day.

Our schedules were filled more so with ministry responsibilities in November that we didn’t have an opportunity to prepare a lesson. I hope you will forgive us because we view these lessons as opportunities to share God’s heart with you on the topics that we cover. This month, we have titled the lesson, “What movie is playing in your mind next?” We are going to examine the role our thoughts play in our faith walk, especially the actions we take as a result of our thoughts.

An article in an issue of USA Today reported that in an online survey of 1000 adults, that “three-quarters of Americans believe the country was better off in the 1980s than it is right now.” And, to us, what’s notable about the poll is that some of those who responded in the affirmative were not even alive during the 1980s. So, how can someone believe that their parents were better off 40 years ago than they themselves are today? We believe the answer is simple: their parents, grandparents, relatives and other adults shared stories with them about their lives in the 1980s that created vivid and long-lasting positive images in their minds.

That is why we often have a variety of emotional responses when watching certain types of movies. Let me give you two examples. I remember watching old black and white movies as a pre-teen about Dracula and recoiling and catching my breath just as the camera zoomed in on his eyes as he opened his mouth and leaned in to bite his victim. I also remember watching the Wizard of Oz after Daddy had bought the family’s first color television set. I watched with wide-eyed amazement when Dorothy slowly opened the door of the black and white room of the farmhouse to see the vibrant and colorful town square of Munchkin Land. Rodney, what about you? What movies do you remember this way?

One of the first movies I remember seeing at the movies is “Jack the Giant Killer.” As I watched that movie, I remembered placing myself in the role of Jack and how he was able to defeat the giant. But the one movie that I saw on the big screen that changed me actually came out four years before I was born. That movie was “The Ten Commandments.” As a child that movie opened my eyes (and my wondering mind) up to what the Israelites faced while they were in Egypt and what Moses experienced bringing them out. As a pre-teen that movie left an impression on me to this day and I have it in my collection of favorite movies. But let me get to the point of this lesson.

Barry, some of our listeners may not realize this, but Jesus also talked about the “movies” or thoughts in our minds in Matthew chapter five. We’re going to read verses 27 and 28. "(27) You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.’ (28) But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28) Jesus says, “whoever looks at a woman” – who has unchaste imaginations, desires, and intentions for her – commits adultery with her in his heart.” Do you see the movie that Jesus says is playing in the man’s mind? The man sees a beautiful woman and instead of acknowledging her beauty and moving on, he begins to imagine himself with the woman.