CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE | Pastor Rick

NIV puts it. The New Living Translation says, "By changing the way you think."

Now, let me sum up what I want to say this weekend in one sentence. God is far more interested in changing your mind than in changing your circumstances. We want God to change our circumstances. [snorts] We want him to take away all the problems, all the pain, all the sorrow, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the sadness. And God says, "Yeah, yeah, I know that's important, but really more important than that is what's happening in you." And I'm far more interested in changing your mind before we change your circumstance. Because nothing happens in your life until you get the renewing of your mind. No transformation takes place. No change takes place in your mind or in your life until your thoughts begin to change.

Now, why is it so important that I learn how to manage my mind? We've looked at physical health. We've looked at spiritual health. This weekend, I want us to look at mental health. How do I have a healthy mind? And why is it important that I manage my thought life? Let me give you three reasons. You might write these down.

Number one, because my thoughts control my life. My thoughts control my life. Every single action always begins as a thought. If you don't think it, you don't do it. Now, that's both good and bad. If you don't think it, you don't do it. If it's a good thought, then you then you're going to do good. If it's a bad thought, you're going to do bad. But my thoughts control my life. Proverbs 4:23 in today's English version says, "Be careful how you think. Your life is shaped." Circle that word shaped. Your life is shaped by your thoughts. People say, "Well, I was just thinking it." Well, you don't realize how important a thought is. The Bible says the power of your mind, the power of your thoughts has tremendous ability to shape your life for good or for bad. And if you accept the thought, if growing up somebody said to you, you're worthless, you're no good, you don't matter, you're ugly, you're uncoordinated, if you accepted that fact, whether it was right or wrong, it shaped your life. We're always interested in our feelings. And we're going to look at feelings next week when we looked at emotional health. But your feelings don't shape your life. Your beliefs do. And it doesn't even have to be true. If you believe it, it's going to shape your life. And a lot of you were taught things as a kid about you that just weren't true. And years later, you're still acting on false information. Be transformed by changing the way you think. Because my thoughts control my life, both good and bad.

Number two, I need to manage my mind because my mind is the battleground for sin. It's where I win or lose the battle. In fact, all temptation happens in the mind. We think temptation is something out there, something external, something that happens that we see out there and say, "Oh, that's tempting to me." It wouldn't tempt you if there wasn't a corollary desire inside you. All temptation happens in your mind, between your ears. And as a result, sin happens in your mind. It happens between your ears. When we talk about the sins of pride or lust or bitterness or hatred or anger or fear or resentment or envy or worry, where are those things? They're all in your mind. If you can learn how to manage your mind, you've learned how to manage your life. This is where the battleground is. Paul in Romans chapter 7 is very articulate in explaining how we've all felt in this battle that pulls us many different directions in our mind. Paul says this Romans 7:22 and 23, "I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned, but and that's always a big butt. Okay? But there's something else deep within me that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin within me. In my mind, I want to be God's servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin." And we can all identify that. I want you to circle some words in that passage. war. Circle the word war, the word fight, the word slave, the word enslaved. What's he saying? He's saying there's a battle in your brain. It's one of the reasons why you get mentally fatigued because there's a battle in your brain and it's going on 24 hours a day. Sometimes you're conscious of that battle and sometimes you're unconscious of that battle, but it's going on in your life. And the reason why that battle in your brain is going on, it's and and it's debilitating is because it's so intense. And the reason why it's so intense is because your brain, your mind is your greatest asset. Satan wants to control your mind. The [snorts] world wants to control your mind. A and and there's a battle for the way you think. Why? Because whatever gets your attention gets you. So I I need to manage my mind because my thoughts control my life and because my mind is the battleground for sin and temptation.

Number three, because it's the key to peace and life or happiness. Because managing my mind is actually the key to peace and the key to happiness. If you learn what we're going to talk about this weekend and you begin to apply it in your life, your peace of mind will go up dramatically and so will your happiness and so will your understanding enjoyment of life. An unmanaged mind leads to tension. A managed mind leads to tranquility. An unmanaged mind leads to pressure. A managed mind leads to peace. An unmanaged mind leads to conflict and chaos. A managed mind leads to confidence. An unmanaged mind leads to stress. If you don't manage your thoughts, you just let them go all over the place. You don't ever even try to control your mind and the way you direct your thoughts. You're going to have enormous amount of stress in your life. But a managed mind leads to strength and leads to security and leads to serenity. The Bible says it like this in Romans 8:6. "If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death." Well, by the way, what is death? It's the opposite of life. You're not really living. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.

So, if I want to have a healthy mind, I want to break free from all of those bad patterns of the way I've been thinking, what I need to do is make some choices. And the Bible says there are three choices for a healthy mind. I have to feed my mind. I have to free my mind. And I have to focus my mind. Let's look at these three things. They're all choices, and you have to choose them not just once in your lifetime, but on a moment-by-moment basis.

All right, let's look at what the Bible says. Number one, if I want to have a healthy mind, I must feed my mind with truth. I must feed my mind with the truth. Now, we all know the importance of nutrition. Good food and good calories cause you to be better, to be stronger, to be healthier, to have more energy. Bad calories, bad junk food, things that don't do good, harm your body. The same is true in your thought life. I must feed my mind not with junk, not with poison, but with truth. But Jesus said it like this, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free."

One time I was uh given the privilege of lecturing at Oxford University and actually at Cambridge also the same uh in the same month in England. And while I was there, I was invited to go to a meeting of Oxford Analytica. This is a group you've never heard of, but has enormous influence in the world. Every day at about 5:30, 6:00 a.m., the leading scholars of Oxford gather in a room to get reports from all around the world and what's happened in the last 24 hours. They then discuss these things everything from crop prices in in China to uh unrest in the Middle East to uh you know uh weather on the east coast and all kinds of things like this and then they make a decision about what needs to be said about it and then they say who's the best person in the world who knows the most about this and they send a note to that person they email that person by 11:00 that morning a report has been given given and then that report the Oxford analytical report is paid for by groups like the United States CIA, uh the the the the Soviet Union or now the the Republic of Russia, China, world leaders, major corporations, they all look to Oxford Analytica to get their daily report and they pay big bucks for this information. And I got to sit in on one of the meetings. They invited me to watch what was happening. It was about 20 people sitting in a room early early in the morning. And Oxford Analytica was founded on the idea that the best leaders make the best decisions when they have the best information. And even if you are a good leader, if you don't have the best information, you're going to make a bad decision. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, you got to have the best information to make the best decision. And that whole purpose was to get the best information on the world's situation in the last 24 hours. Well, you're not Oxford Analytica, but you need the best information to live the best life that God wants you to live. And that information is right here in the word of God. It's called the truth. The Bible says in Matthew 4:4, "People need more than bread for their life. They must feed on every word of God." The Bible is our soul food. It's our owner's manual for life.

Now when should I feed my mind truth? I mean when should I do this? And the answer is all the time throughout the day morning, noon and night. You know they tell you that the best way to eat is to eat just little every couple hours rather than to eat big meals and then go long hours without eating. But to eat constantly, just kind of nibble your way through the day, eating the right food, it keeps your blood sugar level and all things like that. Same is true with truth. If you're constantly thinking about truth, it's going to renew your mind. It's going to change your mind.

Let me give you some examples of this. Here's David. Here's three verses from David. Psalm 119:147. "I rise early to cry out for help. That's prayer. and to put my hope in your words. That's Bible study." Circle the word hope. He says, "I start every morning talking to you. I cry out in prayer. And listening to you, I read your word." And he says, "I look for the hope in your word." There are over 7,000 promises in this book. 7,000 of them. If you want to have your mind renewed, become a promise person. Begin to learn, memorize, think on those. If you feel pretty hopeless about your situation, you're not spending enough time in the promises of God because they're there. He says, "I start my day with hope." Are you starting your day with hope or with despair? He says, "I I I start it there." And then the next verse, he says, "Lord, how I love your word. I think about it all day long." You might circle that. And in Psalm 16:7, he says, "Even in the darkest of night, your teachings fill my mind." So he's saying, "Early in the morning, all through the day, and even late at night, I'm thinking about God's truth." That's why go David is called a man after God's own heart.

Let let me just give you one example of how serious David was about filling his mind with the truth of God's word. I told you last week that he spent a large part of his life running for his life because the king that he was going to replace in Israel wanted to kill him. Saul wanted him dead. And so David actually had to run and and be a fugitive for many many years living in caves and moving from place to place and never knowing am I going to wake up and be killed the next day. And there were people who are actually trying to kill him. I doubt that's ever happened to you. But look at this verse on the screen. In Psalm 119:95, he says, "When wicked people hide to ambush and kill me, I quietly keep my mind on your decrees." Wow. I quietly keep my mind on your decrees. Now, somebody was trying to kill you, would you be thinking about the word of God? Kind of doubt it. You'd probably be calling the police. You'd be running. You'd be bolting the door. Everything. David says, "I don't care what's going on in my life. Morning, noon, night, people trying to kill me. I have one thing I do. I keep my mind on the truth." Do you do that in a crisis? That's called managing your mind. I have to feed my mind daily on truth.

Number two, I have to free my mind from destructive thoughts. That's the second thing I need to do. Free my mind from destructive thoughts. Your mind needs to be liberated. Your mind needs to be delivered. Your mind needs to be released because you are a prisoner of your own thoughts. And you're a prisoner of things that people have told you that simply weren't true. And as I said earlier, doesn't matter if it's true or not. If you believed it, it's affected your life. You may have been told you were clumsy. And maybe you weren't clumsy at all, but if you believed it, you're clumsy and you and you see yourself that way because you always act in accordance the way you see yourself.

Now, he says, "I've got to free my mind from destructive thoughts." Now, that isn't easy. And the reason it is easy is because you got three enemies. And those three enemies are trying to team tackle you and keep you from having your mind liberated. These are the things that keep you from fulfilling all your good intentions. [snorts] You know all those good intentions about things you'd like to change in your life. I'm going to change this. I'm going to change that and I'm going to change this and I'm going to change that and it never never happens. Why? Because you have three enemies in your mind that are battling in your brain to keep you from doing the things all your best intentions would like to do. All your good resolutions, things like that. And they're not going to give up ground easily. You're going to have to fight to free your mind. What are the enemies? Let's write them down.

Number one, the first enemy is my old nature. My old nature. I want to show you a verse. It's up here on the screen. Romans chap 7 verse 23. Paul talks about how his old nature keeps him in mental bondage. He says this. "I see in my body a principle at war. A principle at war. There's that battle for your brain. I see in my body a principle at war with the law of my mind. Taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells inside of me." He's using war war language here. Let me put it this way. Do you ever find yourself doing things that you don't really want to do? That's the battle. Okay? Let me say it this way. You don't have to raise your hands on this one, but have you ever knowingly engaged in self-defeating behavior? I know this isn't good for me, but yeah, what's going on there? The battle in your brain. The battle in your brain. You have all of the best intentions in your new nature. I want to do the right thing. But the battle in your brain and the first battle is with your old sin nature. Your old nature is not your friend. It is the source of all your bad habits. Romans 8:5 says this on your outline. "Those who are dominated by their sinful nature think about sinful things. But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the spirit." Notice it's all about your brain. It's about how you think. So the first thing that's I may have a good intention for changing something in my life, but my old nature is going to battle me on it.

The second thing that's going to fight me, the second enemy is Satan. And Satan wants to control your mind. He can't, but he wants to control your mind. And and and and so he sends these ideas, these thoughts into your mind. Now, let me be real clear. Satan cannot force you to do anything. If you're a Christian, you have all his Holy Spirit in you. Satan cannot force you to do anything because a great greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. But he can make suggestions and those suggestions are very very powerful. And he is constantly continually planting negative thoughts in your mind. Now he'll use other people or he'll use the television or if uh you know if uh you know you can't get a he'll just throw a thought in your mind. You go where in the world that one come from. Have you ever been praying and you're praying real hard and all of a sudden the weirdest thought comes into your mind while you're praying? You go >> [laughter] >> WHERE DID THAT ONE come from? Well, I'll tell you where it came from. The devil just dropped a little bomb on your brain. Okay, now Martin Luther said you can't keep the birds from flying over your head, but Rick Warren says you can keep them from pooping in your hair. Okay, you can duck and and and you you know and and you can move and and you don't have to accept a thought. One of the most important things, we're going to talk about this in your small group is don't believe everything you think. That's one of the most liberating thoughts you'll you'll ever get. I don't have to believe everything I think. You see, we automatically think that if we think it, it must be true. Are you kidding me? You think a lot of stuff that's not true. In fact, maybe a majority of the stuff you think isn't true. And you have all these ideas and you think, "Well, I thought it, it must be true." Of course, it's not true. So, just because you get a thought in your mind, it may come from your old sin nature. It may come from the devil. Doesn't really matter. If it's not true, it's not true. You don't have to think. You don't have to believe everything you think. In fact, let's just say that together. "I don't have to believe everything I think." Let's say it. "I don't have to believe everything I think." If you will listen to that one truth right there, you're on the road to mental health. Because not everything you think is true. Stuff you think about yourself, stuff you think about God, stuff you think about your husband or your wife or wife or community or the government or it's just not all true just because you thought it. And we're going to cover that in in detail in in the small group. But Satan puts these thoughts. He the moment you wake up, the moment you wake up, he starts dropping little seeds. You're not going to have a good day today. Life is going to really be bad. Nobody's going to like you. In fact, you're flatout ugly. If I were as ugly as you, I wouldn't even show my face. And and you get start getting all of this talk going on in your brain. Why in the world am I even trying? It's not going to be any different. And he starts giving you all these reasons to give up and you haven't even started the day yet. You see, if you get up in the morning and you don't meet the devil face on, it just means you're going in the same direction. Follow that one. All right. And and so he's going to drop these little thoughts on you and and then sometimes he'll say, "Go ahead. You deserve it." Really? Yeah. You know, go ahead, get angry. Get even. How dare they say that to you. Why don't you And he's just constantly dropping thoughts. When the devil gives a thought, we call it temptation. When God gives a thought, we call it inspiration. But both of them are putting thoughts in your mind. And then you're coming up with your own thoughts. We call that stupidity. Okay. Now, these thoughts are going on in your mind, but you've got this enemy called Satan. Look at this up here on the screen. 2 Corinthians 2:11 says Paul talks about, "I've forgiven that man." A guy in the church who'd really messed everything up. He's really critical and problemless. I forgiven that man so Satan won't outsmart us. What's he saying there? He's gone. When I am unforgiving, I'm falling into Satan's trap. I've forgiven that man so that Satan won't outsmart us. For we're very familiar with his schemes. Satan wants to keep you in bitterness. Satan wants to keep you in bondage. He wants to keep you in resentment. If you have not forgiven anybody, you have fallen into Satan's trap. And Paul goes, "Hey, we're wise to this guy. He's been using the same traps for so many long. He tries to get you hurt and then he tries to get you bitter and then he builds on that bitterness. He gets a foothold in your life and on and on and on. Anytime you refuse to forgive anybody, you've fallen for Satan's trap. The point here is he says Satan has schemes and you need to be aware of it. So you got the enemy number one, that's the flesh, and you got enemy number two, that's the devil.

Then the third enemy is the world's value system. And that is culture around you. The world, the flesh, and the devil. And the world is not helping you be a more disciplined person, are they? Does anything in our society encourage self-discipline? No, not at all. In fact, every advertiser saying, "You deserve a break today. Have it your way. We do it all for you. It's all about you." Mountain Dew, my favorite commercial, says, "Obey your thirst. In other words, be an animal. Just do whatever it feels like doing. Okay? Obey your thirst. And and so the world has their value system and is promoted by advertisers and it's promoted by movies and it's promoted by television. It's promoted in songs and it's certainly promoted by celebrities. So nobody in around you is actually encouraging you to live a responsible mentally healthy life. 1 John 2:16 says this here on the screen. "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. In other words, that's passion, possession, and position. Or it's it's the lust of the flesh, that's sex, the lust of the eyes, that's your salary, and pride of life, that's success, and status. He's saying this is what everybody's going for. Okay? Money, section, power. He says all these things, it's not of the fathers, but it's of this world." And and so everything around you, all the commercials, all the media, they're not encouraging you to think smart, to think healthy, to think wise. They're encouraging you to do the other thing.

So, how do you fight this battle? I mean, it's no wonder you have all these best intentions for changing, but then you got this triple threat of your own old nature, the devil. You know, so you got the nature within you. You got the devil against you. And you got the world around you. Well, it's no wonder you keep struggling with discouragement and despair and failure and things like that. How do you fight this mental battle? Look at the next verse. 2 Corinthians 10. "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. In other words, because he's talking about the mental battle we're going through. Our weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds." Circle the word stronghold. We'll come back to that word in just a minute. "Our weapons have the divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish any argument and every pretension. That's the arguments in your own mind. The pretensions in your own mind that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And here's the important part. We tape captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Notice this is this is warfare language. And he's talking about this battle going on in your mind, this mental battle. He said, "We demolish strongholds." Now, what's a stronghold? I want you to write this down. A stronghold is a lie that I believe. That's a stronghold. A spiritual stronghold in my life is a lie that I believe. So the lie might be uh God really doesn't love me. That's a lie. Uh the lie might be I know better than God what will make me happy. That's a lie. The lie uh I should do what I want to do, not what God wants me to do, and that'll make me happier. That's a lie. I know better what will make me happy than God does. That's a lie. A and that's a stronghold. Anything that I believe that's a lie is called a spiritual stronghold in my life. Now a stronghold can be a false value system like in the world. It could be a philosophical system like hedenism which says the only thing that matters is pleasure. In other words, the whole goal of life is to have fun. That's a lie. It is not true. Or uh materialism is a phil philosophical worldview which says the only thing that matters is making money. That's a lie. That's not true. So secularism, hedenism, materialism, uh all that matters is money or sex or power. Those are all lies. And if I believe them, then I get a stronghold in my life. Could be a worldview or it could be a personal attitude. A stronghold could be an attitude like I'm never going to forgive that person. That's a stronghold. I could never forgive myself. That's a stronghold. I will never amount to anything. That's a stronghold. If something bad's going to happen, it's going to happen to me. That's a stronghold. It's a lie that you are believing. And he says, if you're going to learn to be mentally healthy, you've got to learn how to demolish strongholds in your life. Behind every sin is some lie that you're believing. The Bible calls Satan the father of lies. Jesus says, "I am the truth and the truth sets you free." Satan is a liar and he's going to enslave you. So, this stronghold needs to be destroyed.

How do we how do we fight this mental battle? Well, notice two phrases. I want you to circle it. First, he says, "We take captive." Circle that phrase. We take captive. And the word in Greek is akalotidzo. And it means it literally means to conquer. It means to bring under control. It means to capture. We we take captive. We we conquer like a country. Wealot a country. And then the other phrase in which circle he says we make it obedient. We take it captive. Every thought captive and we make every we make it obedient. Make every thought obey Christ. And that word there uh literally make it obedient. Hoopo means to bring in submission. How do you do that? What's he talking about here? He's talking about how do you make your mind mind? >> How do you make your mind mind you? We bring it into submission. We we take it captive. We we make it obedient. Let's just have a little confession here. My thoughts often disobey me. They often rebel. My mind often has a mind of its own. It wants to go in another direction. This morning I was studying for this message. My mind didn't want to study. It wanted to go watch the Olympics. Okay? They wanted to sit down with a big sandwich, [snorts] some jalapeno potato chips. Okay. Piece of mud pie. I'm making you all hungry now here. See? See what See what I'm doing? I'm I'm messing with your mind. Okay. Okay. You're all already salivating on that kind of stuff right there? You know, and if you got ADD or ADHD, your mind often goes off in a whole different direction and you get ready to pray and you're going, "What do I say?" I don't know. I don't have anything to say. You got anything, say, "Lord, I don't have anything to say." Is anybody identifying with this? Okay. And you I don't know. You know, I'm supposed to pray. What do I pray? Or uh Hello, God. Amen. >> [laughter] >> My mind often rebelss. When I need to ponder, my mind wants to wander. It doesn't always obey me. When I need to pray, my mind drifts away. Okay. He says, "We take captive. We make it obedient." What's he saying here is you have a choice. Your mind has to listen to you. And your will, God didn't give you just a mind. He gave you a will and emotions. So, we're going to talk about emotions next week. But part of your will is to bring your mind into order. Now, the reason why most people are ineffective in life and actually fail at life and actually don't enjoy life is because they've never learned how to fight the battle of the mind. This is so important. I intend to teach an entire series on it this year. We're going to go into this in detail. I'm only doing one message on it. 50 days transformation. But today, I just want to explain to you one simple thing. How temptation works. Because Paul says we're not supposed to be ignorant of how Satan works. We need to know how it works so you're not caught off guard. So, let me explain to you how temptation works because it always uses the same pattern. James 1:14-15 tells us the pattern. "Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires. And these evil desires lead to evil actions. And then the evil actions lead to death." Now, notice, temptation is a process. It's not an isolated event. You know when people talk about, I don't know, it just caught me off guard. It was just a one night stand. No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't. There were a lot of things that you gave into before you got to lowering that barrier. Temptation is a process and the Bible desri describes exactly how it and there are four phases. Write these down.

Phase number one is temptation starts with desire. So number one is desire. If you don't have any desire for something, it's not a temptation. I have never ever in my life been tempted to smoke a cigarette. Why? There's no desire in me. I think they stink. Okay. Somebody asked me one day, "Will smoking send you to hell?" I said, "No. Make you smell like you've been there, but it it won't but it it's not going to send you to hell." Okay. All right. I do. You remember when they used to have smoking on airplanes? I that was terrible. I had a I had a friend used to carry a card with him and when a guy would light up next to him on the plane, he he'd hand him the card and it said, "I notice you smoke. Will I chew? If you won't blow smoke on me, I won't spit on you." Now, I've never been tempted because I it just didn't smell good to me. Now, there's a lot of stuff I've been tempted in that you haven't been tempted in, but it always starts with an internal desire. Now, he says there, the lure of our desire, [clears throat] it begins inside you. Temptation doesn't start out there. Doesn't start on TV. Doesn't start on the street corner. It starts inside your mind. And it often begins with a natural desire. Not even an evil desire. It can begin with a natural desire. You have a natural desire for sleep. You have a natural desire for water. You have a natural desire for food. You have a natural desire for sex. You have a natural desire to succeed in life. These are all God-given drives. The drive to achieve, the drive for sex, the drive to breathe, the drive, those are normal drives. There's nothing wrong with them. Okay, listen closely. Temptation turns a routine desire into a runaway desire. And that's what [clears throat] makes it bad. It becomes more important than anything else. It's all you can think about. And any desire out of control is destructive. Fire in a fireplace can warm. Fire on a cooking stove can cook great food, but fire uncontrolled can burn your house down. All of God's gifts misused and abused will burn your house down. Any of them will. Sex, sleep, eating, any of those things. They're good desires, good drives, but misused and abused. They they uh they mess you up. Now, often temptation is an attempt to fulfill a legitimate desire in your life. Like, I just want to be loved. There's nothing wrong with that in the wrong way. But the point is, it's like steel and a magnet. If there were no desire in me, there would be no temptation. Does that make sense? Okay. So, temptation doesn't start out there. It starts in here in my mind with desire.

Step two in temptation always happens this way is doubt. And what you do in doubt is you begin to doubt two things. You doubt that God loves you and you doubt that God knows best. Because when you start to get tempted, you go, "Did God really say don't have sex outside of marriage?" Did God really say forgive the person instead of get even with them? Did God really say it's more blessed to give than to receive? And you start doubting God's word. We see this from the very first temptation in Adam and Eve. They're in a perfect environment. Okay? It's it's paradise. They have no clothes and no kids. Hello. How do you mess up that? [laughter] Really? Satan comes and says, "Hey, see that tree over there? Did God really say you can't eat of that tree?" What is he doing? He's getting you to doubt God's word. And then he says, "God knows that if you eat that tree, you'll be as smart as he he is." What's he doing? He's getting you to doubt that God loves you. That God's rules are for your benefit. Every time you give into temptation, you are believing a lie. You think you know better. You think God doesn't know best. You think that you know what will make you happy more than he does. So there's always the desire and then there's the doubt. Did God really say, "Do I really love does God really love me? Is it isn't God just being a little prudish about this? Is it really true?" You know, and on and on and on.

Then the step three is deception. And the third thing that Satan does is he replaces God's truth with his lie. And he says, "God, you won't die if you eat this." God had already said, "You eat this fruit, you're going to die." Now, God said, "You can eat anything in the whole in the entire park, Yellowstone Park called Eden. You can eat anything in the park except this one tree." What does man do? He goes immediately to the one tree. It's the minimum amount of temptation possible, but it allows a choice. Satan changes it all. Said God says, "You can't eat a bunch of stuff." And the reason he doesn't want you to because he doesn't want you to be as smart as he is. He is giving you a lie. He he is deceiving you. Notice it says in that verse he says uh I am lured. He said temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desire. Circle the word lure. That's a fishing term. He's talking enticed. He's he's talking about using bait there. Now any of you fishermen? Some of you are. The secret to good fishing is real simple. You got to use the right bait. Salmon eat a certain kind of bait and trout eat another kind of bait and and and fish will even change what they're eating feeding on at different times of the day. And how many fish are you going to catch with a bare hook? None. Zero. None. So obviously you got to put some bait on there. You got to have a lure question. What kind of bait does Satan use on you? Do you even know? Do you know the one he always uses on you and he keeps coming back to it because it gets you every time. It hooks you every single time. It may be from something long time ago that a parent said to you, but man, when that thing comes out, you are just so hooked, you immediately get depressed or you immediately get angry or you immediately get worried and say and Satan go hooked. I put the right bait on that hook. Satan knows your weaknesses and he hides the hook. Now, I call this phase deception because you know why? Often we know there's a hook there, but we still keep nibbling. We know there's a hook, but we still keep nibbling. It's like people who flirt in the office. How stupid is that? You know there's a hook there. You know it's going to There's only one way it could go. Bad. But you still keep nibbling. You say, "I'm an adult. I won't get hurt. I'll be careful." You're being deceived. And there's a lure. Now, anybody who's done fishing, Tom's a fly fisherman, knows that lures can when you fly fish, they can be pretty flashy. Pretty flashy. And the flashier the lure that What was that? That fish goes, "What was that? Holy I'm going to swim over there. That thing looked ex flashy. It's shiny, man. That looks like Las Vegas. You know what Las Vegas is? One giant lure in the desert. >> Yeah, you can pick that. >> And it's shiny and it's bright and they've got all you can eat buffets for nothing. And somebody's paying for that and you're gonna get hurt. And you know, the poor suckers are gonna, you know, Las Vegas should just be called Lost Wages. Look at this. Just next time you're going to attempt to be good to Las Vegas, just give me your money, okay? Just give it to me. Okay. Okay. And then you save the time, save the effort, and we'll use it for good. All right. [snorts] Temptation always looks better than it is.

Then step four is disobedience and defeat. Disobedience and defeat. Now we've moved from desire. There's something that's I want to doubt God's word and God's love to deception. I'm believing the lie that Satan's telling me. It's going to be okay. You can get away with this. It's all right. Just this once and it's not that bad. And on and on. And then you go to disobedience and then defeat. And now it's sin. What began in the mind gets translated into action. And it goes like this. My attention becomes an attitude and my attitude becomes an action. Well, you really spent a lot of time on this, but this is how it works in the battle for your mind. I've had guys say to me, "What's the danger of a harmless fantasy? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? It's not harmless." I want you to write this down. What I flirt with, I'll fall for. Whatever I flirt with, it may be a cupcake. I'll fall for. Whatever I flirt with, I'll fall for. I need to refocus my attention. The Bible says after desires conceived, it gives birth to sin and the end result is death. Says the tragic consequ what's death? The exact opposite of living. Now listen, you are free to choose anything you want in life. You're free to make your choices, but you are not free from the consequences of those choices. The moment you make that choice, you are no longer free. Because there are consequences that come to every choice, often unintended consequences. And what you sow, you will reap. And you cannot choose the behavior and not choose the consequence. Now, what am I saying? The best time to win the battle with temptation is before it begins. Look at this verse on the screen. Psalm 119:112. "I have made up my mind to obey your laws forever, no matter what." Until you come to that point, you're just going to keep stumbling and stumbling and stumbling and stumbling. I have made up my mind. That's a choice. I have made up my mind to obey your laws forever, no matter what.

>> All right. Three things. I said, you got to make these choices every day. I have to focus. I have to I I have to uh free and I have to feed. I said, first I have to feed my mind constantly on truth, not garbage. And then I have to free my mind from destructive thoughts. We talked about how that happens. And the third is I must focus my mind on the right things. For mental health, I must focus my mind on the right things. Now, we're out of time, so let me just mention three real quick. Just write. Can you write quick? All right. Just write these down. Three things that'll make the most difference in your mental state.

Number one, think about Jesus. Think about Jesus. You've heard that old cliche, you become whatever you think about most. Yeah. Well, you think about Jesus, guess what? You're going to become like Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:8, "Keep your mind on Jesus Christ." Hebrews 12:13, 12:3, "Think about Jesus' example. He held on. Are you having a hard time holding on? He held on while wicked people were doing evil things to him. So, do not get tired and stop trying." So, don't do that. When you start feeling like you're ready to give up, think about what Jesus went through. Think about Jesus.

Number two, think about others. Think about others. Philippians 2:4 says, "Don't just think about your own affairs, but be interested in others too and what they are doing." Do you realize how counterculture that is? Everything in the world teaches you to think about yourself and nobody else. [snorts] How many times have you heard this phrase? I've got to do what's best for for me. Looking out for number one. Yeah, you I could go on down a whole list of these phrases that basically say, "It's all about me. It's all about me. It's all about me. It's all about me." That's why when I wrote purpose-driven life, I thought, "What's the most counterculture statement I could think of in our culture to begin this book with?" And I just said, "It's not about you." That is the most counterculture statement you can make in our world today. It's not about you. It's like a slap in the face. So, I just thought I'll start the book with a slap in the face. It's not about you, okay? It's not about you. It's not about you. It's not about you. It's all about God. And it's only in giving your life away that you will understand what it really means to live. So, think about others. Hebrews 10:24, "Let us think about each other and help each other to show love and do good deeds." And the best place to practice that is in your small group. Practice that verse in your small group this week. Let's think about each other. Let's help each other to show love and do good deeds in your small group. That's the laboratory for love. It's the place to learn unselfishness. Think about Jesus. Think about others.

Number three, think about eternity. That's the third one that'll make the biggest difference in your mental state. Think about eternity that there's more to life than just here and now. The problem that we do today is we have short-term thinking. We only think about what's happening right now. Colossians 3:2, "Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth." King James version says, "Set your minds on things above, not upon things on the earth. Let heaven fill your thoughts." Now, have you heard this old canard? He's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good. That's a bunch of baloney. You know what I found? Only the people who are heavenly minded actually do any good. And those who are most heavenly minded throughout history are those who've done the most good on earth. Bar none. It is not the earthly minded people who get the most done on earth. It is the most heavenly minded people who get the most done on earth for good. It's just not true. He's so heavenly minded there no earthly good. The problem is the opposite. We're so earthly minded, we're no heavenly good. All we think about is budget and baseball and bills and stuff like that. 1 Corinthians 2:9. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." Think about that. When you start thinking about that, all of the problems, little nitpicky problems in your life are going to seem so inferior compared to the glory, the joy, the pleasure, the enjoyment, the things we have to look forward to in eternity.

I need to feed my mind on truth every day. I need to free my mind from those destructive thoughts. I can choose not to think them by changing the way I think. We'll talk about that in your small group. And then I can focus my mind on the right thing. And when I'm focused on the right thing, I don't have time to pay attention to the wrong thing. When I'm watching a TV, I don't like what I see. I

Just flip the channel. Change your attention. I'm no longer tempted. It's real simple.

Let's bow for prayer. Father, you gave us our minds. We were made in your image. This is the greatest gift you've ever given us, the gift of intellect. And we realize it's our greatest asset. And yet, it is the greatest battleground. And we realize that the world and the flesh and the devil all team up to thwart our best intentions.

Now you pray. Just say a simple prayer. God, help me to put into practice what I've just learned. Just say, God, help me put into practice what I've just learned. Help me to make these choices on a daily basis. I want to feed my mind with truth all the time. And I want to free my mind from destructive thoughts by taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. To not just let my mind run wild. Help me to be wise to temptation. Realize when desire is turning to doubt, to deception, to disobedience.

God, today just say this, God. It's a strange feeling since I have by all standards achieved everything that most people work their entire lives to get. My success as an investment banker has given me multiple homes, nice cars, all kinds of perks and luxuries. I'm married to a great woman, and I I have two young kids that I adore, and I enjoy good health. And all of this came to me at a much earlier age than I figured it would take. And yet, and yet I'm just not as happy as I think I ought to be. To be honest, I'm often restless. I'm often bored and unsatisfied. Sometimes at night, I I feel hollow and empty. I keep thinking there's got to be more to life than this. What do you think I should do?

Do you know friends, there is an entire book of the Bible about this dilemma. It's called the book of Ecclesiastes and it was written by another guy who had everything. He had it all. His name was King Solomon. Solomon was the king of Israel at its apex of power. There was no man wiser, wealthier, or more powerful in the world during the reign. Solomon. And yet Solomon has really in one sense a midlife crisis in the book of Ecclesiastes. And it's kind of a negative book till you get to the end where he comes to the right conclusion. But Solomon says, "My life just seems so so empty, so meaningless, so painfully unsatisfying." And so he said, 'I decided that I would try uh to find meaning and purpose and fulfillment in life. And Ecclesiastes is the book or the journey of his journal of his journey trying to find satisfaction, fulfillment in life.

And and Solomon starts off in chapter one, he says, you know, first I decided I'd try education and I thought I'm just going to get wise and I'm going to learn everything there is to know. So I learned everything I could learn and I and I discovered everything I could discover and I became as wise as I could be. Became the wisest man in the world. And he said I I read all the books and in one part he says in the making of books there is much weariness. And at the end of all of his education he says you know I I I got it all. I I knew what I needed to know and I still felt empty inside.

So he said you know then I I I decided I would look for it in my career. And he says, "I'm the king of Israel and and I have enormous power. So I I im you know embrace all kinds of big public works and I I do all kinds of good things and I I I have great goals and I have a big vision and I I go after all uh the things in my work in my career and my vocation and I really gave myself to it." But he said I I I I still felt empty.

So he said, "Well, maybe, you know, maybe the answer's in money." And so he said, "I I amassed a huge fortune." And of course, Solomon became the wealthiest man in the world in his day. And and when the Queen of Sheba actually came to see Solomon, she says, "I've never seen this kind of wealth. It's just massive. It's just unbelievable how much money, how much wealth, how many how many riches this guy has." And he said, "And I I I piled it all up and I and I bought nice things and I did art projects and all of these things, but I I I still felt empty."

He said, "You know, I I I tried everything that everybody tries, popularity, uh, you know, fame. Uh, I I tried the party scene. I I went out and I I I gave my life to wine, women, and song. Emphasis wine and women." And he goes at the end of that I I I still felt empty. It's a common common cause of many many people.

Now, let me just ask you, have you ever been so hungry? Well, let's say you get up in the middle of the night. You've all done this likely. You go to the refrigerator and you open the door of the refrigerator and then you stare because you know you're hungry but you don't know what you're hungry for. Okay. How many of you have ever been there? Can I see your hands? All right. The rest of you are dirty rotten liars. Okay. We've all done this. You stand in front of a refrigerator and you go, "I'm hungry, but nothing looks good. You can't decide what is this hunger inside of me. You ever been so hungry all you could think about was food? Yeah. Have Have you ever been so thirsty driving across the desert you just think I've got to get something to drink for my parched throat? Yes, you have.

In this famous sermon of Jesus, he says, you know, being spiritually hungry is actually a good thing. He said it it's a good thing. To be hungry for God is a good is a good thing. In fact, he says it's one of the keys to living a blessed life. Matthew 5:6, Jesus says this, "God blesses those who [snorts] hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." That's a promise. I want you to circle the word righteousness. And I want you to circle the word filled because we're going to spend some time on that today.

First, this word filled, they will be filled. A lot of translations translate this verse. They will be fully satisfied. They will be satiated. They will have all of their needs fulfilled. They will be fully satisfied with what happens in their life. And the Bible says that you get that kind of fulfilled life. You get that kind of satisfying life, that meaningful life. by hungering and thirsting for righteousness. So obviously we need to know what righteousness is.

Now righteousness is ex incredibly important word in the Bible. It's used hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. The Bible says that one day God is going to judge the earth in righteousness. And so this is an important concept. So, what in the world does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness? Because if I do that, then I'm going to have a fulfilled and satisfying life.

Well, if you were to go to a theological dictionary and look up the word righteous, you'd find a long definition. In fact, one dictionary I had had a 27page definition of the word righteous. But let me just boil it all down in two statements. It's it is about a relationship and it is about a lifestyle. First, it is a relationship. Write this down. To be righteous means being right with God in its simplest form. It just simply means being right. Being right with God. That's righteousness. It is a position that God has in relationship to you. You have in relationship to God. Romans chapter 1:1 17 says this, "The good news tells us how God makes us right with himself." Now that word good news, you know, you've heard the word gospel, you've heard gospel music, gospel preaching, sharing the gospel. Well, the word gospel is simply the old English word for good news. And it simply means good news. And the Bible says the gospel or the good news tells us how God makes us right with him. Now, I want you to notice that this is something that God does for you. You don't do it. You don't make yourself righteous. God does it for you. And we're we're going to look at that good news in detail in just a minute.

It's a relationship. It's being right with God. But the Bible also uses the word righteous to refer to a lifestyle. And when you write this down, it means living right. Living right as God intends. Living right in faith. Living right in God's commandments. And this is not a position of righteousness. It is the practice of righteousness. 1 John chapter 2:29 says this, "All who practice righteousness are God's true children." All who practice righteousness are God's true children.

So what I want us to do today is to look at two things. How does God make me right with him? Me being an imperfect, flawed individual and God being perfect and holy. How does God make me right with him? And then uh I want us to look at practically on a daily basis. How do I keep a spiritual hunger for God? Because the Bible says if I am hungry and thirsty for God to be right with God and to do right with God, then I will be filled. I will be fulfilled in life.

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Why should I care about being right with God? Especially since none of my friends seem to care. The people who you live next door to couldn't care less most likely about being right with God. There are millions of people in America and hundreds or hundreds of millions or billions of people who really don't care at all about being right with God. They don't seem to be doing so bad. So why in the world should I care or why in the world should I hunger and thirst for righteousness if nobody else seems to care about it?

Well, to put it simply, one, it's the only way to really live. And two, it's the only way to get to heaven. Let me show you some verses. Proverbs 12 28 says this. Righteousness is the road to life and the path to immortality. Proverbs, righteousness is the road to life and the path to immortality. Now, when it says it's the road to life, then it must mean I'm not really living unless I'm connected with God. And you're not. You're not. If you're not connected to God, you're just existing. You're not really living. Righteousness is the path to real life, to real living.

St. Augustine said it like this. This, "Thou hast made us for thyself, oh God, and our hearts are restless." We got spiritual add until we find our rest in thee. This is the very thing Solomon was talking about. He says, "I'm looking for meaning in this, and I'm looking for meaning in that. I'm looking for satisfaction and fulfillment in all these different areas, but nothing happens. And I can only find it in being connected to my creator. It's nonsense to try to live my life disconnected from the one who made me. You're not going to discover your plan, your purpose, or your meaning in life unless you're connected to God. How many times have you heard me say you were made by God and you were made for God? And until you figure that out, life is never going to make sense. Life is not about the acquisition of things. It's not about the achievement of goals. It's not about all these other things because that's only going to last 60, 80, at the most 100 years. It's about getting to know God who made you and who loves you. It is the road to life.

But the Bible says it's also righteousness is the path to immortality. And what does this mean? What does this mean? It means that God's not going to force you to go to heaven. You say, "What do you mean?" It's a choice. You see, God created you and he loves you deeply. He wants you to learn to love him back. But love is not love unless you have a choice. So God never forces anybody to love him. You can spend your whole life thumbing your nose to God. You can reject God and God will say, "Like Burger King, have it your way." God will not force himself on you. God does not you you can rebel your entire life. You could ignore God your entire life. You can act like God doesn't exist your entire life and God will let you do that. He gave you he made you in his image which means you have the free moral will to make a choice. And he wants you to choose to love him, not be forced to. And so if I want to say God, I want to live my entire life disconnected from you. God will, like Burger King, say, "Have it your way." But here's the problem. One day, I'm going to die and I'm going to stand before God, and God is will be able then to say to me, "Wait a minute. You chose during your life to totally ignore me, to rebel against me, to disobey me, to ignore me, to live your life separate from me." And I said, "Have it your way. So obviously, you must not want to live with me forever in eternity. So have it your way." and you would be eternally separated from God. And if you're separated from God, you can't blame God. He gave you the choice. Why would somebody want to live their life completely separated in denial of God and his will in your life and then once you die, oh, by the way, I want to love you and been live in your house forever. God will say, "Have it your way." You you you you get what you asked for, what you what you chose. It was your choice.

Now, you saw that verse where God says that the good news shows us how God makes people right with himself. That's called the gospel. What is that? Today, I want to give you Christian theology 101. Okay, this is the ABCs of our faith. What does it mean for God to make me right or righteous with him? Well, it means three things. Here's the plan, right? You might want to write these down. And the first thing is not necessarily good news. In fact, it's not even news, but it's this. I can't make myself righteous. Okay? I can't make myself righteous. Over in the book of Jeremiah 13 23, Jeremiah says, "Can a leopard change his spots?" And the answer is obviously not. And he said, "Neither can an imperfect person make himself perfect." I stopped being perfect about the fourth breath of my life. And and and nobody bats a thousand. In fact, I've never met actually anybody who claimed to be perfect except some people who weren't all in their capacities. And and so we all know this. We all know uh but if if I am imperfect, then here's the question. How do I go to heaven if I'm imperfect?

Let me let me explain. The Bible says that there is a heaven. And the Bible says heaven is a perfect place. There's no sadness. There's no sorrow. There's no sickness. There's no suffering. There's no sin in heaven. Now, here's the problem. I'm imperfect and I have problems like anger and fear and anxiety uh and uh and jealousy and self-centeredness. If God lets imperfect people into heaven, then guess what? Heaven would be no better than earth. So, we got a problem here. Because if if God lets us into heaven with all of our sin, then there's going to be jealousy in heaven. There's going to be rape and murder in heaven. There's going to be war, adultery, unfaithfulness, meanness, racial prejudice, injustice. All the things we have on a broken planet would be in heaven. And heaven would be no different than earth if God just let imperfect sinful people bring all their sins into heaven. That ain't going to work. That isn't going to work. The Bible says, "I can't make myself righteous."

Now, God comes up with a plan for this. But let me show you what the Bible says. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 20 says this. "There is not a righteous person on earth who always does what is right and never sins." That's you, me, it's the pope, it's everybody. There's no righteous person who always does the right thing and never sins. And in Romans chapter 3, it says this. "No one can ever be made right in God's sight by simply doing what his law commands." Because the more we know God's law, the clearer it becomes that we can't keep it. Cuz the standard of perfection is is perfect. You know, I was I was on a plane one time and the guy figured out I was a pastor. So, we started talking about heaven. And as we were talking, I just happened to ask him. I said, "So, why do you why do you think on what basis do you think God's going to let you into heaven?" He said, "Well, I I I keep the Ten Commandments." I said, "Name them. I said, "You can't even name them, much less keep them." Okay? And the fact is, we've all broken them all. The Bible says, "You shall have no other gods for you." I've had lots of gods before God many times in my life, and so have you. Bible says, "Don't make any idols." I've all We've idolized all kinds of things. We idolize success. We idolize beauty. We idolize money. You've had all kinds of idols in your life. The Bible says, "Don't lie. Don't steal. You've lied. You've stolen." The Bible says, "Don't covet what somebody else does." you've done that when it comes to the commandments. I'm 10 for 10 the wrong way because Jesus said, "Hey, uh, you know, if you have lust in your heart, that's like adultery." And he says, "If you have anger in your heart, it's like murder. So guess what? I'm a murderer and adulterer. If that's true, I'm 10 for 10." Blanked out on that one. So I need another plan. Okay? And so do you.

I I remember one time I was talking to a guy on another plane and I and we were talking pretty much the same thing and I said, "So, on what basis do you think God's going to let you into his heaven?" And he said, "Because I'm better than other people." And I said, "So, you think God grades on a curve? Okay. And that your good works are this high and your bad works are this low, so he's going to uh, you know, ignore or vice versa." You see, we all want to be good enough to get to heaven, but bad enough to be fun. Really? I said, "No, no. God's standard is perfection because God is a sovereign, holy, just, righteous God. And God cannot stand the sight of sin." The Bible makes this very clear over and over and over. So, how in the world do I get into God's presence being an imperfect, sinful person? There's got to be a plan for this. Let let's trying to earn God's approval by my works and trying to earn perfection that it's like this. Let's say let's say LA is earth and h you know and Hawaii is heaven. Some of you think Hawaii is heaven. And so we decide we're all going to try to get to heaven on our own. And we're all going to get there by swimming to Hawaii. Okay. Now, some of you don't know this, but before I became a pastor for three years, I was a Red Cross lifeguard. So, I let's say I swim out 12 miles, but then I wear out and I sink. And let's say you're an Olympic, you're Greg Luganus or somebody and and you you swim out 20 miles or 30 miles and then you sink. And then you and I, we have a friend that we like a lot, but he doesn't even know how to swim, and he drowns in the surf. And some guy doesn't even get into the edge of the water. Do some people get further than others? Yes. But the path is too far. Nobody makes it all the way. I have no doubt you're better than me. You're probably a more moral person than I am. You're probably a more ethical person than I am. I I don't have any doubt that there are a lot of people better people than me in the world. The thing is none of us attain perfection and none of us can swim all the way to Hawaii. So we got to have a plan.

Now that's the second part of this point two in the gospel is that God sent Jesus to pay for my sin. God sent Jesus to pay for my sin in a sacrificial system. And God sent his son to pay for my sin. Let me give you an example of this. Let's say you have lived a life of crime your entire life. And let's say you get caught and you go to court and the prosecuting attorney makes a case and you're found guilty of a lifetime of crime. And so you are given a lifetime sentence. And the judge, he's sitting there in the courthouse with his robe on and his gavvel and he bangs the gavvel down as a judge and says, "Your guilty is charged. I sentence you