05.11.2014 How to be Transformed in Your Mental Health

SermonAudio

5-11-2014 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

Heavenly Father, thank You that You are present with us, that You love us, and for Your kindness to us. Thank You for the mothers who have loved and served and sacrificed for us – such a picture of what You have done that we might be part of the family of God. As we look at Your word, speak to our hearts – may Your word become real in us and may our lives be transformed. I pray that we would take steps to make a difference. There is not one here who is unable to change – You are able to change every area of our lives. You can speak to very specific needs in our lives – and we give You freedom to do that.
This is the third week – Spiritual/Physical – and I forgot to give you a goal to work toward from last week – each week – think of a small goal to work on – last week – either in your area of worship – not just singing, but maybe reading the devotional daily – having a consistent time of prayer. OR – a goal along the lines of rest. Maybe you have never had a Sabbath – taking a day a week where you do nothing you are supposed to do – but doing only those things that restore and refresh you. Find one of those areas and make a goal of it.
Third week – Mothers’ Day – this does not fit in with Mothers’ Day – but this is the week that helps it all to happen – it starts in our minds – we will really focus on the theme verse:
Romans 12: 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Either you are being transformed to the image of Christ or you are being conformed to the world. There is no neutral. You might think you are in neutral – but guess what? You are being conformed to the world. This transformation takes place when our minds are renewed. Today, we focus on HOW. Things we can do to take control of our thought life. Our behavior, character, and actions grow out of our thought life.
Jesus said – out of the heart – the good treasures – those who have stored good things in their mind – who focus on truth – out of that comes good actions. But out of the bad things that we allow ourselves to be consumed with on the inside – come evil deeds.
Proverbs 4:23 – guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
What you allow into your mind will determine the course of your life.
From an early age, our attitudes and character have been formed by what we allow to occupy our minds. Now we need to be transformed. Our attitudes have been formed by what people have said to us – things that form us into the people we are. There is so much power in what we say to people. With Mothers’ Day – what you say to and about your kids will form them.
We have been formed by our experiences – and not just the experience, but how we interpret it.
Something may have happened to us – positive or negative – and we interpret that and begin to tell ourselves a story about that or God – and then it begins to grip us and control us and we can’t get out of it.
We will be controlled by our thought processes until we have experienced transformation. Negative thought patterns do not go away just because you get older. We must be transformed by renewing – a regenerating – a transformation of our thinking.
There is good news today – you can control and change your thought life. That may seem impossible – and may feel impossible – but it is actually possible. It will take all of your life to do it – but you can begin today – changing the way you think about yourself and the world and about God.
Romans 7: 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. (NLT)
This comes in a context where Paul is talking about wanting to do what is right – trying to do what is right – but finding himself doing what he doesn’t want to do.
What he wants to do – he can’t do – and all of us have been there – we know we are not supposed to be angry, bitter, or anxious – but we find ourselves not being able to do it – but being controlled by that which we don’t want to do. This battle takes place in every human – and the first thing is to recognize the battle – and then to engage in it.
The battle is all about lies and truth – those stories we have told ourselves engage in our heart s- and we need to engage the truth. That is what Jesus did in the desert.
Adam and Eve – the serpent lied, and Adam and Eve did not engage truth. We listen to lies we have been told.
Jesus said – You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. There is freedom from the thoughts that discourage, depress, cause us to be afraid, unimportant, not valued – there is freedom from all of that that is found in the truth.
3 areas we are attacked -
The sinful nature.
Galatians 5: 17 For the flesh set its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
These forces are constantly fighting each other. SO the first front for this battle is our old nature – we have been redeemed and regenerated – but this old nature is still there – and it can have a powerful impact on our lives if we let it.
The second attack comes directly from the enemy –
1 Peter 5: 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
We need to believe this – that when we go off on our day – there is an enemy waiting for the opportunity to devour you – and we need to be prepared and engage every day understanding that. If the enemy can get us to forget him, he has won. You won’t be alert to it – you won’t be ready for it.
The enemy knows our weaknesses and where we are vulnerable. Have you ever found yourself blowing it in the same area again? Why am I thinking like this again? The enemy knows your weakness and he will go after it every time.
Darryl does Wilderness Spiritual training. I would never go – but John Ference and others I know have gone – I don’t know why anyone would when you can stay in perfectly good hotels! But you are in mountain lion country – and you either need a high backpack or a staff that you carry behind your head – because he tells us – the mountain lion will always go for the neck.
2 Co. 11: 3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
The ultimate goal of this attack is to destroy our relationship with God. If he can get you to neglect your walk with God – he has won – because you cannot defeat him without a strong walk and relationship with Christ.
He went at Eve – leading her astray from her devotion to Christ.
Third – the world.
1 John 2: 5 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
The world – there is a mentality that is bent on defeating us and our relationship with Christ – bent on turning us away. We need to believe that – that I have a whole world coming against me – through the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes…. – the world wants us to conform and accommodate our lives to its values.
The lust of the flesh is the passions – sex/
Lust of the eyes – greed – covetousness – always wanting more. Discontent with what we have.
3rd – pride of life – position – status – power – superiority – always trying to grasp and gain control, whether it is in relationships, business, or even church. The world is engaged in this battle.
These 3 attacks bring temptations.
James 1:14 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
We have these natural and God-given desires – but the way the attack comes – God has designed a specific place where that desire is to be fulfilled. Temptation is trying to fulfill those desires outside of the place they are meant to be fulfilled. Food – good and natural desire – but designed for a specific place in our lives – and when we take it out of that place – it is destructive.
Think of a fire – in the winter, if you have a fireplace when it is cold – it makes you warm and comfortable. But if the fire moves out of the fireplace and into the house – you have a problem. It becomes destructive – and we get tempted if we allow these desires to come out of their place.
When we are tempted, we need to have a plan – you will be tempted.
1 Cor. 10:13 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
You need to have a strategy –
1) Expect temptation – count on it. When you are tempted, sometimes you feel guilty – but temptation is not sin. The most godly of people get tempted. You don’t get tempted LESS the more you are transformed. Temptation is not sin – it is normal.
2) STOP IT! Say NO! I remember in college years – you would hear someone saying NO! That is not enough – you need to go beyond that –
3) bring the truth to bear in the temptation. It is helpful to know where you are tempted and to have a corresponding biblical truth to bring in – somewhere to bring in. “The pure in heart shall see God” – that was my verse when I was younger.
4) Redirect the temptation. You can’t just do the three – you have to take the temptation as a springboard to do a positive action. Do something proper instead of what is improper. If every time you are tempted in some area, you turn it around – and then do something for God and His kingdom – that is what transformation is all about – that is where it takes place.
Dallas Willard: “Spiritual practices – we need them – disciplines/habits – they are something you can do like saying NO, bringing the truth to bear, redirecting – something to enable you to do somethnjn you cannot do by willpower alone. You cannot, by willpower, stop giving in to temptation or change the way you think. You need to engage spiritual practices that allow you to do what you cannot do on your own.
Golf – if you have never golfed, you will not be able to hit a 300 yard drive.
You will not be able to take an iron, hit the green, and make it spin back.
It is no different – spiritual practices - - you can’t just get up and say – I’m not going to sin anymore – but there eared spiritual practices you can do that will enable you to do things you can’t just do with willpower.
2 Cor. 10: 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
This is a great verse – speaking of strongholds and battle – trying to capture our minds – and all of us as a result of our experiences – are held captive by something – lies – lofty things – speculations – that are against the true knowledge of God that have captured you – and we need to take those things captive. There is a lot that we think that is not right.
Rick Warren – don’t believe everything you think!
It is really good advice! Don’t believe everything that comes into your mind! So much comes from lies that you have been told over the years.
We need to know the strongholds – the things that have taken our minds captive – and we need to identify them – you must know the lies you believe – we all have them – do you know what they are and why they are there?
How to identify the lie – go to the broken, destructive behavior in your life. Go into that – in that – you will identify the lies.
Maybe you were always compared to your siblings – and they were better athletes, smarter, better job – and even if your parents weren’t intentionally doing it – they may have been unaware – and over time, you viewed yourself as disappointing – and that lie goes deep – and begins to affect everything you do – it works on the way you approach everything over time.
We need to be able to get back to that – reexamine it – and address it with the truth.
Here is the goal for this week – in order to genuinely control change – to transform your mind – it will require some spiritual practice – maybe it a strategy about how to conquer temptation. Maybe to discover the lie – find the Bible verse that speaks to the lie and memorizing it and engaging it in your life. Make that your goal – let’s pray…
Lord, help us to understand the power that we have when we learn to have our minds transformed by the truth in God’s word – that You fill us, Your spirit is within us – and we can wage war for this battle of our minds. There is victory that can be had – not through ourselves, but through You. In Christ, we are overwhelming conquerors.