January 25, 2004

Service Theme – "Our God Knows Us"

Philippians 4:8-9; Psalm 139; Mark 7:20-23; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Who Cares What I think about?

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Michael Boyland writes, Aqaba in 1917 seemed impregnable. Any enemy vessel approaching the port would have to face the battery of huge naval guns above the town. Behind Aqaba in every direction lay barren, waterless, inhospitable desert. To the east lay the deadly "anvil of the sun." The Turks believed Aqaba to be safe from any attack. But they were wrong. Lawrence of Arabia led a force of irregular Arab cavalry across the "anvil of the sun." Together, they rallied support among the local people. On July 6, 1917, the Arab forces swept into Aqaba from the north, from the blind side. A climactic moment of the magnificent film Lawrence of Arabia is the long, panning shot of the Arabs on their camels and horses, with Lawrence at their head, galloping past the gigantic naval guns that are completely powerless to stop them. The guns were facing in the wrong direction. Aqaba fell, and the Turkish hold on Palestine was broken, to be replaced by the British mandate and eventually by the State of Israel. The Turks failed to defend Aqaba because they made two mistakes. They did not know their enemy, and they did not have the right weapons. We must be careful not to make the same mistakes. (Ephesians 6:12) makes it very clear who our enemy is: "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world" (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
2. Context – Boyland is right. We know who our enemy is, but we don’t really know his tactics. At least we don’t often think about them and try to fight them. This is especially true in our thought life. George Barna did a study on how many Christians have a biblical worldview. This is how Barna defined a biblical worldview - (NEW SLIDE) believing that absolute moral truth exists, that it is based upon the Bible, and having a biblical view on six core beliefs (the accuracy of biblical teaching, the sinless nature of Jesus, the literal existence of Satan, the omnipotence and omniscience of God, salvation by grace alone, and the personal responsibility to evangelize). Barna’s study showed that only 9% of born again Christians and only 7% of all Protestants have a biblical worldview. In other words, less than one Christian out of ten has the same point of view as the Bible does on these few points. That is frightening! To make it a little more personal – we usually average around eighty or eighty five on Sunday mornings, so that would mean that only seven people in this room think about the world and life and spiritual meaning the same way the Bible teaches. Of course, the next question is, which seven people?

2. Stewardship of Our Thought Life?

1. We could spend all day talking with each other about this and comparing notes and seeing who measures up and who doesn’t, but we’d be missing the point. The point that we’re trying to make here is that we don’t take stewardship of our thought life seriously enough. Yes, I said stewardship of our thought life. Today we’re starting a series that will teach us about stewardship on four different levels.
2. I know that when any of us mention the word "stewardship," many of us get a bit uncomfortable. But the Bible teaches that we are mere stewards of what God has given us on this earth, and that includes our thought life. Paul believed so strongly in fighting the battle for our mind that he wrote this in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:
3. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (from the NIV) - (NEW SLIDE) For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. (NEW SLIDE) 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
4. Paul is talking about war, spiritual war that is waged for control of the mind. First he talks about war, then weapons, then what we are fighting against. (NEW SLIDE) We are fighting against strongholds – patterns of thinking that have taken up residence in our minds and are influencing everything we think and do and are fighting for their lives to stay put. Satan will fight with everything he’s got for those strongholds to stay in our minds, because if he can control our minds, he’s got us defeated. He doesn’t have to worry about us making any kind of a major impact for God on our culture. That’s why our culture is becoming more and more non-Christian, and even anti-Christian – because we have not fought the battle for the mind. And in this passage Paul describes a very specific battlefield – "arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God."
5. Know what a pretension is? According to my dictionary, it’s an unrealistic or immodest claim, or an outward, ostentatious show. What did Satan do to get himself kicked out of heaven? He made an unrealistic and immodest claim to be greater than God, and he continues to put on a very flashy show to try to make us believe he’s stronger than God. Which he absolutely is not! But he is still arguing against who God is and what God teaches us and tries to back it up with a false show. How do we fight these tactics? How do we demolish strongholds? Paul tells us in verse five – "we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ." And there is no loophole – the word translated "every" in English means the exact same thing in Greek. We have to discipline our minds. (NEW SLIDE) When those thoughts come up that are not in line with God’s Word, we have to, first, in our hearts, rebuke our sinful nature for going along with Satan’s lies, and second, rebuke Satan. If rebuking Satan in our heart does not work, then we need to do it out loud! And we have to be militant – we have to do it every time, because any time we let one by we’re reopening a Pandora’s box of unbiblical thinking that will lead us to sin. "Okay, Hawes, if we’re supposed to stop those thoughts when they come to our attention, what do we replace them with?"

3. Replacement Thinking

1. Paul knows our problem. He knows we need something better to focus on if we’re going to win the battle for the stewardship of our minds. Philippians 4:8-9 (from the New Living) – (NEW SLIDE) And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (NEW SLIDE) 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you. We have to glue our minds continually on those things that are good. "Okay, Hawes, but how am I supposed to live here on earth if my head’s in the clouds?" We all have several streams of thought going on at once. For example, while part of your mind hopefully is thinking about what I'm saying, part of your mind may thinking about a big exam, or a big job assignment, or a difficult personal issue you’ll be facing. We all are created by God to multi-task in our minds. Some folks have just done a better job at training themselves to do it. So while we’re doing those things that we have to do each day, we can fix our thoughts continually on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise. Know what those things describe? The Bible. Yes, the Bible records the good, the bad, and the ugly about real people, but it also records God’s intervention into our world and how He can transform us into His likeness. Take captive every thought, rebuking both your sinful nature and Satan for those thoughts that are not pleasing to God. (NEW SLIDE) Read the Bible every day, so that you can know what to fix the focus of your thoughts on. Why? Because God knows our every thought.

1. God Knows Everything We Think

1. Psalm 139:1-4, 23-24 (from the NIV) - (NEW SLIDE) O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD… (NEW SLIDE) 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
2. Verses one to four tell us that God knows everything that is going on in our hearts and our heads even before we realize it’s there. So what makes us think we can keep those things away from God? What makes us think that we can keep anything totally private? God knows what we think and God cares about what we think. Our thoughts can be either pleasing or displeasing to God. That’s why stewardship of our thought life is so important! But what more can we do about those thoughts that aren’t pleasing to Him? I mean, if we’re already rebuking our sinful nature and Satan for them, and we’re already spending time in the Bible so we have appropriate things to think about and we work to fix the focus of our thoughts on those good things, and we’re still struggling, what more can we do?
3. Verses twenty-three and twenty-four contain David’s beautiful prayer for dealing with those thoughts. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. When we pray this prayer, we are inviting God to look us over inside and out, to see what is in us that is displeasing to Him. So what? He already knows this stuff anyway! (NEW SLIDE) When we pray this kind of prayer, we are submitting ourselves and our hearts and minds to Him. We are saying in effect, "God, You know what’s in there already, but I’m surrendering it to You anyway." How does that help us? Look at the last phrase of verse twenty-four – "and lead me in the way everlasting." When we pray that, we are basically telling God, "Do anything you need to within me so that I can walk with You." And that includes helping us work through those thoughts that are displeasing to Him and getting rid of them. Let’s review our steps so far. First, we take captive every thought, rebuking our sinful nature and rebuking Satan for those thoughts. Second, we read the Bible daily and fix the focus of our thoughts on what we read in it. (NEW SLIDE) Third, we pray, submitting our hearts and minds to God and asking Him to get rid of anything that will keep us from walking with Him. But there is another question that has to be answered. Why does what I think impact what I do?

1. Cleaning the Unclean

1. Jesus spells it out very clearly in Mark 7:20-23 (from the New Living) – (NEW SLIDE) And then he added, "It is the thought-life that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, eagerness for lustful pleasure, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you and make you unacceptable to God." Notice that Jesus says that evil behavior comes from evil thoughts. Look at the list.
2. Sexual immorality is behavior. Theft and murder are behaviors. Adultery, greed, wickedness, and deceit all require action in order to happen. Eagerness for lustful pleasure is something we can chase after. Envy we definitely are in the habit of acting on. Slander, pride and foolishness – all need action to be fully expressed. (NEW SLIDE) Notice how these are thoughts that become actions. And so it is impossible for a Christian to harbor these thoughts, to relish them and feed them and even obsess on them, and still be pleasing to God. We do such a good job of excusing our sinful thoughts. We say that we are forgiven because we’ve asked Jesus to forgive us and be our Savior, but if we haven’t submitted to Him in our hearts and minds, we’re only fooling ourselves. It is very easy for us to be Christians in name only if we’re living in disobedience to Jesus, and yet claim that we are pleasing to Him. After all, no one else knows our thoughts, right? No one else knows that our thoughts are displeasing to God and breaking our fellowship with Him. No one else knows that we aren’t really walking with God, because Jesus said in John 14:21, "Those who obey my commandments are the ones who love me." We can’t justify hanging on to our evil thoughts any longer, folks. Our thought lives are exactly the reason why Christians in our country are almost identical statistically to non-Christians in just about every negative behavioral indicator – divorce, adultery, pornography, lying, stealing, cheating.
3. We’ve got to start walking with integrity, folks, meaning that what we advertise on the outside is exactly what is going on inside of us. Our country is in a mess, and it’s because we’ve forgotten how to be salt and light to our world. We’ve forgotten that to love Jesus is to obey Him. We’ve forgotten that to obey Him is to get rid of those influences in our lives that are causing what God calls displeasing thoughts to run through our heads. (NEW SLIDE) That’s the fourth step – consciously getting rid of those things in our lives that lead our minds to sin. If our friends and coworkers are telling us we deserve better and need to divorce our spouse, maybe we need to get new friends or a new job (except in the case of abuse). If our computer or TV is leading us into pornography, maybe we need to get a filtered Internet service provider or get rid of the computer or the TV. By the way, this applies to both men and women. I know we’ve talked about the tens of millions of men in our country who are addicted to pornography, but did you know that there are thirty-six million women in the United States who are addicted to pornography as well? If the books we read are filling our heads with thoughts that are displeasing to God, maybe we need to read different books. There are lots of examples we could talk about, but the point is that, if we are sincere about walking with integrity and allowing God to change us so that we can be free from our evil thoughts, we will get rid of anything in our lives that stands in the way.
4. Illustration – In Paradise Lost, John Milton wrote, (NEW SLIDE) The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n (as cited on PreachingToday.com). God wants to establish His kingdom in our minds. Will we take the steps necessary to allow Him to do it? Let’s review those steps again. First, we take captive every thought, rebuking our sinful nature and rebuking Satan for those thoughts. Second, we read the Bible daily and fix the focus of our thoughts on what we read in it. Third, we pray, submitting our hearts and minds to God and asking Him to get rid of anything that will keep us from walking with Him. Fourth, we consciously get rid of those things in our lives that lead our minds to sin.
5. If we’re serious about being good stewards of our thought life so that we can walk in fellowship with God and be pleasing to Him, we will begin doing them. (NEW SLIDE) It may take some time to work through this process, but as long as we’re striving to please God and seeking His face, He will help us and we will have the victory by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Satan will fight us, because he knows that in the end, Jesus wins. Let’s make sure we fight back with the right weapons!

6. Conclusion

1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. How are you doing at fighting the battle of the mind? Are you taking captive every thought, rebuking Satan and your sinful nature for those sinful thoughts? Are you reading the Bible daily and fixing the focus of your mind on those truths? Are you daily submitting your heart and mind to Jesus, asking Him to get rid of anything that will keep you from walking with Him? Are you consciously getting rid of those things in your mind that are leading your mind to sin? I know that, for some of you, Satan’s hooks are in deep enough that you need help in breaking these strongholds of addictive thoughts and behaviors. If you don’t want to share them with me, I can refer you to people who can help you. But let’s spend some time listening to the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts about how well we steward our minds.
2. What has the Spirit been speaking to your heart? What do you need to do? If you need God’s help in being a good steward of your mind and you want to submit to Him and ask for His help, please do so right now. You can come up to the altars to pray this if you like. But if you need God’s help in this area and sincerely want it, ask for it right now.
3. With every head still bowed and every eye still closed, we all know that prayer makes a huge difference in enabling God to work in us. So if you’d like me to pray for you right now, please raise your hand. And if you’d like me to pray for you throughout the week, please circle the "M" on your communication card. Let’s pray together.