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00:00You're not what you think you are, but what you think you are.
00:06Did you get that? Think about it.
00:09You're not what you think you are, but what you think you are.
00:15Whatever is going on in your mind has everything to do with what you put there.
00:20Whatever you put in is going to find its way out.
00:23It affects every part of you.
00:25What you think, say, do starts in the mind.
00:32So if someone could read your mind, would they be surprised by what they would see?
00:38Because you're not what you think you are, but what you think you are.
00:45What do you think? With Dr. David Jeremiah.
00:51Today, I continue my five-part series called, What Do You Think?
00:56During which we are exploring the fact that what you and I think determines who and what we are.
01:03By learning to think God's thoughts, your life will most certainly change.
01:09Today's message in this series on the human mind is called, The Priority of a Devoted Mind.
01:14It's all about something that many Christians may not have spent a great deal of time contemplating.
01:20Our responsibility to love God with all our mind.
01:24Today, I'll share four ways to devote your mind to the glory of God.
01:28And I hope you'll join me for today's edition of Turning Point.
01:33In the book of Matthew, in response to a question that the Lord Jesus was asked,
01:38what is the great commandment?
01:39Jesus said, well, the great commandment is this.
01:42The great commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind,
01:46and your neighbor as yourself.
01:49Those are the two things Jesus said in response to that question.
01:53The thing we have been talking about is in that passage of Scripture
01:57in Matthew chapter 22 and verse 37.
02:00He said, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your mind.
02:06What does that mean, to love the Lord your God with all of your mind?
02:11To this day, we call ourselves homo sapiens, which means thinking beings.
02:18This is not simply a scientific classification.
02:21It is a spiritual classification.
02:24We were made in God's image, and one of the most precious and noble dynamics
02:29of being in the image of God is that we have the ability to think.
02:33It's what separates us from the other creatures that God created.
02:37He gave us the ability as in the image of God to think.
02:41In fact, in the book of Isaiah, the writer speaking the words of the Lord says,
02:47come now and let us reason together as if we can reason with God.
02:53And indeed, we can.
02:55We can reason with God because God has endowed his creatures,
03:00his humanity.
03:01We have been given this gift of a mind, of the ability to think.
03:07And a Christian mind is not simply thinking by those who say they are Christians,
03:13but a Christian mind is totally different.
03:15It is a way to think the thoughts of God.
03:18When Jesus said in response to the question,
03:22you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind,
03:26he was quoting an Old Testament scripture found in the sixth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy.
03:32Jesus made this statement, and it almost sounds as if he quoted the scripture directly and intact,
03:39but in essence, he made one significant change.
03:43If you go back to Deuteronomy chapter 6, where we have what they call the Shema in verse 4,
03:49which says,
03:50Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God.
03:53In verse 5, we read in Deuteronomy chapter 6,
03:57which you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and with all your strength.
04:03When Jesus quoted it, he said,
04:05You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind.
04:09Some say, well, Jesus just added a fourth dimension to the Old Testament scripture.
04:15Or perhaps what is meant here is that we love the Lord our God with all of our heart,
04:19doing that with all of our strength.
04:21We love the Lord our God with all of our soul, doing that with all of our strength.
04:25And then we love the Lord our God with all of our mind, doing that with all of our strength.
04:30Whatever it means, what it does mean is that the Lord took the liberty which he alone can have
04:35to change the quotation from the Old Testament and make the point of the importance of the Christian's mind.
04:43Our mind.
04:45God gave us a mind, and he tells us in his word that we are to love our God with
04:52all of our mind.
04:54That is an intentional statement about the importance and priority of Christian thinking.
05:00C.S. Lewis reminds us that God is no fonder of intellectual slackers
05:05than of any other kind of slackers.
05:07He said, If you're thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you,
05:10you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all.
05:16And he was right.
05:18So, I want to explore with you today this question.
05:21How can I love my God with all of my mind?
05:26How do I do that?
05:27And I want to suggest four things to you.
05:29First of all, we love our God with all of our minds when we feed on his word.
05:35This book, we are told, is God's word.
05:39That's what we call it.
05:40This is the word of God.
05:42God has given to us a message straight from him to us.
05:50Now, there are many places we could turn to bear this testimony,
05:53but the best place, I think, of all the places is Psalm 119.
05:59Now, I need to tell you that Psalm 119, I've kind of tucked away in the back of my mind
06:04that if I am ever told that I am going to be executed
06:09and I have the privilege of choosing a passage to be read before they do it,
06:13I'm choosing Psalm 119 as my passage.
06:16It's got 176 verses.
06:19It's the longest chapter in the Bible and the longest psalm in the Bible, right?
06:24So, just mark that down.
06:26Don't choose Jesus wept or it'll be over in a hurry, all right?
06:29Choose Psalm 119.
06:31Now, let me tell you about this psalm.
06:33Psalm 119 is a beautiful Hebrew poem.
06:38It's an acrostic poem.
06:40Look down in your Bibles.
06:41In most of your Bibles, you will see that before the first eight verses,
06:45there's a little Hebrew letter and then next to it is the word Aleph.
06:49That's the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
06:52Go down eight verses and you'll find the next letter, Beth,
06:55which is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
06:58Psalm 119 has 22 paragraphs.
07:02All of them have eight verses and each paragraph begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
07:08And if you could see this in Hebrew, every verse of the eight verses begins with the same letter of
07:14the Hebrew alphabet that it's atop of the paragraph.
07:16This is the psalm that David put together to express his incredible love for the Word of God.
07:25And here's what David wrote.
07:27Oh, how I love your law.
07:31It is my meditation all the day.
07:34You, through your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.
07:40Now, here's the student's wonderful statement.
07:43I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.
07:48I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your precepts.
07:55There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
07:57There are 22 paragraphs in Psalm 119.
08:00Each paragraph starts with the next letter, a beautiful poem discussing the Bible
08:06and expressing how much David the psalmist loved God's Word.
08:12Now, if you read this psalm, you will discover that in almost every single verse of all 176 verses,
08:18there is a synonym for the Word of God.
08:20There are at least eight of them.
08:22The law, the testimonies, thy ways, thy precepts, thy statutes, thy commandments, thy judgments, thy ordinances,
08:29all of them synonyms for the Word.
08:33But recently, I was reading this psalm, and I noticed how many action verbs there are in Psalm 119.
08:39In other words, verbs that tell us how we're to get this psalm into our system,
08:43how we're to respond when we read it.
08:45What are we supposed to do with it?
08:47And I wrote them all down.
08:48I'm not going to ask you to follow me.
08:49I'll just read them to you.
08:51From Psalm 119, here are the action words that we find that give us something of an idea
08:57of how we're to approach the Scripture.
09:00Here's what the psalmist says.
09:02When it comes to the Word of God, you should walk in it, keep it, seek it, look into it,
09:07learn it,
09:07take heed to it, hide it in your heart, rejoice in it, meditate on it, contemplate it, don't forget it,
09:13strengthen yourself according to it, get the understanding of it, incline your heart to it, be revived in it,
09:18remember it, be taught from it, consider it, direct your steps according to it, and get understanding from it.
09:24That's what the Bible says you can do from the Bible and from the psalm.
09:28David says this is what you do.
09:30You go to the Word of God and you feed on it.
09:32You let it become what drives you and keeps you going every day.
09:36And all of these verbs tell us how to do that.
09:40James Montgomery Boyce reads Psalm 119 and then he comments,
09:44the Bible meant more to the writer of this psalm than anything else in his life.
09:49The psalm is his attempt to tell us why.
09:52If the Bible is equally precious to you, you will rejoice as you study this psalm
09:56and find yourself echoing the psalmist's statements in your own mind and in your own heart.
10:01Oh, how I love the law, how I love the Word, says David.
10:06Now, here's what you need to remember.
10:08You cannot have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures
10:12because you cannot be profoundly changed by that which you do not know.
10:17If you are filled with God's Word, your life can then be informed and directed by God.
10:22Your domestic relationships, your parenting, your career, your ethical decisions, your interior moral life,
10:29the way to a Christian mind is through God's Word.
10:33If you want to love the Lord your God with all your mind,
10:37you can't put this on a shelf and neglect it.
10:39It's got to be a centerpiece to that quest.
10:43I got a copy of a book that's on the bestsellers list.
10:45It's called Bonhoeffer.
10:47It is the story of a man, a great patriot, a great man of God,
10:53who was a Lutheran pastor in Germany during the days in the buildup to the Nazi takeover of Germany.
11:01He was a great man who found himself in the midst of a time in Germany
11:08when Hitler co-opted the church.
11:12It was one thing for Hitler to take over the German nation,
11:16but he co-opted the church.
11:18In other words, the church was placed under the Third Reich.
11:22And here this young man was, a German pastor trying to sort all this out,
11:27wanting to be honest and faithful to God.
11:29And when they included a declaration that the church pastors in Germany
11:34had to sign the Aryan paragraph, which was a diatribe against the Jewish people,
11:40Bonhoeffer decided he wouldn't do it.
11:43He became an enemy of the Third Reich.
11:46During this time, he came to America for a short time,
11:49seeking what he could find here in this country.
11:52He was trying to find out more about the church and what its role should be.
11:55He said when he came to America, he found the churches here
11:57were as dead as they were in Germany.
11:59But he said one day, an African-American friend of his
12:02asked him to go to the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem,
12:05and he said, I got down there and heard all that music
12:07and heard these people excited about the Lord, and it revived my soul.
12:11And he said, I found out there was a way to know God
12:14that I had never known him before,
12:16that God wanted a personal relationship with us.
12:18And this Lutheran pastor had his whole life transformed.
12:22And in the part of the transformation that he records in his book,
12:25it changed his attitude toward the Bible.
12:28Now, as a Lutheran pastor, he had studied the Scriptures.
12:31He was greatly involved in higher criticism
12:34and all of that sort of thing.
12:36But I remember reading this in my study about halfway through the book
12:40and just getting so blessed by it.
12:43I just wanted to share with you what happened in his life.
12:45Here's what he wrote.
12:47He said, first of all, I will confess quite simply,
12:50I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all of our questions
12:53and that we need only to ask repeatedly and a little humbly
12:56in order to receive the answer.
12:58One cannot simply read the Bible like other books.
13:01One must be prepared really to inquire of it.
13:04Only thus will it reveal itself.
13:06Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer shall we receive it.
13:09And that is because in the Bible, he wrote, God speaks to us.
13:14And one cannot simply think about God in one's own strength.
13:17One has to inquire of him.
13:19Only if we seek him will he answer us.
13:22And just as we do not grasp the words of someone we love
13:26by taking them to bits but by simply receiving them,
13:30so that for days they go on lingering in our minds
13:33and simply because they are the words of a person we love,
13:36and just as those words reveal more and more of that person
13:39who said them as we go on,
13:41so it will be with the words of the Bible.
13:43Only if we venture to enter into the words of the Bible
13:47as though in them this God we're speaking to us who loves us
13:51and does not will to leave us,
13:54only so shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible.
13:58That's one of the things he brought back to Germany
14:01from his experience in America and from his association,
14:04and he went on to say,
14:05I would like to tell you now quite personally,
14:08since I have begun to read the Bible in this way,
14:11and this has not been for so very long,
14:13it becomes more wonderful to me.
14:16I read it in the morning and in the evening,
14:18often during the day as well,
14:20and every day I consider a text which I have chosen
14:23for the whole week and try to sink deeply into it
14:25so as really to hear what it is saying,
14:27and I know that without this,
14:30I could not live properly any longer.
14:34Let me tell you what happened to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1945.
14:38He was sent to a concentration camp,
14:40and ultimately he was executed for his opposition
14:45to the Third Reich and the takeover of the church in Germany.
14:49He's written some wonderful things,
14:51and I recommend that book to you.
14:52It is a very exciting story of one man's courage,
14:56and it reminds us that whatever we do and wherever we are,
15:01we need something in us to strengthen us,
15:03and I like to believe that in cell block 90,
15:06where he spent his last days,
15:09Dietrich Bonhoeffer was giving thanks every day
15:11for the moment he made the decision
15:13to make this book his constant companion
15:16and to feed his mind and heart with its truth,
15:18because it's in those moments when you are under pressure
15:22that the Word of God comes to mean so much to you.
15:24I remember when I came through cancer,
15:27I came out of that experience in love with the book of Psalms
15:30and wrote a book called The Bend in the Road
15:33based all on the Psalms that God gave me
15:35when I was going through that time.
15:37So, let me just give you a little hint.
15:40Don't wait until you need it before you go for it.
15:44Get it soaked up into your life
15:47so that when the moment comes, you'll be prepared.
15:49So, let me just say this.
15:50We learn to love the Lord our God with all of our mind
15:53when we feed on God's Word.
15:55I've said this before.
15:56Generally speaking, our relationship to God
16:00runs along the same line as our relationship to his Word.
16:04If we say we love God,
16:06ultimately, somewhere in the process,
16:07we will learn to love his book.
16:10Amen?
16:11You can't read this book like another book.
16:13You have to read it like a love letter from God.
16:15And when you do that, you begin to love God with all of your mind.
16:20Number two, you love God with all of your mind
16:22when you find God's wisdom.
16:24This is an intriguing thought to me.
16:27Proverbs 3.13 says,
16:28Happy is the man who finds wisdom
16:31and the man who gains understanding.
16:34Proverbs 8.11 says,
16:35For wisdom is better than rubies,
16:37and all things one may desire cannot be compared to wisdom.
16:41Proverbs 16.16 says,
16:42How much better to get wisdom than gold?
16:45And to get understanding to be chosen rather than silver.
16:49Solomon describes wisdom this way.
16:51He says,
16:52Length of days is in her right hand.
16:55In her left hand, riches and honor.
16:58Her ways are the ways of pleasantness,
17:00and all her paths are peace.
17:01She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
17:04and happy are all who retain her.
17:07Wisdom, says Solomon,
17:08is something we look for and we find it.
17:12Now, let's ask this question.
17:13What's the difference between knowledge,
17:16knowing what the Bible says, and wisdom?
17:19Here's the best illustration I can think of.
17:22If you have a computer,
17:24your computer has a hard drive.
17:26Into that hard drive, all kinds of information
17:28is loaded and stored.
17:31Everything you can imagine gets into that.
17:33Anything you put into that hard drive is there.
17:36Then you get a software package,
17:38and that software package helps you figure out
17:40how to manage what's on your hard drive.
17:42It uses the information,
17:44but it directs it in a different way
17:46and applies it to particular situations.
17:49You know, I have an iPad,
17:50and I'm telling you this, what is there like?
17:538,000 applications you can use with that iPad.
17:56I mean, I don't know if that's right,
17:57but it seems like that many.
17:58And what that is is taking information
18:00that is then applied in a certain way
18:04to a certain situation.
18:05This book is full of information.
18:08If all you have is the information,
18:09you're not going to be able to function.
18:11What you need is wisdom.
18:13What is wisdom?
18:13Somebody said wisdom is knowledge using its head.
18:17Wisdom is doing the right thing without a precedent.
18:21Wisdom is the ability to take the Word of God
18:24and apply it to the situations in life that you face.
18:28And how many of you know if we ever have needed wisdom,
18:31we need it today?
18:32Amen?
18:33I mean, every day we're faced with things
18:35we have never been faced with before.
18:37What is wisdom?
18:39It's doing the right thing without a precedent.
18:41Some things in life we can figure out
18:43because we've been there and done it before,
18:44but today it seems like more than ever
18:46I can remember in my life,
18:48every day I face things I've never faced before,
18:51and I have to ask God for wisdom,
18:53the ability to apply what the Word of God says,
18:56what I know about the Word of God,
18:58to that particular situation.
19:00In a willing mind,
19:02wisdom enables you to hear with God's ears
19:05and to see with God's eyes.
19:08Here's another thought.
19:09Wisdom is inspired depth perception
19:12into people and situations.
19:15It is the vertical thrust of the mind of God
19:18into our minds, making discernment possible
19:21on the horizontal level of human affairs.
19:23With wisdom, we can penetrate the mysteries of God.
19:26We can sense His nature, His plan, and His purpose.
19:29And if we long to know God's maximum for our lives,
19:33wisdom is the gift we need.
19:35And we love God with our minds when we find God's wisdom.
19:39Now, let me throw in a little practical thought here.
19:42Before Shane Hipps became a Mennonite pastor,
19:45he was a former strategic planner in advertising.
19:49And in both vocations, he has learned a great deal
19:51about how technology quietly shapes people.
19:55His latest book is called Flickering Pixels,
19:58and it helps Christians understand
20:01some of the spiritual dimensions that are shaping us today.
20:05Recently, in an interview he did
20:07with Christianity Today magazine,
20:08he discussed some of the damages being done by the Internet.
20:13And it might surprise you, he didn't talk about
20:15all of the stuff you get into on the Internet
20:17that corrupts your mind.
20:17He just talked about the Internet, period.
20:19And listen to what he says.
20:22The first statement's kind of interesting.
20:24He says the Internet created
20:26a permanent puberty of the mind.
20:30He says we get locked into so much information,
20:33and the inability to sort that information meaningfully
20:36limits our capacity to understand.
20:39The last stage of knowledge, he wrote, is wisdom.
20:42But we are miles from wisdom
20:43because the Internet encourages the opposite
20:46of what creates wisdom.
20:48And what is that?
20:49Stillness, time, and inefficient things like suffering.
20:53On the Internet, there is no such thing as waiting.
20:57There is no such thing as stillness.
20:59There is just constant churning.
21:02And what he's saying is that wisdom comes
21:05when we are able to take what we know from the Word of God
21:08and allow God to let it settle in,
21:12and we meditate upon it and we learn.
21:14But in the Internet, there is no such thing as that.
21:16The Internet just takes information upon information
21:19and keeps stuffing our minds with information,
21:22much of it not valuable.
21:25And before we know it, we are overwhelmed with information,
21:29and we have almost no wisdom because we have not had time for wisdom
21:34to take control in our life.
21:36Isn't that an interesting insight into where we are today?
21:39So, what does that mean?
21:41Well, it means we have to maybe make a few decisions.
21:44I now have three pieces of electronic gear,
21:47primarily thanks to my oldest son, David, who is an electronic guru,
21:52and make sure that I have all the stuff I need to have.
21:56That usually takes me about a year and a half
21:57to figure out how to turn it on,
21:59but usually I get there pretty soon.
22:01So, right now, I've got three pieces of gear.
22:02I've got a cell phone, I've got a computer,
22:06and I've got an iPad.
22:08Now, suddenly dawned on me the other day,
22:10I was in my office, and an email came,
22:14and my phone went off, my iPad went off,
22:17and my computer went off, all three of them,
22:19ding, bing, and ding.
22:22I mean, one ding for me is enough.
22:24I don't need three.
22:27But now I have to go and I have to turn them on
22:30and then turn them off.
22:31And what I'm saying is this.
22:33I'm certainly not against technology.
22:35I'm into technology up to my ears
22:37with all that we do around the country
22:39with television and radio.
22:42But we need to sometimes take a step back and say,
22:45am I so overwhelmed by what's going on with my technology
22:50that I have no time to think about
22:52what God wants me to think about?
22:54And I thank God for this little reminder from this man
22:57that one of the things that can keep us from the wisdom
23:00we need is not ever having any time
23:03to think God's thoughts after him.
23:07Here's a good illustration of how wisdom works
23:09that I wanted to share with you.
23:11In your Bibles in 2 Timothy 2-7,
23:13Paul is writing to Timothy, and in one verse
23:16he puts it all together.
23:17Listen to what he says.
23:18He writes to Timothy and he says,
23:20Timothy, consider what I say
23:22and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
23:26Now, watch this.
23:27The command to Timothy is to think, to consider,
23:30to use his mind.
23:31And the reason Paul gives for thinking is this.
23:34For when you do this, the Lord will give you understanding.
23:38Paul doesn't put these intention thinking on the one side
23:41and receiving the gift of understanding on the other side.
23:44He is saying they go together.
23:46Thinking is essential to the goal of understanding.
23:50And in order to find wisdom, we must think and pray,
23:53and God will take our thinking and direct it to the proper channel,
23:58so that wisdom is the result.
24:00And here's what I love.
24:01James said to all of us in James 1-5,
24:04If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,
24:08who gives to all liberally and without reproach,
24:12and it will be given him.
24:13Here's what our prayer should be.
24:15Lord God, help me to understand what your Word means
24:18in the situations I'm facing.
24:20Give me wisdom to know what to do.
24:23Okay?
24:23Here's the third thing.
24:25We feed on God's Word.
24:26We find God's wisdom.
24:27And thirdly, we follow God's will.
24:29How do I love the Lord God with all of my mind?
24:32I follow his will.
24:33I do what he tells me to do.
24:35Now, Romans 12-2 puts it this way.
24:38Do not be conformed to this world,
24:40but transformed by the renewing of your mind,
24:42now watch this, that you may prove
24:44what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
24:51Did you know that God's will is perfect?
24:54His general will for all of us is perfect,
24:57and his individual will for you is perfect.
25:00We should always be praying the prayer of the Lord's Prayer.
25:03Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
25:08If you want to love the Lord your God with all of your mind,
25:12you will learn to pray that prayer.
25:14For when we seek for and we follow God's will for our lives,
25:19we are loving him with all of our mind and heart and soul.
25:22And here's the fascinating part of loving God with all of our minds.
25:26God has a different will for each one of us,
25:31and he communicates that will to us from the earliest days in our lives.
25:38I guess I just really discovered this
25:41and came across this truth that from the moment we are born,
25:47and especially if we're in a Christian family where in a context of God,
25:52God begins to work on us to show us his will for our lives.
25:56Back in that passage in Deuteronomy chapter 6,
25:59which is a great passage, God gives to the people of Israel
26:04a little formula that every Christian educator loves to read.
26:08For right after the verse we read earlier about loving the Lord your God
26:12with all of your mind, he writes,
26:14And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart,
26:18and you shall teach them diligently to your children,
26:21and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
26:24and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down,
26:28and when you rise up.
26:30God said to the people of Israel,
26:32if you want your children to grow up,
26:35knowing that the Lord your God is one God,
26:39if you want them to know how to love the Lord your God
26:42with all your heart, soul, and mind,
26:43it starts at an early age.
26:45And it's not just a half hour after dinner,
26:48although that is important.
26:50The Bible says that that will of God
26:52is communicated to your children when you sit down,
26:55and when you get up, when you lie down, when you rise up.
26:59What is he saying with those metaphors?
27:01He's saying that the will of God is communicated
27:03by our whole life to our children.
27:07It is how we live before them.
27:10And it is wonderful for us to have times of devotion
27:15with our children and family altar and all of that,
27:18and I love that.
27:18But I remember reading some years ago,
27:20someone said to give people a family altar
27:24and then not live for God the rest of the time
27:27is like giving them food in one hand
27:29and poison in the other.
27:30In other words, if we're going to have a family altar,
27:34which I encourage you to do,
27:36then make sure you understand that's not the end of it all.
27:38That's the beginning of it all.
27:40That's where it starts.
27:41When you do that, you begin then to live that life.
27:43And I promise you, your kids will learn more
27:46about who you are in Christ during the times
27:48you're going through right now if you're under pressure
27:50than they will ever learn during times of prosperity.
27:53They will learn, my mom and dad are under pressure,
27:56but they're trusting God.
27:57My mom and dad are facing challenges,
27:59but they know that God will never leave them nor forsake them.
28:03That's where we learn about our faith,
28:06and that's where we learn what God has for us to do in the future.
28:10Interestingly enough, the book of Deuteronomy,
28:13in which all of this truth is recorded,
28:14comes after the book of Exodus.
28:17In the book of Exodus,
28:18we have the story of the people of God in Egypt.
28:21And in Egypt, there were many gods.
28:24Remember at the end when Moses was challenging
28:27all the gods of Egypt?
28:28There were many gods.
28:29And history records that the gods of Egypt
28:31were often in conflict with one another.
28:34One god would say, do this,
28:35and the other god would say, do this.
28:37And then another god would contradict the third god,
28:39and all of the gods were.
28:40It was a massive confusion.
28:42And so, God says to us in Deuteronomy 6,
28:44Hear, O Israel.
28:45This is called the Shema,
28:47meaning hearing.
28:48Hear, O Israel.
28:48The Lord your God is one God,
28:52and the Lord your God who is one God has one will.
28:55He's not in conflict with any.
28:57How many of you know if you know the will of God,
28:58there isn't anything to contest?
29:00It's God's will.
29:01And I want you to understand that the will of God for you
29:04can be known,
29:05and that God does have a will for your life.
29:08Jesus tells us that we're to love God with all of our minds,
29:12and he means everything the mind is capable of doing
29:15is to be devoted to God.
29:17So, let me take this a little further into the practical zone.
29:20It would seem that if your mind can spin out
29:24complex mathematical calculations,
29:27you are to love God in mathematics.
29:31If your mind can plan a business, design a building,
29:34analyze a novel,
29:35understand a philosophical problem,
29:36or imagine a story,
29:38you are to love God through your planning and designing
29:41and analyzing and understanding or imagining.
29:44When Jesus says all the mind,
29:46he is claiming every mental faculty that you have.
29:50He wants you to love God with all that you do.
29:54And then when he says all your mind,
29:57he is telling you that this is a very personal thing.
30:01Not everyone has the same ability.
30:03We know that, do we not?
30:05Someone who is physically handicapped
30:07may not have the same physical strength
30:09that a star athlete does.
30:10That doesn't matter.
30:11Whether it means serving God from a hospital bed
30:14or from the Olympic pavilion,
30:15we are called to love God with all of our strength.
30:18And the same is true with our minds.
30:21Our mind encompasses a wide range of talents and abilities.
30:26Some minds are gifted in the sciences.
30:29Some minds are gifted in the arts.
30:31Some minds are oriented to academia and higher education.
30:35Some are interested in more mundane things.
30:37But no one set of talents is better than any other.
30:41And every calling is equal before God.
30:44And the point is, whatever our calling might be,
30:47whatever the will of God is for our life,
30:51God demands all that we can do and all that we can think.
30:55So, when you leave here and you go back to work on Monday,
30:58you don't walk out of the sphere of where God is in control.
31:02Whatever you do, even if it has nothing to do with the church
31:05or nothing to do with the Bible,
31:06whatever your job is, you should go there and say,
31:09as you walk in the door, Lord God,
31:10you've given me a great gift in this mind that I have.
31:14Help me to use my mind to bring glory to your name today.
31:18And God is just waiting for willingness on our part to do that.
31:23We are loving God with all of our minds when we use our God-given intellect
31:27to understand our God-given wisdom and follow the Lord's will
31:32for our God-given utilization of gifts every day of our life.
31:38That's how we love God.
31:40Now, I know what God's will for me is.
31:44I never have to get up in the morning and say,
31:46Lord, what is it you want to do with my life?
31:48I learned a long time ago what God wanted to do with my life.
31:51I get up on Monday, and you know what I think about?
31:53I think about next Sunday, the first thing when I get up,
31:55because I know Sunday's coming.
31:59My life is totally involved in the Word of God
32:02and what God has called me to do.
32:04That's God's will for my life.
32:06And I'm so excited to know that.
32:07I'm not going off on any detours.
32:10I'm not getting caught up in anything that's going to take me away from that.
32:13I'm too old to change.
32:14I'm just going to keep doing what God's called me to do, do His will.
32:18So, we love the Lord our God with all of our minds when we feed on His Word,
32:22when we find His wisdom, when we follow His will,
32:25and finally when we fight His war.
32:27You say, there's a war? Oh, yes.
32:29In 2 Corinthians, there's a war that involves your mind and mine.
32:33Here's what it says.
32:35For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
32:39For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God,
32:44for the pulling down of strongholds and for the casting down of arguments
32:50and every high thing that exalts against the knowledge of God.
32:54What is the Scripture saying?
32:56The Scripture is saying is another way to view the Christian life
32:59is to see the effort that we are doing as a kind of warfare.
33:03And in this warfare, there is a negative and positive aspect
33:07to the mission.
33:07Everything that exalts itself against God must be thrown down,
33:12says the Scripture.
33:13And every thought must be brought into the captivity of Christ.
33:17Paul wants us to know that the greatest battles in the Christian life
33:22are fought between our ears in our minds.
33:26Isn't that true?
33:28And I think what he's saying here when he talks about casting down arguments
33:31is kind of a reflection of what we read in 1 Peter 3 15 that says,
33:36Sanctify the Lord God in your heart and always be ready to give a defense
33:40to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you
33:44with meekness and fear.
33:46And the word defense is the word apologia,
33:48which means an organized answer to the questions people ask.
33:53Now, I want to tell you something.
33:54We're living in an age, you and I are,
33:56when people are asking questions about Christianity
33:58they've never asked before.
34:00They're writing books about Christianity
34:02that are mean-spirited from the cover to the back.
34:05And every one of us, as we walk through life,
34:08we need to start equipping ourselves with some answers.
34:10Amen?
34:11I'll just give you an illustration, one simple illustration.
34:14You know what the most onerous thing is about Christianity
34:17to those who don't know Jesus?
34:18It's the fact that the Bible teaches that there's only one way to God.
34:24That's politically incorrect.
34:27And people just steam when they hear that.
34:30You mean you think there's only one way to God?
34:32Absolutely.
34:33Why do you believe that?
34:34Because that's what the Bible says.
34:36Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
34:39No man comes to the Father except through me.
34:42Now, what part of that don't you understand?
34:45The Bible says, neither is there salvation in any other,
34:48for there is just one way.
34:51And I know people don't like that.
34:53And people ask me about that.
34:54I get asked that a lot.
34:55And I like to tell them, you know what?
34:57First thing you need to know, I didn't get to make the rules.
35:01Amen?
35:02God made the rules.
35:03Now, I just read them, and I try to obey them.
35:06But years ago, we had a guy who used to come here every summer named Kenny Poor.
35:12And he's one of my favorite people.
35:14I've known him for years.
35:15And he came one summer, and he gave us this little thought,
35:17and I want to just share it with you.
35:19He said, you know, people get so upset when they find out
35:21that the Bible teaches there's only one way to God.
35:24There's only one way to get to heaven.
35:26But he said, why should we be surprised about that?
35:29He said, did you ever think about the fact that the way you came into the world
35:32is the same way everybody else came into the world?
35:35There's only one way to become a human.
35:40You got to be born.
35:42There aren't many ways.
35:44There's just one way.
35:45Oh, what about the test?
35:45There's just one way to become a human.
35:49There's just one way.
35:52So, if there's just one way for your first birth,
35:56why should you be surprised if there's just one way for your second?
35:59It's kind of the way God does things.
36:02The Bible says there is a way that seems right unto a man,
36:05but the end of that is the way of death.
36:06The Bible says there is a narrow road and a wide road,
36:09and those who are on the narrow road are the ones who are going to heaven.
36:14The wide road, the Bible says, many that walk on there,
36:16but they're headed toward destruction.
36:18So, you know, we are so intimidated by the questions
36:22that people ask of us as Christians.
36:24And maybe we should just stop and maybe read a few books
36:27and learn a few things and read the Word of God more
36:29and come up with the answers.
36:32We don't need to be on the defensive all the time.
36:34And somebody say, well, how do you know the Bible is true
36:37and why do you believe it?
36:37You know what I like to tell them now?
36:39I just cut past it all.
36:40I believe the Bible because I choose to.
36:43I choose to believe this book.
36:46And I choose to believe it because I choose to believe it
36:51because I have studied all the reasons that people give
36:53for not believing it, and my reasons are better than theirs.
36:56I believe this book because it's God-breathed,
36:59and it changed my life, and I've watched it change
37:02the lives of other people.
37:03So, how do we love God?
37:04We love God by feeding on God's Word,
37:06by finding His wisdom, by following His way.
37:08But we also love God by getting into this intellectual,
37:11cultural war that's going on and learning how to respond
37:14to the questions people have and give an answer
37:17that brings glory to the Lord.
37:20Addressing a group of Christian students
37:22at Oxford University, C.S. Lewis spoke of the urgency
37:26of Christians participating in the intellectual battles
37:29of this day, and here's what he said.
37:31He said, if all the world were Christian,
37:33it might not matter if all the world were educated,
37:36but as it is, a cultural life will exist outside the church,
37:40whether it exists inside or not.
37:42To be ignorant and simply not to be able to meet the enemies
37:45on their own ground would be to throw down our weapons
37:47and to betray our uneducated brethren who have under God
37:51no defense against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.
37:55What he is saying is if God has given you a mind
37:58and almost everybody in here, He's given us an education,
38:01there are many people that have not been given an education,
38:04and if we don't study and help them and encourage them,
38:07then we are throwing down our weapons.
38:09That's what C.S. Lewis said.
38:11And going into the war without any weapons at all.
38:15How do you do all this?
38:16I mean, I'm a preacher, and this is what I do for a living.
38:19I love the Word of God.
38:20I spend a lot of time in it every week.
38:23But I want you to hear a story that I read this week,
38:26an example from a man by the name of General William K. Harrison.
38:30He was the most decorated soldier in the 30th Infantry Division,
38:35rated by General Eisenhower as the number one
38:38Infantry Division in World War II.
38:41And General Harrison was the first American to enter Belgium
38:44during that war, and he did so at the head of the Allied forces.
38:49This decorated soldier received every medal for honor
38:53except the Congressional Medal of Honor,
38:55and he was honored with the Purple Heart.
38:57He was one of the few generals ever to be wounded in action.
39:01I mean, this guy was in the battle.
39:04When the Korean War began,
39:06he served as chief of staff in the United Nations Command,
39:09and because of his character, his calm, and his self-control,
39:12he was asked by President Eisenhower
39:15to head the long and tedious negotiations
39:19that ultimately ended the Second World War.
39:22General Harrison was a soldier's soldier
39:26who led a busy, ultrakinetic life,
39:28but he was also an amazing man of the Bible.
39:32When he was a 20-year-old West Point cadet,
39:34he began reading the Old Testament through once
39:36and the New Testament four times every year.
39:41General Harrison did this until the end of his life.
39:44Even in the thick of war, he maintained his commitment
39:47by catching up during the two- and three-day respites
39:49for replacements and refitting that followed every battle
39:52so that when the war ended, he was right on schedule.
39:58When, at the age of 90, his failing eyesight
40:01no longer permitted this discipline,
40:05General Harrison had read the Old Testament 70 times,
40:10and he had read the New Testament 280 times.
40:14And no wonder his godliness and his wisdom were proverbial.
40:19It is no surprise that the Lord used this man for 18 years
40:23to lead the Officer's Christian Fellowship, OCF,
40:26which was a Christian organization for military people.
40:30General Harrison's story teaches me a couple of lessons
40:33that I won't be able to get away from.
40:35Here's the first one, that it is possible even
40:39for the busiest of us to systematically train ourselves
40:43in the Word of God, no matter how busy we are.
40:45None of us here will be any busier than General Harrison was.
40:48And also, it teaches us, when we do this,
40:52it will be demonstrated to everybody around us.
40:56People will see that we are men and women of the Word.
41:00It will affect every area of our life, our domestic life,
41:03our spiritual life, our professional life.
41:05And each of the great problems we face in life,
41:08just as the problems he faced,
41:09will be informed by the Word of God.
41:13That's how we go through life as Christians,
41:15if we want to love the Lord our God with all of our minds.
41:18Oh, you say, Pastor Jeremiah, here we go again.
41:21Man, that's the standard.
41:22I've got to tell you something, preacher.
41:24There is no way I'm going to read the New Testament 280 times
41:27before I die.
41:29That's not the point, is it?
41:30The point isn't you have to do what General Harrison did.
41:33The point is you've got to start where you are.
41:35If you don't read the Bible at all, start tomorrow.
41:37Read one chapter.
41:38Everybody in this room can do that.
41:40I don't suggest you start with Psalm 119,
41:42but start with one of the chapters in the Bible,
41:46and then read another chapter the next day.
41:48If you can't read a chapter, read a verse.
41:50But here's the point.
41:51You cannot love God with all of your mind
41:54if there is nothing of God's Word in your mind
41:57with which to love Him.
41:59You know, if it is true that the software package
42:02works from the hard drive,
42:04the problem that the Holy Spirit has in many of our lives
42:07is we haven't given Him anything to work with.
42:10Here's how the Holy Spirit works.
42:11He takes the Word of God that we have learned
42:14and heard and studied,
42:15and He uses that to direct us and guide us.
42:18But if we have none of the Word of God in our system,
42:21we are tying this, if I can say this in the proper way,
42:25we're tying the Holy Spirit's hands behind His back.
42:28We're giving Him nothing with which to work.
42:32There's no such thing as loving the Lord your God
42:34with all of your mind and putting this on the shelf
42:38and never looking at it.
42:39This is not a guilt trip.
42:41This is an encouragement.
42:42You want a better way of life.
42:45You want a better sense of peace in your heart.
42:47You want better direction in your life.
42:49Don't neglect the gift that God has given you.
42:52This is a wonderful gift.
42:54And I like to think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
42:56in Cell Block 90 with the Word of God
42:59coursing through his hearts,
43:00perhaps even on the day when they took his life.
43:03They said he was calm and rejoicing
43:06because he knew that God was with him.
43:11And I want us all to know that.
43:13I'm not a prophet.
43:14I've written a couple of books on prophecy.
43:16But I want to tell you something.
43:18Our hard days as a country are not over.
43:21We're not finished with all of this yet.
43:22And we might not be finished with it the way we would like
43:25to be finished with it ever.
43:26I don't know.
43:27But I do know this.
43:28God is enough.
43:29And His Word is sufficient.
43:31Let's take what we have and make it the best thing we've got
43:34and walk through this with our head up high and our shoulders back,
43:37saying,
43:40With God on my side and working together with His Word,
43:43I am sufficient for any challenge that comes my way.
43:47And you will be if you will follow God's wisdom.
43:53For more than to follow God's wisdom,
43:56though,
43:56we just have the best set of wisdom.
43:56For more than to hear the truth,
43:59we'll find a new challenge of wisdom.
43:59When you're gonna get your wisdom,
44:00The people who expressed a lot in the world,