- 1 hour ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
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.
00:24It 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.
00:51This series, which I have titled, What Do You Think?, is going to explore the incredible power and complexity of
00:59the human mind.
01:00An amazing gift from God.
01:02And how what we pour into that mind has the power to shape who we become.
01:07I hope you'll make plans now to join me through each of the five messages in this series that begins
01:13today on Turning Point.
01:16James Allen has been called a literary man of mystery, but little is known about him.
01:21He never achieved fame or fortune.
01:24He died at the age of 48, wrote 19 or 20 books, most of which nobody's ever heard of.
01:31Yet he wrote one book, one little tiny volume that was discovered after his death.
01:36It was the second book that he had ever written, and perhaps the one which he himself felt that it
01:43wasn't very good.
01:43And that little book that was discovered from the writings of James Allen has sold millions of copies.
01:53And it has influenced countless number of lives.
01:58Let me tell you a little bit about him.
02:00He was born in England.
02:00His father was grappling with a failing business and was almost bankrupt.
02:05He traveled to America searching for a new job, and instead he was waylaid, robbed, and murdered.
02:11And back in England, the family's ensuing financial crisis forced young James Allen to drop out of school at the
02:20age of 15 and get a job.
02:22He became a personal assistant in the world of British manufacturers, and he worked at that profession until 1902.
02:29And then at the age of 38, one day, he just walked in, and he quit and walked away.
02:36James and his wife moved to a little coastal town in England,
02:39and he lived there for about 10 years before his early death.
02:42He kept a strict routine.
02:44Each morning, he'd get up before dawn and hike to the top of the nearby hillside and spend an hour
02:49in meditation.
02:51Then he would return to his house and devote the morning to writing.
02:54And then in the afternoon, he would work in his garden or involve himself in his hobbies.
03:01As far as we know, James Allen was not a Christian.
03:03But one little book he wrote was based on a Bible verse from the book of Proverbs.
03:09And that small volume almost single-handedly gave rise to the self-improvement and positive thinking movement of the past
03:17100 years.
03:18The book is entitled, As a Man Thinketh.
03:22And it's based on Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 7, which says,
03:27For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
03:32Say that with me out loud.
03:34For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
03:39The point of as a man thinketh is simple.
03:42Our thoughts are the most important thing about us.
03:45All that we achieve or fail to achieve is the direct result of the way we think.
03:52Our thoughts are like seeds that produce crops.
03:56James Allen wrote in his book,
03:58Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results.
04:02And bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results.
04:05And this is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles.
04:10Because men understand this law in the natural world and they work with it, but few understand it in the
04:17moral world, though its operation is just as simple and undeviating.
04:24His point is that what we think is what we are.
04:29And our lives run in the direction of our thoughts.
04:34If we think angry thoughts, guess what?
04:37We'll be angry.
04:38If we think positive thoughts, we'll be positive.
04:40If we think negative thoughts, we'll be negative.
04:43The mind is like a garden and we have to cultivate it.
04:46And we are responsible for the kind of seed that we drop into the furrows of our mind.
04:52To quote Allen again,
04:53A person's mind may be likened to a garden which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild.
05:00But whether cultivated or neglected, it must and will bring forth fruit.
05:05If the useful seeds are not put into the garden, an abundance of useless seeds will fall upon it and
05:12will continue to produce their fruit.
05:15Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
05:21Proverbs 23-7 teaches us that what we think is what we become.
05:25And while this is an important principle of the Word of God, I need to tell you it's also been
05:30used to build the case for many unscriptural ideas.
05:35The positive mental attitude industry has used this verse in almost all of its literature.
05:40Maybe you've heard it something like this.
05:41Whatever your mind can conceive and your heart can believe, you can achieve.
05:49Or maybe you've heard it this way, think your way to success.
05:55Many other such ideas.
05:57But this is not what the proverb is teaching.
06:00We do not have the power to think things into existence, no matter what anyone says.
06:07This view of thinking is ungodly humanism.
06:11But to understand that our thoughts are powerful is not humanistic at all.
06:16It is very, very biblical.
06:19The Bible teaches us that our thoughts are important and that we cannot change our lives unless we change our
06:26thoughts.
06:28What we do with our thinking determines what we become.
06:31We are not what we think we are, but what we think we are.
06:37An anonymous author explained this concept in these terms.
06:41He says, whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life.
06:46If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted.
06:52And if you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always
06:56gotten.
06:58If you want different results in your life or in your work, all you have to do is change your
07:02mind.
07:03Now, this is borne out a lot of times in Scripture.
07:06And I want to just use one illustration this morning about a man whose story is told in the book
07:10of 1 Kings.
07:11We all know this man.
07:12His name is Elijah.
07:13Elijah.
07:14If you were to chart the life of Elijah, the highest point on your chart would be his victory on
07:21Mount Carmel over the prophets of Baal,
07:24when he mocked the gods of the ungodly prophets.
07:30And then after he had won a tremendous victory and the fire of God came down and licked up his
07:36sacrifice,
07:37we're told that Elijah went and slew all the prophets of Baal.
07:43There could not have been a more wonderful, victorious moment against ungodliness than there was that night.
07:50Take it in the Old Testament context as you will.
07:53That was the mountaintop experience for Elijah.
07:56How many of you know that quite often after a mountaintop experience, you have one that's just exactly the opposite?
08:01The height of the mountain sometimes often determines the depth of the valley.
08:06And the next time we look in on Elijah, he's gone from the mountaintop to the valley.
08:11In fact, the queen went to see Ahab, the king, and when King Ahab told Jezebel what Elijah had done
08:19to all her favorite clergymen,
08:22she was furious.
08:25And the Bible says she brought everything to power that she as a queen could bring.
08:29And she chased Elijah.
08:32And Elijah in a moment's time went from exhilaration to depression.
08:37In fact, I don't have time to take you to that scripture,
08:40but let me give you some expressions out of the dialogue that Elijah had with God.
08:46He's running from this woman, just one lone woman, after him.
08:52And he says he felt worthless.
08:54He said, I'm no better than my ancestors.
08:56He felt hopeless.
08:58He ran for his life.
08:59He felt isolated.
09:01I am the only prophet left, he said.
09:06And he was unable to cope.
09:07I've had enough.
09:09In fact, he actually told the Lord, if it's all right, just take my life.
09:12I'd like to die.
09:14This is a prophet who just came down off the mountain.
09:18And the Bible says that after God provided some food and rest for his embattled prophet,
09:23he restructured his thoughts and gave him some life.
09:26He showed himself to Elijah.
09:27The Bible says the Lord is about to pass by.
09:31He filled his future with hope because God would accompany him,
09:34encouraged Elijah to go back the way he came.
09:37He revealed that he was not isolated as he thought he was.
09:41In fact, God gave him some statistics.
09:42He said, I still have 7,000 prophets in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
09:49Elijah, you're not alone.
09:51And he infused Elijah's life with meaning.
09:54He gave him a mission for him to accomplish.
09:58Now, Elijah thought his problem was Jezebel.
10:03But there will always be problems like Jezebel in our lives.
10:07The real challenge for Elijah wasn't Jezebel.
10:10The real problem for Elijah was what was going on between his ears, in his mind.
10:16It is surprising, is it not, as we look around, how much we can observe about this principle.
10:24And it's very surprising to look into the Bible and to see how much the Bible has to say about
10:30the power of our minds and our thoughts.
10:33And the more we learn about the complexity of our minds that God has given us,
10:38the more we can understand why it's a priority in Scripture.
10:41This week in my study, I found a description of the human mind that just, I just cannot tell you
10:49how awesome this is.
10:51The human brain's 12 to 14 billion cells are only a shadow of its complexity.
10:57For each cell sends out thousands of connecting tendrils so that a single cell may be connected with 10,000
11:05neighboring cells,
11:06each of which is constantly exchanging data impulses.
11:12These 12 to 14 billion brain cells times 10,000 connectors make the human mind an unparalleled computer.
11:21The mind's activity has been compared to 1,000 switchboards, each big enough to serve New York City,
11:28all running at full speed as they receive and send questions and orders.
11:34Put another way, there is more electronic equivalent in one human brain than in all the radio and television stations
11:41of the entire world put together.
11:45The human brain does not miss a thing.
11:48It's capable of giving and receiving the subtlest input from imagining the universe in which time bends
11:54to creating the polyphonic texture of a Bach fugue or transmitting and receiving a message from God,
12:00a feat that no computer could ever accomplish.
12:05In this first message, I want to take you to several passages of the New Testament
12:10that outline the priorities of this incredible mind that God has given to each one of us,
12:16and especially to each of us who are followers of Christ.
12:20I want to suggest six things about the mind, and I'm going to do this quickly because this is kind
12:24of just an outline.
12:26Six things about the priority of the mind that comes straight out of the Word of God.
12:30And since there are a number of Scriptures and they're not together in one place,
12:34we'll put them on the screen so you don't get lost and can follow the Scriptures.
12:37Write them down in your outlines so that you can look them up later.
12:42First of all, I want to talk to you about the priority of a devoted mind.
12:45In Matthew 22, 37, in response to a question, Jesus said,
12:50You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
12:57Now, most of us have a pretty good idea of what it means to love the Lord our God
13:00with all of our heart and with all of our soul, but how do you love God with your mind?
13:06What does it mean to love God with your mind?
13:09It means, first of all, to understand that the mind is important.
13:13That's a good beginning place.
13:15And I say that because during my years as a pastor,
13:18I have run into many individuals who have denigrated the importance of the mind
13:23by saying that we need to be guided by the Spirit and not by the mind.
13:28They have even postulated that we are at our best when we put our minds into neutral
13:34and let our emotions and our spirits take control.
13:39And so, we have come up with this term, mindless Christianity,
13:43which describes an anti-intellectualism in much of evangelicalism
13:47and the total abdication of the mind in much of emotional Christianity.
13:53The Bible does not give us that option.
13:55In fact, one of the general principles for all of us who follow Christ
13:59is that we're to do everything to the glory of God.
14:021 Corinthians 10 31 says,
14:04whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
14:09We evangelicals characteristically pit our heart against our head.
14:16And we opt for the heart as being more spiritual than the head.
14:22We are like the tin woodman in the wonderful Wizard of Oz
14:26who chooses a heart rather than a head.
14:29If you know that wonderful story, you probably remember the dialogue
14:32that goes something like this.
14:34Why didn't you walk around the hole?
14:35asked the tin woodman.
14:37Well, I didn't know enough, replied the scarecrow.
14:40My head is stuffed with straw, you know,
14:41and that is why I'm going to Oz to ask him for some brains.
14:45Oh, I see, said the tin woodman,
14:47but after all, brains are not the best thing in the world.
14:51Have you any? inquired the scarecrow.
14:54No, he said, my head is quite empty,
14:56but once I had brains and a heart also,
14:59so having tried them both, I should rather have a heart.
15:03All the same, said the scarecrow,
15:04I shall ask for brains instead of a heart,
15:06for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one.
15:12I shall take the heart, said the tin woodman,
15:15for brains do not make one happy,
15:17and happiness is the best thing in the world.
15:21Many Christians have made the same choice as the tin woodman,
15:25exchanging their mind for their heart.
15:29And we know now how unbiblical such an exchange really is,
15:34for the Bible says we're to love the Lord our God
15:36with all our heart and with all of our soul
15:39and with all of our mind.
15:41This can only mean a determination
15:43to develop our thinking process to its fullest potential.
15:46We must learn how to love the Lord our God with all of our minds.
15:50And how do we go about doing such a thing
15:53is going to be discussed in one of the messages
15:55coming up in the near future.
15:59But before we move on to the next thing,
16:01let me tell you about something I read from Benjamin Warfield,
16:06who was a great scholar who taught for 34 years
16:08at Princeton Seminary.
16:09He pleaded with his students never to exchange the mind
16:14for the heart or the heart for the mind.
16:16This is the greatest statement I've ever read
16:18about this controversy.
16:20He said,
16:21Sometimes we hear it said that ten minutes on your knees
16:24will give you a truer, deeper, more operative knowledge
16:27of God than ten hours over your books.
16:31Why should you turn from God when you turn to your books
16:35or feel that you must turn from your books
16:38in order to turn to God?
16:40Put your heart into your studies.
16:43Do not merely occupy your mind with them,
16:45but put your heart into them.
16:47They will bring you daily and hourly
16:49into the very presence of God.
16:52The Bible says that when we study,
16:54we should put our heart into it.
16:56And when we worship, we should put our mind into it,
16:59that we should not play this game of the dichotomy
17:02which says it's the heart versus the mind.
17:04It's both.
17:05Listen again to the commandment,
17:07You shall love the Lord your God
17:09with all your heart and soul and mind.
17:12In other words, with all that you are.
17:15But then there's the priority of a dedicated mind.
17:18Did you ever read these verses
17:19from Philippians and Corinthians?
17:21Philippians 2, 5,
17:22Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
17:28Or who has known the mind of the Lord
17:31that he may instruct him,
17:32but we have the mind of Christ.
17:37To have the mind of Christ does not mean
17:39that we are infallible and we start playing God.
17:43To have the mind of Christ means to look at life
17:45through the Savior's point of view,
17:47looking at life through his values
17:50and the desires in his mind.
17:51It means to think God's thoughts
17:54and not think as the world thinks.
17:58Now stop again and think with me
18:00about the power of your mind.
18:01The dizzying potential of the human mind
18:04reaches its apex in the possibility
18:06of possessing the mind of Christ
18:09through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
18:12A possibility affirmed by Paul when he said,
18:15We have the mind of Christ.
18:17No computer will ever be able to think God's thoughts,
18:20nor will any device ever be able to know
18:22the heart of God or do his works.
18:24But the mystery which resides between our ears
18:28has this capacity.
18:29It was created for this very purpose
18:31to have the mind of Christ.
18:36A dedicated mind.
18:39What about the third one?
18:41The priority of a disciplined mind.
18:431 Peter 1, 13.
18:45Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind
18:48and be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace
18:52that is to be brought to you
18:53at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
18:55And 2 Corinthians 10, 5 puts it this way,
18:58Casting down arguments in every high thing
19:01that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
19:04bring every thought into captivity
19:07to the obedience of Christ.
19:09The disciplined mind.
19:11First of all, 1 Peter says,
19:12we're to gird up the loins of our minds.
19:15It all is about focus.
19:16We're to get rid of the extraneous things,
19:17the things that get in our way,
19:19and focus our minds.
19:22Be proactive about the use of your mind.
19:24Don't be just kind of mindless,
19:26just letting whatever happen.
19:28But remember, the screen of your mind
19:30is totally under your control,
19:32and there are choices you can make.
19:33And the Bible says you're to bring every thought
19:36in the captivity unto Christ.
19:38That seems like an unreasonable and impossible task.
19:41But let us not be discouraged by the fact
19:44that it is a goal that is very high,
19:46but let it motivate us to say
19:49that as much as it's possible for me,
19:52I'm gonna have a controlling interest
19:55in what crosses my mind.
19:58I'm not going to feed my mind with things
20:01that will be destructive to me,
20:02or will not be positive or beneficial to me.
20:06Oswald Chambers wrote, he said,
20:08God will not make me think like Jesus.
20:11I have to do it by myself.
20:13I have to bring every thought into captivity
20:15to the obedience of Christ.
20:18And let me just stop for a moment and say,
20:20in this culture when we are bombarded by so many impulses,
20:24from so many different places.
20:27This is much more difficult than it's ever been
20:30in any culture in the history of the world.
20:33And it is not something that will happen naturally.
20:36It will take action on our part, discipline on our part.
20:41I don't know if you remember this.
20:43When I was growing up, I kinda, this really dates me,
20:46but I remember when television kinda came along.
20:48My father was a pastor.
20:52And my father was really concerned about TV,
20:54even though the one we had was so small
20:56you had to be almost sitting right on top of it to see it,
20:59and it was all fuzzy.
20:59I remember that.
21:02Every time a commercial came on,
21:03especially if it was a beer commercial
21:05or a cigarette commercial,
21:06my father would get up and either turn the channel
21:10or turn the volume down.
21:12We didn't have remote controls back then.
21:15But as time went along and things got
21:17a little bit more relaxed,
21:19we who were the children,
21:20we became the remote controls.
21:23Dad would say, turn that off.
21:24Turn that off.
21:25Come on, turn it off.
21:27He didn't want that stuff going through our mind.
21:29He didn't want us to be impacted
21:30by the commercials that were on TV
21:32that he thought could be hurtful to us.
21:35Now, how many of you know
21:37we've come a long way from that?
21:39I mean, the commercials we got on TV right now
21:41are not fit for anybody to see, some of them,
21:43let alone children.
21:44I've always been impressed with my kids.
21:47We have them at our house a lot.
21:49And I never have talked to them about this,
21:51but they are so protective
21:53over what our grandchildren are allowed to watch on TV.
21:56And sometimes I'm watching a mystery or something
21:59and they'll come in and Don will say,
22:00you got to turn that off.
22:02We don't want kids to be watching mysteries at their age.
22:06That's kind of a picture of how we have to function
22:08with our minds, isn't it?
22:10We have to decide.
22:11You know, obviously the internet
22:12is a real big problem today.
22:14You'd be better off not to have the internet
22:16than to be brought in to some of the filth
22:19that is available on the internet.
22:21You'd be better off, if that's an issue with you,
22:23just to disconnect it and say, I don't need it.
22:25But what the Bible is saying is that if we're going
22:27to have a mind that's devoted to God,
22:29it's going to have to have some discipline behind it.
22:31You can't just float along and let stuff happen.
22:33You got to stop and say, this mind that I have,
22:37that God has given me, is the most incredible thing
22:40that he's given me beside my salvation.
22:42And it is worth spending some moments and thoughts
22:46about how you're going to program that mind
22:48as you go forward.
22:50The priority of a disciplined mind.
22:52Notice number four, the priority of a determined mind.
22:55Colossians 3, 2.
22:57Set your mind, it says, on things above,
23:02not on things on the earth.
23:03This is just a further development of the previous principle.
23:06We discipline our minds by an act of determination.
23:09We have the power to set our minds.
23:12We train our minds to think Christianly.
23:14And in many instances, we can determine
23:16not only what enters our mind,
23:18but what is not allowed to enter our mind.
23:21Thinking Christianly is more than just that.
23:24Thinking Christianly is the substance and spirit
23:27of what it means for the follower of Christ
23:30to grow in the mind of Christ.
23:32Think about this for a moment.
23:34Isn't it absurd to affirm that Jesus Christ
23:37is the Lord of all, that he's Alpha and Omega,
23:40our Creator, our Redeemer, our Judge,
23:43the source and guide and goal of all there is,
23:46and then not be allowing him to be Lord
23:49over our minds and our thinking.
23:52We, as evangelicals, we get all excited
23:54about all the new things in the gospel,
23:56the new birth, the new people, new powers,
23:58but we gotta go back and put in the missing component,
24:01and that is a new mind.
24:03Nowhere is the Lordship of Christ
24:05and the power of gospel more needed today
24:08than in the renewing power of the Christian mind.
24:11Do you know that you can be a Christian going to heaven,
24:16absolutely forgiven, and if you don't take initiative,
24:20you can be a Christian with a secular mind
24:23that sees everything as the world sees it,
24:26even though Jesus Christ is living in your heart.
24:29I would say that the vast majority of evangelicals
24:33tend toward that as opposed to devoting their minds
24:37to the Lord Jesus Christ.
24:40Then there's the priority of a discerning mind, number five.
24:44In Philippians 4, 8, we see that word again.
24:47Finally, brethren, whatever things are true,
24:49whatever things are noble, whatever things are just,
24:52whatever things are pure, whatever things are of a good report,
24:55if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy,
24:58simply meditate or think on these things.
25:01Now, put that verse in context.
25:03Paul is trying to help people
25:05who are struggling with anxiety and worry.
25:08He's already told them that one of the things they need to do
25:11in order to overcome that is to pray,
25:14and he tells them that if they will pray,
25:17God will hear them and he will answer them,
25:20but he doesn't end with the prayer.
25:21He says after you pray, there's one more thing you need to do,
25:24and that is you need to get involved
25:26in what you allow to happen in your mind.
25:29And he gives them a list of characteristics
25:32that should be the judge on the kind of things
25:34we try to think about.
25:36And you can go through them.
25:37You've seen them before.
25:38I've preached on them before.
25:39It is simply saying, according to Paul,
25:42worry and anxiety can be exchanged for the peace of God
25:45through the powerful process of thinking the right thoughts.
25:50Read this any way you like.
25:51It cannot be teaching us anything else
25:53that if we meditate on the right things,
25:56it gives us the best opportunity to overcome the evil things
26:00that the enemy would come to distract us.
26:03Now, let me tell you what not to do.
26:05If you have a problem thinking wrong thoughts,
26:07you don't say,
26:08well, I'm not going to think about that anymore.
26:09I'm not going to think about that anymore.
26:11I am not going to think about that anymore.
26:14So, what are you doing?
26:15You're thinking about it anymore.
26:18You're laughing because you know I'm exactly right.
26:20The best way to get rid of bad thoughts
26:24is to replace them with good thoughts,
26:26to flush them out with good thoughts.
26:29If you ever have seen anybody go through dialysis,
26:34this is a good picture of it.
26:36They take the blood that has not been purified
26:38by an effective kidney,
26:39and they run it through a machine,
26:41and they purify that blood,
26:42and they run it back into the human body.
26:45The Bible tells us that the way we deal with evil thoughts
26:49and difficult thoughts and anxious thoughts
26:51is to replace them with the thoughts that are judged
26:55by the principles of the Word of God.
26:58And then, finally, the last one,
27:01and this is the one I get most excited about
27:03because it's the what-do-you-do-now one.
27:06It's the priority of a developing mind,
27:09Romans 12, 2.
27:10Listen to this.
27:10And do not be conformed to this world,
27:13but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
27:18that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
27:21perfect will of God.
27:22What is the renewing of your mind?
27:26Paul says that by the renewing of our minds,
27:29we are transformed,
27:32that when we take this seriously,
27:34the way that we allow our mind to be programmed
27:38will be the difference between
27:40whether we are conformed to the world,
27:43pressed into the mold of the world,
27:45or we are transformed to live beyond the world,
27:48the renewing of our minds.
27:51The Holy Spirit has chosen
27:53to achieve the transformation of the believer
27:57through the process of renewing his mind.
28:00When I talk about transformation,
28:01I mean growth in godliness.
28:03It doesn't happen without the mind.
28:07In other words,
28:08the outer transformation of what we become
28:10is effected by the inner transformation of our mind.
28:14This means that the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God
28:18to transform us by changing the way we think
28:23through the input of the Scripture.
28:26That's what David meant in the Psalms
28:28when he said,
28:29Thy word have I hidden in my heart
28:32that I might not sin against thee.
28:35In other words, David said,
28:36the way I keep from sinning
28:38is I have filled my mental computer
28:41with the Word of God,
28:43and I allow that Word of God
28:44to stay there in my mind,
28:46to dwell in my mind,
28:47and it is that which keeps me
28:50from doing things that I do not desire to do.
28:54In his letter to the Ephesians and the Colossians,
28:56Paul speaks about this renewing process.
28:59In Ephesians 4,
29:00he talks about being renewed
29:02in the spirit of your mind.
29:05And in Colossians chapter 3,
29:07he talks about the new man
29:09who is renewed in knowledge
29:11according to the image of him who created him.
29:15Now listen,
29:16if we cooperate and we choose to cooperate
29:19with the Holy Spirit and we say,
29:20Lord God, I'm gonna read your Word today
29:22and use your Word to change me,
29:24to transform me, to renew me.
29:27To be renewed means that you jettison some old thoughts
29:30and replace them with some new ones.
29:32You renew your mind.
29:33The way you used to think before you became a Christian
29:36is not sufficient for the Christian walk.
29:38You need a new way of thinking.
29:40And how do you gain that new way of thinking?
29:42You gain the new way of thinking
29:43through the renewal process that comes
29:46when you input God's Word into your heart and mind.
29:50The only way to prevent the outward shape of our life
29:54from being fashioned by the world
29:56is to take care that the inward spirit of our being
30:00is being transformed by the renewing of our mind.
30:03I've tried to think,
30:04is there any other way for this to happen?
30:06And I can't imagine that there is.
30:08You say, I want to be a better Christian.
30:10I want to walk with the Lord.
30:11I want to have a more godly life.
30:12That's a goal that we all have.
30:14Well, the way that works is not by coming to church,
30:16although I'm glad you do that.
30:17It's not by going to a discipleship class
30:20or even getting in a small group.
30:22The way you are changed according to the Word of God,
30:24you are transformed through the renewing of your mind
30:28which comes from the Word of God.
30:29So, we read in Colossians 3, 16,
30:32let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly
30:35in all wisdom and teaching and admonishing one another.
30:39Our minds are far more important, you see,
30:42than we are often led to believe.
30:45And today we have learned that God's priority
30:48for our mind is that it be devoted and dedicated to Him,
30:52disciplined and determined and discerning
30:54about what it does in our life.
30:57And we have discovered that there's a process
30:59that God uses to accomplish all of this.
31:02It is the very developing and renewing of our mind
31:05every day being changed because of the Word of God
31:08that is being absorbed into our inner being.
31:11Isn't that the way it is?
31:13You've got to pump God's Word into your heart.
31:15You say, well, how do you do that?
31:17Well, friends, if you don't get it, we've got so many tools
31:20now that we've never had before, don't we?
31:21You can listen to the Word of God on tape.
31:24You can read the Word of God
31:26in all kinds of different translations and paraphrases.
31:29You can memorize the Word of God
31:31in all kinds of memory programs available.
31:33Over the Internet, you can find ways to take the Word of God
31:37and constantly be pouring it through your mind and your heart.
31:41That's what God expects us to do.
31:43And He tells us that if we allow that process to happen,
31:47it will begin to change the way that we think
31:50and the way that we function.
31:52We will literally be coming more and more into the mind of Christ
31:56through the renewing of the Word of God.
32:01I don't know which hotel room we were in,
32:03but I remember the first night I turned on
32:05the rescue from Chile.
32:07And we were all captivated by the rescue
32:10of this group of 33 miners
32:12who seemed to have been entombed in the earth.
32:15And one of the stories that came out of this dramatic event
32:18is that of a relationship between Marcelo Liva,
32:21a Baptist pastor, and Jose Henriquez,
32:24one of the miners.
32:27Henriquez was an encouragement to his coworkers
32:30as they struggled to stay positive during confinement.
32:33As an evangelical Christian,
32:35he held daily Bible studies down in the cavern for the miners
32:39as rescue efforts were developing up on the surface.
32:43When Henriquez requested an evangelical pastor
32:46to aid the miners and their families at the site,
32:49Marcelo of Valinar Baptist Church
32:53in Valinar, Chile, was contacted.
32:55And he arrived at Camp Esperanzo,
32:59which means hope in Spanish.
33:01As the crews were planning the imminent rescue,
33:04Marcelo read from Henriquez's letter to him
33:07that was dated October the 6th,
33:09Dear Pastor Marcelo,
33:11I thank you for each and every one of your words
33:14of encouragement directed to the 33 of us.
33:17Tomorrow I will be reading your letter,
33:19which will certainly be a blessing.
33:21Thank you for writing in hopes
33:23that the Lord fulfills his purpose in us
33:25as well as in you on the outside.
33:28Well, pastor, may God continue to bless you.
33:30We will be seeing each other soon.
33:32Until then, please excuse my handwriting,
33:34Jose Henriquez.
33:36Marcelo sent his final handwritten response
33:39to Henriquez October the 11th in the Paloma,
33:42the name given to the device that was used
33:45to transport little objects
33:46between the mine chamber and the surface.
33:48I found out that the word Paloma means pigeon
33:51or dove in Spanish,
33:52so they had a carrier pigeon
33:54that took the messages down to the mine.
33:57Marcelo said,
33:58I encouraged him for the remaining days of confinement,
34:01recalling what he wrote.
34:02He said, this is what I said to him.
34:05I told him that he should remember the promises of the Lord,
34:09to have hope and confidence,
34:11and that he would also convey to the other 32 miners
34:14the message that the same God who guarded them
34:17is the one who is going to guide them in the rescue.
34:21And so, the anxiety can be dissipated with prayer
34:24and with confidence in God.
34:27Now, the news doesn't report any of this.
34:29This was in the Baptist news, and there's more to it.
34:33There was a conversion that took place in the mine
34:35because of what was happening around them.
34:39I don't know about you.
34:40When I watched the Chilean miners being rescued,
34:44I had to ask myself the question,
34:46what would I do if I had been entombed
34:48in a dark mine for 60-some days?
34:53Wouldn't you be going crazy?
34:55What kept them from losing their minds down there?
34:58Well, I don't know everything, but I know one thing.
35:02I know one of the reasons was their minds were filled
35:05with hope and encouragement from an outside source.
35:09And that is what God wants to do for us, isn't it?
35:13He wants to encourage us.
35:15He wants to fill our mind.
35:17What is the reason for the renewing of the mind?
35:19To fill our mind with the kind of truth that will help us
35:22in the cave that we are living in today,
35:25in the craziness of our generation,
35:28in the problems that we face.
35:30How do we do it?
35:30I mean, sometimes don't you look at people and say,
35:32I'm surprised they don't go crazy.
35:35There's someone up there who sent down truth to us
35:40through the Paloma.
35:43And he didn't send down just a little message.
35:46He sent down the whole deal.
35:48Everything he wants us to know while we're living on this earth.
35:54And men and women, I want to encourage you.
35:57This is not about the obligation to read the Bible.
36:01This is about the privilege and opportunity to so program your mind
36:05with God's truth that no matter what happens,
36:08you have the mind of Christ.
36:10You have a devoted mind to God,
36:13and you're ready to face whatever happens.
36:15People ask me all the time,
36:16what do you think is going to happen?
36:17And you know what my answer is?
36:18I do not have a clue.
36:22But what I do know is this.
36:24If I have the mind of Christ,
36:26and I program my mind with God's truth,
36:28I'm ready for whatever happens.
36:31And I'm going to make myself even more disciplined in that going forward.
36:35And I just want to challenge you to do that.
36:37Not because it's an obligation.
36:38If you don't do it, I'll never know.
36:41But if you do it,
36:42and we're going to give you some reasons for doing it as we go forward,
36:46you're going to find that God does some wonderful things in your life.
36:49You're going to start doing things, and you think,
36:51I don't even know why I did that.
36:52Well, you did it because your mind was reprogrammed,
36:54and now your mind is thinking the way God wants it to think.
37:00And I challenge you today.
37:02How many of you listening to this message say,
37:04Pastor Jeremiah, I get it.
37:06Say this, I get it, I get it.
37:08All right, now that you got it, go do it, all right?