Sermons from Good News: The importance of a strong mind

 

Church 2/24/2024

Offertory scripture:

Trust God. But how? By revelation. Once head knowledge of God and His Word is able to travel from your mind to your heart it’ll stay there.

So how do we receive that revelation?

Joshua 1:7-8

Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

One key component to the above:

James 1:22-24

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

Get God’s word in your mind and mouth, and it will then make its way to your heart.

Two key truths to let drop into your heart:
“God loves me.”
“God cannot lie.”

Sermon message:

Thesis: The importance of a strong mind.

It’s important to have a strong mind in the Lord. You’ll have peace. You’ll be stable and steadfast. You’ll be able to withstand attacks.

Faith is important. God rewards a person who has faith. We get faith by going to the Word of God and it will transform your mind.

Romans 12:2

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Both faith and your mind are important.

The strength of your mind is affected by the Word of God. Of course Satan tries to keep believers weak by keeping them away from the Bible and from other believers.

A lot of the battles we struggle with are in our minds.

The Bible says that you are a spirit with a “soulish” realm, and that you have a body. Sometimes our bodies try to talk to our minds and affects it. Ditto emotions. Thoughts can attack our minds. They do so to run our spirits—our real selves.

Our thoughts can attack our peace, our sanity, and our faith.

Our thoughts can affect how we react, it can steal our joy, it can steal our day.

So how we can strengthen our minds?

2 Corinthians 10:3-4

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,

We could have a stronghold in our thinking, a destructive thought pattern. But we fight it with the Word of God.

2 Corinthians 10:5

casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

You have power to change those thoughts.

Point #1: Without God, your mind is in conflict against Him.

Romans 8:7-8

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Colossians 1:21-22

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

2 Corinthians 4:4

whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

Point #2: With God, your mind is rescued, revived, and set free.

Non-believers claim that Christians are brainwashed, but the reality is that they themselves are brainwashed.

John 8:32

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

John 17:17

Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

Point #3: With God, your mind is not affected by absurd thoughts.

If you allow God to renew your mind, you won’t have those absurd thoughts.

Romans 12:2

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

This is how God changes you into a new creation, once you’ve been born again.

Psalm 1:1-3

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

Consider Joshua. God told him to renew his mind. (Joshua 1:8) but Jesus hadn’t died on the cross for our sins yet. So Joshua wasn’t born again. But he could still renew his mind and bear fruit. Joshua still was solid in the Lord, in his mind. So can we.

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Point #4: Renewing your mind makes you stronger.

Put everything else together and put everything together.

Ephesians 4:23

and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

Romans 12:1

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

How do we present ourselves to God as per Romans 12:1?

Romans 12:2

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.