What’s On Your Mind?

Introduction

Thank you, please receive that.

Good morning. And if you’re a visitor this morning, and I’m one of you, because I’m also visiting. But on behalf of the South Bumby congregation, I would certainly like to extend a a welcome to you. You’re appreciate your your your presence, your encouragement, and it’s just good to meet visitors and brethren from different places. Or if you’re live here locally, uh especially glad to see you. And if you’re someone who is not familiar with the the the Church of Christ and just checking things out, we’re glad to know you’re here and we’re glad to talk to you and answer any questions that you may have to encourage you in the things that you may be seeking. The time has been very short, but I’ve greatly enjoyed my my few days here.

I of course spoke Friday night and earlier this morning, and uh this is the first time you’ve been in attendance since I’ve been here. I’m sorry, but I only have two good sermons, and I’ve already used them. So we’re gonna have to make good uh do with whatever I I I have left uh to offer you. But uh I I just appreciate it very much. Appreciate again being able to be here, spend this time with you, and uh whatever the future holds, I’ve learned, I I’ve grown, I’ve encouraged, been encouraged. Meeting brethren, meeting people, uh anywhere I go, I’ve I just try to have my eyes wide open to listen and learn and be moved by people and their lives and their and their stories. It’s a wonderful thing.

I would love to have time to get to know everyone well. It would take a while, but I’ve been able to meet some and get to know some of you uh a little bit and some more than others, and uh uh but I have been able to spend time with the elders, of course, and that that’s been a great experience. These are very spiritually minded men of of great depth, they bear a tremendous responsibility. And I could tell very quickly the the the these men are very ambitious and and striving all the best they can to serve the Lord and to lead this congregation in the best way possible. And please pray for them as they pray for you, and I I pray for all of you.

It it it’s just been a wonderful experience. Um also have to mention my sister and and David, as you know, I have a relation here, and uh I’m thankful to them. Encourage me as well to come and visit and being able to stay with them. It’s been very good. Also been good getting to know Gregory, uh a fine young man, and uh see uh just a lot of good things from him. You know, he reminds me a lot of myself when I was much younger. Only I’d have to say I think he’s a lot smarter than Ira was, uh lot more talented than Ivor was, a lot more handsome than Ivory was. But other than that, reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger.

Or maybe it reminds me of what I wish I was like when I was younger. How’s that? Maybe that works a little. One thing I have to just comment on observing things a a little bit, and there’s so much deserved. You can’t really do it in just a short while, but uh there’s a lot of people involved in a lot of things here. A lot of various talents, and a lot of you working and and serving, and there’s a lot of things to be done, and just all over the place I I see and observe people doing different things. You know, I come from a much smaller congregation, and there’s a lot of things that I do that I’m looking around here. Other people are doing, other people are arranging.

It’s just so many details that have to be done, and that’s a wonderful thing. It’s good to be involved. Good to have a role to play. And as I say that, if if you remember this congregation and you’re not really involved, you don’t feel really have a role to play. I encourage you to start thinking about that. There are always things to do. The more people are other more things are to do. As we spoke about Friday night, there are a lot of small things to be done. So many things that have been done, we would classify as small, but they’re all important. And so I encourage you to kind of think about the future and what you might do to play a little more of a role.

Be a little more involved, or some things you do. And if you don’t, you have no idea, please talk to the elders. That’s what they’re there for. And they would love to talk to you and help you in that and things that you might be able to do. And there’s a lot of good things that can come in the future. More are present and involved and playing a part. Just the Lord will bless you very tremendously. Well, I’m going to make you feel awkward for a moment, if that’s okay. There you sit, listening to me. But you know what? The longer I speak, the your mind will start to drift. And the longer I speak, the more your mind will drift. And face it, even right now, your your attention may be divided.

You know, and that’s okay. I don’t hold that against you. I’m the same way. The mind is a very busy place. We have a lot of things going on in our minds all the time. They say most of our thinking happens in the subconscious. That place back there, whatever that is, that’s awfully busy place. We got little things on our minds. If you’re uncomfortable in your clothes or the temperature, that you know that kind of presses you a little bit. Maybe you’re thinking about some errands you have to do this afternoon, or that those things are trying to force their way into your thinking a little bit. Or maybe there’s some big things that you’re thinking about, some problems or such. Sometimes I remember these old TV shows I’ve seen years ago where someone is miraculously given the ability to read minds.

And it’s always thought even way back then when I was younger that it’s so unrealistic, because in those shows they always people think in complete sentences, and that’s not realistic. Our minds are just a jumble of words and sentence fragments, and it’s a blur of images and sounds, and it’s just kind of like those uh first-person cameras that sometimes somebody has on their head and they’re skiing or something. It makes me dizzy. If you’re that person, it works, but you know, if you could read somebody else’s mind, just like seeing through their eyes, it’s bewildering just how quick all these thoughts are going back and forth, and it’s it’s an amazing thing. I just want to ask very simply this morning, then what’s on your mind?

What’s on your mind? I know it’s not just me in this sermon. Other things are on your mind or trying to get on your mind right now. Other things want attention. Other things are trying to force me out of your mind. What else are you thinking about? If I just stopped talking for about two minutes, what would come into your mind? If I preach on for an hour and a half, what would be on your mind? I think I might be able to guess. But I I won’t try that. Proverbs 23 7 says this, whereas he thanketh in his heart, so is he. There’s a diversity of translations of this verse. I mean, very diverse. And isolating this verse does not represent the context very well.

But if you’ll allow me to just play with that a little bit, for a moment, just think of this verse as it is rendered in the King James. Because it makes a wonderful statement as it’s rendered in the King James, just looking at that verse itself. Our thoughts, the way we think, determines who we are. We are products of what we think. Furthermore, our thoughts reveal who we are. We are all mind readers. Your thoughts are not secret. You think they are. And yes, specific thoughts at the moment may be, but overall, how you think is revealed in who you are. What you say and how you live. Overall, your thoughts come out in who you are, and they reveal who you are. And sometimes maybe we only fool ourselves when we think our thoughts are hidden, because other people really know.

What is on your mind? What is on your mind? Mind if I take a stab at it. Not too experienced at minority, but but let me try. What is on your mind? I’m going to try here. Worry is on your mind. You’re worried about something. Maybe it’s something kind of small, maybe it’s something big. Maybe it’s something you’re worried that may happen. And what are you going to do if it happens? Maybe you’re worried about something that is already happening, and you’re not sure what you’re going to do about it, and you’re and you’re very worried. Maybe something you’re unsure about. Something that may go wrong, maybe something you’re not sure how you can handle. Maybe something close, maybe something further off, but maybe you’re worried.

Anticipation is on your mind. You’re looking forward to something. Some of you have some trips coming up soon, another travel, and you’re kind of looking forward to that, and that’s that’s kind of on your mind. Or there’s a ball game, or there’s an outing or something coming up that you’re you’re looking forward to, and you’re kind of excited about. Maybe longing is on your mind. Any of you prone to daydreaming? Sometimes during sermons. Things you long for, things you wish to change. Um you yearn for, something you want to buy, a situation you’re you’re hoping will come about. There’s something with a hobby, maybe a relationship of some sort. Maybe you’re planning right now. That’s kind of entering your mind. Some people don’t like that. You can’t stop figuring.

A project at school, a project at work, a project at home, and you can’t help but be thinking through the steps. Okay, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that, I’m gonna do that. Maybe right now you’re you’re starting to relive a memory. There are constant triggers in our in our brains that that trigger memories, and your mind flashes back. The older I get, the more that happens, and more memories I have to flash back to. That happens a lot. Maybe guilt is on your mind. Maybe there’s feelings of guilt you’re carrying around with you that trouble you. Sometimes sermons can trigger that, of course. Sometimes pauses and silence can trigger that. You kind of bury that guilt for a little bit, then it starts coming back to you.

1. God Knows What Is on Your Mind

How did I do? Was I close? Of course, it’s not hard to be very general in reading someone’s mind, because these are the things that are common to all people, are the kinds of things I presented, as well as a few others. But the specifics are a little harder. And so I can’t do that, but you know who can? The Lord God knows what is on your mind. Psalm 139, verse 2. You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. God knows what’s on your mind. He knows exactly what is on your mind. Revelation 2, verse 23, Jesus is described as I am He who searches mind and heart. Mind and heart, which are essentially ways of describing the same sort of thing there, different aspects of it.

God knows your thoughts. He knows. He knows that most of us tend to be obsessed with our own thinking. He knows we tend to focus our thoughts on ourselves and our desires and our problems. God knows that we also waste a lot of our thoughts in the wrong places. Thinking about things that we really don’t need to be thinking about. God knows that sometimes we become prisoners of our own thoughts. Get trapped in that. We can’t seem to come out. And God tells us, furthermore, something very alarming about our thoughts. They will quickly pass. Our thoughts, as interesting as they are to us, are short and they’re temporary and they’re fleeting. Psalm 94, verse 11. The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.

Sometimes we think our thoughts are where it’s all at, because I’m clever and I’m thinking new things and I’m discovering new things. Or my thoughts are just wonderful. And I’m going to figure it all out. Or maybe some person I met or some person I’m reading about, that guy’s so brilliant. These thoughts are so fascinating, so wonderful. But the Lord says He knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. Sorry to burst your bubble, but your thoughts are not as great as you think. Not before God. None of our thoughts are as great as we think or are as lasting as we think. And we need to get over ourselves and get over our love of our own minds and our love of the minds of other people and place priority on the mind of God.

I’m not saying your thoughts are pointless or meaningless or anybody else’s. Sure, you have some good thoughts that we could benefit from, as do others. But before the thoughts, the mind, the will, the word of God, our thoughts are just a fleeting breath, often engaged in vain thinking, carnal thinking, pointless thinking. And what we need to do is place the premium on the thinking of God. If we would love life and see good days, we need to learn about the thoughts of God. We need to subject our thinking to God’s thinking. Isaiah 55, verse 8, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord. His ways are different, and his ways are better. Therefore, that’s really where I need to start, training and focusing my mind.

That verse should compel us to seek his thoughts. Our thoughts are here, today, they are gone tomorrow. But not God’s thoughts. God’s thoughts are forever. Psalm 139, verse 17, this is how we need to think about it. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God? How vast is the sum of them? I want to know all of them that He’s revealed to us. If I would count them, they are more than sand. I awake and I am still with you. Our thoughts are limited. And consequently, we tend to limit God in our thinking. Try to bring him down and put him in a little box and limit him according to my thinking. But God’s thinking was without such barriers. Ephesians 3, verse 20 talks about it this way.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work with works within or at work within us. He can do more than we can think. More than we can ask for, more than we can imagine. His thoughts, his abilities are that much greater. And we need to be moved by that. God knows our thoughts. And our thoughts are small before Him. What’s on your mind? What are you thinking about? Not just now, but in general. Frequently, commonly, things are quiet. Your mind goes somewhere. Where does it go? What is on your mind? Is it on your things, your desires, your issues, the wisdom and the ideas of the world or the things of God?

2. What Is Your Mind Set On?

It’s not wrong to think about yourself. It’s not wrong to think about all these different kinds of things. But the real issue I’m trying to get at, I think would be better stated this way. What is your mind set on? What do you feed it with? What do you nourish it with? What is the focus of your mind? The focus, the priority, the direction. Where is your mind tuned? As if you’re tuning into a station. Could it be that sometimes we’re just like Peter? Remember what Jesus said to him? Matthew 16, 23. Get behind me, Satan, you’re a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Is that not who we are sometimes?

My mind is just not set. It’s not tuned. It’s not adjusted where it needs to be. Would you turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8, please? Romans chapter 8. And what we’re going to do in the remainder of this lesson is consider this a contrast between the carnal and spiritual mind and what that results in in your life. Romans chapter 8, we begin in verse 5. For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law.

Indeed, it cannot. You can’t do it if your mind is not set right. And that’s why we bang our heads against the wall sometimes, trying to change, trying to get people to change, because the mind is just not set right. Verse 8, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Who’s in the flesh? Think, well, I’m not really doing anything that bad. No, if your mind is set on the flesh, that makes you in the flesh. You cannot please God that way. No matter what else you’re doing, no matter what you’re forcing yourself to do, whatever routines or emotions you’re going through, you can’t make yourself please God if your mind is not in the right place. Verse 9, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. The spiritual mind is set on Christ and the things of God. The fleshly mind is set on the things of the world. Yes, we have to think about things of the world. There’s some things we shouldn’t think about, but many things we do. But is your mind set on that? Wherever your mind is set, there will be consequences. It will be manifest in your life. In so many things about your life and in your eternity. All I want to do in the rest of this lesson is simply consider a few of these consequences and manifestations based on where your mind is set.

3. Different Thoughts and Different Affections

Whether your mind is spiritual or carnal, that’s going to result in different thoughts. It’s going to be manifest in different thoughts. If your mind is fleshly, you’re thinking on the earthly things, that’s going to be seen. Matthew 15, 19, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. There’s no one who’s ever done any of these terrible things in Matthew 15, 19 who didn’t first think about it. And so and said, I didn’t think about it. Well, yes, you did. Maybe you didn’t think specifically about this, but you were you’ve been thinking a certain way in your life. Sometimes when something comes up and it’s just a quick reaction, we didn’t have time to think about it. We did think about it.

We thought about it before it ever came up, and that’s what produced that reaction. It’s how you’ve been training and feeding and nourishing and influencing your mind. James 2, verse 4. Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Carnal mind is going to result in evil thoughts. Different minds will also result in different affections. A spiritual and carnal mind will care about different things and be moved by different things. A little while back, I watched the college football championship between Alabama and Clemson. And I watched with several people, and one of the young men that was with us watching the game had recently graduated from Clemson. And he had been a recruiter for Clemson. And you know what? I enjoyed the game.

But not like he did. Clemson won, if you don’t remember. He enjoyed the game on a whole nother level. I mean, he knew the players. I mean, that’s he’d just come out of that. He his affections were very much set on that team. I just enjoy a good game, but his affections were set on that. There are a lot of things people are affectionate about, and it reveals how they think. A lot of things people desire and long for. And they respond very quickly when they get an opportunity. A lot of people, things people mourn over. There are things I’ve never heard of that people care passionately about. Some things I don’t care about at all, but it reveals how they think. What your affections are turned or tuned to reveals a lot about you and a lot about your mind.

A lot of variations, a lot of interests, that’s perfectly fine. But the most fundamental issue is your thinking, resulting in the right kind of affections. Psalm 10, verse 3. For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul. And the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. You have a cause and effect going on in that verse. The cause is how I’m thinking, the effect is what it results in right there. Proverbs 17, verse 19. Whoever loves, love is a matter of how you think and set your affections. Whoever loves transgression loves strife. People that love fighting, there’s a reason for that. Something they’re thinking about that’s produced an affection in them. He who makes his door high seeks destruction. Psalm 112, verse 1.

4. Different Words Coming Out of Your Mouth

Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. Some people are very affectionate about the word of God. Why is that? It’s because of how they think. They have spiritual thinking that has produced a certain affection towards certain things. Different ways of thinking will produce different kinds of words coming out of your mouth. Many of the words we speak, they just it’s kind of amazing when you think about it, just how freely those words flow out of your mouth. Many of them you don’t really think about, they just come out as quickly as you can think. I mean, your brain’s right there, your mouth is right there. They come out quick, and they come out based on how you think.

Even if you speak very quickly, and you’re not sure why you said that, it’s because you’ve been thinking that way, or putting thoughts in your head that made that result. Language, vocabulary, expressions, humor. They all reflect how we think, how we feel. The way we talk reveals a lot about us. I think of again of Peter when he denied Christ a little later in Matthew 26. The bystanders came up and said to Peter, surely you too are one of them, for even the way you talk gives you away. Now, now to be fair, understand they’re probably talking about his accent with the Galilean guttural sort of pronunciations. But do you suppose it could be true in another way? That if you had been with the Lord for several years continually, that it might impact how you talk?

Might make you talk differently. I believe so. And if we’re with the Lord in our study, in our prayer, in our thinking, it should impact how we talk, and Christians should talk differently from other people. You know, you meet someone new, you can tell a lot about them from how the way they talk. Sometimes I meet people say, Oh, yes, I’m a Christian, I’m a Christian too. And I can tell sometimes very quickly what they mean by that. Sometimes they mean different things about that. I remember meeting a woman a while back in some store or business or something, and somehow we were talking, and she asked about me, and she says, Oh, yes, I’m a Christian too. And then she was mentioning some kind of denominational retreat in the mountains or something, and she would mention that, and I’d never heard of it.

And she was just flabbergasting. She said, How the blank, and you have never heard of that. And I just thought, you know, maybe maybe we were talking about different things here. What does your speech reveal about you? It does reveal something. We think we’re hiding it, but no, we’re revealing it. We’re broadcasting our thinking all the time and how we talk. The spiritual mind will speak very differently from a carnal thing, mind. People can tell what you value, how you feel, your your foundation. They can tell what you’ve been putting and feeding into your mind. Putting bad stuff in your mind, it’s gonna come out. Even if you think you’re very clever at guarding it, it’s going to come out. The Word of God says, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.

5. Different Pursuits and Different Attitudes

And your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us. If you want to have sound speech, you need to have sound things going into your mind and sound thoughts. You can only fake it for a little bit. You can only hide the bad stuff for a little bit. It’s going to come out if you’re putting and thinking about carnal thoughts in your mind. Well, what else will different mindsets result in? They’ll result in different pursuits. Different pursuits. A couple of years ago, I was traveling somewhere, and I met a man on a plane or something who had uh he had visited Albuquerque a number of times. He was familiar with the city.

He said, Oh, you’re from Albuquerque. He said, Well, I’ve been there a number of times, and yeah, I really like it there. And as he started talking about Albuquerque, I realized very quickly he was talking about a different Albuquerque from what I knew. He was talking according to his thinking and his affections and his pursuits. And he had my Albuquerque completely mapped out in terms of bars and nightclubs and dance halls. And when he was trying to figure out what part of town I lived in, lived in, you know, I was going to tell him, well, it’s pretty close to a hobby lobby there. You know that you hobby. Well, he didn’t think in the terms. A light bulb went off and said, Oh, the dirty bourbon saloon that’s just down the road from you.

And I said, Well, unfortunately it is. The dirty bourbon’s right there. It’s very successful. Everything in town he thought of in terms of those clubs and dance places. That that reveals his pursuits based on that’s that’s what he thinks about. People reveal a sense of selfishness or selflessness and how they talk. I I’ve known some amazing people that no matter what you’re talking about, they they give you their undivided attention and they they listen to whatever you’re saying with great fascination and they just listen and they ask. Knowing other people that are very selfish in their conversation, they’ll talk all day about their interests, but the moment you talk about something of interest to you, they just tune you out and try to end the conversation.

What is a carnal mind seek? What what is a spiritual mind seek? Second Chronicles 15 12, think about this. And they entered into a covenant. Why? To seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart, with all their soul. What are those minds seeking right there? What are they thinking about? What about Job 5, verse 8? As for me, I would seek God, and to God, I would commit my cause. What are you seeking? It comes from the way you think. Proverbs 15 14, the heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge. Do you seek knowledge? A lot of people don’t care. It’s not how they think. But this heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on folly. One more here, Proverbs 27, verse 4.

One thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To gaze, this is so beautiful here, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire of his temple. What kind of mind is that that seeks to dwell in the house of the Lord and gaze upon his beauty? Is that something you seek? Different minds produce different attitudes. Different attitudes. And aeronautics attitude is about the angle of the aircraft in relation to the ground. For us, attitude is about the position, the angle of our craft in relation to the world around us and before God. There’s a different attitude between a spiritual and carnal mind, and it will be revealed in many situations.

For example, when you are offended or you are wronged. Carnal minds going to respond one way. Spiritual minds are going to respond in another way. When you don’t get your way, and it’s frustrating. How do you respond? It’s based on how you think. Not just in that moment, but how have you been thinking? How have you trained your mind? What have you been putting into your mind? There’s so much garbage out there to watch and observe. And you know, we see a lot of this stuff unavoidably at school and at work. You can’t hardly escape it sometimes. And sadly, after we get off work, we get out of school, we go home and we watch it on television. We go to movie theaters and pay good money to see more of it.

It’s not just talking about bad language, I’m talking about bad thinking, carnal thinking. We just cram that stuff into our heads all the time. Read the Bible a little bit on Sunday and think that’s gonna take it all out. It doesn’t. It’s affecting you and how you think and how you react and how you respond. Sometimes in very quick and abrupt situations, different attitudes are going to manifest themselves. When you’re hurting, when you’re hurting, carnal minds gonna maybe act one way, a spiritual mind another way. When you come into a lot, you receive a windfall, an inheritance, suddenly you have a great new job and you have a lot of money, how you think is gonna impact how you handle that. On the other hand, when you’ve lost, and you have to do with very little, and you’ve lost a lot for through some way you’ve just lost, and now you’re doing without how you think and how you’ve been thinking is going to be manifested in that.

How you think about entertainment, the kind of humor that makes you laugh, the kind of things you enjoy and spend money on in entertainment. How you respond to news, news in the world, news in our country, how you respond to news in your family, how you respond to news in the church and things going on in the Lord’s body, good and bad. How you think affects all of this. You’re not just making a decision when a moment comes up. The way you’ve been thinking all along is going to lead to how you respond. It’s going to lead to your attitude. Your attitude.

And I have a dentist office that opens on Saturdays, and they open at 9 o’clock for anybody to go in there with, you know, a crown that’s come undone or a filling that’s come out. So I went in there at 9 a.m. that Saturday morning. There’s a group of people there, and I tell you, we were a miserable lot. We didn’t have that big a problem. Just nobody wanted to be at the dentist at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning, unplanned, because something came loose. And the staff at the dentist’s office was a little bit slow to come in, and everyone is just kind of grumbling, myself included, except for there’s one man in that waiting room that was not. And he had a good attitude.

I talked to him later. I found out about he has some very biblical beliefs about some things, but uh kind of reminded me a little bit of Mr. Rogers, you remember him, just that kind of personality, that kind of tone. And he just said, you know, we need to be thankful that we can on a weekend we can get in to a dentist to have these things addressed. That is a wonderful thing. That’s a blessing. You know, be happy for that. And if some of the staff was starting to come in and they were kind of late, and others of us were rolling our eyes and going like that. He greeted each one of them, and he thanked them for coming in. He was so glad to see them that day.

And I started to feel kind of small. It’s like that’s the kind of attitude I should have. And my attitude of grumbling, that thing, it doesn’t help. It doesn’t get you anywhere. And I was, I stood corrected that day as I observed him. You see, that man, he didn’t just make a decision on that day. That’s how he thought all the time. And I realized I need to work on how I think in my attitude. Proverbs 10, verse 23, doing wrong is like a joke to a fool. But wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding, see? For a lot of people, sin is funny. Personally, I don’t like any joke where the punchline involves sin. A lot of people do. A lot of entertainment does.

6. Your Thinking Is Going to Have a Result

But if that’s how you think, that’s going to come out that way. Proverbs 13 6, I’m abbreviating because it really requires a larger text. He’s talking about love. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. If you’re thinking in the right way, you’re going to understand. Now, put all this together and kind of see where it all leads. The way we think, whether it’s spiritual or carnal, is going to have a result. You understand? It’s going to result in something. We like to think my mind is just free to do whatever I want. Well, sure, but it’s going to have a result. It’s going to go somewhere, and it’s going to take you somewhere. Do you know where your thinking is taking you?

Type of mind. It’s going to lead somewhere. It’s going to be consequences. Our thoughts are temporary, as I said earlier on, but the consequences of our thoughts are not. The thoughts of my past are gone, but I’m living with consequences of those thoughts today. I used to think it was a great thing to listen to loud, booming music through my headphones. Well, I don’t think that anymore. Don’t care about that anymore, but I’m living with the consequences of ringing ears. Maybe it’s not because of that, but maybe it is. Nonetheless, my thinking’s changed. It’s past. I no longer think like I did, but I live with the consequences of how I thought in the past. Your mind, now let me emphasize this. Your mind that you choose to have.

It’s up to you to choose what kind of mind you have, what kind of thoughts you’ll think. Your mind that you choose to have is going to have lasting and even eternal consequences. Do not take thinking lightly. Do not take lightly the things that you are feeding into your mind. Guard your mind. Guard your thoughts. Develop them. Grow them. Grow them. At the end of the day, whatever happens, where you end up, a lot of it’s because how you thought. End of the year, end of the situation, end of your life, end of eternity in eternity. The spiritual mind, it’s going to result in life and peace. The ability to obey, to respond, to serve. Carnal mind is going to result in conflict, in turmoil, in hostility, and in eternal death.

Conclusion

Proverbs 11 27. Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor. But evil comes to him who searches for it. Who searches for evil? Those who think about it. Those who don’t guard their thinking. Those who put the wrong things in their thinking. Isaiah 32, 17. I’m sorry so many verses that just address this so wonderfully. And the effects, we’re talking about the result of righteousness will be peace. And the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. Here’s the message this morning. Submit your mind to the Lord. His mind is greater, it’s superior, and it is eternal. Yours is not. Love the Lord with your mind and from your mind. He said to them, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Direct your mind. Redirect your mind. We have to do that continually. Just like you’re driving down the road. We don’t drive just like that, do we? There’s continually, just on a straight road, even, adjustments. You have to do that with your mind continually. Adjust it. Direct it, redirect it, focus it. Romans 12, verse 2 says, to renew it. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, what is acceptable. What is the perfect? Do you think about things like what is good and acceptable and perfect? Pursue a spiritual mind, a godly mind, a mind founded in the Word of God, a mind guided by God’s scripture, a mind of honesty and sincerity and purity and love and joy and holiness.

Pursue a mature mind. Pursue the thoughts of God. Remember, only God’s thoughts are going to last, not yours, not mine. Only God’s thoughts are truly wise. Only God’s thoughts are truly enlightening. Buddhism teaches you to seek enlightenment through your own thoughts. What a fool’s errand that is. Only God’s thoughts will lead us to true life. Only God’s thoughts will lead us to true joy. Only God’s thoughts will lead us to eternity. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there’s any excellence, if there’s anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Just a little quickie closing point. I don’t know when I’m supposed to stop, but I’ll stop. Quickie little closing point. Also realize unity in the Lord’s body.

That begins when we all think about the same things and think alike. I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree that there be no divisions among you. How do you accomplish that? That you be united in the same mind. In the same judgment. Not mine, mine, not anybody, but in the minds of the Lord. We thank you so much for your good attention this morning. Let us all think about how we think and work on our minds. Have you thought about responding to the invitation of Jesus Christ? That’s going to come about if you’re starting to think in the right way with humility, with a sense of understanding about what you need, a sense of learning what his word says.

But now, if you’ve thought about that, you understand. Thinking’s not enough. You need to act on it by confessing him and repenting of sin and being baptized that your sins may be washed away. If you’ve strayed from that and you need prayers, you need help, you need support, please don’t let another day go by. Make that known that you can would love nothing better than to help you with that. Let that be known by coming forward as we stand and sing.