GUARDING OUR MINDS

[Romans 8:5-11; Philippians 4:4-9]

          Introduction to the Scriptures: [Read Romans 8:5ff] “You, however, [speaking to Christians now] are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Remember, body, mind and spirit – your body is dead, he says, your spirit is alive. Today we are talking about your mind and its place in between those two. How does this all work? Verse 11 says: “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” We will explore that further next week as well, the effect of all this on our bodies. But what you have seen here in this passage, body, mind, and spirit, the spirit is alive through Christ’s Spirit, the body is dead, through our corrupt habits, and somehow the mind is the link that we need to understand today.

          Then these verses from Philippians, looking in a very practical way at how we use our minds, we read this: [Read Philippians 4:4-9]. There is something we can be doing about this. We can be praying about it, we can be letting His Spirit respond. There is some wonderful counsel there, and we are going to explore it.

Prayer for Illumination - Gracious God, this is not about us; it is about you. We want to know you. We want to experience your presence in our lives. You have invited us to come. You are a God of miracles. All kinds of them are built into us – the very fact that life inhabits the dust of the earth is the first and most astounding miracle. But we pray for the miracle of your grace to transform our dead spirits, minds, and bodies. Father, I struggle to be the person you have created me to be, but I am here in this place – you have called me here, and I pray that you would use me in some way. Your Spirit needs to speak, and we want to all be listening, so may we be transformed by the renewing of our minds this day, through Christ our Lord, AMEN.

Message

          I want you to think of something terrifying with me as we begin this morning. Suppose we were to put a large screen up in front here this morning on which we could project all of the thoughts and images which you have entertained in your mind this week . . . is that a terrifying thought? It is for me. Is there anyone here who could hold up your head and return next week?

          All right then, so what are you doing about it?

          Oh well, you say, those are private thoughts, and quite harmless because I have no intention of acting upon them. But psychologists have demonstrated that our thoughts and imagination program our subconscious mind to move us in the direction of the images we give it. The subconscious is impersonal and makes no distinction between negative and positive images. Our body simply learns to respond to the images we dwell upon.

          Sports psychologists know this well, and it has significant and tangible implications for our performance. If we expect to win, more times than not we will win. If we expect to lose, we will generally lose. Olympic level gymnasts and skaters walk through every detail of their routine mentally, again and again, seeing their way past possible errors or mistakes to the best performance of which they are physically capable.

          But if this is true, what are the implications for what you and I think about throughout the course of each day?

          We have been looking at God’s design for human beings, made in His image and consisting of body, mind, and spirit. We have learned that His intention is for our spirits to be in close communion with His Spirit, deriving wisdom and life and strength from Him, which should instruct and equip and guide our minds. In turn, we have learned that our minds have been given remarkable powers to direct our bodies. That is the way He has designed us to work. And we notice that it worked perfectly with Jesus.

          My experience is that we all take the body fairly seriously because what it does is so obvious and affects our lives so directly. Everybody can see it so we are compelled to do something with our bodies. Most of us want to do a better job with our bodies, and so we invest at least some measure of effort in disciplining them. In addition, many of us are beginning to learn to take the spirit fairly seriously because we are hoping that God (or, in our culture at large, some intangible spirit within the universe) can help us do a better job of controlling and directing our bodies. Our most successful efforts in combating addictive behavior involve acknowledgment of a “higher power” who must help us with whatever we are struggling with. But I am afraid that most of us have become disappointed with our lack of progress in applying our spiritual values to the way we actually live.

          The problem is that we have neglected the crucial link between the spirit and the body – namely the mind. And I think your reaction to our opening illustration proves my point, that we have been neglecting this crucial link. We have let our minds fill up with junk – or worse, with selfish, corrupt, and ugly thoughts and images – and then we wonder why we are making so little progress with our lives. Come on! We know the answer: Garbage In – Garbage Out! If that’s what we are putting into our minds, and allowing to take up residence there, then that’s what we are going to get back. It is as simple as that.

          Why are we so careless with our thought life? I think it is because no one can actually see our thoughts, so we think we can get away with indulging our petty lusts and resentments. We would work much harder at this if those same thoughts were going to be projected on the screen for everyone to see. But this is terribly short-sighted. Because while we might hide our thoughts from each other, we cannot hide them from ourselves! And that is, in a very practical sense, a far more significant and unexpected problem even than our inability to hide our thoughts from God.

          It is worth recognizing that every thought and image that enters our mind is entirely visible to God. I wonder sometimes if they might be projected on a screen some-where in heaven. But after we wince at that thought, we all too easily dismiss it, thinking, I suppose, that God has probably seen worse, and that in any case He is committed to forgive us.

          Not the point! The point is that our thoughts are powerful enough and effective enough to destroy us! Remember, God has no desire or intention to destroy us. We can only destroy ourselves, and it is quite possible for us to do that. And the battleground where what we are to become is determined, is the mind. Never forget, people: the battle is won or lost in the mind! That is the point we must grasp today.

          This is why your mind is so important. Initially we tend to think that our actions – the things we actually do with our bodies – are most important. After all, that’s where things actually happen, for better or for worse. The Christian may soon realize that this is not the whole story, and decide that the spirit is in fact the most important. After all, we are ultimately spiritual beings. It is true, as we learned last week, that we cannot depend upon our own strength, whether physical or mental. We can only succeed in the strength of the Spirit of God within us. That is how we were designed in God’s image.

          But you see, the mind is that practical place where the spirit and the body are linked. Remember the formula: The spirit tells the mind what to tell the body. So, as many of us have learned the hard way, the spirit can tell the mind all the right things, but if the mind fails to insist that the body do them, the whole process breaks down.

          The reason for this is the human will, which is lodged in the mind. Our freedom lies in our ability to make conscious choices – for better or for worse. Those choices may be governed by the desires of the body, the sinful nature, as our text from Romans 8 suggests, or they may be governed by the desires of the spirit. The mind must choose between them. This is precisely what the apostle Paul was saying in our text from Romans 8. Beginning in verse 5 he says, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires.” This is the mind acceding to the desires of the body. By contrast he goes on to say, “but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Here is the mind choosing to accede to the desires of the spirit which is in tune with God.

          Make no mistake about the importance of all this. Verse 6 goes on to state bluntly, “The mind of sinful man is death.” In other words, giving in to the desires of the body, putting no restrictions on what the body is inclined to do, is the surest way of destroying yourself. On the other hand, he continues, “but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” You see God wants only to give you life and joy. If you believe this, you must do whatever is necessary to learn to direct your body to do what God’s Spirit desires for you. And I hope you have noticed the crucial role of the mind in these two verses from Romans 8.

          A Christian disciple, therefore, is one who has made a conscious choice to learn to submit to the will of God which has been revealed by His Spirit. Verse 7 in our text draws the contrast as sharply as it can be drawn. “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” This is where we came in last week. If we have not begun by submitting to God’s Spirit, then there is no hope for us. Getting it right is not even possible, he says. Verse 8 says, “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”

          Now he is going to go on and show us how the spirit, directing the mind, can control the body, and we will explore that further next week. But it is critical this morning that we come to understand how our minds control us. Fundamentally it is just the way it is. Part of this is obvious. It is your conscious mind which tells your body to raise it’s arm, or begin walking or eating or talking. Less obvious is the fact that your mind goes into great detail in giving these instructions, going far beyond your conscious mind. Without your even thinking consciously about it, your mind instructs your body to gather and burn the necessary fuel, distribute the energy to the appropriate parts of your body, contract the appropriate muscles, and do a thousand other things to keep you balanced and functioning. This is the mind controlling the body on an autonomic level.

          But the real key to gaining control of our lives is the realization that our mind is always, sub-consciously, telling us what to do and how to do it. It is communicating this to us on a subliminal level based entirely on what thoughts and images we are allowing into our heads, into our minds. Psychologists use the word psychosomatic to describe this phenomenon. Psycho is the Greek word for the mind and soma the word for body. And what they tell us is that the body expresses what the mind harbors. This is a tremendously important thing for us to understand. For better or for worse, we only move in the direction of that which we dwell upon: personal advantage, pleasure, revenge, fear, success, failure, sickness, health, holiness – we only move in the direction of that which we dwell upon.

          Obviously this can be either good news or bad news. The bad news is that whether we consciously want to or not, we can condition ourselves for failure by what we choose to think about. The good news is that we can also program ourselves for success and health and holiness by what we allow to fill our minds. Don’t forget: We always move in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts.

          That’s why Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, that there is a direct and infallible connection between the thought and the act: between anger and murder, between lust and adultery. We tend to excuse or dismiss our thought life as relatively insignificant. He will not allow us to make a distinction between our thought life and our actions.

          There is an old proverb, quoted in scripture, which says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” This is why all temptation has to be dealt with at its source . . . in the mind. If you and I will tolerate the thought, Jesus is saying, the battle is already lost. It is why he equates anger and murder, lust and adultery. This is the key to dealing effectively with any and all sin in our lives. If you will tolerate the thought, the battle is already lost! Remember: the battle is won or lost in the mind!

          But of course, this can work to our advantage as easily as it may work to our dis-advantage. It all depends on the thoughts we allow to harbor in our minds. If you were the commander of a naval base like Pearl Harbor, would you allow the enemy to dock his battleships and carriers in your port? Yet we allow the enemy of our souls to dock his carriers in our minds, and then we wonder why we are so easily defeated. Isn’t it obvious?

          At the climax of his discussion on living the Christian life, the apostle Paul says in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by [what?] the renewing of your mind.” There is the key to our transformation. It lies in our minds. If our minds are cleansed and renewed, then, and only then, will we be able to experience, as he concludes there, “his good, pleasing and perfect will” for our lives.

          So we come to the final, critical question in the transforming of our lives. We know that our minds have a powerful capacity to control our bodies, a capacity which goes far beyond our conscious desires. So is there a way we can control our minds, such that they may in turn control our bodies properly?

          Yes, of course there is. And as we pointed out last week, it absolutely must begin with the spirit. This is the point at which our Christian faith supercedes the “power of positive thinking” which rules our culture today. You can go on line and read wonderful things about how the mind controls the body, and what you have to do to discipline your minds so that it will control your body. There is a great deal of truth in the “power of positive thinking.” As we have been saying, the mind is capable of directing the body in astonishing ways. But the bottom line is that “mind over body” is inadequate to ultimately transform our lives. As we learned last week from Jeremiah 17, Psalm 1, and Colossians 2, if we depend upon our own strength, either physical or mental, we will inevitably fail. In order to succeed, we must begin by sinking our spiritual roots down into Jesus Christ and drawing up nourishment for our spirits, Psalm 1 says, by meditating – ruminating – on His Word day and night. That is where the resource comes from.

          And the analogy we considered last week of a growing, healthy plant which produces good fruit will help us understand what we must do to equip the mind to control the body effectively. We must not be lulled into thinking that if we read our Bibles and pray, everything will be fine. It starts there, but it doesn’t end there. It is true that if we are not drawing our life from roots which go down into Jesus Christ – His Word and His Spirit – no effort we make can ultimately succeed. But this does not mean that we need make no effort. Paul says earlier in our scripture that we need to work out what God is working in us.

          A farmer plows his field, and sows his seed, and waters it and fertilizes it and cultivates it, all the while knowing that in the end he is utterly dependent upon forces outside of and beyond himself. He cannot cause the seed to germinate, he cannot cause the sun to shine to produce a healthy crop. Only God can do that. But he also knows that he cannot expect a harvest if he does not do his part. Life is, if you will, a partnership between us and God, as growing a crop is a partnership between the farmer and God. We cannot do what God must do, but at the same time God will not do what we should be doing.

          We understand the fundamental truth that we must reap what we have sown. This is as true of our minds as it is of our gardens. We cannot plant one thing and expect to harvest something else. At the second service with the children I’m bringing dandelion seeds from which I expect to grow maple trees and azaleas. We’ll see if they believe I can do that. Whatever I plant is going to grow, isn’t it? We cannot plant selfish, ungodly, or distorted thoughts and expect to reap something wholesome and beautiful in our lives. It is not going to happen. Look at it this way: our thoughts are the seeds which we plant in the garden of our minds. So what are we planting? We will reap what we sow.

          As the old verse says: Sow a thought, reap an act; Sow an act, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character. What is happening with your character? What we reap in our lives must inevitably grow out of what we sow in our minds. So what do you read? What do you watch? What do you think about? What do you dwell upon? What do you allow to find a resting place or a nesting place in your mind? If you and I are honest with ourselves, we will have to admit that we know very well why we continually stumble. There are a myriad of things which we have actually planted and allowed to grow in our minds which are simply going to have to be rooted out.

          But of course it will not be enough to try to stop thinking about destructive things. A field left untended will begin to grow all sorts of useless or destructive things. Not only must we regularly weed the garden of our mind, uprooting the noxious weeds which tend to grow there, but we must replace them with good seed. And in our second text from Philippians 4, after warning us of the importance of guarding our hearts and our minds, the apostle Paul gets us started with some ideas for cultivating something excellent and worthwhile in our minds. He says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true,” – start there, focus your attention upon it, meditate upon it, understand what is true – “whatever is noble,” – isn’t that a good word? We don’t use that a lot or see it a lot in our culture today – “whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. [Plant those seeds in your mind.] Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me [a reference to the scriptures upon which we are called to meditate] . . . put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

          My friends, I cannot stress enough the importance of what we allow our minds to dwell upon. We cannot cheat or compromise here. What grows is what we plant, and what we cultivate. We cannot hope to plant one thing and grow something else. We reap what we sow. We become what we think about most. You can pretend all you want; you can make all the excuses you want; you can ignore all of God’s warnings, but as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

Closing prayer - It is pretty hard to avoid what you want to say to us today, God. It is pretty hard to be honest with ourselves and not recognize the reason we are struggling. Each of us has some issues that we need to deal with in our lives. Between you and us we’ve got to have some conversations; and then some redirecting of the habits of our lives is going to have to take place if we are going to become the people we desire to be, let alone the people you desire for us to be. So I pray that we would come back to that fundamental habit we talked about last week of meditating on your Word, feeding morning and evening, day and night, feeding our spirits. Then recognizing the wisdom, the mind of Christ in your Word, may we pattern our thinking after yours, focusing on what is excellent and pure and praiseworthy. And then may we expect to begin to become the people you have called us to be through Christ Jesus, our redeeming Lord, through your Spirit, the empowering God who lives within us, AMEN.