DPCC Faith Talks

Guard Your Mind

by Jeff Fry

A.   Intro

1.     A September 25, 2000 Newsweek article entitled "Mind Games" stated the following: "You don't have to convince Steve Backley of the power of the mind over the body. When the British javelin thrower, who won bronze in Barcelona in 1992 and silver in Atlanta in 1996, was unable to walk (let alone train) after spraining his ankle a few years ago, he worked out in a "mental gym." Sitting in a chair, he imagined himself throwing the javelin in every one of the world's major track-and-field stadiums, until he had racked up about a thousand hurls. He returned to competition a few weeks later making his top distances; usually, losing weeks of throwing practice will set you back inches--and in the javelin, of course, inches might as well be miles."

a)    The article goes on to explain:

(1)  "The reason [for his good results] is that visualization activates many of the same neural circuits that actually seeing does. Imagine, in your mind's eye, a harp in all its graceful detail; the same region of your visual cortex just turned on as if you actually looked at the instrument."

(2)  this just tells us that what we set our minds on does make a difference.

(a)    if we are a person whose mind is set on the truth then we will be a person who is trained to act according to the truth.  We actually strengthen the truth part of our being.

(b)   if we are a person whose mind is set on lies and that which is false, the we will be a person who is trained to act according to those lies.  We actually strengthen the lying part of our being.

(c)    if we are a person who is set on an addiction and we set our mind on that addiction over and over then that addiction is strengthened.

(3)  Our mind is a powerful tool for good or evil

2.     For the last few weeks we have been doing our "Truth Encounter" series- how we can be free of the sins that so easily entangle us.  Freedom doesn't come by trying harder, but by knowing the truth.  We've been talking about our defense against the enemy's attacks ".

a)    review Truth Encounters - i.e. to deliver us from strongholds and unresolved conflicts so we can understand God's truth.

3.     Last week we discussed the Christian's spiritual armour as a means of defending ourselves in the spiritual battle.  The week before that "our position in Christ".  And this week we add another one to the list - guarding our minds so that we have  …

4.     What do we mean by this, why is it important and how do we do it?  These are some of the items we will briefly cover.

B.   We must guard our minds

1.     State

a)    We will focus in on 1 Peter 1:13 today which says, " Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

b)    The word "mind" (dianoia in Gk) here refers to "our seat of perception and thinking" according to Friberg's Greek dictionary.  Thayer's dictionary expands it to include the seat of feelings and desires also.  This may be important.

c)     It's not surprising that we are urged to prepare our minds here for the very important reason that we know that Satan attacks the mind.

(1)  Satan knows the importance of the mind and so he attacks it. 

(2)  He attacks in different ways:

(a)    he puts false thoughts into our mind - e.g. how he put the thought in David's mind to trust in the number of his men instead of God thus bringing military defeat.

(i)      Satan does this with us like this (here's the tape that plays):

(a)   boy that was a stupid thing to do

(b)   I don't know anyone who would have done that

(c)    what made you do that ?

(d)   you know what you are stupid!

(ii)    unmasking that lie we get:

(a)   nobody is perfect

(b)   one mistake or two or three or how many doesn't make one stupid

(c)    You are who God declares you to be: greatly loved, a child of God, etc..

(b)   he blinds us to the truth usually by getting a foothold in our life through sin - e.g.  through strongholds and unresolved conflicts (unforgiveness)

(c)    he tempts us to repeatedly focus our mind on false things - e.g. pornography, romance novels, a worldly  philosophy (e.g. postmodernism, hedonism, materialism, etc).

(3)  Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4

(a)    2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age [satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

(b)   It's the same way for the believer - Satan attacks our mind because one way Satan can neutralize us is to blind us from the truth.  We learned about this a few weeks ago when we read about Satan putting a false thought into David's head.

(c)    That is why the Bible often urges believers to keep their minds focused on the truth:

(i)      Mark 12:30 says, "Love the Lord your God …. with all your mind … ".  It's repeated in Matthew and Luke as well.

(iii)   Psalm 1:2 says, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night."

(iv)  In Colossians 3:2 he says, "set your minds on things above …"

(a)   The psalmist is protecting his mind.  Not only is the psalmist filtering out the wicked, evil and deceit, but he is filling his mind with the truth.  We must do both, not just one.

(b)   A key principle : the best defense is a good offense - ie. focus your mind on the truth .  don't just keep your mind from the filth in the world - pornography, worldly philosophies, occult religions, etc. - but fill it with God's truth.

(c)    there are Bible reading plans in the back - pick one up!

d)    Jeremiah 31:33 should be known by all of us as a key Bible verse as it is where God unveils his new covenant to Israel in the OT.  It says ..

(1)  Jeremiah 31:33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

(2)  God knew that to be his people we needed to have his law in our minds, and in our hearts.  Our minds had to be renewed in order for us to represent Him well - to have victory over the enemy and be free of the enemy's oppression.

(3)  So, while we guard our minds from deceit (defensive stance), we also fill our minds with God's truth (our offensive stance).

2.     Illustrate

a)    Beside getting paid as a minister of this church, I also do work as a web site designer and administrator. 

b)    One way I find that I have to guard my mind is from unsavoury spam messages from my client's servers.  Since I can't filter everything out of these email messages that come from clients' servers, there are some messages that get through that I'd rather not read the titles of. 

c)     It's to the point where I get a few of these advert spam emails a day.  They are usually focused on the "big three" - sex, money and power.  They are cleverly advertised and worded to ensnare the mind with word pictures in the subject line. 

d)    it was interesting that when an additional filter was added to one client's web server, I noticed the difference spiritually right away in my thought life - the battle eased up noticeably. 

e)     I no longer had to battle these worldly thoughts and my mind was not ensnared and caught up in them nearly as much.

f)      We must guard our minds.

3.     Apply

a)    Consider some of the ways that your mind is bombarded by the world's philosophies and thoughts which are not always in agreement with the Bible - radio, tv, music, film, dvd, on-demand movies, youtube, internet, yoga meditation, newspapers, books, etc..  Which of these for you poses the most threat to derailing you from the thoughts God would want you to have?

b)    Which is your stronger point - your defense (protecting your mind from lies) or your offense (filling your mind with God's truth)?

c)     How can we "guard our mind"? (A: sharing with a friend our weaknesses and having them help us to keep our mind focused on the right thing, fasting from those things which are not good for us, saying "no" to the bad things)

C.   Conclusion