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8-Minute MindShift Wk 34 · Mental Health and the Mission of the Church

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everybody.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just want to continue our conversation this morning about uh spirit, soul, and body.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I know it's a little bit um intellectual, but uh just want to talk to you about why and how we can be a Christian and still struggle with behaviors, thoughts, um, attitudes that so clearly um are displeasing to ourselves, hurtful, um just kind of here's the thing you can you can be a Christian and not know some of the stuff that we're gonna talk about and that we do talk about, but it's gonna be much more helpful to yourself first and to other people if you if you can explain why and how some of the things, the phenomenon.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I just have found over the years that most people have a uh a pretty incomplete, I guess is a good word, a pretty incomplete sense of how God made us to operate and how that plays into um what happened to us in the Bible narrative of creation, fall, redemption, restoration.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about those those four words.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Creation, you know, God created everything, and uh the fall, uh basically Genesis chapter 3, where uh we have this story of the serpent coming and Adam and Eve uh listening to and obeying, in a sense, uh the serpent over what God had said.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got creation, the fall, and then you've got redemption, which is all this children of Israel history leading up to Jesus.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, we just uh celebrate Easter.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got this amazing process of the incarnation, God clothing himself in flesh, coming to earth as a baby and living a sinless life, and then going to the cross in our place.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, we we we we preach the dickens out of, you know, believe God raised Jesus from the dead, uh, confess Jesus as Lord, and you shall be saved.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we kind of we kind of present it as if, you know, done.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's the end of the deal.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's why we have a lot of confused, hurting Christians, but I also think it's why we have an onlooking world that we're trying to reach with the love of God that is like, you know, you Christians uh talk a good game, but yow, you guys can be mean, you can be uh as as undisciplined and make as bad life choices as anybody else.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I think it's because we, the church, don't slow down to learn some of these fundamental, really, really important biblical thoughts, teachings.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: We call them doctrines, if you will.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so that's why I take the time to do some of this, because you need to think.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: You you need to I mean, you need to you need to think differently.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this before in Mark chapter 1, I think it's verse 15, Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel and the kingdom of heaven's at hand.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Repent means to change the way you think.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Repent means to change the way you think.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Believe means to change the person or thing that you've put your trust in, that you run to and rely on, that you you you you kind of hide in the shadow of, you might say.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so so there's just some stuff that if you want to live an effective, fulfilling, victorious Christian life, there's some stuff that really, really helps you if you understand.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe a biblical understanding of spirit, soul, and body is one of those things.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we started talking about last week is that at creation, you you heard this kind of a description.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: God formed man out of the dust of the earth, breathed into him the breath of life, and man became, man meaning all humanity, male and female, a living soul or a living being.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe it that what you see there is body, created dust of the earth, breath, spirit, and then became a living being, soul.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, why would I just make that up?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first Thessalonians 23, we talked about last week, says that uh that you would be sanctified wholly.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: W-h-o-l-l-y, might not have spelled that right.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in other words, completely.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then it says that your spirit, soul, and body would be preserved blameless.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe there in other places you can um kind of just settle that we are three part beings spirit, soul, body, spirit, soul, body.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, why are you beating this drum so hard?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's critical to you understanding for yourself while you can love God, have the best intentions, and still do things that hurt yourself, hurt others, and uh bring about poor results in your life.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and that's why I think it's so important to understand it.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um John chapter 3, we talked about this a little bit last week.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus comes to Jesus.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, you know, we know you're a teacher sent from God, but wow, do you teach some weird stuff?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't say that, but sorta.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Well, here's the deal, man.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you're born again, unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you're born again, you can't enter the kingdom.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe, you know, there's something important happening here.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh, you know, of course, Nicodemus, like, whoa, time out, born again, how can I enter again into my mother's womb?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and then Jesus says this that which is born of the flesh, when I was born out of my mother's womb, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Whoa, time out, Jesus.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: I believe what he's saying is you were birthed in the in the natural, your body, you were birthed through your mother, flesh created flesh, but you were also in a state of separation from God, because I believe God designed creation, particularly post-fall, after the fall, that um we have to decide to follow God.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: We have to want to follow God.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, gosh, we could chase a rabbit there, because there's a lot of thought out there right now that everybody's a Christian, everybody's a child of God.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And in the sense of God's love, I agree.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: God loves everybody, absolutely loves everybody, I believe.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I also believe God's dilemma was he wanted creatures that love him.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's going to be a relationship based on love, driven by love, built around love, rooted in love, it can't be uh mandatory, it can't be uh non-volitional.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it can't be that you had no choice in the matter.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe God designed creation and allowed the story to unfold in such a way that you have to want a relationship with God.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: You have to decide to have a relationship with God.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said, unless you're born again, um you'll not see the kingdom.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you're born again, you won't, you can't enter the kingdom.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then in a few minutes later, he says, that which is born of the flesh, flesh, spirit is spirit.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens at the new birth, at what we call being born again, is your spirit is regenerated.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: John chapter 1, verse 12 says that he came to his own and they rejected him.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it it says that he gave us the right and privilege to become children of God.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: To become children of God.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter talks about being born of incorruptible seed.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I really don't mean to confuse you, but I'm just trying to stress to you that when you said, Jesus, I'm a sinner, I cannot save myself, would you please forgive me of my sins?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Come into my life and be my savior and be my Lord.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: When you prayed that prayer, one with three parts, spirit, soul, body, one part of you changed.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Spirit, soul, body, one part of you changed, and that was your spirit.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Your spirit was reborn, recreated in the image and likeness of God.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: In your spirit, you look as good as you're ever going to look.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be honest with you, in your spirit, I believe you look as good as Jesus Himself does.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now the trick is why do we not look that way to all the people around us?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because our spirit's been reborn, but now we've got to work on our soul and redeeming, um, renovating, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, we're saved in our spirit.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Again, just a cute way of saying it, so don't freak out here.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're being saved progressively, incrementally, in our soul, and at one day down the road, Jesus is going to return to earth, and we're going to receive an incorruptible eternal body of some kind.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I just want to keep after this for a few weeks so that you grasp and wrap your head around the dynamics, the the pieces of the puzzle of what it means to be saved, what it means to be sanctified is the fancy word for it, which simply means to be in a continued process of becoming more like God intended for you to be.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you're saved, but he wants to separate you from the ways you've lived in the past.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we're just gonna keep talking about this man, and uh I apologize if it's a little intellectual, but uh, like I said, just trying to help you understand something that I think every Christian should understand because it brings grace to us, and we understand why, like Paul said in Romans 7, the thing that I want to do, I don't do, the thing that I don't want to do, I do.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And our spirit wants to do the right thing.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Our soul hasn't quite gotten on board yet in some ways, and that's what growing in God is all about.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Went a little bit long today, but uh love you guys, and uh I'm just excited about having these little conversations every week.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Bless you, my friends.