Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / Reset | Anxiety & Mental Health, Part 02

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Reset | Anxiety & Mental Health, Part 02 · Bayside Davis Podcast

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Beside Babies Podcast.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: We are now listening to our current teaching series reset.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Last week we began talking about resetting our mental health from the scriptures, and we specifically looked at Romans chapter 12, verse 2, that talks about renewing our minds.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: And we specifically talked about anxiety.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give you a little window into spiritual leadership.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when you teach on a subject, you're heavily tested on that subject the next week.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going about my week and I'm thinking about all the points that I talked about on anxiety, resetting our mind, and how do we process through that and all of our thought life.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: And I faced quite a battle with anxiety last week.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you know anything about my story with anxiety, you know that I, for about a five-year period, I dealt with the most extreme, paralyzing forms of anxiety for about five years.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: And last week, I probably had some of my worst days of anxiety I've had in years.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought, I've got to think through all of these practices, these five practices that I taught on.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: And so I was thinking about them all week.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: I was trying to practice each and every one of them.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I woke up this morning feeling amazing.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And if you were here last week, you know that we only got halfway through the ten points about thinking as followers of Jesus.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: So I thought it would be great to finish those.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: You guys down for that?
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Colossians chapter 3, verse 2.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Since then, let's begin in verse 1 actually, since then you have been raised with Christ.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: It's the Bible too.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: It's great.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Set your minds, verse 2, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: What an amazing scripture as we're reconnecting with what we talked about last week, but in a new light, in a new realm.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: Paul teaches us as he's writing to the Colossian church, who was dealing with all kinds of false teaching.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: There were false teachers coming in, there were weird philosophies coming in, trying to infiltrate the Christian community.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting about the first century church is in the first century church, the church wasn't so much worried about culture affecting them from the outside.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: They were worried about false teaching affecting them from the inside.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is dealing with false teaching, but he specifically shifts in chapter 3.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, how are they to live as followers of Jesus?
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And he says, set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Notice that phrase, set your mind, set your mind.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: It's a really important phrase, something that Paul, a term that Paul uses over and over in the New Testament.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: It is the Greek verb phreneo.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Paul uses it, I believe, 22 or 23 times in the New Testament, and it means to give careful consideration to something.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Or it can be rendered to be focused on something, or another way of rendering it, is to let one's mind dwell on.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Whatever that is that you're dwelling on.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: One scholar said it expresses not simply an activity of the intellect, but also a movement of the will.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: It has to do with aims and motives underlying them.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting when Paul says, set your mind, be focused on, or let one's mind dwell on, the type of verb that he used is continual habitual action and lifestyle.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's not just something you're to do on Sunday, it's something you're to practice for the entirety of your Christian life.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: As you follow Jesus, you are to set your mind or be focused on things above.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: It is a mindset, it's a dwelling place of thinking that Paul is talking about.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking this week how awesome this time of year is.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: And you might say, well, why, Wesley, is this time of year so awesome?
5:06
SPEAKER_00: Because it is the collision of all the sports running together.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: You've got college football that started this weekend.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: The NFL starts next weekend.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Don't skip church for a football game, by the way.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: You've got the NBA in about a month, the WNBA, which is awesome.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh right now, I don't know if you watch the WNBA, but man, some of these players are unbelievable.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: You've got golf right now, it's like the finals of golf.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Anyone into golf?
5:36
SPEAKER_00: You guys like golf?
5:37
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Golfers here.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: We've we've got two golf fans in here.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: God bless you both.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh you've got surfing.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh surfing is going on in Tahiti, the World Championship Surf League, which probably none of you watch, I do.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: And then you've got tennis, like all the sports colliding together.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: But the problem with that is if you love sports, you can watch them all day long every day.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And oh yeah, baseball.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: I forgot about baseball.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: The great American pastime.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Please forgive me.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to offend you, baseball fans.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: If you watch sports, including baseball, all day, every day, and your mind is attentive to sports, you're gonna dream about sports, you're gonna play sports, you're gonna run home after work to watch sports, your whole mind and orientation of life becomes sports center or sports-centered.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you caught that, but nevertheless, let's move on.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Dr.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Gary Collins, a great psychologist from Bertou University, says, it is doubtless is true that people become what they think about.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, a man is what he thinks about all day long.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that true?
7:04
SPEAKER_00: And then Proverbs chapter 23, verse 37, and the New King James Version renders it, for as he thinks in his heart, or as she thinks in her heart, so is he or so is she.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: The things you think about influence every other part of your life.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: There was a season where I bought all the uh Walter Isaacson biographies.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: Anyone read any of those?
7:30
SPEAKER_00: You got Elon Musk, come on, you know, readers in here?
7:33
SPEAKER_00: You guys are all PhDs and you don't read books?
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Come on now.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: You've got Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, all of these great biographies, and they're like twice the size of your Bibles.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: So it takes a while to get through them, but they were incredible.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: And I remember as I was reading through those, that's all I thought about all the time.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: My mind was centered on these stories and what made these people that did great things in this world, like what shaped them and formed them and gave them motivation to persevere through different elements of their life.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting, like whatever you think about all day long will influence every part of your life.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna start thinking about Elon Musk all the time.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: Controversy?
8:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna start thinking about Einstein all the time.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna start thinking about Steve Jobs all the time.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul says, by the way, we're Christians, we want everybody to be saved, amen.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, set your mind on things above.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: On things above.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: When you and I put our faith in Jesus, we are born again.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: We are made alive spiritually, which means the point in time that you put your faith in Jesus, you begin to have a brand new orientation of thinking from that point forward.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Your mindset changes.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: It changes from living life apart from God to living life with God.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Living life on an earthly plane to now living life on a vertical, heavenly plane.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: And when Paul says, notice verse 2, when Paul says, set your minds on things, lots of different things, above, he's referring to verse 1.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Notice verse 1 when he says, Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Notice where Christ is.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Seated at the right hand of God.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Paul is saying, when you are focused on what God wants you to be focused on, you're setting your mind on things above, which is referring to heaven.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: You're setting your mind on heavenly things because Jesus is in heaven.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, people like to talk about heaven.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Christians like to talk about heaven.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: There's books about heaven, and we like to console people with heaven.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: And we think heaven is heaven because it's heaven.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: And we're like, oh, I can't wait to get to heaven for the benefits.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: No more crying and no more weeping and no more sadness and no more disease and no more this and no more that, and all the benefits of heaven.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing about heaven: heaven is not heaven because it's heaven.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Heaven is heaven because that's where God is.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: The greatest benefit of heaven and the realm of beauty and perfection of heaven is because that's where God's dwelling place is.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: So when he says, set your mind on things above, he's saying, we as followers of Jesus are to think and live heaven down.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: We're to think about what are God's plans, what are God's thoughts, what are God's ways, what is God's rule, what is God's design.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: We are to think and live heaven down.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: We have a new orientation of thinking.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Our mind becomes centered on Jesus.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: We have a new way of thinking.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: He begins to transform our minds, and when he transforms our mind, he transforms our life.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: If you change your mind, you change your life.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul encourages us to have a transition of thinking as we begin to follow Jesus.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Prior to Jesus, your thinking was earthly, and you did not think Jesus' thoughts, but now that you're following Jesus, your thinking becomes heavenly, and your greatest desire and greatest thoughts are about Jesus.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: They're no longer about, I want to get more money and steal from so and so, or I want to go out and live a lascivious life, or I want to go get drunk on the weekend, or I want to go, you know, tear this person down with my word so I can be elevated in the workplace or on my team.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: You don't think about that any longer.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you're gonna have those thoughts, but those aren't the driving thoughts of your life.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Now you begin to think, my greatest desire and my greatest thoughts are about Jesus.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: This is why in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 16, Paul writes, We followers of Jesus, have the mind of Christ.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you thought about that?
12:49
SPEAKER_00: There is such a supernatural rebirth in your life, there's such a supernatural redemption when you come to Jesus that literally you take on the mind of Christ.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen overnight, does it?
13:05
SPEAKER_00: But it happens over a lifetime, and God begins to give you a new way of thinking.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Scott McKnight, the great scholar, said, for Paul, it is a the-moral term.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: How one thinks shapes how one lives.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Thus, flesh flesh-mindedness leads to flesh living, while spirit-mindedness leads to spirit-drenched living.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: The great scholar FF Bruce once wrote, commenting on this verse, don't let your ambition be earthbound, set on transitory and inferior objects.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: Don't look at life and the universe from the standpoint of these lower planes.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Look at them from Christ's exalted standpoint.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Judge everything by the standards of the new creation to which you now belong, not by those of the old order to which you have said a final farewell.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: When you come to Jesus, you look back and you said, those things I've said goodbye to, and now I'm focused on the new things and the new creation that Jesus has brought into my life.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Last week we read Romans chapter 12, verse 2, and I want to read it one more time.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed, be changed from the inside out by, notice, the renewing of your mind.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: The question for us is not, is this truth true?
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Because it is, as followers of Jesus, that's why it's in Scripture.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: The question for us is how do we form a new way of thinking?
14:52
SPEAKER_00: With the battles and the temptations and the anxieties and the stressors and the unhealthy thought patterns that are existing in the ecosystem of our mind, how do we develop a brand new way of thinking that aligns with our new birth in Christ and our new creation that God has given us?
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And we begin to think heaven down, not just simply on an earthly plane.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, we begin a pathway of renewing your mind, or you could say a new way of thinking last week.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: And let me give you a little recap, the first five points in case you missed them.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just gonna go quick, so you gotta write these down really fast.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: Number one, a renewed mind is a process.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: This is encouraging to you because some of us we listen to this and we're like, I don't feel heavenly in my mind.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: You came to church this morning and you're like, I'm already at an L, which means you're at a loss.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And you need to be reminded, it's a process over a lifetime.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: It's not just instantaneous.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: There's a divine human collaboration.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: You partner with God in the transformation of your mind.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Number two, a renewed mind is rooted in God's word.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: If you want your mind to be new, if you want a new way of thinking, if you want your life to be centered on God, on Jesus, the Son of God, you have to be in God's word.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: Number three, a renewed mind brings anxieties to God.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: My worries, my fears, my anxious thoughts, you bring those things to God.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Number four, a renewed mind does not believe every thought.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: This is something we leaned into last week that you, as a human being and you as a follower of Jesus, you can't control every thought that comes into your head, but you can control what you do with every thought that comes into your head.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: And then number five, a renewed mind does not believe every thought and does not entertain every thought.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: The thoughts that come into your mind, you don't have to feed them and cultivate them and water them.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to entertain thoughts that are contrary to the way of Jesus in your mind.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: So that is the first five points.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: If you missed them last week, you got them this week.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: In a much more abbreviated version at that.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: So number six, and we did not get to this last week, so we're gonna lean into this a little longer.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: A renewed mind filters thoughts.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: There's a verse in Philippians that's not as popular as Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Everybody likes to quote Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Do not be anxious about anything.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: But by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: People love to quote that, and it's a beautiful scripture, and we talked about it in depth last week, but they forget there's other verses in the context that correlate with that to help us have a healthy mind, and that is Philippians 4, 8 and 9.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: That's already a great list, right?
18:33
SPEAKER_00: If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Anxious thoughts can begin to paralyze you, they can take over your mind and your body, and you can feel the sensations of anxiety.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: 24-7.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Do not let your mind be wrapped up in anxious thinking, in unhealthy patterns of thinking.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's great.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: That's an encouragement.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: So he says to pray, but it's not just praying that changes our thought or our mind or heals our mind from anxiety, it's also intentional formation of thought patterns.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: So Paul says you should filter your thoughts.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Are they true?
19:24
SPEAKER_00: In other words, truthful.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: Are they noble?
19:27
SPEAKER_00: In other words, worthy of respect.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Would you say if you share these thoughts, people are like, well, that's a thought worthy of respect?
19:34
SPEAKER_00: Number three, are they right?
19:37
SPEAKER_00: Are they just or are they in line with God's design?
19:42
SPEAKER_00: Are they pure?
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Are they pure in content and pure in motive?
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Are they lovely?
19:50
SPEAKER_00: If we shared our thoughts publicly, would people think they're pleasing and attractive thoughts?
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Are they admirable?
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Are they commendable, positive, and constructive?
20:01
SPEAKER_00: Would people think, man, she's really mean to herself, or he's really negative about himself?
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Are they excellent?
20:10
SPEAKER_00: Do they have virtue and moral excellence in line with the character of God?
20:16
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, are they praiseworthy?
20:20
SPEAKER_00: Are these thoughts that are deserving of praise?
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Would people validate us for such thinking, or could we utilize these thoughts in praising Jesus?
20:30
SPEAKER_00: This is our filter system as followers of Jesus.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Literally, this is one of the most important verses of the Bible, two verses to memorize.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: This can help your mind when you're struggling with your thoughts.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: What does this do?
20:50
SPEAKER_00: This helps us to discern what thoughts are good for our spiritual health, true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy, and what thoughts are bad for our spiritual health.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: If you're really struggling with your thoughts, it might be a good idea to get out a piece of paper and to write out two columns.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: Column number one are thoughts that are in this orientation.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: They're true, they're noble, they're right, they're pure, they're lovely, they're admirable, they're excellent, they're praiseworthy.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: And for an entire week, just note the thoughts that would fall under these categories.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: And those that are the antonym, the antithesis of true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Write those thoughts down as well.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: And begin to pray.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's helpful if you begin to identify and label the bad thoughts that are not good for your mental or spiritual health.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Just label it.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: These are not good, God.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: But these thoughts are good, and I'm gonna give my mind over.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Over to these thoughts.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Part of our mental or spiritual health is intentionality and discipline and practice over time.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: That's where formation takes place in our life.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: And so a renewed mind filters thoughts because not every thought is a good thought.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Number seven, a renewed mind speaks truth to lies.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: A renewed mind speaks truth to lies.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: If you want to have a new way of thinking, you have to be able to differentiate between truth and lies in your life and call the lies what they are.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: I love Romans chapter 3, verse 4.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: It says, Let God be true, let God be truth, and every human being a liar.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: As it is written, so that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what he's saying here is God is truth, and anybody who teaches or lives or diverts away from him is living in deception or lies.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: In the Gospel of John, which is an amazing gospel.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: We just spent months and months in the first 11 chapters.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: In the Gospel of John, John titles, part of the characteristic character of Jesus is this Jesus is the truth.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: He's the essence of truth, he's the embodiment of truth.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Everything about truth is seen in the person and life and teachings of Jesus.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: And then the Gospel of John talks about the character of Satan.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Satan is the father of lies.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the truth.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Satan is the father of lies.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: What do lies do in our life?
23:59
SPEAKER_00: Lies deceive us.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Lies bind us.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: And lies rob us of the good that God has for us.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: None of that is good.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: So it is very important that we're able to identify the lies that are in our mind.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: On an opposite level, lies deceive us, but truth guides us.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Lies bind us, but truth frees us.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Lies rob us of the good that God has for us, and truth leads us to the pass of goodness that God has for us.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: So we want to live in the truth lane.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: We want to be guided by truth.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: We want to be set free by truth, and we want to be led to the pass of God's goodness where we can experience all the beauty that God has for our life.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: But the only way to do that is to begin to identify truth and call out lies.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: And the most difficult place that this takes place in the human life is in your mind.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Because some of us we believed lies for so long.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Lies about us, lies about the world, lies about relationships, so on and so forth.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: We believed them so long, they're attached to our life like they are truth.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: But they're deceiving us.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: They're binding us, they're withholding from us the good that God has for our life.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: And we need to be able to call it and label it and identify it for what it is.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: And then we also need to be able to say, what is the truth that guides us?
25:50
SPEAKER_00: What are the truths that free us?
25:51
SPEAKER_00: What are the truths that lead us in the paths of righteousness where God's goodness is experienced?
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Lies and truth are best discerned when you're in the scriptures and when you're following Jesus.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about being in the scriptures because Romans chapter 12 teaches us that in order to discern the will of God, you have to practice the will of God.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: So you have to be in the scriptures first and foremost.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: That's like the entry point, but then you have to practice the scriptures, and the more you practice the scriptures, the more you can tell a distinction between truth and lies in your life.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees knew the scriptures but didn't practice it, and they were full of deception.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: So beware, Christians, followers of Jesus, Wesley Town.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: We can be good at our theology, we can be good at our exegesis, we can be good at Bible knowledge, we can be good at understanding scripture, and we can be bad at the practice, which will it will leave us in a spot where we can be deceived and robbed of all the good things God has for us.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: The point of a Sunday morning is, yes, to worship and be in community and take communion, center your heart on Jesus, but also to learn the scriptures so that the same day you can begin to practice those scriptures.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: That will give you spiritual wisdom and discernment.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: The lies that we are tempted to believe, or the lies that come into our mind, or the lies that are enveloped in the cultural narratives of the day, we need to speak truth to those lies.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: We need to remind ourselves what God says about those things inside of the unseen world of our minds.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: Number eight, a renewed mind believes what God says.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: A new way of thinking that is centered on God believes what God says.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Plans for you to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a great verse?
28:17
SPEAKER_00: From a community of that were following God, that were worshiping God, that we're in a difficult season as a people and a nation spiritually, and God says, For I know the plans I have you, declares the Lord.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: Plans for you to prosper, plans not to harm you, plans to give you hope, plans to give you a future.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: That's what God says.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what your mind always says.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Your mind does not always say that God has good plans for me.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: By the way, what a great song that we sang.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Where's Donovan?
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Great song, Donovan.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Our mind doesn't always say, God has plans to give you hope.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: Our mind doesn't always say, God has plans to give you a good future, but you have to remind yourself continually what God says about you.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: What does God say about you?
29:22
SPEAKER_00: You've got to remind yourself that.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: What is God's design for your flourishing?
29:36
SPEAKER_00: You have to remind yourself that.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: You have to remind yourself about God's plans for you.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: What are God's good plans for your life to prosper you?
29:50
SPEAKER_00: You know that way of life.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: You feel it, you sense it, you know it.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God is in you, and you know the words of God, you know the good plans that God has for you, but you have to remind yourself of that because your mind doesn't always tell you about the good plans that God has for you.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: Your mind probably tells you about the negative realities that are before you.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: You have to remind yourself about certain truths that God says.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: What are the truths in this current moment in your life that God is trying to speak over you?
30:28
SPEAKER_00: You've got to remind yourself.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be intentional, daily, habitual, disciplined, forming the affirmation of your mind believing what God says about you.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: Believe what God says.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: This is a way of life, and it begins today.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: If you've never begun to implement this in the life of your mind, you can begin it today.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: You might remember in 1 Kings chapter 18 and 19, there's this epic spiritual story of the great prophet Elijah, who had just defeated the prophets of Baal, who, under King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, there was a temptation for the Israelites who worship the real God to begin to worship this false God.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah showed that he was the one who worshiped the truth, true God, and Baal was a false God.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: He had no power, he had no ability to do anything powerful.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: And so Elijah defeats this false religion that was plaguing the Israelites.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: And so he begins, he gets off the mountaintop of spiritual victory.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: And he begins to walk in the everyday life of the post-mountaintop of spiritual victory.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: And he hears a rumor that happened to be true that Jezebel, the queen, who was a foreign queen who married Ahab and who brought a false religion into Israel, that she was angry and she wanted to kill him, the great prophet of Israel.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: And so she begins to pursue him, and he hears this rumor, and he he's getting updates on his iPhone, you know, like find me, she's back there, and he's right here, and you know, he's getting updates on his iPhone, and he decides that after the greatest spiritual mountaintop victory of his life, he decides as he's on this journey and he's full of anxiety and he's fearing death, he decides not to believe what God said, but to believe the voice of Jezebel.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason nobody names their daughter Jezebel anymore.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: If your name's Jezebel, I'm sorry this morning.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can redeem it, but maybe not.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes into a town and he leaves his servant in that town.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: And that was the Old Testament, ancient way of saying, I quit serving God.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm done with ministry.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: And he goes out and he hopes that God just takes his life.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: He just wants to die.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: He's thinking about death.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to live anymore.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: And God comes to him through the angel, and God strengthens him, and then God begins to speak.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: I know the plans I have for you.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say these words, but the essence of these words plans for you to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm not done with you yet.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you're in that season.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: Your mind is thinking about really negative things, hopelessness, death, whatever it is.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know God has plans for you to prosper.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: God's plans are never to harm you.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: God's plans are to give you hope and a future.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: And today, maybe the Spirit of God wants you to say to yourself, I'm gonna begin to believe what God says about me.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Because your life is worth living.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Number nine, a renewed mind or a new way of thinking finds encouragement in the gospel.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: I find this to be one of the most spiritually, mentally healthy practice that you can do.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8, verse 1 says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is the greatest story that speaks into every human struggle we face.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is the greatest story that speaks into every mental health struggle we face.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: And it reminds our mind of the truth of how God sees us and how we should see ourselves.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: When shame arises in your mind, you're bad, you're a failure, shame.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that, shame says that.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: If I were saying that, you should never come back to this church again.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: But when shame says you're bad, you're a failure, you have no worth, you have no value, you've made too many mistakes in your life.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing good about you.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: You know the voice of shame, you remind shame the gospel.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: Shame is a liar, the gospel is true.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: When guilt arises, God can't possibly forgive me for lusting or cheating or anger or being mean or ungentle or whatever it is.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: When guilt arises, there's no way God can forgive me.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to go to church, I'm not going to go to a college community, I'm not going to go to a men's community, I'm not going to go to a women's community, I'm not going to any Christian community.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Guilt will cause you, unprocessed guilt will cause you to run away from everything that is good for your life.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: When guilt arises, remind guilt that I am forgiven, past, present, and future by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: When negative self-talk arises, you're no good, you're not gifted, you've got no talents, you're not like Donovan or Rachel or whatever, remind, remind negative self-talk that the gospel never speaks negative self-talk over your life.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: Only life, only forgiveness, only redemption, only new creation.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: That's what the gospel speaks over your life.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: When you're thinking you're not worthy of love, maybe you've been rejected in relationships, maybe you've been betrayed by somebody, maybe maybe you feel like nobody will ever love me.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Remind yourself that the gospel is the greatest love orientation in history, that God, in all of his perfection, loved you in all of your imperfection, that on your worst day, God loved you in Christ Jesus.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: When you're struggling with insecurity or self-worth, when you don't think you are worthy, or you don't value yourself, or you feel like people have devalued you in your life and you're feeling insecure and you don't have a lot of self-worth, remind yourself of the gospel that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the perfect one, died on the cross because he saw you as worthy and valuable.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: If God sees you as having so much worth, such great worth that he's willing to die for you, that means that's the truth about your identity.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is the greatest story that speaks into every human struggle we face.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: And you and I, we need to start seeing ourselves as God sees us.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: And you and I need to start speaking to ourselves as God speaks to us.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: I have a great therapist.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: She's a 69-year-old woman who went to Berkeley.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: She's an expert in the brain, and uh, she happens to be a very, very strong Christian.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: And I was seeing her a couple summers ago, and she said to me something that I have not forgotten.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: She said, Wesley, you treat people with compassion, love, and grace.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: And that's amazing.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is, is you treat yourself like a Pharisee, and that's not good.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: And she began to walk through different aspects of life.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: She would say, if this, this, and this happened, and somebody came to you, what would you say to them?
40:06
SPEAKER_00: How would you think about them?
40:07
SPEAKER_00: How would you treat them?
40:08
SPEAKER_00: And I would say that, and she's like, How come you're not saying the same thing about yourself?
40:14
SPEAKER_00: To yourself.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, that was a great rebuke.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: I tell that story all the time.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: Because we need to begin to speak to ourselves the same way that God speaks to ourselves.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: With love, with compassion, with grace, with forgiveness, with worth, with freedom, not with judgment, shame, and perfectionism that's impossible to accomplish.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: That's part of my problem.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: We need to speak to ourselves the way God speaks to us.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: And then, number 10, and finally, a renewed mind remembers hope in God.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: You want to think new?
41:03
SPEAKER_00: You've got to remind yourself of hope in God.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 42, verse 5, in fact, the entirety of Psalm 42 is one of my favorite Psalms.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: And three times in this Psalm, we hear the same refrain, and here it is.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is really important.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to lose you.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: So pay attention.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: This is really important.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: Good thing we didn't do this last week, too, because it would have been an hour and a half teaching.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist speaks truth to the reality of situation.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, I'm a Christian, I should never be depressed.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: He says, Why am I depressed?
42:17
SPEAKER_00: Why is my soul stirred with depression and murmuring and heaviness and burden and downcast within me?
42:26
SPEAKER_00: He speaks reality.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: We need to do a better job of that as Christians.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: Because we're like, I'm a Christian, I should be happy all the time.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: Life shouldn't be hard.
42:35
SPEAKER_00: Was Jesus happy all the time?
42:37
SPEAKER_00: Didn't Jesus weep?
42:39
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't it hard for Jesus to be crucified on the cross?
42:42
SPEAKER_00: These are false, false cliches and ideas that are constructed in an unhealthy way in different spheres of Christianity that are not true.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: So the psalmist speaks truth to the reality of his situation, and at the same time, the psalmist speaks truth to the hope that he has in God.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: There's two extremes in life.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: We're like, I'm just gonna fully live into my suffering and my pain, and that's all I'm gonna focus on.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you do that, it's not healthy.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: The other extreme is I'm just gonna fully live into my hope and deny all the hard things of my life and never heal and never give attention to those things.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: And if you do that, that's unhealthy.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: The healthy equilibrium and balance is you speak reality and you also speak hope.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: When you're discouraged, hope in God.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: When you're depressed, hope in God.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: When you're feeling lost, hope in God.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: When you're heartbroken, hope in God.
43:46
SPEAKER_00: When you're thinking thoughts of despair over your own life, hope in God.
43:52
SPEAKER_00: You have to speak hope into your life.
43:59
SPEAKER_00: Depression is not gonna speak hope into your life.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: Despair is not gonna speak hope into your life.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: Long-term patterns of anxiety are not gonna speak hope into your life.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: If you let those negative thoughts that are prompted when we're struggling with our mental health, if you allow those negative thoughts to be planted and believed, it will never lead to a place of healing and hope.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: But if you honestly identify those things, yes, my soul is downcast, yes, it's disturbed, yes, I'm anxious, and you speak hope over that situation, you will walk not immediately, but you will walk down a path of healing.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: Because we need hope in our discouragement, we need hope in our depression, we need hope in our anxiety, we need hope when we're feeling lost, we need hope when we're heartbroken, we need hope when we're thinking of thoughts of despair.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: But it is your job and my job to speak hope into our mind in those places and spaces and seasons of life.
45:25
SPEAKER_00: Nobody else can do it for you.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: People can speak hope over you, but you have to receive it.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: People can share scriptures of hope with you, but you have to receive it.
45:36
SPEAKER_00: People can talk about hope, but it's you that has to speak it into your own soul to begin to believe that even in the hardest, most difficult, and painful moments of life, that you have hope in God.