What’s on Your Mind? It Affects Everything! Pastor Ralph Gonzales Wednesday, July 17th 2019

Do any of these statements describe you? “I want to be free from ungodly habits and patterns in my life. I don’t want to do the same things that I know displeases God over and over again.” “I want to stop giving in to the lifestyle of the world.” “Why can’t I live the kind of life I hear about in all these messages and songs? Why do I always repeat the same sins? What’s wrong with me?”

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NKJV 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

The word “stronghold” in 2 Corinthians 10:4 is the Greek word “ochuroma,” meaning a fortress, a castle, a fortified place.

Paul, in these verses (2 Corinthians 10:4-5), links “strongholds” with “arguments” which is the Greek word “logismos,” meaning ‘reasoning, thought, computation or logic.’4 It carries the idea of holding something safely. It is simply the way people think based on their way of life, tradition, experience or past teachings.

Unfortunately, most of our thoughts are against the knowledge of God Unfortunately, most of our thoughts are against the knowledge of God. Simply put—strongholds, in verse 4, refer to mind-sets that oppose the truth of God. These mind-sets (strongholds) are fortified places that keep out truth and hold in lies.

Strongholds do two things Strongholds do two things. First, they keep people from the knowledge of God, and second, they prevent people from obeying the truth. Ignorance and rebellion are the results.

The term mind-set is a combination of both mind and set The term mind-set is a combination of both mind and set. In other words, the mind is already settled on a set of beliefs and therefore there is resistance to change.

There are two main reasons why we have more mind battles now that we are saved then we did before we got: Now that we are saved, we aim to think pure thoughts and have the mind of Christ. The reason it is such a fight to do this is that no one pressed a CLEAR or ERASE button in our minds when we got saved! That’s why

some of the old images that we put before our eyes in the past still pop up in our minds at times and our minds still sometimes react the ways they did before we got saved. A lot of the wars that go on in our minds are between our OLD WAYS of thinking and the NEW WAYS we are aiming to think as believers. 2. Once we said “Yes!” to Jesus, Satan became our enemy and the place he attacks us the most is in our minds.

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he… Proverbs 23:7 NKJV For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…

Romans 12:2 NLT Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

One man writes: A renewed mind is a mind that has been trained to think truth instead of lie, reality instead of the illusion of the world, in line with the Spirit and not the flesh.

Colossians 3:10 NKJV and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,

How Is Our Mind Renewed?

One man writes: Each of us struggles daily in a spiritual battle between flesh and spirit. We also live in a world that teaches us to think independently of God. So in order to align our thinking with God’s thinking, we need to consistently and constantly go back to the place where we can place God’s thoughts into our

thought-life. The Bible is where we find the recorded thoughts of God thought-life. The Bible is where we find the recorded thoughts of God. The Scriptures need to become our new frame of reference.

Colossians 3:16 NKJV Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

D.L. Moody said: “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.”

D. L. Moody said: The Scriptures were not given for our information, but for our transformation.

You will know the truth and it will set you free. John 8:32 NKJV You will know the truth and it will set you free.

Repent – metanoeo (met-an-ah-eh-oh) Strong’s #3340 from Meta “after” and noeo, “to think.” Repentance is a decision that results in a change of mind which in turn leads to a change of purpose and action.

I like what Rick Warren writes in Purpose Driven Life: To be like Christ you must develop the mind of Christ. The New Testament calls this mental shift repentance, which in Greek literally means "to change your mind." You repent whenever you change the way you think by adopting how God thinks-about yourself, sin, God, other people, life, your future, and everything else. You take on Christ's outlook and perspective.

Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Matthew 3:8 NKJV Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

Repent and believe in the Gospel. Mark 1:15 NKJV Repent and believe in the Gospel.

Say this out loud: “Transformation comes when you renew your mind”

Romans 12:2 NLT 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

We behave differently as we begin to think differently.

1. All behavior is based on a belief

You only really believe the parts of the Bible that you obey.

2. Behind every sin is a lie you believe

Erwin W. Lutzer: “The difference between worldliness and godliness is a renewed mind.”

Romans 12:2 NLT … let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think…

3. We need to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:11 NKJV Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:11 NLT So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

The word reckon (Greek logizomai) means: to reckon, count, compute, calculate, count over, to take into account, to make an account of. This word deals with reality.

One man writes: And so it is with a Christian who counts upon the fact that the power of the sinful nature is broken. He knows that he does not have to obey it, and that he has the power to say "NO" to it, and he turns his back on it and does what is right. The Christian who does not count upon the fact that the divine nature

experience. But the believer who counts upon the fact that he is a possessor of the divine nature, ceases from his own struggles at living a Christian life, and avails himself of the life of God supplied in the divine nature. So the first adjustment the Christian should make is that of counting upon the fact that the

power of the indwelling sinful nature is broken and the divine nature imparted, and order his life on that principle.