The Filter for the Mind

00:02 Well, we do want to give glory to God this morning. Let the church say amen. 00:05 Amen. 00:06 Amen. Praise the Lord. I would invite you to turn in your copies of the Scriptures to Philippians 4:8. I want to talk to you this morning about a filter for your mind. We have a filter for all kinds of stuff. We have filters for our oil. We have filters for our fuel. 00:27 We have filters for our water. We have filters for our computers. But there's a filter that God wants us to have for our brain, for our mind. And that's what we want to talk this morning about as part of our covenant series. 00:43 We want to take this a little bit different direction this morning than sometimes when we talk about media. But we want to talk about it in the sense of not the negative of what you shouldn't do, but the positive of what you should do. 01:00 And so David Siemens tells a story of a trickster years ago who sold villagers a special powder that would turn water into gold, provided they mixed this powder with the water and never thought of red monkeys. 01:22 Now, you and I would say, well, that's an obvious giveaway. But nevertheless, the people bought into it. Of course, no one ever got the gold because you can't tell yourself to stop thinking about red monkeys, or you'll just keep thinking about red monkeys. 01:39 So if I were to say the number 7 this morning and then tell you not to think about the number 7, and I would repeat that to you throughout the service, don't think about it. Just don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. What would you be thinking about the rest of the service? You'd be thinking about the red monkeys or the number 7. 02:01 It doesn't work to say, I'm not going to think about those things. I'm going to put all of that out of my mind. So we need a filter this morning that goes beyond just don't that goes into what we should do. And our text this morning is in Philippians 4:8. Finally, 02:21 brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and therefore anything if there is anything praiseworthy, 02:43 think on these things or meditate on these things, dwell on these things. So just to rehearse a little bit about our policy on media, we say that we urge our members to exercise spirit-directed caution in the use of all media. And I'll tell you what, 03:02 if there was ever a day when we need spirit-directed caution, it's today. Now, when we wrote this 19-plus years ago, we saw the day coming when we would have technology similar to what we have today, but we couldn't see all the specifics. But we said such things as TV, internet, 03:21 VCR, computers, books, magazines, music, telephone usage, etc., use spiritual-directed caution in the use of all forms of media. 03:32 Then we went on to say, because of the powerful influence of television, because it is a matter of conscience for many, we specifically address it here, we recognize that the influence of television is generally evil. Can that be argued with? I don't think so. It promotes violence, undermines the sanctity of marriage, and disregards the moral standards of the Word of God. 03:54 Psalm 101:3 says, "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." Our congregational goal is for our homes to be free from television and all evil influences. Whenever the use of any media promotes an ungodly worldview or a desensitization to sin, 04:14 such use of that media must be avoided. Therefore, we agree, we agree to teach and warn against the immoral use of all forms of media. And we're living in a day and an age you can take that off the screen then, Tim. 04:31 We're living in a day and an age where it's not good enough to say that 04:36 you must avoid this particular form of media because those forms of media are all intertwined and mixed together and confused together. And you can't just separate them out by saying, don't have this item in your home because we have to be more comprehensive than that to say all forms of media, 04:58 wherever there's a godless message coming through, we need to implement the Philippians 4:8 filter on our forms of media. So just like you may have a filter on your computer that will help keep you from thinking about red monkeys, and it will screen out red monkeys or the number 7. 05:17 And you have a computer or you have a filter on your internet or whatever, there's a filter that must be on our minds. It must be in our brains. It must be in our thoughts continually to not only put off but to put on. Now, 05:36 one of the things that is taking the world by storm right now is the number of people 05:45 who are experiencing severe depression, severe depression. And it tends to be focusing today amongst young people. 05:56 In fact, just this morning, as I was preparing for this message yesterday, this morning I pulled up an article that I saw that has to do with millennials and severe depression. And depression is off the charts when it comes to millennials. And suicide is off the charts when it comes to millennials. 06:19 In a 10-year period from 2008 to 2017, the attempts on suicide of young people increased 56%. That's incredible. That's incredible. And so people, or professionals, are trying to do the data, trying to study what's causing this, what's causing this, 06:38 what's different about today, the iGeneration, like taking off of the iPhones and iThis and iThat, the iGeneration that's being called, what's different today than it was a generation or two ago because you get over the age of 26 and depression and suicide are just kind of about the same as they've been. 06:59 So what's happening? 07:01 And experts are focusing in on the whole thing of media and social media, social media, texting, phones, gaming, digital gaming, all those kinds of things that are increasing the pressure upon young people. 07:22 I'd say they're increasing the pressure upon all of us, not just young people. It's increasing the pressure upon all of us. 07:28 And one of the ways that it's increasing the pressure on us is through what is called there's a fancy name for it, compassion fatigue. Have you heard of compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress? Have you heard of secondary traumatic stress? 07:48 This is a real issue, especially among people who are like healthcare workers, healthcare workers, people in EMTs and first responders and firemen and policemen, police, and all those who are in trauma-filled situations where they are continually, continually, continually, continually exposed to trauma. 08:11 And the system begins to shut down. Scholars who study compassion fatigue note that the condition is common among workers who work directly with victims of disasters, trauma, or illness, especially in the healthcare industry. Non-workers, such as family members and other informal caregivers who are suffering from a chronic illness, 08:31 may also experience compassion fatigue. And I would suggest to you this morning that as a society, many of us are experiencing compassion fatigue because we are told that we need to care about everything, everywhere, all the time. And the new thing to care about is hitting us all the time, every day. 08:54 And eventually, you say, if I must care deeply about everything, then I really find myself caring deeply about nothing. It's a little bit let me use an illustration from politics, and we'll get into our text in a minute. But in the political realm, and this is coming at us boom, boom, boom, boom, boom today through media as well. 09:13 By the way, you used to have to wait till the top of the hour on your radio to get a little bit of news, or we waited till the 6 o'clock news when things were updated. Now it's news, news, news, news, news, news, news, news 24/7, things you ought to care about and care deeply about. So if everything is an outrage today, 09:34 people are outraged about everything. They're outraged about this. They're outraged about that. They're outraged about the other thing, outraged about what this person said, outraged about what that person said. You realize that if everything is an outrage, then nothing is an outrage eventually. 09:50 You realize that if everything is offensive, then nothing becomes offensive because you can't maintain that type of emotional charge all the time about everything, always. 10:07 And so this is what we call compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress, is when you're continually exposed to trauma and things that you must care deeply about. And it gets to the point where you say, I can't care about anything anymore. I can't take in anything anymore. 10:29 The other night, I came to the Lord in prayer. I couldn't sleep during the night. And I just began to think about the things that I need to care about. Oh, Lord, I need to care about this. And Lord, I do care about this. And I do care about this person. I care about that person. I care about the other person. Wow. 10:43 So many things to care about. Are you with me? Do you understand? Do you know what I'm talking about? And so I'm not suggesting that we not care about things. I'm suggesting that technology is taking us there. And we need a filter. We need a filter to protect our minds. 11:06 We are stressed out. We are overloaded. We have the problems of the mind that run through our minds, thoughts and thought patterns disrupting our lives. 11:20 Even more troubling are the evil thoughts that plague us with fears and doubts and worries and lusts and desires. And then we have those thoughts that nag us and hinder our spiritual growth. And then all of a sudden, you see people break out into some seemingly ridiculous course of action. 11:41 And you find out that they were thinking about this for a long, long, long, long time. You see, this morning, brothers and sisters, the battlefield is in the mind. The battlefield is in the mind. Now, if we're Christians, Jesus has our hearts, right? 12:00 You love Jesus. Amen. You love Jesus. If you're Christian, you love Jesus. He has our hearts. But my question this morning for us and for myself is, if Jesus has my heart, who has my head? Who has my mind? Who has my thoughts? Does Jesus have my thoughts as well as my head? 12:20 You see, the battlefield is for the mind. Let me give you some truths this morning that we can all agree on, I trust, that the battlefield is in the mind. 12:28 2 Corinthians 10:4 and 5, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ." You see, 12:49 there's a war going on for our brain. There's a war going on for our mind. And it's important because the mind then determines the course of life. The mind determines the course of action. You can love Jesus with all of your heart. 13:04 But if you don't also love Him with all of your mind, your mind will take you places that do not reflect where you want to go because the Bible says to be carnally minded is to be spiritually minded is life and peace. But to be carnally minded is death. 13:19 To have a mindset the word there means a mindset, a mindset of spirituality in Christ is life and peace. And out of the mind, the life and the peace flows. 13:34 And to be carnally minded, to have a mindset built on the pressures of this world and the sensations of this world and the allurements of this world will produce death. Bill Provost said this in the book Man of Integrity, "When you rule your mind, 13:54 you rule your world." This is very true. The mind results in life and death. The mind must be renewed, therefore. Romans 12:2, "Be renewed. 14:07 Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and the acceptable and perfect will of God." What are we talking about this morning? We're talking about the way we use media, the way it influences. But we're also talking about the way we think, 14:29 the thought processes, the patterns, the strongholds of the mind, the trenches, the ruts in our mind. When we don't have something to think about, what do we think about? When you don't have something to think about, what do you think about? Let me give you a little tip here this morning. 14:45 One of the things I like to do if I feel my mind getting into a rut is I like to have a verse of the day. I like to have a verse of the day. I like to grab it in the morning and say, whenever my mind gets into a rut, I'm going to go to that verse instead. It's a very practical thing to do. And so you sense it. 15:06 You feel it. Whoops. I think my mind could go somewhere I don't want it to go. Boom. Right there. Here's my verse of the day. I'm going to lay hold on that. And it's very practical. It works. Now, you may have to do that several times. But to be proactive about the brain, about the mind, rather than reactive, rather than being caught off guard, 15:26 oh, I had a bad thought, and I don't know what to do with it. What do I do with this bad thought? I know I shouldn't think about red monkeys. I know I shouldn't remember the number 7, but I can't help it. Oh, God, give me a verse. Give me a verse. Have it ready. Have it ready in advance so that when it hits, you go there. 15:46 And we train and discipline our mind. 15:52 Being renewed in the spirit of our mind, Ephesians 4:23 is a command, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Another truth is that Scripture has the power to reorient our thoughts and change our minds. 16:07 Ephesians 5:26 and 27, tucked in there in that beautiful passage on marriage and husbands and wives, He says, "Husbands, love your wives that He might, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it." How does Christ sanctify and cleanse the church? By the washing of water by the Word, 16:29 the washing of water by the Word. I heard years ago about a family living out in the desert. And in the desert and the desert sands, there's a lot of alkali in the soil. And they would just take their dishwater and throw it out the back door. 16:49 And that would sink down, sink down. And finally, so one day, they noticed that stuff was starting to grow out the back door, seeds and starting to grow. And there wasn't anything growing anywhere else except where they had thrown that dishwater. And what had happened? They had thrown so much dishwater that it had cleansed the soil of the alkali, and the seeds had begun to grow. 17:12 Well, that's a little bit like the it's a crude example of the Word of God. The Word of God, once by continual exposure, wants to cut a new path, a new track of thoughts in our minds so that we can bring forth spiritual fruit, spiritual fruit. 17:32 We already know that the weapons, the spiritual weapons, are the only true effective means of transformation. It works to take hold every thought and bring it into captivity in Christ, in Christ. And I want to flesh this out a little bit more, the filter of the mind for the mind. 17:52 And so here we have it in verse 8, "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true." We hear a lot today about fake news. Is your news fake, or is it real? Is it true? We don't want to emphasize fake news. We want to walk in the truth. 18:11 Amen. You walk in something fake. You walk in fake news. You're going to live a fake life. You walk in truth. You'll live a true life. We want to walk in truth. This, I think, has something to do with gossip. Before we pass on information, we really ought to know if it's true before we pass it on. 18:31 But then you go on to the next requirement. It says, "Whatever things are honest," the word there could be translated noble or honorable, "is the thing you're going to pass on helpful? Is it necessary? Is it necessary? Is it true?" That's one thing. "Is it necessary?" is another. 18:52 So you may have true information that really is not necessary to share. So what we're talking about is thinking about those things that are true. "You shall know the what, and the what shall make you free, the truth. 19:11 You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. There are a million and one lies. There is only one truth. We walk in the truth. We stand in the truth. And the truth sets us free from all of the deceptions around us." And then whatever things are honest or noble or honorable, 19:32 it may be true, but is it helpful? The question I would have for you this morning, as you evaluate what goes through your mind, what consumes your mind, what thought patterns you have in your mind, is what do you delight in? What do you delight in? When your mind doesn't have anything particular to think about, what do you think about? 19:54 Where does it go? A man by the name of Buckle said, "Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence." How intelligent are you? What kind of class are you this morning? This is an interesting observation. 20:10 As he observed people in dinner settings where they sat at dinner tables as guests, he made the observation that you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons, 20:27 the next class by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things, the highest class and the highest intelligence by their preference for the discussion of ideas. Wow. What do I think about? What do I want to talk about? 20:48 Do I want some salacious details of some conflict somewhere? Do I want some juicy tidbits so that I can stick them in my arsenal, and I can believe the worst about somebody that I already believed the worst about? 21:03 Talking about what happens in my own mind, in my own brain, my own heart, 21:09 there are very few people that you can actually have a good discussion with about ideas, concepts, truths, realities. 21:24 I find myself falling far short too many times. And so we come back to our filter this morning, our filter, whatsoever things are just. The word just means right or righteous. Does this media stir me up to godliness? Is it righteous, pure? 21:46 Does it stir up purity? What about the music you listen to? Does it stir you up to purity? Does it stir you up to righteousness? What about even our advertising? I get so aggravated at advertising. 22:06 If you were to get this, you would be really happy. You would be really, really happy. You'd be much happier than if you didn't have it. You'd be much happier than the people who don't have it. You really, really need this. And by the way, you really, really need this. You really, really need this. And whether that advertising comes to you on your phone, 22:25 whether it comes to you on a television program that you may observe somewhere, whether it comes to you from the want ads in the newspaper, I kind of quit looking at the want ads because really, I have what I need. And if I don't have what I need, I don't need somebody telling me that I need it. Amen. 22:45 I'll just get it when I need it and go after it then. Advertising by virtue of what it is is meant to help you become dissatisfied with what you have. So you want what you don't have, or you want a better, bigger, faster, stronger, nicer, prettier, whatever. 23:08 That's the nature of advertising. 23:12 So what does it create in you? Does it create covetousness? Does it create gratefulness? Or does it create discontent? Finally, my brethren, whatsoever things are lovely, lovely, lovely, harmonious, balanced. I think this could apply for art. 23:33 This could apply for music. One of the key ingredients of good godly music is balance, balance, a biblical godly balance where the melody is the strongest, the harmony is subservient to the melody, and the rhythm is subservient to both. 23:53 If you have music that's out of balance, it will create a spiritual dynamic that is out of balance, harmony, 24:06 rhythm, all balanced, 24:10 art balanced rather than dark. So much today that is being produced is dark, dark, dark subjects, dark music, dark poetry, dark whatever. 24:30 And it takes your mind, and it becomes depressing. 24:34 And it's a downer rather than a lifter of good report, whatever is of good report, admirable, commendable. This should guard our tongues and our ears against criticism and negativity. Whatever is virtuous and excellent, 24:55 moral excellence and worthy, does this media that I'm indulging in call forth virtue? Does the plot of this story bring forth virtue and truth and righteousness and justice? Or does it make the bad guy the hero? 25:16 What about those things that are praiseworthy? Does it draw one to give thanks and praise to God? These are the things that need to be in place, the grid through which we evaluate our thoughts. We evaluate our thoughts. And he says, "Think on these things. Dwell on these things. Meditate on these things." Now, 25:38 there are times when one must think about the opposite of this because we live in a fallen world where if we're going to help people, we're going to be exposed to things. But we can't dwell on those things. Some time ago, well, just recently, someone asked me a question about materials for sexual abuse, 25:59 helping people that have been sexually abused. And so that set me on a bit of a quest to ask some questions about what materials would be available for those who have been sexually abused. And I was recommended a book by someone from here at Living Water. And I got that book. And as I began to read that book, 26:20 I said, "I really don't want to read this." But you see, if you're going to help people that are sexually abused, you may have to have some of that information. But you don't want to dwell on it. You don't want to meditate on it. You don't want to think on these things. 26:34 You want to think on these things, Scripture, God's Word, those things that are true, just, beautiful, lovely, good report, praiseworthy, virtuous. That is our default setting. That is the place where our brain and our mind should go and filter everything through. And if we must deal with things that are not this, 26:55 then we get in, we get out rather than dwelling on that which is dark. We must not dwell there. In fact, years ago, I began to study this. 27:06 I began to realize this back, and maybe it's not quite so much today, but back 30, 40 years ago, there were a lot of people that were coming out of sin and drugs and promiscuity and were getting saved out of the hippie culture. And they were writing books about their life. And I suddenly began to realize as I read some of those books, 27:27 I said, "I'm not sure I want to read this. Yeah, I want to read what Jesus has done, but I don't want to read what they did." You know what I'm saying? So we have to be careful even in Christian conversion novels, true, not a novel, Christian conversion stories. 27:46 And being one in prison ministry that has heard the stories, sometimes you need to have enough detail to really understand what the person. But you don't want more detail than what you need to know, to think about, to think on. 28:03 So what would be a comprehensive approach to defeat the thoughts that defeat us? I want to give you a couple ideas here this morning. First of all, we must uproot the old. We must uproot the old. Jeremiah 1:10, 28:23 God told Jeremiah, "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out, to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down." Don't you want to do that with your thoughts sometimes? I just want to root it out. I want to pull it down. I want to destroy it and throw it down. And like some people that we've talked to in the past, 28:45 those who have been indulged in sin and sinful thoughts to the max would say, "I'd like to just take my brain out of my head and wash it." Oh, if there would be a way of washing my brain, washing my mind, I'd want that. And there is a way to do that. 29:05 There is a way. It's a spiritual washing that we'll get to. But in order to be washed, we must first uproot the old. We must ask the questions of our thoughts. Does it advance holiness? Does it glorify God? Does this thought pattern increase my knowledge of God? Does it create covetousness, 29:25 hatred, depression, worry, fear? If so, it must be rooted out. It must be cast down. It must be banished. And we may even have a verbal conversation that goes something like this, "Devil and thought from the devil, you are not welcome. 29:44 Get thee behind me." You know what I'm talking about? Have you ever done that? 29:52 It is written, "You are a lie, thought. You are a lie. I will not tolerate you. You must go. 30:00 I will not receive this thought and get brutal about uprooting the old ways of thinking." I have even gone so far as to visualize myself at times as a traffic director in my brain, in my mind, 30:21 a traffic director where a thought comes, "Nope, you can't come through here. You're gone. You go this way." Another thought come to my mind, "Yes, I'll receive that thought." You can receive thoughts or reject thoughts. You can receive them or reject them. It's your choice. 30:39 It's our choice whether or not we receive a thought or whether or not we reject a thought. And some of us have thought patterns so deeply entrenched in our minds that it's going to be a while till you get those thought patterns transformed. But it can be done. It can be done. 30:58 But you must be ruthless against those thoughts. We must subject our thoughts to the will and not our will to our thoughts. Think about that. We must subject our thoughts to our will. I decide what thoughts I will embrace and what thoughts I will reject. 31:21 We do not subject our will to our thoughts. So we exercise our choice about what we dwell on. 31:29 Luther said it like this, "You may not be able to keep a bird from flying over your head or even landing in your hair, but you can keep him from building a nest there." That's the difference between just a thought, 31:43 a random thought that comes that we reject versus a thought that we entertain and we engage in and we engage with and we welcome and we coddle it and we 31:59 nurture it. And so we must uproot the old. The second thing that I want to challenge you with this morning is that Scripture is an integral part of renewing the mind. You cannot renew the mind without it. You cannot renew the mind without it. 32:19 And so I already gave you one tool, and that is to have a verse for the day. Have a verse for the day. Read strategically. You get up in the morning. You have your daily devotions. You have your Scripture reading. Lord, give me a verse that I can hang on to today. 32:40 And so we take that verse out of our prayer closet, out of our time with the Lord. And that's where we hang our thoughts on. And when we have a break in the thoughts and our thoughts would go somewhere, that's where we train them to go. 32:53 We train them to go to our verse, "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." Memorize these scriptures. Memorize Scripture. One of the greatest things we can do in renewing the mind is to memorize Scripture. And young people, I encourage you. 33:12 I challenge you. I never used to really believe it when I heard older people say that it was easier to memorize Scripture when they were young than when they're old. I never thought that could be. I'm here to tell you it's true. It's a lot easier to memorize Scripture when you're young than it is when you're old because you have more space up there to put it in. 33:34 You have less things to clutter your mind, fewer things to think about, fewer memories, fewer distractions. Yes, it is true. 33:46 Memorize, refocus your attention, and force out the evil. Someone has said that two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. And so if you are tempted towards evil thoughts, then we reject that and we embrace the good thought and we replace the evil with the bad. It's not enough to say, 34:06 "Don't think about red monkeys." 34:10 We must embrace Scripture and give people something to think about. So we read Scripture. We memorize Scripture. The third thing that is so powerful, and that is to personalize Scripture, personalize Scripture. 34:27 Have some scriptures in your arsenal where you can put in the pronoun, the personal pronouns, I, me, mine, put in your name. It goes something like this. David did it. "The Lord is my shepherd." Personalized. 34:49 We don't just say, "The Lord is a shepherd." The Lord is a good shepherd. Boy, he's a really good shepherd. We personalize it. Say, "The Lord is my good shepherd." See, you can do that. That's part of engrafting Scripture. That's part of embracing the Word of God is to personalize it. And so if we're struggling with assurance, 35:11 struggling with assurance of salvation, people struggle with that, you know, and have some assurance versus in your arsenal that you can pull out at any time and put your name in there. "For God so loved the world," and that includes Todd, "that if Todd will believe in him, Todd will never perish, 35:31 but I will have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." And put your name in those scriptures. "As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." Put your name in there. 35:51 "As Todd has received him, now Todd has the authority to be called the sons of God because Todd has believed in his name." And there's something that happens when we personalize that and put our name in it, reading through the Psalms, personalizing those struggles, 36:11 those thoughts of David and the Psalmist. 36:17 And so if you're tempted with bitterness, bitter thoughts, you can personalize the verse. "If I forgive men their trespasses, my Father will forgive my trespasses. If I, Todd, do not forgive men their trespasses, my Father will not forgive me, my trespasses." Well, that puts a whole different light on it, doesn't it? 36:39 Maybe you're tempted to cut somebody off in traffic. "Todd, be a kind one to another. Todd, be tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven me." Yeah, it's God's Word to me. 37:02 You're feeling down? Have a verse. Personalize it. "Todd, do not rejoice because the devils are subject unto you. But Todd, rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Todd, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life." Wow. 37:23 Okay. That'll lift your spirits. "Todd, speak to yourself." I'm going to speak to myself in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in my heart to the Lord. You get the picture? 37:41 It's about personalizing the Word of God. Maybe I'm feeling selfish, tempted to be selfish, self-centered. 37:51 "Todd, remember, Father says, submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Todd, submit to your wife today what she'd like to do instead of demanding your own way. "Todd, work with your children. Todd, work with the church. You don't have to have your own way. Submit to one another in the fear of God." I want to do that. 38:13 I'm going to make that mine. 38:16 What do you do when you're criticized? What do you do when you're tempted to criticize? "Todd, who are you who judges another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls." Oh, yes, Lord. I guess I can get that one too. Yeah. And then visualize. Now, we're going to promote visualization. 38:38 That's a new age concept. But don't let the new agers steal something that God might have something for us to actually picture ourselves victorious. A lot of people can't picture themselves victorious. Ask God to help you see the results of this action, 38:57 of this attitude, of this thought, both positive and negative. Picture the results of unfaithfulness. 39:07 When I hear of people who have been unfaithful in their marriages, unfaithful to the Lord, I've had this thought. If that were ever me, what would I—how would I ever tell my dad? 39:28 You know, I revere my dad. My dad is special to me. And if I were unfaithful, somehow my dad would have to find out. How would I ever tell him that I was unfaithful? Part of what you're doing is you're projecting what it would be like if you sinned and what reality would be. 39:47 And then project what faithfulness looks like. What does faithfulness look like? What does it look like for a woman when the Bible says a virtuous woman, her children will rise up and call her blessed? Wow. That's what you want, right, ladies? Right, men? For our children to rise up and call us blessed. 40:09 Think about that before you allow that thought to go unchallenged, before you indulge in that action that you've been thinking about for a long time. Meditate on that. Personalize it. Visualize it. I end this morning with a question. If Jesus has your heart, 40:31 who has your brain? Who has your mind? Will you give it to Jesus? I gave my heart to Jesus when I accepted him, when I received him into my life. I would never want to displease Jesus. All right. Wonderful. But does he have your—does he have your head too? Does he have your brain? 40:52 Does he have your mind? Will you take that organ that God has given to you and fill it with good things? Will you eliminate the old, the negative, the polluted? Will you root out the disgusting and the unholy and the ungodly? 41:10 Will you destroy and bring down the strongholds of fear and worry and anger and bitterness and selfish thoughts that plague you and give your mind to Christ? Will you feed upon the good feed of the Word of God? 41:29 Will you allow the Word of God to wash your soul and make you clean? You say, "Well, I tried it. Doesn't work. I tried memorizing the verse." Then I'm not talking about memorizing a verse. 41:44 We're talking about making decisions that set an agenda of Scripture—what's the word I want?—imbibing, 41:57 Scripture consumption of just embracing the Word of God, not for a day, not for an hour, not for a week, and then, "Well, this didn't work." But I'm talking about for a lifetime. This is a lifetime. 42:16 "They that sow to the Spirit shall reap life everlasting. They that sow to the flesh will reap destruction." Would you bow your heads this morning? I've given you an invitation. 42:32 I've given you a challenge this morning to give your heart and your head to Jesus. Give your head to Jesus. Give your thoughts to Jesus. 42:46 Give your thought processes, your patterns, your ruts to Jesus and declare war on the enemy. 42:58 It's what it takes. 43:01 This thing of thought, of our thought life is so deeply embedded in who we are, that sinful part of us, that it must have war declared upon it, 43:11 and it must consume our attention to take control of our minds by the power of the Word of God activated, energized by the Holy Spirit. 43:29 And if God has spoken to you this morning about giving your brain, your mind to Jesus, you want to make a commitment to that this morning. I invite you to just stand to your feet, and we're going to have special prayer for each other today. Would you do that? 43:46 This is an invitation to think God's thoughts, to think godly, to get ruthless with that old devil. The battle, brothers and sisters, is in the brain. It's in the mind. If we allow those thoughts to go unchecked, 44:10 they'll destroy us. But if that's true, it's also true that if we embrace the Word of God, it will give us life and peace. Is there anyone else? God bless each one. Heavenly Father, you see the commitments that are being made this morning in the area of our thoughts, 44:29 in the arena of the mind. I pray to your God a special anointing and a special healing and a special washing and cleansing upon our hearts and minds. Lord, you see the commitments that have been being made here this morning. 44:52 We ask, Lord, 44:53 that we will take the challenge and fill ourselves, fill our hearts and minds with your Word to root out, to destroy, to cast down, to evict all that is unholy, 45:13 and to embrace that which is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, praiseworthy, and excellent in Jesus' name. 45:34 Amen. God bless you. May.