LIFE HACKS Week 5: Creative Solutions for an Everyday Problem: Our Thoughts | Proverbs 4:23

In this series, we are looking for Christ-centered solutions.

Everyday problem.

I hope the messages are next year.

Try to follow Christ every day.

You probably heard it said that uh life imitates art.

And no work of art more convincingly makes this point than a famous bronze statue by a sculptor named Auguste Rodin.

Um here it is.

It's called The Thinker.

You're familiar with The Thinker.

Um so Rodin made his first version of The Thinker, and it was uh only uh about 28 inches high, just over two feet.

But the public loved uh The Thinker so much that Rodin made all of these replicas that are all life-sized, and now this statue is kind of scattered about all of the world.

And so crowds of people around the world flock to the original and the replicas of this statue called the Thinker.

Um and I wonder if all of these crowds, as they approach this statue, they wonder the same question.

What's the thinker thinking?

Right?

Like what's on this guy's mind?

And it's widely assumed that Rodin, when he uh sculpted this uh man, um, that he is depicting a man who is pondering some of life's deepest philosophical questions.

Those are the thoughts that fill his mind.

The thought of, what's the meaning of life?

Or something like, can I know truth?

Or maybe this man, he's faced with a really big decision and he wonders, do I have free will, or is this decision just a matter of fate?

Or maybe this man, it's hard to tell, maybe he's advanced in his years and he is contemplating as thoughts of what happens after I die.

But what if the thoughts in that guy's head aren't all that serious at all?

Have you ever thought about that?

What if he's not pondering deep philosophical questions?

I mean, Rodan, that is a nude sculpture, by the way, and I know we're in a Baptist church, but I'm sorry.

Um, so what if like the thought in his head is just, I'm so embarrassed?

Why didn't I put on any clothes?

I mean, I that's probably what you would think if you were standing in front of a crowd without anything on.

Or, I mean, like, this guy's pretty big and really buff, right?

Like he's a big dude.

Maybe the thought is, man, I really got to get to the gym.

But before I go to the gym, I gotta go put on clothes because I can't go to the gym if I don't have clothes on.

Or maybe like he's a big dude and he's just thinking I'm hungry.

I'd like a sandwich for lunch.

But I guess there is a possibility that he has one of those deep philosophical questions running through his mind.

You know, the thought in his mind is uh, how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

The thinker could be thinking all sorts of things, all sorts of thoughts.

And with that realization, in at least this instance, life truly does imitate art.

Hear this.

You are a thinker, and all types of thoughts pass through your mind.

You might not think of yourself as a thinker, but you are.

Listen to Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23.

Proverbs 4:23

It says this Proverbs 4, the first half of verse 23 says, be careful how you think.

We often limit thinkers to people who excel at school, to people who hold a series of advanced degrees.

They're the thinkers.

But each of us, listen, each of us, no matter our age, no matter our education, is a thinker.

You are a thinker, listen, you are a thinker because you are God's work of art.

God invented thinking, it's his first idea.

So that's why Proverbs 4.23 instructs us to pay attention to all those thoughts that pass through your mind.

So, according to a team of researchers in Canada, um, about 6,200 thoughts pass through your mind every single day.

They actually don't call them thoughts in Canada, they call them thought worms.

Okay?

How's that for a really disgusting visual for what's going on inside of your skull?

6,200 thought worms crawling about.

And over the course of a day, you have all sorts of thoughts.

Some are serious, others are silly, others are simple.

Some thoughts that you have maybe are deeply philosophical, and other thoughts are just deeply personal.

Some thoughts that you have are long-lasting, and others just are passing through.

But no matter how you might categorize a single thought, you need to know this.

Every thought is powerful.

Every thought is powerful.

This means that all of those thought worms crawling about in your brain inevitably influence and impact your life.

Check out the second half of Proverbs chapter four, verse twenty-three.

It says this your life is shaped by your thoughts.

Your life is shaped by your thoughts.

You could paraphrase Proverbs four twenty-three by just simply saying this.

The thoughts in here determine the actions out here.

The thoughts in here determine the actions out here.

So the research, again, of neuroscientists confirms this biblical truth.

Here's what neuroscientists know physically occurs in your brain when a thought occurs.

Here's what they've proven in a research facility.

So your brain is comprised of approximately 100 billion interconnected neurons.

100 billion interconnected neurons.

And these neurons, what they do is they process and transmit information across things that are electrical bridges.

And these bridges, what they do is they connect neurons to one another, and when that connection occurs, it's called a neural pathway.

So when you have a thought and you think that same thought over and over again, you return to that thought day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, you're opening neural pathway after neural pathway after neural pathway that centers around that thought.

Whether that thought is positive or negative, good or bad, it's there.

It's shaped your brain and how your brain thinks.

And so the more you think about having a single thought or a related thought, the more that thought, as your brain fires and rewires itself, the more influential that thought becomes in your life.

It'll control your emotions, determine your decisions, and even drive your behavior.

That's why each of us have to heed this instruction.

Be careful how you think.

Your life is shaped by your thoughts.

Because you and I are thinkers, and every thought is powerful.

But here's the thing.

Our great enemy, the devil, he also is a thinker.

He's a strategic thinker who understands the power of our thoughts.

That's why one of his primary strategies in our life is to fill our mind with uh thoughts that are rooted in deceit.

It could simply be the thought that God doesn't hear my prayers.

The lie that God doesn't love me, that God doesn't care about me, that God is out to get me.

It could be that He puts thoughts in your mind that are spawned out of hatred.

Thoughts that everyone who doesn't agree with me, everyone who isn't like me, everyone who um doesn't come from my same part of the country or my same part of the community is out to get me and take from the lot take from me the life that I've started for myself.

Or thoughts that are born of jealousy.

Thoughts of they don't deserve that new car, why'd they get that new car?

I deserve that new car.

Thoughts like, why did they get to go on that vacation?

They don't deserve that vacation, I deserve the vacation.

Thoughts like, why do they have that boyfriend?

Why do they have that girlfriend?

I don't want that boyfriend, I want that girlfriend, I want that relationship, I deserve it.

Thoughts that bear the thorns of impurity when a casual glance becomes a lasting look.

Ultimately, what our great enemy, the devil, does is he plants within our mind thoughts that reflect the thinking of the world.

And remember what we said earlier.

As you think the same thought over and over and over again, it becomes more influential in your life.

As that thought enters into your mind and that synapses fire, it drives your behavior and your decisions.

You might even want to think of it this way: what's going on in your brain when the Satan puts these thoughts in it that are filled with lies and driven by jealousy and spawned out of hatred.

What he's putting in your mind aren't just thought worms, they're these demonic thought worms.

Anybody ever seen that old uh 80s movie, Tremors?

You saw Tremors where the giant worms are beneath the surface of the ground and they hear it vibrating, they come up and they eat you, right?

They're not friendly earthworms, these are violent, large worms.

Those are the kind of worms that the devil wants swimming around in your mind.

Those are the thoughts he places inside of you.

So listen, your thoughts, they're not only powerful, they can also be problematic.

Your thoughts can be problematic.

Second Corinthians chapter 10.

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Um, Paul kind of describes an invasion and an infestation of these demonic thought worms.

He uses the word stronghold to describe what they erect in a person's mind.

Stronghold.

It's a fortress in your mind that tries to prevent the ideas and the thinking of the kingdom of God from coming in.

It's why in that same uh 2 Corinthians 10, Paul then goes on to talk about thoughts as an obstacle, these demonic thoughts as an obstacle that keep people from knowing God.

And that, my friends, is why your thoughts and my thoughts are an everyday problem for which we need a Christ-centered solution.

They keep us, our thoughts can keep us from knowing God, from fulfilling our greatest ambition in life, to intimately know the God who created us and who saved us.

Today is the fifth and final week in our series that we've called Life Hacks.

As we've searched in this series the ancient wisdom of God's Word, uh, to uncover Christ-centered solutions for these everyday problems that we face.

We've looked at problems like the human heart, that was week one, the problem of time, specifically how we prioritize our time.

We looked at the problem of work, and then last week the problem of worry.

And each week, as we've thought about the problem that each of us face on an everyday basis, we've attempted to bring some Christ-centered solutions to bear on those problems.

When it came to the human heart, we talked about how to have a prayer of daily review to examine the human heart, to examine your heart on a daily basis.

When it came to work, just this mindset to say, like, uh, thank goodness it's Monday.

Thank goodness I have a job.

I get to partner with God in the world.

I'm going to consecrate my office to God's work and his ways.

When it comes to worry, that prayer where we said, I give everything and everyone to you, God.

And this week, once again, as we look at the problem of thoughts, I want to point you again to Jesus.

Remember, this is a Christ-centered solution.

But I also want to give you some really practical, concrete application steps that you can apply today.

And this morning, what we're trying to do is we recognize the fact that what you and I, we are thinkers, and every thought is powerful, what we're trying to do is this.

We're simply trying to do this.

We want to leverage the power of the thoughts that fill our mind so that we can deepen our relationship with God.

We don't want our thoughts to be an obstacle to our relationship with God, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10.

We want our thoughts to be a doorway, a bridge, an opening that allows us to grow in that relationship and to help us better understand the problem that we face and why it's so tempting and help us better understand how to leverage our thoughts for the sake of that relationship with our heavenly Father.

Let's listen to another teaching from the apostle named Paul.

This is Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

Romans 12:2

And I'm just gonna read it in two separate phrases.

We'll start with this phrase right here.

Romans 12.2, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world.

Don't copy the behavior and the customs of this world.

So the world that Paul has in mind when he writes Romans 12.2 is the world of the Roman Empire.

The world that is the city of Rome.

Now, what was the behavior and customs of Rome and the Roman Empire?

Well, it was a city and an empire of great cultural influence, like it impacted everything, architecture and art, philosophy and literature.

It was a city and an empire of great wealth, and uh they said that they were a city of great virtue, that the virtues were important in Rome.

How you lived your life, you should, you know, live according to a certain standard.

But the great virtue, listen, was pretty debatable.

People in Rome and people in the Roman Empire um in fact weren't deeply virtuous, they were deeply wicked.

Michael Byrd is a scholar of the New Testament, and he describes um Romans, the Roman people, simply as this Latin-speaking savages dressed in togas.

Latin-speaking savages dressed in togas.

In other words, they they claim to be high-minded, they claim to be better than everybody else, they claim to be more virtuous, but they were just like everybody else.

They were just like the barbarians outside of the empire.

And do you know where um Rome's wicked behavior began?

It began with the thoughts that filled their mind.

It began with all the demonic thought worms that were present inside the skulls of their leaders and of their people.

Earlier in Romans, Romans chapter 1, Paul says this.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Paul in Romans 1 says they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like.

As a result, their minds became dark and confused, claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

When you bring together that portion of Romans chapter 1, verses 21 and 22, with that opening phrase of Romans chapter 12, verse 2, you realize that Paul understands that thoughts are an everyday problem that every generation must face.

Romans 1:21 Romans 12:2

And Paul, I think he would express the problematic nature of thoughts this way, based on Romans 1 and Romans 12.

He would say this: cookie-cutter thoughts nurture a God-mocking life.

Cookie-cutter thoughts nurture a God-mocking life.

Cookie cutter, that's the first part of Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

Romans 12:2

Be not conformed.

God-mocking life, that's what he describes in Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

A life that doesn't recognize that there's a creator, recognize that God is Lord, a life that goes against everything that God desires and describes for a life on this earth.

So yesterday I went through our cabinets and I found a few cookie cutters.

Um, and this one is one cookie cutter.

It's a teeny tiny gingerbread man that I found up top.

I don't know the last time that we made gingerbread cookies, but um we're ready the next time we do, okay?

So maybe this little man, kind of go with me.

Maybe this man, um, this gingerbread man represents um all the people you watch on TikTok, and all the people on YouTube, and all the people you follow on Instagram, and all the people you listen to on cable news.

It represents these men and women in our life.

And every time we listen to one of those people, whether it be a TikTok video or YouTube or a news segment, do you know what that person does?

When they put a thought in our life, they make an impression on us.

And they make another one, and another one, and another one, and another one, so that slowly over time what occurs is what?

You begin to think like them, you begin to behave like them, you begin to see the world as they see the world.

And in general, when it comes to TikTok and YouTube and Instagram and cable news, uh cookie cutter thoughts nurture a god mocking life.

I'm just gonna put it out there.

They do.

And then I found this cookie cutter.

It's a heart.

I guess it's perfect for Valentine's Day.

We've never used it for Valentine's Day, though.

Maybe this heart uh symbolizes and represents all the things that the advertisers and marketers want you to love.

That they want you to believe you can't live without.

They just want to lure you and put that thought into your mind to purchase one more thing, to go into a little bit more debt, to stretch your budget a little bit thinner than it already is.

And once again, another impression and another impression and another impression on your brain.

They put it over and over and over and over again in these cookie cutter thoughts.

Nurture a God-mocking life.

Because it is a life marked by selfishness and jealousy and greed.

Or this circle.

Another cookie cutter.

Maybe it just represents the empty lies that the evil one puts into our brain.

And these empty lies of our culture put there by the evil one, they make their impression over and over and over and over again.

Lies that change the way that we think.

They want to rewire the way that we think on any and every topic.

About God and about family and about faith and about youth sports and about truth.

They want to change the way we think about everything in the world.

These cookie-cutter thoughts.

And the reason, hear this, the reason these cookie-cutter thoughts are so alluring is this.

In a couple of ways, we're like those first Christians who read Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

Romans 12:2

We live in a country that's known for its great cultural influence.

Right?

We do.

We live in a country that has great wealth.

We do.

And we live in a country that purports itself to be very virtuous.

To be better than everybody else.

But the culture that surrounds us, my friends, is not deeply virtuous.

It's deeply wicked.

I thought about that quote from Mike Bird about the Romans.

I think it equally applies to our culture in America.

We are English-speaking savages.

Some of us dressed in designer jeans, others in camo jackets, some in cowboy boots, and others in three-piece suits.

And those cookie-cutter thoughts nurture a God-mocking life.

During World War II, a highway was constructed that connected Alaska to the lower 48 states.

That means it went through Canada.

And for a long time, that highway, there were vast stretches of that highway that were unpaved.

It meant that the travel on that highway was rough, that the road was filled with ruts, and those ruts were deep.

So back in the 1960s, a couple decades after the construction of the highway, a sign was posted as you were exiting Canada and entering into Alaska.

And the sign simply said, choose your rut carefully.

You'll be in it for the next 200 miles.

And your mind like that road, my mind like that road.

It can have some really, really deep ruts.

The ruts are made by the frequent impressions of these cultural cookie cutters and so many more.

They are ruts that shape your thoughts, and you've been stuck in that rut longer than 200 miles.

You've been stuck in that rut of in that way of thinking for 200 days or 200 weeks or 20 years.

You've been stuck in that rut and you want to give out.

You're tired of these cookie-cutter thoughts that lead to a God-mocking life.

You want to grow in your intimacy and your knowledge of God.

You want to live a Christ-honoring life.

You're ready for this Christ-centered solution.

Listen to the back half of Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

Romans 12:2

It says this.

Back half says this.

But let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

With that verse, what Paul does is he describes how God and only God can renovate your mind.

God is property brothers, he is Chip and Joanna.

He is every HGTV star, except he doesn't renovate a house, he renovates your mind.

God moves in and he knocks down walls, he rewires the circuitry of your brain, the electricity of your brain, he re-plums your brain in order to shift your thinking away from the world and the ways of the world so that you embrace the thinking and the ways of the kingdom of God.

God wants to transform the way you think, because why?

Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 16.

1 Corinthians 2:16

Paul says this, you have the mind of Christ.

In other words, you don't have to think like everybody else.

Sometimes when we think about salvation, we just think Jesus comes and he lives in my heart.

And nothing else changes.

No, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and you receive the free gift of salvation by grace through faith, you're born again.

Jesus not only lives within you, he gives you a new heart and a new mind.

You have the mind of Christ.

And this renovation of our minds breeds a life that doesn't mock God.

Instead, it honors Christ.

And so I think, Paul, if you want to summarize the back half of Romans 12, verse 2, the back half can be summarized this way: Christ-centered thoughts nurture a Christ-honoring life.

Romans 12:2

Christ-centered thoughts nurture a Christ-honoring life.

Paul describes what Christ-centered thoughts are in Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Philippians 4, verse 8.

Philippians 4:8

This is what Christ-centered thoughts look like.

Here they are.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable.

Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

I want you to compare then those Christ-centered thoughts to the thoughts that filled your mind this morning when you woke up.

The thoughts that filled your mind when you went to bed last night.

Let's group them together a little bit.

Make some pairings.

First, on a scale of one to ten, are your thoughts true, more true, or more false, more right or more wrong?

Could you grade yourself?

Pick a number.

And you're thinking, Pastor, I love the truth.

Pastor, I only choose what is right.

That's why I came to church.

That's why I read God's word.

But does the truth of God's word, does what God's word says is the right way to live in the world, always shape your thoughts.

To play off what Jesus once said, even the devil knows what is true.

Even the devil knows what is right.

He knows it.

He's aware of it.

But he just prefers and promotes what is false and what is wrong.

As you think about grading yourself on those two points, true and right, false or wrong, think about this.

Do you often find yourself arguing with God's word?

And what it's calling you to live?

Do you ignore portions of God's word?

Do you say that portions of God's word are wholly impractical for 2022?

There's no way anyone could ever do that.

Maybe it's teachings on forgiveness or generosity or kindness.

Now let's think about another pairing.

When you think about your thoughts, honorable or immoral?

Pure or impure?

Honorable or immoral?

Pure or impure.

That pairing speaks profoundly to the cultural moment we live in right now.

Culture, the popular media, wants to normalize immorality and impurity.

It just does.

And thoughts that are honorable and pure are considered out of touch, out of step, regressive in the world.

And moms and dads, listen.

Moms and dads, listen real carefully.

You got to be vigilant when it comes to phones and technology in the hands of your kids.

You have to be vigilant.

You have to recognize that when you put technology and the internet into the hand of your child, you are opening a door for easy access.

Pandora's boxes open to things that are immoral and impure.

And a single immoral and impure thought quickly becomes a series of thoughts that rewires the way our kids think.

Rewires the decisions they make, the habits they form in life.

The final slide, this is a trio of what Paul said.

Do your thoughts look more lovely or are they more ugly?

Admirable or contemptible?

Are they filled with praise or curses?

Those thoughts kind of maybe describe the thoughts you have about people in your life or the day that you face?

Do you see every day as a gift?

Or does cynicism and negativity pervade your mind?

Do you see every person is made in the image of God?

Do you see people with whom you even have serious disagreements as possessing innate dignity and worth?

As you make an audit of your thoughts, the thoughts that commonly go through your mind, just hear it one more time.

Christ-centered thoughts nurture a Christ-honoring life.

Christ-centered thoughts nurture a Christ-honoring life.

Every thought is powerful.

We have to take our thoughts seriously.

So if you've made a quick audit or you revisit this audit later on, how then can you begin to move the needle?

Move the needle in your thought life, see change occur in your life.

I would suggest this: start with one of those pairings or that trio.

I paired them together and I made that trio because they are similar.

Start with one.

Start with the one where you feel like you are struggling the most and it's the biggest obstacle to your deepening of your relationship with God.

And if it's that first uh pairing of true and right, or um right or true with what's true or false, or right or wrong, just ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify the primary lie that you're believing, the primary lie that is driving your thoughts, and then memorize a scripture that addresses that lie, that unmasks that lie.

If your focus is on what's honorable and pure, again, start in prayer.

Holy Spirit, show me where this battle is being waged in my life.

And again, memorize a verse from God's word, a passage from God's word that unmasks that thought pattern that reveals how it is leading you towards destruction.

And if your focus is on the final one of thoughts that are lovely and admirable and praiseworthy, just again eradicate those thought worms that breed ugly, contemptible thoughts by memorizing a verse from God's word.

And here's what happens.

Each time you memorize a verse of scripture, each time you recite a verse of scripture, the thought of memorizing God's word, the thought of reciting God's word makes an impression on your mind.

It opens a neural pathway.

And it begins to break the strongholds and overcome the hurdles that keep you from knowing God.

Earlier, I referenced a word and a phrase from 2 Corinthians 10.

And as we wrap up, I want to read that passage in its entirety so that you can realize by the power of Jesus Christ and His presence of His Word in our midst, you can change the way you think.

Verse 4, we use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning, human patterns of thought, and to destroy false arguments.

We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.

We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

In the battle for our thoughts, God's weapon is his word.

And over time, more exposure and engagement and memorization of God's word will create within you the mind of Christ.

Think about that.

You can have the mind of Christ.

You can think as Jesus thought.

Imagine what your relationship with the Heavenly Father would be like if you thought as Jesus thought.

Saw the world as Jesus saw the world.

You can have the mind of Christ because listen, you are a thinker.

God gave you the ability to have thoughts.

And you can leverage the power of those thoughts to grow in your relationship with the Father who loves you and wants you to know Him.

Let's stand together and pray.

I'm going to read a prayer over us right now that's for the consecration of our minds and our thoughts to God.

And as I read this prayer, there are going to be moments when I just stop in a moment of silence.

And if you want to utter a word of affirmation, of agreement with this prayer, a yes, Jesus, amen.

Please, Jesus, feel free to do that at this moment.

And I want you to think about these words as we pray them slowly, as you give your mind and your thoughts to God.

Let's pray.

Father, I give you my thoughts, my memory and recall.

My understanding and imagination.

I consecrate to you, Lord, my interpretation of events in my life.

I dedicate the life of my mind and the thoughts that I think to you, Lord God.

Let every thought be Christ-centered.

That my life would be Christ-honoring.

As you consecrate your mind and thoughts to Jesus, have you given your heart to Jesus?

Have you put your faith in Him and received His free gift of salvation?

Our minds are wicked and depraved because of sin.

Our thoughts are evil because of sin, and we cannot overcome those thoughts on our own.

It's only by the power of Jesus Christ.

Through his cross, those sinful thoughts are forgiven.

By the power of his resurrection, those thoughts are overcome.

And as we turn our hearts to Jesus now to sing, if you would like to put your faith in him this morning, give your heart to him, your mind to him, you may come forward.

Let's sing together.