Rick Warren - Change Your Life by Changing Your Mind - Part One

Hey, friends, thanks so much for joining us today on

Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Pastor

Rick Warren. We're so glad to have you with us.

And today Rick continues in his series called Transform Together,

We'll dive into God's word and discover powerful principles that

can truly change our lives from the inside out spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, financially,

and vocationally. You'll experience how God's truth brings real transformation

to every part of your life. Okay, here's Pastor Rick

with part one of a message called change your life

by changing your Mind.

Our theme for fifty days of Transformation is Romans twelve,

verse two, and this week I want us to look

at it in the New Living Translation. There on your outline,

it says this, do not be conformed to the pattern

of this world, but let God transform you into a

new person by changing the way you think. We've memorized

it in by the renewing of your mind. The renewing

of your mind is the way that NIV puts it.

The New Living Translation says, by changing the way you think. Now,

let me sum up what I want to say this

weekend in one sentence, God is far more interested in

changing your mind than in changing your circumstances. We want

God to change our circumstances. We want him to take

away all the problems, all the pain, all the sorrow,

all the suffering, all the sickness, all the sadness. And

God says, yeah, yeah, I know that's important. But really

more important than that is what's happening in you. And

I'm far more interested in changing your mind before we

change your circumstance. Because nothing happens in your life until

you get the renewing of your mind. No transformation takes place,

no change takes place in your mind. Are in your

life until your thoughts begin to change. Now, why is

it so important that I learned how to manage my mind?

We've looked at physical health, we looked at spiritual health.

This weekend, I want us to look at mental health.

How do I have a healthy mind? And why is

it important that I manage my thought life? Let me

give you three reasons you might write these down. Number one,

because my thoughts control my life. My thoughts control my life.

Every single action always begins as a thought. If you

don't think it you don't do it. Now, that's both

good and bad. If you don't think it, you don't

do it. If it's a good thought, then then you're

gonna do good. If it's a bad thought, you're gonna

do bad. But my thoughts control my life. Proverbs for

twenty three and today's English version says, be careful how

you think your life. Life is shaped circle that word shaped.

Your life is shaped by your thoughts. He goes, well,

I was just thinking it. Well, you don't realize how

important the thought is. The Bible says the power of

your mind, The power of your thoughts says tremniscibility to

shape your life, for good or for bad. And if

you accept the thought, if growing up somebody said to

you you're worthless, you're no good, you don't matter, you're ugly,

you're uncoordinated. If you accepted that fact, whether it was

right or wrong, it's shaped your life. We're always interested

in our feelings, and we're going to look at feelings

next week when we looked at emotional health. But your

feelings don't shape your life. Your beliefs do. And it

doesn't even have to be true. If you believe it,

it's going to shape your life. And a lot of

you were taught things as a kid about you that

just weren't true, and years later you're still acting on

false information. Be transformed by changing the way you think.

Because my thought, let's control my life, both good and bad.

Number two, I need to manage my mind because my

mind is the battleground for sin. It's where I win

or lose the battle. In fact, all temptation happens in

the mind. We think temptation is something out there, something external,

something that happens that we see out there and say, oh,

that's tempting to me. It wouldn't tempt you if there

wasn't a corollary desire inside you. All temptation happens in

your mind, between your ears, and as a result, sin

happens in your mind. It happens between your ears. When

we talk about the sins of pride or lust, or

bitterness or hatred, or anger, or fear or resentment or

envy or worry, where are those things? They're all in

your mind. If you can learn how to manage your mind,

you've learned how to manage your life. This is where

the battle ground is. Paul and Romans, Chapter seven, is

very articulate in explaining how we've all felt in this

battle that pulls us many different directions in our mind.

Paul says this Roman twenty three. I love to do

God's will so far as my new nature is concerned.

But and that's always a big butt okay. But there's

something else deep within me that is at war with

my mind and wins the fight and makes me a

slave to the sin within me. In my mind, I

want to be God's servant, but instead I find myself

still enslaved to sin. And we can all identify that.

I want you to circle some words in that passage war.

Circle the word war, the word fight, the word slave,

the word enslaved. What's he saying. He's saying there's a

battle in your brain. It's one of the reasons why

you get mentally fatigued, because there's a battle in your

brain and it's going on twenty four hours a day.

Sometimes you're conscious of that battle, and sometimes you're unconscious

of that battle. But it's going on in your life.

And the reason why that battle in your brain is

going on and it's debilitating, it's because it's so intense.

And the reason why it's so intense. Is because your brain,

your mind, is your greatest asset. Satan wants to control

your mind. The world wants to control your mind. And

there's a battle for the way you think. Why Because

whatever gets your attention gets you. So I need to

manage my mind, because my thoughts control my life, and

because my mind is the battleground for sin and temptation.

Number three, because it's the key to peace and life,

our happiness. Because managing my mind is actually the key

to peace and the key to happiness. If you learn

what we're going to talk about this weekend, and you

begin to plat in your life, your peace of mind

will go up dramatically, and so will your happiness, and

so will your understanding enjoyment of life. An unmanaged mind

leads to tension. A managed mind leads to tranquility. An

unmanaged mind leads to pressure. A managed mind leads to peace.

An unmanaged mind leads to conflict and chaos. A managed

mind leads to confidence. An unmanaged mind leads to stress.

If you don't manage your thoughts, you just let them

go all over the place. You don't ever even try

to control your mind, and the way you direct your

thought though you're gonna have enormous amount of stress in

your life. But a managed mind leads to strength, and

leads to security and leads to serenity. The Bible says

it like this in Romans eighty six. If your sinful

nature controls your mind, there is death. Well, by the way,

what is death. It's the opposite of life. You're not

really living. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind,

there is life and peace. I want us to look

at three choices that you must make on a daily

basis in order to have a healthy mind. A lot

of people don't realize that you can control your thoughts.

I'll be oh, my thoughts are uncontrollable. No, you think

they're uncontrollable. But you can control your thoughts. In fact,

nobody else can. Satan can't control your thoughts. He can

suggest he'd like to, but he can't control your thoughts.

Only you can control your thoughts. And God isn't to

control your thoughts. I mean, you don't need to pray

if you're having bad thoughts. You're having scary thoughts, you're

having guilty thoughts, you're having lonely thoughts, you're having depressed

and discouraged thoughts. It doesn't really help, say God, change

my thoughts. God's gonna say it's your mind. You do it.

You know, all you have to do is click the

channel changer. You don't have to be thinking about what

you're thinking about right now. Nobody's holding the gun to

your head. You could do it. You could make that change.

Your thoughts are highly controllable. If I want to have

a healthy mind, I want to break free from all

of those bad patterns of the way I've been thinking.

What I need to do is make some choices. And

the Bible says there are three choices for a healthy mind.

I have to feed my mind. I have to free

my mind, and I have to focus my mind. Let's

look at these three things. They're all choices, and you

have to choose them, not just once in your lifetime,

but on a moment by moment basis. All right, let's

look at what the Bible says. Number one, if I

want to have a healthy mind, I must feed my

mind with truth. I must feed my mind with the truth.

Now we all know the importance of nutrition. Good food

and good calories cause you to be better, to be stronger,

to be healthier, to have more energy. Bad calories, bad

junk food, things that don't do good harm your body.

The same is true in your thought life. I must

feed my mind not with junk, not with poison, but

with truth. Jesus said it like this, you will know

the truth, and the truth we'll set you free. One

time I was given the privilege of lecturing at Oxford

University and actually at Cambridge also in the same month

in England. And while I was there, I was invited

to go to a meeting of Oxford Analytica. This is

a group you've never heard of, but has enormous influence

in the world. World. Every day, at about five point

thirty six a m. The leading scholars of Oxford gather

in a room to get reports from all around the

world and what's happened in the last twenty four hours.

They then discuss these things, everything from crop prices in

China to unrest in the Middle East, to the weather

on the East Coast and all kinds of things like this,

and then they make a decision about what needs to

be said about it. And then they say, who's the

best person in the world who knows the most about this?

And they send a note to that person. They email

that person. By eleven o'clock that morning, a report has

been given. And then that report, the Oxford Analytical Report,

is paid for by groups like the United States, CIA,

the Soviet Union, are now the Republic of Russia, China,

world leaders, major core operations. They all look to Oxford

Analytica to get their daily report and they pay big

bucks for this information. And I got to sit in

on one of the meetings. They invited me to watch

what was happening. It was about twenty people sitting in

a room early early in the morning. And Oxford Analytica

was founding on the idea that the best leaders make

the best decisions when they have the best information. And

even if you are a good leader, if you don't

have the best information, you're going to make a bad decisions.

That makes sense, Yeah, So you got to have the

best information to make the best decision. And that whole

purpose was to get the best information on the world

situation in the last twenty four hours. Well you're not

Oxford Analytica, but you need the best information to live

the best life that God wants you to live. And

that information is right here in the Word of God.

It's called the truth. The Bible says in Matthew four

to four. People need more than bread for their life.

They must feed on every word of God. God the

Bible is our soul food. It's our owner's manual for life. Now,

when should I feed my mind truth? I mean, when

should I do this? And the answer is all the time,

throughout the day, morning, noon, and night. You know, they

tell you that the best way to eat is to

eat just little every couple hours, rather than to eat

big meals and then go long hours without eating. But

to eat constantly, just kind of nibble your way through

the day, eating the right food. It keeps your blood

sugar level and all things like that. Same is true

with truth. If you're constantly thinking about truth, it's going

to renew your mind, it's going to change your mind.

Let me give you some examples of this. Here's David.

Here's three verses from David Psalm one nineteen. I rise

early to cry out for help. That's prayer, and to

put my hope in your words. That's Bible study circle

the word hope. He says, I start every morning talking

to you, I cry out in prayer and listening to you.

I read your word, and he says, I look for

the hope in your word. There are over seven thousand

promises in this book, seven thousand of them. If you

want to have your mind renewed, become a promise person,

begin to learn, memorize, think on this. If you feel

pretty hopeless about your situation, you're not spending enough time

in the promises of God, because they're there. He says,

I start my day with hope. Are you starting your

day with hope or with despair? He says, I start

it there. And then the next verse he says, Lord,

how I love your word. I think about it all

day long. You might circle that. And then Psalm sixteen,

verse seven, he says, even in the darkest of night,

your teachings fill my mind. So he say say, early

in the morning, all through the day, and even late

at night, I'm thinking about God's truth. That's why David

is called a man after God's own heart. Let me

just give you one example of how serious David was

about filling his mind with the truth of God's word.

I told you last week that he spent a large

part of his life running for his life because the

king that he was going to replace in Israel wanted

to kill him. Saul wanted him dead, and so David

actually had to run and be a fugitive for many,

many years, living in caves and moving from place to

place and never knowing am I going to wake up

and be killed the next day? And there were people

who are actually trying to kill him. I doubt that's

ever happened to you. Saw one nineteen ninety five, He says,

when wicked people hide to ambush and kill me, I

quietly keep my mind on your decrease. Wow, I quiet

keep my mind on your decrease. Now somebody was trying

to kill you, would you be thinking about the Word

of God? Kind of doubt it. You'd probably be calling

the police, You'd be running, you'd be bolting the door.

David says, I don't care what's going in my life morning, noon, night,

people trying to kill me. I have one thing I do.

I keep my mind on the truth. You do that

in the crisis. That's called managing your mind. I have

to feed my mind daily on truth.

Hey have you noticed how the world's answers to life's

biggest challenges? Your relationships, finances, and even your purpose always

seem to change or leave you searching for more. Well,

here's the good news. God's Word offers timeless truths that

can truly transform every area of your life from the

inside out. And that's why Pastor Rick created the Transformed

Bible Study, a life changing resource designed to help you

renew your mind and discover God's principles for lasting transformation. Now,

in this seventh session video and workbook study, Rick's going

to guide you through all the key areas of life spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, financial,

and vocational, equipping you with practical steps to experience real,

lasting change with weekly lessons, daily devotions, and exercises that

will help you dive deeper into God's Word. This study

is perfect for personal growth or sharing with your small group.

Request the transform Study Kit today when you give a

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