June 26 / Defining Moments / Defining Habits

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. Have you ever looked back in time and considered

how certain defining moments have shaped your life in future? Today, John Metter, lead

pastor of Cross City Church, looks at the importance of defining moments and how we

can recognize what God is saying through them. Well, I'm so glad to be back with you this

week. We spent the last week or two in California, my wife and I, where it never gets above 75

degrees and it's 55 degrees at night. Can somebody say amen? I mean, that was a great,

great place. But if you go to the beach, you get sunburned within 30 minutes. So it's just

a really amazing place. We hated to come back, but this is home. So here we are, 105 degrees

home and we are, we're glad to be back. I'm convinced that people would not stay in California

if it were not for the weather and the great beaches. Otherwise, that'd probably all come

here. But we, we're really glad to be home. We're glad to be back with you and I can't

wait to share this message with you. If you have your Bibles this morning, please take

them and turn to Romans chapter 12, verses one and two, probably some of the most familiar

Romans 12 · chapter mention

passages of scripture that you have heard before, heard, shared before, perhaps put

in your heart and life before. And today I want to talk to you about defining habits.

Our defining moment series is about moments in life where something happens to us that

changes the future completely. About 10 years down the road and 15 years and 20 years down

the road, in some cases longer, we look back to those defining moments and say, that was

the moment my life changed. We've talked about moments of salvation. We talked about moments

of catastrophe where bad things happened to us and then how we respond to those bad things

affects us for the rest of our lives. Last week you heard from someone who shared a message

about a defining moment of learning to trust God and obey God that he couldn't think possible

before. Today I want to talk to you about defining habits, a little bit different from

defining moments, defining habits or moments when you learn, if I do this on a regular

basis, I know the outcome will be different from what I'm getting right now. And I promise

you today, two habits that will change your life. Please stand with me as we read the

Bible today, Romans chapter 12, verse one and two.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Paul says to the church at Rome, therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God

to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual

service of worship. Verse two, you're more familiar with perhaps, and do not be conformed

to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the

will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Now be honest with me this morning, how many of you know verse two pretty well? Would you

raise your hand if you do? And I think many of us do. But today I want to ask you to make

sure that verse two, all these verses of course, but verse two is part of your life. Not just

something you remember a little bit about, but part of the habit of your life.

Join me in prayer. Father in Jesus name, help us to see the power of this habit. Help us

to see what happens when we do this over and over, and how you promised to transform us,

and how you promised to get us out of the mold that the world wants to squeeze us into.

Lord today, by the power of your Holy Spirit, speak to us loudly in our hearts and minds.

We ask this in Jesus name and all God's people said amen. Amen. Please be seated if you would.

These verses are quite frankly verses that I've known most of my life, even as a child.

I can remember my parents showing me these verses. I can remember hearing about them

in Sunday school classes that I went to. I can remember them on memory cards that were

placed in front of me. Memorize this passage John, memorize this verse John, and I memorize

the verse, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your

mind so that you can prove that which is that good acceptable and perfect will of God.

But I have to say that for years those verses were in my mind and heart, but they weren't

taking root. They weren't growing. They weren't affecting me in any way. The reason they weren't

affecting me is because I was not obeying them. I was not doing what these verses told

me to do. I didn't have the habit that these verses are telling us to have. I didn't have

the practice that they promised to bring reward to. I wasn't getting the outcomes that I was

hoping I could get because I wasn't putting into my life what I was called to put into

my life. So we have this passage today and I want to share with you some things. This

passage is so powerful for your life in the days ahead.

But first before we dive into the two habits I want to give you two reasons that we ought

to be doing this. Two reasons, two whys. Should I pay attention to verse one and two? Pay

attention to the two habits verse two tells me to have. Why should I do that? Why should

I interrupt, disrupt what I'm doing now in order to put this into my life? And we go

back to verse one for that.

So in verse one we find Paul starting off this text by saying, therefore I urge you

brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice accepted

with God which is your spiritual service of worship. Now I hope you realize this is a

huge request. The apostle Paul says to the church in unusual terms he's beseeching them,

he's begging them, he's imploring them, he's pleading with them. He said I beseech you

by the mercies of God. And then what he asks them to do is a huge order, it's a tall task.

I urge you to give yourself, to sacrifice yourself to God. Present your bodies as a

living and holy sacrifice to God and that's only reasonable for you. That's your spiritual

service of worship, that's how you really worship him. Now that may be a new idea for

some of you today. Worship is not what we get out of a song service. It's not what we

get out of someone's teaching. Worship is not what we get out of a feeling or an aura

or an environment that helps things feel spiritual. That's not what worship is. Worship is not

also not saying oh that's my favorite song. I love that vibe, I love that beat, I love

to hear it over and over. Even if it stimulates you to love Jesus more, that's not what worship

is. Worship is not what you get out of something, worship is what you bring into something.

And Paul's telling us to bring our everything to Christ. Present your bodies as a living

and holy sacrifice to God. In other words, it's not your offering that he's looking

for, it's not the animals that were sacrificed in the Old Testament that he's looking for.

It's not just cleaning up on Sundays and habitual worship, getting into worship week in and

week out and singing the songs and doing the things. It's not just that he's looking for,

he's looking for you to give yourself to him completely. I love what C.S. Lewis says about

this in his book, Mere Christianity. I even love the lingo he uses. He says, hand over

the whole natural self. All the desires you think are innocent as well as all the desires

you think are wicked. The whole outfit, I love that line. Give him the whole outfit,

give God your whole outfit, everything about you. And I will give you, scripture says,

a new self instead. In fact, I'll give you myself. I'll give you my will and it shall

become your will. Again, C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, a great book to read by the

Lord. So this kind of sacrifice that he asks us to bring him is a life transforming kind

of sacrifice. In fact, our lives are not transformed until we bring this sacrifice to him. As long

as you hold your life in your own hands, nothing will change. As long as you keep thinking

the way you have thought, nothing is different. As long as you don't invest your whole self

in Christ, there will not be those great outcomes you find in verse two. You won't be able

to know what the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is, and you won't be able to

prove or process the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God if you don't first present

your bodies of living sacrifice to Christ, which is what Paul is saying. So the obvious

question for us today is why? Why would we do that? Why would we as believers in this

world, in this time, do what this passage tells us to do? And I think the answer is

in this chapter, but even more so in the chapter that precedes that. So I want you to back

up just a few verses. If you have your Bibles open, go all the way back to chapter 11, verse

33, and then verse 36. Maybe you know this already. But the translators, when they made

the translations of scripture, added the chapter numbers and the verse numbers. In the original

language, there are no chapter numbers. There are no verse numbers, and it's helpful for

them to do that. I think it's helpful to be able to know this chapter 12 is where a thought

idea begins to progress onto another thought idea and so forth. It's helpful for us to

organize 66 whole books of the Bible into bite-sized and readable portions. I appreciate

the translators' work, but sometimes the translators don't give us quite the context we need, and

that's the case here. Chapter 12, verse 1, begins with what kind of word? The word therefore.

And every time you see the word therefore, you have to go back and look at what it's

built on, what it's based on. Now, if Paul is asking me to give my whole life as a living

sacrifice to God, I have a good question. Why should I do that? And in verse 33 and

verse 36, he tells us why. Let's look at those verses. He says, all the depths of the riches

of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable

his ways. And then verse 36 says, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever. Amen. And I think this answers my question. The question of

why do I need to be the sacrifice? Why would I give myself to him? Why should we have defining

moments like this where we expect God to speak to us and our lives are changed? Why does

it matter what habits we cultivate with God? And here's the answer of why. Let me summarize

it for you. The greatness of God and the glory of God should motivate ourselves to give ourselves

to him and have defining moments with him. The greatness of God and the glory of God

are greater than anything else this world has to offer. In fact, Paul goes so far as

to say you can't even get to the depths of God. They're unfathomable to your mind. They're

unsearchable to the way you know how to search for things. Most of us are Google experts.

Try to search for on Google the unsearchable riches of God. Try to find out the unfathomable

justice and wisdom of God. Google can't help you, but God can. And that's why the scripture

says give your whole self to him and you're going to find out things about God and about

your own life that will revolutionize you. Sacrifice yourself for the greatness of God

and the glory of God. Now we could spend a lot of time on that, but let me just make

the point here. We sacrifice ourselves for so many things and take such huge risks for

such little reward. Have you ever done that before? Have you given away a lot in order

to get a little bit of a thrill? I wish I had every dollar back I'd spent thinking I

was going to find something that would make me happy or satisfied with a product of some

kind. And then later on I realized, man, that thrill didn't last long, did it? Or how much

money do I spend for experiences thinking, oh, this is going to be the ultimate experience

in life. I'll never want to pursue another great experience after this one. And then

within five minutes, it's all right. I'm not sure I would have spent that money again.

Or diving into something like drugs or alcohol because he gives us a rush and gives us a

high, but we look back and go, that was not worth the sacrifice that I put into this.

Now you're looking at a guy that spent some time and money on sacrificing big things for

small rewards. I'm the guy who once ate a four pound hamburger just to see if he could

do it. I ate half pound patties. And I'll tell you, I ate every bite of that and wished

I hadn't eaten about three fourths of it. I'm the guy that climbed a cliff a hundred

feet high, barefooted on sharp rocks in order to get the thrill of diving off a hundred

foot cliff into a lake below. I only did that one time. It's not worth it to do that again.

People do crazy things for a little reward. They really do. Now you'd think we'd really

be motivated to sacrifice for the greatness and the glory of God, wouldn't you? I mean,

since we spent so much on getting so little back, what if we could give ourselves to something

that was incomparable? Someone who is unsearchable and unfathomable in his greatness and his

glory. That's what Paul's saying. With all the thrills Paul had in life, he understood

the best thing to give himself to was God. So he says to all believers, present yourself

a living sacrifice, which is your spiritual service of worship to the God who is great

and awesome and glorious. You should seek the finding moments with him and you should

want to develop those moments into habits. And when you do that, it's really amazing

what God reveals to you about himself and what he reveals to you about yourself, about

what he wants you to be, about how he wants you to change, about how he's wired you, about

your purpose for life, answering the question, why was I placed in this spot, taking up space

and breathing air? You want the answer to that question from the only one that can give

it to you. How many of you in this room have taken personality tests before and enjoyed

reading about yourself? I mean, I'm amazed at how people love to read about themselves

and their personality tests. And there are all kinds of personality tests out there.

Some of them are kind of weird to be honest with you. They have all kinds of funny names.

How many of you know about Enneagram? Would you raise your hand if you know about Enneagram?

How many of you know what number you are with Enneagram? Would you raise your hand? Okay.

Many of you know what number you are. You talk to each other in conversations and you

say, oh, I'm a one or I'm a nine or I'm an eight and the rest of us go, what in the world

are you talking about? I think Enneagram is a fine, go after it all you want, but the

reward is kind of small. I actually had a job advocate one time say to me, well, there's

something you need to know about me and I said, what's that? And he said, well, I'm

a beaver and I have no context for what that means. He meant that my personality test classifies

me as a beaver and my thought was, I'm looking for a human to fill this role. I had no idea

but it became part of his vocabulary, part of the way he talked about things and part

of the way he did things. I don't know if you're a one or a nine. I don't know how

the numbers go. Maybe you're a 10. I don't know. I don't know if you're a beaver or

an otter or a golden retriever. I don't know what you are, but I know this. God knows you.

He knows how you word. He knows what your purpose is and if you enjoy finding out things

about yourself based on a 15 minute exam, what would it be like to find out something

about yourself from the creator of the universe who had you in mind from the beginning when

you were conceived, when giving birth was what happened to you, when you became a full

fleshed adult later on in life, what wouldn't you give to know what he thinks about who

you are? That's what Paul's saying. Present your body as a living and holy sacrifice,

which is your spiritual service and worship. I tell you, I thrill at knowing what God's

plans have been for my life and looking back and seeing how he's directed and guided me

all this way, all these years. I wouldn't do anything different. There is no thrill

that can compare with the thrill of knowing what God's will is and being in God's will.

Paul says, give yourself. That's where you begin. I encourage you to do that. Give yourself

to him. Surrender yourself to him daily. Start the day with him. Die the self. Let it be

your spiritual service of worship to him, regardless of what the song service was like,

regardless of what worship time was like, regardless of the message itself. Every day

get up and say, God, I'm yours. I'm going to give you my life. That's the only reasonable

spiritual thing I can do because you gave yourself for me. Start there. Start there.

Then the two habits. I promise you two habits today that are in this text and can't wait

to get to them. Here we are in verse two. The first part of it says this. Do not be

conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I want you to

look at that line for just a moment. Just stare at it. Think through it. Two things

here. Don't be conformed to negative command and be transformed to positive command. Now

as we dwell on those two things for just a moment, let me give you a little bit more

insight about them. Both of these are imperatives. As Paul writes this emphatic plea, he says,

without doubt, absolutely I plea with you that you must not be conformed to the world

and you must be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So these two imperatives, one

is negative. Stop doing something. You must stop it. And one is positive, something you

must begin doing. It's present tense, so it's about doing it all the time into your future.

It's also passive. And what passive means in this particular sense is that if you don't

do something to reverse what's going on in your life and mind right now, you will be

conformed to the world. So you must make a change, must make a difference, or it will

push you into its mold. And you must be sure that you allow the power of God's word to

transform your mind. So given that background, these two habits are going to be pretty important

to your life. By the way, someone told me the other day it takes 21 days to start a

new habit. And I think that's largely true. We can get out of that habit if we're not

careful, but if you want to start a great habit that will transform your life, then

what I'm about to share with you involves those kinds of habits. I love what J. Philip

said about this in his translation of verse 2. Stop being squeezed into the world's pattern.

Instead be transformed into God's pattern. One of these two things is going to happen

to you. The truth is that something has already happened to you if you're a resident on planet

Earth. The world squeezes you into its mold. And it squeezes you into its mold a million

different ways. So if you've come to Christ and now you're slowly being transformed by

the renewing of your mind, and some of you are over this side of that spectrum, of that

graph, and your mind is transformed and continually being transformed, some of us are somewhere

in between fully being transformed and fully being conformed. But one way or another it's

going to happen to you. And every one of us have this command as believers in Jesus Christ

that we must make the decision to be transformed. That is, we must have our minds qualitatively

renewed so that we have a very different way of thinking. Now you don't have to do anything

to be squeezed into the world's mold. There's a million hands in this culture trying to

shape you, and that's always been true. In a book called Good Faith, authors Lyons and

Kinnaman write this. They said that Western society has a new moral code. And by the way,

every society has its own moral code. It has its own way of trying to squeeze you into

its mold. But this one says, they call this the morality of self-fulfillment. It says

the best way to find yourself is by looking within yourself. And people should not criticize

someone else's life choices as central to this code. The Bible says it more simply than

that, in the book of Judges, every man did right in his own eyes. He did what was right

in his own eyes, and it brought catastrophe to the culture in that day. The truth is we're

way too fond of our own thoughts. We're way too happy about the way we think anyway. We

think way too highly of ourselves, and that's part of the war that we're in. We've got

to think more highly about God, about what God has said, about what God's truth is instead

of our own thoughts. But you're being squeezed by a million hands. Now just look at these

hands for just a few moments. I have very large hands, and when I am at a television

screen and I put my hand towards the camera, it becomes massive. It looks like a catcher's

mitt, and that's why I'm doing it right in the other camera. I want you to feel this

today because this is true in all of our lives. Culture is shaping you. It's shaping you.

It's pushing you here. It's pushing you there. It might be media that pushes you there. Movies,

music, thoughts, things you read, conversations you have. Everything is molding you and shaping

you, trying to make you something that it wants you to be. You're being shaped by a

million hands, whether you know it or not. It's really that we're passive. The truth

is we are passive to all that. It's all happening, and sometimes we're really aware that culture

is trying to shape us. Sometimes we have no idea. Sometimes we're so far over this way,

we're completely deceived, thinking all is well, but in fact our minds and our thoughts

are far, far from God's truth. That's why the command, that you are to surrender yourself

to God first. You be the sacrifice, and then don't be conformed to the world. Don't let

the world shape you the way it wants to shape you. If you are thinking today, well, I should

just keep on believing whatever I want. You're already being squeezed, and you've already

been squeezed, and you're already in the mold of the world. Here are these two habits. Let

me spell them out plainly. First of all, we must resist the natural thinking of the world.

We've got to resist. Don't be conformed. Don't be shaped. Don't let all of the world around

us make us think and act the way it wants us to. That's where spiritual growth gets

real, and that's where the battles start heating up. Spiritual war takes place when we decide

we're going to think more along the lines of what God says that we should say and think

and do, and the world holds us back, and our spiritual adversary, the devil, is at work

trying to send those fiery darts to keep us thinking the way he wants us to think, shaping

us the way he wants us to be shaped. Whenever Paul writes about spiritual warfare, and particularly

warfare of the mind, he uses spiritual analogies, and usually the armor of God is what comes

up first when we talk about that, that in Ephesians chapter five, where he talks about

the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness. He talks

about the girdle of truth or the loins of truth, and he talks about the sword of the

spirit, which is the word of God. All that is analogies to help us think about the fact

that we really are in the battle. If Paul wanted to use any other picture that he desired,

he could have used another picture, but he wanted us to know the war is real, the war

is intense, and you need to be aware of your armor. When the enemy approaches us, we're

supposed to fight, we're supposed to resist, we're supposed to be able to say, you're

not going to take over my mind. I know you want to shake my mind to the world, but my

mind belongs to Christ, because remember in verse one, I present my bodies in living and

holy sacrifice, which is my spiritual service of worship, and my mind is part of that.

So no other world can have my mind. I refuse to let it have my mind, and I'm in a battle,

I'm in a war, it's important that we resist those natural thoughts. One of my favorite

verses is 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 5. It's in a series of verses, verse 3, 4, and

2 Corinthians 10:5

5, that's very, very big on spiritual warfare, particularly the mind. Look in verse 5 with

me at what it says, we are destroying speculations, and every lofty thing raised up against the

knowledge of God. Now you translate that into your thought life, the ifs of life, I wonder

if this, I wonder if that speculation, every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge

of God, that means I know God says this, and I know God did that, but did God? That's a

something raised up against the knowledge of God. But this next line is the most important

one today. We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Do you see that

line? Take every thought captive. That's one word in the Greek. It's a word that means

to captivate at spear point or sword point. Now for purposes of illustration, I've brought

one of my swords in today, and I have a collection of swords by the way. I've got a bunch of

them, and they're really cool and they're really sharp, so don't try to break into my

office, okay, that's the message there. But over the years I've collected these, and one

of the reasons I collect them is because of the symbol of the sword of the spirit, which

is the word of God. And it's helpful to have one of these while I stand up here to illustrate

this point. If I know thoughts are coming my way that are natural, worldly, unbiblical,

untruthful, it's my responsibility to captivate at spear point, to captivate at sword point

that thought before it gains entry into my mind. Think of your mind as a house. Think

of your house as having an ear gate, something you hear, an eye gate, something you see,

a mouth gate, something you consume. You think about it having all those entry points into

your life to dominate your thoughts, to lead your thoughts one way instead of another.

And then think about the imagery that Paul gives us that results in me having this sword

in my hand. As I see a thought coming my way, I captivate it by spear point. I change the

direction of that thinking. You say, well, I don't know if that really translates. Well,

just imagine this, if you came to knock on the door of my home, my physical home, and

I opened the door with a sword in my hand, you might be less confident to storm into

my house because I have this sword in my hand. Just the reality of a sword, just the presence

of that changes the game, doesn't it? And the truth is when you know the word of God

and are able to use it like the sword of the spirit is intended to be used, it changes

the game in terms of the world conforming you to its mold.

And so this verse here says that we must be willing to resist, even violently resist the

thoughts that come into our mind. And we use the sword of the spirit, which is the word

of God, in order to do that. Keep that in mind for just a few moments because that's

just the first habit. It tells us to stop, to resist. It tells that thought coming at

us to stay out of our mind. And I would tell you over and over again, the best place to

win the battle with an invader is at the door. Do not let them gain entry into your thought

life. But the second habit works hand in hand with

the first. Not only must we resist the natural thinking of the world, we must replace our

natural thinking with his truth. Throughout the Bible, we're told to resist worldly thinking

and replace it with God's truth. Help me complete this verse. Jesus said, you shall know the

truth and the truth shall set you free. Jesus came to reveal the truth to us. That's why

we have the Bible today. That's why we have the words of Jesus. He came to reveal truth

to us and the truth sets us free. And that's the way it happens. The battle that you're

going to have is the battle for the mind, the battle for your thoughts. And it's won

by setting your mind on the right things, the truth.

Now, Paul's got this great line of Philippians chapter four for us that talks about thoughts

that we ought to have in our mind and thoughts that we need to dedicate ourselves to thinking

about. It's chapter four, verse eight of the book of Philippians. And you know this passage

pretty well. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let

your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, the past is understanding. Shall

I guard your hearts and your what? And your mind in Christ Jesus. And he follows that

up with this verse. In chapter four, verse eight, he says these words, finally brethren,

whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,

whatever is of good repute, if there's any excellence, anything worthy of praise, dwell

on these things. This is not a poster you put on your wall. This is the battle that

you have. As you've got to reach into your arsenal and replace whatever is false with

whatever is true. And replace whatever is dishonorable with whatever is honorable. And

whatever is wrong needs to be replaced with whatever is right. And whatever is impure

needs to be replaced with whatever is pure. All the way through this text, it names item

after item that you have to replace the thoughts of the world. And specifically it happens

when you struggle with anything and you find out what God's word says about that and you

have the truth, the battle, the lie from that moment on. It's your sword in the battle.

Craig Rochelle said it like this, what gets into your mind comes out in your life. And

that's true. So it's so incredibly important that we learn to do that. I've shared just

in small form my own battle with anger years ago. And by the time I was 18 or 19 years

of age I was very, very angry and quite destructive. Lost a lot of friends as a result of my temper

tantrums and just the destruction that I caused as a result of that. I was mad about everything.

And none of it was rational. I was mad at God in part because of my hearing loss. I

was mad at how people responded to me. I was mad about what I thought the future held for

me and I didn't think it was good. And there were so many things about my thinking in that

day and time that contributed to my anger. But the problem was that the anger got out

of control and before long it was smaller and smaller things would set me off. As a

result of that, as a young Christian battling with a big anger problem, I realized I was

in trouble. And I really didn't have anybody to help me with it. I wasn't going to share

with anybody that I needed help. Everybody around me knew I needed help, but I didn't.

And there were two passages of scripture that God directed me towards. I read my Bible and

those two passages became my lifeblood. They became the things that I used in battle. One

was Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26 and 27. It says, be angry and do not sin. Don't let the

Ephesians 4:26

sun go down on your anger nor give the devil an opportunity. And that got my attention

because I knew my mind was an opportunity for the enemy and I was angry perpetually

and that command in scripture was powerful. And then James chapter 1 verse 19 and 20 became

James 1:19

an important passage to me as well. Let every man be quick to hear. Slow to speak, slow

to anger for the anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. And I put those

verses in my mind and as a 19 year old young man wanting to move beyond my anger, those

two passages gave me the sword I needed when anger started creeping in, when I could feel

the emotion rise, when I realized something bad was about to happen that I didn't previously

have much control over. All of a sudden my mind was thinking with truth instead of emotion.

And it went on and by that I mean a brief few months. Anger was just not a part of my

life anymore and it hasn't been a part of my life since I was in college which was at

least 10 years ago, right? Some of you get it, some of you don't, I get it. Resist the

fear that you're worthless. Replace it with the fact that God's word says you're priceless.

Resist fear that you feel. Replace it with the faith God calls you to walk by. Resist

self. Replace it with Christ. Resist temptation. Replace it with truth. You don't have to get

into it. Resist emptiness. Replace it with the purpose that God says he has for you.

Dig into the depths of who God is. My greatest battle wasn't just with anger. It was with

the worldliness in my mind. Just the fact that I was susceptible to things I heard and

read more so than I was susceptible to God. And over a two year period while I was in

graduate school God gave me an amazing victory without me even though the war was being won.

During those days I had multiple jobs because we had a young growing family and I remember

having a newspaper route with something that people used to call the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Anybody remember a newspaper called the Fort Worth Star Telegram? Back in those days that's

what you read to keep up with the news, right? So I threw about 600 of those every morning

at 2am to about 6am for two solid years while working several other jobs and going through

graduate school. So I slept about two or three hours a night and that was it for those two

years. In my life, and I think it's true of everybody when you're worn out, when you're

stressed out, you're vulnerable to temptation, to bad thoughts, to attitude issues and I

was getting overwhelmed. The things you see in the dark of the night, the things you see

in the middle of the night are not worthy to repeat and certainly not something that

helped my mindset. And I knew I was in trouble. I was struggling and didn't know how to get

out of it. My sweet mother-in-law one day said, you know I found 350 cassette tapes.

A cassette tape is a previous form of media for those of you that don't know. Thereof,

my pastor at the time, her pastor was a guy named Ron Dunn, great Bible teacher. And Ron

had this very peculiar voice. It was a very high nasal voice. It didn't work well in person

but it worked great on the radio. He used to say, my mother told me I had both the face

and the voice for radio ministry and that's what I did. But I could hear him. I remember

getting a Walkman headset and listening over and over. And for a span of two years, at

least two years, at least 700 straight nights, listen to me, I listened to two of those messages

for 700 straight nights. That takes me a while to work through a tape like that and I have

to back up because I missed some things and I fell in. Sometimes I would stop and take

notes but over the course of two years my thinking was changed from stressed out, angry,

attitude problems, given to temptation, to where it was a calmness and serenity and clarity

about my life. My life was changed because my mind was changed. I look back and I think,

you know, I had no idea what was going on. I knew the battle was there. I knew it was

very real but I didn't know how to fight that battle. But what I did know was those

random cassette tapes were not so random. They were not coincidentally placed in my

life and I wasn't fully aware of the forces that were at work and I wasn't really aware

of the crossroads that I was at but I now clearly know these were the most defining

moments and habits in my life. And now decades later I look back and those were the moments

where my mind changed and because my mind changed, my life changed. You talk about powerful

people. When I later got to know Ron, I told him the story and I said, Jesus saved my soul

but you might have saved my mind. And I meant it because the teaching of God's Word changed

my life. That's what the battle looks like. You've got to flood your mind with truth and

the truth that sets us free. Now if that sounds too radical for you, please realize that the

world is radically devoted to taking your mind away from you. Please keep in mind that

the world is radical and the solution is radical and the battle is serious and the weapons

are serious so you must resist and replace, resist and replace. This will change your

life. It will change your life. So here are some suggestions. First of all, read the Word

of God daily. Get a plan and read it. When I was in college, man, we didn't have these

plans on the internet because we didn't have the internet. We didn't have anybody tell

us how to read through the Bible so I got a calculator and calculated the number of

pages in the Bible that I had in my possession and divided it by 365 and learned that I could

read four pages a day of the Bible and get through the end of the Bible. I was amazed

and mesmerized that only four pages of the Bible a day I could get through at the end

of the year and I committed to do that and it changed my life. Find a plan that's easier

for you than it ever was for me. Find a plan, get into it. Number two, listen to solid biblical

teaching. When you walk, when you drive, when you have free time, certainly as we gather

in worship, as we gather in small groups, when people open the Word of God and teach

it, get into that solid teaching. That's number two. Number three, memorize the verses

that help you resist sin. What is it that you need a weapon for? What emotion? What

thought process? What frustration? What fear do you need a verse for? Find your verse.

Find your knife. Find your sword and your spear and get after the battle. And then number

four, resist the mind control of the world. Limit the exposure of all the darts of the

wicked one. There are so many of them. Your habits shape who you are. Two reasons why.

Two habits, two outcomes. I can't quit until I get this outcome for you. Verse two B, you

do all that and Paul says, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which

is good and acceptable and perfect. In other words, when you practice these habits, when

you resist worldly thinking and when you replace it with biblical truth, you're going to have

two outcomes. I think you can see it with this verse. Look at the last one first. You're

going to know what's good and acceptable and perfect. And then in the early part of the

verse, you're going to practice what's good and acceptable and perfect. So let me summarize

it. When you practice these two habits, you will both know God's will and be able to practice

God's will. Look at how powerful that is. You probably said before, if only I could

know God's will or if only I could just obey God, I'm telling you how. Paul is teaching

us how by this practice of resisting the natural thoughts and replacing them with the spiritual

thoughts. I need to wrap this up. So let me just say these things to you. I want you to

imagine for a few moments what your life will be like when you win this battle. That means

you're going to have to think about where you're failing, where you're losing. You're

going to have to identify what those things are that pull you under. So imagine your life

when you win this battle, because the battle can be won. Imagine what happens when fear

becomes faith. Imagine what will happen when emptiness is replaced with purpose. You know

why you're here. Imagine what it will be like when temptation is replaced by trust. I don't

have to give into that, do I? Because God has a way out. Imagine what will happen when

lies are replaced with truth, when anger is replaced with kindness, when self is replaced

with Christ. Imagine that. That's what he promises. That's what he promises. It's too

hard for me. I'm under too far. I've gone too far the other way. No, no, and no. Nothing

is too difficult for God, but you must believe him for it to come about. I want you to stand

with me if you would today, because your head's about eyes closed for just a moment. Today

at the conclusion of this prayer, you have an opportunity to do something to change your

life. It may be the day that you need to make the decision to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Listen, if you made a verbal profession of faith to Christ, but did not surrender to

him, you need to go back and look and see if that was real. That's why we have decision

stations here today to help you with that conversation. Have you given your life to

Christ? Is it obvious? Is it clear? Has it ever been clear? And if not, help take those

steps today by having those conversations. Christ will forgive you. He will give you

eternal life. He will set you free. That's the first decision you need to make. Secondly,

decide what to do with your mind. What will you do with your mind from this day forward?

Will you resist? Will you replace? What will you do? As I pray, I'm praying for you to

make these decisions and for the power of God to be at work in your life. If you're

a guest today, I'd love to visit with you in our guest reception room. I'd love for

you to stop by our decision station so that you can make the decisions that are life transforming.

Father, in Jesus' name today, I'm so, so grateful for your supernatural power that

changes lives. You changed my life, Lord. You completely gave me a new mind and a new

ability to follow you, to know you. Lord, you overcame all those old things in my life

and I'm so grateful that you have. And Father, I know that promise holds true for every person

in this room. Every person who will look to you and trust you and believe in you can have

that same promise fulfilled in their lives. And I pray today, Lord, in the same way Paul

begged, Lord, I beg you that each person will make this decision today and not walk away.

Father, thank you for what you've done, what you will do in Jesus' name. Amen.