MIND BLOWING FAITH

Fresh Start #5

Pastor Dennis Clanton

Woodland Church

Sunday, April 28, 2024

The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.  –George Muller in Signs of the Times. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 95

(1 Peter 1:13–15, NLT) “Prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.”

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

1. MY THOUGHT LIFE SHAPES MY LIFE.

(Proverbs 4:23, GN) “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.”

2. BE AWARE: YOUR MIND IS AT WAR.

(Romans 7:22–23, NLT) “I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.”

3. A SPIRIT CONTROLLED MIND IS A PEACEFUL

(Romans 8:6, NLT) “Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

GROWTHWORK

1. FEED MY MIND WITH TRUTH.

(Matthew 4:4, NLT) “Jesus said… People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

(Psalm 119:97, NLT) “Oh, how I love your instructions! I think about them all day long.”

2. TAKE CAPTIVE EVERY THOUGHT.

(Romans 8:5, NLT) “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.”

(2 Corinthians 10:3–5, NIV) “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

“The good news is that if you belong to Jesus, God does have something better for you. God does not want to remove your memories; he wants to redeem them. He wants to transform them into something good, something that will make you more like Jesus.”  –Robert Jones

3. PROACTIVELY FOCUS YOUR THOUGHTS.

(Philippians 4:8, CJB) “In conclusion, brothers, focus your thoughts on what is true, noble, righteous, pure, lovable or admirable, on some virtue or on something praiseworthy.”