Part of the chapter I'd like to focus on is at the beginning there, the famous portion
beginning in verse number one, the Bible reads, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies
of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service, and this is the part that I'd like to emphasize, and be not
conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may
prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
And then notice that in the next verse he mentions the word think three times.
He says, For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not
to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according
as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
So in verse two he tells us that we need to have a renewed mind in order to not be conformed
to this world, in order to offer our bodies a living sacrifice unto God, and that we need
to think soberly, and that God's concerned with the way that we think.
What I want to preach about tonight is your thought life and the thoughts in your mind.
Now, first of all, God knows our thoughts.
I mean that's pretty basic, that's pretty obvious, you don't have to turn there, but
in Psalm 139 the Bible reads in verse one, O Lord, thou has searched me and known me,
thou knowest my down sitting and my uprising, thou understandeth my thought afar off.
I mean God knows what we think even before we think it.
And so God can read our minds, even while Jesus was on this earth, the Bible emphasizes
over and over again how he actually knew the thoughts of those that were around him.
In Matthew 9 verse 4 it says, And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil
in your hearts?
He knew that they were having evil thoughts.
In verse 25 of chapter 12 it says the same thing, Jesus knew their thoughts, Luke 5 22,
but Jesus perceived their thoughts, Luke 6 8, but he knew their thoughts and said to
the man that had a withered hand, and on and on.
So over and over again the Bible talks about the fact that Jesus knew the thoughts of those
that he came into contact with.
Even when he sat at the house with a Pharisee named Simon, he could know what he was thinking,
he understood what he was thinking.
And the Father up in heaven knows our every single thought and God demands that we keep
our minds clean and pure and righteous and free from sin.
You see, having bad thoughts is sinful.
Go back to Proverbs 15.
Proverbs chapter number 15, while you're turning over there, I'll read for you from Psalm 139.
The Bible reads in verse 23, Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting.
David's saying, I want you to look at my heart and look at my thoughts and see if there's
anything wicked about them.
In another Psalm he says, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in thy sight, O God.
And so God demands us to keep pure thoughts.
A lot of people think, well, as long as I'm doing the right things, you know, it doesn't
really matter what's going on in my mind.
Let me tell you something, there are a lot of people today who outwardly go through the
motions of doing a lot of right things, but in their mind there's rebellion, there's stubbornness,
there's evil, there's wickedness, as they outwardly do what they're supposed to do.
And they might say, well, you know, I'm doing the right things.
No, God demands that we keep a pure and clean and righteous mind.
And not only that, but bad thoughts are eventually going to lead us to bad actions anyway and
lead us into sin.
So we need to get our thoughts under control.
Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 15, 26, The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination
to the Lord.
You see that?
God looks at our thoughts and when they're wrong, when they're evil, when they're wicked,
there's an abomination to them.
But the words of the pure are pleasant words.
In Proverbs 24, 9, you can turn to chapter 30, the Bible reads, The thought of foolishness
is sin, and the scorner is an abomination to man.
And then in Proverbs 30 verse 32 it says, If thou has done foolishly in lifting up thyself,
or if thou has thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
God's saying, look, don't think evil thoughts, the thought of foolishness is sin, the thoughts
of the wicked are an abomination.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 10, 2 Corinthians 10, and while you're turning there I'll read
you what Jesus said in Matthew 15.
He said, But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and
they defile the man.
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witness, blasphemies.
These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands defile not a man.
So according to that scripture, evil thoughts will eventually defile us.
Evil thoughts are the first thing on the list of the things that defile a man, the things
that will destroy us.
Look down at your Bible there in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, meaning they're not physical weapons.
You know, it's not a gun or a knife or a sword.
He says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but 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 watch this, and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ.
So according to the Bible, the Christian life is a war, it's a battle, and that battle is
for your mind.
And the devil is out to take control of your mind.
Our weapons are not carnal.
Our weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
Our weapons can cast down imaginations and our weapons can bring into captivity of every
thought to the obedience of Christ.
What are those weapons?
What is the weapon?
The Word of God, because the Bible says when he lists off all the armor that we're supposed
to have, which is a defensive thing, you know, the helmet, the breastplate, but then he lists
one weapon, he says, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
That's the one weapon that we're armed with.
God's Word is the weapon of our warfare to defend our mind, to battle against the assault
on our mind that takes place daily.
And when you understand how important this is, you can see that the devil is out to get
your mind.
You know, through TV, through music, through advertisements, through billboards, through
magazines, through wicked people that you come into contact with, he's constantly trying
to get into your mind and corrupt your mind, pervert your mind, get you to think wicked
thoughts, get you to think an evil thought, and he wants to get inside your mind.
You know, the school system is also a way that the devil gets a lot of wicked things
into people's minds.
You know, you go to school and maybe you want to become an engineer or you want to become
a lawyer or a doctor, but you're forced to take these core requirement classes that have
nothing to do with the job that you're trying to do.
You know, your general education classes, right, you know, you're trying to get a degree
in electronics or math or whatever, but it's like, no, you have to take these general core
requirements to get your, you know, your general, it's like, what in the world have I been doing
in high school?
Didn't I already sit through a bunch of history and science and English, you know, but these
general core requirements, one of them will be on diversity, translation, how to be a
pervert, okay, and then one of them will be on, you know, global warming, you know, this
is your core requirements, you know, and I believe in global warming, it's going to happen
when the fourth trumpet sounds in the book of Revelation and men will be scorched with
great heat and blaspheme the name of God.
Okay, but you know, basically, they want to get in your mind with an agenda, and you
know, when I was in community college, I just went to the junior college starting out by
my house when I got out of high school, and I remember going to a class called cultural
geography, okay, and we were brainwashed that the world's overpopulated and they showed
us a video on China's one child policy, how wonderful it is.
They were promoting it to us as a good thing, and they're showing these women being forced
every day, this nice Chinese woman comes over and tells, you know, did you take your birth
control pill today?
Every day comes to their house every night and checks on them to make sure they're taking
their pills and stuff.
I mean, it's just a total enslavement, total wickedness, but this, you know, and I mean,
I could spend the next rest of the sermon just telling you all the weird stuff that
I learned just in, you know, a year and a half of community college, okay?
But they want to get in your mind and teach you stuff that has nothing to do with succeeding
in business.
It has nothing to do with the job that you're trying to learn how to perform.
It's more about just making you a liberal and a communist and an atheist and a humanist.
That's really what it's about, and they want to get in your mind, the battles for your
mind.
Now, when you realize that the battle's for your mind, you know, you realize that college
is not even a place that you want to go, because in reality, it's better to seek first
the kingdom of God, not to seek money, because I'd rather keep the integrity of my mind than
to sacrifice the integrity of my mind for a supposed bigger paycheck.
Of course, a lot of people come out of college and they don't even make any more money than
they would have if they hadn't gone, okay?
But we're taught, you know, you must go there to make money, but you know what?
I'd rather have the integrity of my mind than a big paycheck.
But anyway, the battle is for our mind today.
Go to, where did I have you turn, 2 Corinthians 10?
Go to James 1, James chapter 1.
The Bible says that there's a war for our mind, the weapon is the word of God, the devil
wants to exalt himself against the knowledge of Christ, he wants to bring in evil thoughts
and concupiscence and wickedness into our mind.
James 1 teaches us that sin begins in our mind.
That's where sin starts, it starts in the mind.
It says in James 1 13, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted be any man, but every man is tempted when
he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed, then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't lust take place in the mind?
Now there are a couple of synonyms of lust in the Bible.
Those two synonyms that God uses interchangeably with the word lust are desire and covet.
To lust after something is also known as to covet something or to desire something.
Well the Bible, when he gives us, for example, the Ten Commandments, you see all these sins
in the Ten Commandments, you know, having other gods before him, right?
He says, you know, not to make any graven image, not to take the name of the Lord thy
God in vain, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, honor thy father and mother, thou
shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear
false witness, and then the last one is thou shalt not covet, and it's the one that takes
place in the mind.
But really in James 1 we see that it is really the origin of any other sin.
You know, it starts with lust.
Lust conceives and brings forth sin, sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.
Go to 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter 2, and the thing that made me think about this
sermon was I was studying Ephesians 2 this week, and I came across this scripture in
Ephesians 2, it says, and you at the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of
the power of the air.
The prince of the power of the air, that he's referring to here.
The devil, Satan.
So he's saying, you know, in time past you walked according to the course of this world,
you walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past,
in the lusts of our flesh, but then he breaks that down, fulfilling the desires of the flesh
and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.
You know, the desires of the mind, the lust of the mind is what causes us to fulfill the
lust of the flesh.
And he says there in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 14, having eyes full of adultery and that
cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls and heart they have exercised with covetous
practices cursed children.
You know what I see there is that, you know, when you have eyes full of adultery, you cannot
cease from sin.
Those two things are coupled there together.
Now, eyes full of adultery is something that the Bible emphasizes about our thought life.
You know, I think if I were to go to the average person today, and sometimes when we're out
soul winning, we'll talk to people when we're trying to show them that look, we're all sinners.
Because a lot of people have this idea that the path to heaven is that we just stop sinning,
right?
Or repent of our sins, or turn away from our sins, and if we just stop sinning and start
following God's commandments, we're going to make it to heaven.
That's work salvation, right?
But isn't that what a lot of people believe in, to get them to heaven?
Don't sin, just live a pretty good life, just live a life free of sin.
We know that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells us, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the
deeds of the law.
It's not the deeds of the law, it's not obedience to the law, it's not keeping the commandments
of God that's going to get us to heaven because all have sinned and come short of the glory
of God.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, it's
by faith, it's by believing in Christ, not of works as he mentioned both, but don't most
people think, you know, well, you know, it's keeping the commandments, it's not sinning,
it's turning away from your sins, it's living a good life.
But often when we're out soul winning and we want to show people that, hey look, we're
all sinners, we often bring up the thoughts, don't we?
Because sometimes people don't want to readily admit to committing murder or adultery or
lying, and you say, murder, you think we're running into murderers that often?
You know, like, what is it, one third of women have had an abortion?
In America, they're all murderers.
So you're probably talking to murderers all the time out soul winning.
You know, but not everybody is necessarily readily going to admit to you or even want
to talk about the fact that they're a murderer or that they're a thief or that they're a
drunk or an older.
And you know, a lot of times what we try to bring up to people is look, even if you were
to cleanse yourself of those big obvious sins, because somebody might look at those type
of sins and say, okay, I've committed murder in the past, I've stolen in the past, I've
committed adultery, I'm going to turn from that.
And you know what, there are probably a lot of people who have turned from drunkenness,
turned from adultery, and turned from murder, and repented of those things and will never
commit them again.
But what we try to show people is that there are other sins also that you're probably never
going to completely turn from.
You know, you're never going to be perfect.
And to get into heaven, you've got to be perfect.
I mean, he said, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And we see that when we're out soloing, often I bring up to people where the Bible says
the thought of foolishness is sin.
And I say, look, even if you go a whole day without doing something that's completely
wrong like murder or stealing, you know what, I guarantee you that you have some wrong thoughts.
You're going to think something that you shouldn't think.
Sometimes I also bring up the fact that the Bible says to him that know what to do good
and do what to not.
To him it is sin.
That's another way that we sin.
Not just sins of commission, but sins of omission, things that we leave out.
But I often show people, you know what, we can have a bad thought.
The Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin.
Evil thoughts, wrong thoughts, nobody thinks perfectly all the time.
But I think if I were to go up to the average man today in America, just out soul winning
for example, and say, you know, what do you think of when you think of, you know, thinking
a bad thought?
What does it mean to think a bad thought?
Probably the most common thing that would come to people's mind is a lustful thought
toward women.
Right?
Because isn't that a pretty common sin that's dealt with in the Bible?
And in our culture it's pretty common.
Because we see it pushed in the media, in the advertising, in TV, billboards advertising.
You know this is a common sin today amongst men.
And that's why the Bible deals with it, this subject of having eyes full of adultery.
Job said this, I made a covenant with mine eyes.
Why then should I think upon a maid?
He made a concerted effort that he was not going to think upon a maid.
He was a married man, was he not?
And he said, you know what, I made a covenant with my eyes, I'm not going to think upon
a maid.
Meaning I'm not going to look at a young woman and think a wicked thought about that woman.
In Matthew chapter 5, the famous verse 27, you have heard that it was said by them of
old time, thou shalt not commit adultery.
But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart.
That's a pretty serious verse there.
Jesus is saying, look, it's not just the actions that matter.
You might say, well I'm completely faithful to my wife.
But what about your mind?
What about your thoughts?
It's not just enough to be faithful to your wife.
You must also be faithful to your wife in your mind and not think lustful thoughts.
You know, I remember one time I was at work and a guy said to me, he said, hey, come over
to this window, come look out this window.
I want to show you something.
You know, I don't know what he's going to say, okay, you know, is this working?
And he brings me over and shows me out the window and there was a scantily clad young
lady on the sidewalk and he's trying to show me, hey, check this out.
And you know what?
Any man who works out in the world, I mean, you know that's what people are like at work
and you've probably had similar things.
Maybe today in our electronic world, you know, it's probably more like, hey, let me show
you something on my phone, you know, and they show you some wicked image or something.
You know, people show you stuff like that in the world in which we live.
And I said to this guy, I said, I'm not interested in looking at that, I don't want to say that.
I said, I'm married.
And he said, well so what, so am I.
And he said, well, you know, just because I've already ordered doesn't mean I can't
look at the menu.
And you know what, that's got to be the stupidest saying in the world because whenever you order,
what do they always do?
They take the menu away every time.
So that's such a stupid thing to say, well just because I've ordered doesn't mean I can't
look at the menu.
And you know, they always take the menu.
They're like, um, excuse, and then if you try to keep one, they're like, uh, that one
too.
Give me that menu too.
I mean, you know how these waiters and waitresses, they don't let you keep the menu, they take
it away.
Okay?
And so this whole stupid thing of, well I can still look at the menu, well you know
what Jesus said, if you're looking at the menu after you've already ordered, you're
committing adultery in your heart.
And you know what, this is not just a New Testament doctrine.
This goes back to the Old Testament, in the book of Proverbs it says, lust not after her
beauty in thy heart.
And it's talking about the strange woman.
Strange doesn't mean she's weird, strange means foreign, meaning a woman other than
your woman.
It's saying you're looking at a woman that does not belong to you.
That's lust, that's covetousness.
And even specifically in the Ten Commandments, God specifically emphasizes thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor's wife.
Specifically brings that up.
You say, why do you preach on this Pastor Anderson?
Because this is a major area in which people today have impure thoughts.
Because of the fact that the devil is trying to get us to have impure thoughts in this
way, and that's why TV is constantly pumping this.
Every commercial, every advertisement is constantly trying to just get you to think
lustful thoughts and dirty thoughts by showing you scantily clad women.
By showing you women that are dressing the attire of a harlot.
And you know what, our society has become so warped today that many women today even
act like they don't care, they don't mind if their husband looks at a dirty magazine
or has a poster up in the garage or whatever of some indecent picture.
But you know what, I guarantee you that any woman is hurt when her husband has that picture
up in the garage.
She might just act like, oh I have to go along with this to be cool, but you know what?
It's so hurtful and so damaging and so inconsiderate as a husband for you to not be content with
what you have.
And it's interesting because, go to Hebrews chapter 13, because you know what?
The Bible says, who so findeth the wife findeth the good thing and obtaineth the favor of
the Lord.
Those who've been blessed with a wife ought to be thankful for their wife and love their
wife and cherish their wife and not be looking at the grass on the other side of the fence,
which they think is a little bit greener or whatever.
But the Bible says here, it's interesting because he says in verse 4 of Hebrews 13,
and this isn't a coincidence, he says in Hebrews 13.4, marriage is honorable in all and the
bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
And then look at the next verse, let your conversation be without covetousness and be
content with such things as you have, for he has said I'll never leave thee nor forsake
thee.
Isn't it interesting that he goes straight from talking about marriage and adultery to
talking about covetousness, which in the commandment he said, the first thing he said
not to covet was your neighbor's wife.
And let me tell you something, we need to have the right thoughts and a pure mind and
in order to have a pure mind you're going to need to shut off that TV.
Say well I can watch it with a pure mind.
No you can't.
You can't sit there and watch as all these scantily clad women come across the screen
and the Victoria's Secret commercial and the adultery on screen and the bedroom scene
and all that and just keep a pure mind while you just watch all the fornication and adultery
and nudity.
You know what?
You can't do it.
You need to stop, you know, pluck, it's easier to cut the cord to your TV than to pluck out
your eyeball.
Because he said not to look on a woman to lust after her and then he said if thy right
I offend thee, pluck it out.
You know, maybe you should just kill the one-eyed demon in your house.
Cut the cord to the TV is going to be far less painful than plucking out your eyeball.
You know, and I don't know, you know, I don't know what it's like to pluck out your own
eyeball but I know what it's like to throw away the TV because I've done that and I'm
sure, and I'm sure it was a lot easier than ripping out my own eye, okay.
So we need to make sure that we don't fall prey to the devil's plan to get into our mind.
He wants us to think dirty thoughts.
He wants us to lust after other women in our hearts.
You say, well I would never act on that.
Yeah, but you've already committed the sin.
You've already gone too far just when you think that thought.
You've got to keep your mind pure.
And I guarantee you that anybody who actually physically commits the act of adultery, which
by the way, the Bible says punishable by death in the Bible, okay, obviously we're not living
under that system today in the United States of America, but that shows you how serious
of a sin this was, you know, back in the Old Testament and God still feels the same
way about it.
Let me tell you something.
I guarantee you before anybody goes out and commits adultery, they've had a very long
pattern of a bad thought life that led up to that.
You don't just go through life having the right thoughts and a clean thought and then
all of a sudden next thing, whoops, I'm committing adultery.
No, there's a long pattern of lust.
You know, it's like the Bible says when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, sin
when it is finished bringeth forth death.
What is that an illustration of when we think of conception and bringing forth?
What does conception and bringing forth have to do with?
Childbirth, right?
So the Bible says when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, right?
So let's think about childbirth.
How long before birth does conception take place?
Nine months, right?
Conception takes place nine months before the birth.
Now when conception takes place, is that just a blob of tissue or is that a life?
Yeah, the Bible teaches that it's a life.
The Bible says that a virgin shall conceive and then another place says a virgin shall
be with child because guess what, conceiving means you're with child.
So think about this for a moment.
When you conceive, the child is already alive.
It's already a soul there.
It's already a human being.
But it takes nine months before that child is actually brought forth and we see the fruition
of that seed that conceived.
Think about this.
You might not even know that a woman's pregnant right away, do you?
A woman's pregnant, she might not even know it right away.
But then over time, it outwardly slowly becomes apparent under those that are around her.
And then once the baby's born, there's just no mistaking it.
There's just no questioning it, is there?
Now let's apply that to the illustration.
When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin.
Sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
So when lust conceives, even just when you first give in to lust and think that evil
thought, sin already is there.
Sin is already living inside you.
And then that sin grows and grows and grows, like a baby grows in the womb of her that
is with child, that sin that is conceived of lust just slowly grows and grows and grows
and at first nobody knows.
But then people start to notice that something's wrong.
People start to see it in your life, that something's not quite the same as it used
to be, as sin grows in your life.
And then eventually the birth takes place and basically that's where it all comes down
and that's where sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
That's where your folly is made known unto all men at that point.
And so we need to be careful to not even let sin conceive in our mind and not to even let
lust take that kind of route and shape in our minds.
So when we think of having eyes full of adultery and when we think about Job talking about
the fact and you say well, you know, any righteous man never would even have to make an effort
to not think those things.
Really, really wicked people who would think those things.
But Job was a very righteous man and he said, you know what, I'd make a concerted effort
here not to.
Why?
Because of the devil who's out to tempt us.
And he even says specifically in 1 Corinthians 7 that the lust of the eyes is a way that
specifically he's going to try to tempt us is to try to get us to lust outside of our
marriage.
And so we need to decide, you know what, I'm not even going to let lust conceive, I'm not
even going to come close, I'm not even going to look at these images on the screen, I'm
not even going to look at that magazine, I'm not even going to look at that billboard.
But when we think about that, isn't that something that's predominantly a sin that's aimed toward
men?
You know, predominantly that's something that men are prone to.
It's not really something that we really think of women as struggling with.
And that's why when God talks about it, and obviously it's just as wrong if women were
to think this way, but you know, when we see the Bible talk about it, he really emphasizes
this from the man's perspective, talking about a man lusting after a woman.
And he talks about how wicked and sinful that thought is.
But you know, women can also have a sinful attitude in their mind too.
You see, covetousness is not just a sin that afflicts men, it's also a sin that afflicts
women.
And covetousness is when we're not content with the things that we have.
Like I said, it's the only one of the Ten Commandments that takes place in your mind
completely.
And see, covetousness is when we are not satisfied with what we have, we wish we had something
else.
And you know, if a husband covets his neighbor's wife, that's a wicked sin.
But you know, women can also have a covetous attitude.
Sometimes they can covet possessions that they don't have.
They can covet maybe a lifestyle that they don't have.
You know, they might covet money.
Or they might look at someone else's husband and maybe they're not looking at him physically,
but they might look at someone else's husband and say, well he's a better provider.
He makes more money.
He provides more.
He can do more financially.
And you know what, that is a wicked thought.
That is a sinful thought that will lead to more sin and iniquity in your life.
As husbands, as wives, both of us need to have a mind that is content with what we have,
not a covetous mind.
And so yeah, a man might physically look on a woman to lust after her, but a woman can
often look at another man and basically still have a covetous attitude like, well he's a
better husband.
Well he's nicer to his wife.
He fixes stuff around the house.
He basically is a better provider.
He's doing a lot better financially.
You know, you should just be happy with the husband that you have and love him and have
a right attitude toward the husband that you have.
Now go if you would to 1 Peter chapter 3, because I just noticed this a couple months
ago when I was studying my Bible, something that really had gone over my head.
For some reason I didn't quite see this before when I was studying my Bible, but it has to
do with how important our thoughts are.
Because I guarantee you that there are a lot of husbands and wives that basically outwardly
go through the motions in their marriage, but their heart is not really right.
Their mind is not right.
And this goes to what the whole sermon's about.
You know what, it's not just your actions that matter, it's the heart that matters.
It's not just what we do.
You say, well I go to church, but you know what, what's your mind doing when you go to
church?
You might physically be here at church, but let me ask this, do you want to be here?
Do you want to be here?
Are you listening to the sermon?
Are you tuned in or are you looking at your watch the whole time?
Are you thinking about what I'm going to be eating?
You know, where are we going to go next?
How long is Pastor Anderson going to preach?
What point is he on?
Is he on the third point?
You know, are we wrapping this up?
It's not just being here, it's where is your mind?
It's being here and having the right mentality that says I want to be here, I love God.
You know, you might be here during the singing, but are you singing out praises to God from
the heart?
And you know, in our marriage, we can basically show up in our marriage and, you know, I can
make the paycheck, I can be faithful to my wife, I can do the things I'm supposed to
do as a husband, but is my heart really where it needs to be?
Do I love my wife as Christ loved the church?
And then the same thing goes with wives.
Wives can, you know, outwardly obey their husband or outwardly, you know, do the things
that they're supposed to do as a wife, cooking and cleaning or what have you, but is their
heart right in the marriage?
Now I thought this was interesting because this is a scripture that talks about wives
obeying their husbands and it says in 1 Peter 3.6, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling
him Lord whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well and are not afraid with any amazement.
And that's a pretty well-known verse in this church, but in many other churches it's not
very well-known.
In other churches you might have never even heard that verse, but in this church it's
a pretty well-known verse.
I consider it a famous passage in this church.
But here's what's interesting about it.
This is the thing I just learned two months ago as I was studying this.
Split back to Genesis 18.12, and here's the point I want to make about the mind.
Yeah, it's a famous verse.
You're thinking, on what planet is that a famous verse?
Well, at Faith Ward Baptist Church.
But anyway, go to Genesis 18.12, and I just noticed this, and it's amazing how you read
the Bible for so long, but aren't you just constantly learning new things?
That's what's great about the Bible, you can always learn something new.
I just noticed this a few months ago, it says in Genesis 18.12, this is where she called
him Lord.
And look what it says, therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I am waxed old
shall I have pleasure, my what?
My Lord being old also.
Now isn't that interesting?
She's not saying this out loud.
So when the Bible said in 1 Peter chapter 3 she's calling him Lord, if you go back to
Genesis, this is something that she was actually saying in her mind.
Not even out loud, but God, knowing her thoughts, said that she laughed within herself, saying
after I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also.
Now go, if you would, to 1 Chronicles 15.29.
So what I take from that is, what made Sarah a great wife is not just that she obeyed Abraham.
Because it says even as Sarah also obeyed Abraham, but then it says calling him Lord,
you know what, that's not just her actions.
She had a right attitude.
Even when nobody was around, and look, nobody sees what's in your mind.
Nobody can see what's in my mind.
Oftentimes we can figure out what's in people's mind because out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh.
But God is praising Sarah for being a great wife, not just because of her actions but
because of her thoughts.
He specifically praises her thoughts.
He says yes she obeyed Abraham, but she also called him Lord in her mind.
And you know, that is the attitude that wives are supposed to have toward their husbands
in their minds.
They're supposed to look at their husband and think, hey, this is the boss.
Hello, is anybody out there?
This is the boss.
This is an authority figure.
And you know, we as husbands, we're supposed to look at our wife and not just outwardly
say to our wife, oh I love you honey, I appreciate you, you're wonderful, but we ought to actually
feel that way about our wife.
And if we don't, then we're not right with God.
And when the Bible says husbands love your wives, that's not just going out and doing
something.
Now, doing something is a great place to start because the Bible says commit thy works unto
the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established.
Many times doing the right things can help get us to start thinking about things rightly.
But let me tell you something, God knows your thoughts and often your wife can read your
mind also.
My wife can read my mind often and I can often read her mind.
Because when you live with someone for that long, you start to figure out what's going
on in the other person's head.
Let me tell you something, it's not just enough for you as a husband to say that you love
your wife and to buy the flowers or whatever to try to express love.
But you know what, you ought to in your heart and in your mind truly love and appreciate
your wife and truly care about her and truly find her beautiful and be satisfied with her
and not be thinking, oh I wish I had something else, or getting bitter against your wife,
oh my wife is it, my wife's that, she's so disobedient, you know, just complaining and
whining about whatever imperfections are in your wife.
She's perfect.
But I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart, I can lift my right hand and say
I love my wife more than anyone else in this world.
And that's the mind that we must have as husbands.
That's what God demands of us, is that we love our wives even as Christ loved the church
and God commands wives to be in subjection under their own husbands, to obey their husbands,
to love their husbands, and He expects it not to just be an outward, you know, honey
do this, you know, and outwardly obeying, but on the inside just thinking, oh you jerk
and blah blah blah, this isn't fair.
You know, an attitude like Sarah's attitude that was one that didn't just obey on the
outside but on the inside as well.
It matters what we think.
It matters what our mind does.
Look at 1 Chronicles 15, 29, this is the opposite of Sarah.
Sarah had a good attitude toward Abraham, didn't she?
But look at 1 Chronicles 15, 29, it says it came to pass as the ark of the covenant of
the Lord came to the city of David that Michal, the daughter of Saul, looking out a window,
saw King David dancing and playing, and look at this, and she despised him in her heart.
I mean, isn't that wicked?
She looked at her husband and she just thought, you disgusting, oh I hate you.
She despised him in her heart.
And you know what, eventually this destroyed the marriage completely.
You know, eventually what's in her heart come out of her mouth, because you can only put
on a show for so long.
And as a husband or a wife, you can only put on a show for so long.
Eventually what's in your heart is going to come out.
You better make sure that you get your heart right before sin brings forth and completely
brings forth the death of your marriage, you know, when you just allow sinful thoughts
and wickedness to fester and get worse.
But let me just hurry up and finish with this.
Go to Proverbs 21.5, and while you're turning to Proverbs 21.5, let me just give you a quick
review of the sermon.
We talked about the fact that, first of all, the obvious thing that God knows our thoughts.
He knows what we think.
We can't hide our thoughts from God.
You know, we might be fooling the people around us by doing and saying the right things.
We might even be able to fool our spouse and our children, though it's not likely since
they live with us.
But we might be able to fool them and fool everybody around us, but you're never going
to fool God because God knows your thoughts.
God can read your mind.
There's plenty of scripture on that.
And then we talked about the fact that God demands us to keep our thoughts and our minds
clean and He tells us that our bad thoughts are sinful.
Any evil thought, sinful, any thought that comes in opposition with the Word of God is
a sin.
Foolish thought, just thinking about stupid stuff is a sin.
The thought of foolishness is sin.
And then we talked about how all of the outward sins in our lives, they all begin in our mind.
You don't just all of a sudden go out and get drunk.
You don't just all of a sudden just go out and commit adultery or go out and commit fornication
or go out and steal.
It starts in your mind.
You spend a long time thinking about it, rationalizing it, justifying it, lusting after it, and eventually
you give into it.
There's a war for our mind.
The devil's trying to get into our mind.
As men, one of the ways that he will attack us the most as we see what he's doing in the
world today is he'll try to attack us through the lust of the flesh.
He'll use all kinds of women that have no respect for themselves, who are willing to
sell their bodies for money to go be photographed and videoed in a way that's ungodly to try
to get into their minds, and then he'll also get into the minds of women as well.
And he'll do it a little differently because men and women are not the same.
He'll do it through covetousness.
He'll get them to start thinking that other husbands in the church are better than their
husband or, you know, other men in their life are better than their husband and they married
the wrong person and they were too young and they made a mistake and, you know, whatever
people say when they justify despising their husband in their heart, right?
And he'll try to get into their mind that way and give them a wrong attitude.
But not only does sin begin in our minds, success also begins in our minds.
Now I heard a very good quote one time, and this is a quote that I often think about,
and it's a very true quote.
He said this, and I remember hearing this when I was a teenager, and I latched onto
this and it's become kind of one of those things that I kind of live my life by and
think about a lot.
I heard a preacher one time get up and say this, and I found this to be very true.
He made this statement.
He said, you will be successful at what you think about in your spare time.
And I heard that quote from a preacher and I thought, wow, you know, that's interesting.
And as I've lived my life ever since I heard that quote, that has just been proven to be
true over and over again.
You will be successful at what you think about in your spare time.
And when I say your spare time, I mean the times when there's nothing really going on
in your mind.
You know, sometimes when we're at work, our mind's wrapped up in work, and sometimes when
we're at home, maybe wives are at home dealing with the children, you know, they're not really
just letting their mind wander, right?
You know, they're raising the children.
There's constantly talking and, you know, a lot of times when I'm working, my phone's
constantly ringing or, you know, you're out soul winning, you're thinking about giving
the gospel, you're talking to your soul winning partner.
You know, you're at church, you're singing the songs, you're listening to the sermon.
But I'm talking about those times when there's nothing in your mind.
Now for me, I do a lot of driving, so this is when I'm just driving down the road.
This might be when you're laying in bed at night.
This could be when you're sitting down at lunch time and just eating your food for 30
minutes and maybe you're eating by yourself or whatever.
But whenever this is, you know that there are times in your life and in your day and
in your week where your mind is just completely idle, right?
There's just nothing going on, there's nothing that you're really being forced to think about
and you can just kind of think about what you want to think about.
And that's what I'm talking about.
And this man said, you'll be successful at what you think about in your spare time.
And you know, what you think about during those times, as you walk down the street or
ride your bicycle or drive your car or sit and eat or sit at night in bed or when you
first wake up in the morning, the things that you think about are what you're going to be
successful at.
And I've noticed that that's been true in my life.
Whatever I find myself thinking about is what I'm successful at.
Now that could be, you know what, you could be successful at committing a bunch of sin
because that's what you sit and think about.
You know what, you could be really successful at that video game.
You know, and there are people, they think about video games when they wake up and they
think about video games when they go to bed and you know what, they're going to get really
good at video games.
And you know what, that is the most worthless thing in the world to be good at.
Okay, but look what the Bible says here in Proverbs 21.5, it's a profound verse.
It says, the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that
is hasty only to want.
You know, I was looking at this verse and I was thinking about the fact that the thoughts
of the diligent tend only to plenteousness.
The diligent man, the stuff he thinks about leads him to have plenteousness in his life
because he's thinking about getting something done.
He's thinking about achieving something of value.
And so the thoughts of the diligent, the diligent is the man that works hard to achieve.
You know, in Proverbs often it talks about he's achieving financial success or just really
achieving any type of success.
The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty
only to want.
You know what the hasty person is?
It's the one who wants to get their work over with.
It's the one who's constantly, you know those people at work who are just constantly counting
down until the day's over?
They just, oh I just can't wait until Friday, I just can't wait until it's over.
They're just in a hurry and when they have a job to do, they rush through it to get it
done so that they can loaf.
You know, or the child, you know, you tell them, you know, clean the bathroom.
They may be diligent, scrub it, do a really good job, or just in a hurry, just hastily.
And then you have to go and you missed a spot, you missed a spot, you missed this because
they're hasty.
The Bible says the thoughts of the hasty, they tend to want.
It's their thoughts that cause them to lack in their lives, do you get this?
Many people who are lacking the finances they need, they're lacking success, they're lacking
the ability to take care of them, they're lacking plenteousness in their life.
It's their thoughts that have done it for them.
Their thoughts tend to lacking, to wanting.
Because they think about stuff that doesn't matter.
They think about stuff that, you know, just playing all the time, that's what they think
about.
And that's the people who are constantly looking at the clock at work and just constantly just
can't wait until, you know, work is over.
Because they're constantly thinking about playing and fooling around, right?
The people who think about work are going to do more work and be more successful at
work because, you know, often when you think about work, you sometimes think of ways to
be more efficient, you think about, you know, jobs that you're working on and, oh, you know,
I just thought of a better way I could do that.
And then when you think about work, you kind of look forward to going to work.
You're anxious to get to work because you're thinking about it and, okay, I want to take
care of that, I want to do that work, I want to get that done.
And then you're going to succeed.
But look, obviously there's more to life than just work.
It's not just, this isn't a seminar about how to succeed at work.
You're going to be successful at what you think about in your spare time, okay?
So think about this, the person who thinks about preaching becomes a preacher.
The person who thinks about soul winning becomes a soul winner.
The person who thinks about the Word of God, the person that meditates upon the Word of
God day and night, and I thought of this verse, Joshua 1.8, this book of the law shall
not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest
observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then shalt thou make thy way
prosperous and then shalt thou have good success.
He says, look, when you're thinking about this book day and night, you're going to do
what's in this book.
You're going to observe.
If this is what you think about in your spare time, you're going to obey this.
You're going to succeed at it.
You know, when you think about church in your spare time, when you think about preaching,
when you think about soul winning, when you think about Bible reading, Bible memory, when
you think about prayer, you're going to find yourself succeeding in those areas of your
life.
What does that mean?
That means that you need to ask yourself today, what do I want to be successful at?
What do I want to prosper in?
And then that's what you need to think about in your spare time.
That's what you need to focus your thoughts on.
And the thoughts of the diligent tend to plenteousness.
Think about things that are going to help you succeed in the areas in which you want
to succeed.
Meditate upon those things.
Meditate on the Word of God if you want to be a good Christian.
And if you spend your spare time letting your mind wander into sin, letting your mind wander
into Hollywood, letting your mind wander through everything that's just vain, playing and fooling
around, you're not going to be a successful person.
Your thoughts are going to lead you into want.
They're going to cause you to want.
And so our thoughts really have a great impact on our lives.
First of all, God just says, think right, or it's an abomination to me when you have
bad thoughts.
But not only that, our thoughts can either lead us into sin, or our thoughts can lead
us to success, lead us to plenteousness, lead us where we want to go.
It all starts in our mind.
Get your mind under control.
The Bible says, gird up the loins of your mind.
Bring every thought into captivity.
What does that mean?
Don't let your mind just wander.
Control your mind.
Decide, this is what I'm going to think about.
This is what I'm going to meditate on, because that's where I want to succeed.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word, because honestly the best thing to think about
is your Word.
To memorize your Word and to have a lot of Bible verses memorized, that way we can just
think about them all the time.
And that way we can succeed at the things that really matter.
Help us to work hard and to live a diligent life.
Help us to keep our minds pure.
Help us not to give the devil a foothold into our mind.
Help us to cut off as many avenues as we can from the devil entering our mind.
Help us not to covet, whether we be male or female, help us not to covet anything.
Help us not to covet cars and houses and things that belong to other people.
And God forbid that we would ever covet someone else's spouse.
Help us to be happy with what you've given us financially.
Help us not to covet things that don't belong to us.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.