Q1: The most repeated promise in the Bible is: ____________________!( I will be with you)

Q2: The last promise of Jesus as he ascended back to heaven was: “ (Matthew 28:20) …. And surely I am ____________________, to the very end of the age." (NIV) (with you always)

Two people are in down town New Orleans. One person grabs whatever resources are at his/her disposal and sets out to help other victims. The second person picks up an Uzi and goes out to pillage his fellowman. They’re both experiencing the same situation….but their responses are very different.

Here at home, two people experience a disease. One becomes bitter blames God and hates others for their condition… One becomes a shining light of hope and motivation to all they meet. Both are experiencing the same thing. The difference is in what is going on in their minds.

Two people are experiencing financial hardship. One is consumed with discontent and worry and bitterness. The other is trusting, and cheerful and continuing to serve others. The lack of resources is the same . The mindset is very different.

Probably all of us ( Believers and unbelievers) “hear” thoughts that are distorted. Thoughts of worry, fear, resentment. Inclinations to sin. Thoughts of bitterness, or jealousy… Most people also have healthy thoughts, (believers and unbelievers) thoughts of truth and integrity, and compassion. Whether you have accepted Christ as your Savior or not… this is a true statement:

Don’t fall into the trap of believing that you can entertain a mindful of sinful, destructive thought patterns and become somebody entirely different on the outside ….it’s not going to happen. Understand, we all have a stream of thoughts flitting through our minds but…

As a child of God there is one voice that is supposed to get through all the others and shape you daily life. Your ability to hear and recognize and respond to that voice will literally determine every other aspect of your life.

(John 10:3-4) "…the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. "And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. (NKJV)

Throughout all of human history… Those who learned to walk in the presence of God were those who heard, recognized and responded to the voice of God.

Old devotional writers talk about the “promptings” or “leadings” of God. Thomas Kelley called them the “Divine Breathings.” When I talk about being led in your life by the “promptings of God” do you recognize what I am talking about? We studied last week that God doesn’t tend to shout…. He usually speaks in a gentle whisper, a divine nudge.

We talk about having “Jesus in our heart”… we understand that that is a figure of speech for our seat of affection. Being with God is something that takes place in our thoughts. Hearing, recognizing, and responding to the voice of God takes place ( or doesn’t take place) in our mind.

Because we are human and finite we can’t actually get into someone’s mind…God is infinite and has direct access to your thoughts. He can plant a thought in your mind anytime, anywhere. A thought in God’s mind becomes a thought in yours.. Instantly!

In other words, it is possible that any given thought that runs through your mind at any given time has been planted there by God. Thoughts are going to wander through your mind…. And some of those thoughts will be from God.

In this rampage of thoughts cascading through your mind, there are disastrous thoughts from the evil one trying to disrupt and derail your life. There is also God, who cared so much about this process that He gave you His Spirit, as a moment by moment guide to lead you away from destructive thinking into life building thoughts.

(Romans 8:6) The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; (NIV)

I don’t know if I buy the idea that every thought has a spiritual charge, ( “I think I’ll brush my teeth” may not be a kingdom thought…or maybe it should be!) I do know, from my own experience, that many thoughts that pass through my mind in a days time are designed to either move me in God’s direction or away from Him.

Out task is to cultivate a sensitivity to when the voice we are hearing is from God, and to learn to respond quickly when we are sure it is His gentle nudge. Every time we respond to God’s voice we get a little more sensitive to hearing Him the next time. Our mind becomes a little more tuned to the flow that is the Spirit of God leading our lives. In the same vein,

Every time we respond to God’s voice we get a little more sensitive to hearing Him the next time. Our mind becomes a little more tuned to the flow that is the Spirit of God leading our lives…….. In the opposite vein, when we are fairly sure that God is speaking to us and we choose to ignore him, we will be less likely to hear him in the future.

A psychologist by the name of Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (“chick-sent-me-high”) has researched thousand of subjects by giving them pager that go off randomly and they have to write down what they are doing, thinking, and feeling when the pager goes off.

He’s says, when people are alone undistracted by noise or activity their minds naturally drift toward an awareness of discontentment, anxiety about the future, a sense of inadequacy, and a chronic preoccupation with themselves.

“ Contrary to what we tend to assume, the normal state of the mind is chaos. With nothing to do our mind begins to follow random patterns, often stopping to consider things that are painful or disturbing. To avoid this condition, people are naturally eager to fill their minds with whatever stimuli is readily available.

As long as it distracts our attention from turning inward and dwelling on negative feelings.”

“This explains why a huge proportion of time is invested in watching television, despite the fact that it is rarely enjoyed.”

People tend to flee from solitude!!!! When a parent wants to punish a child what is the number one method? (now that we can’t spank them for fear of going to the Big House)

…..Time Out….

The most hated punishment prison inmate receive is: solitary confinement.

Why?? Because people hate to be alone with their minds. Why again??

Because the normal fallen sinful mind of mankind is not a pretty place!

If mankind’s fallen mind is not moving in the direction of transformation by the Spirit of God, then it’s moving away from God, and a mind that is moving away from God is not moving toward a pleasant place.

(Ephesians 4:17-19) So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. (NIV)

The Christian life is designed to fix that problem. And the beauty of it is…. If one is truly willing to hear, recognize , and respond to God’s voice, God, Himself, will begin to adjust your thinking patterns from the inside out!

(Romans 12:2) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)

When God is present and active in your thinking processes, the flow of you thoughts begins to be transformed from “the pattern of this world” to a God pattern.

(2 Timothy 1:7) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (NKJV)

I could seriously use one of those….

We can, by choice, invite God to become an active participant in what we think and do. Or we can close the door to Him and do what we want. It depends on what kind of mind you are willing to cultivate.

1) If you would like to have a depraved mind you can cultivate a depraved mind! It’s the easiest mindset to cultivate because there is very little you have to do to accomplish it. You simply have to be careful what you do and do not allow into your mind

a) Avoid contact with anything that might disrupt a depraved flow of thoughts. Avoid church, avoid the Bible, avoid honest people who might call your thinking and actions into question, make sure you spend time with people who are more depraved than you.. so you can feel better about yourself…

2) You can park your mind somewhere in the middle between depravity and spirituality. Allowing enough spiritual thoughts through your mind to offset a constant flow of depraved thoughts. This is a miserable way to live…. You’re far enough away from depravity that you don’t enjoy the gutter level experiences of all out depraved people and you’re allowing enough of God’s truth to seep into your mind that you live with constant low level guilt about the level of depravity you are maintaining …..

And sadly God, Himself, doesn’t even give you any “brownie points” for this kind of borderline thinking.

(Revelation 3:14-16) "To the church in Laodicea… I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-- neither hot nor cold-- I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (NIV)

How do you go about setting up this type of lifestyle? It’s not really that hard either… Go to church occasionally, Read your Bible if you are forced to in a church service, allow for some sporadic spiritual input. Pray when you are in deep trouble or perhaps even just before your Big Mac.

But most importantly, fill your mind with the same type of things that every sinner around you is filling their mind with… Keep your mind filled all the time with shallow, temporal things. Don’t put yourself in a position where you might have to honestly evaluate your thinking and your true relationship with God…..

A mind where God’s thoughts are increasingly heard, recognized, and responded to… Where the Spirit of God is allowed to be always present and where distorted thinking, destructive feelings, and misguided intentions are increasingly crowded out.

A mind where the Fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, etc. are increasingly

evident and take precedence over old sinful, distorted thinking.

How do you go about setting up this type of lifestyle? It may be a little harder than the others….

If my mind is going to be a home for God’s thought, I must consciously fill my mind with the kind of things God says are important!

This sermon includes material from “God is Closer than you Think” by John Ortberg.