WNS Series: The Greatest Commandment

A Mind for Christ

January 10, 2018 • Sarah Shin

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulty, there is no recorded audio file for this sermon. However, below you will find the manuscript of the sermon A Mind for Christ, as preached by Pastor Sarah Shin on January 10, 2018. We apologize for any inconvenience. Mark 12:30 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Good Evening Jubilee, Welcome to our Wednesday Night Service. Today we’ll be continuing on in our January series of “The greatest commandment” of loving the Lord our God with all heart, soul, mind and strength. And today we’ll be looking at what it means to love Him with all our minds. Let me begin by asking these questions: ‘How’s your thought life?’ ‘What do you think about all the time? And ‘Have you ever taken time to examine it?’ These are very important questions because what we think determines our steps and our life. Our thoughts lead to habits, habits form character and character our future and destiny. Proverbs 23:7 ‘As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.’ So we ARE what we think. And this is no exaggeration because if we think about it, our mind works 24/7 even when we are sleeping. So it’s the part of us that’s most alive and active, and much of reality is being lived out in our minds. This is what Mark Twain said about our minds: ‘we think that a person’s life are his acts and his words. But his real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts, not those other things, are his history.’ So thoughts affects our lives in tremendous ways. But of the thousands of thoughts a person has every day, it’s estimated that 70% of this mental talk is negative — self-critical, pessimistic, and fearful. And I didn’t need scientific research to tell me this because I could just look at my own thought life and it was just obvious that it was not very healthy, positive and godly all the time. But why? Why do we naturally, by default, think such negative and sinful thoughts? That’s because when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, our minds became corrupted by the fall and sin had its effect on our minds. So in our natural, unregenerate state, there’s something dramatically wrong with our minds. The Bible describes the fallen and corrupted state our mind as follows: - Romans 1:18-21: our thinking became futile and we suppressed the knowledge of truth in our wickedness. - Romans 1:28 – since we did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave us over to a depraved mind. - Col 1:21 – We were alienated from God and were enemies in our minds. In other words, our mind in its fallen state hates God. There’s nothing more repulsive and distasteful to our minds than the love of God and we choke at the very thought of Jesus’ command to love God with our minds. So any consideration of the human mind must begin with the understanding that by nature the mind does not love God at all, unless and until the Holy Spirit changes its disposition/nature instantly and sovereignly to set the affections on Him. So regeneration is the absolute necessary condition for loving God with our minds. But being born again (i.e. when we are given a brand new Spirit from God) does not mean we immediately eliminate our mind’s hostility toward God. We are given a mind to desire to have God in our thinking for the first time, but because we are still in this flesh that can sin and we have the residual effects of sin, we got some work to do. Our old self and old ways of thinking need to be cast off by renewing of our minds. Romans 12:2 says we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds because as Christians we still have the capacity to think like the world as long as we have this body. It’s interesting that it says renewing our minds leads to our WHOLE BEING transformed. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to change yourself but I have and I failed miserably. We cannot change ourselves. But what we can do is change our thoughts. When we change our thoughts, this leads to change in our lives. So if you want transformation in your life, it has to begin in our mind. We need to walk through the process of sanctification of renewing our minds so that we’ll grow to loving our God more! Having said all this, it might seem strange to think that Jesus said that we are to love God with our minds because we don’t usually speak of love in terms of an intellectual activity; it’s usually about emotions and heart. But if we think about it at a deeper level of what love is, it’s very much based on our knowledge of the person we love. Nothing can be in the heart that is not first in the mind. So we cannot love God if we don’t know Him. Same thing with any relationship- we cannot love the person or grow in our love for them if we do not know them. So if we want to love God more, we have to know Him more deeply – and this both intellectually and experientially. So then what does it really mean to love our God with all our mind? I believe there are several components to loving him with our mind but today’s I’d like to highlight 3 aspects of it: 1. Dedicating our minds to knowing Him: How do we dedicate our minds to knowing Him? By encountering God through His Word. Loving God with our mind involves taking time to fill our mind with God’s Word because we have to rightly agree with who He is. I’ve been learning how important it is to see God correctly for who He really is. John Piper says ‘the apex of glorifying God is enjoying him with the heart. But this is an empty emotionalism where that joy is not awakened and sustained by true view of God for who He really is.’ I couldn’t agree with this more. When our mind grows in the knowledge of our Lord and we come into agreement with God about who He is, His nature, character, His ways and deeds, it’s inevitable that we grow in our affections for Him because He’s just so beautiful, so glorious, so kind, so awesome and lovely! It’s impossible not to love God. True knowledge of God always bears fruit in greater love for God and a greater desire to praise Him. And we if we want to know Him more, we have to read the Word of God, because it’s through His written Word that He has chosen to reveal Himself mainly. But reading the Word of God doesn’t mean just accumulating information or getting puffed up in head knowledge, but about encountering God and experiencing transformation because His word is SPIRIT AND LIFE (John 6:63). Reading and studying the Word does not mean ‘oh this is some good teaching. Let me go apply this in my life’ and you try to change yourself in your own will and determination like you would with any moral teachings you get elsewhere. It’s not AFTER you read that you DECIDE to live it out, but it’s WHILE you are reading, AT THE VERY MOMENT, you encounter God. This can never be achieved by our own human efforts- we need the Holy Spirit to make His written word, Rhema (spoken) word. It’s as if Jesus is right in front of you and He’s speaking to you and when Jesus (who is God) speaks, things never remain the same- I mean God spoke and this universe came into existence. When Jesus spoke, strongholds were broken, dead people were raised, sick were healed, demons fled, people sinned no more and life and relationships were restored, peace, joy and freedom came. That’s what we are to experience every time we encounter God through His Word. We need to invite and allow the Holy Spirit to make this happen. And the amazing thing is that the Holy Spirit wants to do this. We do not have to beg him to come and encounter us as if He doesn’t- He WANTS to do it. We just have to avail ourselves to Him. Loving God with our mind also means letting His Word affect not only the way that we think about GOD but about ALL things in life. It’s learning to think in all His ways. Because, if all truth is God’s truth, we should seek to grow in our understanding of all areas of truth, whether that be in areas of science, art, music, biology, history, politics, geography, relationship and family, marriage, etc. So His truth is to affect our life and every decision we make. All of this involves dedicating our minds to knowing Him. The second aspect of loving God with our mind involves… 2. Remembering God and His goodness using the tool of our memory: The bible is filled with commands to remember God’s goodness and deeds. One such example is Deuteronomy 6:12 where God tells the Israelites to REMEMBER HIM. Deut. 6:12 says do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When we use our minds to remember His kindness, faithfulness, patience, deliverance, provision, and forgiveness, we build a foundation of faith, hope and love and it leads us to worship. When we go through difficult times, we can always look back to the times where God came through, and we can find hope and strength in knowing that He’ll continue to show himself faithful and good both in the present and in the future. I realized that I am so easy to forget how God has worked in my life and how good He’s been to me. So recently I started to jot down every goodness of God that I experienced or witnessed, and write down every answered prayer, both big and small. So when I read them over, it’ll be an evidence of His goodness in my life and it gives me peace, and joy and leads to thankfulness. And God loves people who are grateful all the time. So let us use our memory in remembering His goodness and in loving our Lord! Thirdly, loving God with our mind means 3. Using the faculty of our imagination to love our God: The way we think is in pictures, and our mind operates through imagination. Everybody sitting here has the capacity to imagine things. When I say ‘think of a dog’ – Nobody will think of the letters ‘D.O.G’ in their head; instead you all have different picture that come to your mind. And this tool of imagination is an amazing gift from God. And when God gives a gift, we are to use it for His glory in a way that He has intended it to be used. Now, earlier on I said ‘you are what you think’ (Prov 23:7) which can be put in another way as ‘you are what you imagine,’ because God considers your imagination your reality. What you imagine is your reality in spirit realm but it also manifests in physical realm. That’s why you just imagining things in your mind leads you to experiencing emotions (whether that be emotions of happiness, anger, sadness etc.) and seeing actual bodily symptoms like sweating and fast heartbeats when nervous. That’s why in Matt 5 Jesus said, you have already committed murder if you hate your brother in your heart/mind. Because you start thinking of all the bad things he/she has done to you and you think of bad things you wish would happen to that person. You don’t have to swear or physically hit or kill someone to show that you hate them because God already looks at what happens in your heart and mind and considers them a reality. Same thing, if you look at a woman in a lustful way, Jesus said you’ve committed adultery. Why? You’ve done things with that woman in your imagination and that’s a reality to God. So we want to use this aspect of our mind correctly in loving our God. Phil 4:8 tell us to develop a Christian thought life by constantly thinking about things that are true, noble, right, good, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. (You see all the list of adjectives?) Where else would all these good things come from but God? And again they are found in His Word. And what we put before our very eyes and ears is VERY VERY important, because what you put before them determines what you think about or imagine. For e.g. if you watch a scene from a movie where two people are making out, you might possibly be thinking and start imagining things in your head. And if you don’t watch out, it’ll lead you to places where you do not and should not go. For some, that one scene can trigger things in your heart that causes you to lust and sin. And a lot of the stuff that come from TV, music, movies etc. unless you filter them, do not help you very much with your thought life. If often pollutes, tempts and leads you further away from God. So I tell you, put the Word of God ever before you and let it repaint a picture in the imagination of your mind. Watch on what you see and listen to. You need to intentionally and effortfully learn and train to think and imagine biblically, truthfully, and wholly about every aspect of your life. That’s why the bible tells us not just to ‘read’ the Bible but to ‘meditate’ on the Word of God day and night (Joshua 1:8/Psalm 1:2). ** This word ‘meditate’ means ‘imagine’ in the original language Greek (hagah). So you meditate using pictures of your imagination. Now let me tell you, it’s not easy to meditate day and night. I know that if I don’t consciously think about it, my mind goes off somewhere and thinks about all kinds of things all day long. Research shows our brain can generate up to 50,000 thoughts per day. But I consciously try to think about God every time I become aware that my mind/imagination is running. I think about the things that I’m thankful for, things that I want to do with him, I imagine Jesus walking into my room while I’m praying, I think about all the promises God has given me and the person I’ll become based on His promises (which may not seem very realistic at present)– I think about all sorts of things that me keep me focused on God. It’s not easy but over time, it gets a little easier and easier. The sad thing is that most of us have not let the Word of God paint the picture in our mind. But instead, we’ve allowed this world, other people and our experiences tell us who we are. We often bring down the level of the Word of God to our experiences instead of taking our experiences to the level of the Word of God. Don’t let your experiences dictate who you are and your path/future. About 3 years ago, this one person said something really mean and negative over a period of time and I became bitter and hurt. One day I cry and complain before God, telling on her to Him. After a while, God spoke to me and said, ‘Sarah, stop.’ And He did this in a very loving and gentle way as always but He said, ‘It’s your fault that you chose to believe what she said about you over against what I said about you through my Word. This is who I said you are, but you gave a greater weight to what she said about you.’ At that moment, I stopped crying because I was surprised- I was kind of expecting God to comfort me and say ‘aww you poor thing, I’m sorry she said those things about you, I’m sure you’re hurt, I understand’ and allow me to go into this whole self-pity mode. But instead, He said, ‘You allowed her words, which are not true, to have greater influence over your heart and mind than what I said about you - you believed that to be true and that’s why you were hurt.’ So I had to repent before God, and I said, “Lord, I choose to hold onto your truth and let that dictate who I am and let that dictate my life.” It was a very refreshing way of God telling me His truth. Any negativity and anything that’s not of God that you’ve seen, heard, believed, or experienced-i.e. anything that’s not true, noble, right, good, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy, God wants you to delete it – scratch it and cross it out and replace them with truth. And one thing that He taught me is that you can do this mentally in your imagination. Let’s all try this. I want everyone to close their eyes, and I want you to draw and paint a picture in your head of anything that’s not good or of God– it can be about yourself, it can be about your future, it can be about your family, anything that leaves you with hopeless and despair, worry and fear, etc. Now, tear that paper of your imagination and picture a trash can and throw it into the bin. And Now I want you to form a picture of who you are, how wonderful your future is going to be, how awesome your relationship will be with your siblings or spouse or parents, picture healing taking place, picture your thriving and finding joy and peace in God etc. Now you might think this is super weird and that this is not even real. But as I said, your imagination and your mind is reality. And the more you imagine and think something in your mind, you eventually come to believe it and when you believe something, the bible calls that having ‘faith.’ And the bible says that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move the mountains for real! And when you take the truth of God and believe it, BAAM, your situation changes. What’s real in the spiritual realm manifests in the physical realm. And let me tell you this: You cannot become someone who’s bigger your imagination. You simply cannot get beyond that. With our imagination we can explore the possibilities we have in God in all areas of our lives. This releases hope, faith and love in God. Having said all this, our knowledge of Him and right thinking about God should always lead to an emotional embrace of God. “The mind has not yet loved until it hands off its thoughts to the hearts where they are embraced.” And when the mind and the heart work in harmony, we experience both intellectual and affectional love for God. Heart and mind are inseparable. For me, when the truth sets in my mind, when the revelation of His word comes, my heart, my emotions and my whole being just grabs hold of Him and His truth and says ‘wow Lord, I love you. You are soooo good! This is just amazing.’ So the more we search the Scriptures and the more we focus our minds’ attention to who God is, the more we love Him. Biblical knowing involves more than mere cognition; it leads to intimacy, worship and obedience! Now, I’d like to close this message by reading a short chapter of a book called ‘My heart-Christ’s home’ by Robert Boyd Munger. It’s a book about inviting Christ into the home of our hearts and letting him take over all the rooms of our home. As we read, I’d like us to switch on the imagination and walk through this story together. We have the mind of Christ. Let’s love Him with it! My heart -Christ’s home: Robert Boyd Munger The author says that ‘After Christ entered my heart, in the joy of that newfound relationship, I said to him ‘Lord, I want this heart of mine to be yours. I want you to settle down here and be fully at home. I want you to use it as your own. Let me show you around and point out some of the features of the home so that you may be more comfortable. I want you to enjoy our time together.’ He was glad to come and seemed delighted to be given a place in my ordinary, little heart. ‘The study’ The first room we looked at together was the study- the library. Let us call it the study of the mind. Now in my home room of the mind is a small room with thick walls. But it is an important room. In a sense, it is the control room of the house. He entered with me and looked around at the books in the bookcase, the magazines on the table, the pictures on the walls. As I followed his gaze, I became uncomfortable. Strangely enough, I had not felt bad about this room before, but now that he was there with me looking at these things, I was embarrassed. There were some books on the shelves that his eyes were too pure to look at. On the table there were a few magazines a Christian has no business reading. As for the pictures on the walls-the imaginations and thoughts of my mind-some of these were shameful. Red-faced, I turned to him and said, "Lord, I know this room really needs to be cleaned up and made over. Will you help me shape it up and change it to the way it ought to be?" "Certainly," he replied. "I'm glad to help you! I've come to handle things like this! First of all, take all the materials you are reading and viewing which are not true, good, pure and helpful, and throw them out! Now put on the empty shelves the books of the Bible. Fill the library with the Scriptures and meditate on them day and night. As for the pictures on the walls, you will have difficulty controlling these images, but I have something that will help." He gave me a full-sized portrait of himself. "Hang this centrally on the wall of your mind." I did, and I have discovered through the years that when my thoughts are centered on Christ, the awareness of his presence, purity and power causes wrong and impure thoughts to back away. So he has helped me to bring my thoughts under his control, even though the struggle continues. If you have difficulty with this little room of the mind, let me encourage you to bring Christ there. Pack it full with the Word of God, study it, meditate on it and keep it clearly before you the presence of the Lord Jesus. This is just so well put. Jubilee, my prayer for us is also that we’ll invite Jesus into the room of our mind and let Him dwell there and take His rightful place so that we’ll learn and grow to delight in Him and love Him with all of our minds. Amen.