Josh McGuire - Thinking About Thinking | Austin CFC | 2022-04-10
Summary
The sermon explores the concept of changing one's mind, drawing heavily from Romans. The speaker emphasizes that after presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, we must allow the Holy Spirit to change our thinking rather than just trying to force a mental shift. He stresses humility and warns against spiritual pride, urging believers to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Outline
The message in plain words, in the order it unfolds. Select a time to jump the video to that moment.
Present your bodies as a living sacrificePaul urges believers to present their bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice, which is our true spiritual worship.
Allowing the Holy Spirit to change your mindAfter dedicating our bodies, we must humble ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to actively change our fixed ways of thinking.
Avoiding pride as we grow in spiritual thinkingScripture warns us not to puff ourselves up or think higher of ourselves than we ought to think as we begin to think differently.
Taking every thought captive to the obedience of ChristPaul states that we destroy speculations and take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.
Embracing positive thoughts alongside rejecting negative onesTaking thoughts captive is not just about stopping negative thoughts, but also about holding onto and embracing good thoughts.
Dwelling on whatever is true, honorable, and purePaul instructs believers to dwell on things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and praiseworthy.
Filtering our thoughts through what is trueWe must examine our minds and remove thoughts that are not true, recognizing our temptation to believe lies.
Guarding against omniscience and exaggeration in our mindsAssuming we know what others will do or exaggerating with words like "always" and "never" leads us away from the truth.
Having an honorable thought life before GodGod sees the hidden intentions and thoughts of our hearts, and one day our private thought lives will be brought into light.
Overcoming through grace and faithSin shall not have dominion over us because we are under grace, and taking thoughts captive is an action of faith powered by that grace.
Peter letting down the nets despite his own reasoningPeter confessed he had worked all night and caught nothing, but he chose to obey Jesus and let down his nets anyway.
Walking by faith, not by sightBelievers are called to be people of action who choose faith over their feelings in the battlefield of the mind.
