How To Control Your Thoughts – Part 3

Thank you for coming back for the conclusion of Pastor Rick Warren’s important message on changing the way you think. We hope you’ve found hope and encouragement through this relevant and timely teaching. 

My mind often rebels. When I need to ponder, my mind wants to wander. When I need to pray, my mind drifts away. He says “we take captive, we make it obedient.” What he’s saying here is that you have a choice. Your mind has to listen to you. God didn’t just give you a mind, He gave you a will and emotions. But part of your will is to bring your mind into order. The reason why most people are ineffective in life, and actually fail at life, and don’t enjoy life is because they’ve never learned how to fight the battle of the mind. This is so important. Paul says that we’re not supposed to be ignorant of how Satan works, so we’re not caught off guard. Let me explain to you how temptation works- because it always uses the same pattern.

“Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires, and these evil desires lead to evil actions, then the evil actions lead to death.”

James 1.14-15

Notice, temptation is a process, it’s not an isolated event. You know when people talk about “It just caught me off guard…it was just a one night stand!” No, it wasn’t. There were a lot of things you gave in to before you got to lowering that barrier. Temptation is a process and the Bible describes exactly how it happens. There are 4 phases.

4 Phases of Temptation 

1. Desire

If you don’t have a desire for something, it’s not a temptation. I have never, ever, in my life been tempted to smoke a cigarette. Why? There’s no desire in me. I think they stink! Somebody asked me one day “will smoking send you to Hell?” I said, “No. It’ll make you smell like you’ve been there, but it’s not going to send you to Hell…” Do you remember when they used to have smoking on airplanes? It was terrible! I had a friend that used to carry a card with him, and when a guy would light up next to him on the plane, he would hand him the card that said, “I noticed you smoke, well I chew. If you don’t blow smoke on me, I won’t spit on you.” I’ve never been tempted because it just didn’t smell good to me. Now there’s a lot of stuff I’ve been tempted in that you haven’t been tempted in. It always starts with an internal desire. He says there, “the lure of our own evil desires.” Temptation doesn’t start “out there.” It doesn’t start on the tv, it doesn’t start on the street corner, it starts in your mind. It often begins with a natural desire, not even an evil desire. You have a natural desire for sleep, you have a natural desire for water, you have a natural desire for food, you have a natural desire for sex, you have a natural desire to succeed in life- all God-given drives. The drive to achieve, the drive for sex- those are all normal- nothing wrong with them. Temptation turns a routine desire into a runaway desire, and that’s what makes it bad. It becomes more important than anything else. It’s all you think about- and any desire out of control is destructive. Fire in a fireplace can warm; fire in a cooking stove can warm food; but fire uncontrolled can burn your house down. All of God’s gifts, misused and abused, will burn your house down. Any of them will- sex, sleeping, eating- any of those thingsl. Often temptation is an attempt to fulfill a legitimate desire in your life, like “I just want to be loved.” There’s nothing wrong with that. The point is, it’s like steel in a magnet, if there was no desire in me, there would be no temptation.

2. Doubt

You begin to doubt 2 things: you doubt that God loves you, and you doubt that God knows best. When you start to get tempted, you go, “did God really say don’t have sex outside of marriage? Did God really say forgive the person instead of get even with them? Did God really say it’s more blessed to give than to receive?” And you start doubting God’s Word. We see it from the very first temptation, in Adam and Eve, in a perfect environment. It’s paradise- no clothes and no kids. How do you mess up that? Satan comes and says, “hey, see that tree over there? Did God really say you can’t eat of that tree?” What was he doing? He’s getting you to doubt God’s Word. Then he says, “God knows that if you eat that tree, you’ll be as smart as He is.” He’s getting you to doubt that God loves you, that God’s rules are for your benefit. 

Every time you give in to temptation, you are believing a lie.

You think you know better; you think God doesn’t know best; you think you know what will make you happy better than He does. There’s always the desire, then there’s the doubt. “Did God really say….? Does God really love me? Isn’t God being a little prudish about this? Is it really true?” And on and on and on.

3. Deception

The third thing Satan does, is he replaces God’s truth with his lie. He says, “You won’t die if you eat this…” God had already said “If you eat this fruit, you will die.” God said, “You can eat anything in the entire park, except this one tree.” What does man do? He goes immediately to the one tree. It’s the minimum amount of temptation possible, but it allows a choice. Satan changes it all and says, “God says you can’t eat a bunch of stuff, and the reason He doesn’t want you to is He doesn’t want you to be as smart as He is.” He is giving you a lie. He is deceiving you. Notice it says in that verse, “Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desire.” That’s a fishing term- enticed. He’s talking about using bait there. The secret to good fishing is real simple- you have to use the right bait. Salmon eat a certain kind of bait, and trout eat another kind of bait, and fish will even change what they’re eating at different times of the day. How many fish are you going to catch with a bare hook? None. Zero. Obviously, you have to put some bait on there. You’ve got to have a lure. What kind of bait does Satan use on you? Do you even know? Do you know the one he always uses on you? And he keeps coming back to it, because it hooks you every single time. It may be from something a long time ago that a parent said to you, but man, when that thing comes out, you are just so hooked. You immediately get depressed, or you immediately get angry, or you immediately get worried, and Satan goes “got her hooked. I put the right bait on that hook.” Satan knows your weaknesses and he hides the hook. I call this phase “deception” because often we know there’s a hook there, but we still keep nibbling. 

Often we know there’s a hook there, but we still keep nibbling.

4. Disobedience and defeat

Now it’s sin. What began in the mind, translated into action, and it goes like this: my attention becomes an attitude, and my attitude becomes an action. This is how it works in the battle for your mind. I’ve had guys say to me, “What’s the danger of a harmless fantasy?” Are you kidding me? It’s not harmless. 

What I flirt with, I’ll fall for.

I need to refocus my attention. The Bible says that after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and the end result is death. What’s death? The exact opposite of living. You are free to choose anything you want in life. You’re free to make your choices, but you are not free from the consequences of those choices. The moment you make that choice you are no longer free. There are consequences that come to every choice, often unintended consequences- what you sow, you will reap- and you cannot choose the behavior and not choose the consequence. The best time to win the battle with temptation is before it begins. 

“I have made up my mind to obey your laws forever, no matter what.”

Psalm 119.112 CEV

Until you come to that point, you’re just going to keep stumbling, and stumbling, and stumbling. “I have made up my mind…” That’s a choice. 

Back to the 3 choices you have to make every day. I have to feed my mind constantly on truth, not garbage. I have to free my mind from destructive thoughts. And the third is I have to focus my mind on the right things.

3. I have to focus my mind on the right things

The three things that will make the most difference in your mental state- 

A. Think about Jesus. 

You’ve heard that old cliche “you become whatever you think about most”? Well, you think about Jesus, guess what you’re going to become like? Jesus. 

“Keep your mind on Jesus Christ.”

2 Timothy 2.8 CEV

Think about Jesus’ example. He held on. Are you having a hard time holding on? He held on while wicked people were doing evil things to Him! Do not get tired and stop trying. When you start to feel like you want to give up, think about what Jesus went through. Think about Jesus.

B. Think about others. 

“Don’t just think about your own affairs, but be interested in others too, and what they are doing.”

Philippians 2.4

Do you realize how countercultural that is? Everything in the world teaches you to think about yourself and nobody else. How many times have you heard this phrase “I’ve gotta do what’s best for me.” “Looking out for #1.” You can go down a list of all these phrases that basically say “it’s all about me.” That’s why when I wrote Purpose Driven Life, the most countercultural statement I could think of to begin with was “It’s not about you.” It’s like a slap in the face. It’s not about you. It’s all about God. It’s only in giving your life away that you will understand what it really means to live. 

“Let us think about each other and help each other to show love and do good deeds.”

Hebrews 10.24

C. Think about eternity

There’s more to life than the here and now. The problem we have today is we have short-term thinking. We only think about what’s happening right now. 

“Let Heaven fill your thoughts. Do not only think about things down here on earth.

Colossians 3.2

The King James Version says, “Set your minds on things above. Not upon things on the earth.” 

Have you heard this old canard? “He’s so heavenly minded, he’s no earthly good.” That’s a bunch of baloney. You know what I’ve found? Only the people who are heavenly minded actually do any good. Those who are most heavenly minded throughout history are those who have done the most good on earth. It’s not the most earthly-minded people who get the most done on earth. The problem is the opposite: we’re so earthly-minded, we’re no heavenly good. All we think about is budget and baseball and bills and stuff like that.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

1 Corinthians 2.9

Think about that. When you start thinking about that, all the problems- the little nitpicky problems in your life- are so inferior compared to the glory, the joy, the pleasure, the enjoyment, the things we have to look forward to in eternity. 

Let’s bow for prayer. “Father, you gave us our minds, we were made in your image. This is the greatest gift you’ve ever given us- the gift of intellect. We realize it’s our greatest asset and yet it is the greatest battleground, and we realize the world and the flesh and the devil all team up to thwart our best intentions.”

Now you pray. Just say a simple prayer: “God, help me to put into practice what I’ve just learned. Help me to make these choices on a daily basis. I want to feed my mind with truth all the time. I want to free my mind from destructive thoughts by taking every thought captive, to make it obedient to Christ- to not just let my mind run wild. Help me to be wise to temptation and realize when desire is turning to doubt, to deception, to disobedience. God, today I’m going to make up my mind to obey Your Word forever, no matter what. Help me to think about Jesus, to think about others, and to think about eternity that my life may be truly transformed. In Your Name I pray, Amen.”