How To Control Your Thoughts – Part 2

Welcome back for the second part of “How To Control Your Thoughts,” a timely and practical message by Pastor Rick Warren. 

A lot of people don’t realize you can control your thoughts. They think Oh, my thoughts are uncontrollable. No, you think they’re uncontrollable, but you can control your thoughts. In fact, no one else can. Satan can’t control your thoughts. He’d like to, but he can’t control your thoughts. And God isn’t going to control your thoughts. If you’re having bad thoughts, you’re having scary thoughts, you’re having filthy thoughts, you’re having lonely thoughts, you’re having depressed and discouraged thoughts, it doesn’t really help to say “God, change my thoughts.” God’s going to say “It’s your mind. You do it.” All you have to do is click the channel-changer. You don’t have to think about what you’re thinking about right now. Nobody’s holding a gun to your head. You can do it, you can make that change. The Bible says there are three choices for a healthy mind. I have to feed my mind, I have to free my mind, and I have to focus my mind. They’re all choices you have to make, not just once in your lifetime, but on a moment by moment basis.

1. If I want to have a healthy mind, I have to feed my mind with truth. 

We all know the importance of nutrition- good food and good calories cause us to be better, to be stronger, to be healthier, to have more energy. Bad calories, bad junk food, things that harm your body- the same is true for your life. I must feed my mind- not with junk, not with poison- but with truth. Jesus said it like this: “you’ll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

One time I was given the privilege of lecturing at Oxford University, and Cambridge also, in the same month. While I was there I was heading to a meeting of Oxford Analytica- this is a group you’ve never heard of, but it has enormous influence in the world. Every day, at about 5:30 or 6 am, the leading scholars of Oxford gather in a room to get reports from all around the world on what’s happened in the last 24 hours. They then discuss these things. Everything from crop prices in China, to unrest in the Middle East, to the weather on the East Coast, and all kinds of things. Then they make a decision about what needs to be said about it, and then they say “who is the best person in the world that knows the most about this?” They email that person and by 11 am that morning, a report has been given and then that report, The Oxford Analytica Report, is paid for by groups like the United States CIA, the Soviet Union, now the Republic of Russia, China, world leaders, major corporations, they all look to Oxford Analytica to get their daily report and they pay big bucks for this information. I got to sit in on one of the meetings, they invited me to watch what was happening; it was about 20 people sitting in a room early in the morning. Oxford Analytica was founded on the idea that the best leaders make the best decisions when they have the best information. Even if you are a good leader, if you don’t have the best information, you’re going to make a bad decision. You’re not Oxford Analytica, but you need the best information to live the best life that God wants you to live. That information is right here in the word of God. It’s called “the truth.”

The Bible says in Matthew 4.4 that people need more than bread for their life. They must feed on every word of God. The Bible is our soul-food, it’s our owner’s manual for life. When should I feed my mind truth? The answer is: all the time. Throughout the day- morning, noon, and night. They tell you the best way to eat is to just eat a little every couple of hours rather than to eat big meals and then go long hours without eating, but to eat constantly. Just kind of nibble your way through the day, eating the right foods for your blood sugar level and all that. Same is true with truth. If you’re constantly thinking about truth, it’s going to renew your mind. It’s going to change your mind. Some examples of this: here’s three verses from David. In Psalm 119.147, “I rise early to cry out for help (that’s prayer) and to put my hope in your words (that’s Bible study)”. He says, “I start every morning talking to you (I cry out in prayer), and listening to you (I read Your word) and he says I look for the hope in Your Word.” There are over 7,000 promises in this book. If you want to have your mind renewed, become a “Promise Person.” Begin to learn, memorize, think on (the promises of God.)

If you feel pretty hopeless about your situation, you’re not spending enough time in the promises of God.

He says, “I start my day with hope.” Are you starting your day with hope or with despair? In the next verse he says, “Lord, how I love your word. I think about it all day long.” Then in Psalm 16.7, he says “Even in the darkness of night, your teachings fill my mind.” So he’s saying, “early in the morning, all through the day, and even late at night, I’m thinking about God’s truth.” That’s why David is called “a man after God’s own heart.” An example of how serious David was about filling his mind with the truth of God’s word: he spent a large part of his life running for his life, because the King he was going to replace in Israel wanted to kill him. Saul wanted him dead. David actually had to run and be a fugitive for many, many years, living in caves and moving from place to place and never knowing am I going to wake up and be killed? There were people that were actually trying to kill him- I doubt that’s ever happened to you- but look at this verse Psalm 119.195. He says, “when wicked people hide to ambush and kill me, I quietly keep my mind on Your decrees.” Wow. If somebody was trying to kill you, would you be thinking about the word of God? I kinda doubt it. You’d probably be calling the police, you’d be running, you’d be bolting the door….David says, “I don’t care what’s going on in my life- morning, noon, night, people trying to kill me- one thing I do, I keep my mind on the truth.” Do you do that in a crisis? That’s called managing your mind. I have to feed my mind daily on truth.

2. I have to free my mind from destructive thoughts.

Your mind needs to be liberated. Your mind needs to be delivered. Your mind needs to be released, because you are a prisoner of your own thoughts. You’re a prisoner of things people told you that simply weren’t true. As I said earlier, it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, if you believed it, it’s affected your life. You see yourself that way, because you always act in accordance with how you see yourself. Freeing your mind from destructive thoughts is not easy. The reason it’s not easy is because you have 3 enemies that are trying to team tackle you and keep you from having your mind liberated. These are the things that keep you from fulfilling all your good intentions. You’re going to have to fight to free your mind. What are the enemies? #1- your  old nature.

“I see in my body a principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells inside me.”

Romans 7.23

He’s using war language here. Let me put it this way: do you ever find yourself doing things that you don’t really want to do? That’s the battle. Have you ever knowingly engaged in self-defeating behavior? “I know this isn’t good for me, but…” What’s going on there? The battle in your brain. You have all the best intentions in your new nature, “I want to do the right thing” but the battle in your brain, and the first battle is with your old sin nature. Your old nature is not your friend, it is the source of all your bad habits.

“Those who are dominated by their sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit, think about things that please the Spirit.”

Romans 8.5

Notice, it’s all about your brain, it’s about how you think. So the first thing- I may have a good intention for changing something in my life, but my old nature is going to battle me on it. The second thing that’s going to fight me, the second enemy, is Satan. Satan wants to control your mind- he can’t- but he wants to control your mind and so he sends these ideas, these thoughts into your mind. Now let me be real clear, Satan cannot force you to do anything. If you’re a Christian and you have God’s Holy Spirit in you, Satan cannot force you to do anything. Greater is He that is in me than he who is in the world. But he can make suggestions, and those suggestions are very very powerful. He is constantly, continually planting negative thoughts in your mind. He’ll use other people, he’ll use the television, or he’ll throw a thought in your mind. You’ll go “where in the world did that one come from?” Have you ever been praying and you’re praying real hard and all of a sudden the weirdest thought just comes into your mind? And you go “where did that one come from?!” I’ll tell you where it came from- the devil just dropped that little bomb on your brain. Martin Luther said, “You can’t keep the birds from flying over your head.” But Rick Warren says, “You can keep them from pooping in your hair!” You can duck, and you can move, and you don’t have to accept a thought. One of the most important things is: don’t believe everything you think.

Don’t believe everything you think.

That’s one of the most liberating thoughts you’ll ever get. I don’t have to believe everything I think. If you will listen to that one truth right there, you’re on the road to mental health, because not everything you think is true. Stuff you think about yourself, stuff you think about God, stuff you think about your husband, or your wife, or life, or the community, or the government, it’s not all true just because you thought it. Satan puts these thoughts- the moment you wake up- he starts dropping little seeds. You’re not going to have a good day today. Life is going to really be bad. Nobody’s going to like you. In fact, you’re flat-out ugly. If I were as ugly as you, I wouldn’t even show my face. And you start getting all this talk going on in your brain. Why in the world am I even trying? It’s not going to be any different. And he starts giving you all these reasons to give up and you haven’t even started the day yet. If you get up in the morning and you don’t meet the devil face on, it just means you’re going in the same direction. So, he’s going to drop these little thoughts on you and sometimes he’ll say “Go ahead. You deserve it. Get angry. Get even. How dare they say that to you?” He’s just constantly dropping thoughts. In 2 Corinthians,  Paul talks about “I’ve forgiven that man.” A guy in the church who messed everything up and was really critical… Paul said “I’ve forgiven that man so Satan won’t outsmart us.” What’s he saying there? When I am unforgiving, I’m falling into Satan’s trap.

When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.

2 Corinthians 2.10-11

Satan wants to keep you in bitterness. Satan wants to keep you in bondage, he wants to keep you in resentment. If you have not forgiven anybody, you have fallen into Satan’s trap. And Paul goes, “hey, we’re wise to this guy. He’s been using the same traps for so long.” He tried to get you hurt, then he tried to get you bitter. Then he builds on that bitterness and gets a foothold on your life and on and on and on. Anytime you refuse to forgive anybody, you’ve fallen for Satan’s trap. The point here is that Satan has schemes and you need to be aware of them. So you have enemy #1: that’s the flesh. Then you have enemy #2: that’s the devil. The third enemy is the world’s value system- and that is culture around you. The world is not helping you be a more disciplined person, are they? Does anything in our society encourage self-discipline? No, not at all. In fact, every advertiser is saying “You deserve a break today. Have it your way. We do it all for you. It’s all about you.” Mountain Dew, my favorite commercial, says “Obey Your Thirst.” In other words, “Be an animal. Do whatever you feel like doing.” The world has their value system, and it’s promoted by advertisers, and it’s promoted by movies, and it’s promoted by television, and it’s promoted in songs, and it’s certainly promoted by celebrities. Nobody around you is actually encouraging you to live a responsible mentally healthy life.

“All that is in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life- comes not from the Father but from the world.”

I John 2.16

Everything around you- all the commercials, all the media- they’re not encouraging you to think smart, to think healthy, to think wise, they’re encouraging you to do the other thing. So how do you fight this battle? You have all these best intentions for changing, but then you have this triple threat of your own old nature within you, the devil against you, and the world around you. It’s no wonder you keep struggling with discouragement, and despair, and things like that. How do you fight this mental battle?

“Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. Our weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish any argument and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

2 Corinthians 10

This is warfare language. He’s talking about this battle going on in your mind. This mental battle. He said, “we demolish strongholds.” What’s a stronghold? A stronghold is a lie that I believe. The lie might be: God really doesn’t love me. That’s a lie. The lie might be: I know better than God what will make me happy. That’s a lie. The lie: I should do what I want to do, not what God wants me to do and that’ll make me happier. That’s a lie. I know better what will make me happy than God does. That’s a lie. That’s a stronghold. A stronghold can be a false value system, like in the world. It can be a philosophical system like Hedonism, which says the only thing that matters is pleasure- in other words, the whole goal of life is to have fun. That’s a lie. That’s not true. Or materialism, is a philosophical worldview which says the only thing that matters is making money. That’s a lie. That’s not true. Those are all lies, and if I believe them, I get a stronghold in my life. Could be a worldview, or it could be a personal attitude, like I’m never going to forgive that person. That’s a stronghold. I could never forgive myself. That’s a stronghold. I will never amount to anything. That’s a stronghold. If  something bad is going to happen, it’s going to happen to me. That’s a stronghold. It’s a lie that you’re believing. If you’re going to learn to be mentally healthy, you’ve got to learn how to demolish strongholds in your life.

Behind every sin is some lie that you’re believing.

The Bible calls Satan “the father of lies.” Jesus says “I am the truth and the truth sets you free.” Satan is a liar and he’s going to enslave you. So, this stronghold needs to be destroyed. How do we fight this mental battle? Notice these two phrases. First he says “we take captive.” The word in Greek is aichmalotizo, it literally means to conquer, to bring under control, to capture. The other phrase is “we make it obedient.” We take every thought captive and we make it obedient- we make every thought obey Christ. That word, “obedient” literally is hupakoe. It means to bring into submission. How do you do that? What is he talking about here? How do you make your mind mind? We bring it into submission, we take it captive, we make it obedient. 

For the conclusion of this message, come back for “How To Control Your Thoughts- Pt. 3” by Pastor Rick Warren.