Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

You know what I'm talking about. We were saying, who is the one who wrote this? Jared Cooper. We couldn't get the name, remember? When we were talking about it.

24, and we only started today. 2,500 is the goal. If you hit 3,000, Kevin is gonna colour his hair green.

Ah. Ah. Ah.

Ah. Ah. Ah.

Sorry, Kevin. I couldn't help myself doing that to you. No, soup bath, I'm not so sure about that one.

I can do the hair challenge again. That's not a big deal. I've done it before.

I can colour them green again. Or pink. See what you can do.

I'm not here to challenge you over the summer. I'm gonna take a little vacation, but you can do this. I'm sure we can do more than 2,500.

3,000 is easy. For this church, I know we can do that. Father, your word is so amazing.

It is just that light in our lives. It just lights us up, Lord. Thank you as we speak about your word again this morning.

Thank you that you will speak. Forgive your servant, Lord, these sins are many. In Jesus' name.

Please don't be offended by the words I'm gonna use in a moment. I don't mean to be rude, and I don't want to make anyone mad. But if we are going to, and this is the series we're in, thinking about what we think about, it needs to be said.

You're a lot like a cow. So is your neighbour. So is your friend.

So is your preacher. So is your, no, let me not say that. If you think about it, we are kinda like cows, those old milk makers.

Not because we look like them, or we smell like them, but we have something in common. We both ruminate. Cows ruminate.

You know how rumination works, right? They have this cut that they chew on, and they'll chew and chew, and then they'll swallow, and they'll regurgitate, and then it comes back, and then they chew, and then they swallow, and regurgitate, there we go, and then they chew, and then they swallow, and it just goes on and on. Now cows, they ruminate on cut. We ruminate on our thoughts.

We think it, and then we think it again, and then we'll rethink it, and then we'll overthink it, and then we'll start the process all over again. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but here's the thing, and I checked with my good friend George there, because he was a farmer all his life, just to make sure that I have my facts right. Farmers will tell you that cows that ruminate on the correct feed, and good feed, they'll have a good cut, and they're healthy cows.

But the opposite is also true. When they ruminate on the bad cut, they're not so healthy. Could the same be true of people? And the thoughts we think? When we think those unhealthy, negative, bad thoughts, don't they turn us into unhealthy, bitter, struggling people? So Paul gives us some really, really good advice, and I'm gonna read two verses for you today from Romans, chapter eight, verses five and six.

Go read the rest of the chapter, really, really beautiful. From the New Living Translation, it says, those who are dominated by their sinful nature, say bad thoughts, think about sinful things. But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit, good thoughts, think about things that please the Spirit.

So, letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but, do I need to say it? There's your biblical but. But, letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life. Who would choose death over life and peace? But why don't we test Scripture for a moment, and Ted, you got a slide for this.

Why don't we ruminate on these three thoughts just for a moment? I'll never get, wow, whoa, didn't work out well. The world is against me, I'm just a failure. Ruminate on that just for a second.

How does that make you feel when you think of yourself? Yeah, everyone's against me, it just doesn't work. Where do we go with that? Or I'm just a failure, I can't make it, I always just get an A minus, I never get an A plus, I'm just not good enough. Leads you down a rabbit hole, doesn't it? Takes you into a deep, dark place, or as verse six says, it leads to death.

Because somehow I die in myself, and I become just a skeleton of what I should be. But let's do the next one, and Ted, put the next slide up there. What if we ruminate on the things that said God is in control? Oh, I'm cherished by God.

Life isn't always easy, but God is good, and he's gonna help me to get through this. Think about that for a moment. How does that feel? When I think about my life, and I think, I don't always have it together, but God is in control, and I'm okay because I'm safe.

What if I remember when I sit there, and it's kind of hard, and I remember that God loves me. I know that, he's shown that. And I know that God's gonna get me through this because he's done it so many times.

Where does that take me? Lifts me up, gets me out of bed, gets me going. Verse says, gives me life. Because here's the thing.

You remember we said this last week when I was playing with my Play-Doh, and I didn't bring Play-Doh today. We remember what we said is we said, we are what we think. And that's why God didn't just redeem this old thing.

He also redeemed my mind. First Corinthians chapter two, verse 16. Paul talks about how we sometimes get all these things wrong and then he ends that beautiful chapter in verse 16 with that last line.

But we have the mind, think about that. We have the mind of Christ. I can have the thoughts that Jesus has about me, about my life, about how life happens around me.

Think about this for a moment. Did worries dominate Jesus's thoughts and life? Not a chance. So question, if I have the mind of Christ, why? Why do they sometimes just take over? Was he undone by criticism? Didn't stand a chance against him, right? And yet if I have the mind of Christ, why so often does that stuff just go sit in me and get to me? Did he find his joy in what people said about him or in his popularity contest? Never ever did Jesus.

So can I urge you? Can I plead with you? Will you allow Jesus into your mind and into your thoughts that he can start working on those thoughts and make them healthy thoughts? And I know what he's saying. Well, it's okay to have the mind of Christ, but here's the problem. Why do I still think those wrong thoughts? Why do I still think those thoughts of greed and of lust and of brokenness and of bitterness and fill in the blanks? Well, maybe these two and a half words can help us.

And there's a slide for that. Uproot, and there's the half word, and there's the other word, replant. I'm gonna explain what I mean by this.

We're asking the question, why, if I have the mind of Christ, do I still get these wrong thoughts? So I was about 12 when dad said, the lawn is your responsibility, there you go. And your first order of business is you need to get rid of those thorny little burrs that are in the grass that if you walk on them with your bare feet, they're always sticking. We had a lot of those in South Africa.

They stick into your feet. So I thought, ah, easy to do. Got the lawnmower, mowed them all gone, perfect for about a week.

The grass grew back. And so did the burrs times two, because I mowed them all over the place. Dad came out.

He had two of these little garden spades in his hand. He says, let me show you what we should do to get rid of them. You have to uproot them.

Dig them out with this little shovel. Take them all out. And I looked at this grass and I said, dad, that's going to take an awful long time.

And my father said, not if I help you. By the end of that Saturday, they were gone. Our minds are a lot like that lawn.

Society, Satan, bad people, they come with all these unhealthy, bad thoughts. And they sow them all over my mind. And what does it produce? Weeds.

Someone called them UFOs, and there's a slide for that, Ted. Untruths that lead to a false narrative that leads to an overreaction. I know, we all go there, right? UFOs, they get to us and they unhinge us and they make us sour, and they make our lives sour and unhealthy.

What do we do? Sometimes we'll give ourselves a little pep talk. Come on, Aubrey, you can get out of this, you can do this. Or we put these little notes that are all positive little thoughts all over the place just to get, they don't really work that well, do they? We need something better than that.

And God does give us something better than that. My dad gave me this little shovel that I would uproot them. Our Heavenly Father gives us the most amazing gift, His word, His word.

When those thoughts come, this is the place to go because He's gonna speak to you in no uncertain terms. When I'm struggling, He's gonna tell me how much He loves me. When I feel unwelcome, He's gonna tell me how welcome I am.

When I go through anxiety, I can see how Jesus says, been there, done that, but I'm gonna walk with you, I'm gonna be there with you. Here is your shovel to get rid of those unruly, unhealthy weeds. Immerse yourself in this.

Isn't that what Jesus did? And we have the mind of Jesus, don't we? When Satan came at Jesus with all kinds of untruths, did Jesus fall into the trap? And overreact, what did He do? He just quoted scripture at Satan and Satan stood no chance. When Jesus was anxious and afraid in that garden, what did He do? He quoted the word, went back to the word. When He was hanging on the cross in that moment and His death, what did Jesus do? Psalm 22, my God, my God, why? He didn't let those thoughts overwhelm Him.

He went straight, when those thoughts come, my friends, this is it, this is it. Put it in your mind, put it in your heart, put it in your pocket. The cool thing is I don't have a phone with me.

You have your phones all the time. There's a beautiful app called Bible Gateway. Put it on there and when those thoughts come, you hit that app and you go into the word of God and you ask God to uproot them for you.

So let me take you back to that question. If I have the mind of Christ, why do I still think about what I think about and get these weedy thoughts? I think it's because we just know them. We need to uproot.

You can't do that alone. And Father says, let's do that. And you're saying, Father, but there's way too many.

And Father, God says what my dad says. We'll get it done because I'm going to help you. You don't have to do it alone.

You got a Father who's there with you. And I know many of those thoughts, boy, they've really taken root and they've been there a long time and they're really hard to get out there, but he's with you. Just ask him.

Jesus asked and his Father answered and you're God's child. Do you think your dad won't answer you? Do you think your heavenly Father won't come with you and help you? But there's that second of the two and a half words, uproot and replant, because you also know how this works. If you just open it up and you leave that hole, before you know it, there's weeds right back in there.

You have to replant it with good grass that will be good and not bring the weeds. And that's where we go right back to verse six. Letting your sinful nature control your mind, those weeds lead to death.

But if you let the spirit control your mind, if you uproot those bad ones and you replant them with the spirit, it will lead to life. And you take them out and you bring the spirit in. I was reading in my quiet time, I've been reading through the book of Acts again and then I took Galatians after that.

Go do that. If you read Acts, you'll understand the rest of all Paul's letters because the book of Acts is the book of the spirit. Because they were all kind of hanging around and then the Holy Spirit came and they were on fire.

I don't mean tongues, they were just on fire for God. And everywhere they went and they spoke and the spirit touched people's lives. People became alive and full of the spirit.

And Paul talks of everything he says. And when we went to Ephesus and the spirit came on them, they came alive. And when we went to Lystra and the spirit came on them, wherever the spirit comes, there is life.

Comes there is life and there is peace. And it changes you from the inside out. If we replant those thoughts with the spirit, it changes.

Don't have to do it alone. Just ask. You know what'll happen? As you stand there on your knees, right there next to you is your Lord Jesus.

And as you take him out and he replaces that with the spirit. Allow him to do that. So this week, go take two passages.

My favourite passage and Alexander knows that's the main one for the day that I'm saying goodbye and going home to see my father. Isaiah 43. Do not be afraid.

For I have ransomed you. I've called you by your, he says, drummer boy. He says, Scott.

He says, Alexander. He says, Samantha. He says, Peter.

He says, Bradley. He says, Aubrey. I have called you by your name and you are mine.

You are precious to me. You are honoured and I love you. Will you go ruminate on that passage this week? Just go read it every day and think about each of those words.

Think about what you think about when you read them. See what that does. Take the second one, Philippians four.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, can you remember the rest? Through prayer and petition and with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God and the peace, the peace, remember the words, of God will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus. And then take verse 13 with that. Because I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Take those two. Let him give you life and peace this week. Think about what you think about.

Amen to you, amen to you, amen to you. Amen. Take a few moments of silent prayer.

Thank you for your word, Lord. Thank you for the action that comes from your word. Thank you that it is alive in us, that we can live in it, that we might immerse ourselves in your word and in you.

And our thoughts are so many, Lord. We said that last week. We can't count them.

But thank you that we can bring all of them to you. Thank you that you weed out those bad thoughts. Thank you that you replace them with your word, with your spirit, Holy Spirit.

We are open and we invite you into our lives. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.