Welcome, welcome. Louie! Guess I'm the only one wearing a hat. Oh no, Frank, you got one on. Leave it on. I insist. I can't wear it. You can. I insist that you do. Welcome to Grace and Truth Church, June 10th, 2025. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you for gathering us together tonight in the same prayer. I think I pray every time I get up here. For those who showed up to make hearing from you a priority on their Tuesday evening, these faithful servants of you, Lord, that we have together as a as a corporate body, have decided that this is the most important thing we do on Tuesdays, barring exceptions, Lord, and you understand those exceptions. So Lord, just bless your word as it goes forth tonight. Thank you for the mind and the word that you've given us as we look at that tonight. that we can see the world from your viewpoint, not our own. In Jesus we pray that you bless your word and give us ears to hear and eyes to see your truths. In Jesus we pray, amen. So the mind, the spiritual battlefield of the Christian life. So I had something happen to me last weekend, weekend before, between my preaching. that brought me into an understanding of the way I think about things. And I want us to think tonight about how we think with the mind of Christ or with the mind of self. And I had to learn this understanding through my failure once again. It's amazing how many times I have to relearn this same lesson. And God showing us our failures, admitting our faults to the Lord, this is a good place to be, people. For if it is failure, then it came from us and it needs corrected. And if we witness a victory of the Lord in our life, we knew He did it. Either way, both are being used by God to will and to do the work in us for His good pleasure. Philippians 2.13. Whether failure leading to repentance and gratitude for the sacrifice he made for that sin, or victory, same boat, leading to gratitude. Both lead to thankfulness to God, both looking to the cross and what he accomplished for us. So no heads hanging low from our failures anymore, no more. And our thinking, we are not going to sit in the gutter of despair. We're not doing this anymore. For God uses our failures to reveal once again that we stop trusting in Him and lean back on our own understanding. Proverbs 3, 5, and 8, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. So as I was shown, and I'll share briefly about what happened without too much detail, my wisdom, my understanding of things does not bring health to my flesh and strength to my bones. My worldly eyes view on situations brings sickness to my flesh and weariness to my bones. It brings me into mental and emotional exhaustion. Accomplishing nothing for the kingdom of heaven, but just a lame attempt to protect the kingdom of Greg as we will see with King Saul a little bit later So as God always tells us agree with God against yourself 70 times 7 for the same sin in the same day And thank him for the sacrifice of his son for our failures, which is our sin It's not that we are only human and we tried our best So God's okay with it. Nope We have to know that each and every one of our failures and our thinking and our minds, therefore resulting in our actions, our lawless deeds of vain and useless thoughts, are what Jesus wanted a cross for to die for. You know, you look at a woman, you've committed it. Raka, brother, you murdered him. He's going to judge us by these thoughts that we entertain in our minds. But it is only by seeing these failures for the sins that they are can the grace of God teach us to deny these ungodly thoughts. Titus 2, 11 and 12. to teach us as students of His new life He has given us. He's teaching us. Are you learning? Are you being corrected by the teacher? To deny these sinful thought temptations. Romans 4, 7, and 8, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute iniquity. So like I said, no more heads hanging low, only heads looking up to that hill of Calvary from where our help comes. where Jesus did it all. So that situation that happened, seemingly small now that it's over, but at the time it was a big thing. And it was used to reveal in me how terribly wrong I go in the way I think, and as a result, the way I act. Remember, it's the little foxes that spoil the vine, Song of Solomon 2.15. So let us catch these little foxes, let us catch these thoughts, these little thoughts, before the fruit is destroyed in our lives, the fruit of the Spirit. Love in our seven children, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It's these seemingly small thoughts that take us down to the path that leads to destruction, that spoil the vine in our life, that spoil the fruit of the Spirit. So when our thinking isn't right, it's actually really easy to detect. I can't believe I sit in wrong thinking as long as I do. If you have the Word, look at the fruit of the Spirit in your life, in that thought, with that person, with that situation. Do you possess all the attributes? If you're missing one, there's a fox. He's coming to spoil everything. It's all or nothing. You're either in Christ or you're in your flesh. There's no, oh, I got six of the seven fruit, I'm okay. No, you're not. There's a fox working. One thought can just spoil everything. And only by the word of God can we have these foxes revealed to us, for without the word resonating and circulating in our minds, Our thinking seems right, but our thinking leads to death. Proverbs 14, 12, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. And if you missed it when you were reading through the Proverbs in chapter 14, the second witness comes in Proverbs 16, 25. There is a way that seems right to a man and its end is the way of death. Carnal, non-biblical, worldly thinking equals death. Spiritual, worldly thinking equals life. Romans 8, 6, and 8, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Remember, I said it was sin when we think wrong. When our thinking is wrong, we are at war against God at that moment. And this is serious stuff, enmity, hostility against God in our minds. At war with God in our thinking. So back to that situation, someone I care about and I want the best for in Christ and their life was probably making a really bad decision one night. And it was being done somewhere else, somewhere I wasn't physically at. But this situation was used by God to reveal how wrong I am in my mind sometimes. how the enemy, that little fox, crept in unnoticed. You know, it's funny in a sense, too, because where this was happening at, if I would have got an invite to come, it was laughable. There's no way I would have risked going to a place like that. There's no way I would want to be there. Laughable. No, I'm not coming there. Are you kidding me? Why would you even ask me that? Yeah, because of the lack of discipline in my mind. I actually spent a lot of time there in my thinking that night. You ever do that, go to places in your mind where a place you focus all your energy and thoughts? Go to places in your mind where you have conversations with people that aren't even in the room? I'm not the only one. You ever talk to people you love and care about that are doing bad things and you're talking to them, having the conversations you want to have with them? It's a scary place to be. Who are you talking to? So this place that I would never have gone to physically. No desire to be there. Like I said, I would not risk going there. I know better. Knowing I have no business being there, I volunteered myself in my mind to spend time there that night. This is a problem that was revealed in me. That my emotions and speculations were the governing agents of my soul and my mind that night. I care for them. I'm worried because I do. Isn't that a noble mindset? Can you justify that kind of thinking and speculation? It's not. Wrestling with the physical places, the place I wouldn't have went physically, the people in my life, having those conversations with them, instead of discerning the lies of the enemy from the truth of God in my mind. 2 Corinthians 10, 3 and 6, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity. to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." Did you hear that? Bringing every thought into captivity. Everyone. So with this revelation, with this God showing me how wrong I am in my mind, oh man, this happens a lot. I was really blissfully unaware to the fact that my mind is controlled by the devil a lot, that he does my thinking for me or does the communication with me. So learning this lesson, once again, I have a desire for the Lord to take my mind captive. I want my mind and my thoughts to be mastered by Him. And I realize how much the devil has a foothold. And without the Word, I would be totally unaware. Now, I study the Word daily. Can we all study the Word? The people in your life that aren't, they're done. Don't expect them to have an understanding because the devil got them in their minds. So it's our job to take these thoughts captivity for those who aren't. Ephesians 6, 12 for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. We do not war according to the flesh. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians six 12 we argue, we've wrestled with the lies, not the people in situations or ears and eyes discern. So I have a small example of this. Um, Jacob Phillips, I know we miss him. Maybe he'll come back someday and visit us. But, uh, he pointed this out to me when I was sharing this with him on Sunday, last Sunday morning on my way to church. It was King Saul. And it's in 1 Samuel 23. Now at this point in King Saul's life, things have gone terribly wrong. He disobeyed the Lord and presumptually did some evil things. But the detail I want to look at is in 1 Samuel 23, verses 25 and 29. Never caught it before, read right past it, until Jacob pointed it out to me. And I hope you have friends like this, that you share what's going on in your life, and they can find the word in it. Because the Word has every answer for every one of our problems. There's not one that God didn't solve for us. And this friend pointed out a scripture of exactly what I was going through. We know King Saul was not thinking right, therefore he was not acting right at this point. So we have David saving a city, and then Saul thought he had him captured in that city. So David ran off at the command of the Lord to some strongholds in the wilderness, Saul seeking him every day. And this is where we pick up. When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David. Therefore he went down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued David in the wilderness of Milam. Then Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. So David made haste to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were encircling David and his men to take them. But a messenger came to Saul, saying, hurry and come. This was the big reveal for me, read by how many times? For the Philistines have invaded the land. We'll finish this off though. Therefore Saul returned from pursuing David and went against the Philistines. So they called that place the rock of escape. Then David went up from there and dwelt in the strongholds of Angadir. So what was revealed to me here? What was what happened to the land? The land, the kingdom that Saul was to protect as king over it had been invaded by the Philistines. And why was it invaded? Because the king was chasing David, who he shouldn't have been chasing. King Saul was so worried about his crown that he forgot about the kingdom that he was to guard and protect. So with my situation I told you about, I left my land empty. I went chasing things in my mind that I have no butt business fighting against. Not the way I did it. Not with speculations. Not with worries and anxieties. There is a spiritual fight we can fight. But I didn't do it right. I was more like King Saul chasing David through the hills. And what happened when the land is left empty by the one who is to protect it? What happens when we go to speculations and conversations in our mind that we have no business being part of? Our minds are left empty and susceptible to attack. The enemy comes in and makes his home in our minds. Luke 11, 24, and 26, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none, he says. I will return to the house from which I came, and when he comes, he finds it swept up and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of the man is worse than the first. So now that I've went to that place in my mind that I shouldn't have went, What does the enemy do? Comes and invades my mind, bringing in with it worry, doubt, hopelessness, self-righteousness, judgment, anxiety, pity. There's seven wicked spirits for you. That's what happened in one night. The enemy found my mind empty because I wasn't protecting my mind. All swept up as though no one was living there. And he brought all these sins with it and placed them in my mind as though they belonged there. I didn't even know what happened. And as with Saul, when he was hunting down David and the Philistines saw an opportunity to invade, so am I when I argue and fight against flesh and blood in my mind. 1 Peter 1 13 says, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Gird up the loins of your mind. Protect the most sensitive things of your heart. Protect them. The things that if you get kicked, you're going to be debilitated. The NASB translates this phrase, prepare your minds for action. And then it says, be sober, nepho. The same word used later in 1 Peter chapter 5, when Peter reminds us why we're to be sober, physically and in our minds. Because we have an enemy and he is very active. 1 Peter 5a, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking who he may devour. So to be sober is to be calm and collected in your spirit. to be temperate, showing self-restraint to situations, dispassionate, not letting your emotions control and govern you, be rational, be a rational mind thinker with the Word of God, be in circumspect, weary and unwilling to take risks. So that night, physically, I was very weary and unwilling to take a risk to go to that place, but in my mind I wasn't. And it says, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And now we have prepared our minds for action in the spiritual. Now that emotions and passions have been put in check, now and only now can we fully trust in the grace of God that is only found in knowing Jesus Christ at His revelation in that situation with that person. So in these spiritual battles of our mind, we are to rest and wait for the revelation of Jesus Christ in these battles. Now running into these battles without his revelation, like I did that night without his order, and how to fight this battle as they did in Deuteronomy chapter 1. When they went out and spied the lands and saw the giants in the fortified cities and refused to go fight when God said to, So they were governed by their sight and human understanding. They're bigger, their cities are stronger, we can't win. They refused to fight. But interestingly enough, in verses 41 and 43, we'll just read these. It seems as though they repented. Then you answered and said to me, we have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight. Just as the Lord our God commanded us. And when every one of you had girded on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up to the mountain. And the Lord said to me, tell them, do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you, lest you be defeated by your enemies. So I spoke to you, yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptually went up to the mountain." They thought they were doing the right thing now. They thought they were going to make up for their disobedience and then disobey God once more. The Lord tells us repeatedly in Scripture that it is His fight to fight and His victory to have, not ours. Yet in my mind, I run into the fight of the enemy presumptuously often, like it's some valiant effort. I'm going to worry about them and really accomplish a lot. battling against the flesh and not against the principalities that are behind it. And what happened? They lost the fight in Deuteronomy 1. And in the same way when we are fighting the wrong enemy, I too, you also, we lose the fight every time. Or when we go to battle in the flesh and the Lord has told us very clearly, I am not with you in your fleshly mind. I'm not there. I crucified that mind and gave you mine. The Lord says, watch and see my victory, but everything in my flesh says I need to go do something. I need to do something up here or nothing's going to get done. Not having the fruit of the spirit produced in my life when I do that because the little foxes have eaten them all up. Okay, so we had King Saul going places he shouldn't have gone, right? Fighting people he shouldn't have fought against. leaving the land desolate of its king so now we have another angle to look at this and think about how we think about things in our lives we have king david now in second samuel chapter 11 now instead of going to places he shouldn't have went king david stayed somewhere when he should have actually went somewhere. He decided to stay somewhere he shouldn't have stayed. That is the wording. So 2 Samuel 11, 1-3, it happened in the spring of the year at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel. And they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Robah. But David remained in Jerusalem. Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Elium, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Now we know the story, right? We know where that took David. So now David, who should have been fighting for the kingdom, thought it a good idea to stay home. I mean, no big deal, right? His kingdom was thriving. His soldiers were winning all the battles. He can just sit this one out, right? They'll win the fight. It wasn't wrong, they did. And in the same way, the kingdom of heaven will win whether we partake in it or not. God's kingdom always has, always is, and always will prevail, with or without any one of us. Consider yourself, when you do the will of God, consider yourself unprofitable doing only your duty. Lord, increase our faith. So David, deciding not to go and fight, look where it left him. Open to an unnecessary temptation. A temptation that wouldn't have been presented to him if he, to him, except he decided to not go where he should have went. So life's complicated, right? We have Saul going when he should have stayed. We have David staying when he should have left. I want you to think about how you think about things. How can we possibly know what to do in these battles of our minds and the situations of our life? Well, Saul should have stayed. David should have left. We get the word. We get the word again. And then just when you think you understood what it meant, you say, I don't, I have a clue what it means. And then you go back to step one and you get the word. Without it, we will be drunk down by the devil as in 1 Peter 5. That roaring lion, he's too cunning and knows humanity far too well for us to ever have a chance on our own with our own thinking. But David here said it's okay to stay back. My soldiers will go fight and win the battle. We all have this choice. There are battles in your life that you have been hand-selected for, not because of your strength, but because of your weakness. Your family, your friends, your children, God has placed them there, Acts 17, 26, and 28. He has determined that time in your family, in your season, so that you might grow for Him. That's the purpose of that difficult situation, so that you might grow for Him. And there are battles you have no right stepping into. Only by studying the work and you have these things revealed to you. Now, I don't want us to miss out on opportunities to witness firsthand. I'd rather be a miracle than see one, but they are nice to see. But I don't want us missing out on opportunities firsthand to see the Lord's victory manifested in our lives and the people we care about. And I don't want to see my Christian brothers and sisters walking around defeated by the enemy because the Lord was not with them in that fight like at the end of Deuteronomy chapter 1. They're fighting from their flesh and the Lord is not there with you. We need wisdom. We need Christ. Proverbs 4, 7. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And with all you're getting, get understanding. So if you've been in the wrong fight, like this message convicted me before I was actually able to write it. Or maybe you've been avoiding the wrong one. You're staying somewhere where you should be battling that, entering the throne room of grace for that person in your time of need. Or maybe you're fighting somewhere in the flesh that you should be staying at home in the spirit. What do you do now? Re-evaluate your situation. What do we do? We wait. We wait. Don't go trying to figure it out on your own. That's what got you into trouble in the first place. Dad, what did you always tell me to do when I didn't know what to do? Do nothing. Now, when Dad used to tell me that, I used to use that for the benefit of my flesh to get out of my responsibilities. But we don't wait that way in the Lord. We have full expectation of salvation, of revelation when we do this correctly, trusting in Him to show us His truth in our lives and in our thinking. Full expectation when we trust and wait on the Lord. For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4, 12. So we wait. That is a beautiful picture. I learned this from somebody. I don't even know who, but in John chapter 20, on the first day of the week, the day we celebrate as believing Christians the resurrection of Jesus Christ, while we gather together. On this day, Mary went to the tomb and found it empty. So she went and told the disciples, and we have Peter and John running back, and John, you know, I still don't get John, like why he has to put that he's faster than Peter in there, but he did. I find it comical. But we have John arriving there first, and Perica, Perica Upto, Perica, is that it? Close enough. I told you I butchered the English and the Greek language. So we have John stooping down looking into the tomb. I'm not even going to try it again. That's the word. But that word is looking carefully. He got down, he's looking. What's going on in there? But he saw an empty tomb, but he looked so carefully. John was actually seeing the risen Christ before he seen Him. He didn't just look and say, oh, the tomb's empty. No, he said, what does this mean? This is how we're to think about things in our life. What does this mean, Lord? But in verse 7, we have this handkerchief. And the handkerchief that was around his head, it says, not lying with the linen clothes, but folded together in a place by itself. We wait. We wait. The Lord will instruct you. The Lord will correct you. But we wait. No presumption in the body of Christ. You see that word in the Old Testament a few times, and it gets scary. You think God told you to do it, and he didn't. Mm-mm. But in Hebrew culture, a servant would set the table and then stand out of sight until his master was finished. And to let the servant know if he was done or not, he would wipe himself, crumble up the napkin, and throw it down, thus telling the servant, it's OK, come clean up. I'm done here at the table. However, if he folded the napkin, it told the servant, don't clean up yet. I'm just stepping outside. I'll be back. On the cross, Jesus declared, it is finished. But in the tomb, the folded napkin declared, I don't even get why. I mean, I do. I know it. I know it. Like, it's excitement. Scott said he hoped he'd die soon, and I get it. I want the Lord to come back. But in the tune, the fool in the napkin declared that he would be returning, just like that dinner table with the servant. Fool in the napkin, I'm coming back. Don't clean up yet. It is finished and He will be returning and we don't have to clean up the outside of our cups, we need to correct these. And if we can correct these and think with God, the outside of the cup will become clean. Romans 12 to be renewed in your mind because He is coming back and will establish a new kingdom in which He will be king. New creations, new heaven, new earth. He will return until that handkerchief is balled up and thrown down, we wait. We wait for his finished work of the cross be manifested here on earth as it is in the kingdom of heaven. So this battlefield of our minds. where all the prescriptive writings of the New Testament says that this is where we fight our battles. It's a bold statement, but I'm fairly confident that's accurate. This is the spiritual warfare of the Christian, our minds. This is where it's fought. This is where it's won. This is where it's lost. How we think, mind of Christ, mind of self, victory, defeat, every time. There's no middle ground. There's no tie in spiritual battles. It's either you're walking in victory or you're walking in defeat. So we can wait. Not reacting quickly to situations, not being controlled by emotions, but by having the mind of Christ, we can let God think for us. And there's no cheating here. There's no spirituality apart from the word, no feelings, no gut instincts that can get you thinking with the mind of Christ. If you tell me you hear from God yet there's no evidence of the word coming out from your mouth or from your life, I'm calling it deceit almost every time. That's the enemy just revealing to himself, revealing to you a God of your own understanding. I love this, Scott, and I'm going through it again. It takes investment, time, energy, effort into the word of God. And I promise you the interest comes. That interest comes exponentially and abundantly from the investment of your time in God's work. But you don't ever get interest when you put money in the bank before you put the money in the bank. It doesn't work like that. We invest the time and find an interest in the mind of Christ that just has us desiring more and more and more of Him. If you've lived in death, you know it. Lived in darkness, and you know you have. Then have tasted His life, His light. There's no other option for you. You couldn't not choose it if you wanted to. Am I right? I can't. Maybe people can. That life of Christ, that light of God, is too good not to become addicted to it. 1 Corinthians 16, 15. And they became addicted to the ministry. Are you addicted to the ministry? The body of Christ, fellowship, reading, praying, listening to your teachers? Or do you just give that a little bit of your time a day? To be addicted, I don't know if anybody's been in here. I do know the people that's been addicted in this room, most of them. What does it do? It occupies every second of your mind, and that's the thing you serve night and day. Have you been addicted to the ministry? Have you been addicted to the word? Or is it just a weekend thing for you, 15 minutes in the morning? maybe 15 minutes a night, or your conversations, your life of reflection of the Word of God working through you, being corrected daily. Man, do I get corrected. That's good. That's part of the addiction. Sometimes it hurts. We have a new way to think in this life, and therefore, we have a new way to exist in this life. New creations with the new mind of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. In that new way, that new life begins and ends with Jesus Christ. A new life in where we can think the way God thinks, choose the way God chooses, and do the things God does. So let's start doing it already, amen. Lord, bless the fellowship tonight, bless the offering. Thank you for your word, thank you for your mind that you have given us, because you know without it we'd be lost. Lord, we thank you, we love you. In Jesus we pray, amen.