Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist that renews my mind.

It renews my mind. If there is an area that is a national epidemic right now, it is this area of our thinking. Of mental, emotional issues. I am here to say that there are some very real issues, illnesses. I'm convinced of that. You'll hear others say differently. And I feel like I've been around enough cases that I believe that there are some very serious things.

I will tell you what is also a big issue is that many of God's people have allowed their mind to control them instead of with God's help learning to control their mind. That is a big difference. And I am persuaded that God is able.

That changes my thinking. It has to. So we're going to look at this today.

I hope that this will be something that you can greatly use. If you'll remember, look at verse 12. For the which cause I also suffer these things, Paul says. So there's kind of in a nutshell that I'm going through some things and some of the things he was going through at this time, he was in jail. He was in prison. And Paul was suffering with that jailing.

I'm sure came much abuse, came persecution and all these things. And then he uses this transfer word here in verse 12. Nevertheless, in other words, with all that I am in and going through right now, I have this one thing that has kept me grounded, that has kept me settled, that has helped me to remain faithful and has kept my mind stable. That is this, look, nevertheless, I am not ashamed for I know whom I believed and I'm persuaded that he is able. You know, oftentimes our mind begins to control us when we begin to realize and come to grips with the fact that we are not able.

Messes us up because we've thought we were and we realize we're not. And you and I have got to understand this thing of having a sound mind in verse seven, that I've got to be convinced that God is able, not me. Look at verse seven. For God hath not given us, Paul says, the spirit of fear.

I mean, the average person would have been right there being in jail, being in prison. Really feel like circumstances are out of your control. That would bring fear to us and as we're going to talk about this word fear is the word for intimidation. It means fear that is caused by being intimidated. Paul says that God's not given us that kind of spirit. And if you or I are involved in that kind of fearful spirit, that did not come from God. He said God did give us, notice in verse seven, the spirit of power, the spirit of love, and the spirit of a sound mind. It renews my mind.

By the way, our mind controls our actions. Let's pray, Lord, I love you. I pray that you'd bless your word today, as you always do. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

I could say more, let's just jump right in. Look if you would at verse seven, the first thing I see here is fleshly fear. Fleshly fear. God hath not given us the spirit of fear. Which automatically in English implies that if there is that spirit of fear, it didn't come from God.

So the only logical place we can think of that it came from is us. Because us and God are the only two involved. So we see first that this fear is fleshly. It's not a spirit, the spirit of God didn't bring this, it's flesh related. Fleshly fear is what my ability produces, by the way. My ability, my strength produces fleshly fear. It is the word timidity. It is caused by intimidation.

Listen to me, please get this this morning. Often damage is not done by what we fear. The thing we fear normally doesn't do the damage. Damage is done by the fact that we fear it. Do you get it? Shake your head if you get that.

I know it's a bit complicated, listen to me. Damage is done by the fact that we fear something. Damage is done by our fear, not by what we fear.

Let me give you an illustration if I can. If any of you have ever watched a scary movie. Now there's not a whole lot of Christian themed based scary movies.

So it's been years since I've seen one. But if you've ever watched a scary movie, even as a kid. And you all know that once you become a parent, you have youngins, you don't like scary movies anymore.

Just everything you see happen, you envision it's your child and you just don't enjoy it anymore. I saw a scary movie last week, my wife had a Hallmark movie on that actually had a plot. And I was scared, I was like, oh, I was, I mean it frightened me. I was like, this is a new plot in this Hallmark movie.

I was startled, but anyway. Listen to me, if you've ever watched a scary movie and you're watching this person, you know, he's creeping in searching this old house. For some reason he's doing it with the lights off. And if the lights don't work in the house, get out of the house, you know. But he's kind of, and then if he has a flashlight it's on his own face, which I don't understand that, you know. And you all know that you're watching that and it gets kind of intense and it's always this little bit of music behind, you know, kind of a thing. And all of a sudden he hits this door and all of a sudden this clown jumps out.

Sorry, I'm sorry Nick, I'm so sorry. This scary guy jumps out. I literally thought today about having somebody dressed up as a clown. Because I know you always sit there. I was going to have them at that moment. Jump out. But we just didn't have enough room. We would have had to go home, that would have been it. Some of you are like, I wish he would have done that. Look at me. When you're watching that, all of a sudden somebody jumps out.

What do you do in your living room? Now, you did not jump, you did not get startled because the person literally came into the living room and grabbed you. You jumped because you were afraid he would. He's not going to. That individual on that TV cannot do any damage to you unless you let it. So you're not really scared at the individual, you're just scared at what he might do. Although he can't. That's the way you and I are with Satan. Do you realize Satan cannot damage you if you're a child of God? He can't do anything that God won't allow him to do.

Satan has to operate under limitation and parameters. God's promise not to put on us more than we can bear. It doesn't mean we're not going to have some horrendous horrible things that might happen in our life. We're humans, that's life.

Life is fragile, nothing can change that. But often times you and I are scared not by what actually did happen but by what might happen. And we're intimidated to the point that we don't even do what God wants us to do because we're so intimidated by what might happen.

I want you to see this verse, I thought this was very good, Psalm 53 verse 5. There were they in great fear where no fear was. They were scared over nothing. Listen to me, there is often no real substance to our fears, folks. We're afraid of what people might say, not normally what they have said. We're intimidated by what might happen, not by what really did happen.

Usually we're worried about what people might think, not what they really do think. God didn't create this, he didn't start this, he didn't give us that. That comes from us. Listen to me, Satan can't really damage us. He just has to convince us that he could. And we walk around through life being intimidated as God's child.

Although there's nothing that can really hurt us. But our fear comes from our flesh. If there could have been a chance for that, it would have been Paul sitting right in his own jail cell. He could have been afraid. He could have felt a lot of things. But he makes this statement, God didn't give me, or you by the way, the spirit of fear. This is how God operates.

Number two, look what he brings up. Not just fleshly fear in verse seven, but Paul brings up first miraculous might. He's given us the spirit, Paul says, of power. This word power is the word dunamis.

It's where we get our word dynamite. It is literally, this is the definition of this word, miraculous power. A miracle in itself.

A mighty work. So literally, although our flesh likes to produce fleshly fear, God has made available to you and me miraculous might. Preacher, what does that really mean?

Look at this verse, Isaiah chapter 40, verse 29. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. That's what God does. He gives us the spirit of power. You see, that fear stuff and intimidation stuff came from our flesh. But this whole miraculous power stuff came from God.

Say, I don't understand, preacher. That's why you and I must be persuaded that he is able. Because our strength runs out, but God has given us the spirit of miraculous might. We get tired, but God has given miraculous energy. It's literally, if you get this, in its very name, it is not a physical manifestation.

Did you hear what the Bible says? It's a spirit of power. I don't even know, I can tell that you don't get it yet. It's the spirit of power. Not the flesh of power, it's the spirit of power. It means it's not going to be something you will physically have. It is something that you get spiritually.

Listen to me. We will not access it in our flesh. But only through the spirit of God comes the spirit of power. You and I want to try to somehow figure out how we can do it in our flesh.

How we can do it physically. And you and I have got to understand that our mind must realize that we are persuaded and convinced that I'm not able, that I'm not strong enough, that I don't have the might, but he is. And so I need from him, although I have fleshly weakness and fear, I need from him a spirit, a supernatural spirit of power. Miraculous might. We don't know where it comes from.

We don't know how it happened. We did everything we could do and failed, but somehow God did it. That's a spirit. Paul says this fear that I feel sometimes intimidated by things, people, Satan, everything else, that's my flesh. God has given me the spirit and made available to me the spirit of miraculous might.

That means even when it looks obvious that I am behind the ball here and I have a great disadvantage, God has a miraculous power that he makes available by his spirit. That's why it's a spirit of power. Notice secondly here, the spirit of love. Paul said he doesn't give us fear, he gives us power and he gives us love. Notice number three, this is an affectionate attitude.

See what do you mean? Well this word love is the word agape and it has a slightly different meaning. It means literally affection or benevolence. It means the way we feel towards others generally. Now I love my wife intimately, but I love you in a different way. I haven't given literally my entire commitment of life to love, cherish, and obey you. So there's a different love. We can go through all the different loves, but that's not what we're doing here today. This word agape means our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Now listen to me, I want you to get this. Paul says that that kind of spirit comes from God. So anything other than a spirit of love towards your brothers and sisters in Christ is not of God, it's of you.

So let's look at this and understand what we're saying. If anybody had the reason to not feel this way, it would be Paul. Now listen to me, our flesh is not equipped to feel love for the very individuals that persecuted and imprisoned us. Paul is sitting in jail having been persecuted and imprisoned and Paul has nothing but a spirit of love towards those very people.

Man, don't know how he would do that. Paul had that spirit as he wrote this letter from prison. That was a God-given spirit of love. God is able to do that, we are not. Do you know the closer to God we become, the more we become like God? Paul, while under persecution, listen to me, he is encouraging Timothy, this young Christian, he is encouraging him in verse 6 to stir up the gifts God's given you. Look at me, but in verse 7 he's encouraging him to exercise the God-given spirit of love.

Why? Look at me, often times our circumstances is not what stops us, people are. People are. Do you get it? Paul says God's given me the spirit of power to overcome my fears, but he's given me the spirit of love to overcome people. That means somehow in the midst of them doing you absolutely wrong, I have a spirit of love towards them. Let me explain this, it's like this. We don't have to love what people do.

Don't get that confused. We do not have to love what people do, but we do need to have a loving spirit towards them. Let me get a little deeper so you can understand.

It's like this. Our flesh might not always love them, but we should always have a loving spirit towards them. Because sometimes my flesh isn't going to love some of you.

Could you imagine? And sometimes your flesh isn't going to love me, and I know that. But here's the deal, if we are controlled and operated by the flesh, that's where conflict comes from. But if you and I, this miraculous might that God has provided, you and I, although we don't have a fleshly love for each other sometimes, because we're agitated and angry, we need a loving spirit. It's all in the spirit. This love that Paul says we have to have, you and I are not going to be able to have that in the flesh.

I'm just being honest. But Paul says with God's help, even though you might not have fleshly affection for them right now, you can have a spirit of affection for them through God. I don't know if you're getting all this or not, but listen to me. Look at this verse, John 13, 34. A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you.

In other words, don't love each other like you would love because you're not going to be able to do it. So the only way for you to love an individual is to love like God loves them. Is God not a spirit? Okay, so I've got to love them like God loves them. Now do you think God's always happy with what we do?

I know he's not happy with what I always do. But doesn't God always love us? So in order for us to do and love as God's loved us, he says here that ye love one another. So the only way I can learn to love you the way that the Lord loves you is to do it in the spirit, not in the flesh. Now notice this next verse. By this shall all men know that ye are what? My disciples, if ye love one another. You see, if you decide that you're going to do it in your own might, we're not going to look like his disciples. So in order to look like his disciples, not our disciples, we have to exercise a miraculous spirit of love that we don't naturally feel in the flesh, but that we, through God's help, supernaturally exercise in the spirit. Dear friend, if you don't learn to do this, and if I don't learn to do this, people will ruin your life. You've got to understand, our feelings are physical.

It's fleshly. And I cannot act towards a person like I feel like acting towards the person. I have to act towards the person as the Holy Spirit of God has made available a spirit of love, affection, benevolence towards them. If you get it, say amen.

Notice this last thing. Transformed thinking. God has not given this spirit of intimidation and fear. God has given us the spirit of power, miraculous power. He's given us the spirit of love, miraculous love that has to go way above us. Number three, he's given us the spirit of a sound mind.

This is a biggie. So what do you mean preacher? This word sound means disciplined, self-controlled. It means that I, through only God's help, must keep my mind disciplined. I have to keep my mind under control.

I don't know if you know this, but that takes miraculous power from God. Where is Satan going to attack? Our mind. Our mind.

Our mind. Look at me as Paul is sitting in jail telling Timothy, this young man, listen I want you to know young man, you've got a whole life ahead of you. Don't you be intimidated because you might be persecuted or you might get thrown in jail like I have. Don't you be intimidated by that because even if you are persecuted, and even if you are thrown in jail, God has not given us a spirit to fear that. God's given us a miraculous spirit to have might in the midst of that, to literally have a spirit of love towards the very people that do it. And in the middle of all this, Satan's going to attack your mind, every part of it. But I'm here to tell you God can help you discipline your thinking.

Anybody want to say Amen that every one of us in this building need that? Satan attacks your mind while you're sitting right here at a church service, thinking things about other people and individuals, and we just let Satan do it. Say alright preacher what does it mean? Well let me give you a familiar verse to show you something from it. Romans chapter 12, the verses are on the screen.

I'm sure you knew I was going to have to end up here somehow talking about this. In verse 2 it gives us these two phrases, and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. We understand that. But now look at verse 3.

For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, notice this, not to what? Think. So you have to make a decision not to think such and such. That's a disciplined mind. In other words you have to stop yourself from thinking that. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, listen to this, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

That word soberly is the same thing as sound. Disciplined. Say alright preacher what does it mean? Listen to me. Number one, it takes grace.

Don't you love it? Look at verse 3. For I say through the grace given to me to every man that is among you. What I'm getting ready to tell you guys is not going to happen in your flesh and in your ability. It's going to have to be the grace of God. It's going to have to be something that we don't necessarily deserve but God out of his grace has made it possible. So I'm going to tell you for you and I to keep our minds renewed for us to literally have transformed thinking it's going to take the grace of God. And you and I better not even start until we know that. It's not going to be some book you read. It's not going to be some three step process you tell yourself to do every day you wake up. Be nice to people. Show love to all people. Yeah you just try that. Before you get to work some nuts going to cut you off in traffic.

And you're going to want to crack that nut. It takes grace. Number two, it takes humility.

He says for I say through the grace given to me to every man that is among you. First thing not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. You know what often messes up our thinking? We think too highly of ourselves. You know what often creates a whole process of undisciplined thinking is when we allow ourselves to think that we are anything without Christ. In other words the understood thing here is that this is going to be a natural thing for you to think more highly of yourself. And you can't let yourself do that. In other words what's implied is that this is going to be a constant battle for you.

And for me. To make sure that we keep our thinking humble. You know why often you and I begin thinking wrong? Because so and so bothered me. So and so offended me. That is pride. I don't care how you want to look at it. That's pride.

You can get mad at me if you want. That's pride. And so you and I we think so highly of ourselves.

How dare somebody say or do that to me. And that starts us down a dangerous process of thinking. It'll produce results. It'll produce actions that couldn't be any close to God.

It's nowhere near Godly action. But it all started because we thought too highly of ourselves. We're told here it takes grace. It takes humility. Notice number three. It takes discipline.

Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think soberly. Again this word same word as sound. It's discipline. It's controlled. God bless you.