Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A little later in the program, we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's brand new book, Reignite. But first, here's his message. Change your thoughts, change your life. to present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.

And then today's verse. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Your mind, your thought life is control center of your life.

Everything that your body does physically responds to what your brain says emotionally, intellectually, psychologically. Now one thing I've noted as I've studied the Bible over the years, the Bible is not only good theology but it's good psychology. Jesus is the great physician. The Holy Spirit is our counselor.

God the Father loves us and embraces us. So we have this amazing record, the revelation of God, the Bible, which tells us how we are to live, what we believe and how we then behave. And every human situation, emotion is addressed in the Bible. Whether you're talking about guilt or fear, worry, anxiety, anger, depression, relationships, it's all in the Bible.

So the Bible enables us to think and when we think the transformed thoughts of God's Word then our lives are powerfully changed every day. So many people think they can't change. In fact, one of the big questions I get as a pastor regularly is, can I really change? I've tried so hard to break this addiction or to overcome this opponent. I have tried and tried and I keep failing. I can't seem to change.

Well, I've got great news for you. You can change and you will change if you will do exactly what God's Word tells us to do. First, as an act of consecration to the Lord, bring your life totally and completely to Him, no holes barred, unreserved, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And having consecrated or dedicated our lives to Him, then there comes this separation from the world. For the Scripture says here, do not be conformed to this world. All of us look at life, we have a worldview and we either see the world through the lens of Scripture or the lens of culture or in society. We are not to live and learn from the world as compared to the Word. Your mind can change your life the way you think.

You can cast down according to Scriptures, imaginations and thoughts. Now the world of course is not the world of people, but the world of ideologies. You might just substitute the word culture here.

It is the world system, the cosmos. But actually the word here for world has to do with the idea of the spirit of the age. So whether it is the opinions, ideologies, philosophies, the spirit of this age, it says don't conform to that. Don't allow your thinking to be conformed or compromised by the world. Perhaps you've heard these lines, sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character.

Sow a character and you reap a destiny. We are the sum total of our thoughts. The Bible says as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And therefore the most important decisions that we make every single day are the thoughts that we choose, what we think about all day long.

Because as the mind goes, the man goes. The way you think is the way that you live. And so it's obvious, isn't it? If you are a Christian, you want to think biblical thoughts. You want to think God's thoughts, not the world's thoughts.

Now this is all obvious, isn't it? And as a matter of fact, science and scripture are in agreement that the way we think influences not only our psychological life, but even our physical life. You are wired, brain wired by God the creator to think with hope and optimism, to think good thoughts, but rather so many are thinking toxic thoughts.

And this is poisonous, not only to the brain, but to the body. This is why we're told in the book of Philippians chapter four in that entire passage about anxiety and overcoming anxiety and having the peace of God in our lives. He says, whatever is true and praiseworthy and good and pure, concentrate, think on these things. God has so made us that we can only think one thing at a time. If you could think more than one thing at a time, they call that schizophrenia by the way, but really you can only think one thing at a time. I know people deal with ADD and those kinds of issues, but the brain is so designed that if you are thinking the right thoughts, you cannot be thinking the wrong thoughts. You can't sow thoughts of fear and anger and expect to sow peace and grace in your life. And again, so many people in the physical realm are sick, not all of course, not everyone is sick because of the way they think, but scientists, physicians, they tell us that so many of the patients they see, it's not initially at least a physical problem, but a problem of the way we think.

Now, we have three enemies as believers and followers of Jesus, the world, the flesh, the devil, the world around us influencing us, pressuring us, the world system that is anti-God and anti-Christ, the flesh, our own human nature, we're getting better as we grow in Christ, we're becoming more like Christ, but till the day we die, we will deal with our humanity, our fallen humanity, we are being changed day by day, that's happening I pray in your life, but we will always deal with the flesh, the world, the flesh, and then the devil, and the devil is real and the devil of course uses our flesh or uses the world to taunt us or tempt us or take us out. There are several big lies that the world is telling us and our young people. Lie number one is that life is an accident. Life is an accident. You're just a blip on the evolutionary ascent or as we know, descent.

Just a naked ape. You are a result of blind chance. There is no Creator.

There is no meaning, no accountability to God in your life because life is an accident. Big lie of the world. Another lie the world throws at us, truth is relative. Truth is relative.

There are no moral absolutes says the world, no real commandments. You are your own truth or you have your own truth and you can do what you want to do and as a result, people decide their ethical and moral behavior. A third lie that the world throws at us is that you are what you are and you can't change it. That's called determinism philosophically and you can't change who you are or what you are.

That's a big lie. If you do bad things, it's because you have a genetic predisposition that cannot be recreated or is your parents. You know, we're no longer, you know, we are victims of our environment or our lack of education, et cetera. You are what you are.

You can't change it. That's what the world says. And the world says, if it feels good, do it. That the goal of life is pleasure.

So indulge yourself. Eat, drink, be merry for tomorrow we die. The goal of life is self-fulfillment according to the world.

But what does the word say? The truth is opposite of this. Life is not an accident. You are made by a Creator, God and Savior. Your life is sacred. All life is sacred from the womb to the tomb and into eternity. God has a plan for your life.

God has a purpose for everyone, therefore there is meaning. And along with that meaning comes accountability to God, that we're all accountable to God and to people around us. God has given us His word, including clear commandments. Not suggestions, but commandments that are good for us because God is good and knows what is good for those He has created. And these commandments and precepts and principles that God has given us in His word, this is not multiple choice. You can't pick and choose which commandments you believe and what you don't believe. Truth is not relative.

Truth is real. And the moral absolutes that we find in God's word apply to everyone. You are not a victim of your circumstances. God can change your life through the power of Jesus Christ. You don't have to live the way that you've been living. You can overcome your past. You can overcome your lack in life and be changed from the inside out.

And the purpose of your life is not self-fulfillment, just doing whatever you want to do and self-pleasure and self-indulgent, but the purpose of your life is now as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus Christ, is to honor God, to live for Him and for His glory and not for yourself. No wonder, the Scripture says, don't let the world conform you. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. Don't allow the spirit of the age.

We know who is the God of this age, for the Bible says Satan is the God of this age. 1 John 2, 15 to 17 tells us how we are to respond to the world as believers. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. For everything in the world, here's 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. The world and its desires pass away. It's all going up in smoke.

But whoever does the will of God lives forever. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and his message, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. Pastor, this month we have a special gift for our listeners who give a gift to PowerPoint. It's your brand new book, Reignite.

What can you tell us about this powerful resource? My latest book Reignite is out and it is definitely needed. The message of this book is needed today. It was actually born out of a personal experience, an emotional crisis in my life after a cancer surgery. And I discovered some things about Reignite in my life that I want to share with you.

If you find yourself exhausted, tired, depressed, anxious, uncertain about your future, then I believe this book is going to encourage you. Call today and get Reignite as our thank you for your gift. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. Or text the word PowerPoint to 313131.

Text PowerPoint to 313131. Now let's get back to today's message, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. Don't be conformed to this world.

And it's not only students and young people that face peer pressure, the squeeze. Everyone faces the lure and the lust of the world. But God has called us to be unique, to dare to be different.

When I think of someone who dared to be different, I always think of Daniel in the Old Testament, such a great young man. And as a teenager, he along with his friends were deported over to Babylon and they attempted to squeeze them into the system of the Babylonians and to teach them the language of the Babylonians. These were good Jewish boys who loved the Lord, but now the pressure of the world is on them. And whether it was the food and the drink that they were to receive or whether it was the language that they were to speak or the gods that they were to serve, the Babylonians were trying to say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

What happens in Babylon stays in Babylon. So what did Daniel do? Verse 8 of chapter 1 of Daniel says, Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with what the king was giving and offering. He dared to stand alone, he dared to stand out, and others followed him.

And that's what God is calling every one of us to do, to dare like Daniel to be different. We are to be transformed. You've probably have heard over time that this word transformed here is our word metamorphosis. Same word that was used describing the transfiguration of Jesus.

When everything Jesus was on the inside was demonstrated, displayed on the outside, his glory was revealed at the transfiguration. That was a metamorphosis. You know what a metamorphosis is? It's when a caterpillar wraps himself in a cocoon, a coffin, and over time the metamorphosis takes place and a beautiful butterfly appears.

It's a process. It's a transformation. It's a metamorphosis. The Scripture, God is telling us that this metamorphosis must take place in our lives by the transformation of our thinking, of our thought life.

The caterpillar, the creature is no longer crawling in the dust but soaring like a beautiful butterfly. As Christians we are no longer live in the dirt and the dust and the coffin of this world, but we have been metamorphosized, we have been transformed. Yes, you can change by the power of God. The bondage is that you can't seem to break. The chains that seem to lock you up, they are breakable by the Word of God. You can overcome that addiction.

You can overcome that pain in your past. You can get beyond the way you used to think and begin to think the thoughts of God after him when you are all in. So you need to get all in for the Lord and we change by making this commitment to the Word of God, to the witness of the Spirit within us. Remember the story of Elijah when the people of God Israel were in bondage and the terrible king of Israel as a matter of fact, Ahab and Jezebel were in control and they were leading the children of Israel to worship false gods and all the rest and so at a place called Carmel and Elijah stood before the people of God and he said, how long are you going to keep limping between two opinions? If God be God, serve him. If Baal is God, serve him. But away with half in, half out will destroy your life. When you go all in, in consecration and then the separation, then the transformation begins to take place.

Compromise and conforming to this world will destroy you and your family. Another biblical story, the story of Lot. Remember Lot? The nephew of Abraham and when they came to the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah, they needed to split up for a variety of reasons and Abraham gave Lot the choice and Lot choose to move in to Sodom and Gomorrah.

He first just moved near and then he moved in. It was compromised and Lot is known as a compromiser and when the judgment came upon Sodom and Gomorrah, when God strictly judged the people because of their great sin, Lot and his family barely escaped. They lost their testimony, they lost everything because of compromise, because they moved into the world instead of following by faith the plan of God.

I can give you many, many examples of this. One of the big things that we need to do is spend more time in God's Word. If you keep looking at the world and listening to the world, guess what?

You're going to be like the world. But you get in the Word and the Word gets in you, then you start becoming more like Jesus and less and less like the world. You can't allow your mind to be captured by the spirit of this age.

You can't be seduced by society and the culture at large. And so what I've been doing for a long, long time, really since I was a child and especially once I made that dedication of my life to the Lord as a teenager, is I have been memorizing and meditating upon the Word of God. And you say, well, you're a preacher, you're paid to do that.

No, that's not why I do it. I pray I'm a better preacher because I do it. But I do it for my own soul, for my own psychology, for my own spirit. Colossians 3 16 says, let the Word of God live in you richly, that we saturate our hearts and minds with God's truth. That means time in the Word. It means your mind all in the Word of God. So a good question to answer today is how much time do you spend listening to the world and how much time do you spend listening to God in His Word? The default set for every Christian should be to run to the Word. How can I know that I know the Lord better and therefore live for Him all in? The best habit of my life has been memorizing Scripture. To concentrate upon God's Word, to think it through and write it down and pray it in.

That's what I do almost every day. And if I miss, I feel hungry all day long for God's Word because God's Word is bread to my soul, a lamp into my feet, a light into my path. It's the way out of darkness.

It's the light of God. And there is tremendous, hear me, there is tremendous mental, psychological, as well as spiritual therapy if you will get in the Word. This is gold.

It's priceless. As I said at the start of this message, every situation in your life, every circumstance, every problem, every pressure, everything you face in your life is addressed in God's Word. So you need to feast on the Word of God, feed on the Word of God. And then day after day, your life will be changed.

This is what happens. This is the renewal of the mind. You see that phrase there, renewal of the mind?

That actually means renovation, renovation. This transformation, this renovation, this reset can happen in your life if you will be all in and commit. And when you do this, you're going to find the wisdom of God, the ways of God, and the will of God accomplished in your life. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. Chances are you've faced your share of crisis. Maybe you're even in the fight of your life right now.

Or maybe you're simply feeling exhausted by the busyness of life and sapped of spiritual strength. Whatever you're facing, we want to help fan the flame of faith in your life by sending you Dr. Graham's newest book, Re-Ignite, this personal account of how God led Dr. Graham through his own crisis will help you focus on God during difficult seasons so you can experience fresh passion and joy in Jesus. And we'll send you a copy as thanks for your gift today. So call now to request your copy of Re-Ignite. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627.

You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit jackgramm.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is jackgramm.org. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

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