Welcome to Turning Points. Ready to change your life? Start by changing your mind. It's true. Your life always follows the direction of your thoughts.
Today, Dr. David Jeremiah shares a special message with insights on God's design for life change. To help you develop a fresh perspective, here's David to introduce his message. You are not what you think you are. But what you think, you are.
And this is again from the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 23, verse 7. And it is a profound concept that your mind controls your life. Through the mind comes the thoughts that direct the things you do. And so, how important it is to guard your mind. We're going to talk about this as we open our Bibles today and again on Monday, and talk about the importance of your mental.
Self. The importance of your mind and how you think. Friends, we're getting down to the very last couple of days of the month of August, which means I only have two more days today and Monday to tell you about this book that we have written that we want you to have. It will get into your mind. You will find you're getting wrapped up in these truths because this book is called God's Heart for Israel.
And in a day when the Jewish people and the nation of Israel are taking big hits from people all over the world, including from our own country, it's really important for us to know what the Bible says about God and Israel and us. What should our attitude be toward this nation? I know some people like to write this off and say, the Israel of the Bible is not the Israel of today. But in my estimation, that is nonsense and it doesn't make any sense at all. Israel is God's nation, it has always been, it will continue to be.
And the Bible says that God blesses those who bless Israel and He He curses those who curse Israel. History will demonstrate that God told the truth about that. I want to make sure we stay on the right side of God and the right side of Israel. I've written all about it in this book. It's over 100 pages, beautifully designed in a gift book, and it's yours for the asking when you send a gift of any size to Turning Point today.
Thank you for your investment. And now let's begin this two-part message called You Are Not What You Think You Are, but What You Think You Are. Ever have somebody come up to you when you look like you're in deep thought and say to you, What are you thinking about? Happens often between the husband and wife. Don asks me that once in a while: what are you thinking about?
And while that is a casual question, it's a very important question, isn't it? What do you think? James Allen has been called a literary man of mystery, but little is known about him. He never achieved fame or fortune. He died at the age of 48, wrote 19 or 20 books, most of which nobody's ever heard of.
Yet he wrote one book, one little tiny volume that was discovered after his death. It was the second book that he had ever written. and perhaps the one which he himself felt that it wasn't very good. And that little book that was discovered from the writings of James Allen has sold millions of copies. And it is influenced countless number of lives.
Let me tell you a little bit about him. He was born in England. His father was grappling with a failing business and was almost bankrupt. He traveled to America searching for a new job, and instead he was waylaid, robbed, and murdered. And back in England, the family's ensuing financial crisis forced young James Allen to drop out of school at the age of 15 and get a job.
He became a personal assistant in the world of British manufacturers, and he worked at that profession until 1902. And then, at the age of 38, one day he just walked in and he quit. and walked away. James and his wife moved to a little coastal town in England, and he lived there for about 10 years before his early death. He kept a strict routine.
Each morning he'd get up before dawn and hike to the top of the nearby hillside and spend an hour in meditation. Then he would return to his house and devote the morning to writing, and then in the afternoon he would work in his garden or involve himself in his hobbies. As far as we know, James Allen was not a Christian. But one little book he wrote was based on a Bible verse from the book of Proverbs. And that small volume almost single-handedly gave rise to the self-improvement and positive thinking movement.
of the past 100 years. The book is entitled, As a Man Thinketh. And it's based on Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 7, which says, For as he thinks in his heart, So is he. Say that with me out loud. For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
The point of as a man thinketh is simple. Our thoughts are the most important thing about us. All that we achieve or fail to achieve is the direct result of the way we think. Our thoughts are like seeds that produce crops. James Allen wrote in his book: Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results, and bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results.
And this is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world and they work with it, but few understand it in the moral world, though its operation is just as simple and Undeviating. His point is That what we think is what we are. And our lives run in the direction of our thoughts. If we think angry thoughts, guess what?
We'll be angry. If we think positive thoughts, we'll be positive. If we think negative thoughts, we'll be negative. The mind is like a garden, and we have to cultivate it, and we are responsible for the kind of seed that we drop into the furrows of our mind. To quote Alan again, a person's mind may be likened to a garden.
Which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild, but whether cultivated or neglected, it must and will bring forth fruit. If the useful seeds are not put into the garden, an abundance of useless seeds will fall upon it and will continue to produce their fruit. This is a particular application of the proverb that says in Galatians 6:7, whatsoever a man sows, That shall he also reap. Proverbs 23, 7 teaches us that what we think is what we become. And while this is an important principle of the word of God, I need to tell you, it's also been used to build the case for many unscriptural ideas.
The positive mental attitude industry has used this verse in almost all of its literature. Maybe you've heard it something like this: Whatever your mind can conceive and your heart can believe, you can achieve. Or maybe you've heard it this way: think your way to success. Many other such ideas. But this is not what the proverb is teaching.
We do not have the power. To think things into existence, no matter what anyone says. This view of thinking is ungodly humanism. But to understand that our thoughts are powerful is not humanistic at all. It is very, very biblical.
The Bible teaches us that our thoughts are important and that we cannot change our lives unless we change our thoughts. What we do with our thinking determines what we become. We are not what we think we are, but what we think. We are. An anonymous author explained this concept in these terms.
He says, Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life. If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted. And if you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always gotten. If you want different results in your life or in your work, all you have to do is change your mind.
Now, this is borne out a lot of times in Scripture, and I want to just use one illustration about a man whose story is told in the book of 1 Kings. We all know this man, his name is Elijah. If you were to chart the life of Elijah, the highest point on your chart. would be his victory on Mount Carmel over the prophets of Baal. when he mocked the gods of the ungodly.
Prophets. And then, after he had won a tremendous victory and the fire of God came down and licked up his sacrifice, we're told that Elijah went and slew all the prophets of Baal. There could not have been a more wonderful, victorious moment. Against ungodliness, than there was that night. Take it in the Old Testament context as you will.
That was the mountaintop experience for Elijah. How many of you know that quite often, after a mountaintop experience, you have one that's just exactly the opposite? The height of the mountain sometimes says often determines the depth of the valley. And the next time we look in on Elijah, he's gone from the mountaintop. to the valley.
In fact, the Queen Went to see Ahab the king and When King Ahab told Jezebel what Elijah had done to all her favorite clergymen, She was furious. And the Bible says she brought everything to power that she, as a queen, could bring, and she chased Elijah. And Elijah, in a moment's time, went from exhilaration to depression. In fact, I don't have time to take you to that scripture, but let me give you some expressions out of the dialogue that Elijah had with God. He's running from this woman, just one lone woman.
After him. And he says he felt worthless. He said, I'm no better than my ancestors. He felt hopeless. He ran for his life.
He felt isolated. I am the only. Prophet left, he said. And he was unable to cope. I've had enough.
In fact, he actually told the Lord: if it's all right, just take my life. I'd like to die. This is a prophet who just came down off the mountain. And the Bible says that after God provided some food and rest for his embattled prophet, he restructured his thoughts and gave him some life. He showed himself to Elijah.
The Bible says the Lord is about to pass by. He filled his future with hope because God would accompany him, encouraged Elijah to go back the way he came. He revealed that he was not isolated as he thought he was. In fact, God gave him some statistics. He said, I still have 7,000 prophets in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Elijah, you're not alone. And he infused Elijah's life with meaning. He gave him a mission for him to accomplish.
Now Elijah thought his problem was Jezebel. But there will always be problems like Jezebel in our lives. The real challenge for Elijah wasn't Jezebel. The real problem for Elijah was what was going on between his ears. in his mind.
It is surprising. Is it not? As we look around, how much we can observe about this principle. And it's very surprising to look into the Bible and to see how much the Bible has to say about the power of our minds and our thoughts. And the more we learn about the complexity of our minds that God has given us, the more we can understand why it's a priority in Scripture.
In my study, I found a description of the human mind. I just cannot tell you how awesome this is. The human brain's 12 to 14 billion cells are only a shadow of its complexity. For each cell sends out thousands of connecting tendrils so that a single cell may be connected with 10,000 neighboring cells. Each of which is constantly exchanging data impulses.
These 12 to 14 billion brain cells times 10,000 connectors make the human mind an unparalleled computer. The mind's activity has been compared to 1,000 switchboards, each big enough to serve New York City, all running at full speed as they receive and send questions and orders. Put another way, there is more electronic equivalent in one human brain than in all the radio and television stations of the entire world put together. The human brain does not miss a thing. It's capable of giving and receiving the subtlest input from imagining a universe in which time bends to creating the polyphonic texture of a Bach fugue or transmitting and receiving a message from God.
a feat that no computer could ever accomplish. I want to take you to several passages of the New Testament. That outline the priorities of this incredible mind that God has given to each one of us, and especially. to each of us who are followers of Christ. First of all, I want to talk to you about the priority of a devoted mind.
In Matthew 22, 37, in response to a question, Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Now, most of us have a pretty good idea of what it means to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and with all of our soul. But how do you love God with your mind? What does it mean to love God with your mind? It means, first of all, to understand that the mind is important. That's a good beginning place.
And I say that because during my years as a pastor, I have run into many individuals who have denigrated the importance of the mind by saying that we need to be guided by the Spirit and not by the mind. They have even postulated that we are at our best when we put our minds into neutral and let our emotions and our spirits take control. And so we have come up with this term, mindless Christianity. Which describes an anti-intellectualism in much of evangelicalism and the total abdication of the mind in much of emotional Christianity. The Bible does not give us that option.
In fact, one of the general principles for all of us who follow Christ is that we're to do everything to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. We evangelicals characteristically pit our heart against our head. And we opt for the heart as being more spiritual. Bend my head.
We are like the Tin Woodman in the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Who chooses a heart rather than a head? If you know that wonderful story, you probably remember the dialogue that goes something like this: Why didn't you walk around the hole? asked the Tin Woodman.
Well, I didn't know enough, replied the Scarecrow. My head is stuffed with straw, you know, and that is why I'm going to Oz to ask him for some brains. Oh, I see, said the Tin Woodman, but after all, brains are not the best thing in the world. Have you any? inquired the Scarecrow.
No, he said, my head is quite empty. But once I had brains and a heart also, so having tried them both, I should rather have a heart. All the same, said the Scarecrow, I shall ask for brains instead of a heart. For a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one. I shall take the heart, said the Tin Woodman.
For brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world. Many Christians have made the same choice as the Tin Woodman, exchanging their mind for their heart. And we know now how unbiblical such an exchange really is. For the Bible says we're to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all of our soul and with all of our mind. This can only mean a determination to develop our thinking process to its fullest potential.
We must learn how to love the Lord our God with all of our minds. But before we move on to the next thing, let me tell you about something I read from. Benjamin Warfield, who was a great scholar who taught for 34 years at Princeton Seminary. He pleaded with his students never to exchange the mind for the heart or the heart for the mind. This is the greatest statement I've ever read about this controversy.
He said, sometimes we hear it said that 10 minutes on your knees will give you a truer, deeper, more operative knowledge of God than 10 hours over your books. Why should you turn from God when you turn to your books? or feel that you must turn from your books in order to turn to God. Put your heart into your studies. Do not merely occupy your mind with them, but put your heart into them.
They will bring you daily and hourly into the very presence of God. What a great instruction for students. The Bible says that when we study, we should put our heart into it. And when we worship, we should put our mind into it, that we should not play this game of the dichotomy, which says it's the heart versus the mind. It's both.
Listen again to the commandment: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. In other words, with all that you are. You're to love the Lord your God. That's the priority of a devoted mind. But then there's the priority of a dedicated mind.
Did you ever read these verses from Philippians and Corinthians? Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you. which was also in Christ Jesus. Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
To have the mind of Christ does not mean that we are infallible and we start playing God. To have the mind of Christ means to look at life through the Savior's point of view. Looking at life through his values and the desires in his mind. It means to think God's thoughts and not think as the world thinks.
Now, stop again and think with me about the power of your mind. The dizzying potential of the human mind reaches its apex in the possibility of possessing the mind of Christ. through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. A possibility affirmed by Paul when he said, we have the mind of Christ. No computer will ever be able to think God's thoughts, nor will any device ever be able to know the heart of God or do his works.
But the mystery which resides between our ears has this capacity. It was created for this very purpose to have the mind of Christ. A dedicated mind. What about the third one, the priority of a disciplined mind? 1 Peter 1.13.
Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind and be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And 2 Corinthians 10:5 puts it this way: casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bring every thought into captivity. To the obedience of Christ, the disciplined mind. First of all, 1 Peter says, We're to gird up the loins of our minds. When soldiers would go to war, they would take their long flowing robes and tuck their robes into the belt that went around them so that the robe wouldn't get in the way of their ability to move quickly.
in the battle. And Peter uses that to give us a picture of how we're to deal with our minds. It all is about focus. We're to get rid of the extraneous things, the things that get in our way, and focus our minds. Be proactive about the use of your mind.
Don't be just kind of mindless, just letting whatever happen. But remember, the screen of your mind is totally under your control, and there are choices you can make. And the Bible says you're to bring every thought into captivity unto Christ. That seems like an unreasonable and impossible task. But let us not be discouraged by the fact that it is a goal that is very high, but let it motivate us to say.
That as much as is possible for me I'm going to have a controlling interest. And what crosses My mind. I'm not going to feed my mind with things that will be destructive to me or will not be positive or beneficial to me. Oswald Chambers wrote, God will not make me think like Jesus. I have to do it by myself.
I have to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Now let me just stop for a moment and say In this culture, when we are bombarded by so many impulses, from so many different places. This is much more difficult than it's ever been in any culture in the history of the world. And it is not something that will happen naturally. It will take action on our part. discipline on our part.
I don't know if you remember this. When I was growing up, this really dates me, but I remember when television kind of came along. My father was a pastor. My father was really concerned about TV, even though the one we had was so small you had to be almost sitting right on top of it to see it, and it was all fuzzy. I remember that.
Every time a commercial came on, especially if it was a beer commercial or a cigarette commercial, my father would get up. and either turn the channel or turn the volume down. We didn't have remote controls back then. But as time went along and things got a little bit more relaxed, We who were the children, we became the remote controls. Dad would say, turn that off.
Turn that off. Come on, turn it off. He didn't want that stuff going through our mind. He didn't want us to be impacted by the commercials that were on TV that he thought could be hurtful to us. How many of you know we've come a long way from that?
I mean the commercials we got on TV right now are not fit for anybody to see, some of them. let alone children. I've always been impressed with my kids. We have them in our house a lot and I never have talked to them about this, but they are so protective over what our grandchildren are allowed to watch on TV. And sometimes I'm watching a mystery or something, and they'll come in, and Donald says, You've got to turn that off.
We don't want kids to be watching mysteries at their age. That's kind of a picture of how we have to function with our minds, isn't it? We have to decide. You know, obviously the Internet is a real big problem today. You'd be better off not to have the Internet than to be brought into some of the filth that is available on the Internet.
You'd be better off if that's an issue with you, just to disconnect it and say, I don't need it. And you know, this is really interesting to me that countries all over the world are now saying that their internet will not be available to children until the age of 16, one place to the age of 18. I can't think of anything that would do more good for the children of our world than for that to be true. Because the vast majority of the things that are on the internet are not productive for kids or for anybody. And they get these kids wrapped up and subjected to all of this.
And it's, well, I just think it's a good thing to step back and say, wait a minute, while there are good things that can happen through the internet, and we're grateful for those things. We need to be more disciplined in managing the things that are hurting our families and hurting our children. We'll have more about right thinking when we get together on Monday. In the meantime, have a good weekend. Be sure to get to church and be an encouragement to somebody over the weekend.
I'm David Jeremiah. Thankful to have you with us. Have a good day. The message you just heard originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr. David Jeremiah.
Turning Point is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where you can find it, visit our website davidjeremiah.org/slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's inspiring new book, God's Heart for Israel. It's yours for a gift of any amount.
You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard New International and New King James Versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study. If God is using this ministry in your life, tell us how by writing to TurningPoint, PO Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday for more of our special message from Dr.
David Jeremiah here on Turning Point.
