Loving God with All My Mind

LifePoint Church Chicopee

Text: Matthew 22:37

Summary: When I let God teach me a new way to think I will begin a new way to live.

What does it mean to think?

You will never have a truly changed life without letting God change the way you think.

Romans 12:1–2 (NLT)And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

2Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Isaiah 55:9 (ESV)For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The goals of this series:

• Learn what it means to love God with your mind.

• Understand how your thinking influences your heart and what that means.

• Grow to identify sources of corrupt thinking that keep me from experiencing blessing.

• Understand the dangers of corrupt thinking.

• Build the skill of recognizing where I need to change or adjust thinking.

• To identify the areas where I am allowing the culture and values of the world to influence the way that I see and frame life.

• Learn how to change the way I think about things. Establish the skill of Unlearning!

• Overcoming mindsets that keep me defeated.

• Establish an eternal authority as the standard for how we think, feel and act as followers of Jesus.

• Learning to manage my emotions with my thinking.

Matthew 22:37 (ESV)And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Luke 8:35 KJV Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

How Can I love God with All My Mind?

1. Commit to Allowing God to Change my Mind. Romans 12:1,2

A- You must let him change your mind in order to be saved.

Acts 20:21 (ESV). testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mark 1:14–15 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

B – Changed thinking becomes the way we know God and grow in Christ.

2. Begin to Exercise your Mind for Good. Phil 4:8

Philippians 4:8 (ESV)Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

• Is it True and do I know it to be true?

• Is this honorable or dishonorable? Does it demonstrate dignity?

• Is it just? Is it correct, good, righteous?

• Is it pure? Is there a Holiness and innocence?

• It is lovely? Is it friendly, agreeable, pleasing, positive

• Commendable? Good report or reputation? Commendation!

• Excellence? Valor, virtue, excellent character

• Worthy of praise? Worthy of approval? Desired? Prized? Does it add value?

3. I must commit to Learn to Live!

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

2Do 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.

Ephesians 4:1 (ESV)I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, (the rest of Ephesians ch 4,5, 6 tell us how to do this)

Ephesians 4:17–18 (ESV)Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

Ephesians 4:20–24 (ESV)20But that is not the way you learned Christ!

21assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,

22to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

24and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

• Listen to Jesus teaching.

• Observe Jesus life.

• Imitate the ways of Jesus.

Invitation:

“Lord, teach me to think the new way so that I can live the new life!”

• Will I open my heart to Jesus as my personal savior?

• Will I Commit to Loving God with all my thinking!