I had a conversation this week and as I listened to them speak about some struggles, I thought to myself, “What were you thinking?” Now that can sound very condescending. I didn’t mean it like that, and I didn’t say that, only in my head. But my thought was, “Well if you did that, why are you surprised at the result?"

That is an important question you should constantly ask yourself.

If you aren’t getting the result you want, don’t ask “What am I doing?” Ask, “What am I thinking?”

Parents are often in situations where this would work. You walk around the corner and your 4 year old has a marker drawing a masterpiece on the wall. Your first thought…”WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?!?” They were doing what their brain was telling them: draw momma and dada a picture.

Now, think on the last week. Did you get the results you were looking for? All areas. How did your thought patterns play a role in the results?

That is what we are talking about today - What Are You Thinking?

Many of us need to grow up in our thinking. I don’t think we are intentionally being immature in our thought life. I just don’t think we see how big a deal it really is.

It is huuuuge. Let's talk about that!

1. What you think dictates what you believe.
Old saying: Show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are. Why is that so accurate? It isn’t because of what those friends do. It’s what they think.

Doing starts with your thoughts. No one just gets up and does something. There is an entire thought process that goes on before the first step is taken.

Biblical evidence
Genesis 3:8-9 8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

The action was them hiding, but how’d they get there? They thought:
"We ate the apple. God said don’t eat the apple. But we ate the apple. God said we’d die if we did. But we ate the apple. I bet he knows we ate the apple. I hear him now. Let’s hide."

Genesis 20 Abraham lies about his relationship with Sarah

2 Samuel 11 David saw Bathsheba bathing, sends for someone to figure out who she is, then goes down this road of bad ideas to kill her husband to cover up his affair.

We don’t walk into sinful actions. We think our way into them.

This is why normalization is such a good weapon for the enemy. If he can whittle down your resistance to the thought of something, you will begin to reason with your objection to it, and before long, you are succumbing to it.

We see this tactic very clearly in what some scholars have called the most impactful revolution in human history, the sexual revolution.

“The Sexual Revolution in the 1960s was a social and cultural movement that resulted in liberalized attitudes toward physical intimacy and morality.” It sought to make monogamy a vice, to abolish the concept of modesty, to normalize promiscuity, to prioritize lusts and feelings, and to demonize morality, among many other things. Even today, most people in our culture have a repressionist view of pre-1960’s morality. We saw this played out mainly in media such as music, television, and movies. Remember - Lucy and Desi used to have separate beds!

This tactic is still alive and well. As you normalize one immoral activity, it makes it way to normalize even more immoral activities. Phrases synonymous with the 60’s like “make love not war” have now turned into people literally advocating for normalizing people who are actively and unashamedly attracted to certain age groups. What has happened to this world?!?!? And how bad is it going to be once our children get to adulthood?

That answer is very simple:
The enemy has used the process of normalization to create chaos. God moves chaos to order. Satan moves order to chaos.

Why am I telling you all of this?
Because you need to see how easy it is for your thinking to go from godly to wicked in just a few steps. And guess where these steps are taken?
IN YOUR MIND.

What thoughts have you been thinking that you know are ungodly, but that satan is trying to normalize in you?

Let me give you some biblical backing for this. Judas.

Jesus calls Judas
Luke 6:12-16 12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Judas agrees to betray Jesus
Luke 22:1-6 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. 3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. 4 He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Judas just woke up one morning and decided to kill Jesus. Crazy. But no.
John 12:1-6 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Matthew 26:25
25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

But look in v22...
22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”

Rabbi is what you called a teacher. There were many rabbis. Lord, now that is indicative of a proper relationship with Jesus Christ.

Here’s my point:
Judas didn’t wake up one day and betray Jesus. His betrayal was the result of thoughts Judas thought that were not godly that caused him to be blinded to who Jesus really was, what Jesus was on earth to do, and THROUGH HIS THOUGHT LIFE, satan entered into him to betray the very man who was trying to save him.

You may not be just one thought away from wicked deeds, but it doesn’t take much. Consider Eve.
Genesis 3:1-6 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (EVERYONE SAY ONE) 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. (EVERYONE SAY TWO) 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (EVERYONE SAY THREE) 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

It took three sentences to get her from godly to wicked. And she knew God face to face.

Are you convinced now of how important your thoughts are?

How do we fix our thoughts?
Set your mind on things of the Spirit
Romans 8:5-6 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Gauge: Is what I am thinking getting me closer to the Holy Spirit or dragging me away?

Think about the right things
Philippians 4:8 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.

Renew your mind
Romans 12:2
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.
How to do this?
- Stop thinking bad thoughts. Counter bad thoughts with the word.
- Control your inputs. If you think bad inputs will create good outputs, what are you thinking?
- Pray/Read daily
- Feed the right wolf. Two wolves inside, godly and wicked. Feed the one you want to live.

Tear down bad thoughts
2 Corinthians 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. If your thought doesn’t line up with God’s thoughts, tear down your thought. Ex. “I am not worthless. God gave the most precious thing in existence for me.”’

Don’t flirt with wicked thinking
Ephesians 5:11
Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. I have no chance of being bitten by a cobra if I am never around a cobra.

So the question here is simply: What are you thinking?
Follow up: what impact is what you are thinking having upon what you are believing?

2. What you believe dictates what you do.
Matthew 12:34 (To the Pharisees) Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

What you say and do flow from your heart. Wait, I though thinking is where belief then action flow? Heart, “kardía,” is mentioned over 800 times in Scripture, but “heart” never refers to the literal physical pump that drives the blood. “Heart" is only used figuratively both in the OT and NT.

So what is heart?
- the affective center of our being
- the capacity of moral preference
- desire-producer that makes us tick" Archer
- our "desire-decisions" that establish who we really are.

Your heart is the place where what your thoughts have produced live.

The easiest way to say it is belief. Belief is formed through how you process or think through experiences and information.

NIH, The biochemistry of belief, (Rao, Asha, Rao, Vasudevaraju)
“Beliefs are basically the guiding principles in life that provide direction and meaning in life. Beliefs are the preset, organized filters to our perceptions of the world (external and internal). Beliefs are like ‘Internal commands’ to the brain as to how to represent what is happening, when we congruently believe something to be true. In the absence of beliefs or inability to tap into them, people feel disempowered. Beliefs originate from what we hear - and keep on hearing from others, ever since we were children (and even before that). The sources of beliefs include environment, events, knowledge, past experiences, visualization etc.”

When you experience environment, an event, new info, recall past experience, and even visualize, your brain has to process all of that, and as a result, you form a belief from it. We see this in Romans 10:17, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

As you hear the word of God, you process it (thinking) and then you make a decision on whether or not that which you heard transitions to belief or is discarded. In the same way, what you think is passed through a process that forces you to either adopt or discard a thought into a belief.

I could spend a lot of time here talking about the belief side of this, but we really need to talk about the processor side more than anything. And yes, this is spiritual, and yes, this is an area of your life where you need to mature.

Processing thoughts into beliefs.
John 6:66-69 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

"Come to believe and know." This is the process of processing. How did they come to believe and know? They took into account three things: Past information, Current information, and Experience.

Let’s look at these:
Past information
For them, this is the Torah. The disciples would have had a basic education in the Tanakh, but would definitely know the messianic passages due to the revolt of the Maccabees 150 years before and the annexation by Rome in 63 BC. A smaller revolt happened in 6 BC, within the 2 year gap most scholars believed Jesus was born in 6-4 BC. They would KNOW deep down what to look for. As they listened to Jesus, they knew in their hearts what the scriptures already said of the Messiah.

Current information
As they listened to Jesus in real time, they recognized that he was doing what the scriptures said the Messiah would do. That new information was being processed against old information and the result was either yes, he is, or no, he isn’t.

Experience
Lastly there was the experience they were having with Jesus. How the felt when they were near him, as they listened, as they walked with him. That gut feeling, that instinct, that 6th sense. All of this info was crashing together in their minds and they were processing as fast as possible to determine if Jesus was really him.

How does this help us now?
Every sliver of information has to be processed. You have to think about it and determine whether to believe it or not.

Here’s my question:
What are you using to determine whether or not a thought becomes belief?
This is super important because it will determine your fruit.

What should I be using to process thoughts into belief?
The Word and your experience with God.

Ruts
People get into thinking ruts. When we talk about this we mean people get caught up in patterns of thinking that just create more problems, bogging them down in what they should be rising above.

But the idea of a rut can be positive in a way. When it comes to stimuli, I want the Word of God to always be my basis for belief, and yes, my experience with God, too, but understanding my experience is always subject and secondary to the Word. Isn’t that somewhat of the same idea as a rut? It is, but if I am living by the Word, I am also overcoming. So rather than ruts, how about we call living bye the Word “rails.”

Rails
Rails keep a train on the tracks. If the rails are broken, damaged, or missing, the train crashes. The same thing happens in your own life when you refuse to use the Word of God as the standard for processing info into beliefs.

The Word.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Interesting - the Word of God discerns (to separate apart, to perceive) what you are thinking, and then a whole new level, what you are intending.

John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

The Word of God is the truth! If you are trying to do the right thing, it starts with believing the right thing and thinking the right thing, and the only way you can know the right thing is by discovering the truth. Here it is. The Word.

Psalm 119:11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

If you want godly actions, you need the Word in you to process the thoughts in you to produce the beliefs in you to see the good deed from you.

BUT HERE’S the problem.
This is the grow up portion of the message today: Most people claim they just don’t know how to engage the Word of God. "I can’t understand it, I don’t know what it is saying or how to apply it."

I love you, but that is a lie. Maybe not a lie, but a really bad excuse.

When I bought my motorcycle, I had no clue about a carburetor. So I learned, and when I couldn’t get it, I YouTubed it, and then I finally asked people. When we started the process of buying land for the church, I had no clue about a TON of it. So I learned, and when I couldn’t get it, I Googled it, and then I finally asked people.

If you really wanted to know, you’d learn.
And if you really wanted to live right, you’d do whatever it took to live it.

You can’t claim you don’t know how to do something in this day and age. We have too much info at our fingertips.
- YouVersion
- YouVersion for Kids
- Never-ending podcasts and YouTube channels that can help you understand the Bible.
- Translations in 1617 languages
- YouVersion alone has 67 versions

The Bible is not complex. Are there tough portions? Sure. Is all of it that way? Of course not. Do you really not understand it or do you think you have to be a biblical scholar to understand it?

Examples:
What does John 3:16 mean? For God so loved
What does Romans 5:8 mean? God showed his love for us
What does James 1:22 mean? Be doers, not just hearers
What does 1 John 1:9 mean? If we confess our sins

3. What you do reveals what you think.
You cannot expect godly deeds without godly beliefs. If you do, then what are you thinking?
 You have to grow up. Mature into adulthood. You don’t get to do what you want and darned be the consequences.
 You have to make a choice here, and everyday, second by second.

Deuteronomy 30:19 
Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!


What is at risk? For one, fruit. Do you want to produce good fruit or wicked fruit?

John 15:2
 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Colossians 1:10 
So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Another is the very nature of who you are.
Proverbs 23:7 
As someone thinks within himself, so he is.


Earlier I asked “What should I be using to process thoughts into belief?” I said “The Word and your experience with God.” Hopefully you understand the Word part of it now. The experience part is not necessarily about your past experiences, but your current experiences with God. Your past experiences tell you how God has been, which develops trust, but your current experiences give you the ability to change your current action.

Here it is plainly:
Without being led daily by the Holy Spirit you are powerless to change what you are doing, believing, and thinking. Your past moments with the Holy Spirit are great, but if you aren’t having daily moments with the Holy Spirit, you have no hope of leading a godly life.

How can you live the life God called you to live without daily experiences being led by the Spirit? What are you thinking?


Romans 8:5-6 
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
See, thoughts…


Galatians 5:16-18, 22-23 
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.


How can I be led by the Spirit?
The same way you are led by anything else. Like love for instance. I bet what you were doing changed when you started to pursue your spouse.
I stopped prioritizing certain things to prioritize Monique. I started spending my money on her and moments to be with her. My sleep patterns were disrupted. My call history changed. My actions drastically changed. Why? I loved her.

If we pursued the Holy Spirit like we pursued something we really wanted, this conversation wouldn’t be necessary.

But the truth is, some of us haven’t gotten to a place where we think we need him more than anything.

That’s where we end today.

I am going to ask you to close your eyes and evaluate your life.

Question 1: Are you producing godly fruit?
If yes, rock on.
But if no, go to question 2.

Question 2: What are you believing that keeps you from producing godly fruit?
Maybe you’ve been hurt and you believe you aren’t worth it.
Maybe you’ve hurt others and believe you don’t deserve it.
Maybe there is sin in your life and you believe you need that sin to function, even if it is ruining your crop.

What are you believing?
If you know what it is, then formulate a plan to fix it.
If you don’t, go to question 3.

Question 3: What are you thinking?

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?