The Conscientious Mind And The Captured Mind
What’s On Your Mind: Discover the power of Biblical Thinking • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 28:46
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Notes
Transcript
Review
Review
Turn to Acts 17:29-34.
So far, we have learned that we have a created mind, therefore, we are accountable to God for how we think.
We have learned that God calls us to change our mind about our sin. That is the meaning of repentance. As he stood on Mars’ Hill, Paul challenged the Athenian philosophers to repent or to change their minds about their sin. That is what God calls us to do also. After salvation, we need to think differently about our sin because our sin is why our Savior needed to die on the cross. He paid a great price for our sin. Therefore, we need to continually change our mind about our sin and desire to think biblically.
Message
Message
Read Acts 17:29-34.
As Paul finishes preaching on Mars’ Hill, he may have been tempted to wonder if it had been of any use. The city doesn’t get turned upside down. There is no great turning among the people to the Lord. No church, that we are aware of, was ever established there as a result of Paul’s preaching during this visit. In general, the populace was not much persuaded by the message. “Some mocked”, verse 32 says. Others were willing to give it a second thought at some other time, but they were not convinced either. But then, there was handful people, just a small group, who did just as Paul said to do. They changed their minds about their sin.
Verse 34 - “certain men clave unto him, and believed…”
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Clave: to glue together, cement, fasten together; to closely follow by one’s side
And verse 34 says that they believed. They changed their minds! It wasn’t a large group, but these few souls changed their minds about their sin.
Because they made that choice, here’s what it lead to:
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A conscientious mind
“When a change of mind takes place (repentance), the conscience becomes sensitive again. Sin has a deadening effect on our hearts.” - What’s On Your Mind, Dr. John Goetsch, page 25
Our default way of thinking is that sin is not a big deal. By nature, we are desensitized to sin, but God’s objective is to change your thinking and to make your conscience sensitive to sin. The Christian life is a life-long process of conviction, changing your mind about sin, and becoming more sensitive to sin so that you become more and more like Jesus.
That process is not always pleasant or easy, but if you are not surrendered to it, there’s only one alternative. The alternative is for your mind to slowly become harder and harder towards any repentance at all. Why? Because “sin has a deadening effect on our hearts.” It affects our minds. A Christian who begins to allow a pattern of sinful thinking to rule in their minds will soon cease to think that it is sin at all. They will lose all consciousness of their own sinfulness. Rather, they will find ways to justify their sin. The cure for such a person is to change your mind about sin and restart the process so that you can have a conscientious mind again.
At Mars’ Hill, there were a few folks who made that choice.
Dionysius: Athenian aristocrat...He was a member of the Areopagus, an elite and influential group of officials.
Chad Brand et al., eds., “Dionysius,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 423.
Areopagites were members of the city court that would gather at the prominent rock in the center of the city.
Damaris: a lowly resident of Athens.
Application: God’s Word can change anyone, whether they are great or small. God’s Word can change your life, but it requires that you change your mind about your sin. Once you make that choice, you will become sensitive to sin again.
Not only does God want you to have a conscientious mind, but also He wants you to have…
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A captured mind
None of us Americans like to think we are captured by anything, but we’re all captured by something. In other words, we’re all greatly influenced by something, but we largely determine what influences we allow or disallow. “God wants to capture our minds with truth” says Dr. Goetsch, but we have to submit our minds to His influence instead of the world’s influence.
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A captured mind begins with openness
It must have been pretty refreshing to Paul to find just a few people who opened their minds to the truth. They clave to Paul. They were hungry for truth! They were thirsty for more! They were like the psalmist who wrote,
Open thou mine eyes,
That I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
Application: Christian, is your mind open to God? How long has it been since God convicted you about something? I’m not asking how long has it been since a preacher got you whipped into an emotional whirlwind, I’m asking how long has it been since the Spirit of God identified something specific in your life that needed to change? If it has been a long time, rest assured, that’s not God’s fault. Is your mind open to God, or has it been desensitized by sin? Is your mind open to God, or has it been open to the world’s way of thinking? If you want your mind to be captured by God’s truth, your mind must be open to His conviction.
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A captured mind proceeds with obedience
Obedience is the next logical step after openness. Dionysius, Damaris, and the others clave to Paul and they believed. They were open to the truth and they decided to obey the truth. The Bible doesn’t reveal anything else about these individuals in Athens. We never hear anything else about them, but based on how they responded to Paul message, I don’t think their lives were ever the same. I’m fairly confident that their lives changed because their thinking changed.
Dr. Goetsch wrote,
Sometimes I hear people say, "God doesn't speak to my heart any more. Must be the preacher isn't doing his job, because God just doesn't speak to me." My friend, the problem is not with the preacher. The problem is, you didn't obey the last time He spoke. God isn't going to show you new truth until you obey the old truth…God isn’t going to show us the specifics of His Word and His will until we obey Him in the basics. - What’s On Your Mind, Dr. John Goetsch, page 38-39
Application: I know what its like to be there. I know what its like to be convicted by a message, say “no”, and then at some point have to hit the spiritual rewind and go back and take care of that need before you can move forward spiritually.
If that’s you, tonight, don’t wait. If the Holy Spirit convicted you in the past about some need in your life - it doesn’t matter if it was years ago - let tonight be the moment that you go back, confess it to God, and proceed with obedience. God is under no obligation to teach you more truth if you’re not willing to obey what He’s already taught you. The amazing thing is, when you go back and get some long-standing matter taken care of, it is like a spiritual spring gets released. That kind of person will often grow by leaps and bounds in just a short time. Why? Because they went back, dug deep, and addressed the need that God had convicted them of a long time ago. If that’s you, don’t wait.
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A captures mind culminates in ownership
Dionysius, Damaris, and the others had a new master - the Lord Jesus. He had captured their minds with the truth and it’s likely that their lives were forever changed.
Dr. Goetsch said,
“God’s formula for a changed life starts with a changed mind.”
That’s what happened to these folks in Athens.
“The Word of God changes the mind so the wrong thinking of the past is replaced by right thinking which affects the way that we live.” - What’s On Your Mind, Dr. John Goetsch, page 39
Conclusion
Conclusion
So Christian, who are you allowing to capture your mind tonight? Are you allowing your mind to be captured by the world’s thinking, or by God’s truth? Do some soul searching. Make sure that you are open to the life-change that the Bible demands. Make sure that you are always saying “yes” to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. And make sure that your mind is captured, not by the world’s ideas, but by the Word of God.