Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.15UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.16UNLIKELY
Fear
0.15UNLIKELY
Joy
0.57LIKELY
Sadness
0.24UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.63LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.03UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.86LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.89LIKELY
Extraversion
0.23UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.56LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.62LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
! Spiritual Fitness #3
!
“A Well-Balanced Diet for the Mind”
!
Romans 12:2
Fitness experts will tell you that exercise is only half of a good program for better health.
A well-balanced diet is also essential if we want to perform at a higher level.
(And, no, a well-balanced diet is not having a double cheeseburger in each hand!)
The same can be said regarding spiritual fitness as well.
We have considered spiritual exercise these past two weeks, and this morning I would like to turn our attention to a well-balanced diet for the mind.
My main text comes from Romans 12:2,
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Paul issues a negative and a positive command in this verse: “do not conform”—the negative—and “be transformed”—the positive.
Regarding the first, I like the way J. B. Phillips renders this phrase: “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold.”
That’s tougher than it sounds!
The world’s mold—society’s idea of what we should think, say, and do—is all around us.
We are pressured on all sides to conform, or else feel the consequences of not fitting in.
On the other side, we are to be “transformed.”
Warren Wiersbe writes,
The world wants to control your mind, but God wants to transform your mind.
This word transform is the same as transfigure in Matthew 17:2.
It has come into our English language as the word “metamorphosis.”
It describes a change from within.
The world wants to change your mind, so it exerts pressure from without.
But the Holy Spirit changes your mind by releasing power from within.
If the world controls your thinking, you are a conformer; if God controls your thinking, you are a transformer.
Think of an unsightly caterpillar being transformed into a beautiful butterfly.
That is the scientific picture of metamorphosis.
And that is what God wants to do for us.
What are we to be transformed into?
Paul answers that question in 2 Corinthians 3:18,
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” [emphasis added].
The goal of the Christian is to become more like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
As we allow the Holy Spirit to change us from within, we will become more Christ-like, which is what “Christian” really means.
But this process is not automatic.
We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit in order for this transformation to take place.
I believe there are two simple steps toward a well-balanced diet for the mind.
!! Avoid the Garbage
Like Paul in our text above, I want to approach this matter in a negative and a positive way.
Negatively, we must avoid the garbage that is all around us.
Back when personal computers were becoming popular, instructors taught the acrostic GIGO to new users.
The letters stood for the words “garbage in, garbage out,” meaning that the computer can only operate as well as the data entered into it.
If the data is incorrect, the processing of the data will also be incorrect.
If a program is corrupted, the output of that program will likewise be corrupted.
The same is true of the human mind.
This takes vigilance in our sin-sick world.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
One commentator notes,
Paul was saying that our thought life is a battleground.
What we choose to think about, what runs across our mind, what controls us, what predisposes us to behave in a certain way—all are arenas for conflict.
We can choose what we allow ourselves to think.
We entertain what we choose, and we can refuse what we want.
Ask yourself, what do you let into your mind?
That will determine your behavior.
Battles go on in our thinking, and this is where too many of us will lose the battle.
Practically speaking, how can we accomplish this?
We must begin with “taking every thought captive.”
Think of the security procedures that will take place this week when Barack Obama is sworn in as our new president.
Wherever he goes, guards will be stationed at every entrance.
Before anyone is allowed access inside, the guard will examine their credentials and compare that to a list of approved guests.
Only when the two match will the person be allowed entrance.
What are the “entrances” to our minds?
Technically speaking, all five senses—sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch—bring data to our minds to be processed.
But when it comes to our spiritual health, the two most important “entrances” are the “eye gate” and the “ear gate.”
What we see and hear carries the potential to shape us more than anything else—and I would guess that, of the two, what we see is more influential than what we hear.
The Bible is clear about the importance of what we see.
Jesus taught in Matthew 6:22-23,
The eye is the lamp of the body.
If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
We must be careful what we allow through our eyes as it will affect our minds.
We need to pray, in the words of Psalm 119:37, “Turn my eyes away from worthless things…” (My dad always threatened to print that verse on a card and set it on top of our television set.
How that would change the viewing habits of many Christians!)
Think about our world, and the visual assault it makes on the mind of the Christian.
Movies, television, magazines, advertisements, and most significantly in recent years, the internet.
How can we avoid this moral onslaught?
I like how Oswald Chambers interpreted this verse: “This does not mean, ‘keep my eyes shut,’ but, ‘give me the power to direct my eyes aright.’”
We need not walk around blindfolded or with a bag over our heads.
The idea here is that when we encounter “worthless things,” we are to turn our eyes from it.
In other words, don’t dwell on it.
Seeing is temptation; the second look or the stare is when temptation becomes sin.
Allow me to be more specific.
Men, we are particularly at risk in this regard when it comes to immorality.
In our society, sex sells products from shave cream to new cars to just about anything you can imagine!
If we allow our eyes to feast on the sensuality around us, our minds will be conformed—squeezed into the world’s mold, as it were.
What can we do about it?
How about the commitment of Job recorded in Job 31:1, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.”
Job knew that he could be tempted in this way, so he was proactive.
Rather than waiting for the situation to confront him, he planned ahead.
He made a commitment before he encountered the temptation, and that helped him to be successful when he was tempted.
How can this be done?
We need to take a long, honest look within ourselves.
We need to admit our weaknesses.
You know Satan knows our weak points, and those are exactly where he will hit us.
We need to recognize where we are tempted and do all that we can to avoid those situations.
Maybe that means not watching certain programs on television or movies, perhaps not reading certain magazines, or setting up filters for the internet so that certain types of content are not allowed through.
As Wiersbe suggests, “We can’t help being tempted, but we can certainly [keep from] tempting ourselves.”
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13,
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9