Mindset: Soundtrack

Intro: Last Week

Prairie Lakes! Hey: we’re just a couple of weeks into the New Year, 3 Sundays to be exact—so, good job getting back into the swing of getting to church, even if this is your first of 2023.

And if that is you—if you missed last week’s message from Pastor John on Prairie Lakes’ “Next Chapter”—let me encourage you to take some time this week, hop onto our website (prairielakeschurch.org), and listen to what he said last week. He shared some pretty significant news about him and about Prairie Lakes’ future that you don’t want to be in the dark about.

Here’s the cliff notes version:

After a lot of thought, reflection, prayer, and discussions with his family...

Pastor John has decided that he will now be a Kansas City Chiefs fan.

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#PastorJohnLovesTheChiefs

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So if you could share this hashtag on your chosen social media platform and we can start getting the word out, that’d be great. 2022 was so rough on him as a Broncos fan that he just had it and felt like he should take a Sunday to explain himself.

No. That wasn’t it. But I still think you should use this hashtag.

To see the real message that Pastor John shared last weekend, you should go to prairielakeschurch.org and hear it for yourself.

Intro to the Series: Mindset

Okay. This weekend marks the beginning of our first series in 2023. It’s called “Mindset.”

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Mindset

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Let’s jump into it with this question:

Over the holidays, how many of you successfully avoided the dreaded trap | of discussing anything political?

How many of you avoided the political trap? No easier or quicker way to ruin a nice time together as a family than bringing up politics.

It’s likely that some of us could tell some stories, though—stories of how your conservative or liberal aunt or uncle | son or daughter | grandma or grandpa just couldn’t help themselves and before you knew it all Christmas cheer was erased and replaced with some, let’s call it “spirited discussion” around something that you and everyone else in the room knew would lead… nowhere.

Right? Those kinds of discussions lead nowhere. Nowhere good, at least.

Transition: Why?

So here’s another question for you:

You ever wonder why that is?

I mean, we all know it works that way. But why?

Why is it that those kinds of “discussions” always turn into arguments?

Why is it that they so often only serve to divide further, separate further?

Why is it that they usually don’t bring people together, but instead create a bigger gap in the relationship—and a gap that isn’t filled with love or understanding but anger and misunderstanding?

Why?

Mindset: Defined

Well, I’m sure there’s a lot of reasons you and I could fire off pretty rapidly—but one of them is the subject of our current series:

A lot of those conversations often are doomed to fail before they even start because of this thing called “mindset.”

So let’s get a working definition here so that we’re using the same language. Here’s what we mean by “mindset:”

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Mindset:

How we weave our thoughts into...

Attitudes, beliefs, and/or stories in order to...

Make sense of ourselves and the world around us.

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(Repeat.)

This is why so often those holiday political “discussions” go nowhere - because of different mindsets.

Let’s work backwards in our definition to see how this all plays out.

All of us, all of the time, are trying to make sense of ourselves and the world around us.

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And if you’re an adult, you’ve got years of experience doing this—laying those tracks down in your mind as you are making sense of yourself and the world around you. You’ve woven your thoughts into attitudes, beliefs and stories. You’ve got some frameworks, now—some of which are now deeply engrained—

So much so that when you’re presented with a story that is different than the one you’ve told yourself and now makes perfect sense to you—when you’re presented with a mindset that makes sense of the world differently than how your mindset makes sense of it—

Your brain can can actually start to view that competing story or that different mindset as a threat.

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We can easily interpret a different mindset as a threat to our own.

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That’s why those political discussions can go so very quickly from a 1 to an 11, and the tone from a conversational volume to shouting.

Because on some level in our minds we aren’t just disagreeing with someone passionately. On a deeper, subconscious, and even biological level, we’re defending ourselves against a threat.

And this dynamic isn’t just limited to holiday political discussions. You can see it play out in all kinds of ways—because we’ve developed a mindset on just about everything. Relationships. Parenting. Marriage. Finances. A whole host of things.

We’ve developed mindsets on just about everything about ourselves and the world around us because that’s how we make sense of things.

Illustration: Christmas Story

We just got through Christmas—but there’s some great examples of how mindset works in the Christmas story.

Take Joseph, for example—husband to Mary, the mother of Jesus. From Matthew 1:

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Matthew 1:18-19 “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”

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What’s a mindset? It’s how we weave our thoughts into attitudes, beliefs, or stories in order to make sense of the world.

Joseph comes to find out that his wife to be is pregnant. There it is. Now he’s gotta think about it. He’s gotta make sense of it so that he understands what to do next.

What’s Joseph’s mindset?

Well, first, he understands how babies are made. He’s gotta framework for that.

But Matthew tells us a little more about his mindset:

He also has a mindset of integrity and compassion, which told him that the right move was to break off the engagement, but to do so quietly so as to not add to the shame of her supposed infidelity.

But then Joseph’s mindset gets interrupted pretty quickly:

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Matthew 1:20-21 “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

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So think about this from a mindset standpoint. The thing that made sense to Joseph and literally every other human being before or after him was this:

My fiancee is pregnant and I know for a fact that I’m not that baby’s parent. Only one other thing that could explain this.

Until God sends and angel and says, “Surprise!”

But notice the words the angel uses there with Joseph. First thing he says is what?

“Do not be afraid.”

Almost as though he knew that when we are presented with a completely different mindset than our own—when we brush up against an way of seeing the world that does not make sense to us—we feel threatened and afraid. But that’s just how this thing called “mindset” works.

Transition: Series Division

Okay. So there’s the set up to the whole series. That’s what we mean by “Mindset,” and that’s a little bit of how it works.

So for the next (3) weeks in this series, here’s how we’re going to explore this:

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Week 1: Soundtrack and Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets

Week 2: Anxiety

Week 3: Understanding Someone Else’s Mindset

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Weekend Intro: Fixed Soundtracks

So let’s jump in.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible where this idea of mindset is front and center is the story of Moses. I think I even talked about it just a couple of weeks ago. He’s the person God uses to lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. And it all starts when he says this to Moses in Exodus 3:

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Exodus 3:9-10 “And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

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And this starts a dialogue between Moses and God that is pretty fascinating. But let me show you some snippets of Moses’ side of the conversation. Here’s what he says over the course of this talk he has with God:

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Exodus 3:11 “But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

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Then in v. 13:

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Exodus 3:13 “Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

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Now in chapter 4:1:

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Exodus 4:1 “Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

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Then in verse 10:

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Exodus 4:10 “Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

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And then finally in vs. 13:

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Exodus 4:13 “But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

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Moses had a mindset—just like you, me… all of us do. He had a mindset. He had a framework for how he thought of himself and his place in the world around him.

How would you describe it? How would you describe Moses’ mindset?

Well, modern psychologists have a label for it. They call it a “fixed mindset.”

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A Fixed Mindset

Believing that my basic qualities (talents, abilities, etc.) are simply fixed traits.

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You either got it or you don’t. You were born with it or you weren’t.

And you can see that in how he responds to God.

First thing he said was what?

“Who am I?”

That’s a fixed mindset. I either am something or I’m not something.

I am someone who can’t speak very well or persuasively, God. That’s just who I am. I wasn’t born with that trait or that ability. (And you of all people should know that, Mr. Creator of the World. Kinda awkward that I gotta say it to you. But here we are.)

Go find someone who was born with that ability. Because I’m not that guy.

That was Moses’ fixed mindset. That was how he saw himself. It made sense to him.

And he developed that over time. You can see that in his response, too.

“I’ve never been that guy.” At no point in my past, and not now.

His fixed mindset almost acted like a soundtrack going on in his mind when he was having that conversation with God.

And that’s how fixed mindsets work:

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Fixed mindsets become soundtracks playing on repeat in our minds.

It’s when our way of thinking gets in the way.

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For Moses, it was getting in the way of him taking a step into a mission that God had for him—but not only for him, for an entire race of people.

Revealing our Soundtracks

Just before the first verse we read about Moses conversation with God, we learn that God got Moses’ attention first through a bush that was on fire but not being consumed. It’s when Moses goes to check out what is going on that God begins to speak to him.

And every time I read that part of the story, I think:

“Man. Wouldn’t it be great if God spoke to us in that way today?” I mean… how great would it be if God appeared to you in some crazy way and told you exactly what he wanted you to do and how it all would work out?

How many of us would change our minds about God if he spoke to us today like he did to Moses then?

But I think what we learn from the story is a lesson in how mindset works:

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How God spoke to Moses didn’t change his mind.

What God spoke to Moses revealed Moses’ mindset.

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The burning bush and audible voice was not enough to change Moses mind.

Think about that for a second.

The bush that defied the laws of physics and the audible voice that Moses recognized and attributed to God… did not change his mind. The soundtrack played on.

But here’s what it did:

It made that soundtrack go from background noise to lyrics on the screen.

And there’s some real value in that.

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Since whatever soundtrack we play can make or break us, it’s critical to become aware of them.

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You can’t change what you don’t know or what you’re not aware of. It’s called blindspot for a reason. But there’s real value in becoming aware of them, because once you do, you might be able to change it.

But for us to become aware of those soundtracks, here’s what we have to do:

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Since whatever soundtrack we play can make or break us, it’s critical to be aware of them.

We have to take some time to think about how we think.

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When you think about your boss, what do you think? What’s the soundtrack?

When you think about how you’re doing as a parent, what do you think? What’s the soundtrack?

When you think about your future?

When you think about your own capability?

When you think about God, what do you think?

When you think about what God thinks about you… what do you think? What’s the soundtrack?

We’ve got soundtracks for all of those things. But if we never take the time to think about them—what they’re saying and how they’re informing what steps we take—they’ll simply stay in the background and get in our way of moving in any kind of different or positive direction.

Transition: Changing our Mindsets

Okay. Let’s wrap up this weekend by asking and answering this question:

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Can we change our mindset?

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Can we change our mindset?

Not to be all “meta” with you, but here’s the ironic part about this question:

Your mindset determines your answer.

Your mindset about whether or not you can change your mindset determines what you think about it.

(If you saw the movie “Inception,” you’re probably seeing a top spinning on a table in your mind right now.)

Let’s make this more simple:

If you start with a mindset that is more positive, then your answer to that question is very likely, “Yeah.”

Here’s what that soundtrack sounds like:

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STTour mindset?T

Can we change our mindset?

Positive soundtrack:

People grow.

People can change.

Everyone deserves a second chance.

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But if you start with a different kind of mindset—say, a negative mindset—then you’ve got some different soundtracks playing in your mind right now:

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Can we change our mindset?

Negative soundtrack:

Once a _______, always a _______.

People are who they are.

People don’t change.

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We have different soundtracks playing in our minds right now about whether or not our mindsets can be changed. Whatever your mindset is on it—you’ve developed it because it’s helping you make sense of yourself and how the world works.

And perhaps even as we ask this question, you’re feeling threatened.

Why?

Because if we go all Negative Nelly or Rose-Colored Rosey, it’s gonna mess with the way you make sense of the world. So get ready to fend off the attack.

Let’s put what we’ve learned into practice:

Right now, what’s your mindset about your ability to change your mindset? Which soundtrack is playing in your mind? Think about how you’re thinking. Is how you’re thinking getting in the way?

Exegesis: Romans 12:1-2

There’s a passage in Romans that I wanna dive into. It’ll be on the screen; follow along with me in your own Bible if you would.

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Romans 12:1-2

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As you find that, let me set a couple of things up.

When the Bible talks about the “mind,” it’s not quite the same way that we talk about it. There’s some overlap, but it’s not quite the same.

Because when we talk about it, we talk about it biologically—how our neural pathways work.

Or we talk about it rationally: how we think, our logic, our worldview, our philosophy.

But when the Bible talks about our mind, it means some of those things, but includes some others.

The word we’re going to see here in Romans that’s translated as “mind” is a word that includes not just thinking but also feeling. Your disposition. Your values. Your heart.

It really means all of who you are on the inside.

So let’s take a look at it. Romans 12:1-2:

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Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform 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.”

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Paul, the author, spent the whole first part of his letter—11 chapters in our Bibles—laying out what he meant by that yellow phrase:

“In view of God’s mercy.”

That in Jesus, God had made a way for us to be in relationship with him. That God placed everything that we did, all of the sin that got in the way of us having a relationship with him, that he placed that on Jesus, nailing it to the cross. That our sin went into the grave with Jesus and died there, no longer having any influence over how God sees us.

But that also in Jesus, God made a way for us to be different from the inside out. That Jesus isn’t only our model for how to live, but actually lives the life that we should have lived but never could. In Jesus, God takes the perfect life that Jesus lived and the right standing with God that he has because of it and he places that on us. So that in Christ, we stand not only forgiven for our sin and free from its penalty, but righteous and in right standing.

And so we get to this verse and Paul says this:

In view of all of that--

Keeping this in your mind--

Believing that what Jesus did can do all of that for you...

Will change you from the inside out.

Here’s the principle:

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You can change your mindset when you shift your focus.

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If you focus on Jesus and believe that what he did he did for you, you’ll start to see yourself differently.

It’s not about how you fell short, it’s about how Jesus fell for you.

It’s not about what you need to do differently, but what Jesus did for you.

And when you start to see that, you start to see yourself differently. Because you start to believe that the God of the universe sees you differently.

When God sees you focusing on Jesus and standing on what he did for you, you’ll see that when God sees you, when God thinks about you, what God has in his mind when he thinks about you is...

Love. An object of his mercy. His son or a daughter.

Not by blood, but by Jesus’ blood. Not by your merit, but by Jesus’ merit.

When you shift your focus you’ll change your mind.