The Battle in Your Mind
Notes
Transcript
1 Peter 5:8
1 Peter 5:8
Whether you know it you not.....you are in a raging battle in your mind.
I’m going to share with you today the reason why that it is so important that you win that battle raging in your mind.
Folks you have to be aware that Satan is coming against this generation hard.
He is attacking this generation particularly to take the thought of God out of the minds of an entire society and culture.
He’s doing it in the school systems
He’s doing it in our colleges and university’s
He’s doing it in the market place/Hollywood
He’s doing it in the Halls of government
And yes.....He’s even doing it in the house of God
Trying to irradicate or wipe out everything that comes from the mind of God.....
to blind an entire generation.....
to take captive as many as he can…because the scripture says he knows that his time is short.
We have presence in history to know that this can happen.
When you look at the creation story in Genesis....The people then where not that far into time from creation. They had the stories..... they had the knowledge..... they had the lineage.......even with all of that......they allowed something to take over.........The fallen nature of human kind.....that fallen nature that was sown into human kind in the garden of eden.... And it is still in you and me even today.....in all of human kind.......every sex (real or imagined) every person (no matter their shape or color) has this capacity of sin........
that manifests itself through the thought that “That I can be as God”......
through the thought that “I can determine within myself what is good and what is evil”
A lot of folks today think they don’t need God to determine what is good and what is evil.....folks today seem to think they can determine this....on their own
That’s exactly what Satan did in Genesis 6.....And he’s doing the some thing on much larger scale today
And just like Adam and Eve....folks today are stepping outside of the parameters or boundaries that God has laid out for us.
And for what Adam and Eve…look at the heart ache that came to their family when one of their children murdered the other......You see Satan never paints the whole picture…he only shows you the little piece that got “sunshine” it in.......Never the whole ugly truth....never paints the side that has hopelessness, despair and addiction.
Today the same things are happening again.....heart ache is coming to our culture
The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 1 what a society looks like that falls into spiritual decline...
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
Paul describes this as more as he goes on....I’ll let you read that part on you own.....
But folks..........This happens when folks no longer want to hear the words of God.....When the spirit of rebellion get’s ahold of folk........whether it is through ignorance.........or whether it’s deliberate......the outcome is the same
We talked about this a couple of Sunday’s ago our of the Book of Jude....
So lets talk about this “suppressing the truth” business for a minute.....
You see when someone suppresses the truth.....that means you have the truth at your disposal...... You know what it is, or where to get it.......
So let’s just have a little test right here.......Where do we get the truth?
do we get it from the media?
do we get it from our friends and family?
do we get it from the movies we look at/Hollywood
When you do listen to mass media in this day and age, we hear it said that we are living in the, “post-truth era” ........
Now what exactly does that mean? If you just analysis the term…it would be easy to think that it might mean that we live in a time where the “truth” doesn’t really matter anymore....post....(past) .........truth.......
And I think there are many folks (usually younger millennial types) That take the term to mean just that....that truth is something that is negotiable or what a certain group of people agree on to be true.....
It’s easy to have a misconceptions about what post-truth means. And to say that we lie in a post -truth era doesn’t mean that truth doesn’t matter anymore, or that no once cares about truth . It means that we live in an era where truth is at risk, where we’re in danger of losing sight of what truth means.
When my father went to university, he had a humanities professor teach him this concept:
“Man......because of his limited senses…is not equipped to know the truth. So he deals in the world of facts...........and a fact is an observation made by two or more people that are situated, qualified and equipped to make it. The more of these people whom agree, the better.”
I did not agree with this when I first heard it.......and I don’t agree with it now.
Like so many things that Satan tries to convince of......this is a half-truth.
So......as responsible Jesus followers here at Bible Baptist Ada......How do we make our spiritual life practical in the face of this kind of “stuff”?????
Ms. Rita.....I’m glad you ask that.
My favorite scripture is Romans 12:2
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.
And how do we renew our mind you ask????
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
