A Beautiful Mind

Today I want to look at the primary place the Spirit of God intersects with your life and mine.

If you have your phone, open the Blue Oaks app and you can follow along as we look at Romans 8.

I want to look at what the Apostle Paul says about the primary place the Spirit of God will intersect with your life and mine.

Paul sets up a contrast in this passage. He says:

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8)

I want to stop there, and I want to get as in-depth as I can into what this business of “setting your mind” consists of.

I want to make a series of observations that flow out of this text in Romans about the mind and how the Spirit intersects with our lives there.

First observation:

1. The mind is a constant flow of thoughts.

Your mind is an active stream… out of which your life, including your spiritual life, flows.

Inside each of us is this constant flow of thoughts and feelings that are happening all the time.

Right now, your mind may be working kind of like this: You have a thought:

“What did the apostle Paul mean by these words?”

And maybe you look down at your Bible or your phone, and you notice your hands, and you think:

“Look at my nails. I’m still biting them. That’s a bad habit. I hope no one else notices. I feel kind of embarrassed by that.

“I do that at work because my boss doesn’t seem to like me.

“I’m kind of worried about that. Man he makes me mad sometimes! I wish I could just tell him exactly what I think. I wish I could just tell him the truth.

Then you look up and notice the couple sitting in front of you, and you think:

“They’re holding hands. Why doesn’t my husband hold my hand anymore? They look happier than us. Their marriage is probably better than ours.

Then you notice I’m still talking, and you think:

“He sure talks a lot. I wish he would just wrap it up.”

That’s how the mind works. We just have a stream of thoughts that are going on all the time.

Sometimes it feels like we’re not thinking at all.
Sometimes it feels like your mind is working a little slow.
Sometimes you could go through a whole day, on a bad day, and it feels like you had maybe one thought all day long.

But in reality the mind is never still.

We’re having thoughts, observations, perceptions and ideas at a staggering rate — at such a rate that we don’t even remember the vast majority of them.

Your mind is a constant flow of thoughts.

Second observation:

2. The mind is full of patterns or habits that form our lives.

When it comes to the nature of thoughts that tend to run through your mind, we all have patterns or habits. And they form us.

Someone comes up to you and says, “You look terrific.”

An optimist will think, “What a friendly guy.”
A narcissist will think, “I was just thinking the same thing. That’s fascinating. Tell me more.”
A pessimist will think, “The lighting in here must be really bad.”
A cynic will think, “This person is probably trying to recruit me to serve in kids ministry or something.”

Think about the names we use to describe someone’s personality or character — we say:

This person is an introvert
This person is brave
This person is talkative

Those terms simply refer to the specific patterns of thought that tend to run in that person’s mind.

Those patterns determines your identity.
They determine your character.
They determine your personality.
They determine the way you experience reality.

Those patterns in your mind are your life — for better or for worse.

There is a constant flow, a river of thoughts and feelings going on inside you.

It may be a river of living water that is pure and true and gives you life.
Or this water may be muddy or toxic or dry or poisoned or bitter.

But for better or for worse, you have thoughts and feelings going on inside you all the time, even when you don’t remember or notice them.

Paul is saying very clearly that the patterns and characteristics of your mind, not your circumstances and not your situation, determine the kind of existence you will experience.

Maybe one of the great illusions in our day is that lasting, authentic joy can be obtained by changing someone’s external circumstances.

Because the truth is — the flow of thoughts in a person’s mind is virtually never altered over the long haul by any change of circumstance.

A study was done on this that’s quite fascinating.

A team of researchers looked at 22 people who won the lottery.

That’s the metaphor in our society for hitting the jackpot, entering the good life, being happy.

22 people won the lottery, and within six months they were at precisely the same happiness level as they had been before they won the lottery.

This study also included a group of 29 people who were in accidents and became quadriplegic.

And more extraordinary was that within six months this group was at the same happiness level as before they were injured.

What’s more, they were more optimistic about their future prospects for happiness than the lottery winners were.

And now, we start to understand this — over the long haul, circumstances, even quite dramatic ones, by themselves do not tend to change the nature of the thoughts that flow through your mind.

Third observation:

3. Every thought is leading you a little toward life or death.

This is where, I think, Paul’s analysis is absolutely brilliant.

Cognitive psychologists who study the mind say — every thought comes with a little emotional charge.

Every thought makes you at least a little happy or sad.

Some thoughts carry quite heavy emotional charges, and they might lead you towards rage and anger or towards euphoria and so on. But all thoughts have an emotional charge.

With Paul, his category is a bit different here.

In a sense he says — every thought you have carries a little spiritual charge.

According to Romans 8:6, thoughts that are in opposition to God lead to what result — do you remember?

Death.

And he says thoughts in alignment with the Spirit lead to life and peace.

Now, when Paul uses these real stark categories — sinful mind leads to death; Spirit mind leads to life — he’s not saying some of us are all good and we always think perfect thoughts, and other people are all bad and always think bad thoughts.

He’s using very sharp contrasts here to express this idea… because in real life we all wrestle with good and bad thoughts.

He’s using this sharp contrast to express the central idea that every thought you have carries a little spiritual charge.

Every thought is either opening you up, enabling and empowering you to deal with reality in a way that leads to life…

Or to at least a tiny extent, it’s robbing you of the power to deal with reality, and is moving you toward death.

Every thought is leading you at least a little bit into life or a little bit into death.

That’s how you recognize the mind that’s controlled by the Spirit — it always leads to life.

Let me give you a couple examples.

Let’s say I have a thought like this:

My daughter is mad at me. It’s no use trying to do anything about it. Nothing ever changes. I don’t think I’ll ever have the kind of parent-child relationship I’ve always dreamed of.

Which way is that leading — life or death?

That’s leading toward death.

What about this one — my job is not going real well right now. If I lose my job, God could never use me.

Which way is that leading — life or death?

Death.

And partly we get in trouble because it’s so easy for us to play games with our minds… and think some thoughts are from the Spirit when they’re not.

Old story:

Guy drives past a bakery and wants a donut. And he prays, “God, I only want to have a donut if it’s your will for my life that I have a donut. So if there’s a parking space in front of the bakery when I drive by, then I’ll know that this desire is from you.”

And sure enough — sixth time around the block — there’s a parking space right in front of the bakery.

We can play games with this, but I want you to remember this:

All thoughts have a little spiritual charge, and the thoughts of the mind set on the Spirit

always lead towards hope, never despair;
always towards virtue, never towards sin;
always towards truth, never into illusion;
always towards growth, never towards stagnation;
always towards authentic love, never towards arrogance.

They always lead to life.

The thoughts of the mind that is set on the Spirit always lead towards life — strength, and power to cope with reality in a way that leads to life.

And the thoughts of a mind that are of a sinful nature always lead toward death.

Observation number four:

4. The natural tendency of the mind without God leads toward death.

This is why Paul says in Romans 8:7 — “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”

Some research done on this is very interesting.

Thousands of people were given a device that notified them at random intervals seven or eight times during the day. Every time they got a notification, they were to stop what they were doing and answer questions like:

What are you doing?
What are you thinking?
What are you feeling at this moment?

The researchers have literally hundreds of thousands of pages of data on this.

One thing they found was this:

When people were alone and not distracted by some noise or activity, their minds naturally drifted toward

awareness of discontentment or anger
a sense of inadequacy
anxiety about their future
or chronic self-preoccupation.

When people were alone and not distracted by noise or activity, that’s where their mind went.

This is why people generally flee from solitude.

When parents want to punish a child, what’s the number one method they choose?

Okay, there’s some disagreement on this one, because we come from many different traditions.

If you come from a Baptist tradition, it’s probably spanking.
If you come from a Lutheran or Methodist tradition, it may be a time-out.
If you come from a Presbyterian tradition, you just take a little money out of their trust fund.

But for a lot of parents in our society, if they want to punish a child, the number one method is to give a time-out.

What is the most hated punishment prisons give to inmates?

Solitary confinement.

Why are these so feared?

Because people hate to be alone with their minds.

Think about it; that’s all it is. All solitary confinement is — you’re alone with nothing but your mind and the kinds of thoughts that run through your mind.

And it’s apparently a verifiable fact that human beings in this world, when they’re alone with their minds, find their thoughts start leading towards discontent, anxiety, fear, inadequacy — towards death.

This is why screens are so addictive in our society. It’s the easiest method to distract me from my mind.

People don’t scroll through social media because it’s so fulfilling.

No one gets to the end of a night of watching TV and says, “Man, this was a fabulous night. What a good life I lead. I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow.”

So why do we do it? Because it keeps us from having to deal with what’s going on in our minds.

This is exactly what Paul is getting at when he gives this warning in Ephesians 4:

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,

And there’s another phrase that’s being used here to talk about people who are headed toward death and closing their lives to the Spirit… and he simply nails the description —

in the futility of their thinking. (Ephesians 4:17)

This is thinking that leads towards death or is locked up in death-producing thoughts.

Look at Psalm 42:1.

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. (Psalm 42:1)

Now you’ve got to understand this is not a pleasant picture of a little deer that’s a little thirsty in a forest looking for one of many available brooks or streams.

This is the desert and all the wadis are dried up. This deer is going to die if he doesn’t find water.

What the writer of Psalm 42 is expressing is not a statement of desire. It’s a statement of fact.

The psalmist is saying if the water, the availability of the Spirit of God, is blocked off, his existence will be a prolonged experience of unsatisfied desire — spiritual dryness, moral failure, and emotional death — and that’s just reality. That’s just reality. That is what will happen to his soul if it’s cut off from the Spirit of God.

I may know that; I may not. I may think of myself as being quite thirsty for God. I may think of myself as not even wanting God. That’s not what’s being addressed here.

This is a statement of simple fact: If my soul is cut off from God, it’s just death.

We see the logical conclusion of this in Romans 1:28. Paul says:

They did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God,

People who have shut God out of their thoughts.

so God gave them over to a depraved mind. (Romans 1:28)

I think those are some of the most chilling words in Scripture.

Because when someone is given over to a depraved mind — that means unending discontent, relentless fear, and ceaseless self-obsession.

That person doesn’t need any kind of outside punishment. To be given over to a depraved mind is misery and pain. That would be the most miserable existence possible.

But you need to know — that’s never God’s desire for someone.

God’s desires for you is to have a mind filled with life-giving thoughts, one after another, that open you up to the Spirit in whatever circumstances you’re going through, and that enable you to live with love and joy and peace.

This is what Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love

And then there is this great phrase in the King James Version.

and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:

But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

This brings me to a fifth observation:

We can choose what thoughts we allow our minds to dwell on.

You can choose what thoughts you will listen to.

Now, of course, sometimes this takes time and learning.

Sometimes there are certain conditions in which the neurology of the body gets messed up and people need medication or other kinds of help. There can be obsessive-compulsive conditions and so on.

But as a general statement — you can choose the thoughts you will listen to.

I was talking to some friends about this recently.

It’s astounding how often people think they’re the victims of whatever thoughts happen to run through their minds.

And they act as if they’re just passive spectators watching thoughts pass across the streets of their minds, like they were watching them on TV or something.

We need to understand there is a fundamental battle in life?

Is good verses evil, light verses dark, life verses death.

And it involves the nature of the thoughts that occupy your mind.

You’re not just a bystander in that battle.

Dallas Willard writes this:

The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon. — Dallas Willard

This is the ultimate freedom…

Even a concentration camp.
Even a loaded gun cannot take this away from any human being.

This is the core of the core.

This is why Paul gives us this command in Colossians 3:

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:2)

I’ll say a word about this “things above… earthly-things” idea, because I used to think it meant trying to picture what things look like in heaven.

Quick quiz here. Turn to the person next to you real quickly with your answer:

How do you picture God in your mind — beard or no beard?

What’s the correct answer? The correct answer is God is Spirit, so the beard thing is just kind of an add-on to picture him.

Okay, how do you picture God — dressed in a robe or a three piece suit? Just tell the person next to you.

What’s the correct answer? The correct answer is God is Spirit. The robe thing, we just kind of do that as an add-on to picture him.

Last one: How do you picture God’s hair color — blond, black, brown or grey? Tell the person next to you how you picture him.

What’s the correct answer on this one? Well, on this one, the older I get the more I do think there is something God-liked about grey hair.

Paul is not saying in this verse to try and picture what things look like in heaven, and don’t pay attention to nature or the earth or so on.

The phrase things above is a way of talking about the Kingdom of God — the sphere in which God’s will is being held up and lived out.

So when Paul says “earthly things,” he’s talking about the contrasting, opposing kingdom.

Paul is saying to let your mind be characterized by thoughts that produce love

and joy
and peace
and confidence
and courage
and self-control
and truthfulness
and poise
and maturity
and winsomeness
and competence for living

And don’t let your mind be enslaved by resentment, anxiety, greed, or superiority.

Paul says and Jesus says that this can begin to happen now… in your mind… and mine.

And I want to tell you how.

Have any of you seen the movie — A Beautiful Mind? Russell Crowe stars in it.

It’s an old movie that I watched in on a flight recently.

It’s the story of John Nash, a brilliant guy, a man who was given a fabulous mind.

But John Nash heard voices in his mind. He had thoughts that were not true, were not rational, and were deceitful.

They seemed real to him.
They made him feel important.
They played on his darkest fears.
And when he listened to them, they destroyed his relationships.
They distorted his perceptions.
They made him obsessive and terrified.
They led to death.

So this brilliant guy with this fabulous mind had to learn — and it took a lot of time — he had to learn to test the voices, to test the thoughts in his mind.

He had to learn to not listen to the ones that lead to death.

There’s one line in the film where John Nash says “I’ve gotten used to ignoring them, and as a result, I think they’ve given up on me.”

His battle, in a sense, is the battle of every one of us.

That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

I’m not talking about trying harder.

Let me give you an analogy. And this analogy is a little bit of a stretch, so lend me a little grace on this one, okay?

Imagine a television network. Imagine it really exists, and it’s always on the air; it’s broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It’s filled with amazing opportunities.
It’s filled with non-stop offers of really good things.

And anytime you want to, you can tune into this network and you can access one of these offers.

The call letters for this network are HSN, and that stands for Holy Spirit Network.

Jesus says it’s kind of like that. He says there is this river, this river of living waters, and it can flow right to the core, the belly, the center of anyone who wants it at any time.

This river is available through the Spirit of God, and all you have to do, really, is tune in anytime you want to.

It’s not about trying harder. You can do it as simply as by saying, “God, here’s what I’m dealing with. Here’s my problem, my challenge, my concern, my weight, my anger, my fear. Help me.”

And then, you must listen.

There will be certain thoughts, not all of them, that move you toward life. And the more you practice, the more you’ll be able to recognize them. They will help you to think with a sound mind. Thoughts of sober judgment and compassion and courage and hope.

I’ll give you an example. This is real simple and very concrete.

I got an email from someone recently. This is someone I barely know. Mostly, he knows me from hearing me teach.

In his email he mentioned a character defect in me. This was appropriately done with a real gracious spirit. But he named a flaw in me that he had an example of.

When I read those words, there was a defensiveness in me, and then there was a feeling that this is probably true of me — and it was kind of like a little scalpel going into me and there was just a twinge of pain.

And here’s what I would be tempted to think:

“This is embarrassing — someone sees this character flaw in me, and it’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time. It’s not changing. It’ll never change. I wonder how many other people I don’t even know about see it.”

And I would be tempted, if I started thinking thoughts like that, to spiral downward.

Those may even be thoughts that seem to be rational and true, but they rob me of life.

They destroy my capacity to deal with the challenges of life. It’s death. That chain of thoughts is death.

And they’re quite familiar to me.

Partly because I was preparing for this message, when I got that email, I just said, “Spirit, speak to me.” And here are the thoughts that ran through my mind.

The first one:

This is exactly what I need to hear if I’m not going to be stuck in something that I don’t want to be stuck in. These words can help me grow. They point out a behavior that, in this case, I know can be changed.

And then the next thought:

Why should I want people to think I’m better than I am? Why would that matter to me? People who have discernment, they’re going to know the truth about me anyway. And it doesn’t gain me anything to convince people of something other than the truth.

And then the next thought was that God loves me anyway, and this is precisely what grace is for.

It’s kind of like surfing, where it’s my job to have discernment and learn balance and so on, but it’s not my job to make waves. It’s not my job to create power.

God makes the waves; and every moment, here comes another one. Here comes another one. And if I’ve blown it a thousand times before, it doesn’t matter because here comes another wave.

It’s a funny thing. There was still some pain for me over this email. I was still kind of embarrassed about it, and I wished it wasn’t true.

But the more important part of me, the deeper part of me, was really glad I got that information because it meant I could grow. And there’s energy attached to that.

Then I had this kind of strange thought: I’ll bet there are hundreds of people who hear me teach, who know flaws of mine.

And I just wanted to tell all of you, don’t write an email… because I can only process so much at a time.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to life and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Paul doesn’t say you ought to think only happy thoughts, never sad ones.

Sometimes you’ll think thoughts that will lead to sorrow, but the test of godly sorrow is that it will lead to life. It will produce in you energy and hope and will leave no residue of regret.

Godly sorrow leads to life without regret; worldly sorrow leads to death.

I’ll give you another piece of guidance, as you step into the flow of the Spirit.

This consists of a single phrase.

One time, David was having a really bad day. Anyone have a really bad day recently?

David was running away from Saul, his old boss.

He had lost his wife.
He had lost his mentor.
He had lost his best friend.

A bunch of people were following him, but things weren’t working out too well, and they were trying to kill him.

Have you ever had someone in your organization trying to kill you? This is a bad day.

This is what the writer of Scripture says in 1 Samuel 30:

But David encouraged himself in the Lord. (1 Samuel 30:6)

Isn’t that a great phrase? But David encouraged himself in the Lord.

I think it’s a great phrase because when I’m alone, often times I will be disappointed in myself — that I’m not doing as good as I feel I should be doing as a husband, as a dad, as a friend, as a pastor.

When I’m alone, when I’m spending time alone with God, to be honest, a lot of times I’m not allowing my thoughts to be guided by the Spirit.

You know how I know this?

Here’s the sign: When my thoughts are guided by the Spirit there’s an increased sense of power to overcome the problems in my life.

Grace always brings power. Sometimes it brings godly sorrow; but always, ultimately, hope and power.

In your alone time, when you’re alone with God, sometimes you need to do self-examination and confession — that’s important. Do that honestly, but do it in a time-limited fashion, then move on.

Because the writer of Scripture doesn’t say David beat himself up in the Lord. He says David encouraged himself in the Lord.

Some of you beat yourselves up in the Lord.

You know who you are. And if this is you — when you’re alone with God — it’s important that you make your main activity to encourage yourself in the Lord.

Bask in his love.
Ask for his help.
Listen for his wisdom.
Consider his promises.

And if you ever have thoughts that say to you — you don’t deserve it or you’re not doing well enough, just remember that God is the God of grace. God is the God of another wave.

Last observation:

6. We need to rely on each other to help discern the voice of God.

There’s a great scene towards the end of the movie A Beautiful Mind.

John Nash comes out of his classroom. He’s teaching some students by now.

And waiting to see him is a man that he’s never seen before. This man says to him, “I’ve come to talk with you about being awarded the Nobel Prize.”

And John Nash turns to one of his students in the class and says, “Excuse me. Do you see a man standing there? Is he real?”

And she says, “Yes.”

John Nash turns to the guy and says, “OK, I’ll listen to you now. I’ve had some bad experiences with people that no one else has seen but me.”

That’s a humbling thing for a man with a brilliant mind to have to do, but he’d learned to lean into community to know which voices are worth listening to and which are delusional and will lead to death. He learned — this man with this brilliant mind — that he needed community.

This is part of why small groups are so important here at Blue Oaks. God very often speaks to us through his community, through his people.

So when you’re not sure about a voice or a train of thought in your mind, go to your small group. Talk about it there.

If you have a sense of conviction and you’re wondering if the conviction is the Spirit moving in you and you should respond to it or if it’s just neurotic guilt, talk to your community.

If you have a prompting, a desire to do something, and you’re not sure, talk to your community. Ask if this is a calling from the Spirit or just a self-centered desire that jumped up inside of you.

Lean into community to help you discern which voices are worth listening to, because it really is God’s will for your life that you have a beautiful mind — a mind that consistently thinks thoughts of love and joy and peace and courage and strength and hope.

Whatever your circumstances are, God’s will for your mind is always life, only life.

Alright, let me pray for you.