The Sound Mind - Meditating on Scripture

Thank you praise team for helping us connect with God through our worship. You can be seated tonight. Thank you for your participation in worship. And as we link our faith and our worship with him, something powerful happens, doesn't it? Something wonderful happens as we link together. As you see behind me, we are in our sound mind series and I have enjoyed the two weeks that we've had of this so far. Um, I have enjoyed what we have heard from the word of the Lord and the impartation that has happened w for us. uh pastor introduced the series a couple of weeks ago, brother Carden last week on the spirit's role in the sound mind and have gleaned so very much from this and and thankful thankful for that. One of the things that stuck with me from pastor's introduction is he just simply said a sound mind is possible in the world that we live in and in the condition of our lives as such as they are.

Sometimes we may wonder, is it even possible for me to live free from anxiety and free from fear and depression and oppress and all the things that cause us to be unsound or unstable? Is it even possible? But our our pastor uh reiterated to us and planted that flag of faith to say a sound mind is possible. And it takes both spiritual practice and practical disciplined approach in this. And so we're starting with those spiritual practices. Last week we heard the role of the spirit and this week my assignment is to talk about scripture and meditation on scripture as a means of helping us develop and form a sound mind. Last week, brother Carden, one of the things that has stuck with me all week is that the spirit being the guard on the inside to uh that kind of stop some things maybe from coming out of my mouth or coming out of my life is that the spirit can help me live with a sound mind by basically ejecting all of the things that the lies that my mind tries to uh tries to believe.

been so thankful for u the role of the spirit in in having a sound mind and how he helps us to have a sound mind. He talked about the helmet of salvation and the spirit doesn't do all the work for us. We participate with the spirit and I would say the same is true for the word as we're going to look at it tonight. The word doesn't do all the work. It's not just magical words and magical formulas. There's some uh some activity from us. We partner with the spirit and with the word of God in order for it to have full effect in our lives. I want to start with this question to you. What fills your mind when you are anxious, overwhelmed, or trying to make a decision? What is it that fills your mind when you're anxious, overwhelmed, or trying to make a decision?

How does that usually go mentally for you? What is it that fills your mind? I already gave it away, but we're going to talk about letting the word fill our minds. Instead of whatever answer popped up for you as I asked that question, we're going to talk about having the word be what fills our mind. Some of key scriptures that I'm going to draw from tonight and have been drawn from already in this series. 2 Timothy chapter 1:7 that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. God gives the sound mind and he gives us the power to partner with him to help form that and mold that. And then also Joshua 1:8 specifically talking about the word says this. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success meditating on the word of the Lord day and night. It's talked about multiple times throughout scripture and we'll talk about a few of those. But I did want to mention right up front that a sound mind isn't accidental. It's formed. And it's formed through the spirit as we heard last week. And scripture meditation. Scripture meditation is one of the primary ways that God shapes our minds. Shapes us to have a sound mind. He shapes that sound mind within us as we read and consult his word which is truth. This is where truth is derived from. All truth is derived from his his word. So, just to revisit a definition of what is a sound mind. Well, biblically, it is a disciplined, a self-controlled, spiritually anchored thinking mind.

I'll say those again. It's a disciplined mind. To have a sound mind is to have a disciplined mind. To have a self-controlled mind. Kind of that century idea that brother Carden mentioned last week. And then it is a sound mind is spiritually anchored thinking. I like that word anchor because I can it prepares a picture in my mind right of a drifting ship or um a drifting boat perhaps but something that is anchored and not just anchored in anything but spiritually anchored. So a sound mind is spiritually anchored thinking. And where do we derive those spiritual concepts? We derive them from the word. 2 Corinthians chapter 10:5 tells us to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. So to have a self-controlled mind, to have a a mind moderated and guarded by the word and by the spirit is to have a sound mind.

And so what we're talking about this month is not just mental health. That is important and that will be a byproduct of what we are talking about. But we're not simply just talking about mental health, but we're talking about aligned thinking with God's truth. Thinking in alignment with the truth of the word of God. By contrast, a sound mind is not fear-driven thinking. thoughts that are promoted or motivated by fear that is not a that does not lead to a sound mind. That does not form a sound mind. Something else that does not form a sound mind is reactive spiraling or emotional spiraling. Again, the the thought and the concept being when that begins to happen because that is a natural part of the human condition. So, if that has happened to you and you're like, "Oh man, I need to run to the altar." Hold on just a second.

That's a natural part of the human condition. What we must do is then meditate in his word to find out what he says about it. Instead of continuing to reactively spiral or to emotionally spiral, we look to the word of God to gain clarity and guidance. And so a sound mind stands apart from and very opposite to this reactive or emotional spiraling. And the third thing it stands in contrast to is lies that we internalize. Lies about ourselves or about conditions or about others or about our context. Lies that we can begin to believe and internalize stands in contrast to a sound mind. It does not offer to us soundness and stability. but having that self-controlled mind that says, you know what, this is in contrast with what God's word says. And so this is a lie and God's word is truth, right?

We judge his word to be true. David said this multiple times in Psalm 119, but he says, "The entirety of your word is truth, and everyone of your righteous judgments endures forever." He He's helping us to understand that we can anchor ourselves not in the lies that we believe because they're they're going to shift and change probably based on how we feel. But God's word doesn't shift and change. God's word provides that steady, stable anchor that we need to have a sound mind. And so it's important that we meditate in those words and we meditate in his precepts as David said in Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is full just absolutely chock full. It is it is all about the word of God. And I would encourage you to read it. Now, it is the longest chapter in the Bible at 176 verses.

Okay? So, you might want to break it up. I don't know. My Bible plan breaks it up between two days. However you want to do it, it's it's um it goes alphabetically by the Hebrew alphabet. So, you could read a section um a day if you wanted to take it like that. But, it is all about the word of God. It's about the effects of the word of God. It's about the promises of the word of God. It's about what the word of God offers to us and invites us to have and to be a part of. It's wonderful, wonderful thing to meditate upon. And so I I encourage you I encourage you to look at that. So a sound mind is not fear-driven thinking. It is not reactive or emotional spiraling. And it's not lies that we internalize. It is formed by the word and by the truth that God presents to us in his word.

Romans 12:2 familiar to us. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Right? So, we're to renew our mind in him, in his word, in his spirit, in his presence, in in people perhaps that are in alignment with what his word says. We can th that can help us to renew our mind. Philippians chapter 4 is another one that's already been it's been mentioned I believe in both lessons this week and last week but I'm going to mention it again because it is it is part of how this how scripture tells us to have a sound mind. Verse six he Paul starts like this. Be anxious for nothing. Does that sound like a sound mind to you? Be anxious for not ever anxious. That sounds like a sound mind to me. And if Paul's commanding it, if it's a command in the word of God, then it must be possible for us to obtain it and to have it.

Back to what pastor told us in the first week, a sound mind is possible. He says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Meditate on these things. Where are you going to find things that tick all those boxes? True, noble, just, pure, lovely, good report, has virtue, praiseworthy. Where are you going to find all of those things? You're going to find it right here in the word of God.

The word of God is then going to help us and form peace in our hearts and in our minds through Christ Jesus. Another scripture that talks about having a sound mind is from the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 26 and verse three. The prophet says, "You will keep him in perfect peace." you, God will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. I love that verse and I love the old song that came from it. Well, I woke up this morning with my mind. Oh, this is a good choir right here. Good job. Yeah. You will keep him in perfect peace. That sounds like a sound mind to me. You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. Whose mind is not drifting off to other things whose mind is stayed.

It is supported. It is braced by God. God's attributes. God's truth, God's character, God's nature, God's promises. When our minds are stayed on those things, when those things are what we meditate on and what we think about, it brings peace. It brings that sound mind and it it calls us to that self-discipline to eject out of our lives what is not stayed on him and what is not in alignment with his word. It cause calls us to monitor what we take in and what we run to in times when we feel anxious and overwhelmed or we have a decision to make. I want to say this. Instability results when values, beliefs, ideas, philosophies, systems, however you want to say it, instability results when those are not aligned with God. And we see this playing out in a big way in our world today.

There's instability when things are out of alignment with God, with his truth, and with his way. But stability, a sound mind calls us to that self-control that says, "I'm going to keep my mind stayed on God. I'm going to keep my mind aligned with his truth. I'm going to take in things that align with his truth. I'm seeking to fill my mind with his word and with voices and inputs that are aligned with his word. And that takes self-control. That takes, as my dad says, that takes a hands on the wheel approach. We're not just coasting. We're not just, "Look, ma, no hands." We actually got our hands on the handlebars on the wheel and we are steering this thing in the right direction aligned with God and we're ejecting and rejecting things that are not aligned with his word principles and truths.

I want to offer to you if if you again feel maybe is this even possible? Number one, a sound mind is possible because a sound mind is not the absence of distress. It's stability within it. Okay? It doesn't mean that there's never distress. It doesn't mean that there's never confusion or wondering or doubt or just not knowing what to do or just being tormented. Doesn't mean that there's never any of any of that that we would label as distress. But a sound mind is stability within those moments. And how do we get that? We get that by aligning our thinking with God's truth. By meditating on scripture. By meditating on scripture. Very quickly, I'm going to define scripture. Okay? Don't think I have to, but I'm going to. What is the word? What is the word of God? Very simply, in my opinion, it is a revelation of who God is, his nature, his key characteristics, and it is also his perspective, truth, and instructions for life.

He reveals who he is in his word, and he reveals how to live his way in his word. Just very simply, 2 Timothy 3:16-1 17, I feel like, would uphold that definition. It says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." And as the creator, God designed the world, including us as humans. And because he designed it, then he then gave us the instruction manual to live it to its fullest and to its best. And that's all contained here within the word of God. The Old Testament law, it helped the Jews be the Jews. It helped them live as a people set apart from every other nation to be a way for them way for the world to see what it's like to be God's chosen people.

The law helped them function at their best. They had dietary restrictions and who better to know what should be eaten and what should not than the creator who made the body. So it wasn't just this list of laws to be like let me see if they'll just stay away from pigs. No, that wasn't his point with that. His point with that was there's a there's a way to be healthy. There's a way to to have the health that you need in your body. I'm the creator. I know what that is. I'm going to tell it you share with you. And then of course you get into relational laws of people interreational laws and he knows how to best help us live the life that he designed for us. He's the creator. He's the purposegiver of life. And so he has given to us instructions.

And they're not just so that we can uh so that he can see oh who's going to obey and who's going to disobey. These instructions are this is the best way to live life. This is how to get the most out of your life. This is how to live the most meaningful, purposefilled life that you could have is right here. And so that's just a little bit about the word of God. That's the why we need to study it. That's the why we need to meditate upon it. Deuteronomy 6:6, pretty familiar around here these days and all days. Uh but verse four starts with here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

In your heart. Proverbs says something similar in chapter 3:3. Solomon the wise man repeats this kind of idea when he says, "Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Write his word, his character, his nature, his revelation. Write it on your heart. Psalm 119:11. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. I've hidden it in my heart. All of these verses, as I read them and studied them, brought to me one question. How does something get in my heart? If that's where it's supposed to be, and I believe that it is, there's multiple. I've just listed three, but there are millions more. Probably not millions. The Bible's not that big, but there's others that would verify that same principle of getting the word in your heart.

So, how does something get into my heart? Feel like this question gets at the difference between hearing something and actually being formed by it. Not just your word I have heard with my ears that I might not sin against you. That's not what it said. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Hear them with your ears. That's not what it said. So, it's it's as if it's getting at something different than just hearing, but actually being formed by those words in the context of Deuteronomy 66. And and brother Carden hit on this last week, but the heart doesn't just mean emotions in the Hebrew mindset. It's that whole inner life that he talked about, your thoughts, your desires, decisions, and your identity. So the question then becomes, how do God's words move from outside of you to inside of who you are?

How does that happen? And how does it get into my inner life? Well, I'm glad you didn't ask, but you asked because I'm going to talk briefly about some ways that that typically happens. How we get God's word in our heart. Repetition. Repetition leads to familiarity. And familiarity re results in internalization. So as we repeat as we repeatedly read or as we repeatedly quote perhaps things that you have memorized that repetition as we just go to it every day. Read the word of God every day. Pick it up and I read it every day. Every situation, every question I have, every heartbreak that I have, I pick it up and I read it and I just repeat those words. That repetition brings out brings us into familiarity. Begin to be familiar with the word. As I hear it quoted, I'm like, "Oh, yeah.

I know that one. I've heard it and it's familiar to me." And then we begin to internalize the word. Just after Deuteronomy 66, in in Deuteronomy 6:7, there is instruction to repeat these words constantly. He says, "When you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up," he's saying, "Repeat those words." Repeating the words of God. And so for me, I'm involved in Bible quizzing where quizzers, students memorize hundreds of verses, and they do it through repetition and they they quote their verses and then we ask them questions and they get them right and we celebrate and we give ribbons and trophies and it's wonderful. You should come to a tournament sometime. Amen from the Bible cuisine director of APC. But there's an instruction from from God to repeat these words.

Why? Because repetition builds familiarity which builds internalization. I get them in my heart. So if I have the scripture, you're going to keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. If I have the scripture in my God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. When I'm in a time of trouble, that verse is not just something that I've heard before, but that's something that I've repeated to myself and I've become familiar with it and I have internalized that truth and it is written on my heart and it allows me stability in a time when I shouldn't have stability, a sound mind when I maybe shouldn't have a sound mind. But he said, "Repeat these words constantly when you sit, when you walk, when you lie down, when you rise. at every moment repeat it.

And it's not just mindless repetition, but it's an idea of steady exposure to the word of God. Steady exposure to the word of God. I'm not just mindlessly repeating, you know, just reading every day just so I can get the check box on my bread chart just because it looks so nice and neat when all the boxes are checked. is not just so that I can say it that I have read the whole Bible through or that that I've memorized so many scriptures. It's not just this mindless repetition. It's steady exposure to the word of God. Steady exposure to the lifegiving words that are within the word of God. Your words, the entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. And so he gives us he gives us these precious truths and promises that we can avail ourselves of.

And so to get it into our heart, repetition which breeds familiarity which breeds internalization. And again this is over time. This is not just and it's done. It is over time. Steady exposure to the word of God and things aligned with the word of God. What you return to again and again begins to shape your reflexes. how you think, how you act, how you choose, how you react, what you return to again and again begins to shape your reflexes. How you think and react and how you choose. And I'm offering to us tonight that what we return to must be the word and voices or sources that align with the truths of God's word. And we have to shut out those other voices. We have to limit those other voices that would speak in contrast to the truth of the word of God so that we can with that steady exposure constantly exposing my mind and my heart to the word of God to principles and truths of the word of God.

That can happen by watching YouTube videos of sermons. That can happen by playing worship music, things that align, concepts that align with the word of God, filling our minds with these things. We we can't neglect the reading and the memorization and the study of the word of God. But this can happen in multiple ways. We can read and and uh listen to podcasts that are built and founded in the word of God. We can fill our minds with those things. We can return again and again to the word of God to glean the life and the help and the direction and the clarity that he offers. Another way that we get into our heart is reflection. Not just reading. Words enter the heart when you linger with them. When you when you kind of chew on them. Job said, "I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." So if we treat God's word as food, then it's something that we just chew on for a while.

Not because it's not cooked right, because there is that kind of meat. But we just continue to chew on it, mle it over, enjoy it, get the flavor from the word of God. We continue to linger with the word of God. one powerful way to deepen your reading. If you feel like I I read the word, I I don't know that I feel like I much get much out of it. Number one, I would ask you, what translation are you reading? And then maybe um help you find one that helps you understand it a little bit better. So, that would be the first thing. But also, as you sit with the word of God and you read it, asking yourself this question, what does this reveal about God? What does this passage that I read, verses, couple chapters, what does this reveal about me?

James tells us that the scripture is a mirror to us. As we look into the perfect law of liberty, we we look into this mirror and it reflects us back to us. And so, as you sit with the word of God, thinking through what does this say about God? What what are the attributes about him? what truths about him are present here. And so that just helps you linger with the word a little bit longer. Maybe you don't have time to just sit for two hours at a time, but if there's something in in that passage that you can carry with you throughout the day, maybe jotting it down on a sticky note or putting it on your phone or a 3x5 card or something, just stick with you. Yeah, I need to think about that. What is what does it say about God?

What does it say about me? These are ways that we can meditate and linger with the word of God. lingering with it again to let it challenge us sometimes, to let it comfort us sometimes. At the end tonight, I have prepared a handout. Um, Brother Rever lovingly pointed out to me one time that I always give homework. So, here's my version of homework tonight. All right. So, I've got a a handout for you that uh has some different methods for scriptural meditation. Just some ideas for you if um if maybe you need you need that support, you need that um tool or technique. So some ways for you to be able to meditate on scripture, ways for you to do that because that is one of the key ways this reflection, reflecting, putting our mind, engaging our mind, engaging our thoughts.

Again, this is sound mind, right? Self-controlled mind. I'm going to think about what I'm reading. I'm going to think about what's popping out at me in scripture. the the thoughts that God has given to me while I'm reading. I'm going to pay attention to those. I'm also a journaler, so I write those things down. I didn't bring my journal up here with me, but I I do have it with me tonight, but that's where I write down my questions for God or maybe things that stick out to me. So, if you're a journaler, I invite you uh continue and I encourage you in that. Another way that we get it in our heart, and I'm I'm coming to a close, is we connect his word to real life. That helps it sink deeper. Truth sinks deeper when it intersects with our lived experience.

When a verse meets you in your grief or in your conflict, in your joy or in your decision-making, that's putting it deep in your heart. As you read that word and you find yourself in that verse or you find a hope or a promise that you can hang on to, that is something that you can linger with and it can go down deep. Truth sinks deeper when it uh crosses with a lived experience. When you begin to see it work in real life, that's when it stops being this abstract outside thing and it becomes personal and internalized. I have a story from and I'm not going to tell the whole thing, but when my uncle passed in 2020, there was a scripture that came to mind the night before he passed, and it just it just popped out at me from my years of Bible quizzing.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. And that's just I just centered myself on that truth of scripture. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. I prayed it. I prayed it over my mom. I prayed it over my aunt Debbie. Lord, I know your word says you're near to the brokenhearted. And so in this moment that feels chaotic, here we are. And that verse met me in that grief and in that unconsolable time, his word met me. And that has become it's in my heart. I have put it into my heart because it met me there. Practice and obedience. There's a biblical pattern that doing leads to deeper understanding. And so that practice practicing his word, obeying his word. Again, that's what helps us get it into our hearts as we begin to practice it. When we act on what we've heard, even if it's imperfectly, if we act on his word, it moves from theory to formation.

It begins to form us community and conversation. You expect the connect groups leader to talk about community and conversation. So here it is. One of the ways that you can take the word of God from just being something outside and in putting it into your heart is being a part of community and conversation. Talking about it with others, family, friends, faith community that helps embed the word of God in our hearts. And I would say because we uh we are focusing on healthy homes this year in Deuteronomy, this was meant to happen in households and daily life. This steady exposure to the word of God, not just individual. And so there's another plug for healthy homes. And then finally, affection and desire. Ultimately, things enter your heart when they become something you love, not just something you know. David said, 'Oh, how I love your law.

It is my meditation all the day. There's a link between that meditation, mauling it over, lingering with it, repetition. There's a link between that and loving it deeply, having affection and desire for it. So something gets into your heart through repeated attention, honest reflection, lived experience, and practice response over time. Three questions to end with the exam as it were. What tends to dominate your thinking right now? What tends to dominate your thinking right now? A followup to that is what truth do you need to meditate on this week? What have you been ruminating about? What have you been worried about? What just will not leave your mind? Just comes to you and just sits there on repeat in your mind. And what truth do you need then to meditate on this week that would meet that? And then finally, where do you notice fear versus a sound mind in your life?

Where do you notice fear versus a sound mind? I'll invite you to stand and I just want to pray over us. I'm going to turn it back to brother Brian. A sound mind is possible through the power of the spirit and through the power of the word meditating on his word. God, I pray that you would shape our thoughts with your truth. I pray where our minds are anxious you would bring steadiness. I pray where we believe lies that you would plant your word deeply. And I pray that you would form in us a sound mind that is rooted in your word. Would you lift your hands and maybe you want to pray your own prayer. Maybe you want to proclaim to him and thank him for his word. Whatever it is that you want to do right now, would you do that with him?

Jesus, I thank you for your word. Thank you for the offering that you give to us to have a sound mind. Thank you, Jesus, for this.