Minding our Mind: Thinking for the glory of God

We are in a series on Sunday morning on Stewardship. Today, we dealt with the command to "love the Lord our God with all our mind" or thinking for the glory of God. Here is a modified outline. If you need more, just let me know.

We began with a quote by David Horner (my pastor in college): "What and how we think has been shaped by the world around us far more than it has been by the Christ within us"

Why does our mind matter to God?

• Because of our human make-up
• Because of the exhortations in scripture
• Because of the way God works in our sanctification
• Because of the current religious/spiritual climate in our culture
• Because of the deceptiveness of Satan

What does it mean to love the Lord our God with all our mind?

• Thinking deeply about God - his purposes, ways, nature, character
• Cultivating a biblical worldview - informed by scripture; frame of reference being the bible - thinking Christianly & biblically; evaluating, filtering, & assessing all that we are being fed through the lens of scripture;
• Guarding against wrong ways of thinking - being on our guard against false teaching & unbiblical worldviews & philosophies that contradict God’s revelation

How do we cultivate a mind ready for action?

• “set your hope fully on the grace that will brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” - the gospel; all of it - death, burial, & resurrection of Jesus and its implications; the ground & foundation of godly thinking for the glory of God
• Saturating our minds with scripture
• Prayer - relying on the HS of truth
• Reading books that deepen our understanding of God
• Willingness to be stretched, even challenged in “how” we think about things

What are the results?

• a developing of Spiritual discernment - growing in our ability to discern truth/error, right/wrong, good/evil; making righteous judgments grounded in the truth of scripture; God’s ways/world’s ways
• A thinking faith - a mind ready to interact with and even confront the ideologies that are prevalent in our culture that are contrary to scripture (more application of this tonight)

What areas of life can we apply this exhortation?

• Psychology/psychiatry - man is basically “good at heart”
• Modern self-esteem movement - premise of ourselves being the “center” of the universe
• Theological persuasions - prosperity gospel
• “Best Selling” books - The Shack; The Secret, anything by Bart Earman or Eckart Tolle

What are some resources?

• Tim Challies - The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment
• James Emery White - A Mind for God
• John Piper - Think