In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the importance of renewing our minds and washing our hearts from wickedness. He references Jeremiah chapter 4, verse 14, where God calls upon Jerusalem to cleanse their hearts in order to be saved. The preacher emphasizes the need to bring together the private parts of our minds and not let our thoughts run wild. He highlights the contrast between remembering sports statistics and recipes easily, but struggling to remember Scripture, suggesting that a renewed mind is necessary to prioritize and retain God's Word.

The greatest defeat in history of the devil came when a cross was thrust down into Golgotha, which is the place of the skull. It was at that place of the skull, and the Latin word calvary also means that, that the enemy lost the greatest battle of all. And what a picture for us when the cross becomes deeply embedded in our own mind and in our own skull. God nails down that cross into our mind and the devil loses his greatest stronghold in our life. Well, let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that you will show us a great key as we go home to victory, moment by moment, in order to allow these truths that we have embraced and heard again and been blessed by, to have free course by your grace and indwelling life in our life. We want to let them be so, but we know we need release in many areas and give us keys to the kingdom now, in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to go to Mark chapter 12, please, and we'll look at a lot of scriptures in this brief time. Mark chapter 12, the words of our Lord Jesus, Mark chapter 12. And he says in verse 29 and 30, the answer to a question about the great commandment. Jesus said in Mark chapter 12, verse 29 and 30, and the Jesus answered him. The first of all the commandments is, and he quotes Deuteronomy six here, O Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. And then he adds something that's not in Deuteronomy six and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment, says the Lord Jesus. He adds into that this little phrase and with all your mind. Now look at Romans chapter 12, verse one and two, Romans chapter 12, verse one and two. We've been hearing about presenting our members to the Lord as a living sacrifice, but members can be internal as well as external. Our hands, our feet. Yes, but there's another member that many never present as a living sacrifice. And here it is, verse one and two. I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies. That's outside and inside a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service or worship. And part of that, you see, will take place this way, that you will not be conformed into this world, but you will be transformed. The same word for Jesus being changed on the transfiguration, you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect. The will of God transformed as the cross goes down deeply into your brain, down into your whole process of thought. That's what he wants. Look at Ephesians chapter two, chapter four, Ephesians chapter four, and you'll see the contrast between the way that lost men think and saved men think Ephesians chapter four, verse 17. Ephesians 417, this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that henceforth you do not walk as the nations walk, the lost people, the Gentiles is the word in the vanity or literally the mirage of their own mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, their past feeling they've given themselves over to sensuality or lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you've not learned Christ that way. If so, be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. If what Bill Frisbee this morning says is true, then do this. Put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, the thinking wrongly and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Let God bring it to life and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, which starts on the inside. The devil always starts on the outside and tries to work in. God always starts on the inside and says, work out what I've worked in you. And that's where it starts on the inside. So truth and the inward parts and part of that and where it starts is in the mind. That's why the Bible says in Proverbs twenty three, verse seven, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. What you really are, you see, is the sum of your thoughts in a very real sense. And and this thinking in the heart scripturally doesn't mean just this cogitative activity. It's the moral purpose, the center of your being, the reason that you're all your processes work. Now, we are deceived in our day humanism into thinking that it's not as a man thinketh, but as a man behaves, so is he. So we try to be good or as a man appears. So is he. Boy, he's handsome. Major and outer appearance or as a man sayeth, so he is. We say, oh, that's great. Good what you said. So we try to have good speech. But the word of God says that the thoughts of the heart are the sum of the man and they reveal his true essence. It's like soil. I have parts in my backyard that just won't grow grass, you know, because the dirt's no good. And you can tell what something is like by what comes out of it. And you can tell what a heart is like by the thoughts that come out of it and the consistency of that. God says that I am and you are. This is painful. We are the person that our thoughts reveal us to be our mind, our thoughts. And this is awesome because God looketh on the heart and it's powerfully revealed all through scripture. Just listen to this scripture in Matthew, chapter five. I'm going to read you a lot of scriptures. So just listen to this. Matthew five, twenty one. Jesus says, you've heard it said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill. Whoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. He goes on later and says, you've heard it said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, whoever looks on a woman to lust after her. And of course, there's accompanying thoughts of anger or lust in the heart. He has done it. Now, that's serious, that's serious. Jesus is saying, you've heard it said the outer life, that's man's ideas. But I say to you, it really is the real case that it has to do with the thoughts. It's a laser beam of truth, the thoughts of the heart. And this is the righteousness that Jesus said, accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. You'll never inherit the kingdom of God. It's got to be on the inside. It's got to be real where I really live. So man is very apt to forget this hidden realm. We're prone to not present to body to the Lord, this part of our body, our interior brains and our whole being. So we cultivate morals and manners on the outside and we settle for contradictory life on the inside. Let me tell you something. There's no such thing as a spontaneous crime. The news says so and so was a spontaneous crime. No, no, no. People do crimes over and over in their mind before they ever acted out on the outside. They do that. We read in the paper about a crime of passion or this person that did that, but they did it in their thoughts first. You know, there's a scary scripture in Matthew 15 when Jesus gives a list of things that defile a man and make him unusable and make him so he can't experience what Bill spoke about this morning, Matthew 15. Listen to what Jesus says in verse 16. Are you without understanding? Don't you understand that whatever enters into the mouth goes into the stomach and is cast out as waste. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. And here they are out of the heart proceed. What's the first one? Evil thoughts before it ever gets to adultery and murder and fornication and thievery and blasphemies and false witness. It all starts with evil thoughts and because you see, that's where all the others start in evil thoughts. And so what you are today is the manifestation of yesterday's thoughts. You're here today because at one point you got a flyer or someone told you about this and you said, I think I'll go. And that thought began to take root and it began to process in you and you began to act on that. Every single work of art that we admire in museums started in the mind, every single sculpture that makes a statue starts with it in his mind before he ever gets through. Imagine going to a sculpture and he's chiseling and say, what are you making? I don't know. He knows already what he's doing. He's thought about it. And you are here today because you chose to act on your thoughts and it matured and you thought over the idea wrong words are the result of assimilating wrong thoughts in your mind. Pride is because I think more highly of myself than I ought. Anger is because I think I've been violated and I'm upset about it. Fear is what I imagine what might happen. I think about it. Bitterness is when my mind won't let go of the pain that I've experienced. Harmful emotions you see when you go home and face circumstances, harmful emotions aren't caused by circumstances. They're not you can face circumstances with harmful emotions or not, but like that, like the two men who both fell in love with these women and both these women just dumped these guys. One of the men, it's a terrible situation, one of the men went out and and he hung himself off a bridge and he died. The other one went out and wrote a very sad song and made a million dollars. Let me tell you something. Harmful emotions are your response that you let go on in your mind. Do you realize there's a battle on for the mind today with TV and billboards and garbage in garbage staying in sewage coming out a thousand voices and a million vices? The love of many will wax cold because of iniquity. Jesus said it in Matthew 24 and to be carnally minded, fleshly minded, earthbound is death. The Bible says in Romans eight, but to be spiritually minded, when we let this mind be in us, when we allow God's thought, that pressure of the Holy Spirit whispering, saying, think this way, think this way, this is the way and God's radiant thoughts trying to find an entrance into what has been clouded. He comes and we have to let this mind be in us. Well, since the fall, since the fall, man's mind has been devastated. We've had crazy thoughts. We've been rebellious. We've had foolish imaginations. We've walked in the vanity of our mind. We've had our foolish hearts darkened. We've been unable as a race of beings to think clearly about God's word without being distracted. We've had uncontrollable mental activity and thought patterns, and we've been selfish and dwelling on perverse things are vain imaginations. It talks about in Romans one, where that whole string of perversion begins, vain, self centered imaginations, things that aren't really true. We read earlier in Ephesians four that that the world walks in the mirage of their own low thoughts. They don't know what's going on. But the cure, look at Isaiah fifty five. Look at this. This is the cure. This is the cure, Isaiah fifty five, verse six, look at this and you may see something in here you've not seen before, five times one word is repeated in these next few verses, six through nine. Listen to this. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way. That's the outer behavior in the life. It's obvious. And the unrighteous man forsake. What's it say? His thoughts, his thoughts. And then he says, and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him to our God. He will abundantly pardon. And this is why God then says to forsake your thoughts, because you see, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways. It starts with thoughts for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. We think we are so smart. I'm telling you, we are so dumb. We have a symbol compared to a galaxy of thought. We know nothing as we are. God comes to us with light. He says, let there be light and he enlightens our darkness and he shows us himself and he says, change your mind. All you've ever thought, all you've ever known, you think it's true because that's your little low level of looking. But my thoughts are as high above your thoughts as heaven is above the earth and my ways are higher. And unless you learn to let Calvary's cross be embedded in your mind, you will be imprisoned in the visible and locked into time and bound by the tangible things. And you'll never be able to think like God. Let me tell you, God knows your thoughts, every single one of them. Remember back in Genesis six when it says God saw their thoughts and it says that God looked and he saw that every imagination of man's heart was only evil continually. The reason he sent the flood wasn't because of raunchy outer stuff. It's cited in Genesis six that Genesis six, five and six, God looked and it repented him that he made man because every imagination of man's hearts was only evil continually. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man. It's just like that. God judged the world then because of an interior thought, life and imagination of heart that was a cesspool, just like today. And in Job, Job says to God in chapter forty two, just when he comes before he repents before he says, I repent, he says, I know you can do everything and that no thought of mine can be withheld from you. There's no place you can go and think where God can't get in. He knows it all. Psalm one hundred and thirty nine, verse one and two says, you have searched me, you have known me and you understand my thoughts from afar. Every single one. Ezekiel, eleven, five Ezekiel says, I know God says to Ezekiel and to the Pharisees, I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them, the things that come into your mind. In the New Testament, the son of God, the Lord Jesus. He could read minds. No problem. It says that Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, why do you reason and think these thoughts in your heart, knowing their thoughts? He says, why do you think this evil in your heart? In Luke two, when Jesus was given, Simeon says there in the temple, he says this thought that this child is given that the thoughts of many hearts be revealed, the thoughts of the hearts. Well, all things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do every one of your thoughts, every one of them, every single one of them is right before the throne of God. You can't hide any of them. I can't hide any of them. Idle words are the result of foolish thoughts. Well, we are accountable for these things. This is a scary thing. We're accountable for our thoughts. In fact, listen to Psalm 10 as I read. I'm going to read some songs to some different scriptures to you. You might just jot these references down and look at them later. But listen to this, Psalm 10, and it says it's the reason for judgment, Psalm 10, verse four, the wicked through the pride of his face will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. That's God's reason. He God's not in his mind. His ways are always grievous. He's far out of his sight and he puffs at all his enemies. This this atheist, this person said, I don't have room for God in my mind. Proverbs 24, verse nine. Listen to this one. Even the thought of foolishness is sin. It's amazing. Even the thought of foolishness is sin. Numbers 32, 23 says, be sure your sin will find you out. It will work out. You will. You can't keep it in. You let your mind go on it. It'll take you. It'll take you down to another place. And it talks about sowing to the flesh. You can sow to the flesh with your mind. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever men soweth shall he reap. If you sow, if you sow a thought, you sow an evil thought. You let your mind dwell on foolish things and bad entertainment and raunchy books. You sow a thought, you'll reap an action. And if you sow an action, you'll reap a habit. And you sow a habit and you reap a character. And you sow a character and you have a destiny. That's what will happen to you. It all starts with something small. Look at Jeremiah, chapter four, Jeremiah, chapter four. You guys are going to have to turn quicker. Jeremiah, chapter four, because I'm getting ready to go quick now. Jeremiah, chapter four, verse 14. He says to this to his own people, he says, oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from your wickedness that you may be saved. How long will your vain thoughts lodge within you? How long will your vain thoughts? Jeremiah, chapter six. Look at this one. This one is really scary for America. Jeremiah six, verse 17. He says in verse 17, I set watchmen over you saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not hearken. Therefore, here you nations, not just to Jerusalem, but all and know this, oh, congregation, what is among them here? This all the earth. Behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to my words. That's the wisdom of God, the heavenly wisdom that's higher than the earth. And to my law, they haven't hearkened, but they have rejected it. God wants us to realize that he holds us accountable for our thoughts. And Jeremiah 1710 says, I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins. That means those things that that direct you on the inside. And even I give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. I judge the thoughts and the motives and the intents of the heart. Jesus, you see, warned about the life. That was a contradiction on the outside and the inside. He warned about the leaven of the Pharisees. That was hypocrisy when the two did not agree. Well, let me finish by giving you some some things that must happen to us as we go home about our thought, about our mind. First of all, number one, our mind must be changed. Our mind must be changed. In other words, let God be true and all of my thoughts and all of my ideas be foolishness. No matter how dear they are to me, my mind must be changed. I've got to agree with God. This is the essence of the word repentance to change the mind and to come into a agreement with God. That's the essence of confession, to say the same thing God says. So this is the meaning metanoia, metanoia, a change of mind in the light of new evidence from God that you commit to that will allow God to change your life like you heard about this morning. It will allow him. Repentance is a change of mind, of moral purpose and intelligent being acting on life that God gives in such a way that I make myself available to him and allow him to change me at the core. That's what repentance is. And it results in fruit that proves it's real. And if there's no fruit, it's because the roots phony. It's got to be real, not just sorry for sin because, oh, it hurt me so much and I'm so miserable. It's sorry for what sin calls God. Sorry enough to quit. Sorry enough to agree with God. It is impossible to truly be saved without there being a radical effect on our thought life, because if there's no effect on your thought life, you've never repented. Somebody said about a believer, they're not right in their thinking. You know what? You're right if you judge it by the world standard, because I don't think like that anymore. And if you think like all your friends that are lost, if you have lost friends, then then you're not right. They're the ones that are insane, friend, not the people who know the word of God. The mind must be changed from our way to God's way, from darkness to light. Well, secondly, the mind must be renewed, not just changed, not just when we say, Lord, I'm committed to new evidence by the grace of God. I must not only change my mind, but I must have my mind renewed. And this means to make new in nature a quality, the word renewed in the scripture as we read, be transfigured by the renewing of your mind, not removal, but renewal. Some people are so open to everything their brains fall out. But I'll tell you what, we need to be open to God's truth and let our minds be renewed. Metamorphosis is the word for that that be transfigured. It's taking place. It's that metamorphosis of being that takes place. Let me let me give you an example of what I'm saying. Some of you can tell me every picture of the Braves have ever had. You could tell statistics about sports that would make us scratch our heads and say, that's amazing. How do you remember all those things? Some of your wives can tell you recipes by heart, quarter teaspoon and all all these things that women know about recipes. And we say, how do they remember all that? I'd say, but the same people say, I just can't seem to remember the Bible. I just can't seem to remember scripture. How do you remember scripture like that? You remember sports and all these statistics, but you just can't remember the Bible. You know what? You need a renewed mind. I'm serious. I'm not calling your names. I'm just telling you the truth. If you can't remember scripture, but you do have enough memory for sports, the reason is because you got an old shoe and you need a new one. You need a new one, a renewed one. You can't transmit truth. You're still prejudiced. You're still biased. You have the same old thought patterns. You think like the world at work. And you see, our mind is like a record. We talked about the grooves of our mind. We've talked about that all our life, the grooves of our mind. So what we've got to do when we get into a situation instead of like we play our thought patterns and we get to a place and we say, this has happened to me before and it hit. We remember it. And so we do what we do. We pick it up and start the record over. Oh, no, I can't think like that. See, and what happens is you always come back to the same place. You know what God wants to do? He wants to take that record, break it and put a brand new one on there and cut new grooves so that you don't respond the same way that you used to respond. He wants to put a whole new pattern of thought, the mind of Christ on the inside. How do I renew my mind? First of all, present, present, completely surrender, present your body, which is including your mind and your brain, all that part of you present that to him, a living sacrifice. Commit your work to the Lord and your thoughts will be established, it says in Proverbs 16. So completely surrender. You can do that today before you leave here. Secondly, submit to brain surgery. Hey, if they tell me I've got a tumor in my brain, that may explain some things, but I still won't have it very easy. I'll tell you what, I'm going to get a second and third opinion for them to start cutting. We don't like surgery and we resist our thought patterns being changed just as well. But if your thought patterns don't change, your life won't change. It won't. You'll be like a muzzled dog and you go to church trying to feel better about the evil inclinations that your heart always still has. And you'll feel like a major hypocrite. You can't trust God. You can't walk by faith. God says, I want you to be able to look in the mirror and say as much as in me is the Lord has purified me through and through. Well, you seriously, you don't just wish you could be free to lust like you used to. You act like a muzzled dog and said, boy, that woman is good looking, but I can't think those thoughts anymore. And you walk around gritting your teeth and you're miserable. And God says, listen, I will change your thought process by brain surgery, taking out the old man, which is according to his deceitful lust. I renew you, give you a whole new purpose. And when you see that woman, you have compassion on her because she's dressed like that and pray for her and not foam at the mouth like all the other lost people, like the Gentiles around. I'm not even trying to be funny, guys. Lust is not normal. Lust is sinful. Now, I'm not saying I never lost, but I'm telling you this, that we have to fight the battle right there and let God cut it right out. There's a difference between evil thoughts and thoughts of evil, evil thoughts come from the heart and they're birthed for me. Thoughts of evil come from the devil and he goes and shoots them like a fiery dart. There's a difference. I mean, you say, is there really a difference? Of course. Ask our brothers here. Is there a difference between a Negro spiritual and a spiritual Negro? Is there? Of course there is. Well, there's a difference between thoughts of evil and evil thoughts to one is coming from the outside is from the devil and we resist it. And the other is from from God, from our own sinful heart, the evil thoughts that come out of the heart. A believer with a renewed mind is happy to hear God's word from a simple little believer. And they don't have to hear from famous preachers. They just have a renewed mind, they can hear God's word because they love the word of God. First, completely surrender. Second, submit to brain surgery. Third, choose, choose that your mind be under spirit control. Choose by faith to have brain implantation. And it says, lean not onto your own understanding. Well, brother, you've got to have common sense. Who said that? Common sense is carnal mind. You know what we need? We don't need common sense. We need uncommon sense. We need wisdom from above. That's what we need. We've got to let this mind be in us, which is also in Christ, that's a command. Let this mind be in you. In other words, he's putting the pressure on you when you go home and face the same old television programs and the same old friends. There's going to be pressure in your mind. God's going to whisper saying, flee that. Don't do that. Don't let your mind go that way, because it's just it's just like putting your hand into a brothel to put your mind into pornography. It's the same way to God. We've got to choose to be spiritually minded. That means our new mind that God has given to you must go on conquest. I mean to tell you, you've got to get with God and let the mind be changed and you've got to go on conquest. It says in Second Corinthians, Chapter 10, it says these words. Listen to this about your mind and what you've got to do when you go home. It says Second Corinthians, Chapter 10. Verse third, verse three, though we walk in the flesh, we do not make war after the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Look at this casting down imaginations. And every high thing that exalts itself against the true knowledge of God, bringing into captivity, taking captive every thought to the obedience of Christ. That means that my new mind must go through and God will search my mind and say that way of thinking is not of God. And I take it and put it in chains and consign it to Calvary. And it's gone because you see and you know what a stronghold is. A stronghold is a pattern of the way you've always done it, the way you've always thought it, that every time you get in the situation, you react instead of respond. And God says, I want your new mind to go on conquest. And I want you to take that thing you've always done when somebody insults you and you've always acted that way because thought process, take it kept in Jesus name. You're my prisoner, I have authority here. Get your hands, Lord, fill me with your mind and your response. That fellow just hit me on the cheek in Jesus name. I take captive that thought that says punches lights out. Vanish you from the kingdom of man's soul and Lord Jesus, put that word in me, Lord, turn the other cheek. That's why the last thing is you got to saturate yourself, soak in the word of God, soak in the word of God so much that when you think you intuitively think God's word, you know why you don't answer. Situations with God's word, because most men, most men get all their preaching as any depth in the pulpit. They're here instead of really I'm talking about really searching the scripture. I'm talking about hours and hours reading the word of God, not just to get a Sunday school lesson, not just to get a goose bump or a daily devotion to help you emotionally through the day, but reading it as a sacrificial worship so that this word of God can be in me. And as I'm walking along, God can say he can say the word to me. It's like he puts the arsenal of his word in the quiver of my heart and I take it out and launch it from the bowstring of my lip like Jesus did when the devil comes. Thou shalt not test the Lord thy God. He is the word of God that was in there. He remembered that just as he was the word. But wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? How can he make his way clean by taking heed thereto? Unto your word, thy word, have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee so that when I'm in a situation and things mount up, then God brings a wonderful scripture that's down there. I had no idea I was thinking about it, but up it comes like a radiant sign saying, please, useful lusts. And I have a choice at that moment, you see, to to let this mind be in me. Sanctification is the intelligent giving of ourselves to God and letting ourselves be available to his mind. It really is. Sanctify them through thy word, Jesus said, thy word is the truth. Now you are clean through the word I've spoken unto you, sanctify and cleanse the church by the washing of the word. See, every thought can be tested by the word of God. It can be. So, first of all, the mind must be changed, second of all, the mind must be renewed, a new record must be cut and a new way of thinking given from heaven. It's higher than the way you've had. David said such thoughts are high. I cannot attain to it. But yet he was a man that meditated in the word day and night. He beheld the beauty of the Lord in the holy tabernacle. That's why I spent so much time in there. God renewing his mind as he filled it. And God said he's a man after my own heart. There were other reasons, his brokenness, but his his heart and mind. I will set the Lord always before me, he said. So saturate yourselves in the word of God. But thirdly, the mind must be controlled, not just changed, not just renewed. It's got to be controlled. First, Peter one thirteen. First, Peter one thirteen. Listen to this one. It says, talking about our minds, it says to gird up the loins of your mind, be sober. You see, that picture is a word picture of a man who has a robe on like they used to wear. And when he got ready to run, they still do this in many countries. They pick up the robe. It's like almost a skirt and wrap it around their legs and use their belt to tie it up. It almost becomes a pair of running shorts and they can run without getting tangled up. If you try to run with a with like a robe on, you'll trip and fall. So there's loose ends that get in the way. That's the exact picture there. Gird up, bring together in a firm place those loins, the private parts. Of your mind, bring together the private parts of your mind, don't let it just run anywhere you want to run. It's not your right. Don't let it just be distressed. Don't demand to figure everything out. Don't explore every thought. Don't let your imagination run wild. Don't dwell on memories that aren't in that are inconsistent with the word of God. You see, moral excellence is what I'm talking about. Choice is necessary. Human beings must choose. Are there robots? We sleep with the Bible under our pillow saying, God, give me a knowledge of the Bible. No, you're going to have to make yourself read the Bible sometimes. It won't just always be because I love to read the word of God. Well, what about when you don't love to read it, read it anyway? You eat when you don't feel like it, some of you, most of you never feel like not eating, but but but we we eat when we're sick because we need to. And so be sober, it means to be level headed, to be regulated, to be disciplined and hope to the end, I will trust God. So don't be tricked when the devil comes. He messes with your mind. In fact, the word in the scripture, when it says when Paul is writing to the Corinthians and Second Corinthians, chapter 11, he says, he says in verse three, I fear less by any methods as Satan beguiled Eve through subtlety. So your minds would be corrupted away from the simplicity that's in Christ. That the devil would trick you into thinking something that's not consistent with God's word and God's presence in your life. In fact, the word for the methods of the devil, the methods in Ephesians six, when it says that he has methods, that he comes, the word is actually the word that means mental drag down. He drags your mind down from the high and holy place in scripture to God's to the devil's low place. It says in when Paul says we are not ignorant of Satan's devices in Second Corinthians to the word devices is new. It means way of making you think we are not ignorant that the devil comes and tries to make you think a certain way guard against those fiery darts of the devil. Let me tell you a secret, brother. Guard the threshold of your mind, you fight battles. Of course, we fight battles, but it's not in the mind. Once you let an evil thought in your mind and try to take and try to wrestle it, it'll whip you every time you guard the threshold of your mind. You say in the name of the Lord Jesus, you cannot send that thought into me. Some will always get in. They'll shoot a writer. But you say in the name of Jesus out you go. You don't entertain evil thoughts. You resist the devil. Be careful what you let in your mind, because many Trojan horses come in with full of demons that come in and these things that seem so harmless. In our day, refuse to consent to wicked thoughts. Don't you remember that wicked thing they said about you? Well, I distinctly remember forgetting. Lastly, the mind must be occupied. The mind must be changed. The mind must be controlled. The mind must be renewed, controlled, and the mind must be occupied. Rest assured, brother, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. It is an amusement means without thought. Do you know that amusement means without any thought when we watch television, we vegetate our mind and nothing. I'm not saying that television is inherently wrong, but I am saying that many things that come across the television are subtly wicked and they will get in your mind and they will come back to you if you don't think it's true. Think of the images you can remember from what you've seen recently. They're there. They're not on your tip of your mind, but they're in your subconscious and they're down there working. They're affecting you like the database in a computer. The intellect is the child or offspring of love. It follows what you love. You see where a man's heart is, you can look where his treasure is and you'll find his heart right there because the intellect is the offspring of that and it can occupy itself very easily. Your mind on what you love. In fact, that's why some of you always talk only about sports, because that's what you love. That you talk about your job because you love it or either it's torturing you one, but it's it's you see, it's the object of love. That's where the mind cuts those grooves and goes that way. Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon thee because he trusts in the Isaiah twenty six three meditation. God's promises of meditation. He says, listen, the man that meditates in the word of God day and night, I'll cause everything he does to prosper. Psalm one Joshua one eight said this book of the law shall not depart from you day or night, but thou shalt meditate therein and I'll cause everything you do to prosper. God says if you meditate in the word of God, if you memorize the word of God and put it in you, it will be like an atomic reactor on the inside and the glory of God will come out. The thoughts of the righteous are right thoughts. Let the words of my mouth and what the meditations of my heart be acceptable to my wife. That's that's easier. That's hard, brother. But I tell you what, it's easier than the next part. Let them be acceptable in thy sight. God has a grid, you see, that he puts things through and and no man can keep out evil long who doesn't keep God in. You can't answer the devil's lie unless you have God's truth. There's no neutrality. And so I'm finished with one last scripture in Philippians, chapter four. It gives us a mind grid. You want to know how to occupy your mind? Here's the test right here. Right here, it says, verse six, 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 passes your ability to understand will keep your hearts and minds. Through Christ Jesus, finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of good report, if there's virtue and if there's any praise, think dwell on these things. This is a present tense command. It's not a suggestion. The writer is saying this is a command from God. Dwell on these things. You make that list. And if your thoughts don't fit in those categories, don't think about it. That lists true things, genuine things, inspiring things, moral purity, things that speak well of God and speak well of others to to have manly courage. All those things are in there worthy of being praised by God. It's all in there. That list. So put your thoughts up against that and the things that don't match that put the sword through the heart of them. God puts that sword to the tip of our mind and says, let this mind be in you. And he cuts down deep and removes. He does brain surgery, does truth in the inward parts. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And you see. If there's any wicked way within me and then lead me in the way everlasting, I'll just say this. As we finish, many people come to a conference like this and they make a lot of outward commitments and they really want God to change them. But they have an Achilles heel. They leave vulnerable because they never even considered that their whole way of thinking is wrong. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, in all of your ways, acknowledge him and it means as Lord. Lean not to your puny man's way of thinking, get in the word of God and he'll direct you in all your steps. He will do it, but that's part of giving up your life. I'll give up the way I do things hourly, but don't let me do give up my own life. The spirit of God and the flesh lust against each other. They're contrary to each other so that you cannot do the things that come naturally. That's what it says. But you've got to be led of God. Let this mind be in you. So I'm calling on you at this last session to present that part of your life to God, a radiant living sacrifice. Let this mind be in you to say, Lord, I want you to teach me a whole new way to think. I'm willing to let my mind be changed. I'm willing to let my mind be renewed by your word. I'll seek you in the word and I'll do what's necessary. I'm willing to be controlled in my thinking processes and have fences made by God. And I'm willing to let it be occupied, meditating on your word day and night and considering the Lord Jesus in all things. If you do that, you will be transfigured. Same word for Jesus on the matter of transfiguration, you'll be changed by the renewing of your mind and greater is he in you will be your experience as you you're out of the world's mold and you break it and you make your own molds and you see men of God being made around you in the likeness of Christ.