Dharius Daniels - Rules of Engagement

It says, then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, «If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.» Jesus answered, «It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.» Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. «If you are the Son of God,» he said, «throw yourself down, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.» Jesus answered him, «It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.» Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. «All this I will give you,» he said, «if you will bow down and worship me.» Jesus said to him, «Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.» Verse 11 is my favorite verse in this particular passage. The text says, «Then the devil left him.» I’m going to read that clause again: «Then the devil left him.» Is that what you want the devil to do with you? Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended to him. I want to talk from this subject this afternoon: The Rules of Engagement. The Rules of Engagement. Family, over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve been engaged in a series of teachings that I’ve affectionately entitled «I’ve Changed My Mind.» This particular series is rooted in a revelation found in Romans chapter 12, verse number 2, where Paul tells believers in Rome these words: «Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.» In other words, he seems to suggest that they are not to settle or be satisfied simply with justification, but they should pursue transformation. In other words, they do not have to live a life where they are simply morally modified; they can live a life where they are entirely altered. Paul says the key to that is the renewing of your mind. It is almost as if he is subliminally asserting that if you have a good heart, you can be a good person, but if you have a good mind, you can live a good life. Just because someone is a good person does not mean they’re living a good life. So Paul says that the difference between righteous identity and righteous living is the renewing of the mind. He says, «Then you’ll be able to prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.» Because it’s one thing to hear or to see the revealed will; it’s another thing for your life to actually prove it. It’s one thing to say, «I’m more than a conqueror»; it’s another thing to live in a way that proves it. It’s one thing to say, «Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world»; it’s another thing to prove it. Paul says that when your mind is renewed, then you are able to prove that good, perfect, and acceptable will of God. Somebody say, «I’ve changed my mind.» In the lessons, the sermons, and the teachings in this series, each week we’ve been attempting to extrapolate principles from the scriptures that aid and assist us in taking the necessary steps to renew our minds. In one lesson, we taught that if we’re going to renew our minds, we must stay woke, based on a parable that Jesus tells in the Gospel of Matthew, where he communicates that your heart or your mind is like a field, and the thoughts that are sown in the field of our minds are like seeds. Therefore, the outgrowth we see in our lives is simply a reflection of the seeds that have been sown in our minds. So if I don’t like what I’m seeing in my life, I’ve got to stop the seeds that have been sown in my mind that are producing the fruit that I’m seeing. Somebody say amen to that. I’ve got to be conscious and monitor what I allow to go into my mind. I cannot allow my mind to constantly be inundated with information that is negative, cynical, disarming, delusional, discouraging, or depressing. That doesn’t mean living an isolated, arrogant life, but it does mean that you are to be a spiritual steward of the soil of your mind. I’m not stuck up; I’m just trying to be a steward of this thing that’s between my ears. Because if I let you get this, you’ve got me. Did you hear what I just said? It means we have to monitor what we are allowing to be sown into the field of our minds. We’ve got to state it; we’ve got to be cognizant; we’ve got to be conscious and careful so that the enemy doesn’t sow weeds that grow up and choke out the wheat that God wants to see in our lives. We’ve got to stay woke. Then last week, we learned the next principle because the first lesson taught us what not to allow into our minds, what not to think about, and then the second one told us what to allow in our minds and what we should think about. So we talked about training the brain; we talked about metacognition.