Keith Battle - What's Going on in My Head? - Part 2

This is «what’s going on in my head.» If you look at this graphic right here, this is what’s going on in my head. On one hand, I am depressed, skeptical, and dealing with shame, anger, fear, and lust. Then, sometimes in my head, I feel hopeful, optimistic, happy, and courageous, and I feel love and joy. All of this is going on in my head. Now, this seems to be balanced because it appears there is an equality in what’s happening in my head. However, the data says that 80% of our thoughts are over here; we spend most of our time feeling depressed, angry, sad, hurtful, and hopeless. Therefore, it is very important that we talk about this subject. It is essential that we give attention to it because if you ever want to pay attention to where your life is headed, all you need to do is pay attention to your thoughts. These thoughts turn into feelings that ultimately lead to actions, so that’s what we’re dealing with in this series. If you have a Bible, join me in Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23 today. Whether you have it on a digital device or a hard copy, not many people bring Bibles to church anymore, but if you have one, go to Proverbs 4:23 if you want to follow along. If you are physically able to stand without harming yourself, it is our custom now to stand for this part of the service to honor God’s voice. Yes, you didn’t cut your ring off! God, speak, Lord; your servants are listening. Are there any of you besides me here who needs God to speak to you? Like, God, I need you to speak to me. I don’t know if you will use the people you plan to use, but speak to me. If you don’t say anything to anybody else, I need a word from you because I don’t want to make a bad move. I’ve made enough bad moves that have put me in bad situations. Lord, give me your direction, so if I have your word, it’s on me if I don’t follow it. But I don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t have your direction and counsel in my life. So we stand in attention to His word. Amen! I’m going to read three translations of this verse, starting with the New Century Version, which is a new one I’m using today. Listen to what it says: it says, «Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.» Your thoughts run your life! Think about this: think about people who run things. Someone who runs a government, a town, a city, a program, an organization, a school, a university, a business, or a corporation. When you think about somebody who runs something, you think about someone who has power, authority, direction, and leadership. I’m trying to tell you that there is something in your head that has power, direction, leadership, and guidance. Everything that’s happening in our lives starts in our heads. That is powerful and is running our lives. Give me that next translation: the Common English Bible says, «More than anything, you guard, protect your mind.» Woo, protect your mind! Somebody say, «Protect your mind!» Protect your mind, for life flows from it. I’m going to come back to that one. The verse I’ve been using for this series is the Good News Translation, which says, «Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.» You may be seated. As I said last week, when it comes to Proverbs 4:23, people who have been around the church for some time may have heard this verse using the word «heart,» whereas the translations I’m using use the words «mind» or «thoughts.» For example, maybe you’ve heard it like this: «Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life.» I bring that up because I don’t want you to be confused about the heart and the mind and how interconnected they are. When the Bible uses the term «heart,» it is not referring to an organ in our body that pumps blood. When the Bible speaks of the heart, it is talking about a realm of thinking, a thought space within us. In fact, give me Matthew 15:19. In Matthew 15, verse 19, it says, «For from the heart come evil thoughts.» Your heart thinks; evil thoughts are coming out of the heart! It’s a thinking space. Since we know the statistics show that 80% of what’s coming out of our heart, our thinking, is negative, then the rest of the verse makes sense: murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander—all of that’s coming from my heart or my thinking realm or my mind. So when I say, «what’s going on in our head,» I’m just talking about, physiologically, where our thought realm is. Now, before I give you the content for the day that I want to teach you, I want to briefly recap what we covered last week, because my goal is not just to give you a lot of data or new information or be clever. My goal for us as a church is that we would master this thing so that we’d…