Artwork by Full of Eyes
The audio and transcript below are from a sermon given to a group of men overcoming addictive behavior. This sermon discusses biblical methods for identifying and addressing harmful thoughts, which are common obstacles for those battling addiction, due to the consequences of previous bad choices or damaging experiences of the past.
Transcript:
The struggle and the battle of the mind…that’s something that I have dealt with very heavily because I am a very analytical, very thoughtful person, which is good to think through things. But, at the same time, it can be bad when you replay things over in your head, and you think about negative things, or mistakes, or things maybe you could have done a little bit better. You start rolling that around in your head or remembering bad choices or bad things that you did…it can really have devastating effects…or even things that people have done to you also…to allow those things to really cause damage.
So this is something that I’ve dealt with a lot, and actually I printed off what I want to talk about. Obviously, you don’t have to keep this if you don’t want to. If you find it useful, then you can keep it with you. If not, you’re not going to hurt my feelings if you throw it in the trash. So that’s totally fine. Honestly, these were just some notes that I jotted down this morning…just trying to organize.
[ brief pause ]
Causes Of Harmful Thoughts
1) Our own thoughts
So first, I think it’s very important that we understand when we’re dealing with harmful thoughts or negative thoughts, we need to define what actually causes harmful thoughts. What are the kinds of thoughts or how are we harmed by our thoughts? And one of the verses that we can apply for this we can find in Mark 7:20-23. It says, “And He said, for what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit and sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” So that the idea of this is that it’s not inherently what comes into us that directly causes the damage. If you notice here the word “defile” actually means “pollutes.” All right?
What Christ is saying here that it’s not what comes into you inherently that defiles you. It’s actually what is produced out of your heart which comes (which also includes your mind)…that is what actually pollutes the mind. When we allow these thoughts to take root and to produce these various thoughts and give in to these various temptations which can if we don’t restrict them from going further than just thoughts…that is what actually causes the damage.
So this is very key to dealing with harmful thoughts. I don’t know if you yourself or maybe you know someone who deals with a great difficulty of what some call obsessive compulsive thinking. It’s something that is actually a huge problem today….where people really struggle with self-condemning thoughts. They just obsess over things that they have done or said, worrying continuously to the point of severe anxiety and panic attacks… about if they have done something that has displeased God or something that has, you know, caused harm to someone else. And so what we can take away from this verse is that it’s not what is coming into us that affects our mind. It’s how those thoughts take root and then produce the actual harm of our hearts and our minds. Right? So that’s the first that’s the first cause of harmful thoughts. It’s actually our own thoughts that we allow to take root.
Another cause is….sorry let me back up. So I have highlighted here the application here is that when we have these harmful thoughts, whether it’s a temptation or a desire to replay bad memories or bad decisions, we simply don’t allow those things to take root. We don’t allow those things to continuously replay in our minds because it’s not going to do any good. It’s not going to help. It’s going to cause harm. And that’s not our identity. Our identity is not in our past. It’s not in the things that we’ve done. Our identity is in Christ and moving forward…past that. So the key is to work on simply not allowing those thoughts to take root.
2) Bad Company
The next cause of harmful thoughts is bad company. This is common sense. Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. If you if you hang around people that are involved in things that are a temptation to you, and you can’t resist that temptation, then they’re going to eventually corrupt you. Now the kinds of people that may tempt you may not tempt someone else, because everybody struggles with different things. All right? So there might be some people you know that are heavy drinkers. That’s not something that I particularly struggle with, so it’s not going to have an effect on me, but it may have an effect on someone else that does struggle with that. And that person would be wise to avoid that company. I struggle with other things, with lust in particular. So I need to avoid people that struggle with those kinds of things and would influence me to those kind of temptations. So you have to apply it according to your own particular struggles and stay away from the kinds of people that are going to possibly tempt you.
3) Lack Of Good Influences
The next source of harmful thoughts is a lack of good influence. Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there’s any excellence, if there’s anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” So the takeaway here is that as we are blocking out and disciplining our minds to not think about and not be influenced by the things that cause harm to us…the things that tempt us, we have to fill that space, right? You can’t just not think about and avoid bad thoughts, but you have to replace those bad thoughts with good things, right?
Studying scripture, praying, having fellowship with other people, hanging out with people that are positive…that are encouraging, enjoying, I don’t know, learning something, learning a new skill. Whatever it is, if it is a good, beneficial, productive thing, use those things to replace whatever the sources are that may draw you back into thinking harmful negative thoughts.
4) Failure To Remember God’s Promises
Another cause of harmful thoughts is a failure to remember God’s promises. All right…a few verses here to remember….there are so many of these, but these are just a few:
“This is how we will know that we belong to the truth. And will reassure our hearts from before him whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.” (1 John 3:19-20)
So the takeaway here is that we can calm our hearts and our minds by reassuring ourselves of what God has done.
And the other thing is that this passage makes clear is that God already knows, right? It’s not like he doesn’t know our past. He doesn’t. He already knows our failures…the mistakes that we made, what has been done to us, what we’ve done to other people. There’s nothing that’s hidden from Him. And yet he still loves us anyway, right? So that needs to be something that we are constantly preaching to ourselves that the reason that God loves us is not because of the things that we have done, or the things that have been done to us, or any of the other bad experiences or bad thoughts that may take root.
Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
You need to remember this, that we can always go to the Lord. If you are discouraged about something…if you are disappointed in yourself…the Lord always receives us when we come to him, brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. He never turns us away.
Romans verse here, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:1-2, 38-39)
In other words, there is literally nothing, not even ourselves that can separate us from the love that God has for us. And it is key for you to understand that in this particular verse, it’s not saying that nothing will separate us from our love for God; it is saying that nothing will separate us from God’s love for us. There is a unidirectional love that is talking about that it is impossible for God’s love for us to be separated from us. There’s nothing that can separate God from loving us.
How To Address Harmful Thoughts
Now, how do we address these harmful thoughts? Here’s a few ways to do that. Some of these are very practical.
1) Be Sober-Minded And Self-Controlled
Number 1: Be sober minded and self-controlled. First Peter 1:13 says, “Therefore, with your minds ready for action. Be sober minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
This is really a summary of what I’m of what I’m trying to say, right? Peter is saying to literally discipline your mind on Christ. He’s saying don’t allow your mind to get off track and lose focus on Christ and lose focus on the hope that you have in Christ. But discipline your mind. Keep your focus on Christ and not on anything else.
A similar verse here. 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober minded. Be alert. Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.” Now I think probably everyone in this room has probably heard this verse, but it’s very important to understand this: We are responsible for our own thoughts. We have power over our mind. God has given us the ability to control our mind. Where the devil comes in is that he is going to play us on our particular weaknesses. We don’t know exactly how, but somehow, he is going to find the things that cause us, based on our particular weaknesses, to tempt us with particular thoughts, whatever our particular sins [are] that we struggle with. He is going to find a way from outside influences. [ ] I don’t want to say [he] causes us to think things…we don’t really know exactly how the devil influences us. Some would say that he can directly cause us to think things. I’m not sure.
I know from my experience, sometimes I have really, really bad dreams….that are things that I would never think about…I certainly wouldn’t allow it to, you know, sit in my mind. But then I’ll have a dream. Is that the devil who is somehow part of that? I’m not really sure, but it doesn’t really matter. The point is that Scripture teaches that the devil is lurking and prowling and looking to exploit whatever our weaknesses are, including the weaknesses of our minds. And as soon as you or me start to give in to or allow our minds to start to slip into these harmful thoughts, he’s going to take advantage of that. And he’s going to try to drag you down into it more. And that is something that is very important for everybody, myself included, to always be on watch for because it can happen in a big hurry. So always be aware that that demonic forces are constantly trying to drag you back into your old ways.
Now, just one little thought I had here. Again being sober minded (I know a lot of people think about this in terms of “don’t get drunk,” but that’s not really all it’s talking about.) To be sober minded actually just means to be temperate or self-controlled. So that really applies to a lot of different things. So you can lack self-control really in anything. It could be it could be alcohol but it could be drugs. It can be sex, it can be a love of things. It can be all kinds of things. So these kinds of passages about being sober minded, they’re not talking just about alcohol. They’re talking about a way of life, where we are seeking to control fully…be fully in control of our body and soul…in all things. (There’s plenty of ministers obviously who clearly don’t control their eating habits. They could take a lesson on that I think.)
2) Continuously Renew Your Minds
So another way to address harmful thoughts: Continuously renew your minds. Ephesians 4:22 says, “take off your former way of life. The old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” So this is kind of really what I’m already saying, that in addition to continuously avoiding and blocking out harmful thoughts, there is a continuous renewal where we are constantly shaping and forming our thoughts to be guided by the Spirit…by spiritual things. And this is something that the Spirit will help us with as we step out in faith. And as we do this, God will help us and our minds. You’ll find that your mind will continuously heal. It will continuously grow. And its ability to be disciplined and to think the right things. I could probably spend a lot of time talking about this, but there’s a lot of effects that you will notice as you start to give yourself over to allowing your mind to be renewed and seeking a continual renewal of the mind.
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” So, in other words, as we are renewing our mind, being transformed by the things of God…by the Spirit….we become stronger in our in our ability to be able to decide and discern what is the will of God. What should I do in this situation? What kind of choice should I make here? We grow in our ability to be able to make better decisions and better judgments about things. We grow in wisdom. And that illustrates (I don’t know how to describe it) where in one sense we are actively working towards that…towards conforming our minds. At the same time, God is the one that’s working and helping us to get to that state to continuously improve.
3) Guard Your Heart
Another way to address harmful thoughts is by guarding your heart. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.” This is something for me that, for some reason, has been very difficult for me to learn…because I have tended to be a very trusting person. I don’t know if for some of you that are kind of like that, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. But I think that in the past that I have been naive and not recognized that there really are people out there that want to harm you and me. There really people out there who don’t have your who are only thinking about themselves. They don’t have your best interests. They want to bring you down with them. And they may come across as something that they’re not. We probably [have] all known people like that that appear to be something, but in reality, once we really get to know them, we find out who they really are. And, what I’m saying there is that it is important to be careful and cautious of who and what we allow to influence us….to guard our hearts. Because if we if we don’t, then it affects the health of our hearts. As Proverbs says, our hearts are the source of life. So if we become damaged by some experience where we trusted someone or we allowed something to influence us, it’s going to affect the source of our life. It’s going to be something that we’re going to have to deal with. We’re going to have to work through that damage and that harm that’s been caused to us or that maybe we caused because of a decision that we’ve made. And so it’s really important to be on guard for those things. And that’s something, again, that I myself have really had to work on.
4) Resist Harmful Thoughts
Let’s see the last thing I have here. Resist harmful thoughts. This is just very practical. James 4:7 says, “Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee.” And again, this is basically just a reiteration of what I’ve already said. It really is that simple. When we are tempted, when we have thoughts that we know we do not need to allow it to take root, we just need to resist them. Just don’t allow those thoughts to start to play out. And if we successfully resist them, they will go away, whether it’s because of ourselves or through the influence of the devil. Resisting those thoughts will eventually work. And what will eventually happen as we continue to resist, is that our minds actually become stronger. Our minds actually become more able to resist. And it actually increases the strength of our minds as we learn to resist more and more.
Remember:
First of all, don’t be discouraged. As I said before, God has loved us when we hated him, right? He loved us when we were sinners. He loved us when we were already broken and damaged and had already done all the things that we did. He didn’t love us based on because we were just great, wonderful people, right? He loved us despite all that, right? Not because of that. So it’s very important that we remember that God loves us and is loving us not based on these things that we’re struggling with or the things from our past. And that that will help us not to be discouraged.
Hebrews 12 says, “in struggling against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding of blood. Endure suffering as discipline. God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?” All right, so a couple of things here. First of all, God knows that we’re going to struggle with sin, okay? He already knows that. So that should encourage us that this is not a surprise to God. And secondly, that through those struggles, God is going to use those for our discipline…for our own good. He is going to use that to grow us and draw us closer to him, because he loves us as his spiritual sons. Right? He’s a very patient God, but like a loving father, he’s going to discipline us for our own good. And in one sense, we should be somewhat fearful of that…just like we would be fearful of a good father who we know there’s going to be consequences if we if we don’t obey. The same is true for God. He’s not going to condemn us, right? But he will discipline us to make us more like him and draw us to himself.
Second thing. Don’t be legalistic. This is maybe a point you might not think about. The reason I bring this up is because at some point [ ]….if you have committed your life to Christ, especially for those that are just really zealous and really, you know, maybe you’re on fire. Okay. And that’s great. Okay. But at some point what’s probably going to happen is or what may happen ( and it happened to me ) is that you’re going to start having all of these successes. Because a lot of times when someone is a new believer, the Spirit is very very strong with them, right? It’s like you just feel the presence of God everywhere, and you just feel..[ ]… this must be what a Christian is supposed to feel like all the time. And then I started looking down on other people who weren’t as zealous as me or weren’t as passionate as me…or maybe who weren’t addressing their sins as passionately as I was. And that was the problem with the Pharisees, right? I have a verse here, “To some who are confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else.” That’s something also to look out for as we are dealing with these harmful thoughts. [ ]
One other thing that I forgot to mention…sometimes when we start to remove some of these bad influences…this may be a bad example, but maybe there’s a TV show that you really shouldn’t watch because you know when you watch it, it just causes you to be tempted. It’s a struggle for you, all right? It can be very easy for you to think that no one else should watch that TV show. But the fact of the matter is (this goes back to what I said before) that not everybody struggles and is affected by the same things as you. So we can’t make these extra biblical rules…that “Okay, well, if I shouldn’t watch this show, then neither should you, because it’s going to affect you the same way as it does me.” And that’s not true. So there may be things that you that work for you…that help you not to to stumble, and that’s fine. That’s good. You should continue to do that. But don’t expect other people to necessarily follow you or do exactly what you do because they have they may have a different path than you have that things they need to do for themselves to avoid their sin.
The last thing is always watch out for pride. Pride is always around the corner. I’m no exception. Every single time that I think “Oh I’ve arrived; I’m the end-all be-all.” As soon as that happens, I fall. And pride is something that is always just waiting around the corner. So if you’re having good success, you’re making lots of changes, and you’re making better decisions, that’s great. But stay humble about it, and recognize that that it’s God that’s giving you that success and it’s not your own doing.
Remember what Paul said, that he said, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” Even though we truly are making the decisions to improve our lives, it ultimately is actually God that is giving us the ability that is actually molding us and changing us…that is making it possible. So always stay humble, even when things are turning around and going well for you.
And I would say if you keep to these basic things, you will do really well with dealing with harmful thoughts and moving forward with that.
Let me pray for us. Father, thank you so much for all the promises and the help and the wisdom that you give us in Scripture and how to deal with harmful thoughts and how to better shape and form our minds. We thank you for the help that we that you give us through the Spirit. And we just ask You Lord to help each and every one of us, including myself, Lord, to continuously apply these things and to remember these things, and that we would also encourage one another in each of these things. I pray for your blessing on the rest of this day, and we thank you above all for Christ and the work that he has done in us and that he will do for us. And it’s in his name I pray. Amen.
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