What's Your Mindset? A Message from Romans 8
Opening Greeting and Prayer Amen. Well, good morning. Are you happy to be in the house of the Lord? Amen.
It's a joy to be here today. Hey, would y'all join with me in a word of prayer?
God, we love you and we just thank you and praise you for this day. There's so much that we've got to be thankful for. And Lord, right now, one thing certainly on my heart is how blessed we are to live in a land where we do have a lot of freedom. And God, although we're here to worship you, I do just thank you and I praise you for those you've had that have defended our freedom as we celebrate Memorial Day, God. I always like to pause to just take a moment to thank you for the freedoms that we have here where we live. And one of those freedoms is to worship together. And I know that it didn't come free.
So God, I pray, Lord, today being that we're celebrating Memorial Day tomorrow. You know, I know there's some that have people have loved ones that have been in the military. Might even be some that have lost loved ones while serving. There might be some that have loved ones serving now. So God, I just thank you for putting people in our lives to help us to have physical freedom. Most of all, God, I thank you for the freedom we have in you, Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." God, thank you for the freedom that we have when we made the decision to trust in you. And I pray you help us to walk in that freedom, Lord.
As we continue to worship and as we read the word and the word is preached, I need your help. God, I ask you to help me. And I just ask you to pierce our hearts and work inside of hearts today. I pray if there's someone in need of salvation, they wouldn't put it off anymore. And I pray today would be the day they give their life to you. They fully surrender their life to you, Jesus, and they're changed.
Well, we love you. And again, we thank you for the freedom to be here to worship you. It's in Jesus name we pray. All God's people said, amen. Amen.
Transitioning to Romans 8 Well, today, we're flipping the page to Romans 8. We've been in a sermon series on the book of Romans. So, if you've got your Bible, I invite you to open up there in the book of Romans. We're there in chapter 8. Last Sunday, we were in the final verses of chapter 7, and we talked about the battle within, the battle between the flesh and living in the flesh and living in the spirit and living for God. We asked this question last Sunday, but do you ever have that battle within where you battle, you want to live for God? Romans 7, Paul, and I'm paraphrasing, he said, "Why don't I do the things I want to do, and why do I do the things I hate?" Even Paul struggled with that battle.
Today's message kind of really continues that thought to some degree. But we're going to be reading there in Romans 8, those first 11 verses. And the title of the message is, "What's your mindset?"
Reading the Scripture For anybody that would like, I invite you to stand with me in honor of the reading of the word of God. Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse one. There the word of God says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." Amen. Who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
Thank you. You may be seated.
No Condemnation in Christ You know, I want to get into that kind of the main idea we're talking about about what's your mindset, but I want to just first, don't you love that first verse in this passage of Romans 8? Romans 8:1, it says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." Aren't you thankful that God made a way that you can stand uncondemned before him by sending, it says in verse three, his son Jesus Christ to die for us. Aren't you thankful for that? There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who are walking according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
I also read that and although none of us are perfect, I'm reminded that when we are in Christ Jesus, our life should show it. Amen. There should be evidence that we're truly saved. And I can't get into what someone does or not. It's not like what we do, we're saved, but when we're saved, we should be changed. Amen.
No condemnation. I love that. You know, and Paul goes on to speak like I just said in verse three, why there is no condemnation because Jesus died for your sins. Jesus came down from heaven and he suffered for our sins and he hung on the cross and he died. He was God in the flesh and he gave a perfect the one and only sinless perfect sacrifice that could be made for a sinner like me or a sinner like you. You see, there's no other way we can stand uncondemned before God except through faith in Jesus Christ. Except through what Jesus did, giving up his body, shedding his blood, and dying for our sins. Are you thankful for his grace today? I'm thankful for his grace.
The Key Question: What's Your Mindset? Where I want to hone in on today is beginning there in verse five. Beginning there in verse five, is where I want to hone in on. And as I read that, something a question that kind of popped in my head. It actually popped in Crystal's head too when we were studying and we were reading this. What's your mindset?
I wonder this morning, what was your mindset? I wonder all week as you as I woke up each morning, where was our mind? What was our mind dwelling on? What about when we went through our days, in the middle of the day, throughout the day? What's your mindset like in the evening? What is your mindset?
You know, something I was reminded on as I read verse 5 that I think we all know, but we can sometimes forget how important it is, is what you set your mind to matters. Amen. What you set your mind to, it really really matters. The things we think about, they matter. Because you see, the things we think about and they're in our mind eventually if we keep thinking about them, that's kind of what comes out. Amen. The way we think matters. The way we think, if we keep thinking a certain way and we keep thinking a certain way, eventually it'll be the way we live. The way we act, the way we think matters. Whether that's good or whether that's bad.
The Power of Our Thoughts Hey, you ever met somebody that's always complaining? If we're always thinking about negative things, it's going to affect us. The way we think matters. It says in verse 5, for those who live according to the flesh, watch this, set their minds on the things of the flesh. Did you hear that? Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit.
If we set our mind on fleshly things, it leads the flesh to living. And I can't tell you when the turning point is, and I'm not saying that if you have your mind on fleshly things, that just means you're going to live in sin. But if we keep setting our minds on fleshly things, it's going to lead to fleshly living. Because what we think about, we start to do. Amen. We've got to be careful the way we think.
Connecting to the Battle Within That message that we spoke about last Sunday, the battle within. You know, part of the thing I think Paul is kind of honing in on is that battle, it really starts in the mind. You know, what's that verse? Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Hey, there's a lot of ways I think about how our mind matters in our walk with God versus flesh. But all kinds of thoughts. I mean, we for one, we can just be a thought can just come in our mind. It might be anger towards somebody. You might be angry at somebody at church and it can lead to sin. It can lead to gossip, right? It can lead, hey, well, nobody knows except these couple people. Well, God knows. And a lot of times people do know. It could be our mind is set on worry. And I'm not saying that's easy to click off, but we keep worrying. We keep worrying. We keep worrying. It can lead to not being present in the moment.
There's all kinds of things that our mind can get on and those things can also get to ungodly thoughts. And by the way, there's a lot of things we think about that are ungodly, but there's a lot of things we might not think about that are ungodly. Like harboring jealousy, you know, harboring bitterness, unforgiveness, of course, lust, you know, all kinds of things we can think in a fleshly way. And if we keep staying in, have you ever had times where you've had things on your mind and you just know you feel like you're in sin? Maybe you didn't even do anything. Y'all know what I mean?
There's times where we can get things on our mind and we might not have even done much, right? But we know and remember what Jesus says all throughout the sermon on the mount. He looks to the heart, right? When he's talking about adultery, he says, "You've already committed adultery in the heart." Right? So what's on the inside matters because for one to Jesus what's in our heart matters right and for another out of the heart flow the issues of life and if we set our minds on fleshly things it eventually leads to fleshly living.
Real-Life Examples and Warnings You know I already alluded to this verse but I really do love what Paul said in Romans 7 and there's a song that goes with these words. I loved hearing it on the radio the other day, but that phrase where Paul's saying, why don't I do the things I want to do? You know, like and I believe there part of what he's talking about is living for God and why don't I do why don't I pray more, you know, why don't I read the Bible more? Why don't I witness more? And then he says, why do I do the things I hate?
And I do love that song. I don't know if any of y'all have ever heard that song. I don't know the title of it. But like why do I do the things I hate? Because we got flesh, right? And when we keep thinking on things of the flesh instead of things of God, it leads to fleshly living.
You know, I was having a Bible study the other day with a few guys, not from our church. And I honestly didn't know what we're going to do in the Bible study. I was going visiting at a company and I love how there's some guys there that really want to grow in the word and they were talking about running. So I just said, "Okay, we're going to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 where it talks about running the race, you know, and it talks about I run thus not with uncertainty. I box not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body." So we were talking about how we got to be disciplined if we're going to not give into the flesh and walk with God. We've got to have spiritual disciplines, right? And then one of the guys just started really opening up and another guy just started opening up and they were talking about things that can get on our mind. They were talking about lust, right? You know, we've got to be careful. Men, women, boys, girls, everybody, we've got to be careful what we let get in our mind.
One of the guys said, "I know I can't think that way because I know that if I keep thinking that way, it's not good." And I'm married, by the way. Right. And remember what Jesus said, he looks to the heart. Um, another example that I think about with our mind and there's all kinds of examples we could go to. And one thing I'm reminded of here is that each of you, God's word can speak to a little different, right? When we're talking about what we set our mind to, but one thing that comes to my mind is what we watch, what we see. You remember how I said that song that says be careful little eyes what you see and it also says be careful little ears what you hear what we take in it might be on the phone it might be on the TV we see it we hear it. I mean you could even say what you smell what you touch but but really one thing that really hit me is like when we think about thinking on what our mind is set to. What are we watching? What are we looking at every day?
And hey, I'm not, you know, I don't know. Does anybody think they never watch anything bad? Bad words. Okay. So, I'm not trying to tell you what you do or don't do, but I will say this and I love a good action movie. I love a good action. You know, I was watching some movie about this girl that was trying to get revenge for her parents getting murdered and she was training to be an assassin. Well, then my mind, you know, it's thinking about I was thinking about I'm trying to go to bed and it's thinking about that. You know what I mean? But this is what I'll say. The more we keep watching things or hearing things or seeing things of the flesh, it easily can come. It easily leads to living in the flesh. Amen. We got to be on guard. And I think that's what Paul's getting at here is what we set our minds to affects the way we walk with God. Okay? If we set our minds on fleshly things, it's going to lead to fleshly living. Do we agree?
Fleshly Mindset Leads to Death And the more and I know not we're all human and I know none of us do it perfect, but I hope God convicts you, me about is there something that I can that maybe that doesn't need to be there in my mind. It might just be something that I think about or it might be something I'm watching or seeing. What we set our mind to. It really matters. It might be hearing bad words, you know, all kinds of things. I don't know the way God is dealing with you, but we do know this. This is a general truth from God's word right here is when we set our minds on things of the flesh, it leads to fleshly living.
Matthew 6:22 and 23, the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body full of darkness. What we let our eyes see, it really, really matters. Why? Because it comes inside. What we let our eyes see. And it's not just seen. It's hear and it's touch and it's smell. But I really think about the eyes. What if we let our eyes see it goes on the inside? It starts to get in our inner being and it starts to get in our mind. And that's why Jesus was concerned about our heart because for one have you ever had times where maybe it was a movie, maybe it was a show, maybe it was something totally different where you felt kind of like yeah that didn't make me feel great. But similarly then you maybe watch something wholesome that makes you feel a little better, right? Because what goes on the inside it matters. It matters and what goes on the inside can affect the way we're can affect that battle can affect the way we're living or not living for God.
In this passage today it says fleshly living leads to death. In verse six, it says, "For to be carnally minded is death." It goes on to say in verse 7, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. When our mind is on carnal and fleshly things, it goes against God. It's like being opposed to God. Do we understand that? Do we agree? And it goes on to say in verse eight, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Those who are in the flesh. Cannot please God.
The Better Way: Spiritually Minded Do you have times you remember your mind? It could be all kinds of things. It could be lust. It could be sinful thoughts. It could be anger. It could be thinking bad about people. Do you ever have times your mind goes there and you just know on the inside that's sinful because it goes against God? That's not how God wants us to even think. And again, when we keep thinking on those fleshly things, it affects the way we live.
You know, something that I'm encouraged by though is just like what we when we think about the flesh, it can lead to fleshly living. When we think about spiritual when we set our minds to spiritual things, it leads to living for the Lord. Have you ever noticed that in your life where you set your mind from things of the flesh and you set it to spiritual things and the way it changes your day? Have you ever had times where you just really maybe you've not been reading the Bible and man, you just really take some time in the word to slow down with God? Doesn't it give you an indescribable just joy and peace and the way your mind gets reset? That's because the way we think matters.
Maybe today you're here and you know that you know what? I've got my mind set the wrong way. My mind is set on worldly things. I think about our young generation, but the reality is it's not just our young generation. I think about phones and how addictive they get. You know, a lot of the young generation will just stay in their rooms because they've got everything they want to on this phone and because they're addicted. But adults are guilty, too. You know, adults are guilty, too. We got to be on guard. And instead of setting our minds to fleshly things, ask God to help us set our minds to spiritual things.
So verse 5 again it says for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit the things of the spirit. In other words what Paul is saying but the opposite is true when we set our minds on things of God. When we set our minds on things of God we're helped to live according to the spirit. We're helped to live for God. Have you ever had times where you notice that where you're filling your mind with things of God more and do you see how it helps you live more and more for God? It's true. Just try it if you're wondering. And if you're struggling with having your mind on fleshly things, it'll bless you. It will bless you to get your mind on things of God.
And that's what we're reminded to hear too is when we set our minds on spiritual things, it says we have life and peace. It says in verse 6, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. You know, when our minds are on carnal things and on fleshly things, you can feel it. You can feel the sadness. When our minds are on fleshly things, it's death. When our minds are on fleshly things, we're miserable. That's not fulfilling. But when our minds are on things of God, we have peace. We have peace. We have comfort even in the midst of hard circumstances in life when our minds are on spiritual things. Have you noticed that? How when you keep your mind on things of God that even in hard situations of life, how God can just give you a peace. I sure have. Does anybody else think where they notice that in your life?
I notice it all the time. I think about Philippians 4:8 and 9. When I think about our thought life, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, and then it goes on to say, meditate on these things and the God of peace will be with you. When we set our minds to spiritual things, praiseworthy things, we have peace.
Practical Steps to Change Your Mindset Does anybody want to do better at setting their mind on things of God? Does anybody want to kind of have their minds less on fleshly things? More on things of God. It's not easy. Okay, you might say, "Well, how do I do that? How can we be helped? What does that mean to set our minds on spiritual things?" I don't have all the answers, but I know this to set our minds on spiritual things, we need to ask God to help us get rid of the fleshly thoughts.
Cuz if our minds are they're y'all know what it says in Galatians, we read Galatians, we were talking about that last Wednesday. You know, the flesh and the spirit, they war against one another. They're contrary to one another. So if we want to be thinking on things of God, which I think most of us would say we do, we got to ask God to help us get the fleshly things out and, you know, feed the God inside of us and starve Satan. You know, starve the fleshly things.
Maybe instead of watching or hearing something ungodly on your phone or on your TV, maybe you ask God to help you say, you know what, I'm going to watch a Christian movie or I'm going to listen to worship music. Maybe when ungodly thoughts start coming in our mind say what Cheryl would say. Get behind me, Satan. I saw her the other day on Friday, I think it was, or Thursday. Pray for her. Keep her in your prayers. But starve. And by the way, you know what Cheryl was talking about when I was she was weaker. You know, y'all keep her in your prayers, but she was still talking and we were talking a lot about things of God. And she was talking about, yes, sometimes people don't think spiritual battle is real, but spiritual battle is real. And one way the enemy will try to attack us is the way we think, right? Our mind.
So we got to set our minds on spiritual things. Part of that is when we notice fleshly things in our mind, not let them stay there. I mean, it's so easy for somebody to do something. Somebody might do something that hurts you. It might be in your family. It might be at work. It might be at church. And it's so easy to let our mind just stay there and be angry at that person. But is that doing us any good? No. And we got to remember we don't just battle against people. We have an enemy. We don't battle against flesh and blood. Sometimes we get so mad at a person. We don't battle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. Satan would love to do nothing more than to a church where people are getting saved and people are getting baptized, people are growing in Christ. He would love to do nothing more than to get us overwhelmed with anger and bitterness towards people where our mind gets overwhelmed and we start gossiping, we start talking bad.
We got to be on guard against the tactics of the enemy and any other fleshly things when we get our minds on fleshly things, asking God to help us get our minds off of that. And of course, think about this. Does anybody take their phone out of the pocket or pick up their phone a bunch of times a day? I do. Like I wasn't even I don't know. It came up for like a split second. I saw this reel of this pastor for just a split second. He said, "Man, you need to touch your wives more than you touch your phone." But the bottom line is this. Like our phones, probably most of us have a smartphone. A good bit of us.
I want to ask God to help me with this. You know what about if whenever you're thinking, "Oh, I'm going to scroll Facebook or I'm going to scroll Instagram or I'm going to look what's going on." What about if you tried every time or I tried every time say I'm going to pray instead? Can you imagine? I've caught myself doing it a few times but I caught myself still grabbing the phone a lot of times too. I need help. It's like that instinct. But like can you imagine how our minds will be helped to think of things of God. I think for me if half the time if I keep saying you know what I'm not I don't need to look at that. And I'm not saying anything bad. I'm just saying I don't need to look at the phone. I don't need to look at technology. I need to talk to God of not talking about anything bad. But what I'm saying is setting our mind to things of God instead of what's going on in everybody else's life on social media or whatever. You know what I mean? Can you think about the difference it would make in our lives if more and more we're thinking on things God or reading the Bible?
I sometimes we say I don't have time to read the Bible. I wonder how much time we spend on our phones. Now, I'm going to probably step on some toes here. I'm not trying to I am not against Hey, when we're reading the Bible, we're reading the Bible. And I look up stuff all the time on my phone. But I'll say this much. I like reading the Bible out of a physical Bible first. I just like that. But there's something else that happens if I'm reading it on the phone. Ding, ding, ding. Distractions. And the enemy before, you know, the enemy will get me off responding to a text message or doing this or doing that. I mean, I read verses on my phone all the time, too. But I'll say this for me when I'm sitting down for my quiet time. It helps me to have a Bible. And the reason I think it helps me is I already struggle being distracted easy enough. Like I really do like all kinds of things pop your mind. And if I have the phone and I'm reading it, a message comes up. The phone rings when I'm doing a little prayer walk. There's already days that are hard enough to connect with God, but I leave my phone at home because I don't want it I don't even want to feel it in my pocket. You know what I mean? So don't take in that many. I mean, we got great technology can be great, but it can also get us distracted.
So if we're thinking about thinking on spiritual things, focus on how do we get the fleshly thoughts out and also how hey God help me. How do I take more time to pray with you? How do I take more time where I carve out and I stop doing things? How do I take more time to sit down in the word more? You know what I mean? I'm just And by the way, not to check it off the list, to get to spend time with God, like to get to sit with God and enjoy his presence. Like that's when I'm wanting to read the Bible, when I'm praying, I'm wanting to get my mind clear of the problems. But I struggle. You know, there's times I pray in my mind's all kinds of things, but the more I can like get distraction-free and get in the word and get in prayer, man, it blesses me.
So, if we want to be able to set our minds on spiritual things, we got to be thinking more on things of God. And when we're in the word, it helps us. Maybe I don't know if you have a regular time that works for you to get with God. Try to make a time that I mean there's a lot of stuff going on. I know we're all busy, but I do believe every one of us could get rid of some things in our life that are more fleshly to take time with God. And whether we think we can or not, I think probably most of us would agree spending time with God is more important than those other things. And so shouldn't we find a way? Because if we want to be helped to walk more with God, what we're told here in the word of God is we got to set our minds on things of God.
You know, take some time. I love taking time first thing. I really want to take more time. That's one thing God's convicted me of. But also throughout the day in the midst of the busyness of a day, try to just get away. Again in the evening. Hey, maybe you're like me and you come home and unwind a TV for a little bit of time. Maybe instead of that, take some time to just sit with God in the back or you're outside because if we want to walk more with God, what we're reminded of is that truth is what our mind is thinking on matters. And we got to set our minds on the things of God.
Final Challenge and Closing Prayer I just want to just kind of wrap up just by that challenge. I hope you're challenged by this. I have been challenged by it to set our mind on things of God so we can help to be helped to live for God. I wonder is there anybody here today that when you're thinking about what your mind is set to that you're challenged to want to set your mind more on things of God? I mean really is there anybody I'm challenged to want to. Anybody else?
Okay. And you know, you might be struggling with some, hey, listen, you might be here and you might be struggling with your mind on some really, really by human standards ungodly things. Or you might be here and maybe you're not like struggling with something that you would consider real ungodly, but just in general, don't you think you could spend more time thinking about things of God? Every time we do and remember Paul Paul was possibly the greatest evangelist ever as far as winning souls. You know he was someone that was used by the Lord mightily but even Paul talked about this battle that he had. We all have that battle because we all have flesh. And what Paul's going on to say in this text here is our mind matters. What are we setting our mind to? Are we setting it on the things of the flesh or are we setting it on the things of God?
Verse 9 says, "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you." Amen. It goes on to say in verse 9, and I think this should wake us up. Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. If we're born again and if we're saved, we should have the spirit of God. The spirit of God is living inside of us. So, it stands to reason that we should be giving evidence of that in our lives. None of us are perfect and I would be the first to say I'm not. Is there anybody here that is? But with God's help, I believe we can walk closer to God. Amen. When we ask God to help us to set our mind more on things of God.
I hope that this convicts y'all today about where our mind is and what it's thinking on what we're filling our mind with, what we're watching on the phone, what we're watching on TV or what we're allowing in our mind to stay there when it just comes in our mind because the way we think matters.
I love how that opening verse though. I absolutely love that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. If we're truly saved, we are in right standing with God. It makes me think of Romans 5:1, I think it is. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I for one, I just want to say if you're here today and you've never given your life to Jesus, I hope I pray that you'll make that decision today. Whether you're really young or really old or somewhere in between, there's no greater decision. And what the Bible tells us is when we do that, we're forgiven. We're forgiven. And if you are a believer, I hope that you'll be wanting to have your mindset be on things of God.
What is your mindset going to be moving forward? What's your mindset? Is your mindset today where you think it needs to be or do you think that you could set your mind even more on things of God?
God, we love you and I just thank you and I praise you for this day and I do pray, Lord Jesus, that you would use your word today to pierce hearts where needed. God, I pray for believers with all you've done for us, coming down from heaven to this earth as God in human form and dying for us so we could be uncondemned. I pray, Lord Jesus, that if we've made that decision and given our life to you, I pray that we would want to live more for you. And I thank you that in your word you give us counsel on how we can be helped to do that by setting our mind not on things of this earth, not on fleshly things, but on things of God.
