A Ready Mind Is Your Mind Prepared To

A Ready Mind Is Your Mind Prepared To Serve God? How Do We Get There?

Introduction: • Our “mind” is an important subject in our everyday conversations: • We can have a “narrow-mind” or “a very open mind”. • Something can “blow our mind” or “bore us out of our mind”. • We can be “absent minded” or most things easily “come to mind”. • We can “bear in mind” or we can “get a load off our mind”. • We can be “out of our mind” or “in our right mind”.

Introduction: • How many times have you heard, or used, those common idioms? • Our mind is our center, our will, our inner-man, and our capacity of reasoning. • We know that the mind is, in normal situations, the control center for all that we do. • What we do with our mind is truly important to our spiritual success in this life.

Introduction: • We must not allow our mind to be corrupted or become debased, knowing that such would not be pleasing to God. • We have been blessed with God’s directions for our mind, body, and soul; • And our mind is our awareness and direction-center for all three; • So, let’s search out God’s advice for our mind. • Controlling our thought processes doesn’t have to be difficult; • We can make the proper decisions and discover true success. • Let’s open the Scriptures to consider these points about directing our mind.

We Need to “Ready” Our Mind • There is always a beginning point; and in this discussion, we must ready our mind to receive the direction of God. • Paul records that the brethren in Berea were more noble-minded, because they received the word with readiness (Acts 17: 11). • There is a certain preparation of mind that is required when it comes to obeying God’s will.

We Need to “Ready” Our Mind • The decision to follow the direction of God, through Jesus Christ, requires some readying. • We must be determined to leave behind sin—to repent (Luke 13: 3). • The direction of self-will must be yielded (Matthew 16: 24). • The days of being directed by the whims of our flesh, must be abandoned (Galatians 5: 19 -21; Ephesians 4: 17 -23). • The reality of needing help must be understood (Romans 5: 6 -10).

We Need to “Ready” Our Mind • We must prepare our minds to make the great confession (Matthew 10: 32). • We must tune our hearts to the evidence we have been given, so we might believe (John 20: 30 -31). • Become willing to state our belief like the Ethiopian man (Acts 8: 37). • We must submit to God’s direction (1 Peter 5: 6); • Knowing that obeying God is not about “Look at me”, “Look at what I have done”—like so many of the accomplishments of this world.

We Need to “Ready” Our Mind • Obeying God is about humble-submission to the will of our Creator (Matthew 7: 21). • When we prepare our minds this way, we will be ready to obey God and to continue obeying God.

We Need to “Set” Our Mind • This is one instance where stubbornness is a valuable characteristic. • We must be stubbornly determined to do God’s will and get to Heaven. • The Scriptures motivate us to achieve Heaven. • We are taught that Heaven is our home prepared (John 14: 1 -3); • Our everlasting dwelling in the presence of God (1 Thessalonians 4: 17); • And a place beyond comparison with any of this world’s beauty (Revelation 21: 10 -27).

We Need to “Set” Our Mind • The Scriptures also direct us in the way to get there: • Jesus is the way (John 14: 6) • And His pathway has been revealed, for us to follow (1 Peter 2: 21 -23).

We Need to “Set” Our Mind • To be “set” is to be determined and unmovable. • Endurance on the way is necessary to achieve success (Hebrews 10: 35 -39). • We must not allow this world’s distractions to turn our eyes away from the Lord (Hebrews 12: 1 -2).

We Need to “Set” Our Mind • There is a tremendous difference between starting and finishing. • It is one thing to begin obeying God, but we must be determined to stay the course—this is the where we set our mind on doing God’s will”. • There are some important exhortations concerning our mind, found in Colossians 3: 1 -10. • Paul first exhorts us to “seek those things which are above” (v. 1). • Then to “set our mind on things above; not on things of this earth” (v. 2). • Paul, through inspiration instructs in both what to do and what to avoid.

We Need to “Set” Our Mind • If our heart is set on the world, our plans will come to destruction (Matthew 6: 19 -21; 1 John 2: 15 -17). • We need to be determined to “seek Heaven”. • When we set our mind this way, we will resist worldliness and with determination we will push ahead toward Heaven.

We Need to Go Forward, “Focusing” Our Mind on the Task • The Apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 1: 13 -15, talks about maintaining the focus that our hope requires. • We are to “gird up the loins of your mind”. • To “gird” means “to gather and tighten”; • And in this case we gather and tighten our thoughts.

We Need to Go Forward, “Focusing” Our Mind on the Task • We are also to “rest our hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ”— • Meaning that we focus on our hope of reward and refuse to let anything distract our hold on that hope. • We are to be “as obedient children”—“being holy as He is holy”; • In this, we listen, learn and live the holiness of Jesus, our Savior.

We Need to Go Forward, “Focusing” Our Mind on the Task • A requirement of having good things is maintaining them. • We must maintain and renew what we have, in order to keep its value. • We need to maintain relationships: • Our marriage (“nourish and cherish”—Ephesians 5: 28 -29); • Our family (Ephesians 6: 1 -4); • And certainly our brethren (Romans 12: 9 -16).

We Need to Go Forward, “Focusing” Our Mind on the Task • We also need to maintain our material possessions, to enable us to use them well (1 Timothy 6: 17). • Most importantly, however, we also must maintain our hope of salvation (Hebrews 2: 14). • When we focus our mind this way, we will maintain our hope of salvation and one day we will find our hope realized in Heaven.

Summary • There are many exhortations to direct us toward life and living. • We have considered just three that help us align our minds with God’s will. • There is only one thing that resists any further progress. • Whether or not you will you make your mind up to do what is required today?

Conclusion: What’s on our mind does matter. We need to ready our mind to receive God’s will. We need to set our mind on doing God’s will. We need to go forward with a focus on continuing the doing of God’s will. • Use your mind today to desire, accept, and maintain the hope of salvation. • The opportunity is yours right now. • •