Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. I was really excited when I found out that I would be preaching alongside Hannah, because for those of you who don't know, she is one of my very best friends, and also, I'm using her as an example, and I didn't ask her permission at all, but she absolutely has to forgive me. So that works out really, really well.
[00:00:25] As a psychologist, we are really, really interested in how people make sense of the world, in what they believe to be true about themselves, about the world around them, about other people. And based on people's truth or the constructs that they have, it helps us get a really good sense of why they feel the way they feel and why they behave the way they behave. Now, some people are really aware of what their truth is, what they believe in, they can name it. And other people don't have any idea why they feel the way they feel or why they behave the way they behave.
[00:01:08] And so we try to figure that out. What is valuable to you by asking questions, asking lots of questions. We actually cannot read your minds. We just ask lots of. Lots of questions. So one question we ask, and you might want to answer it yourself in the next couple of moments, is, if you were to be a superhero, what superhero would you be and why?
[00:01:41] And then we would ask more questions to find out, well, why is that important? Why is being strong important?
[00:01:49] Why is protecting those who are weaker than you important? Why is working in a team important? Why is avenging things important? And based on your responses, it gives us a really good sense of what's important to you and what you believe.
[00:02:06] Now, sometimes people say they would like their superpower to be being able to read people's minds.
[00:02:16] I promise you, you do not want that as a superpower. You don't even sometimes want to hear the thoughts that are hanging around in your mind. Imagine hearing the thoughts of everybody around you. Do not pick that power, because we live in a world where people are absolutely bombarded by thoughts based on truth, sometimes half truths, sometimes absolute lies. And people can feel absolutely bombarded and overwhelmed and anxious and really sad based on lots of thoughts that are coming at them.
[00:02:56] And so what psychologists try to do is we try to think about or support people to think about. Well, is that thought the truth? Do you have evidence that that thought is built on truth? Why do you believe that? And is there a way to kind of challenge it? And so I think people might be familiar with cognitive behavior theory. So a really good way to explain it is, if I give an example, and this hasn't happened. This is just an example about me and Hannah. This has not happened. This is not the truth. We are fine.
[00:03:32] So let's say I wasn't feeling 100%. I felt really tired. I got into church, the weather wasn't great, and I saw my best friend at the door and I ran towards her, or I ran because, like, it's Hannah, it's my best friend. And she walks past me and the thought comes, oh, she's ignored me. I've upset her. She's not speaking to me.
[00:03:55] That's a thought. I've chosen to believe that that thought is the truth. And so how might I feel at that moment?
[00:04:03] I might feel sad. Thanks, Hannah.
[00:04:07] Yeah. I might feel sad. I might feel upset.
[00:04:12] I might feel really worried. No, I might not be feel worried. I might feel sad. I might feel upset. And how might I behave? I might decide, fine. If Hannah's not talking to me, I'm not talking to her. I'm going to be petty. We're going to be petty together. So that might happen.
[00:04:29] Well, let's rewind it back. Same situation.
[00:04:34] I'm really tired. I'm not feeling 100%. I come to church, the weather's crap. I see my best friend at the door. She walks past me, she says nothing. And I think the thought comes, oh, she looks really busy. She looks a bit overwhelmed. She looks a bit tired.
[00:04:49] How might I feel at that moment then?
[00:04:52] I might be concerned.
[00:04:55] I might feel care towards Hannah. I might feel compassionate. And so I'll go check in. Hey, bands. You looked a bit tired. Is everything okay? Is there something I can do?
[00:05:05] Can I pray for you? What's happening?
[00:05:08] And so there are two separate thoughts, and which one is the truth and which one do I allow to bear fruit in my life?
[00:05:17] Now psychologists are even saying, well, before that happens, there's a truth that I've believed. There's a truth that I believed about this situation and the truth that I believed has allowed a particular thought to find a place to land and bear fruit. Well, the truth I believe about me and Hannah is that she's kind and she's compassionate and she's my best friend and she's loyal to a fault. So the thought that bears fruit is that, well, there's stuff going on for her and I should be concerned. The other thought is nonsense. It's a thought. It's not my thought.
[00:05:56] And what's happened more and more in society is that we have been bombarded by lots of thoughts and sometimes we've accepted those thoughts. As ours and the truth.
[00:06:09] And they do not fit in to the truth that God has spoken about you and about us and about our lives.
[00:06:17] So romans twelve two 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.
[00:06:36] Now, I don't know whether the writer of romans two read about cognitive behavior theory or whether cognitive behavior theorists read romans twelve two.
[00:06:51] We live in a society where people can absolutely believe thoughts that are not their own, thoughts that are not the truth. And it builds up such a strong belief in their lives, and they accept it as the truth. Now, thoughts that set themselves up against what God says, we call them strongholds, and people can hear them over and over again. You might be hearing this thought or having this thought from the time you were young. I'm useless.
[00:07:22] I'm not going to monk to anything. I'm not good enough. I'm going to be abandoned. I'm going to be forgotten.
[00:07:30] And that is not the truth. That is a thought. And somehow people have agreed that it's their thought and that it's the truth.
[00:07:42] More and more, we are supporting people to separate those thoughts from themselves.
[00:07:50] You are not every single thought that you have.
[00:07:53] You are not every single thought that you have. And I'll even suggest further.
[00:07:59] Your thoughts do not distress you. If this thought makes me feel distressed and horrible and shame and guilt and fearful, it is not mine. My thoughts don't do that. Your thoughts shouldn't do that. And so it's a thought, but it's not yours to own and hold on to as the truth. God has something so much better for you. He says you are fearfully and wonderfully made. He says you are set apart. He says he has good plans and purposes for you. And if those thoughts don't fit with that, then they're not the truth.
[00:08:37] Now, I am not suggesting that what I am saying is easily done. Renewing your mind and having to think about which thought is mine is not easily accomplished. But a way we can make sense of it and a way we can think about it is to think about, well, lots of thoughts come. How do I determine it? Which thought is the truth? Well, I'm hoping that most of you here have caught a bus before. Have you caught a bus before? Hopefully most of you have caught a bus before. And so if I am catching the bus and I'm going to St. David's train station, I get the H bus. So I wait at the bus stop for the h bus to come, that's my bus. If the bus for extra key comes, I acknowledge the extra key bus, but it's not my bus, so I'm not getting on it.
[00:09:26] So if a thought comes that I know is not my thought. Well, I see the thought, but it's not my thought. I'm not getting onto it. It's not getting me where I want to go. It's not getting me to that good plans and purposes that God has for me. It is not my bus. And lots of times we get onto buses that are not ours. They were never intended for us. They're not our thought. And then we end up in a place that God never intended for us. And now we're lost because this is not my bus. This is not the thought that's mine.
[00:10:03] Jeremiah 20 911 is my absolute favorite verse. It is framed in my house after many attempts it is on the wall. It is hiding a couple of holes now from the failed attempts to get it up straight.
[00:10:22] And it says, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.
[00:10:35] Does this thought take me to that destination that God says where there's a good plan and a good future for me? Does this bus take me there? Well, if not, it is absolutely not my bus and I need to get off of it.
[00:10:55] I am not suggesting again that this is something that okay, I just need to get off this bus. But it is absolutely something we need to be aware of. Am I on the wrong bus? And how with prayer and worship and reading the word and with support of those around me, how can I get off a bus that is not my bus and is not taking me where God has intended for me to go?
[00:11:20] Now, lots of my close friends and family know that I've not been very well for a while. I'm getting much better. I'm almost on the road to mend. But I've not been well for a while.
[00:11:35] And when you've not been well for a while, you can become really frustrated and fed up and exhausted and fed up. I said fed up and fed up and exhausted and tired and fed up and exhausted and tired.
[00:11:56] And for me, that thought from the enemy doesn't come when I'm fighting fit, when I'm at 100%, when I'm in my word and reading my bible and worshipping. It comes when I am exhausted and ill and I've separated myself or I'm feeling a bit isolated, because, well, I know my friends are praying for me to get better, and everybody's praying for me to get better, and I've not been getting better, so I've separated myself a bit because I know those questions are going to come. Are you better?
[00:12:30] Not yet. And so then at that moment, well, the thought came, you're never going to get any better.
[00:12:39] God's not going to heal you.
[00:12:42] He's forgotten. You're going to be like this forever. Who's going to want you? You're sick. The thought came, and what did I do?
[00:12:53] I got on the bus.
[00:12:55] Absolutely got on the bus. It was not my bus.
[00:12:58] But the thought came. And at that moment, I agreed with it. I didn't do the things I know. I agreed with that thought. And because that thought came, a thought came, and I agreed that it was my thought. I accepted it to be the truth. And very quickly, I felt shame and I felt despair. Those happen to come together. They don't kind of come one at a time. Well, in this situation, I felt shame and despair. And the bus was absolutely heading for depression. That was where it was heading.
[00:13:34] And I am absolutely grateful that I have amazing friends and family who were able to pray with me at a point where I really struggled to pray for myself. And they declared over me the truth, that God has taken every single sickness, and he has demolished sickness. He has borne it on a cross. I will be blessed. I will be well. He has good plans and he has good purposes for me. I will be the head. I will be blessed in the city. I will be blessed in the field. And they prayed over me and they prayed that those thoughts that were not of God be silenced in the name of Jesus, because they were not the truth. They were a lie. And it was a lie that I believed.
[00:14:20] And I wish, I really wish that I could stand in front of you and say, well, I prayed that once and that the thoughts never came again.
[00:14:31] That's not what renewing your mind is. It's a daily activity. It is. Little and often I think of it like brushing my teeth. You do it every day. I hope you do it every day. I hope no one in here at least twice a day. Thank you. I hope no one in here brushes their teeth on Sunday and goes, yep, done it for the week. I don't have to brush my teeth anymore. I've done my teeth brushing for that week. We do it daily. Little and often is what we do to keep our teeth healthy. Little and often is what we need to do to daily renew our mind? What is the daily truth that God is speaking over your life? What does he have to say? How do you remind yourself of the truth? That God absolutely adores you. He loves you. He thinks you are the best thing ever. He made you for a good plan and a purpose. There is nowhere you can go where he is not there with you. You cannot be separated from his love. What are you doing daily to remind yourself of these things?
[00:15:48] So, in closing, I just want you to think about what can I do daily to help me to renew my mind?
[00:15:56] What is the truth that I absolutely know that God is good. He absolutely loves me. He absolutely loves you.
[00:16:06] He has a really good plan and a purpose for you.
[00:16:11] If that thought does not line up with the plans and purposes of God, I pray it does not bear any fruit in your life. I pray that you see it as a thought, but not your thought. And I pray that you recognize it's not the truth. Because the truth is that God is good. And when he made you, he was like, you are good. I've created you for such a time as this, and I pray that you know the good plans and the will that God has for your life. In Jesus name, amen.
