Spiritual Cutlery, Part 2

4) Listen – Oh be careful little ears what you hear.

• Music is said to be used for “mood management.”
• Have we noticed the correlation of disrespect in our culture with the degradation in the music of today?
• How does certain music make you feel?

Ephesians 5:18-19; Psalm 95:1; Proverbs 2:2

What if you replaced or at least balanced that music with Christian music or an inspirational podcast?

5) TV – You see it and you hear it.

How much time do you spend watching TV? _________________________

How much time do you spend in prayer?      __________________________

We have a culture of desensitized, fantasizing Americans because we have watched too much TV. Forgive me if the stats are outdated now.

• 56% of divorces involved a spouse with a porn addiction.
• Average American spends 5 hours a day watching TV, has 5 social media accounts and spends 1 hour and 40 minutes a day on them.
• Popular shows: The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Empire, Basketball Wives, Love and Hip-Hop, Modern Family, HTGAWM, News etc…
• African Americans watch 218 hours a month, while whites watch 155.3, Hispanics 123.2, and Asians 92.3.
• The average Georgian spends about 12 minutes a day on religious activities.

Psalm 119:37; Isaiah 33:15

• A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and to put waste into!

Proverbs 23:7 (KJV) –  For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…

The Main Point

Hebrews 4:12 (NLT) – For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

• In essence, the only way to keep your mind sharp, is to keep it filled with the Word.

Vending machine – I put $1.00 in, I get $1.00 worth of food or drink out. I put the Word, and out comes the Word. I put in trash, well, eventually I start to smell it.

Transformation Chamber 

WE are called to live a different life. And that is going to require different time commitments and changes in what we put into our minds.

• Romans 12:2 (NLT) – Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
• Philippians 4:8 (NLT) – And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Remember the transformation chamber from Family Matters? When Steve mixed the right ingredients, he had the right formula to transform himself. In essence, he looked the same, but he was completely different when the right ingredients went into the chamber. When we step into the Word, our transformation chamber, we may look the same, but we don’t step out the same.

5-Minute Challenge: For one week, spend the first 5 minutes of your day with God (pray, read a devotion, listen to gospel music, or a podcast).

Lust

Matthew 5:28-29 (NLT) 

But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 

The mind is where it starts. How do people end up in adultery? They think about lust. Our mind is powerful, therefore, our thoughts are powerful. “As a Man Thinketh,” wasn’t written just for the heck of it. It was written because of how true the power of our thoughts is.

Look it up. Many have said thoughts become actions. Actions become habits. Habits become character and so forth.

Thus, entertaining the thought of lust is the beginning of adultery. The Bible says if your eye causes you to lust, gouge it out AND throw it away. Be completely done with it. Why? Because sometimes all it takes is a thought…

God knows that. He knows where it begins and how it ends. Steer clear of adultery by steering clear of lust. And the best way to not lust, is to never start thinking about it. Don’t let your thoughts send you where you don’t want to go, doing something you didn’t want to do, feeling bad about something that didn’t have to be.

Colossians 3:2 (AMP) 

Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value]. 

Philippians 4:8 (NLT) 

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.