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[00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everybody. I'm glad you are here. And we're especially happy that you're a part of our new year series. You are our cold weather people. Isn't that great? Most of our church, obviously, are not cold weather people. I have friends, two of my dearest friends, the Hoopers, up in Colorado. You know, they're laughing at us right now when everybody runs to the grocery store and stays home because we might get a little dusting of snow. Well, we will survive the blizzard of 24. Believe me. I've been here all my life. We're going to make it. But I'm glad you guys are here. It's wonderful to have you. Thanks for watching online and we're glad you're a part of this weekend experience. I want to tell you, last year during January, we kicked off our men's prayer breakfast with a good friend of mine who's working this week and for the next really almost three weeks, dusty tuckness. He is a ten time world champion bullfighter out at the rodeo. And he went over so big. All of the guys enjoyed him so much, wanted to get him back this year. And then I heard from so many of the ladies in the church that said, well, we're coming and crashing the men's breakfast. If you bring Dusty back, well, Dusty is going to be not only here on the 20 eigth, he's going to be in here on the 20 eigth with me. And he and I are going to team teach that service. So you enjoy hearing a world champion talk about the disciplines of Daniel that he's following in his daily life. And so you'll be excited about that. If you know someone who doesn't have a church home, invite them to be a part of that, to hear him speak. You'll enjoy him. It's going to be a really great Sunday, but I'm glad you are here today. I want to talk to you about what I think is probably the most significant thing that we could do as we start a new year together. It is the key to achieving any resolution or any goal that you might set for yourself.
It is what I've entitled a mindset reset. You got to change the way you think. Now, resolutions are good. Some people make them, some people don't. Some people just say, I'm just setting new goals. I don't really call them resolutions. I was reading an interesting article. You know what? The average time a resolution lasts in the average person in the country, how long would you think the average resolution would last? This morning somebody said three weeks. Somebody said four. Actually, a little longer than that. The average resolution that people make goes about three months.
Three months. Now, we have a couple in the church. They own several health clubs. And he was telling me, he said, there's two times of the year where we sell the most memberships to health clubs. January is number one. And those of you that go to a health club, you know, normally you don't have any problem getting to the treadmill, getting on the stairmaster, getting to the weights. This time of the year, it is crowded with people you've never seen in your life. You notice that it's kind of like in my line of work, people I see on Christmas and Easter. Right? Hey, you're back. It's that thing. And then he said, but if you'll hang in there right about the end of February, getting into March, it'll be like a tumbleweeds rolling across the floor. It'd be like a ghost town because that resolution kind of wears away. So he said, number one, we got to sell our memberships in January. He said, the second, big time, is, you guessed it, getting ready for swimsuit season. We got to sell those babies around that April and May when it starts getting a little warmer. The guys and gals want to look good in their swimming suits. And believe me, if you've been to the beach lately, you see some people who have neither a friend or a mirror.
So I'm not saying that's not a bad thing, but I am saying that we all feel the pressure to try to better ourselves, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with saying, I'm going to eat a little cleaner. I'm going to do a little better. The Bible says these bodies of ours are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and we ought to be responsible and take better care of ourselves. A lot of the problems we have in life, we just bring on ourselves through the habits that we form in our life. And so there's nothing wrong with just saying, I'm just sick and tired of being sick and tired. I may need some help, but I'll get some help, but I'm going to get myself in a better place. I'm going to get myself in a better place. For some, that means I'm going to stop doing some stuff. For others, it means I'm going to start doing some stuff. I've heard people say, well, I'm going to start exercising. I'm going to start eating a little cleaner. I'm going to do him better. Had a guy ask me the other day, he said, bill, I'm giving up cigarettes. I've been smoking, he said, since I was a teenager. He said, I went to a church one time, and he led me to believe that smoking would send me to hell. He said, do you believe that? I said, no, I don't believe that at all. It'll make you smell like you've been there, but it won't send you. So I think it's good that we all set resolutions and you got to work at it. And that's kind of what I'm going to talk to you about. Because we call them mindsets for a reason. Your mind gets set in a way of thinking. Have you ever talked to somebody, say, that's just the way I am, and I'm not changing. And they're easy, offended by everything and everybody. They have no sense of humor. Just any little thing can offend them. It's because they've got a negative mindset. Well, mindsets are hard to change. You got to shake them up a little bit. And this time of the year, it's important to look at the way we think. I love what the late, great zig Ziglar used to talk about. He said, you need to check up from the neck up to get rid of the stinking thinking. And, man, sometimes that's exactly what we need. We need to check up from the neck up. We need to see if we're sabotaging ourselves. Proverbs, chapter four. The Bible says, as a person thinks in their heart, so will they be. Vance Havner said, you're not what you think you are, but what you think you are. So sometimes, guys, it's important that you think about what you think about. And this morning, I hope I can challenge you that, because our young man, Daniel, that we talked about last weekend in chapter one, he was a young man who got his mind right. He got the right mindset. He thought the right way. And what happens is, when you think the right way, you act the right way. When you think the right way, you talk the right way. When you read Matthew 1234, it says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. I've told you, what's in the well comes up in the bucket. And so you really know what you are by how you act and how you speak. And part of your heart constitutes your mind. I've shared with you before in the Bible. The Bible talks about loving the Lord with all your heart. It's more than just the muscle that's pumping blood through our body. When the Bible speaks of the heart, it speaks primarily of three things. The heart speaks of your intellect, how you think. Your heart speaks of your will, how you act, and your heart speaks of your emotion, how you feel. I've shared this with you before. When you say to someone, I love you with all my heart, what you're telling that person is, with all that I am, I love all that you are, I cannot love you with more than my heart, my mind, my will, my emotion. So sometimes the Bible refers to something as affection, which is emotion. Sometimes the Bible refers to mind as the things that we do. And sometimes the Bible just refers to the mind as the mind. But it all constitutes the same area of our life, and we get our mind right. If you can get your mind right, the rest of you will follow. You know why you and I came into this world? Head first, and you will go out of one dimension of your life into the next dimension. Head first, you will follow your thoughts. You're here this morning because you first of all thought about coming or you wouldn't be here. You'll go wherever you go in a little while because you'll first think about where you're going. You'll do what you do tomorrow, or you won't do what you do tomorrow because you first think about what you're going to do or what you're not going to do. Your thoughts lead your actions. That's why it's important you think about what you think about, because you never act out something you have not already rehearsed in your mind. That's why you have to check dress rehearsal. When you start rehearsing something in your mind that's destructive, that's not good for you, that's not healthy, that's not in your best interest, much less the best interest of anybody else you love. And you allow that fantasy world to begin to take over in your head. You got to check the stinking thinking because that's dress rehearsal. So you have to be careful and say, well, I'm shutting the show down because right now I can't go in the direction that this play is leading me. It all goes back, ladies and gentlemen, to how we think and the significance and the importance of our minds. Can I say to you, your mind and mind is the most powerful thing God ever gave us, and the enemy knows that. So if the enemy is going to defeat you or defeat me, he will attack our minds. The enemy is strategic. In fact, in two Corinthians two, Paul said, we're not ignorant or we're not unaware of his devices.
If you want to know what the devil will do, you can look in the Bible and see what the devil has done. He will repeat himself. And in the study of Daniel, particularly chapter one, you see a tactic of how the devil employed pressure on young Daniel and how he tried to change his life and his identity and tried to make him into something God never intended him to be. Well, the devil attacked his mind.
Look, if he can get your mind, he'll get everything else about you. If he can get your thinking, he'll win every other victory associated with you. So he's after your mind. For example, if you were going to subdue an animal, you would first of all subdue it at the point of its strength. For example, if you see people handle snakes, I don't know why in the world they do that, but I see people that handle snakes. I've seen them handle rattlesnakes, and I've seen these people get into these exotic snakes and they handle these things, cobras and all this. I'm like, wow. And the thing that they're most careful of is not the tail. They'll grab the thing by the tail. They're most careful of its head. Right. Why? That's where its power is. Because if the snake is going to harm them, it will harm them through its bite. It will harm them through its head. So the thing they have to be most preoccupied with to subdue it is its point of strength. Same thing is true with an animal. If you get a dog that's rabid, you get an animal like that, you have to muzzle it. You have to control its strength, because if you can control its strength, you can protect yourself. So I'm saying it's not rocket science. If your mind and my mind is the most powerful thing God has given us, then doesn't it stand a reason that the enemy would attack that first? That's why when the Bible speaks of in Ephesians chapter six, put on the full armor of God that you might be able to stand against the wiles or the tactics of the enemy. And then he said, if you look at the equipment, he said, wear the helmet of salvation. Protect your head. He said, look, you got to protect your head. Your head is so important. That's where the kill shot.
He will take you out by your thoughts. So when you look at a pivotal verse that, I just wanted to share this one with you this morning. It's in Daniel chapter one. It's in verse eight. And this is really the key to the success of this young man. The Bible says, but Daniel purposed. Daniel purposed. Here's what he purposed. I'm not going to defile myself with the royal food and wine, asked the chief official, can I have permission not to defile myself in this way? Now, let me summarize what he was saying. Young Daniel had taken this oath before God that he would eat according to the ceremonial law, as it's described in the Old Testament, that he would eat kosher and he would not eat the meat or the food of the babylonian empire. When you back up and you look in context to Daniel, you understand, as we talked last week, the people of Judah, the hebrew people, had been led away captive by Nebuchadnezzar.
The armies of the Chaldeans took them captive into Babylon, which is now Iraq. And it was in Iraq, and it was in Babylon where the people were held for many, many years. And yet, though they were God's people in a foreign land, they still loved their heavenly father.
Daniel and his four buddies, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, had made a commitment to God when they were teenagers that they would live the right way, they would eat the right food, that they would follow God with all of their heart. They made a vow, they made a commitment, they made a resolution, and they were going to honor it. Even in a hostile world. Now, they were respectful to the king. Nebuchadnezzar certainly wasn't going to follow after God. Nebuchadnezzar wasn't going to respect their God, but he at least respected them. And he said, okay, let's do a comparison. Daniel said, let me live the way I feel. God would have me to live. Let me eat the diet, let me do the exercise, let me live this way and put us up as examples to other young men who aren't going to live as we live and see which one turns out better than the other. And so they put the challenge out there. And at the end of a period of time, the king saw the diet that Daniel followed the disciplines of his life. He actually was healthier than the king's kids, who didn't live up to those same standards, so it put them in favor with the king. That's kind of a summary of what was happening here. And, Daniel, what I don't want you to miss is he had made a vow to God. He got his mind turned in that direction long before the Chaldeans ever invaded Judah.
And I would suggest to you that you have to have a mindset. You have to reset your thinking before the pressure hits your life. It's in a service like this at the first of a new year, where you and I don't know what this year holds for us.
I hope it's a year where you are blessed and you're prospered. I hope it's a year for you where your health is good. I really hope you have the best year you've ever had of your life. And part of our 21 days of prayer and fasting is I'm praying that our church, family and all of those who associate with our church will be blessed beyond measure. That's what I desire. But you and I have lived long enough. And we know sometimes life throws these curves at us and we don't know what to expect. We don't know what this year will hold. But what we do know is I can make a commitment this morning and just say, God, regardless of what this year holds for me, good, bad or indifferent, if I get the things I pray for, I don't get the things. I've set my mind. I've made up my mind that I've made a commitment to you. And I will not back away from that commitment. I won't quit. I won't stop. God. I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to give in. I'm not going to give out. Now is the time to turn your head that way. Don't wait till you're in the middle of something and then try to get your mind right. You try to do that before that kind of problem ever hits your life. What am I saying? I'm saying Daniel really set his mind and heart when he was still in Judah, and it prepared him for what he was about to face in Babylon. And you do that early on. So the challenge before us is really fourfold. Number one, to purpose. Number one, Daniel purposed in his heart to make up your mind. To make up your mind that this year will be different.
I told you a moment ago, you go in the direction of your thoughts, and you will absolutely go in the direction of your thoughts. Listen to colossians three two. Colossians three two says, set your minds on things that are above.
In other words, make sure God has the priority in your thought life. Now, the best way to do that is by what you allow to go into your mind.
Be careful the thoughts you think. Garbage in, garbage out. Be careful the movies you watch, the books you read, the literature that you follow. I would even go so far as to say, be careful some of the people you associate with.
Sometimes it's hard to rise above the downward pull if you're surrounded with people that don't share your values. There's two types of people.
There are people that you minister to. It's all going one way, and people that will minister to you where it's reciprocal. There are people that you have friendships with where you pour into them and they'll pour back into you. And, guys, there's people in your world that is going one way out of you into them.
And you have to be careful that you balance your life, because your thinking won't remain straight. You will not remain committed unless you surround yourself with the right people who share your values. There's a principle that says association begets assimilation. You really become like the people you hang with. What is that old line? If you want to soar with the eagles, you don't hang out with turkeys.
Some of you need to get rid of some turkeys.
Now, that doesn't mean you don't love them. That doesn't mean you don't pray for them. But don't be a turkey to hang with the turkeys. You stay an eagle. You be an example. Don't look down on them, but just love them and realize, I'm with you. To try to make you better. I'm going to try to pull you up, because that's not your mindset. They're going to pull you down.
So you have to be sure that you're surrounded yourself with people who are your associates, your friends, those closest to you that bring out the best in you. And so you have to separate who are my friends from who are my associations. Now, you'll have a lot of associations. I've told you. I had people tell me, I've got 800 friends on Facebook, and I'm nice about it, but I say, no, you don't. No, you don't.
Oh, yes, I do. No, not really. You have 800 people that connect with you in Facebook language. They call them friend, but they're not friends.
They may care for you and they may be sad when you're sad, but they're not going to really be there for you.
You share something and they're going to reshare it. And they don't always reshare it with your best interest in mind. Listen, if you live your life and just have a couple of handfuls of really close friends, you're blessed. Take it from an old dude, I'm just telling you this morning, you're going to know a lot of people. You're going to have a lot of associations. You're going to make a lot of acquaintances, but you'll make very few real, true friends.
A friend is a safe person.
A friend is someone who you can be who you are when who you are isn't very pleasant to be that way.
A friend is somebody who will let you say what you say when you may not even believe you heard yourself say it. They're not going to out you. They're not going to go and bust you. They're not going to drop a dime.
How do I even know that term? They're going to be that person in your life that will be there for you. And there's very few people you can trust at that level. By the way, that's an earned trust. You don't just get trust, you earn trust. Only God we trust. And by the way, the only person in scripture that never changes, read Malachi 36. I am the Lord. I change, not. You know why? He doesn't need to change. He's perfect.
The rest of us need to change all the time I'm changing. We're constantly changing. And so one of the things that has to change, guys, it's not just my look, but my outlook. I've got to change how I think.
I mean, there's a lot of things about you you can change, but it won't really change the trajectory of your life until you change your mind.
And Daniel purposed in his heart, I am going to do this. I'm changing the way I think. So the first step to move in this direction is he purposed. Number two, he pursued. It's not a one and done kind of thing. You know why? Because our minds are rooted in an old nature that never goes away. When you became a Christ follower, or if you become a Christ follower, one of the things that will not change about you is your old nature. You'll always have an old nature.
I tell you it this way because people tend to remember it when I say it this way. If you knew how to roll a joint before you met Jesus, you still know how to roll a joint.
Did you get that?
Knowing Jesus is not a men in black thing where all of a sudden in front of your eyes and everything you used to know, you don't know anymore, you're just sanctified and all of a sudden you're holier than everything and you don't know anything about your, you still know all that. You know how to do all that. It's all there. It's still there. I'm just suggesting to you that you have to change your default settings. You have to know now there is a new nature that is stronger than my old nature if I allow the new nature to dominate.
Here's how it works. The nature you nurture is the nature that dominates. You nurture the old nature and that's what will dominate. You'll be more like who you used to be. You nurture your new nature and you'll be more like your new nature, who God would have you be. But I'm just saying you got to pursue this. It's always there. It's a struggle. It's a fight. I'll break it down this way. If you're going to have a good relationship, it's not easy. People that have been married more than 20 minutes would tell you that it can be a battle sometimes to have a good relationship.
Yes. Do I tell young couples all the time, marriage is the end of your trouble, but it's the front end and you're going to have trouble. Jesus even said, when you're in a relationship with him in this world, you'll have trouble. But then he said, be of good courage. Get your mind right. I've overcome the world. So he put the cards on the table and said, you're going to have problems. I'm going to have problems. Anything that's worth having, you're going to have to fight for it. You're going to have to fight for your kids, you're going to have to fight for a good job. You're going to have to fight for your resources to manage them well. Anything where you know why? Because the devil's after your mind. He's after how you think about those things. Daniel stayed faithful because Daniel pursued the commitment that he made with his heavenly father. And here's what you find in life. As you guys well know, nothing in life just happens. You don't just happen to have a successful business. You don't just happen to have a good marriage. You don't just happen to have good friends. You have to do the work, you have to invest.
Proverbs 17 says, if a person would have friends, if they want friends, then it says they must first show themselves to be friendly. The principle here in proverbs 17 is to have a good friend is on me. I have to be a good friend. If I stand in front of you and tell you I don't have a friend in the world, that's an indictment on me. That means I haven't put in the work. You say, well, you don't know of the friends that have burned. We've all been burned. Are you kidding me? Well, everybody in the room has been burned by somebody that we thought was a friend. Jesus picked twelve, and one of them betrayed him. I know better than Jesus, and I'm not even close.
I'm just suggesting you that in life you're going to get burned. Think of friends as the aces in a deck of cards. You go through a lot of them before you get, and you only got four, and you're going to have some jokers in there.
So you got to understand, man, you're going to go through a lot of acquaintances to get to those friends, but they're worth having if you will pursue them. So he purposed, he pursued number three. He persevered. He persevered. But I'm talking to you about changing the way you think is a battle. It's a struggle. I told you a minute ago, it's not a one and done kind of a thing, but it's worth the fight, because if you don't make the effort, here's what will happen. Romans twelve, two. Paul said, do not be conformed into this world, the image of this world, but be transformed. And then he said, here's how. By the renewing of your mind. He's talking about perseverance. He's saying, here's one or two things that inevitably happen. If you don't make the effort, if you don't pursue and you don't persevere, the natural consequence is you're going to be pressed into the mold of the world. Meaning, what is the image? What does it mean by that mold of the world? I'll give you an updated version of what I think that means. It's secularism.
It means a system, a system that does not include God in its thinking. To be pressed in the mold of the world means I don't pray, I don't consider God. I don't even consider the eternal destiny of the people that I'm around. None of that even registers in my mind. I've been conformed. I didn't think about God. It's got to get real bad before I pray, and it's got to get really bad before I seek God. What's happened to me? I've been conformed into the image of the world. Well, how do I keep that from happening? It's work. You got to pursue and persevere, he said, but be transformed. Romans twelve two. What does transform mean? We get the word metamorphosis from the word transform. Metamorphosis is the process, as you well know, where the caterpillar goes into the cocoon and emerges as the butterfly. We call the process metamorphosis, to be changed by light. It means one form, the inner form. Did you know the caterpillar was always a butterfly, but it was just a butterfly on the inside? It had to go through a process before what was in it could come out of it and other people could see it.
I mean, God designed you. When you have the spirit of God living within you, you have the potential and the propensity to be someone in something greater than you've ever been. His nature lives within you, the new nature, but it has to be morphed. You have to go through a process of allowing what's in you to come out of you. And God can transform anyone. But it happens. Remember, again, romans twelve two. By the renewing of your mind, we're back to where we started. I got to change the way I think.
If I can't start there, nothing about my year will be better or different. I'm going to be right where I was this time, this next year. If I don't change the way I think, one of the best things you could do for you is just say, lord, help me. Help me change my thinking. Part of it begins with how you begin your day. Give him the first thoughts of your day. What I would tell you to do is when that alarm goes off on your iPhone, if you set it that way, look over, download a Bible app. If you don't have one already, they're free. Just go download a Bible app and read a proverb and a psalm. Read the proverb. There's 31, so it kind of corresponds with the average month. And read a psalm that might correspond with the. With the day that you're on. Today is January 14. This morning, about 06:00. 530. 1st thing I did is slap the alarm and said, good Lord, it's morning, or, good morning, Lord. I forget which I said, but I looked at my phone, and I went to my Bible app. And I read proverbs 14, and then I went to psalm, and I read the corresponding psalm, psalm 14. It just gets my mind in a good place, and I start that way. A lot of my prayer time is on my drive in to the office. And Lord knows if you drive around these roads out here, you need a little prayer time while you're driving, don't you? It's a great time, unless you got kids in the backseat. But with me, it's kind of quiet in my truck, so I spent a lot of time that way. I'm just saying, maybe it's your shower. Maybe that's when you do, if you're a morning person. So I'm just saying, begin your day is the only point I'm trying to make. I'm just giving you something practical. Begin your day by prioritizing your spiritual life. By prioritizing your spiritual life. Make it important, because that's part of changing how you think. You honor God. Give him the first thoughts of your day. Just say, lord, I want to begin this day. What's the principle Jesus taught in Matthew five? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And you know what the promise is. All the things you need, he'll add to you. So start there. That's a good place to start. So here he is. He purposed, he pursued, he persevered. And here's the last one. We'll go to the house. He prospered. He prospered.
God blessed him, and he'll bless you, too. I covered it a little bit last week. Let me hit it one more time. What's amazing about Daniel, when you read the last verse of Daniel, one Daniel, as a 17 year old boy, he served in the kingdom until he was 70, and he served four different kings.
He served three kings from Babylon and then the emerging Medes and Persians. Through King Cyrus, they conquered Babylon. And the Bible says that Cyrus, the king, the enemy king, was so impressed with Daniel, he kept him on the staff even though he had just conquered the king of Babylon. Daniel served through the reign of Cyrus and one of the responsibilities of young Daniel. The Bible said he was placed in charge of the scientist, or they were called in that day. The Magi remember them from Christmas. We wonder, how did the Magi know to look for a sign in the sky? Those are some scriptures in the Old Testament. How did they know? You remember who was in charge of the Magi? A boy named Daniel. Don't you think for a skinny minute that Daniel probably talked about his faith to everybody around him. Don't you think it raised the curiosity of those scientists that there would be a sign in the eastern sky and the star in the heavens? They were stargazers. They studied the heaven, remember? These were brilliant men. And they see a phenomenon that is so unusual, unlike anything they've ever seen. And they said, could this be?
I mean, they weren't close to theology. Science and theology, they can correspond and coexist. One doesn't cancel the other. And I'm just suggesting you that God doesn't tell you to check your brain in the car and not think. Isaiah said, come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Christianity is reasonable. You can think about it. And these wise men thought enough that they left that country and traveled in search of the king. And they said in Matthew two to Herod, the king of Judah, we're come in search of the one who has been born king of the Jews, who told them that I'm just out on this little limb called supposition. And I'll go out a little further to tell you I think it was Daniel. That's where evidence leads me. And what am I saying about that? He prospered. God used him. And can I end with this? It goes back to the commitment of a 17 year old boy who said, I'm going to live differently, I'm going to think differently, and I'm going to fulfill everything God has for me. He did it and God blessed him and he'll bless you. Mindset reset. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for all those here today who, Father, have honored you by attending your house. And they bless me by hearing this message. Thank you for them. I pray you'll bless each one because every person in this room and everyone watching online, we're all carrying some kind of burden. There are no perfect people. And, Lord, if we know our hearts, we want to have a blessed year, an incredible year. And, Lord, would you impress upon our thinking that it begins with how we think?
So help us, Father, as we launch into this new year to change the way we think, I pray we could see some great success in relationships and families and businesses. I pray your very best over every person in this room and all those watching online. Bless them. Keep them safe this week, I pray. It'd be a great week. Bring us back next weekend. Excited about worshiping and hearing your word. And, Father, if there's someone in this room or someone watching who may never have trusted you as savior, I pray this might be the moment right where they are, where they humble their heart and they just say, Lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. That's the prayer that I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
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