Live Free with Josh Howerton - Great People Think Great Thoughts | Ep. 8 | Wednesday February 15, 2023

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

What direction are your thoughts leading you? What are some mental habits you’ve developed? In this episode, Pastor Mike discusses some practical ways to get out with the old and in with the new. It might take some sacrifices, but they’re worth it in the end!  For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to The Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a perfect way to point your day. Our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional and that you'll be equipped, empowered, and encouraged as a follower of Jesus to deepen your relationship with God. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit.ch slash daily drive. And now let's dive into today's devotional with one of our teaching pastors, Mike Bro. Hey, good morning, everybody. Good afternoon, good evening, wherever you're at, whenever you're you're tuning in. So grateful for you. My name is Mike Bro, and we're just kind of hanging out together for a few minutes every day.

Super informal. And it lets you know, we're all different spiritual maro markers, you know, along the way. Some of us have been doing a long time. So it was just brand new to this. And so grateful that you'd even think about tuning in. And we're just talking about walking a new direction this new year. We've already been talking about the importance that you've got to map your route ahead of time. You got to decide. You know what? This is where God wants me to walk. And then just

every day you choose to walk in it. We've kind of thrown out this principle of your direction determines your destination and your decisions determine your direction. And what you download determines your decisions. So we're spending a little time this week just talking about, you know, downloading a new playlist. So let me give you our key verse again. And then those two words I threw out yesterday. Romans 12 verse 2 is our key verse. 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. We said that God will transform us. God's the one into metamorphosis. He wants to turn you and me into his best version of us. Our part in the process is to cooperate by changing the way

we think. Because if you can influence thinking, you can influence behavior. Because the way we live is always a reflection of the way we think. Scripture says, as a person thinks in his or her heart, so they are. What makes you and me the way we are is the way we think. You see, the battlefield is not so much our behavior as it is our mind, and true transformation always begins in our mind. Here's the deal. Great people think great thoughts. Now, please know, we're not talking about, you know, the power of positive thinking. I mean, believing that we're going to change ourselves by sheer willpower without allowing God in the process. Most of us know now it's an exercise in futility it only leaves you frustrated and living in this spin

cycle of do better fail guilt shame promise never do that again try harder fail guilt that's a terrible spin cycle to live your life in great people who live great lives are people who just humbly surrender to god's transformational power while at the same time they're consistently thinking great thoughts now the two words i kind of teased out yesterday that have really help me is feed and focus, feed and focus, feed and focus. What you feed your mind is the ballgame. I mean, NASCAR drivers, super careful about what kind of fuel they put into their high performance vehicles. Pilots are very selective about what kind of fuel goes into their jet. Professional athletes are very disciplined about what type of fuel goes into their body. Choosing moms,

choose Jiff. Sorry, but many of us forget that principle. When it comes to our minds, we feed our minds a lot of junk food. And I know when I feed my mind a steady diet of junk, it always keeps me from being all that I can be. I mean, the old adage is true. Garbage in equals garbage out. So you ask God, again, that searched me old God prayer. He said, what have I been feeding my mind?

Help me come up with a list of stuff. What direction are those thoughts leading me? Are they leading me toward life? Are they leading me toward becoming your best version of me? Or honestly, are they leading me the other direction? God, what are some of the mental habits I've developed? Do I gravitate towards selfish thoughts? Do I dwell on angry thoughts?

Am I holding grudges? Am I irritable? And why? Am I anxious? And why? Am I stubborn? Am I envious? Am I negative?

Am I judgmental? What am I feeding my mind that is making me that way? God, help me think great thoughts. Show me some good stuff I need to be feeding my mind and help me get rid. of the rest. A couple of years ago, I had some blood work done, and the doctor called me up and showed me some startling numbers that were pre-diabetic. And I told her, I said, well, you know what, that number right there, that number right there, that's pop tarts. And that number is Cheetos,

and that number is ice cream. She goes, you can't keep eating like you're in college still. So I had to go through the pantry. And I had to get rid of a bunch of stuff like Pop Tarts and Doritos. and those amazing golden Oreos, just stuff I shouldn't be eating any longer. Now, you may be able to eat that kind of stuff, but they were actually very bad for my health. So I had to go through and delete some of those things. And the same is true for what we feed our minds.

We might need to cut out some things. For instance, I had to cut out social media. Now, I was trying to be a light on Twitter. I was trying to post positive things, just some funny observations. But then I found myself reading way too much and diving way too deeply into the comments section. It was just feeding my mind bad thoughts, and it was making me angry. It was making me judgmental in my spirit.

So you know what I did? Hit delete. I just didn't need to feed my mind that stuff any longer. Someone told me about a mini-series that he said it was awesome. So I went home. I was by myself one week. Debbie was in Kentucky with the grandkids. I was kind of bored.

I thought, what was that one mini-series? and so-and-so told me about. I think I'll watch it. Sat down and watched it, went, nope. Not healthy for me to watch while Debbie is gone. Not healthy for me to watch there either. It might not affect you again. But I knew it was just going to take my mind to unhealthy places.

So I'll just watch ESPN again. I think you just have to get honest and say, you know what, I just don't need that on my playlist anymore. I might need to block that mental channel and look for something else to fill my mind with. So let me just give you a feed your mind verse that has really helped me. It comes from a little book called Philippians in the back of the New Testament part of the Bible. The Apostle Paul, he wrote this, 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. You guys ever seen The Price is Right? You know, you're talking about the game show? The most exciting hour of television. show I'm talking about. There's a game they play called Plinko, where they have this big board with pegs on it. They drop a disc from the top, and it kind of works this way down the pegboard and drops

in like $10 or $1,000 or $10,000. It's that game. I kind of, this is weird, but I took that verse, that Philippians 4A verse, and I started playing thinko with my mind. I like imagine putting these things at the bottom, and I would drop my thought through the grid going, is this true? You know, nope. Is this one pure?

Uh, not exactly. Is this one lovely? Uh, not even close. And I would, I would do that, just trying to fix my minds on what is true and right and pure and lovely. So today, that's my prayer, that you would play a little thinko, that you would delete some stuff and then feed your mind some great stuff like that. And just see what God might start doing inside of you as you change the way you think. Man, see you tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in. Hope you have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services

on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.combe.church slash daily drive.