Today, from guest teacher Kyle Eidelman, the
most important question that you can ask yourself
is, what do I think about? Paul seems to understand
just how significant this issue is in Romans
12, verse 2. He says, do not be conformed to
this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. J .B. Phillips, in his translation,
says, don't be squeezed into the mold of this
world without even thinking about it. Did you
know that 95 % of your thoughts happen below
the level of consciousness? Right now, you're
being shaped by thousands of thoughts you don't
even know you're thinking. Your emotions, your
decisions, your relationships, all of it flows
from your mind. Today on Living on the Edge,
our regular Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, is turning
the mic over to guest teacher, Kyle Eidelman,
for an important lesson about renewing your mind.
To get us started, Chip, why don't you give us
a little setup for today's lesson? Well, I'm
super excited today to welcome a special guest
to Living on the Edge. He's a friend, and I could
introduce him in a lot of ways, like, you know,
a famous author that wrote Not a Fan, sold over
a million copies, or he leads a big church called
Southeast Christian. And those are nice things,
but I want to introduce my friend, Kyle Eidelman,
the lead pastor at Southeast Christian. And he
has a series called Every Thought Captive. And
Kyle and I have both passionately wanted to learn
and pass on how does Jesus really change our
lives. And in this series, I've asked Kyle to
step in, be our guest teacher, and you're going
to love what he has to share. Thanks, Chip. Now
here's Kyle Eidelman with his message titled
Mind Mold. I am overwhelmed and really excited
to share with you that Last weekend, across all
of our campuses, we baptized 839 people. 839.
Now, listen, you know this, but what we are clapping
for and what we're celebrating is not a statistic.
It's a story. It's not a number. It's a name.
We are celebrating one life at a time, encountering
Jesus and discovering the difference that Jesus
makes, that he forgives our sins, that he doesn't
just forgive our sins. He forgives the guilt
of our sins. that you don't have to be weighed
down by shame anymore. You don't have to be weighed
down by guilt of the past, that he sets you free.
And I told so many people in the water last Sunday,
like there's things we're leaving in the water.
We're not carrying it out with us. Like shame
and guilt stay here. And so when we celebrate
these numbers, we're celebrating that one person
at a time is experiencing the difference that
Jesus makes. And every life change story has
one thing in common, and that is a change of
thinking. A change of thinking. Take the prodigal
son, Luke 15, says he came to his senses. What's
that mean? It means that he was thinking about
his life one way and then there was an awakening
and he started thinking about things differently.
John 4, the woman at the well meets Jesus and
what changes? Well, her thinking changes. For
a long time, she thought this guy will satisfy
me. This guy will satisfy me. This guy will satisfy
me. And now she's thinking differently and she's
looking to Jesus. to be the living water. Every
transformed life involves a change in thinking.
And so this week, we're starting a series called
Every Thought Captive. It comes from 2 Corinthians
10, where Paul challenges believers to address
some strongholds in their lives, some lies they've
believed for a long time, maybe so long they
don't even know where they came from, things
that were passed down to them generationally.
There's strongholds that need to be torn down
in your life and in my life. How do we do that?
Paul says you do that by taking every thought
captive. We're gonna learn to do that together
to experience the transformation God wants to
see take place in our life by taking our thoughts
captive. I did a little research as I was getting
ready for this sermon, looking online for someone
who would be considered a gravity denier, somebody
who doesn't believe in the law of gravity. I
had this idea that I wanted to use as an illustration,
but I needed to find a person who didn't believe
in the law of gravity, and I couldn't find one.
And so I thought what I might just do here is
imagine it. So imagine there's this guy named
Jack who doesn't believe in the law of gravity.
He believes in the concept of gravity, but he
thinks the law of gravity is a hoax perpetrated
by the scientific community. He will argue his
point. He'll say it's all about density and buoyancy.
There's not some invisible force out there. And
his friends, they've tried to convince him. They're
like, Jack, you need to accept the law of gravity,
right? Like every step you take is evidence that
gravity is real. And other friends just kind
of accept the fact that Jack's a little bit quirky.
And so Jack finally decides, you know what? I'm
going to prove them all wrong. And he invites
everybody over to his house to watch him jump
off the top. of his two -story house. This isn't
real. Remember, we're just imagining this. So
don't feel sorry for Jack. He doesn't exist.
So Jack gets on top of his two -story house.
Everybody's watching down below. They don't want
to watch because it's horrific, but you can't
not watch. And so with lots of confidence, he
steps off the roof of his house thinking that
he's going to float, not fall. but he falls and
he falls hard and he hits the grounds and he
breaks a leg and he breaks some ribs and he's
concussed and he's got to go to the hospital.
Why? Because gravity doesn't care what Jack thinks.
Gravity doesn't care. Gravity does what gravity
always does. Gravity acts the way gravity always
acts. And Jack can refuse to believe in it, but
it doesn't mean it's not true in Jack's life.
Jack can say, I don't believe in the law of gravity,
but the law of gravity still applies to Jack,
whether he's aware of its existence, whether
he believes in its existence or not. There's
another law that's both recognized in science
and recognized in scripture that's called the
law of cognition. The law of cognition basically
says that your life is shaped by your thoughts.
To a degree that you probably don't fully realize,
and I may not recognize, our lives are shaped
by the way that we think. It's the law of cognition.
Now, before neuroscience and psychology had firmly
established this law that's built into who we
are, scripture had already taught us this truth.
Proverbs chapter four, verse 23 says, be careful
how you think, and here's why. Because there's
this law that applies to you. Your life is shaped
by your thoughts. And you don't have to agree
with that for it to be true. You don't have to
believe this to be true for it to have the power
of truth over your life. The God who created
you says, this is how it works. There's this
law that is built in to who you are, built into
this world that says your life is shaped by your
thoughts. And if that's true, the most important
question that you can ask yourself is, what do
I think about? What do I think about? Paul seems
to understand just how significant this issue
is in Romans 12, verse 2. When he writes to the
church in Rome about transformation, and he says,
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. The Greek word
here for conformed means to be molded by something
external. Don't let your mind be molded by something
out there. J .B. Phillips in his translation
says, don't be squeezed into the mold of this
world without even thinking about it. And what's
interesting about this word conform is it's written
for us in the present imperative tense, which
means stop doing what you're already doing. Paul's
not saying like, hey, there's gonna come a day
where you're gonna have to decide if you're gonna
be conformed or not. He's saying you are being
conformed. The world you live in is squeezing
you and shaping you and molding you, stop it.
Stop it. It's happening right now. Stop doing
what you're already doing. And modern neuroscience
would underline what Paul is teaching here. Neuroplasticity
shows that our brains are constantly, constantly
being molded by what we experience and what we're
exposed to. So every thought you think, every
image you see, every conversation that you take
part in, every second of your screen time, it's
molding. There's a pattern that we're being squeezed
into. And so Paul warns us that your thinking
and my thinking is being squeezed into this pattern
of this world, whether we know it or not, that's
what's happening. The law of cognition is playing
itself out through the thoughts that we think.
And neuroscientists say that the average person
has between 60 ,000 and 80 ,000 thoughts a day.
60 ,000 and 80 ,000 thoughts, that's a lot of
thoughts. Most of us would say, that seems a
bit much. I'm not aware of thinking 60 ,000 to
80 ,000 thoughts. But this is the point. 95 %
of your thoughts and my thoughts are below the
level of consciousness, meaning we're not even
aware that we're thinking the thoughts we're
thinking. 95 % of our 60 to 80 ,000 thoughts
are on repeat. They're just happening. We don't
think about the thoughts we're thinking. This
is why you can look back on your life and have
these moments where you see something you said
or did and you're like, what was I thinking?
Why did I do that? I must have thought about
it because I did it, but I don't remember thinking
any thoughts about doing that. Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to present to you Exhibit A. This
is me circa 2002 with frosted tips. I see this
picture. I know it's real. Like I know that this
happened. I don't remember ever thinking about
this. Like I don't remember having any kind of
thought process that weighed the pros and cons
of having frosted tips. But at some point I clearly
walked in to a salon and said, well, I'll have
some frosted tips. Like at some point that decision
was made. I don't remember thinking about that.
Like, I don't remember a moment where I stood
in front of my mirror at home and thought, you
know, what my wife would be really attracted
to. I don't remember that process. Like, I don't
remember thinking, you know what the world needs.
It's a pastor. That looks like he rated the clearance
section a hot topic. That's what the world really
needs. Like, I don't remember any of those thoughts.
And yet clearly that happens. And all of us can
have these moments where we've done something
or been influenced in some way. Like, I don't
know what was conformed. You know, it was a boy
band era. I look like a rejected Backstreet Boy.
Like, I tried but didn't make the cut. Like,
I don't know what was influencing my thinking.
Because I wasn't thinking about it, but clearly
there were some thoughts. I was being conformed
in such a way that resulted in me having frosted
tips. So take your thoughts, Captain. You're
listening to Living on the Edge with guest teacher
Kyle Eidelman. There's more just ahead, so stay
with us. Today we continue our journey through
a fundamental series called God's Dream for Your
Life. And if you've missed any part of this study
or want to find more Bible lessons, just go online
to livingontheedge .org. There you'll discover
a wide array of teaching content, downloadable
materials, and daily discipleship with Chip Ingram.
Find it all at livingontheedge .org. Well, now
let's get back to our lesson with guest teacher
Kyle Eidelman. I want us to spend a few minutes
just unpacking this connection, this biblical
truth of our life being shaped by our thoughts.
first, let's recognize that our thoughts establish
our emotions. Now, that doesn't mean our thoughts
are exclusively responsible for our feelings.
There are a lot of factors that could be at play.
But more than we recognize, our thoughts establish
our emotions. We tend to talk about our emotions
as feelings that we don't have any control over.
I can't help the way I feel. Or we look at circumstances,
situations, we look at people, and we say, well,
if this circumstance changed, if this person,
didn't do what they did, then I'd feel differently
than I do right now. But what we find is that
there's this intricate relationship between how
we think about things happening and the feelings
we have about those things. God created our brains
with the limbic system, specifically the amygdala,
which helps us process our emotional responses.
Our thoughts are connected to our feelings more
than we realize. Our neurotransmitter system
connects thoughts and emotions. So what we think
about can Trigger the release of neurotransmitters
like serotonin and dopamine that influence our
emotional state. So here's how you might play
this out. Let's say that you have been feeling
pretty discontent lately. Spending more time
thinking about your life and what you don't have
or maybe you're behind on some things compared
to other people and you're comparing yourself
to others and your thoughts have just been very
focused on that. But then you read 1 Thessalonians
5 .18, which says, give thanks in all circumstances.
And you think, okay, well, Paul says, give thanks
in all circumstances. I should think about things
that I'm grateful for. I'm going to do that.
And I'm going to just start taking my mornings.
This is God's will for me. And so I'm gonna give
thanks. I'm gonna spend my mornings just expressing
gratitude to God for some things in my life.
Now, when that happens, there is a neurotransmitter
effect. That practice of being intentionally
grateful increases serotonin levels, which is
associated with mood regulation. Then you go
throughout your day and you're not just reacting
to everything that's happening around you, but
instead you've created a different neural pathway
that responds with gratitude and thanksgiving
when things don't go exactly how you thought
they would. You're starting to recognize and
see things to be thankful for, and it changes
your emotions. It changes your feelings. So our
thoughts establish our emotions. Secondly, our
thoughts direct our decisions. It turns out that
just like our emotions, our decisions are largely
determined by what happens in our prefrontal
cortex, which is sometimes called the executive
center, because it's where decisions get... made
our thoughts being molded by the patterns of
this world are constantly assigning subconsciously
assigning benefits and consequences to different
actions and whether or not you value like the
immediate pleasure and satisfaction or whether
you're consciously thinking about something that
will come in the future because of a decision
you make but we all have these neural pathways
that much more so than we realize are making
certain decisions for us or taking us in the
direction that we're going. Think of it this
way. Think of a neural pathway as if you get
in a car and you drive to a destination that
you've never been to before, you're paying close
attention. watching your GPS and you're aware
of the road you need to turn on and you're paying
attention to road signs. But if you've taken
that path dozens of times, eventually you don't
really even think about it. Like when you drive
to work, just drive to work. You're not paying
attention to anything because you have created
this pathway from doing it so many times. And
the way God has designed our brains is to have
these neural pathways so that so many of the
decisions we make come from The way we've been
thinking over an extended period of time. This
is why you can decide you're going to have a
calm, rational discussion with your spouse around
finances. But during the conversation, your emotions
take over. You start raising your voice. You're
getting sensitive and defensive. Why? Because
you've got this neural pathway about talking
to your spouse about finances. And even though
you didn't mean for it to happen, you're... response
to them, the way you talk, the way you act starts
going down that pathway that's been established.
So this is one of the reasons why we get in trouble
by putting too much emphasis on behavior modification
over thought transformation. We think the key
to bringing about change is I'm just going to
do things differently. I'm going to behave my
way out of this. But typically that doesn't last
very long. It's not sustainable. That true transformation,
according to Romans 12, comes when we change
the way we think. Renewing of our minds brings
transformation. Thirdly, our thoughts regulate
our relationships. There's a term for how our
minds interpret what other people say and do.
It's called cognitive interpretation. That if
you come and you say something to me, no matter
what you meant by what you said, no matter what
tone you think you had, how I think about what
you said is going to determine our relationship.
And we all have like, this constantly happening
in our minds where our cognitive interpretation
might be constantly negative, in which case we're
gonna react in a way that's defensive or sensitive
or antagonistic, or we might pull away and withdraw.
But our thoughts are constantly filtering what
other people say and do. A few years ago, I was
having some challenges with some relationships
in my life. And I was talking to a friend about
it and he just really challenged my thinking
specifically. And he explained to me this concept
of filling in the gaps. And he basically said,
look, any interaction you have with someone,
your mind is going to fill in some gaps. Things
that you don't really know, but your thoughts
will interpret what they say and do, and how
your thoughts interpret that, it's filling in
the gaps. So let's say somebody says something,
you're offended by it, but let's say there's
a context gap. Like you don't know what led up
to that. You don't know what they might've heard.
You don't know what's happened during their day.
You don't know a lot. And so how you fill in
that context gap is gonna determine how that
relationship goes. Or maybe there's an information
gap. Like what you're hearing is missing some
important pieces. And how you fill in that information
gap is gonna have a lot to do with the... direction
of that relationship so our thoughts are constantly
filling in gaps do we presume the worst or do
we assume the best do we give a cynical explanation
or a generous explanation if i pull in the driveway
and i see my wife has ordered something else
off amazon and that's been delivered to the house
i see a box my thoughts fill in the gap i can
think to myself What could possibly be in that
box that we need? Like there've already been
a few deliveries this week. Doesn't she care
about how we're spending money? Like I could
think those thoughts. I don't know what's in
the box, but my mind could fill in the gaps.
Or I can think something different. I can say,
well, you know, I never have to wonder if we're
gonna have what we need around the house. My
wife is much more intentional and thoughtful
than me when it comes to spending money. She
takes care of so many things that I probably
don't even recognize. And I certainly don't always
appreciate. And depending on where my thoughts
go, depending on how I interpret that moment,
depending on how I fill that gap will determine,
will regulate my relationship. It'll determine
the course of our connection for the rest of
the evening. So let me just give you some questions
to think about as you process this connection
between your thoughts and your relationships.
When I make assumptions about someone's intentions,
do I assume the best or the worst? Just pay attention
to that as you think about your thoughts this
week. Do you assume the best or do you assume
the worst? Secondly, when I think about my past
with this person, what do I remember? What do
I remember? When I look back on our relationship,
does my mind think about the things that went
wrong or the way they made mistakes or different
failures or negative things? Or do I look back
and think about things that are positive and
affirming and praiseworthy? Question number three,
what narrative do I tell myself about this person
when I have to fill in the gaps? What's the story
that I tend to tell about this person when I'm
not sure exactly the context of something? How
do I fill in the gaps with that story? Number
four, our thoughts determine our spiritual growth.
Colossians chapter three, verse two, set your
mind on things above. Think about things that
are eternal, not on earthly things. When we think,
eternal thoughts. It doesn't just shape our emotions
and our decisions and our relationships. It shapes
our soul. You're listening to Living on the Edge
with special guest teacher, Kyle Eidelman. Kyle
is a pastor, author, and gifted communicator,
and a friend of our regular teacher, Chip Ingram.
Well, this week, Kyle is walking us through a
mini -series called Every Thought Captive, a
message the world desperately needs to hear right
now. Kyle reminded us today that our minds are
being molded constantly, quietly, by the culture
around us. Paul called it in Romans 12, don't
be squeezed into the pattern of this world. The
remedy isn't willpower, it's transformation.
And it starts with taking every thought captive
to the obedience of Christ. That's the mission
of Living on the Edge, to help Christians actually
live like Christians, day after day, in real
life. And it's made possible because of friends
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.O. Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30024. You can
also call us at 888 -333 -6003. Well now, here's
Chip Ingram. Thanks, Dave. You know, I've been
teaching about renewing your mind for decades,
but Kyle brought such a fresh insight today about
something that few people, at least I've never
heard of it, the law of cognition, that your
life is shaped by your thoughts. You know, scripture
taught this way before neuroscience got in on
it. Proverbs 4 .23 says, be careful how you think
because your thoughts shape everything. Here's
what's sobering. I mean, think about this. We
think 60 ,000 to 80 ,000 thoughts a day, and
95 % of them are subconscious. You know, you
and I aren't even aware of what we're thinking
the great majority of the time. And that's why
Romans 12, verse 2 warns us, don't be conformed
to this world, but be transformed. How? By the
renewing of your mind. You see, it's happening
all the time. My mind, your mind's being renewed.
The good news is this. transformation comes not
by trying harder or more religious services or
beating yourself up. It comes by renewing your
mind. When you and I align our thoughts with
God's truth, he does the transformation. Let
me encourage you. This week, pay attention to
your thought patterns because those thoughts
are shaping your emotions, your decisions, and
ultimately your life. Choose what thoughts you
hold on to and what thoughts you want to fold.
I'm Dave Drury. Join us tomorrow as Kyle Eidelman
shows us what it looks like to stop letting the
world write the script for how you think. That's
next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program
is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.