Kanakuk Institute Podcast

Guarding Your Mind

July 11, 2022 Kanakuk Institute Season 1 Episode 29
Kanakuk Institute Podcast
Guarding Your Mind
Show Notes Transcript

Keith and Jason discuss the importance of guarding your mind against the schemes and thoughts of the enemy. They highlight key scriptures in renewing our minds.

Intro (Keith): Welcome to the Kanakuk Institute Podcast, where we continue to equip leaders with biblical skills for a lifetime of ministry.

 

Jason (00:13): Hello everyone and welcome back into the Kanakuk Institute Podcast. This is Jason Lightfoot here with Keith Chancey, and we have just celebrated the 4th of July. Keith, what does it mean to you that we get to do that every year?

 

Keith (00:28): Oh man, Jason, that’s a great question, you know, I. Man, I had the privilege the other night to go to an event, and it was an event done for men and women that have sacrificed their limbs and literally their lives for our country. Freedom, Independence Day. As I was sitting there looking around the room, I was just overwhelmed with emotion, just thanking God for these that were there that had just literally there were, one guy had stepped on a landmine, Jason, and he was missing both his legs and an arm, and his face had been totally reconstructed. And I’m looking at that and I’m just going, “Wow, what a privilege I have in America to walk in freedom in a country because so many have done so much for me.” You know what I did? I stood up when Lee greenwood gave that song, man, “USA”. “ God Bless the USA.” Man, I was up and I was screaming, it was just, it was emotional because I just love that word freedom. You know? As we celebrate the fourth of July, I just solute all these that have given their lives that I can have a free country.

 

Jason (01:41): So, freedom we see in a political sense, we live in a free country, but then we could also talk about freedom in a Spiritual sense. As Christians, as followers of Christ, we’ve been given new life and been set free. So how do those ideas correlate?

 

Keith (01:55): Oh man, Jason, you know, I was, I love that you asked that question, because I work out at Kanakuk, and I run what’s called, you know with the help of so many, we run the Kanakuk Institute. And we equip young men and women with Biblical skills for a lifetime of ministry. However, here’s the issue: You know, kids come in, and I call them kids because I’m so old nowadays, like Methuselah. And you know, I see these young ones, and I’m like, ‘It looks like they’re missing limbs, and their freedom has been removed because of something called sin.” And you know, Jason, when I see those coming in, and I can see it in their eyes, their countenance is low as I talk to them I hear their emotions, you know, there’s discouragement, doubt, fear, anxiety, worry, and you know, Jason, I sit there and I look at that and I go, “Man we have got to help them.” As we’ve helped, you know, our fellow countrymen that have given their lives and their limbs for their country. I go, we have so much to help our people to know Jesus Christ.”

 

Jason (03:01): So, I’m hearing you say that freedom requires effort. It just doesn’t come to you, like, for our country, lots of people had to fight and die so we can have the freedom that we have, and in our spiritual walk, we will have to fight both individually and collectively, so that we can live in the freedom we’ve been given. So how does that work?

 

Keith (03:22): Well you know, Jason, I was reading in 1 Peter this morning. I love that book, because, you know, I think about Peter. You know, if you think about anybody that took it. You know, that really made some huge mistakes. He denied the Lord three times. He walked away, and here’s this guy that when he was walking on water he failed to look at Christ and starts to drown. You just go, “Unbelievable.” You couldn’t even make it up what he does. He cuts off the ear of Malcus. And Jesus says, “No.” And here’s what happens. I love what Peter 1:13 says, “Gird your mind for action.” And that same word “gird” is the same word that’s used, “Gird your loins with truth.” In Ephesians 6, putting on the full armor. Meaning, we’ve got to put something on. We’ve got to protect ourselves. So he says, “gird your minds for action. Be sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on,” and here’s that word, “The grace.” The grace of God, and when I think about that, Jason, that’s an overwhelming word to me, because I don’t deserve salvation. I gird my minds. I am taking my minds captive. And I am putting something on. I am making sure that I’m not allowing the devil to captivate my thoughts and my attentions and take, and I’m so self absorbed that I gird my minds for something: action. And I’m being sober in spirit, meaning: don’t be drunk on your thoughts. Be sober in your thoughts. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be revealed to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts, which were yours in your, and he calls us out, in your ignorance, but like the holy one, who called us to be holy in all our behavior. Be holy, because I am holy.” Jason, I like that. Because, I need to be holy because that’s what Christ says I need to be because he is holy. And Peter says it well because he understood it. He had failed so badly, he was not in freedom. He was in bondage. And now, look what he says, “Gird your minds.” He says, “You’ve got to protect that mind.” So many people have stepped on landmines, so to speak. They’ve stepped on the landmine of sin. And they’ve got limbs everywhere, and their body is a complete disaster. And they don’t feel freedom because they’ve been so bonded, so put in bondage because of their sin. And my thought today is, “We have got to make sure that we’re helping people to be sober in spirit, fix their hope completely on the grace to be revealed to us in Christ, that God gives us grace.” Why? Because he loves us. He died for us. He resurrected for us. He gives us all that we need, but are we willing to accept what he has for us?

 

Jason (06:12): So what are some of the specific mindfields that we need to avoid? Like, what are the things that are probably most frequent that you see in campers and in students at the institute, that we need to be prepared to guard our minds against?

 

Keith (06:27): Jason, that’s a loaded question. You know, because there’s so many landmines that we step on today’s world. And depending on where you come from it could be the landmine of anger, that you’re angry at somebody that hurt you, you can’t forgive them because they hurt you so deeply. It could be the landmine that you’ve felt alone. I’m, it could be the landmine of I’m insecure, I’ve been comparing myself to so many people because I see myself not as good as others.. Could the landmine of a sin, a particular sin that I have done. You know, maybe I’ve lied, stolen, cheated, and I’ve never really felt the freedom of that. And so when you look at all these sins, and once again, it’s so big and broad in how we are affected by our sin or, you know, I love what, and we looked at this a couple weeks ago in Hebrews 12, “Lay aside that encumbrance, that thing that lays you down, and the sin that so easily entangles us.” There’s broad sin that we recognize as sin, and then there’s those sins that we go, “You know what, I was hurt by that person, or something in my past.” And so that is a big term, that I go, “You know,” I look at each person individually Jason and I go, “What is your story? How can I help you to walk in freedom?” Because, you know, when you look at someone that’s gone to war, and they’ve had their leg blown off, man you immediately weep for that person, because you know what the problem is, The problem with us as Christians, we don’t, we can’t see what’s gone, what’s missing. We don’t know what’s affected their mind. And so, when I come alongside of people, I always ask, you know, “Jason, how are you?” What are you going through? What’s your pain, fear?” We always ask those questions, but then as they begin to share, I want to hear more of their story. And that story leads me to, you know, helping them to gird their minds for action, be sober in spirit, fixing their hope completely on the grace to be revealed to them in the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient Children, becoming holy as he is holy. So there’s kind of some really good steps there, practical steps, just in that one passage, of 1 Peter 1:13-15, so there’s some good steps there that, If you’re out there hurting today, man there is some great word here. So man, I like those. But, Jason, you know, I was thinking about 2 Corinthians 10:4,5, and 6 also. And Paul says, and once again, there’s that guy, Peter blew it, Paul blew it, he was Saul, then he becomes Paul. He says, “Destroying speculation and any lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Take every thought captive towards the obedience of Christ.” So he says, “guys listen, we’ve got to destroy, we’ve got to put a so-called bomb in there, that blows up, you know,” I love fireworks. Man, I got a little, my little three year old, not mine, but my daughter’s three year old, Knox. He loves fire works because they make the boom, boom, boom. We’ve got to boom, boom, boom, destroy speculation, any lofty thing, anything that is destroying our minds. It’s destroying us from walking in freedom. He says, “take every thought captive towards the obedience of Christ.” And so you know, Jason, what I’ve got to do, my responsibility, me owning my responsibility of my sin, is I’ve got to take that thought, I’ve got to admin that that thought is wrong. I’ve got to take it captive, and I’ve got to get rid of it. I’ve got to destroy it. And you know, Proverbs 28:13, you know, it’s really good in that scripture, because what that passage says is, “He who conceals his sin will not prosper, but he who confesses it and forsakes it will find freedom.” And so when I look at that, I can’t tell you how many people are concealing their sin, thinking, “If I just ignore it, it goes away.” But sin never goes away until it’s confessed and it’s forsaken. “God, will you forgive me.” God says, “I forgive you.” Now, Jason, if I’ve hurt you, I go to Jason, and I say, “Jason, will you forgive me?” See, God forgives me, but I’ve got to go to that person and ask them their forgiveness also, because in that, I’ve made it right with God. God, through the Holy Spirit says, “Now go make it right with others.” So that nothing you could ever do comes up and accuses you and you’re guilty of something.

 

Jason (10:53): So it’s easy to look at a nonbeliever and recognize the lack of spiritual freedom there. But, from even from my own life, any believer, as we keep walking, it’s so easy to fall into going through the motions, and I will not even realize that I myself have ceased to live in freedom. So what steps can we, can I take to be, maybe, checking up on the state of my soul to make sure that I actually am living in freedom. I may think I am and not actually be doing it?

 

Keith (11:27): Well, you know, Jason, that’s a good question. And you know, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control, against such thing there is no law against those. You can do those as much as you want. So you can do that. That’s kind of a check. Also, Philippians 4:8 says, “Whatever’s true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, if there’s anything of excellence, anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on those things.” When my mind dwells on my sin, and my unforgiveness, and as John 8:44 says, “That Satan is the liar,” that the lie I believe is that I’m not in freedom, and that I am not good. That’s a lie, but I am created in the image of God. Yay God. And I’ve taken that thought captive, and I’ve girded my mind for action, and I understand the grace of God. And I walk in freedom.

 

Jason (12:27): So in a moment where you catch yourself, you realize, “I’m, this thought that I’m entertaining, I need to guard myself against it.” On a moment by moment basis, what steps do you take to actively renew and guard your mind in a moment.

 

Keith (12:43): That’s, oh man. Great thought there. You know, one, 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful.” So, those things that I’m thinking are common. Sin is common. And it’s going to happen. You are going to have thoughts that come to your mind. At the moment that you see those things, or your mind is affected by those things, that in itself is not sin, but when it becomes sin is when I begin to dwell on it. So I take that thought captive towards the obedience of Christ, and I destroy that speculation [exploding sound noise] gone. You know what I’m saying? So, when I understand 1 Corinthians 10:13, that temptation that I have. It’s common. But God is faithful. And he will not allow me to be tempted beyond what I’m able to endure. But he will provide me the way of escape. I love that. He gives me the escape clause. He allows me a tunnel to crawl out. See you guys. [Crawling out of tunnel noise], you know, I’m gone. But if I don’t know what God has already done for me through his death, and his burial, and his resurrection, he’s given me freedom, and he’s given me an escape, and ability. But I’ve got to trust that. And, if I don’t understand the power that I have through Christ, I feel, “I just can’t do it.” And I am so weak against sin because I don’t understand the power of God. 

 

Jason (14:08): I’ve found for me, in moments like that, I think of Joshua 1:8, “meditating on the word.” And that meditation on the Word is what empowers me to walk according to the things that it says. Depending on what the struggle may be, I may need to find a different passage. I may be struggling with anxiety, I may be struggling with anger, different things we’ve already talked about. I find that just picking a passage to memorize and think about over and over and over, somehow God’s Word has a power to rewire my brain independently, as long as I just keep thinking about it, and that seems to bolster me forward into living into Christian freedom.

 

Keith (14:50): You are so right, and, you know what, out there in the audience today, I guarantee there’s people going, “Man, I’m just feeling like a failure. Man, Chancey, I’ve lost an arm, a leg, so to speak, metaphorically.” And, I think that’s exactly what we have to do. We have to understand that that temptation is not of God. Satan is our enemy, he hates us. And we’ve got to meditate. And even in our meditation, go before the Lord and praise him, “God give me the strength to overcome this. Now, give me a word that I can look at that gives me courage, and let me meditate on it.” And I like to think it’s like a focal point. I always have a watch, and my watch, I love that it either shocks me, or beeps on me every hour. And what that does is it reminds me, “Chancey, what are you doing right now?” And I, it’s so amazing how within the hour I can lose focus on what I was, I was just fired up for Jesus one hour ago. I wish I could do it every second, every minute, but I think I’d get used to that shocking on my wrist or that buzz. But I do it every hour so that I always say, “What is the focal point that’s reminding me to go to the Word so I memorize a scripture, and I have something on my heart.” I memorize one scripture a week, that means in the course of a year, I’ve memorized 52 scriptures. 52 arrows that are in my quiver that I can use at any time that I’ve used throughout the day, 8, 10, 12 times a day that I’ve pulled my little card that I’m memorizing out, and I do it the whole week, every hour, meditating on that scripture. It changes me. It protects me. And I feel, “You know what? I’ve got the armor of God on me.” Yay God.

 

Jason (16:26): That’s amazing. Well that’s about all we have time for today, but we are praying that you will find this helpful, that we will all collectively work to guard our minds and dwell on the truth of scripture so that we can live in the freedom that we have through Christ. We hope you all have a great week, and we’ll see you next week on the Kanakuk Institute Podcast.