We are gonna be in 1 Peter 1, verse 13, one verse today. In my Bible, we're still on the same page we have been at the very start of the 1 Peter series. We will now enter a series of commands given by Peter, and so buckle up, this isn't preaching law or some legalism, you know, do this, do this, for no reason to do it at all. But because of the gospel, now we're gonna talk about what we get to do if you were here last week, the get-tos. And so we're gonna jump into that privilege today. If you will stand, if you're able, let's read 1 Peter 1, verse 13. If you're using a blue Bible that the ushers gave you, it's page 1116, and I'm preaching out of the ESV. Peter writes, Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. If you'll remain standing, we're gonna pray. Father, thank you for your word, the chance to study it together, the variety of gifts and ministries here even now, the variety of backgrounds and storylines, the variety of challenges and trials and situations, all of us though together, our one body unified in great need of you, mighty King, to lead us where you have called us to. So please do that through your word today, and also bring Pastor John Bryan Caden home safely from Zambia. Thank you for the ministry that was already done, because Sunday there is now in the past. but here and now, there are things that you're gonna do. Do that, we pray. We also lift up, lastly, Christ Church, dear brother Adam Bailey, who will be bringing the word this morning, their campuses as well, thanking you for the unity in our city and the way you're building your church, Gilbert, the Valley, and beyond. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. It was Henry Ford who famously said, thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it. Thinking, thinking, maybe this week you've thought that or you've said it. What were you thinking to someone? More seriously, someone once said of Christians, let the mind of the master be the master of your mind. Let the Lord's way be your way." You know, nobody in their right mind, so to speak, would ever argue that the mind is not a vital part of the Christian life, would they? That's just not logical. The mind is central for the Christian. It is, if you could even say it this way, the great battleground or the last battleground for sin, isn't it? Because you could look real good on the outside, you could have your shoes shined real nice and the kids all in their Sunday best, but how many of you know that as perfect as we could look on the outside, the great battle for sin and temptation and lust and greed and pride and ego and false ideas, it's all going on up here, isn't it? The mind is the great battleground. That is where spiritual warfare is staged, as Paul explained in 2 Corinthians 10, verses four and five. That's why we're told to take every thought captive, why? Because thoughts, when left to run amuck, can cause a great deal of trouble here, in our minds, and then they can impact the way we think, and that, of course, as you know, impacts the way that we live, doesn't it? Our actions stem from our beliefs, which stem from our thinking, and that is why the enemy assaults you and I daily in the way that we see the world. If he can get a hold of our opinions, he can get a hold of a whole lot of things. So, today, one small verse with one great impact, we are going to see the kind of mind that God has called us to live. So look down with me, if you will, at one little word, therefore. Therefore. It's similar to the phrase, so then, Peter saying basically because of verses 1 through 12. Because of all that, now, get ready, do this. Because of the privilege you've been afforded by the gospel, it's time to put your I-get-to attitude to work. Tom Schreiner, great theologian, says it this way, believers are to obey because they are God's chosen, begotten by the Father, given an untouchable inheritance, and the greatness of their salvation. God's commands are always rooted in God's grace. And so today you're going to hear a primary command and then sub commands, if you will, or ways to live that out. And you need to remember. that all of this is impossible unless you've got the gospel, unless it has transformed your life and Christ has taken over. Now, word order in the original language is very important and I won't bore you too much with a Greek translation lesson. We call those Bible nerd moments here at the church for those of you that are new. We do those from time to time. And in this particular case, the word order is right away going to move from, what you'll see in your Bible, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, to set your hope. That's the primary command, so that's where we're gonna begin. Set your hope on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is the primary verb, the command in this passage. We will deal with the word fully after, so buckle up for that, I'm excited as we dig in there. But first, the main command. The what is to set your hope. Put it where it needs to be. What does it mean to set your hope? What does it mean to feel a sense of longing or which is literally a sense of longing for something? It means to put your confidence in it, to let yourself get excited with expectation. Somebody came up to me after first service and she said, I've got an acronym for hope, you know? I said, well, let me have it. She wrote it on her Connect card and said, having optimistic, passionate expectation. That is good, and that is hope. Having optimistic, passionate expectation. That's what Peter is commanding you and I have. It is the consummation of our faith when Jesus returns, a strong feeling of longing for something. This is the type of feeling that Paul had throughout his ministry to see the people he loved so much. He writes in 1 Corinthians 16, 7, For I don't want to see you now just in passing to these beautiful, wonderful Christians who sometimes cause a little trouble. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. I hope to spend time with you. I wanna be with you. I'm setting expectations. I'm optimistic. I'm passionately hoping to see you. In Romans 15, 24, there, he just, he would settle for passing. He said, I hope to see you in passing on my way to Spain. Basically, I gotta go over here, but oh, I hope that I can do a little layover and come see you, who I love. In Philippians 2, 19, I hope to send you Timothy. 1 Timothy 3, 14, to Tim, I hope to come to you, brother. my protege in the faith, oh, I'm longing to be with you. The setting here... for Christians going through some tough times, is to get excited and have some expectations about something very important. And you and I know the feeling really well, don't you? If you've ever bought your first home, you remember the feeling? If the realtor did this, I don't know if they do this anymore, but this is the image I have in my mind, is the red sold sign. The sticker gets put right on the sign as you pull up with your husband or wife. They probably only do that in the movies now, but it's the same feeling. Right now, they just, block it out on Zillow or Trulia or something and tell you, you know, it's been sold and all the hopeful buyers get disappointed. You know, when you do a DIY project, how many of you go on Pinterest and you find little directions like I do and you make a sandbox for the kids and all of a sudden you go, I'm really excited to give this to the kids. It doesn't look very nice, but I made it. And you get expectations. When annual reviews are coming at your work and you think, am I going to get a raise? And maybe it'll be more than just, you know, cola, the cost of living adjustment. Who gets a little pep in your step? And maybe this one, when your spouse does what you want them to do, right? We all get excited about that. We're breaking through. They're finally listening to me. I think they heard me. Dream vacations, time well spent, on and on and on. Gives us feelings of satisfaction, optimism. We start feeling like we can expect something. In our house, this is when I look at the whole year and I prudently plan out vacation time and my wife knows, she and the kids, my first ministry, are prioritized. She gets really excited. It's like an endorphin rush. I'm the hero of the day. I know if I do that, then there is gonna be joy and expectation and optimism, and I'm doing my job. Endorphins for all, happiness for all, expectation and optimism for all. Well, here's the big question, because you know the feeling just as well as I do. Do we have that same hope, that same expectation, that same optimism about Jesus coming back? Do we long for that? Because none of what I've described is wrong. It's okay to DIY. It's okay to buy a home and make great memories. It's okay to vacation and to rest and to recreate. All of that is well and good. You should be prudent in your planning. You should be looking forward to earthly things with the people you love the most, but isn't the greatest priority of all Christ and His coming? How convicting to ask ourselves if a thought about His grace can change our mood the way a dream vacation would. Can a thought about His coming take me to that place where my feelings take me when my spouse or my boss or a friend affirms me, recognizes me, and does the thing that I want them to do? That's the call here, to be excitedly looking forward to what is ahead and to answer the question, what is our ultimate hope? What is the ultimate thing we are having optimistic and passionate expectation for? Well, Peter goes way deeper than just, hey, set some hope on Jesus coming back. And if you wanna circle it in your Bible, it's the word fully. Fully. Fully is the Greek word teleos, it means completely, even perfectly. And church, there's a few commentators that think this is just, you know, full consummation, completely, once Jesus comes back. Set your hope on that perfect. But I'm with the scholars who see this literally, and in the grammar structure, there's really no way around it. Here's what this means. Set your hope with perfect precision on that one thing. Do it perfectly. No distractions, no other affections that knock Christ off the top of your priority list. And you think, like I do, how in the world is that possible? I'm a sinner. I get distracted by things. You're gonna tell me I have to do this with perfection? Nobody's perfect. What are you talking about? What are you, crazy? Yeah, except for the gospel. except for, but by the grace of God. See, where in the Bible are we ever let off the perfect standard? We're not. We're called to strive to it, all the while we fail and fall and flub around and flop like, you know, dead fish, and then God comes and breathes life into us, and we get up stably and start walking towards the destination, sure. If you ever watched us one day try to live out the standard of God, we probably look like a baby giraffe on ice skates, you know, just everywhere. That's what we look like to God, trying to do it perfectly. But nonetheless, we're called to that standard. And who is the one who helps us do it? Christ. The call here is to set your hope perfectly, perfectly. on the coming of Jesus. Hebrews 13, one and two says, therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and every sin which so closely clings to us. So you gotta lay aside every weight. Notice he doesn't let you off the hook. Try to lay aside as many as you can. every weight and let us run the race with endurance set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. It's been rightly illustrated on this particular passage that what this is is like trying to run the Christian life with a parka on. When you have all the entanglements and the encumbrances and the sins that are weighing you down, that's like trying to run a marathon wearing a parka. It is not really going to end well, even if you make it across the finish line. You're going to be slower than everybody else. You'll definitely be sweatier than everybody else. You might even get injured. I experienced this personally in 2012 when I decided arrogantly to run the San Francisco Marathon with no training because I wanted to prove to my sister that I still had it, whatever that it is. The only thing that I had after was a higher hotel bill because we had to add a night to our stay because I couldn't walk after the marathon. True story. Yeah, I got the medal. I got the pictures. I get to say I ran a marathon. Guess what? I was a fool. I couldn't walk. My knees were beat up and she had to drive home from San Francisco down to Orange County because I couldn't even hold the pedal in place to drive down the freeway. True story, no exaggerations. That is what it's like when you and I arrogantly, presumptuously start putting our hopes and our expectations and our thoughts into things that don't have anything to do with the ultimate thing. I wonder how much stress or pain or pressure or anxiety or mood swings you and I battle because we're worried about all the wrong things. We're focused on the wrong affections. Is it possible that sometimes we think everybody else is the problem, but really we are? Our thinking is off. We have rogue thoughts. We have misguided passions and it's time to lose the parka. It's time to run free of distractions and affections. We need to have eyes for the future that look beyond ourselves. Eyes for the future, looking beyond the present, here and now. There was a man who was losing his memory. He went to his doctor for advice and received this diagnosis from his doctor. We cannot help your memory without impairing your eyesight. The choice is yours. Would you rather be able to see or to remember? The man thoughtfully replied, frankly, I'd rather have my eyesight than my memory because I'd rather see where I'm going than remember where I've been. That is the way you and I should be setting our hope. I'm not really worried about the past. I'm not really worried about where I was or who I was or the mess behind me. I've got Christ, and because of the gospel, you know what? I don't need a better memory. I just need better eyesight so I can see where I'm going. I'm heading home to Christ. This is a command to hope, and what's ahead? to tie your emotions, your soul, your thinking, all of it to Christ. And let's go further than just the bad things about our past. Even our greatest achievements and earthly trophies are useless as monuments to our lives here unless they did anything for the gospel. All our gifts and our blessings, as wonderful as they are, useless, purposeless ultimately, unless they were used for the glory of God and the gospel. And so set your hope perfectly with precision on Jesus coming back, on the purpose for why you are here. And so the primary command in verse 13 lends us our first and main point in your outline, which is number one, stay focused on why you're here on earth. Stay focused on why you're here on earth. This world is not your home. You're just passing through. We've got to remember that outlook determines outcome. What you live for is what you will live out. I love the way that Warren Wiersbe puts this. He says, a Christian who's looking for the glory of God has a greater motivation for present obedience than a Christian who ignores the Lord's return. The contrast is illustrated in the lives of Abraham and Lot in Genesis 12 and 13. Abraham has eyes of faith set on that heavenly city, so he has no real interest in the world's real estate. I like that. But Lot, who's tasted the pleasures of the world in Egypt, oh, he gradually moves towards Sodom. Abraham brought blessing on his home, but Lot brought judgment. Outlook determined outcome. And so the what is to stay focused on why you're here on earth. But thank God, Peter doesn't leave us with just the what, he's gonna give us the how. And so moving from the main verb, the command of the sentence, to a couple of statements that are subordinate there. Your first sub-point in your outline is you stay focused on why you're here on earth by getting your thinking under control. You need to get your thinking under control. Coach used to say it like this, get your mind right, Hen. Get your mind right. Get locked in on what it's time to do. We see that in verse 13 when he says, preparing your mind for action. Now some of you are gonna have the King James Version and they get it right in the original translation. In this text, you're gonna read, gird up the loins of your mind. How's that for a command? Gird up the loins of your mind. Most of us are going, what in the world? It sounds like an old British movie. Statements we don't understand. But here's what this means. In the old Eastern cultures and Oriental cultures, they would wear, of course, robes of dignity, and they would dress a certain way. And Peter's saying, gird up the loins of your mind. If they were going to run somewhere and they had to go somewhere quickly, they would gird up their loins. What that would mean is if you imagine me wearing a bunch of robes today and being all dignified, and then all of a sudden I see you know, my son in danger, or I see a friend I haven't seen for a long time, or I see Jesus coming, or something that matters most in my life, well, guess what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna pull up those robes, I'm gonna wrap them around my waist, take the rope, tie it real tight, and you're gonna see legs that haven't seen the sun for a very long time, they're probably pretty skinny, and all of a sudden, you're gonna see a man embarrass himself by making a beeline to his destination. Peter is saying, Do that with your thoughts. Gird them up, tie them up, get them under control. You've got somewhere to go, brothers and sisters. You've got a life to live and a purpose to fulfill. Get your mind in order. Pull in the rogue thoughts and self-deceiving emotions. Get ready to see God work. Get ready to obey. Get ready for your opportunity to participate in the greatest race of all, that is redemption of saints and the coming of Christ. But first, you need to quit getting distracted by all the wrong things. Jesus told his disciples this in Luke 9, 57 and 62. He makes what seems to be some harsh statements, but I want to look at them together and then explain them a little further. As they were going along the road in Luke 9, 57, someone says to Jesus, I'll follow you wherever you go. We've all said that. Jesus says to him, foxes have holes, birds have nests, but I've got nowhere to lay my head. In other words, the animals got better accommodations than I do, friend. Are you sure you want to follow me? To another, Jesus says, follow me. The man says back, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. Jesus says, leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom. And then another says, I'll follow you, Lord, but first, let me go say bye to those at my home. Let me go kiss my mom a goodbye and give my dad a big hug. Jesus says, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. What was Jesus saying? Was he saying be rude to your parents? Was he saying cut everybody off and be a super religious Christian who doesn't really care about funerals or anybody else but themself? That sounds pretty selfish. No, that's not what Jesus was saying. He was using these harsh statements to set the bar of prioritization, saying, look, there are some good things you need to do in life, and those are all good and well, but make sure that good is not the enemy of great in your life. I need to be number one. Make sure I'm at the top of your priority list. Even good things, like honoring father and mother, proper burials. Loving others cannot usurp the place of the best thing, one commentator explains, which is to love Jesus with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength. And so Jesus is testing their hearts to see if having begun to follow him, having begun to focus their minds on what mattered most, if they are now beginning to look back at all the other things they kind of wish they could keep going with as well. So the question is, is Jesus first in your thinking? Because right actions stem from the right priorities, and right priorities start with the right thinking. You know, I love racehorses. I love watching horse racing. I like those documentaries about the Derby and the Belmont and all of that good stuff. And one of the most fascinating things to me is those blinkers. They call them blinkers or blinders. You ever seen those on a racehorse? They put them right on their eyes, just offset the socket, and what it does is it keeps the racehorse focused. But it's hard at first. Some horses have a hard time adjusting to it. But the results are always a winning focus. There's a jockey who won the Belmont, which is one of the races that's kind of a big deal. He explains, blinkers channel their vision. They cut down the scope. on their sight. Some horses see everything out there, from the bushes on the track to the grandstands and the poles. Some are distracted. Some are scared. Some are scared running next to the other horses. It's all instinct. You humans look at a bush by the eighth pole, and you see it's a bush by the eighth pole. A horse sees a bush by the eighth pole and thinks it's a panther. They help the racehorses stay focused on the task at hand because they have a tendency to get distracted by things that really aren't either real or that important. Does that sound familiar? We aren't racehorses, but goodness, we sure do have a tough time getting distracted, don't we? thoughts, affections, passions. We need to get racehorse mentality, put our Holy Spirit blinkers on, if you will, our Holy Spirit blinders, the mind of Christ, and start seeing our minds as a battle, spiritual warfare, a place where we must win by the grace of God. while the enemy tries to distract us with thoughts that don't align with Scripture. He appeals to our fears and our pride and our greed, even our ego, thoughts that tear down others, caricatures, not believing the best about friends, leaders, co-workers, and family. We have to take all of that captive and say, Lord Jesus, I'm putting all those thoughts at the foot of the cross, I'm putting my blinkers on, I need my blinders, Lord, I need to stay in my lane and win this race, because all of that is slowing me down. I'm running a marathon wearing a parka, I'm getting distracted from my purpose, and before I know it, my mouth is being run down a path it really doesn't need to go, and it all started right here. The call here is to get your thinking under control. That is how you stay focused on why you're here on earth. And then he makes another statement, being sober minded, which is the second sub point, keep your thinking under control. Keep your thinking under control. Don't just get it. How many of you know, you don't just walk down the aisle and get married and then I guess that's that, time to do whatever. No, you keep loving her if you're smart. You keep, how many of you, cutting the lawn? You don't just cut it once. You'll have a jungle out there. The HOA will kick you out of the neighborhood. You've got to keep cutting the lawn. How many know the dentist is going to come and talk to you if you just brush your teeth once? and you don't ever again, you don't keep on brushing, you're gonna get told, you want more root canals? You want more false teeth? Well, just keep on living the way you're living. You gotta keep on. Well, in the same way, you're thinking. You gotta not just get your thinking under control. You've gotta keep it under control. It's a present active word here. Being sober-minded means to keep on keeping on. Keep on putting your thought life at the top of your priority list. What does it mean to be sober-minded? Well, of course, to be sober is not to be, if you will, drunk or intoxicated. This is why people get drunk, isn't it? To escape reality. They don't want to live in the reality of truth. It's very difficult. And so, this now applied to the mind is stay in reality. Stay in the truth. Stay in what matters. Stay in what is most important. Guard yourself from the intoxication of worldly thinking. Do not escape the reality of why you're here, Christian. Don't allow the influence of culture. Don't allow the influence of other opinions and the will of people that is not the will of God to infiltrate your thinking. Keep your thinking sober and keep it stable. This is a big deal for all of us. And I don't really favor the, you know, the devil's going to get you kind of preaching. It doesn't really do much. You already know the devil's going to get you if you don't have Christ. But there are times where certain passages deserve mention, and we'll get to this in 1 Peter 5, 8, and preach it one day when we get there. But overall, 1 Peter 5, 8, Peter says again to the same audience we're reading about, be sober-minded, but then he adds something to it. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. The devil ain't worried about a lot of things. He already knows he's defeated. He already knows who wins in the end. James says, even the demons believe. So believe me, some of them got a better belief system than some of us. They know the thing is real. And that King Jesus, yeah, he's coming back. But along the way, he's looking for the ultimate takedown. He wants to slow you down. He wants to ruin your relationships. He wants to ruin your effectiveness, your purpose. He wants to snuff out your optimistic, passionate expectation. He wants you to get all caught up on the worries of this world that don't really matter as much as Christ, because what will that do? That will limit your effectiveness. And that'll limit your joy. And now we realize John 10, 10, he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Wow, that starts making a whole lot of sense, doesn't it? When you realize the amount of assault that takes place on your mind and your thinking every day. Be aware of that. Titus 2.2, Paul says older men are to be sober-minded. Why? Because older men, you are the leaders, you are the forerunners in a church like ours and in our community. We need you to be sober-minded, clear thinkers who unload wisdom on our younger generation for the glory of God. 2 Timothy 4.5, he tells Timothy, as a servant of the Lord, as for you, be sober-minded. Why? Because a church leader that's not sober-minded is not a church leader you should be following. In 1 Timothy 3 verse 2 and then verse 8 and verse 11, we see some calls for sober-mindedness again. An overseer, which would be one of the elders here at the church, must be above reproach, husband and one wife, sober-minded. And deacons, too. Likewise, dignified, not double-tongued. Not addicted to much wine. Look at the sobriety there, in the way they talk, in the way they think, in the way they live. And their wives, even women who are married to and a part of a church leader's life, they should be dignified, not slanders, so basically not a gossip, you don't be running the mouth, but what? Sober-minded. We need godly, strong, leadership-driven women who are influencing a whole generation of peers and of younger women around them to be clear thinkers in a day where, basically, women are told, oh, you know, just go with how you feel, and you watch a whole lot of Oprah, and it's just all about how you feel, and you turn on Ellen, and you feel good. There is a rarity among godly women today of women who can tell it like it is. strong, stable women who are who they are, but their emotions are under control, and their role is clear, and they know who they're, and they say, oh, I'm not walking around worried about what the culture thinks. I am a godly woman ready to influence this church and this community for the glory of God. They know why they're here. Sober-minded people are a treasure. If you got some in your life, you don't ever let them go. We got some in this church, we're never letting you go. Sober-minded is what Jesus wants his servants to be, church leaders to be, men and women of God to be, free from the strong influence of unhelpful forces in our world today. We ask ourselves, how can any of us fulfill our purpose in our homes, in our communities, in our church, for the glory of God, if we are not thinking clearly and stable in our mind? When we aren't, we are like the double-minded man that James talks about, unstable in all our ways, aren't we? Going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, like a toddler. Sometimes my little boy, who do you want to put you to bed tonight? Mama. It goes to mama. Two seconds later. Dada. Two seconds after that, mama. You know, we're like toddlers when we don't get our thinking under control. Oh God, I want this. Oh God, I want that. Well now I want this. Well what about that? Well maybe that's, is that you God? I need to turn my ears up a little. Is that you? sober-minded, not tossed to and fro, brothers and sisters, by every wind of doctrine, by every change in the culture, by every opinion that comes to your door, we must be thinking clearly and guarding our hearts. Proverbs 4.23 says to keep your heart with all vigilance. That's keep it under close watch. From it will flow the springs of your life. The way you live will be impacted by the way that you think. In both the Hebrew and the Greek, the word heart and mind are the same thing. So you don't ever separate how you feel and how you think. They're the same. It's the will center of who you are. It's your decision-making nucleus, if you will. It's where everything comes out of. You know, the well that you're drinking from is the water that comes out. It's the wisdom that comes out. Whatever you put in is what is going to come out. And so the Bible says, guard what is going into this and to this because out of it is gonna be how you live. And so what well are you drinking from? What voices are you listening to? What is your hope in? Now, this is a difficult thing, I understand, and it's never ending. Every day, we will battle in the mind till Jesus comes back. That's why some of us are thinking, Jesus, come quickly. It's really hard up here. So I wanna end with some action steps or some ways to get started for those of us, well, really all of us, but some of us haven't really studied this type of thing before, never been challenged to get our mind under control. We thought, you know, that was just kind of sports mentality, but really it's the Christian mentality. Get your mind right. And it starts with, I believe, as one possible step for you to limit how much time you give to worldly influences. The first step that you could take is to limit how much time you give to worldly influences. Could be friends, extended family, could be TV shows, could be reducing the amount of scroll time on social media, killing temptations to comparison, pressure from influencers in your life who push you towards decisions that are not in God's word or a part of how he operates. You know, be a light in the world, but don't be of the world. Guard your time, guard who influences you. Time is a commodity that you and I will never get more of. Isn't that interesting? The way we spend it is how it's spent, it's done. All you can do is dictate how you'll spend it better in the future. Get people around you, voices in your life, influences in your life from those who are Christ-like. Those who are having optimistic, passionate expectation for all the right things. Even good things can be the enemy of great. So limit how much time you give to worldly influences. Number two, avoid people who only fuel your ego. One of the best ways to guard your mind is to kill your pride. One of the best ways to fuel your pride is to find a whole lot of people that, you know, never tell you the way it is. Proverbs 27.6 says, faithful are the wounds of a friend. It's the kind of friend you need. We all need people in our life that'll tell us like it is. Proverbs, that same verse goes on to say, deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. I don't need none of those kisses. None of you do. I don't need anybody just being a yes man, telling me how great I am all the time and how I'm right when I'm throwing a pity party. Some of the best friends I got in my life are party crashers. They just absolutely implode the thing. We need husbands and wives that are like that, good friends in our growth groups and in our discipleship ministries who are like that, that will crash your pity party and crush pride. The enemy loves that, doesn't he? He loves to whisper. Hey Eve, eat the fruit. You'll be like him. Hey Peter, don't get caught. You don't want to get in trouble and get killed like Jesus. Deny him. Hey Judas, you can get rich if you sell this guy out. On and on and on and on. All these influences and voices fueling the ego You must avoid people that do that and stick with those who will live out Proverbs 27.6 in your life. Number three, spend time in God's word every day. If you wanna have a mind that's right, get the mind of Christ. If you want the mind of Christ, read the word of Christ. John Bunyan wrote on the inside cover of his Bible, either this book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book. I like that. If God's word is filling my mind, there's not a whole lot of room for much else. Fourth, devote yourself to prayer every day. Devote yourself to prayer every day. Martin Luther said something that's one of my favorite quotes. I have so much to do today, I will need to pray for three hours to get it all done. Not about you, sometimes I wake up at four, five, six in the morning, I'm thinking, oh, I'm gonna go to the office right now, this is so great, there'll be no one there, it'll be so quiet, I'm gonna get so much done. And then you, like me, you get the kind of dopamine fix, they call it, where you get these endorphins that hit when you're crossing off the to-do list. That's a true scientific thing, that's why you all feel good when you do this at your work or wherever you are. crossing things off the list. How many times do we go down the checklist feeling great about how productive we were, but all the while the Holy Spirit convicting our hearts, pray, pray, pray, pray. Where was prayer? If we have not prayed, I dare say we have not been yet productive. Pray, pray, pray. Number five, confess sin to God every day. Best way to unclog spiritual arteries, get rid of unconfessed sin. Throw it at the cross. Give them your anxieties, your burdens, your pride, your ego, because nothing will consume your mind. And some of you, you know I'm saying exactly what you thought this week, what I think all the time, because I hate my sin. I hate the way the enemy assaults. I want it gone, because it consumes my mind and it slows me down. and then I hold it in, and I'm a control freak, and I'm trying to figure it all myself, and I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna figure this out, and I'm gonna be better, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, when in the end we just should, I'm gonna give this to Jesus. And the mind gets clear, doesn't it? And the heart gets light because he said, come to me, all you who are heavy laden, you got burdens, I'll give you rest, give it to me, confess that sin to me. Because when your dark sins are forced into the light, guess what? They cannot survive. You get your mind right by getting your heart right with the Lord. A mind that is guarded and ready and focused on Christ, that is striving to the perfect standard of setting hope where it always must be, is a mighty weapon in the hand of God. And so the question you and I must simply ask this morning is, where is our hope? Who is our hope? Is good in our life the enemy of great? Is Christ at the top, staying at the top? Is he everything to you? Let it be said of you and I that he is. Let's pray.