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THIS MIND

PHIL. 2:5-11

INTRODUCTION

God is sovereign and omniscient and He knows and controls the goings on of man. Nothing catches Him by surprise. I reverence God because He’s powerful: I worship Him for His auspicious authority; I magnify Him because He still can heal, supply, and provide. Most of all I praise Him because of His Master Wonderful Name!!! God is a Master planner; strategist; and that makes me glad because in my life I have gotten caught up in tangled webs of deceit, lies, scandal, and chaos. It took a master plan to orchestrate a divine pathway out of my situations without destroying myself or others. It comforts me to know the thoughts of God toward me are good and not evil that I might have an expected end; my steps are ordered, He’s mapped my end from the beginning. There is nothing the enemy can devise against us that God hasn’t already made a way of escape. Now my job is to take on the mind of Christ and let His light shine through me.

ARM YOURSELF Jesus wasn’t surprised that Judas was going to betray Him. When the Roman soldiers came and snatched Him in the middle of the night He wasn’t shocked because He said “behold the hour is at hand, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners”. He was prayed up, armed to the fullness and He was ready for the fight (likewise—prayer, praise and worship). He was the Son of God and He could’ve stopped the betrayal, but He humbled Himself, even unto death on the cross.

We need to take on the mind of Christ and arm ourselves likewise because the devil has launched an all-out attack on the name of Jesus [Heresy in the world/church—the enemy is trying to redefine Christianity]. The fight is on and we have to stay armed with prayer. The devil is petrified of a praying man or women. Attacks come on level of your faith. God will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear. If you are attacked you can handle it.

GUARD YOUR MIND Jesus had already prepared Himself mentally in the Garden of Gethsemane. He P.U.S.H, he pushed beyond the veil of His flesh and the thoughts in His mind. Sometimes the biggest struggle that we have with the plan of God goes on in our mind. The mind is the battleground. It’s not about what you go through it’s how you feel about it, react, learn, and strategize. The enemy attacks and afflicts our minds trying to separate us from following the plan of God. It rains on the just and the unjust; sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of the same storms as unbelievers (stir up your testimony)(no matter the circumstance I’m still a child of the King—you don’t know what the Lord has done for me—let me tell it).

Guard your mind because he’s not after your stuff he’s after your faith. He comes after us with gestures, threats, worries, fears, suggestions, insecurities, antagonism, and anxieties waging war in our minds. Fighting you all in your sleep, you wake up tired, go to bed tired, and tired all day all the time. It becomes a challenge to drive those thoughts out of your mind. He wants to change the way we think, pray, praise, and worship God. But that devil is a liar.

CALL ON THE NAME OF JESUS Jesus cried My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me. For the first time He calls Him God instead of Father. Up under the weight and pain of the situation He has never felt further from God. This shows the high cost to Christ of His atonement for our sins. Jesus paid the ultimate price by offering His soul for a ransom for our sins. He died having committed no sins for humanity that was full of sin.

Because He paid the ransom for our sins by enduring the chastisement for our sins He sufficiently suffered for us. Now we can call His name and plead the blood whenever we need Him. Calling Jesus brings God into remembrance of His sacrifice.

Power in His name…The name of the Lord is a strong tower…His blood will never lose its power. He took this black soul, washed me in red blood, and I came out white as snow.

STICK TO THE PLAN Even in all of this Jesus stuck to the plan. He could’ve come down off of the cross but Jesus was just as much crucified in the Garden of Gethsemane as He was when they physically nailed Him to the tree [struggle of decision]. He stuck to the plan; they had already discussed it in eternity past (Lamb slained…propitiation…suitable sacrifice…born to die…final offering).

It wasn’t the nails that held Him to the cross it was Love and Gods plan. (John 3:16) “For God so loved the world…...(John 12:32) and I, if I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me.”

The plan of the Lord is the hedge of the Lord; if you stay in the plan you’re safe in the hedge. It might get [shaky/dark] but stick to the plan. Don’t stop praying, fasting, believing. Let the hard times make you better not bitter. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. There is a secret place where God will hedge you in.

WAIT ON THE LORD Jesus cried out to the Lord and someone came with some vinegar and some misinterpreted His cry. Whenever you feel your weakest and you cry out to the Lord someone always comes with a little vinegar to shut you up and others will misinterpret your cry. But wait on the Lord because I heard Isaiah say they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

When you’re crying before the Lord, don’t let anybody put vinegar in your praise. Don’t let anybody save you or pull you out. Because God didn’t put you in it for man to say they got you out.

The battle is not yours it belongs to the Lord. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. You can’t let everybody help you. He may not come when you want Him but He’s right on time.

TURN IT OVER TO THE LORD The Bible says that Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. He turned it over to the Lord because God got Him in it and He knew that God would get Him out of it. In the gospel of John, He hung His head in the locks of His shoulders and said “it is finished.” Now everything you can go through—There’s God for that

God got you in it and He will get you out. But you’ve got to turn it over to Him and die to your flesh; give Him a YES!!! He died until the veil was torn, the ground trembled, the rocks split, the sun refused to shine, and graves started popping open all over Jerusalem.

When you turn it over to the Lord they will see that God was with you. All of Jesus’ critics had to say SURELY this was the Son of God. God is going to do the same thing in your life if you stick to the plan.

GET UP He died, but early Sunday morning Christ bust out of the grave with all power in His hands. The alarm system started going off in hell. Satan popped up and said death I thought you stung Him, he said I did but He yanked the sting out of death. Grave I thought you were holding Him, he said I was but He had more power than I did. With His exceedingly great power He got up. If He hadn’t gotten up there would be no gospel message or power. But because He got up I can get up.

• Now I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation to him that believes. Because He got up whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The devil is afraid of a person that gets up. Every time you get up he’s reminded of the last time someone got up (Jesus).

• Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, all my fear is gone, because I know who holds my future, and my life is worth living just because He lives.

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