The Orchard Church - A Christian Community & Mission Organization

Mindscaping

The things that we think, the ideas that “pop” into our head, and the attitudes we hold are surprisingly not original. So much of our thoughts are simply an echo of what has already been encountered and learned. Simply, we are highly influenced.

So, if we want to have a godly mind, then our godly influences must overwhelm our ungodly influences.

1. God's Food for Our Mind

Doug Ellis | March 7, 2021 | Philippians 4:8-9

2. How Should We Pray?

In Luke 11:1, the disciples paused Jesus to ask him a simple question, "Lord, teach us to pray." What is noteworthy about Jesus' response is not simply what he included in his example, but what he didn't include.

He didn't include "my will".

Doug Ellis | March 14, 2021 | Matthew 6:5-13

3. Pursuing the Ordered Mind

There are some who think that becoming a Christian is like adding a new app on their phone - in this thinking, it would go alongside the career app, the family app, the fun-in-the-sun app, the foodie app, etc.

That's not how God describes it. You can't simply accessorize your life with Jesus - the Bible calls this double-mindedness, and combining the world with God is chaos. Instead, God describes the Christian as one whose worldly mind has been replaced with a godly mind (sort of like how we might replace our IOS device with an Android device).

Jesus is giving you a new life and a new mind. As a result, we begin to live all of our life in a totally different and ordered way.

Doug Ellis | March 21, 2021 | James 1:5-8

4. Freedom

The New Testament mentions freedom in many passages. But, to be clear, this is not describing freedom from everything, as if we are going to now be a self-willed and self-autonomous person. It is describing an exchange, where our mind will be freed from the influences of the world, and connected to the influence of God. Put another way, we no longer are compelled to follow the will of the world but to follow the will of God.

How do we know if the freedom has really happened? It can only be seen as we actually try to do God's will. It is not knowable by continual sitting: attending church, learning about morality, or becoming a Bible expert. Rather, it is known as we live and look quite unlike the rest of the world - we hunger differently, we love differently, we aspire differently.

Doug Ellis | March 28, 2021 | James 1:22-27