Learn how to practically “keep every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5) and find freedom and victory in this war over your mind by learning these and more Biblical tools for catching, checking, and changing our thoughts.

Michigan Camp Meeting 2022: Knowing the Time

Learn how to practically “keep every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5) and find freedom and victory in this war over your mind by learning these and more Biblical tools for catching, checking, and changing our thoughts.

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

The Great Mind Controversy

K'dee Elsen Crews

01 Knowing the Time

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2022 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Dearly Father, God in heaven, we thank you so much for the beauty of camp meeting.

We thank you for the wonderful friendly faces, the ability to connect, but also God to connect with you.

And as we talk about knowing the time, I pray that we all may have open hearts to recognize how these things apply to us personally, how it applies to us in our own hearts, in our own lives, in the lives of our families, our children, our churches, God, because we want to leave here not just the same way that we came, but transformed in order to continue to share the gospel with others.

So please be with us now, we pray in Jesus' name.

All right, well our series is entitled The Great Mind Controversy, and it's a four-part series, and so we'll be here Sunday through Wednesday, and I encourage you, it really is a series, so I encourage you to come back.

But a little bit about myself so you know who I am and where I come from.

Has anyone here heard of Beautiful Minds Medical?

It's a mental health clinic, Adventist faith-based clinic in Northern California.

He's about 10 minutes from us there in Northern California.

So I received my PhD in clinical psychology from Loma Linda University and 1 of my passions is to learn how to integrate faith and psychology.

Now it's kind of interesting to talk about integrating the 2 because they're not really separate.

We treat them as separately, but they're not.

And really when we look at the Bible, the Bible clearly shows us that they're 1 and the same.

Now, especially when we talk in the church, unfortunately we have also separated the 2.

And so my passion and my joy is to share, especially in Christian settings, how they're integrated and then to think about for us, right, how does that practically apply in our own lives.

And so we're gonna be talking about the great mind controversy and the theme of the series, not just here, but the camp meeting at large, is knowing the time.

So our theme text is Romans 13 11 and you've been hearing this over and over again, and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

Now this is going to be more interactive, and so if I ask you a question, it's not rhetorical, I encourage you to respond.

What comes to mind when we say, knowing the time?

Knowing that the time is near, that Christ is coming, I heard end times.

What comes to mind when you hear knowing the time?

Okay, I want to challenge you a little bit more to be more specific.

So being very specific about the timeline.

I don't know about for you, but for me, I start thinking about the different headlines.

When I think about knowing the time, I think about the signs of the end times.

So you see here a couple of the most recent ones, we think about fires, we think about floods, we think about the war in Ukraine, right?

We start thinking about a lot of these signs.

And as Adventists, we like to talk about these signs, why?

Because that encourages us, right, that Jesus is coming soon.

And even thinking about the mass shootings, you look at the time we're living in, right, we can start thinking, wow, It's nearer than we ever thought before.

But is knowing the time only about these signs?

Is there something else that we're missing?

And that's what I want you to start thinking about.

When I think knowing the time, what does that really mean?

Am I really aware of the times that we are living in?

It says, not just knowing the time, but it says, now it is high time to awake.

So if we don't know the time, are we able to be awake?

So today, we're going to be talking more about knowing the time.

Now, it's kind of interesting this theme.

I presented at ASI Atlantic Union 2020 during COVID, well, still kind of in COVID, but they had the exact same theme verse.

Their series was entitled Urgency, right?

And this theme verse, Romans 13, 11, is something we talk about a lot.

And what's interesting is you see here kind of their outline is like, oh, we need to know the time in order to be, to know what we need to do in order to use our talents.

And we focus a lot on doing, doing, doing, doing, doing.

But if we don't really understand knowing the time, then we're not going to fully be able to do what we need to do.

Now, we talk about doing over and over again.

So the question then becomes, what gets in the way?

OK, so the question is, we've been talking about this for a long time as an Adventist church, but we still find ourselves a little stuck.

So we're gonna be talking about knowing the time.

Now many of you are aware of a lot of the mass shootings that have happened recently, right?

What's interesting is if you look, if you just search the mass shootings in 2022, I don't know if you can see clearly, but look at the dates.

There are many, many that we're not even aware of.

It says some 156 days into 2022, so just in 2022, the country has now seen at least 240 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

That puts the nation on track for 1 of the deadliest years on record since the archive began tracking gun deaths.

It's saying that we predict 2022 to only get worse.

1 of the deadliest years that we've ever seen.

We think about the virus, and a lot of people were focused on the fear of the virus, the physical aspect of the virus.

What else happened during this virus that's concerning?

There was an article recently published, May 18, on Wall Street Journal, and if you look at the bottom there, it's quite interesting.

It says, Joe Biden prefers to talk about racism and guns rather than face the real problem.

So the question is, what's the real problem?

02 Brainwashed

Dearest Heavenly Father God, we thank you so much for this opportunity to come together.

I know there was a bit of confusion and a little bit of stress, but we're here now and we pray for those that are still on their way that you can direct them to this room.

We pray that as we continue to talk about the beautiful mind that you've created, we pray that you may open our hearts to receive any personal convictions of the things that we need to change in our own lives, as well as give us wisdom of what we can change in our homes, in our churches, and in this world at large, God.

So please be with us now, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

All right, so if some of you joined yesterday, I did a brief introduction into our series, The Great Mind Controversy, and yesterday, specifically honing in on knowing the time.

So I'm gonna do a brief review, but then jump into today's topic.

So the theme verse for this entire Michigan camp meeting is Romans 13 11, right?

And do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.

For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

And We talked about how often when we talk about that knowing the time, we focus a lot on different signs.

Most of the signs we focus on are natural disasters.

We think about the mass shootings, but we don't realize the underlying problems to many of these things, which was we talked about the mental health crisis.

And some of those statistics are very, very alarming, right?

And realizing that we too can be a part of those statistics.

Does anyone remember why do we have this crisis?

That we are in a great controversy, a fight between God and Satan, and then we are caught in the midst of it, right?

That we, as Revelation talked about, that the war started in heaven but then was transferred here on earth and we're caught in the middle.

And we know that Satan, being a father of all lies, the adversary, his main attack is on the mind.

And so we talked about why the mental health crisis, the great controversy, as well as it's the signs of the end times.

So we talked about he attacks the mind because he knows that if he attacks the mind, the body deteriorates, the social elements of our health also deteriorates, and then our spiritual health as well.

So he knows that you attack 1 place and it impacts all of who we are.

And then here's a verse that we reference in regards to the last days, we think about, again, other types of signs, but the Bible's very clear about the types of people, even in reference when it talks about, oh, in the days of Noah, right?

When we think about the days of Noah, we think about the type of lifestyles they were living.

We wanna not only talk about the great controversy, but what do you think is the biggest attack that Satan has?

We talk about the mind at large, but what, how does he specifically, what's his main strategy?

We'll talk about the main strategy as well as talk about God's solutions, right?

I often don't like the first seminar, just my personal opinion, because I feel like it's just leaving you all with so much discouragement, right?

Here's a mental health crisis, but that's why it's a series, right?

God has solutions for us in his word and how to protect our minds from the enemy.

So let's talk about Satan's attack on the mind.

We know that 3 main components to who we are as human beings are our behaviors, right?

What we do, our actions, our thoughts, and our emotions.

We'll talk more about this but specifically we see that he attacks what we do behaviors.

So this is the part that I like to be interactive.

What do you think are some common behaviors that negatively impact our minds?

I heard alcohol, television, not enough sleep.

Yeah, so not only bad things that we might do, but also the absence of good.

What are other things that negatively impact our minds?

Cell phones, we don't wanna hear that 1, right?

So maybe sometimes it's the absence of good nutrition or also too much.

It can even be good food, but eating in excess.

So some of you have already mentioned some of these things.

It's not a comprehensive list, but we see some of the things you've mentioned.

Poor diet, poor sleep, substance use, gambling, shopping as well.

Shopping addictions went up during COVID.

Online, but not only online because it's instant gratification.

So gambling, shopping, social media, pornography, chronic stress, TV, entertainment, caffeine, refined sugar.

We don't think about these things when it impacts our minds.

Now think about, we're again talking about Satan's greatest attack.

How are these maybe behaviors related to his greatest attack?

Specifically, it affects the frontal lobe of our minds.

So you might say, well, why is that important?

Here are some examples, and then we'll come back to why the frontal lobe.

Here's a scan of a 38-year-old with 17 years of weekend use.

So a lot of times people say, oh, you know, well, just a little bit, it's fine.

More and more research is actually finding that it's actually very detrimental for the brain.

03 Freedom Through Captivity

Dear Heavenly Father, God, we thank you for bringing us back here today.

We are excited to continue to talk about your principles for our lives.

We know that they're principles to prosper us, to give us a good future and a hope.

So God, we pray that as we continue to delve into your word, we pray that you can help us to have open minds, open hearts, and willing spirits to follow faithfully in your footsteps.

All right, so we are in the Great Mind Controversy series.

Does anyone remember the title of our first seminar?

It's similar to the Michigan CAM meeting thing.

Yes, so our first seminar was talking about knowing the time based off of our theme text.

And we talked about the mental health crisis.

And with that crisis we talked about basically becoming more aware that it's not just something that's happening in the world, but it's also happening in our lives.

And then does anyone remember the title of the second presentation?

So not only did we talk about from a great controversy perspective, right, of the mental health crisis, but then we narrowed into Satan's main attack.

On the mind, right, But specifically using behaviors, what we do in order to attack the frontal lobe.

And we talked about what the frontal lobe is responsible for and how the frontal lobe is not only regarding decision making, planning, those very important functions, but most importantly how we connect with God.

And so he knows that if he attacks the frontal lobe, then, let's slide down a little bit, And then he can control the entire mind, right?

And so we talked about God's solution, because we're not just talking about the enemy, but God has solutions for us.

And 1 of those solutions is CVT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

And we talked about behavior specifically, but today we'll be talking about thoughts and emotions, right?

And we see that it comes from God's, God's word, that there's a connection between our behaviors, our thoughts, and our motions.

And so just as a summary, these were the 3 steps that were related to behavior change, how we change our behavior.

And so some of you may have already started to make some changes, and that's fantastic.

And I would encourage you to make those changes.

But there are things that we also need to do in managing our emotions and our thoughts.

Because if we only change our behaviors, our behaviors can continue to return.

So today's title is Freedom Through Captivity.

Does anyone know where this title comes from?

It comes from a Bible verse, which we'll talk about later.

But let's talk about Satan's attack, specifically now on our thoughts and our emotions.

Now we are becoming more and more educated, but typically we have the culture basically teaches us, including the Christian culture, emotions are bad, right?

Oh, when I get really angry and I yell or I get really anxious.

Katie, are you saying that these things could be potentially good?

Well, let's look at, you know, what the Bible says.

When we typically think about emotions and that they're bad, unfortunately we misquote this verse.

The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, who can know it?

Have you used this verse maybe sometimes to talk about your emotions?

Now this is misused, and We'll talk about why.

So we see this first and we're like, oh emotions are bad, desperately wicked.

But we don't recognize that the Bible also talks about emotions in different ways.

Ecclesiastes 3 talks about how There's different types of emotions, right?

There's a time to weep, there's a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance.

And so we need to understand, well, what is Satan's agenda behind the culture ideas of what we have of emotions.

So if we think about Satan's agenda, think about different cultures.

Let's say, let's start with an easy 1, the military culture.

What does the military culture teach us about emotions?

You don't show them, you suppress them, right?

Then we could also take it from the perspective of men.

From an Asian culture perspective Also taught that emotions are not to be expressed Do you see a theme here And basically if you look at different cultures and you look at our church culture, what does our church often teach?

Well, there's only the good ones that you want to express.

But the Bible says, be angry and do not sin.

But we often treat anger as if it's a sin.

But the Bible does not teach that emotions are bad.

So what do you think might be Satan's agenda behind these different cultural messages?

If we accept that emotions are bad, what's the consequences?

Okay, so he's saying, I don't, can people in the back hear what he said?

He said, thoughts and feelings create our character.

And so those 2 are essential for our character, then he's attacking our character.

Any other thoughts about why Satan might want to sell us this lie about emotions being bad.

04 Redeeming the Time

Dearest Heavenly Father God, we thank you so much for the blessings of these past couple days, to learn more about this cosmic conflict, this great controversy, and to just be more aware of the enemy, his attacks, but most importantly God, of your solutions.

And so God, as we talk today about some deeper issues, 1 of the biggest barriers to engaging in your work and serving you and loving you and worshiping you, we pray that you may continue to keep our hearts open to your spirit and that we can not only hear these words but be doers of the words and to live transformed lives.

So please be with us now we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

All right, so today is the last seminar in our series, The Great Mind Controversy.

Our first seminar was entitled, Knowing the Time, and based off of our theme text of Romans 13 11 and we talked about the mental health crisis.

Part of knowing the time is understanding the crisis that we're living in.

We then talked in our second seminar, brainwashed, about the different attacks that the enemy has, but specifically on our frontal lobe.

And then we talked yesterday, does anyone remember yesterday's title?

Freedom through captivity, based off of 2 Corinthians 10.5 that talks about keeping every thought to the obedience of Christ, captive to the obedience of Christ.

And we talked about, yes, behaviors of first seminar, but then emotions and thoughts, and again the importance of taking every thought captive.

Because our thoughts, right, we remember we can be transformed by the renewing of our thoughts as a man thinks, so is he, right, and the crucial aspect of our thoughts.

So we need to take every thought captive.

So now that we're aware of knowing the time that we're living in, we wanna conclude our series by talking about, well, how do we redeem the time?

We talked about already some strategies, but there's 1 main barrier that gets in the way of us redeeming the time.

Series

The Great Mind Controversy

03 Freedom Through Captivity

Transcript

Description

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