August 22, 2025 • 62 mins
"Crucified in the place of the Skull." Glen O'Donnell brings a great teaching - Join us!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Broadcasting from the Golden spread of Texas. This is the
Fred Hughes Show. With each episode we introduce to you
an inspiring person our message to help you grow and
unlock your potential in life. I'm Fred Hughes, professional photographer, pastor, teacher,
(00:26):
author and your show host. Thank you for joining us,
and welcome this episode brought to you by the faithful
partners of Decision Ministry. Good afternoon once again with a
welcome to the Fred Hughes Show. We're so glad you
joined us tonight. And have a good looking fellow his
(00:48):
sit and buy me the name mister Glenn and I'll
introduce him just in a few minutes. But which you
want to remind you about the website, let me put
that up for uh your attention. It's the word Decision
the numeral one dot award g Decision one dot Award.
(01:11):
If you go over to that website, we have all
kinds of wonderful things that you can jump in and
find out about. There's videos, there's articles, there's all kinds
of things in there. So avail yourself of the website.
We even have I even have a couple of books
that that are that I've written that that are on
there that where you can order them. And the most
(01:32):
important part is a big old giving button that's kind
of wow and now page So if you can, well,
we appreciate, uh, you know, the gospel is free, but
gee whiz, for some reason they want money to buy
all this equipment and and pay all of the airtime
that required of every everything. So we appreciating any gift
(01:55):
that you might might be able to send our way.
We appreciate that a lot. Well, I have it with
me tonight and mister Glenn o'donald, who has been a
regular on our on this program before.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
But it's been a walk, it has been a minute.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So I'm glad to get you back in my sight
here and uh and uh, you have a good teaching
that you want to bring tonight. And so I'm gonna
I want to kind of step out of the way
a little bit and I'll probably come back in at
the end of the end of things and we'll we'll
work on closing out together maybe, but I want to
(02:30):
I want to give him the opportunity to kind of
get the whole thing in it. It's going to be
real good. I think you're going to enjoy it very
much be shouldn't talk about crucified in the place of
the skull, So hey, obviously there's there there's something here
kind of interesting, and so I just really do want
(02:50):
to enjoy. Let you enjoy, miss In.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you for having me, pastor.
It's good to be back. It's it's all is good
to share the word of godly and and tell the
good things that are our Savior does and the good
things about him. It's you know, honestly, it's very simple, uh,
the message of the scriptures, the message of the love
(03:15):
of the Savior, the message of the love of God.
It's it's just a very simple thing. And sometimes I
think we we complicated a little bit more than we should.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
But this evening, I'm very excited to be here, very
very excited to share the word of God. So thanks
for thank you for having me back.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Good. We we're always excited about having uh, you know,
having you with us, and so it's it's a it's
a good thing. We both go to the Messiah's house
and uh, we have been good friends for a long time,
and so it's good. It's good brothers.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yes, yes, it's like yes, It's like like the oil
of the Lord flowing down over the beard of Erin.
So well, very excited to be with you all this evening.
Thank you all for being with us. There's lots of
choices in the world, but we thank you for tuning
in to the Fred Hughes Show this evening. And like
(04:09):
Pastor mentioned, I do have a word that I feel
like the Lord has given me about being crucified in
the place of our skull. What does the scripture have
to say about our mind?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
What does the word of God have.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
To say about how we how we think as followers
of Christ? What place does our mind take in our
walk with Jesus? How important is it the things that
we think about, the things we meditate on, the things
that we ruminate on. How important is it are the
(04:44):
things that we listen to, programs that we watch, books
that we read, people that we hang out with that
may affect our mind. And so I want to dive
into this because, as Pastor alluded to, we have a
little bit of material. I want to make sure to
get it all in this evening. So let's dive into
this message that is called crucified in the place of
(05:07):
the skull and just as a note, I'm going to
present this this evening, not necessarily in sermon form, because
we get a lot of sermons in our life as
Christ followers, but this evening more as a teaching I'm
going to read a few things and intermittently stop make
some comments. Pastor may chime in a little bit, but
(05:31):
this is kind of a discourse and a dialogue between
all of us this evening, and so anyways, let's get
into it. Crucified in the place of the Skull. In
the scriptures, the Gospels tell us that Christ was taken
to a place called Golgotha, and that there he was
put to death by way of crucifixion. In the Aramaic language,
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the term Golgotha means the skull, the place of the skull.
Jesus was therefore crucified at the place called the skull.
This has been in history brought light and life to
the world in so many beautiful ways. It brought liberation
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and abundance to a world trapped in darkness and death.
It brought transformation in the world in radical ways, those
being political, spiritual, societal, so on and so forth. But
most importantly, what Christ being crucified at the place of
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the skull. Brought about was salvation for him who believes.
That is the new birth that restores us with fellowship
with the Father, by which we have become the very.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
House of God.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And that is the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ,
those who are in Christ Jesus. The scripture says repeatedly
that we are the house of God. So I love
that first of all, that those who have been born
again have become the house of God. God's house is
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not the church house. He goes there, but he goes
there to meet with us, and he goes there in us.
But as the house of God. We've been called to
be disciples of the one who indwells us. We're disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he set this example
for us when he freely gave his life to be
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crucified on a cross between two thieves at a place
in Aramaic called Golgotha, the place of the Skull. In
the Greek it's called Calvary.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And we've seen.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
And heard many churches Calvary, Baptists, Calvary Fellowship, so on
and so forth. That's where that comes from. But we
are called as disciples of Christ to follow.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
In his footsteps.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And I believe that God has commissioned us as disciples,
that just as Jesus was crucified at the place called
the Skull, that as believers in Christ, as those who
are following God in Christ Jesus, that He has mandated
that we be crucified in the place of this gold.
(08:27):
We're going to get into this as we go, but
let's ease into the waters a little bit and build
a little foundation here. Let's talk about our response to
God as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we
who have received Christ as Lord and Savior are, according
to the word of God, called to be disciples or
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those who follow in the footsteps and example of the
Lord Jesus himself. We are called to emulate and to
imitate Christ on every line. The sad truth, though, is
that so many Christians who have given their hearts and
lives over to Christ have failed to truly abandon themselves
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to the style of radical discipleship that Christ has called
us to. And so what do I mean by this
or what am I trying to say here? That the
transformative power that God calls us to has not come
to bear in many Christians lives. The fruit is not there,
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The transformation of lifestyle is not there. How many of
us speak, and how many of us live, and how
many of us handle our business day to day since
we became born again has not changed. And we can
say without without a doubt that that when the creator
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of the universe comes to live on the inside of us,
there there has got to be a change. There has
got to be a transformation.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
And that's a big word, transformation right there. Really we
get our word metamorphous from the Greek word there, and
it does mean that that something totally changes and and
that's that's that's the good news of the Gospel, big time.
It's it just that's a big word.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It is.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And when you consider that as a result of becoming
followers of Christ, that that God has literally translated us
from darkness to light, from death to life, and that
our dead spirit has now been made alive, and that
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a dead, empty spirit is now occupied by the creator,
God of the universe. There there is there is no
way we we are different. We are different now in
our in our very essence of who we are. The
scripture says we're a new creation, and that new creation
is going to live different, talk different, act different, love different,
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do different. And so we're going to find out this
evening very practical way about how to uh put that
into practice. Uh and and and and how we're going
to begin to live the transformed life that we're called
to live as disciples of Christ.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah. You know, one one thing about that is like
it's not like we have something to do with any
of it. Jesus did it all for us. But we
learn how to appropriate it. We learn how to receive
it into our life and make application of it. And
now and I think that's uh, you know that transformation
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is actually done by the Holy Spirit, but we have
we have to cooperate, we have a part to play
in it. And uh until it's just we'll get to
more of that about renewing your mind and a little bit.
But there there's a transfer, that transformation that happens though
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is definitely a God, a God deal absolute is the
one that does it.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
This is true.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I just love the the input on that, you know,
the the it's just so important you know that that
that we understand God has has has moved in our
life and transformed us into a different kingdom. Sure, so
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that when we have thoughts, we're we're thinking with the mind.
We have the capability of thinking with the mind of
Christ rather than our own physical Fleshly.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
That's right, that's good. Yeah, we are participants with him.
Jesus and John chapter fIF team made it very clear
that that he's the vining or where the branches, and
apart apart from him, we can do nothing.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
And and again where that Paul reminds us that he
who began a good work on us will will complete
the work. Uh until until the very end that that
it's he, He's the one doing the work. We we
participate and and so uh, this is not a message
about works. This is a message about about cooperating with
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the work of the Holy Spirit in our life to
produce fruit into transformation. And so it's really a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Well, let's let's step into let's dip our toes here
into the very beginning of Okay, how are we transformed?
My spirit man is born again. Now I know that
I'm in Christ, I know that I'm His disciple. Uh,
but but now I'm I'm to be transformed, And how
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do I get going with Well, let's look at what
the Apostle Paul said.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The Apostle Paul, in the twelfth.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Chapter of Romans, beginning in verse two, says this, and
do not be conformed to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed. There's that word again, by the renewing
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And perfect will of God.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
There's a lot in there, and we don't have time
this evening to quite go into all of that, so
we'll just kind of take this at face value this evening,
that we are not to be conformed to the pattern
of the world from which we've been taken out of
in Christ Jesus. But he says that we're to be
transformed in our life by the renewing of our mind.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Uh. You know, an interesting word there is repentance. It
simply means that that we that we change our thinking. Yeah,
you know, it's a lot of people define it and
turn around and go the other direction. Yeah, it's not
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exactly right. It means to turn your mind around a
different direction.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
We can only do that if we've been empowered by
by the Holy Spirit and try and and that transformed
mind begins to think the thoughts of God, and that's
what makes us, you know, very powerful whenever we.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Resist this that that's that's a good word.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
That's absolutely true. Where did Paul say that those in
Christ must be renewed?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
We just read it.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
We must be renewed in the spirit of our of
our mind. The renewing that takes place in the life
of a believer subsequent to salvation is the thing that
truly brings life change in godly transformation. I'll see that
one more time. It is the it is the the
life change that brings godly transformation. Is it begins when
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our mind begins to be renewed to the Word of God,
to to this new way of thinking that we're coming
into as the disciples and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
We are to be crucified.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Then in the place of our skull, where is our
Where is our mind?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
In essence, it is located here in the place of
our skull.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Now we have emotions that go along with our mind,
and we have our will that is also tied into
our mind.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But we don't want to get into.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Too extensive of a lesson on that this evening. Maybe
we can go deeper on another evening. But but tonight
we will when we say mind, we will know that
we're talking about this that is in between our ears,
inside our skull, that the brain that is wi fied
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into our soul and our spirit by.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
The Holy Ghost. So this is this is very important
for us.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
So moving on, Oh, thank you, I appreciate that this
is very important for us. And now that we're kind
of getting our toes in the water, let's go on
this same line. Now, let's go a little deeper, on
this very same line that life transformation follows our mental renewal.
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Life transformation follows our mental renewal, as we just read
here in Romans chapter twelve. Let's find out some things here.
Until our mind, together with all its patterns of thought, meditation,
and imagination that have been previously trained and disciplined to
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function like the dark and dead world we got delivered from,
is renewed and literally retrained by the Holy Spirit. Through
the continual washing of the water through the Word of God,
we as Christians will be shallow. We will be carnal
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worshipers of Christ, continually struggling to produce fruit to God.
In truth, we must be crucified in the place of
our skull. This is in our mind. We must, by
the Holy Spirit, put to death or crucify every semblance
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of how we used to think and meditate, every semblance
of how we used to think and meditate that is
contrary to the Word of God. In other words, our thoughts,
our old thought life must die. And and that's a
good way of saying, this is we when when we
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became born again, many of us, if not all of us,
have been baptized in water, that that baptism and water
signifies a death to the old person that we used
to be.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
And when we're.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Raised out of those waters, that it signifies our being
raised to a new life. Our old thought life died
in those waters, our old way of thinking, our old
way of meditating, our old way of pondering what is
life about?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Who am I? And how do I live?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
And now we have an entirely new way of thinking
about things in our life, and and and all part of.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You know, the the totality of that which is it
was the old man the new man. So we we're
we're we die to that old man, that old nature,
and we're raised again with Christ right in his new nature, right,
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And that's where we get this renewed mind. I mean,
that's where we get this, the the ability to tap
into the mind of Christ.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
But we have part to.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Play in We do have a part to play and
I want to I want to offer this up as
as we're talking about renewing our mind, being crucified in
the place of our skull, putting our old thought life
to death. I want to offer this up is this
has nothing to do with salvation. Uh if if it
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if as Christ followers we begin to have intrusive thoughts
or thoughts that that we know, hey, these are not
God's thoughts. We don't lose our salvation.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Uh. We don't have to get resaved any of that.
We are born.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
We belong to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ,
and so there is no anxiety about such a thing
as that we are His children. And the second part
of this that I want to offer up for us this.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Evening is and this is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
And it took me many years I'm going on forty
years now walking in Christ. And I need what I'm
about to say I really needed decades ago. And that
is this is that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ
is committed to this process. With all of our successes
and with all of our failures, with all of our
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good days, with all of our bad days. Listen, our
Savior understands our frame. That's why he took on flesh
and came down here to redeem us. He is committed
to the process knowing that we're still human beings who
are battling a sin nature in this until He comes
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to gather us and takes us out of this world.
Whenever that is, we're going to be battling, on some
level a sin nature. Not only that, we're going to
be battling an enemy who was constantly trying to get
inside of our mind to twist, pervert, and deceive us
into believing things that are contrary.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
To the Word of God.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
If he tempted Jesus, he's going to tempt you.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I want to I want to say these things to
eliminate any anxiety, to eliminate any uncertainty. John in his
first letter said, my brethren, I write this these things
to you that you may know that you have eternal life.
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Our spirit man is born again in Christ Jesus and
sealed forever.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
As he is. So we in this world.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So now right now, right now, yes, Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
The thing that is being renewed right now as we
live at our life in Christ is this mind of ours.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
The thing that will ultimately be renewed. Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Just to follow out the line here, is this this
body of ours that we pray over continually, will actually
be the last thing that will be completely redeemed and
renewed when we when we are taken out of this
world by our Lord Jesus Christos.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And that will be glorious. That will be glorious.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So, but we have neither of these bodies right now,
and we need to make them as good as we can.
We need to function in this mind of Christ that
we that we have been blessed to tap into. And
the purpose of that is to is going to be
accomplished here on this sir. So there's a there's a
reason for why we want to be tapped in and
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why we want to operate this way because there's benefit.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Absolutely and and and to tie those two things together.
Part of having our mind renewed in the Lord Jesus
Christ is understanding that this body, which is growing older
is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We are the
house of God, and and so there is a renewal
in our mind that says, hey, hey, here's how you
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take care of the temple, Here's how you take care
of God's house. And and that's why so many who
get born again find that substances and abuses of all
kinds begin to leave their life, because by by the
issuance of the Holy Spirit, he begins to call some
things out in our life, uh that that need to go.
Why because this is his house and and and he
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needs it to stay around as long as he needs it.
So well, let's let's we're gonna We're gonna keep diving.
We're going a little deeper. And I want to talk
about our reasonable This seems it can seem to those
who may be a little bit unfamiliar with this subject matter,
(25:06):
that this is a bit out of the ordinary or inordinate.
And I want to address that here as to just
how core an issue for the life of a believer.
This is, how normal this is and how necessary this is.
So I want to talk about our reasonable response to
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God in Christ Jesus in context of what we're talking about.
So one may ask, is this really necessary? Are we
taking this a little too far? Absolutely not, I would say.
Jesus responded to a lawyer in Matthew twenty two and
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thirty seven who had asked him what the greatest commandment was,
and Jesus answered him by quoting Deuteronomy chapter six and saying,
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind. And
here Jesus is affirming that part of our greatest responsibility
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to God is to love him with all of our mind.
And I think many believers somewhere in their understanding would
acknowledge that, but it's not something pardon the expression that
is at the forefront of their mind, that worshiping God
part of it, part of our responsibility to worship the Father.
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Is how are we handling this organ that is in
between our ears? Because God considers it a form of
worship that we do with our mind, our thoughts, our meditations.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So it is.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It is tantamount that we understand what this is about.
This means we are to consecrate here hear this, this
is this is this is very pointed. This means that
we are to consecrate to set apart as holy and
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to sanctify for holy use every aspect of our thought life. Remember,
Jesus said, we are to love God with all our mind.
Why is this true for us today? Because the scripture
affirms that we, having been purchased by the Blood of Christ,
have been ransom and reconciled to God and thus have
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become His possession. We are body, soul, mind, and spirit
the possession of the Living God because we've been purchased
with blood.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Amen. Amen. And that's so, that's so wonderful we have
been and we are transformed by that, you know, functions.
That's why he he laid down his life so that
we could take up his and so, you know, we
operate in order to give him presence in our life
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so that He can still operate in this earth. And
so one of the functions that if we renew our
mind and keep and keep ourselves consecrated correctly, then we
have the ability to go about doing the same things
Jesus did. We're supposed to go be going about doing
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good in otherwise we need to be a bunch of
do gooders.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yes, he went about doing good.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Healing said, do all those things that he did on
this earth, and We're not only supposed to be imitators
of who he was, but we're supposed to imitate, you know.
And by doing those things now allowing him to operate
through us, that's accomplished exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And and to your point, Pastor Fred, Jesus said many
times to the Pharisees who would come and try and
pick on him and pick a fight, he would say,
I only do what I see the Father doing. I
only say what I hear the Father saying. What does
that indicate as a truth about the Lord Jesus in
his earthly ministry, that his mind belonged to the Father,
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His his mind was submitted. He had surrendered his mind
and his thought life to the authority.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Of the Father.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
That's a big word, submitted.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And you know, in order for us to be able
to do the same thing, we are submitting to the
to the Holy Spirit resides in us.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
And so he looked to the Father, but we look
to the Holy Spirit, that's right.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, the Holy Spirit being the one that Jesus at
the Day of Pentecost, and he said, it's it's expedient
that I go. I'll send the Holy Spirit, the helper,
the comforter, so that I do not leave you as orphans.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
You're not alone.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
I'm going away, but the Holy Ghost is coming and
he will be with you, and he'll be in you.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
And so this is very power.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
That's another that is another message, but it's pertinent to
what we're talking about right now. Okay, So continuing here,
now that we understand this, as followers and disciples of
Christ and sons of God, we are another big word.
We are obligated. We have a We have a spiritual
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obligation to render unto God all things for his service
and glory. Our mind, with all of its intricate functions
and processes, is a vital component of our effective service
and worship unto our God, who has so gracious given
his life for us unto death, that we might live
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for Him in righteousness. There is no doubt that God
requires us to be crucified in the place of our skull.
If we are to be effective ambassadors for Him in
a dark and dying world full of perversion, we must
become crucified in the place of our skull. We must
(31:28):
submit and render our thought life to God underneath his authority. Yes,
So taking this line of thinking even a little deeper here.
Romans eight six through eight says this, consider this for
to be carnally minded or sinful minded, thinking in terms
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of how the world thinks it is, it is God
calls it death. He says, to be cartially minded, to
be thinking as the world thinks it is death. But
to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And he
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goes further. But the carnal mind is at enmity with God.
It is not subject to the law of God, nor
can it be. And this is very powerful for us
to understand that that that when when when we are
functioning with the brain and mind and thoughts that God
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has given us, When when when we begin to purposely
think and meditate a side of the word of God
to which God has called us to that it says
that that type of thought life is in direct opposition
to the work of God that He's wanting to do
in our life, and it brings death. To think according
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to the way of the world bring brings death. We
could follow that out and and and prove that out
with the receipts on how that happens not time tonight.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
But but but on the.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Other side of that coin is to be spiritually minded
or to have our mind renewed is life and peace
and peace is something that today pastor that very view,
even inside the House of God have on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
And it says the peace of God. You know, our
understanding it over it over God. If we if we
follow after peace, it it gives us. It lets us
sit down and hear God. And so I just I
love the the the presence of peace is just it's
(33:47):
kind of what we want to follow after. That's we
want to let it umpire things to make the calls
in our lives. Sure is that peace? That that that
really works our minds better, you know? And uh that
that's one of the if we're all frustrated and we're
all worried, we know that our mind is running off
(34:08):
of us.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
That's a clue.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
If we're in peace, you know, we know we're in
a place where we can hear God, so we can
make wise and important and true.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Yeah, that's that's absolutely true. Uh So, So to wrap
up this segment is we are the possession of the Lord.
We're purchased by blood and we are in a covenant
with the Living God through the blood of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
And part of that covenant is we are a purchased
possession and and and the the fallout from that is
we owe we owe it to our creator and God
and Redeemer to lay down these things in worship before me.
I surrender my mind, Father God, I surrender my thoughts today.
(34:56):
I give you my thinking today because it belongs to you. Honestly,
God has given us this mind to steward. He owns it,
he owns our brain, he owns our thought life. We're
here to steward it so that, as Pastor said, we
can be used in this earth, so that God can
function and do his will on this planet through us,
(35:21):
through us. So now that we understand that we need
to be crucified in the place of the skull, that
we need to be transformed. Now that we understand that
we are the blood bought purchase possession of the Lord God,
and that the surrender of our mind is a form
of worship that he expects. Let's talk about this submission
(35:43):
to Him that we're on now. Our submission brings transformation.
Let's talk about this a little bit. The scripture in
essence is actually saying, it is declaring that our mind
when it is focused on the things of this world,
be it money, or pride, or lust or sexual immorality
(36:06):
in its various forms, resentment, hate, greed, jealousy, et cetera,
so on and so forth. It is in direct opposition
to the heart and purposes and design of God for
our life in Christ. And that, in fact, that we
are at enmity with God as we persist in a
(36:27):
thought life that is not submitted to the word of
God and to the Spirit of God. This is something
that we should not and cannot allow our in our life.
We're going to have good days and bad days. Okay,
We're going to get We're going to get to this
very this very thing in the next segment. However, pardon
(36:51):
the expression, but it is un It should be unthinkable here.
It should be unthinkable that we would knowingly resist the
heart of God in surrendering our thought life to Him. Remember,
every part of our being, body, soul, heart, and mind
(37:12):
are blood bought possessions of Christ, who paid with his
own life to ransom us from Satan's grip. And it
is it has to become a mindset for us that
daily come when we come to God in our time
with him. And actually I think many times a day.
(37:34):
I love it that Daniel prayed, as we know in
the scriptures, at least three times a day. I love
to start my day out with God. But I find
that the pressures, the stresses, the impacts of the day
caused me to go to God sometimes six, seven, eight
times in a day and go, God, I need you
(37:56):
to wash over me again by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Lord.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
That last situation and I just came out of it
really impacted my mind. I just want to get my
mind back in your spirit. Now back on your word. Now,
Father God, please help me with this. This is submission,
but it's submission in relationship.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
It is, and it's like praying without ceasing. You know.
I used to really have trouble with that because I
thought you had sent around and pray.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
All the time. Yeah, but no, you're it's in.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
A continuous conversation. And that's what prayer is, the conversation
with God. And so it's not it's not laborsome. That
doesn't have to be anyway, sure, And that's we we
tend to think that that the petitions of Gods our
little checklist that we will think we won't do.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Yes, that's not prayer. Yeah, that's that petition. It is.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
But but prayer is fellowship and.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Relationship, yes, and I like that and I'm on a
coattail off of that right now. And in sharing this,
I feel like the Holy Spirit would would have us
just touch on this is that there are times when
we're going to have to go to God about things
that we've thought and maybe even things that we've done
(39:25):
as a result of things that we were thinking as
a result of the difficult situation we just came through.
And listen, He is our father. He doesn't want us
to sin, but there are going to be times when
we're going to stumble in sin. And when we stumble
in sin, the best thing for us to do is
(39:46):
go to God and be authentic and be genuine and
beyond just bring it to He already knows he still
loves you. The way he loves us has not changed.
His grace mercy, He has not changed. Remember this that
while we were still enemies, Christ died for the ungodly.
(40:07):
We were his enemies, and He sent his son to
die for us. So much more now will we walk
in the lavishness of his grace, forgiveness, love, and care
that we are His beloved. So if we get tangled
up in some stuff that's mess and we know, okay,
this needs to get handled, we are free to go
(40:30):
to him. Hebrew says that we come boldly to the
throne of great We come boldly because of what Jesus did.
We come with our good, we come with the bad,
we come with the ugly, and we let him sort
all that out. Our responsibility to.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
God is Father, God. I need some help.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
I stumbled up, a goofed up, I made a mess.
And he's faithful and good and for eternity to help
walk us through all those things, and.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
He can handle it.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Yes, he's not offended.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
He's not offended upset, And we need to remember there's
not one thing that we can do to make God
like us better, and there's not one thing that we
can do to make him like us worse. You know,
what we do has nothing to do with our relations.
It's it's what we It's it's where we believe him
(41:28):
and we have want to have fellowship to them. That's
what God wants. That's that that's the whole nine yards walking.
It's finding out what God wants and getting in conference
with him. Will he let you do your thing absolutely,
you know, and you're gonna we'll do everything that God
(41:49):
wants us to do, but we'll do it our way
and we'll do it, you know. And then and and
according to Fred, it won't look like what the way
Glenn does it. Yes, you know, we will interpret it
a little different. Will well, we'll practice it a little
And God's okay with that.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
He loves variety.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Yes, he loves creativity. That's why he gave us.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
True true, Yeah, we don all we don't all think
the same. And God God made it that way on
purpose good things.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
And we can perform those good things because He gave
us this mind. And also because we can tap into
the mind.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Of absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
He also gave us power to become sons daughters of
That's right, and so he loves us.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yes, that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
And that's the confidence we need to have when we're
talking about things like this, because one of the things
that many Christians, uh uh, you don't want your thought
life put up on the billboard. You know, what, what
will people think? And sometimes you know, many of us
in Christ, what is God thinking about the things I
struggle with him?
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I might he already knew.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
He's seen he's seen it from the first to the
last frame.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
He's he's not offended.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
It's all it's worked into the process that we are
in in relationship with him. So we can relax. We
can stop trying to impress him with how how well
we're doing, and and and we can rest and relax
knowing that he knows it all already. We're not going
to impress him with how how righteous we're going to live.
(43:32):
The only thing he's impressed with is the righteousness that
he put on us in Christ, Jesus he gave.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
He didn't it's not right. And you know, it's just
it's kind of like when when you make when we
become sons and daughters of God, you you've got to
kind of transfer that over into real life right here
on earth. I mean, does your kid go worry about it?
You know, he didn't worry about it when he gets
(44:00):
in the refrigerator.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
That's right here, that's right.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
If you know why, because I'm an o'donald.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
That's right this house, this is my refrigerat, that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
And if it's close enough, he and most of the
time that's great. And if it's too close to dinner.
You know, Papa may step up and go, hey, son,
let work not now, let's have dinner first. Well, let's
let's skip ahead here to something very important. I'm gonna
I'm gonna try and save a little bit of time
(44:32):
for us here, uh, because I want to get to
where the real power is and and and the power
doesn't doesn't lie with us. The power lies in the
Word of God. And the power lies in the spirit
of God to bring the Word of God alive in
us to transform our our thought life. So what I
(44:56):
want to do here, I want to talk about this
aspect of this as we get close to beginning to
land this plane here, and that is this question that
people will say, Hey, there's no way. This sounds impossible,
this sounds like something that who could do this? Who
(45:19):
can control what they think?
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Who listen? Thoughts just come. I can't stop thoughts from coming.
They just show up.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
And I heard one pastor illustrate about this one time,
and he talked about a bird's nest and he said,
you know what, No, you can't always keep a thought
from showing up in your mind. But it's like a bird.
Sometimes a bird will come and land on your head.
You might not be able to keep that from happening,
but what we certainly can keep from happening is allowing
(45:52):
that bird to create a nest on top of our head.
The bird may show up, but we need to show
him away. Thoughts may sh show up. But now we're
going to talk about a scriptural, scriptural principle on how
we are to corral these thoughts and deal with them
in the way that Christ Jesus has prescribed for us.
(46:17):
So this is found in Second Corinthians, chapter ten. This
principle that I'm talking about of how to deal with
those thoughts that just show up, because they will, first
of all, because we're dealing with a sinful, fallen nature.
Second of all, we have an enemy who is constantly
(46:39):
bombarding our life with different with different packages, if you will,
of thoughts that he throws at us to see if
we will take the bait. So listen, listen to what
Second Corinthians ten four through five says. Paul here says
to the church at Corn that the weapons of our
(47:02):
warfare there is warfare going on. They are not carnal,
they're not of this world, but they are mighty. I
became trapped and I could not free myself from these depressive, anxious,
fearful thoughts that were plaguing my life day by day
(47:23):
by day. And so finally, as I was praying, I
was asking God about this.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
God.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
Weeks have gone by, and finally I felt the Lord
bring me to these verses and said, Son, I've given
you weaponry that is mighty in me to the pulling
down of strongholds. Strongholds have been set up in your
for whatever reason. Strongholds have been set up in my
(47:53):
mind that produced fear, anxiety, and depression. And the Lord said,
you need to go in study find out what my
word has to say about these things that you are
fearing and anxious about. Son, write them down, memorize them,
and then begin to speak that word over your life.
(48:16):
But before you do that, what I want you to do,
He goes, Just like you or a police officer, These
are the things that the Lord showed me to do.
He said, just like you're a police officer policing your mind.
You survey your thought life and go through it and
take inventory of your thought life and the thoughts of fear,
(48:41):
and thoughts of anxiety, thoughts of depression, thoughts of death,
thoughts that you're not going to make it. He said,
I want you, just like a police officer. I want
you to put those thoughts under arrest. And so he
taught me to do things like this, Father God, in
Jesus name, rest in my thought life right now, thoughts
(49:03):
of fear, thoughts of anxiety, thoughts of despondency, thoughts that
I'm going to lose my life. I arrest them right
now in Jesus' name, Father God and your authority, I
arrested you. See what we're doing here. We're arresting these thoughts.
And what are these thoughts doing? Just what Tewod Corinthian said,
They are exalting themselves against the knowledge of God. What
(49:28):
does the knowledge of God say? That we've been given
a spirit of power and love and of a sound mind,
that he promises us long life, that he promises us
life and blessing, that it'll set us angels around us.
And here I am in fear and anxiety about a
variety of very dark things. And so God had me
(49:48):
arrest them, bind them and cast them out. Pastor Fred,
when I first began this on the first day, I
didn't notice I didn't notice a big difference, but I
would do it. I was taking prescriptions. I would bind
and I would cast out, and then I would I
would speak over myself the promise that was supposed to
(50:09):
fill that area in my thought life.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
I did this.
Speaker 3 (50:13):
Do you know within two or three days I began
to notice noticeable amount of freedom, in freedom from that
gripping depression. And I'm going to I'm going to this
is many many years ago that this particular bout took place.
But within two or three weeks of doing this, like
(50:34):
my life depended on it, I got completely free by
arresting thoughts. And who gave who gave us the right
to do this? The father who has told us to
do this, the Father, And so we have his backing
here go ahead.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
You know I have had the same kind of experience
the little deal that you know, God gave me to do.
He said, Fred, just ask which kingdom is this thought
coming out of? And so you know that really does
help me, because you know, you know what's right what's
(51:15):
wrong intuitively, and you know, if if you have a
thought and you go like, okay, which kingdom is this
coming out of? I know that you know, I can
reject it if it's coming out of the wrong kingdom.
I can receive it if it's coming out of the
right kingdom. And so it's just like like you said, yeah,
(51:37):
you know, that's the way we can go about not
letting the bird building that right, you know, we can
show them off. And it's interesting that the demons which
come to plague our minds are sometimes referred to as foul.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
That's right, Yes, a foul yea need.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
To show lands on your head, yes, start.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
Yeah, trying to trying to build a nest, trying to
build up. And that's exactly what the enemy does. He
wants to build a nest in our mind and remain there.
And so I'm going to again segue off of what
pastors just shared here, and we're gonna land.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
We're going to land the plane here.
Speaker 3 (52:18):
But this is this is incredibly important in context what
you just shared. What kingdom is this coming from?
Speaker 2 (52:28):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (52:29):
And this is this is about the word being a
discerner of our thoughts.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (52:35):
The scripture says that we are to let the Word
of God dwell in us richly. Remember it says that
we're not to be conformed to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. It
is by the renewing of our mind comes by allowing
the Word of God to dwell in us. Richly, Remember
(52:58):
when Paul shared and he says that the Word of
God is living and active. It's sharper than any two
edged sword, that it divides soul and spirit, joint and moorrow,
and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intense
of the heart. So with this in mind, listen to
(53:19):
these closing statements.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
Where shall we begin here?
Speaker 3 (53:26):
If we are unaware of what God's Word has to
say about the issues of life that impact our behaviors,
our thoughts, our ideologies, our worldview and paradigm for living,
how will we know? How will we know when our
mind and thoughts are meditating and held captive by thoughts, ideas,
(53:49):
principles that are contrary to the Word of God and
therefore harmful to us and our relationship with the Father.
How will we know to bring those thoughts captive to
the obedience of Christ. If we have no idea to
your point, pastor if we have no idea of whether
(54:10):
or not Christ approves or disapproves of what we're thinking about.
We must submerge ourselves into the Word of God as
if our very life depends upon it.
Speaker 2 (54:20):
Because it does.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Jesus said to the devil in the wilderness during the
time of his temptation over forty days. He said, man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God. That's critical for
us to understand. In order to truly become crucified in
(54:45):
the place of our skull, that is, to submit our
thought life to the authority of the Lord, we must
give ourselves constantly to the studying and devouring of God's word.
If we are to truly submit our thought life, we've
got to let in a new flow into our life.
(55:06):
And the Word of God being living, active, eternal, it's
discerning our thoughts, our intense it's dividing joint tomorrow. It
is this incredible power that God has given us in
this earth. And so in order for us to become
(55:26):
crucified in the place of our skull, in order for
us to be transformed in our life and begin to
think and do and behave and live and move and
have our being according to the Word of God and
produce the fruits of righteousness that Christ has called us
to as his disciples. The Word our submission to the
(55:47):
Word of God at the hands of the Holy Spirit
in our life. It is the critical discipline that we
must yield to God in and it is a dis
a plan just like anything else, juggling, playing the violin,
becoming an expert at anything, day by day, week by week, month.
(56:12):
Jesus said he would follow after me. Take up your
cross daily. We take this discipline up daily. And so
in closing pastor, there's there's some practical things that we
can do that will help us along the way in
this process of transformation and submission and allowing ourselves to
(56:34):
be crucified in the place of our skull. On that is,
we can be very careful about what we're watching on TV. Yes,
there are times that we're just going to have to
turn that television off, and in these days most of
the time, if not always, we're going to have to
be very careful about what we're listening to on the radio.
What podcasts are we listening to, What kind of music
(56:56):
are we listening to, what's it communicating, what is it
felading into our mind? Are we taking two steps forward
and one step back, and the things that we're feeding
into our mind, who are we hanging out with, who
are we allowing to influence our thinking? And lastly, Proverbs
(57:17):
says that we are to guard our hearts, for out
of it flow the issues of life. And that is
kind of a broad brush statement, but it's very true.
We have to be very careful. We have to be
a diligent doorkeeper and gatekeeper to the things that we
allow and here and the things that we allow and
(57:38):
hear pastor so that so that we can prosper optimally
in this process of being transformed through the newing of
our mind and subsequently becoming crucified in the place of
the skull.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
Amen. Amen, And you know that may be speaking to
you right now, and you know, I really do want
to extend to our people that are watching tonight because
you know this, this is this is a personal thing.
It is it is you know, something that you and
(58:15):
God do together, and it's that transforming. God does the transforming,
but you have to just get into agreement with him
on that and you have to, you know, do a
couple of these things. You know, ask which kingdom are
these thoughts coming out of ask, you know, don't let
bird build building it. Don't don't let the satan set
(58:37):
on your shoulder and whispered little stuff in your ears.
Shoe him off. You have that ability and that palent
and so Glenn, I just want you to kind of
close us out tonight and pray over over the folks
and then and then we'll wave goodbye at the end.
Speaker 3 (58:53):
Absolutely pleasure, Father God, Thank you for who you are.
Thank you that you are the mighty Gone who loves
us so much and sent Christ to die for us.
Speaker 2 (59:03):
Lord God, tonight we just pray by your Holy.
Speaker 3 (59:06):
Spirit that you will teach us evermore to submit our
thought life, our mind, our meditations, and our mullings. God,
the things that we ruminate on to you, that Father God,
you can renew and wash and cleanse our thought life,
that you can set our thoughts and our mind in
order that our emotions and our will will follow in
(59:29):
line to the things that you teach us to meditate upon.
All these things in obedience to Christ and Father God,
I pray for those tonight out in our audience who
may not know You as Lord and Savior who need
to receive Christ tonight, and I just pray I just
pray for those tonight who might need to receive Jesus.
Just say, Lord, Jesus, coming to my heart. Cot come
(59:52):
and be my savior. Come and pour your love out
in me. I confess Lord that I have sinned against you,
and I I have heard the word of faith about
the Lord Jesus Christ and that he can save my
eternal soul. And so Lord, come into my life. Tonight
caused me to be born again. Cause me, give me
(01:00:14):
the power to become your child forever and receive me
as your son. And I thank you for this tonight, Lord,
in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, listen. We put the little prayer
line down there is eight O six three four zero
zero one six two. Call that number. And we have
people that will answer the phone pray with you. They
love to do that, they love to answer questions, whatever,
(01:00:44):
whatever need you might have, their their well able to
do that. And we just thank you for joining us
tonight and.
Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
I and thank you for the invitation. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
I really do think that you know, people can benefit
hugely from from discussing thinking about that. But that's that's
that's a very important. The mind of Christ is very important.
To be able to tap into and he did give
us wonderful mind.
Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
He did.
Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
But we can have even more, absolutely greater ability to
think the thoughts of God. I think that's just pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's an excellence.
Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Absolutely. Well, listen out there. We just thank you for
joining us as well, and we'll see you next week
we have and all the rest for all and well
all the way till October. I have some exciting guys
lined up, so you don't want to miss any of them.
So I'll just leave it with that, and we'll just
wave goodbye tonight, goodbye, and and God bless. If you
(01:01:54):
enjoyed the show today, be sure and get the download
and the show note that we have available for you
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(01:02:16):
This is the Bread Hugh Show. Signing off
Broadcasting from the Golden spread of Texas. This is the
Fred Hughes Show. With each episode we introduce to you
an inspiring person our message to help you grow and
unlock your potential in life. I'm Fred Hughes, professional photographer, pastor, teacher,
(00:26):
author and your show host. Thank you for joining us,
and welcome this episode brought to you by the faithful
partners of Decision Ministry. Good afternoon once again with a
welcome to the Fred Hughes Show. We're so glad you
joined us tonight. And have a good looking fellow his
(00:48):
sit and buy me the name mister Glenn and I'll
introduce him just in a few minutes. But which you
want to remind you about the website, let me put
that up for uh your attention. It's the word Decision
the numeral one dot award g Decision one dot Award.
(01:11):
If you go over to that website, we have all
kinds of wonderful things that you can jump in and
find out about. There's videos, there's articles, there's all kinds
of things in there. So avail yourself of the website.
We even have I even have a couple of books
that that are that I've written that that are on
there that where you can order them. And the most
(01:32):
important part is a big old giving button that's kind
of wow and now page So if you can, well,
we appreciate, uh, you know, the gospel is free, but
gee whiz, for some reason they want money to buy
all this equipment and and pay all of the airtime
that required of every everything. So we appreciating any gift
(01:55):
that you might might be able to send our way.
We appreciate that a lot. Well, I have it with
me tonight and mister Glenn o'donald, who has been a
regular on our on this program before.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
But it's been a walk, it has been a minute.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So I'm glad to get you back in my sight
here and uh and uh, you have a good teaching
that you want to bring tonight. And so I'm gonna
I want to kind of step out of the way
a little bit and I'll probably come back in at
the end of the end of things and we'll we'll
work on closing out together maybe, but I want to
(02:30):
I want to give him the opportunity to kind of
get the whole thing in it. It's going to be
real good. I think you're going to enjoy it very
much be shouldn't talk about crucified in the place of
the skull, So hey, obviously there's there there's something here
kind of interesting, and so I just really do want
(02:50):
to enjoy. Let you enjoy, miss In.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you for having me, pastor.
It's good to be back. It's it's all is good
to share the word of godly and and tell the
good things that are our Savior does and the good
things about him. It's you know, honestly, it's very simple, uh,
the message of the scriptures, the message of the love
(03:15):
of the Savior, the message of the love of God.
It's it's just a very simple thing. And sometimes I
think we we complicated a little bit more than we should.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
But this evening, I'm very excited to be here, very
very excited to share the word of God. So thanks
for thank you for having me back.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Good. We we're always excited about having uh, you know,
having you with us, and so it's it's a it's
a good thing. We both go to the Messiah's house
and uh, we have been good friends for a long time,
and so it's good. It's good brothers.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yes, yes, it's like yes, It's like like the oil
of the Lord flowing down over the beard of Erin.
So well, very excited to be with you all this evening.
Thank you all for being with us. There's lots of
choices in the world, but we thank you for tuning
in to the Fred Hughes Show this evening. And like
(04:09):
Pastor mentioned, I do have a word that I feel
like the Lord has given me about being crucified in
the place of our skull. What does the scripture have
to say about our mind?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
What does the word of God have.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
To say about how we how we think as followers
of Christ? What place does our mind take in our
walk with Jesus? How important is it the things that
we think about, the things we meditate on, the things
that we ruminate on. How important is it are the
(04:44):
things that we listen to, programs that we watch, books
that we read, people that we hang out with that
may affect our mind. And so I want to dive
into this because, as Pastor alluded to, we have a
little bit of material. I want to make sure to
get it all in this evening. So let's dive into
this message that is called crucified in the place of
(05:07):
the skull and just as a note, I'm going to
present this this evening, not necessarily in sermon form, because
we get a lot of sermons in our life as
Christ followers, but this evening more as a teaching I'm
going to read a few things and intermittently stop make
some comments. Pastor may chime in a little bit, but
(05:31):
this is kind of a discourse and a dialogue between
all of us this evening, and so anyways, let's get
into it. Crucified in the place of the Skull. In
the scriptures, the Gospels tell us that Christ was taken
to a place called Golgotha, and that there he was
put to death by way of crucifixion. In the Aramaic language,
(05:56):
the term Golgotha means the skull, the place of the skull.
Jesus was therefore crucified at the place called the skull.
This has been in history brought light and life to
the world in so many beautiful ways. It brought liberation
(06:17):
and abundance to a world trapped in darkness and death.
It brought transformation in the world in radical ways, those
being political, spiritual, societal, so on and so forth. But
most importantly, what Christ being crucified at the place of
(06:39):
the skull. Brought about was salvation for him who believes.
That is the new birth that restores us with fellowship
with the Father, by which we have become the very.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
House of God.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And that is the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ,
those who are in Christ Jesus. The scripture says repeatedly
that we are the house of God. So I love
that first of all, that those who have been born
again have become the house of God. God's house is
(07:16):
not the church house. He goes there, but he goes
there to meet with us, and he goes there in us.
But as the house of God. We've been called to
be disciples of the one who indwells us. We're disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he set this example
for us when he freely gave his life to be
(07:38):
crucified on a cross between two thieves at a place
in Aramaic called Golgotha, the place of the Skull. In
the Greek it's called Calvary.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And we've seen.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
And heard many churches Calvary, Baptists, Calvary Fellowship, so on
and so forth. That's where that comes from. But we
are called as disciples of Christ to follow.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
In his footsteps.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And I believe that God has commissioned us as disciples,
that just as Jesus was crucified at the place called
the Skull, that as believers in Christ, as those who
are following God in Christ Jesus, that He has mandated
that we be crucified in the place of this gold.
(08:27):
We're going to get into this as we go, but
let's ease into the waters a little bit and build
a little foundation here. Let's talk about our response to
God as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we
who have received Christ as Lord and Savior are, according
to the word of God, called to be disciples or
(08:50):
those who follow in the footsteps and example of the
Lord Jesus himself. We are called to emulate and to
imitate Christ on every line. The sad truth, though, is
that so many Christians who have given their hearts and
lives over to Christ have failed to truly abandon themselves
(09:14):
to the style of radical discipleship that Christ has called
us to. And so what do I mean by this
or what am I trying to say here? That the
transformative power that God calls us to has not come
to bear in many Christians lives. The fruit is not there,
(09:37):
The transformation of lifestyle is not there. How many of
us speak, and how many of us live, and how
many of us handle our business day to day since
we became born again has not changed. And we can
say without without a doubt that that when the creator
(09:58):
of the universe comes to live on the inside of us,
there there has got to be a change. There has
got to be a transformation.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
And that's a big word, transformation right there. Really we
get our word metamorphous from the Greek word there, and
it does mean that that something totally changes and and
that's that's that's the good news of the Gospel, big time.
It's it just that's a big word.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It is.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And when you consider that as a result of becoming
followers of Christ, that that God has literally translated us
from darkness to light, from death to life, and that
our dead spirit has now been made alive, and that
(10:53):
a dead, empty spirit is now occupied by the creator,
God of the universe. There there is there is no
way we we are different. We are different now in
our in our very essence of who we are. The
scripture says we're a new creation, and that new creation
is going to live different, talk different, act different, love different,
(11:16):
do different. And so we're going to find out this
evening very practical way about how to uh put that
into practice. Uh and and and and how we're going
to begin to live the transformed life that we're called
to live as disciples of Christ.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah. You know, one one thing about that is like
it's not like we have something to do with any
of it. Jesus did it all for us. But we
learn how to appropriate it. We learn how to receive
it into our life and make application of it. And
now and I think that's uh, you know that transformation
(11:55):
is actually done by the Holy Spirit, but we have
we have to cooperate, we have a part to play
in it. And uh until it's just we'll get to
more of that about renewing your mind and a little bit.
But there there's a transfer, that transformation that happens though
(12:16):
is definitely a God, a God deal absolute is the
one that does it.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
This is true.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I just love the the input on that, you know,
the the it's just so important you know that that
that we understand God has has has moved in our
life and transformed us into a different kingdom. Sure, so
(12:42):
that when we have thoughts, we're we're thinking with the mind.
We have the capability of thinking with the mind of
Christ rather than our own physical Fleshly.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
That's right, that's good. Yeah, we are participants with him.
Jesus and John chapter fIF team made it very clear
that that he's the vining or where the branches, and
apart apart from him, we can do nothing.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
And and again where that Paul reminds us that he
who began a good work on us will will complete
the work. Uh until until the very end that that
it's he, He's the one doing the work. We we
participate and and so uh, this is not a message
about works. This is a message about about cooperating with
(13:28):
the work of the Holy Spirit in our life to
produce fruit into transformation. And so it's really a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Well, let's let's step into let's dip our toes here
into the very beginning of Okay, how are we transformed?
My spirit man is born again. Now I know that
I'm in Christ, I know that I'm His disciple. Uh,
but but now I'm I'm to be transformed, And how
(13:59):
do I get going with Well, let's look at what
the Apostle Paul said.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The Apostle Paul, in the twelfth.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Chapter of Romans, beginning in verse two, says this, and
do not be conformed to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed. There's that word again, by the renewing
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And perfect will of God.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
There's a lot in there, and we don't have time
this evening to quite go into all of that, so
we'll just kind of take this at face value this evening,
that we are not to be conformed to the pattern
of the world from which we've been taken out of
in Christ Jesus. But he says that we're to be
transformed in our life by the renewing of our mind.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Uh. You know, an interesting word there is repentance. It
simply means that that we that we change our thinking. Yeah,
you know, it's a lot of people define it and
turn around and go the other direction. Yeah, it's not
(15:14):
exactly right. It means to turn your mind around a
different direction.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
We can only do that if we've been empowered by
by the Holy Spirit and try and and that transformed
mind begins to think the thoughts of God, and that's
what makes us, you know, very powerful whenever we.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Resist this that that's that's a good word.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
That's absolutely true. Where did Paul say that those in
Christ must be renewed?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
We just read it.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
We must be renewed in the spirit of our of
our mind. The renewing that takes place in the life
of a believer subsequent to salvation is the thing that
truly brings life change in godly transformation. I'll see that
one more time. It is the it is the the
life change that brings godly transformation. Is it begins when
(16:10):
our mind begins to be renewed to the Word of God,
to to this new way of thinking that we're coming
into as the disciples and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
We are to be crucified.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Then in the place of our skull, where is our
Where is our mind?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
In essence, it is located here in the place of
our skull.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Now we have emotions that go along with our mind,
and we have our will that is also tied into
our mind.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But we don't want to get into.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Too extensive of a lesson on that this evening. Maybe
we can go deeper on another evening. But but tonight
we will when we say mind, we will know that
we're talking about this that is in between our ears,
inside our skull, that the brain that is wi fied
(17:07):
into our soul and our spirit by.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
The Holy Ghost. So this is this is very important
for us.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
So moving on, Oh, thank you, I appreciate that this
is very important for us. And now that we're kind
of getting our toes in the water, let's go on
this same line. Now, let's go a little deeper, on
this very same line that life transformation follows our mental renewal.
(17:41):
Life transformation follows our mental renewal, as we just read
here in Romans chapter twelve. Let's find out some things here.
Until our mind, together with all its patterns of thought, meditation,
and imagination that have been previously trained and disciplined to
(18:05):
function like the dark and dead world we got delivered from,
is renewed and literally retrained by the Holy Spirit. Through
the continual washing of the water through the Word of God,
we as Christians will be shallow. We will be carnal
(18:27):
worshipers of Christ, continually struggling to produce fruit to God.
In truth, we must be crucified in the place of
our skull. This is in our mind. We must, by
the Holy Spirit, put to death or crucify every semblance
(18:48):
of how we used to think and meditate, every semblance
of how we used to think and meditate that is
contrary to the Word of God. In other words, our thoughts,
our old thought life must die. And and that's a
good way of saying, this is we when when we
(19:10):
became born again, many of us, if not all of us,
have been baptized in water, that that baptism and water
signifies a death to the old person that we used
to be.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
And when we're.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Raised out of those waters, that it signifies our being
raised to a new life. Our old thought life died
in those waters, our old way of thinking, our old
way of meditating, our old way of pondering what is
life about?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Who am I? And how do I live?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
And now we have an entirely new way of thinking
about things in our life, and and and all part of.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You know, the the totality of that which is it
was the old man the new man. So we we're
we're we die to that old man, that old nature,
and we're raised again with Christ right in his new nature, right,
(20:14):
And that's where we get this renewed mind. I mean,
that's where we get this, the the ability to tap
into the mind of Christ.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
But we have part to.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Play in We do have a part to play and
I want to I want to offer this up as
as we're talking about renewing our mind, being crucified in
the place of our skull, putting our old thought life
to death. I want to offer this up is this
has nothing to do with salvation. Uh if if it
(20:45):
if as Christ followers we begin to have intrusive thoughts
or thoughts that that we know, hey, these are not
God's thoughts. We don't lose our salvation.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Uh. We don't have to get resaved any of that.
We are born.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
We belong to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ,
and so there is no anxiety about such a thing
as that we are His children. And the second part
of this that I want to offer up for us this.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Evening is and this is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
And it took me many years I'm going on forty
years now walking in Christ. And I need what I'm
about to say I really needed decades ago. And that
is this is that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ
is committed to this process. With all of our successes
and with all of our failures, with all of our
(21:41):
good days, with all of our bad days. Listen, our
Savior understands our frame. That's why he took on flesh
and came down here to redeem us. He is committed
to the process knowing that we're still human beings who
are battling a sin nature in this until He comes
(22:03):
to gather us and takes us out of this world.
Whenever that is, we're going to be battling, on some
level a sin nature. Not only that, we're going to
be battling an enemy who was constantly trying to get
inside of our mind to twist, pervert, and deceive us
into believing things that are contrary.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
To the Word of God.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
If he tempted Jesus, he's going to tempt you.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I want to I want to say these things to
eliminate any anxiety, to eliminate any uncertainty. John in his
first letter said, my brethren, I write this these things
to you that you may know that you have eternal life.
(22:49):
Our spirit man is born again in Christ Jesus and
sealed forever.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
As he is. So we in this world.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So now right now, right now, yes, Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
The thing that is being renewed right now as we
live at our life in Christ is this mind of ours.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
The thing that will ultimately be renewed. Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Just to follow out the line here, is this this
body of ours that we pray over continually, will actually
be the last thing that will be completely redeemed and
renewed when we when we are taken out of this
world by our Lord Jesus Christos.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And that will be glorious. That will be glorious.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So, but we have neither of these bodies right now,
and we need to make them as good as we can.
We need to function in this mind of Christ that
we that we have been blessed to tap into. And
the purpose of that is to is going to be
accomplished here on this sir. So there's a there's a
reason for why we want to be tapped in and
(23:56):
why we want to operate this way because there's benefit.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Absolutely and and and to tie those two things together.
Part of having our mind renewed in the Lord Jesus
Christ is understanding that this body, which is growing older
is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We are the
house of God, and and so there is a renewal
in our mind that says, hey, hey, here's how you
(24:23):
take care of the temple, Here's how you take care
of God's house. And and that's why so many who
get born again find that substances and abuses of all
kinds begin to leave their life, because by by the
issuance of the Holy Spirit, he begins to call some
things out in our life, uh that that need to go.
Why because this is his house and and and he
(24:45):
needs it to stay around as long as he needs it.
So well, let's let's we're gonna We're gonna keep diving.
We're going a little deeper. And I want to talk
about our reasonable This seems it can seem to those
who may be a little bit unfamiliar with this subject matter,
(25:06):
that this is a bit out of the ordinary or inordinate.
And I want to address that here as to just
how core an issue for the life of a believer.
This is, how normal this is and how necessary this is.
So I want to talk about our reasonable response to
(25:29):
God in Christ Jesus in context of what we're talking about.
So one may ask, is this really necessary? Are we
taking this a little too far? Absolutely not, I would say.
Jesus responded to a lawyer in Matthew twenty two and
(25:49):
thirty seven who had asked him what the greatest commandment was,
and Jesus answered him by quoting Deuteronomy chapter six and saying,
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind. And
here Jesus is affirming that part of our greatest responsibility
(26:12):
to God is to love him with all of our mind.
And I think many believers somewhere in their understanding would
acknowledge that, but it's not something pardon the expression that
is at the forefront of their mind, that worshiping God
part of it, part of our responsibility to worship the Father.
(26:35):
Is how are we handling this organ that is in
between our ears? Because God considers it a form of
worship that we do with our mind, our thoughts, our meditations.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So it is.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It is tantamount that we understand what this is about.
This means we are to consecrate here hear this, this
is this is this is very pointed. This means that
we are to consecrate to set apart as holy and
(27:14):
to sanctify for holy use every aspect of our thought life. Remember,
Jesus said, we are to love God with all our mind.
Why is this true for us today? Because the scripture
affirms that we, having been purchased by the Blood of Christ,
have been ransom and reconciled to God and thus have
(27:37):
become His possession. We are body, soul, mind, and spirit
the possession of the Living God because we've been purchased
with blood.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Amen. Amen. And that's so, that's so wonderful we have
been and we are transformed by that, you know, functions.
That's why he he laid down his life so that
we could take up his and so, you know, we
operate in order to give him presence in our life
(28:17):
so that He can still operate in this earth. And
so one of the functions that if we renew our
mind and keep and keep ourselves consecrated correctly, then we
have the ability to go about doing the same things
Jesus did. We're supposed to go be going about doing
(28:38):
good in otherwise we need to be a bunch of
do gooders.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yes, he went about doing good.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Healing said, do all those things that he did on
this earth, and We're not only supposed to be imitators
of who he was, but we're supposed to imitate, you know.
And by doing those things now allowing him to operate
through us, that's accomplished exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And and to your point, Pastor Fred, Jesus said many
times to the Pharisees who would come and try and
pick on him and pick a fight, he would say,
I only do what I see the Father doing. I
only say what I hear the Father saying. What does
that indicate as a truth about the Lord Jesus in
his earthly ministry, that his mind belonged to the Father,
(29:28):
His his mind was submitted. He had surrendered his mind
and his thought life to the authority.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Of the Father.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
That's a big word, submitted.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And you know, in order for us to be able
to do the same thing, we are submitting to the
to the Holy Spirit resides in us.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
And so he looked to the Father, but we look
to the Holy Spirit, that's right.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, the Holy Spirit being the one that Jesus at
the Day of Pentecost, and he said, it's it's expedient
that I go. I'll send the Holy Spirit, the helper,
the comforter, so that I do not leave you as orphans.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
You're not alone.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
I'm going away, but the Holy Ghost is coming and
he will be with you, and he'll be in you.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
And so this is very power.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
That's another that is another message, but it's pertinent to
what we're talking about right now. Okay, So continuing here,
now that we understand this, as followers and disciples of
Christ and sons of God, we are another big word.
We are obligated. We have a We have a spiritual
(30:42):
obligation to render unto God all things for his service
and glory. Our mind, with all of its intricate functions
and processes, is a vital component of our effective service
and worship unto our God, who has so gracious given
his life for us unto death, that we might live
(31:05):
for Him in righteousness. There is no doubt that God
requires us to be crucified in the place of our skull.
If we are to be effective ambassadors for Him in
a dark and dying world full of perversion, we must
become crucified in the place of our skull. We must
(31:28):
submit and render our thought life to God underneath his authority. Yes,
So taking this line of thinking even a little deeper here.
Romans eight six through eight says this, consider this for
to be carnally minded or sinful minded, thinking in terms
(31:49):
of how the world thinks it is, it is God
calls it death. He says, to be cartially minded, to
be thinking as the world thinks it is death. But
to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And he
(32:10):
goes further. But the carnal mind is at enmity with God.
It is not subject to the law of God, nor
can it be. And this is very powerful for us
to understand that that that when when when we are
functioning with the brain and mind and thoughts that God
(32:30):
has given us, When when when we begin to purposely
think and meditate a side of the word of God
to which God has called us to that it says
that that type of thought life is in direct opposition
to the work of God that He's wanting to do
in our life, and it brings death. To think according
(32:53):
to the way of the world bring brings death. We
could follow that out and and and prove that out
with the receipts on how that happens not time tonight.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
But but but on the.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Other side of that coin is to be spiritually minded
or to have our mind renewed is life and peace
and peace is something that today pastor that very view,
even inside the House of God have on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
And it says the peace of God. You know, our
understanding it over it over God. If we if we
follow after peace, it it gives us. It lets us
sit down and hear God. And so I just I
love the the the presence of peace is just it's
(33:47):
kind of what we want to follow after. That's we
want to let it umpire things to make the calls
in our lives. Sure is that peace? That that that
really works our minds better, you know? And uh that
that's one of the if we're all frustrated and we're
all worried, we know that our mind is running off
(34:08):
of us.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
That's a clue.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
If we're in peace, you know, we know we're in
a place where we can hear God, so we can
make wise and important and true.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Yeah, that's that's absolutely true. Uh So, So to wrap
up this segment is we are the possession of the Lord.
We're purchased by blood and we are in a covenant
with the Living God through the blood of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
And part of that covenant is we are a purchased
possession and and and the the fallout from that is
we owe we owe it to our creator and God
and Redeemer to lay down these things in worship before me.
I surrender my mind, Father God, I surrender my thoughts today.
(34:56):
I give you my thinking today because it belongs to you. Honestly,
God has given us this mind to steward. He owns it,
he owns our brain, he owns our thought life. We're
here to steward it so that, as Pastor said, we
can be used in this earth, so that God can
function and do his will on this planet through us,
(35:21):
through us. So now that we understand that we need
to be crucified in the place of the skull, that
we need to be transformed. Now that we understand that
we are the blood bought purchase possession of the Lord God,
and that the surrender of our mind is a form
of worship that he expects. Let's talk about this submission
(35:43):
to Him that we're on now. Our submission brings transformation.
Let's talk about this a little bit. The scripture in
essence is actually saying, it is declaring that our mind
when it is focused on the things of this world,
be it money, or pride, or lust or sexual immorality
(36:06):
in its various forms, resentment, hate, greed, jealousy, et cetera,
so on and so forth. It is in direct opposition
to the heart and purposes and design of God for
our life in Christ. And that, in fact, that we
are at enmity with God as we persist in a
(36:27):
thought life that is not submitted to the word of
God and to the Spirit of God. This is something
that we should not and cannot allow our in our life.
We're going to have good days and bad days. Okay,
We're going to get We're going to get to this
very this very thing in the next segment. However, pardon
(36:51):
the expression, but it is un It should be unthinkable here.
It should be unthinkable that we would knowingly resist the
heart of God in surrendering our thought life to Him. Remember,
every part of our being, body, soul, heart, and mind
(37:12):
are blood bought possessions of Christ, who paid with his
own life to ransom us from Satan's grip. And it
is it has to become a mindset for us that
daily come when we come to God in our time
with him. And actually I think many times a day.
(37:34):
I love it that Daniel prayed, as we know in
the scriptures, at least three times a day. I love
to start my day out with God. But I find
that the pressures, the stresses, the impacts of the day
caused me to go to God sometimes six, seven, eight
times in a day and go, God, I need you
(37:56):
to wash over me again by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Lord.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
That last situation and I just came out of it
really impacted my mind. I just want to get my
mind back in your spirit. Now back on your word. Now,
Father God, please help me with this. This is submission,
but it's submission in relationship.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
It is, and it's like praying without ceasing. You know.
I used to really have trouble with that because I
thought you had sent around and pray.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
All the time. Yeah, but no, you're it's in.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
A continuous conversation. And that's what prayer is, the conversation
with God. And so it's not it's not laborsome. That
doesn't have to be anyway, sure, And that's we we
tend to think that that the petitions of Gods our
little checklist that we will think we won't do.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Yes, that's not prayer. Yeah, that's that petition. It is.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
But but prayer is fellowship and.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Relationship, yes, and I like that and I'm on a
coattail off of that right now. And in sharing this,
I feel like the Holy Spirit would would have us
just touch on this is that there are times when
we're going to have to go to God about things
that we've thought and maybe even things that we've done
(39:25):
as a result of things that we were thinking as
a result of the difficult situation we just came through.
And listen, He is our father. He doesn't want us
to sin, but there are going to be times when
we're going to stumble in sin. And when we stumble
in sin, the best thing for us to do is
(39:46):
go to God and be authentic and be genuine and
beyond just bring it to He already knows he still
loves you. The way he loves us has not changed.
His grace mercy, He has not changed. Remember this that
while we were still enemies, Christ died for the ungodly.
(40:07):
We were his enemies, and He sent his son to
die for us. So much more now will we walk
in the lavishness of his grace, forgiveness, love, and care
that we are His beloved. So if we get tangled
up in some stuff that's mess and we know, okay,
this needs to get handled, we are free to go
(40:30):
to him. Hebrew says that we come boldly to the
throne of great We come boldly because of what Jesus did.
We come with our good, we come with the bad,
we come with the ugly, and we let him sort
all that out. Our responsibility to.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
God is Father, God. I need some help.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
I stumbled up, a goofed up, I made a mess.
And he's faithful and good and for eternity to help
walk us through all those things, and.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
He can handle it.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Yes, he's not offended.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
He's not offended upset, And we need to remember there's
not one thing that we can do to make God
like us better, and there's not one thing that we
can do to make him like us worse. You know,
what we do has nothing to do with our relations.
It's it's what we It's it's where we believe him
(41:28):
and we have want to have fellowship to them. That's
what God wants. That's that that's the whole nine yards walking.
It's finding out what God wants and getting in conference
with him. Will he let you do your thing absolutely,
you know, and you're gonna we'll do everything that God
(41:49):
wants us to do, but we'll do it our way
and we'll do it, you know. And then and and
according to Fred, it won't look like what the way
Glenn does it. Yes, you know, we will interpret it
a little different. Will well, we'll practice it a little
And God's okay with that.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
He loves variety.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Yes, he loves creativity. That's why he gave us.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
True true, Yeah, we don all we don't all think
the same. And God God made it that way on
purpose good things.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
And we can perform those good things because He gave
us this mind. And also because we can tap into
the mind.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Of absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
He also gave us power to become sons daughters of
That's right, and so he loves us.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yes, that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
And that's the confidence we need to have when we're
talking about things like this, because one of the things
that many Christians, uh uh, you don't want your thought
life put up on the billboard. You know, what, what
will people think? And sometimes you know, many of us
in Christ, what is God thinking about the things I
struggle with him?
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I might he already knew.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
He's seen he's seen it from the first to the
last frame.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
He's he's not offended.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
It's all it's worked into the process that we are
in in relationship with him. So we can relax. We
can stop trying to impress him with how how well
we're doing, and and and we can rest and relax
knowing that he knows it all already. We're not going
to impress him with how how righteous we're going to live.
(43:32):
The only thing he's impressed with is the righteousness that
he put on us in Christ, Jesus he gave.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
He didn't it's not right. And you know, it's just
it's kind of like when when you make when we
become sons and daughters of God, you you've got to
kind of transfer that over into real life right here
on earth. I mean, does your kid go worry about it?
You know, he didn't worry about it when he gets
(44:00):
in the refrigerator.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
That's right here, that's right.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
If you know why, because I'm an o'donald.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
That's right this house, this is my refrigerat, that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
And if it's close enough, he and most of the
time that's great. And if it's too close to dinner.
You know, Papa may step up and go, hey, son,
let work not now, let's have dinner first. Well, let's
let's skip ahead here to something very important. I'm gonna
I'm gonna try and save a little bit of time
(44:32):
for us here, uh, because I want to get to
where the real power is and and and the power
doesn't doesn't lie with us. The power lies in the
Word of God. And the power lies in the spirit
of God to bring the Word of God alive in
us to transform our our thought life. So what I
(44:56):
want to do here, I want to talk about this
aspect of this as we get close to beginning to
land this plane here, and that is this question that
people will say, Hey, there's no way. This sounds impossible,
this sounds like something that who could do this? Who
(45:19):
can control what they think?
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Who listen? Thoughts just come. I can't stop thoughts from coming.
They just show up.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
And I heard one pastor illustrate about this one time,
and he talked about a bird's nest and he said,
you know what, No, you can't always keep a thought
from showing up in your mind. But it's like a bird.
Sometimes a bird will come and land on your head.
You might not be able to keep that from happening,
but what we certainly can keep from happening is allowing
(45:52):
that bird to create a nest on top of our head.
The bird may show up, but we need to show
him away. Thoughts may sh show up. But now we're
going to talk about a scriptural, scriptural principle on how
we are to corral these thoughts and deal with them
in the way that Christ Jesus has prescribed for us.
(46:17):
So this is found in Second Corinthians, chapter ten. This
principle that I'm talking about of how to deal with
those thoughts that just show up, because they will, first
of all, because we're dealing with a sinful, fallen nature.
Second of all, we have an enemy who is constantly
(46:39):
bombarding our life with different with different packages, if you will,
of thoughts that he throws at us to see if
we will take the bait. So listen, listen to what
Second Corinthians ten four through five says. Paul here says
to the church at Corn that the weapons of our
(47:02):
warfare there is warfare going on. They are not carnal,
they're not of this world, but they are mighty. I
became trapped and I could not free myself from these depressive, anxious,
fearful thoughts that were plaguing my life day by day
(47:23):
by day. And so finally, as I was praying, I
was asking God about this.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
God.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
Weeks have gone by, and finally I felt the Lord
bring me to these verses and said, Son, I've given
you weaponry that is mighty in me to the pulling
down of strongholds. Strongholds have been set up in your
for whatever reason. Strongholds have been set up in my
(47:53):
mind that produced fear, anxiety, and depression. And the Lord said,
you need to go in study find out what my
word has to say about these things that you are
fearing and anxious about. Son, write them down, memorize them,
and then begin to speak that word over your life.
(48:16):
But before you do that, what I want you to do,
He goes, Just like you or a police officer, These
are the things that the Lord showed me to do.
He said, just like you're a police officer policing your mind.
You survey your thought life and go through it and
take inventory of your thought life and the thoughts of fear,
(48:41):
and thoughts of anxiety, thoughts of depression, thoughts of death,
thoughts that you're not going to make it. He said,
I want you, just like a police officer. I want
you to put those thoughts under arrest. And so he
taught me to do things like this, Father God, in
Jesus name, rest in my thought life right now, thoughts
(49:03):
of fear, thoughts of anxiety, thoughts of despondency, thoughts that
I'm going to lose my life. I arrest them right
now in Jesus' name, Father God and your authority, I
arrested you. See what we're doing here. We're arresting these thoughts.
And what are these thoughts doing? Just what Tewod Corinthian said,
They are exalting themselves against the knowledge of God. What
(49:28):
does the knowledge of God say? That we've been given
a spirit of power and love and of a sound mind,
that he promises us long life, that he promises us
life and blessing, that it'll set us angels around us.
And here I am in fear and anxiety about a
variety of very dark things. And so God had me
(49:48):
arrest them, bind them and cast them out. Pastor Fred,
when I first began this on the first day, I
didn't notice I didn't notice a big difference, but I
would do it. I was taking prescriptions. I would bind
and I would cast out, and then I would I
would speak over myself the promise that was supposed to
(50:09):
fill that area in my thought life.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
I did this.
Speaker 3 (50:13):
Do you know within two or three days I began
to notice noticeable amount of freedom, in freedom from that
gripping depression. And I'm going to I'm going to this
is many many years ago that this particular bout took place.
But within two or three weeks of doing this, like
(50:34):
my life depended on it, I got completely free by
arresting thoughts. And who gave who gave us the right
to do this? The father who has told us to
do this, the Father, And so we have his backing
here go ahead.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
You know I have had the same kind of experience
the little deal that you know, God gave me to do.
He said, Fred, just ask which kingdom is this thought
coming out of? And so you know that really does
help me, because you know, you know what's right what's
(51:15):
wrong intuitively, and you know, if if you have a
thought and you go like, okay, which kingdom is this
coming out of? I know that you know, I can
reject it if it's coming out of the wrong kingdom.
I can receive it if it's coming out of the
right kingdom. And so it's just like like you said, yeah,
(51:37):
you know, that's the way we can go about not
letting the bird building that right, you know, we can
show them off. And it's interesting that the demons which
come to plague our minds are sometimes referred to as foul.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
That's right, Yes, a foul yea need.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
To show lands on your head, yes, start.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
Yeah, trying to trying to build a nest, trying to
build up. And that's exactly what the enemy does. He
wants to build a nest in our mind and remain there.
And so I'm going to again segue off of what
pastors just shared here, and we're gonna land.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
We're going to land the plane here.
Speaker 3 (52:18):
But this is this is incredibly important in context what
you just shared. What kingdom is this coming from?
Speaker 2 (52:28):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (52:29):
And this is this is about the word being a
discerner of our thoughts.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (52:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (52:35):
The scripture says that we are to let the Word
of God dwell in us richly. Remember it says that
we're not to be conformed to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. It
is by the renewing of our mind comes by allowing
the Word of God to dwell in us. Richly, Remember
(52:58):
when Paul shared and he says that the Word of
God is living and active. It's sharper than any two
edged sword, that it divides soul and spirit, joint and moorrow,
and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intense
of the heart. So with this in mind, listen to
(53:19):
these closing statements.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
Where shall we begin here?
Speaker 3 (53:26):
If we are unaware of what God's Word has to
say about the issues of life that impact our behaviors,
our thoughts, our ideologies, our worldview and paradigm for living,
how will we know? How will we know when our
mind and thoughts are meditating and held captive by thoughts, ideas,
(53:49):
principles that are contrary to the Word of God and
therefore harmful to us and our relationship with the Father.
How will we know to bring those thoughts captive to
the obedience of Christ. If we have no idea to
your point, pastor if we have no idea of whether
(54:10):
or not Christ approves or disapproves of what we're thinking about.
We must submerge ourselves into the Word of God as
if our very life depends upon it.
Speaker 2 (54:20):
Because it does.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Jesus said to the devil in the wilderness during the
time of his temptation over forty days. He said, man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God. That's critical for
us to understand. In order to truly become crucified in
(54:45):
the place of our skull, that is, to submit our
thought life to the authority of the Lord, we must
give ourselves constantly to the studying and devouring of God's word.
If we are to truly submit our thought life, we've
got to let in a new flow into our life.
(55:06):
And the Word of God being living, active, eternal, it's
discerning our thoughts, our intense it's dividing joint tomorrow. It
is this incredible power that God has given us in
this earth. And so in order for us to become
(55:26):
crucified in the place of our skull, in order for
us to be transformed in our life and begin to
think and do and behave and live and move and
have our being according to the Word of God and
produce the fruits of righteousness that Christ has called us
to as his disciples. The Word our submission to the
(55:47):
Word of God at the hands of the Holy Spirit
in our life. It is the critical discipline that we
must yield to God in and it is a dis
a plan just like anything else, juggling, playing the violin,
becoming an expert at anything, day by day, week by week, month.
(56:12):
Jesus said he would follow after me. Take up your
cross daily. We take this discipline up daily. And so
in closing pastor, there's there's some practical things that we
can do that will help us along the way in
this process of transformation and submission and allowing ourselves to
(56:34):
be crucified in the place of our skull. On that is,
we can be very careful about what we're watching on TV. Yes,
there are times that we're just going to have to
turn that television off, and in these days most of
the time, if not always, we're going to have to
be very careful about what we're listening to on the radio.
What podcasts are we listening to, What kind of music
(56:56):
are we listening to, what's it communicating, what is it
felading into our mind? Are we taking two steps forward
and one step back, and the things that we're feeding
into our mind, who are we hanging out with, who
are we allowing to influence our thinking? And lastly, Proverbs
(57:17):
says that we are to guard our hearts, for out
of it flow the issues of life. And that is
kind of a broad brush statement, but it's very true.
We have to be very careful. We have to be
a diligent doorkeeper and gatekeeper to the things that we
allow and here and the things that we allow and
(57:38):
hear pastor so that so that we can prosper optimally
in this process of being transformed through the newing of
our mind and subsequently becoming crucified in the place of
the skull.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
Amen. Amen, And you know that may be speaking to
you right now, and you know, I really do want
to extend to our people that are watching tonight because
you know this, this is this is a personal thing.
It is it is you know, something that you and
(58:15):
God do together, and it's that transforming. God does the transforming,
but you have to just get into agreement with him
on that and you have to, you know, do a
couple of these things. You know, ask which kingdom are
these thoughts coming out of ask, you know, don't let
bird build building it. Don't don't let the satan set
(58:37):
on your shoulder and whispered little stuff in your ears.
Shoe him off. You have that ability and that palent
and so Glenn, I just want you to kind of
close us out tonight and pray over over the folks
and then and then we'll wave goodbye at the end.
Speaker 3 (58:53):
Absolutely pleasure, Father God, Thank you for who you are.
Thank you that you are the mighty Gone who loves
us so much and sent Christ to die for us.
Speaker 2 (59:03):
Lord God, tonight we just pray by your Holy.
Speaker 3 (59:06):
Spirit that you will teach us evermore to submit our
thought life, our mind, our meditations, and our mullings. God,
the things that we ruminate on to you, that Father God,
you can renew and wash and cleanse our thought life,
that you can set our thoughts and our mind in
order that our emotions and our will will follow in
(59:29):
line to the things that you teach us to meditate upon.
All these things in obedience to Christ and Father God,
I pray for those tonight out in our audience who
may not know You as Lord and Savior who need
to receive Christ tonight, and I just pray I just
pray for those tonight who might need to receive Jesus.
Just say, Lord, Jesus, coming to my heart. Cot come
(59:52):
and be my savior. Come and pour your love out
in me. I confess Lord that I have sinned against you,
and I I have heard the word of faith about
the Lord Jesus Christ and that he can save my
eternal soul. And so Lord, come into my life. Tonight
caused me to be born again. Cause me, give me
(01:00:14):
the power to become your child forever and receive me
as your son. And I thank you for this tonight, Lord,
in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, listen. We put the little prayer
line down there is eight O six three four zero
zero one six two. Call that number. And we have
people that will answer the phone pray with you. They
love to do that, they love to answer questions, whatever,
(01:00:44):
whatever need you might have, their their well able to
do that. And we just thank you for joining us
tonight and.
Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
I and thank you for the invitation. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
I really do think that you know, people can benefit
hugely from from discussing thinking about that. But that's that's
that's a very important. The mind of Christ is very important.
To be able to tap into and he did give
us wonderful mind.
Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
He did.
Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
But we can have even more, absolutely greater ability to
think the thoughts of God. I think that's just pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's an excellence.
Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Absolutely. Well, listen out there. We just thank you for
joining us as well, and we'll see you next week
we have and all the rest for all and well
all the way till October. I have some exciting guys
lined up, so you don't want to miss any of them.
So I'll just leave it with that, and we'll just
wave goodbye tonight, goodbye, and and God bless. If you
(01:01:54):
enjoyed the show today, be sure and get the download
and the show note that we have available for you
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(01:02:16):
This is the Bread Hugh Show. Signing off
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