#29 Mental Well-Being Through Cultivating the Mind of Christ

Sunday LivestreamBecoming Whole

1 Jun

Written By Matt Edmundson

YouTube Video of the Church Service

Time Stamps

00:00:00 - Welcome and introduction to mental well-being
00:03:00 - Talk begins: The Mind of Christ and mental well-being
00:06:00 - Jesus on the boat: Peace amidst the storm
00:09:00 - Understanding biblical shalom vs. worldly peace
00:14:00 - How to cultivate the mind of Christ through the Holy Spirit
00:17:00 - Practical steps for accessing God's peace
00:24:00 - Conversation Street: Finding peace at 3am and in our struggles

Bible Verses Referenced

Mark 4:35-41 (Jesus calming the storm)
1 Corinthians 2:10-16 (Having the mind of Christ)
Philippians 2:5 ("Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus")

The Mind of Christ: Finding Peace Amidst Any Storm

When was the last time you felt completely at peace, even when everything around you was chaotic?

In Mark's recent talk, he shared a familiar story that completely reframes how we approach mental well-being as followers of Jesus. Picture this: experienced fishermen terrified by a storm so fierce they feared for their lives, while Jesus slept peacefully on a cushion at the back of the boat.

When they woke him in panic, Jesus simply commanded the storm to be still. Then he asked them a profound question: "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" (Mark 4:40).

What Jesus was really asking wasn't "Why are you afraid of this deadly storm?" but rather "Why can't you see this situation from my perspective?"

Beyond Circumstantial Peace

This is the crucial distinction that Mark emphasised throughout his talk – true mental well-being isn't dependent on our circumstances. Jesus wasn't at peace because he knew the storm wouldn't kill him; he was at peace because he knew that whatever happened, he was in God's hands.

Mark illustrated this through his own experience crossing the River Kaur into Kurdistan while smuggling Christian books, facing a potential bounty of $20,000 on his head. In that moment of terror, his prayer wasn't fully answered in the way he wanted. Instead of reassurance that nothing bad would happen, God gave him something better: "Whatever happens, it will be okay."

That's not positive thinking or wishful optimism – it's the profound "shalom" that the Bible speaks of. As Mark explained, shalom goes far deeper than our English word "peace":

"Both Irani in Greek and shalom in Hebrew mean far more than just peace. They mean a deep-seated sense of wellbeing, of wholeness, of completeness, tranquility, and harmony."

The Mind Behind the Peace

So, how do we access this kind of peace? This is where the concept of "the mind of Christ" becomes transformative.

In 1 Corinthians 2:16, Paul tells us that "we have the mind of Christ." Yet in Philippians 2:5, he instructs us to "have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." It's both something we already possess through our relationship with Jesus and something we must actively cultivate.

The key? The Holy Spirit.

"The Holy Spirit has access to all the thinking of God himself," Mark explained, "and he can impart those to us... we can borrow his mental map instead of our own."

When we're filled with the Spirit and immersed in God's Word, we begin to see our circumstances from God's perspective rather than our own limited viewpoint.

Practical Steps for Mental Well-being

During Conversation Street, Will and Dan explored some practical applications from Mark's talk. Will highlighted how our minds often play "tapes on continuous loop" – repetitive patterns of anxiety, fear, and self-accusation that we're barely aware of.

The Holy Spirit wants to replace those tapes completely – not just temporarily quieting them, but giving us an entirely different internal narrative based on God's truth.

Some practical steps emerged from their conversation:

Be filled with the Holy Spirit – Ask God to fill you with His Spirit daily, giving you access to His perspective.
Immerse yourself in God's Word – Scripture isn't a magic charm, but speaking it aloud engages multiple senses and helps God's truth take root more deeply.
Be aware of your "news cycle" – Notice what feeds anxiety in your life, whether social media, news consumption, or negative relationships.
Replace fear with truth – When anxious thoughts come, especially at 3 am, acknowledge them before God and exchange them for His promises.
Share your struggles with others – Dan shared how sometimes we're too deep in our struggles to find peace alone, and need friends to pray with us.

Dan vulnerably shared his own experience with OCD and how God's peace has helped him navigate repetitive thought patterns: "Sometimes the situation might not change, but we can still be thankful and hopeful in that."

Is God Okay With Me Not Being Okay?

One of the most powerful moments came when Will addressed a question about whether God is okay with us not being okay: "Absolutely. 100%."

Mental well-being isn't about pretending everything's fine or manufacturing positive feelings. It's about knowing that even in our struggles, God remains with us, offering His perspective and peace.

As Mark said about his own current challenges: "The circumstances are no better now than they were when we talked a month or so ago. But the peace that came on me is still there, and it's enabling me to move under God's direction through these difficult circumstances, confident that the outcome is going to be good."

Your River Crossing Moment

Will challenged everyone to consider their own "river crossing moment" – those pivotal situations where we must choose whether to trust God's perspective over our fears.

For Dan, it was working through OCD and learning to trust that God is bigger than his compulsive thoughts. For you, it might be financial uncertainty, relationship struggles, or health concerns.

Whatever your storm, the invitation remains: to cultivate the mind of Christ through the Holy Spirit, replacing anxious thought patterns with God's truth, and finding that deep shalom that transcends circumstances.

Could this week be your opportunity to turn off the "news cycle" of anxiety and borrow God's mental map instead? Join us next week as Sharon Edmundson continues our series on renewing our minds.

If you're struggling to find peace and need prayer, don't hesitate to reach out. We'd love to pray with you and help you discover the mind of Christ for yourself.

#29 Mental Well-Being Through Cultivating the Mind of Christ
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Welcome
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[00:00:00]
Dan Orange: Welcome to Crowd Church. Great to be here with you today. Today I am joined by the wonderful, well soft with
Will Sopwith: Good evening, Dan Orange. How are you?
Dan Orange: I'm very well, thank you. Yes,
Will Sopwith: very good.
Dan Orange: Doing good. I. Enjoying. Well, we can't, we've had sun, haven't we? We enjoy the sun in between the rain. It's very nice. Indeed,
Will Sopwith: indeed.
Still recovering from last weekend. Yeah. And the events of Liverpool. Yes. That was, uh, yeah. Still feels very fresh.
Dan Orange: Um. Last week we were talking about, um, I was gonna say gratuity gratitude. I thought it was GRAI was like that. That doesn't sound right. Tipping.
Will Sopwith: Yeah. We're talking about tipping and how much the Bible says we should tip.
No, I, I, I, I, I didn't pick that up from last week and I need to look at that recording
Dan Orange: again. That wasn't Matt's talk. We're talking about gratitude. Gratitude. Yes. Um, and [00:01:00] yeah, he put out a challenge to be more thankful and be consciously thankful this week. So important. Yeah. And I've been, especially when I, uh, pray with our kids before they go to bed, to always be just thankful for, thankful for, for life, for them, for the day.
And like we said, it's not really, it's not a circumstance thing either. Yeah. It's just. Thanking God because Yeah, yeah, absolutely. This is good. Why, why it's not so
Will Sopwith: Have you, have you felt an impact of that challenge this week, Dan?
Dan Orange: I dunno if I've, I dunno if I've found an impact. I've enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah.
So, so that's good. Yeah. That's, that's an impact. That's good. Yeah.
Will Sopwith: Yeah. Yeah. So, so important and, and very easy to lose, isn't it? And, and forget, there's so much you take for granted. And, um, yeah. So I wonder how anyone that saw last week, how that challenge went for you. Um, maybe we should set a challenge this week as well.
Who knows? We'll, we'll see, see from the talk, but, um, yeah, gratitude, uh, for, [00:02:00] for every little thing, uh, yeah. Is is transformational, really?
Dan Orange: Yeah, it is. It is. And. Just to reiterate, it's not always the situation. The situation might not change, but we can still be thankful and hopeful in that. Um, so today, what have we got coming up?
Will Sopwith: We've got Mark talking today. We don't have a live speaker. We've got a recorded, uh, recorded talk this evening. Um, so no conversation with speaker afterwards. Um, but yeah, it'll, it'll be great. Mark's. Mark's fantastic.
Dan Orange: Yeah, so he's gonna talk today on the Mind of Christ. So if you've got any questions or comments, we will come back afterwards for Conversation Street and talk through those.
So please put your, your questions and comments in. Um, so I think without further ado, let's hand over to hand over virtually to Mark and, um, we'll come back and talk about his talk.[00:03:00]
Talk - Mental Well-Being Through Cultivating the Mind of Christ (Mark Buchannan)
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Mark Buchannan: Well, hello, my name's Mark Buchanan and it's lovely to be with you today. I'm a friend of Matt Edmondson's and some of you may have seen me, I think it was last October. I, uh, I spoke here as well. Anyway, we are gonna look at something really exciting and actually quite fundamental these days, and that's the whole idea of a biblical perspective on mental wellbeing.
So let me jump straight in with a story. This will be familiar to a lot of you. I certainly remember this from Sunday school many years ago, and it's in Mark chapter four, verses 35 to 41. So Jesus and the disciples are on a boat on the sea of Galilee, bearing in mind that most of the disciples are experienced fishermen.
And a storm whips up as they do on the Sea of Galilee, but this one was so fierce that even they were afraid. So this is a very, very serious storm. But then in verse 38, we find Jesus fast asleep on a [00:04:00] cushion at the back of the boat, and it says, the disciples woke him and said, teacher, don't you care if we drown?
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. And then Jesus in verse 40 says to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? And what he's basically saying is, why can't you have the same view of this? I have.
That's really what faith is, isn't it? It's us viewing our circumstances from the same point of view and in the same way that Jesus would, I. So Jesus didn't have detailed knowledge of the storm 'cause he was fast asleep, but the actual present circumstances didn't really matter that much to him because his peace, his tranquility even was based on something much deeper than the day-to-day.
Facts and events [00:05:00] of his life. So it didn't matter to him that he didn't know exactly how bad the storm was because he knew his life was in God's hands. Now, I'm not equating it in terms of seriousness, but many years ago I had to cross a river called the River Kaur, and it's divides Eastern Turkey from Kurdistan and myself and a couple of colleagues, we were smuggling Christian books, bible study materials, and so on into Kurdistan.
And at a certain point, you basically have to get out of your car not far from a village in Turkey called Ope, and you have to wade across the Kabul River and then make your way to the next village in Kurdistan, which is called zko. So in the middle of this river, our guide stops us and says, listen, this is your point of decision.
At this point, you could turn around, go back into Turkey. Nobody's gonna be any the wiser. There'll be no shame, but you just need to know that if you [00:06:00] carry on, then you are illegally crossing into Kurdistan. And your head will now be worth 20,000 US dollars at any Iraqi police post because Saddam Hussein at that time was trying to do anything he could to dissuade NGOs like us from coming in and helping the Kurdish people.
And that was actually terrifying. That's probably the most afraid I've ever been. So as a good diligent Christian, I sent up an arrow Prayer and said, Lord, am I gonna survive this? If I go forward, uh, am I going to live? I. And the Lord didn't really answer the question as happens so often in my experience at least.
'cause what I wanted was reassurance that none of the bad consequences that I was imagining would actually happen to me. And God sort of ignored my question and what I got was, look, whatever happens, it will be okay. And the funny thing is, A, it did not [00:07:00] answer my question at all, and B, it brought with me it with it incredible peace because God sort of ignored my front of mind thinking, my individual anxieties, the things that are occupying my mind and spoke to something much deeper.
What we could call our mindset. So it's the models that we use to interpret the world around us. The mental map with which we try and navigate through life that operates at a much more fundamental level than our anxious thoughts and our fears of the day and our petty worries. He went straight for the core and said, whatever happens, you will be fine.
Now I knew he wasn't saying, I guarantee that you won't die. I knew he was saying to me, whether you live or die, it will be okay. And peace just came on me and we walked forwards. It was a phenomenal trip. Um, we did many more like [00:08:00] that. And here I am today. So in the end, I didn't die. But my sense of wellbeing was not premised on a promise that the possible negative consequences I was imagining would not happen to me.
And you can see in the story of Jesus on the boat, on the lake, he's operating from a, the same perspective. It's, it's not about what's happening right here and now. It's about fundamentally, what is my life, my decisions, my choices, my thinking actually premised on. So the Bible has a word, really that we now would interpret in multiple different ways.
The main one being peace, but it actually means much more than that, and it's the Hebrew word shalom. So if you ever go to Israel, they'll use shalom to say hello, to say goodbye. But the real meaning of Shalom in Hebrew and indeed in its Greek equivalent, which is [00:09:00] Irani. So if you happen to be called Irene, you've got a fantastic name.
It's based on this Greek word, and both Irani in Greek and shalom in Hebrew mean far more than just peace. They mean a deep seated sense of wellbeing, of wholeness, of completeness, tranquility, and harmony. So it's peace with God. And that leads to peace with yourself. Peace with your circumstances, peace with your neighbors.
Peace with the world, peace with the future. Even I. And you can see in this current world in which we live social media of mainstream media, you all of culture seems to be bombarding us with messaging designed to emotionally galvanize us. And fear is a very persuasive way to make you buy things, which is what most of it is premised on.
And we end up in these echo chambers where it's doom [00:10:00] and gloom and. The world's gonna come to an end, and we're gonna run out of oil. We're gonna run out of water. Uh, we're gonna be invaded. But we can go through those peacefully if we are in a state of shalom, which Jesus was in, which is why it didn't worry him that the storm was going on because his future was not in the hands of the wind.
I. Or the waves, it was in the hands of the Lord. And when he challenges his disciples, he's saying, have you still got no faith? Have you still not realized that I'm operating out of a deep seated shalom? And you are still worrying about things because you have expertise, which makes you think this is probably gonna go badly.
So if we want to have wellbeing, we need to go much further back in our minds than just our day-to-day thoughts. 'cause we can spend a lot of energy trying to resolve those thoughts, but it still won't give us that deep [00:11:00] sense of peace that we know we can have in God. So let's think about that then. How can we have the same mind that Jesus had?
What does it mean to have the mind of Christ? So one Corinthians two 16 tells us that we do in fact have the mind of Christ, and we'll come back to this passage. I. But then in Philippians chapter two, verse five, it says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. And that's talking particularly about our interpersonal relationships, have this mind, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
So like a lot of things in the Christian faith, it's there for us, but we have to apprehend it. Forgiveness is there for us because Jesus died and rose again, but we have to apprehend. We have to take for ourselves the benefit of that. So the mind of Christ is available to us, [00:12:00] but we need to take that mind of Christ and make it our own.
So let's go back to that one Corinthians chapter two verses 10 to 16 passage, and I'm gonna read the whole thing for you. These are the things that God has revealed to us by His spirit. Remember that by his spirit, the spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God for who knows a person's thoughts, accept their own spirit within them.
And in the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with spirit.
Taught words, discerned only through the spirit. The [00:13:00] person with the spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments for who's known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. I. So the spirit keeps cropping up in this verse, don't we?
So there's something about the Holy Spirit that is key to this. Then there's the idea that the Holy Spirit has access to all the thinking of God himself, all the thoughts of God himself, and that he can impart those to us. So that although nobody can educate God as it says in verse 16, we can have his mindset, we can have his outlook, we can have his worldview, we can borrow his mental map instead of our own.
I. So the Holy Spirit can help us swap our own human faulty limited thinking [00:14:00] for the infinite, incredible, perfect thinking that goes on in the mind of the Lord. I. So to me, there's a number of steps then based on this that we can take. One is we have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So if you've never been baptized in the Holy Spirit, I urge you to talk to somebody about how you can achieve that, how you can be prayed for, how hands laid on you so that you can be baptized to be filled and go on being filled with the Holy Spirit because he's the one.
Who can bring to life the mind of Christ in our human mind. Now he works always in conjunction with the word of God, the written Word of God, the Old Testament and the New Testament. So we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and we need to fill our minds with God's word from the Bible, reading it, listening to it.
Talking about it with [00:15:00] others, but the word of God needs to be living and present and active in our lives so that the Holy Spirit can bring understanding of that word to us, and that's what will challenge our thoughts, our mindsets, and give us way better outcomes. We need to humbly yield to that process as well.
I'm an engineer by trade, so I tend to challenge everything I hear. I'm what's called a divergent learner, or in other words, a pain in the bottom if you are a teacher. But for me, I need to try and I. Bring down the ideas that are being presented to me to see if I can, and if I can destroy them, I'm gonna ignore them.
But if I can't, then I'm going to take them as my own. But there needs to be humility. If I set up my mind as the ultimate judge, that's arrogance, that will prevent me ever understanding what God's really saying to me. So I have to yield my thinking and say, Lord, I'm pretty sure your [00:16:00] thinking is better than mine.
So where mine is out of step with yours. Challenge me, show me, let me get my thinking in line with yours. That takes humility. That's a choice on my part. And then speaking out the word of God is remarkably effective in helping us combat the anxiety and fear generated by our current circumstances. So when we're in financial need, proclaiming out loud scriptures about God's abundant provision is incredibly powerful.
If I'm sick, proclaiming out loud either on my own or with somebody else proclaiming scriptures about healing is incredibly powerful. So we need to cultivate that art as well of putting our lips around God's words. And there's something about hearing scripture coming through my ears rather than just inside my head as I read quietly.
Coming in through my ears is way more powerful. So [00:17:00] it's a collaboration between us in humility God's ever present Word. The Holy Spirit and our mindset can help us move further and further and further into that state of shalom. Peace with God, peace with ourselves, peace with everything around us, and we'll find much of our fear just dropping away.
Now, it's often not instant. Sometimes it can take us a while to push through into that place of peace and we just have to keep at it. But even at my current circumstances at the moment, I'm facing some really worrying things, and it has taken me a while to find a place of peace. Funnily enough, a lot of it triggered by a conversation with Matt, but I got into that place of peace now.
The circumstances are no better now than they are when we talked a month or so ago. But the piece that came on me is still there, and it's enabling me to [00:18:00] move under God's direction through these difficult circumstances, confident that the outcome is going to be good. So let me pray for you and help you start that process into a state of shalom where everything works the way God wants it to.
Lord, we thank you for your word. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to guide us as we read and speak out your word. And Lord, we offer up to you the various things that are causing us fear or, uh, unease or anxiety. I. Lord, we're not belittling those things, but Lord, we just want to get to that place where we have your mind, where our outlook on our circumstances is the same as you would have in our position.
And Lord, we willingly submit to you. We submit to your Holy Spirit, we submit to your word and we ask you to show us the next steps, Lord Jesus. And as we read, and as [00:19:00] we pray, and as we proclaim, father, we ask that you'll bring us into that place of Shalom, where we can look at our life and our world from your perspective, and find the peace that you found on that boat all those years ago.
Amen.
Conversation Street
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Dan Orange: Wow. There was a lot in that, wasn't there? I, I, um, I think Mark's been on a few times on Crowd, and I love his one, his clarity, and two, that he's lived it. He's not just bringing in a word that he's, yeah, you can
Will Sopwith: tell he is an engineer. He's, he's got, he, he's got the detail there and, uh. And the logic of it as well.
Um, but as you say, yeah, a a a lot in there. Yeah. Um, but the lived, the lived experience Yeah. Is, is a really, is a really important part.
Dan Orange: Yeah. And it's not, not, he's got some great stories, hasn't he? Some like amazing. Not, there's not many of us that could [00:20:00] stay. While I stood in the middle of a river, I had to decide whether I was gonna be, have a bounty on my head or not.
We're not always in those situations, but we still have those. Situations where God helps us just as much as he helped, as he helped. Mark. Um, is there anything before, we've got a few questions here, but is there anything before we go there that, that you want to, that just stood out to you? You wanna say?
Will Sopwith: Uh, well, the, the first thing that that came to mind as he was talking was. Ah, so having the mind of Christ, it's not about your circumstance. Bit of a theme here. Yes. In this, uh, in this series, I feel, and uh, and I think we'll keep stumbling across this, that the way we respond and the way we feel about things, I.
Is not necessarily associated with our circumstance. And I love that unpacking of, of Jesus in the boat. Um, I, I always felt he was a little bit harsh on the disciples at that point. Um, you know, that they're, they're fishermen, they're terrified of the sea. Uh, they, they can see what the sea does and he's like, [00:21:00] surely you should have known this.
But, uh. But yeah, I, I love the way Mark unpack that with, we can borrow God's mental map, I think was the phrase he used. And that ability to, even if I'm not. I'm not living in this constantly because of my experience, because of whatever future possibilities I can see, just as the disciples did, they knew what it was like to to lose a boat, lose their livelihood.
Yeah. Sink to the bottom of the sea in a storm. Um, they could reach out and borrow. Jesus' perspective, even if it wasn't their own. I I love that, uh, that picture.
Dan Orange: Yeah. It, it made me think of the story of Daniel in the Lions den, if you don't know this, that him, um, he was brought before the King Nebuchadnezzar and him and his three friends were, were thrown into a pit of lions.
Um, and the king said, are you gonna be safe? And his response was, [00:22:00] um. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning farry furst furnace, and he will deliver us, deliver us outta your hando king. But if not, be it known to you O king that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you set up.
So there was that. Yep. He can do that. There'll be, we can be in a situation where God can come, he could come in that instant and change something. Then Daniel was like, yep, he can come and save me, but if not, I still got my trust in him. And that's what struck me that sometimes for me a lot that is that I just have to rest in that.
Yeah, God could come now, God could actually intervene and change things, which I've seen him do. I've seen him provide, I've seen him change situations, but sometimes, most of the time. The situation doesn't change, but I can [00:23:00] rest in the fact that he's in it anyway and he can still bring that, that peace.
And sometimes I look, that piece is you got, you got joy from God answering something like that. But that peace is something that just is great in it, you know? And it just sits there and you're like. Well, as it says
Will Sopwith: it, it is a piece beyond understanding. It's, it's like not as the world gives, I think Peter says it, it's um, yeah, it's, it's all together different a and frustrating that you kind of read something like that.
And if you're not experienced that you go, well, I, I can't really imagine what that feels like. And I think, um, as with so much actually in faith, trying it out. Um, asking, uh, for, for that level of peace, uh, because having felt it once, yeah, you're right. Yeah. It just, it's not something you forget.
Dan Orange: No. And one of the questions is, well, that's all very well for the disciples.
They were worried, but they were, you know, [00:24:00] Jesus was literally there next to them. What about us when it's three o'clock in the morning, when all those thoughts are going through your head, what can we. What can we do in that situation? How, and Mark gave us a few sort of pointers to the, and tips to do to, to bring about that piece.
Will Sopwith: Yeah. And, and I think that the whole area of speaking out scripture, that that's. I, I think that's something I've probably been brought up with a little bit in my Christian walk, not something I've always practiced and it, it can feel a little bit weird, can't it? You like, well, I, I kind of know this and, and, and what's the difference in speaking it out?
And I like the way Mark just pointed out that, that there is something about that. It's, it's kind of multi. Multimodal multisensor, you know, there, there's your thought in reading it, but actually hearing it spoken just as actually hearing it spoken by someone else sometimes [00:25:00] or, or seeing something. But when you've got a kind of, uh, an input this through multiple, uh, streams, it can really make an, an, an impact.
And I think what what maybe kind of turned me off a little bit was this sort of. That, that sense of scripture is charm. If I speak it out in the right volume and at the right frequency or whatever, then magic happens. And, and, and that's not what it's about at all. It's about reminding ourselves of God's truth.
It's borrowing that mental map by reading the scripture that, that God has given us. And I think, yeah, having it written on the wall, having it spoken out, having it. Spoken to is prayed for us by somebody else. Those are all quite significant ways that it become, become lodged in a DA different sort of way.
And I, I, to be honest, I don't really understand it, but that is what the Holy Spirit does. I think there's a, there is very much a dynamic of the Holy Spirit really [00:26:00] rooting truth in our hearts. Um, even if, again, our circumstances don't necessarily bear it out.
Dan Orange: Yeah. I think what you said there, it's not.
Reading scripture isn't magic. They're not spells, they're not sentences that you have to get Exactly right. It's not the art of speaking. It's knowing the promise that you're reading and believe in it. It's a, it's a promise. It's something that God, this inspired word of God is there and you are reading it, and you are taking it in into your soul, into your mind to know, yeah, this is what God.
Can do for me, has done for me.
Will Sopwith: Yeah. And we've got a question here. Why can't I sleep through my storms? Um, and yeah, there, there's a kind of a. I mean, it's an amazing picture, isn't it? Jesus, just being fast asleep. On the one hand, it shows his humanity. He's being [00:27:00] kind of busy, engaging, preaching with people all the time and not even the storm could, could wake him up.
But there is that kind of shalom that there's that wholeness about him enables him to, to sleep through that. Mm-hmm. And I think for me. The kind of classic up in the middle of the night scenario where your brain is just whirring, where nothing is pinned down or certain where you're, you are worried about what the next day is gonna bring and, and all the things that are out of your control.
Um, quite often I, I don't really have very much to offer into that, and sometimes it's just a matter of. God, I'm here and I can't do anything with this. Mm-hmm. And actually that's what brings a piece for me. Yeah. You know, so sometimes with the, oh, if only I knew my bible better, if I only knew these verses, it, it becomes, the pressure becomes even more on us.
It's like, I've got to fix this somehow by kind of pulling on these kind of chords of, of, of faith, as Mark said, all those things are available for us and [00:28:00] we do have to grab hold of them. But, you know, even just opening that up, acknowledging it. God and acknowledging that, that you want to do this with God, for me, that's often the, the key that finally gets me to sleep.
Is it, it, it's almost the weakness of just saying, I've got no answers here. God. Yeah. And yeah. So there was another comment in, uh, about is God okay with me not being okay? Absolutely. 100%.
Dan Orange: Um, Dave Connolly a few weeks ago said, um. Oh, my mind's just gone blank completely. Is that what Dave said? Yeah. Oh, we'll have to, we'll have to come back to that.
'cause it was just, it was just there and I thought, this is great. I've remembered something from the talk back there and it was really applicable. I. But, um, it'll come back to me.
Will Sopwith: It'll, it'll, it'll come back. Just, just looking at, uh, uh, uh, the more comments. [00:29:00] What's, what's your river crossing moment? Have you got a river crossing moment?
Did that story of, of crossing the river into Kurdistan, bring a point where you go, yeah, I know something of what. That feels like, um, maybe if something's kind of brought to mind a, a situation and you might look at it and go, yeah, absolutely nailed that came through with faith. Or you might look at it and go, man, would that have been different if I'd had the Holy Spirit with me?
Um, but maybe just reflect on, on that moment and, and maybe just allow God to speak in, uh, some of that truth, that truth that, um, you know, he is. Control. He has got a bigger plan. It's, it's bigger than that particular circumstance. Uh, and maybe think about how you would want to cross that river again in the future.
Should it come?
Dan Orange: I've, um,
Will Sopwith: got
Dan Orange: a testimony about this because just in the last few days I've been talking, my wife's a therapist and, um, [00:30:00] she's read, read lots, lots of books about OCD and just talking with me and realizing that. When I was younger especially, I had quite, quite strong, I dunno what, how you've the correct terminology of it, but OCD really, really affected my life so much.
So that just things I, I did when I went to bed, I had to turn off a light switch. You'd think when you turn off a light switch and it goes dark, you'd know. You have turned it off, but what about if you hadn't turned it off safely? What about if the contacts in the back work quite off that it could go back on?
So I'd have to go back. I'd have to turn it off, turn it back on again. Turn it off. I'd have to touch it. Lots of times I'd have to check the windows. I'd have to open them. 'cause when I close them, well, perhaps by closing them I'd actually damaged it by closing it. So I'd have to open it to make sure it was open again.
[00:31:00] And it read, I mean. That might sound, you know, crazy, but it, it was affected lots of my life. Um, and just over this weekend realized it also affected my spiritual life. It affected how much I'd put my trust in God. I think I've said on talks before that. Um, my dad's an evangelist and we would travel all over Europe and I'd hear this amazing news about Jesus.
And at the end of the meeting he would say, does anyone want to know about this God? And I'd be like, I do, but I have, I have asked God into my life, but, but what if it wasn't true? What, you know, what if I hadn't made that decision really, and I'd go forward and say. Yes, I want this. And God didn't mock me, my dad didn't mock me.
But one, one time came when I felt God, just say to me, you've done it. [00:32:00] That's it. You mine. And sometimes we have to just trust in that decision. Trust that God is bigger than us. And do you know what that freedom to know that I am in him. And that's helped me through OCD in other parts of my life as well.
I'm an electrician. I have to turn things on and off lots of times. Um, and it's still there. Mm-hmm. But that fear has been taken over and it's that, that peace that God says, I've got this for you. And that's, that's probably my river. That's a long way of saying it. That's my river crossing moment. Wow.
Will Sopwith: There's, um, mark talked a lot about, uh, about fear and the different, um, I guess messengers of fear. Um. News consumption, social media, all, all those [00:33:00] kind of things. And an analogy I've, I, I've heard before, which I found quite helpful, was the, it, it's the tape that's kind of on continuous loop in our head that mostly we're unaware of.
But it's, it's the, it's the tape of repetition, of, of thoughts, of worries, of quite often a self accusation. For myself, it's a sort of a, um, just this tape that I've just got used to, and part of having the mind of Christ and borrowing again, God's mental map. Just being able to replace that tape and, and you know, that's what I thought when you were talking about OCD.
It's just, it's a repetitive kind of thing that you are almost not aware of it, but it drives your thoughts, it drives your emotions, it drives your activity. What would it be if God could just put in another tape soothing whale music as you are turning the light off or some, you know, all, all these kind of wellbeing tapes.
That, that's, that's what the Holy Spirit, I believe wants to do. Not [00:34:00] just kind of based upon, let's just leave this until the morning. Let's, let's just get, get some space from this. Let's have some me time. It's not that it's, no, I wanna replace that tape entirely. I want to give you a different, uh, tape on a loop.
And I think that's where scripture and goes revealed. Word is so precious. Yeah. Because it's not just, it's not all our experience of God. It's like, no, no, there's, there's a, there's a written. Description, um, exploration of who God is and how God deals with people that. Uh, people for thousands and thousands of years have studied and drawn from, and to have that as a resource, have the Bible as a resource rather than just our own experience.
Um, that's what enables us with the Holy Spirit to kind of replace that tape and say, I can start to think in a slightly different way, um, about everything, but it may be about some specific circumstance as well. Yeah.
Dan Orange: You keep talking and Mark kept [00:35:00] talking about the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
And one, one quick answer to that is if you're interested, there's an alpha course, um, and you can find out all these, the, the different things that we're talking about, but that sort of in the future. But what, what does that mean? What's it mean to be, to be filled, filled with the Holy Spirit? We've got, yes, I've made this decision to follow Christ.
I believe he's the way, the truth and the life. I want more of that. But there was also, they baptized people, didn't they? In the river. And they also was this Holy Spirit is, is that something, I don't wanna get too deep into this, but
God can come into us. Can He? He can. He can envelop our thoughts and that mind of Christ.
Will Sopwith: I think it's, I think the Holy Spirit really in the end is the difference between [00:36:00] knowing about God and it kind of like it's exam season in our house, so I've got lots of exam analogies, but it, it's kind of like having the exam question and answering it.
Um, and you know, just like any set of ideas, we, we can approach Christianity like that. The Holy Spirit. Is that resource to really live it out. It's, it is beyond just answering the exam question. It's beyond the knowledge and it becomes something far more richly rooted. Yeah. In our hearts, in our spirits, in our attitudes, in, in our behavior.
And I, I might have shared this before on Crowd, but an analogy, years and years ago, probably when I was a kid, that that was given to me was, um, the Bible is God's letter to us. The Holy Spirit is like he's narrating it. So it's that kind of taking the word and it's, you know, if, if someone [00:37:00] reads you a letter they've sent to you, it, it's, it's an entirely different Yes.
'cause you're, there's a, a greater connection with the, the, the, the one that wrote the letter. And that's, that's an analogy of the Holy Spirit that, um, that has helped me. Sometimes it can, brings alive the word, brings alive the truths. Um. You're right, there's, there's a, there's a choice of surrender and just saying, God, I don't just wanna know about you.
I don't just wanna try to live up to a A, B, C. I actually want to walk with you in this life and I want you to. Really changed me, really changed my heart, my soul. And I think that's where the gift of the Holy Spirit is so precious. And it, again, there's nothing mystical particularly about this. It, it's a matter of asking and saying, you know, the Holy Spirit is God, just as Jesus, just as the God the Father.
That, and we just ask and we say, holy Spirit, please film me cha change [00:38:00] my life. Be. Be more than just what's in my head. Yeah. The
Dan Orange: Jesus said when he was on the earth, he said, I will leave my spirit with you. And one of those words for the Spirit was the comforter. He will leave his comfort with us, but we, we've got to accept that.
We've got to ask him to. To Phyllis, someone, um, someone commented, you kept talking about replacing the tape. What's a tape will.
What would be the equivalent MP three. That's old now. The Yeah. What's an MP three, Dan? You just need to keep getting it, get it round and round.
Will Sopwith: It's, it's the kind of, it's the news loop, isn't it? It's the, it's the stream. It's the, it is the 24 hour news cycle. It's, it's, it's replacing the news cycle. Yeah.
From that kind of fear because, you know, fear is powerful. Fear, fear is a very powerful and effective messenger into all sorts of behavior. And, and [00:39:00] Mark touched on that. Um, and, and I think, we'll, we may touch on that. Further on the series as well. Um, but we are not, we're not a victim of it. We, we, we can choose to turn it off.
Yeah. We, we can choose to, to lay down, uh, that particular stream of fear and, and maybe, uh, a, a challenge for you. 'cause it, it's not just social media. It, it, it could be reading the paper. Um, it's all sorts of things that can provoke. An anxiety in us, which is not an entirely healthy way to live. It's not at all a healthy way to live.
Um, and perhaps this week, if you're listening to this, maybe just think, what are the things that kind of trip me over into maybe some anxiety and think, well, could I maybe just shut that off for a bit and find a different news cycle in my head? And, uh, you know, the Bible is a great one of that. Talking with a, a friend about.
Different situations. Faith is used, uh, is also a, a great one. Prayer. [00:40:00] That's what Prayer kind of is. In essence, it's, it's, it's beginning to bring a different, um, a different perspective in our hearts as we choose to. Surrender and engage with something beyond ourselves, with the, the spirit, the spirit of God.
Um, so may just be, just be aware of, of how things are affecting you. I think, I mean, just, just about a month ago actually, I remember when I, when I was hosting that there was, i'd, I'd got a couple of subscriptions or kind of just different news magazines. Um, and it was great stuff, great reporting, but the news was awful.
And, and, and the kind of the doom. In Sony situations, and we shouldn't be naive about that. We shouldn't just pretend it's not there. Peace isn't just kind of shutting ourselves off and, um, as I'm often tempted to do, go and live on an island and keep sheep or something, just, you know, totally out of the, the modern world.
Um. We, we, we, there's an awareness we need to [00:41:00] have of those things, but we, again, we need to borrow God's mindset on it. And so at times to do that, we need to be able to just lay down, yeah. The new cycle and say, this is not helping me. I need to find some alternate content. Perhaps that's our challenge for this week.
Dan Orange: Is that in your life, that is that sort of, that breaks up that piece perhaps. Like, like Will said, it's not to ignore it, but perhaps doing that just before you go to bed or as soon as you rise is not the best time. It's to fill those times with God's word or praying. Um, yeah. I say that challenge, challenge to, to me, I, I don't put these things out and say, well, that's something you to do and I'm not gonna do it.
It is, I know it's worth, it's worthwhile Yeah. To fill those. It's easy, isn't it? It's easy to pick up your phone and, and then it just brings up that [00:42:00] anxiety, but let's get, get rid of that and put something else in
Will Sopwith: that, in its place. Mark talked about, um, a while and, and he was talking about his own situation where it's taken a while of I, I guess, practicing some of these things before peace came.
Um, and, and that's really important to note, and again, this is not a, a kind of magic formula that you just apply and bang, I'm, I'm, I'm fine. Um, and, and anyone that struggles with. Anxiety will will know this, that it, it can come and go and it can take an, an awful long time. There's a discipline here and, and again, I like the way Mark put it of like, this is given to us, but we need to take hold of it.
Yeah. There is a, an appropriation of it, which is literally just, just taking hold of it. So, so God has said to each one of us is. You have the mind of Christ, you have this shalom, eternal perspective of knowing that God is with you and God loves [00:43:00] you. God is for you. God will, um, will be with you in every circumstance, but take hold of it.
And, and that challenge is part of that, isn't it? It's, it's that, that's one of the ways that we can take hold of it. Yeah. Um, yeah. It's not always easy though, and, and, uh, it, it sometimes takes a long time depending on the situation,
Dan Orange: and sometimes it involves, well, hopefully a lot of times getting in touch with people.
We had, we round up with friends today for lunch and they go through a lot and their, their peace is really disturbed and for them there's so much going on that it's hard even for them to get into that place to pray. But we're friends, so we could go round and we could pray. So if there's things that you think I just can't, can't get into it, it just seems too much, then please allow us to pray for you.
Please just send in a a WhatsApp or go on the Crowd [00:44:00] Church and we, yeah, we'd love to pray into those situations. If you've got friends around that you do now around you that know Jesus, then share it with them. Share it with them, that they can bring that piece that sometimes it's just too much 'cause you are in it to be able to cope with.
Will Sopwith: Yeah, no, that's really good. And I, I, I can think of times when even just verbalizing it to somebody has an, an incredible amount of impact, which I don't fully understand. Um, but getting it out, uh, uh, may, maybe, again, it's, it's kinda shifting that news cycle when it's internal in your head. It, it can just run and run and run and build and build and build and becomes your whole reality.
There's something about verbalizing it, even in just talking with a friend, um, praying even better, but. Even just speaking it out and getting a slightly different perspective, um, it can, can be very, very helpful as well. Don't, don't live with the internal monologue. Uh, you [00:45:00] don't have to.
Dan Orange: Well, before we, um, finish for today, is there anything else that you want to, to, to bring about that talk today?
Will.
Will Sopwith: I don't think so. I think, I think, I think there was a lot in it. Yeah. And I think we've covered a lot. Um, I'm just checking back on, on the notes I was making actually,
Dan Orange: when you are just
Will Sopwith: having
Dan Orange: a look at the notes. Next week we have the lovely Sharon Edmundson and she's gonna be talking again on this subject.
This is renewing your mind to having the mind of Christ and then it's renewing. Your mind. It's, well, let's, let's find out.
Will Sopwith: I'm looking forward
Dan Orange: to that.
Will Sopwith: And, and yeah, I, I mean, I, I think you, if you've been following this series, you'll, you'll notice there's a lot of overlap of different things and that will continue And, and, and that's.
That's good. Um, because God is consistent, his character is consistent, his word is consistent, and it is unsurprising that similar themes, um, pop [00:46:00] up. So just just to remind that, um, if you wanna, uh, gather on Google Meet after this, um, what. Time will that be on? Will that be straight after? I think straight after the live stream.
So please do connect, um, on that theme of, you know, if you need to just come and come and share with somebody else about, actually this is going on, um, and, and, and pray or just to discuss further. Um, but, uh, yeah, otherwise, thank you very much Mark for, um, a fantastic exposition of the mind of Christ. Um, that's really, really, really helpful.
Lots to, lots to think on. And, uh. Yeah. Yeah. See you
Dan Orange: next time. See you next week. Thank you very [00:47:00] much.