When You Talk To Yourself, What Do You Say?
And Is Anybody Listening?
Romans 5:1-11
Introduction: “Since you have been justified…” That’s Paul’s way of addressing Christians—people who have placed their faith in the redemptive work of Christ at the Cross and in the Resurrection.
“Since you have been justified…” A wonderful word! If I have been justified it is just-if-I’d never sinned.
The debt has been paid by His death and I share in the life and victory of Easter Sunday.
“Since you have been justified”...Paul says that you have certain gifts – certain blessings in Christ.
I. Two facets of Christ’s Justifying Work
1) We don’t get what we deserve (we call that mercy)
2) We get what we don’t deserve (we call that GRACE)
In Romans 5:1-11 Paul lists SOME of the grace blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus.
Peace; Power; Joy; Hope, Love, and the Holy Spirit to live in us.
Should make us excited – but in reality it is something of a challenge.
Ask self: “Self, why isn’t my life that way?” “Why am I not experiencing those superlatives of grace?”
PEACE everything seems to be in turmoil
POWER Weak and worn out…only going through the motions
JOY Have you seen my face? I can’t remember my last genuine smile.
LOVE I don’t feel loved, loveable, nor do I feel I have the capacity to love others.
HOLY SPIRIT IN ME I haven’t felt close to God in a very, very long time!
Paul presents us with a terrific thesis: “Since you have been justified…” you have certain blessings.
Our lives seem to be a perfect anti-thesis. Though people of faith, these grace blessing seem far away.
II. “What If?” WHAT IF Paul is correct!
WHAT IF these and other grace gifts are REALLY available to us here and now!
WHAT IF you could be in a place where circumstances would no longer dictate your attitudes!
WHAT IF you could find a place where the situations of your life no longer directed your ethics!
WHAT IF your emotions were not ruled by others because you the true peace of God!
WHAT IF your life was not a series of unfortunate events, but an exciting adventure with God!
WHAT IF you could really know JOY, even on bad days, through grief, and when facing hardship!
WHAT IF your entire live could be viewed as a ministry - and this ministry was filled with real power!
WHAT IF you could face each new day with a sense of hope rather than despair!
WHAT IF every moment of your life could be filled with expectancy rather than dread!
Would you be interested in discovering if these “what ifs” could become reality?
Doesn’t that sound like the Victorious Christian Life you’ve been looking for?
That’s what I am going to be preaching about over this summer.
Keys of grace that will allow us to reach the heights God has planned for you.
How to unlock the unique supernatural abilities God has placed without you.
Change the way we see ourselves so we can move from destructive attitudes toward expectant faith.
Learn that the sufficiency of Christ is enough for us to be all God intends for us to do.
III. It is possible for the WHAT IFS of your life to become a reality!
A) What we will not be engaging in…
Not a SELF-HELP program. (We needed Christ for salvation. We need Christ for sanctification.)
Not a PROSPERTITY GOSPEL. (Makes God to be a “genie” in a lamp – or a Celestial Santa)
B) What we WILL be doing…
Trusting in the Sufficiency of Christ (not a plan - but a person)
Not trying to GET something we don’t have – but to appropriate what we have been given
Believing in the Application of Biblical Truth (not enough to affirm a doctrine if you don’t apply it)
IV. To Get Anywhere We Need To Know ONE THING: The Battlefield Is In The Mind!
Do you ever think about what you are thinking about?
The Bible speaks often about the importance of our thoughts.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart…” Psalm 19:14
“Just as a person thinks in their heart…so shall they be.” Proverbs 23:7
So the title of today’s sermon:
When You Talk To Yourself, What Do You Say? And Is Anybody Listening?
A. We DO talk to ourselves (sometimes verbally – always in our thoughts)
Self-talk – the internal conversation we have with ourselves everyday
B. When you talk to yourself – is anybody listening?
Who is listening to our self-talk? WE ARE! We listen to ourselves and we believe what we say!
C. When we talk to ourselves – what do we say? What kinds of thoughts dominate your self-talk?
Self-talk is like software in a computer. It tells the computer what to do. It programs our living.
1) We are all developing a self-talk software script throughout our lives
2) Much of that script is based on what others say about us
Who are the most important people in your life?
What you think they think if you influences how you see yourself.
A. Parents
B. Siblings
C. Peers
D. Significant Others
E. Spouse
V. Self-Talk PROGRAMS The FLESH
A. FLESH (life apart from reliance on Christ) – means to make sense, deal with, control life
B. The FLESH is that list of coping mechanism for living that are absent from FAITH in Christ
C. FLESH can be positively programmed (pride, boasting, arrogance) Example: Pharisee!
D. FLESH can be negatively programmed (fear, worthless, no value)
E. The FLESH is programmed by the lies we tell ourselves
F. If we repeat the lie long enough – we will start to believe it and it will influence out living
E. Apart from Christ – we have nothing else to GO ON but our own self-talk
It is possible to rise above the flesh and experience a new ways of thinking based on biblical truth.
VI. What If the most important person in our life were God?
Would what God said about you make a difference in how you viewed your life?
If you viewed your life the way God does – would it change your attitudes and actions?
1) “Since we have been justified…” God’s word says we have been given certain spiritual gifts, among them: PEACE, POWER, JOY, HOPE, LOVE, and the indwelling presence of the HOLY SPIRIT
These are gifts God has given you. They are a part of your new identity in Christ.
Elsewhere in Romans God tells us that He has made us RIGHTEOUS through Christ.
That means we are acceptable and accepted. Should that have an impact on your life?
2) We need to discipline our minds to affirm these truths daily. We need to discipline our minds to rejects the devils lies daily. The Bible speaks about taking every thought captive and submitting is to the authority of Christ.
3) What if you and I were to do that every day?
A. What if we started to think about what we think about?
B. What if we heard those thoughts up to the scrutiny of biblical truth?
C. What if we rejected as lies from the devil every destructive and unbiblical thought?
D. What if we intentionally affirmed daily as truth those things GOD says about us?
4) It won’t be easy to live like this – especially at first. It will be a struggle as we confront the suffering in our souls caused by the flesh – but this kind of struggle will produce perseverance, which will lead to character, and then to a hope in God that will never disappoint us because it is based in His love.
5) There is a great biblical word for this. It’s FAITH. We didn’t save ourselves – we needed to trust Christ. We can’t fix ourselves (reprogram our minds) – we need to trust Christ.
