Learning to Think Like Jesus: When Hearts Are Turned Back to God

 Learning to Think Like Jesus

When Hearts Are Turned Back to God

 

November 27, 2021

 

Larry R Evans

 

Introduction

Listen to this, Israel. GOD is calling you to account—and I mean all of you, everyone connected with the family that he delivered out of Egypt. Listen!

"Out of all the families on earth,

I picked you.

Therefore, because of your special calling,

I'm holding you responsible for all your sins."

Do two people walk hand in hand

if they aren't going to the same place? (The Message, Amos 3:1-3)

George Barna tells of a conversation he had with two pastors who had been attending one of his seminars.  “So, what do you guys do to help your people get a biblical worldview?”

 

One pastor told of how they have missionaries speak in his church services several times a year.  The Sunday school class had reports about and prayed for other parts of the world.  “We make sure that they realize the American Church is not the total sum of God’s work in the world.  Our people get it.”

 

The second pastor quickly spoke up and said that he preaches through the entire Bible every five years. “By the time we’re through the cycle, the church has been exposed to all of the basic principles of Christianity and will have a biblical worldview. That’s what you meant, isn’t it?

 

Barna affirmed what he could, but then said,

 “A biblical worldview is more than that. . .. A biblical worldview is thinking like Jesus. It is a way of making our faith practical to every situation we face each day. A biblical worldview is a way of dealing with the world in such a way that we act like Jesus twenty-four hours a day because we think like Jesus.” [George Barna in Think Like Jesus: Make the Right Decision Every Time]

The theme of our study this week is repentance.  It is about who we are and how we relate to the purposes of God. Repentance involves more than changing our behavior.  It does change what we do, but it also transforms the way we see ourselves, the world around us, and God.

 

This is why we introduced this week’s study with the passage from Amos, “Do two people walk hand in hand if they aren’t going to the same place?”  The desired outcome of repentance is for us to walk with God. Getting to that point likely involves a redirection or change. It does mean seeing life from God’s advantage point.  Learning to think like God ultimately means getting to know God in ways we may not have experienced before.  This raises the question, “How did Jesus get to the point thinking as He did?”There are at least four important insights from the life of Jesus that we must bear in mind.  These points help explain His victory over the wilderness temptations as well as why Israel struggled for 40 years as they wandered through the wilderness.

 

1.     Jesus made God’s Word His foundation.

2.    Jesus made His focus solely on knowing and fulfilling the will of God.

3.    Jesus filtered the information that came to Him by eliminating assumptions and expectations that were not in harmony with scriptural principles.

4.    Jesus’ faith led Him to act upon His belief in biblically grounded insights.

 

The first step to right thinking is knowing God and “knowing” is more than believing.

Seeking God

 

Thinking like Jesus includes remembering what God has done. We are reminded of this in Jeremiah 6:16.

 This is what the LORD says:

“Stand at the crossroads and look;

ask for the ancient paths,

ask where the good way is, and walk in it,

and you will find rest for your souls.

But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Note the paraphrase by The Message,

GOD's Message yet again:

"Go stand at the crossroads and look around.

Ask for directions to the old road,

The tried and true road. Then take it.

Discover the right route for your souls.

But they said, 'Nothing doing.

We aren't going that way.'

“There is an irony in the biblical idea of repentance; progress means going back.” The people had fallen out of the relationship they once had with God.  They had replaced God’s word with the performance of temple rituals (Jer. 6:20). God did not accept these rituals. They substituted wealth and material possessions for obedience.  The frustrated and dismayed Jeremiah described the once blessed people as not showing any shame for their behavior.  They did not know “how to blush” (Jer. 6:16).

 

Ellen White describes Satan’s counsel to his angels this way,

“Through those that have a form of godliness but know not the power, we can gain many who would otherwise do us harm. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God will be our most effective helpers. Those of this class who are apt and intelligent will serve as decoys to draw others into our snares. Many will not fear their influence, because they profess the same faith. We will thus lead them to conclude that the requirements of Christ are less strict than they once believed, and that by conformity to the world they would exert a greater influence with worldlings. Thus they will separate from Christ; then they will have no strength to resist our power, and erelong they will be ready to ridicule their former zeal and devotion.(Testimonies to Ministers, p. 474)

God saw the outcome of bad choices. Note how he agonized for His people, 

Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always so that it might go well with them and their children forever! (Deut. 5:29)

God is no dictator trying to force His people into compliance.  This is the God who loves and wants to save us from self-destruction!  He is calling us back.

 

QUESTION.  Was God expecting the impossible when he asked,

So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in obedience to all that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. (Deut. 5:32,33)

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deut. 6:4) 

QUESTION. Was behavior their only problem?  If not, what does forgiveness mean? How does forgiveness change the problem?

 

Forgiveness and the Need to Think Like Jesus

 

QUESTION: What hinders us from being forgiven? 

 

Note the counsel Ellen White gave to one struggling person:

Satan often presents the past before you and tells you that it is of no use for you to try to live out the truth, the way is too strait for you. . . . 

The trouble is with yourself. You want your own way, and do not rend your heart before God, and with brokenness and contrition cast yourself all broken, sinful, and polluted, upon His mercy. Your efforts to save yourself, if persisted in, will result in your certain ruin. 2T 90

Note how Moses reminded the people of how God spared them and how they survived before him despite their sinful nature.

And you said, “The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them. (Deut. 5:24)

[The contrasting stories of Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter, and Corrie Ten Boom, a former captive of the Nazis]

 

Wiesenthal tells the story of his encounter with a former Nazi officer who was dying in a hospital. The Nazi asked Wiesenthal to forgive him for the horrific crimes he had committed against Jewish civilians, without which, he claimed, he could not die in peace. Wiesenthal, who kept silent throughout the encounter, walked away without responding to the Nazi’s requests. Wiesenthal concludes the story with a question: “What would you have done?”

 

Perhaps he should have spoken to Corrie ten Boom (Author of The Hiding Place)

It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.

  He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming, and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.’ He said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’

  His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

  Even as the angry, vengeful through boiled through me, I saw the sin of them, Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

  I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I feel nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness. 

  As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my should along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

  And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.” (p.233)

QUESTION. Both Wiesenthal and ten Boom struggled with the atrocities. Why do you think the response was different? Have you struggled to forgive someone?

 

We sometimes need to be reminded of a proverb that was recently emailed to me, “Turn your face to the sun and the shadow falls behind you.”

 

Understanding Our Return 

and How It Changes the Way We Think

 

One of the first things that changes when we return to God is the way we not only see ourselves but also the way we see the world and the work of God.  We find a good illustration of this in Joshua 5:13-15.  Joshua is about the lead one of the strangest attacks on a city found in the Bible.  Before the march around the city of Jericho began, Joshua met a man standing in front of him.  Here is what the Bible says,

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

QUESTION. Why do you think it was important for the commander of the Lord to meet with Joshua before the miracle took place at Jericho? Why was it important for the commander to tell Joshua that he represented “neither” side in the conflict?  Whom did he represent? Why was it important for Joshua to be confronted with that reality?

 

Joshua wanted to divide his world into two groups of people—“the good guys and the bad guys.”  When asked whose side he was on, the commander of the Lord’s army said, “Neither.” We need to pause here and ask how quickly we do the same as Joshua did.  Bad actions, bad behavior, are wrong and at times they do need to be called out as such but the way we think about needs to be seen from a much wider perspective.  We must remember that when we think like Jesus, we see will see through the lens of God. 

 

In Conclusion

The Religion of “So What!”

 

Our focus today placed a lot of emphasis on “Learning to think like Jesus.”  We chose that approach because repentance is often summed up by saying, “I’m sorry.” What can be avoided by simply saying “I’m sorry”? What can be accomplished by saying “I’m sorry”?

 

I am reminded of a statement in the book Steps to Christ that goes like this, 

There are many who fail to understand the true nature of repentance. Multitudes sorrow that they have sinned and even make an outward reformation because they fear that their wrongdoing will bring suffering upon themselves. But this is not repentance in the Bible sense. (p. 34)

Seeing sin from God’s perspective has a much deeper meaning.  This deeper meaning was why we began our study by reading from Amos 3,

Therefore, because of your special calling, I'm holding you responsible for all your sins. "Do two people walk hand in hand if they aren't going to the same place?

God has given us a special role in His master plan. 

 

QUESTION. What attitude does repentance develop? Why would that be important for those who are called to play a significant role in preparing the world for Christ’s soon coming?

 

We aren’t called because we are better but because He needs a people whom He can send on special missions. That calls for a deeper kind of repentance.  It is one that understands Him, His ways, and His love.  To get to that point will take a new kind of honesty with Him and ourselves. 

 

Repentance is not something that is only for our good.  

There is nothing that Christ desires so much as agents who will represent to the world His Spirit and character. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Saviour's love. All heaven is waiting for channels through which can be poured the holy oil to be a joy and blessing to human hearts. COL 419.2

Learning to think and act as Jesus would is a supernatural gift God is waiting to give to each one.

 

The more you study the character of Christ, the more attractive will He appear to you. He will become as one near you, in close companionship with you; your affections will go out after Him. If the mind is molded by the objects with which it has most to do, then to think of Jesus, to talk of Him, will enable you to become like Him in spirit and character. You will reflect His image in that which is great and pure and spiritual. You will have the mind of Christ, and He will send you forth to the world as His spiritual representative.— (Ellen White in The Review and Herald, August 26, 1890.)