Your Mind is a Sponge (Part 3)

What we have discovered the last 2 days is that our minds our sponges, and we are probably soaking up things we shouldn't.  Statistically, we are spending 100x more time in front of a TV than at church.  What we now turn to is some practical things we can do to be influenced by Biblical rather than cultural influences.  These are just ideas.  What you need more than a few ideas is the desire and commitment to saturate yourself with biblical influences and rid yourselves of much of your negative influences.

1. Know what your influences are and list them out.  If it is TV, what about it is influencing you?  Are you watching too much, are you watching things you know you probably shouldn't?  If not TV, it may be a hobby, the culture you live in...whatever it is, if you don't know it is influencing you, how can you combat it?  

2. Intentional Schedule:  We schedule meetings, events, parties, vacations, etc., yet never seem to schedule our free time.  I know, scheduled free time doesn't sound free...but it is!  My deepest desire is to know and follow Christ, yet I have often found myself wasting time, watching TV, or doing something else that doesn't line up with that desire.  To combat that, I try to schedule some of my free time.  When and what are you going to read?  What time will you watch TV and what time will it be shut off?  When will you work on house projects and hobbies?  The problem most of us have is if you are left without a schedule, we come home hopping to really get into the Word and find ourselves 3 hours later still watching TV.  If you schedule your time each week (and stick to it), this can be avoided.

3. Book List: The truth is, we all need to spend more time saturating ourselves in the Bible and other Christian books.  We are spending too little time in this area, which has a major impact on our spiritual growth.  So make a list of books you want to read and when you will read them.  Have categories, so you can be reading about and working on many different areas of your Christian life.  Example:  I read a biography on Saturdays, marriage/parenting book on Wednesdays, devotional everyday, personal growth book on Saturdays, and ministry related books throughout the week.  At any given time, I am reading between 6-10 books at a time.  I will admit that this is a lot and I am a little crazy...but there is no reason why you can't have 2-4 books you are reading at a time.  There is no reason you can't substitute a TV show for Christian book.

4. Let Technology work for you: Laura and I have shows we like to watch, but instead of watching them when they come on TV, we wait.  Then we either watch in on our own time at hulu.com or we wait until it comes on DVD and rent it from netflix (TiVo works too).  What this does is allows us to watch what we want, when we want it.   We are not locked into a specific time slot and we don't have to worry about missing a show.  Some people watch a show each night, get hooked, so they can't find time for other things since they "have" to watch their show.

5. Change your mindset.  Have a mindset that works towards eternity, not one that just works for getting through each week.  

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1Cor 10:31

Your Mind is a Sponge (Part 2)

"The average adult who spends 50 hours a year in a pew will also spend 2,000 hours at home watching television" –Brian Chapel in "Christ Centered Preaching"


The American culture is defined by busyness.  Our schedules are packed and we rarely have time for things that haven't been planned into our busy days.  Or at least that is what we try to communicate to others, but the impression we give of being busy doesn't line up with this statistic.  If this statistic is true (which lines up accurately with other statistical research) than this means average Joe American spends 5.4 hours a day watching TV.  That is over 37 hours a week, which is just shy of being the equivalent of a full time job.  


Going off what we said yesterday, if we are so heavily influenced by the things we see and hear, than this shows why our spiritual lives are such a struggle.  You may not watch this much TV, but however much you watch I am guessing there is more time spent in front of the TV than a Christian book.  We are being heavily influenced by the media, and rarely influenced by the Bible, church, and things of the like.  


So when the preacher gives a 30 minute message about living for others, that same listener is bombarded with countless hours of media telling them to serve themselves: buy this to make you look better, this to make you feel better, you deserve this and that.  They are opposing messages, yet the message from the culture is taking center stage!  


This is going to be a struggle for us, because obviously we can't just be in church 5 hours a day to combat this.  But there are some things we can do to live in such a way that our influences are Biblical ones, so when we are around media and culture, instead of being influenced by it, we begin to see things through the lens of Scripture and seek to influence the culture itself.  This is what we will tackle tomorrow.      

Your Mind is a Sponge (Part 1)

"The average adult who spends 50 hours a year in a pew will also spend 2,000 hours at home watching television" –Brian Chapel in "Christ Centered Preaching"

This quote was given to make preachers aware of what they are up against.  The people we preach to spend 100 times more time in front of a TV than a preacher, which makes a preachers job an uphill fight.

I truly believe we are heavily influenced and guided by what we fill our minds with.  If I am watching TV shows filled with drama, I will be more likely to cause or find it myself.  If I am listening to rap music filled with cursing and sexual imagery, my mouth will begin to swear more and my mind will become more sexual corrupt.  If I am reading financial magazines all the time, my mind will often be concerned or think about what to do with my own finances.  If I am hanging out with certain people a lot, I will begin to act or talk like them (teenagers are a perfect example of this). The truth is, we think and act like what we fill our minds with.  We cannot avoid this, but we can do something about it.

So what are the implications we should draw from this?  That is where we will go tomorrow, but for now I want you to ask yourself:

What is the primary thing I am feeding my mind?  What things I am listening to, people I am hanging out with, or things I am doing that are affecting me negatively?