Last week we talked specifically about being hungry, but not just for anything, but being hungry for righteousness, for the things of God.

Thoughts like that really make you think about what you consume. Just like when it comes to trying to get healthy in your lifestyle, it's not enough just to make yourself not eat certain foods. The key is to get to a place where you not only understand, but you embrace a new lifestyle where you are consuming based on the benefit it provides, not the comfort it provides.

I had a trainer once tell me that I had to stop having the relationship I'm having with food and begin to see it for what it really is: fuel. It's just fuel for my body. Still working on that one…

This is a pretty substantial shift in your thinking and it's not very easy to do that.

Think beyond just food. What are some things you've believed your whole life that you know God is wanting you to shift into a new way of thinking?

And I realize something like this is as intense metaphorically as a major surgery. And just like surgery, shifting those thought processes and beliefs are going to require you to submit yourself, to trust people around you to help the job get done, to understand there's a problem to begin with that needs to be dealt with. For so many people just embracing the fact that there is an issue and that they need help is the biggest step.

This whole idea of shifting lifelong beliefs is incredibly difficult, and not just for us today. Somebody else had to shift as well, and that person was Paul.

A couple of weeks ago we talked through Paul's conversion experience on the road to Damascus. I'm not gonna take time today to read the story, but what I want you to understand from that story is that Paul genuinely believed he was doing the right thing by persecuting Christians. We look at him and think how horrible, but to him he was zealously defending what he believed was correct, and that experience on the road to Damascus did something to him far beyond knocking him off a donkey. It forced a shift in his belief system.

The Paul, we know today would not exist had this shift not happened.
What have you been believing that needs to change for you to reach your potential as well?

Paul has his conversion experience and is blinded in that moment.
Ananias goes to Paul, lays hands on him and prays for him and he is healed, then look at what Luke tells us in Acts 9:18-22
18 Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. 19 So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. 20 Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. 21 Then all who heard were amazed, and said, “Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

There seems to be a contradiction in Galatians 1:11-18
11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. 14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.

Let me take you on a brief history journey so that you can have a better context of these two passages. I promise you're gonna be able to glean something beautiful out of this so hang with me for a second.

Paul was saved and began preaching immediately, which is what Luke tells us, yet Paul tells us in Galatians 1 that he went to Arabia for about 3 years.
Damascus was in the north and Arabia was in the south, and Jerusalem was about the middle between.

There was a kingdom in Arabia around the area of Petra called the Nabateans that extended up almost all the way to Damascus. The Nabateans controlled a large portion of the area under a King called Aretas. Damascus was ruled by a governor who was subservient to King Aretas. Most likely, Paul had tried out the Gospel in Arabia Petrea, and the king wanted to arrest him for promulgating a non-Nabatean religion in his territory without permission. That would explain why in 2 Corinthians 11:32–33, Paul says that King Aretas tried to arrest him in Damascus.

But a question remains…What was Paul doing in Arabia? Paul says in Galatians 1:16-18
16 …I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood. 17 I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.

These are the events that probably took place over the course of three years:
- Paul was converted
- He immediately preached in Damascus. (Acts 9)
- He went away into the Arabian desert (Galatians 1) probably for the majority of three years, not failing to preach to any he encountered but using most of this time to spend time with the Lord and re-study the Torah in light of Christ.
- He returned to Damascus where he was persecuted before heading to Jerusalem to meet with the Apostles for the first time.

There is one phrase I want to highlight in this chronology that is the crux of the message today: “In the light of Christ.”

The case I am making here is that Paul in his time in Arabia literally went back to the Old Testament and I believe Jesus revealed himself to Paul in the scripture of the Old Testament. One might say that's just speculation, but is there biblical evidence of this?

Paul describes himself in Galatians 1:14
“advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age, extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”

Paul insists the Gospel came “through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12) and that God “revealed his Son in me” (1:16). That revelation did not arrive as a complete systematic theology. It required working out its implications for the very scriptures Paul already knew thoroughly.

Biblical Evidence
1 Corinthians 10:1–4
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”

Galatians 3:16
“Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.”

2 Corinthians 3:14–16
“But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”
Paul says the true meaning of the Old Testament is only unlocked in Christ.
You can clearly see in Paul’s teachings that he experienced a revelation of Jesus in the context of the Hebrew Scriptures in which he was an expert,
and he was convinced you could not understand them apart fro Jesus.

So what we have then is:
a deliberate withdrawal from human teachers after the revelation of the Son,a three-year gap before any contact with the Jerusalem apostles,and a mature theology that is thoroughly a Christ-centered reinterpretation of Israel’s Scriptures.

The result is a man who was not only an expert in the Old Testament, but, because of his revelation of Christ, became the perfect candidate to create 2/3 of the New Testament.

Everything shifted when he looked at his life, his beliefs, his thought processes, in the light of Christ.

What about you? Do you really view your life in the light of Christ?

We talk so much about thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Remember, what you do stems from what you believe and what you believe stems from what you think. So if you want to change what you do, you have to change what you believe by changing what you think.

So then, let me ask you three questions today.

1. Do you really view your thoughts in the light of Christ?
In Galatians 1:13, Paul tells us that he persecuted the church violently and did his best to destroy it. That should give you a glimpse into what he thought. Yet, once he encountered Jesus, there was a shift in his thinking.

Do you interpret every thought through the lens of the light of Christ or through your flesh?

Examples
You get to the office Monday morning and rather than starting off the week on a good note, your boss comes in and starts griping at you about something that had nothing to do with you, but he's blaming it on you and demanding you fix it immediately. First, what are you thinking, and second, is that thought godly or fleshly?

You've had a rough week and you're on the way home on Friday afternoon hoping to just relax this weekend and you get a text from someone only to find that it is an incendiary message from a family member you've had to distance from. First, what are you thinking, and second, is that thought godly or fleshly?

You're sitting somewhere with your thoughts, eating a quick lunch and that dream of owning a business pops into your mind again, but following it is a little voice that says everything you do fails so why even try. First, what are you thinking, and second is that thought godly or fleshly?

The first thing that has to happen is you have to get a revelation of who Jesus actually is and what Jesus actually thinks about you and your life. Again, this is what happened with Paul, and to take his view, you cannot understand anything in your life outside of a revelation of Jesus Christ. Until you have that revelation, it's going to impossible to view your thoughts in the light of Christ. That means whatever is influencing your thoughts will be shaping them. Whatever has your attention shapes your thinking.

So ask yourself a simple question in these moments:
What would Jesus think about this situation? How do I know what he’d think? You have to go to the Word and discover what he thinks.

Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

If you really want Jesus to illuminate what's going on in your thought life, it's going to require the thing that brings light in the first place: the Word

Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Our thinking should never conform to the world’s way of thinking. Conform - to fashion itself according to. This creates a false identity - you have the form but it isn’t true to your inner self. In Disney language - “This is not who you are.” Our thinking should transform so that we can know what God’s will is for us. Transform - Metamorphoo - changing form in keeping with your inner reality

Your thoughts should reflects his thoughts. That’s what was happening in Arabia with Paul.

Is that happening in Liberty with you? Are your thoughts changing?
Are you allowing the light of Christ through the renewing of your mind by his Word to transform what you are thinking into what God thinks?

2. Do you really view your beliefs in the light of Christ?
Thoughts form into beliefs. Paul’s thoughts about Christianity formed what he believed about Christ.

Ben Shapiro on Joe Rogan
“From the Jewish point of view, we do not believe in the divinity of Christ. We don't even believe he was a prophet. I think he was a Jew who tried to lead a revolt against the Romans and got killed for his trouble just like other Jews who were crucified for trying to lead revolts against the Romans.”

Same for early Paul, yet Paul takes a step further and actually tries to quash the faith.

Why do you believe what you believe? And I don’t just mean what you believe about Jesus.
Why do you believe what you believe about yourself?
Why do you believe what you believe about where you are in life?
Why do you believe what you believe about God's plan for you?
Why do you believe what you believe about that person that hurt you?

Core Drivers
Is your belief system based on helping you have control, basically you trying to make sense of the chaos of the world around you?
“I believe the world is this way and that’s how its gonna be.”
Is your belief driven by identity or belonging so you feel like you’re not alone?
“If belonging means believing, I’ll believe in whatever makes me feel like I belong.”
Is your belief system an attempt to emotionally regulate yourself, which helps you deal with things like fear or guilt or anxiety?
“I’ll believe whatever relieves the emotional pain I feel.”
Is your belief formed by your painful life experiences and you've determined that how things are is just the way things are going to be?
“Observation and pattern recognition form what I believe, so the abuse I’ve endured forces me to believe what I believe.”

There is a tension all of us experience in that we are trying our best to discover the truth. Often times, we've determined what we think about our experiences and those thoughts create a truth in our minds that we embrace as a belief. It can actually be true or 100% false, but because we’ve determined veracity with our thoughts, we embrace the belief with our whole being. This is why an abused person sees no value in themselves, why an anxious person finds no stability. We create a belief system in our minds and embrace that system with our whole being.

Do you really think that belief you’ve embraced is God’s best for you?

How would your life be different if what you believed about yourself was rerouted in the light of Christ?

3. Do you really view your actions in the light of Christ?
The logical end this leads to is how what you think and believe affect your actions. In the case of Paul, his thoughts and actions drove him towards violent zealousness. But in light of Christ, it drove him to zealous evangelism.

How would your life change if rather than acting upon your initial response, you funnel that potential action through the lens of the light of Christ?

Before Peter denied Jesus, he was confidently self-reliant. He believed he was the most loyal disciple. When Jesus predicted that all would fall away, Peter insisted, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away… Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you” (Matthew 26:33-35). He trusted his own courage and zeal more than Jesus’ warning.His identity was tied to performance: being the bold one, the leader, the one who would stand when others ran.

After the denial, Jesus forgave Peter in John 21, and his thoughts and beliefs shifted in clear ways:
From self-reliance to dependence on Christ’s grace and the Holy Spirit. He no longer claimed superior loyalty. He had been humbled and it changed his thinking.From performance-based identity to forgiven-and-sent identity. The man who once measured himself by his willingness to die for Jesus now lived from the reality that Jesus had died for him and restored him.From fear of man to fear of God. Where he once denied to save his life, he later told the authorities, “We must obey God rather than men” Acts 5:29

Before the betrayal, Peter’s actions flowed from the belief “I am strong enough to stay faithful.” After forgiveness, his actions flowed from the belief “I am forgiven, loved, and empowered by the One who stayed faithful when I failed.” The same man who denied Jesus to a servant girl later stood before the Sanhedrin and would not be silenced. The difference was not that Peter became naturally braver. It was that his confidence moved from his own loyalty to Christ’s finished work and ongoing presence. That shift turned failure into the foundation for courageous, Spirit-led ministry.

How would your life change if you stopped spending all your energy trying to manage bad actions, but rather, you started filtering every thought in the light of Christ and his Word?

Here’s what you’d discover:
Jesus would be closer, your thoughts higher, your beliefs empowered, and your actions would become increasingly more righteous.
And if that happened in you, what could it do in those around you too?

Transformation begins when we are willing to think and believe differently.

Paul took the time to allow Jesus to show himself through the word. It caused Paul’s entire mindset to change, and the result was Paul could literally become the person God created him to be.

What if God’s best for your life was on the other side of a change in your mindset?

Do you have some thoughts that need to be enlightened by Jesus?
Do you have some beliefs that need to submit to the authority of Christ?
Do you have some actions that need to be surrendered to the Lord today?

It might need to begin with saying Yes to Jesus to begin with.
“Jesus I believe in you. I confess you as Lord. I repent of my sin. Save me.”

Maybe you need Romans 12:2 to be a reality in your life.
Don’t conform to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
- Conform is to mold your form into something that doesn’t reflect your inner reality.
- Transform is to change your form in keeping with your inner reality.

Follow Paul’s lead. Evaluate your thoughts and beliefs and determine whether or not they match God’s thoughts and beliefs about you.
If they don’t, here’s your chance to respond today.

God forgive me. Shine your light into my life. Change me Lord.