Sermon given at the Community Hospital in Port of Spain, Trinidad, September 18, 2010.

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AudioVerse

Norman McNulty

Mental Health and Salvation for the Last Days

And it's good to fellowship with the Tomb Puna Church.

Thank you for coming over from the East to worship with us here at Community Hospital today.

I'm 1 of the physicians here at the Community Hospital.

I've been here for about 6 months, and my wife Joelle did the scripture reading, and we've really enjoyed our time here in Trinidad.

I think our favorite part has been the fellowship with other believers and it's been just a continuation of being part of the family of God, whether it was in the United States or now that we're here in Trinidad.

So we thank you for the warmth that you've given to us throughout our time here in Trinidad.

So It's nice for me to see a group of believers come over from the east to worship with us here in the west today.

Pastor George, who is the pastor here at the hospital, he asked me to give a presentation on mental health, sanctification, and salvation, and how they relate to each other.

So I hope that what we talk about this morning will be helpful to all of us.

I am a neurologist by training, so some of the things that I'm talking about today will relate to what I know from the medical side of things, but also we want to look at things from the spiritual, biblical side of things.

So that's what we're going to look at in the next few minutes.

Why don't we have a word of prayer and then we will get into our presentation here.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for this beautiful Sabbath morning.

Thank you for the opportunity to worship you and I pray that you will be with us during this presentation.

I've entitled my talk Mental Health and Salvation.

Now what does mental health have to do with salvation?

Well, first of all, good mental health is very important.

If we expect to have a good relationship with Jesus, would you agree with that?

And having a relationship with Jesus enables us to live stable lives here on this earth, amen?

So therefore having good mental health is a key component to having a good walk with God.

Now, obviously mental health is that which pertains to the health of our minds.

And the physical structure of our mind is contained in the brain, and that's what I've spent some extra years of my life studying.

And so this is fascinating personally to me in my line of work as a neurologist, mental health and our minds and how God communicates with us.

God communicates with us directly in our minds, so we want to have clear minds for God to speak to us, amen?

Now, specifically, the part of the brain that God speaks to us is found in the frontal lobe.

And the frontal lobe is right behind the forehead here.

And the back of the brain, the occipital lobe, helps you to see.

The top of the middle of the brain is the parietal lobe.

Gives you the ability to calculate and do other things, determine what's the right side, what's the left side.

The temporal lobes, which are deeper down, give you memory.

It's the frontal lobe, which has a number of functions.

It controls the strength in your body, but more importantly, this is the part of the brain where our spirituality, our morality, and our will are located.

So all things considered, this is the most important part of the brain.

I mean, if you're able to see clearly, but not think clearly, what good's that going to do you?

Now obviously we want the entire brain, all 4 lobes, to be functioning well.

We don't want to minimize 1 at the expense of the other.

But the frontal lobe, for purposes of our Christian experience, that is clearly the most important part.

Now it's interesting, in human beings, this is the largest lobe in the brain.

Now, it's interesting though, if you compare the frontal lobe in human beings to other mammals, for example, in cats, it's about 3 1⁄2% the size of the volume of the brain.

So if you notice, if you have pets at home, dogs seem to be a little bit smarter than cats.

They, now, maybe not in all cases, but typically dogs are smarter than cats and they're able to somehow communicate with humans a little bit better.

That's because they have a larger frontal lobe.

Now, it's not very large, but it is larger than cats.

Human beings, our frontal lobes are 5 times as large, proportionally speaking, compared to dogs, so God has given us minds to reason from cause to effect.

And in the frontal lobe, this is where we make our decisions with respect to our walk with God.

So this is what we are going to be talking about today when we talk about the mind and making good choices and allowing God to speak with us.

Certainly God communicates to us through our entire brain, but it's especially the frontal lobe where that communication takes place.

Now what I want to look at this morning are the spiritual aspects of mental health in the mind, as found in the Bible and the writings of Ellen White.

So let's take a look at a few passages of scripture.

Turn in your Bibles with me to 2 Timothy 1 verse 7.

What does the Bible say about mental health and the mind?

Let's see what Second Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 says.

Here it says, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Of course, He's also given us power and love and He hasn't given us the spirit of fear.

But here we see God has given us a sound mind.

Are you thankful for having a sound mind?

If we did not have sound minds, we would not be able to function normally.

And unfortunately there are people in this world who lose their reasoning abilities and they do not have sound minds and do not function normally.

Now, I want to show you another passage of scripture in Philippians chapter 4 verse 7.

So turn to Philippians chapter 4 verse 7.

Philippians chapter 4 verse 7 says, "...and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." So notice this, the peace of God which passes all understanding, the promises, this peace will keep our hearts and minds.

So we can trust the keeping of our minds, of having a sound mind to Jesus Christ.

He promises to keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Now, unfortunately, God is not the only 1 that's contending for our minds.

Notice what Romans chapter 8, verses 6 and 7 says about the battle in our mind.

Romans 8, verses 6 and 7 says, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." So notice what the battle is that is taking place.

Now do you believe that when the Bible speaks of a sound mind, that it is speaking of a carnal mind that has an enmity with the law of God?

The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God.

And so God is trying to give us sound minds, and yet the devil is trying to control our minds so that we will be carnal and not be subject to the law of God.

Now there is another verse in the book of Romans, this is found in Romans 12 verses 1 and 2, which is in this week's Sabbath School quarterly lesson, which shows us that we do not need to stay having a carnal mind.

Notice what Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 say, "...I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of what?

Back to Menu

Mental Health and Salvation for the Last Days

Transcript

Description

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

The Power of Thought

1h 7m

The Mind of Christ

01 Power of the Mind

52m

The Mind of Christ

06 The Mind of Christ

43m

Bible Weekend

03 Would You Be Free?

49m

The Devil’s Battleground: Addictions and the Last Days

1h 13m

Plenary

Sabbath School Panel

40m

The Crisis of Character

The Crisis of Character

46m

Prophecy Seminar

Babylon is Fallen

1h 19m

Breakout Session 5

Epigenetics- God’s Design

52m

Own It

Own It- Part 3

1h 12m

Addiction & the Devil's Battleground

Addiction & the Devil’s Battleground: Addictions and the End Times

58m

Sound Doctrine