Ambassadors for Christ: The Call to Think Biblically
This podcast episode delves into the imperative of thinking biblically as we navigate our lives as ambassadors for Christ. Pastor Josh Massaro articulates that our thoughts, beliefs, and subsequent actions are intrinsically linked, ultimately emphasizing the necessity of aligning our mindset with the teachings of Scripture. Drawing from Second Corinthians chapter 10, he elucidates the significance of spiritual warfare and the tools provided by God to combat the strongholds that may hinder our spiritual journey. The overarching message encourages us to critically evaluate our thoughts and beliefs to ensure they reflect the truth of God's Word, thereby enabling us to fulfill our divine purpose with clarity and conviction. Join us as we explore how to foster a mindset rooted in biblical principles, empowering us to represent Christ faithfully in a world rife with challenges.
A profound exploration of the theme of biblical thinking serves as the cornerstone of Pastor Josh Massaro's sermon on February 2, 2025, at Middletown Baptist Church. The pastor articulates that the essence of being an ambassador for Christ necessitates a foundational understanding of biblical principles, which ultimately informs our actions in the world. The sermon invites congregants to contemplate 2 Corinthians chapter 10, emphasizing the urgency of approaching spiritual warfare not through worldly tactics, but through the divine arsenal provided by God. Pastor Massaro delineates how our mental frameworks dictate our spiritual efficacy, urging each listener to take inventory of their thoughts and beliefs, aligning them with the tenets of faith taught in Scripture.
In an engaging dialogue with his children, Pastor Massaro illustrates the concept of representation, highlighting that believers must not only understand their role as ambassadors but must actively live out their faith in a manner that reflects the teachings of Christ. The pastor underscores the importance of bringing every thought into captivity, aligning them with the obedience of Christ, while acknowledging the challenges of navigating a culture that often stands in stark contrast to biblical truth. The message is one of introspection and action, calling believers to renew their minds daily through engagement with Scripture, thus empowering them to dismantle any strongholds that oppose the truth of God.
As the sermon progresses, the pastor elaborates on the nature of spiritual warfare, asserting that true conflict is not of this world but rather a battle of ideologies and beliefs. He implores the congregation to examine their thought processes, discerning between the wisdom of God and the misleading doctrines prevalent in modern society. The core message resonates through a call to action: believers are charged with the responsibility to embody their faith actively, demonstrating love and grace in their daily interactions. In conclusion, Pastor Massaro's sermon serves as a clarion call for all to think biblically, live authentically, and represent Christ with integrity in a world desperate for hope and truth.
Takeaways:
- The importance of thinking biblically is paramount for representing Christ effectively in our daily lives.
- As ambassadors for Christ, we are called to align our thoughts and beliefs with biblical truth.
- Spiritual warfare necessitates the use of spiritual weapons, rather than relying on carnal methods.
- Our actions are a direct reflection of our thoughts, emphasizing the need for proper mental alignment.
- To effectively engage in spiritual warfare, we must bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
- Believers must continually renew their minds through the Word of God to combat worldly influences.
Thank you for joining our podcast. Visit our website at https://middletownbaptistchurch.org/
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This podcast is produced by Ralph Estep, Jr., host of the Ask Ralph Podcast, a daily podcast on Christian Finance you can find it at https://www.askralphpodcast.com/
00:00 - None
00:00 - Introduction to the Podcast
00:28 - Thinking Biblically as Ambassadors for Christ
09:08 - Understanding Spiritual Warfare
15:21 - Understanding Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
25:10 - Understanding Strongholds: The Battle Within
30:58 - Aligning Thoughts with Truth
36:28 - Renewing Our Minds in Christ
45:30 - Thinking Biblically: Aligning Our Thoughts with God's Truth
Speaker A
Hello, and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
Speaker A
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.
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I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.
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Now, come along.
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Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
Speaker B
Praise God for that.
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This morning.
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My heart has already been blessed.
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I hope yours has been as well.
Speaker B
And we're going to go ahead and look into the word of God this morning.
Speaker B
If you have your Bibles, turn to Second Corinthians chapter 10 with me.
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Second Corinthians, chapter 10.
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You should have had some notes on the back of your bulletin that you can follow along with here this morning.
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And we also have a PowerPoint that you can see up there.
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And so we've got you covered.
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We got everything going here this morning.
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And the title of the sermon this morning is Go Thinking Biblically.
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The theme for this year is Go.
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If you haven't seen that already, on the back wall, we have our theme Go.
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We are called to go as ambassadors for Christ.
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And we're called to represent Jesus in this world.
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If we think about it properly, this world is not our home.
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We're just passing through.
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And so now that we are saved, now that we are believers, we have a responsibility, we have a purpose.
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And that purpose is to represent Jesus and his Word and his way and his kingdom in this world that needs hope and need salvation.
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But to go properly, to go as an ambassador properly, we must be thinking biblically.
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And that's what we're going to talk about here this morning.
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Because what we think about, what we dwell upon in our minds will eventually dictate our actions.
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And so we have to think properly before we can act properly, before we can represent properly.
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And so I want to share a little bit of an example about this here.
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Here this morning.
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I'm gonna ask my kids to come forward.
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They're not ready to do this.
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This was totally impromptu.
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So Micah and Nora, come on up here.
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Come on, let's go.
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Hustle up.
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So I don't know if any of you that have had children have had this conversation before.
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We're gonna have a mock conversation, even though this is a real conversation that we've had in our household.
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Okay, guys, you're gonna go off to school today, all right?
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And I want you to obey your teachers.
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I want you to respect everybody.
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I want you to learn.
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I want you to be good.
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Cause you're Representing our household.
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You're representing the Musaro name.
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And now if they go out and say, yeah, yeah, dad, whatever, we're gonna think the way we wanna think.
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We're gonna do what we wanna do.
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Are they gonna go represent our family?
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Well at school, no, they're gonna represent what they want.
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And more importantly, I've told them, hey, guys, you're representing Jesus out there.
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You're representing our Savior.
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And so one of the things we do, and different people have different ways that their children get to school.
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Some ride the bus, some stay at home and are homeschooled.
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Fantastic.
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There's a lot of different ways to do this, but one of the things that we do is I drive them to school on the road.
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We have a specific place on the road.
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What do we do?
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Every time we turn on that road, what do we do?
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We pray, right?
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We pray for the day.
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We make sure that we pray for what's gonna happen that day and that they are gonna obey and that they're gonna stay safe and that they're gonna represent Jesus.
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Right?
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That is important.
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Because if they're not thinking the way that Dad's thinking, their expectations might be, well, I just want to do whatever I want to do.
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But if I clearly explain to them my expectations for what they should be doing in the day, it's now their responsibility to follow that in obedience to represent dad and mom and the family and ultimately the Savior in a proper way.
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And so that's the kind of conversation that we have with our children, hopefully.
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And so you guys go ahead, go back.
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Thank you so much.
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That's the kind of conversation that God is having with us in Scripture, right?
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Here's what you need to do.
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And if anybody clearly presents what we are called to do, it's our Savior.
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He's given us our marching orders.
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He's given us what we are to think about properly.
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Now, if my kids say, yeah, dad said that, but I watched this video that said I can do whatever I want and that I should follow my heart, they're gonna have a choice to make.
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They either have to make the choice of following what they have been told other places or following what their dad has taught them in devotional time and in children's church and in our prayers on the way to school, they have to make a decision.
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So all of us have to make a decision when it comes to what we are going to think about and what we are going to believe.
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Who are we going to follow?
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Who are we going to obey as we represent our Savior as ambassadors.
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Now, just by way of review, what's an ambassador?
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An ambassador is someone who takes a message or represents a king or a president or some kind of dignitary to another place.
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And that's exactly what we are doing here in this world.
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We are representing Christ.
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We are representing his truth.
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And so as we get here this morning, I want you to think about that term, ambassadors.
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And I put down here in our notes this morning.
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To represent the Lord, we must think properly.
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Believe it or not, the Bible tells us how we are to think, to think properly.
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Now we're gonna talk about what thinking properly is.
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It doesn't just mean being smart.
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It doesn't just mean being crafty.
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There's a specific way that we think properly when it comes to being a believer.
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And so the reason why it's important for us to think properly is because of this.
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Our thinking is linked to our beliefs.
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So really it goes back further.
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What we believe drives what we think.
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And so it's not just saying, okay, well, am I gonna think right today?
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Okay, I'm gonna wake up and I'm gonna really train my brain to think this way.
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Really, our brains are tied to our hearts.
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And so what we believe in our hearts tie to our minds.
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And we're gonna talk about that this morning because it's so important for us to think about the why behind our thinking, the why behind our action.
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And so our thinking is linked to our beliefs.
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And so it's believing and having faith in God and in His Word so that we're able to think properly about the things that we're going to face in our life.
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And so our thinking is linked to our beliefs.
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What do we believe?
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What do we believe about God?
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What do we believe about his goodness?
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What do we believe about all those attributes of God that we hear about in church?
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Do we truly believe that he's all knowing?
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Do we truly believe that he's all powerful?
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Do we truly believe that he's everywhere at all times, meaning he's with me in this moment?
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Do we truly believe that his way is the only way to salvation?
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Do we truly believe that His Word is perfect and that it's powerful and that it can transform our lives?
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Do we truly believe that the Gospel has power, as the Bible says in Romans chapter one?
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If we truly believe those things, we'll start to think differently, which then leads to acting differently.
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Our actions are linked to our thinking, and so what we believe is linked to what we think.
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What we think is linked to what we do.
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And really?
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That's what we're talking about this morning.
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What are we doing for Christ?
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What are we doing as ambassadors?
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How are we going?
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Are we going?
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And so the true test for us this morning is what we believe leads to what we think, and what we think leads to what we do.
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And so we put all that together.
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And so to be an ambassador for Christ, we must believe the truth.
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It starts with a belief in truth.
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Where do we get our truth?
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The word of God?
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Our truth does not come from the world.
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The world tells us a bunch of things to believe.
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The world tells us a bunch of things to do.
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I'm going to tell you every single time the world tells you to do something, it's contrary to the word of God.
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The word of God is contrary to our culture.
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You know what?
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There was a time where countercultural meant to be rebellious against the ways of the church.
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To be countercultural today is to be against the ways of the culture.
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Right?
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That's countercultural.
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Our cultural.
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I'm going to say it this way.
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I'm going to try to be as kind as I can with this.
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Our culture is not Christlike today.
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And what we have to do is we have to be against our culture.
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And so as Christians, we don't say, well, you know what?
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I know the Bible says this, but this makes more sense.
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But I was told this by some Internet figure, celebrity, whatever we have to say, you know what the word of God says this.
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That's not gonna be something that we compromise on.
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We stand in the truth.
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And so to start with being an ambassador, we must believe the truth, trust in the truth, but then we must take a next step and then actually let that go in our brains and meditate in our minds.
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And we must believe and think biblically and therefore act in obedience.
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Because you can believe the truth.
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You can even in many ways think right thoughts, but sometimes those don't connect with our actions.
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We can be theoretical Christians.
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And it's one thing to have in your mind what's right.
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It's another thing to put that to practice and say, you know what?
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I love that person.
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So if I love that person, I'm going to sacrifice for that person.
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If I love the gospel, I'm going to proclaim the gospel.
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If I love Christ, I'm willing to take a step in faith for him.
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And so to be an ambassador, we must believe the truth, think biblically, and act in obedience.
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And so let's look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 10.
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2 Corinthians, chapter 10.
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We're going to look at the first six verses here this morning.
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And what we're going to see in this passage is Paul explains the importance of facing spiritual warfare properly.
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And by the way, we sometimes think about spiritual warfare being physical warfare.
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That's actually the opposite of what the Bible says.
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The Bible says that spiritual warfare is not a warfare of flesh and blood.
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It's a spiritual thing.
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And so what we have to think about in our lives as believers is this, as we go, we are going to face spiritual warfare.
Speaker B
And so Paul is explaining the importance of facing spiritual warfare properly, using the right tools.
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He's urgent in this passage.
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Let's look at it here in verse number one, Second Corinthians, chapter 10 says, Now I, Paul, myself, beseech.
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That's a word that we don't use frequently today, but it's pleading with essentially begging.
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Guys, pay attention to what I'm about to say.
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Now.
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I, Paul myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, meaning the only way that I can beseech you is in the name of Jesus and in his character and in his meekness and in his grace and his forgiveness and his gentleness.
Speaker B
And he says, who in being, excuse me, who in presence am base among you, being absent and bold towards you now, you might not understand what he's talking about there.
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He's saying this, when I'm with you, sometimes I'm quiet.
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When I'm with you, sometimes I'm not bold.
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But right now, where I'm at, away from you, I need to be bold towards you.
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And there's a time and a place to be meek.
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And there's a time and a place to be quiet.
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And there's a time and a place to stand up and proclaim the truth of God.
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Paul says, it's now time for me to proclaim to you the truth of God.
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There's been times where I've shut my mouth.
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There's a time for us to just be quiet.
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There's a time for us to take a step back and say, let's evaluate the matter.
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But Paul says, hey, I'm absent from you now, but I'm gonna be bold towards you two.
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But I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, meaning, don't make me be bold when I come visit you.
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There's gonna be a time where there needs to be confrontation.
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He says, let's get this confrontation handled right now, because when I come to you again, I don't Wanna have that confrontation wherewith I think to be bold against some, meaning there's going to be some that need confrontation, others know which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
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He says there's some people thinking that Paul and his companions there are acting in the flesh.
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He says, hey, I got to confront that because we're not acting in the flesh.
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You can't act in the flesh as an ambassador for Christ.
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You have to act in the spirit.
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So he says, some of you are saying that we're acting in the flesh.
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You can't act in the flesh.
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Verse 3.
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For though we walk in the flesh, meaning you know what?
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Paul realizes that we're humans.
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He realizes that we have flesh and bone and blood, okay?
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He says we walk in the flesh.
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That's just a reality.
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He's not talking about walking in sin, he's talking about walking as a human.
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But he says, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
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Meaning though we walk in this physical world and we have a physical body, we don't fight spiritual warfare with physical things.
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What if I told you this morning, hey, look, there's a lot of enemies out there against us when, when it comes to the cause of the gospel.
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So everyone take up your swords and we're all going to go.
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That's not what Paul is saying we have to do.
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Now, he does say that we take up a sword, but it's a different type of sword.
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We're going to get that here in a little bit.
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It's a spiritual battle.
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So he says, even though we're walking around and seeing things physically with our eyes and feeling things physically with our bodies, it's a spiritual battle that we face as we go.
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For as he says here, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that were carnal just means fleshly, okay?
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Fleshly, physical but mighty.
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We have powerful weapons through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
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We're going to talk about what strongholds are here this morning.
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If we're honest with ourselves, many of us have strongholds in our life mentally.
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Strongholds are things that are contradicting the word of God that we think about, that we live in, that we that hold us back from doing the things that God has called us to do.
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Then he says, verse 5.
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Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
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Bringing every thought to the obedience of Christ.
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We're going to talk about what this is all about.
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Because at first glance, it might be confusing what this is all about.
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But Paul is talking here about living by what we believe and thinking properly about the truth of God as we go.
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And so I want us to look at that here this morning when it comes to the area of spiritual warfare.
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What is spiritual warfare?
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Well, it could come in many different forms, but it's opposition to what we're trying to do for Christ.
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It's opposition to the gospel, it's opposition to purity, it's opposition to God's definition of the truth.
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And so what happens is that spiritual warfare attacks us from all angles.
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And the Bible explains it all in the book of Ephesians that Satan is firing fiery darts at us and trying to find weaknesses and trying to destroy the very fabric of what God is doing in our world today.
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So you see this in culture.
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The marriage is under attack.
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Family is under attack.
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Purity is under attack.
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Honesty is under attack.
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The list goes on and on.
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And so what we can see here, I think all of us can agree this morning that that spiritual warfare is a real thing.
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It is something that we all, if we're honest with ourselves, if we're serving God, are going to face.
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And the Bible tells us how we are to fight it.
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We are to fight it.
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Paul explains that we don't battle it in the flesh.
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We saw that in verse three.
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He says we do not war after the flesh.
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The book of Ephesians tells us that we don't war in the flesh.
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Ephesians 6.
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So what are these carnal weapons?
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What are these carnal weapons that he warns us against?
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He says we don't.
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Verse 3.
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We do not war after the flesh.
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So what is he saying here?
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He says there's weapons of carnality.
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There's fleshly weapons that we can use, or there's spiritual weapons that we can use.
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So what are these carnal weapons that he's warning us against?
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Well, to know what the carnal weapons are, we need to know what the spiritual weapons are.
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Ephesians, chapter six.
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You guys know this passage of Scripture?
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It's the armor of God.
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These are the weapons that God calls us to wield in our battle, in our spiritual warfare that we're fighting starts with the belt of truth.
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So the opposite of the belt of truth would be lies.
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And so what he's saying here, he says, don't use lies, don't use deception for your warfare.
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Use the truth.
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The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness.
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That's God's righteousness by the way, shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit.
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And the Bible says that the sword of the spirit is the word of God.
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And so we know the positives, we know what we are supposed to do.
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But what happens sometimes is that we then end up giving to the spiritual battle fleshly weapons.
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And so if we want to look at what those carnal weapons really are, those carnal weapons are the opposite of what the spiritual weapons are.
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So if we look at the belt of truth, we see that the carnal weapons would be lies.
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You know, there is a time where sometimes we feel like we need to lie to get to the right place.
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Right?
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The ends justifies the means.
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You ever heard someone teach that?
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And we've even heard that within the culture of Christianity, like, do whatever you gotta do to get to the right place.
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No, the Bible says that we never fight lies with lies.
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Two wrongs don't make it right.
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So we always shine the light of the truth upon a situation.
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We're gonna talk about taking every thought into captivity.
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So what that means is this.
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When you hear something in your mind telling you we all know what.
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Hopefully you don't hear voices constantly.
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Okay, that's something else.
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We'll work on that another time.
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But you know what I mean, right?
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You'll hear something.
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A lie in your brain.
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Or maybe you don't think it's a lie.
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Maybe you think it's a truth.
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I'm not good enough.
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I'm a terrible father.
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I'm a terrible pastor.
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I fail so much.
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You know what, what do we do with that?
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We take that thought and we bring it.
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We take it into captivity, as the Bible says.
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Think about it this way.
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You put it in a trap and you hold it there.
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And what does the Bible tell us to do?
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Take it before Christ.
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Take it before the truth and say, am I a terrible father?
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Well, the truth is, maybe I am being a terrible father.
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But the difference is, is that the lies from the enemy are gonna come in a vague way to pull you down.
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The conviction of the Holy Spirit telling me I need to change is going to show me how I change that.
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So how does that look?
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How does that look with my own situation?
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Okay.
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Terrible father.
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You're a terrible father.
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And I'm thinking about that, okay?
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I take that thought into captivity.
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Why am I feeling this?
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Why am I thinking this?
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Take that thought and I bring it before the truth of Christ and there's conviction there.
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You know what?
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Haven't been spending Time with my children.
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I haven't been praying with them.
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I've been putting my work over my family.
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I've been demonstrating very sensual and terrible things in my life in front of them.
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The way that I talk, what I watch, what I do, okay, all of those things, that's the Holy Spirit convicting me to get to a place in my life where I need to change that, to get to be a dad that I need to be.
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But then we take on the other side of things.
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I put it before Christ and hey, you know what?
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There isn't really any conviction.
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I'm doing everything that I possibly can.
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I'm trying to do.
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Trying to do all those things.
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Then we understand that that's a lie from the enemy that's trying to pull us back.
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So the lie from the enemy is going to be vague.
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The lie from the enemy is never going to show you a path to get to the right place.
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And, and so what we see is the carnal weapons, our lies, self righteousness.
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By the way, we saw there that one of the elements of the spiritual warfare would be the armor of God and that one of those things would be the shield of faith.
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But then we saw that there's the breastplate of righteousness.
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Again, that's not our righteousness, that's God's righteousness.
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And so one of the ways that we can try to fight the things in our life is through self righteousness.
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Like, well, I'm a good person.
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I do enough.
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You know, my good outweighs my bad.
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The Bible says that that's a lie.
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That's not thinking biblically.
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Thinking biblically is this, I'm not enough.
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The reality is, is that I am not a good person.
Speaker B
You say, why are you up there preaching to us?
Speaker B
Scripturally speaking, there is none good.
Speaker B
No, not one.
Speaker B
It's who we're judging ourselves against.
Speaker B
Well, I'm good compared to this person.
Speaker B
Who are you comparing yourselves to if you're comparing yourself to Christ?
Speaker B
None of us are good.
Speaker B
So therefore, I cannot bring my righteousness before any issue in my life and say, well, I can try to beat that.
Speaker B
No, the only righteousness that can overcome evil in our lives is the righteousness of Jesus Christ on our account.
Speaker B
And so therefore, when we go thinking biblically, we think, hey, it's his righteousness, not my righteousness going forward.
Speaker B
Empty religion.
Speaker B
Empty religion.
Speaker B
So we saw the shield of faith.
Speaker B
Shield of faith is this.
Speaker B
It's relying on the faith that we have in Christ for all the things that we do.
Speaker B
Everything that we do.
Speaker B
I have faith that he will save me.
Speaker B
I have faith that he will preserve me.
Speaker B
I have faith that he will provide.
Speaker B
I have faith that he will protect.
Speaker B
The list goes on and on.
Speaker B
But what happens with empty religion is that we don't have faith in God for these things.
Speaker B
We have faith in ourselves.
Speaker B
It's linked to self righteousness.
Speaker B
But it's this idea that, hey, if I just go through all the religious steps, I'll be okay, right?
Speaker B
God won't strike me down today if I just make sure I'm in church.
Speaker B
The truth is, is that this empty religion without faith is just like every other religion out there.
Speaker B
Every single religion out there is empty if it's not based in the truth of Jesus Christ.
Speaker B
So I'm going to tell you here this morning, empty religion can be found in a church that's not like ours.
Speaker B
But empty religion can be found in churches very similar to ours.
Speaker B
Meaning this.
Speaker B
If I'm just doing all the right steps, I'm okay, I'm okay.
Speaker B
But there's no faith in that God's power is controlling my life, that God's power is preserving my life.
Speaker B
And so empty religion, unbelief.
Speaker B
This is a big broad category.
Speaker B
Wisdom of man and the world.
Speaker B
This is where many of us fall short when it comes to this idea of carnal weapons.
Speaker B
So spiritual warfare comes.
Speaker B
What do we do?
Speaker B
We take the wisdom of man, the wisdom of culture, the wisdom of this world, and we say, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker B
What we call Christian pragmatism.
Speaker B
It works for that guy in the world, why can't it work for me?
Speaker B
He looks pleasurable, he looks like he's loving life.
Speaker B
He looks like he's got everything he wants.
Speaker B
So.
Speaker B
So therefore, as a Christian, I'm gonna live that way too.
Speaker B
Problem is that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes of that individual's life.
Speaker B
And what we understand too, that as Christians, we can't desire to be like the world.
Speaker B
We can't desire the things that the world wants and desires after.
Speaker B
And so what happens here is that we take a place in our life where we begin to formulate.
Speaker B
And I'm gonna use some words that might sound a little scary, but don't be afraid.
Speaker B
Theology, okay?
Speaker B
We can allow the wisdom of this world to dictate our theology.
Speaker B
Now, what is theology?
Speaker B
It's what we believe about God.
Speaker B
It's what we know about God, okay?
Speaker B
It's that idea.
Speaker B
What do we believe about who God is and what he has done for us?
Speaker B
We can allow the wisdom of man and the wisdom of this world to dictate what we believe about God.
Speaker B
And when we understand that, that way we begin to think about God in a way that he should not be thought about.
Speaker B
Well, maybe he will be like this.
Speaker B
Maybe he'll be like everyone else.
Speaker B
You ever had someone that had an issue in their life and they projected that issue in their life upon God?
Speaker B
Well, everyone has turned their back on me.
Speaker B
So you know what?
Speaker B
God's gonna turn his back on me too.
Speaker B
That person forgot about me, so God's gonna forget about me too.
Speaker B
That person double crossed me.
Speaker B
So I believe God's.
Speaker B
See, what happens is we allow our circumstances to dictate what we think about God instead of taking his Word.
Speaker B
And so instead of building our theology about God on the Word, we build our theology on God when it comes to our experiences, our emotions, our culture.
Speaker B
And what Paul is saying here is he's like, no, no, no, no, no, take every thought.
Speaker B
Second Corinthians, chapter 10, go back with me, verse 4.
Speaker B
He says we need these spiritual tools, the armor of God, ultimately the sword of the Spirit, like the word of God, to, as it says here, pull down strongholds.
Speaker B
So our weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, not carnal, but mighty, but powerful through God, not through man, through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
Speaker B
Now that's a phrase that we don't use quite frequently.
Speaker B
Stronghold that actually in some ways maybe in our minds could have a positive connotation.
Speaker B
Hey, we have a stronghold in our life, folks.
Speaker B
In this context, we don't want strongholds.
Speaker B
Okay, so what is the definition?
Speaker B
I know that's very small.
Speaker B
I'll try to represent that, what I say here.
Speaker B
But the definition in this context of a stronghold are wrong thoughts that contradict the word of God.
Speaker B
So a stronghold in my life might be, or someone else's life might be that you're thinking improper thoughts.
Speaker B
Those improper thoughts are tied to an improper theology.
Speaker B
That improper theology is tied to an improper belief.
Speaker B
Right.
Speaker B
So going back, improper actions are dictated by improper thoughts that are dictated by improper beliefs.
Speaker B
So it goes back to what we believe about God.
Speaker B
It goes back to what we're thinking about God.
Speaker B
But.
Speaker B
But then it eventually hits us in our life where it gets to what we're doing.
Speaker B
So some of us have issues in our life that we feel like we cannot get rid of.
Speaker B
I can't stop thinking about this.
Speaker B
I can't stop doing this.
Speaker B
I can't get victory over this.
Speaker B
That is a stronghold.
Speaker B
You are thinking and inevitably acting in contradiction to the word of God.
Speaker B
And none of us want to admit strongholds in our life.
Speaker B
But the reality is, is that many of us, if not all of us, have faced a stronghold in our life or plural strongholds in our life that we cannot give victory over.
Speaker B
And you would say, well, how do I get victory over this?
Speaker B
We'll never be perfect in this world.
Speaker B
We understand that.
Speaker B
We're always gonna be battling the flesh.
Speaker B
We're always gonna be battling the struggles that we face.
Speaker B
But the idea for this would be that you are not given over to those strongholds.
Speaker B
Those strongholds do not identify you as who you are in Christ.
Speaker B
The power of God.
Speaker B
What does it say there in verse 4?
Speaker B
The power of God is powerful enough to pull down those strongholds, to make you believe different things, to think different things, and to ultimately act in a different way.
Speaker B
You say, what does this have to do with us when we go, when we proclaim the word to the world?
Speaker B
Folks, if you're not thinking right and I'm not thinking right and we're not believing right and.
Speaker B
And we're not acting right, how can we represent our king?
Speaker B
How can we represent our mission properly?
Speaker B
We're going and representing ourselves.
Speaker B
We're representing our culture.
Speaker B
We're representing our world.
Speaker B
Who are we standing for?
Speaker B
Someone inspected my life.
Speaker B
Are they going to say, wow, pastor Josh represents Christ, or he represents the world?
Speaker B
Well, Lord willing, it would be Christ.
Speaker B
But the focus sometimes is that we assume that we're living for Christ, but yet we're not.
Speaker B
And so what I need to see here this morning is this wrong.
Speaker B
These wrong thoughts, these strongholds are thoughts that lead to wrong actions.
Speaker B
And what we do sometimes in churches is this.
Speaker B
We try to address the action.
Speaker B
We try to go, okay, I saw that person's issue.
Speaker B
They have an issue, so let me go fix that issue in their life.
Speaker B
And we try to formulate a plan to get that person out of that issue.
Speaker B
And what happens is that sometimes someone can leave that issue and go to another issue, because the deeper issue is not the outward action.
Speaker B
It's the inward heart issue.
Speaker B
And so you know what?
Speaker B
Let's say, for example, I've got an addiction issue.
Speaker B
Well, I got you off of this addiction.
Speaker B
Now you're on this addiction.
Speaker B
The truth is, is that there's a deeper heart issue involved when it comes to a stronghold.
Speaker B
So I could sit up here and be legalistic and say, oh, this is the rules of Middletown Baptist Church.
Speaker B
You got to do this and do this and not do this.
Speaker B
And not go here and not do that.
Speaker B
And you know what?
Speaker B
Many of you maybe could try to formulate your life to a place where it looks like you've gotten everything taken over.
Speaker B
But that's legalism.
Speaker B
That's empty.
Speaker B
That's empty religion.
Speaker B
That's faithlessness.
Speaker B
There are some things that we should stay away from, but we should want to stay away from them because of the change in our hearts and thinking properly about God.
Speaker B
And so the strongholds are just that.
Speaker B
They're holding us back from doing the things that we are supposed to do.
Speaker B
So when we rely on carnal thoughts for fleshly thoughts, worldly thoughts to guide our lives, these strongholds hold us from being ambassadors for Christ.
Speaker B
You want to be an ambassador for Christ.
Speaker B
You want to be a representative of his kingdom.
Speaker B
You want to be a representative in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.
Speaker B
We've got to allow God to pull these strongholds down so that we are thinking biblically.
Speaker B
This is not a challenge for us to all be perfect people.
Speaker B
If we were called to be perfect people, none of us could do it, right?
Speaker B
None of us could do it.
Speaker B
This is not about perfection.
Speaker B
It's about pursuing holiness.
Speaker B
It's pursuing righteousness and thinking biblically.
Speaker B
Thinking biblically about issues.
Speaker B
So, for example, we'll see.
Speaker B
I'm not going to use anything specific, but let's see.
Speaker B
Like, something pops up in the news.
Speaker B
Like, let's say, for example, there's a news break.
Speaker B
Such, such and such happened at this place, at this time.
Speaker B
What do we do?
Speaker B
Do we immediately think about it in the context of the word of God, or we immediately think about it from the context of our nation?
Speaker B
How is this going to affect me?
Speaker B
How is this going to affect my.
Speaker B
Whatever.
Speaker B
Fill in the blank.
Speaker B
My finances, my health.
Speaker B
The truth is, is that many times our initial lens that we see the world through is not the lens of the gospel, it's the lens of ourselves.
Speaker B
And what I would say is thinking biblically is this to think about every issue of my life, every circumstance of my life, every relationship of my life through the lens of the Gospel instead of the lens of Josh Massaro.
Speaker B
And therefore, it is only through that the power of God and the guidance of his Word that breaks down these strongholds.
Speaker B
And so you say I've got strongholds in my life that are holding me back.
Speaker B
Admittedly, there are things that I'm thinking about that are not biblical.
Speaker B
First step to know if you're thinking biblically is to know scripture.
Speaker B
If you've never read Scripture.
Speaker B
If you're not in the Word, you're not gonna know if you're acting scripturally or not.
Speaker B
And I'm gonna tell you, our default methodology is not scripture.
Speaker B
If you're just like, ah, I don't need to read the Bible, I'm sure I'll act.
Speaker B
Right?
Speaker B
It's not going to happen.
Speaker B
Right.
Speaker B
We have to intentionally decide to follow the word of God through the power of God in our lives.
Speaker B
And so therefore, it is only the power of God and the guidance of his Word and the Spirit that breaks down these strongholds in our life.
Speaker B
So how do we pull down strongholds?
Speaker B
I've already alluded to it.
Speaker B
We'll kind of go through this pretty quickly.
Speaker B
We must destroy every thought that contradicts the truth of God.
Speaker B
Verse 5, verse 5, Second Corinthians, chapter 10.
Speaker B
Casting down imaginations, casting down these thoughts.
Speaker B
And I think it's appropriate that it says imaginations there because a lot of this that we're facing in our life are just basically figments of our imagination.
Speaker B
You could also say it this way, casting down anything that argues against the truth of God.
Speaker B
Cast it out, get rid of it.
Speaker B
Don't even entertain it.
Speaker B
The problem is, is that too many Christians, including myself, okay?
Speaker B
Because I don't want to come across as, hey, I've got this right.
Speaker B
I'm coming from a perch of perfection here.
Speaker B
No, but too many of us Christians are coming to situations in our life and we're entertaining what the world is bringing to us.
Speaker B
Don't even entertain it.
Speaker B
Cast it out, get rid of it, destroy it, destroy it.
Speaker B
Then he goes, cast out every imagination and every high thing.
Speaker B
Or that another way you could put that is lifted up opinions, respected opinions of this world, cast down these imaginations and every high thing that here's the definitive thing that we should cast out.
Speaker B
Anything that exalteth itself against the, the knowledge of God, anything that's contrary to the knowledge of God, we get rid of it.
Speaker B
It's useless.
Speaker B
It's gonna hurt me, it's gonna destroy me.
Speaker B
And so we think biblically about it and we reject it.
Speaker B
And how do we do that?
Speaker B
We take that thought, it says, and bringing into captivity every thought, every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Speaker B
And so the way that it was put to me is you take that thought, you put it in a trap, and you say, that's not gonna bother me until I give that to the Lord and I give that to the truth of God, and I match that up to the truth of Who Jesus Christ is and what he has done and the Gospel and the Word.
Speaker B
And I say, no, that doesn't match up.
Speaker B
I cast that away.
Speaker B
I get rid of that.
Speaker B
It's really the methodology that we're seeing here is this idea of getting rid of it.
Speaker B
We must take every thought, every idea, every concept before Jesus to see if it aligns with his true truth.
Speaker B
Not if it aligns with my truth.
Speaker B
Not if it aligns with the truth of this world.
Speaker B
Not if it aligns with some church tradition.
Speaker B
Even though church traditions in and of themselves are not bad things.
Speaker B
But we align it with the truth.
Speaker B
Truth in scripture.
Speaker B
You say, well, I come from the school of thought that there's different truths in this world.
Speaker B
Your truth could be my truth, but my truth could be not your truth.
Speaker B
And just.
Speaker B
We all have our own truths, folks.
Speaker B
That's not a way to live our lives.
Speaker B
We can't live our lives.
Speaker B
We can't with subjective truths.
Speaker B
We have to live our life with one objective truth.
Speaker B
The objective truth for my family, whether I like it or not, is the truth of God's word.
Speaker B
Gotta raise my children that way.
Speaker B
You know how many times I wanna tell my kids, hey, you know what?
Speaker B
Just go ahead and do what those guys are doing.
Speaker B
Whatever, you know, Tired of this, dad.
Speaker B
Why can't we do this, dad?
Speaker B
Why can't we do that?
Speaker B
Because dad said so.
Speaker B
And that's the final word.
Speaker B
No, son, because we as Christians have to live differently.
Speaker B
God's called us to be different.
Speaker B
Doesn't mean that we have to be weird.
Speaker B
Just means that we have to avoid things that are going to cause us to pull ourselves away from the truth of God.
Speaker B
And if we are not careful, our families, our individual lives, our churches will be pulled away with every wind of doctrine, as the Bible says.
Speaker B
And we will not be grounded in truth.
Speaker B
So we take every thought, every idea.
Speaker B
Nothing is safe.
Speaker B
We take all those concepts and we bring it before Christ.
Speaker B
So the summary is this.
Speaker B
Do our thoughts, do our ideas, do our inclinations, our desires, our dreams, our vision, whatever you want to say, do those thoughts obey Christ?
Speaker B
See it at the end of verse five with me.
Speaker B
Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Speaker B
So it's not just an agreement?
Speaker B
Agreement's one thing, like talking about our kids.
Speaker B
It's family Sunday, Son.
Speaker B
Clean your room.
Speaker B
Okay, dad.
Speaker B
You understand you need to clean your room?
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker B
It's dirty, Dad.
Speaker B
I understand.
Speaker B
It's messy.
Speaker B
Okay, son.
Speaker B
Okay.
Speaker B
So his agreement with my command.
Speaker B
This kind of sounds bad to say command.
Speaker B
His agreement to his room needing the cleaning does not equate obedience.
Speaker B
Right?
Speaker B
And we would all agree.
Speaker B
And so many times as Christians, we say, oh, yeah, amen.
Speaker B
We adhere to that.
Speaker B
That's good.
Speaker B
Good solid teaching, good solid doctrine.
Speaker B
The truth is, is that sometimes we are not all the way there when it comes to obedience.
Speaker B
Our thoughts don't always complete that cycle of obedience because obedience takes action, obedience takes follow through.
Speaker B
It's saying, yes, Lord, I agree with you.
Speaker B
And yes, Lord, I'm following.
Speaker B
So to be an ambassador, we can't just think the same things that God thinks.
Speaker B
That's great, that's amazing.
Speaker B
And that will affect our lives.
Speaker B
But we've got to then really, as the Bible speaks of authentic faith, if you authentically believe these things, it will authentically proclaim in your life.
Speaker B
And so do our thoughts and our actions and our heart obey Christ.
Speaker B
Want to hit you with a few things here, and then we'll be done.
Speaker B
I know that's the end of your notes, but I just want to hit you with a few thoughts here.
Speaker B
When tempted to think carnally or fleshly, we must renew our minds in Christ.
Speaker B
Romans, chapter 12, verse 2.
Speaker B
The Bible speaks of this idea of renewing our minds.
Speaker B
How do we renew our minds?
Speaker B
Well, we put every thought into captivity and we bring it before the word of God.
Speaker B
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that?
Speaker B
Good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Speaker B
This is a daily exercise.
Speaker B
When tempted to think carnally, renew our minds with the truth of God.
Speaker B
It's as basic as that.
Speaker B
As hard as it is, that's what the Bible tells us to do, renew our minds.
Speaker B
Well, I renew my mind back in 1989, so I'm good today.
Speaker B
No, this is a daily process.
Speaker B
This is an hourly process.
Speaker B
Sometimes more than that.
Speaker B
Renew our minds in the Word of God.
Speaker B
What does that mean?
Speaker B
Study the Word, love the Word, be in the Word, believe the Word, proclaim the Word.
Speaker B
So when tempted to think this way, renew our minds as believers.
Speaker B
Here's something to really make your minds go, oh, man, I really don't want to hear this.
Speaker B
I don't want to be responsible for this.
Speaker B
First Corinthians, chapter 6.
Speaker B
First Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 19.
Speaker B
You want to hear something really convicting?
Speaker B
Part of being a pastor is preparing the sermon and being, like, convicted throughout the week.
Speaker B
Man, this has been hitting me hard this week.
Speaker B
First Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 19 and 20.
Speaker B
As believers, we are not our Own we all, if we're a believer.
Speaker B
We belong to God completely, Not just my Sunday morning for an hour or an hour and a half.
Speaker B
The pastor is long winded.
Speaker B
What does it say?
Speaker B
First Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 19.
Speaker B
What?
Speaker B
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
Speaker B
This is not Pastor Josh.
Speaker B
This is the word of God.
Speaker B
You're not your own.
Speaker B
Why?
Speaker B
Well, who does God think he is that he can control me?
Speaker B
Glad you asked.
Speaker B
Here's the next verse.
Speaker B
Here it is.
Speaker B
For we are bought with a price.
Speaker B
Someone paid the price for you.
Speaker B
That was Jesus Christ.
Speaker B
He shed his blood on the cross for you.
Speaker B
Your gift of salvation is free for you, but it wasn't free for him.
Speaker B
He bought you with a price.
Speaker B
Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
Speaker B
That covers everything.
Speaker B
Your body and your spirit.
Speaker B
Some people.
Speaker B
There was a teaching back in the day, you know, as long as your spirit is with God, you can do whatever you want with your body.
Speaker B
No, no, no.
Speaker B
Spirit and body, thought and action, word and deed.
Speaker B
That's the idea.
Speaker B
Jesus mentioned that in the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker B
It's more than just what you do.
Speaker B
It's what you think, it's what you believe.
Speaker B
And so I want to hit you with a few of these thoughts here at the end.
Speaker B
God wants our minds to be set on His Word and His way.
Speaker B
He wants our minds to be set on His Word and His way.
Speaker B
I want to leave you with some verses that you can write down.
Speaker B
Whoa, that's really small.
Speaker B
What happened?
Speaker B
Come on.
Speaker B
Okay, I'll read them to you.
Speaker B
Take my word for it.
Speaker B
I'm just kidding.
Speaker B
Proverbs 23:7.
Speaker B
Proverbs 23:7.
Speaker B
Man, this is one that got me this week, too.
Speaker B
Proverbs 23:7.
Speaker B
You can write this down and maybe meditate upon these verses this week.
Speaker B
I think that they will help us when it comes to our thought life.
Speaker B
Proverbs 23:7.
Speaker B
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
Speaker B
That's what it is.
Speaker B
It's saying what you think about who you are.
Speaker B
Okay, first Peter 1:13.
Speaker B
First Peter 1:13.
Speaker B
Write that down.
Speaker B
I think this is another really, really good one when it comes to the concept of how we should think.
Speaker B
It says, wherefore?
Speaker B
Gird up the loins of your mind.
Speaker B
Get your mind ready.
Speaker B
That's what he's saying.
Speaker B
Get your mind prepared, be sober and hope to the end.
Speaker B
For the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Speaker B
Get your minds ready in the time that you have, is what he's saying.
Speaker B
Philippians 3, 18 and 19.
Speaker B
You say, well, Pastor, is this really an issue when it comes to our church?
Speaker B
Is this really an issue when it comes to Christianity today?
Speaker B
Philippians, chapter three, verse 18 and 19 tell us very clearly that even back then there were people that were struggling with this.
Speaker B
Philippians, chapter 3, verses 18 and 19.
Speaker B
For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you, even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, meaning their appetites, their pleasures, and whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things meaning.
Speaker B
There were people that saw the importance of following God, but they allowed the pleasures of this world to pull them away, the thoughts of this world to pull them away.
Speaker B
Then the last one I want to leave you with, and this is one that I think is so important.
Speaker B
Romans, chapter five, or, excuse me, Romans, chapter eight, verses five through eight.
Speaker B
This will be it.
Speaker B
I want you to see this here.
Speaker B
Romans, chapter 8, verses 5 through 8.
Speaker B
It says, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit.
Speaker B
Spirit is God dwelling within you, the spirit, the things of the spirit.
Speaker B
For to be carnally or fleshly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Speaker B
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God.
Speaker B
I don't know if you guys caught that.
Speaker B
The carnal mind, the fleshly mind, the worldly mind, is enemy of God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be so.
Speaker B
Then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Speaker B
You can check me on that.
Speaker B
That's what Romans chapter 8, verse 8 says.
Speaker B
Those that are in the flesh, those that think in the flesh, act in the flesh, believe in the flesh, cannot please God.
Speaker B
And our desire as believers is to please God in every way and to go and to proclaim and to share the truth and to love and to forgive and to extend meekness and grace.
Speaker B
For, folks, we cannot do any of those things if we're walking and thinking and believing the things of this world in the flesh.
Speaker B
Folks, I know all of us today are solid Christians and the concept of, hey, we're strong for what we believe.
Speaker B
Amen.
Speaker B
We should be.
Speaker B
But I'm gonna tell you, folks, the challenge is to think about it and to believe in it and to live in that.
Speaker B
And so if we think like the world, we will act in the world's ways.
Speaker B
If we think in the flesh, we will act out our fleshly desires.
Speaker B
And.
Speaker B
And then if we think on the truth, I wanna leave you with the positive.
Speaker B
If we think on the truth of God, we will live out the truth of God and fulfill his will for our lives.
Speaker B
That's it?
Speaker B
That's it.
Speaker B
Are we gonna be perfect?
Speaker B
No.
Speaker B
But we gotta take steps to be thinking biblically, believing biblically so that we can act biblically as we go.
Speaker B
This isn't an easy message, right?
Speaker B
Because you don't often think about thinking.
Speaker B
Right.
Speaker B
It's kind of like our brains.
Speaker B
God's not concerned about what we think.
Speaker B
He's concerned about what we do, but he is concerned about what we think.
Speaker B
Our minds are a battlefield.
Speaker B
A lot of the spiritual warfare that's happening is going on right here in this world today.
Speaker B
And if we start to believe those lies, we begin to put our feet not on the solid foundation, but we put our feet on the sand.
Speaker B
And if you notice the houses of the.
Speaker B
You know that the parable of the man, the men that built their house upon the rock and the man that built his house upon the sand, their houses look the same.
Speaker B
Everything was okay until what happened.
Speaker B
The storms.
Speaker B
So we can all be fine.
Speaker B
But guess what?
Speaker B
The storms of life are coming.
Speaker B
And the storms of life are the ones that are going to reveal to us what we are standing on in our truth of God.
Speaker B
What you believe about God?
Speaker B
Get into a Bible study.
Speaker B
Begin to study scriptures on your own.
Speaker B
Get to a place in your life where you're hungering and thirsting after the Word.
Speaker B
The Word is our driving force.
Speaker B
Ultimately, it's God who is our powerful force that is driving us in the spirit.
Speaker B
But he has given us the marching orders.
Speaker B
Remember what I said about my children on here?
Speaker B
If I don't give.
Speaker B
Hey, guys.
Speaker B
Be good at school.
Speaker B
Well, dad, what's being good mean?
Speaker B
Well, it means this.
Speaker B
Respect your teachers.
Speaker B
It means to be honest.
Speaker B
It means to not bully.
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It means to be truthful.
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Right?
Speaker B
So what God has done is he says, be good.
Speaker B
Here's how you do it.
Speaker B
But we ultimately rely on his strength and not our own.
Speaker B
So I encourage you to think biblically here.
Speaker B
This morning we're gonna have a time of invitation.
Speaker B
I'm gonna ask as we move forward here, now that you inspect your life, inspect your thoughts.
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I'll never know.
Speaker B
Your thoughts.
Speaker B
I will never know.
Speaker B
I can't see into your brain.
Speaker B
Only you and the Lord can see your thoughts.
Speaker B
What I would encourage you Today to think about is do my thoughts, do my ideas, do my passions, do my dreams, do they align with the Word or do they align with my desires, the world's desires?
Speaker B
Hey, now's the time for you to say, I'm going to take every thought into captivity.
Speaker B
Trust in the power of God to pull those strongholds and give that over to Christ, to be in obedience to Him.
Speaker B
This is your time of invitation.
Speaker B
You can't think properly, though.
Speaker B
You can't be walking in the truth of Christ unless you are a believer, unless you're walking in faith with Him.
Speaker B
So to exercise that, you must be one who trusts in him, the One who died on the cross for your sins.
Speaker B
Remember, you were bought with a price.
Speaker B
He paid the price for you by living that perfect life, by dying on the cross for your sins, by conquering death through the resurrection, and by extending that gift of grace to you.
Speaker B
And so this morning, you can think properly with his strength if you believe on him today.
Speaker B
And so I'm gonna ask if you're able to stand with me, every head bowed, every eye closed as the music plays.
Speaker B
You have an opportunity to move this morning.
Speaker B
You have an opportunity to follow and to think biblically about who God is and what he has done for you.
Speaker B
There's so much more we could talk about when it comes to this.
Speaker B
What it is, is it's turning over your thoughts to Him.
Speaker B
If we're following him with our mind, our hearts, our bodies means he wants us all.
Speaker B
Give your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptableness of God, which is our reasonable service.
Speaker B
He wants you.
Speaker B
He doesn't need us, but he wants us to be a part of it.
Speaker B
Where's our desire when it comes to seeking after him today, Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, working hearts and lives challenge us here today.
Speaker B
We ask all these things in Jesus name.
Speaker B
Amen.
Speaker A
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.
Speaker A
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
Speaker B
You.
Speaker B
If you would like to find out.
Speaker A
More information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
Speaker A
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro, Middletown BaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.
Speaker A
Thank you so much.
Speaker A
God bless.
Speaker A
Have a wonderful day.
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