S3E131- 2 Corinthians 9-10: Take Control of Your Thoughts

We are not just passive antennae that pick up thoughts out of the air.

Hey there, this is the Lifespring Family Audio Bible, and coming to you from Riverside,

California, podcasting since 2004, I'm your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb.

This is the Daily Podcast where we're reading through the entire Bible in a year.

It's great to see you today. Welcome, and as you might hear, my voice still is not backward.

It needs to be. I appreciate your hanging in there with me.

Our reading today is 2 Corinthians 9 and 10, and I'm calling the episode,

Take Control of Your Thoughts. The show notes page for today's episode is

LifespringMedia.com slash S12E139. Shall we get going?

2 Corinthians 9

There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord's people.

For I know your eagerness to help, and I've been boasting about it to the Macedonians,

telling them that since last year you and Achaea were ready to give,

and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action.

But I'm sending the brothers in order that are boasting about you in this matter

should not prove hollow, but that you might be ready, as I said you would be.

For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared,

we, not to say anything about you, would be ashamed of having been so confident.

So I thought it necessary to urge the brother to visit you in advance

and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised.

Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.

Remember this, whoever soes sparingly will also reap sparingly,

and whoever soes generously will also reap generously.

Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give,

not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver,

and God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times,

having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor,

their righteousness endures forever.

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for the food

will also supply and increase your store of seed

and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion,

and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people,

but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves,

others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ,

and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you

because of the surpassing grace God has given you.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

2 Corinthians chapter 10

By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you.

I, Paul, who intimidate when face to face with you,

but bold toward you, win away.

I beg you that when I come, I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be

toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments at every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,

and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience once your obedience is complete.

You are judging by appearances.

If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ,

they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do.

So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us

for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

I do not want a seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters.

For some say, his letters are weighty and forceful,

but in person he is unimpressive and is speaking amounts to nothing.

Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent

we will be in our actions when we are present.

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves.

When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves,

they are not wise.

We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits,

but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God Himself has assigned to us.

A sphere that also includes you.

We are not going too far in our boasting as would be the case if we had not come to you

for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ.

Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others.

Our hope is that as your faith continues to grow,

our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand

so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.

For we do not want a boast about work already done in someone else's territory,

but let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

For it is not the one who commands Himself who is approved,

but the one whom the Lord commands.

Well, beloved, let's take a look at 2 Corinthians 10 for a few minutes.

As we've mentioned before, there were those in the church at Corinth

who did not recognize Paul's authority as an apostle

and much of this chapter has Paul defending that authority.

Now, it's not for his own benefit, but for theirs.

What he has to say is important.

After all, as an apostle, he is bringing God's message

and they should receive it as if it was from God.

Now, in the first 5 verses of chapter 10, Paul is introducing this concept

and he mentions that this is a spiritual matter,

a spiritual battle even.

Let's take a look at these first 5 verses.

Paul said,

By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you.

I, Paul, who am timid when face to face with you,

but bold toward you when away.

I beg you that when I come, I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be

toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments in every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,

and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Well, for today's discussion, I want to focus on the last part of that last sentence.

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Wow, is that even possible?

Can we really take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ?

Well, before I answer that question, let's remember what Paul the Apostle

under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote to his young protégé Timothy in 2 Timothy 316.

He said, all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,

rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God

may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Beloved, I have to tell you that I believe that.

I believe what Paul said there.

I do believe that all Scripture is the God-breathed word of God.

So if Paul was able to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ,

I believe that you and I can do it too.

Now first, let's understand why we would even want to do this.

Paul was doing battle with worldly ideas, ideas that were counter to his mission,

and this was a spiritual battle.

Beloved, we are in a spiritual battle today.

There are forces of darkness all around us that literally want to silence us and even kill us.

If you don't believe that, then you're not paying attention.

The last thing Jesus did before he ascended to heaven was to give the disciples in by extension us a mission, a job.

He said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you,

and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

Beloved, perhaps more than at any time in human history, certainly more than at any time in my lifetime,

people need to know the Lord.

Freedoms are being eroded around the world.

Globalists want to bring every person under subjection, but there's freedom in Christ.

Kings and Prime Ministers and Presidents and Governors can subjugate our bodies,

but they cannot control our minds and souls.

When we belong to Christ, we are free.

And the powers of this world hate that fact.

They want to stop the gospel.

Don't believe me? Just wait. You'll see.

The spiritual battle we're in is ramping up.

It's already in full swing in some parts of the world with Christians literally being killed for their faith.

According to OpenDoorsUSA.com in 2021, 4,761 Christians were martyred, killed.

And persecution against Christians has risen for 15 consecutive years.

And with the speed at which changes are happening in the world today,

do you doubt that it can come to any nation?

I don't. Who would have thought two years ago before this whole pandemic hit that the world would look like it does today?

Nobody.

Yes, we are in a spiritual battle, and each of us is called to engage.

On yesterday's show, I talked about putting on the full armor of God when we discussed resisting temptation.

Well, obviously that's an aspect of spiritual warfare which goes hand in hand with what Paul is saying in today's scripture,

taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

So how do we do it? How do we take control of our thoughts?

Well, first we have to be aware of when our thoughts are out of bounds, and then we need to stop them.

Romans 122 says,

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Beloved, this cannot be done only through a mere act of will, but it can be done through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our minds are wonderful things, but they can only focus on one thing at a time.

You've certainly heard the example of the pink elephant.

If I tell you to not think of a herd of pink elephants, of course, that's exactly what you see in your mind's eye, right?

You just saw a herd of pink elephants.

So if your mind goes where it shouldn't go, what you need to do is ask the Holy Spirit to take it somewhere else.

Meditate on Scripture. Pray for your family. Listen to this show.

But by all means, separate yourself from the triggers that cause you to go places in your mind that you shouldn't.

And I'm not necessarily talking about sinful thoughts. I'm talking about angry thoughts, too.

Anything that separates you from God.

Get off social media. Turn off the television. Get away from these triggers and pursue things that draw you closer to God.

Philippians 4, 6 through 9 gives us some excellent suggestions. It says,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving,

present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure.

Whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

Whatever you've learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice.

And the God of peace will be with you.

Listen beloved, we're not powerless when it comes to our thoughts. We're not at the mercy of our thoughts.

We are not just passive antennae that pick up thoughts out of the air.

We can choose to stop the bad inputs and replace them with spiritual inputs.

We don't have to be at the mercy of thoughts of fear, lust, anger, greed and bitterness.

We can take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.

The brain, where our thoughts reside, of course, is physical, part of our body, obviously.

1 Corinthians 6 19 through 20 says, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

As believers beloved, we belong to Jesus. We are not our own. Even my thoughts are subject to his Lordship.

How is this possible? Well, 1 Corinthians 2, 16 tells us that when the Holy Spirit is in us, we have the mind of Christ.

How can this be? 2 Corinthians 5, 17 gives us the answer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone. The new is here.

When we accept Jesus into our life, we become a new creation.

If you love it, if you have put your faith in Jesus, you have everything you need to fight this spiritual battle and win.

You can take your thoughts captive through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in you.

I know it sounds crazy, but next time you find your mind going places it shouldn't, take control and think on godly things.

I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Comment at lifespringmedia.com slash s12e139.

And tomorrow, our reading is Exodus 25 through 28.

And now, as the French say, it is time for le boost.

On this date in church history, January 16th, 1604, this is a very important day.

At the Hampton Court Conference in London, Puritan John Reynolds suggested to King James I that,

quote, there might be a new translation of the Bible as consonant s can be to the original Hebrew and Greek.

Unquote. Well, King James granted his approval and the ensuing project led to this 1611 publication of the authorized or King James version of the Bible.

Without a doubt, the most beloved translation of the Bible that ever existed.

All right, let's pray, shall we?

Our Heavenly Father, you are so very worthy of our worship and praise and devotion, and we are so unworthy of your mercy and grace and love.

There's nothing we can do to earn anything good from you, and yet because of your great love, you give us everything we need to be able to come to you in faith, offering our hearts to you.

Thank you, Lord.

And thank you for each person listening right now. I pray that you would speak to every single person wherever they are, whenever they hear this, and impress upon them how much you love them.

I pray that they would give themselves to you more completely than they ever have. Help them to give their thoughts to you and not be at the mercy of outside triggers.

I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

And send your prayer requests in and your praises at prayer.lifespringmedia.com.

I'll pray for you in my private prayer time and we'll pray together on the show prayer.lifespringmedia.com.

I'd love to hear what you thought about the show today. Go to lifespringmedia.com slash S12E139 and leave a comment.

And email me at steve.lifespringageemail.com. And I just got a bill for hosting the website today. If you can help out with this bill, I'd sure appreciate it. It's $299.88. That buys the website hosting for the year.

If you'd like to help out with that bill, go to lifespringmedia.com slash support. I'd very much appreciate it. Thank you. God bless you.

And now until tomorrow, may God bless you richly. Thank you for being here. It's been great spending time with you. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.