Sermon Tone Analysis

THE GREAT ESCAPE – Winning the Battle for Your Mind \\ *2 Corinthians 10:3-5 \\ \\ *

INTRODUCTION: \\ Say with me Three simple truths: \\ \\

[1] I am a child of God.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1 NIV) \\ \\

[2] I am alive in Christ.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins . . .

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

(Ephesians 2:1, 4-5 (NIV) \\ \\

[3] I am a new creation.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV) \\ \\

All of us agree that these statements are true.

Yet if we are honest we have all found ourselves wondering at one time or another, “If what the Bible tells me about my identity in Christ is true, then why do I still battle the same thoughts and feelings that I had before I became a Christian?”

“Why can’t I break free from these things that haunt my mind?”

\\ Would you like to know the answer to such questions about yourself?

This morning we continue THE GREAT ESCAPE, Winning the Battle for our Minds.

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• 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV) \\ /[3] For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

[4] The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

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

[5] We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

\\ So why do we still battle with the same thoughts and feelings that we had before we became a Christians?/

Paul said, “We are human, but we don’t wage war with human plans and methods” (2 Cor.

10:3 NLT).

·         We are now Christians, yet we still live in the world, but we don’t go to war as the world does.

Therein is our problem; the battle for our mind cannot be won using the same thinking we had before we accepted Christ.

YET MANY OF US STILL TRY TO WIN THE BATTLE FOR OUR MIND THE SAME WAY WE ALWAYS DID.

\\ As we grew up from childhood to adults we all learned to respond to life in a variety of ways, but each response had one thing in common.

We learned to go through life without God; we were unaware of His presence in our lives and we did not know His ways.

WE ALL LEARNED TO LIVE OUR LIVES INDEPENDENT FROM GOD.

\\ ILLUSTRATION: Even those of us who grow up in a Christian home still grew up learning to think independently of God.

I had good Christian parents who took me to church every time the doors were opened.

Yet I also grew up IN THE WORLD.

As a child I learned the values of the world from friends and family, by listening to the radio, watching TV and radio.

While my parents taught me to know God, the world taught me to live as though God didn’t exist or if He did, then he didn’t care how I lived my life.

By the time I was a teenager I was to say the least CONFUSED.

TESTIMONY:  14 YEARS OLD AND SUICIDAL

 

Everything you learned through life and all the feelings that came along with it were still programmed into your mind even after you accepted Christ as your savior.

The battle for your mind continues to this day.

Your thoughts can still conform to the pattern of the world; your thinking can still be skewed.

\\ That’s why Paul tells to not “conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2 NIV).

Our thinking has to be reprogrammed; we have been given the mind of Christ only now we need to learn to use it.

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• 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV) \\ [3] For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

[4] The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, THEY HAVE DIVINE POWER TO DEMOLISH STRONGHOLDS.

\\ Within our thinking we have given Satan strongholds.

The devil has a vice-like grip on our thinking and won’t let go; Satan has fortified his position and wants to continue to influence your thinking.

The devil won’t let go of his stranglehold on our lives as long as we continue to follow our old way of thinking.

\\ Growing up we all learned to cope with life in a variety of ways; some of our coping mechanism are not always healthy emotionally or spiritually.

Psychologists refer to these unhealthy patterns of thinking as defense mechanisms, and none of them are consistent with the thinking God wants us to have as Christians.

·         Defense mechanisms come in all shapes and sizes:

o    DISHONESTY—to lie in order to hide the truth aboutØ oneself \\  

o   DENIAL—a conscious or subconscious refusal to accept the world theØ way it really is \\  

o   FANTASY—to escape the real world and live in one’sØ imagination \\  

o   EMOTIONAL INSULATION—to withdraw from others to avoidØ rejection \\  

o   REGRESSION—to revert to safer less threatening timesØ \\ \\

o   DISPLACEMENT—to take anger and frustration out on others \\ \\

o    PROJECTION—toØ blame other people for your problems \\ \\

o    RATIONALIZATION—to make excuses forØ what you say or do \\ These defense mechanisms are the strongholds the enemy will use to control your life.

They are the patterns of thinking programmed into your mind when you lived independently of God.

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Paul said the weapons of our warfare have divine power to demolish strongholds!

*The wrong way of thinking can be reprogrammed*.

If you believed a lie, then you can renounce the lie and choose to believe the truth.

\\ Satan won’t just leave you alone because you are a Christian.

He will run to the strongholds in your mind that were built up before you came to Christ.

The devil still tries to manipulate your thoughts to accomplish his desires.

Satan wants to continually penetrate your thoughts with his thoughts, to reinforce the lies you have believed and distort God’s truth.

Why? SATAN KNOWS THAT IF HE CAN CONTROL YOUR THOUGHTS THEN HE CAN CONTROL YOUR LIFE.

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How are we to overcome the strongholds we have allowed Satan to build in our lives?

\\ • 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) \\ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and *WE TAKE CAPTIVE EVERY THOUGHT TO MAKE IT OBEDIENT TO CHRIST.*

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Paul says to take every thought captive, forcibly make your thoughts obey Christ.

The battle for your spiritual freedom is within your mind!

Paul shows us clearly how the devil works as we look carefully at what he says in this second letter to the Corinthian church.

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*Satan’s scheming* \\ \\

2 Corinthians 2:11 ///11//// lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

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/*[1]*// /

·         Ignorant of his Devices:   best translated: ““not /know/ his /knowing/ plots.”

·          

o   Satan is devious in his trickery; he calculates his plan wanting to outwit us.

“Scheming” is the Greek word “noema;” it is the same word translated “thought” in 2 Corinthians 10:5.

Satan’s schemes are within the thoughts.

Paul uses this word again: \\ \\

• 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV) \\ The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

·         Here “noema” is translated minds.

Satan’s underhanded schemes are not removed from us, but his schemes are engaged within our minds.

“Noema” is similarly translated “minds” again in: \\ \\

·          2 Corinthians 11:3 (NIV) \\ But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

\\ *Are you beginning to get the picture of how Satan works against you?* Satan runs to the strongholds within your mind; he engages you within your thoughts.

Your battle for freedom is within your mind.

Your thinking must be transformed as your mind is renewed.

\\ MARTIN LUTHER WROTE: “The Devil throws hideous thoughts into the soul—hatred of God, blasphemy, and despair.”

Writing of his personal struggle with Satan Luther said, “When I awake at night, the Devil tarries not to seek me out.

He disputes with me and makes me give birth to all kinds of strange thoughts . . .

The devil understands how to produce arguments that exasperate me.

Sometimes he has produced such as to make me doubt whether or not there is a God.” \\ \\

/1 corinthians 9;24// Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?

So run, that ye may obtain.

25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.

Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

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[2]

\\ *How are we to overcome the strongholds we have allowed Satan to build in our lives?

How do we break free from the negative, lying condemning thoughts that fill our minds?*

 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) \\ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and WE TAKE CAPTIVE EVERY THOUGHT TO MAKE IT OBEDIENT TO CHRIST.