Thoughts
Prepared by: H. Eric Routon
August 7, 2007
“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 strongholds. 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 and we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
This sermon is entitled Thoughts. I will begin by telling you a true story. One night a man drove his car off of a bridge and his car plunged into the water below. In his car with him was his wife and children. Sadly they died. He did not. This man had a good job was well respected and generally a good man-up until this point. When at the hospital the police wanted to know what happened if he was run out of the road or if he was under the influence of drugs and or alcohol and lost control of the vehicle. What he told the police during the questioning shocked them. For several days prior to the incident he said a thought entered his head. The thought was of suicide and murder. He said the thought consumed him, consumed his thinking, his rationale and the thought began to grow more and more and more until it manifested into reality, into an action and ultimately to a very tragic act of evil savagery.
Thoughts are real.
As we can see in this story an evil thought can lead to a tragic event. All of our actions are driven by our thoughts. Thoughts are real. Now you can have an evil thought and do evil things or you can have a good thought and accomplish a good deed. I am sure all of you know that thoughts are real.
Thoughts are powerful
Now, we know that thoughts are real but thoughts are also very powerful. Each thought that comes into our head is powerful. Let’s not take this lightly. You might say that this will never happen to me and true you may never entertain an evil thought of this nature or even carry it out but no one thought that this man would carry out an act of this nature either, but he did. And it all started with an evil thought. Regardless we are attacked by the enemy everyday through thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, and thoughts. The Devil attacks us and gets us to sin by deceitfully planting thoughts into our heads. See the Devil knows that thoughts are very powerful and very real.
I know how powerful and real thoughts are too because I used to be one of Satan’s number one followers. I was addicted to cocaine for 19 years and my thought process was screwed up by the Devil’s schemes. And a thought would come into my head that I needed to go get high and I would go to any extreme to accomplish the action of going and getting high. If I needed to lie, cheat and steal to get the drugs then I would lie, cheat and steal and go get it. The Devil kept me in bondage by bombarding me with a barrage of thoughts that were infected with deceit that created a desire in me to go get high. And even though I knew it was wrong to go get high, I got high anyway. If you do not think thoughts are powerful then think again.
The war
There is a constant war going on inside of us. Evil v. Good (in our thoughts).When we hear the word “war” we tend to think of traditional warfare fought with guns and weapons of mass destruction with all the blood and gore and missing limbs and maiming and acts of savagery, torture, rape and so forth. This war is not that kind of war! And this war is not on the battlefields we are used to fighting. 2 Corinthians 10:3 tells us “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.” And our enemy is not a flesh and blood enemy. Our enemy is a powerful spiritual force of evil. Ephesians 6:12 states “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Demons
The word demon comes from the Greek word diamonia and it never means “devil”. There is only one “devil” Satan and the Greek word for devil is diablos.
The scriptures talk a lot about the realness and the personality of demons:
1. Demons are spirits- “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.” Mat. 12:43.
2. Demons are very numerous- “Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ “My name is Legion,” he replied ‘for we are many’. Mark 5:9
3. Demons have the ability to enter into and control men and beasts- Mark 5:2-5. And they seek to embody men because they are, apparently, physically powerless without such embodiment. Mat. 12:43-44; Mark 5:10-12.
4. Demons are unclean spirits that are sullen, violent and malicious. Mat. 8:28
You have to stop thinking fleshly and start thinking spiritually because we are being attacked by a powerful spiritual force of evil that is in the heavenly realm. We cannot see our enemy with our eyes or hear him with our ears or smell him with our nose or touch and feel him with our hands. We cannot hide behind trees from our enemy or behind a rock or in a fox hole surrounded by sandbags. Our enemy is a powerful spiritual force of evil and he is trying to kill you. No, he does not want your fleshly body he wants your soul!
Taking thoughts captive
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to “…take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” We must not entertain any evil thought. We must take it captive, tie it up and drag to our Lord Jesus Christ. Tie it up. Bind it up. Throw away the key and take it to Christ and let him make it obedient. Oh how the demons shudder when they here the name of the Son of the Most High! Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.
Let me give you an example of how the Devil schemes and plants thoughts into our head to cause another person to sin. While out on a campaign trip in Pittsburgh, we were riding in the van headed back to the hotel room. Our campaign leader began to talk about his past experiences with drugs and he glorified one particular experience he had had while under the influence of an over the counter drug called clorocedin. Another student was very curious about this drug and began to ask questions about how many pills to take, what the drug makes you feel like, how long it lasts and so forth. The very next day the student went into the store bought some clorocedin and took them. He got high. Well there you go another successful scheme of the Devil.
See the Devil planted a thought in our leaders head to glorify his experience on this particular drug. The leader did not take this thought captive. He did not bind it up. He did not take it to Jesus so He could make it obedient. Instead the thought loosed our leader’s lips and his glorification created a curiosity in the listening student. The Devil recognized this curiosity and planted a thought that created a desire in the student to go get high. The student did not take his thought captive, he did not bind it up, and he did not take it to Jesus so that Jesus would make it obedient and he went and got high! Oh that Devil is cunning, conniving, and low down, no good piece of trash that was kicked out of heaven!
We have to take our thoughts captive and take them to the Lord. And he will make them obedient. What thoughts do we take to our Lord? Every thought. Again the scripture says “…take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
And
With all of this being said we can not fight this war as if we were fighting an enemy
of this world this is a fight that we are fighting in our heads. Again the scripture says “…take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Not just evil thoughts but every thought. Everything we think of we must take it captive and make it obedient to Christ.
Every thought has a spiritual root that has a spiritual origin. And each thought has an objective. Two forces are at work God and Satan. We are at war! We all have felt something evil and we must realize that there are evil spirits at war with Godly spirits. Discern the intent of the thoughts, if it draws you closer to God they are Godly if it draws you away from God or your faith then it is evil. Anything that draws you away from a daily desire to praise God is evil. Our thought life must be subjected to God.
