Topic: Stewardship of our minds
Text: 2 Corinthians 4:4;10:3-5
Introduction
Today I am going to finish up our series on stewardship by looking at “How to be good stewards of our minds.” Being good stewards of our minds is easier said than done because our minds are being attacked all the time! Have you ever woken up in the morning and suddenly had the thought “that God doesn’t love you anymore!” Why did you have that thought? Because your mind was being attacked!
I am going to try and show you this morning that becoming a good steward of your mind involves knowing
•Who is attacking your mind?
•Why is your mind being attacked?
•How is your mind being attacked?
•How do you fight back?
My scripture text for today is found in 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
“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… 2 Corinthians 4:4
“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 and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
1.Who is attacking your mind?
•Who keeps planting the thought that …..you are worthless?
•….that you are unlovable?
If a person is an unbeliever the answer is obvious. It’s the Devil.
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers…”
If a person is not a believer in Christ it’s because the devil has blinded their minds to the gospel of Christ
But what about those of us who are believers in Christ? Who is attacking our minds?
I believe it’s the same Devil trying to blind our minds for a second time!
Even though we are now believers in Christ he wants to blind our minds once again!
•Jesus came that you might be born again!
•The devil came that you might be blind again!
All Christians are born again! Unfortunately some Christians are almost blind again!
I know the devil is trying to attack my mind. I know the devil is trying to attack your mind.I know we all experience the devil attacking our mind. And just in case there is one person here today who believes “the devil is not attacking their mind….My response to you is “ you need seriously ask yourself the question “ why is the devil not attacking my mind.”
He attacked the mind of Jesus. He attacked the mind of Peter
When the Devil attacks a person’s mind he tries to aim for specific targets
I believe 2 Corinthians 10:4 tells me what those specific targets are
“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.”
The Devil targets my knowledge of God and my obedience to Christ for attack
Every person who is not a believer in Christ is blinded by the devil. They have no knowledge of God. (they may know about God but that is not the same as knowing God) They have no obedience to Christ.The Devil has attacked and has wiped out the target
He specifically targets my knowledge of God and my obedience to Christ for attack. He tries to stop me growing in my knowledge of God and in my obedience to Christ. How many of us who are believers have said to ourselves “I wish I knew God now like I knew him when I was first saved.” Or how many of us who are believers have said “I used to be so on fire for Christ when I first got saved but now the fire is gone out.
What happened to us? The Devil hit his target! We got blind-sided by the Devil!
The Devil wants to do to me and you what he successfully did to those written about in Hebrews 5:12
“Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.”
They never grew up. They never graduated kindergarten! They never did anything great for God.
How does the Devil actually attack my mind?
Again 2 Corinthians 10:4 tells me the answer
"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."
Illustration: I feel like I am a weapons inspector. I look at this verse and I find there are three weapons the Devil uses to attack my mind; to attack my knowledge of God and my obedience to Christ
•He uses Arguments
•He uses Pretense
•He uses thoughts
Let’s look at these three weapons of the Devil more closely
Let’s begin with thoughts
1.Thoughts are the devil’s favorite weapon
"...and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
Not every thought I have comes from God. Some of the thoughts I have comes from the devil.
It’s not a sin to have thoughts from the devil. It’s only a sin if you act upon them!
Martin Luther said
You can’t stop the birds from flying above your head but you can stop them from making nests in your hair.
How do you know if a thought is from the devil?
Does the thought point me to the knowledge of God or to obedience to Christ?
If I think I'm worthless I not because my knowledge of God says the opposite
•Then the Devil uses Arguments
Greek: The reflections and considerations preceding and determining conduct
The Devil uses any argument that will get our minds to reflect on and consider conduct that God would not approve of.
Illustration: Adam and Eve
God told Adam and Eve you are free to eat from any tree in the garden but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not conduct that God would approve of
I don’t believe Adam and Eve had a problem with that command!
Not until the devil came to them with an argument.
“God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Adam and Eve reflected on the devil’s argument
Adam and Eve considered the devil’s argument
Then Adam and Eve gave in to the devil’s argument
They ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they died spiritually.
The Devil argues with us too.
He argues with us in order to get us to reflect on and consider conduct that God would not approve of.
The truth is the devil knows what argument work best with each one of us
Illustration: You deserve this….
You only live once…
Go ahead God still loves you
Thought to ponder
Am I doing what I’m doing because I lost an argument with the Devil?
Or am I doing what I’m doing because I won an argument with the Devil?
Then the devil also uses the weapon of Pretence
What is the weapon of pretence?
Any weapon that helps you to pretend to be someone you really are not
He helps me to appear more spiritual than I really am.
This weapon is one that is highly successful
Ask King Saul, the Pharisees, The apostle Judas…the church at Sardis
“You have a reputation of being alive but you are dead.” (Rev. 3:1)
Pretending to love Jesus when I really don’t
Pretending to be excited about God when I’m really not.
Now none of us are where we want to be
Pretending we are already there
Pretending we’ve arrived
Pretending we know and do it all
How do we fight back against the attacks of the devil?
How do we keep growing in our knowledge of God and our obedience to Christ?
“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 and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
We are not to fight back at the Devil with the weapons of the world
They don’t work!
What are the weapons of the world anyway?
Any weapon that does not have divine power in it!
We are only firing blanks when we fight back with the weapons of the world.
Instead we are to fight back at the devil with weapons that have divine power
The greatest of those weapons is the word of God!
When the devil attacked Jesus how did Jesus respond?
He responded with the word of God!
It is written! It is written! It is written!
The word of God is the power of God!
Here is our problem!
We don’t get the word of God to where it is most needed!
The battle is in the mind.
We have to get the word of God into our minds.
The word of God is no use to us if it stays on our shelve
Illustration
The war in Iraq and Afghanistan and we keep all our weapons on some shelve here in America.
Another divine weapon is prayer
But not just any kind of prayer!
The Lord’s prayer!
Praying scriptures!
Praying God’s will!
Where do we start?
Repent!
Don’t be mad at the Devil be mad at your self!
We can’t change the Devil we can only change our selves!
Fight back
Pray!
Read the word! Memorize the word! Quote the word!
Conclusion
Is there hope for me if I'm blind again?
One time some men brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes he put his hands on him and asked do you see anything?
The man looked up and said “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly.” Mark 8:22-25
Let Jesus touch your mind once again
