This maybe one of my most important sermons in this series as we begin to understand the battle that there is for the mind!
I ask you, who is in control of your mind? I will proof to you through this teaching, that it is either “The desire of the flesh” or the “Desire of the Spirit”.
Luke 12:29 “Do not seek what you should eat or drink, nor have an anxious mind.”
“Anxious” = being suspended between two realms. (Hope or fear, doubt or faith)
A man who was on a diet was coming up on his favorite donut shop and he began to think how good a donut would taste with his coffee. So he said to himself, “Lord, I will only stop if there is a parking space right in front of the shop.” And sure enough after 7 times around there was a parking place!
Sure we fight the battle of the bulge and other battles, but there is a battle more deadly, more deceitful and determined – the battle over our minds!
There is a battle between God and Satan for the control of your mind!
I don’t know who said this, “The mind is a workshop where the important decisions of life and eternity are made. The mind is an armory where we forge the weapons for our victory or our destruction. The mind is a battlefield where all decisive battles of life are won or lost.”
Please let this sink into your thinking – God did not save you to a defeated life, a defective life or a depressive life – but He has given you a defense for your life – your thought life!
1. The Weakness of Our Flesh. Vs. 3
Some people think that they can go to a distant monastery to escape the flesh! I heard about a young man who went to a monastery and the discipline was silence for a year. Only once a year he could speak 2 words.
After a year the man comes to the Monsignor and he asks, “You can speak 2 words, what would you like to say?” The man said, “Bed hard!” So then he goes back for another year.
The second year he come to the Monsignor and is permitted to speak 2 more works and he says, “Food terrible!” And he goes back for another year.
The third year comes and he can say 2 more words and the Monsignor asks, “What would you like to say?” the man responds, “I quit!” Then the Monsignor said, “You should quit, all you’ve done for 3 years is complain!”
LifePoint: We don’t fight with flesh and blood because we don’t fight against flesh!
Our battle is not with Republicans and Democrats, the government, the school districts, the Taliban or Bin laden or your mother in law – it’s against Satan and his minions that try to take control! Folks, we can’t out wit, out work, or out war the devil – he mocks our relationship with Jesus, knocks our salvation and stocks our position in Christ!
Some think that only education is the weapon – not always! Educate man all you’ve done is make him more dangerous. Some think that legislation is the weapon – not always! You cannot legislate a man to love his neighbor. Some think that the environment is the weapon – do you really believe that if we just change a man’s city or county that his flesh will improve? Whether you take a man from the suburb or the sewer and fail to deal with the old nature – he’s still prideful and polluted in his heart!
Let me remind you that Adam and Eve lived in the perfect Garden with perfect smarts, perfect peace and in a perfect environment and still they messed that up BIG TIME!
They say that in years past to see if a mental patient was ready to be released a doctor would put then in a room and turn on the water faucet on and let it over flow onto the floor. Then the doctor would tell the patient to mop the floor and clean up the room. If they started to mop the floor without turning off the water they weren’t ready to leave the hospital. This describes our society – we’ve been mopping up our problems but failing to turn off the cause of problems – the flesh!
Vance Havner once said, “Our world is fast becoming a madhouse and the inmates are trying to run the asylum. It’s a strange time when the patients are writing the prescriptions, the students are threatening to run the schools and the children control their home…”
2. The Warfare of Our Foe. Vs. 4
“Mighty through God”
a. The Participants.
Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
This shows us a deadly array of evil that controls the darkness in your life! Takes control of the deadly thoughts in your mind and takes control of your depression everyday!
b. The Prize. Vs. 4
“Arguments” “knowledge” “thoughts”
Now there is a difference between your mind and your brain. Psychobabblists of our day don’t agree with me, but that’s O.K. just so I’m right with the Bible. Here’s an example: your mind does the thinking and your brain is what you think with.
When we get saved we “put on the mind of Christ” – that doesn’t mean that we have a higher I.Q. – I could only wish! It’s within our capacity to be able to think spiritually, godly and effectively! Just because you have Jesus in your life doesn’t mean that the war is over – instead it’s just started!
Satan works 24/7 to destroy our single minded devotion towards Christ living in us! What a prize Satan would love to steal right out from under us!
Our minds are a valuable gift and we sell it for dirt and get ripped off when we let Satan get hold of it! May I remind you that God destroyed a whole generation in Genesis 6 because of their failed thinking!
Genesis 6:5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great…and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
c. The Purpose.
• It’s where God communicates to us.
Ephesians 4:17, 18 “…The ungodly are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against God.” NLT
Remember God does not communicate through our emotions. Emotions are the shallowest part of us! We have Christians running around thinking God has spoken to them because their liver shivers!
• It’s where God changes us.
Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed by this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
You can change the way you live by changing the way you think!
• It’s where God controls us.
Romans 8:6 “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
3. The Weapons of Our Fight. Vs. 4,5
“Mighty through God in pulling down strongholds…arguments”
Now get the picture, Paul paints a picture – in one corner is mighty Rome with all its humanism and intellectualism, military hardware and great architecture. And in the other corner is a squinty-eyed Jew with lots of Jesus in him and it’s as if Paul says, “I’m coming against this!”
“Casting down (overthrowing) arguments” =
“Destroying speculations” NASB
“Demolish arguments” NIV
“Overthrowing reasonings” DBT
“Overthrow arrogant reckonings” WNT
“Overthrow every deceptive fantasy” Phillips
“Casting down (logic) imaginations” KJV
“Overthrowing strongholds” = a fortress, walls of resistance
In that stronghold are demonic thoughts hatched in the deepest hell!
“Every high thing” = towers, citadels and intellectualism
And inside these walls are destructive, abusive and abrasive thoughts that hold us hostage – thoughts that we must pull down and destroy them! Fears and habits that capture us daily are ready to be busted!
This is where Satan aims his furious, fiery darts!
• “Principalities” = originating rulers, from the very beginning of angelic creation.
• “Powers” = authority to rule with jurisdiction. In the O.T. the word implies territorial authority.
• “Rulers” = cosmos ruler, supernatural forces (a word that has no Hebrew roots and used only in this verse)
• “Darkness” = implies distress, death, depression, anxiety, affliction
• “Spiritual wickedness” = literally “spirituals of the wickedness” – invisible spiritual beings rotten to the core! The deepest depravity.
Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” NIV
WHAT A WAR!
“Mighty through God…”
Why Are These Weapons (Soldier’s Strategy) So Mighty?
a. The Sovereignty of Our Commander. Vs. 7
“We are Christ’s”
As a follower of Christ you are Christ’s purchase possession!
Longfellow could take a worthless piece of paper, write a poem on it, and instantly make it worth 1000’s of dollars – and we call this genus!
Rockefeller could sign his name on a piece of paper and make it worth millions of dollars – and we call this riches! An artist can take the courses material, paint a picture on it and make it priceless – and we call this art! But Jesus Christ can take a sinful broken life, wash it in His blood put His Spirit in it and make it so valuable before God - and that we call VICTORY!
b. The Authority of Our Commission. Vs. 8
“Our authority”
We’ve been given the power of attorney! Listen I’d rather stand with David’s slingshot and God’s authority then Goliath’s sword and Satan’s backing!
