Sermon Central
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Stewardship Of Our Minds Series
Contributed by Patrick O'loughlin on Mar 30, 2011 (message contributor)
Summary: Part 3 of a series on stewardship. This one is about being good stewards of our minds.
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.”
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
