TIME OUT with Pastor Ben Talley - 2 Corinthians 10:4 5

The Weapons of Our Warfare and the Battle for the Mind

Morning. My name is Pastor Ben. I'm the associate pastor at Wynton Memorial Baptist Church. This is another time out. How's everybody doing today? It is a good day. Probably still raining outside, but it's a good day to spend time in the Word.

So today's scripture is from 2nd Corinthians chapter 10. We'll be going over verses 4 and 5. 4 and 5 of 2nd Corinthians chapter 10. So 2nd Corinthians is a book that Paul wrote, and in chapter 10 Paul is defending his ministry against those who are criticizing him.

They are saying that he is too bold or saying that he walks in the flesh or is overbearing and things like that. So he is defending his ministry and the way he walks, saying he walks in the flesh. So he says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4, he says, For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every lawfully opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. He says for the weapons of our warfare. The weapons of our warfare are or is the Word of God.

The Word of God, as we know from Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, is living and active, sharp, discerning of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It is to divide the joints and marrows and discerns our thoughts and our actions.

It gets down to the nitty-gritty of our intentions, our desires, things like that. So it really rips open every little thing that we desire and we intend and we think about when applied to our life. And it says that they are not of the flesh, but of divine power, divine power of God.

The scriptures are God-breathed. So it says to destroy strongholds. Strongholds are anything that someone is leaning on, anything that someone is putting dependence on, any kind of presupposition or any thought, something that people are basing a belief or a worldview on.

What's up Rebecca? How are you? So that would be like when you witness into someone and they say, you know, like the whole world thinks pretty much that everybody is pretty much good. You know, I encounter it all the time in witnessing.

Oh, I'm a pretty good person. You know, everyone seems to think they're pretty good. When they veer away from the proper anthropology of the Bible that man is bad, that man is corrupt, that man is sinful, then they run into problems.

So when they hold on to the stronghold of thinking that they are good, that will lead them to hell because that leads them to think that I am good and God accepts me. You know, I'm a pretty good person.

I mess up sometimes. You know, God loves me. God loves everybody. You know, that kind of thing. That can lead to an improper belief and lead someone straight to hell. And the devil loves putting people in that type of stronghold.

A stronghold can be any kind of sin, any kind of false belief, any kind of false idea. So it says, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. So there's any kind of, what's up Carlene?

Any kind of false opinion, lofty opinion, destroying arguments, any lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. A lot of ideas from modern philosophy and psychology really hit home with this. They're lofty opinions against the knowledge of God.

Rejecting Self-Love Teaching and Submitting Every Thought to Christ

One is this whole self-love thing. You know, I must love myself before I serve others. And they take the verse, you know, love your neighbor as yourself. They say that we can't properly minister to others until we love ourselves.

That's not true. That's not what Jesus said. He did not say you must love yourself before you love others. You can't, that's not what he's saying. He's not saying you must serve and take care of yourself before you take care and serve others.

In fact, he's saying the opposite. He's saying you love yourself enough, you know, we love ourselves already. We do pretty good at that. We're selfish people. We're selfish as a human race, you know, so we do pretty good at that already.

We must instead step outside of ourselves and serve others. That's what he means by love your neighbor as yourself, as you do yourself. So that's what he meant by that. But people have twisted it and turned it and changed it and turned it into something that he's not saying at all.

So Paul is saying that we need to take every thought captive, every thought captive, you know, to obedience to Christ. So, you know, I'm thinking of the way a soldier would handle a enemy sneaking into the camp of an army.

When a enemy would sneak into a camp and the soldiers found that enemy, they would put him at gunpoint and take him to the captain. So in that same way, we need to take our thoughts, any kind of ungodly thoughts, any kind of ungodly idea or concept that comes into our mind.

What's up Lisa? What's up Tracy? Any kind of ungodly thought or idea that comes into our mind, we need to, in a sense, take it, put it to gunpoint, you know, use the Word of God and bring it into submission to the captain, you know, to Christ.

So just, just I hope that makes sense. So, so, so any thought that we have, any, any thoughts of either an attack against you, you know, against who you are in Christ, saying you can't be forgiven or, you know, God's not pleased with you or, you know, things like that, you know, God will never be pleased with you.

All kinds of thoughts that the enemy may put against your head of insecurities or you're unworthy of Christ. You are unworthy of Christ, but God has made you worthy by the blood, you know. He's, He's justified you.

He's, He's made you complete. He's made you whole. He's made you able to stand before Him, in a sense. That's what I mean by He's made you worthy. So, so walk in this manner. Walk in the, in the way of, of taking your thoughts and taking them captive and bringing them into submission of Christ.

So that's the, that's what we have to do. We have to take our thoughts and bring them into submission of the Word of God and bring them before the King. So yeah, that's, that's, that's the constant battle we face of taking the Word of God, applying it to our life, you know, applying it to every situation, you know, every little thing that Satan may throw at us, especially nowadays, you know, all this thing with fear and anxiety and worry that we may face.

We have to know that God does care for us, that He is sovereign, and that He is in control. So every thought that comes up against the fact that God doesn't care about me, that God is not sovereign, that God is not in control, we need to know that God is good.

The Lord is good. The Lord is in control, you know. You know, we need to meditate on scripture verses that say that and quote those back, meditate on those, and know that He is in control, and He does care, and we need to meditate on those and apply those to our life, because that's how it works.

Take every thought captive that comes against the knowledge of God and the knowledge of His Word. So, I love y 'all. Make the most of your time, because the days are evil, but God is in control. He is sovereign.

He has a plan. He is good. He is loving. He loves you, and He is trustworthy. So always know that, despite whatever the world says, whatever thoughts in your head that are out there, you know, so remember that, believe that, and get into the Word today, you know, and take every thought captive.

God loves you. I love you. Let's pray. God, I pray for all the believers and all those who don't know you. Lord, I pray that we understand that You are in control, that Your Word is sufficient for our needs and for everything You're doing in our life, God.

I pray that we remember that. I pray that we trust You, and I pray that You help us take every thought captive and bring it under submission to Your will and to Your plan and to Your good purposes for our life, God.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Love y 'all.