Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. What has to change, you see, is not my outward action. What has to change is my inward thought. I have to take every thought captive to Christ. You see, so whenever I find myself thinking, you see, in the thoughts that I have, the real question is, are these thoughts true or not? We'll see as this plays out this morning, but are they true? A lot of my thoughts are not.
You see, they're based on my own experience, my own life, my own perspective of life or what I've been told. And he says, you can't do that. I have to take every thought captive to Christ. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.
Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. Mark Twain wrote this. He said, What a wee little part of a person's life are his actions and his words. His real life is led in his head and is known to none but himself. All day long, the mill of the brain is grinding and his thoughts, not his actions or his words, are his real story. Jonathan Edwards said that the ideas and images of a person's mind are the invisible powers that really govern us. Book of Proverbs, Solomon said, As a man thinks, so he is. Jesus said in Matthew that what really defiles a man is not his actions. But his thoughts, which become his actions.
This is such an important part of our faith. One of the things I've noticed over all the years is that when people are struggling, especially under difficult circumstances, and they're fearful, they lost their peace and all those kind of things. What they tell me often is my problem is I just don't have enough faith. I just don't have enough. And that's been my problem. But Jesus said that if you had a mustard seed of faith.
You could move a mountain. So the real problem is, is the real problem our faith? Or what I'm going to say today is the real problem are thoughts. If you take something like if you remember, the disciples were caught in a storm, and as they're caught in the storm, Jesus is asleep in a boat and they wake him up and say to him, don't you care that we're perishing? And Jesus just looked at him, probably rolled his eyes, stilled the storm and said, you men of little faith. You say, well, see, they didn't have enough faith, but it was all based on how they were thinking. The son of God, God incarnate, told them we're going to the other side. Then why were they afraid in the storm? See, did they believe it or not?
No, they believed the storm they were in. And they decided in their thinking that there's something wrong here. And that's what we end up doing. So that's what I want to talk about this morning is our thought life. And I want to begin and I want to begin the whole process of where the battle really lies in Second Corinthians, chapter 10. Second Corinthians, chapter 10 and verse three. Second Corinthians 10, three. Paul starts out and tells the Corinthians, he said, for though we walk in the flesh, in other words, walk in the Bible is a metaphor for live.
So though we live in the real world, although we live in these bodies, this is where we though we live in the real world. He said we do not war according to the flesh. The battle of our life is not a battle of where we live. It's not a battle of flesh and blood. He said for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh.
But divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. He stays with the metaphor of warfare. But one thing he tells us there, you can't fight for victory in life on your own.
You won't make it. It's not of the flesh. He said, in fact, the weapons we use don't come from us. We'll see in a moment. They'll come from the Lord. But he said they are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. Well, what what are we talking about here?
Next verse. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are destroying speculations. What are speculations? Thoughts. We are destroying speculations.
You see, we're destroying speculations. And he says that are raised up against the knowledge of God. In other words, there's two points of view.
Jesus said, if you're not for me, you're against me. But there's two points of view in this world. There is a fleshly, worldly view of life. And there is a view that God gives us for life. Unfortunately for you and I, once we become Christian, the battle in our own mind are these two views.
We struggle with both of these. You see, out there, they would say. There is no God. OK, you may have been raised that way or part of that. Out there, what they would say is right and what they would say is wrong is completely different than what you and I would say.
In fact, they say now they want to make sure they can knock us, cut us off the knees. There's no such thing as absolute truth out there. Every time I tell you that statement, I always say this, except what I just told you. That's what they do every day. There is no such way. How can that be?
Then you can't tell me that. But see, that's the that's the world we live in. And the battleground is going to be in our own head.
That becomes the issue that we have to destroy. So he says after he says that we are destroying speculations, every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought. Captive to the obedience of Christ. That's the Christian life. That's Christian maturity.
That's being conformed to the image of Christ. What has to change, you see, is not my outward action. What has to change is my inward thought. I have to take every thought captive to Christ. You see, so whenever I find myself thinking, you see, in the thoughts that I have, the real question is, are these thoughts true or not?
We'll see as this plays out this morning. But are they true? A lot of my thoughts are not. You see, they're based on my own experience, my own life, my own perspective of life or what I've been told.
And he says you can't do that. I have to take every thought captive to Christ. So what ends up happening here is, is that our thought life becomes sort of the bedrock of our faith. Now, I want to go as we build on this to Romans Chapter 12.
Romans Chapter 12, verse one. And so the battle is in our mind. But you have to engage the battle.
I think what's so sad for so many of us, you've never got into the battle. You end up thinking, in a sense, as from two completely different perspectives, from your new creature in Christ biblical perspective and from who you always have been. And you try to marry them together and you find you have a life without joy, without peace, without hope. It doesn't work that way.
You can't you can't blend these things together. And yet we we try to all the time. So now when Paul gets the Romans 12, he's looking for a little bit different perspective. It's a great book. Romans is called the Magna Carta of Christianity. If you really want to know what Christianity is, it's a book of Romans. He starts out with the whole idea that God has a case against all humans. There's none righteous, no, not one. All of sin falls short of the glory of God.
No one can make it on their own. And then he says, but God has put Christ into our existence to reconcile us to a holy God. And that's how that works. And we are reconciled through our faith in Christ. And then he goes on and talks about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives once that happens. And basically says, look, before you were a Christian, you sinned because you had to. Now you sin because you want to. Because you're a new creature in Christ and the Spirit of God resides in you, you don't have to sin. You no longer, as Paul said, have to be a slave to sin.
Then he says nine, 10 and 11, he talks about the nation Israel and he picks up his argument here again in 12. This is before he tells us how to live the Christian life, before he tells us what how should we react to each other? How do we react to the government? How do how do we live our lives before we do that?
We have to do this. And so he says, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies. And that means your life as living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Wow.
Now, what's interesting, he said, I'm telling you, you need to present your bodies or your lives as a sacrifice. Now, when you read that in English, you would probably think that means present tense. I've got to get up every day and do this. And there's a certain way that's true, but that's not what this is. This doesn't use over and over again.
This is an heiress tense. Once for all. I present myself to God once for all.
In other words, there has to be a point in my life when I say to myself and to God. I'm all in. I'm all in. I'm yours. Whatever you want to do with my life, do it. You see, I've said that often in the past. I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere at any cost. You just tell me I'll do it. That's presenting myself as a living sacrifice.
Now, some of the old commentators love this, especially about 50 years ago. And they said the problem with living sacrifices is they keep crawling off of the altar. OK. And but that, in a sense, is our own life. But I'm in God.
I'm in. And he says, notice, he says, then that's acceptable to God. And that's your spiritual service of worship. Of all the things you could do to worship God as a believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is to say to God, I'm yours.
You have my life. Now, but that doesn't tell us how to do this. That doesn't tell us how we grow. So then he goes on and he says, and do not be conformed to this world.
J.B. Phillips says, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. Now, here's one of the saddest things about Christianity today among evangelicals like us. Every poll that's been taken over the last 25 years says not in every case, but virtually. The way we live our life is identical to the unsaved people in our culture. In almost every measurable way.
What's that mean? We've been conformed to the world. We have all the we have all the same issues of depression, anxiety, worry. We have the same kind of divorce rate. We struggle.
With this, you see, we struggle just like they struggle. And he said, don't let that happen to you. Don't be conformed to this world. Now watch, but be transformed.
That's a very famous word. Metamorphosis. You probably have had that biology class metamorphosis.
OK. When I say metamorphosis, what do you think? You see, caterpillar.
Right. Goes through metamorphosis. What's it look like then? Butterfly. Now, what's interesting is I want you to think about this. A caterpillar and a butterfly are the same thing. Would you mistake them easily? If you saw a butterfly and saw a caterpillar. Have you ever caught a butterfly caterpillar or a caterpillar or butterfly? No, they're they have the same DNA. They look this completely different.
I mean, it's hard to imagine that that can make it go on and come out a butterfly. That's the word he uses for us. The difference between how we should look.
And how you look out there without Christ is the difference between a butterfly. You see, it's such a clear thing for us. Now, he tells us how. He said, be transformed.
How? By the renewing of your mind. How do we change? We have to think differently. We change through thoughts the way we think.
You see, that's such an important part of our lives. Whenever you came to Christ, you had not play left brain, right brain, but I'll just say I'll use it for the analogy on half of your brain. You had all the thoughts that made you you. And they're made up of family values that you were taught.
Neighborhood friends, peer influence, the culture of the world, the literature you read. You see, the movies you saw that became you. Now, the Bible says once you came to Christ, you're a new creature in Christ.
He says, yeah, now you have to change your thinking. And so far, what have you changed your thinking about the gospel? You see, I didn't believe the gospel before, but now I do believe the gospel. I believe Jesus Christ is God incarnate, lived the perfect life, went to the cross and died in my place for my sins.
And I, by putting my trust in him, have an eternal relationship with God. That's what I believe. What else do I know? Not much. Not much.
I don't. And so the point is, how do I renew my thinking? You see, how do I do that? Some of the things are pretty obvious. You know, some things we know that we were doing that were so bad, we knew they were bad. You see, and then we say after we're Christian, I'm not doing those anymore. But a lot of other stuff.
You see, a lot of other stuff, that takes time. Let me give you an example. One of the things you learn as you grow as a Christian is you and I are to consider everybody else as more important than we are.
How are you doing with that? So if someone cuts you off on the road, they should be allowed to. They're more important than you are. And that's the way you act, right? Well, there goes an important person.
You see how different this thinking is? Jesus said, someone slaps you, give them the other cheek. What? My dad said, never back down from a fight, no matter what it is.
It's true. Now you have a choice. Do I want to do I want to think like my dad or do I want to think like my Lord?
That's my choice. See, a lot of us are. Wow. You see, in some of the sins, Christians are very strongly opposed to sins they would never do. See what I'm saying? You're very strongly opposed to those kind. Who are those people?
How can they do those things? Well, what about the sin of greed? That's not so bad, is it? In fact, isn't that the American way of life? I mean, it's we all live for more.
It's the heart of capitalism. More. Jesus said, if you want to be a leader, you have to be a servant.
What do we think? Wait, wait, wait. I might be tolerate being a servant, but I'm on my way to becoming a leader. He said, if you really are a leader, you'd be a servant.
You see, it's completely opposed. There are so many things like that, that the way we think and the way he thinks are different. So he says, look, you have to be careful if you do it, though, you renew your mind, he said, so that you may prove what the will of God is. In other words, this is something that is God's will for all of our lives. Boy, I never hear Christians talking about this. I can't tell you anyone's ever come in to me and say, Pastor, I got a real problem. But I think wrong.
I'm thinking wrong. And you know what? I really want to know what the will of God is. And now the God has told me this is his will that I start thinking differently biblically.
I don't get that. I get more like, hey, pastor, I just brought in Earl. Do you think it's God will that I marry him? Because I need to know what God's will.
Should I marry this guy or not? You see, should I take that job in St. Louis? I need to know God's will. I don't know.
But I know this. It's God's will you think differently. You see, but we don't even give that a thought.
We don't even think about that. You know, some of the writers have said one of the problems with contemporary Christians is we treat our faith like we treat our favorite hobbies. You see, you have a hobby because you like it and you have a hobby because you control it. So if you like to golf.
Right. Every Saturday morning. But I'm out there. You see, every Saturday morning, I got my bag. I love golfing. Oh, yeah. Sunday morning, I'm here.
Monday, I'm back to being who I was. See, we treat it like a hobby. It's not a hobby. It's your life. You say your life is hidden in him.
It's a life we have. Then he goes on further and says, he said, you not only prove what the will of God is, but that which is good and acceptable and perfect. This is exactly what God wants to do. He wants to renew your mind. If he doesn't renew your mind, you'll never be conformed to the image of Christ. You'll never make it.
It's just the way the thing works. Now, I'm pretty sure for most of us, this is a real struggle. But there's a process that we need to go through and the product is worth it.
And I want to look at the process now. I want you to turn to Philippians four with me for a moment. Philippians Chapter four, Philippians four.
Verse 13. I can do all things. Through him who strengthens me. Wow.
What? I can do a couple of things through him who strengthens me. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. I can remember the first time I ever read that. One of the things I promised myself was I'd never say it. Until I could do it.
It's been a long time coming. So I can do all things. Is that the ultimate Zig Ziglar positive thinking verse? I can do all things. Not some and anything. I can get any news. I can go through any circumstances. And I get through them all because he strengthens me. Wow.
That's amazing. Oh, by the way, he he's in prison. And he's waiting to see if he's going to be executed. He gets out this time. Next time he doesn't.
But he's in prison waiting to be executed. And that's what he says. Is that what you'd say? I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Well, he said he's an apostle after all.
Yes. He's been beaten with rods. On more than one occasion, he's been stoned and left for dead. He says to the Corinthians, I'm not sure if I was literally figuratively in heaven or literally in heaven, but I was there. You see. Wow.
Oh, yeah. He was shipwrecked and snake bit. And everywhere he went, he had people who hated his guts. On top of all that, Paul was probably filled with a natural guilt. I want you to think about what he went through. Paul was the one who probably orchestrated Stephen being martyred. He not only had Stephen killed, but Paul spent his life hunting down Christians and arresting them. He's on the road to Damascus to do that. Whenever Christ appeared to him and he converted.
Just imagine how he felt. And he said, I can overcome all that through him who strengthens me. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time.
Remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.
That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. Music
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