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Bellevue Baptist Church High School Ministry
2 Corinthians chapter 10 is where we're gonna be at tonight, and hey, this is where we're gonna be at over the next couple of weeks. We are starting a series called Mind Matters. Mind Matters. In 2 Corinthians chapter 10, we're gonna be in verse 3 through 6. I wanna tell you a story real quick as you find your way there, and it's this.
My wife and I moved into our house in Humboldt, Tennessee a few years back. And here's the deal with that. We moved into this house understanding that it was going to be a fixer-upper, right? That was gonna be, we're gonna demo some things, we're gonna fix some things, we're gonna update some things. And one of those major pieces that we were gonna update has been our master bathroom. So our master bathroom, I'll show you some pictures at the end of, if you wanna see it, I'm actually really proud of it. I'll show you some pictures and what we've done to it is it had like this closet and then a tiny little shower, but the ceiling is like eight feet tall. So we tore all of it out. There was some termite damage. We got all that fixed, did everything. And here's the deal. I did all of it myself. So it has like, if I show you the before and after pictures, you'll see it. The before, if you look closely, the day at the top says 2022. And the after is like yesterday. So we're still working on it. So it's been a long project. But here's what the deal.
When it comes to showers, we moved some things around. We moved like a pipe around. We like redid where the fittings are and where the shower head's coming from and all that different stuff. So we had to do, redo all of the plumbing.
So here's the deal. I read all the plumbing, got into my attic, fed it down the wall and fed it into the, you know, the fittings, all the things that you need. And then all the way up to the new shower heads like that. I turn it on and guess what?
Something's not working. It's not doing what it's supposed to. Like, I flip it to where I think it should work, and it's not working. And here's the deal. I plugged everything in, got it all hooked up, did what I was supposed to do, but the inlet was not where it was supposed to go.
So the inlet that feeds the water into the system that allows everything else to work and flow the way that it's supposed to was not in the correct spot. So here's what I want you to understand by that is this.
Your inlet...
What you allow in affects your output. Your input affects your output.
So here's why I say that.
Over the next couple weeks, we're gonna be talking about this idea of mind matters.
Your thought life...
The things that you allow to have influence over your mind, over your thoughts, matters.
And students, listen to me, I promise you this, your input will affect your output.
If you allow the wrong things in, I promise you the wrong things are gonna make their way out.
Whereas the music you listen to...
The shows that you watch...
And listen, we need to be more strict on the things that we allow our eyes to see. The obvious thing is, oh, like I wouldn't watch.
Like, we all can agree pornography is bad, we shouldn't watch that, but then we'll watch Love Island and it's pretty much the same thing.
Being strict...
On what we allow to...
Infiltrate our minds, because students, I promise you this.
Your input is gonna affect your output.
2 Corinthians chapter 10.
Starting in verse 3, it says this,
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, this part right here, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.
When it comes to obedience, I want you to understand this, your battle is not a fleshly one.
Your battle is not a fleshly one. And yes, of course, you should wage war against your flesh. You should wage war against your fleshly desires and turn those desires and say, hey, listen, I don't wanna desire the things of my flesh. I wanna desire the things of God. But again, look at what the passage says. It says this, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
So when I say it's not a fleshly war, what I mean is this, that having victory over sin, walking fully with the Lord, being completely dependent on the Lord, is not about you pulling yourself up from your bootstraps and doing a better job.
When we talk about mind matters, it's not about, oh, like, you can, as long as you do the right things, but like, you can think however you want.
As long as you look good on the outside, the inside can be whatever because the outside is all that people really see.
will we find ourselves in this level of thinking when we wrongfully decide that, hey, the person that I'm trying to impress is everyone that's around me, and I don't really care what God thinks about me.
Because God will just forgive me?
God will just say, oh, it's okay, he'll just forgive me of whatever it is that I'm doing.
Rather, where I want us to get as we dive into this series over the next couple of weeks is this understanding that, hey, my mind, what I allow into my mind, what I allow my thought life is a big deal.
But here's the good news, students. Because it's not a battle of your flesh of you saying, oh, well, you just gotta do better.
That means that it's completely and wholly dependent on the Lord.
That Lord, because of who you are, I can rest assured knowing, one, my faith is secure, but everything that I need for salvation and living a holy life can be found in the person of Jesus Christ.
The passage says, I'm gonna read it again, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
Students, listen to me. You have everything that you need.
to live a holy life and to have victory over sin. Look at what it says again.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. Again, the weapons of your warfare is not dependent on, hey, how good of a job can you do?
How much can you get to church? How much scripture can you read? How many verses can you memorize? Hey, how good of a person can you appear to be on the outside?
The question is like, hey, how can you fully depend on the Lord? And then I love what it says.
that the weapons that we have are not flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
And it says this, we destroy...
Arguments, arguments against who Christ is, every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and then this part right here, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Here's the big question I want you to consider that we're gonna consider as we walk into these next two weeks talking about mind matters is this. You ready for it?
Does my thought life demonstrate a dependence on the Lord?
Does my thought life
Demonstrate
I put desperation there, didn't I?
I desperation, but whatever you want to write down. Does my thought life demonstrate a desperation for God's presence?
Does my thought life demonstrate a desperation for God's presence? So here's what I mean by that. Listen to me, students.
This is not, hey, you have to be perfect in everything that you, everything, every thought that you have, everything that comes to your mind, you have to be perfect. But here's what that means. Every thought that you have, you should be able to take it,
And to say, is this honoring to the Lord or is this dishonoring?
Does this, is this true about God or is it not?
Because the enemy is gonna attack you and the enemy is gonna say, hey,
God doesn't love you.
God doesn't care for you.
God, and he's gonna start answering all these lies about who God is, and taking every thought captive means this, is I can take those thoughts and I can hold them up against God's word, and I can say, okay, is this true about God or is this not?
And then from that...
We all say, okay, do I act on it or do I discard it, replacing it with what I know to be true about who God is?
Taking every thought captive.
And it continues and it says,
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Does my thought life demonstrate a desperation?
for God's presence.
Does my thought life...
Demonstrate, I mean, all that I want.
is to be near to the Lord.
This is a question that we're gonna dive deeper into over the next couple weeks, and I'm excited to be able to do it alongside y'all, okay?