Back to School (Take every thought...)

Good morning everyone, it is so good to see you all. I know that it has been a bit of a strange last few weeks. Our family has had an opportunity to connect with family the last few weeks, and I want to thank you all for being gracious as we have spent some personal time there. However, while a very sweet time, that has also been incredibly exhausting, so we are very glad to be back at home for a very long time, and we are very glad to be back here worshiping together with our spiritual family this morning.

You know, that is something that I love about our church…we are a spiritual family. Ive said it before, and I will continue to say it…every church claims that they are a family, and other churches definitely experience that as well, but I am telling you, there is something unique about the family that exist right here in the middle of the cornfields in Northern Illinois…

With that said, let me welcome those of you that are joining us online, I know that we have had our strange moments with our online experience, and so I hope that we will find a better experience as we move forward and we continue to try and improve our online worship experience. However, if you are within driving distance to Leaf River and if you are physically able, then I want to invite you to join us in person every Sunday at 9:30am for worship, Bible Study and coffee. We have adult Bible studies, as well as kids Bible studies and without a doubt the best coffee available on a Sunday morning right here in our living room, and the only thing that is missing from this amazing space that God has blessed us with, is you. So, feel free to join us and become a part of our spiritual family right here at Leaf River Baptist Church.

Ok, so it is August 1st…that means that school is literally around the corner. We have college students already moved in and other college students about to move in and then high school, as well as middle school and elementary students that are going to be starting in like 2 weeks…which is insane by the way. With all of this happening I thought it would be great to focus a little bit on going back to school for the next few weeks. Now, I know that we are not all students, and I know that we are not all parents of students, but in general we are all people that are genuinely attempting to grow closer to God and we are students of the Word, so…let’s get back to school, and let’s do so in a way that is pleasing to God.

This morning we are starting this series together where we will work together and discover how to get back to school and refocus our minds and our attitudes on the Lord together. This morning we will be looking at taking every thought captive. Actually, that is a pretty big problem for all of us I believe if you think about it. How may times do you want to stop thinking about something, but you just can’t seem to shake it from your mind, and then that thought leads you into sin. How many times do you want to have your thoughts filled with uplifting things, but you just can’t shake these negative concepts. You see, that is a pretty common experience which is why Paul tells the church at Corinth that they needed to take every thought captive as well as destroying every opinion raised against the knowledge of the Gospel…You see, the thing is that walking into school in todays culture you will be tempted to say and do things that are ungodly, and you will be confronted with people around you that will be seeking to tear down the knowledge of the Gospel in various ways. Listen, I want to be very clear about this, so listen up…I have seen strong Christians slowly fade away from the Gospel due to being in an environment that is chipping away at what they believe to be true. The reality is that the culture around us is not a godly culture, and as a matter of fact is pushing further and further away from the Gospel every single day. That means that each and every student is walking into a lions den every single day. That also means that each and every adult is also walking into that same lions den every single day…every time you step into your job, every time you step into the store, we are surrounded by a culture, (that may not seem like a horribly immoral culture all the time, but we do know that 80% of the community that we live in does not attend a Bible teaching church which means that there is a good chance that there is at least 80% of the culture we are living in every single day), that is working to chip away at your faith.

So what does all of that mean? Well, that is exactly what we are going to look at today. You see, today we are not going to look at a passage and have a 3-5 point outline of the passage…No, today I want to provoke self reflective thought and encourage a life of living for the Lord, as well as show you that Paul experienced alot of criticism from false teachers and from believers within various churches, as well as those outside of the church. Frankly not that different from the modern Christian right here in Ogle County. In this section of 2 Corinthians Paul is dealing with the slander that is being spoken against him. This slander had gained some popularity in the church at Corinth, and frankly it is a criticism that many within the church likely are guilty of ourselves. You see, many times pastors or Christians will speak boldly from the pulpit or from behind a computer screen, however when face to face with ungodliness, they somewhat turn their heads and whisper the truth, if they admit the truth of the Gospel at all. This happens as kids, right…I mean most kids have not yet developed the courage to stand up to ungodliness, and this happens as adults. This is what is being said about Paul, specifically they are saying that he had two radically different personas—“Paul the bold” and “Paul the timid.” Which is the real Paul? Was it true that safely distant from Corinth, he was a man of bold authoritarianism as he wrote his letters, but face to face he was a kind of weak in speaking with people. No, that’s not accurate, so he takes the time to correct this false assumption of who he is and puts those at Corinth on notice by assuring them that he is fully prepared, if necessary, to display appropriate boldness when he next visits. In this short section we see Paul use a series of metaphors drawn from military warfare (10:3–5), as well as the justice system (10:6), he affirms both his authority to act boldly and the overwhelming power of his words and actions.

Read this with me this morning

2 Corinthians 10:1–6 ESV

I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 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. 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.

Ok, so we read this and I wanted to set the stage for what Paul is communicating here, and why he is communicating this, but then I want to really key in on the last piece of this statement from Paul. You see, in this passage we see that we are called to destroy every argument and every impressive opinion that is voiced against the knowledge of God and then to take captive every thought to obey Christ…You see, there is a big call here for the believer to act in a very specific way. However, in order to get there Paul is having to spend a moment to defend himself as an apostle of Christ. He is having to do so becuase he is being accused of violating Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. You see, in that portion of the sermon Jesus is telling the disciples, as well as others that had joined them that they should tell the truth in everything that they do. Let’s take a quick look at Jesus’ words in

Matthew 5:33–37 ESV

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Right here Jesus says to let your yes be yes and your no be no…In other words—Be honest! Now that goes for your vocal words as well as your personality and your actions. So here Paul is being accused of being one person when he is away, and another when he is there in person…Paul has to take a moment to remove that perspective from those that hold that have apparently misunderstood him here. Here is what Paul says, as he would say it

I, then, Paul myself, appeal to you by the humbleness of Christ—I, who face to face with you am “timid” but when absent am “bold” in dealing with you. Yes, I beg you not to force me when present to act boldly with the confidence that I will use against certain people who believe that we conduct our lives according to worldly principles. You see, although we live in the world, we do not live according to the world’s culture…We do not use the tools of the culture, no, we use the power of Christ to destroy the stronghold, of sin. We destroy the eloquent, or progressive arguments that are spoken against the Gospel. We take captive our own thoughts, and temptations for Christ and we stand ready to punish any trace of disobedience, or false teaching, or slander against the Gospel, once your own obedience is complete. —Paul

You see, Paul is speaking very clearly that a culture of sin and slander is not to be tolerated, and which means that although we as believers live in this culture, in this society, we cannot lower ourselves, yes I said lower. We cannot lower ourselves to participate in a culture that not only allows, but praises sin. We live in a culture, right now that has completely come to a point of saying that sin is good and that it should be praised and celebrated. We live in a culture right now that is actively trying to figure out how many different genders and sexual orientations we can have. However, it should be clear that this culture we live in is becuase we have allowed sin rampant in the church and in our own lives, for years. Yes, homosexuality and all of the other sexual concepts that is all over media is wrong, but do you know what else is wrong…adulterous heterosexual relationships…That is any relationship outside of marriage. Now, students are being faced with these types of questions every single day and they are living in a culture that is progressing and finding new ways to both experience sin, but to also tolerate sin. So parents this is why your role is so vital. The children in your lives are entering into an area that you as a parent do not control all of their information intake, and that is not a bad thing. However, as a parent it is your job to help your child process this information from a Biblical perspective, instead of from a cultural perspective. Do you know what happens when we live in that culture and we do so without staying focused on the Gospel? Do you know what happens when you are not prepared to stand up to those thoughts against the Gospel, and take captive those thoughts and temptations? Do you know what happens when we send our kids off into the culture around them without teaching them and training how to process thoughts in light of the Gospel.. Well, we will live in a culture where sin is celebrated not only in the culture around us, but in the church around us. We live in a culture where faith has been slowly turning toward the potential of humanity, instead of the glory of God.

Author Mark Sayers says in his book called “Facing Leviathan”, he says,

“God was not immediately removed from the picture. However, a profound shift had occurred: no longer was faith directed primarily toward God. Instead, Western society faith shifted toward the power and potential of humankind.” —Mark Sayers

Look, like I said earlier, I have seen Gospel focused men and women allow a little bit of this sin culture in their lives, and now they would argue that certain sins are ok, becuase they are not that bad…What do you think happens next? Well, next we realize that we are living in Sodom and Gomorrah. So look, this morning, I am simply reflecting some thoughts to you that I have been considering over the past few months. I am reflecting these thoughts to you becuase you live and study and work in an ungodly culture. You and I are not responsibly for the actions of others…however, we are responsible for our own actions and our own holiness. John Piper says,

God is more worried about your holiness than your happiness…—John Piper

If I am focused more on my happiness, then my happiness has become an idol in my life. My desire to fit in, or to not cause waves, or to have people like me, or whatever it is…and that idol must be destroyed and those sinful thoughts and behaviors must be taken captive and removed from your life.

This morning we have seen Paul remind us that we are to be the same person no matter where we are or who we are with, we are reminded from Jesus that we are called to simply be honest, that is with our words and our actions. Finally we are reminded that our holiness, our progressive sanctification is more valuable that the ease of not confronting sin in our lives, or in the lives of those around us. Look I am passionate about this topic this morning because I have seen the damaging effects of being more focused on culture that Scripture, and I am begging you to make your focus God’s word, and not justifying sin in your life, or being ok with sin in the life of others. There are alot of very nice people who you have a great relationship with and so you begin to allow their rejection of the Gospel be justified for one reason or another. We begin to allow our closely held beliefs soften a bit and eventually we are giving approval to various sinful lifestyles becuase we have focused more on the potential of humanity and our culture. Let me leave you this morning with this quote from Paul that shows us what will happen when we allow culture to take priority in our lives over the Gospel...

You see, when we allow culture to take priority in our lives over the Gospel, then we will not only participate in the culture around us, but we will give approval, or pride, to others who have progressed in their thinking and have become more accepting of the culture around us.

So, let’s bring this back to us as beleivers in 2021, as students in 2021, as employees, and employers in 2021, as neighbors in 2021…What will be our response to the culture around us? How will we portray ourselves and the Gospel to those around us? Will we stay consistent in our character, or will be change depending on who we are around. Let me be clear for a moment… I am not talking about political convictions…I am talking about Biblical convictions…I don’t care if you are right wing, left wing or no wing. I care if you are focused on the Scriptures as a guide in your life, and yes, there are times when Biblical issues have been politicized, issues such as abortion, sexuality, and marxism, all of which seek to destroy the family as designed by God, and allow some group of people or program take the place of God as savior in the lives of people… However, Paul reminds us that as beleivers...

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ...” —Paul

So how do we do that? How do we destroy every argument and lofty idea and take our thoughts captive…Well, the only way to do that, is to stay in the word more than you stay in the culture. Fill our thoughts and your heart with prayer and Scripture instead of movies and news. Spend your mornings reading Scripture instead of reading Facebook or Twitter…That is the only way to take your thoughts captive...

This morning we will move into a time of communion and while we are remembering what Christ did for us, I want us to look up, and focus on our union with Christ. This union with Christ is what continues to bring us and allow us to grow in our relationship with Christ. This union with Christ is what gives us the opportunity to confront sin in our lives....this union with Christ is what gives us the strength and power to remain bold and destroy any progressive arguments against the Gospel and strengthens us to take our thoughts captive and knock down any idols in our own lives…This union with Christ is what literally gives us life. So, as you receive your elements take a moment and thank God for this union that is only made possible through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

pray to close the sermon time and move into communion

At this time I will ask the Elders to come forward and I will ask Avolene to come forward to play some reflective worship as we receive these elements and worship through communion.

pass out elements while music is playing

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Elder prays for bread

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 ESV

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Elder prays for the cup

Praise God…he is so good to give us a picture of his sacrifice that we can continue to refocus ourselves on him, and not us...

Closing Prayer