Finding Hope in Our Thought Lives

Do your thoughts run wild? What would it look like to have every thought in line with Jesus? What hope do we have when we are under pressure with our thought life?

Is your to-do list overwhelming? Do you feel constant pressure to perform—at home, at work, even in your downtime? Sometimes it can feel like you’re barely keeping up.
Our culture pushes us to achieve, finish, and win—but what happens when it’s all too much?
In 2 Corinthians, we meet someone who knew that pressure firsthand. The apostle Paul faced expectations, criticism, and weakness—yet he discovered something surprising: God works most powerfully not through our strength, but through our weakness.

Transcript

Our culture pushes us to achieve, finish, and What happens when it’s all too much writing this message while I was on a soccer weekend trip. One day I carpooled with a couple other of the mommies and I had my first trip in a Maserati. It was a sweet car. The whole weekend I was hanging out with these very kind, gentle, wonderful soccer parents who also have a tendency to have a lot of money and sort of live like the lifestyle of the rich and not so famous. I found myself shifting back and forth [music] in my mind between feeling very uncomfortable because although we do drive very pleasant vehicles, they’re not worth $100,000.

Feeling silly because I come to soccer with a huge cooler full of food because we don’t eat out every meal and thinking to myself, “Nobody’s thinking about you, S. [laughter] You’re thinking of yourself more than they think of you.” But it was a challenge. I will be honest in my mind. And I could add in Brian and I were just with other pastors. We were at our annual meeting in Arizona and we were constantly around people who said, “How’s the church?

how are you doing? And I had to think honestly and not try to present myself in a certain way, right? Our thoughts just get us going sometimes. Do you ever care a lot what other people think and you just like get up all in your head about it? Now, sometimes we want to make a good impression and we want to care about what others think in a kind, gentle, hospitality type of way, right?

But I think we all know that tipping point when it becomes out of control. Maybe you have other thoughts that race through your mind. Maybe it’s being anxious about trying to fit in. Or maybe it’s concerns about a particular person that you’re honestly worried about. Or maybe, and I can be like this too, you’re constantly criticizing in your mind about other people.

Why are they coughing so loud? Why are they driving so fast? Or maybe it’s just a global issue, a political issue that seems to consume your thoughts.

Well, we’re in this series about being under pressure and how do we find hope when life is too much? Sometimes when we’re under pressure, our thoughts, we all have the memes maybe in our minds or the emojis of the where our thoughts are explosive. We’ve been in this series in second Corinthians where Paul, the writer of a letter to a church, has been under pressure. Paul has had people, old friends, old Christian friends in the faith who are now questioning his authority, questioning whether or not he’s really a valid leader. And after pages of encouragement and trying to rebuild trust, Paul decides to sort of let them have it. So that’s where we’re going to pick up in chapter 10 today.

Starting at verse one, Paul writes to this his church, “By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you. I, Paul, who might be timid when I’m face to face, when I am visiting you, but I’m bold when I’m away from you, when I’m writing a letter.” Paul says, ‘I beg you that when I do come, I’m not going to have to be as bold as I expect to be towards some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.

So apparently people have said things about Paul and it’s gotten back to him. People have said, you know, that Paul when he’s actually here, he’s really quite timid and I wonder if maybe that word also means kind of weak. But then, man, his letters come and he’s all like hot and fierce. Paul has apparently sent a scathing letter. People who study history imagine as we read through the lines like, you know what I’m saying?

Uh, that there must have been another letter and it’s lost to us. In this letter of second Corinthians, he has been kind and affectionate with moments of tough talk. At the beginning of this, he says by the humility and gentleness of Christ. He appeals to the meekness of Jesus. Jesus who did not retaliate.

Jesus who was humble and gentle. Matthew 11:29 tells us. Jesus who stretched out his arms not for weapons or for a keyboard attack, but in order to die.

Paul Paul says that his listeners are claiming that he’s living by the standards of this world. This phrase or this thinking about you are of the world. This comes up a lot in this section.

So what does that mean? What is the world? Sometimes maybe you’ve heard it in Christian circles. We are in the world but we’re not of the world. There’s a separation there.

This word means the way Christians have to sometimes talk about things that are not holy. Like we don’t live as the world lives, we live as Jesus lives. This word world is actually in the Greek sirs and it means flesh. It literally means the physical body that we have or [snorts] what we see the stage, the walls, the school. Paul is talking about it in a different way.

Things that are separated somehow from God. Even though we know the world, God created it. But ways in which people live, people who live by different standards, meaning the world, not of God. Now, they’re accusing Paul of living the way the world does. And Paul is establishing that he doesn’t do things the way the world does.

He is trying to follow Jesus. They actually want him to be more like the world, which is what’s a little confusing here. When we read through the letters, they want Paul to be strong. They want Paul to be a super apostle. They want Paul to have been published.

They want Paul to be famous and successful. Sometimes, aren’t we like this? And that’s why our thoughts get out of control. We [snorts] want to have street cred. Brian and I want to have a great blossoming church so that when we go to these pastor’s meetings, people know who we are.

Sometimes we’re like that. We want to fit in. We want people to be able to be with us and not feel like we’re weirdos. We want to be able to be comfortable.

Going on to verse three, Paul says, “For though we live in the world, we don’t wage war the way that the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to destroy strongholds. Our weapons have divine power. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

And we take every thought captive. I’m sorry. We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

So Paul declares that he is separate from the world. In fact, there’s a whole section in chapter 6 where he calls the Corinthians, he calls Christians to separate themselves from anything that is unclean, to live holy lives. Paul says, “We fight differently than the world does.” And I love this. I love this so much.

How does the world wage war? Just think of this past week. What have you read of in the news? What have you seen at work? What have you yourself even maybe seen in your own heart?

The weapons of this world. Now, back then, it literally probably meant swords and horses. There was a war going on always all around them. It probably was strategy and power, death and fear, intimidation and beating. All things actually that Paul had experienced because he was following Jesus.

And the powers of the world did not like it. And so what did they do? They whipped out their weapons and they beat Paul down. These days, keyboard warriors cancelling nuclear weapons, but also gossip, criticism. Those are also the ways that our world at least tries to tear one another down.

Now, I’m not talking about it being wrong to speak out about injustices. We and the world do some of those things similarly, but what Paul is talking about is in conflict with what God establishes as the right way to go.

And there is another way to wage war. Paul says, now I love this so much because Paul sets apart our weapons. And then Paul also, if you notice, doesn’t say, “Oh, there’s not really a war.” He doesn’t negate the fact that there is a war. There is a battle. And there are real battles.

There are real wars happening today. There are also wars that we don’t often or maybe always think about, and that is the spiritual war. And sometimes it happens right in here in our thought life. He does say that the weapons that we of Jesus and of God have divine power. That gives me hope.

They’re not wussy weapons. They’re not just water pistols. He says that they have divine power to demolish strongholds. There are really strong ways of living that set themselves up against the knowledge of God.

Think of a stronghold, a castle perhaps, a wall, a structure to put people behind for their protection and safety. But it also can mean anything in which we put our trust in. masks that we put up, attitudes that we have, a certain club that we join, or just a way that we think, a hope that we put into. What it really means is anything on which we rely. Those are the strongholds.

And I think we all, if we are honest, we have some of those in our own lives. Strongholds that are up against the knowledge of God that need to be torn down.

Even those of us who intend to follow Jesus, for me, I think about what are the things when they fall apart that I get really upset about. Like it really affects me. Sometimes it’s my husband. I expect him to perform and do all the things well. Well, just what 45 minutes ago, we were in a meeting and he didn’t have my slides that I thought that I had shared with him.

Some of the volunteers in the room are laughing because we had a moment. And I’m like, Brian, now I didn’t get really upset about it. Like, this didn’t like shake me up. But sometimes I expect him to have everything put together. And then when he doesn’t, I’m surprised or frustrated.

He’s not perfect. And if I live that way continuously, and I expect my husband to be safe, established, always perfect, I’m going to be disappointed. But also, it’s going to lead to like some spiritual issues. That trust that sometimes I wrongly place in Brian, I just need to give to Jesus and know that Jesus is the one that takes care of me. Slides, that’s just a dumb example.

It can be bigger than that.

But does it ever happen for you when you realize you’re caught up and you’re thinking, man, I’m putting my faith in something other than God. And boy, first of all, it’s not super smart and it can be embarrassing. Sometimes it comes when I realize I’ve been stressed about something and I haven’t prayed about it. Does that ever happen to anyone? Does someone ever say to you, “Have you prayed about that?” And you kind of go, “No. [laughter] Why didn’t I?”

When we live in the Western world, y’all, we have so many things at our fingertips that we can fix almost everything. If I’ve lost a recipe, I Google it. If I don’t know where I’m going, I Google it. If I have a question about something, I Google it. Paul says that he and his team have weapons to deal with the strongholds 2,000 years ago.

Divinely powered weapons. They are able to destroy.

Friends, when we are in this battle, we are not left empty-handed. God doesn’t just say, “Good luck.” Nor does God say, “Stay out of it.” I don’t think God’s knowledge is in battle. Not because God needs help in this battle, okay? But that we find ourselves sometimes in the middle of things that are up against God’s knowledge. God’s knowledge is endless, limited, limitless.

God’s right about everything. God has established what is right. God creates the standards, the measuring tape, the hopes, the dreams, the standards. That’s God’s knowledge. Everything that I worry about, pray about, read about, study about, think about, dream about, laugh about, or get confused about, God knows.

And God knows us.

Specifically, let’s go back to thinking about what we think about or what other when I think about what other people think of me. Do I ever try to fit into some sort of mold that goes against God creating me for a certain purpose, who God has created me to be. or perhaps when the thoughts go through my mind and I’m criticizing other people or if I’m starting to obsess about a certain person or topic. Paul speaks of how there are people trying to set up arguments against God.

And not only does he say we have divine weapons, he tells us what he is doing. And I think it’s fascinating that he doesn’t say, “Here’s how you can argue and win the argument.” He doesn’t say, “This is the secret to coming out on top.” He doesn’t say, “This is how to avoid it. Just pray and fast.” Paul says, “We take every thought captive to Jesus.” It’s in here. This is where Paul is in this section talking about where the battle is.

Now imagine you’re Paul. You’re apart from this church that you’ve started. You’ve thought that you’ve left them in good hands of teachers and believers. They know that Jesus is the only way. But then you get some news that these people seem to be strain a little bit and they’re starting to listen to people that just are fitter and fabulous.

They’re smooth talkers. They seem to be successful. Maybe they even have some different rules that Paul has established. How would your thought life be affected? Would you be obsessing about this church and being worried that they were going to lose their faith?

I think that that’s what Paul is doing. He is realizing okay Lord I am thinking about these people. Now this is before text messages and phone calls too right? He is sending a letter and then he kind of has to wait to hear back. So his thought life I am sure is being affected.

Paul spends chapters of a letter saying what he wants them to do and live. He wants them not to idolize anything. He wants to have them give as God was generous. He wants them to receive the grace of God and repent, maintain purity, pursue holiness with the help of the spirit. And I think that these are the things that Paul is trying to instead of worrying or obsessing, he’s trying to get his mind back on things of the Lord, the knowledge of God.

Can you imagine if all of your thoughts were held in handcuffs by Jesus? Were captive, were imprisoned, and Jesus is the head of that prison. That Jesus held all of your thoughts and made them obedient to him. Can you imagine what your life would be like? A lot of who we are happens up here, right?

I mean even athletes going into the World Cup will talk about their mindset. These are international soccer stars who have from the time of birth many of them dreamt of the moments that they’re in right now. They have eaten, they have slept, they have worked out, they have hydrated, they have massaged, they have ice bathed, and you will still hear them say, “I got to get locked in.” It is a mindset, right? Have you heard this? a surgeon before going all of the debt that they’ve gone in to get education.

I guarantee you a surgeon is in their minds thinking about what they’re about to do. Every thought captive to Jesus. Jesus the meek and mild and gentle and tender. taking our thoughts captive.

I think about how I worry about what other people think. Sometimes my stronghold that I’ve built up is trusting in the wrong thing. Or sometimes, man, I get critical in my mind. at those same pastor’s conferences, I can think to myself, “Oh, you have really fancy shoes on. Those are expensive.” Or, “Man, you’ve been on your laptop for the last two hours.

You’re not paying attention at this meeting.” Anybody else? Maybe that’s just me. I need those thoughts to be arrested by Jesus. I need them to go away to prison. [laughter] I need Jesus to make them obedient.

Now Paul talks about our minds that there is a war and that we can take every thought captive to Jesus. The Bible also talks about the battle in Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 talks about taking on the whole armor of God and once you’ve done that to pray.

So as we think about okay taking every thought captive. We can pray that definitely Jesus help us. We can pray talking to God about it, but we also can just like talk to God about what we’re worried about. Gosh, Lord, I just pray for my kid who’s graduating high school. She’s not in the room because so I can say this.

Lord, would you help her to pursue you when she’s at school? I can worry about Okay, here we are. Summer church attendance. How we doing? Those of you online, it’s a little thin the last two weeks.

God, would you help me?

Ephesians also says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” The sword is the only part of the armor that is an offensive weapon. All the others are defensive. Helmet of salvation, uh, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth. It’s a whole thing in Ephesians 6. great section, the sword of the spirit, which is scripture, which is the Bible.

Our minds help us to make decisions about what we eat, what we spend, what we’re going to do, how we respond to others, how we think, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. I actually had a dream last night about me teaching this. And in some way, I said, “If you’re not reading your Bible every day,” and I don’t remember what I said. And I woke up feeling convicted, like, “Are you reading your Bible every day, Sandy?” If you don’t know how to read the Bible, it’s totally fine. It’s an intimidating book.

There are great apps that can help you. We have books in the back. I have two different versions. Grab one on your way out. Come read Second Corinthians with us.

Lastly, when we think about, okay, Lord, if I’m praying, if I’m in the word, sometimes you just need some more help. And instead of coming up with different ideas, I thought to myself, oh, just in January, we did a whole series called taming our thoughts. And Max Luke has podcasts about it. He has a book about it. It was so great.

Or look online, you can listen to our sermon series about it. Talks about very specific kinds of thoughts that we have and how we can overcome it.

Perhaps something has come to mind. Haha, while you’re listening, a stronghold that you feel like, man, it’s not just random. It’s this like one area. It’s my job. It’s my kid.

It’s my health. It’s my mom’s health. It’s the war. It’s all of the plastic on the planet that’s going in the landfill. I don’t know what it is for you.

But is there something that you could do today to invite Jesus to arrest it and to make it obedient?

I tried to think of like a great story about this and I thought to myself, you know, people can talk about I used to struggle and I invited Jesus into it and now I have freedom. I love those stories. Praise the Lord. We probably could sit around a circle today and say, you know, I used to struggle with this and then I had some freedom. I could tell some more stories about what just happened with me the last week as we traveled.

And at the end of the day, what I think the reality is sometimes you are going to experience freedom through Jesus in your thought life. you’re going to pray or you’re going to get prayer ministry today or you’re just going to have those moments where you’re like, I don’t struggle with that anymore and my life is so much better. And other times you’re going to slog through the peanut butter and it’s going to be years and there’s no easy answer. And yet what we do here, what many churches do is we want to connect to Jesus. And even in those battles, the divine weapons that we have, it is a war.

And you’re not left defenseless. You’re not left without weapons. We almost have no excuse to not read our scriptures because if you have a cell phone, you can have a Bible app and you can always have the word of God literally in your back pocket. And when you are struggling, when it just feels like you’re about to lose the battle, man, it is right there. If you’re not gifted in memorizing things, which I’m not good at anything, short-term memory is like, we can have it.

I trust that Jesus is enough for us in the battle. And that is what we want to point you to today is connecting to Jesus and Jesus to your world through your thought life.

I’m going to invite Andrew back on stage. If you have kids, please feel free to go get them from kids ministry. If you’re online and or if you’re in the room, the first thing that Ephesians talks about and the main thing uh Ephesians talks about is prayer. It really is. As you’re taking your stand, pray.

And after you’ve done everything, pray. And by the way, if you’ve already prayed, pray continuously. And so, we have people here today that would love to pray with you and pray for you. If you’re online, please let us know that you need prayer. We’d love to pray with you and for you.

Amen. Amen.