How To Take Our Thoughts Captive | Psalm 77:1-20

Over [music] the past 11 years of doing full-time youth ministry, I've encountered many junior high and high school students who have told me that they struggle with overthinking, they struggle with anxiety, and they struggle with their thoughts, which I think is an issue that we all have in common, right? All of us can deal with overthinking or anxiety or even intrusive thoughts. Now, I love that when the students come and approach me and they share these things, they it's because they have the desire to love God with their mind and the way they think, but they lack the power and the practicality to live that out. Now, if I'm honest with myself and with all of you, my thoughts are not always biblical all the time. I have trouble with my thoughts like every other person. However, my thoughts have changed tremendously over the past 21 years of walking with Jesus. I think back to how I used to think and how I think now. And it's completely different. all to God's grace and his word and the spirit of God working. Now, I just want to be clear that when I say I'm struggling with my thoughts, I'm not thinking about killing anybody or anything like that. Okay? But what I'm saying is I need this message just as next just as much as the next person does. So, with that said, I want to quote start out with a quote from Jay Oswald Sanders. He said, "The mind of man is the battleground on which every moral and spiritual battle is fought." I love that quote because I believe it's true. So my question to all of us is how is your thought life? How are you doing with the battle within your mind? See, I I believe there's a lot of Christians who don't know how to properly wage war within their minds. Someone said, "Christians leave their 10 billion selves unguarded and unthinking and undisiplined." Referring to our mind. We leave them unguarded. Ralph Emerson wrote, "So a thought and you will reap an action. So an action and you will reap a habit. So a habit and you will uh reap a character. So character you reap a destiny." I love this quote because it's basically saying it all goes back to the mind. In order to live biblically, you and I have to think biblically. But in order to think biblically, you and I have to be born again and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And then the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us as believers, changing us from the inside out, changing our desires and our thoughts. Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinks in his heart, so he is." Now, you might be thinking, there's something wrong with that verse. We don't think with [laughter] our hearts, right? But both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, heart was often used as an equivalent of the mind and was sometimes translated as mind. And so, as we think in our heart or in our mind, so are we. And often maybe we think that we are failure and that's how we are living this Christian life instead of thinking and viewing ourselves through the lens of Jesus having been washed in the blood of Christ having been forgiven transformed in a new creation and living in light of that reality. I believe many of us are familiar with this next verse. It's 2 Corinthians 10:es 3-5. says, "For though we walk in the flesh," that's our physical bodies, "we do not wage war according to the flesh," that's our sinful natures. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." Now, notice what this verse says. It doesn't say bring only 50% of your thoughts into captivity or 75 or 90%. It says bring every thought into captivity under the obedience of Christ, which might seem like an impossible task. Can we truly take every single thought we have captive? And the answer is yes. I believe Psalm 77 shows us how to take our thoughts captive. The author was overthinking. He was anxious and his thoughts were running wild. He was spiraling out of control internally as he was questioning the love of God, his mercy, and his promises. But then all of a sudden halfway through the text it changes and he takes his thoughts captive and changes the way he thinks. Let's look at this portion of scripture. Psalm 77 in verse one actually starting with the title. It says to the chief musician in Judea a psalm of Asaf. I cried out to God with my voice, to God with my voice. And he gave ear to me. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed. Sah. Now, in the title of this psalm, we are given who it was written to and who wrote it. It was written to the chief musician. Now, some think this to be the Lord God himself. Others suppose it's one of the leaders of the choir or uh music director during David's time. We also see it says to Judea uh which is mentioned uh he's also mentioned in Psalm 39 and62 as one of the musicians appointed by David to lead in the public worship services during this time in Israel. Now it says this is a psalm of Asaf. For those that don't know Asaf was a worship leader during David Solomon and Solomon's son it's reign. He was a great singer, musician, writer, and he was even also a prophet. And you can see all these scripture references in 1 Chronicles 15 and 16. And because he served during these three kings, he saw a lot of good times. He saw some okay times, but he also saw a lot of terrible times. It's possible that he was uh in place when David sinned with Bashibba and all of a sudden stay David stayed home from the war and all of a sudden walked across his palace, saw the woman bathing and then chose to sin which actually started a domino effect in his family. One of his sons raped his daughters, the other son tried to take the throne away from him and just things started to spiral out of control. It's possible that he was referring to that during this time. We don't know but it gives you some context in the style of ministry that he uh ministered to the people during this time as their worship leader. Asaf was also part of the tribe of Le Levi. And I think personally we should become familiar with this character in scripture because Asaf wrote over 12 chapters of the Bible. Psalm 50 and then Psalm 73- 83. That's more scripture than Jonah, Joel, Oadiah, Nahm, Habach, Zephaniah, Haggi, Peter, James, or Jude. Now, not together, but separately. He wrote more scripture. And yet, some of us maybe have never even heard of his name, Asaf. But that's why I love this character. And I would encourage you guys if you have time, read those chapters on your own. They are raw. They are real, relatable, and they have encouraged me throughout the seasons. Now, in verses 1 through half of 10, we get a glimpse into the heart behind Asaf's feelings. We get to see into his mind and what he's thinking about. And so, in verses 1 through half of 10 is the strongholds he was facing. Now, strongholds are wrong thoughts and perspectives contradicting the word of God and the nature of God. That's what a stronghold is. And one thing that was really occupying Asaf's mind was me, myself, and I. The unholy trinity. That's what was occupying his mind. The personal pronouns I, me, and my are found 22 times in the first section of this psalm. And God is only referenced 13 times. So you can see where his mind is at. It's not really focusing on the Lord. It's focusing on himself. And that's what leads to the spiral. That leads to the anxious thoughts. And so in verse one, we see Asaf cries out to God. He says, "I cried out to God with my voice, to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. The psalmist was going through some great difficulties and great sorrow. And he's desperately seeking the Lord. The word trouble in verse two actually means need, distress, or anxious or worry. He was going through something that was causing him trouble. He was distressed. Now, like I said earlier, we don't know exactly the situation of what he was dealing with, but it could have been anything during David, Solomon or Solomon's son's reign. He was worried. Now, if you study the uh Greek New Testament, uh there's portions where we are told in Philippians 4:e 6, it says, "Be anxious for nothing." That word anxious or worried is a Greek word that's composed of two words to put together. And it's literally a divided mind. To be worried is meaning you're being pulled in this direction and you're being pulled in this direction. So you're really being pulled apart when you're fretting or when you are being anxious and worried about something. And so Asaf here is being pulled apart internally. And he says, "I saw it." This speaks of his activity of searching and seeking out for help. And I think this is something you and I ought to do. anytime we are in need or in trouble or anxious, we ought to seek the Lord for help that he would help us in the midst of what we are going through. And he says, "My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing." He was persistently seeking the Lord, looking for relief, but he could not find it. Notice it says that my soul refused to be comforted. He refused to be comforted. Now, we don't know where this comfort came from. Maybe it came from family members or friends or possibly God himself, but [snorts] he rejected it. He says he's refusing to be comforted. And I think we can make that same mistake in our lives. I've encountered that with students and even being on staff here. There are sometimes people want help, but the advice that you give, they reject that comfort in the truth of God's scripture. I think there's sometimes where we can do this and we can stay in that mindset of being angry. Maybe someone wronged us and so we're just going to stay angry at this individual and have this bitterness within our hearts. And we even go so far as to staying in that mindset by fueling it with that type of music. And so we'll listen to that music that would keep us in the state of being angry. Or maybe you're depressed and discouraged. And so you listen to that style of music so it keeps you in that state. And the sad thing is I've discovered that people make their problems their identity and that I'm I'm this person because of these things. And that's not the case. Your problem is not who you are. It's what you were going through. So sometimes we want to stay thinking about a situation and chewing it over in our minds and we refuse that comfort. And then he goes on to say in verse three, I remembered God and was troubled. Now I don't know about you, that kind of sounds strange, right? He says, I thought about God and I was troubled. And this is coming from the lips of a worship leader. Imagine Jared saying that, "Yeah, I thought about God and I was like, "Oh, I'm just troubled by him." I feel like verse three is something I can personally relate to. And if I can relate to it, I believe many of you in this room can relate to it where you're going through a season of difficulty. You maybe lost a loved one. There's problems in your family financially, drama, you name it. And during that season, you're questioning God's love and his goodness in your life, wondering where it's at. And the very thought of God causes you trouble. But the word trouble here is different. Verse uh three has the word trouble and verse two, but the two different words in the Hebrew language. The word trouble in verse three means to make noise, be loud, or to groan. So he thinks about God and goes uh he's just like uh he's frustrated because God is not working in the way that he wants God to work. And often that's us, right? We pray and we seek the Lord and because God's not coming and meeting us on our terms, we're getting frustrated. And God doesn't have to stoop to our terms. He doesn't. his way is far greater. And so it's very possible as he's praying and seeking, he's just frustrated by the the thought of God. And it says, "I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed." Has anything good ever come from complaining? I don't think so. I I often have discovered the more we complain, the more we get anxious, the more we get frustrated, the more we keep just staying on that issue and not being delivered out of it. Philippians 2:14 says, "Do all things without complaining and disputing." Everything in our life we should do without complaining. Now, that's a that's a tall order and that's hard to do, I admit. But I can't help but believe that maybe this is a stronghold for several of you in this room where complaining is such a big thing in your life and you constantly complain to others, complain about your problems. And I really believe the Lord wants to deliver you from that heart of complaining and groaning because the heart of complaining and groaning actually displeases the Lord. According to Numbers chapter 11, when the people started complaining, this was like about two million people complaining to Moses, it says it displeased God. Our complaining hearts displeased the Lord because we are not content with what he has given us. And so maybe the Lord wants to deliver you this morning from the stronghold of complaining in your heart and in your lives today. And continues in verses 4-6. It says, "You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled I cannot speak. I've considered the days of old and the years of the ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night. I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search. When he says my eye, you hold my eyelids open, he's basically saying, I can't sleep because the sorrow that I am going through. He's tired, but he lays down at night and he stares at the ceiling. For us, it would be like a ceiling fan because it's been hot recently. And so, he's he's sitting there and he can't he tosses and turns and because of the trouble that's in his heart, he can't sleep. And it goes even beyond that. He says, "I am so troubled that I cannot even speak. He could not find the words to express his heart correctly." And that's even possibly in his time of prayer where he enters into prayer and he's just like can't find the words to articulate to talk to the Lord. I think I've been there. In the best times, if you find yourself in a spot where you cannot articulate your prayer correctly, go to somebody else. Tell them. And when they pray over you, it's sometimes the words that resonate within your heart and you're just like, "Yes, yes, yes. That's what I needed in my life." And sometimes those people just know how to pray and God works through them to minister to us. He says in verse 5, I consider the days of old. Asaf had pleasant memories of the past, yet he couldn't look beyond the present trouble. I think that's us sometimes. We can't look past the troubles that are in front of us, our circumstances, and they consume and occupy our minds. One commentator said, "The more he is occupied with himself and looks for victory within, the more he begins to doubt the kindness of the Lord, the kindness of the Lord, because he's looking at himself." And he says, "I call to remembrance my song in the night. I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search." And as his spirit is diligently searching for answers, for help, he comes up empty. But then in verses 7-9, Asaf tells us his fears that he is facing and the questions he is pondering. You can literally almost hear the doubt in the text. Let's look at this verse 7. It says, "Will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable?" no more. Has his mercies ceased forever? Has his promises failed forever more? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Saw. The word saw there means to stop, ponder this, think about this for a moment. And Asaf has these, I believe it's six questions. He says, "Will the Lord cast off forever?" In other words, he's saying, "Has God rejected me? Has God rejected me?" And this is coming from a prophet who spoke for the Lord and a worship leader who led people in worshiping God. And yet, he felt like God had rejected him. But the answer to this question is absolutely not. God has not rejected him. Lamentations 3:es 31-33 it says, "For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not rejoice or sorry enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow." Now this is in the context of the discipline or the chastening of God as a father. He says I don't enjoy inflicting pain on you when you rebel and you literally push me aside and you worship other gods because our God is a jealous God. He yearns for a relationship with us. He doesn't want to share us with anybody else or anything else. And so the Lord hasn't abandoned Asaf. And I would even say the Lord hasn't abandoned you. The Lord has not abandoned us. He desires to show us his compassion and his unfailing love. It goes on and says, "Will he be for favorable no more? Has his mercies ceased forever?" It's basically asking, "Has his unfailing love vanished? Does God still love me? And I believe almost probably all of us have asked that question. Does God still love me after I've done this? Does God still love me after I've messed up again a fourth time or a fifth time? And we can question, does God love me? The answer to that question, Jeremiah 31:3, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you. God loves us with an everlasting love and his love is different and unlike any other love in the world. It is the best. I think the psalmist even said your love is better than life. He says how he goes on to say in the text has his promises failed forever more. They haven't failed. God's promises have not failed and they will never fail because they find their fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. According to 2 Corinthians chapter 1 vers20, it says that in Jesus Christ, all the promises are yes and amen. Yes and so be it. He fulfills those. And then in verse 9, he says, "Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in his anger shut up his tender mercies?" And the answer to this question is, "Of course not. God is still gracious despite Asaf's feelings and his thoughts. He was wondering if perhaps he had done something wrong to make God angry with him. And I think some of us even think that we have these wrong perceptions and think, "Oh, God must be angry with me." It's kind of funny because I I I grew up at this church since a little kid and I've grown up with the the Lord, but when I was younger, I would say in junior high or high school, there would be days where I didn't read my Bible and all of a sudden I would have a bad day and I felt like God was punishing me because I didn't read my Bible. That's a legalistic mindset. That is dangerous. And the Lord had to kind of dismantle that stronghold within my heart and in my mind having grown up in church. And we think we have to do these things in order for God to love us. No. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. In Romans chapter 5, it says that we were utterly uh helpless, ungodly sinners and enemies of God, and yet he still died for us. I don't know about you guys, I have a hard time comprehending that. and wrapping [clears throat] my mind around his love. And I think we can all relate to verses 7 through9. We've probably all have asked one or multiple or all these questions ourselves. And then in verse 10, it says, "And I said, this is my anguish." And I want to stop there. The word anguish means severe mental or physical pain and suffering. You can even label this psalm the anguish of Asaf. He's talking about the severe mental pain that he's going through and he's expressing in this passage as he thinks about God and he's troubled as he expresses these doubts and he's pondering these questions. His thoughts are running wild. However, halfway through verse 10 is where everything changes. We see from verse 10 through verse 20, he brings his thoughts into captivity and changes the way he thinks. And so here in verses 10 through 20, we see the mighty weapons or our mighty weapons that are available to us that Asaf use and that we can use too to change the way we think and to take our thoughts captive under the obedience of Christ. And that is done as we set our mind on our on things above, on the word of God by the Holy Spirit, and through the grace of God. In the last 11 verses, the personal pronouns me, I, and my are only found three times where God is referenced 25 times. You can see literally in the text his thought process changes. Warren Wearsby said, "When we look at our circumstances, we focus and we focus on ourselves, we see no hope. But when we look by faith to the Lord, our circumstances may not change, but we do." And that's the purpose of prayer. If you keep going into praying and asking the Lord for things, maybe you need to change what you're asking and saying,"Lord, would you change me?" Because that's the main purpose of prayer. Prayer changes us as we seek the Lord and we talk to him. And so, Asaf comes to the place of decision and deter determination. And he says four I will statements. He chooses to do four different things. to remember, to meditate, to talk, and to praise. Now, here's something I want to before we move on. You and I can either stay in verses 1 through half of verse 10 and be miserable and allow our thoughts to go wild or you can be like Asaf [snorts] and through these principles in scripture and the promises of God come out of that pit of despair trusting the Lord and confidently living for him. Let's read verses 10 through 12. It says, "And I said, this is my anguish, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all your work and talk of your deeds." So, if you're taking notes, number one, remember, he recalls to mind the things that God has done in the past. And there's actually three things Asaf remembers. In verse 10, we see the first one. He says, "But I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high." See, our problems often time is us remembering our failure and remembering our sin when Christ himself has forgiven us, washed us clean, and have forgotten about those things. I remember a while back as uh I messed up again and I was praying and asking God forgiveness and then I was just dealing with the the remorse and the regrets and the guilt. I felt like the Lord speak to my heart. It wasn't clear. It wasn't this audible voice, but I was praying once again for forgiveness. And he's like, "Why are you asking? I have already forgiven and I've forgot about it. Move on." And it dawned on me. like, "Wow, that's biblical." When God forgives, he forgets and then he moves on. Let's go. And that so often we are replaying those things within our minds. We need to stop remembering our mistakes and start remembering the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross. That our sins are covered in the blood of Jesus. We are washed white as snow and we are new creations. remembering one Bible dictionary said is the process of recalling past uh events especially um in the present and the activity of God and his history with his people. Remembering God's work in in the past can lead to praise and rejoicing and to hope for the future. So when we actually reflect on God's past and the things that he's done, it can lead to present praise, rejoicing and hope for the future. This is biblical. Romans chapter 15 verse4, for such things were written in scripture long ago to teach us. And the scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled. That's why we need to be in the word of God to really see how he fulfills his promises and how he works. And so Asaf, he says, "I'll remember." And what he's choosing to remember is the right hand of God. This refers to the power of God. So he's choosing to meditate on God's power and allow it to influence his life. Now, I personally love in scripture anytime the hand of God's mentioned or the arm of God because it represents his power. In in Isaiah 53:1, it says, "Who has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" It's kind of a weird verse, right? What does this mean? It says, "Who has the power of God been revealed to Isaiah 53 is all about the crucifixion, which points to the cross." So if you want to see the power of God displayed, if you want to see the love of God displayed and the justice and the wrath of God displayed, it's at the cross of Christ where Jesus overcame sin. He died, was buried, and then was resurrected. And he did that all in his weakest point. In his weakness, he defeated those things. We couldn't even do that in our own strength. So he he focuses on the power of God. The second thing he remembers is the works of the Lord. I think too often we're really good at remembering ourselves, but we need to remember the Lord because we are so we so easily forget him. And I really think that's even why the Lord left us communion and we celebrate that once a month as a church and even in the high school room is because we so we forget the cross often and we need to be reminded of what he did on the cross for us. And so Asaf finds hope in remembering God's past deeds. The works of God are extensions of his being, character, and attributes. Just like our works and our deeds are extensions of who we are. For those of you that are athletic in this room, that is actually extensions of who you are. And so you play sports, right? Or watch sports. For those that are creative, those are extensions of who you are. And that creativity overflows into different things. See, for me, I've always grown up like struggling in school, but I was very creative. I love drawing. I love uh painting growing up. I was good at sports a little bit. Um at least soccer. Um it's terrible at baseball. Um but the one thing is the Lord's given me is to the ability to be creative. And some of these slides here are just overflows of God's creativity in me. That's all it is. And so it's extensions of who we are. And so remembering God's works or deeds is reminding us of who he is and what he can do. However, I understand in a room this size, I don't know where every single person's walk is at with the Lord. Maybe you're a new believer, so you don't have a lot of information to fall back on and things to remember of what God has done in the past. That's okay. Pick this up. Get into this and see what God has done in the past. These I try to read daily outside of studying God's word for myself personally because I need to be refreshed, encouraged, and spiritually nourished through the word of God. And so get into the word of God if you don't have any memories to fall back on. But for those that have been walking with the Lord for a chunk of time, look back and ponder the faithfulness of God in your past and that will fill your heart with gratitude. We need to constantly be growing in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Third, he says, "Surely I will remember your wonders of old." This speaks of the miracles he performed in the past. And I think all of us have certain maybe miracles in our lives that we've seen God do and we can reflect on those and praise him for them. I don't know who said it, but I think it's worth noting. Someone said this. In times of trouble, focus on what you do know, not on what you don't know. I'm going to repeat that. In times of trouble, focus on what you do know, not on what you don't know. So often the first portion of this psalm is he's focusing on what he doesn't know and he's not anchoring his mind in who he knows which is God himself. That truly helps us take our thoughts captive under the obedience of Christ. Now the psalmist doesn't just stop there. He goes from remembering the works and wonders of God and takes it a step further to meditating on them. That's the second thing to meditate. Verse 12 says,"I will also meditate on all your works." He says, "I'm going to keep thinking about these things. I'm going to fill my mind with these things." Now, we have to understand what biblical meditation is. Because often when we think of meditation, we think of Eastern religions and the meditation goes and it's emptying the mind. Eastern religions is emptying your mind. I don't know about you guys, but my mind is never empty. Biblical meditation is filling your mind. Filling your mind with truth, God's word and his wonders and himself, thinking about those things. The word meditate means to think deeply, to think deeply. Are we thinking deeply about the Lord? Are we pondering his knowledge and how he knows everything? Are we pondering his presence and how he's omnipresent? Are we pondering his power and that there's nothing difficult or too hard for him? Are we thinking deeply about these things? See, often meditation is misdirected. Meditation is often misdirected in our lives. We think deeply about our problems, ourselves, our regrets, our sins. Even Asaf was doing this. In verse 6, he says, "I meditate within my heart, but it was a misdirected meditation." [snorts] Proper meditation looks like this. Colossians 3:es 1-2. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is seating at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above and not on the things of the earth. This is how we take our thoughts captive is thinking about the things above. CS Lewis said, "Those who did the most in this life thought about the next life the most." If you want to be effective in your walk in relationship with God, think about the next life. Think about what heaven's going to be like. I love that song. I can only imagine. It's usually sang at funerals, but I can only imagine what that day is going to be like when you're standing in his presence in all of his glory. Will I bow? Will I dance? Will I sing hallelujah? Are we pondering what heaven's going to be like? Read the end of Revelation chapters 20 or 21 22 in there talks about the new Jerusalem, the new earth, the new heavens. It's beautiful. In the new Jerusalem, there is no privacy. There's clear gold in these emeralds. And the great thing about it is Jesus's glory radiates through it all. We think about looking at like the Milky Way galaxy as something incredible. That's going to be something outstanding. Ponder heaven. Ponder what it's going to be like spending it with the Lord. Someone said, "Meditation is the fuel for our faith." And and I think this is something kind of important I want to talk about for a second here. Think of meditation like a dried piece of wood. Now, I asked this to high schoolers recently. I said, "How many guys like playing with fire?" A lot of their hands went up [laughter] because most high schoolers enjoy playing with fire, fireworks during Fourth of July. I have my share fair of stories of growing up and doing things that I won't talk about right now. [snorts] Um but think of meditation like a piece of wood and you have two fires in your heart. One is the flesh and one is the spirit. Whatever you add to that fire is going to get bigger and bigger. Correct? If I am like thinking about fleshly things and sinful things, I am fueling the fire of the flesh. But if I'm worshiping, if I'm reading God's word, if I'm pondering his the truths that are written there, I'm fueling the fire of the spirit, which fire are you fueling through your own meditation. Now, notice it says, "Meditate on all your works." Do you know how long it will take to meditate on all the works of God? It'll take our entire lifetime. There's still things I'm reading in scripture. Like, I've read this book multiple times, but I've never seen this before. And you're able to meditate on all that God has done. Someone said this, "Meditating on God's word transfers Christ's life into ours." If you want to live more like Christ, meditate on the word because it transfers Christ's life into ours. So, meditation brings transformation. Hearing the word of God affects us, but meditating on the word of God transforms us. And here's a easy simple principle I want to share with you guys. I'm not closing my Bible yet because we're not ending. Um, but it's a hand illustration. I've gotten this from a book. Each finger represents something. Your pinky represents hearing. Then you have reading God's word, um, studying God's word, memorizing God's word, and meditating on God's word. If you are only listening to the word of God, you cannot have a firm grasp on the word of God. It's impossible. If you're listening and reading God's word, you can possibly stabilize it in your hand. But if you're listening, reading, and studying it, and then memorizing it, and meditating on it, you can have a firm grasp on the word of God. that if so if you want to see your thoughts transformed do those five things and you will see your thoughts radically changed for the Lord. Now I believe Isaiah the prophet was somebody who was meditating on God's work. He said in Isaiah 26:3, "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you." Philippians 4:8 says, 'Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is any praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Another translation at the very end of that verse says, "Fix your thoughts on these things or think about these things." This is how you and I take our thoughts captive by meditating on what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtue, and praiseworthy. And to stop thinking about the other things. I I keep telling the students this because I think it's a practical illustration. If I said, I want everyone to think of a blue hippo. Picture your mind right now with a blue hippo. You guys got it? Now, stop thinking about the blue hippo. How many of you guys are still thinking about the blue hippo? Raise your hand. Several. And for those that aren't thinking about the blue hippo, it's because you chose to think about something else. It's a simple exercise, but it's a biblical truth. [snorts] If we say stop sinning, stop sinning, stop sinning, that's not going to work. You have to say no to this and yes to this. If you just say no to that, there's a void and it's always going to be filled with the old life. But then you have to say no to that and fill it with all of these things. Now you might be thinking, Josh, that sounds great, but what about intrusive thoughts that come across your mind out of nowhere? All of us deal with that, correct? I would say the answer to that is a quote by Martin Luther. He says, "You cannot keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. I love that. I'm going to repeat that again. You cannot keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. That's talking about intrusive thoughts. Now, I love the beach and I've been to the beach multiple times, but I've gotten pooped on by seagulls twice. Not a fun experience where you're like, "Oh, what is that wet thing?" And you're just like, "Ugh." It's not fun. You and I cannot prevent birds from flying over our head, but you can prevent them from making a nest in your hair. But I don't got hair, so I'm lucky. [snorts] So the Christian mind demands constant and conscious refusal, saying you're resisting those things and saying no to those things and yes to the Lord. In other words, input determines output. what you are going to put into your mind and in your heart through your ears and your eyes will come out from your life. It will. And I I feel like this illustration brought it to life for me. There was one time a buddy of mine uh said, "Hey, let's go down to the beach to this silent disco." And I was like, "I've never been to one, but all right." For those that don't know, a silent disco is these headphones that aren't attached to a cord. They're Bluetooth and there's two DJs and there's two different channels. There's a green channel and then there's a red channel. And so we get down there, we pay the price, whatever. And so the green channel as we're listening to it is like EDM electronic music. And I was like, "All right, sounds good." And all of a sudden we switch to the red channel. And all of our jaws like drop. We're like, "Switch back. Switch back." Because it was so disgusting. the profanity, the vulgarity that was in that red channel was I was just like, I can't believe it. And then like later on throughout the night, I was like, "All right, it probably switched. Let me check." And I would go back to the red channel and it was still just all this music. And it reminded me in the Lord, I felt kind of minister my heart and say, "This is what people are filling their minds with. The world is filling their minds with this type of garbage and this is what's coming out from our natures. we're just fueling the flesh and it's and I literally look out and on the beach almost everybody else was on the red channel and I was like I felt after listening to that little bit of the red channel I have to go read my Bible like a couple chapters to wash my mind out from that stuff. So what are you allowing into your ears? What are you allowing into your mind through Netflix and the things that you are watching? The Bible says our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And the spirit of God dwells in us. Are we grieving the spirit of God? Let's continue. Point number three, it says talk. He says in verse 12, I will talk of your deeds. So, not only is he bringing it to his mind, but he's pulling it out of his mind now and sharing it with people. And whatever's on your heart is actually what's going to be coming out of your mouth. And so, he said, I'm going to talk of your deeds. And then in the point number four is praise. In verses 13- 15, he decides to praise the Lord. He says, "Your way, oh God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God. You are the God who does wonders. You have declared your strength among the people. You have with your arm redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph Sah." Now, I love this because he says, "Your ways are in the sanctuary." When we come to church, we discover how God works in the ways of how he operates. In the sanctuary held a special place within Asaf's heart because even when he was questioning the goodness of God in Psalm 73, he was looking at the in uh he was looking at the wicked and becoming envious of them. He says, "I want what they have." And he was questioning God's goodness. But it says in verse 17, but it wasn't until he went to the house of the Lord that he understood their end. Coming to church is where we get our the proper perspective because God's word combats the strongholds and the lies that we are thinking and that are being dumped upon us. Here's a simple way that you can even uh help with praising God in your life. It's the it's a acronym. It's axe. It's ACS. A stands for adoration. T C C stands for confession. T stands for thanksgiving. And then S stands for supplication. I've been doing this in my own personal devotions before I even get into God's word just to put my heart in the proper place of worship and honoring the Lord. [snorts] Um I'm not going to read the rest of these other verses in verses 16 through 20, but I'll just kind of tell you what they're about. They're poetic language of God portraying uh creation and how creation is bowing before his mighty power. And it also portrays God as leading the children of Israel through the Red Sea. And I like this because when the children of Israel came to the Red Sea, all of a sudden there there was this mountain on this side and there was another mountain on this side. There was the Red Sea in front of them. And they accused Moses. He goes, "There wasn't a big enough grave where we were. You came out here to bury us, didn't you?" And it's often in those tight spots that the Lord actually makes a way. And he parted the Red Sea. And just as God delivered his people through the Red Sea, God desires to lead you through your problems and help you walk with the Lord and walk in victory. As we close it out here, Henry Ford said this, "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few people engage in it." I love that quote. I think that is a true quote especially and it's only going to get worse moving forward especially with AI. People have taken their brain and they put it on this shelf and they are no longer thinking because thinking requires work and effort and they just want answers. See taking our thoughts captive is a process. It takes time. It's like any habit that we change. It takes time, energy, effort and discipline. >> [snorts] >> And it reminds me of this one thing I did. I think most of us have a pocket for our keys and a pocket for our phone. Correct. Like usually I had a pocket for my phone uh which was my left side. And it was creating this mark in my pants that was like a square and I was like, "Oh, I don't like that. I'm going to try switching these two pockets." Do you know how difficult that was? Like just that simple pattern. I literally swapped my keys and my phone without knowing. I was like, "Where'd I leave my keys? Where did I leave my keys? And it was in my other pocket. My mind just reverted back to normal, back to the old pattern. To stop that simple habit took me over a month. How much more so if we've been thinking unbiblically? It's not going to take place overnight instantly. It requires time, energy, and effort. You have to put forth the work. So the question I have for all of us is, will you engage in this hard work of thinking? Will you take ownership of your thoughts and stop blaming them on other people and especially stop blaming them on Satan? I think us as Christians, we do a good job of that. We blame things on Satan that Satan's like, "I didn't do that." I had a um someone I worked with in Bible college. I was working in the maintenance department and this guy blamed everything on Satan. He would stub his toe. He's like, "Satan's out to get me." And I'm just looking at him like, "I don't think so, dude. I think Satan's watching you with popcorn just like guys watch this. He's telling his demon friends like this is hilarious. We're not doing anything and we're getting all the credit. And I think that's what we do with the enemy. The enemy is not even working in our lives. When I when I say enemy, I mean Satan, the enemy of our flesh is. Mark chapter 7 says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks or out of our evil hearts protrudes all these evil things. And it says evil thoughts. We need to take ownership of our evil thoughts and then we'll be able to put them under the obedience of Christ. But if we are constantly blaming other people for our thoughts, you will never be able to bring your thoughts into captivity under the obedience of Christ. So let's engage in this war within. Let's start using the mighty weapons that are available to us to tear down these strongholds. Any wrong thoughts or perspectives that are contrary to the knowledge of God and his word. And you and I can choose to love God not only with our hearts and with our souls, but also with our mind. And let's close out with this verse once more. 2 Corinthians chapter 10:es 3-5. It says, "For though we walk in the flesh, physical body, we do not war according to the flesh, which is our sinful nature. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds and casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity under the obedience of Christ. Do you believe this? Do you believe that this can take place in your life? If God is calling us to do it, he's also going to give us the grace which enables us to do this. You and I can take our thoughts captive and change the way we think. Let's pray. Father, I pray that this would be true in our lives. Lord, just as ASAP took a hold of his thoughts and they were spiraling out of control and he was discouraged and even didn't even want to think about you, Lord. May that be us. May we be able to take our thoughts captive as we remember, as we meditate, as we talk, as we praise you for those things that you've done in the past that you were doing presently. And then even for the future, Lord, you desire to do above and beyond all that we ask or even imagine according to the power that works in us. Lord, may we not put you in a box on how you operate and move, but Lord, may we put these principles uh and apply these things to our life. Lord, may we be blessed as believers because we are obedient, not just hearers, but those who hear, meditate, and put your word into practice. And Lord God, I want to pray for everyone in this room, Lord, myself, the worship team, um those outside on the patio, Lord God, that you would all help us to wage war properly within our minds. That they would no longer be um given over to our flesh, but that we would take our minds like Romans 6 says, and present them to you, and that they would be instruments of righteousness within your hands, Lord, and that you would have your way. We love you and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen.