THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND
27 November 2011 sermon notes
Summary: Message is centred on how Senior Pastor himself had struggled with unclean thoughts when he wasn’t aware of Grace. This sermon is to set free those who are often distracted by impure thoughts like he once was. Refer to Ex.28:36-38. As the high priest of Isreal represented the children of God on the engraving saying “Holiness to the Lord” so is Christ now representing His righteousness and Holiness on our behalf. Do not accept negative and condeming thoughts subtlely placed by the devil in your mind. Reject them in the name of Christ. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Do not say I am sucidal as the devil wants you to. Man must remember that that the spirit ultimately controls the mind, body and soul. Bringing every thought into captivity through the obedience of Christ not your obedience. Do not allow the devil to create strongholds and bondages in your mind. Refer to 2Cor II :2-4. “For I am jealous for you with Godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ”. Man must avoid his own purpose of self mastery and focus on Christ by developing his spirit. Refer to Romans 5:19. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man;s obedience, many will be made righteous”. When the devil tells Eve to eat from the the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he is focussing her on the law. Likewise when the devil tells Jesus to turn the stone into bread, he is pointing to obedience to the law. Jesus reply was that man must live by every word from God. Senior Pastor joked that he that the NCC congregation does not appear to be as responsive as those in Lakewood. However the context for this is that Singapore culture is reserved.
<BEGIN QUOTE – My thanks to ‘Danzing Bee’ for her notes of the same sermon but of a different service , see below >
2 cor 10:3-6
as God’s ppl, we are always in a warfare. it happens in our mind.
–> verse 5
–> the stronghold is in our minds
God is quiet and He speaks in a still small voice. God is musical.
we always lose focus in things that we do cos this is what happened in the world now where everything is hurried.
romans 5:19
becoz of Adam’s fall, we all suffer as man was made sinners.
if we say that it’s unfair, then is it fair for Jesus to take the punishments and died in our place. remember Adam did not die for ppl to receive righteousness.
in the old testament, obedience is the root for righteousness and in the new testament obedience is the fruit of righteousness.
God wants us to enjoy.
i am a spirit, i have a soul, i live in a body.
so what am i? I am a spirit and i’m always alive. i’m only temporarily living in this body that we do not bring to heaven. God will give us a whole new body.
if our soul prospers, our body will also prosper. if my body feels dry, that means my soul is drying up.
the place to prosper first is our soul! water our soul with the living water – i.e. the Word of God
stress plays a major role in burning us out
it is the obedience of Christ that we must focus on.
romans 10:2-4
have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge –> means that we can do everything to please God but not having to know and realise that God is already pleased with the death of Jesus that gave us every rights and access to God directly.
highest form of resisting the devil is to ignore the tots coming from him.
the moment we start to entertain such tots, we are allowing the grooves of condemnation to etch even deeper inside of us.
always remind ourselves that Christ is our righteousness and not our obedience.
2 cor 4:3-4
50 days aft the passover is the 1st pentecost
we cannot put new wine in old wineskin as we will lose both. new wine muz put in the new wineskin.
the devil is a seducer.
matt 6:25
the way we take a tot, it’s by saying..
dun juz hear wat the holy spirit puts in out heart, say it out.
any bad tots, say against the tot.
john banyam – pilgrim progress
grace abounding to the chief of
1 thessalonians 5:8
hope – elpis (confident expectation of good)
this is only true for believers.
the area that we are weak in, that’s the area where God will use to do His works.
our righteousness (Jesus!!) is in Heaven – no one can undo Him, no one can bring Him down.
1john 4:17-18
as He is, so are we in this world!
exodus 28:36-38
it is not our tots that God sees, it is the tots of Jesus that God sees!
Jesus tots are always holy and we are always accepted. coz God looks at Jesus tots!!
<END QUOTE – my thanks to ‘Danzing Bee’ for the notes >
