2 Corinthians 10:1–6Scripture
Turn your Bibles this morning with me to Romans. Actually, we're not going to look in Romans, but we are beginning next week to start Romans. We'll be in Romans chapter 11, we'll look at verses 1-4. I want to close out, I want to read this, the end of chapter 10, verses 20 and 21. I want to read this as we kind of go on, and I'm going to look at three other verses today to come, maybe lay a groundwork and maybe just visit an idea or maybe a feeling in the hearts of believers, specifically as we begin to enter and talk about some controversial subjects. We've even had some controversies inside of our small group and conversation regarding some of the things we've always thought, and we're learning that Romans is very clear on some subjects that we thought we had a firm grasp on, and so it has been not an unhealthy controversy, but there have been some discussion and even some wrestling inside of our own hearts, and that makes anyone uncomfortable. And there is this idea
Point 1We hold back truth to avoid offense
Today that wherever controversy abounds, or whatever we feel uncomfortable, it must be ungodly. That is a feeling that is very present and real in our world today, to the degree, in fact, that we hold back and are scared to, with firmness and boldness, represent truth because we don't want to be offensive. And to some regard, truth is so offensive that it has been demarked as unloving. So because we're believers, and because we care about love, and because God is love, we don't want to be classified as unloving, so then we hold back truth because it's offensive and because people think it's unloving. Paul does not do this, and if you've been halfway awake in any of the nine chapters, the ten chapters that we've gone through, you know that he allows truth to bring offense, and he doesn't need to add to it for it to be extra offensive. And I could learn something from that. I tend to add a little zing here and there, but the truth does a good enough job on its own, amen? So we're thankful for that. It is sometimes painful, so I want to talk about that. Let's just look at an offensive claim here at the end of chapter 10. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me," speaking of the Gentiles, and he's speaking to the Jews about the Gentiles, and he's saying, in all of your effort and all of your zeal and all of your trying and striving, you found me not, but those who were not even looking have found me. This would be immensely offensive to the nation of Israel. "But of Israel he says, 'All the day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'" That's encouraging. Well, that's unloving, that's unkind, and that's name- calling. Like, this kind of language would not fly if you were a pastor and you posted that on Twitter today. They would end you.
People in this culture, not only in the culture, not even outside the church, in the church, would end you, classify you as unloving, and question your salvation if you were this forthright with truth. And that's the problem I want to talk about today, because it's a really big issue. And at the end of the day, we can come here and we can raise our hands and we can shout and we can be thankful for truth, we can say that we are an advocate of truth, we can say that it is our banner and we hold it and we fly it proudly, but many of us pull the banner and lower the flag whenever it brings offense to our neighbor and our family members. Think about this: when you break bread at Christmas, which is more important, the way your family feels or truth? So we have prioritized people's feelings over the truth.
Do feelings matter? Absolutely. But feelings do not rule. In other words, feelings are not Lord.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:57
It matters how you feel, but if how you feel prevents me from telling you the truth, your feelings no longer matter.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:10
Are you with me today? There is a point and there is a line where we should care about people's feelings, but not over truth. Now, there are several Scriptures I want to talk about today, because I think this is a pervasive problem, specifically in light of Romans. And there are a lot of people, they're like, you'll read Scripture and be like, "Yes, I believe that, but I feel," and then they will undermine the Scripture they quoted with their feelings, an opinion.
News flash: we don't care about your opinion. What we care about is what the Bible says.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:58
And you cannot, out of one side of your mouth, say, "I believe this fact to be true," and then undermine it in the next sentence with arguing about what the Bible just said. It is either what the Bible said or what you think it said. It is either what the Bible said or what you feel about what it said. It's one or the other. So then we sit in this tension because we want to lovingly help people walk through and find truth, but Paul, the Apostle Paul, we see a different demonstration of how we tear down strongholds and arguments in Romans from how we attend to approach these subjects in small groups and conversations around the dinner table.
They're different. Our culture handles it different. Paul has no problem punching awkward in the face with truth. He wages war, he tears down strongholds, he wrestles for truth. We just want people to feel comfortable long enough until maybe they'll stumble into it. We have, actually, we have instructions, we have commands in the Bible from the Apostle Paul himself on how to deal. So we can see how he deals with it in Romans, but that's not good enough. Let's hear how the Apostle, who God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, gives us instruction. What is God saying through the Apostle Paul about how we should deal with people who are out of line with truth? What are the instructions here? Turn, go ahead and turn, and I'll share a little bit, Ephesians chapter 6. I want to talk about this. There are two other verses, there's one in Jude and then one in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians, I'm going to stay there extensively this morning, and I want to talk specifically about 2 Corinthians, but Ephesians and Jude lay some groundwork. Ephesians 6, Jude 1, Second Corinthians 10, I believe, somewhere around there. A lot of times, so while you're looking at Ephesians 6, a lot of times when we talk about defending the faith, this makes people very uncomfortable, because in their mind they immediately hear "arguing for the faith," and that is trigger-inducing for people today, specifically inside the church. See, outside the church, nonbelievers, they don't have a problem with arguing for what you believe. It's only once we become saved and we're inside the church that we think this is an ungodly behavior. Why would we ever argue with anyone? We literally believe that once we become a believer we live in a Pollyanna world, and we should never be angry, and we should never have an argument, we should never fight for anything, and we should never believe too hard that it offends someone else. This is insane. Now, today you all could chuckle in your own hearts and minds at the ridiculousness of that, but in situations, in one moment this morning you can say that's ridiculous, but in situations you find yourself acquiescing to this type of behavior. It's insane. Many people don't like the idea of apologetics, because apologetics in and of itself is arguing for the faith. It is presenting an argument that shuts down people arguing. It is presenting facts in such a fashion that you cannot argue with the facts. They don't like the idea of claiming to be right and someone else being wrong and telling other people that they're wrong, and so on and so forth. And we also have a problem with arguing forcefully over ideology because of what some
Point 2The made-up eleventh commandment: be nice
Commentators call the eleventh commandment. We don't argue over ideologies because of the eleventh commandment. What is the eleventh commandment? The eleventh commandment is "Thou shalt be nice at all times," and this has infiltrated the church to such a degree that it has taken priority over the other ten, the real ten. This is a made-up one.
"Thou shalt be nice all the time" is a made-up commandment, and we prioritize the eleventh commandment over the Ten Commandments to the degree that we won't even fight for ideologies that the ten laws of the Bible argue against.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:41
There are Christians who, if they see you engaging forcefully on an issue and arguing an issue, they just lose their mind, they just say that's the most unloving thing as a Christian. I don't know if you knew this, but other Christians don't want to allow you to have an opinion and share that with other people because that's divisive, it's unloving. Let me give some trigger-inducing issues of our day, and these are big issues, right? They're big issues, they're issues that we shouldn't have a problem with, but you can't talk about this. Matter of fact, some of you are going to start twitching uncontrollably when I mention them, because you're like, "Well, so-and-so in here has experienced that, and so-and-so is struggling with that, and so-and-so has gone through that, and we don't want to make them uncomfortable." Don't read the Bible then. You just want to really stop doing that if you don't want to be uncomfortable. And can I get an amen up in here? Don't read the Bible. Here's an issue that's a hot topic issue, it's not the only issue, there are way smaller issues, but here's a hot topic one. Let's take abortion, for example. You're engaged in an abortion debate, because today there are a lot of people in the church who think it's completely okay to kill babies.
That's all right, there's room for that. Matter of fact, they will take Scripture and twist it to such a degree that they will be at peace voting for people who are okay with killing babies in the womb. And matter of fact, don't you ever disagree with me in public, because that would make you not a Christian. And so you're engaged in an abortion debate, and let's say in your advocacy of a pro-life position you're firm and then you're hard on your position. There are Christians, especially millennials, I'm off of you young people today because you're not millennials, all right, but millennials, these are people that are in their upper 20s, mid to upper 30s, right? These are the people who created this type of attitude. So you don't listen, all you mid-30-year-olds, you don't get to blame the young people today for causing this. You caused this. And I can track it, and if you want the information I can give it. See, here's the problem: teenagers today in high school get blamed for this type of ridiculousness, but you parents, you caused it. Sometimes if I smile it makes it seem not so mean, right? That helpful, young people, right? And I just want to say, young people get blamed for a lot. They always have. They always have. Have you know why? You know why we do that, as older people, as parents? Because we don't want to take the blame for anything. That's what Christians do. Christians always have an excuse for why they behave the way they do. They always blame the previous generation or they blame somebody. How many of you, when you get caught with something, blame somebody like Adam? "Oh, God, you gave her to me and she made me do this." But listen, it is the millennials that have caused this. They are more offended. Millennials are more offended by you being less than kind in a debate about abortion than they are about babies being slaughtered in the womb. That's a problem.
Why are we more concerned about how Christians argue than babies being killed?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:50
Why are we getting more hung up on the way that we disagree with one another or stand for an issue than the actual issue itself we're talking about? It's like a magician who does something crazy over here so you don't see the person coming out of the box over there. If I flail my hands around and make an issue of the way that you talk about the issue, then we won't talk about the issue. This is not just connected to abortion, this is over every issue. Most of the time when I hear somebody starting to have a problem with a conflict or a discussion over ideology, and they begin to get real upset about this and get accusatory, and "well, you're not being loving, and you're not showing the love of Christ, and you're not being like Christ," I know there might be some sin in their life they're trying to justify, because the issue doesn't even become about the thing we're talking about anymore. It's a diversion technique, and millennials are king of this. And then, ironically, we immediately become less than kind toward you for being less than kind, then the millennials become immediately less than kind towards us, ironically, for being less than kind towards them over the issue of abortion. So they do the very thing they hate us doing. They will feel completely justified in their attack towards you, because you violated the eleventh commandment, which to them is evidently far more grievous than the sixth, because being unkind in an argument is definitely worse than killing babies. Are you with me? It's diversion. It's diversion. Note here that Paul doesn't get hung up and doesn't get run around by his tail with diversions in Romans. Notice that he stays the course.
Notice here that
Paul simply presents the truth. It is not his job to sell it is his job to tell it,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:17
as my wife said on the way in this morning. Are you with me?
But it is still our job to tell it. It is not simply our job to know it and never tell it, because how can they know if they do not hear, and how can they hear if no one preaches?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:27
See, the problem is, at Christmas time, when we hang out with our family, i'm not saying the whole time you have to be hammering people with the truth, but if the whole time all you want to do is be a homie and hang out and have fun but you never want to drop truth, why are you even going to hang out with your family at all? Because how will they know if they do not hear, and how will they hear if even you won't preach to those who are closest to you? Are you with me today? "Well, that'll be offensive, and I don't want to create an environment, I'm here all week and I'm staying in the house." Well, why don't you call up Paul and talk to him about how uncomfortable it will make you to stay in your house with your family when you dropped a truth bomb one time at dinner, and tell him that as you imagine him being in prison, beaten, stoned, and whipped, and shipwrecked, over doing, over dropping truth bombs way more than you. "Well, yeah, but this is my family, and blood is thicker than water and all that stuff." If blood is thicker than water and all that stuff, you should do anything you can to tell so that they hear and that they believe. It's an issue. When was the last time that christmas was not about you and your presence and your family and their presence, but it was about Christ and the truth? Another way this manifests itself is on the issue of homosexuality. Let's just talk about another trigger-inducing topic at hand, and there are many smaller ones, but those aren't as fun, so let's just talk about these, because they seem to be kind of like, you know, no-duh situations, but they are the most contentious, most divisive subjects in our church today. Today whole denominations are splitting over this subject. Why? Good question. Because we abide more to the eleventh commandment than the rest of the other ten. It's a problem. It's a problem. And the Apostle Paul in Romans is trying to do everything he can to talk about this problem, this pervasive problem, to put people's feelings ahead of truth. I mean, imagine if Paul would have put the Jews' feelings ahead of truth. How might he have presented the gospel different to the Jews? Because everything Paul said was offensive to the Jews. Everything he said, they will say, "The reason we have all these problems is because people like you in the church who are so unloving, because if you were more loving, dot." Oh, okay, so the problem is not sodomy, the problem is me being unloving. Can you hear that pin drop? I can't. That's how quiet it is in here. So why are you talking about this? Why are you being so forthright? What, are you using shock jock techniques here? What are you doing? I'm trying to help you understand the importance of truth and how truth makes even you uncomfortable in light of a world who wants to shut it down. People have difficulty engaging in these ideological battles. A matter of fact, most people in the church think that engaging in any type of argument or conflict is unbiblical and ungodly, and they say Christians should never engage in ideological arguments. Well, let's look to the Bible for that, because evidently, Romans, Paul does the opposite of that. So if that's you today, you get uncomfortable, it's fine, you're uncomfortable, but you get uncomfortable with arguments over ideologies and issues, and I mentioned two big issues, but there are smaller issues. There are smaller issues today, like every one of your sins being a demon and you need to go to an event to get it cast out. Like, that's an issue today. P.S., I want all of my sin to be demons too, because then I don't have to be responsible for all the stupid stuff I do. Are you with me? This is an issue today. Where does truth come in regards to this? I see people itching and stirring and I don't blame you, but these are issues today. What does the Bible say
Point 3Scripture commands us to wage war with words
About these types of issues? Ephesians 6:10 through 20 gives us a command. It is the first of three Scriptures I'm going to read. We are instructed how we should deal with these ideological issues that are causing problems and run cross-section with truth. Ephesians 6:10-20 says this: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might." Notice that your strength is connected to your relationship with the Lord. "Put on the whole armor of God." Why? So you can sit around, drink tea, and play patty-cakes, never offend each other, never argue, never? Why do you need armor if you're going to live in a Pollyanna world as a believer? "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil." Whose schemes is it? The devil's. Don't let that be lost on you, because you're not arguing with Bob, Jim, and Sam, and Susie and Sally, you are arguing against the schemes of the devil. It is not them, it is him. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Here's the instruction: "Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words," everybody say "words," "may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel." How is he waging war? Words. Well, what if words mess with people's emotions, makes them uncomfortable?
News flash: this is war. This is not platitudes.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:45
These are words that wage war. "Well, that's not nice, that makes people uncomfortable, that's not godly," right? These are words: pray for me that I might have words that wage war, proclaiming the mystery of the gospel, "for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak." Notice he's an ambassador in chains, chained to truth, not to people's emotions, and the words he wields is dependent on who he's chained to. What are you chained to? Are you more chained to truth, or are you more chained to people's emotions? Because if you're more chained to people's emotions, what you say and the words you use will not be words that are wielded to wage war, but will be platitudes to make people comfortable to continue in the sin they're already in. Which are you? We know who Paul is clearly. Which are you? Because we can sit here and in chapter 10 we can hear, "How will people hear if we do not tell, and how, if we do not go, and how will they hear if they do not listen, and how will they listen if no one preaches?" We can hear that and we can say, "Yeah, rah, let's go tell,"
But the moment we realize that what we tell is a sword wielded in war to wage war against the enemy, we back down and we exchange our words from a sword to a platitude. Paul doesn't do that, because he understands the command is clear. This is not a metaphor for wrestling, actually, the word, this is a metaphor for combat. In other words, whenever you wield truth, combat is present and necessary and requisite.
If you don't like combat language, you don't have a problem with Paul, you don't have a problem with me, you have a problem with God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:04
Jude 1:1-3 says this: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy," now listen to this, look at these three words, "may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." Well, why don't we just speak more lovingly? Why don't our words bring peace? Why do they have to bring battle? Why can't our words be laced with mercy? Why do they have to bring contention? Notice here that the writer of Jude says, "May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you,"
But it doesn't stop there. Notice here that there is no conflict between you being filled with mercy, peace, and love, and you also waging war with truth, because it goes on and says these two can coexist. Mercy, peace, and love is multiplied to you. "Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend," in other words, literal translation, to wage war, "for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." So you mean that we can be filled with mercy, peace, and love and at the same time wage war and contend for the faith? Oh my goodness, I didn't think those two could coexist. This is apologetics: present truth, presenting truth and letting truth do its thing and destroying arguments against God.
There's no contradiction between being a loving, peaceful Christian and engaging in hand-to-hand combat by contending for the faith.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:36
2 Corinthians 10:
Point 4Our weapons are divine and destroy strongholds
1-4, and I'm going to take this and we're going to learn a few things from this and then I'm going to close. "I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." Notice he didn't even take credit for the meekness and gentleness represented in his life. He is simply one who wields what comes from Christ. For if there is any meekness, and if there is any gentleness in Paul, it is not Paul, it is Christ. Are you with me? "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!" Now you don't know this, but if you were to read all of Second Corinthians, he's actually presenting here an accusation made against him, and the accusation is this: he's really bold when he writes letters to people, but when he's face to face he's all meek, bold and quiet, or meek, peaceful, and quiet. So he's sarcastically saying, he's sarcastically using their words, and he says, "I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold to you when I am away!" He's sarcastically using their words, and then he goes on to verse 2: "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." He's threatening them. Since you guys think I'm not so bold when I'm there to your face, you best get in line and not make me have to be, because I'll bring the thunder to your face. Don't get it lost and convoluted here, he's kind of like telling them off. "For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare." What? Oh, what warfare? I thought it was a peace fair. I thought it was a mercy fair. I thought it was a love fair. I thought it was a lovefest. "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds." Listen, whether you believe it or not, and even in Paul's time, when he writes the letter to the church in Rome, there is war being waged against the gospel. The Jews were waging war against the gospel. Some of you are scared you won't be liked. It cost these guys their life. Some of you wouldn't pay a penny for the gospel. They gave their last drop of blood for the gospel. And this should make us really sit and question. Like, you need to understand what Paul is doing when he writes this letter. Every word he chooses brings offense and division of every kind. See, now that runs crossways in a culture that says we should all be united over everything. "Well, if we love God, everyone in the church would be united." Wrong, because everyone in the church is not a believer, and we're to be united, sure, united to Christ, not to some false Christ that people in the church worship. "How do, well, Shawn, that's real judgy." The Bible says a lot of the church is going to get to heaven and he'll say, "You aren't mine, go to hell." So at the end of the day, there are people worshiping what we think is the same Christ that ain't the same Christ, and I'm sorry that it's offensive when we talk about stuff that's trigger-inducing, and we're concerned about other people's emotion, but you should be more concerned about people's eternal soul than their temporary emotion. You should be more concerned about that. Like, we get it convoluted. See, Paul was, notice that his wrestling and contending for the faith was birthed out of, in chapter 10, his great concern for a people. Notice that his flying high the banner of truth, even though it might be offensive, was birthed out of his concern for people. It was not that he didn't care about people and didn't love people that he contended and wrestled and said what he said according to the faith and about the gospel. It's because he loved them. You see the difference. And today we got it all, we got it flip-flopped. We in the church say, "Well, if you make people uncomfortable, you must not be filled with the grace of God." That just discredits every apostle picked by Christ. It discredits them all. They are all ill-equipped to have ever been chosen by Christ. It's crazy. But don't, don't, don't you for a moment think that war isn't being waged, and you can live in your Pollyanna world and you can live oblivious to the fact that the gospel is offensive, but it does not make it not so. There is war being waged, and let me tell you, if we don't go, if we don't go into battle prepared, the enemy will stomp us to the ground. So how do we do this? Here in Ephesians we see that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. In other words, we are not at war with people, we are at war with ideas that oppose the truth and the gospel.
Listen, God commands us to engage in this combat. It is not a request, it is a command.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:39
But the adversary has sneaked in to the church and made Christians believe and have this aversion to the very combat we are called to engage in. Listen, we walk in the flesh, but we are not waging war in the flesh.
There's no need to become mean and nasty and ugly about the truth. The gospel is offensive enough without you adding offense.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:08
And we're not calling upon our own abilities, amen? We need something supernatural here to help us stand firm and share truth when it is not convenient for us to do so. We must understand the power of our weaponry. The power, it says in the Bible, is divine. Because it's divine, it has the power to destroy strongholds. Notice that it destroys strongholds, not the people.
Okay? Okay? The goal is not to destroy the people. The goal is for the people to repent, and the thing preventing them from repenting is the stronghold in their mind. So don't go drop an emotional bomb on them so that you can destroy them. This has divine ability to be able to uproot and harvest the good while pilfering out the bad. Notice that this is divine in nature. It doesn't destroy everything, it destroys the stronghold for the conversion of the saints. And this is divine, and the only way you can do this is through the presentation of the gospel, the truth, not platitudes, not the gospel layered with platitudes. The gospel. The beginning of the gospel is not "God loves you just the way you are."
That is the gospel layered in platitudes, and that doesn't tear down strongholds, it enforces them.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:16
Are you with me today? All you're doing when you try to preach a gospel that says God loves you just the way you are is then, "I'll stay just the way I am, thank you." And what you do, instead of tearing down the stronghold to make people see themselves clearly like the law does, is you add blocks, and you do masonry work to it to enforce the stronghold that was always already there with the gospel sandwiched in platitudes. Are you with me today? "Well, we're just trying to be loving, and we're trying to slowly help them, we're going to trick them into the kingdom." You'll trick them into hell, and then when you stand before the Lord, you'll be held accountable for that platitude you wrap the truth in. Are you with me today? This is serious business. "Why are you being so serious, man? Why can't we just have a day? Will you chill out?" I don't think so. I don't think so, because this is serious. This is serious.
See, some of us are more serious about how clean we keep our house than the eternal destiny of our children.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:54
Let me put it this way: some of us are more serious about our kids' grades and them getting into a good college than we are about them going to heaven and getting into heaven. Our priorities are wonky.
They are temporally focused and not eternally focused, and you can tell real quick what someone prioritizes by their language.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:19
Power is divine. This is not something you can do on your own. It is something only the gospel has the power to do. And Paul is living in a time when siege warfare, and I don't have time to talk about it, I'm running out of time, siege warfare is the only way to defeat strongholds. So they would build this encampment and then they would slowly begin picking away at the strongholds by sieging over and over again, and this might take months to years to be able to tear down a stronghold. And Paul says that a believer's weaponry is so mighty that it can do in an instant what would normally take years to do in the flesh,
Point 5Destroy arguments and take every thought captive
But it requires warfare. 2 Corinthians 10:5-6, and I'll close with this, says this: "We destroy arguments." How do we do this?
How do we do it? There's two points and I'm out. "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God." What do we do? We destroy them. Well, that's not nice. Well, yeah, you know, yeah, homosexuality and abortion, yeah, we should destroy those arguments, but not the little things, not the secondary issues, we shouldn't even have arguments about those. I'm sorry, we should destroy arguments, period. Anything that argues against or is raised up against the knowledge of God. "Well, you know, Shawn, you know, abortion and homosexuality, those are issues that we should contend for, we should argue about, we should destroy, but things like the prosperity gospel, that we shouldn't, we should just let that, we just do, let's not talk about that." Some translations say, "We destroy every argument and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God."
If the argument or ideology is contradictory to the nature of God, you should raise an argument about it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 44:45
You're commanded to. You're commanded to. Some people are not going to agree with this and you're going to try to argue with me about it. I'm just telling you, that's why the apostles died. Okay, and "take every," here's point two, "take every thought captive to obey Christ." Oh, that's just our thoughts, right?
Nope. Nope. Every thought. Don't get it convoluted, don't try to make this about you and God so you don't have to be involved with other people's thoughts. You've got to wage war, that's other-people specific. You don't just beat up yourself, you can't contend and fight against yourself, that'd make you schizophrenic. Are you with me today? Other people are involved. Every thought captive and obey Christ, and then listen to this: "being ready to punish every disobedience." Who? God? That's not what it's saying. Then notice this little caveat on the end of it, I think it's pertinent for us this morning: "when your obedience is complete." That makes me think of those without sin cast the first stone, does it not? So if you want to talk about where you're looped into here, it loops you in. Hey, be very careful to not pick the speck out of your brother's eye and ignore the plank in your own. Are you with me today? And I want to, I could spend two months on just that one section there. But just because we have issues doesn't mean we should never deal with other people's issues. It's just that we should deal with ours first, and some of us have forgone dealing with our issues because we're too concerned dealing with other people's issues. So I thought I would just throw in there are some of you who will never get in the fight, and there's some of you who are taking the fight to everyone else, and you need to start with you. Notice it comes at everyone. So there are some people in the church who just won't get in the fight, and there are some people in the church who just, quite honestly, need a mute button so that they can evaluate their own life, because they've made it a full-time occupation to evaluate everyone else's and they've forgone evaluating their own. If you've been in the church any amount of time, can you relate? Can you relate up here? Just two people. That's good. That's good. That's great. That's great. "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God." Every lofty opinion. Let me make this simple for you: opinions that put people's feelings first are opinions that should be considered as arguing. Well, that entails a lot, does it not? That entails a lot. Number two, "and take every thought captive to obey Christ." We go to war against improper ideologies. We have to, one, identify improper ideologies. How do we do that? I'm glad you asked. That's why we're in Romans. You will be one of two people today as we travel to Romans. You will be someone who learns that the ideologies that you've always thought to be true, some of them are not true, and you will acquiesce to the truth in God's Word, or you will bend God's Word around your preconceived ideas so that you can continue to believe a lie. You will be one of these two people, and the effectiveness of your preaching so that people can hear will be determined by your selfishness or your lack thereof. It starts with you. So why Romans? To equip you to know sound doctrine for the sake of waging war in the name of truth. We are equipping you with Romans, and this is what Paul was doing, equipping you, as we go through Romans, that you may properly wage war with truth.
We are not equipping you so you can be smarter in your room, sit in your room and pontificate and wax eloquently on your blog.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 50:20
That's not why we're doing this, and people can sit back and notice how smart you are.
We are making warriors of truth, able to discern right from wrong,
Pastor Shawn Gray · 50:33
and when we know that an ideology is wrong, we, with the truth, wage war to tear down strongholds and chains of people's minds through the divine work of the word.
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