We got new microphones. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. John chapter 14, quickly please, in your Bible, John 14. I may go a little bit over the top of the hour tonight with this message, but you have nothing better to do anyway except watch TV. John chapter 14. Look in your Bible with me at verse number 26. John 14, verse 26. As I begin a series that I have had opportunity now to preach in different parts of the country, but never put it together in this exact form for Faith Baptist Church. A year ago or so, you had the embryonic form being developed in a number of sermons, I think eight to ten or so online. And then I've condensed them down into about four or five. You say, Pastor Marty, you can condense your sermons? Yes, I can condense them. I can also expand them. So please listen. And if you behave, I won't do that. Matthew 14, verse number 26, the Bible says this, but the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, I love the word, by the way, the comforter. He lives inside us to bring us comfort in the difficult times of our life. The word paraclete, or the word, one that is called alongside to help. but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name." Now note these next words. "'He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.'" There is a connection between the Holy Spirit's office as paraclete and comforter and bringing into remembrance the things that Jesus said. In other words, part of the method of comfort that the Holy Spirit gives us through difficult times in life is to bring to remembrance the words of Jesus, the Word of God. In other words, the Word of God has the answer. The Bible says we're given all things that pertain unto life and godliness, so the book that you hold in your hand, it has the answer. Now, the Bible is not a psychology textbook by any stretch of the imagination. But the best psychology that we know is found in the pages of Scripture. And in this series, I'm going to connect some of the dots within the Bible and organize it in such a way to give us a method of thinking. But I want you to notice the connection between the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter, and Him bringing us into remembrance of the things Jesus said of the Word of God. Then what happens, look at verse 27. Peace, I leave with you. "'My peace I give unto you, "'not as the world give I unto you. "'Let not your heart be troubled, "'neither let it be afraid.'" There is a connection between the Holy Spirit, between the word of God that he will bring to our remembrance, and between the peace of God that he leaves with us. I want you to notice all of that. So it teaches me this, Jesus said, I'm going to leave my peace to my people. That is what Jesus said. Now it begs the question though, Why do so many of God's people sometimes struggle in the area of depression and anxiety and fear? Why are those things such a reality for God's people? After all, didn't Jesus promise to leave peace with us? Yes, He did. But the promise of peace is in two things, the person of the Holy Spirit, who brings into remembrance the Word of God, and then frankly, the necessity of our obeying Scripture. This is the problem. We miss the mark because we think that somehow God should grant to us some kind of peace without any effort on our part. When throughout the entire Bible, but particularly the New Testament, God has given us a pathway to peace, now let's use these words, if we obey. I want everyone to look at me, look at me, look at me. This series of messages, four or five or depending on how far I get tonight, whatever, you know how we are around here. This series of messages, okay, will intrigue you, but it will not help you if you don't do it. The series of messages will interest you, but it won't help you if you don't do it. The whole point in my giving these messages is to give you something to do that will actually help you. Now, I have this, I have this. Robbie, I need help. Robbie, I need help. If there's one thing Robbie can do, it's pass out papers. He's excellent, excellent at this. And Nate, will you help him too? Not that you need help, Robbie, but it'll go faster. I hope I have enough of those. If not, someone can make more copies. Pardon me. The peace of God. Now, let me deal with the issue just as a little bit of a background issue. Anxiety and depression. Recently, it was stated that more Americans suffer from anxiety than any other mental ill. That is fairly new. That's within the last few months, because prior to that, the largest suffrage area was in the area of depression. People suffered depression. Today it is anxiety. There are many reasons for that. But it is interesting that many times God's people suffer on the same level, and some even more, than the world suffers. Now, when I give this message, and I think I've been very transparent about this in the past, so I'll say this very publicly again. I have been a person in my life who has suffered from depression. I have no problem telling you that. Now, you say, Pastor Monty, you always feel like you're on top side. Well, I usually can be at church. I can be at church. I'm very good at church. But sometimes, you know, you have your way from the audience, and sometimes you collapse. I have no problem saying that. Can someone in the audience name for me a famous preacher who was honest about the fact that he sometimes struggled with depression? Yes, Tim. Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the greatest of preachers in the English language. He was very open about that. In fact, a young man was working on his doctoral dissertation for a seminary and later that dissertation was published into a book. It is a book entitled, you might jot this down, Spurgeon's Sorrows. The young man took all of the preaching of Spurgeon and went through it, and he collated everything that Spurgeon said about the area of depression. When you read the book, you come to find out that Spurgeon, late 1800s, was light years ahead of the medical community in understanding the nature of depression. But I have on and off in my life struggled with bouts of depression or bouts of downtime. I have also in my life struggled with anxiety. Often, by the way, those two ills are two sides of the same coin. I've often struggled with those things and fought to get through them. Now, a year and a half ago, whenever it was, back in February 2017, I went through what is unmistakably the worst, most difficult time of my life, when my twin brother took his own life. That was very, very difficult on a multitude of levels for me. I had never faced anything so horrific as that. Even my father's death when I was 12 years old did not impact me to the level that my brother's taking his own life did. That was very serious. I would be honest with the audience and say that it impacts me today. It continues to impact me. But it created in me, at first, a great sense of anger. I was working out of anger. It also created in me a great sense of wanting to move away from that and just get back to normal. And so I did that very rapidly. I will confess to the audience here at Faith Baptist that I got back into the pulpit far too quickly after that level of a mental jolt. However, You could not have convinced me at that time not to do it. You could not have talked me out of it. But I look back on it now and I recognize that I probably shouldn't have been in the pulpit because I'd faced such a mental jolt at that particular time. I moved rapidly through some things. I had to move my mother here very quickly, get her settled in, deal with all of her financial and legal issues, sell her house, move all of her possessions down here. I had a series of things that I needed to do as well as preaching here at the church and then fulfilling obligations that I'd made in other ministries as well. And so all of this stuff was very much mounting, but what I did, what I did was I just moved full speed ahead, and I just didn't think, I tried not to think about the issue, as jolting as it was, I tried not to think about it. Then some friends, some well-meaning friends, said something like this to me. They said, you know, preacher, You know, you need to go through the five stages of grief. How many have ever heard about that? The five stages of grief. I asked them, what do you mean by that? And they said, well, I don't know, buy the book. They're so important, they couldn't even name them. And they said, because if you don't, here's what they said, if you don't go through all these five stages, whatever those are, you know, whatever they are, they said, if you don't, you'll just blow up. You'll blow up. Well, I have a friend who's a psychologist, and I went to ask him about it. And I said, you know, I said, I think I've been handling this differently. I said, in a lot of ways, I've just been refusing to think about it. It was interesting, my psychologist friend said this. He said, that probably is the best way to deal with this. probably the best way. Now, most people at one time or another suffer from some level of anxiety. Depression and anxiety can affect more than six million Americans each day. Ninety percent of those affected have a paired disorder. Depression with anxiety, suspicious mind, that is intuition or speculation, intolerable uncertainty, always concerned by not understanding what is going to come ahead. All kinds of things go along with this. And what are the causes? I've listed some of them in your outline. Causes can be, of course, stress, a major cause. Medication, sometimes sleep aid, causes anxiety in people. Your cell phone. Your cell phone. Now, let me just be plain. I'm not against technology. I have a cell phone. But recently, I've read a book recently called The Distracted Mind, written by two psychologists who talk about the danger of the cell phone and the rise of anxiety, particularly among young people. Not just young people, but older people. Our tendency to have our hearts skip a beat when it vibrates in our pocket. the irresistible desire to look at it when it bings or pings no matter what circumstance we're in. Those are some reasons that can cause anxiety in people's life. But the one I'm going to focus on really in the series is this, poor mental processing or undisciplined thinking. I believe this, that you must become the guardian of your mind. Now listen carefully, Jesus commands this, Paul commands this, and the Bible teaches this. But the Bible doesn't teach it in an organized form. It is scattered throughout the Scripture, particularly in the New Testament. But the idea is this, that anxiety, my worry, my concern, and anxiety is the inability of the mind to shut down. Defined, it is a completely endless loop that people go through. For example, have you ever been kept up at night over a problem? and you've thought about it over and over and over again, and you can't get it out of your mind, and it seems like your mind will not shut down, that is a classic definition of anxiety. So that's what anxiety is, the inability of the mind to shut down over something. Now, we create that, I think, in ourselves by a lack of mental discipline. Notice in your outline, if you will, I have given you a verse, Proverbs 23, verse 7. Now, I want to do something with this, so I've got a very high-tech digital piece of equipment. that I wanna haul over here. I'm telling you this, it worked better than any PowerPoint presentation you could ever have. Now, notice the verse that we have from Proverbs. As a man, thinketh in his heart, so is he. Now, can everybody see this? I'm trying to angle it so that you can see this. Can everybody, hopefully everyone can see this brilliant technology. Okay, now watch this, watch this. Okay, down here, are our thoughts, our thoughts, okay? If you look on your outline, you'll see something similar. You'll see the word thoughts. Up here are emotions, or feelings, if you will, and down here is behavior. Okay, now watch, you see that on your lesson outline, but notice this, you take your thoughts and draw a line up to the emotions, then draw a line from the emotions to the behaviors, and then from behavior back over to thoughts. The Bible says this, now watch, watch as I'm quoting the verse, as he or as a man thinketh, that is your thoughts, In his heart, that is your emotions, so is he, that is your behavior. Does everyone see this? This is absolutely fundamental to what I'm going to teach you. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. My thoughts produce my emotions, my emotions drive my behavior. If you will get that paradigm in your mind, It will explain why you are the way you are. And by the way, not just for depression or anxiety, but if a person is prone to anger, your thoughts produce your emotions, anger is a negative emotion, and your emotions drive your behavior when you get angry and yell and carry on like a banshee of some sort. So thoughts produce emotions, emotions drive behavior. So how can I change my emotion? In other words, how can I stop the emotion from coming? Here's what you do. You have to nip it in the bud. This is Barney Fife psychology, okay? Barney Fife psychology. Nip it, nip it, nip it. Nip it in the bud right here at the point of thoughts, okay? The things that I think produce my emotion. My emotion drives my behavior. Now, that being true, if I could control my way of thinking, listen carefully, disciplining my thinking, I can affect my emotions and avoid negative behavior. Take your Bible with me, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Please follow this line of reasoning carefully. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I think I quoted verse 4 in the morning message. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Verse number 5. This is a key verse. Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. I want you to notice that verse, how key that is. Casting down imaginations, every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into obedience of Christ. Folks, look at me. Often in our circles, We use that verse to tell people they ought not have dirty thoughts. And you can apply it that way. But that is not the only application of that verse. That verse tells me that I am in charge of my thought life. Now, pause here for a moment. Don't you for one minute get, well, Pastor Monty, you know, I can't help the way I think. My thoughts just sort of run around in my brain. You perhaps have lived that way your entire life, but you can help how you think. In fact, how you think is absolutely key to your emotional well-being. Now, I want to say something, and I'll say this a thousand times. Do not, you say, Pastor Monty, are you telling me that I should get off of my medication? Look at me. No. No. I'm not telling you that. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a medical doctor. I am telling you that whether you are medicated or not, what I have to say is very, very good, and it is very biblical. And I think sometimes, this is just my personal theory, I think sometimes doctors are eager to pass out a pill because we are all eager to take a pill because, frankly, taking a pill is a lot easier than disciplining your thoughts and changing the way that you think. And for many of us, our thoughts have run around in our head like a wild bronco throughout our entire lifetime. We've never disciplined them. We've never even bothered to examine them. Some of us have never even challenged our thoughts. What is this verse teaching? 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5. It is teaching this, that I am to challenge my thought. That I'm going to examine my thought. Let's put it this way, that I'm going to think about my thought. And I'm going to consider my thought. Now, later on in the series, I'll give you some guidelines for judging your thoughts, for evaluating them. But right now, it's simply enough to say that I have to look at my thoughts, and there are certain thoughts that I cast down. Thoughts that push God out of the equation. I've gotten a little ahead of myself, but there are some things that I do. The assumption of Scripture, ladies and gentlemen, is this, that you control your thoughts and that you should be confronting your thoughts before they produce a negative or wrong emotional mindset. Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7, be careful for nothing but everything by prayer. and the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds. All of that has to do with my thoughts. How am I thinking? What are my emotions? Philippians 4, verse four, rejoice in the Lord. Isaiah 26, three, that will keep him in perfect peace. Who? Whose mind is stayed on thee. I hope you're following this. In other words, it is my thinking that can produce a sense of peace or a sense of anxiety and depression. So understanding that paradigm, I will refer to that paradigm repeatedly. Now go to the next page, go to the next page. How do we eliminate anxiety by controlling our thoughts? How do we do that? Okay, to be very biblical, and by the way, this is a process. Now listen, I'm gonna go through this, and I'm going to beg you to start doing this. Pastor Monty, you know, it sounds like hard work to think about every thought. It is hard work at first. Can I teach you something real quickly? Okay, so when I first started doing this myself, it seemed really laborious. And the first week was kind of hard, and the second week was kind of hard. After a while, I gained the mental muscle to do this almost automatically. My brain now knows when it's thinking a thought, it shouldn't be thinking, and my reaction is to capture that thought, to confront that thought, and to deal with it. This is just good, plain old good, healthy thinking. Okay, what are we going to do? Number one, learn to capture your thought. We read about that in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5, bringing it into captivity of Christ. You must control your thoughts, only you can do this. The Bible commands disciplined thinking. Philippians 4, 8, whatsoever things are true, etc., etc., think on these things. It is a command of Scripture that we discipline our thinking. We capture that thought. You confront your thinking, determining if it is legitimate and biblical. In the other sessions, I'm going to give you guidelines for evaluating your own thinking. But just get the idea in your head now, I'm going to stop my thinking, and I'm going to confront it. I'm going to determine if it is legitimate and biblical. I'm going to learn to recognize unhealthy and unbiblical thinking, and this will require discipline, okay? I capture the thought. Then what do I do with that thought? There are two possibilities. Look back again at chapter 10, verse number 5. casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God." Casting it down. Now, that verse is talking about my thoughts. There are certain thoughts that I should pluck out of my head and throw away. I should cast them down. I'm going to use the word refuse, refuse. There are certain thoughts I simply need to refuse. In refusing a thought, you stop the unbiblical thinking in its tracks. You even say to yourself, no, I don't think about that. And then you don't think about it. And Pastor Ronnie, you're telling me to forget. I didn't tell you to forget. You cannot forget, but you do not have to ruminate. Listen carefully. You cannot help it if a bird flies over your head, but you can keep it from making a nest in your hair. And so sometimes a thought will come into your mind, a remembrance of something negative, and the mind will have a tendency to ruminate on that. And what I'm asking you to do is to discipline your thinking in such a way that you say to yourself, no, I'm not thinking about that. After my brother took his life, a little more than a month after that, I was driving down to Pensacola Christian College. I'd been asked over a year previous to speak at the Bible conference at the college. I had agreed to do so. After what happened took place in my life, the college called me and they said, they said, Dr. Motti, would you still like to come? to the college and preach. I said, oh, yes. I said, absolutely. They said, well, we're just checking to make sure you feel up to it because they understood what had happened. Just checking to make sure you feel up to it. I said, yes, that'll be fine. By the way, when I got there, it was so nice. The college had reduced my speaking. I think it's normally three or four times in a Bible conference. I think they reduced it down to twice. And they put both of them on the same day. And the first day I didn't have to do anything. I spoke twice the next day. And the next day I didn't have to do anything except just take it all in and relax, enjoy that. And I know the college planned it that way and was very kind to me about that. I really appreciate that. They never said anything, but I knew exactly that they had done that. So that was very nice. But on the trip down, I was driving down. It's about a 12 hour trip. And on the trip down, that was the first time in just over a month that I was actually alone with my thoughts. You'll recall that a lot of people, a lot of friends of mine from all over the country came, and some of them stayed for several days in our home and would just stay up with me, and really a blessing. I had so many people come and were just a blessing to me in that time. But this was the first time I was alone with my thoughts. And so, of course, I'm driving on the highway, I'm by myself. I'm driving down the highway, and all of a sudden, those thoughts come into your head, right? And really, I had not had time to ruminate about it, to think about it very much. I'd been so busy in the course of all of that. And so they started coming into my mind, and I started getting negatively emotional. And by the way, this was before I studied any of this out. And you know what I did? I just told myself, no, I'm not thinking about that. That's what I did. Well, but Pastor Juan, don't you think you should think about it? I'm not sure why. Well, but Pastor Monty, don't you wish you knew a reason why? Well, maybe, maybe, but what difference would that make? Can I be super, can I be real practical with you right now? A lot of psychology tells you, oh, we need to know the reason why. Why this happened, why that happened, why did so and so blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Knowing the reason why doesn't change anything. Sometimes you can search your whole life and never find the reason why. But fundamentally, knowing the reason why doesn't change anything, and the search for the reason why can become frustrating in and of itself, and it doesn't change the facts of how things are, and it can place you into a very negative position emotionally. And so I just simply told myself when I was driving, and my mind would start wandering over there, I would just say, nope, nope, we don't think of that. And I turned on some preaching I was listening to, or a podcast I was listening to, or my favorite podcast, Ben Shapiro. I turned on Ben. How do I listen to Ben? You ought to listen to Ben every day. Ben Shapiro, he's smart. He's a very smart man. I would listen to something, but take my mind off of it. I wanted to learn to refuse to think about it. Now, let me give you an idea here. Look at verse number five again. Casting down imaginations, casting down every high thing. Well, what are these high things and imaginations we're casting down? Here's the definition. That exalted itself against a knowledge of God. Pause for a moment. Any thought that takes God out of the equation should be refused. Do you follow what I'm saying? Any thought. Any thought that takes God out. Any thought that exalts against God. Any thought that eliminates God. Any thought that says God is not here or God is not present or that does not include God. All of those thoughts should be refused. They are to be cast down. And I learned to do this when I confront the thought, for example, for example, someone will think, you know, I'm getting on in years and I haven't saved enough money. I'm just not going to have enough money in retirement. Okay. And that thought can cause a person emotional insecurity. But you know what that thought has done? That thought has eliminated God from the equation. Because there is a God in heaven who says this, I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. There is a God in heaven who has promised in Matthew chapter 6 that he will provide for our daily needs if we put him first. And sometimes those thoughts that come that cause us the most unrest are simply present because we have removed God from the equation of those thoughts. I need to learn to refuse those things. Sometimes I need to consider the source. Consider the source. Most of my bad thinking comes from me. It really does. It just does. Okay? And your human nature has a way of doing this. There's another possible source, though, too. Acts chapter 5, verse number 3. The Bible's speaking about Ananias and Sapphira. Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Now, what does that mean? I think it is possible, and I don't understand all about this, but I think it's possible that the devil has some level of access to our mind, not the devil himself personally, but likely more demon influences, and that the devil can place thoughts in our mind. The Bible defines Satan as the accuser of the brethren, okay? So anytime you have a thought that is in the second person... By the way, do you think in sentences? I do. I think in English sentences. I've said that to audiences. Later someone comes up and says, Pastor Bonnie, I don't think in sentences. Well, how do you even think then? I think an English sentence, by the way, do you know that I'm constantly preaching in my own head? Constantly preaching in my own head. And it's great preaching, by the way, but constantly preaching in my own head. And the devil has access. Whenever you have, listen to this, whenever you have an accusatory thought that comes in the second person, you, you better pause and examine that thought. For example, this would be one of them. For example, you are not smart enough. That's an accusation. The devil is the accuser of the brethren. And it's usually something like this. You are not smart enough to teach that Sunday school class. And the devil can use that accusation to prevent you from serving God. Or you are not handsome enough, or you are not pretty enough. or you're not talented enough, or you're not a good enough speaker. Usually it's something that the devil places in your mind that denigrates you as a person, and it reflects upon you as an individual. May I say something, ladies and gentlemen? Those accusatory thoughts are false. And do you know why? Because your identity is not based upon your looks. Your identity is not based upon your level of education. Your identity is not based upon your native talents. Your identity is based upon who you are in Christ. And my identity is not my talent or ability or my looks. My identity, ladies and gentlemen, is in Christ. And the Bible says in Christ, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. It is Him, not me. Consider the source of your thoughts. Often they're from yourself, sometimes they could be from the devil. Okay, that's refusing thoughts. And what I'm going to do in the next couple sessions, I'm going to give you a method by which you can actually evaluate your thoughts to know which ones you need to refuse. For right now, suffice it to say that any thought that eliminates God from the equation is a thought that you need to refuse. Number two, though, here's another method. We can sometimes reframe our thinking. Reframe. In other words, change your unhealthy and unbiblical thinking to come into line with Scripture. Now, why do we want to do this? Because My thoughts produce my emotions. My emotions drive my behaviors. So let's take a look at the thoughts. You've got it on your lesson outline. By the way, this is my speaking outline that you have in front of you. Notice an unhealthy thought. Okay, here's the thought. Nobody likes me. Nobody likes me. I'm going to eat dirt and die. Nobody likes me. That is the thought. What is the emotion? It produces the emotion of loneliness or isolation. What can be the behavior? You know what the behavior can be. In extreme cases, the behavior could be suicide. Could be all kinds of negative behaviors. Nobody likes me. Loneliness, isolation. What if, though, this? What if, though, this? I stop that thought. Now, folks, look at me. Look at me. I capture the thought according to the Bible. I capture the thought. I look at that thought. By the way, that took God out of the equation. Hello? Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Okay, but that thought took God out of the equation. Does everybody see that? So I have this thought that nobody likes me. That's a wrong and unhealthy and unbiblical thought. But let me reframe that thought. Let me change that thought around. What if I change the thought to this? I should make new friends. Okay, there's a similarity between that and nobody likes me, okay? However, the thought I should make new friends, it produces the emotion of hope. Does everyone see that? It doesn't tend toward despair, because it says I can make new friends, so I should come to church, and I should join a Sunday school class, and I should go to the ladies Bible study, and I should get active in church. I should make new friends, and it gives the idea of hope rather than despair. Here's another unhealthy thought. My husband works too much. He doesn't care about me. He works, by the way, by the way, ladies, look at me. If your husband works like a dog, thank God. I, as a pastor of 30 years, can point you to a thousand men who are lazy, good-for-nothing, low-down, rotten slackers. If you've got a worker, you've got a good man. But, a lady might think my husband works too much. I feel abandoned. then bad things can happen with that feeling. What if she changed her thinking to this? My husband is a good provider. What if she changed her thinking to this? By the way, this is a great thing to think, ladies. My husband shows his love to our family by being a good provider. A lot of men do that. A lot of men don't remember roses. A lot of men are not good with words, but a lot of men show their love by being good provider. What emotion is then evoked? Something like thankfulness, thankfulness. Let's do another one. The thought, I am no good. It evokes inferiority. Many, many emotions can go along with that. But reframe that to be biblical. I am God's child, and that gives me courage. Does everybody see that? I want you to see this. It's changing your, well, Pastor Monty, this is just kind of Pollyannish thinking. No, it's not. Because it's biblical. I understand you're no good from a spiritual standpoint, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I'm not talking about that. When I say I'm no good, that's you saying that I'm inferior to everyone else. And you are not inferior to everyone else. Do you know why you're not? Do you know why I know you're not? I'll tell you why I know. Because you are made in the image of God. Because if you're born again, you are a child of God. Because God made you specifically as you are for a specific reason, for a specific purpose. And the God who counts the very hairs on your head understands exactly who you are, and He made you for that purpose. That is biblical thinking. It is not, well, I just want to be more realistic. I'm no good at anything. Why are you denying, listen to me, why are you denying the image of the glory of God in you by that kind of thinking? Why? Do you want to know? It could be the devil. It could be the devil trying to tell you that. How about this one? I can't do this anymore. What is my emotion? It's a resignation to failure. I can't do this anymore. Okay. What about this biblical thought? I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Does everybody see this? Did you get the idea of what I'm doing here? I'm saying if you... You ready? There it is. Is that working? Okay, sorry about that, everyone. If I learn to reframe my thinking, listen carefully, to bring it in line with scripture, here's the bottom line. My thought that I've captured in Obedience II Corinthians 10.5, my thought which I've captured is changed, so my emotional response is different. Now, here's the risk, here's the risk. Can I give you the risk? If you start doing this, you have to stop something. What am I gonna stop, preacher? Wallowing in your own misery. I'm going to be very honest here. If you really start doing this, you have to give up being a victim. You have to. If you really start doing this, you have to give up whining. Hard to do, right? If you really start doing this, you have to give up the constant negativity that you've lived in for so long that it has come to characterize your life. Well, Pastor Monty, I'm just not gonna put on those rosy colored sunglasses. Do you know why you're not going to? Because you love being negative. because it's who you are. Or you love whining, or you are addicted to complaining. Or negative, well, Pastor Monty, I'm just viewing the world in a more realistic way. Oh, really? Are you viewing the world more realistically than I am when I point to a verse of Scripture and say, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me? Is that really more realistic? See, the Bible is real. And our thinking often has us chained in such a manner as to limit us dramatically and bring us into depression or bring us into anxiety or bring us into fear. All of our thinking will do that in order to bind us and keep us right where we are. Someone will criticize this and say, well, Pastor Monty, this all sounds too simple. No, I'm going to guarantee you something. This is not simple. But if you will begin with this now, it will absolutely change your life. So here's step number one. Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm going to ask you from the Bible to capture your thoughts. You can read the tips of reframing thoughts at the end of that later. Don't read it right now. I'm summing things up. I'm going to ask you to capture your thoughts and confront them. Okay, by the way, married spouses, married spouses, help your spouse. Wives, look at me. Look at me, wives. I give you full permission to question your husband's goofy thinking. And I also proclaim he is not allowed to get angry about it. And if he does, he'll have me to deal with. Just call me up, I'm bigger than he is. Husband's the same thing, the same thing. You have a right to question your wife's thinking. Now watch what we're gonna do. We're going to start capturing thoughts, bringing them into obedience of Christ. Okay, that's, by the way, the idea of reframing your thinking. We're going to capture our thoughts. We're going to choose some of them that we're just gonna refuse. Any thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, any thought that crowds God out of the equation, I'm not thinking about that. I'm not thinking, well, Pastor Ron, you know, this horrible thing happened back to me. This horrible thing happened to me 36 years ago. You knew it would come up. You know what? It's time to quit wallowing. Can I just be honest? I'm just being honest. Well, the best money I've got to work through. Look, listen to me, listen to me, 36 years, you should have done that work through a long time ago. I'm just being honest with you, okay? I'm not being uncaring, okay? You have to learn to deal with things. And do you know what? There are some things, how many know there are some things in life that happen that it's just better not to think about? How do you know that? Because if you think about it, it ruins your day, it ruins your week, it ruins your month, it makes you sad. There are some things you just need to not think about. Anything that drives God from the equation is not something you think about. So you just refuse that. Do you know of some thought that puts you into a bad mood or a foul mood? Do you know something like that? Or something that happened in the past? Do you know something like that? Okay, can I just tell you, don't think about it. Well, Pastor, sometimes it comes to mind. Okay, stop ruminating over it. Just tell yourself, no, I don't think about these things. That's number one. Number two, reframing your thoughts, okay? When I bring them into captivity, I'm also to bring them into conformity to Christ. So a thought that I have that is not biblical, change it to a biblical thought, and then watch God change your emotion. Do you know why I know this works? Because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Scripture says that. It all begins with the mind. Ladies and gentlemen, learn in this week to challenge your thinking. And in the successive weeks, I'm going to give you ways to evaluate your thoughts and what to do with those as we evaluate them. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word tonight and for the powerful lesson it gives us in regard to our own thinking. Father, there is so much in the Bible regarding this that I pray you will give us wisdom and remembrance. Father, bring these things into remembrance as we would capture our thoughts, as we would cast away those thoughts that eliminate God from the equation, as we would bring into captivity and reframe thoughts to come into line with Scripture. Help us, Lord, to do that this week, to begin this practice of thinking about our thinking. Bless us, we pray, as we seek to walk in obedience to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Let's stand together, please, everyone.