Bring Every Thought into Captivity

But, when Chuck gave me the instructions, I would say a few things about myself. I thought, well, should I write them down? And then I'm going, I can't even talk about myself for five minutes. I am in bad shape. What am I even doing coming down here? But my wife and I do not have any children. I thought I would add that. We've been married for 26 years, the first few years. We couldn't get our dog to mind us, so we thought maybe best we didn't have kids.

So, I guess God decided it was best that we didn't when we wanted them. But I am. I must make a correction. I am not an elder. I am a deacon. I am called the speaking deacon from Tennessee. His wet-home office knows me as, or they have for a few years.

But I am here to do whatever, because as I found out many years ago, that the same word for minister, elder, deacon, comes from the Greek word, giaconos, and it means servant. And that is what I've been for the last 15 years, and that's what I will be until I die. And I am glad to have that title, and I will hopefully be able to serve you.

I am used to setting up chairs. I am used to cleaning bathrooms. I'm used to doing anything that needs to be done. That's what my idea of a serving is, because I do it in the Caribbean. I've done it here. I do it at my home church. As a matter of fact, the church when we first started in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, after a year or so, we moved into my building at my office. And we had church in there for about six or seven years.

So my wife and I would set up the church every day, take it down so you can realize every Sabbath. So she is used to serving. So if we can be of any assistance when we get here, call on us. That's what we're here for. We're here to serve. So with that, I will start with my sermon, being, I am one about time. And Chuck said, well, we keep services about an hour and a half.

I said, well, what do I do with my hour and a half sermon? There was a pause, and I said, no, you know, I'm just kidding. I was taught. I had great mentors. One is Fred Keller's. If you ever know, have known of Fred Keller's, you'll realize why my speaking style is a little different. Because Fred's just that way. He's outside the box. He was my pastor for over 20 years.

And he believes in timing. And my time is 58 minutes. That's the perfect sermon, according to some of my mentors. And according to people who do not like to go an hour.

So I will try to keep it at 58 minutes or less. So with that, Chuck said, well, you might want to give something on Thanksgiving. That wasn't really covered of being thankful. I thought, well, that's been by the time you're already there, like Mr. Mooney Ham, who already talked about his gluttony this weekend. I could go into that. And as you said many times, you know, so it's an ongoing gluttony problem, it said. So I decided I wouldn't just pick on anybody or anything like that. It's a short way because I told Chuck, well, we can, you know, I can go down and give a sermon that you won't be able to use me in any of those services.

But I won't do that because I will be helping him in the Caribbean and also here. I don't know to what extent. So if you like us, you can say, yes, we want more. Or I'm sure you can say, no, once is enough. Well, I thought about being thankful because there's so much to be thankful for. Family, physical, blessings that we have, financial, blessings that we all share, poor in this country. When you go to third world countries and you've been some of the places I've been, stayed in some of the places and met some of the people, I've met, you realize, just how great, how greatly we are blessed here.

We have freedom to meet here today. But I think about God's truth and His plan of salvation as some of the greatest blessings. And I'm thankful that we have the book, and this is what I live by. So if you really want to talk to me really deeply about scriptural things, I love it. My wife knows she has to pry it away from me sometimes where I spend too much time. I will go into hours of study.

I'm a voracious reader. I like to read, and I like to study things because I realize that this book teaches us so much, and it's changed my life. It's been something that I live by. And Hebrews 4.12 says, the Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. Firmly believe that. 2 Timothy 3.16 about how this Word is God-inspired.

So I'd like to talk about something today about being thankful, and that is how one verse, one verse in this Bible, in the Word of God, has changed people's lives. You may have a favorite verse. A lot of times we've had impromptu Bible studies where I'll just sit there and everybody turn to turn to your favorite scripture and read it and tell me why. Why? Then you get to share that, and everybody gets to share it because there's things in one verse that motivate people.

One of my wife's favorites is, Why is man? What is man that thou shalt be mindful of him?

It's a beautiful verse. But I want to talk today about one verse, or even... Let's not go that far. Let's take a half a verse. I want to take a half of a verse and show how it, by keeping it, by doing it, can change your life for the better.

Now, we all think about our favorite scriptures. My father asked me this one time. We were working. My father has a farm. He's in the church. He's been there for years. And I have a brother-in-law, Stan Martin, if any of you know Stan Martin, that married... You know Stan Martin? I'm sorry.

We'll get you help. He is my brother-in-law. He married my sister. And my other brother is in the church and all his kids. And we all live on a farm, my father's farm in Tennessee. We all built around him. And he and I will spend some time together working on a farm, repairing a fence, and doing those things that you just love to do sometimes. And so he asked me about what I thought a difficult Scripture was. To keep, to do, as the Scriptures say, is to do his commandments. And one of those was, let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ. That's a hard one, isn't it?

Or esteem others better than yourselves in the same chapter in Philippians. Or you even take the first commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and all your being. That's tough to do it consistently and to put it up there. But I want to go to one verse, a half a verse today, if you will, and show you how that half a verse can forever change your life for the better. If you will, I'd like you to turn to 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 10. Verse 5.

You'll find in my sermons, I use very few scriptures. One of the reasons I take a scripture and I take it apart, because there's so much there, I just, it's hard for me to go to just one verse and then go to another verse and another verse, because it's so deep in these verses, and they mean so much when I read them.

In case you don't know, or in case you will not find out for another sermon or two, I do enjoy a sense of humor, so hopefully you enjoy one. Because I remember this woman became offended one time. Oh, it's been 10 or 12 years ago. I was given a sermon. She came, she got offended. So, of course, Fred Keller said, Whoa, we do Matthew 18. So here, don't call me, call him. She did. And she didn't think the joke was funny. One of the jokes that I told, or one of the stories I told. And I said, well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I said, when I said this other joke about this other person, did you be offended by that? No, I thought that was funny. So, I guess we don't know sometimes. But I do enjoy a sense of humor. And I will not intentionally offend anyone. If anyone does, please come to me. Okay, that's how we do it in Matthew 18. If you've got a problem with somebody in the church, that's how we do it. We could have avoided a lot of problems in the last year. If we'd have all just gone to Matthew 18, well, they didn't. But we're going to make the church grow. That's what needs to be done. Okay, so let's go to 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5. It said, casting down arguments and every high thing that exhausts itself against the knowledge of God, as we're breaking into a thought there by Paul. But then he says, bringing every thought into captivity. Bringing every thought into captivity.

As the preacher's on Sunday go, that's going to be our text for today.

Bringing every thought into captivity. Good news translation says, we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.

Oh, that's tough. You know, seeing sin is important. We see it everywhere, don't we? I was amazed driving down I-75. And I was coming here, and here you had billboards. Of life, and he showed this little baby about abortion, anti-abortion. Just right after it would be this, we bear all. Some naked place, a gentleman's club, or whatever they have.

So you have all kinds of thoughts that want to enter your mind. You see things on TV, you hear them on the radio. All these things come into your mind.

And it says, bringing every thought into captivity. That's tough. You know, but seeing the sins in our lives is paramount.

Romans 16 verse 19 says what? Be wise in what is good and innocent concerning evil. Kind of God's theme through the book. He says, worldly stuff bad. Godly stuff good, right? He even says, in Amos, hate evil, love good. But in Romans 12, he also says, 12 verse 21, overcome evil with good. With good.

Isaiah 5 verse 20, memory scripture, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Bitter for sweet, darkness for light. So the Bible tells us that we have to be on guard because there's evil out there.

And we're to overcome evil with good.

So one thing we really have concentrated is overcoming that evil.

And sometimes when it gets in here, it's gone too far. It gets in our mind and it stays in ourselves.

And it doesn't want to leave. It wants to come back and remind you of things from the past, doesn't it?

So how do we do that? How do we bring every thought into captivity? Paul knew what it took to overcome the flesh and let God's spirit reign in his life.

And by saying that, he knew that he had to bring every thought into captivity. So I want to look at this verse because Paul's word there, captivity, comes from the Greek word, which means, which a root word means to take captive, to lock up, to imprison, to confine. It means to detain behind Mars. Which brings the question, how good is your jail? How good is your jailer?

When it comes to your mind.

Do you operate a minimum security prison or a maximum security prison? Do you need a better jail?

Or do you need a better jailer?

Is a big question.

I know all of you, probably in the past, you might have, as I was growing up, watching the Andy Griffith Show. Everybody remember Andy Griffith? Yes, most of you do. And you remember the fictitious town of Mayberry. And how Andy was the sheriff and Deputy Fife was his deputy. And they had a jail there. And you remember that jail? There were only two different cells. And in between the two cells was his wall, and they had the key hanging right there. And if you remember, they had the old town drunk. Now they would say, you know, a man who had substance abuse problems. But back then in the TV show, they said, what? Otis Campbell was a town drunk. And he could just, whenever he got drunk, he'd wander in, take the key off the wall, open up the cell and put himself in. Then when he felt good enough to leave, sometimes he could just reach in there and take him to go. Not exactly a very secure jail.

Does that remind us of ours?

Our jail up here. What we do? Can thoughts just come in without us closing them out? James 1.

James 1, verse 14 and 15. Find over time, I go to James quite often. It's one of my favorite books of the Bible.

And if they let me stay here enough, because we don't know, they just told us, hey, you're going to move here for a year. You're going to train under Chuck. And then we don't know what we're going to do with you. So I guess we'll all find out together, I guess. But in James 1, verse 14, said, each one...

What does it say? Each one... That's you. That's me. You can put your name right there. Each one of us, Chuck Smith, is tempted when Chuck Smith is drawn away by his own desires. And lust. Hmm. When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when full grown, will bring forth. If I let it happen, Chuck Smith's death. Spiritual death.

That's how important. James knew it was that we're drawn away by our own desires and lust. And almost all things in this world must be controlled, must be harnessed. A WMD, weapon of mass destruction. They're out there. And the time is coming. Christ said, in Matthew 24, when this out of control mindset puts this world on the brink of extinction, total annihilation. It's there. It's not a matter of if, but when that is going to happen in the future.

So in Galatians 5, 22, there's, as you all know, you don't have to turn there. Most of you should know that. It lists the fruits of God's Spirit. Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, long suffering. But the last one, the last one is what we want to talk about now. It's what? Self-control. One of the fruits of God's Spirit. Self-control.

Boy, that's hard to practice in this world, isn't it? Self-control.

Whether it's eating, drinking, entertainment, whatever we do in our life, self-control is a problem that we have to contend with. We have to deal with.

Because it's hard to practice in this world that says, Do as you see fit. Don't let anyone judge you. Everyone does what's right in their own eyes. Oh, you do read the Bible here. Good. Glad to hear that.

Raise your hand.

If self-control is not a problem, but lying is.

Me, I sin. Me, I sin. I need cleansing daily. I need to control my thoughts.

I need more self-control. And don't we all? I think most people will. I can't speak for the women, but I know men. I am one. Okay? And I know what happens up here. And I know what can happen if I don't have control over this mind. We're pulled.

The loss of flesh.

And sometimes they just count. It's like a door. Just look inside the door. Just crack the door.

Because another thing gets you to crack the door. You'll open the door wider.

I read a book a year or two ago about Joseph. Went into his whole life. Great detail. Gave me great insight into the city. The nation he was living in, Egypt at the time. Went into his psyche and his mind and his talent. And showed just how really blessed he was. He was a good looking guy. He was handsome. He had a mind. He had an incredible mind. A mathematical genius. That we can go into sometimes when we study that. What he had to know. He was so gifted. He had it all! And as this author said, amazing thing was. And I thought about this because I took this away from the book. Because it says, he could handle it. He was one man who could handle it. And he says, not many men can carry a full cup. Not many men can carry a full cup. And he's right, isn't he? Look at Tiger Woods had it all. Didn't he? He definitely couldn't carry a full cup. Look at your actors and sports stars today. Not many men can carry a full cup.

I kind of always thought about, I was a still in a old movie buff. I watched a lot of movies before I married my wife. She made me. She had chores around the house. Now she's looking at me like, you never did them.

But I always liked the movie Casablanca. I don't know, 1939, Humphrey Bogart. And there was this classic line in there from Humphrey Bogart's character. As this woman came up to him who was actually being blackmailed, and she was going to have to perform this deed to get out of the country with one of the authoritarian figures there, the law. And it was the only way that her and her husband could escape the country when she was going to have to do something immoral. And she wanted to make sure that this man who was in authority would keep his word. And she came up to Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick. And she said, will he keep his word?

And she says, what kind of man is he? And I always liked that line because it rang true in my head. He said, he's like any other man, but more so. He's like any other man, but more so.

See, without God's Spirit, without His word, I am like any other man, but more so.

And we would be too.

We would be too. I've been down that road before I came into church. Before I was baptized, I was more so.

So how do we bring every thought into captivity? How do we have this self-control?

Like you turn to 1 Timothy, if you will.

Oh, you have water. Good. I drink a lot of water.

Let's go to 1 Timothy.

1 Timothy 4 and verse 7.

It says, but reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself rather to godliness. Exercise yourself rather to godliness.

I like the new American Standard Version. It says, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Discipline yourself. And it's interesting that the Greek word, therefore, discipline or for exercise, is actually the word gymnaso, G-U-M-N-A-Z-O, which the transliteration in our language is gymnaso, G-Y-N-A-Z-L, which we get the word gymnasium from that Greek word. So it's talking about exercise, and I love how the different translations can bring this point out about disciplining yourself for the purpose of godliness. The Good News translation says, keep yourself in training for a godly life. Another translation. Exercise daily in God. No spiritual flabbiness, please.

Train yourself for godliness. Train yourself to be godly. Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. And then the Phillips translation says, take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit. Keep yourself spiritually fit. It's hard to keep us physically fit, isn't it? This past year, I lost 25 pounds. I needed to. I had to. I wasn't going to be able to work my job and serve in the Caribbean and everything else. Now I want to keep it off. So, but it's going to take not just watching what I eat, but expending some energy. I have to exercise. It takes for an athlete, as I ran talking to a man in the back who used to play baseball, anybody who plays baseball or any sport, realize you have to condition yourself. Right? It takes conditioning.

And this is what he's saying. Exercise spiritually. It takes conditioning spiritually. But that brings us to two points. One is, conditioning involves what? Repetitious training exercises. If you're a runner and you want to run a marathon, or even a half marathon or a 10K, you can't just go out and say, I think I'll go run five miles a day. Oh, you can. They'll pick you up on the side of the road. Right?

So if we're going to do some physically, it takes conditioning.

Well, what about us? Because this is a spiritual aspect of it. You taught Bible study. It's a repetition, isn't it? We're to read every day. I read every day. It's conditioning me. It's making me spiritually fit. You have prayer. You should do it every day.

Now fasting, I don't recommend you fast every day. Okay?

But occasionally, it's good for you. And so is meditation.

These are some conditioning tools. But then, that other point that I wanted to talk about is, no one can condition someone else. No one can condition someone else. Oh, wouldn't it be great if they had a place down here you could check in a store and say, I want to rent a runner today.

And you pay so much money, and this guy runs for you, and you get the benefit of it.

Doesn't exist, does it? Same thing. You can't lease a faster. You know, it's not your work. You get out of it. I need to lease somebody to fast for me today.

And I feel so good. You can't do it. It must be done by you. You can't go time out. I need to substitute prayer.

Right?

In the middle of your prayer, I just ain't going anywhere. I need a substitute. Can't do it. It's between you and God. Conditioning is between you and God. That's it.

Brethren, you are the jailer, and no one else can do it when it comes to your mind. No one else can bring every thought into captivity but you.

Proverbs 25, verse 28.

It says, Like a city that is broken into without walls, is a man who has no control over his own spirit.

Interesting. Put in today's terms, if I can. I can take that scripture, put in today's term, to make my point. When we fail to control our desires, when we allow our human nature to control us, we are like a bank vault with a screen door. We're like a bank vault with a screen door. Who wants to put their money in that?

I don't.

That's how important it is that we be able to bring every thought into captivity. So, self-control. Do you have it? Do you have enough of it? I think most of us say, not really. We have some in some areas. It's great!

My wife can discipline herself in eating. Me and Mr. Mooney Ham.

He's like, if it's there, it's there for a reason. Be eaten. And I have to learn discipline. My wife has greater discipline that way than I do. You have greater disciplines in some areas than others, than other people sitting in here. That's why I think it's why the scripture says, iron sharpens iron because we can all kind of help each other, you know, with these problems.

Self-control comes from the Greek word, incratia. E-N-K-R-A-T-E-I-A. Incratia. And it comes from the Greek word, kratos. Meaning, strength or might. Or it's often translated, dominion. And then they put the prefix E-N in the Greek, which personalizes it.

So, incratia is the ability to have dominion over one's impulses or desires. That's what self-control means in the Greek.

The ability to have dominion over one's impulses or desires. The exercise of discipline, called self-control, rather than prevents desire from becoming a dictator.

It prevents desire from becoming our dictator. Our dictator.

When we first turn to 2 Corinthians, Paul spent quite a bit of time in Corinth.

Oh, usually, yeah, it was a problem church, wasn't it? Any of you that studied it, realizes they had issues. Well, don't we all?

But the people in Corinth were God's people living in a very worldly society. They were affected by the world around them. And they showed in the church. And brethren, it will show in this one.

Why? Because worldly people marry. Worldly people get worldlier people. Right? Converted people marry. Converted people get more converted people. Luke 1 people hang around. Luke 1 people get more and more people. But converted people hang around and spend time with converted people, you get more converted people.

That's why it's important that you have a church. That pulls together. Works with each other. Sees our flaws. How do you think that woman's been able to live with me for 26 years? My flaws are easy to see.

Spends time. She loves me.

What we have to do as a church.

She forgives me for my faults. Helps me to work on myself. That's what we need to do as a church. Help each other. Well, in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul talks about, and you'll see this through his writings, about athletic competition. You can see it in verse 24, but I'd like to give you a little warm-up to that. Because sometimes it helps to know the history of the people that he's talking to. And the Corinth people, like I say, it was a very, very carnal and pagan society.

We can go through some of those steps later, but I thought it would be interesting now because there's something that took place every two years outside. And Corinth was this huge city with this rock and stone wall all the way around it, as the cities were at that time. Huge wall, huge city. But every two years, they held what they called the Ist-men games. That's true. I didn't make the word up. Ist-men games. Actually, it's about I-S-T-H-M-I-A-N. And it was almost as popular as the Olympics. The Greeks actually started it centuries before, but it was picked up by the Romans, and they carried on the Ist-men games. And what it was was, it was a three-fold game.

You had, they would come and compete. And anybody in the world could come and compete at these games. But especially all those people around Corinth, all those people anywhere near, would come to these games and try to compete. And they had running.

They had wrestling, as we say in Tennessee, wrestling.

And then they had boxing, where they would actually box. No gloves, just box. And later on, the Romans actually put chariot racing into the games. But people would come from all over to try to win, be one of the winners of the Ist-men games. Why? Because there was a six-fold prize, if you want. If you won one of these events, you would get a woven pine fronds, which was a crown. Look at my crown.

Okay? That was one. The victors were treated like royalty, because most people were just commoners. They won this. Matter of fact, they would even take a big old hammer and knock a hole out into the wall of the city.

And then they would take bronze and engrave your name right in the side of the wall. Similar to what they do today.

But another thing is, all your debts were canceled. Wouldn't you like that today? You win this thing, and all your debts are canceled. You have no debt. And then you're allowed to live tax-free from the government the rest of your life.

Boy, wouldn't that be nice! And then finally, you were also given a lifetime supply of foodstuffs, as long as you were around the Corinth area, which a lot of them did. They moved in there. Got your name engraved in a wall. You got food, no taxes, all your debts. So this was a major, major win, if you won.

Like the Olympics today. The Olympic people win, and if you win enough, and you get big enough, then you get these big endorsements, and you basically live.

But definitely not tax-free the rest of your life. So you can see why people took this game so seriously. They came to these games to win! They had to win! Because a lot of them were almost near death, where they owed somebody, and they didn't want to go to prison for the rest of their life. This was done back then. You may owe somebody some money. They needed the money. So you can see, these games were very, very serious, not only to the people in Corinth, but everywhere around. So let's go to this 1 Corinthians 9, because all the people in the church knew this. Every two years, they had these big games. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives a prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it, that you may win this prize. That's what he's talking about. Run, all of us. We need to run the spiritual race. Because of the reward that is there. Verse 25, For everyone who competes for the prize is temperate. They put the word temperate there, but it means it's in cratia. Exercises self-control in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Our crown will never fade. That pine frond is going to wear out. Now, the crown of life that we've been promised will never wear out. It's eternal! How great is that? In verse 26, he says, Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one who beats the air.

One who beats the air. Because if you've ever known in boxing, which was one of the events, you'll know my father was a golden glove boxer out of Chicago. And so when I grew up, that's all he wanted me to be, was a boxer. And so even when I was a little kid, one of my first gifts, I remember five or six years old was a pair of boxing gloves. And he would teach me shadow boxing, because that's what this is referring to here. Not as one who beats the air, because you would watch your shadow and see if your shoulder was up so that it wouldn't catch your chin. And you'd make sure you got this hand down, and this one to cover this. And that's what they're saying here, because you would see men there at these games shadow boxing to see so they could think they could win.

So what are you saying? This is not play. For these people here, they were willing to give it all to do anything to win this.

Are we willing to do anything to win the prize?

Do we want to battle the adversary?

It's kind of like then, the interesting rules to this wrestling or this boxing was there isn't, I knock you out, I win, or I hold you down. Here's what happened there in those games, that you had a chance to raise your hand if you quit.

You had a chance that you might pass out, and that guy let you up. But if you did not do that, and he didn't let you up, and you didn't do it, then you would die.

The person wrestling would choke you to death, and you would die.

That's how serious these games were. And Paul relates this to our race, our vision, that he wanted us to have. In verse 27, he says, But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. That Greek word, discipline, here, is a different Greek word. This word actually literally means to strike under the eye.

It's the word for beating one's face black and blue. It's what it means.

It means that it is not going to be easy to have self-control. It's not going to be easy, this path that we have to go, and sometimes we're going to feel beat up. Haven't we all felt that way during the last year?

I have.

But he said, that's going to happen, because the reward is worth it. We're going to have to take some abuse sometime.

But God's still in charge. The point of discipline, the point of self-control, is to make the body serve us, rather than us serve our bodies. That's what this is all about.

What a blessing to know this truth, to know that I'm in control, that I can be in control. Because you hear today, you see on television, you see everyone, oh, I couldn't help myself. I couldn't help it. I was born that way. Right?

It's not my fault. My parents did this. My parents looked at me and snarled at me when I was six. That's why I'm the way I am. Right? I mean, here, this allows us to self-control.

I'm looking at my watch, and I have 10 minutes. So I better wrap this up. Like you turn to the last scripture, last scripture in Hebrews.

I believe Paul wrote the book. There's discussion over it. Not many people wrote, like Paul, this guy did, who wrote this book. But Hebrews 1, I mean, Hebrews 12, excuse me, Hebrews 12 and verse 1.

It says, Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us, what? Run. Run. Run. Run with endurance the race that is set before us.

In verse 2, Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. If you have an old King James or one of the other translations, one of them says, Fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ. Fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ. But this word, this Greek word of fixing or looking, is actually the word, Aphoria, A-P-H-O-R-A-O.

Now, I really wanted to see what this meant, so I really got into the word. And I don't always do this with all Greek words. So when you go on, Man, I don't even like Greek. And we got to put up with this guy for at least a year. We got to listen to sermons like this. I don't always do that. But the seraphorio means, I had to read this twice, so I'm going to read it twice because, you know, my mind. I want to make sure it got in my mind. It means to look exclusively at something and study it intently while consciously looking away from all distractions. Okay?

Looking exclusively at something and studying intently while consciously looking away from all distractions. You know what that means? I'm looking at her. I didn't see anything else. Nothing came from the side. It's television. That's what it is. He's saying, we need to look at Jesus Christ that way. Fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ. That's how we can overcome.

That.

That is why we need to do it.

See, fixing our eyes on Christ causes all other things to dim. Insignificance, doesn't it? When we look at Jesus Christ a year ago, over a year ago, my nephew was in the hospital for a week. Had a bad car accident. And he died after a week. But he had a brain. His brain was swelled. We spent so much time up at the hospital. Every day it was like, okay, he's better. Then he's worse. He's better. He's worse. You know, I spent a lot of time on my knees. And I'm focusing on what God, that God would handle things. That God would handle it his way. But I needed that because I loved this little kid. We didn't have any. He grew up right beside us. And it was my sister's son. And I've raised him ever since he was a... And my focus, I wasn't worried about my work. I wasn't worried about what's going on back at the office. I had that tunnel vision because it was all about him and praying and drawing close. Haven't we all gone through that before? When we went, when our eyes are focused is... When we have that tunnel vision on something, nothing else seems to matter.

Can you imagine what it's going to do when we can keep our focus like that? Just on Jesus Christ and God's way. What an incredible, incredible opportunity that is. That's tunnel vision I want.

See, we don't need to... See, it's not focused on Chuck Zimmerman. It's not looking at Herbert W. Armstrong. It's not looking at anyone. It's looking towards Jesus Christ and he's here.

His words are in this book.

God is so kind.

And that will help us get through the sorrow we've all had. We keep our focus of God's in charge. I didn't... It wasn't my answer. Wasn't my answer. I didn't want... I didn't want no when I asked him to heal him.

But that was his answer.

I accept it because I looked at Christ. Man, he knows everything. The more I study this, the more I know he studies it. He knows it's all right here. That's why it's important. See, because we as a church, the United Church of God... When I said this in one of the public Bible lectures that I held in the Caribbean this year, I had people... Back a little bit. Because I said, we as the United Church of God does not believe... We do not believe that the Bible contains the Word of God. And I saw one guy sit up.

But when I said, we believe the Bible is the Word of God.

Took a lot off his shoulders.

And with God's Spirit, God's Bible, and God's help, we can live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So important. So I want to finish today. I want to finish on time.

So you can report that back to my boss.

I want to finish with a story to make my point, if I can, about today, bringing every thought into captivity and how important.

There was a grandfather who lived near his six-year-old grandson. And he loved to spend time. So if some of you are grandfathers or grandkids, you will probably appreciate the story. But he had the six-year-old grandson, and the grandson just looked up to him and loved to spend time with him. I did with my grandfather, one of my grandfathers.

And the story is told that the grandfather loved to take the young six-year-old boy to the zoo. And when he went to the zoo, they'd look at everything but the young boy's passion. And when he got excited is when his grandfather took him over near the wolves, because he loved to see the wolves. He loved to see their eyes as they were piercing through there, and their bodies would move. And as they would feed them, they would see how the fangs, and they would grab food and look so intently at everything.

And so after a few trips, the grandfather decided he wanted to maybe teach the little guys lessons. Life lessons, because that's what my grandfather taught me when I was six. And so as they went and came to the zoo that day, the little boy came over, and he wanted to look at the wolves. And as he was looking at them and studying them intently at the tunnel vision, his grandfather said, Grandson, do you know that inside of you are two wolves?

He said, really, Grandpa? He said, yeah, inside of you are two wolves. And he said, those two wolves battle each other. One is good, one is kind, and one is gentle, and the other is mean and evil and bad. And they battle all the time. And he said, Grandpa, which one will win? As Grandpa said, the one you feed, the one you feed. That's us. Brethren, the one we feed. Bring every thought into captivity.