Thought

날짜: 
2001/12/21
설교: 

Proverb 23:7 Thought
One day pastor Yonggi Cho felt sad, heavy and gloomy. When he looked at his wife sleeping beside him, he thought she was a really ugly woman.
"What a terrible man I am ! Why did I marry that ugly woman ?" He thought he was the unhappiest man and unhappiest pastor in the world. He felt an impulse to commit suicide.
"What a terrible mood ! Yonggi Cho, are you a pastor ? Are you the pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, the biggest church in the world ?" He asked himself and tried to pray. But he felt it difficult.
So he tried to sing a hymn. But a worldly song came out of his mouth. "What a corrupt man I am ! I must not do like this, like this..."
But he could not shake off that kind of thoughts. "Oh, it's demon ! I have to expel this demon out of my mind." On realizing this, pastor Cho cried out, "You demon, go away from my mind !"
All of sudden, a strange voice came out of his mouth, "I am coming out !" From that time he felt joyful and hopeful. When he looked at his wife again, he thought she was a really beautiful woman.
"What a happy man I am !" His mouth was filled with laughter, his tongue with confession of thanksgiving and song of joy.
Brothers and sisters, what do you think of this change ? What reason do you think of this change ? That is nothing but the work of demon.
Demons cause not only diseases, poverty but also thoughts of sadness, gloom, hatred and negativeness in our mind.
Demons cause us to hate people, to hate to come to the church, to hate to worship God. They deprive us of our joy and happiness. If you do not expel demons, you and your family and your church will fall into temptation.
Let me tell you a story. There was a believer in the church. He was very faithful in praying, in offering and in serving God and other believers even under the hard circumstances.
But from a week before, he felt sad and irritated. and he hated to go to the church. He thought, "It is due to the pastor who does not acknowledge me !" Finally he made up his mind not to serve God, not to believe God with eagerness.
One day the pastor visited his house because the pastor realized that the man was in temptation. The pastor said to him, "Brother, God loves you. and I also love you."
But the man retorted upon the pastor, "Pastor, nowadays you has not greet me. I love God and pastor. But you do not acknowledge me. It is very regrettable !"
The pastor explained and apologized, "Brother, I am very sorry. I understand sometimes I neglected to greet you because I greeted new believers first. But I still love you."
But the man did not shake off regretfulness from his mind. Then the pastor said to him, "Brother, your thought is not from you nor from God but from the demon. If you acknowledge the demon's thought for a long time, you will be his slave, and you will be destroyed by the demon. So let's expel the demon from your mind."
Then the pastor started to expel the demon. After some time passed, the man said, "Pastor, I don't know why I was so sad and irritated, and why I hated you." And then the man has changed to a faithful believer like before.
Brothers and sisters, many people do not recognize that demons come into our mind through thought, so that they do not shake off the thought of demons, and that their life is destroyed by demons.
Brothers and sisters, don't accept bad, negative, gloomy thought in your mind. If you accept them, you will be the bad, negative and gloomy person. That is, your happiness and unhappiness, your success and failure depend on your thought.
If you accept the sinful mind, you will be hostile to God, (Romans 8:7) and your future will be death and ruin. But if you accept the Spiritual mind, your future will be life, peace and blessing. (Romans 8:6)
Bible says, "The devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot
to betray Jesus." (John 13:2) That is, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus because he did not shake off the thought of the devil. And he committed suicide because he did not shake off the thought of guiltiness.
Imagine what thought the devil put into Judas's mind before the devil prompted Judas to betray Jesus ? Don't you think the devil infuse this kind of thought into his mind ?
"Hey, Judas, there is no benefit to you even though you follow Jesus as his disciple. Jesus only loves Peter, James and John. Jesus does not acknowledge you. Don't you think following Jesus is a waste of time ? Jesus is just exploiting you. You don't need Jesus. Sell him. Betray him. Jesus has already destroyed your future."
Judas accepted the thought of the devil so that he betrayed Jesus with 30 shekels of silver.
Brothers and sisters, check your thought. If you feel heavy, irritated, gloomy and angry, do you think that thoughts are from the devil or God ? If you accept the thought of the devil, the result will be terrible to you.
The devil always tries to control your thought. If the devil controls your thought, you will think like the devil, and say and act like the devil. And you will be the slave of the devil.
If you are captured by the thought of the devil, you will be the person of the devil. But if you are captured by the thought of the Spirit, you will be the person of the Holy Spirit.
Bible says, "We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Cor 10:5) "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the evil man his thoughts." (Isaiah 55:7)
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." (Col 3:2) "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement." (Romans 12:3)
Brothers and sisters, God and the devil want to control us through thought. And the Holy Spirit infuse the thought of God into our mind, so that the Spirit makes us blessed. God blesses those who have good thought.
Therefore the bible says, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine(think), according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory." (Eph 3:20-21)
Brothers and sisters, what kind of thought do you want to have ? Thought of God ? Or thought of the devil ? Today's scripture says, "For he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost." (Pro 23:7)
I pray that you may have good thought, right thought, bright thought, positive thought and holy thought, so that you may be richly blessed by God. Amen !