Every Thought Captive Podcast | Episode 1

Well, hey there, Pando family, welcome to our Every Thought Captive group. My name is Brandon Braun. I'm part of the SE Online team, and with me today is Derek Snyder, our SE Online ministry leader, and we're going to be spending the next couple of weeks just talking through Kyle's sermon series, Every Thought Captive, but also talking through the book just to kind of give you an idea of what we're going through in our groups, kind of what some of the extra material that's there in the book. And so we just want to invite you in these next couple of weeks to spend some time with us as we talk through some of this content, as we unpack really what it looks like to take Every Thought Captive. Derek, as Kyle started out the sermon series and even as he starts out the book, like on the very first page, there's this great quote that kind of captures what we're going to talk about these next few weeks, and that is, yeah, either you will take your thoughts captive or your thoughts will take you captive. You know, and I think that's so true that we end up often just downplaying the importance of our thoughts, right, that we don't realize some of the cycles they lead us through, some of the patterns they take us down, things like that. And I'm wondering, why is it that we underestimate, you know, the power of our thoughts? Why don't we often think about what we think about? Yeah. What was the number that Kyle had shared a couple of weeks ago? It was something like 60,000 thoughts a day. Yeah, 60,000 thoughts or something like that. I remember where I had heard that from Kyle. But yeah, I think it's one of those things where with so many thoughts that we have, and the more that we are around those, the easier it's going to be for those things to be the loudest voice in our head, right? And, you know, for a lot of people, you have a childhood of memories and experiences you have, and so maybe a lot of those thoughts have been implanted from there. There's so many different things we'll talk about down the road, but in terms of like

distractions and all different types of things in our world, and it could be things that other people are saying to us or things we believe about ourselves. And, you know, a lot of times what I've realized in my own life is that, you know, if we don't have other people we're sharing our thoughts with, we really don't know like, man, is this thought like way out there or is this something that is normal? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I think it was in the second week of his series when Kyle was talking about, you know, the strongholds and those false thoughts that kind of get in our heads and stick there. I love how he talks about that and community and bringing people around you to tell you that those thoughts aren't true. You know, I have a friend who actually after that message, I texted him and, you know, there are some bad stories I tell myself about some things. There are some strongholds in my life. But I know at one point in my life this guy, we were having a conversation about it and he said, you know, like, that's not true, right? You know that's not true, don't you? And so I just texted him and said, you know, thanks for being that voice for me to, you know, because whenever that stronghold, whenever I get into that false pattern of thinking or that thought tries to take me captive, I think, well, he wouldn't have lied to me, right? Like he told me the truth and he said that's not true. So yeah, I think that community aspect and sharing our thoughts, not only thinking about our thoughts with ourself, but sharing them with other people, I think is such an important thing for us to think about. So the basis for this series kind of comes out of Romans 12 verse 2 in the New Living Translation. It says, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

You know, the NIV translation has those two kind of rhyming words that make it a real clear contrast to us, you know, don't conform, but transform. The world is going to try to conform you, put it in its mold, and you know, what is it about those two words that sticks out to you as you think about the difference between conforming versus transforming? Sure. Yeah. You know, I think to conform to something is so easy, at least it is for me, and oftentimes, you know, when we conform to something, I think that we're doing it without intentionally doing it. You know, Brandon, I think of all of the different things that, whether it's news that you read or if the type of people you're around, right? I think there's that saying like, man, like you kind of become like the five people-ish that you're around the most, and if you're not intentional about making sure that you're around the right people, well, then you're going to end up becoming someone that you didn't intend to be, right? But I think to be transformed, right, is to be completely different, completely different from the rest of the world, and I think for us as believers, no matter where we're at, like we could be sitting right here at this table or, you know, y'all, you could be, you could be part of our pando family. And what's true of us as believers in general is that as Christ's church, we're set apart. Right. We're set apart, and God doesn't want us to be like the rest of the world, right? We're not to conform, we're to be transformed into God's people. It doesn't mean that we're perfect, but it challenges us that like, hey, we don't have to buy into these lies that either the enemy or the world wants to tell us. Yeah, for sure. And you know, I think at the end of the day, what we kind of underestimate in that Romans 12, two verse is the idea that Paul on some level is talking about that we are gonna conform to something, right? Or we're gonna conform to someone. Sure.

And we're either gonna conform to the patterns of this world, the dominant patterns of the people around us, or we're gonna conform to the thought pattern of Jesus Christ. We're gonna think like Jesus thinks and think through his word and think through his teachings. And I think that's another thing we underestimate is that our mind is always being formed by something, or maybe a better way to say it, it's always being formed by someone. Sure. You know, there's always someone who is speaking into our mind. There's always someone who's getting, you know, kind of that last word in our heads. And we gotta be careful about who that is, because it could lead us to some pretty dangerous places. So what I wanted to spend most of our time talking about today are two laws that Kyle talks about in the book. And I think they're very key to this discussion about thoughts, because they're on both sides of the equation, right? One of the laws has to deal with where our thoughts come from. The other one has to deal with where our thoughts ultimately take us. And I would say it this way, I guess, is one of the laws asks us to think about what's leading our thoughts, and the other one asks us to think about where our thoughts are leading us, because thoughts are not neutral. They're taking us somewhere in some direction. So the first law is the law of exposure, right? And that is the law of what's leading your thoughts. Basically, it says that the things that you are exposed to, the things that you take in, the voices you hear on a day-to-day basis, they transform the voices in your head, the thoughts in your head. So as you kind of think about that, as you think about whatever you're exposed to the most shapes your thoughts the most, what comes to mind for you? What are those voices that you found have shaped your life in good seasons and bad seasons? Yeah, I would say, number one, I would say for the things that have been good for me, I think obviously is Scripture, right? I think that's one of the reasons why we should try to be in God's Word each and every day. It's one of the reasons why we're excited that you're even watching this and listening to this and watching Southeast Christian Church on the weekends on Pando, because that's how you expose yourself to good and healthy things that will hopefully produce good thoughts and will therefore create good fruit in your life. Brandon, but I think oftentimes when I think about the moments when I'm not in a good place, right? It's when normally I'm listening to as silly as it sounds like depressing music, or I'm talking to people that

I know are going to be negative about something, and it's almost just reinforcing my negative opinion on something, and it makes it difficult, right? And so I think the more that I put myself around the right people and are reading and listening and viewing the right things, the better off I am. And that doesn't mean that everything's joyful and perfect all the time, but it means that I'm definitely less down in the dumps than when I'm doing those other things. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I've told you before, one of the things that I found is even what I'm listening to on the way into work really affects the way the day goes. Yeah, for sure. If I'm coming into work and I'm listening to, I don't know, like Linkin Park or something, that's a mood, right? That's a mood that's gonna set your day completely on the edge. But I found that most of the time when I come into work, I'm listening to sermons, right? I'm listening to worship music or something just to kind of get myself in that headspace where I'm thinking about... Paul talks about set your minds on things above, where I'm thinking about things above, where I'm thinking about, okay, these are the good and godly kingdom-oriented things I need to do today. And even if I'm listening to music that is neutral, right? That's not about anything bad, but it's not really about anything good. I find that affects my day too. It makes it harder for me to focus on those things. So I think we do need to think about that law of exposure and what's leading our thoughts and the mind frame it's putting us into, because that sets a lot about our days. It sets a lot even about the relationships we have, how we go into conversations, thinking about those things. For sure. In fact, I led through an Every Thought Captive group on Thursday night a couple weeks ago, and one of the things I encourage them to think about is the voices you listen to, whether it's media, whether it's people around you, is to think about what's the gap... between who they are and what you want to be, right? Yeah. Like if you're listening to this voice, if you're taking their advice seriously, what is the gap between how you envision your life and how their life is being led? Because you know, that will set up a lot of who you're becoming, right? Which kind of leads us to the second law.

Right. So the law of cognition is the law that deals with where are your thoughts leading you? And that was what Kyle talked about in week one of the series. The idea that our thoughts form our behavior and ultimately form our emotions and form our spiritual growth and direct our decisions. So when you think about the thoughts that you think, when you think about those things that impact your thoughts, how do you see those things leading you? How do you see who you're becoming through that? For sure. Yeah. I think it's a fair point to mention that, you know, a lot of times when we think about, you know, making changes in our life, right? And for you right now, you know, watching Pando, you may be in a spot where you're like, man, if I would have just changed my behavior back in the day, or if I'd have just done this thing different, things may be different. My reality may be different. Right. And I think that's a fair point. Like obviously it's a fair point, but I don't think that life change starts just with behavior modification. Right. I don't think we can just change habits and change behaviors. One of the things that Kyle has mentioned in the past is that oftentimes when we try to push off habits, they oftentimes come back, you know, 10 times stronger, right? But with this law of cognition, we have to realize that if we want to change who we are, and I think this is a line from one of his sermons, if we want to change who we are, we must change our thoughts. And I think a practical example of that is this. I'm one of the baseball coaches for my son's team that he plays on, and you know, along with that, I'm such a people pleaser.

And that is such a terrible combination with youth sports because every parent thinks their kid is the best. Right. Right. And so like, you know, even as we're filming this tonight, we have a game and trying to put together a lineup and all that type of thing. And you know, if I'm thinking about what are all the parents thinking? Are they upset? Are they happy? Are they going to be happy with this decision? That decision? Well, what's going to happen is I'm going to go into the game tonight, super stressed, super uptight, and it's going to change how I coach our kids, right? But if I go into this thinking like, hey, I mean, this is a game. We're here to develop these kids, and we're here to have a good time. It makes me a lot more relaxed, right? It's not that I'm changing my external behavior. It's that I'm trying to change my thought process going into something as simple as that. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good point is you're changing, you know, what you're focusing on and the end result that you want. Sure. Like you don't want everybody to be happy. That could be a nice like side effect. Yeah. That'd be great. But, you know, you want to develop how these boys are playing baseball. You may want to win the game, like, you know, I don't know.

But there is that element of like, you got to think about what are my thoughts aiming me towards? And I think, you know, we referenced that verse earlier, Colossians 3, 2, where Paul talks about set your minds on things above where Christ is seated in the heavenly realms, right? Like I think Paul has this idea in mind that, you know, what we're focusing on is what we're aiming at, right? That if you have your mind here, then that's what you're going to be chasing after. And if you have your mind on money, that's what you're going to be chasing after. Sure. No doubt. If you have your mind on fame, that's what you're going to be chasing. And our minds have a way of putting a singular focus on where our life is headed. But I do want to go back to one thing you talked about, because I think it's something Paul talks about in that verse where we started. You know, Romans 12, 2, again, don't conform to the patterns of this world, but let God transform you and transform your mind by changing the way you think, and then you will learn to know God's will. I think so often what I've seen in my ministry is what you're talking about, where people want behavior modification, is, well, if I can change doing this, then everything's going to be okay. But I heard somebody say years ago, and it really stuck with me, you know, they talked about the idea that behind every sin is not just an action, but a thought process, right? There's something in your mind that's driving you to that place, you know, where if someone is addicted to pornography, well, there's a thought behind that of like, well, you know, I need pleasure, I need satisfaction, that's driving them to that place. If someone's a compulsive liar, a thought is driving them there, right? That they're thinking about, well, I can't let people know the truth, or I can't let people know the real me, things like that. And I think the hard work of some discipleship, the hard work of eliminating some of that

sin in our life through the help of the Holy Spirit, I think some of that hard work is recognizing what is the thought pattern driving that, right? Yeah. How do you see that playing out in the lives of people you've known or in situations? Yeah, I think for sure. I think, you know, I think you hit it on the head perfectly. I know that for a lot of people, there's these thoughts behind the scenes that either, hey, I'm not good enough, I'm not lovable, no one cares about me, I can't do this, I'm not capable of this, no one can forgive me, I'm too far from God. And a lot of times that thought process, hey, I'm too far from God, or I'm too far from God's grace, keeps people away from the Church. It keeps people not only from the Church, but away from Jesus. And I think that would be one of my just encouragements, is that if you're watching this on your tablet and you're thinking, man, it's great to hear about God's grace, it's great to hear that my thought patterns can actually have a positive impact on my life, not just a negative one. If you're specifically struggling with that idea or that thought of, I'm too far away from God, what I've done is unforgivable. Biblically, we don't see that as a fact. We don't see that as a fact. All of us, right? All of us have fallen short and are guilty of sin, right? And because of that, Jesus had to die. And that's hard to wrestle through. And that's maybe just one, because I would imagine for a lot of us, we probably have several that we don't even know that we're walking with. Yeah, yeah. And those thoughts can be so nefarious, because in some regard, we try to base those things on... They're based on a sliver of truth, right? Like, oh, I've done this... True enough. Yeah, there's that jump from, oh, I did a bad thing to, oh, I'm a bad person. Yeah, perfect example. Perfect example. And that is... Those thoughts sound really similar, but there's a huge chasm there. Sure, yeah. And sometimes that chasm keeps us from actually seeking after what Jesus wants to do in our life, what Jesus wants to do in our hearts, and even in our minds, because we just start to think, hey, I'm not good enough to even begin to pursue that. For sure.

So final challenge as we wrap up this week, I want you to think this week about those two laws, the law of exposure, the law of cognition. What is leading my thoughts? Where are my thoughts leading me? Kind of go back and think through the things you think about every day. Where do those thoughts come from? What influences them? And as you think about those thoughts, think about where those thoughts will ultimately lead you. Like, if I continue down this pathway, if I continue to think these things, if I continue to behave in these ways, where is this thought process gonna take me in the end? Well, thank you so much for joining us this week for our Every Thought Captive Group. We're gonna continue doing this over the next few weeks as we walk through Kyle's book together, but we'll see you guys next time.