Every Thought Captive Podcast | Episode 6

Hey, Pando family, welcome to the Every Thought Captive podcast. This is our final week. We've been walking through the sermon series, walking through Kyle's book, talking about how we can bring our minds under the influence of Christ, under the gospel, and take those thoughts captive, like the title says. My name is Brandon Braun. I'm part of the SEO Online team. This is Derek with me as always. We are so glad to have shared this study with you all to be able to talk about this content. It's helped us, I think, process a lot of what Kyle's been talking about, how it applies to us. And I hope it's been the same for you all too, just to see, these are some practical things I can bring into my life as I try to do this. So Derek, our final week, we're going to talk about the idea of perspective. And perspective is something that I think we have a little bit of trouble with, because we always like to think, right, our perspective is right. Our opinions are right, that we have the right view of things, and we do that a lot. But I think the truth of the matter is that our perspective is always off, right? There's always more than we could possibly know. We don't see things from other people's angles. We don't understand other people's parts of the story. So when you think about the perspective you bring to things, what are some of the faults we have with just seeing things through our own eyes, of seeing things through our own limited perspective? Yeah. Well, I just think, for me, and I think for all of us, just naturally, the easiest way to see things are from our own eyes. Like, because that's just natural to us, right? And I think one of the things that over the course of our lives that all of us have to get better at, and I don't think we ever stop learning, is how to put ourselves in someone

else's shoes. Because it's really hard to have true grace and forgiveness for someone when you have a hard time being empathetic or sympathetic to that other person's situation. And so I just think that all of us, just in the brokenness of who we are, right, and just biblically fallen people, it is so easy for us to just think our own thoughts, believe what we believe is correct, to think what we think is correct. And a lot of times that can get us in trouble. Oh, yeah, for sure. I think we... You know, I was talking about this with somebody this past weekend. One of the biggest lessons for me on my own perspective was when I had kids. And I remember when our daughter was very young, maybe three or whatever, she had done something I had gone on to her about it, and my wife had told me, she was like, you need to be careful how you talk to her, because you're twice her... You're three times her size, you're like a giant to her. You're not seeing that from her perspective, that she's upset because you got on to her, because she thinks like, this giant of a person is mad at me. If you guys have never... If you guys can't tell here on Panda, like Brandon sitting there, like, Brandon, you're a tall guy. Yes, yeah, yeah. Like about 6'4", 6'5", yeah, yeah. So... Or 6'3", 6'4". So that would be big for a kid. Yeah, so my wife was like, you have to understand her perspective. You have to understand, like, of course she's flipping out, because she's like, this dude bothers me. But I think that's the perspective we lack, is we just don't always see things the way other people see them.

We don't see ourselves the way other people see us. And I think that's some of the biggest obstacles in thinking about perspective, is just realizing like there are limits to how I see the world around me, right? You know, one of the things Kyle talks about in the book is the perspective shift, and how even making a change towards gratitude can change the way we think about the world. He talks about this experiment where somebody had people start out by thinking, I wish I was. I wish I was. Oof. And then... Oof. Yeah. Yeah. I wish I was... A lot of things just came to mind for me that I didn't realize were there. Yeah. I wish I was a little bit taller. There's a song there, I think. But anyway, I wish I was. And that just spiraled them into a bad series of thoughts. But on the other hand, there was another group that this psychologist had the people think, I wish I... I'm glad I'm not. And that group, on the other hand, kind of got to the point where they were more grateful, had more gratitude. And we're able to think from a better perspective. And I think that's part of understanding how our perspective affects the way we think. That when we get into those patterns where we're maybe jealous of what other people have,

or we're thinking, oh, I wish that was my life, that's already building out the track, like we talked about last week. That's building out a track to go in a bad direction. Whereas if we can focus on, hey, God, I'm glad I have this. Maybe not I'm glad I'm not. Because I feel like that could go south, too. But I'm like, I'm glad for. Maybe we'll say, I'm glad for. God, I am glad for, or I'm grateful that I have. So it's changing that perspective. And Kyle talks about some of the ways we can manage that, how we can change our perspective. And three questions he talks about is, what am I looking for? Not what am I looking at, but what am I looking for? Who do I listen to? Which I think we've talked about a lot over the course of these past few weeks. And then, what will I dwell on? Like, where are my thoughts naturally kind of taking me? So think about those three questions as you think about your own perspectives. Maybe something, perspectives you wish you could, that's a shift. That's a tough word to say, perspectives. Can I say that again? Perspectives. Those three questions, what am I looking for? Who do I listen to?

What will I dwell on? As you think about perspective shifts you want to make. How do those questions play into that? Yeah, I think for me, it's what do I dwell on? Because who do I listen to? Like, for me, who do I listen to? Like, you know, I can kind of control that, right? Like, you know, if you're listening to something on the radio or the TV or the internet, whatever it may be, you can kind of control that. You know, if you're around people, you can kind of control who you're around, sometimes not. You know, but when I think about, yeah, like when I think about that, it's going back to, man, like what are those things that I'm gonna dwell on? Because it's the things that I dwell on that oftentimes accidentally become the most true in my mind, and then my emotions start to play off of. Right, so like when you had, what was the first question that you had asked, like? What am I looking for? Yeah, like, what was the first question you had asked? Or it was like, at the very beginning, where something Kyle had asked, or somebody talking about, oh, what was it? Where I was saying that a bunch of things came to mind real quick. Oh, yeah. What am I not? I wish I was. I wish I was.

Like, I feel like a lot of times, for me, it's, man, I wish I didn't have to deal with this, or I wish I was more like that, or I wish I had this skill, or I wish I had that gifting, or I wish I had that type of marriage, or I wish I was this type of person. And a lot of times, what that does is that it gets me into this comparison game, where it's like, man. You know, and what comparison will do is it steals your joy. Oh, absolutely. Like, comparison steals joy. And my goodness, like, you know, you can think about it, like, you know, even for here at Southeast, like, getting to work at such an awesome church. And like, as we get to watch, you know, on the Pando app, and, you know, we get to experience service together every single weekend here at Southeast, like, we all get to see, like, dozens of people getting baptized, you know, here at Southeast, which is just amazing. But what can happen is that when you're around it so much, you can become desensitized to what God is doing, right? Because sometimes 12 baptisms over the course of even a year for other churches are incredible, and they're gonna celebrate that, right? And oftentimes we just move past it like it's normal, but it's all about your perspective, right? And so I feel like, getting back to your question, a lot of times it's those thoughts

that are negative in my mind that I tend to dwell on the most I become desensitized to. And then I stop paying attention to them. And then it's not a surprise to whenever I act or speak out of that position, right? If I feel like, hey, man, I wish I had this, you know, skill. Well, you know, then I may automatically just assume, hey, I can never grow in that. And that's not true, you know? Or hey, I'm less than because I don't have this skill or this ability. Well, that's not necessarily true. And I think we could go deep, you know, deeper down the well of what those are. But, you know, the dwelling things tend to accidentally become the most true in my life. Yeah, yeah. You know, I think for me, I would look at that first question, but interestingly, in a similar way to the way you look at the dwell on question, you know, the what am I looking for? You know, I think so often, we've all had this experience, I think, is that, you know, when you get something new, like I've noticed this particularly when we've gotten a different car or whatever. Like, when you get a new car, like, you suddenly notice all the cars that are like your car, right? Like, oh, they're driving a minivan too, or whatever. And you're suddenly, your mind is suddenly honed in on, oh, like, I suddenly see what I've been looking at, or

looking for this whole time. You know, I think so often in my own mind, like, I find what I'm looking for. Like, you know, if you're looking for things to be outraged about, you're going to find that. If you're looking for things to be upset about, if you're looking for things, you know, to get in conflict with, you're going to find what it is you're looking for. Like, our society makes that really easy. Interpersonal relationships make that really easy to find exactly what you're looking for in a person or in a situation. Sure. And, you know, I think about Paul's words in Philippians 4.8, where he talks about fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. You know, Kyle talks about that passage multiple times in the book. But I think about all those words, and it's like, man, I wish those were the things I was looking for, right? Because, I mean, just think about these words, true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy. Like, if you went into a day saying, well, this is what I'm looking for, again, whatever you're looking for, you're going to find it. You're going to find those things if you look for them. And I think that would change so much of our perspective, is that instead of focusing on the negative things, instead of focusing on the things we have to not be grateful about, as you're saying, I think we would be able to see, like, no, this is what's good here. This is what God has given me that's praiseworthy here. That's a great point. And I think one of the things that's applicable to, whether it's us, you know, sitting here, you know, at this table, whether it's, you know, our coworker that's behind the camera, you know, whether it's you, right, watching this on Pando right now, is this is so true in relationships. Oh, yeah. 100%. Like, what you choose to look for is what you're going to find. You know, when I think of people in my life that really drive me crazy in a negative way, a lot of times it's not, you know, it's certain things that they've done, sure. But a lot of times it's me going into a conversation of, like, here we go again. You know, gonna be frustrated about this, gonna be frustrated about that. And if I take a step back, I realize, like, man, I really don't give them a whole lot of opportunities to even really have a shot.

Because I don't walk into things of, like, okay, I am going to, like, if, like, for example, so it's, like, if you were some random person in my life that frustrated me and we were going to lunch or sitting down over a meal. This feels more than hypothetical, by the way. Does it feel more than hypothetical? This is not true. You know, but if, like, if I'm walking into the conversation and, you know, all I'm thinking about is, like, oh, man, this about Brandon frustrates me, this about Brandon frustrates me, and we sit down. Well, I'm already going to have, like, this frustration built up. But if I'm thinking, like, back to that scripture you read, if I'm thinking about, like, okay, like, I am going to look for the things that are good and praiseworthy in Brandon. And I'm going to sit here and try to focus on those things. Well, I bet you you're probably going to find those for a lot of people. For some people, you may not. You know, I don't know. You got to look like you look at those 3D pictures to make the image pop out. Oh, there it is. But I think it's a good rule of thumb, right? I think it's a good rule of thumb of, like, you know, I don't do this well. Maybe most of us don't do this well. But, you know, maybe it's a good tool, you know, just in your toolbox to use in relationships. So, Derek, one of the ways I think our perspective is most limited is that it's limited in our concept of time, right? That it is hard for us to think ahead. It's hard for us to think long term, whether that be, you know, five years down the line, 10 years down the line. It's hard for us to imagine our life, you know, any time in the future. And that is especially important when we talk about eternity. Like, you know, one of the things that Kyle talks about in the book, that our perspective is limited because we don't think long term enough. Like, even if we have a five or 10 year plan, you know, we're not thinking about, well, what's our 10,000 year plan? What's our eternal plan? And the Bible speaks so much about this as understanding, you know, that on the one hand, we are finite creatures in this life, but that we're also infinite that, you know, in Christ, we have eternal life. You know, there's a great verse in Psalm 90, it's verse 12, where David just says, teach us to realize the brevity of life so that we may grow in wisdom. I'm actually,

I apologize, that's not David, that's Moses. Teach us to realize the brevity of life so that we may grow in wisdom. Teach us that our days are short. I think it's NIV, teach us to number our so that we may gain wisdom. You know, why is Is it, I guess my question to you would be twofold. Why is it that we struggle to think about our life in those terms? And what benefit would there be if we could see our life through the lens of eternity? Yeah. Well, you know, again, I think that's another thing in scripture that's crazy that is so applicable thousands of years ago for Moses to write something like that. And it still be so applicable to us today, you know? And I think for so many of us, we're used to, excuse me, like wanting things in the moment. And I think all of us kind of live from this perspective that we want things now. Like we want things to happen now. And you know, if you've never really kind of walked through or had it gone through a Bible study of like how long in scripture it took for God to fulfill promises at times, like it may surprise you, like if you've never walked through or been taught that before. And it's not because God was delaying, you know, it's that things were happening in his perfect timing. And it doesn't mean, like for the person that he had promised this thing to, or whatever it may be, they may have felt like, oh my gosh, like, is this ever going to happen? And it did. Like God's, like God's word is always true. He always comes through in his promises. But for us as humans, like we just, we get so impatient. We want it now. Like we want it now. Give this to us. Yeah. And I even think of like, you know, looking at money of like, man, like if I understood

like what saving money now would do for me at, you know, 60, 65, 70 years old, well, it would probably change what I would spend money on today. Like, you know, I would maybe choose to do things differently, but because it's hard to put ourself in our, funny enough, how it's hard to put ourself on our own shoes, you know, but maybe 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years down the road, it's hard to make decisions now. Yeah. Because it just doesn't make sense. Like we're not programmed that way, it seems like. Yeah. You know, I think it's, it's just so tough for us to even gain that perspective because like we spend, you know, Moses had that prayer, teaches us the number of days. We spend so much days, so much of our time trying to pretend like our days are going to be limitless. Right? Oh, for sure. We have all the time in the world to get this right. And we really don't, you know, like I'm getting, I should say, well, I'm getting to the age, but my kids particularly are getting to the age where I'm starting to realize like all the cumulative weight of those decisions that came before are impacting how I can parent my 14 year old now. You know? For sure. Like, oh, these are the things that they're either paying dividends or it's like, oh, I wish I would have, we would have done that differently. So like the parenting decisions you made early on with them, you're now seeing, that makes a whole lot of sense. Like you either see the fruit of it or you see the, oh, that was a mistake. Yeah. All right, we're going to pivot. Thankfully we have a six year old, so we'll maybe we'll get him right.

But no, but there, there is that element of like, it's hard for us to understand, you know? I mean, but that happens, like you said, with financial things too, that you get 10 years down the line and you realize like, oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that or I shouldn't have made that purchase or I should have made that purchase or I should have made that investment. Like it's really hard for us to do that because we just kind of think, well, I'll have all the time in the world to fix it. And life doesn't always work that way, you know? Especially when we think about our own mortality and you're coming to the end of our life and having to think there's no time to fix it then, right? There's no time to be like, oh, I should have spent less time at the office and more time with my kids. You can't fix that then. So you know, one of the things Paul tells us to do is a passage where I think we talked about it week one, to set our minds on things above. How do we set our minds on not only heaven, but how do we set our minds on eternity and allow that to help guide our thoughts today? Yeah, I think a very applicable way, no matter who you are, where you're at, you know, is to be in Scripture as much as possible. I think that is obviously one of the most important things that we could ever do. And I think not only that, but to be in prayer, you know, and I think in prior weeks we talked about, you know, maybe keeping a prayer journal of things that you're processing through. And then I think, you know, the third thing I think about is that, you know, do you have like a Christian friend in your life that when things aren't going well can remind you, you know, that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, right? That God is good. Because we all have, you know, our own worst critic sitting on our own chair, you know, we all have the person, like the person that's going to worry the most about us. is it's probably going to be us, you know? And so we already have that spot taken care of.

But we kind of need that person in our life outside of ourselves. It's going to be like, hey man, just remember, God's got you, you know? And we all need that person. And so, you know, maybe you're watching this right now on the Pando app and you don't have that person. You know, I've been in seasons like that before where I didn't have it and it's hard. And again, I think it's one of those things to be praying about, to be praying for and asking God to provide that person. But, you know, at the end of the day, we do have Jesus that fills that spot for us. And one of the major ways that he speaks to us is through his word, through scripture. Yeah, absolutely. So with that in mind, I want to close up our study just by going back to two passages we've talked about, I think probably a couple of times in this study. The first is where we started week one, Romans 12.2, right? Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. And then first Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18, says always be joyful, never stop praying, be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. And I love those two verses together

because they remind us, right, that what we're chasing after when we take every thought captive is we're chasing after the will of God, is that we want him to show us what he wants us to do. We want him to show us what he wants us to be. We want him to fill our minds with thoughts that help us to be joyful always. We want him to fill our minds with thoughts that keep us praying continually. We want him to fill our minds with thoughts that make us thankful in every season and in every circumstance. And that's the challenge before us, is to allow God, to allow the Spirit, to allow Christ to speak into our minds, to pull our minds into his will, to where we're not only doing the things that God would want us to do, but we're thinking the things that God would have us to do with his perspective, with his eternal kingdom in mind. So thank you all for joining us for the Every Thought Captive podcast. Like I said at the beginning, this is our last week. I've had a great time sharing with you all, but be sure to keep your eye on this channel for more content coming in the weeks ahead. Be sure to click the description of the video. You'll find our address there.

You can write in your prayer requests, share your story with us. We'd love to know how to pray for you. But thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time here on the Southeast Online Channel.