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First Springfield SDA Church

Eric Walsh

The Power of Thought

Proverbs 23, verse 7 says, "'For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.'" As he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Our message this Sabbath is entitled, The Power of Thought.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

We thank you, Lord, for all you do for us.

And I ask once again, Lord, that you just make me a nail hammered into the wall by your Holy Spirit.

And then Lord, hang a portrait of Jesus Christ on that nail that Eric Walsh has not seen or heard today.

Instead, Father, we need to hear a word from the throne room of grace.

We're gonna jump in to show, illustrate the title.

We're gonna jump into the book of Matthew chapter 16, a conversation that Jesus has with his disciples.

By now Jesus had been teaching and doing miracles.

There's a strong support for Jesus among his disciples.

You really can't read the 4 Gospels without understanding the context that almost the entire time they were with Jesus and in the case of most of the disciples the entire time they were with Jesus they thought he had come to liberate them from the Romans and reestablish the throne of David.

Now, the reason that's relevant is because I have to submit to you that for many today, this concept is still alive.

There are those who think that they're going to set up a theocratic empire here on earth.

Now that, of course, is not biblical and it's not going to happen.

In fact, the establishment of a theocracy here on earth, which already we see currently happening in the United States of America.

There's a move, a shift, a rise in revival across the country that many celebrate.

In many ways, there are things to celebrate, but we have to see all these things through the lens of prophecy.

A misunderstanding of who the church is, of the work of the church today, or what Christ is about to do can lead to grand deception.

So that's when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

So Jesus approaches the disciples with the question, listen, what are people saying about me?

There's power in what you think about things.

Verse 14, and they said, some say you are John the Baptist, some Elias and others, Jeremiah or 1 of the prophets.

And he said unto them, but whom do you say that I am?

So there was this thing, here's Jesus working all these miracles, calling people to repentance, healing the sick and confounding the religious leadership.

Remember, Herod thought Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected.

So Jesus refocuses, Jesus is a great teacher.

He refocuses them and Jesus says, Who do you say I am?

Let me say it before we get into the message fully today.

This is the question, the quintessential question of your entire life.

A misunderstanding of Christ is a loss of eternal life.

So 1 of the disciples, Peter, always quick to answer, always looking to be the kid in the corner of the room who raises his hand and gets the points, wanting to be the vice president when Jesus sets up his new kingdom.

Verse 16, and Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

Peter steps to the front, pushes all the other disciples aside.

Maybe he didn't really push them, but he gets in front of all the other disciples.

You are the 1 that's been prophesied, the 1 we're waited for, and to make it even more profound, he takes it up a notch with the second part, he says, you are also the son of the living God.

Now remember, to say that someone is the Son of God in their day meant to make that person equal with God.

This statement from Peter is a profound statement, so much so that when we go to verse 17, Jesus answers him and says, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven.

Here's 1 of the first lessons I want you to get about thought and ideas.

First lesson I want you to get, here it is.

How powerful is that when I'm with you, Even when I'm at work, even when I was a medical director for a bunch of urgent cares in Connecticut up until a few months ago, and even then, when someone would say, I have a good idea, I would turn to them and say, flesh and blood did not reveal that to you.

I think I scared some people sometimes when I said that.

Flesh and blood clearly did not reveal that to you.

Flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you.

The power of thought is the power to intersect with the very will of God.

If your thoughts are right, if your mind is in the right place, you become a conduit, a vessel through which God can now speak.

Verse 18, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Now, there are those who take this to say that Peter is then made the foundation of the church.

You go back to the original language, Peter means pebble, but Jesus says upon this rock, this boulder, I will build this church.

But upon the boulder of Christ Jesus, will the church be built.

I remember when I went to the Vatican for the first time, I was with my Aunt Doreen, and I was probably about 14 years old.

And I went in, and when you go into the Vatican, there's this statue of Peter, and he's got an afro.

He had an afro, curly hair when you go in, and it's a black statue.

Now, it's a European feature, so it's an interesting statue.

And 1 of the things they told us is that that statue used to be the same statue they used for Jupiter when it was pagan Rome.

So you go in and his foot is sticking out and everybody kisses his foot.

But over the centuries, the saliva of all the people that have kissed the foot, wore out the foot, so there's like a groove in the foot.

And my aunt looked at me and everybody else and I said, you know, I'm not kissing that foot.

I don't know where we are, when in Rome, I'm not doing like the Romans.

Peter is not the foundation of the church, Christ is.

Which means that the whole idea of papal secession for us as Christian Protestants does not add up.

But I like the last statement here, talking about the power of thought.

Here's what Jesus says in verse 18, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Are gates offensive or defensive measures?

So what is that telling you we are supposed to do to the kingdom of the enemy?

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The Power of Thought

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