Speaker 1: Don't believe everything you think. That's one of the most
Speaker 1: liberating thoughts you'll ever get. I don't have to believe
Speaker 1: everything I think. You see, we automatically think that if
Speaker 1: we think it, it must be true. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: You think a lot of stuff that's not true. If
Speaker 1: you will listen to that one truth right there.
Speaker 2: You're on the road to mental health. Now.
Speaker 1: Our theme for fifty days of transformation is Romans twelve,
Speaker 1: verse two, and this week I want us to look
Speaker 1: at it. In the New Living Translation. There on your outline,
Speaker 1: it says this, do not be conformed to the pattern
Speaker 1: of this world, but let God transform you into a
Speaker 1: new person by changing the way you think. We've memorized
Speaker 1: it in by the renewing of your mind. The renewing
Speaker 1: of your mind is the way that NIV puts it.
Speaker 1: The New Living Translation says, by changing the way you think. Now,
Speaker 1: let me sum up what I want to say this weekend.
Speaker 2: In one sentence.
Speaker 1: God is far more interested in changing your mind than
Speaker 1: in changing your circumstances. We want God to change our circumstances.
Speaker 1: We want them to take away all the problems, all
Speaker 1: the pain, all the sorrow, all the suffering, all the sickness,
Speaker 1: all the sadness, and God says, yeah, yeah, I know
Speaker 1: that's important. But really more important than that, it's what's
Speaker 1: happening in you. And I'm far more interested in changing
Speaker 1: your mind before we change your circumstance. Because nothing happens
Speaker 1: in your life until you get the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 1: No transformation takes place, no change takes place in your
Speaker 1: mind or in your life until your thoughts begin to change. Now,
Speaker 1: why is it so important that I learned how to
Speaker 1: manage my mind? We've looked at physical health, We've looked
Speaker 1: at spiritual health. This weekend, I want us to look
Speaker 1: at mental health. How do I have a healthy mind?
Speaker 1: And why is that's important that I manage my thought life?
Speaker 1: Let me give you three reasons you might write these down.
Speaker 1: Number one, because my thoughts control my life. My thoughts
Speaker 1: control my life. Every single action always begins as a thought.
Speaker 1: If you don't think it, you don't do it. Now,
Speaker 1: that's both good and bad. If you don't think it,
Speaker 1: you don't do it. If it's a good thought, then
Speaker 1: you then you're gonna do good. If it's a bad thought,
Speaker 1: you're gonna do bad. But my thoughts control my life.
Speaker 1: Proverbs for twenty three and today's English version says, be
Speaker 1: careful how you think your life is shaped circle that
Speaker 1: word shaped. Your life is shaped by your thoughts. He goes, well,
Speaker 1: I was just thinking it. Well, you don't realize how
Speaker 1: important the thought is. The Bible says the power of
Speaker 1: your mind, The power of your thoughts says tremniscibility to
Speaker 1: shape your life.
Speaker 2: For good or for bad. And if you accept the thought.
Speaker 1: If growing up somebody said to you you're worthless, you're
Speaker 1: no good matter, you're ugly, you're uncoordinated. If you accepted
Speaker 1: that fact, whether it was right or wrong, it shaped
Speaker 1: your life. We're always interested in our feelings, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna look at feelings next week when we look at
Speaker 1: emotional health. But your feelings don't shape your life. Your
Speaker 1: beliefs do. And it doesn't even have to be true.
Speaker 1: If you believe it, it's gonna shape your life. And
Speaker 1: a lot of you were taught things as a kid
Speaker 1: about you that just weren't true, and years later you're
Speaker 1: still acting on false information. Be transformed by changing the
Speaker 1: way you think, Because my thoughts control my life, both
Speaker 1: good and bad. Number two I need to manage my mind,
Speaker 1: because my mind is the battleground for sin.
Speaker 2: It's where I win or lose the battle.
Speaker 1: In fact, all temptation happens in the mind. We think
Speaker 1: temptation is something out there, something external, something that happens
Speaker 1: that we see out there and say, oh.
Speaker 2: That's tempting to me.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't tempt you if there wasn't a corollary desire
Speaker 1: inside you.
Speaker 2: All temptation happens.
Speaker 1: In your mind, between your ears, and as a result,
Speaker 1: sin happens in your mind. It happens between your ears.
Speaker 1: When we talk about the sins of pride or lust,
Speaker 1: or bitterness or hatred, or anger, or fear or resentment,
Speaker 1: or envy or worry, where are those things?
Speaker 2: They're all in your mind.
Speaker 1: If you can learn how to manage your mind, you've
Speaker 1: learned how to manage your life. This is where the
Speaker 1: battle ground is. Paul and Romans. Chapter seven is very
Speaker 1: articulate in explaining how we've all felt in this battle
Speaker 1: that pulls us many different directions in our mind. Paul
Speaker 1: says this Roman seven twenty two and twenty three. I
Speaker 1: love to do God's will so far as my new
Speaker 1: nature is concerned.
Speaker 2: But and it's always a big butt okay.
Speaker 1: But there's something else deep within me that is at
Speaker 1: war with my mind and wins the fight and makes
Speaker 1: me a slave to the sin within me.
Speaker 2: In my mind, I want to be God's.
Speaker 1: Servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin,
Speaker 1: and we can all identify that. I want you to
Speaker 1: circle some words in that passage war. Circle the word war,
Speaker 1: the word fight, the word slave, the word enslaved. What's
Speaker 1: he saying. He's saying there's a battle in your brain.
Speaker 1: It's one of the reasons why you get mentally fatigued,
Speaker 1: because there's a battle in your brain and it's going
Speaker 1: on twenty four hours a day. Sometimes you're conscious of
Speaker 1: that battle, and sometimes you're unconscious of that battle, but
Speaker 1: it's going.
Speaker 2: On in your life.
Speaker 1: And the reason why that battle in your brain is
Speaker 1: going on and it's debilitating, it's because it's so intense.
Speaker 1: And the reason why it's so intense is because your brain,
Speaker 1: your mind, is your greatest asset. Satan wants to control
Speaker 1: your mind. The world wants to control your mind, and
Speaker 1: there's a battle for the way you think. Why Because
Speaker 1: whatever gets your attention gets you so I need to
Speaker 1: manage my mind, because my thoughts control my life, and
Speaker 1: because my mind is the battleground for sin and temptation.
Speaker 1: Number three, because it's the key to peace and life
Speaker 1: or happiness. Because managing my mind is actually the key
Speaker 1: to peace and the key to happiness. If you learn
Speaker 1: what we're going to talk about this weekend, and you
Speaker 1: begin to plat in your life, your peace of mind
Speaker 1: will go up dramatically, and so will your happiness, and
Speaker 1: so will your understanding and enjoyment of life. An unmanaged
Speaker 1: mind leads to tension. A managed mind leads to tranquility.
Speaker 1: An unmanaged mind leads to pressure. A managed mind leads
Speaker 1: to peace. An unmanaged mind leads to conflict and chaos.
Speaker 1: A managed mind leads to confidence. An unmanaged mind leads
Speaker 1: to stress. If you don't manage your thoughts, you just
Speaker 1: let them go all over the place. You don't ever
Speaker 1: even try to control your mind and the way you
Speaker 1: direct your thoughts, you're gonna have enormous amount of stress
Speaker 1: in your life. But a managed mind leads to strength
Speaker 1: and leads to security and leads to serenity. The Bible
Speaker 1: says it like this in Romans eighty six. If your
Speaker 1: sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. Well, by
Speaker 1: the way, what is death. It's the opposite of life.
Speaker 1: You're not really living. But if the Holy Spirit controls
Speaker 1: your mind, there is life and peace. So if I
Speaker 1: want to have a healthy mind, I want to break
Speaker 1: free from all of those bad patterns of the way
Speaker 1: I've been thinking. What I need to do is make
Speaker 1: some choices. And the Bible says there are three choices
Speaker 1: for a healthy mind. I have to feed my mind,
Speaker 1: I have to free my mind, and I have to
Speaker 1: focus my mind. Let's look at these three things. They're
Speaker 1: all choices, and you have to choose them, not just
Speaker 1: once in your lifetime, but on a moment by moment basis.
Speaker 1: All right, let's look at what the Bible says. Number one,
Speaker 1: if I want to have a healthy mind, I must
Speaker 1: feed my mind with truth. I must feed my mind
Speaker 1: with the truth. Now we all know the importance of nutrition.
Speaker 1: Good food and good calories cause you to be better,
Speaker 1: to be stronger, to be healthier, to have more energy.
Speaker 1: Bad calory is bad junk food, things that don't do
Speaker 1: good harm your body. The same is true in your
Speaker 1: thought life. I must feed my mind not with junk,
Speaker 1: not with poison, but with truth. But Jesus said it
Speaker 1: like this, you will know the truth, and the truth
Speaker 1: will set you free. One time I was given the
Speaker 1: privilege of lecturing at Oxford University and actually at Cambridge
Speaker 1: also in the same month in England. And while it
Speaker 1: was there, I was invited to go to a meeting
Speaker 1: of Oxford Analytica. This is a group you've never heard of,
Speaker 1: but has enormous influence in the world. Every day, at
Speaker 1: about five point thirty six a m. The leading scholars
Speaker 1: of Oxford gather in a room to get reports from
Speaker 1: all around the world and what's happened in the last
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. They then discuss these things, everything from
Speaker 1: crop prices in China to unrest in the Middle East,
Speaker 1: to the weather on the East Coast and all kinds
Speaker 1: of things like this, and then they make a decision
Speaker 1: about what needs to be said about it. And then
Speaker 1: they say, who's the best person in the world who
Speaker 1: knows the most about this, and they send a note
Speaker 1: to that person. They email that person. By eleven o'clock
Speaker 1: that morning a report has been given and then that report,
Speaker 1: the Oxford Analytical Report, is paid for by groups like
Speaker 1: the United States, Cia, the Soviet Union are now the
Speaker 1: Republic of Russia, China, world leaders, major corporations, they all
Speaker 1: look to Oxford Analytica to get their daily report and
Speaker 1: they pay big bucks for this information. And I got
Speaker 1: to sit in on one of the meetings. They invited
Speaker 1: me to watch what was happening. It was about twenty
Speaker 1: people sitting in a room early early in the morning.
Speaker 1: And Oxford Analytica was founding on the idea that the
Speaker 1: best leaders make the best decisions when they have the
Speaker 1: best best information. And even if you are a good leader,
Speaker 1: if you don't have the best information, you're going to
Speaker 1: make a bad decision.
Speaker 2: If that makes sense. Yeah, So you've.
Speaker 1: Got to have the best information to make the best decision.
Speaker 1: And that whole purpose was to get the best information
Speaker 1: on the world situation.
Speaker 2: In the last twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: Well you're not Oxford Analytica, but you need the best
Speaker 1: information to live the best life that God wants you
Speaker 1: to live. And that information is right here in the
Speaker 1: Word of God. It's called the truth. The Bible says
Speaker 1: in Matthew four to four people need more than bread
Speaker 1: for their life. They must feed on every word of God.
Speaker 1: The Bible is our soul food. It's our owner's manual
Speaker 1: for life. Now, when should I feed my mind truth?
Speaker 1: I mean, when should I do this? And the answer
Speaker 1: is all the time, throughout the day, morning, noon, and night.
Speaker 1: You know, they tell you that the best way to
Speaker 1: eat is to eat just little every couple hours, rather
Speaker 1: than to eat big meals and then go long hours
Speaker 1: without eating. But to eat constantly, just kind of nibble
Speaker 1: your way through the day, eating the right food. It
Speaker 1: keeps your blood sugar level and all things like that.
Speaker 1: Same is true with truth. If you're constantly thinking about truth,
Speaker 1: it's going to renew your mind, it's going to change
Speaker 1: your mind. Let me give you some examples of this.
Speaker 1: Here's David. Here's three verses from David Psalm one, nineteen seven.
Speaker 1: I rise early to cry out for help. That's prayer,
Speaker 1: and to put my hope in your words that's Bible.
Speaker 1: Steady circle the word hope, he says, I start every
Speaker 1: morning talking to you, I cry out in prayer and
Speaker 1: listening to you. I read your word, and he says,
Speaker 1: I look for the hope in your word. There are
Speaker 1: over seven thousand promises in this book, seven thousand of them.
Speaker 1: If you want to have your mind renewed, become a
Speaker 1: promised person, begin to learn, memorize.
Speaker 2: Think on this. If you feel pretty hopeless about your.
Speaker 1: Situation, you're not spending enough time in the promises of God.
Speaker 1: Because they're there. He says, I start my day with hope.
Speaker 1: Are you starting your day with hope or with despair?
Speaker 1: He says, I start it there. And then the next
Speaker 1: verse he says, Lord, how I love your word. I
Speaker 1: think about it all day long. You might circle back,
Speaker 1: and then Psalm sixteen, verse seven, he says, even in
Speaker 1: the darkest of night, your teachings fill my mind. So
Speaker 1: he's saying early in the morning, all through the day,
Speaker 1: and even late at night, I'm thinking about God's truth.
Speaker 1: That's why David is called a man after God's own heart.
Speaker 1: Let me just give you one example of how serious
Speaker 1: David was about filling his mind with the truth of
Speaker 1: God's word. I told you last week that he spent
Speaker 1: a large part of his life running for his life
Speaker 1: because the king that he was going to replace in
Speaker 1: Israel wanted to kill him. Saul wanted him dead, and
Speaker 1: so David actually had to run and be a fugitive
Speaker 1: for many, many years. Living in caves and moving from
Speaker 1: place to place and never knowing. Am I going to
Speaker 1: wake up and be killed the next day?
Speaker 2: And there were.
Speaker 1: People who are actually trying to kill him. I doubt
Speaker 1: that's ever happened to you. But look at this verse
Speaker 1: on the screen Psalone, nineteen ninety five. He says, when
Speaker 1: wicked people hide to ambush and kill me, I quietly.
Speaker 2: Keep my mind on your decrease.
Speaker 1: Wow, I quietly keep my mind on your decrease. Now
Speaker 1: somebody was trying to kill you, would you be thinking
Speaker 1: about the word of God, God of doubt it. You'd
Speaker 1: probably be calling the police. You'd be running, you'd be
Speaker 1: bolting the door. David says, I don't care what's going
Speaker 1: in my life morning, knew night, people trying to kill me.
Speaker 1: I have one thing I do. I keep my mind
Speaker 1: on the truth. You do that in the crisis. That's
Speaker 1: called managing your mind. I have to feed my mind
Speaker 1: daily on truth. Number two. I have to free my
Speaker 1: mind from destructive thoughts. That's the second thing I need
Speaker 1: to do. Free my mind from destructive thoughts. Your mind
Speaker 1: needs to be liberated, Your mind needs to be delivered.
Speaker 1: Your mind needs to be released because you are a
Speaker 1: prisoner of your own thoughts, and you're a prisoner of
Speaker 1: things that people have told you that simply weren't true.
Speaker 1: And as I said earlier, doesn't matter if it's true
Speaker 1: or not, if you believe that it's.
Speaker 2: Affected your life.
Speaker 1: You may have been told you were clumsy, and maybe
Speaker 1: you weren't clumsy at all, but if you believed it,
Speaker 1: you're clumsy. And you see yourself that way because you
Speaker 1: always act in accordance the way you see yourself. And
Speaker 1: he says, I've got to free my mind from destructive thoughts.
Speaker 2: Now that isn't easy.
Speaker 1: And the reason it is easy is because you got
Speaker 1: three enemies. And those three enemies are trying to team
Speaker 1: tackle you and keep you from having your mind liberated.
Speaker 1: These are the things that keep you from fulfilling all
Speaker 1: your good intentions. You know, all those good intentions about
Speaker 1: things you'd like to change in your life. I'm going
Speaker 1: to change this, I'm going to change that, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to change this, and I'm going to change that.
Speaker 2: And it never never happens.
Speaker 1: Why Because you have three enemies in your mind that
Speaker 1: are battling in your brain to keep you from doing
Speaker 1: the things all your best intentions would like to do
Speaker 1: all your good resolutions things like that, and they're not
Speaker 1: going to give up ground easily. You're going to have
Speaker 1: to fight to free your mind. What are the enemies,
Speaker 1: let's write them down. Number one. The first enemy is
Speaker 1: my old nature, my old nature. I want to show
Speaker 1: you a verse. It's up here on the screen. Romans,
Speaker 1: Chapter seven, verse twenty three. Paul talks about how his
Speaker 1: old nature keeps him in mental bondage. She says this,
Speaker 1: I see in my body a principle at war, A
Speaker 1: principle at war.
Speaker 2: There's that battle for your brain.
Speaker 1: I see in my body a principle at war with
Speaker 1: the law of my mind, taking me captive to the
Speaker 1: law of sin that dwells inside of me. He's using
Speaker 1: war language here. Let me put it this way. Do
Speaker 1: you ever find yourself doing things that you don't really
Speaker 1: want to do? That's the battle? Okay, let me say
Speaker 1: it this way. You don't have to raise your hands
Speaker 1: on this one. But have you ever knowingly engaged in
Speaker 1: self defeating behavior? I know this isn't good for me,
Speaker 1: but yeah, what's going on there? The battle in your brain,
Speaker 1: the battle in your brain. You have all of the
Speaker 1: best intentions in your new nature.
Speaker 2: I want to do the right thing.
Speaker 1: But the battle in your brain, and the first battle
Speaker 1: is with your old sin nature. Your old nature is
Speaker 1: not your friend. It is the source of all your
Speaker 1: bad habits. Romans eight fives says this on your outline.
Speaker 1: Those who are dominated by their sinful nature think about
Speaker 1: sinful things. But those who are controlled by the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. Notice it's
Speaker 1: all about your brain. It's about how you think. So
Speaker 1: the first thing that's I may have a good intention
Speaker 1: for changing something in my life, but my old nature
Speaker 1: is going to battle me on it. The second thing
Speaker 1: that's going to fight me, the second enemy is Satan.
Speaker 1: And Satan wants to can control your mind. He can't,
Speaker 1: but he wants to control your mind and and and
Speaker 1: so he sends these ideas, these thoughts into your mind. Now,
Speaker 1: let me be real clear. Satan cannot force you to
Speaker 1: do anything. If you're a Christian, you have a lot
Speaker 1: of Holy Spirit in you. Satan cannot force you to
Speaker 1: do anything, because the great greater is he that is
Speaker 1: in me than he that is in the world. But
Speaker 1: he can make suggestions, and those suggestions are very, very
Speaker 1: powerful and He is constantly continually planting negative thoughts in
Speaker 1: your mind. And he'll use other people, or he'll use
Speaker 1: the television or if you know, if you know he
Speaker 1: can't get a he'll just throw a thought in your mind.
Speaker 2: You go, where in the will that one come from?
Speaker 1: Have you ever been praying and you're praying real hard,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, the weirdest thought comes in
Speaker 1: your mind while you're praying.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Where did that come from? Well, I'll tell you where
Speaker 1: it came from. The devil just dropped the little bomb
Speaker 1: on your brain.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, Martin Luther said you can't keep the birds from
Speaker 1: flying over your head, but Rick Warren says, you can
Speaker 1: keep them from pooping in your hair, okay, And you
Speaker 1: can duck and you you know, and you can move,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to accept a thought. One of
Speaker 1: the most important things we're gonna talk about this in
Speaker 1: your small group is don't believe everything you think. That's
Speaker 1: one of the most liberating thoughts you'll you'll ever get.
Speaker 1: I don't have to believe everything I think. You see,
Speaker 1: we automatically think that if we think it, it must
Speaker 1: be true. Are you kidding me? You think a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff that's not true. In fact, maybe a majority
Speaker 1: of the stuff you think isn't true. And you have
Speaker 1: all these ideas and you think, well, if thought it, it
Speaker 1: must be true.
Speaker 2: Of course it's not true. So just because you.
Speaker 1: Get a thought in your mind, it may come from
Speaker 1: your old said nature, it may come from the devil.
Speaker 1: It doesn't really matter. If it's not true, it's not true.
Speaker 1: You don't have to think. You don't have to believe
Speaker 1: everything you think. In fact, let's just say it together.
Speaker 1: I don't have to believe everything I think.
Speaker 2: Let's say it.
Speaker 1: I don't have to believe everything I think. If you
Speaker 1: will listen to that one truth right there, you're on
Speaker 1: the road to mental health because not everything you think
Speaker 1: is true. Stuff you think about yourself, stuff you think
Speaker 1: about God, stuff you think about your husband or your wife,
Speaker 1: or a life or community or the government, or it's
Speaker 1: just not all true just because you thought it. And
Speaker 1: we're going to cover that in detail in the small group.
Speaker 1: But Satan puts these thoughts in the moment you wake up.
Speaker 1: The moment you wake up, he starts dropping little seeds.
Speaker 2: You're not gonna have a good day today.
Speaker 1: Life is gonna really be bad. Nobody's gonna like you.
Speaker 1: In fact, you're flat out ugly. If I were as
Speaker 1: ugly as you, I wouldn't even show my face.
Speaker 2: And you've got to.
Speaker 1: Start getting all of this talk going on in your brain.
Speaker 1: Why in the world am I even trying? It's not
Speaker 1: gonna be any different. And he starts giving you all
Speaker 1: these reasons to give up, and you haven't even started
Speaker 1: the day yet. You see, if you get up in
Speaker 1: the morning and you don't meet the devil face on,
Speaker 1: and it just means you're going in the same direction,
Speaker 1: follow that one, all right, And so he's gonna drop
Speaker 1: these little thoughts on you. And then sometimes I'll say,
Speaker 1: go ahead, you deserve it. Really, yeah, you go ahead,
Speaker 1: get angry? Good even How dare they say that to you?
Speaker 1: Why don't you? And he's just constantly dropping thoughts. When
Speaker 1: the devil gives a thought, we call it temptation. When
Speaker 1: God gives a thought, we call it inspiration. But both
Speaker 1: of them are putting thoughts in your mind. And then
Speaker 1: you're coming up with your own thoughts. We call that stupidity. Okay, now,
Speaker 1: these thoughts are going on in your mind, but you
Speaker 1: got this enemy called Satan look at this up here
Speaker 1: on the screen, tewod Corindians two eleven says. Paul talks
Speaker 1: about I've forgiven that man, a guy in the church.
Speaker 1: You'd really messed everything up. He's really critical and problems.
Speaker 1: I've forgiven that man so Satan won't outsmartest.
Speaker 2: What's you saying there?
Speaker 1: He's going when I am unforgiving, I'm falling into Satan's trap.
Speaker 1: I've forgiven that man so that Satan won't out smartest.
Speaker 1: For we're very familiar with his schemes. Satan wants to
Speaker 1: keep you in bitterness. Satan wants to keep you in bondage.
Speaker 1: She wants to keep you in resentment if you have
Speaker 1: not forgiven anybody fallen into Satan's trap. And Paul goes, hey,
Speaker 1: we're wise to this guy. He's been using the same
Speaker 1: traps for so many on. He tries to get you hurt,
Speaker 1: and then he tries to get you bitter, and then
Speaker 1: he builds on that bitterness.
Speaker 2: He gets a foothold in your life, and on and
Speaker 2: on and on.
Speaker 1: Anytime you refuse to forgive anybody, you've fallen for Satan's trap.
Speaker 1: Point here is he says, Satan has schemes, and you
Speaker 1: need to be aware of it. So you got the
Speaker 1: enemy number one, that's the flesh, and you got enemy
Speaker 1: number two, that's the devil.
Speaker 2: Then the third enemy.
Speaker 1: Is the world's value system, and that is culture around you.
Speaker 1: The world, the flesh and the devil, and the world
Speaker 1: is not helping you be a more disciplined person. Are they?
Speaker 1: Does anything in our society encourage self discipline?
Speaker 2: No, not at all.
Speaker 1: In fact, every advertiser saying you deserve a break today,
Speaker 1: have it your way, We do it all for you.
Speaker 2: It's all about you.
Speaker 1: Mountain Dew, my favorite commercial says, obey your thirst. In
Speaker 1: other words, be an animal. Just do whatever it feels
Speaker 1: like doing. Okay, obey your third And so the world
Speaker 1: has their value system and is promoted by advertisers, and
Speaker 1: is promoted by movies, and is promoted by television, is
Speaker 1: promoted in songs, and it's certainly promoted by celebrities. So
Speaker 1: nobody in around you is actually encouraging you to live
Speaker 1: a responsible, mentally healthy life. One John two sixteen says
Speaker 1: this here on the screen, all that is in the world,
Speaker 1: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
Speaker 1: and the pride of life. In other words, that's passion,
Speaker 1: possession and position, or it's it's the lust of the flesh,
Speaker 1: that's sex, the lust of the eyes that's your salary,
Speaker 1: and pride of life, that's success and status. He's saying,
Speaker 1: this is what everybody is going for. Okay, money, section
Speaker 1: and power. He says, all these things. It's not of
Speaker 1: the fathers, but it's of this world. And so everything
Speaker 1: around you, all the commercials, all the media. They're not
Speaker 1: encouraging you to think smart, to think healthy, to think wise.
Speaker 1: They're encouraging you to do the other thing. So how
Speaker 1: do you fight this battle? I mean, it's so wonder
Speaker 1: you have all these best intentions for changing, but then
Speaker 1: you got this triple threat of your own old nature
Speaker 1: the devil. So you got the nature within you, you got
Speaker 1: the devil against you, and you got the.
Speaker 2: World around you. Was no wonder.
Speaker 1: You keep struggling with discouragement and spare and failure and
Speaker 1: things like that. How do you fight this mental battle?
Speaker 1: Look at the next verse tewod Corinthians ten. Though we
Speaker 1: live in the world, we do not wage war as
Speaker 1: the world does. The weapons we fight with are not
Speaker 1: the weapons of the world. In other words, because he's
Speaker 1: talking about the mental battle we're going through. Our weapons
Speaker 1: have divine power to demolish stronghold.
Speaker 2: Circle the word stronghold. We'll come back to that word
Speaker 2: in just a minute.
Speaker 1: Our weapons have the divine power to demolished strongholds. We
Speaker 1: demolish any argument and every pretension. That's the arguments in
Speaker 1: your own mind, the pretensions in your own mind that
Speaker 1: sets itself up against the knowledge of God.
Speaker 2: And here's the important part.
Speaker 1: We tape captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Speaker 2: Notice this is warfare.
Speaker 1: Language, and he's talking about this battle going on in
Speaker 1: your mind, this mental battle. He said, we demolish strongholds. Now,
Speaker 1: what's a stronghold. I want you to write this down.
Speaker 1: A stronghold is a lie that I believe. That's a stronghold.
Speaker 1: A spiritual stronghold in my life is a lie.
Speaker 2: That I believe.
Speaker 1: So the lie might be God really doesn't love me.
Speaker 2: That's a lie. The lie might be I.
Speaker 1: Know better than God what will make me happy.
Speaker 2: That's a lie.
Speaker 1: The lie I should do what I want to do,
Speaker 1: not what God wants me to do, and that'll make
Speaker 1: me happier. That's a lie. I know better, what will
Speaker 1: make me happy than God does. That's a lie, and
Speaker 1: that's a stronghold. Anything that I believe that's a lie
Speaker 1: is called a spiritual stronghold in my life. Now, stronghold
Speaker 1: can be a false value system like in the world.
Speaker 1: It could be a philosophical system like hedonism, which says
Speaker 1: the only that matters is pleasure. In other words, the
Speaker 1: whole goal of life is to have fun. That's a lie,
Speaker 1: it is not true. Or materialism is a philosophical worldview
Speaker 1: which says the only thing that matters is making money.
Speaker 2: That's a lie. That's not true.
Speaker 1: So secularism, hedonism, materialism, all that matters is money or
Speaker 1: sex or power.
Speaker 2: Those are all lies and if I believe them, then
Speaker 2: I get a stronghold in my life.
Speaker 1: Could be a worldview. That could be a personal attitude.
Speaker 1: A stronghold could be an attitude like I'm never gonna
Speaker 1: forgive that person. That's a stronghold. I could never forgive myself.
Speaker 1: That's a stronghold. I will never amount to anything. That's
Speaker 1: a stronghold. If something bad's gonna happen, it's gonna happen
Speaker 1: to me, that's a stronghold. It's a lie that you
Speaker 1: are believing. And he says, if you're gonna learn to
Speaker 1: be mentally healthy, you've got to learn how to demolish
Speaker 1: strongholds in your life. Behind every sin is some lie
Speaker 1: that you're believing. The Bible calls Satan the father of lies.
Speaker 1: Jesus says, I am the truth, and the truth that
Speaker 1: you free. Satan is a liar and he's gonna enslave you.
Speaker 1: So this stronghold needs to be destroyed. How do we
Speaker 1: fight this mental battle? Well, notice two phrases. I want
Speaker 1: you to circle it. First, he says, we take captive.
Speaker 1: Circle that phrase, we take captive, and the word in
Speaker 1: Greek is akmalog, and it means it literally means to conquer.
Speaker 1: It means to bring under control. It means to capture.
Speaker 1: We take captive, we conquer like a country. We mallow
Speaker 1: tidzo a country. And then the other phrase, once circle,
Speaker 1: he says, we make it obedient. We take it captive,
Speaker 1: every thought captive, and we make every we make it obedient,
Speaker 1: make every thought obey Christ And that word there literally
Speaker 1: make it obedient. Hoopokoi means to bring in the submission.
Speaker 1: How do you do that? What's he talking about? Here
Speaker 1: he's talking about how do you make your mind mind?
Speaker 2: How do you make your mind mind? You?
Speaker 1: We bring it into submission, we take it captive, we
Speaker 1: make it obedient. Let's just have a little confession here.
Speaker 1: My thoughts often disobey me. They often rebel. My mind
Speaker 1: often has a mind of its own. It wants to
Speaker 1: go in another direction. This morning, I was studying for
Speaker 1: this message. My mind didn't want to study. It wanted
Speaker 1: to go watch the Olympics. Okay, it wanted to sit
Speaker 1: down with a big sandwich, some jalapena, potato chips. Okay,
Speaker 1: piece of mud pie. I'm making you all hungry now here.
Speaker 1: See what I'm doing. I'm messing with your mind. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: you're already salivating on that kind of stuff right there.
Speaker 2: You know. And if you got add.
Speaker 1: Or ADHD, your mind often goes off in a whole different direction.
Speaker 1: And you get ready to pray, and you're going, what
Speaker 1: do I say? I don't know, I don't anything. Say
Speaker 1: you got anything that? Say?
Speaker 2: Lord? I don't anything.
Speaker 1: Say is anybody identifying with this?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't know. You're I'm supposed to pray?
Speaker 1: What do I pray? Or Hello, God, Amen. My mind
Speaker 1: often rebels when I need to ponder. My mind wants
Speaker 1: to wander. It doesn't always obey me. When I need
Speaker 1: to pray, my mind drifts away. He says, we take captive,
Speaker 1: we make it obedient. What's he saying here is you
Speaker 1: have a choice. Your mind has to listen to you
Speaker 1: and your will. God didn't give.
Speaker 2: You just a mind.
Speaker 1: He gave you a will and emotions. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about emotions next week. But part of your will is
Speaker 1: to bring your mind into order.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The reason why most people are ineffective in life and
Speaker 1: actually fail at life, and actually don't enjoy life is
Speaker 1: because they've never learned how to fight the battle of
Speaker 1: the mind. This is so important. I intend to teach
Speaker 1: an entire series on it this year. We're going to
Speaker 1: go into this in detail. I'm only doing one message
Speaker 1: on it, fifty days Transformation. But today I just want
Speaker 1: to explain to you one simple thing, how temptation works.
Speaker 1: Because Paul says, we're not supposed to be ignorant of
Speaker 1: how Satan works. We need to know how it works
Speaker 1: so you're not caught off guard. So let me explain
Speaker 1: to you how temptation works because it always uses the
Speaker 1: same pattern. James one fourteen and fifteen tells us the
Speaker 1: pattern temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires,
Speaker 1: and these evil desires lead to evil actions, and then
Speaker 1: the evil actions lead to death. I notice temptation is
Speaker 1: a process. It's not an isolated event, you know when
Speaker 1: people talk about I don't know. It just caught me
Speaker 1: off guard. It was just a one night's stand. No
Speaker 1: it wasn't. No, it wasn't. There were a lot of
Speaker 1: things that you gave into before you got to lowering
Speaker 1: that barrier. Temptation is a process, and the Bible describes
Speaker 1: exactly how it thinks, and there are four phases. Write
Speaker 1: these down. Phase number one is temptation starts with desire.
Speaker 1: So number one is desire. If you don't have any
Speaker 1: desire for something, it's not a temptation. I have never, ever,
Speaker 1: in my life, been tempted to smoke a cigarette. Why
Speaker 1: there's no desire in me? I think they stink. Okay,
Speaker 1: somebody asked me one day, we'll smoking sind you to hell.
Speaker 1: I said, no, make you smell like you've been there,
Speaker 1: but it won't. But it's not going to send you
Speaker 1: to hell. Okay, all right. Do you remember when they
Speaker 1: used to have smoking on airplanes?
Speaker 2: That was terrible.
Speaker 1: I had a friend who used to carry a card
Speaker 1: with him and when a guy would light up next
Speaker 1: to him on the plane, he'd hand him the card
Speaker 1: and said, I notice you smoke. Well, I chew. If
Speaker 1: you won't blow smoke on me, I won't spit on you. Now,
Speaker 1: I've never been tempted because it just didn't smell good
Speaker 1: to me. Now, there's a lot of stuff I've been
Speaker 1: tempted in that you haven't been tempted in. But it
Speaker 1: always starts with an internal desire. Now, he says, there
Speaker 1: the lure of our desire. It begins inside you. Temptation
Speaker 1: doesn't start out there, doesn't start on TV, doesn't start
Speaker 1: on the street corner. It starts inside your mind. And
Speaker 1: it often begins with a natural desire, not even an
Speaker 1: evil desire. It can begin with a natural desire. You
Speaker 1: have a natural desire for sleep. You have a natural
Speaker 1: desire for water. You have a natural desire for food.
Speaker 1: You have a natural desire for sex. You have a
Speaker 1: natural desire to succeed in life. These are all God
Speaker 1: given drives. The drive to achieve, the drive for sex,
Speaker 1: the drive to breed, the drive. Those are normal drives.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with them. Okay, listen closely. Temptation turns
Speaker 1: a routine desire into a runaway desire, and that's what
Speaker 1: makes it bad. It becomes more important than anything else.
Speaker 1: It's all you can think about, and any desire out
Speaker 1: of control is destructive. Fire in a fireplace can warm,
Speaker 1: Fire on a cooking stove can cook great food, but
Speaker 1: fire uncontrolled can burn your house down. All of God's gifts,
Speaker 1: misused and abused, will burn your house down. Any of
Speaker 1: them will sex, sleep, eating, any of those things. They're
Speaker 1: good desires, good drives, but misused and abused, they mess
Speaker 1: you up.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Often, temptation is an attempt to fulfill a legitimate desire
Speaker 1: in your life, like I just want to be loved.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with that in the wrong way. But
Speaker 1: the point is, it's like steel in a magnet. If
Speaker 1: there were no desire in me, there would be no
Speaker 1: temptations that make sense. Okay, So temptation doesn't start out there.
Speaker 1: It starts in here, in my mind with desire. Step
Speaker 1: two in temptation always happens this way is doubt. And
Speaker 1: what you do in doubt is you begin to doubt
Speaker 1: two things. You doubt that God loves you, and you
Speaker 1: doubt that God knows best. Because when you start to
Speaker 1: get tempted, you go, did God really say, don't have
Speaker 1: sex outside of marriage? Did God really say forgive the
Speaker 1: person instead of get even with him? Did God really
Speaker 1: say it's more blessed to give than to receive? And
Speaker 1: you start doubting God's word. We see this from the
Speaker 1: very first temptation and Adam and Eve they're in a
Speaker 1: perfect environment. Okay, it's paradise. They have no clothes and
Speaker 1: no kids. Hello, how do you mess up that?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 1: Satan comes and says, hey, see that tree over there.
Speaker 2: Did God really say you can't eat of that tree?
Speaker 2: What is he doing?
Speaker 1: He's getting you to doubt God's word. And then he says,
Speaker 1: God knows that if you eat that tree, you'll be
Speaker 1: as smart as.
Speaker 2: He that he is. What's he doing? He's getting you to.
Speaker 1: Doubt that God loves you, that God's rules are for
Speaker 1: your benefit. Every time you give into temptation, you are
Speaker 1: believing a lie. You think you know better, You think
Speaker 1: God doesn't know best. You think that you know what
Speaker 1: will make you happy more than he does. So there's
Speaker 1: always the desire, and then there's the doubt did God
Speaker 1: really say?
Speaker 2: Do I really love? Does God really love me?
Speaker 1: Isn't God just being a little prudish about this?
Speaker 2: Is it really true?
Speaker 1: And on and on and on. Then the step three
Speaker 1: is deception. And the third thing that Satan does is
Speaker 1: he replaces God's truth with his lie and he says, God,
Speaker 1: you won't die if you eat this. God had already
Speaker 1: said he eat this fruit, You're gonna die.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: God said, you can eat anything in the hole in
Speaker 1: the entire park, Yellowstone Park called Eden. You can eat
Speaker 1: anything in the park except this one tree. What does
Speaker 1: man do? He goes immediately to the one tree. It's
Speaker 1: the minimum amount of temptation possible, but it allows a choice.
Speaker 2: Satan changes it all.
Speaker 1: So God says you can't eat a bunch of stuff,
Speaker 1: and reason he doesn't want you to because he doesn't
Speaker 1: want you to be as.
Speaker 2: Smart as he is.
Speaker 1: He is giving you a lie. He is deceiving you.
Speaker 1: Notice it says in that verse he says, I am lured.
Speaker 1: He said temptation comes from the lure of our own
Speaker 1: evil desire.
Speaker 2: Circle the word lure. That's a fishing term.
Speaker 1: I'm enticed you're talking about using bait there now, any
Speaker 1: of you fishermen, some of you are the secret of
Speaker 1: good fishing is real simple.
Speaker 2: You got to use the right bait.
Speaker 1: Salmon eat a certain kind of bait, and trout to
Speaker 1: eat another kind of bait, and visually and change what
Speaker 1: they're eating, feeding on at different times of the day.
Speaker 1: And how many fish are you going to catch with
Speaker 1: a bare hook?
Speaker 2: None?
Speaker 1: Zero, none, So obviously you got to put some bait
Speaker 1: on there. You got to have a lure question. What
Speaker 1: kind of bait does Satan use on you?
Speaker 2: Do you even know? Do you know the one he
Speaker 2: always uses on you?
Speaker 1: And he keeps coming back to it because it gets
Speaker 1: you everything. It hooks you every single time. It may
Speaker 1: be from something long time ago that a parent said
Speaker 1: to you, but man, when that thing comes out, you
Speaker 1: are just so hooked. You immediately get depressed, or immediately
Speaker 1: get angry, or you immediately get worried. And Satan got
Speaker 1: her hooked. I put the right bait on that hook.
Speaker 1: Satan knows your weaknesses and he hides the hook. And
Speaker 1: I call this phased deception because you know why often
Speaker 1: we know there's a hook there, but we still keep nibbling.
Speaker 1: We know there's a hook, but we still keep nibbling.
Speaker 1: It's like people who flirt in the office. How stupid
Speaker 1: is that? You know there's a hook there, you know
Speaker 1: it's gonna there's only one way it could go bad,
Speaker 1: but you still keep nibbling. You say, I'm an adult,
Speaker 1: I won't get hurt, I'll be careful. You're being deceived.
Speaker 1: And there's a lure. Now, anybody who's done fishing, Tom's
Speaker 1: a fly fisherman knows that lures can when you fly fish,
Speaker 1: they can be pretty flashy, pretty flashy. And the flashier
Speaker 1: the lure that what was that?
Speaker 2: That fish goes? What was that? Holy I'm gonna swim
Speaker 2: over there. That thing. Look it thinks it's flashy. It's shiny.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: That looks like Las Vegas. You know what.
Speaker 1: Las Vegas is one giant lure in the desert and
Speaker 1: it's shiny and it's bright, and they've got all you
Speaker 1: can eat buffets for nothing, and somebody's paying for that,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna get hurt, and you know, the poor
Speaker 1: suckers are gonna You know, Las Vegas should.
Speaker 2: Just be called lost wages.
Speaker 1: Next time you're going to attempt to be going to
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, just give me your money, okay, just give
Speaker 1: it to me, okay, okay, And then you save the time,
Speaker 1: save the effort, and we'll use it for good, all right.
Speaker 1: Temptation always looks better than it is. And step four
Speaker 1: is disobedience and defeat. Disobedience and defeat. Now we've moved
Speaker 1: from desire. There's something that's I want to doubt God's
Speaker 1: word and God's love to deception. I'm believing the lie
Speaker 1: that Satan's telling me. It's gonna be Okay, you can
Speaker 1: get away with.
Speaker 2: This, It's all right, just this once. It's not that bad,
Speaker 2: and I don't know.
Speaker 1: And then you go to disobedience and then defeat, and
Speaker 1: now it's sin. What began in the mind gets translated
Speaker 1: into action and it goes like this, My attention becomes
Speaker 1: an attitude, and my attitude becomes an action. Well, you
Speaker 1: really spend a lot of time on this, but this
Speaker 1: is how it works in the battle for your mind.
Speaker 1: I've had guys say to me, what's the danger of
Speaker 1: a harmless fantasy? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: It's not harmless. I want you to write this down.
Speaker 1: What I flirt with, I'll fall for whatever I flirt with.
Speaker 1: It may be a cupcake, I'll fall for. Whatever I
Speaker 1: flirt with, I'll fall for. I need to refocus my attention.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, after desires conceived, it gives birth to sin,
Speaker 1: and the end result is death, says the tragic consequet's
Speaker 1: death the exact opposite of living. Now, listen, you are
Speaker 1: free to choose anything you want in life.
Speaker 2: You're free to.
Speaker 1: Make your choices, but you are not free from the
Speaker 1: consequences of those choices. The moment you make that choice,
Speaker 1: you are no longer free because there are consequences that
Speaker 1: come to every choice, often unintended consequences, And what you
Speaker 1: sow you will reap. And you cannot choose the behavior
Speaker 1: and not choose the consequence.
Speaker 2: Now what am I saying?
Speaker 1: The best time to win the battle with temptation is
Speaker 1: before it begins. Look at this verse on the screen
Speaker 1: Psalm one nineteen one twelve. I have made up my
Speaker 1: mind to a obey your laws forever, no matter what.
Speaker 1: Until you come to that point, you're just going to
Speaker 1: keep stumbling and stumbling and stumbling and stumbling.
Speaker 2: I have made up my mind. That's a choice.
Speaker 1: I have made up my mind to obey your laws forever,
Speaker 1: no matter what. All right, Three things, I said, You
Speaker 1: got to make these choices every day. I have to focus,
Speaker 1: I have to free, and I have to feed.
Speaker 2: I said.
Speaker 1: First, I have to feed my mind constantly on truth,
Speaker 1: not garbage. And then I have to free my mind
Speaker 1: from destructive thoughts. We talked about how that happens. And
Speaker 1: the third is, I must focus my mind on the
Speaker 1: right things. For mental health, I must focus my mind
Speaker 1: on the right things. Now we're out of time, so
Speaker 1: let me just mention three real quick, just right?
Speaker 2: Can you writ quick? All right? Just write these down.
Speaker 1: Three things that will make the most difference in your
Speaker 1: mental state. Number one, think about Jesus. Think about Jesus.
Speaker 1: You've heard that old cliche. You become whatever you think about.
Speaker 1: Most well, you think about Jesus. Guess what you're going to.
Speaker 2: Become like like Jesus. Tewod Timothy two. Eight.
Speaker 1: Keep your mind on Jesus Christ Hebrews twelve thirteen twelve.
Speaker 1: Three Think about Jesus. Example, he held on. Are you
Speaker 1: having a hard time holding on? He held on while
Speaker 1: wicked people were doing evil things to him.
Speaker 2: So do not get tired and stop trying. Don't do
Speaker 2: that when.
Speaker 1: You start feeling like you're ready to give up. Think
Speaker 1: about what Jesus went through. Think about Jesus. Number two,
Speaker 1: Think about others. Think about others. Philippians two four says,
Speaker 1: don't just think about your own affairs, but be interested
Speaker 1: in others too and what they are doing. Do you
Speaker 1: realize how counterculture that is everything in the world teaches
Speaker 1: you to think about yourself and nobody else. How many
Speaker 1: times have you heard this phrase, I've got.
Speaker 2: To do what's best for me looking out for Number one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could go on down a whole list of
Speaker 1: these phrases that basically say, it's all about me, It's
Speaker 1: all about me, It's all about me, it's all about me.
Speaker 1: That's why when I wrote Purpose Drive in Life, I thought,
Speaker 1: what's the most counter culture statement I could think of
Speaker 1: in our culture to begin this book with? And I
Speaker 1: just said, it's not about you. That is the most
Speaker 1: counter culture statement you can make in our world today.
Speaker 1: It's not about you. It's like a slap in the face.
Speaker 1: So I just thought I'll start the book with a
Speaker 1: slap in the face. It's not about you, okay you,
Speaker 1: it's not about you. It's not about you. It's all
Speaker 1: about God. And it's only in giving your life away
Speaker 1: that you will understand what it really means to live.
Speaker 1: So think about others Hebrews ten twenty four. Let us
Speaker 1: think about each other and help each other to show
Speaker 1: love and do good deeds. And the best place to
Speaker 1: practice that is in your small group. Practice that version
Speaker 1: in your small group this week. Let's think about each other.
Speaker 1: Let's help each other to show love and do good deeds.
Speaker 1: In your small group. That's the laboratory for love. It's
Speaker 1: the place to learn unselfishness. Think about Jesus, think about others.
Speaker 1: Number three, Think about eternity. That's the third one that'll
Speaker 1: make the biggest difference in your mental state. Think about eternity,
Speaker 1: that there's mortal life than just here and now. The
Speaker 1: problem that we do today is we have short term thinking.
Speaker 1: We only think about what's happening right now. Colossians three
Speaker 1: to two, Let Heaven feel your thoughts. Do not think
Speaker 1: only about things down here on earth. King James version says,
Speaker 1: set your minds on things above, not upon things on
Speaker 1: the earth, Let Heaven fill your thoughts. Now, have you
Speaker 1: heard this old canard? He's so heavenly minded, he's no
Speaker 1: earthly good. That's a bunch of baloney.
Speaker 2: You know what. I've found.
Speaker 1: Only the people who are heavenly minded actually do any good,
Speaker 1: And those who are most heavenly minded throughout history are
Speaker 1: those who've done the most good.
Speaker 2: On earth, bar none.
Speaker 1: It is not the earthly minded people who get the
Speaker 1: most done on earth. It is the most heavenly minded
Speaker 1: people who get the most done on earth for good.
Speaker 1: It's just not true. He's so heavenly minded and no
Speaker 1: earthly good. The problem is the opposite. We're so earthly minded,
Speaker 1: we're no heavenly good. All we think about is budget
Speaker 1: and baseball and bills and stuff like that. One Corinthians
Speaker 1: two nine. No eye has seen, no ear has erred,
Speaker 1: and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for
Speaker 1: those who love him.
Speaker 2: Think about that.
Speaker 1: When you start thinking about that, all of the problems,
Speaker 1: little nitpicky problems in your life seems so inferior compared
Speaker 1: to the glory, the joy, the pleasure, the enjoyment, the
Speaker 1: things we have to look forward to in eternity. I
Speaker 1: need to feed my mind on truth every day. I
Speaker 1: need to free my mind from those destructive thoughts. I
Speaker 1: can choose not to think them by changing the way
Speaker 1: I think. We'll talk about that in your small group,
Speaker 1: and then I can focus my mind on the right thing.
Speaker 1: And when I'm focused on the right thing, I don't
Speaker 1: have time to pay attention to the wrong thing. When
Speaker 1: I'm watching a TV. I don't like what I see,
Speaker 1: I just flipped the channel. Change your attention. I'm no
Speaker 1: longer tempted. It's real simple. Let's about for prayer. Father,
Speaker 1: you gave us our minds. We were made in your image.
Speaker 1: This is the greatest gift you've ever given us, the
Speaker 1: gift of intellect. And we realize it's our greatest asset,
Speaker 1: and yet it is the greatest battleground. And we realize
Speaker 1: that the world and the flesh, and the devil all
Speaker 1: team up to thwart our best intentions. Now you pray,
Speaker 1: just say a simple prayer, God, help me to put
Speaker 1: into practice what I've just learned. Just say, God, help
Speaker 1: me put into practice what I've just learned. Help me
Speaker 1: to make the choices on a daily basis. I want
Speaker 1: to feed my mind with truth all the time.
Speaker 2: And I want to free my mind.
Speaker 1: From destructive thoughts by taking every thought captive, to make
Speaker 1: it obedient to Christ. To not just let my mind
Speaker 1: run wild. Help me to be wise the temptation, realize
Speaker 1: when desire is turning to doubt, to deception, to disobedience.
Speaker 1: God today, and just say this, God, I'm going to
Speaker 1: make up my mind to obey your word forever, no
Speaker 1: matter what. Help me to think about Jesus, Help me
Speaker 1: to think about others. Help me to think about eternity,
Speaker 1: that my life may be truly transformed in your name.
Speaker 2: I pray Amen,