Mind Games - Week 6: “Protecting Your Mind” - Full Service

How are strongholds built in our mind? They're built one brick at a time. One thought, one opinion, one argument that just diverts me from full devotion to Jesus. Whatever pulls me off of full devotion to Jesus is not what God has for me. That's right. That's where strongholds are built, my friends. And it's a sobering reality that we have a spiritual enemy. He specializes in mind games. He will use the voice of culture, the voice of a friend, the voice of an old song you haven't heard in a long time. He'll use any voice he can to get a thought, an argument, an opinion into your head that makes you go, you know, don't have to be a 100% for Jesus. Right? Yeah. I could just, you know, check the box. [01:08:09] (54 seconds)  #BrickByBrickStrongholds

Now we have a life pattern that develops out of that lie that's based on that wound that hasn't really been addressed or healed yet. So let me give you a let's kinda get an example. This is from the book. She's like, here's a wound. My dad took me to a restaurant to tell me he was divorcing my mom. Ouch. Stage one, there's the wound. Next stage would be the lie. So this person then you know what? Here's the unbiblical message. Every time someone wants to get close to me or connect with me relationally, it's gonna be painful. So don't really do that. So the wound leads to the lie, and then the next would be the false belief. Here's the false belief. Intimate relationships are just unsafe for me. You see how this plays out? [00:42:05] (44 seconds)  #WoundToLieToBelief

There's some of you here today that you're weary from the battle. Your mind is contested and you feel the battle. There's some of you, you've been carrying anxiety for a long time. Maybe you're here today and you've been carrying shame for so long that it just feels like your name. Some of you maybe you're carrying rejection or just an overwhelming sense of insecurity or inadequacy. Hear this. Listen, Jesus did not come to condemn you. He came to rescue you. He came to liberate you. He came to transform you into the person that you were meant to be. [01:10:55] (44 seconds)  #JesusRescuesNotCondemns

Preaching the good news of Jesus to yourself. Preaching the truth about who you are in Christ to yourself. You need to hear others say that to you, but you need to hear you say that to you and your enemy needs to hear you say that to you more than anything. The question is, how do you do it? Well, again, I'll refer to Haley Morgan's book, Preach to Yourself. She gives a simple little framework that's really helpful for doing this. I just wanted to pass this on to you. Again, if you wanna take a photo of it, you could do that. Basically, framework is three steps. First one, your thoughts say. So what's a statement? A short statement about what your thoughts are saying, right, at that moment. The second thing is what God says about that, and then third is the actual scripture. [01:02:02] (36 seconds)  #PreachToYourselfFramework

We can think different thoughts create new pathways and the old ones go away and new ones can become dominant. So it's not over. We have by God's grace a brain that is flexible. Whatever you set the brain on it, it becomes shaped by and the same is true with the way we think. But you have a spiritual enemy who fully understands that you cannot rehearse negative thoughts and live a positive life. He totally understands that. So he's gonna be working with that. In other words, in the words of the great philosopher, country singer Willie Nelson, he put it this way. He said, once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results. The question, how do you do that? How do you replace these negative thoughts that create these negative results that we don't always understand right away? Right. The answer is you turn on higher thoughts. [00:51:55] (50 seconds)  #TurnOnHigherThoughts

Now the truth is friends, our wounds do make us susceptible to lies. I know it's true for me. I wonder, would you admit that that's true for you? That your wounds can make you susceptible to lies. So let me ask you directly my friends. What stronghold might be built up in your mind and in your life right now? Some thought, some argument, some idea about just not being fully devoted to Jesus because there's all this other stuff happening. What unhealthy pattern shaped by a lie, attached to a wound is playing out in your life? [00:42:49] (36 seconds)  #IdentifyYourStrongholds

So let me ask you directly my friends. What stronghold might be built up in your mind and in your life right now? Some thought, some argument, some idea about just not being fully devoted to Jesus because there's all this other stuff happening. What unhealthy pattern shaped by a lie, attached to a wound is playing out in your life? For some of us, it's it's one of those things where we're like, don't know how to know. How would I know? And so I would just say this, listen for the broken record that might be playing in your life. Because there's a clue there. The broken record replaying. For some of it, the broken record is you're no good. You're no good. You're no good. Baby, you're no good. [00:43:02] (45 seconds)  #ListenForTheBrokenRecord

So the good news friends, through Jesus, through his spirit, through his truth, we could take thoughts captive and say, uh-uh, not today. I ain't building any bricks. None of that in my life. We can tear down strongholds one thought at a time. So what we wanna do is end our time just I just wanna lead you to a guided time of prayer that we can do together. So if you would, bow your head and let let's just pray together. Just bow our heads. Let's just slow down a little bit. Might even wanna take a nice deep breath. Just focus our hearts on the fact that as we have gathered together, God is present in our midst. Jesus said, where two or more gathered in my name, which we have done. He says, there I am in the midst. [01:10:06] (49 seconds)  #TakeThoughtsCaptive

Mhmm. By these negative and sinful thoughts. Well, let me just say this. So studies have shown this, I mean, and over and over and over. Pornography will destroy your life in a lot of ways. Here's the number one way. It will rewire your brain. So like, oh, know, lustful thoughts, it's no big deal. Unless you want to see everything and everyone differently. That's right. Because because when you think certain thoughts, your brain chemistry organizes around those thoughts, making it easier to repeat those thoughts. The dominant thought pattern that you have is going to be the dominant life pattern that you live. That's right. By God's grace, he gave us brains that can be rewired. [00:51:19] (37 seconds)  #ThoughtsShapeYourBrain

would you open the hearts of your people today? Would you enable us to feel the burden of protecting our minds as Jesus said to to be on guard, to not let anyone deceive us. Holy Spirit, would you be our teacher and guide moment by moment to capture the bricks when they occur? Whatever thoughts lead us away from devotion to Jesus, would you empower us to preach the good news to ourselves? [01:14:02] (29 seconds)  #CaptureTheBricksPrayer

to get into your home, to rob you of God's peace and God's purpose that flows into our lives through our devotion to Jesus. That's what he's all about. Now biblically speaking, this serpent, that's a title there, the serpent. So it's interesting. When you think about the names of God, the names of God in the bible reveal the character qualities of God, which show us the ways of God. Well, same is true with our spiritual enemy. [00:32:35] (24 seconds)  #KnowTheEnemyNames

But friends, listen, there's no power in a half hearted devotion to Jesus. There's no peace in a half hearted devotion to Jesus. You have to be perfect. Right. Jesus already is. So let him be and think on it. Obsess on that. Fixate on that. Reality is friends, we have an enemy who wants to build his lies into your life. One argument, one thought, one opinion at a time. Whatever gets you off the course of Jesus. And and the end game is to get you living behind a wall where it's all about you. It is the darkest place you'll ever be because it's full of artificial light. It's just not what God has for us. [01:09:02] (47 seconds)  #AllInForJesus

are contested territory. They are not neutral ground. Right? Yeah. There's a battle going on, and there are mind games at play. In fact, all throughout the scriptures from cover to cover, we see in the bible that that God's image bearers. We do in fact have a spiritual enemy. We have one. And he's very active in the world. He's a professional thief. And what he wants to do is he wants to get into your head, [00:32:14] (21 seconds)  #MindsAreContested