Sunday First Service | Unburdened #2 | Pastor Rob Thomas

Old lies, regrets, mental loops, things that keep going around in our mind with it in play over and over again. You're not enough. You'll never change. These things that you did in your past, they will always define you. Those things often come in. What they do is they poison us even after we've confessed our sin. Even after we've repented, even after God has forgiven us, they continue to poison us. Guys, Jesus didn't die just to forgive your act of sin. He died to renew your mind so that the poison stops circulating through your system and is destroyed. [00:59:04] (34 seconds)  #MindDetox

Guys, again, this is not positive thinking or self help. This is spiritual warfare using the weapons that Jesus won for us on Calvary. He defeated every power of darkness, including the lies that keep us chained in our minds. Renewal listen. Renewal is how we enforce the victory of Jesus day by day. Old thoughts don't die of natural causes. They must be taken captive by truth. Jesus already won the battle. Now we enforce that victory in our minds. Did Jesus do what he said he did? Then we enforce that victory by taking every thought captive. So what lie or reoccurring thought has built a fortress in your mind? [01:20:29] (60 seconds)  #SpiritualWarfare

Guys, it's time to get free. The battlefield is in your mind. Take the thoughts captive and bring them into the obedience of Christ. And I promise you will never be the same again. The things that have harassed you for months and years and maybe even decades of your life will begin to lose their grip, and that stronghold will crumble in Jesus' name. How many of you still here with your eyes closed? How many of would raise your hand and say, man, that speaks to me today? I got some areas of my life where strongholds need to bow. I got some areas where I need to speak the truth over lies and all over the room. I see your hands. [01:39:11] (44 seconds)  #BreakStrongholds

Imagine waking up in the morning and your first thought is not shame. It's not defeat. Your first thoughts are, I'm accepted. I'm loved. I'm forgiven. I'm made new. Imagine decisions you make in life flowing from a place of peace rather than a place of fear. Imagine relationships healed because you are no longer reacting from old wounds. Ask for somebody today. Imagine relationships in your life being healed because you're no longer reacting from a position of old wounds. You wanna know why you got some relationship issues that keep coming up over and over again? Probably because you're operating from place of old wounds. [01:27:58] (50 seconds)  #IdentityInChrist

Strongholds are thought patterns that oppose god's truth. People say, well, I just got this stronghold in my life. You have thought patterns that oppose the truth of god's word. Paul says, transformation happens through the renewing of your mind. It can literally be translated from the Greek, making new again. How many of you wish you could just make your mind new sometimes? Make it new again, Lord. Old patterns conform us to the world. The old ways that you think about yourself. Those old things that play over and over again, that's that's your flesh. That's conforming to the world. [01:08:08] (40 seconds)  #DivineWeapons

In this case, it's referring to structures built from lies. How have you noticed sometimes we build what seem to be impenetrable structures inside our hearts that are built of lies? They're built of lies, prideful arguments, and it says anything that raises is raised against the knowledge of god. Anything the word of god says is contrary to it is a lie. And says, these weapons are divinely powerful, not it's it's guys, it's not our willpower. It's not self help. It's not just positive thinking or something like that, but it's the power of god through truth, through prayer, through the word, through the holy spirit. And it says we take every thought captive. [01:16:21] (44 seconds)  #RenewedByTheCross

Listen, you don't need to think better thoughts. You just need a renewed mind is what you need. Read all the self help books you want. You gotta get it in the word of God in you. The cross paid for your renewed mind, and the resurrection makes it possible. Yeah. Yeah. What would a renewed mind feel like for you this week? Picture a specific area. I think for most of us in the room, there's something. There's somewhere where you need to renew your mind. You need to surrender it. You need to do get that argument. You need to take it captive as a prisoner of war, and you need to bring it into the obedience of Christ Jesus. [01:29:15] (47 seconds)  #DailyMindCheck

I challenge you this week every day, let's say every evening, is be your homework. Every evening. Do a little self checkup before you go to bed at night. And in your little checkup, in your self examination, say, what thoughts have been looping through my heart and mind today? What have I been replaying over and over again? And then I encourage you. You replace that thought with the truth of God's word. Speak God's word over it. If you don't know what God's word over it is, see one of our prayer partners in just a minute. You tell them what your situation is. They'll give you a scripture. [01:35:32] (45 seconds)  #FreedomThatSticks

Some of you, I'm gonna encourage you this week to write down the lie that has been dominating you. Write that thing down. And then each night, when you do that self examination, I want you to mark that thing out, put an x through it, and write what God's truth says right beside it. The next day, come back to it. Put another x right on top of that lie, and write God's truth to it. The next day, come back to it. Put another x over it, and write God's truth next to it. You gotta buy into this thing, guys. It will change your life forever. You will never be the same. [01:36:24] (37 seconds)  #RecreatedMind

You can confess sin, but if you keep thinking the same old thoughts, the content keeps recirculating. Some of you might need to write this down. I think I might have it in the notes. You can confess the sin but if you keep thinking the same old thoughts, the contamination keeps recirculating. Renewal is an optional. Renewal is how freedom sticks. We all said we want freedom. Listen, guys. We even have a freedom ministry here at Harvest But I know people that have gone through the freedom ministry and weeks later, they're walking in the same bondage that they were a couple of weeks earlier. [01:09:12] (36 seconds)  #ResurrectionFreedom

You've started taking your old thoughts captive and bringing them into the obedience of Christ. But the real promise is this, your mind, the mind doesn't just get patched up, it gets recreated. Patches have a way of coming off and fraying. God's not patching anything up. He's recreating. The loops that used to control you, that said, I'm worthless. I'll never change. God's grace is for everybody else. All these different things. Those they they begin to lose their grip on you. They begin to fall off. Not because you you strived harder and harder, not because you tried harder and harder, but because you allowed the holy spirit to renew your mind day by day by day. [01:26:56] (47 seconds)  #BattleForYourMind

It gets to the point where you can't open and close it anymore, and you get so irritated that finally one day you yank the thing out and you clean it out. Well, it feels good. Get it cleaned out and shut the door, shut the drawer. But here's the reality. If you don't change your habits, what's gonna happen in the next couple weeks? You're gonna put the same old mess back in there. Come on here. And it's gonna be a junk drawer again. And how many of us do that with our lives? We seek freedom, and we get free, and we get rid of all the junk, and it doesn't take but weeks before we're allowing that junk right back in there. [01:12:41] (42 seconds)  #SpotTheLoop

What old thought patterns keep replaying from your past? How has it kept the burden alive even after you've confessed and even after god has forgiven you? How have the thoughts you're thinking kept those things alive? God's not doing it. And and here's the hey. Let me be real frank. You can blame the devil all day long, but it's your thoughts. Take them captive. So let me help you see what this may look like in everyday life in a practical way because, guys, this isn't some abstract idea. This is probably something that's happening right now in your head. [01:09:58] (42 seconds)  #MindResurrection

This is probably something that's happening right now in your head. So you may have you may have last Sunday, you may have confessed a sin. You may have confessed some type of moral failure just last week, and and maybe maybe it was a bad attitude or a harsh word that you spoke or a secret secret sin that you confessed. Maybe it's a mistake that you have carried for years and years of your life, and you you laid that thing. Maybe maybe you did it last Sunday. You laid it down, and you you repented, and you walked away feeling lighter. The heaviness was gone. The burden was gone. And then Monday hits, and you're up and you're making your coffee or you're driving to work or whatever it may be, and the old thought pattern starts creeping up and starts replaying in your mind again. [01:10:36] (48 seconds)  #ResurrectionLifeNow

Guys, a renewed mind is not just a good idea. It is the promise of a resurrection life breaking into our everyday life, becoming part of our identity and who we are every day. Back to Romans 12 verse two says, be transformed. How are we transformed? By the renewing of your mind. And then look at this. Ephesians chapter four verse 22. It says that in reference to your former way of life, what are you to do? You're to rid yourself of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which is the likeness of God and has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. [01:23:43] (58 seconds)  #RenewalIsKey

You're like, stop. And you're trying to change your thoughts and change your mind and you can't get it out of your dumb head. You're like, guys, that's a tiny picture of what happens with our old thought patterns. They get stuck. They repeat. They replay over and over again. They loop, and they contaminate everything else. They contaminate everything downstream. Our emotions, our decisions, again, our joy, and even our peace. So, like I did last week, will you take just a moment and bow your head and close your eyes with me for just a minute? And I want you to think in your life, is there a reoccurring thought? Is there a loop? [01:01:21] (48 seconds)  #ReceiveTheWord

Guys, I believe the confession was real and the forgiveness of god is real in your life but the old thought pattern didn't die. It wasn't put to death. It just waited for a quiet moment to begin replaying the recording again in your mind over and over again. Guys, the loop doesn't just remind you of your past. It keeps shame alive. It keeps the burdens heavy, and it keeps you from fully stepping into freedom that God has already purchased for you. Renewing your mind, I was thinking it's it's like cleaning out a closet or a drawer. How many of you got one of them closets or one of them drawers in your house? It's the catch all. [01:11:58] (43 seconds)  #BelieveGodsTruth

Guys, I want us to have a moment of reflection here as we look into the mirror of God's word, and we ask ourselves, Lord, what are you speaking specifically to me today? And I believe that in many of us here, maybe even the majority of us, things came to the surface. There are things that have been holding you back, have been stealing your joy, have been stealing your your peace, been stealing your purpose. And the reality is you've already repented, you've already been forgiven, and you're keeping it alive. Now it's time to believe what God's word says. Some of you need to pray and you say, God, give me your vision so that I can begin to see myself the way that you see me. [01:33:50] (50 seconds)