Guarding Our Thoughts: The Path to Life and Peace

Welcome to Life Church! No matter where you're from or what your background is, we want you to know that this is a place where you can belong.

Now, in just a few minutes, we're going to be kicking service off with a few songs before we get into this weekend's message. We want to invite you to stand up, clap your hands, and be expectant for the things that God has in store for you and your family this weekend right here at Life Church.

We will continue with a moment of worship through the taking of communion. This is an open communion for followers and believers of Jesus Christ, those who believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to true salvation. If you would like to participate, you can find the elements in the seats around you. You can peel back that top tab and go ahead and take out the bread.

In Song of Solomon chapter 7, verse 10, the Bride of that beautiful poem writes this: "I am my beloved's and his desire is for me." The taking of communion is an opportunity for the bride of Christ, you and I, the church, to come back into an abiding, restful union with our husband Jesus. It's an opportunity for us to know who we are, that we are the beloveds, and it's an opportunity for us to remember everything that he did for us because he has the desire for you and for me.

The night before Jesus was to be betrayed, he was celebrating the Passover with his 12 closest friends. He had walked the Earth for three years with them, and he was around an ordinary table. He took a piece of bread, he blessed it, he broke it, and he gave it and he said, "Take and eat, for this is my body to be broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

Our beloved stepped in front of us and took our punishment on him. He took our stripes, he took our piercings, he took our condemnation, he took our rejection, and he ultimately took our sin. Why? Because he desires us. "I am my beloved's and his desire is for me." We are made whole through what Jesus Christ did for you and for me. We can find peace, we can find healing, and we can find life through the bread of life, and that is Jesus and Jesus alone.

So when we go into a moment of prayer, let's just remember everything our beloved did for you and for me. Let's pray over the bread.

Father, we come to you and we just thank you. We thank you. Jesus wants us, and now we have an opportunity to celebrate what it is he did for us because he so desires you and me.

That same Passover meal, before Jesus was to exit the upper room and go to the Garden of Gethsemane, he took a cup of wine, he blessed it, and he gave it to his disciples and said, "Here, take and drink, for this is the blood, my blood, of the New Covenant to be poured out for the remission, the forgiveness of sins."

Our beloved shared his blood; he shed his blood willfully, allowed himself to be murdered so that we can find freedom in his blood. There is nothing in this world that compares to the power found in the blood of Jesus Christ, and there is no fear, there is no stronghold, there is no sin that can compare to it. We cannot out-sin the grace of the cross. Jesus wants us, and now we have an opportunity to celebrate what it is he did for us because he so desires you and me.

So let's take a moment, go into prayer, and just thank him. Just thank him that no matter what we walked into this room with, his bride can be washed clean without spot or wrinkle.

Let's pray again: Jesus, we come to you, and there are no words that we can say, just thank you. Thanking you that our performance is not going to make you love us anymore, that you love us absolutely right now, that you want us completely right now. We thank you that through your blood we are set free from anything that's trying to hold us back from you. May we know that you love us, may we know that you love us, and may we know that you love us. Amen.

To enter into this communion where we are completely known and discerned and also completely accepted and loved, I just ask that you continue to cultivate that relationship in all of our hearts. May we not drink and eat judgment ourselves; may we just simply say forgive us. We thank you, Jesus, that you love us, that you want us, and that you went and emptied yourself out not only of divine glories but of everything on this Earth. Your body was destroyed so that we could be restored. Thank you for loving us. Amen.

I want to encourage you to get into God's word and to let it transform you and to let it change you and to let it be the thing that you go to when you need direction and when you need help.

Receive your love and affection that transforms us, moving us away from sin and death into your kingdom. I ask that you would empower us for that to continue to happen, and I thank you for the message this morning that you have for us.

Lord, open up our hearts and give us the ability to understand and to discern exactly what it is you're speaking to us, and we thank you for meeting us this morning. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.

Hey Life Church, I just want to have a few moments where we discuss culture conversations. Here at our staff meetings at Life Church, we talk about the culture of Life Church quite a bit.

So what is a culture? A culture is just a set way of doing things. We talk about vision a lot in the church, and vision is what we want to see happen for the Lord. Vision is where we want to go as a church.

So what's culture? Culture is what carries the vision, just like a plate will carry food or carry a piece of steak. And you know, you could have the best steak in the world, but if the plate is filthy, then nobody wants the steak.

So I want to talk about the culture here at Life Church. In every staff meeting, we have someone on our staff asked, "What's our culture?" and every staff member can name our culture. Test them in the hallways and in the foyers.

Our culture at Life Church is threefold, and that is: emphasize the word, prioritize people, and exercise excellence. We talked about that a lot here at the church, but I want to share it with you, those of you who consider Life Church home and a part of this vision.

So let's talk about the first one. We put it number one because we believe it is number one, and that's to emphasize the word. If you've been here very long at Life Church, you know I love God's word. You know that I'm always encouraging you to get into God's word.

The Bible says in Psalm 138, verse 2, that he has exalted his word above his name. Think about that a minute. God has exalted his word above his own name because, as we know, a man is only as good as his word, as a phrase we use a lot. Well, God wants you to know he's good to his word. He backs his word up. He says, "I watch over my word to perform it." He said, "My word will not return void."

So if God's going to work in your life in any supernatural way, it's going to happen through the word because God works through his word. We know by his word he created the heavens and the earth. The Bible also says in Revelation that someday he will destroy and make a new heavens and new earth, and he's going to do that through his word.

So we here at Life Church, we emphasize the word. We believe it's the most important thing that we have in our lives, and so I want to encourage you not only today and this week but for the rest of your life to get into God's word and to let it transform you and to let it change you and to let it be the thing that you go to when you need direction and when you need help.

Welcome to Life Church! We are so excited that you are here this morning. If this is your very first time, thank you for choosing to worship with us this weekend.

There's a connect card in the seat back pocket right in front of you. If you will pull that out and answer just the few questions that we have on there, you can take that connect card to one of our Welcome Central locations after service, and we have a gift just for you, just our way of saying thanks for being here.

We have a lot of things going on throughout the week and throughout the month, and so we've provided a resource called the Live Life Weekly. You can go to livelife.church/weekly or you can scan the QR code, which is also in the seat back pocket right in front of you. You can see all the wonderful events coming up, like the Surf Saturday opportunity that's coming up here in a few weeks. You can sign up to serve with us.

A few things I want to highlight that are coming up is Adopt A School. Education is extremely important, so we want to serve alongside of you in this opportunity for Adopt A School. We're going to be delivering backpacks and school supplies to the Putnam County schools and the surrounding counties so that kids can have good-looking backpacks, fresh school supplies, and what they need so they don't have to worry about, "Do I have this? Do I have that?" They can concentrate on their studies, and it's extremely important that they have these things.

We would love to serve with you. You can help deliver those, or you can become a prayer partner for the school year, and you can pray over the kids that will walk the halls.

I want to encourage you to emphasize the word of God in your life, and by a practical way, just commit to, over the next few days, spend 10 minutes a day reading his word. Get a devotional, but get the word in you before you start the day and see if it doesn't make a difference in your life.

The Bible says that Jesus is the word of God. We say it here all the time. A lot of people today want God without his word, but you don't get God without his word. God and his word are one according to scripture.

I want to personally invite you to join me for prayer night this Wednesday night. Once a month, we have a midweek prayer, and it is always the first Wednesday night of the month.

You are some of the most generous givers, full of faithfulness, sacrifice, and obedience. Recently, 95 students got to go to beach camp, and many of them experienced the tangible presence of the Lord in a new way. Two of those students even said yes to Jesus for the very first time, one of them even led to the Lord by their friend.

Your generosity and faithfulness have gone towards making this possible, and you have been a part of their eternal decision. Thank you for your gift, and may the Lord bless you and multiply it so that His kingdom can be expanded and His will can be done.

We're so glad to see everyone here on this holiday weekend! We welcome our friends joining us online from all over the world, and especially those in correctional facilities. We give them a big hand!

Unfortunately, our wonderful Pastor Eddie drew the short straw today, and we got me instead. He's taking some time off to get refreshed, and he called me this morning from the Rocky Mountains on motorcycles. We all need to take time off to get away and recharge.

We place a high value on our personal space, which is called proxemics. Researchers who study this have discovered that we all have four different categories of personal space.

The first is intimate space, which is for close relationships like romantic partners, family members, and close friends. If you are allowed into someone's intimate space, you can get as close as zero to 18 inches from them.

We're excited about the new building in Cookeville South and the Life Church Baxter opening in a few weeks. We just hear wonderful things about what's happening down there. We're also glad to see the great pastoral team in Livingston.

And everyone said amen! Thanks, Liz, give her a hand, would you do that? Man alive, it's so good to see you at Sparta Campus. We're glad you're joining us.

Well, if you came to hear our wonderful Pastor Eddie, I'm sorry you drew the short straw today, and you got me instead. But we're praying for you, and we hope that two months from now you'll find sand and crevices in your body that you didn't even know you had!

The next space is personal space. That's for relationships which are close but not that close, friendly but not intimate. That's the pat on the back type of distance. A distance where a private conversation can be heard. Whereas intimate space is 0 to 18 inches from me, personal space is 18 inches to four feet. We might not be really close, but we're pretty good friends. I'll let you get within four feet of me.

The third category is social space. Social space is for casual acquaintances and professional interactions. All of those operate in the space called social space. The boundary for social space is four to ten feet. We can touch others with a little effort, but we're not touching constantly. This is kind of like the small classroom setting where a student has personal interaction with their teachers.

So we have intimate space that is zero to 18 inches. If you are allowed in my intimate space, you're 18 inches and in. Make sure you've used your mouthwash that morning. If we're close, you're four feet and in. If we're casual, you're 10 feet in. If you're a stranger, stay the heck away from me. All right, you're 10 feet and beyond.

During the Covid pandemic, everybody remember Covid? A new phrase in 2020, a brand new phrase was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. They're still adding words to the dictionary, and a new one was added in 2020. You know what it was? Social distancing. We didn't even have that term until 2020 and the Covid pandemic.

During that time, do you remember there was an accepted distance the government told us we had to stay away from people? Do you remember what that distance was? Six feet.

Retailers remember they would put markers on the floor at the checkout lanes to show you where to stand in relationship to other people during the time of social distancing. Public venues, churches had to make sure that only a half or a third of their seating capacity was filled or could be occupied during Covid lockdown. It was against the law.

I had pastor friends in other states that were arrested for calling their church together to meet during the Covid lockdown because you would violate the social distancing requirements. So they arrested pastors for having church, but if you wanted to riot and burn down cities, there were no consequences. There were no social distancing requirements.

Months now removed from Covid, we don't give this stuff much thought until someone violates our personal space. There's nothing worse than someone invading your personal space.

Proxemics is something we often don't think about, but it is very important. For example, when someone gets too close to our personal space, it can be unsettling. Or when a four-year-old little brother invades his 12-year-old sister's bedroom, it becomes important to that family.

We place a lot of value on space, from private space to public space, retail space, play space, physical space, workspace, green space, storage space, outer space, crawl space, and even cyberspace.

But there is one space that determines our direction in life and our children's direction in life: our headspace. Our thought life and what we allow access into our minds is the entrance to our life.

The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said that those who are dominated by their sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. Whoever is influencing our thought life and our headspace is the one who will be controlling our life, our preferences, our choices, our relationships, and our marriage.

You're here this morning because your headspace was influenced. What you thought about influenced your destiny this morning. You ladies gave it some thought before Sunday got here, what you were going to wear to church. Men, on the other hand, don't give it much thought; we go to the closet, take a sniff, and if we're good to go, we put it on.

Our direction in life and destiny in life, even on the simple things, are because of our thought life. Romans 8:5 says that those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires, and those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires.

If we're dominated by sinful urges, worldly culture, and ungodly reasonings, it's because we've allowed those things space in our thought life. As parents and grandparents, we are diligent to protect our children's space. We do our best to make sure our children live and learn in a safe environment.

As our children get older, as godly parents, we want to protect their space. We want to protect them from the values of other states. We want them to be raised in a safe environment. With friends, we want to make sure that their values are similar to ours. That's the role of a godly parent.

But do we realize that according to the latest Pew Research, 97% of all teens in the United States access social media daily? Over one half of all teens ages 13 to 18 say they're on social media constantly all day long.

The most popular social media sites for teens are YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. When I heard these statistics, I said this can't be true. I cross-referenced it and looked at several research groups, and they are all saying the same thing.

Common Sense Media, a technological education not-for-profit group, reports that children ages 8 to 12 spend an average of six hours a day online. Teens ages 13 to 18 spend almost nine hours a day online. Social media is a wonderful tool, but it's very apparent today that the largest influence in our children's lives are no longer their parents, but the culture being espoused on our children's phones.

Very few parents have the time to be able to interact with their teens nine hours a day, but someone with totally different values than Christian values are pouring into our teenager's headspace. For the first time in history, we're raising a group of young people whose parents are not their main influence.

Unfortunately, that's what's happening in our culture today. We need to give our children space and respect their privacy. We don't want to be helicopter parents, hovering over them all the time. As a godly parent, a Christian parent, we don't need to be a helicopter parent. We need to be an F-22 fighter jet parent.

The Lockheed Martin F-22 is the most powerful fighter and can go mock two without turning on the afterburner. When they see trouble on the horizon, they're on it in a heartbeat. They don't mess around. We need to be like that as parents.

We need to be aware of the influence that is being poured into our children's heads for nine hours a day by people we don't know and who don't have Christ-like values. C.S. Lewis said it like this: "When the whole world is running toward a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind."

Unfortunately, that's what's happening in our culture today. We need to be aware of the influence that is being allowed in our family's headspace.

Unfortunately, in the last two decades, an ungodly shift has taken place in our culture. What used to be considered normal morally is now considered radical, and what used to be considered unnatural and depraved morally is now considered normal.

As Bible-believing Christians, we do not celebrate the direction the present culture is going. Let me repeat that: As Bible-believing Christians, we do not celebrate; we tolerate it, but we don't celebrate the direction the present culture is growing. We are running in an opposite direction, and we're trying to take as many of our children and grandchildren with us before they fall off the cliff like the rest of the world.

Now here's the problem: As Christians, we love everybody. We do not hate anyone. The only reason we're saved is because of the love of Christ. It has nothing to do with our goodness or our works or our talents or our wisdom or our insight. The only reason any of us are sitting here today is because of the wonderful, infinite mercy and love of Christ, and therefore we have to exercise that and demonstrate that to others also.

We love everybody. We're not against anyone. It doesn't make any difference what they believe, how they dress, how they act, how they identify. We are not against anyone, but we are people who are doing our best to live our life and raise our children through the lens of the Bible, and if that goes cross-culture with the present culture, so be it.

America is a culture in chaos. A loaded word in our culture today is "trans." It comes from a Latin word and literally means to go over and beyond. Trans means to go over, beyond, and across. The word "trans" is a prefix for a lot of our English words.

Years ago, if you would go to New York, we'd fly to Nashville to New York, New York to Amsterdam; those were called transatlantic flights because you went over the Atlantic Ocean, you went beyond the United States of America.

A transient is taking place in our nation. A concerted effort, make no mistake about it, is underway to move our culture beyond where we have been for 200 years to a place of gender confusion and sexual perversion.

When did all this happen? It just seemed like it snuck up. It's been going on for years, and now a concerted effort is underway. And as Bible-believing Christians, we cannot stick our heads in the sand and hope it goes away. Nine hours a day, every day, our children are targets of a culture that wants to take them further and further away from the Bible.

We face a challenge as Christians. We must never lose sight of the mission of the church. I see it happen amongst Christian people and on social media. Christians have become angry because of the madness we see taking place in our culture today.

We should always sense an outrage over the chaos that we see in our culture, but we need to direct that outrage towards Satan and not people. We need to prioritize people, and our outrage and anger should never blind us to the lost and hurt people around us, even if they don't see how lost and hurt they are.

They will never come to truth in Christ and freedom in Christ if we are mad at them, calling them names, or rejecting them. At the same time, they will never come to freedom in Christ if we stick our heads in the sand and are so scared of being criticized that we don't speak truth to them. We walk a fine line.

First Peter chapter 3, verse 15 says that we should always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have. We should do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against our good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Just like when we go to a medical professional, a right cure cannot be found unless a right diagnosis exists. We need to diagnose the situation correctly in order to find the right cure.

When corporate retail giant Target partnered with self-proclaimed transgender satanist Eric Carnell's clothing line, it signaled that a cultural war has reached a new level in our nation. Eric Carnell posted on his Instagram page, "Being called a demon is something I can cope with, and being called a trans demon is pretty blank cool. Most of my work focuses on Gothic or dark satanic imagery juxtaposed with bright colors and LGB positive messages."

When North Face, one of our greatest largest retailers, partnered with that madness, they used their spokesman, a guy with a mustache wearing a rainbow dress, to invite people to "explore the outdoors hiking in join community art lesbians and lesbian make lesbians making art."

We are falling over into madness when Disney advertises a guy wearing a dress and welcoming girls into the enchanted chamber. We have fallen into madness when biological men and boys are allowed to undress in high school girls' locker rooms and compete against biological girls and take their awards and rob those girls of their victories. This is a culture of madness.

I'm a huge baseball fan. I love baseball. I just, I love it. If a baseball game's on at night when I get home, I'll watch it. I don't care who's playing. I like the Braves. I like the Red Sox. I just like baseball.

I like baseball. I played baseball. I never was good in basketball. Short, fat boys that can't jump, basketball is not your game. I had buddies that wanted to be able to dunk the ball. My goal in life was just to touch the net. If I can just touch the net.

I'm like football, but I wasn't no good in football. My high school football coach did give me a great compliment. He said, "Can I be honest with you, son?" I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "You run faster in one place more than anybody I've ever met in my life." I said, "Well, thank you." I thought I was the tailback on the team. Every time I got off the beat, she said, "Get your tail back on the beat."

I was so disappointed this past month when the LA Dodgers invited a Christian hate group called The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, whose motto on their website is "Go and send more," to perform at one of their games. It's a group of men who dressed up as nuns, and in their performance on the field at Dodger Stadium, they poured out a bottle of holy water and then proceeded to bless the crowd with it. This is a culture of madness.

Dear friends, our culture is heading toward madness, and every week I receive calls and messages and emails from parents and grandparents asking me to pray for their children and grandchildren who are being swept away into this madness.

What influence are we allowing in our family's headspace? What is dominating our thought life? What are we listening to and watching and absorbing and meditating upon? Paul said the source of our thoughts we allow in our mind will determine our future.

What we watch, what we listen to, what we consume in our minds will eventually determine the direction of our lives and our children's lives.

Go back again to Romans 8:6. Listen to what he says: "Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death." In the United States of America, since the year 2000, the suicide rate has increased 35 percent. 54 million American adults over the age of 19, one out of every five, are seeking some type of help for an anxiety disorder.

What Satan has sold us to as enlightenment and fun has turned into death. The Bible says it here: letting our sinful nature control our mind leads to death, but letting the Spirit of God control your mind leads to life and peace. Hallelujah!

The keyboard warriors will come after me this week. You know, when you get 65, you just don't really care anymore. You know, you just don't really care anyway. I have one person to please; I have two people to please. I'm not Amanda; she is already. I mean, she's so fortunate.

I have two people to please: Pastor Bobby and the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone else, 10 feet apart.

Let me read one more verse of scripture, Romans chapter 1. This is the headline we could literally substitute this for the headlines of the New York Times. Romans chapter 1, verse 18: "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness."

Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. Verse 20: "For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

Do you know what he says? He's saying here that the heathen people who've never heard the gospel, who've never seen a Bible, they're without excuse because God has made it plain to them through his creation.

People who have never heard the name of Jesus or the Bible have no excuse. When they look outside and see nature, they can realize there is a higher power. When we don't give God His rightful place of preeminence in our life, our nation, and our families, our thinking becomes futile and our hearts become darkened.

The educational elitists claim to be wise, but they can't even identify what a woman and man is. They exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being, birds, animals, and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over to their sinful desires and sexual impurity.

When God is removed from our headspace, it affects us sexually, and we become perverted in our understanding. Men and women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lust and a depraved mind.

They do what they ought not to do and are filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. Bible-believing Christians have a solemn responsibility to protect our headspace and the minds of our children.

We must make it our purpose in life to find out who and what is influencing our family nine hours a day. We must be guardians of prayer and protect our family from this madness that has taken place.

Let our spirit of revival come to our families and this church. Holy Spirit, we cry out to you to protect us and forgive us for subtlety.

Let us just thank you for the blood. He did not have said. From the far side of the castle, you held me in your side, so you made a way across the great divide. Left behind heavens, my soul first time I hope you, Jesus's, Jesus thank you, Jesus, foreign, death has no steam, adventures, you have saved my life darkness, foreign, thunder Jesus, Christ.

We pray that by giving in to a culture of immorality and ungodliness, lasciviousness, and lewdness, we can be, as Peter said, sober-minded and alert.

One more praise God, you'll have a great Sunday. Thank you for worshiping with us; y'all be safe.

Thank you for choosing to spend a part of your weekend here with us at Life Church. If you made a decision to follow Christ or would like to pray with someone, please let us know by sending us an email or private messaging us. We would love to connect with you.

We have resources that are available to you so that you don't have to do life alone. We hope that you are leaving here feeling encouraged to walk out in the full and abundant life that God has for you. See you next week.