Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Mastermind, Part 1: Winning the War in Your Mind

Episode Date: September 9, 2018

It’s all in your head. But what if that’s a good thing? Our thoughts are more than a reaction to what’s happening in our lives—they’re a powerful force for shaping who we are and who we can ...become. Learn how you can use your thoughts to unleash th... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm going to need a little bit of help today from all of our different churches to celebrate with me something amazing that's happening in the next 90 days, believe it or not, because of your faithfulness, because of your generosity, because of God's goodness, we're going to launch three brand new life church locations in three different states. And on this day, right now, we are launching. launching campus number 30 in the northwest corner of Arkansas. Could you all please help me welcome today. Rogers, Arkansas, gathering together to meet for the very first time. In fact, what I would love it if you would do at all of our different churches,
Starting point is 00:01:09 in honor of the reading of God's word today and to join our hearts together in prayer, would you mind just standing to your feet, all of our churches? I would love it if we could put our faith together together and pray for the work of God in Northwest Arkansas and beyond. Let's just join our hearts together in prayer. Father, we thank you that we're a part of a church where your spirit is moving freely, where every single week, God, we see literally hundreds of people born into your family.
Starting point is 00:01:41 God, we pray for our leaders and we pray for this amazing core group on the ground even now in Northwest Arkansas. We pray for Pastor Ben. God, we pray for all the volunteers. volunteers, God, we pray for all of the leaders who are setting up, praying and believing for great things. God, would your son be lifted up? God, would you draw people to know him? God, would you bless our work in the community, partnering with other great ministries, partnering with other churches? God, that there would be lives, families, literally generations transformed by the grace of your son, Jesus. God, bless this work in northwest Arkansas. God, we thank you that we get to be a part, a small part of something big you're doing in a new city.
Starting point is 00:02:23 We pray this and believe in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. Would you guys remain standing, if you will? Remain standing. We're starting a brand new message series today. I want to read to you in a moment from God's Word. I want to set up this series for you and I tell you what it's about. It's called Mastermind.
Starting point is 00:02:40 Change your thinking, change your life. Over the next four weeks, what we're going to do is we're going to look at the mind of the apostrophe. Paul. What I love about this guy is toward the end of his life, if anybody won the battle of the mind, Paul mastered his thinking. The good news for you and the good news for me is he wasn't always there. In fact, if you read some of the early writings of Paul, sometimes he looks crazy, which is really encouraging to me because oftentimes I feel crazy in my mind. I have He battled. He said one time, he said, the things I want to do, I don't do, the things I don't want to do,
Starting point is 00:03:23 I end up doing, who can help me, who can deliver me from this body of death? He battled again, again, again in the mind. But he battled, he fought, he won, he took ground, and over time, he mastered his thoughts. And even when all of life was stacked against him from a Roman prison, he could say things there were otherworldly because he had captured the thoughts in his mind. This we're going to talk about. Let me just set the tone by reading to you from God's word. These are the words the Apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
Starting point is 00:03:56 He says this. He says, for though we live in the world, we do not wage war. Somebody say wage war. We do not wage war as the world does. The weapons that we fight with, for those of you that are followers of Christ, you have access to supernatural weapons from the kingdom of heaven, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power.
Starting point is 00:04:19 Somebody say power. The Greek word that's translated as power is the word dunamous. We get our word dynamite from this. It's the explosive, miraculous power of God. The weapons that we fight with have heavenly divine power. To do what? To demolish strongholds. What is a stronghold?
Starting point is 00:04:39 A stronghold is not a word we use every single day, often in our normal life, but this comes from the Greek word Akamora. And what it means is it means a fortified prison. One commentary I was reading was talking about if when you're in a stronghold, what it is is you are a prisoner, you're in this fortified prison, you're a prisoner locked by deception. You've believed lies that it put you in this prison. What does our enemy do? Our enemy tries to shape our thinking one lie at a time.
Starting point is 00:05:11 so that we're in this prison believing something that is not true. What does your enemy often tell you? You can't trust people. You can't let them know the real you. God doesn't really love you. God didn't care about you. God doesn't hear your prayer. You're never going to get over it.
Starting point is 00:05:25 Your life is always going to be bad. You're always going to be hurting. You can't have real intimacy. Whatever it is, the enemy lies to you and lies to you and lies to you. This is what Paul said. He said, we demolish, we crush, we vanquished, we destroy, we demolish arguments. and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. Anything that is not from God, we crush it, we vanquish it, we demolish it, we
Starting point is 00:05:49 obliterate it, we crush everything that is not in line with God's truth. And so what do we do? We take captive every single thought, every single thought, and we make it obedient to Christ. Over the next few weeks, what we're going to learn to do is we're going to learn to recognize any thought that is not from God, and we're going to capture that thought, and we're going to make it obedient to Christ. Why does this matter? The life that you have is a reflection of the thoughts that you think. Your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. If you want to change your life, change your thinking. Change your thinking, change your life. What I would love for you to
Starting point is 00:06:33 do is look at somebody sitting next to you, give them a big high. five and say, God is going to change your life. God is going to change your life. High five them, hug them, knuckle bump him, chest bump them. If it's appropriate, go ahead and have a seat. Who's ready for a little bit of God's word today? Anybody ready? Anybody ready?
Starting point is 00:06:57 Anybody ready? Anybody ready? I'd love for you to write this down. Write this down. Your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. I'm going to say that again. I'm going to let it sink out. your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts i love the old
Starting point is 00:07:22 testament proverbs 237 for as a person thinks as he thinks in his heart so he is as you think so you become if you think you can't you probably won't if you believe through christ that you can you can. If you believe that you're a victim, always suffering at the hand to some outside circumstances, you will be a victim. If you believe that you can overcome through the power of Christ, you can overcome. If you're always looking at the problems, dwelling on the problems, your problems will overwhelm you. If instead you're looking for solutions, looking for the work of God, you will find solutions and see God working. What do we know about our thoughts? for almost all of us in almost every situation.
Starting point is 00:08:12 Most of life's battles are won or lost in the mind. They are one or lost in the mind. The mind is a battlefield. Some of you who are children of the 80s thought love was a battlefield. Thank you, Pat. But I want to tell you, the mind is a battlefield. It is a battle between God's true. truth about you and Satan's lies to you. A war between God's truth and between our enemy's deception.
Starting point is 00:08:48 What I want to encourage you to do as we just build a foundation in our message series is to think about what you think about. Think about maybe over the last few days what it is that you were thinking about. I'm going to call it a thought audit. And I want to give you three different extremes to think about what you thought about. If you look in your notes, there's a little three scales with extreme thoughts, and I want to just go through them briefly and have you take a moment to think about what you thought about. We'll start with worried thoughts versus peaceful thoughts, worried thoughts versus peaceful thoughts. I wonder how many of you are worried about what people think, about your children, about the future, about money, about job, about health, about how long
Starting point is 00:09:35 I'm going to preach today or whatever. You know, you're worried. about different things versus those who have a peaceful mind where you rest well at night, your mind is at peace, you're always at rest, there is not anxiety, what do you think about is your mind characterized by worry or by peace? Let's talk about another one. Let's contrast a positive mindset with a negative mindset. Which one are you? Are you generally negative, critical about people? Can you believe she wore that? Who does she think she is? I can't believe He walks in and acting like that. Do you find fault easily?
Starting point is 00:10:08 Are you discontinent? Do you feel like life is always hard and it's going to get worse? Are you negative in your mindset? Or do you see the positive? I believe the best about people. Life is generally good and I believe in the goodness of God and I believe that he's for me and he's with me and that he's working in all things to bring about good.
Starting point is 00:10:25 Are you generally negative or do you have a positive mindset? Let's talk about a contrast between worldliness and an eternal mind. worldliness and eternal mind. Would you say you're more worldly thinking about the things of this world, what benefits me, what I get, what I have, what I want? Or are you more eternal mind thinking about what benefits the kingdom of God, how I can be a blessing to others, how I can use my life to bring glory to my heavenly king? Think about what you think about.
Starting point is 00:10:56 Because your life is moving in the direction of your strongest thought. In other words, what comes into your mind comes out in your life. No matter what you do, no matter what you have, no matter what you know, no matter what you buy, no matter where you live, no matter where you travel, you cannot have a positive life when you have a negative mind. Your thoughts matter. Let me say it again. Your life will always move in the direction of your strongest thoughts.
Starting point is 00:11:31 question, are you excited about where your thoughts are taking you? Think about it. Think about what you think about. If our life is always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts, are you satisfied, blessed, excited by the direction your thought life is taking you? For me, a couple of years ago when I answered that question, my answer was plainly, no, I was not. I'm going to be Real transparent, I hope you don't leave the church and think I need counseling. Stay in the church and I probably do need counseling, okay? My thought life, okay, I preach for about 35 minutes. And so for 35 minutes, I can be faith-filled and positive.
Starting point is 00:12:17 The problem is the three days before preaching and the three days after, so often my thoughts are so out of control. A couple of years ago, it was like a real, real battle. My thoughts would say, okay, so last week's message was okay, but I cannot do it again. I don't have what it takes. This message isn't going to be any good. I don't even know why people come here. I don't think I would even go to this church.
Starting point is 00:12:43 I'm exhausted. I'm overwhelmed. I don't know how long I can do this. This is so difficult. Nobody knows what I go through. Poor me, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma. Afterwards, well, that wasn't any good. Oh, my gosh, I can't even believe that you.
Starting point is 00:12:57 Is that the best you have? and my mind would race and race and race and race and race and race and race and race and race. So I decided to do something about it. And for literally over a year, maybe even closer to two, this has been one of the number one areas of prayer focus for me, and I've made massive improvement. I still have a long way to go in letting God renew my mind, replacing the lies with truth.
Starting point is 00:13:22 I've read, I don't know how many different books. I've studied it, and I have brought into my life a couple of things. a couple of daily tools that we're going to talk about in the upcoming weeks, very, very practical where I am learning to retrain my mind off of the lies of the enemy onto God's truth, and it is completely changing the trajectory of my life. This is what I want to talk about in the upcoming weeks. I cannot over-stress how important this is. Your life is moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts.
Starting point is 00:13:55 There is a battle. Almost every battle. The marriage you have is a result of the thoughts you think. Your financial standing is often a result of your mindset about things. The joy or lack of joy you have is based on what you think in your life, what you focused on, what you believe about you, and we're going to dive into it. How are we going to build a foundation today?
Starting point is 00:14:15 What we talk about today is going to matter in the upcoming three weeks. This is ground zero. This is the foundation. I'm going to give you two very simple things that we're going to work on today. then we're going to build on top of those in the weeks to come. The first thing I want you to do is this. Identify the number one stronghold that's holding you back. What is a stronghold?
Starting point is 00:14:39 It's a prisoner locked by deception. What is the lie? What is the deception? What is your enemy using to keep you from living the life God wants you to live? Maybe you just hear in yourself talk, I'm never going to be good enough. My past is too bad. After all that I've done, God could never, ever use me.
Starting point is 00:15:00 I can't trust anybody. I can't get close to anybody. After what they did to me, you can't trust anybody at all. I'm never going to be in a job that I love. I'm always going to be well behind. I'm never going to have enough. All of my relationships, no matter how hard I try, they all fall apart. What is the number one lie or stronghold that's holding you back?
Starting point is 00:15:21 What happens and why is this so? important. Whenever we have a thought, our brain is literally redesigning itself around that thought. There's a changing chemical makeup of the brain. Every single thought creates a neurochemical change in our body. If you think a positive thought, your body rewards you with a legal drug, a little dopamine. Some of you're going to be excited like, did I just hear dope, amine? It gives you a legal buzz, a quick hit, a thrill. You know that feeling. You hear some good news.
Starting point is 00:16:03 Dopamine. Someone that you like comments on your Instagram post. Dopamine. Somebody says, oh, you're looking good today. Dopamine. My wife Amy says, I'm thinking about you. Come home. Dopamine.
Starting point is 00:16:17 Okay. It's that little chemical hit. that high, that thrill, and your brain is saying, I like that thought, let's think it again. What happens is, the more you think a thought, the more you're creating what scientists call neural pathways in your brain. Your brain creates a path, kind of like if I walk across grass nonstop in the same place, I'm creating a path across the path, across the grass. Your thoughts, the more you think a thought, the easier it is to think that thought again. In fact, if you think a thought enough, that thought becomes a default thought in your brain.
Starting point is 00:17:06 If you tell yourself you don't have enough, over and over and over again, you create a pathway where it's easier to think that you're never going to have enough rather than believing that God is your source. you've created negative neural pathways. In order to change your thinking, we have to change the path that our thoughts travel on. For example, if I've got nothing but a negative path, I have to stop and say, wait, that thought is not helpful, not productive, and not from God. Therefore, I'm capturing that thought,
Starting point is 00:17:44 and I'm choosing a different thought. I'm choosing to walk this way toward a different thought. I am creating a new pathway. Here's what happens. If you continue to travel an unhealthy pathway, the path is clear and is easier to travel. If you choose to stay off of the unhealthy pathway, over time that grass starts to grow back up
Starting point is 00:18:12 and it's not as easy to travel and not as appealing, and you create new pathways with new God-honoring thoughts, and suddenly the God truth becomes the default instead of the lie becoming the default. Does that make sense? Does it make it sense? Okay, if you're with me, Sam, I'm with you. Are you with me? We're creating God-honoring neural pathways in our brain.
Starting point is 00:18:33 For example, if you have a frustrating day at work, and you come home and there's chaos everywhere, and the kids, blah-l-l-la-la-la. And then you just think, okay, I'm going to yell at them. Baa! And every day that, when that happens, you yell, you're creating a pathway that says, when there's chaos, I yell. What we have to do is we have to capture that thought and say, that's not a healthy God-honoring pathway. And then we change our thinking. It might be, will I stop and I count to 10, or in your case, count to 500, whatever you need,
Starting point is 00:19:09 and you pray a prayer, and you walk in and you hug your spouse and you embrace your kids. you're creating a new pathway. Whenever your mind says, I don't feel good about myself, let's eat. There's a clear pathway between a bad feeling and the refrigerator. I don't feel good, ice cream is a solution. What you do is you capture that thought and say, no, actually when I don't feel good about myself
Starting point is 00:19:35 and then I eat more, then I've compounded the unhealthy feeling about myself. So instead, I'm going to not travel that path. I'm going to choose a new path. I might go for a walk. I might exercise. I might eat something good. And then you feel better. And you do your little walk.
Starting point is 00:19:52 You get a little dope. B'em. And then you're rewarded for doing the right thing. And the old pathway starts to grow over. It's not as easy to travel. It's not as appealing. And you've created a new and a more healthy pathway. Your mind tells you, I'm going to blow it.
Starting point is 00:20:08 I'm never good enough at this. I screw everything up. Nothing goes my way. That is not a God honoring path. You say, I'm not going to travel down that anyway. I capture those thoughts. They are not healthy. They are not productive.
Starting point is 00:20:21 They are not lifting my spirits. I'm choosing a different path. I believe my God is with me. I believe my God is for me. I believe that he's blessing me. I believe his spirit dwells within me. I believe that he hears my prayers. I believe that he'll never lead me.
Starting point is 00:20:35 He'll never forsake me. And you're creating new pathways. How do we change our lives? We change our thinking away from the lies of the enemy, and we reprogram them with the truth of God. What does Scripture say about this? Very, very clear. So clear the application of God's truth. Romans 12 says, do not conform to the pattern of this world.
Starting point is 00:21:03 I could say it this way. Don't conform to their pathways. Don't think like the world thinks. don't live like the world lives, but instead be transformed, be changed. How are we transformed? Somebody help me out, by the renewing of your mind. Science would say you're rewiring your brain. God's word would say you're renewing your mind.
Starting point is 00:21:29 My assignment for you is this. Identify the one stronghold that's holding you back. Just one, what's yours? It's so important. You have to define it. You think I'm not lovable. It's not worth it. It's too much effort.
Starting point is 00:21:47 I'll never be good enough. I don't deserve anything good. I'm always going to be broke. I can never be close to God. I can never have a real and a meaningful relationship. Whatever it is, name it. You cannot defeat what you cannot define. Give it a name.
Starting point is 00:22:05 This is a lie from the enemy. that has kept me imprisoned, name it, and we're going to attack it. Identify that one stronghold. The second thing we're going to do is this. I want you to name the truth that demolishes that stronghold. What's the truth? We're not going to travel the old, unhealthy, unhelpful path. Instead, we're going to say, that is a lie.
Starting point is 00:22:36 here is the truth, and this is the path that I will follow. I'll illustrate it like this. There's a very close friend of mine named Kevin Penry, Pastor Kevin. Pastor Kevin served on our directional leadership team for close to 20 years before he retired, maybe a little over a year ago or so. Pastor Kevin goes all the way back to the early days. Years ago, we had an office space that was in a storefront, and we played a day. This was before we were in multiple locations.
Starting point is 00:23:08 We played a game called Capture the Flag where different teams would go in and basically create violence in the name of Jesus against each other to seize the flag and it became dangerous and two people went to the hospital. And so we changed the rules so we didn't have to pay so much money. Not because we really cared they got hurt
Starting point is 00:23:25 because when Pastor Brian brushed down and Norman got hurt, I kind of laughed. Love you, Pastor Brian. So anyway, so we had to have rules. And one of the rules was you cannot attack. before 8 a.m. So I have always been one of the earliest to get in the office. I came in at like, I don't know, 7 a.m. that day or whatever. I was walking to my office, and I just had a sense that something was not right. You know, I glow in the dark, and I have these visions and such, and just
Starting point is 00:23:53 juggle. But I just sent someone around. And so I went and I opened up a closet door, and Pastor Kevin had come in like 4.30 in the morning and was waiting patiently for the 8 o'clock bell to ring so he could go and attack the flag. And so I caught him. So I was so excited. So I just slammed the door and I put my foot on the door and I said, you're going to spend the rest of the day in this closet. And so I reached over and grabbed a chair and said, I'm putting a chair under the door. And I tried to put the chair under the door. And I couldn't quite get it to fit. And so I just told him there's a chair under the door, even though there wasn't. Pastor Kevin, never one time tried to open the door. He just believed my lie. He sat there and no!
Starting point is 00:24:36 Please, let's hear. I'm busting up, laughing at gut. He, there is, the door is unlocked. The whole time, he could just done this and walked out. And he's in there. I had an 8 o'clock premarital counseling appointment. I went in my office. Kevin's still in there.
Starting point is 00:24:53 He's still in there. Never tried the door. About 8.20 or so, I heard something in the ceiling above me. Pastor Kevin had scaled the shelves, gotten up into the ceiling tile, was trying to find a way out in the door. no ceiling. I'm dealing with this couple who's in a difficult situation. The ceiling tile pokes up two Pastor Kevin eyes gleam down at me. And I said, if you wait until I'm finished with this couple, I'll help you get down. Hold on the door is unlocked. Some of you are locked
Starting point is 00:25:36 in a prison and the only lock on the door is a lie. Identify what the lie is. I identify the truth. There is a truth that will set you free. I want to look at our text again, the whole text again. Second Corinthians, Tim. This is the apostle Paul. This is the guy who struggled with his mind. This is the guy who fought for health. This is the guy who never surrendered to the lives but continue to press for the truth. He said, for though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons that we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, Listen, church, our weapons have heavenly power, divine power, the miraculous, explosive power of God, to demolish the lies of the evil one, to crush the stronghold.
Starting point is 00:26:32 So what do we do? We demolish arguments in every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. What do we do, church? We take captive every thought and we make it obedience to Christ. I love this word captive. from a Greek word that literally it means to arrest or to seize with a sword or a spear. It means to capture at sword point or with a spear. What I love about this is when you think about what the Apostle Paul also wrote in Ephesians
Starting point is 00:27:02 chapter 6, he talked about the armor of God that we have to do battle against the forces of darkness. And every piece of armor is defensive except for one. The helmet is defensive. The breastplate of righteousness, the shield of fate, the belt of truth, the shoes prepared with the gospel, the readiness of peace. But there is one that is an offensive weapon. And that is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. What we do is we capture the lie with the sword of the spirit with the truth of God. And we declare, that is not from God, therefore I will not
Starting point is 00:27:35 believe it. This is what my God says, therefore I will embrace it. And we capture any wrong thought. I'm not going down this negative pathway. This does not lead to God's destination. I'm choosing a different road. And I'm watching, that path is starting to grow over. That's not appealing. Now it's not so easy. The more I travel God's truth, the more I believe it.
Starting point is 00:27:56 The more he renews my mind, the more he changes my thinking. The more I'm able to walk by faith and not by sight, the more his spirit guides me. The more his word directs me, the more his power empowers me to do what he called me to do. your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts what comes into your mind comes out in your life we capture the wrong thoughts we capture the wrong thoughts what is the number one thought this held me hostage the number one thought man it goes back to my childhood i remember
Starting point is 00:28:34 literally little kid i'm not good enough got to try hard not good enough. I got to try harder. Not good enough. Now, decades later, it's matured. No matter what you do, you fail. If you give it all to the church, you fail at home. If you give it at home, you fail at church.
Starting point is 00:28:58 Whatever message you do is never quite good enough. You can't meet everybody's expectations. They want to meet, and you can't meet with everybody, and you let them down, and you're nothing but a failure. You try and you try, and you never have. enough. The reason this lie is so powerful to me is because there's truth in it. There's truth in it. The truth in it is that I am on my own, never enough. On my own, I don't have what it takes. On my own, I am not good enough. But the truth is, I am never on my own. My God is always me.
Starting point is 00:29:40 with me. His spirit dwells within me. I have access to his living word, which is powerful and sharp. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells within me. When I start to recognize this, I don't travel the wrong path. I'm on the right path. I have time to do everything God wants me to do. I have the resources to do everything he wants me to do. I have the power to do what he wants me to do. I have his truth dwelling within me. I have his spirit comforting, guiding, correcting, convicting, empowering me. I have everything I need to do, everything that God wants me to do.
Starting point is 00:30:15 That's the truth. It's from 2. Peter 1.3. This is my truth. God's divine power has given us. I'm going to personalize it. God's divine power has given me. Everything I need to live a godly life. I have everything I need.
Starting point is 00:30:34 The more I walk in this, the more God's pathway becomes clear the easier it is to travel and the more his truth becomes the default. Satan tells me you can't. Oh, no, no, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
Starting point is 00:30:49 You never, no, I have the spirit of God dwelling within me. I don't know what it would be for you, but you say I can't get it all done. I can never know when I am weak, he makes me strong. But I'm not attractive when I'm just not beautiful. No, I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
Starting point is 00:31:06 but I'm just miserable and I'm always hurting and I'm all. The joy of the Lord is my strength, but I'm always going to be alone. No, he will never leave me. He will never forsake me. But I'm just a victim. I can't overcome. There's just too much. I'm always going to be addicted. No, I am an overcomer by the blood of the lamb and by the words of his testimony. I am not who the enemy says that I am. I am who my God, your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. What comes into your mind comes out in your life. You cannot have a positive life when you have a negative mind.
Starting point is 00:31:54 What do we do? Capture the lies. Next couple of weeks, we're going to get practical. How do we do that? What are the disciplines that will renew our mind? We capture them and we replace them with truth. What is truth? Jesus said this, John 832.
Starting point is 00:32:09 He said, and you will know the truth, and the truth will what? Who knows it? And the truth will set you free. Listen to me. Do not stay locked in a prison when Jesus has opened the door. The truth will set you free. So, Father, we pray today that you do some free setting, set a free God with your truth. All of our church is reflecting in prayer.
Starting point is 00:32:37 those of you who would say, yes, my thoughts can race. I can be overwhelmed with fear, anxiety, negative thinking, worry whatever it is. And I want some pathways to truth, God. Help me. Help me. Bring my thoughts under the truth of your word. If that's you lift up your hands right now, just all of our churches, lift them up, lift them up, lift them up. God, thank you for people who are hungry for your truth.
Starting point is 00:33:02 God, I pray that this as a foundation, we do this. name it, the number one thing is holding us back. Now, God, help us identify the spiritual truth. I pray God that again and again this week, the moment the lie starts to surface itself, that we would recognize it. Nope, that's not from God. That's the wrong pathway. I'm choosing a different road. I'm choosing to walk in truth. God remind us again and again. I know this can take weeks, this can take months, this can take, this can take years to create new faith in your truth. God help us to recognize it, help us to walk in your truth that we could honor you with the life that we have. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, some of you
Starting point is 00:33:51 right now, your, your problem, your prison is that you've got wrong beliefs about God. Satan will often tell you things like, hey, yeah, yeah. God, didn't care about you. After what you've done, God could never love you. Hey, you've been too bad for God. You need to try really hard. And then when you try hard, that wasn't good enough. God didn't love it. He's ashamed. He's embarrassed by what you did. You don't have what it takes. There's some truth in this. And the truth is that you don't have what it takes. And that little bit of truth leads to the good news and that is this. God has what it takes. God in his love and his mercy. Here's the truth. in his love and in his mercy, became one of us in the person of his son, Jesus.
Starting point is 00:34:40 Jesus is God, the flesh. Perfect in every way. Jesus loved those that religion rejected. Jesus embraced them. Jesus was perfect. He died on the cross. He rose again as a perfect sacrifice. Why?
Starting point is 00:34:55 So that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on the name of Jesus, would be saved, forgiven, transformed. You're not made right with God. by your works, you're made right with him by the perfect work of Jesus. When you placed your faith in him at all of our churches, there are those of you. You may be under the bondage of a lie. The truth will set you free. The truth will set you free.
Starting point is 00:35:15 The truth is he loves you. He is here when you call on his name. He will forgive you. He will make you new. He doesn't just save you from your sins. He fills you with a spirit to live a life of joy and abundance on this earth. All of our churches, those who say, I need his grace. I'm coming out of the lie.
Starting point is 00:35:31 I want to embrace the truth today. Jesus, I give my life to you. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All over the place. Lift them up and say, that's my prayer right here. God bless you guys. Right back over here as well.
Starting point is 00:35:42 In this section, lift them up and say, yes, Jesus, I call on you. Right back over there. My goodness gracious, over here. Oh, sir, praise God for you. Others of you today, lift them up and call on Jesus. Church online, you click right below me. Right back over here. Somebody ought to give a little bit of shout and praise up here.
Starting point is 00:35:59 Praise God for you. Oh, God, we love. you, others of you today, Jesus, take my life back here in this section. We're not praying for revival, church. We're living in the middle of one. Would you pray with those around you pray? Heavenly Father, I give you my life. Save me, Jesus. Forgive all my sins. Make me new. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you, so I could live for you. Renew my mind. with your truth. Capture the lies.
Starting point is 00:36:36 Teach me your ways so I can sow your love. Live your truth and glorify your name. My life is not mine. I give it to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name, would somebody shout and say amen and worship God for new life in Christ?

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