Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
Mind Games | Week 1 | The Battlefield
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August 24, 2026 Week 1
Mind Games: The Battlefield
Your biggest battle is in your mind!
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5
Our strongest thoughts are steering our lives.
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Prov 23:7 NKJV
Your life today is a result of all your past thoughts.
Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. Galatians 6:8
You can’t have a positive life when you have a negative mind.
1. Name the Stronghold.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
You cannot defeat what you cannot define.
2. Name the truth that demolishes that stronghold.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Cor 10:5
The word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It cuts all the way through, to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desires and thoughts of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. 2 Peter 1:3
Discussion Questions:
If we could “turn up the volume” on your thoughts this week, what would we hear most often: worry, criticism, fear, pressure, comparison, control, something else?
A stronghold is something that has been reinforced over time. What is the difference between having a negative thought and having a negative thought become a stronghold?
Are there any old “mental pathways” you can recognize automatic reactions, assumptions, or patterns you tend to fall into?
What does it look like practically to take a thought captive rather than simply trying not to think about it?
Take a moment to find a verse in God’s Word that you can use to bring victory in your mind, and share it with the group.
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Welcome And Series Kickoff
SPEAKER_00All right, everybody. I'm glad you came to church today. How many of you are glad to be here? Somebody. Very cool. Today we're starting a brand new series, and so I don't want to take too long getting started. I want to dive right into it. But first, let me say I'm glad you're here. Welcome if you are a guest. If you are new to relate, it means a lot to us that you're here as well. If you're watching online, thank you for clicking in, joining us on Sunday morning or anytime during the week over the internet. It's a blessing to have technology and being able to connect with you. And today we're firing off a brand new series called Mind Games. If you've been here for the last few weeks, you know that we've been looking at the Holy Spirit. And to me, this is like the next perfect step for us to put ourselves into alignment with His will because God has a design for your life, God has a purpose for your life. And uh I want you to pull out your notes. We are a note-taking church. In fact, I think that everybody on the first and second rows are already ahead of me. Already got your notes out. Pull them out. We're gonna get right into it. So I need you to understand how important what happens in your mind is, not just for plans and strategies and dreams about the future and putting your life together and making decisions. There's a process. So we're looking at the process today. We're looking at how we think, not just what we think. And I think more often than not, what's going on based on conversations with uh you that I've had, based on being a pastor for the last 25 years or so, based on what goes on inside of my own head. I know that for the vast majority of us, a big, a big portion of time is spent. There's mess going on inside of our heads. That's that's why the series Mind Games, it's not always fun and games. Sometimes the games that go on in our heads are like a disaster. They are messy and chaotic. And so I need us to dig into that just a little bit today.
When Your Thoughts Get Loud
SPEAKER_00Anyone here? Just a question. Anyone here have uh a mind that can get a little loud sometimes? Have you ever had an argument entirely in your own head? Maybe on the you're driving somewhere and you're thinking, if they say this, then I'm gonna say this, and you've got all the responses ready, and you go back and forth in your head, and you've had it, you've had the whole conversation mapped out because if they say this, then I'm gonna say this, if they don't say this, then I but when you actually get to the conversation, it's uh, hey, how are you doing? I'm fine. Thanks. That's it. It turns out the whole mess, all it could have all been avoided, but we carry around, it never stops. It's like the mess in our mind. The the mind games just keep going. I heard somebody one time just calling it mental acrobatics because we're just bending this way and that way, and we're jumping over here and flying this way and swinging that, and a lot of it's for nothing. I wonder what it would sound like this morning if we could just turn down the volumes on everything, but turn the volume on your thoughts and my thoughts, just turn them up for a minute and listen to the things that we're actually thinking. What would that sound like? Because I know for me, if we were to just take my thoughts, because I know the thoughts that are running through my head. Not what you said out loud this week, not the things you were actually brave enough to say to someone or post online. I'm talking about the things that only you think about, that you'd never admit to saying. For me, I wrote down a few of those things, some of the messier things that it's not a one-time thought. These are thoughts that come and continue, they relay in my head. They sound something like, what if something goes wrong here? What if what if this just goes terribly wrong? What if this day? What if this week? What if this month, this year, this season of my life or this project or this program, what if it just goes totally off the rails? How what if I can't keep it together? What must they be thinking about me? What if they're disappointed in me? What if all of this is a mistake? What if all the efforts and the uh the investment that I'm making into this moment or this person or this thing, what if it's a mistake? I should be better at this by now. I've been doing this for 25 years. I think I would have it figured out by now, but for some reason I'm at a loss at the moment. I'm trying to be honest with you and tell you that these are the thoughts that run through my head. Sometimes it just goes to this is never gonna change. I'm always gonna be carrying this. I'm always gonna be struggling with this thing or that thing or this person or this effort, or I look around at other people in the room, or other people on social media, or friends, or and I think, why aren't they struggling like I'm struggling? Why do they seem to have it all together? Why am I always the one that why am I the only person that thinks this way or feels this way, or why am I the one stuck in this? Or why did I say that? Why why am I thinking like this? Why do I feel this way? Why why did I have to make that so awkward with them? Was that awkward? This never seems to be enough. No matter what I do, it never seems to be enough, and ultimately so often I land on the I'm not enough. It's just not enough. Anyone else have that ongoing battle that just it's like this fight in your it's like you're fighting with yourself. You haven't had a conversation with anyone else, and yet it feels like things are heavy, and it feels like I just why is it so hard and it's all right
The Mind Is The Battlefield
SPEAKER_00here? The title of today's message is what I want you to recognize, and that is the battlefield. We play mind games, and we all have the acrobatics, we all have things going this way and that way, often at the same time. But I need you to recognize that there is a battlefield that all of us end up in. It's it's right here. Maybe it's between I want, I need to have faith, I do have faith, but also I'm full of fear. That's like Thomas said, I have faith, I believe, but help me with my unbelief. I've got both, and they're kind of going head to head right now. Maybe it's I trust God, but I also want to be in control. Maybe it's I'm spiritually confident and I'm ready to take a step of faith, but I'm also really insecure, and I don't know. And I don't know how to juggle all of this. Your mind, my mind, the mind is a battlefield. Here's the good news. In that battlefield, in your mind, the war for life, the the struggles of life are won and lost. Mostly right here. The good news is this that God's word is powerful to renew our minds. He gives us everything that we need to get our minds straight and to be able to think the way he designed us to think. Write this down. Your biggest battle is in your mind. That seems too simple, right? Your biggest battle is in your mind. Your biggest battle is not whether or not you can pay this bill or that bill. Let me, this might be a surprise to some of you. You can overcome all the obstacles of life, and it's possible to not have the battle in your mind, to not fight the fight and be able to struggle with it. That's why Jesus said that if we take on his yoke, then it's light, it's easy. We can overcome all of life's issues, but your battle, here's another. This may this is gonna surprise somebody. Your battle, your fight is not him, ladies. Your fight is not her, gentlemen. Your fight is not with your boss, your fight is not with your kids, your fight is not with the neighbor who won't cut their yard right, or with the HOA, or with anybody else who's you think I know you don't understand, Pastor. Yes, I do. I understand. You're thinking of that person, right? Your fight's not with that person that you're thinking of. Your battle, the struggle is happening right here. And if you can get through this struggle, if you can make all, if you can get peace right here,
Strongholds And Taking Thoughts Captive
SPEAKER_00everything else is gonna work itself out. He's gonna carry you through the rest of it. Watch this. Here's 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 3. We're gonna we're gonna land right here. I need you to carry this verse with you today. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. One version says that our our fight is not carnal. It's not temporary, it's not what can be seen. It's not this world that we're fighting with. The weapons we fight with, the next verse, the next part of the verse says, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. It's not you you might think of yourself as a keyboard warrior, but that's not your weapon. The weapons we fight with are not physical. On the contrary, they have divine power. Everybody say divine power to demolish strongholds. Demolish strongholds. So, what's this divine power? The Bible in the Greek it's dunymus. This is a this is an explosive power. This is like dynamite. We have God's power, God's divine power to demolish strongholds. And you might be wondering, what is a what is uh the stronghold that I need to demolish? That's the question. That really is the question that you need to answer today. So I got a picture of a stronghold uh on the screen here. This is uh an ancient for hundreds of years has stood, and it it if it's properly uh outfitted with soldiers and through the Middle Ages, it was impenetrable, and uh even under siege, it's difficult to take down because of the walls and because of the armaments. We're not gonna go into too many details, but I just need you to understand the parallel that there is something like this that exists in you and exists around us. It's not physical. There's some strongholds in your mind that you need to take down. This this right here, you've got just picture this. You have some things like this just in your mind that are they're walled up and they are almost impenetrable, and you've been thinking just casually, oh yeah, I need to fix that. You're not gonna take this down casually. The strongholds that are set up and in your heart and in your mind and in your life, you're not just gonna, oh man, I just need more willpower. Willpower is not gonna take this bad boy down. You're not gonna say, Well, I uh uh I'll just do better next time. Nope. This is not a I'll do better next time situation. Fortresses are built strong with reinforced walls over time, for sometimes hundreds of years established and built, and you have some things that you have built or others have built or have been built. Some of you already know what it is. It's not maybe maybe not one. And here's a here's another little secret. There's some strongholds in your mind. You don't, they're they're like secret strongholds. You don't even know they're there. You just work around them, you're working they're working against you, they prevent you from going this way. God says, Hey, I want you to go this way, and you try to take a step of faith, and boom, you stop. You don't even know why. You just I don't know why I can't do this. Remember, we talked about for the last few weeks, Paul says in Romans 7, he says, I try to do this, but I can't. I want to do the right thing, but I can't do the right thing. It's like I can't do the right thing. The things I don't want to do, I do them anyway. There's some things you there's some things we're aware of that are strongholds, then there's some things that we're not aware of, but they are very much like secret strongholds, not secrets to everybody else, they're secrets to myself. I don't know why I act the way I act. I don't know that I don't know why I when I make a decision, I'm gonna do this for you, God, I'm gonna not do this, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go this way, and then I just for some reason I can't do it. I tried. And here's behind the scenes that on top of all the stuff we do to ourselves and all the decisions that we make, there's also an enemy that is out to get you. There's also an enemy who is working overtime to set up strongholds in your life. He's in, he's got a whole battle plan. Imagine the the general in the in the war room, he has a whole picture of your mind and your thoughts, and he's thinking, if we could just set up a stronghold right here, they'll never be able to get past it. Or we think, hey, looks like God's trying to move them this way, let's put a block right here. He's strategizing, he's intentional. One thought at a time, he's building a prison of lies that become strongholds to keep you away from God's plan for you, away from where you were meant to be. What does that look like? It might look like you just your own thoughts. What does that look like? It looks like this. I don't know why I can't trust anybody. Nobody's trustworthy. Look at all these people. Everybody, there's just idiots everywhere. All we see is problems, all we see is negativity, all we see is uh roadblocks and obstacles and failure, and I don't know why I am this way, but why is everything broken? Everything is so bad. My marriage is a failure. I just can't seem to get it right. I don't know. Uh I keep failing. When we look at God, we just think, well, God doesn't seem to care. I want us to read the second part of the verse in Corinthians, the next verse, verse 5. It says, We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive. Everybody say, Take, we take captive. Make it personal, we take captive. Every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Here, this is the actions that we're taking and the weapons that we're fighting. This is not, hey, let's everybody get a sword, let's all go to church, or hey, everybody, let's all go join a small group, or let's all read the whole Bible in a year, or we can all those things are great. But what it's telling us, the secret to overcoming and demolishing the arguments and every pretension, is that we're taking every thought captive.
Why God’s Will Doesn’t “Fit”
SPEAKER_00All right. I want I want to think about this in terms of practical steps and what does this look like uh on an everyday basis when I'm struggling with my thoughts and I just can't get my mind right, and I'm playing the mind games. Last week we talked about the Holy Spirit. For three weeks, we talked about the the design that God has for us and how the Holy Spirit works, and He has His the breath of the Holy Spirit in us. And here's here's what I need you to picture: God has a will for you, He designed you in a certain way. We talk about this all the time, so I don't want to spend too much time here, but I need you to understand that God's design, his purpose for you is perfect. Does that make sense? God's perfect, and he has great gifts for us, he has great designs for us. But here's what happens when we pray or whenever we're seeking God's will, or just in life, and I brought my little example here. This is because I need you to imagine that this is my thought bubble. This is me thinking that God sends thoughts and God sends his will through the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us. We talked about how the Holy Spirit is a guide, he's a teacher, he's he's impressing us or he's leading us, and here comes just picture this is picture God's will is coming to me in a thought, it's traveling toward me. Here comes God's will. If my mind is not renewed, if my mind is in turmoil and I'm playing mind games and my mind is not an unrenewed mind, when God's will comes to me, it doesn't fit in my mind. And it's almost like my mind just goes. Here comes this perfect design, this perfect plan. God's will is coming, God's God's leading, he's directing. Here comes the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. Here it comes, and my mind unrenewed and full of all the thoughts that I have, and all the all of the world and all of the the logic and the wisdom of the world, it doesn't get this at all. In fact, this not only doesn't fit, but my mind resists the will of God. And so we're saying, God, send me your will, God, show me your way, show me your plan. God help me make this decision, lead me to the right person, lead me to the right door, open the door, and here it comes. And my mind just says, It don't fit, it doesn't work. I can't comprehend it. I can think about it, I can chew on it. Oh, the God's will, you want me to take every thought captive, you want me to be led by the Holy Spirit. That's an amazing thought, that's an amazing idea. God, that's incredible, but I just don't get it. So over and over and over, we're juggling and wrestling and chewing, and we're trying to get God's word, and we're singing songs about it, and we're reading scriptures about it and listening to messages about it, and here it comes. And by Monday, it's gone. By Tuesday, it's gone. I think I just I'm hurting somebody's feelings. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. I'm trying to, I'm trying for you to see a picture of what's going on behind the scenes and in your head that there's God's will for us is coming. And yet my mind is not in alignment with God's will because it can't be. Because I haven't been walking in the spirit. Remember last week we talked about following the Holy Spirit and being led by the Holy Spirit. And if I'm if I if I if I have my eyes on the things of the spirit, I have an appetite for the things of the spirit, then what happens when God's Spirit breathes into me and He gives me this God idea? I get it. I I'm running with it, but if I have my eyes on the flesh, the flesh doesn't get it. My mind can't understand it. So here's a quick idea that I don't have time to talk to too much about this, but when I understand, when I realize where I fit into this, that's called calling, anointing. That's that's where I get what God's doing in my life and I understand how I fit into it. If I don't, I can go my whole life and not know my calling, not know, not know what I was anointed and made for. Because my mind just can't get it. Some of us, some of you, some people in here. I'm gonna leave this where you can read it. Some of us aren't getting God's will, and we're it's not, it's not computing because you don't have a renewed mind. This series, this moment, this season that we're in for the next four weeks, I need you to understand what it looks like for your mind to be renewed, and that God's word has the power to renew your mind and and organize your mind and format your mind so that when his will and his purpose and his plan and his word comes to your mind, it fits. It makes sense. Now I'm in alignment, and now my thoughts start to work the way that he designed them to work. So what Here's the thing. I'm gonna go right back to the stronghold. There's strongholds in there that whenever God's will, God's word, God's design, purpose, plan, all the things, when that starts to whenever you start to try and um eat the word of God, you start taking in the word of God, those strongholds start acting up. Mm-mm. We're not going there. Not letting that happen. I don't like that. Your flesh starts to say, I don't like fasting. I don't like reading. I don't like waking up early and studying my Bible. I don't like spending time with those people because they they don't like it when I do X, Y, and Z. They hold me accountable. I know this is getting real serious. There's some things that are standing in between God's will for you right there in your mind. We have to address them. We have to look at them. So, real quick, I need you to understand
Toxic Thinking And Real-World Effects
SPEAKER_00that this is not just a uh a faith thing. This is not just a Christian thing, that science and your Bible agree. And there have been a lot of studies. Um, you can look up cognitive behavior psychology is growing, it's it's adapting, it's looking at how we think about things. And one of the things that it's showing is that a lot of the dysfunctional family stuff, the the relational dysfunction that we that we build and that is built into our lives, and things like eating disorders and addictions and some forms of anxiety and the stresses that we carry around. Some of our biggest struggles are a direct result of our toxic thinking. It's not just what other people have done to me. Well, I am the way I am because what they did. Well, wait a second. You are the way you are, and you act the way you act because of the thoughts that you think. Maybe the thought was given to you by someone else, but you chose to keep on thinking it. You carried it on, you kept ruminating on it, you carried that offense, you carried the thought, and it might have been given to you by a parent or something that was done to you, or the environment that you lived in. But listen, here's the good thing: you can change your thoughts. You can you get to choose what you think about. Proverbs chapter 23 says this. It says the same thing, but it says in a different way. It says, For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Whatever you're thinking about, that's where you're going. That's who you're becoming. Your strongest thoughts are steering your life. This is not just a hey, be positive message. This is not me telling you, hey, just think better. But I am telling you, think better. But I'm also telling you that God has a plan for you to think better. Think better thoughts. And the life that you are living today is a result of all of your past thoughts. It's not just things that were done to you, and the life you're living is a result of all the things that were done to you or the environment you grew up in. No, your life is a result of all the thoughts you've been thinking. This is also not a uh you should manifest your future message. This is a message that I'm giving you, that I'm telling you, that if you'll start thinking God things, then God things start happening in your life. If you start thinking about God's word and meditating on God's word, then his word starts to come alive in your life. What we think determines who we become. If you think you can't, you probably won't. If you think you can, you probably will. If you dwell on the problems, then your problems will overwhelm you. If you look at solutions and you're focused on solving problems, then problems get solved. If you feel like a victim, then you become one. But if you think like an overcomer,
A Simple Thought Audit
SPEAKER_00then you become an overcomer. So, real quick, and this is also in your notes, you can look. We're gonna do a quick thought audit. This is not the first time we've done something like this, but I want us to look just at a couple of different areas of your life. And the first one is this just I want you to grade yourself. Now, don't look at the person sitting next to you, don't look at their numbers because I'm gonna you can circle it on your paper. Even if you don't write it down, just think about it. Think through this, do this exercise on a scale of one to ten. Are you more worried or are you more peaceful? Are you rested and relaxed? You walk through life more rested and you just God's got this. It's gonna be okay. I know it's gonna be, or are you on the other side of that and every day you're chewing your nails down thinking about what if this happens? What if that happens? What if it goes wrong? What if this falls apart? What if this, what if the what if this is all just a train wreck tomorrow? How am I gonna deal? Like, where is your mind on that scale? What about on a scale of negative to positive? Are you usually have glass half full or glass half empty kind of a person? Things are usually going down. I don't know what I'm gonna do with all these people. What would they do without me? If you're honest with yourself, are you on the lower end or are you doing better in that area? What about the last one here? This is really a direct uh reflection of last week. Is your mind and your thought process normally more focused on the things of the flesh and the appetites of the flesh and this world? Or if you're honest with yourself, are you leaning toward the are your eyes on the things of the spirit? Are you usually thinking about what am I gonna eat next meal? Where are we going for lunch? Or are you thinking about what is God trying to say to me? Are you thinking about this week and how you're gonna pay bills and this person and that person and what he said and what she said, what they put on social media, and what I'm gonna have to respond to them, and everybody's gonna be looking at what I say and what they say, and you're digging in there trying to, or are you thinking about what's God doing in the world right now in my life? What's God's will for my family? Where's what's God trying to say to my kids? What's his next step of faith that he's trying to lead me toward? Because what you allow into your mind and into your thought process is gonna come out in your life. Also, you can't have a positive life if you have a negative mind. You you cannot exist as a spiritually minded, led by the spirit person if you are led by the flesh. You can't do both. Whatever scale, whatever end of the scale you're on, this is not me trying to slap your hand and give you bad grades. This is me trying to tell you, listen, we gotta do better. If you're a two or three, let's get it up to five, six, seven. Let's reach for more of what God has for us. Here's the last question. Then we're gonna dive in. I'm gonna give you a couple things and we're gonna close. Are you excited about the direction your thoughts are taking you? Of the audit, we just wherever you landed, is that something you're excited about? Do you wake up thinking, I can't wait to see what God's doing? I can't wait to see what he's gonna do in my marriage, I can't wait to do what he to see what God can do through my job and my my boss and my kids and my neighbors and my community and the influence in the world that I can't, I just can't wait to see what God's gonna do. Or are you on the other side of that thinking, my God, is it gonna be this way forever? Because I think as believers, God is moving, God it you the verse about the river of living water that should be coming out of us, the springs of life that God wants to pour out, not just into us, that's exciting. He said, Can't you see it? I'm doing a new thing. And yet a lot of us wake up thinking, I wish God would do a new thing. Oh no, he is, he's he's doing some new things, he's working, he's active, he's alive, his word is alive. You can't if you look around at the world and you turn on the news, and all you think about is this is terrible. The world's going to hell in a handbasket, all the things. Or we could be thinking and excited about man, the world's getting darker, but that's even more opportunity for God to move. That's opportunity for miracles, signs, and wonders. That's more opportunity for freedom to take place and people's lives to be changed when I look down the street and I see all the terrible things, or if I open up social media and I see, hey, this is happening wrong and this is happening, you know, all those things are just opportunities for us to let God's spirit be poured out and lives to be changed, transformed. But we have to get on the side where our minds are in alignment with the purpose and the transform the transformative power that the Holy Spirit breathes into us, or we're just bumps on a log. We show up to church every week and we listen to the songs and we open up and we take the notes, and last week is the same as this week. And next year is the same as this year, and the next decade we get to the end of our lives. I don't even know if I'm a Christian or not. I'm pretty sure God's real because I went to church for 50 years. God's moving, guys. We have to get our thoughts into alignment with what he wants to do. What's at stake? Obviously, our future, our purpose, our destiny, the thing that you were made for. I know we we talk about this all the time, but you were made on purpose for a purpose. That's not all that's at stake here, though. What's at stake is not just the United States, it's the world. The people around us, the next generation, your kids, your kids' kids. What are we doing today in the thought process and the way that we think and the way that we're led by the Holy Spirit? What are you doing today that will affect your children's children and their children for generations? There's some strongholds that you are passing on to your kids without even knowing it because of the way that we think. So we need to renew our minds with truth and stop playing the mind games. So here's
Name The Stronghold Name The Truth
SPEAKER_00we're gonna wrap it up. Number one, here's two things I need us to do. Two things we're gonna focus on over the next three weeks, uh, four weeks total. Number one, we're gonna name the stronghold. And that's not easy to do all the time because sometimes it's hidden, sometimes it's unknown. We just know that I got some problems, I'm I'm struggling, I don't know why this. We're gonna we're gonna dig into it and we're gonna name the stronghold. Science, psychology says name the drain. There's something looping in your head, and you might you can't always put your finger on it, but that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna put our finger on it. We're gonna discover what what is the name. Maybe it's that you think in your own head, even if you don't recognize it, it's just the backbone of a lot of your thoughts that I'm not good enough. I'll never be good enough. Or my past is too bad. Pastor, if you just only if you only knew where I came from, you wouldn't want me here. I don't know why I can't trust anybody. I just don't. They've shown me that they're not trustworthy. Maybe it's I'll always battle my weight, or I'll never be good with money. I can't get close to God. I don't know why. I just I'm just not that person. Those people up on stage, they're different. I'll never have a job I love. I'll never have broken, I'll never have relationships that aren't broken or messed up. There's just something wrong with me. I always date losers. I just always have losers around me. I don't know what my problem is. There's some parts of us that we need to break through the the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit. We need to break the strongholds. The negative thoughts that have created patterns of thinking. Listen, the when you think a good thought, you think a great thought, what happens? It feels good. Whenever I get a compliment or someone posts something online, like, hey, good message, Pastor Sean. That happens every Sunday. People walk out of here and you say, Hey, good message. I take that seriously. Even if you're just, I'm like, that that was a good message. I like that. But that's like dopamine. That's a chemical response in your brain. When your wife comes up to you, when Angela says to me, Hey, you look good today, that feels good. That's like a just this dope in my brain. Just I do look good. Thank you. I feel great. Whatever she tells me, hey, I can't wait for our date tonight or for on Friday night. That's just, oh, no, that's I can't wait either. That's good. We get those moments and those patterns in our thinking that feel great, but watch the the same thing happens on the other side when we have a negative thought. It starts to entrench and we hang on to the negative thoughts. Why? I don't, I can't say exactly why. I can say this though, that every time you think a thought, it becomes easier to think that thought. It becomes a uh it's like when you wake up in the morning, most of us do things in the same order because once we do things in an order, it's our brain creates a pattern. And that's that's how we work as humans. Which, by the way, I just want to point out this. I've recon I've recently found out that um just raise your hand if this is what you do. Most people, when you get dressed, we put things on in the same order. And I've recently found out that some of you guys are not putting things on in the same order. How many of you you put on both socks and then you put on your shoes? The other way is that you put on one sock, one shoe, and then the other sock and then the other shoe. We already got some, we already have some dissension. I don't know. I used to think, I used to think that I would sit down and I put on both socks because you put your socks and then your shoes. I used to think that was the way, but then I realized it's much more efficient if you put on one sock, one shoe. I had to break that stronghold. Now you need to break the stronghold. I don't. It feels weird, but it's faster. I don't know. It's less it's less steps. It's less steps. You know, if you put one shoe and then put your foot down, and then that's extra steps. I know it doesn't make sense. But what happens is when we start to think in a certain way, when someone says something negative to us, a lot of times that's a the first step down a path where now we think the next step and we always think. That's why whenever we're, why does this always happen to me? It's because whenever something, something impacts me, I respond the same way. My thoughts respond in the same way. It's like whenever we're walking, if I'm walking in a path in my yard enough times, what happens? I take the same, I have a path in my yard from our house to the next door house, to the house next door. And every time we walk that path, it gets more and more worn. And it's very easy to take that path. But if I want to take a different path, it's not as worn, it's not as easy, it's difficult. It'd be like, oh, I'd have to step off the path. That doesn't make any sense. That's different. That my brain, in your mind, you're thinking things a certain way, and it's difficult to think them out of order. The more you walk the old path, the same old path, the more that you think in a certain way. I don't know why I feel this way. I just know that I it's not supposed to be this way, and I don't hate, I don't like them, I hate them, and I'm gonna hold a grudge, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna get them, and I'm gonna and we're just feeding the same direction of thoughts that we always think. Romans 12 2 says, Do not conform to the pattern of this world. The pattern of this world is a thought process, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. And here comes his will, you have to think outside of your thoughts. Just step off of the worn path of thoughts in your mind and start to make a new path. It's not easy to think new thoughts, it's not comfortable to think new thoughts, but his thoughts, as you know, are higher than our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways. So instead of thinking the negative, critical, unhealthy, toxic thought processes, we have to change that. We have to identify the the the stronghold. Number two, and the band's gonna come join me and we'll close. Number two, once we start to identify the the thought process, we start to identify the stronghold. We named it. I'm not good enough, I'll never be good enough. Those thoughts that lead us to negative actions, hurting ourselves, toxic traits, saying negative things. The second thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna name the truth that demolishes that stronghold. Because your willpower and your positive thinking is not enough to overcome the negative patterns of thinking. What's strong enough and what's powerful enough to break down those strongholds is the word of God, the truth of the word of God. Second Corinthians, this is the verse we just read. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. How do we do that? What's the one offensive weapon that we've been given? We have a breastplate of righteousness, helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, the shoes of peace, shield of faith, all defensive. But we have one weapon, one spiritual weapon that gives us authority and that lets us take a step forward and be offensive and break down strongholds, and that is our sword. It's the word of God. So taken captive Hebrews 4 says the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It cuts all the way through to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together, it judges the desires and thoughts of the heart. When you take God's sword, when you take his word into your hand and you start to use it offensively, not just reading it up on a screen, but you start to take God's word and say, okay, I it's not that I'm not good enough, he's good enough. I'm more than an overcomer. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I can do all things through Christ. Whenever I start to take God's word and I start to put it in my hand and use an offensive me, and I start to come against the strongholds and the negative thoughts in my mind, I can break them down and think differently, act differently. My life is different. So here's what I want you to do. It's not always easy to do, it's not just, hey, one, two, and you're done. This is an everyday, this is a tool that we have to walk with and live with and work with. Every time I recognize a negative thought pattern and a stronghold that the enemy has reinforced in my, I'm gonna find a scripture and I am just gonna go to town on that negative thought. I'm gonna carry it with me all week. I'm gonna reread it and reread it and meditate on it and carry it with me. I'm not gonna let it go. I'm gonna go to war this week. I'm gonna I'm gonna win the battle this week. It's not gonna be one over with willpower, it's gonna be one with God's word. So you have to find that verse this week. You have to find that truth that's gonna overcome. We're gonna keep we're gonna keep winning this battle. But the first step is recognizing that the battle is going on, that there is a battlefield, and that battlefield is right there in your mind. We can win, we can win together. But I want us to close in prayer, and I want you to just commit yourself to becoming the person that God designed you to be and thinking the way that God designed you to think, and being the kind of person that when God's will, once you recognize it, that your mind is able to accept it and live by it and
Surrender Prayer And Next Steps
SPEAKER_00be in alignment with His will. Because that's what we were created for. So I want us to pray. The first step to that is surrendering to God, the first step to surrendering your mind is relinquishing control, saying, God, you I give you my life. So before we close today, I want to give every person an opportunity to say that prayer out loud, physically, with every head bowed and every eye closed. Would you just repeat this after me? And let's take a step of faith into God's plan for us and surrender our lives to Him, making Jesus our Lord and our Savior. And then He leads and He guides. Let's pray. Would you say this out loud? God, today I give you my life. Thank you for dying on a cross to save me. So Jesus be my Lord, Jesus be my savior. Jesus forgive me for my sin and make me new. Renew my mind through your word. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's put our hands together for everybody who said that prayer. Amen. The band is coming back up. The prayer team is going to join me at the front. Would you jump up on your feet? We're going to close and dismiss. But if you'd like to pray with someone, then come on down before you go. Otherwise, I'm excited about God. Renewing God and letting us live the life that He designed us for. You dismiss in Jesus' name.