WEBVTT 00:00:00.059 --> 00:00:01.828 People said amen, amen. 00:00:01.828 --> 00:00:15.608 We are going to be in Genesis, chapter 3 this morning, genesis chapter number 3 this morning, and we are starting a new series entitled Change your Thinking, change your Life, change your Thinking, change your Life. 00:00:15.608 --> 00:00:22.967 And I don't know if you guys are anything like me, but it seems like some of my biggest battles take place in my mind. 00:00:22.967 --> 00:00:24.625 Can you guys relate to that? 00:00:24.625 --> 00:00:25.871 Some of the biggest battles take place in my mind. 00:00:25.871 --> 00:00:26.434 Can you guys relate to that? 00:00:26.434 --> 00:00:28.783 Some of the biggest battles take place in my mind. 00:00:29.625 --> 00:00:39.246 I mean, I can look back at times where I fully believe something that I thought was true but it wasn't In fact. 00:00:39.246 --> 00:00:52.950 I can look back specifically at something that actually became a stronghold in my life, a deep, limiting belief that prevented me from really experiencing life. 00:00:52.950 --> 00:01:01.091 Because I believed this lie and this stronghold turned into thoughts and then I started looking for evidence to support this. 00:01:01.091 --> 00:01:11.650 I believed that my personal worth and value was determined by what I could do, what I could accomplish and how good I was at something. 00:01:11.650 --> 00:01:27.650 And if I wasn't good or I messed up, I made a mistake, then I was a failure, because for me, the lie I believe, the stronghold that I believed about my identity was. 00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:35.850 It was completely connected to my achievements and what I could achieve or not achieve. 00:01:35.850 --> 00:01:37.646 And this is the lie I thought. 00:01:37.646 --> 00:01:48.409 I thought that I was only as valuable as my success, whatever success looked like in that season of my life. 00:01:48.409 --> 00:01:53.745 And because I had this stronghold in my life, that's really what it was. 00:01:53.745 --> 00:01:56.828 I had this belief in my life. 00:01:56.828 --> 00:02:01.245 It caused me to live on a mental and emotional rollercoaster. 00:02:01.245 --> 00:02:21.182 Some days I was up and some days I was down, and, honestly, it also caused me to be really prideful at times and also really discouraged other times, because when I was doing it, when I was achieving, when I was like, yeah, look at me, I did this right, but then, when I couldn't do that, I was nobody. 00:02:21.182 --> 00:02:26.931 And I live a life trapped in this mindset. 00:02:28.513 --> 00:02:30.360 But there is a truth that set me free. 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:42.012 It's a truth from God's word, and the truth and it really even touches me today is that I'm valuable because I'm so loved by Jesus that he died for me. 00:02:42.012 --> 00:02:46.289 I'm so loved by Jesus that he died for me. 00:02:46.289 --> 00:02:47.513 Like. 00:02:47.513 --> 00:02:48.375 This truth changed me. 00:02:48.375 --> 00:02:52.163 This truth revolutionized my life and I came to this place. 00:02:52.163 --> 00:02:54.346 And maybe for you you think, oh, it's not a big deal. 00:02:54.346 --> 00:02:56.348 But for me this was like revolutionary. 00:02:56.348 --> 00:03:09.646 For my thinking it was I could not accomplish anything the rest of my life and I literally could be bedridden and my value would not change at all because Jesus loved me and died for me. 00:03:09.646 --> 00:03:25.109 And I don't think that I'm the only one that at times can be maybe trapped in certain ways of thinking that limits me, in certain ways of thinking that prevents me from walking in God's truth. 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:32.704 And the reason why we want to walk in God's truth and embrace God's word is because his word sets us free. 00:03:32.704 --> 00:03:36.132 In fact, in John, chapter number eight, this is what Jesus said. 00:03:36.132 --> 00:03:38.705 He said you will know the truth and the truth will. 00:03:38.705 --> 00:03:39.407 What are those three words? 00:03:39.407 --> 00:03:45.712 It will set you free, set you free, set you free. 00:03:45.712 --> 00:03:51.098 This is what the truth does. 00:03:51.098 --> 00:03:55.219 And this takes us to a passage that, honestly, is kind of sad. 00:03:55.219 --> 00:04:12.682 It's heartbreaking, because somebody had a doubt placed in their mind that caused them to be deceived, that resulted in them being destroyed, somebody that lost the battle in their mind. 00:04:12.682 --> 00:04:18.406 So because they lost the battle in their mind, they lost the battle of life. 00:04:18.406 --> 00:04:23.911 And can I say that if you can win the battle in your mind, no matter what battle you face here in this earth. 00:04:23.911 --> 00:04:28.074 You can win that battle and we're going to see it today in Genesis, chapter 3. 00:04:28.074 --> 00:04:29.735 And if you're ready for the word, would you say amen, amen. 00:04:30.675 --> 00:04:32.617 Genesis, chapter 3, verse number 1. 00:04:32.617 --> 00:04:33.377 The scripture says this. 00:04:33.377 --> 00:04:42.744 It says now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. 00:04:42.744 --> 00:04:49.069 He said to the woman did God really say you can't eat from any tree in the garden? 00:04:49.069 --> 00:04:52.353 Did God really say Can we say those words together? 00:04:52.353 --> 00:04:55.355 Did God really say you know what he's doing. 00:04:55.355 --> 00:05:03.259 He's putting a doubt. 00:05:03.259 --> 00:05:06.343 Did God really say this? 00:05:06.343 --> 00:05:12.569 Now, he doesn't straight up lie to Eve, he just puts a doubt in Eve's mind. 00:05:12.569 --> 00:05:15.370 Adam and Eve, these are the first two people that God created. 00:05:15.370 --> 00:05:17.293 He puts a doubt in Eve's mind. 00:05:17.293 --> 00:05:29.466 So, verse number two the woman said to the serpent I'll tell you this If there was a serpent, if there was a snake that talked to me, I wouldn't be talking back, I'd be running. 00:05:29.487 --> 00:05:30.028 Eve talked back. 00:05:30.028 --> 00:05:37.649 She said we may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden, but about the tree, the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden? 00:05:37.649 --> 00:05:42.605 God said you must not eat it or touch it or you will die. 00:05:42.605 --> 00:05:45.149 Here's the thing. 00:05:45.149 --> 00:05:48.894 This is not the complete truth. 00:05:48.894 --> 00:05:52.463 God didn't say they couldn't touch it. 00:05:52.463 --> 00:05:55.992 In fact, in the chapter before Genesis, 2.17,. 00:05:55.992 --> 00:05:56.560 This is what it says. 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:57.223 I want you guys to see. 00:05:57.223 --> 00:06:04.146 It's a good scripture you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die. 00:06:04.146 --> 00:06:07.250 He did not say that you couldn't touch it. 00:06:07.250 --> 00:06:09.353 He just said you couldn't eat from it. 00:06:09.353 --> 00:06:13.209 And you say I'll pass it, that's not a big deal, I eat it, touch it About the same. 00:06:13.209 --> 00:06:14.620 You know you got to touch it to eat it, right? 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:28.701 Actually is a big deal because Eve is having doubts placed in her mind and she doesn't know the truth well enough to be able to speak the truth, to be able to articulate the truth. 00:06:28.701 --> 00:06:34.334 Eve was not grounded in God's word, she didn't know what the word said. 00:06:34.334 --> 00:06:37.151 She was not grounded in the truth of God's word. 00:06:37.632 --> 00:06:46.127 We talk about groups around here, like I was saying just a minute ago, and one reason why we make such a big deal of it is because in growth groups is when you get grounded in the word of God. 00:06:46.127 --> 00:06:51.692 It's when you learn, is where you learn the word of God, which matters so much for your spiritual life. 00:06:51.692 --> 00:06:54.449 Like, as a church, we want to get you grounded. 00:06:54.449 --> 00:07:00.987 Can I say unapologetically, as a church, we are not trying to be a cool church, we are not trying to be a hip church. 00:07:00.987 --> 00:07:02.982 We're not trying to be a flashy lights church. 00:07:02.982 --> 00:07:03.702 We are trying to be a hip church. 00:07:03.702 --> 00:07:08.267 We're not trying to be a flashy lights church, we are trying to be a word-driven church, because the word changes people's lives. 00:07:08.267 --> 00:07:09.108 Can I get an amen? 00:07:09.108 --> 00:07:11.391 That's what it does. 00:07:11.391 --> 00:07:16.057 And if you're new here, I just want you to know that we're not going to try to entertain you. 00:07:16.057 --> 00:07:22.783 We are going to teach you what does the Bible say unapologetically. 00:07:22.783 --> 00:07:26.173 So if you want something that's going to be popular and maybe palatable, this probably isn't the best place because we're going to give you the word. 00:07:26.173 --> 00:07:28.802 But I'll tell you this the word will set you free if you listen to it. 00:07:28.802 --> 00:07:34.213 Right, because God's word is powerful and Eve was not grounded in God's word. 00:07:34.213 --> 00:07:38.223 She's like touch it, eat no. 00:07:38.223 --> 00:07:40.728 God said you cannot eat from it. 00:07:41.449 --> 00:07:43.351 Verse number four look what the serpent says back to her. 00:07:43.351 --> 00:07:46.682 He says no, you will certainly not die. 00:07:46.682 --> 00:07:50.170 The serpent said to the woman Notice, he started with the doubt. 00:07:50.170 --> 00:07:52.862 And now he's giving her a lie. 00:07:52.862 --> 00:07:54.607 You certainly will not die. 00:07:54.607 --> 00:08:03.129 In fact, god knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 00:08:04.891 --> 00:08:17.187 Eve, god is holding out on you because God knows, if you eat of it that thing he says you can't do then your eyes are gonna be open, then you're gonna experience the good life. 00:08:17.187 --> 00:08:24.670 And God's trying to keep you from enjoying your life, this boundary that God's put here. 00:08:24.670 --> 00:08:25.413 God's not looking out for you, eve. 00:08:25.413 --> 00:08:28.223 Life, this boundary that God's put here, god's not looking out for you. 00:08:28.223 --> 00:08:29.103 Eve, you know what you need to do. 00:08:29.103 --> 00:08:33.773 You need to do what you think is best for you, even if it's contrary to what God says. 00:08:33.773 --> 00:08:39.654 Eve. 00:08:39.654 --> 00:08:42.486 Don't you want to be happy, eve? 00:08:42.486 --> 00:08:43.211 Live your truth. 00:08:43.211 --> 00:08:47.940 Whatever you want your truth to be, if you obey God and you don't eat of this fruit, then your eyes won't be open. 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:52.076 And the enemy has been giving us the same lies for thousands of years. 00:08:52.076 --> 00:08:53.620 He's just been packaging them differently. 00:08:53.620 --> 00:08:56.648 And what Eve should have done? 00:08:56.648 --> 00:09:01.484 Right here, after verse five, she should have said no, this is the truth. 00:09:01.484 --> 00:09:04.230 I know who God says I am. 00:09:04.230 --> 00:09:05.212 I know who God is. 00:09:05.212 --> 00:09:08.650 I'm choosing to trust God, even in this moment of temptation. 00:09:08.650 --> 00:09:10.765 But notice what Eve did. 00:09:10.826 --> 00:09:11.447 Verse number six. 00:09:11.447 --> 00:09:20.870 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. 00:09:20.870 --> 00:09:25.514 So she sees this tree and this fruit and it's tempting. 00:09:25.514 --> 00:09:31.206 Can I just say a temptation is alluring, right, it's alluring. 00:09:31.206 --> 00:09:33.291 So this is what she did. 00:09:33.291 --> 00:09:40.932 She took some of its fruits and ate it, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, her husband's Adam, and he ate it. 00:09:42.860 --> 00:09:50.582 Now I've heard a lot of dudes say, bro, it's Eve's fault, it's that woman. 00:09:50.582 --> 00:09:53.130 Now we have sin in the world. 00:09:53.130 --> 00:09:56.721 Now we, you know all this, all this stuff happened because of Eve. 00:09:56.721 --> 00:09:59.206 Come on, she's the problem, right? 00:09:59.206 --> 00:10:00.788 Can I just say? 00:10:03.232 --> 00:10:05.442 If you look at the text, it says Adam. 00:10:05.442 --> 00:10:07.585 The last line says Adam, her husband, who was? 00:10:07.585 --> 00:10:12.173 He was with her, bro. 00:10:12.173 --> 00:10:14.245 Hold on, bro. 00:10:14.245 --> 00:10:31.323 You were right there with her, the enemy's tempting her, and you're sitting here next to her playing video games and drinking Diet Coke and you're being passive, bro, instead of being intentional. 00:10:31.323 --> 00:10:32.265 And now look what's happening. 00:10:32.265 --> 00:10:37.654 And Adam is as much responsible for this as Eve is. 00:10:37.654 --> 00:10:48.702 And Adam didn't have the character and the godliness to speak into this and say, hey, maybe this isn't right, like, maybe, like we're not going to be about that life. 00:10:48.702 --> 00:10:54.313 But Adam was passive and Eve falls and look what happened. 00:10:54.313 --> 00:10:58.048 It says the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked. 00:10:58.048 --> 00:11:02.408 So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 00:11:02.408 --> 00:11:08.706 So now they have shame in their life and now they have guilt in their life that sin has brought. 00:11:08.706 --> 00:11:14.942 And because of this we know, eventually they died and sin came into this world. 00:11:15.624 --> 00:11:16.426 And how did it start? 00:11:16.426 --> 00:11:20.374 They lost the battle in their mind. 00:11:20.374 --> 00:11:26.714 They weren't able to identify a lie and replace it with truth. 00:11:26.714 --> 00:11:33.510 And here's the reality about lies is that the lies you believe have power over you. 00:11:33.510 --> 00:11:41.110 You realize that if the enemy can get you to believe a lie, your life will be affected, as if the lie were true. 00:11:41.110 --> 00:11:47.260 A lie doesn't have to be true to have power over you, it just has to be believed. 00:11:47.260 --> 00:11:51.937 Here's what Eve believed God's holding out on me. 00:11:51.937 --> 00:11:54.326 God's not good. 00:11:54.326 --> 00:11:56.400 God's ways are not the best ways. 00:11:56.400 --> 00:11:58.322 I can't trust God here. 00:11:58.322 --> 00:12:01.243 I mean God said I can't eat from this fruit. 00:12:01.243 --> 00:12:03.422 I don't think I can really trust God. 00:12:03.422 --> 00:12:06.559 This looks really alluring, so I'm going to partake in this fruit. 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:08.785 And what happened? 00:12:08.785 --> 00:12:15.967 Sin came into the world because Eve believed this and Adam went with her. 00:12:18.918 --> 00:12:22.668 I had a German shepherd dog for almost 13 years. 00:12:22.668 --> 00:12:24.299 His name was Ranger. 00:12:24.299 --> 00:12:25.163 Everybody say Ranger. 00:12:25.163 --> 00:12:27.494 Okay, that's Ranger up on the screen. 00:12:27.494 --> 00:12:32.639 Everybody say aww, isn't he so cute, the floppy ear. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:39.250 So Ranger is almost 13 years old and I had to put him down. 00:12:39.250 --> 00:12:45.024 And when he was a puppy he had unbelievable amount of energy. 00:12:45.024 --> 00:12:49.635 I mean, how many of you know there is no energy quite like puppy energy. 00:12:49.635 --> 00:12:51.139 Oh my God. 00:12:51.139 --> 00:12:53.225 By the way, are there any dog lovers in the room? 00:12:53.225 --> 00:12:54.126 Are there any Talk to me? 00:12:54.126 --> 00:12:54.996 Okay, yep, yep. 00:12:54.996 --> 00:12:56.881 Are there any cat lovers in the room? 00:12:57.263 --> 00:12:59.115 Don't embarrass yourselves by raising your hands. 00:12:59.115 --> 00:13:01.780 Why do you just embarrass yourself in a public? 00:13:01.780 --> 00:13:02.721 Out, ulysses, come on. 00:13:02.721 --> 00:13:06.389 I mean Ranger. 00:13:06.389 --> 00:13:10.836 He had so much energy. 00:13:10.836 --> 00:13:15.267 We took him to a trainer and that trainer said this dog is so high-strung he could be a police dog if he went that route. 00:13:15.267 --> 00:13:19.225 He was high-strung, he had energy, he was bouncing off the walls. 00:13:19.917 --> 00:13:26.559 So for my own sanity, what I would do is I would take him to an open field and just let him run. 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:27.884 Let him run. 00:13:27.884 --> 00:13:31.124 And this field actually had jackrabbits in it. 00:13:31.124 --> 00:13:39.418 Have you guys ever seen a jackrabbit go Top speed? 00:13:39.418 --> 00:13:43.761 I looked it up top speed a jackrabbit can go 40 miles an hour. 00:13:43.761 --> 00:13:51.250 Now, german shepherds are fast but they ain't 40 miles an hour fast. 00:13:51.250 --> 00:13:53.275 But Ranger didn't know that. 00:13:53.275 --> 00:13:55.239 So Ranger would do. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:14:00.688 Ranger would chase jackrabbits, Rabbit after rabbit after rabbit. 00:14:00.688 --> 00:14:04.058 He's chasing them and you guys know how many jackrabbits he caught. 00:14:04.058 --> 00:14:09.325 Zero Bro didn't even get close. 00:14:09.325 --> 00:14:12.668 He didn't catch any rabbits. 00:14:12.668 --> 00:14:19.567 And we'd be out there and he'd be worn out and I'd say, ranger, you ready to go, ready to go back home? 00:14:19.567 --> 00:14:23.529 He'd say, yeah, no, actually he wouldn't say that, but he'd look at me and he'd give me these. 00:14:23.529 --> 00:14:43.043 So we'd be walking back and we'd go back to the car and we'd get close to the car and it seemed like half the time we're about to get in the car and there'd be another jackrabbit that would just start going and because Ranger's such a good, loyal, obedient, loving dog, he's gone. 00:14:43.043 --> 00:14:46.730 I'm like Ranger, why even try? 00:14:46.730 --> 00:14:57.605 So Ranger would go and he'd chase after, like, like Jackrabbit number 20 of the day or whatever it was, and he'd get 75, 100 yards before he'd finally give up. 00:14:57.605 --> 00:15:02.927 And then he would look back at me like where'd you go, dad? 00:15:02.927 --> 00:15:06.542 How come you're not with me? 00:15:06.542 --> 00:15:22.769 And here's the thing I didn't go anywhere, but Ranger believed that he could catch a jackrabbit and it made him drift away from me. 00:15:25.219 --> 00:15:35.726 And could it be that the reason why some of us maybe have drifted from God a little bit or a lot, or maybe not even come to God, is because we believe things that aren't even true? 00:15:35.726 --> 00:15:41.788 Could it be that some of us believe that God only accepts us when we do good things? 00:15:41.788 --> 00:15:44.846 So when we mess up, we don't run to God. 00:15:44.846 --> 00:15:47.557 We run away from God because we feel like he's going to condemn us. 00:15:47.557 --> 00:15:54.936 It's a limiting belief. 00:15:54.936 --> 00:16:04.905 Could it be that and we may not articulate this, but we think that we know better than God so we make our decisions in life based on what makes sense to us and what feels right in the moment, versus allowing our lives to be guided by God's word? 00:16:06.916 --> 00:16:16.076 Could it be that some of us believe the lie that as long as we kind of do outwardly Christian things, we're okay, we don't really need to surrender all of our hearts to God? 00:16:16.076 --> 00:16:26.580 And this pocket over here that's like this big, like in the little bottom corner, that that's kind of in the dark that nobody knows about, like I'm not going to surrender that to God because I do all these Jesus things over here, so I'm okay. 00:16:26.580 --> 00:16:39.957 And we believe the lie that that's enough, when this is what God wants to transform and what can happen is we can have these strongholds in our life, these things like we fully believe that turn into lies and then it causes us to drift. 00:16:39.957 --> 00:16:46.659 Honestly, I think some of us can believe lies about ourselves that hurt us and limit us. 00:16:46.659 --> 00:17:06.121 Some of us believe that we're worthless, that we don't have much value, and then what we do we can look back on evidence that proves that point or, because we feel like we're worthless, we can look at things that happen in our life every day and it's like see, I know I'm worthless Lie. 00:17:06.121 --> 00:17:13.202 The truth is, is that you have so much value that God came down to this world to pursue after you and to die for you. 00:17:13.202 --> 00:17:15.347 That's how much value you have. 00:17:15.347 --> 00:17:21.285 Some of us in our life we think we're just helpless, like we can't do anything. 00:17:21.285 --> 00:17:23.088 Why even try? 00:17:23.088 --> 00:17:36.269 And maybe you've had a hard life, 've had tragedy, you have difficulties, and my heart honestly goes out to you and though you may have had a hard life. 00:17:36.269 --> 00:17:49.505 Can I just say that God's word tells us that we are more than conquerors, through Christ, who loved us, that we are not helpless, that we are not victims, that we are victors in Christ. 00:17:49.505 --> 00:17:54.464 Romans 8 tells us Some of us believe this lie that we're unlovable. 00:17:54.464 --> 00:18:01.816 Maybe you've been betrayed, maybe people have turned their back on you and you're just, I'm just not lovable. 00:18:01.816 --> 00:18:04.420 God does. 00:18:04.420 --> 00:18:11.029 God fully knows you, he knows everything about you and he still fully loves you. 00:18:11.029 --> 00:18:19.531 That's who God is, and the lies that we believe don't have to be true to have power over us. 00:18:19.531 --> 00:18:21.576 They just have to be believed. 00:18:21.576 --> 00:18:27.308 So what we have to do every one of us have to do this is we have to embrace. 00:18:27.308 --> 00:18:32.979 We have to do every one of us have to do this is we have to embrace. 00:18:32.979 --> 00:18:34.260 Number two, that there is a battlefield in our mind. 00:18:34.260 --> 00:18:35.723 Now you could say, nate, I'm not going to embrace that. 00:18:35.723 --> 00:18:37.007 You don't have to embrace that. 00:18:37.007 --> 00:18:37.848 Here's the reality. 00:18:37.848 --> 00:18:42.448 It's still happening. 00:18:42.448 --> 00:18:47.378 You could say there's a battlefield happening in our mind. 00:18:47.378 --> 00:18:55.587 Eve was not able to identify and realize what was happening to her in the moment when the enemy was putting doubts and lies in her mind. 00:18:55.587 --> 00:19:04.117 She didn't, and I think for a lot of us because life is busy and stressful and we have things happening is a lot of us. 00:19:04.117 --> 00:19:13.762 We live our life on autopilot, like we watch our favorite shows on Netflix, we watch our favorite Hulu shows, we watch, we scroll on our phone. 00:19:13.762 --> 00:19:18.141 We watch football, we watch the San Francisco 49ers. 00:19:18.141 --> 00:19:20.547 Can somebody say amen, let's go. 00:19:20.547 --> 00:19:23.521 That wasn't in my notes. 00:19:23.521 --> 00:19:26.919 I don't know where that came from notes. 00:19:26.919 --> 00:19:32.626 I don't know where that came from. 00:19:32.626 --> 00:20:03.298 We go through our life and all these things we watch and we listen to these things and we have our Spotify playlist and I think sometimes we don't realize how much the things that we're listening to and seeing and watching, how much they shape our minds, and sometimes I don't think we realize the impact of what we are inputting into our minds and what our kids are inputting into their minds and how these things shape our thinking and, in turn, they shape our lives and some of us. 00:20:03.298 --> 00:20:16.616 We have inputs that are leaving us with anxiety and fear and lust, and the list could go on and on and on, and in some cases I think it's as simple as changing what we input, changing what comes into our mind. 00:20:16.616 --> 00:20:31.215 I recently experienced this, maybe because I'm not mentally strong or emotionally strong or whatever it is, but I experienced some fear and anxiety when I was doing something that actually is kind of dangerous. 00:20:31.215 --> 00:20:40.258 I was watching the nightly news, okay, and what I was doing is I was going, I was watching election stuff. 00:20:40.258 --> 00:20:44.286 Bless God, I only watched about 45 minutes of it. 00:20:44.286 --> 00:20:49.066 What I would do is I went to this news channel and I'm like, okay, okay, I went to this news channel. 00:20:49.066 --> 00:20:49.888 Okay, let me hear your stuff. 00:20:49.888 --> 00:20:51.212 This news channel, okay. 00:20:51.212 --> 00:21:02.398 So I'm listening to all these news channels and this is the message that was giving to me that the future of America and the world is 100% dependent on who gets elected in November. 00:21:02.398 --> 00:21:04.339 That's it. 00:21:04.339 --> 00:21:08.923 Doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom. 00:21:08.923 --> 00:21:12.366 Like, hey, if that person doesn't get elected, the world's over. 00:21:12.366 --> 00:21:18.371 Everything ends Like you might as well just kill yourself because you're going to be killed anyways. 00:21:18.371 --> 00:21:19.652 Right, I mean, you name it. 00:21:19.652 --> 00:21:22.457 Like it's just doom, doom, doom. 00:21:22.457 --> 00:21:30.415 And I watch this for 45 minutes and I'm like this is discouraging. 00:21:30.415 --> 00:21:36.056 I'm like Googling stuff and I'm like why am I even Googling these things? 00:21:36.056 --> 00:21:40.067 Like it's going to be okay and just for me. 00:21:40.067 --> 00:21:47.134 This is just descriptive of me, not prescriptive of anybody else in the room or online, but 45 minutes of that for me got me filled with fear. 00:21:47.134 --> 00:21:53.546 And then, all of a sudden and don't get me wrong elections matter and elections have meaning. 00:21:53.546 --> 00:22:00.170 I'm not downplaying that but all of a sudden, it was like this thought occurred to me from the Holy Spirit. 00:22:00.170 --> 00:22:11.938 That said, by the way, god is still sovereign and God is still all powerful, no matter what happens in November, he is, he's still powerful. 00:22:11.938 --> 00:22:19.694 And what we have to do in our lives and I think we have to do this often is we have to think about what we're thinking about. 00:22:19.694 --> 00:22:22.710 This might sound kind of weird. 00:22:22.710 --> 00:22:38.970 Think about what we're thinking about, but in that moment, I'm watching all this news and all these things about it and I'm not even realizing what's it and I'm not even realizing what's happening and I'm not even realizing how my body I'm sensing things in my body I'm feeling a certain way and what's happening? 00:22:38.970 --> 00:22:41.696 I'm thinking like, oh no, doom is happening. 00:22:41.696 --> 00:22:45.030 And what we have to do is we have to evaluate. 00:22:45.030 --> 00:22:45.874 How are we thinking? 00:22:45.874 --> 00:22:49.307 We have to evaluate what are we thinking about Now when we do this? 00:22:49.307 --> 00:22:50.349 And I'm not talking about watching the news. 00:22:50.349 --> 00:22:52.192 I'm talking about Now when we do this, and I'm not talking about watching the news. 00:22:52.192 --> 00:22:54.634 I'm talking about in life, when we evaluate what we're thinking about. 00:22:54.634 --> 00:22:55.636 You have to do something. 00:22:55.636 --> 00:22:58.619 That's very hard to do but it's very important for you. 00:22:58.619 --> 00:23:04.487 You have to not judge yourself for the thoughts that you have. 00:23:04.487 --> 00:23:10.832 So a lot of times what happens is we have thoughts that we're like, oh my goodness, I just had that thought, like I don't even want to think about it, like I just you know. 00:23:10.832 --> 00:23:14.534 Or we have things in our mind, right, I don't even want to think that I was thinking about it. 00:23:14.534 --> 00:23:28.728 Now, for all of us, all of us, if every thought we've had in the last seven days went up on that screen, we all would be really ashamed, right, like my hand goes up first. 00:23:28.728 --> 00:23:38.576 And sometimes what happens is because we don't admit that we're having these thoughts and we're having whatever these thoughts are, it's because we don't identify them. 00:23:38.576 --> 00:23:40.788 We can't speak truth to them. 00:23:40.788 --> 00:23:45.317 So we don't want to identify them, because then we'll judge ourself for them. 00:23:45.317 --> 00:23:51.234 Because we don't want to identify them, because I'll judge myself, I'll feel a certain way. 00:23:51.234 --> 00:23:51.675 No, no, no. 00:23:51.675 --> 00:23:57.452 Here's what we do we identify this thought that we're having and we speak truth to that. 00:23:57.452 --> 00:24:00.152 Okay, this is what 2 Corinthians 10 says. 00:24:00.152 --> 00:24:04.490 It says every proud thing that's raised up against the knowledge of God. 00:24:04.490 --> 00:24:06.028 And we take every. 00:24:06.028 --> 00:24:07.031 We take every. 00:24:07.031 --> 00:24:07.694 What's the next word? 00:24:07.694 --> 00:24:11.913 We take every thought captive to obey Christ. 00:24:11.913 --> 00:24:25.357 So this is what this means is, if there is a thought that is contrary to God's word, if there's a belief that we have, like for me, this belief that my identity is determined by my success, that is unbiblical. 00:24:25.357 --> 00:24:27.489 Okay, I am who God says that I am. 00:24:27.489 --> 00:24:41.332 If I have that thought, if I have another thought, what I do, what God wants us to do, is take those thoughts into captivity and put them under the authority of Christ and surrender them to God's teaching and God's truth and God's ways. 00:24:41.332 --> 00:24:43.356 So here's the picture here. 00:24:43.356 --> 00:24:48.099 Imagine this you have a police officer and they're arresting somebody that had done a crime. 00:24:48.099 --> 00:25:07.972 What they're going to do is they're going to seize this person, they're going to handcuff them, they're going to put them in jail, putting them under the authority of the law, because what they did was contrary to what they should have done, and they're now placed under the authority of something bigger and greater than them. 00:25:07.972 --> 00:25:15.170 This is what this verse is saying, is when we have thoughts that are not what they should be like. 00:25:15.170 --> 00:25:26.631 We all have at times, every single one of us when we have thoughts about ourselves, the world, whatever it is, we take those thoughts, we take them captive and we put them under the authority of Christ. 00:25:26.631 --> 00:25:28.555 And this is why we do this, guys. 00:25:28.555 --> 00:25:32.814 If we don't take certain thoughts captive, eventually they will take us captive. 00:25:32.814 --> 00:25:36.012 Okay, I'm probably about to get real fired up in a second. 00:25:36.012 --> 00:25:41.356 Okay, if we don't take certain thoughts captive, eventually they will take us captive. 00:25:41.356 --> 00:25:47.675 So this is what can happen, guys you can start believing things that are not true about yourself. 00:25:47.675 --> 00:25:50.934 You can start believing things that are not true about other people. 00:25:50.934 --> 00:25:53.332 You can start believing things that are not true about other people. 00:25:53.332 --> 00:25:54.936 You can start believing things that are not, that just aren't true. 00:25:54.936 --> 00:26:00.954 And if I don't take that into captivity and say no, no, this is what God says, no, no, this is God's word. 00:26:00.954 --> 00:26:16.134 No, no, this is what the authority of Christ says, that thought will take us captive and that thought will become a stronghold in your life and will be a limiting belief in your life and will prevent you from being who God wants you to be and from going where God wants you to go. 00:26:16.134 --> 00:26:25.113 And I'm just so tired of seeing Christians that are living defeated lives and we're down and we're out and it's like no, no, god says we are victors. 00:26:25.113 --> 00:26:27.251 No, no, god says we are more than champions. 00:26:27.251 --> 00:26:29.892 Through him, god says, with him, all things are possible. 00:26:29.892 --> 00:26:41.867 Come on, man, and this is what's going to happen. 00:26:41.867 --> 00:26:49.502 Some of us, we are one or two thoughts away from getting freedom in our life. 00:26:49.502 --> 00:26:57.094 We are Nope, I'm not going to believe this anymore, because this is contrary to what God says. 00:26:57.094 --> 00:27:04.265 And it is so time that the people of God start taking their thoughts captive. 00:27:04.265 --> 00:27:06.373 So our thoughts don't take us captive. 00:27:06.373 --> 00:27:21.432 And it could be that we are taken captive with certain mindsets and certain thought patterns and certain worldviews and certain things that are crippling us. 00:27:21.432 --> 00:27:29.651 And here's what we have to do, amidst this battle that we have in our mind is we have to take these thoughts. 00:27:29.651 --> 00:27:34.355 And number three, we're about to get real practical is we replace these lies with truth. 00:27:34.355 --> 00:27:47.568 Now, typically what we do is when we teach, you'll see a main point and then you'll see a scripture underneath that from the text that shows where the main point is taken from. 00:27:47.568 --> 00:27:51.096 So we're taking the truth, we're explaining the truth, we're applying the truth. 00:27:51.096 --> 00:28:08.565 Notice, there's no verse under there, because in the text, adam and Eve never did this. 00:28:08.565 --> 00:28:13.090 They never replaced the lie with truth. 00:28:13.090 --> 00:28:19.345 And if Satan's primary weapon is lies, then our greatest weapon is God's truth. 00:28:19.345 --> 00:28:34.792 Our greatest weapon, our greatest weapon, it's not I'm gonna just, I'm just gonna try really hard. 00:28:34.792 --> 00:28:36.191 This is my greatest weapon. 00:28:36.191 --> 00:28:37.690 Nope, that's not your greatest weapon. 00:28:37.690 --> 00:28:38.634 You're not that strong, bro. 00:28:38.634 --> 00:28:41.651 Your greatest weapon is not. 00:28:41.651 --> 00:28:49.589 Well, I look at my track record and, man, I've had a lot of things happen in my life and I've made it through and I'm strong, like I'm really strong. 00:28:49.589 --> 00:28:52.268 In fact, I am the rock of my family. 00:28:52.268 --> 00:28:54.550 No, that's not. 00:28:54.550 --> 00:28:59.557 The greatest weapon is the truth of God's word. 00:28:59.557 --> 00:29:04.571 So here's what I want to end by teaching us this morning. 00:29:04.571 --> 00:29:10.396 I want you guys to learn a really important principle called the replacement principle. 00:29:10.396 --> 00:29:12.205 Called the replacement principle. 00:29:12.205 --> 00:29:13.829 Everybody say the word replacement Ready. 00:29:13.829 --> 00:29:17.186 Okay, so this is what we do with the replacement principle. 00:29:17.186 --> 00:29:32.757 We replace the lie, the stronghold, the limiting belief that we have in our lives, something about ourselves, something that we're not worthy, we're not accepted by God. 00:29:32.757 --> 00:29:35.746 We replace this lie with God's truth. 00:29:35.746 --> 00:29:38.392 So, practically, what does this look like? 00:29:38.392 --> 00:29:41.746 Okay, let's say that we believe the lie, that we're a victim. 00:29:41.746 --> 00:29:44.049 I'm a victim. 00:29:44.049 --> 00:29:46.294 Nothing good ever happens to me. 00:29:46.294 --> 00:29:50.568 You identify that and you're honest enough with yourself, right? 00:29:50.568 --> 00:29:51.571 We all have lies. 00:29:51.571 --> 00:29:52.355 We believe at times. 00:29:52.355 --> 00:29:54.310 We all have these beliefs that we have. 00:29:54.310 --> 00:29:58.074 At times we be honest with ourselves and then what we do is we replace it with this truth. 00:29:58.074 --> 00:30:00.813 If God is for us, who can be against us? 00:30:00.813 --> 00:30:04.473 In all these things, we are more than conquerors, through him, who loved us. 00:30:04.473 --> 00:30:09.375 And when it's creeping up, when it's creeping up, I'm a victim. 00:30:09.375 --> 00:30:15.126 Nope, this is the truth. 00:30:15.126 --> 00:30:16.413 When it's creeping up, like nothing ever good happens to me. 00:30:16.413 --> 00:30:17.278 Nope, I'm taking that thought captive. 00:30:17.278 --> 00:30:19.667 I'm putting it under the authority of obeying Christ. 00:30:19.667 --> 00:30:20.269 What is that? 00:30:20.269 --> 00:30:21.972 If God is for me, who can be against me? 00:30:21.972 --> 00:30:23.936 What about this? 00:30:23.936 --> 00:30:24.585 Here's a lie. 00:30:24.585 --> 00:30:26.448 God can't really be trusted. 00:30:26.448 --> 00:30:29.513 I need to be in control of my own life. 00:30:29.513 --> 00:30:33.220 Maybe you trust God for your salvation. 00:30:33.220 --> 00:30:34.587 Let's be honest. 00:30:34.587 --> 00:30:35.632 Like what are your other options? 00:30:35.632 --> 00:30:42.829 Right, my faith is in Christ for my eternal salvation, but when it comes to the other areas of your life, can I really trust God? 00:30:42.829 --> 00:30:45.869 Because I don't know if God really loves me? 00:30:45.869 --> 00:30:47.715 Here's the truth. 00:30:47.715 --> 00:30:53.308 God demonstrated his own love for us in this While we were still sinners. 00:30:53.308 --> 00:30:54.673 Christ died for us. 00:30:54.673 --> 00:31:10.416 God can be trusted because God loves you and think how irrational it is for us to think that God loved us enough to give his entire life for us but then God is trying to hold out on us and he's going to do things to hurt you. 00:31:10.416 --> 00:31:13.692 To hold out on us and he's going to do things to hurt you. 00:31:13.692 --> 00:31:19.943 If he loves us enough to give his life for us, then we can trust him enough to follow him. 00:31:19.943 --> 00:31:28.809 Here's one more lie the future is dependent on who wins the election. 00:31:28.809 --> 00:31:29.732 Come on, that's a lie. 00:31:29.732 --> 00:31:30.815 You're going to be hearing it all the time. 00:31:30.815 --> 00:31:32.598 Your social media feed we all are hearing it all the time. 00:31:32.598 --> 00:31:33.059 Here's a lie. 00:31:33.059 --> 00:31:34.083 You're going to be hearing it all the time. 00:31:34.083 --> 00:31:35.065 Your social media feed. 00:31:35.065 --> 00:31:40.347 Right, we all are hearing it all the time. 00:31:40.347 --> 00:31:41.511 Here's the truth the future is dependent on God. 00:31:41.511 --> 00:31:42.374 He is our source of salvation and strength. 00:31:42.374 --> 00:31:46.829 I want to give you a verse that couldn't fit on the screen on that one, so let me give it to you. 00:31:46.829 --> 00:31:47.652 It's on the next slide. 00:31:47.652 --> 00:31:49.175 It's Isaiah, chapter number 25. 00:31:49.175 --> 00:31:58.611 It says when he has swallowed up death, this is God, once and for all, the Lord, god, will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people's disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken. 00:31:58.611 --> 00:32:01.413 On that day will be said look, this is our God. 00:32:01.413 --> 00:32:03.450 We have waited for him and he has saved us. 00:32:03.450 --> 00:32:04.553 This is the Lord. 00:32:04.553 --> 00:32:05.496 We have waited for him. 00:32:05.496 --> 00:32:13.469 Let's rejoice and be glad in his salvation. 00:32:13.469 --> 00:32:22.407 You know what your future is dependent on On the goodness and the grace and the power of God, and you know what your future looks like Heaven, where one day, god will wipe away every tear and every pain will be gone and we won't have any more distress and we will be with the Lord forever. 00:32:22.407 --> 00:32:24.874 That is your future, because of who God is. 00:32:24.874 --> 00:32:25.957 That's it. 00:32:25.957 --> 00:32:28.207 So this is what I do. 00:32:28.207 --> 00:32:32.577 I take these lies and replace them with truth. 00:32:32.577 --> 00:32:45.578 Now I want to give you guys a couple quick resources, and we'll be done, because some of you are thinking how do I even identify if what I'm believing about myself or about the world, or even whatever it is? 00:32:45.578 --> 00:32:46.059 It's true. 00:32:46.059 --> 00:32:51.292 I want to give you a website, gotquestionsorg, and Josh can come up here and start playing Gotquestionsorg. 00:32:51.292 --> 00:32:52.826 This is what this is. 00:32:52.826 --> 00:33:04.063 This is an unbelievable, amazing, amazing site where it literally has biblical answers for a ton of different questions, like a ton of different questions. 00:33:04.063 --> 00:33:06.829 So if you're wondering what does the Bible say about this? 00:33:06.829 --> 00:33:08.694 What does scripture say about this? 00:33:08.694 --> 00:33:09.896 What about this? 00:33:09.896 --> 00:33:14.430 I mean literally, even like with political things what about this is happening? 00:33:14.430 --> 00:33:15.913 You go to this site. 00:33:15.913 --> 00:33:18.909 It will tell you what the scripture says. 00:33:18.909 --> 00:33:21.798 Take some time, go to gotquestionsorg. 00:33:21.798 --> 00:33:26.869 And here's something else I'm going to invite you to do, and we have so many people doing this. 00:33:26.869 --> 00:33:28.231 At the 9 am service wanted to do it. 00:33:28.231 --> 00:33:32.317