Speaker 1: People said amen, amen.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Can you guys relate to that?
Speaker 1: Some of the biggest battles take place in my mind.
Speaker 1: Can you guys relate to that?
Speaker 1: Some of the biggest battles take place in my mind.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can look back at times where I fully believe something that I thought was true but it wasn't In fact.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Because I believed this lie and this stronghold turned into thoughts and then I started looking for evidence to support this.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: It was completely connected to my achievements and what I could achieve or not achieve.
Speaker 1: And this is the lie I thought.
Speaker 1: I thought that I was only as valuable as my success, whatever success looked like in that season of my life.
Speaker 1: And because I had this stronghold in my life, that's really what it was.
Speaker 1: I had this belief in my life.
Speaker 1: It caused me to live on a mental and emotional rollercoaster.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And I live a life trapped in this mindset.
Speaker 1: But there is a truth that set me free.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: I'm so loved by Jesus that he died for me.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 1: This truth changed me.
Speaker 1: This truth revolutionized my life and I came to this place.
Speaker 1: And maybe for you you think, oh, it's not a big deal.
Speaker 1: But for me this was like revolutionary.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And the reason why we want to walk in God's truth and embrace God's word is because his word sets us free.
Speaker 1: In fact, in John, chapter number eight, this is what Jesus said.
Speaker 1: He said you will know the truth and the truth will.
Speaker 1: What are those three words?
Speaker 1: It will set you free, set you free, set you free.
Speaker 1: This is what the truth does.
Speaker 1: And this takes us to a passage that, honestly, is kind of sad.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: So because they lost the battle in their mind, they lost the battle of life.
Speaker 1: And can I say that if you can win the battle in your mind, no matter what battle you face here in this earth.
Speaker 1: You can win that battle and we're going to see it today in Genesis, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: And if you're ready for the word, would you say amen, amen.
Speaker 1: Genesis, chapter 3, verse number 1.
Speaker 1: The scripture says this.
Speaker 1: It says now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made.
Speaker 1: He said to the woman did God really say you can't eat from any tree in the garden?
Speaker 1: Did God really say Can we say those words together?
Speaker 1: Did God really say you know what he's doing.
Speaker 1: He's putting a doubt.
Speaker 1: Did God really say this?
Speaker 1: Now, he doesn't straight up lie to Eve, he just puts a doubt in Eve's mind.
Speaker 1: Adam and Eve, these are the first two people that God created.
Speaker 1: He puts a doubt in Eve's mind.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Eve talked back.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: God said you must not eat it or touch it or you will die.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: This is not the complete truth.
Speaker 1: God didn't say they couldn't touch it.
Speaker 1: In fact, in the chapter before Genesis, 2.17,.
Speaker 1: This is what it says.
Speaker 1: I want you guys to see.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: He did not say that you couldn't touch it.
Speaker 1: He just said you couldn't eat from it.
Speaker 1: And you say I'll pass it, that's not a big deal, I eat it, touch it About the same.
Speaker 1: You know you got to touch it to eat it, right?
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Eve was not grounded in God's word, she didn't know what the word said.
Speaker 1: She was not grounded in the truth of God's word.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: It's when you learn, is where you learn the word of God, which matters so much for your spiritual life.
Speaker 1: Like, as a church, we want to get you grounded.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: We're not trying to be a flashy lights church.
Speaker 1: We are trying to be a hip church.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Can I get an amen?
Speaker 1: That's what it does.
Speaker 1: And if you're new here, I just want you to know that we're not going to try to entertain you.
Speaker 1: We are going to teach you what does the Bible say unapologetically.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you this the word will set you free if you listen to it.
Speaker 1: Right, because God's word is powerful and Eve was not grounded in God's word.
Speaker 1: She's like touch it, eat no.
Speaker 1: God said you cannot eat from it.
Speaker 1: Verse number four look what the serpent says back to her.
Speaker 1: He says no, you will certainly not die.
Speaker 1: The serpent said to the woman Notice, he started with the doubt.
Speaker 1: And now he's giving her a lie.
Speaker 1: You certainly will not die.
Speaker 1: In fact, god knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And God's trying to keep you from enjoying your life, this boundary that God's put here.
Speaker 1: God's not looking out for you, eve.
Speaker 1: Life, this boundary that God's put here, god's not looking out for you.
Speaker 1: Eve, you know what you need to do.
Speaker 1: You need to do what you think is best for you, even if it's contrary to what God says.
Speaker 1: Eve.
Speaker 1: Don't you want to be happy, eve?
Speaker 1: Live your truth.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And the enemy has been giving us the same lies for thousands of years.
Speaker 1: He's just been packaging them differently.
Speaker 1: And what Eve should have done?
Speaker 1: Right here, after verse five, she should have said no, this is the truth.
Speaker 1: I know who God says I am.
Speaker 1: I know who God is.
Speaker 1: I'm choosing to trust God, even in this moment of temptation.
Speaker 1: But notice what Eve did.
Speaker 1: Verse number six.
Speaker 1: The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.
Speaker 1: So she sees this tree and this fruit and it's tempting.
Speaker 1: Can I just say a temptation is alluring, right, it's alluring.
Speaker 1: So this is what she did.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Now I've heard a lot of dudes say, bro, it's Eve's fault, it's that woman.
Speaker 1: Now we have sin in the world.
Speaker 1: Now we, you know all this, all this stuff happened because of Eve.
Speaker 1: Come on, she's the problem, right?
Speaker 1: Can I just say?
Speaker 1: If you look at the text, it says Adam.
Speaker 1: The last line says Adam, her husband, who was?
Speaker 1: He was with her, bro.
Speaker 1: Hold on, bro.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And now look what's happening.
Speaker 1: And Adam is as much responsible for this as Eve is.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: But Adam was passive and Eve falls and look what happened.
Speaker 1: It says the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked.
Speaker 1: So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Speaker 1: So now they have shame in their life and now they have guilt in their life that sin has brought.
Speaker 1: And because of this we know, eventually they died and sin came into this world.
Speaker 1: And how did it start?
Speaker 1: They lost the battle in their mind.
Speaker 1: They weren't able to identify a lie and replace it with truth.
Speaker 1: And here's the reality about lies is that the lies you believe have power over you.
Speaker 1: You realize that if the enemy can get you to believe a lie, your life will be affected, as if the lie were true.
Speaker 1: A lie doesn't have to be true to have power over you, it just has to be believed.
Speaker 1: Here's what Eve believed God's holding out on me.
Speaker 1: God's not good.
Speaker 1: God's ways are not the best ways.
Speaker 1: I can't trust God here.
Speaker 1: I mean God said I can't eat from this fruit.
Speaker 1: I don't think I can really trust God.
Speaker 1: This looks really alluring, so I'm going to partake in this fruit.
Speaker 1: And what happened?
Speaker 1: Sin came into the world because Eve believed this and Adam went with her.
Speaker 1: I had a German shepherd dog for almost 13 years.
Speaker 1: His name was Ranger.
Speaker 1: Everybody say Ranger.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's Ranger up on the screen.
Speaker 1: Everybody say aww, isn't he so cute, the floppy ear.
Speaker 1: So Ranger is almost 13 years old and I had to put him down.
Speaker 1: And when he was a puppy he had unbelievable amount of energy.
Speaker 1: I mean, how many of you know there is no energy quite like puppy energy.
Speaker 1: Oh my God.
Speaker 1: By the way, are there any dog lovers in the room?
Speaker 1: Are there any Talk to me?
Speaker 1: Okay, yep, yep.
Speaker 1: Are there any cat lovers in the room?
Speaker 1: Don't embarrass yourselves by raising your hands.
Speaker 1: Why do you just embarrass yourself in a public?
Speaker 1: Out, ulysses, come on.
Speaker 1: I mean Ranger.
Speaker 1: He had so much energy.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: He was high-strung, he had energy, he was bouncing off the walls.
Speaker 1: So for my own sanity, what I would do is I would take him to an open field and just let him run.
Speaker 1: Let him run.
Speaker 1: And this field actually had jackrabbits in it.
Speaker 1: Have you guys ever seen a jackrabbit go Top speed?
Speaker 1: I looked it up top speed a jackrabbit can go 40 miles an hour.
Speaker 1: Now, german shepherds are fast but they ain't 40 miles an hour fast.
Speaker 1: But Ranger didn't know that.
Speaker 1: So Ranger would do.
Speaker 1: Ranger would chase jackrabbits, Rabbit after rabbit after rabbit.
Speaker 1: He's chasing them and you guys know how many jackrabbits he caught.
Speaker 1: Zero Bro didn't even get close.
Speaker 1: He didn't catch any rabbits.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: He'd say, yeah, no, actually he wouldn't say that, but he'd look at me and he'd give me these.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: I'm like Ranger, why even try?
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And then he would look back at me like where'd you go, dad?
Speaker 1: How come you're not with me?
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: Could it be that some of us believe that God only accepts us when we do good things?
Speaker 1: So when we mess up, we don't run to God.
Speaker 1: We run away from God because we feel like he's going to condemn us.
Speaker 1: It's a limiting belief.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I think some of us can believe lies about ourselves that hurt us and limit us.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: That's how much value you have.
Speaker 1: Some of us in our life we think we're just helpless, like we can't do anything.
Speaker 1: Why even try?
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Romans 8 tells us Some of us believe this lie that we're unlovable.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've been betrayed, maybe people have turned their back on you and you're just, I'm just not lovable.
Speaker 1: God does.
Speaker 1: God fully knows you, he knows everything about you and he still fully loves you.
Speaker 1: That's who God is, and the lies that we believe don't have to be true to have power over us.
Speaker 1: They just have to be believed.
Speaker 1: So what we have to do every one of us have to do this is we have to embrace.
Speaker 1: We have to do every one of us have to do this is we have to embrace.
Speaker 1: Number two, that there is a battlefield in our mind.
Speaker 1: Now you could say, nate, I'm not going to embrace that.
Speaker 1: You don't have to embrace that.
Speaker 1: Here's the reality.
Speaker 1: It's still happening.
Speaker 1: You could say there's a battlefield happening in our mind.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: We watch football, we watch the San Francisco 49ers.
Speaker 1: Can somebody say amen, let's go.
Speaker 1: That wasn't in my notes.
Speaker 1: I don't know where that came from notes.
Speaker 1: I don't know where that came from.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: I was watching the nightly news, okay, and what I was doing is I was going, I was watching election stuff.
Speaker 1: Bless God, I only watched about 45 minutes of it.
Speaker 1: What I would do is I went to this news channel and I'm like, okay, okay, I went to this news channel.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me hear your stuff.
Speaker 1: This news channel, okay.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 1: Doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom.
Speaker 1: Like, hey, if that person doesn't get elected, the world's over.
Speaker 1: Everything ends Like you might as well just kill yourself because you're going to be killed anyways.
Speaker 1: Right, I mean, you name it.
Speaker 1: Like it's just doom, doom, doom.
Speaker 1: And I watch this for 45 minutes and I'm like this is discouraging.
Speaker 1: I'm like Googling stuff and I'm like why am I even Googling these things?
Speaker 1: Like it's going to be okay and just for me.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And then, all of a sudden and don't get me wrong elections matter and elections have meaning.
Speaker 1: I'm not downplaying that but all of a sudden, it was like this thought occurred to me from the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: This might sound kind of weird.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: I'm thinking like, oh no, doom is happening.
Speaker 1: And what we have to do is we have to evaluate.
Speaker 1: How are we thinking?
Speaker 1: We have to evaluate what are we thinking about Now when we do this?
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about watching the news.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Now when we do this, and I'm not talking about watching the news.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about in life, when we evaluate what we're thinking about.
Speaker 1: You have to do something.
Speaker 1: That's very hard to do but it's very important for you.
Speaker 1: You have to not judge yourself for the thoughts that you have.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Or we have things in our mind, right, I don't even want to think that I was thinking about it.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: We can't speak truth to them.
Speaker 1: So we don't want to identify them, because then we'll judge ourself for them.
Speaker 1: Because we don't want to identify them, because I'll judge myself, I'll feel a certain way.
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 1: Here's what we do we identify this thought that we're having and we speak truth to that.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is what 2 Corinthians 10 says.
Speaker 1: It says every proud thing that's raised up against the knowledge of God.
Speaker 1: And we take every.
Speaker 1: We take every.
Speaker 1: What's the next word?
Speaker 1: We take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Okay, I am who God says that I am.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: So here's the picture here.
Speaker 1: Imagine this you have a police officer and they're arresting somebody that had done a crime.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: This is what this verse is saying, is when we have thoughts that are not what they should be like.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And this is why we do this, guys.
Speaker 1: If we don't take certain thoughts captive, eventually they will take us captive.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm probably about to get real fired up in a second.
Speaker 1: Okay, if we don't take certain thoughts captive, eventually they will take us captive.
Speaker 1: So this is what can happen, guys you can start believing things that are not true about yourself.
Speaker 1: You can start believing things that are not true about other people.
Speaker 1: You can start believing things that are not, that just aren't true.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: No, no, god says we are more than champions.
Speaker 1: Through him, god says, with him, all things are possible.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, and this is what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: Some of us, we are one or two thoughts away from getting freedom in our life.
Speaker 1: We are Nope, I'm not going to believe this anymore, because this is contrary to what God says.
Speaker 1: And it is so time that the people of God start taking their thoughts captive.
Speaker 1: So our thoughts don't take us captive.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: And here's what we have to do, amidst this battle that we have in our mind is we have to take these thoughts.
Speaker 1: And number three, we're about to get real practical is we replace these lies with truth.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: So we're taking the truth, we're explaining the truth, we're applying the truth.
Speaker 1: Notice, there's no verse under there, because in the text, adam and Eve never did this.
Speaker 1: They never replaced the lie with truth.
Speaker 1: And if Satan's primary weapon is lies, then our greatest weapon is God's truth.
Speaker 1: Our greatest weapon, our greatest weapon, it's not I'm gonna just, I'm just gonna try really hard.
Speaker 1: This is my greatest weapon.
Speaker 1: Nope, that's not your greatest weapon.
Speaker 1: You're not that strong, bro.
Speaker 1: Your greatest weapon is not.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: In fact, I am the rock of my family.
Speaker 1: No, that's not.
Speaker 1: The greatest weapon is the truth of God's word.
Speaker 1: So here's what I want to end by teaching us this morning.
Speaker 1: I want you guys to learn a really important principle called the replacement principle.
Speaker 1: Called the replacement principle.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the word replacement Ready.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is what we do with the replacement principle.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: We replace this lie with God's truth.
Speaker 1: So, practically, what does this look like?
Speaker 1: Okay, let's say that we believe the lie, that we're a victim.
Speaker 1: I'm a victim.
Speaker 1: Nothing good ever happens to me.
Speaker 1: You identify that and you're honest enough with yourself, right?
Speaker 1: We all have lies.
Speaker 1: We believe at times.
Speaker 1: We all have these beliefs that we have.
Speaker 1: At times we be honest with ourselves and then what we do is we replace it with this truth.
Speaker 1: If God is for us, who can be against us?
Speaker 1: In all these things, we are more than conquerors, through him, who loved us.
Speaker 1: And when it's creeping up, when it's creeping up, I'm a victim.
Speaker 1: Nope, this is the truth.
Speaker 1: When it's creeping up, like nothing ever good happens to me.
Speaker 1: Nope, I'm taking that thought captive.
Speaker 1: I'm putting it under the authority of obeying Christ.
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 1: If God is for me, who can be against me?
Speaker 1: What about this?
Speaker 1: Here's a lie.
Speaker 1: God can't really be trusted.
Speaker 1: I need to be in control of my own life.
Speaker 1: Maybe you trust God for your salvation.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: Like what are your other options?
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: Because I don't know if God really loves me?
Speaker 1: Here's the truth.
Speaker 1: God demonstrated his own love for us in this While we were still sinners.
Speaker 1: Christ died for us.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: To hold out on us and he's going to do things to hurt you.
Speaker 1: If he loves us enough to give his life for us, then we can trust him enough to follow him.
Speaker 1: Here's one more lie the future is dependent on who wins the election.
Speaker 1: Come on, that's a lie.
Speaker 1: You're going to be hearing it all the time.
Speaker 1: Your social media feed we all are hearing it all the time.
Speaker 1: Here's a lie.
Speaker 1: You're going to be hearing it all the time.
Speaker 1: Your social media feed.
Speaker 1: Right, we all are hearing it all the time.
Speaker 1: Here's the truth the future is dependent on God.
Speaker 1: He is our source of salvation and strength.
Speaker 1: I want to give you a verse that couldn't fit on the screen on that one, so let me give it to you.
Speaker 1: It's on the next slide.
Speaker 1: It's Isaiah, chapter number 25.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: On that day will be said look, this is our God.
Speaker 1: We have waited for him and he has saved us.
Speaker 1: This is the Lord.
Speaker 1: We have waited for him.
Speaker 1: Let's rejoice and be glad in his salvation.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: That is your future, because of who God is.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 1: So this is what I do.
Speaker 1: I take these lies and replace them with truth.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 1: It's true.
Speaker 1: I want to give you a website, gotquestionsorg, and Josh can come up here and start playing Gotquestionsorg.
Speaker 1: This is what this is.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: So if you're wondering what does the Bible say about this?
Speaker 1: What does scripture say about this?
Speaker 1: What about this?
Speaker 1: I mean literally, even like with political things what about this is happening?
Speaker 1: You go to this site.
Speaker 1: It will tell you what the scripture says.
Speaker 1: Take some time, go to gotquestionsorg.
Speaker 1: And here's something else I'm going to invite you to do, and we have so many people doing this.
Speaker 1: At the 9 am service wanted to do it.
Speaker 1: They came and talked to me, but I'm going to invite you to join a seven-day devotional.
Speaker 1: This devotional is called Winning the War in your Mind.
Speaker 1: Winning the War in your Mind.
Speaker 1: It'll be five minutes a day.
Speaker 1: Five minutes a day starting tomorrow, monday, through the following Sunday, and every day what it'll have is a devotional.
Speaker 1: Then it'll have a couple scripture verses that will allow you to go a little bit deeper into what we talked about today.
Speaker 1: If I'm not friends with you on the YouVersion Bible app, then obviously you're not really my friend.
Speaker 1: You know, just kidding, just kidding.
Speaker 1: You know you could download the YouVersion Bible app and you can request natestonestreetgmailcom and I will send you an invite to be a part of this.
Speaker 1: I already sent.
Speaker 1: If you're already my friend on there.
Speaker 1: I sent you an invite, but if you didn't get it, come see me afterwards and I'll we'll get you connected.
Speaker 1: We'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: So what we can do this week is we can learn how do we do this.
Speaker 1: It's one thing for us to hear the word on Sunday.
Speaker 1: It's another thing for us to live out the word in the week.
Speaker 1: And the power isn't just in us coming here on Sunday, but for us to live out this truth, because this is what I believe.
Speaker 1: I believe over the next three or four weeks, through this series, that some of your lives are gonna be changed because you are gonna win the war that's happening in your mind and you're gonna win the battle that's taking place in your mind, and it starts today.
Speaker 1: So I invite you be a part of this devotional.
Speaker 1: I invite you go to gotquestionsorg, download the gotquestionsapp and let's search.
Speaker 1: Let's search and let's say, hey, what am I believing?
Speaker 1: Let's take these thoughts, these lies, and replace them with truth.
Speaker 1: Let me pray for you this morning.