Forgotten God - Mind Games

The further you go, the louder the voices get. In team roping, the first round feels good — calm, confident, competing like you belong. But when the pressure hits and the money's on the line? That's when the mind games start. I can't. I'm a fraud. I'm not good enough. I'm about to get exposed. Sound familiar?

Those aren't just roping problems. That's the enemy's playbook — and he's running it in every area of your life.

In this episode of Forgotten God, we're talking about one of the most overlooked things the Holy Spirit actually does for us — He changes the way we think. We dig into Romans 8 and get honest about the thought patterns keeping us stuck. The lies we've believed so long they feel like truth. The rules we keep trying to follow that only make things worse. The sins we've justified because it's just the way we're wired — or at least that's what we keep telling ourselves.

Here's the reality: you are not a victim of what's in your head. You are controlled by what you give control to. And the Holy Spirit came to change exactly that — breaking sin's power by giving us a completely new way to think.

You're one new thought pattern away from a new life.

This conversation is for anyone fighting a failing marriage, struggling as a parent, losing the battle with a sin that won't quit, or just tired of believing a lie. The Spirit is ready to expose what's false and replace it with what's true. Are you ready to let Him?

Visit us at Generations Cowboy Church for more info about our church or find ways you can support what God is doing at GCC!

Transcript

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If you want to click, flip, get in your Bible, we're going to go to Romans chapter 8, and we're going to live right there today. One spot, Romans eight. And so I'll be reading in the New Living Translation. We are in the series Forgotten God. We're talking about over the last two weeks, uh, we have talked about the Holy Spirit and how often he's the forgotten God that sometimes we're uncomfortable with who he is, or we don't understand who he is and the way that he works. And so sometimes we would rather just forget about him, but we are actually trying to be intentional to remember him because scripture is very clear about who he is in our life and what he wants for us and what he wants to do through us. And so today I want to talk about mind games. Anyone else out here are you a bit of an overthinker like me? Okay, phew. All right, I'm in good company. So here's the problem with an overthinker. I love to team rope. And the problem with team roping is the more you think about it, the worse you get. And like in team roping competitions, the way it usually works at most ropings is there's three rounds if you make it. If the header catches and the healer catches, and you get a time, you move on to the next round. And I've been in ropings where the first round, cot, cot, move to the second round, great, no pressure. Get to the second round, cot, cot, great, no pressure. Move to the third round, same thing. But then something changes in the short round. And you want to know why the short round changes? Because usually they only take the top 20 teams back, and then they do this crazy thing and they start telling you how much money they're going to give away to the winners. And then you realize the pressure's on because money's on the line. I think for me, like it's crazy some of the amounts. Like I've been at a rope and probably at one point where first place split about $6,000, $3,000 a piece. If I do my job and my healer does his job one more time, we could potentially walk away with three grand a piece. Not too bad. But something weird happens when money is on the line and I'm back into that box with that horse. I start playing mind games with myself. I start questioning what I should do. I start thinking about maybe I should play it safe, even though what I just did three other times worked. And I start playing games with myself and wanting to play it safe because I don't want to miss. And then you know what inevitably happens every time I do that? I miss. We get this like if we play in any sports world, like if you're out there in a basketball game and you play basketball, 10 seconds are left, the score is tied, and the ball is in your hand, everything changes, right? Like the pressure suddenly is on. If you play baseball or you play softball, it's the last inning, it's the bottom of the inning. The bases are loaded, you're losing by one run, and you're up to bat. Everything changes because now I the team's counting on me. There's two outs. I gotta do this, I gotta deliver. It's that soccer game where the score is tied and you're in the penalty kicks, and everybody's watching you, and your team is counting on you. We go through these moments where we just play mind games in our life. And the reality is it's often the same thing in our life when it comes to the way the enemy works. See, the spirit we talked about has come to lead us. That's what we talked about the first week. You can catch all these on our podcast if you want to. Last week, we talked about how the spirit has come to empower us. And I'm going to give you a message today that I believe has the potential to change your life. Every week, I believe, is a life-changing message. This one more than I don't know how to tell you how important this message could be for you. Because the reality is the Holy Spirit wants to help you in your life. He wants to change the trajectory in your life. But one of the greatest traps that the enemy uses to keep us stuck is right behind this thing that we call a brain between our two ears. And if you want to see your life change faster than anything else, then we have to understand that it is God's spirit that empowers us to think his thoughts instead of what the enemy wants us to think. And so often we go through this mind game that the enemy would throw at us. And maybe you say things like this. I often say these kind of things. I can't do that. I'm a fraud. I'm not good enough. I might get exposed for who I am. And we let these mind games that are all lies that the enemy has spoken into our minds begin to shape the actions of our life. And every time I give into one of those things, I end up creating a bigger mess. Because you can't listen to a lie and end up at the truth. And so we often want to ignore the one that we're going to see in just a moment that gives us the ability to change the way that we think, that he's empowered us, he's leading us, and he's changing our mind so that we can be empowered to live for Christ. For some of us, I believe we're one step away from becoming who Jesus wants us to be, but it's going to require you and me to learn to think differently. I'm going to have to admit I have weaknesses and I have struggles and I need help. And every man in the room says, Yeah, I know. It's tough. Except when your wife is being a passenger princess telling you how to drive, right? Then you can say, I got this. We have to admit that maybe I've got to be honest in my marriage and it's not going the way that I hoped it would. And I've got some work that I need to do. We're going to have to be honest that in parenting, this thing is a bit of a struggle right now, and I haven't figured out how to get going in the right direction. That if we could be honest, that in this life, maybe I've got to make some healthier decisions to end up in a healthier place. That maybe if I've got a struggle with an addiction or a sin, I'm going to have to admit I actually have a problem and I need somebody to help me think differently about this. And good news is that is exactly what the Holy Spirit is here to do, to help us think differently and point us in the direction God wants us to go. That God's Spirit breaks sin's power by changing my thoughts. This isn't you figure out how to fix you. This is us trusting the Holy Spirit because one of the very things that God promises through Scripture is that his spirit would actually transform the way that we think so that we can live for Jesus. I'm not trying to tell you how to help yourself. Hear me. I'm trying to teach you how to trust the Spirit of God to change the way you think so that He can help you. That is Romans 8, like is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. We're not going to read it all, but if I was ever going to recommend places for somebody that's trying to get plugged into scripture and understand it, I would always recommend the Gospels or Romans 8. Because if you want a picture of who God is and what he wants to do, this is one of those chapters for us. And so we're going to take a look at how the Spirit helps us straight from Scripture. This isn't Jason's words, these are Paul's words that he wrote in Romans 8, starting in verse 1 and 2. He says this so there is no condemnation. I'm going to say that again. No condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Some of these words are key, words matter. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. Think about these two verses, man. I mean, these are game changers. That what Paul is literally telling you and I is it is possible, not just one day when we get to heaven, but while we are here on earth, to find a way to overcome the power of sin in our life. I think some of us we've already listened to the lie of the enemy that has told us that this is just what you're going to do until you get to heaven. And we have not taken scripture seriously, and we're not giving the Holy Spirit room to work in our life to actually help us overcome the sin and the struggle that we have in this life. That word condemnation, literally, if you understand what that means, it means there is no more punishment or condemning sentence on you because of your sins. There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Why is there none? Because Jesus paid the price for your sins. How can I be free? Jesus paid the price by dying on the cross. And then if we didn't believe it, he gave it the exclamation point because he rose from the dead and the tomb is empty. And so I think we have to take some of these words and begin to understand these words for those who belong to Christ Jesus. That word belong, actually, that phrase Paul says twice in those two scriptures. And so when somebody repeats something, he's trying to make a point, we should catch it. That word belong literally means one of the ways it could be translated is possession. Like you're a possession of Christ, not the sin that controls you when you surrender your life to Christ. So much so that, like in some versions of the New Testament, in some instances, the word possession there is talking about somebody who was possessed by a demon that Jesus set free. So Jesus is trying to say when we surrender our life to him, that his spirit empowers us, we become full of his spirit so that the old life doesn't have to control us anymore. That we can be free from sin, that we are not doomed to a lifetime of just stuck in this space until Jesus comes back to get us, but we can find freedom on this side of eternity and then live in it on the other side forever. And so the first mind game the enemy often plays is I'm not good enough. I've failed too many times. God can never forgive me, or maybe some of you say God can never use somebody like me. Can I tell you whose voice that is? It's not Jesus' voice. And it may sound a lot like your voice, but it's not your voice. It's a lie, the enemy has whispered to you. How do I know? Genesis to revelation. Every person that God ever used had a story. And they weren't all good. Abraham lied. David had a man murdered and then slept with his wife. Peter denied Jesus. Like over and over again, we think, man, God could never use somebody like me. I'm not good enough. That's not God's voice speaking to you. I need you to hear me. Like, I think for some of us, we've got to learn whose voice is talking to us. And that's not God's voice in this moment. How do I know? Because he said there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. There's no more record that when we surrender our life to Jesus, it's not about, are you good enough? It's about he's made you good enough because he's clothed you with his goodness. We've got to stop believing the lie of the enemy. I hear people tell me all the time, man, I would love to serve in the church. I would love for God to use me, but you just don't know my story, man. You don't know how many mistakes I've made. You don't know how bad I've messed up. Well, if he used a murderer to write a majority of the New Testament, and we sit here today because God saved a murderer and set him on fire for Jesus, then I'm pretty sure he can use any of us in this room. Call me crazy. And it's okay. I've probably earned it just a little bit. We've got to learn to identify the lies that the enemy speaks because the power of God's Spirit has freed us from the power of sin, which means I don't have to ever say those words, and I don't ever have to let those words define my life because in Christ you are good enough. Let's keep going. Romans 8, 3 through 4. I'm in trouble. I don't have a clock on the back wall. I gotta pay attention. I'm sorry. Romans 8, 3 through 4. The law of Moses was unable to save us because the weakness of our natural our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us. Let me say that again. God declared an end to sin's control over us. That's the truth. Anything else is a lie. By giving us his son as a sacrifice for our sins, he did this so that the just requirement of law would be fully satisfied for us who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the Spirit. I don't know if you figured this out or not. Following rules can't save you. But as a pastor, one of the biggest questions that almost anybody ever asks me is, hey, can you just tell me what the rules are so I know what to do and not do? Anyone else? Like we do, we just have like like I just man, just tell me, what are the rules? Like, I just I want to know, I don't want to know. If you tell me the rules, then I'll be good. Really? Like, I don't know about you, but we have this thing called intrusive thoughts. I sure do. And the moment you tell me not to do something, guess what? I'm gonna want to do. But it was an old house, and like I'm just curious, like, I gotta know, does this thing still work? I'm back there by myself and I pull the thing, and that old bell like just goes crazy through the whole house. My wife and the realtor comes back there, and I'm shoving the button, trying to stop the handle. But no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to stop ringing because I knew I wasn't supposed to do that, but I gave into the intrusive thought and did the thing I wasn't supposed to do. And the realtor never left me alone in a house again after that. Good measure, we're the same way. God could spell out things as clear as clear could be to tell us the rules, but in the end, in our own power, we just have a knack for doing the thing we know we're not supposed to do. Because rules are powerless to save you and I. But God's spirit at work in us, changing the way that we think, is the thing that helps us. Why? Because the gospel reminds us that I am saved, I am set free, that Jesus paid this price for me. And so because he's paid that price and his spirit lives in me, I can begin to see my life change. But the mind game we play is just to find the rules that Jesus has for us and let me follow them, and I'll be good. And we think if we just get the rules right, everything in our life is going to line up. News flash. Jesus didn't die and rise again to give you rules to follow. If that's the way we view scripture, we're already looking at it through the wrong lens. This is not a game of good versus bad. This is a game of life versus death. And everything in scripture is meant to point you to the life that Jesus wants for you. It's not a rule to ruin the fun in your life. It's actually his way of protecting you and me and pointing us to the best life that he could possibly give us. And why would he do that? Because he's the one that made us and he knows better than anybody else what would be best for us. And the lie, the mind game that we play, is I just give me some rules to follow and I'll be good. And God's spirit is like, no, man, like, like, let me show you the way to life and then come follow me so that you can find the life that I want for you. And yet, in today's world, we keep chasing rules and missing the very thing that can set us free: the power of Christ, resurrected, and his spirit at work inside of us. It's the mind games. And the question starts to become I think that last verse is so critical. At the end of four, he said, Those who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the spirit. Let me ask you, are you following the spirit? You can't listen to a lie, repeat it, and follow the spirit. You have to hear the truth, shape your life around that life-giving truth, and watch the spirit set you free and do something inside of you. That is what Jesus is trying to point us to. That is what he's trying to push us towards in this moment. Romans 8, 5 through 8. Let's keep going. And those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things. Here we go. Where's the problem at? Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think it's it's right here about sinful things. And those who are controlled by the spirit think about things that please the spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind. Again, I'm not making up anything, it's all right here in scripture. You can read it for yourself, leads to death. But letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God, it never obeyed God's laws and it never will. But that's why those who are still under control of their sinful nature can never please God. Paul's writing it out plainly here. The problem for you, the problem for me is wherever we think is the direction our life goes. I promise you. You're like, man, it's got to be more complicated than that. I promise you, it's really not. This brain and this heart, this thing we call a soul, steers the direction of our life. Because when you anticipate or think something is going to suck when you have to do it, how many of you guys show up with a great attitude and you just can't wait to hit it? Why? Because you what you think is already shaping the experience that you're gonna have. And people tell me all the time, man, uh, I just don't even want to hang out with that person. It's just like, oh, I can't, they just make me mad, they frustrate me. They you what you think is already shaping the experience before you ever get there. If you think negatively about your spouse, it's going to shape your marriage in a negative way. My old lady, she's such a hag. I hope none of you ever say that. What we think steers the direction of our life. And one of the biggest ways that it gets shaped, Paul says, so letting. Literally in that verse, he's saying, letting the spirit control your mind, or letting the sinful nature control your mind. If you understand what that word letting means, it literally means to purpose. It's an intentional effort between you and me. Hear me. Every time you repeat a lie or choose to believe in a lie, you are purposing to let that lie shape your life. Period. Every time you choose to follow the spirit or trust God's truth and where he's trying to lead you to his life, you're purposing in your life. And what you and I purpose to do shapes the direction of our life. Period. That is what Paul is pointing us to in this moment. It will frame our thoughts, it will frame everything we do, and old thought patterns from the flesh will destroy us, or we can frame and purpose new thought patterns that will set us free. And all the enemy wants to do is keep us stuck in the lies that we believe. And so his mind game for some of us is to keep you believing a lie that you think is true. Because the more often we repeat a lie, we believe it's true. I mean, I'm I'm pointing out how you can clearly begin to see in your own life where Satan is Satan is working against you and me. How do I know? Because I have this same struggle. And so here's what I know. You want to learn to purpose in your life how to let the power of God's Spirit change the way you think? Get into Scripture. If you don't read the Bible, hear me. You you're not giving the Holy Spirit anything to work with. I don't want you to read the Bible because you're gonna get an extra gold star when you get to heaven. I spend every day in scripture. Because I need the truth of God to reshape the way that I think and lead me in his direction. And every time I get into scripture, I give the Holy Spirit what he needs to transform the way I think and get me out of the way the world thinks. And so for many of us, we can't find truth because we don't ever open up the truth to read it. And so my encouragement is to you, please, for the love of Jesus and all things holy, read your scripture. Listen to your scripture while you drive. Do something. There are moments where I get on the lawnmower mowing, and if you ever want a fun way to listen to the Bible, some of you, this would annoy you, but this is just the way my brain works. I swear I'm a little ADD and I chase a squirrel every now and then. There's this thing called street lights, and it's an audio Bible that's put to a rhythm and a song that's got a little bit of a beat to it while somebody is reading to me. And so I'll sit on the lawnmower for an hour, an hour and a half, and I'll just hit play and start listening to this where I'm writing. Why? Because I need something to get into my mind to change the way I think. Satan would love to keep you out of God's truth. He would love to keep you out of church. He would love to keep you away from people that can guide you with godly counsel. Why? Because it will change the way that you think. You want to know why this community is so important? I need, I need all of us here together. So that we can encourage each other, we can lift each other up because I can be uncomfortably real at times and hear things that I may not like to hear, but I need to hear, so that I can live in the truth that God has created me for. And for some of us, we don't realize how the enemy works. And so he repeats lies to us all the time. Maybe these are some of the things you say, I can't forgive what they did to me. That's not true. But it is. Because you've already predetermined that you can't forgive that person. The mindset is the lie the enemy has put in your heart and in your mind, and you're choosing to believe that lie. Because you can forgive that person. Maybe I can't right now, but God, I want to. Can you help me? And the box just got a little bigger, and suddenly there's a door instead of four walls. But we believe the lie that the enemy speaks to us. I'm not good enough. I mean, maybe you forget what Ephesians 2 says, but it actually says you're God's masterpiece, literally. And I don't know about you, but every time you say you're not good enough, you're looking at God and telling him he makes junk. Every time you repeat those words, and man, I get it. In today's culture, I can't imagine. Like it's hard enough for men in today's culture. I can't imagine as a woman between everything that's photoshopped and AI'd and whatever, for the pressure that it puts on you to feel like I don't measure up. It's a lie from the enemy. Because you are his masterpiece. He doesn't make junk. He doesn't make mistakes. Oh, people say it's just the way I'm wired, but it's the way God made me. I think we give God credit that actually belongs to Satan a lot of times. We have these moments where we say, Man, I just that person hurt me and we live hurt. Listen, somebody can hurt you and you still don't have to live hurt. And as long as you believe that you do, you're trapped in the lie that the enemy wants for you and you'll never experience the life that Jesus has for you. I'm not saying people don't hurt you. And I'm not saying you're not valid in being hurt. But man, if that hurt happened five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years ago in your life, and it's still controlling you today, that's not God's voice anymore. That's the enemy keeping you stuck where he can control you so that you don't experience the life that Jesus wants for you. That person offended me. Cool. Somebody can offend you, but you don't have to live offended the rest of your life. That's a choice. That's a lie that you choose to believe. How do I beat it? Let the Spirit of God change the way you think and stop repeating the lies and start repeating the truth. This is probably the most practical thing. I hear people say, I'm just a warrior. I'm an anxious person. No, you're not. Like, man, I love to tell people like you're not a warrior, you're a warrior. Go on and read Romans 8, like later on. You are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. We keep claiming things that are a lie and letting the enemy shrink our world down to this. Yeah, but I struggle with these anxious thoughts that just I get it. So change your thought pattern and turn it back to something else besides your worry and anxiety. Let the spirit reshape the way that you think. Romans 8, 9 through 11. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. One more time, just so we can hear it. You are not controlled by your sinful nature. Like we act like we're powerless. Paul's reminding us you actually have power over who controls you. You are controlled by the Spirit, if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all. And Christ lives within you. So even though your body will die because of sin, if you haven't figured this out yet, there's a 100% mortality rate for everybody in this room. We are not getting out of here alive, whether you like it or not. Good news. Even though your body will die because of sin, the spirit gives you life because you've been made right with God. And the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. Where does he live? In you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by the same spirit living within you. If you struggle to win the mind games, I would encourage you this week. Read Romans 8. And when you lose the mind games again, which you will, because it takes a while to establish a better pattern, read Romans 8 again. Because the mind games in this moment that we play, maybe it's this that I have no ability to control what controls you. That's a lie of the enemy that he's been sowing in generations, especially in this country, for a long time. And so here's what we end up doing is we believe that we have no control, but you are controlled by what you give control to. Hear me. Some of you have given control of your emotions away to other people, and that's why you can't control your emotions. What's that look like? Let me tell you. If somebody triggers you, you've given away control of your emotions to somebody else. Yeah, but they make me feel. But it's so much easier when I say you make me feel, because I get to be the victim and I'm not in control. This is the struggle of the world we live in. That's why we can't have hard conversations. Because if you tell me a hard truth that I'm not ready for, you make me feel. And so because the way I feel, it dictates everything else that I do. Well, guess what? Your feelings lie to you all the time. Quit letting somebody else control your emotions. Nobody makes you mad. You choose to get mad. The sooner you reshape that lie into a truth, the sooner you actually find freedom from the anger that's trapping you. Yeah, but you hurt me. I mean, maybe they said something that you didn't like, but there's two kinds of hurt in this world. If you can name the movie that it's in, come up to me later. Let's not shout it out right now because somebody might judge me for it. There are two kinds of hurts in this world the hurt that causes pain or the hurt that causes change. That's it. You want to know why we love going to doctors? Because they can give us the hurt that causes change in our situation. People are like, man, I don't want to be hurt. Well, I don't either. But sometimes people hurt me to help me, they don't just hurt me to hurt me. And maybe newsflash, you need to be hurt so that God can heal you. Not all hurt is bad. I didn't have knee surgery once as a kid growing up. That hurt. But man, I'm thankful for it now. Although my knees still get a little crickety and pop every now and then. Because it wasn't a hurt just to hurt me, it was a hurt to heal me. That hurt had purpose. Quit allowing your emotions to control you. We allow circumstances to dictate our reality. We allow sin for some of us to justify our actions. We find it such a great way to manipulate scripture into our favor and what we want. Like, I mean, I hear from people all the time. Well, made Abraham had a couple wives and he sent one away. Like, like, surely, you know, Abraham did it, we can do it, right? You ever found somebody that uses scripture to justify? Like, I can tell you, in this world right now, like, prepare yourself. Like, this is going to be the uncomfortable truth. But there's a person running for Senate, I believe, in the state of Texas, James Tal Rico. If you listen to him, like just hear me now, he's a false prophet. You're like, you can't say that. I did. And you better learn your lessons from what's happening there because it will happen one day in our state, too. And he has adopted toxic empathy and twisted scripture to say something that God never intended to say, and he's leveraging it to get people to follow him and believing the lie of the enemy. Why? Because people don't know the truth. Like you shouldn't be political. Listen, I'm not political until politics gets into our world of faith, and then I will always be political because it is my job to be uncomfortably real and stand on the truth of God, whatever direction the world wants to go with it is between the world and God. But me, I'm gonna proclaim his truth. And we can't use scripture to twist it to our end. We submit to scripture and follow his lead. For many of us, we we don't get past what scripture is describing or prescribing. Just because God describes something doesn't mean he's prescribing it for us. David murdered somebody and had sex with a man's wife. That's not God's prescription for you and I. That's God's description of a bad situation that we should stay away from. Or then we just we say dumb things, like some people say, man, the scripture never talks about abortion, so we can't take a stand on it because scripture never talks about it. That's a lie from Satan. That is not the truth, it is a lie. And somewhere in today's world, we need the power of God's spirit at work in our life to guide us in his direction of life, to reshape the way that we think about things so that we can be free from the power of sin and free to experience the eternal life that Jesus wants for all of you in this room. And the greatest trap of the enemy starts between here and here. And the greatest path to freedom and the life that Jesus wants for you happens between here and here. Because what happens here shapes where you go. New life begins when the Spirit puts new thoughts into our souls. So the question, man, I would ask you today: where do you need to let the spirit give you new thoughts? We pray this prayer if you're doing the Bible reading plan with us and you follow along, and it's it's one of my favorite moments. But as we're going into the time of scripture every day, one of the prayers that's in there, there's five of them that we pray for that day. It says, Correct any lies I believe. You want to know the one prayer Satan does not want you to pray. Correct any lies that I believe, Jesus. You know the most dangerous prayer you could pray to put you on the path of life that Jesus wants for you? Correct any lies that I'm believing. That's what He's inviting us to. How do I know? It's the one thing in 46 years of my life that I've battled more than anything is right here and right here. And I hate when God lays messages like this on my heart. Because it always seems like the enemy ramps up even more to try to get into here and here and mess up a message like this coming out. And about six years ago, I remember a time I finally broke down and went to a Christian counselor because I was just at a place I couldn't fix what was happening inside of my head. I was in such a hard and dark spot. That, like literally sitting with the counselor, one of the things he told me one day was, So you're a pastor, you work at a church. Just tell me, in a seven-day week, how many days of the week do you get to the end of a day and feel like, man, I've done something good for God today? I said, easy. He said, Great, tell me. I said, none. And it was like the light bulb just went off. That's not God's truth, it's a lie that I'm believing, but it's the lie that was shaping reality for me in every way. And I needed the Spirit of God to guide me into truth and set me free from myself and the lies that the enemy was using to keep me trapped. And I'm telling you, as a pastor, it's what I've seen, not just for people that come talk to me. I can promise you, most of the conversations we ever have is because there's a lie the enemy has sewn into your life and into your mind that's keeping you trapped from experiencing the life that Jesus wants for you. Over the last year, I have watched the enemy try to attack my wife, and I've watched what happens when the enemy tries to get in our minds. The past week I have watched the enemy attack my children and use what's going on in their minds to try to frustrate what he has for them. I'm telling you, this message has the power to change your life. If you're brave enough to just acknowledge God, correct any lies that I believe, and then show me your truth instead of a lie. Or you can keep believing the lie, you will stay stuck where you're at, you will keep repeating the same patterns. You you might have a temporary moment of getting better, followed by another cycle of falling back down, and and you just you'll stay on that hamster wheel for the rest of your life. But not because Jesus doesn't want something else for you, because you keep believing a lie rather than allowing his truth to change you. So, all across this place, if you'll stand, we're gonna get ready to take a moment, we're gonna have a song of worship. I'm gonna invite my friends to come. And here would be my invitation to you today. As we're singing this song, it's like, oh man, I just I don't know if I want to come down and get in front of everybody or whatever that might be, that's fine. But I'm gonna have some friends come down as we're singing this song, and they're gonna be down front. And if you just want somebody to pray with you, I just want to invite you to come down from where you are as we're singing this song and let somebody pray with you. Maybe you just need to confess the lie that you're believing. Maybe you just need somebody to pray with you to help you find the truth and find the freedom from the lie that's got you trapped. That's the best place to start. As we sing that song, if you need prayer, man, I know it's uncomfortable. I know we're in a bit of a different space and place, man. I'm gonna invite you to come down. Let one of us pray with you as we sing this song and begin to experience the freedom Jesus wants for you.