SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: The World Health Organization findings.
SPEAKER_01: World Health Organization findings.
SPEAKER_01: 21% of Americans are experiencing some kind of mental illness.
SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01: One in five Americans is experiencing some kind of mental illness.
SPEAKER_01: That's 50 million Americans.
SPEAKER_01: On the rise are clinical depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorders.
SPEAKER_01: People who identify as LGBTIQ are two to three times more likely to have mental disorders.
SPEAKER_01: Women between the ages of 16 to 24 are the most likely to have mental disorders.
SPEAKER_01: According to findings, the main reason is, quote, the increased use of social media.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty stunning, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01: So I would say to you, parents who have young people, man, you gotta be so judicious with that phone.
SPEAKER_01: It's dynamite in the hands of a kid.
SPEAKER_01: And a child can really be ruined by being on the phone a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and we can be ruined in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So we are in America, we may be, I don't know all the statistics around the world, but we may be the most mentally ill people in all of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And it's because it's environmental, it's related to so many different things, but it's affecting our health, our marriages, our jobs, and our relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Now, last week I talked about from Romans 12 about renewing our minds, and I gave you a diagram called the scatter plot diagram.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna show it again.
SPEAKER_01: And in this diagram, I explained the average.
SPEAKER_01: So I just gave you one in five, and that's not necessarily the average, but it shows us that really the downward trend in America in mental health is stunning.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is a crisis, folks.
SPEAKER_01: When you have 21% of a population in a particular disorder, that's a crisis.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care how you look at it, that's a crisis.
SPEAKER_01: And my thesis is that God here at this church, and I believe it should be all across the church at large, but I can't speak to the church at large, but in our church, is that our job is to take you out of the normal.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to be a normal American Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to be a normal, depressed American Christian or angry, or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to be walking in the kingdom order, the kingdom of God order, which is an outlier.
SPEAKER_01: The outlier is a kingdom of God mindset.
SPEAKER_01: And we are here today.
SPEAKER_01: You could have done a hundred things today on a beautiful fall day, but you're sitting here listening to me, and then we're gonna be worshiping together.
SPEAKER_01: We're listening to God from his word because you want to change, because you want to be transformed.
SPEAKER_01: So you're the outliers.
SPEAKER_01: And so, high five, you know, to everyone who's here.
SPEAKER_01: But that reality is by seeking the kingdom of God first in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And as you know, I spent the last month working on a book.
SPEAKER_01: And the book's called Strong and Courageous: Nine Habits That Can Transform Your Life from Fear to Courage.
SPEAKER_01: And some aspects of the book are in this.
SPEAKER_01: But one of the things I talk about in habit one is the DNA of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: The DNA, living with the DNA of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: So Romans 14, 17 says, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's the normal Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: That's normal.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus came to do is to give each one of us through the power of the Holy Spirit righteousness, peace, and joy flowing from the inside out.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus called it the abundant life.
SPEAKER_01: The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to give us an abundant life, a fulfilled life, a transformed life.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what we're going toward.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're after.
SPEAKER_01: So turn to Romans 12, 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: And this is part two.
SPEAKER_01: And if you didn't hear the message last week, I'd encourage you sometime this week, go back and listen to that sermon, therode.org slash sermon.
SPEAKER_01: It's under the Romans series because I don't want to repeat a ton of what I said last week.
SPEAKER_01: I need to a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But look at Romans 12, 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: And as I said last week, we are in a massive transition from a theological perspective to a very, very practical perspective in Romans.
SPEAKER_01: So as we conclude with these last chapters of Romans, all my messages are going to be very extremely practical.
SPEAKER_01: I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, there's two choices in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We're either conformed to the schemes and the systems and the values of this world.
SPEAKER_01: If you do nothing, if you wake up in the morning and you're just yourself and you don't do anything in the way of renewal, that's where you'll go.
SPEAKER_01: You will go in the way of being conformed to this world and the schemes of this world.
SPEAKER_01: Or, he says, you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind according to God's kingdom of God order.
SPEAKER_01: So you can walk in disorder or you can walk in order.
SPEAKER_01: And last week I talked about the fact that when we go after the world system, it always leads to disorder.
SPEAKER_01: Just look at the Hollywood stars, just look at athletes, just look at people that you see and you hear about who are just going after the world and the values of the world, watch their life disintegrate.
SPEAKER_01: Or you show me men and women who are going after the kingdom order, they're seeking the kingdom first, they're being filled with the Holy Spirit every day.
SPEAKER_01: They may have disorder, but you'll gradually see order coming into their disorder.
SPEAKER_01: In this room, I'm looking around, you don't know this, but I know this, is full of people who about five or six years ago were living in disorder.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they were messed up.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about people living under bridges, hooked on meth, doing everything that the world says will give them happiness, and it led to disorder.
SPEAKER_01: They're sitting in this room right now, transformed because they renewed their mind through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I signed up for.
SPEAKER_01: So here's my thesis.
SPEAKER_01: My thesis is people who re-energize their mind and life according to the order of the kingdom of God are the most joyful, most happy, and most fulfilled people on the planet.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a pretty good thing to sign up for.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's really where the, that's where the action is, is the re-energizing your mind.
SPEAKER_01: But nobody can do it but you.
SPEAKER_01: I can't, I can't do anything more than advocate for, challenge you to re-energize your mind every day.
SPEAKER_01: You have to do it, though.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody can do it for you.
SPEAKER_01: And the hard part is that some of us have so many habits from our past, it just feels impossible to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm gonna hopefully give you a few steps here today that can be helpful.
SPEAKER_01: And the first step I talked about briefly last week is experience Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta start with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It begins with Jesus, the power comes from Jesus, the order is Jesus, his kingdom values are what you're looking for.
SPEAKER_01: You are born with a desire to know God.
SPEAKER_01: Pascal, the great French philosopher, called it a God-shaped vacuum.
SPEAKER_01: So there's this God-shaped hole in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's what you've always been looking for.
SPEAKER_01: You try to find it in sex, you try to find it in drugs, you try to find it in accomplishments and all those things, and it's never going to fulfill because you are wired by God for God.
SPEAKER_01: He wired you up, he wired you up in the image of God, Genesis 1 and 2, to be a God seeker.
SPEAKER_01: So then when you find God, you discover God, and you experience Jesus, you're connected now.
SPEAKER_01: You're wired up to your destiny.
SPEAKER_01: And so last week in this room, five or six people gave their heart to Christ, experienced Christ in their life.
SPEAKER_01: You're now connected.
SPEAKER_01: You were disconnected, now you're connected.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you, your wiring's a little bit frayed.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're like me.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in the church.
SPEAKER_01: I went to church.
SPEAKER_01: I knew Lutheran, Lutheran, Lutheran.
SPEAKER_01: I was Lutheran, man.
SPEAKER_01: If you cut me, I bled Lutheran.
SPEAKER_01: And when you, if you took the red hymnal or the green hymnal, or whatever, maybe they've got a purple hymnal now, but back then it was a red one, and then there's a green one in the ELCA.
SPEAKER_01: I can tell you exactly what page to go to anytime during the service, exactly the same every week for 18 years.
SPEAKER_01: I know it, man.
SPEAKER_01: So I knew religion.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you know Catholicism.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you know Methodism.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about experience the church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about experience Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's where you've got to re-energize your mind with knowing, loving, worshiping, going after, seeking first Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Everything else is gonna eventually fail you.
SPEAKER_01: He never will.
SPEAKER_01: Everything else in this world is gonna disappoint you at some point.
SPEAKER_01: Your wife, your husband's gonna disappoint you at some point, your girlfriend's boyfriend's gonna disappoint you, your kids are gonna disappoint you.
SPEAKER_01: If you are focused on your family, it will disappoint you.
SPEAKER_01: You focus on Jesus, and most of the time God takes care of your family.
SPEAKER_01: At least the things that you can control.
SPEAKER_01: The problem with kids is they grow up.
SPEAKER_01: And when they grow up, they have a mind of their own because that's their job.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, your job is to give them a nest and then give them wings.
SPEAKER_01: They're not supposed to always stay in the nest.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's some families that probably need to go into the nest and kick the bird out and say, grow some wings, dude.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in our family, kids have always come back for a period of time, and we welcome that because they're getting their wings set after college or whatever transition they're in.
SPEAKER_01: So I always want to be a home like that, so don't get me wrong on that.
SPEAKER_01: But they pay rent.
SPEAKER_01: We don't need the rent, it's more I'm training them to be on their own and to be entrepreneurial and to have their own wings.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna fly for them, right?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's step one.
SPEAKER_01: Experience Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Step two, now this is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Before I go to step two, let me read.
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: McLaughlin of Women's Medical College in Philadelphia says this.
SPEAKER_01: This is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: 65 to 85% of all sickness is rooted in the mental and spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: 65 to 85% of all sickness is rooted in the mental and spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: 99% of headaches.
SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, many man, if you get step one right, you might actually heal yourself.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll start experiencing Jesus, renewing your mind, the science out there seems to indicate that the more order you have in your thinking, the more it actually affects your physical and mental health.
SPEAKER_01: So, number two, step two, and this you're not gonna like this one.
SPEAKER_01: First one's like, ah, Jesus, yeah, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01: No, step two is expect hardship.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to come with a hardship mentality.
SPEAKER_01: You have to come with an endurance mentality.
SPEAKER_01: So turn to the right in your Bible to Hebrews 12.
SPEAKER_01: So go toward, if you get to Revelation, you've gone too far.
SPEAKER_01: Um, Hebrews 12, keep going to the right to come to Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 puts the two together of what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: It puts step 1 and step 2 together.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we also, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us.
SPEAKER_01: Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: So even Jesus needed endurance.
SPEAKER_01: Even Jesus made it a joy, the joy of his heart, to go to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says to us, if you want to find your life, you must lose it.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Take up your cross, take up your cross, and say, take up his cross, take up your cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: There's a cross to bear.
SPEAKER_01: And now Jesus, when he's saying, take up your cross and follow me, is before he went to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_01: He hasn't gone to the cross yet, but he says to the disciples, if you want to follow me, take up your cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you couldn't have had a more hideous, horrendous, excruciatingly negative perspective of anything but the Roman cross, where they nailed you to a cross beam and you died usually of asphyxiation, of just not being able.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, people watched these criminals die.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, take up that, take up your cross.
SPEAKER_01: That means hardship, folks.
SPEAKER_01: That's difficulty.
SPEAKER_01: Be willing to take up hardship and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: But the way you do that is you look to me.
SPEAKER_01: You look to Jesus because you don't have what it takes.
SPEAKER_01: You do not have in yourself everything that is needed, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, you have it.
SPEAKER_01: And folks, if you're walking with Jesus, you're hardwired now for conflict.
SPEAKER_01: You are hardwired for hardship.
SPEAKER_01: You do have what it takes if you have the Holy Spirit and his power.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: So, so again, we're back to two choices.
SPEAKER_01: You can conform to the world, you can be transformed by the re-energizing of your mind.
SPEAKER_01: You re-energize your mind, first, experience Jesus, two, expect hardship.
SPEAKER_01: So Angela Lee Duckworth, a leading speaker, and once a math teacher, she's a PhD now, but she was a math teacher in San Francisco, and she did extensive research on kids in the inner city who make it and kids in the inner city who don't.
SPEAKER_01: Here was her conclusion in her TED talk.
SPEAKER_01: One characteristic emerged as the best predictor of success.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't social intelligence.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't good looks.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't physical health, and it wasn't IQ.
SPEAKER_01: It was grit.
SPEAKER_01: Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.
SPEAKER_01: Grit is having stamina.
SPEAKER_01: Grit is sticking with your future day in and day out.
SPEAKER_01: Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years.
SPEAKER_01: And working hard to make that future a reality.
SPEAKER_01: Grit is living your life like a marathon and not a sprint.
SPEAKER_01: So we're in a battle, folks.
SPEAKER_01: We're in a war against the devil and demons, and they're out there to take you out.
SPEAKER_01: And grit is that ability to not quit when going gets tough, when things are difficult.
SPEAKER_01: It's that endurance, it's that mentality, that re-energizing of your mind every day toward the kingdom order, God's order for your lives.
SPEAKER_01: So in 2 Corinthians 4, we read if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds, whose minds the God of this age has blinded who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of Christ, the image of God, would shine on them.
SPEAKER_01: So you see, that's what the devil does.
SPEAKER_01: The devil comes after our mind, and he comes after mainly our belief systems.
SPEAKER_01: What we believe about him and what we believe about ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you got to preach to yourself better.
SPEAKER_01: You got to look in the mirror and say, I am created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: I am made for success.
SPEAKER_01: I am made for prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: I am made by God to make a difference in this world.
SPEAKER_01: I am made by God to make an impact.
SPEAKER_01: I am made by God to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.
SPEAKER_01: You got to say it until you believe it.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you need to say it a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have been hammered and hammered and hammered all your life through your parents, through teachers, through coaches, that you're a loser, that you're never going to amount to anything.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a lie from the pit of hell, and that's not what Christ wants you to believe.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying you shall be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_01: But you have to renew your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody can do it for you.
SPEAKER_01: You have to renew your mind, and you have to get in a habit of saying and preaching to yourself truth because truth sets you free.
SPEAKER_01: So here's step three.
SPEAKER_01: That leads into step three.
SPEAKER_01: Step three in renewing and re-energizing your mind is excel in truth.
SPEAKER_01: Excel in truth.
SPEAKER_01: Experience Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Expect hardship.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, excel in truth.
SPEAKER_01: You can excel in a lot of things in this life, but excelling in truth is one of the greatest endeavors that we can make over our lives because the whole world is so full of lies.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's not that it's just fake news.
SPEAKER_01: You guys, it's unhealthy news.
SPEAKER_01: If you find yourself overly focused on the news, it will, man, it will just mess you up.
SPEAKER_01: Because, and I'm, and I know, I mean, I took the zydoscan, I did a zydoscan with Pam Holloway, and she didn't know a lot of stuff about my condition about six weeks ago, but I did this zydoscan and she said, you're off the charts on exhaustion.
SPEAKER_01: You're almost off the chart on frustration.
SPEAKER_01: And that was one of the reasons why I felt I just had to get away for a month to study and to read and to work on the book and pull away from the daily activities of church because I was frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's what's interesting: on a different um chart that she had, I was off the charts on dopamine.
SPEAKER_01: And dopamine comes mainly through the computer, the screen, all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: The very thing I just said that the uh CDCs found that the major or the most that wasn't CDC, it was the World Health Organization, who had found that the number one reason for mental disorder is social media.
SPEAKER_01: Which means you're overloading, you're getting addicted to dopamine.
SPEAKER_01: And for me, being on the computer a lot, with studying, preparing for stuff, looking at the news, man, I had to take a break.
SPEAKER_01: The graph showed that.
SPEAKER_01: So does anybody know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's a battle for us.
SPEAKER_01: So here, excel in truth.
SPEAKER_01: So there's two passages in scripture, Joshua 1 8 and Psalm 1, that are basically saying the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's Joshua 1 8.
SPEAKER_01: This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall Meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to what he says next.
SPEAKER_01: For then, in other words, if you do that, if you'll meditate in the word, if you'll meditate in the book of the law, then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, what he's saying is if you'll meditate in truth, if you'll saturate yourself with God's word, reading God's word, memorizing God's word, thinking on God's word, this is the main source of truth for all time.
SPEAKER_01: This is the kingdom order.
SPEAKER_01: You will prosper and have good success, is what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Now, David says in Psalm 1 almost the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor assists in the seed of the scornful.
SPEAKER_01: But his delight is in the law of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: His delight is in the law of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And in his law he meditates day and night.
SPEAKER_01: He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
SPEAKER_01: So, church, if you want to prosper in your life, and I think most of us do, excel in truth.
SPEAKER_01: Re-energize your mind with truth.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reading a tome right now.
SPEAKER_01: It seems like all the books I read are like massive.
SPEAKER_01: And this one is called JFK and the unspeakable.
SPEAKER_01: And it's about the assassination of John F.
SPEAKER_01: Kennedy.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the Kennedy administration.
SPEAKER_01: It takes us from Eisenhower, Kennedy administration, CIA stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, I'm not necessarily filling my mind right now with the law of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So I need to drop that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I like to read that stuff and I speed read it, but then when I come to bed at night, I need to open God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: I need to, I've got to re-energize my mind with positivity, with good things, with kingdom things, with orderly things in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I don't, man, it's depressing.
SPEAKER_01: If we only knew what was involved in the assassinate of GFK, it's unbelievable that we've allowed that to happen in our country.
SPEAKER_01: So I love to seek after truth, but I have to then renew myself with the eternal truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: Casting down, isn't this interesting, arguments.
SPEAKER_01: Casting down arguments, that's mental.
SPEAKER_01: Casting down arguments in every high thing that exhausts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So, church, some of us have strongholds in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We have strongholds over our mind that have been there for generations.
SPEAKER_01: Where we can pull those strongholds down.
SPEAKER_01: We can pull those strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: Here's three things about strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, strongholds in our mind are spiritual in nature.
SPEAKER_01: They're spiritual in nature.
SPEAKER_01: They're oftentimes demon-empowered.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's a stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, they always begin in the mind and then they affect the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: You show me our man or woman who's been addicted to drugs, those that have been constantly in failure mode for most of their life, if we were to ask them what they think about themselves, it would just be a list of negative comments that they say to themselves every day.
SPEAKER_01: That's a stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: And then thirdly, they take the form of arguments.
SPEAKER_01: Strongholds take the form of false beliefs about ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: So when we begin to think about truth, the truth that sets us free, that's the main way we begin to tear down false arguments is believing truth.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to excel in truth.
SPEAKER_01: During COVID, we excelled in truth around here.
SPEAKER_01: It took us a while, it took some research, it took some diving in, and then we realized wait, everything that we were hearing from the mainstream media wasn't factual.
SPEAKER_01: And so we made some changes.
SPEAKER_01: We started following our own protocol, not their protocol.
SPEAKER_01: We quit listening to what they said, and 3,000 people in El Paso County, 3,000 plus, got healed.
SPEAKER_01: Well, in your life, you've got areas of your life, everybody here does, has something that there's a stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: You will not destroy the stronghold by focusing entirely on the stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: You focus on truth, that's the opposite of the lie that's built up the argument that's in your mind that's created the stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: So it may sound complex, but it's not.
SPEAKER_01: If you are believing that you're gonna get Alzheimer's, if you're believing that you're gonna get cancer, you've got to counter that with a new belief that that is not true, that you're healthy, that you're strong, that you're gonna finish out well, but you've got to renew your mind with truth.
SPEAKER_01: Not just saying it, but actually back it up with truth, and that's found mainly in God's Word, being in God's Word on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_01: Friedrich Nietzsche, the great atheist, which you wouldn't believe that I'm gonna quote him now from the pulpit, but I like this quote.
SPEAKER_01: The strength of a person's spirit would be measured by how much truth he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted, disguised, sweetened, muted, and falsified.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, most people can't handle truth.
SPEAKER_01: They don't want to hear it.
SPEAKER_01: Most pastors do not want to deal with truth issues out there in culture.
SPEAKER_01: They don't mind looking at God's word and being in God's word, which is primary, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: But it freaks them out to think that these things are happening out there.
SPEAKER_01: And Nietzsche's saying, look, to be a man or a woman of strength, you need to know some of those things, but then you counter it with truth.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you build confidence in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're if you're not following PB and J, Prayer, Bible, and journal, I want to challenge you to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Go out and get a journal today.
SPEAKER_01: Get a journal.
SPEAKER_01: Get up in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: Get up in the morning earlier and open God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Get in a quiet place in your house with a lamp or something.
SPEAKER_01: Open God.
SPEAKER_01: Just read one chapter.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not doing this right, just read one chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Start saying to yourself, I am a scholar of truth.
SPEAKER_01: I am a scholar of truth.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to let the truth set me free because Jesus said it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Abide in me, and I will abide in you, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
SPEAKER_01: So you want to walk in freedom and joy in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Meditate in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's amazing to me when you read up, when you read about our founding fathers of this country, and the foundations they laid, many of which were not even Christians.
SPEAKER_01: They were deist.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure what Jefferson actually was, but probably a deist.
SPEAKER_01: But to read their writings, church, they were saturated with Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Because even these men who weren't Christians in the orthodox meaning of that word, they knew the power of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: So, number one, experience Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Step two, expect hardship.
SPEAKER_01: Step three, excel in truth.
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, re-energize your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Step four, engage in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Engage in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So keep going to the right from Hebrews to James.
SPEAKER_01: Go to James chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting passage about Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: About Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: Start at verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: James 5, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
SPEAKER_01: Now this is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman availeth much effectual here in Greek is energyo.
SPEAKER_01: It means energetic prayer.
SPEAKER_01: So you energize, you re-energize your mind through energizing prayer, fervent prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Not just lifting one up before the meal, which is good too.
SPEAKER_01: You're not doing that.
SPEAKER_01: Pray together as a family.
SPEAKER_01: But that's like step one.
SPEAKER_01: But energize your mind, re-energize your mind by energetic prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah did that.
SPEAKER_01: He came with fervent prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you have diseases right now, some of you have cancer right now, some of you have kids that are having all kinds of difficulties and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to come to him with energy.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times when Liz and I are praying for stuff, we pray in tongues.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have the gift of tongues, come up and get prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Speak in tongues, man.
SPEAKER_01: When you start speaking in tongues, you're praying a prayer language with the Spirit of God flowing through you.
SPEAKER_01: And we've seen real breakthrough in prayer through praying in tongues.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what it says: it says, this guy, Elijah, came with effective, fervent prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah, verse 17, was a man with a nature like ours.
SPEAKER_01: He's just a regular guy.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: And he had the office of prophet.
SPEAKER_01: So, in one sense, he had an elevated position in his office, but he's just a flesh and blood Jew.
SPEAKER_01: He's just a flesh and blood human being just like us that changed the course of history.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed earnestly, energetically, that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is that here?
SPEAKER_01: Why is James, the brother of Jesus, the half-brother of Jesus, telling us this?
SPEAKER_01: Because I think he's trying to conclude this letter by saying, you can do this too.
SPEAKER_01: You can re-energize your mind through energetic prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Ask, and it shall be given.
SPEAKER_01: Seek, and you shall find knock, and the door shall be opened to you.
SPEAKER_01: And he's talking about prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Cry out to God.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to do miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to bring breakthrough with energy.
SPEAKER_01: And when you don't have energy, pray anyway and get it the next day.
SPEAKER_01: But keep going after it.
SPEAKER_01: And energize your prayers through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, man, God wants to answer our prayers.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to bring miracles.
SPEAKER_01: He's just looking for church people that'll believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Man, and you've got some of you have some really bad stuff going on, really big hardship.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why is that there?
SPEAKER_01: It's there because God's allowed it there, because He's trying to train you to re-energize your mind so you'll cry out to Him and won't quit until He opens that door.
SPEAKER_01: Knock, knock, knock.
SPEAKER_01: Seek, seek, seek.
SPEAKER_01: Ask, ask, ask.
SPEAKER_01: That's literally what the passage means in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have ever been to a door where it's your house?
SPEAKER_01: Your house, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And you forgot your key or something happened, and you know that one of your kids or your wife, your spouse, or your husband's in there, and it's it's late or something, and you knock, and you know you always go like this at first, kind of.
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't want to wake everybody up.
SPEAKER_01: And then nothing, man.
SPEAKER_01: It's dark.
SPEAKER_01: Then bam, bam, bam, bam, right?
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is Jesus is prophesying that that's often what you have to do to get your prayers answered.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a little tap, tap, tap, tap.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's going after it with energy.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he chooses that word.
SPEAKER_01: He could have chosen another Greek word, but he says, energetic prayer of a righteous man avails much.
SPEAKER_01: People who re-energize their mind and life according to the order of the kingdom of God are the most joyful, most happy, most fulfilled people on the planet.
SPEAKER_01: Experience Jesus, step one.
SPEAKER_01: Expect hardship, step two.
SPEAKER_01: Excel in truth, step three.
SPEAKER_01: Engage in prayer, step four.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.