The Replacement Principle, "Winning The War In Your Mind."

Discover how to win the spiritual battle raging in your mind and break free from mental strongholds that have held you captive. This powerful message reveals the biblical strategy for overcoming negative thought patterns, defeating lies, and experiencing true mental freedom through God's Word. Learn why your mind is a spiritual battlefield and how thoughts create neural pathways that either lead to bondage or breakthrough. Explore the three essential steps to demolish strongholds: identifying the lies you believe, replacing them with biblical truth, and taking every thought captive. Based on 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 and Romans 12:2, this teaching combines biblical wisdom with modern neuroscience to show how God transforms minds and changes lives. Whether you struggle with feelings of inadequacy, fear, depression, anxiety, or past failures, discover how the sword of the Spirit - God's Word - provides the power to overcome every mental fortress. Perfect for anyone seeking spiritual warfare strategies, biblical counseling principles, mind renewal techniques, or freedom from negative thinking patterns. Topics covered include: mental strongholds, thought patterns, biblical transformation, spiritual warfare, mind renewal, overcoming lies, God's truth, neural pathways, taking thoughts captive, Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, breaking free from bondage, Christian living, spiritual growth, biblical psychology, overcoming negative thoughts, mental health and faith, spiritual freedom, defeating the enemy's lies, and experiencing God's transforming power.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We are kicking off a new series called Winning the War in Your Mind. If you happen to be with us on New Year's Day, the first message of the New Year's was all about change your mind, change your life. It was kind of a prequel to this sermon series. And it's one of those things that I think we oftentimes take for granted because we have come to this false conclusion that true science and faith are incompatible. When the reality is, is that if you really dig into truth, you'll find that the scientific reasons for the things that we know are true are in absolute agreement with God's word. How did you guys sleep last night? Anybody sleep good? Did you wake up this morning energized, ready to face your day? Well, when my alarm went off this morning at 4:30, I was like, I want to hit snooze, I want to go back to sleep. I did not want to get up. I did not want to come here. And so many times the worst day of the week for me is Sundays. And yet, at the very same time, it's also the best day for me. Why? Because I know I get to do something that few people get to do. They get to speak into the lives of other people through the power of God's word. And I believe that the power of God's word is the only thing that truly brings about change. But yet, at the same time, I find this ongoing war going on in my head. You know, I want to walk in faith. I want to trust God, and yet at the same time, I find myself shrinking back. I want to believe God, take him at his word, and walk in full confidence, and yet at the same time, I want control. You know, uh Lord, do this for me. God come through here. And then I lay my prayers at his feet and I start to walk away, and then I come back and pick them up. I got this, you know. Anybody else have this ongoing war in your mind? And it kind of goes like this for me on Sunday mornings. I get up and I go for a walk. Why? So I can go through my message over and over again. And then I hear this other voice. Why are you doing that? It's just another Sunday. It's just another sermon. They don't remember what you said last week, much less what you're gonna say today. And I'm going, shut up, I don't want to hear that. And yet that voice keeps speaking. And if I listen to the voice that is whispering lies into my life, and I listen to it often enough, and I act on it frequently enough, what ends up happening is I end up establishing a pattern of belief in my life, and I end up living my life based on lies rather than truth. And the reality is that most of life's battles are won or lost in the mind. Your mind is a spiritual battlefield. It's where life and death issues are being fought out. It's where truth and lies are confronting one another. And so many of us come into the church and we're carrying with us lies that have been spoken into our lives and over our lives from the very beginning. So many of us come in here believing I'll never be enough, I'll never be strong enough, I'll never be good enough, I'll never be pretty enough, smart enough, I'll always be broke, I'll always have messed up relationships. We hear these things and then we begin repeating them to ourselves. And we repeat them to ourselves over and over again until the lie actually begins to sound like the truth. And many of you came in here today believing that you are your divorce, you are your past, you are your record, you are your failure, you are your pain, you are your hurt when nothing could be farther from the truth. Because God's word speaks a different truth, but if we don't know the truth, then we are really incapable of fighting the battles that are being waged for our hearts and our minds. I want you to think through the scripture and think through the New Testament. And if there was anyone who was ever a thought warrior who was able to wield the sword of truth, probably better than anyone, it probably would have been the Apostle Paul, right? You know, the Apostle Paul, we think of him as this spiritual giant who knew the truths of God's word and how to apply them to his life in such a powerful way that he planted churches, he changed cities, he changed nations. Why? Because he knew how to use the truth. But the reality is that the Apostle Paul didn't start out that way. As a matter of fact, Paul was not a believer until he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, and he had a life-changing encounter. And at that moment, he had to confront everything that he thought was true, that we get into God's good graces by keeping the law, that we can somehow pull ourselves up to heaven by our own bootstraps and by our own good works, by thinking good things, doing good things. And somehow, if we can just do all the right things and keep it to the letter, then God will have to accept us. Paul believed that so much that he persecuted the church, murdering people, dragging men, women, and children, and throwing them into prison. But after meeting Jesus, he had to confront the lies that had been spoken into his life that he had lived his life by, and it didn't happen overnight. I think this is what so many people think and falsely believe is that the only way that you can win the war that's taking place in your mind on a daily basis is by having an Apostle Paul type of experience. But the reality is that Paul changed over time. God had to help rewire the way Paul thought, the way Paul looked at the world, and in doing so, he helped Paul develop tools to be able to counter the lies of the enemy to where he would be able to recognize truth from lies and be able to help others do the same. So over the next several weeks, we're going to be looking at some of the things that Paul had to say. And I want you to understand something. The people in the Bible are just like us. They wake up, and you know what I've come to discover? How I go to bed oftentimes determines how I get out of it. A lot of times I go to bed worrying about all the things that I can't control, worrying about what I wish I had said, what I wish I had done, what I wish I hadn't done. And I go to bed and I'm worrying about those things, and I wake up the same the next morning, and those thoughts are still racing through my mind. So how we go to bed oftentimes determines how we get out of it. And we end up living our lives in a way that we really don't want to, and that God didn't plan for us, and it's not the kind of life that Jesus came to give us. I want you to listen to what the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 7. Paul said this, and see if you can relate. He said, We know that the law is spiritual, but I'm made of flesh and blood. I'm sold as a slave to sin. Your pastor is a sinner. I didn't mean to shock anybody. My wife already knew that. My dad knows that. I struggle the same as all of you. And yet, at the same time, I relate to what Paul's saying. He said, I don't know what I'm doing because I don't do what I want to do. Instead, I do the very thing that I hate. So if we oftentimes end up thinking negative thoughts, believing lies about ourselves and about the people around us, how do we overcome that? How do we win this war that's being thought out in our minds every day? I want you to listen to what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Paul is writing to the church and he says, We, for though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. The word power is something that we don't have in and of ourselves. It's divine power that God puts into us through the power of his Holy Spirit. Why? Because he wants us to be able to live, walk, act, talk, and think like Jesus. That's why you have the Holy Spirit. He wants you to be more like Jesus. Why? So that when you see a lie and when you're wrestling with a lie, that you'll be able to take it down. And the word stronghold in the Old Testament is literally, think of a castle on a mountain. Or think of a keep in the middle of a city where a tower is. It's the place where if the city's attacked, then all the important people and all the important stuff go there. Why? So if the enemy breaks through the city walls, they know they'll be safe. And so you'd put your leadership there, you'd put the king there, you'd put uh all the valuables. Why? So that when the war was over, they could start again. And if you didn't take the keep, if you didn't take the stronghold down, guess what happens? It comes back. And the same thing is true in your life and my life. So many of us don't realize that there is a spiritual battle being waged all around us. And it's happening 24-7, it's happening in your head, it's happening in your homes. And what does Satan seek to do? Satan seeks to shape your thoughts, your thinking, one thought at a time, in order that he might make you a prisoner of lies. I don't know what lies you wrestle with. Maybe you came in here today and you struggle with identity. You never felt wanted, you never felt loved. Maybe you came here today and you've had this inordinate sense of guilt and shame over your life, as if you know we are defined by what we do rather than whose we are. Maybe you came in here today believing that your relationships will always be bad, you'll always struggle with your weight. It's just you know part of my family. And so we end up speaking these lies over our life. And before we know it, what we have done is we have established a stronghold in our life through a pattern of thinking that we are powerless to break free of on our own. I want you to picture a war taking place. Okay, and and um and only one side realizes they're in a war. How's that gonna work out? Well, the side that is unaware or isn't paying attention, they're gonna get picked off, right? Person after person, city after city, until they end up losing the war because they didn't realize that they were in it. This is what Satan wants you to do. He doesn't want you to be aware of what's taking place around you. So listen to what Paul said in verse 5. He said, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. How do you do that? How do you demolish arguments and what's a pretension? Isn't it a lie? We demolish them and take them captive how to make it obedient to Christ. The only way you can do that is by knowing the truth of God's word. Now, why is this so important? It's because right now your life is moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. If you think you can't, guess what? You probably can't. You won't. If you think you uh are always gonna be this way, guess what? You'll you you'll never change. We end up speaking lies over ourselves and over our families, over our marriage, over our kids, and we end up letting them take us captive rather than going on the offense. Christians, can I tell you something? It's time for the church to wake up out of its slumber and go on the offensive. What he said in verse 5, you cannot take captive the enemy unless you're willing to go to war. See, because Satan understands something we oftentimes fail to forget. You will never change what you fail to confront. You will never change what you fail to confront. Oh, this is just the way I am. Oh, this is the way I was raised. Uh, I'll I'll always be this way. We hide behind the lies of our excuses as rationalizing and justification for why we are the way we are and why we're not moving in the direction that God wants us to be. I want you to listen to what it says in Proverbs chapter 23, verse 7. It says in the New King James Version, it says, For as he thinketh in his heart, so he is. So he is. And what I have discovered is that modern neurological behavioral science and the Bible are in total agreement here. So many of our addictions, so many of our uh hang-ups, so many of our hurts are rooted in wrong thinking. So many of our addictions, so many of the things that we wrestle with and believe about ourselves, it comes from an established wrong pattern of thinking. And why is this so important? Because the thoughts you think today will determine the life you have tomorrow. The thoughts you think today will determine the life you have tomorrow. No wonder Paul said in Ephesians chapter 6. So listen to what he says. He says, put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil, for we are not fighting against flesh and blood. But we are battling against evil rulers and authorities of this unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Can I tell you something? Right now, the life you have reflects the thoughts you think. Right now, the marriage you have reflects the thoughts you think, about one another, about God's word and marriage. Right now, the relationships you have reflects the thoughts you think. Right now, this poor, poor, pitiful me mindset, I'll always be broke, I'll never get ahead, reflects the thoughts you've been thinking. It reflects the beliefs that you hold. And it's not just what you thought yesterday, but it's what you thought yesterday and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that. All of those things build on one another. And why is this important? Because what comes into your mind is eventually going to come out in your life. Would you agree? The thoughts you think don't just stay in your head. They're lived out in your life through the actions that you do. Now, why is this so important? Because the reality is that you cannot have a positive life and have a negative mind. You cannot have a positive marriage and have a negative attitude. You cannot have a positive outlook on life and have a negative outlook on it. It doesn't happen. And so what we're gonna do today is to try to help ourselves by letting God help us. See, God said, I've in 2 Timothy said, I've not given you a spirit of fear and timidity, but of love and power and a sound mind. God doesn't want us to live our lives based on lies, whether they have been spoken to us by the enemy or they've been spoken over us by teachers, parents, our coaches, our bosses. Because the reality is that as long as He can keep you spiritually unaware about what the true battle is, you know what happens? We end up going to war against the wrong people. Can I tell you something? Your spouse is not your enemy. Your kids are not your enemy. Your boss is not your enemy, your coach is not your enemy, your classmate, your teammate, your nephew, or the neighbor you can't stand are not your enemy. But if you aren't spiritually attuned to what's going on, what ends up happening is you end up waging war against the wrong side. Neuroscience says this, and it's interesting, uh, because it works both ways, whether you're thinking positive thoughts or whether you're thinking negative thoughts. If uh I I I have neighbors on either side of me, and and years ago I planted trees, you know, big evergreen trees, you know, to kind of be a hedge road, you know, and not to hide behind, but to give some kind of noise. But if every day I walk to my neighbor's house and I go through the hedge and I do that a hundred days straight, what's gonna happen? And I take the same path. I'm gonna pack the ground down, right? Is there gonna be any grass on that path? No. So every day I walk that same path to my neighbors, it is easier for me to walk it the next time, right? The more I walk that path, the more easier it becomes. The same thing happens in your head. The more you think a negative thought, the more you speak it to yourself, you are creating neuropathways in your mind that makes it easier for you to think that thought again the next time. And so what you end up doing without realizing it, you end up cooperating with Satan, with the enemy, and you end up allowing him to establish a stronghold. Hold in your head. And once it's established, it's hard to break. But let's say I get up and I think, I'm a child of God, I'm filled with the Spirit of God. I have the mind of Christ. I'm not going to walk that path tomorrow. I'm going to walk a new path. And so rather than going this way, I'm going this way. Well, there's no opening through the hedge. I got to create one. It's harder, isn't it? The grass is higher. And every time I'm walking, it's just, man, it just takes more effort. And so, but if I keep doing that, what happens? I begin to create a new pathway. Do you know in your head when you think something and you get rewarded for it, it releases dopamine. And you're going, yeah, that's why I work out. I don't always like working out. I like the way I feel afterwards. Why? I got another dopamine shot. It's legal, totally. You know, it's all in my head. But the same thing happens when you think negative thoughts. It just makes it easier for you to think it again. So if we're going to live a different way, if we're going to think a different way, what do we got to do? We got to forge new pathways in our brain. Can I tell you something? Here's the bad news. You don't have it in you. On your own. The power of positive thinking, that's all it is. But God's given us something to change all of that. Romans 12, 2, listen to what Paul says. He says, don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Change your life? Change the way you think. Well, what did he say? He said, let God transform you. You know what that means? That means when God begins to expose the lie, I have to agree with him. I have to cooperate with him. I have to begin walking that new path. Ah, man, this path is so much easier. I'm going, no, no. I gotta put the brakes on, go back, line my life up with the word of God and begin to think his thoughts. When I begin to think his thoughts, I'll begin to what? Feel what he feels and see the world the way he does. Change the way you think. So here's your assignment. Everybody's still with me? All right. Here's your assignment for this day for this next few days. Number one, if you don't like where your thoughts have been taking you, I want you just to stop and think about where you are today. Remember what I said? I said that the life you have now is a reflection of the thoughts you've been thinking. And if you don't like where your thoughts have been taking you, then you need to change. And the only way to do that is you gotta number one, identify the biggest stronghold that's holding you back. I'm not enough. I'll never be good enough, smart enough, strong enough, rich enough, I'll never be, I'll never be able to please them. You know what you find what is the one major hurdle that has become a stronghold in your thinking. Why? Because it is impacting every area of your life. It's impacting how you see yourself, it's impacting what you believe about God, it's impacting what you believe about the people around you. Listen to what Paul said. Let's go back to it. 2 Corinthians 10, 3 and 4. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. Why does this count? Why do you need to, why do you need to name it? You you will never defeat what you refuse to define. There's so many of you, you know in your hard hearts what the root issue is. And so many times we hide behind it. We hide behind our past, we hide behind our record, we hide behind our failures, we hide behind our divorce, we hide behind our health. We make all kinds of excuses why we don't want to go there. Why? Because once I identify what the issue is, then I have to deal with it. But you'll never defeat what you refuse to define. All right, here's the second thing. Name the truth that demolishes the strong. Anybody ever felt like I'll never be loved? Well, what does God's word say about that? You are fearfully and awesomely made. You are the apple of God's eye. He has your name written on the palm of his hand. If God didn't love you, he would have never sent Jesus for you. So you have to find the truth in God's word and begin to speak that over your life. Not just read it, but think about it, meditate it, write it down, begin to text it, post it, whatever you need to do to incorporate the truth into your life. Why? So that when the lie comes up, you can say, I'm tearing that down. And the only way you can tear it down is with the truth. Name the truth that demolishes the stronghold. Verse 5 said, We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive. You know what? Those are fighting words. We take captive. Those are warring words. They literally, it means to take captive with a sword or shield or spear. Take captive. Why? Make it obedient to Christ. You need to tell Satan what he is. You're a liar. You're a liar. And there's no truth in you. No truth in you. Do you know what? Out of all the things, the armor of God that Paul named in Ephesians chapter 6, you know what? There's only one offensive weapon. Only one. Everything else is defensive. The helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the feet prepared to share the gospel. All those things, the shield, all those things are defensive. There's only one offensive weapon, and that's the sword of the Spirit. What is the sword of the spirit? It is the word of God. You combat the lies with the truth. Listen to what it says in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12. It says, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerning what? The thoughts and the intentions of your heart. You know what that means? That as we wield the word of truth, as we engage the enemy, we also are exposing our own hearts. The lies that we have believed about ourselves, the lies we have told ourselves, not good enough. Never amount to anything. Never get past my past. So what lies holding you captive today? What lie is holding you captive? Capture the lie and replace it with truth. You know, most men and women wrestle with one of the biggest issues, and it's pretty common. It's that issue of identity. I'll never be loved and I'll never be enough. Can I tell you something? There's an ultimate truth in that. You know, because what I'm asking you to do, you're going, I mean, I can't, I can't demolish the stronghold on my own. And that's true, you can't. That's why God gave you a spirit. That's why God gave you his word. You can't do it on your own. That's why you need Jesus. That's why you need the Holy Spirit. But the good news is that God's already given you everything you need in order to live a holy life. Listen to what it says, 2 Peter 1:3. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. And John 8, 32 tells us why this is so important. God's given us everything we need. He's given us his word, he's given us his spirit, he's given us people around us called the church, the body of Christ, to support us. Why? So that we would know the truth and that the truth would set us free. Can I tell you something this morning? The truth is not abstract. The truth is not a concept, but the truth is a person. The truth is a person. His name is Jesus. He is God. He is part of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He took on flesh and blood, and he became one of us. And yet he was without sin in order that he might become our sacrifice. You see, it's the blood of Jesus that opens the doors and sets the parent, the prisoners free. It's the blood of Jesus that combats the lies of the enemy, that gives us a new identity and makes us understand who God wants us to be. It's the blood of Jesus that makes us right with God. And see, the reality is some of you walked in here today feeling like you're a prisoner of addiction, you're a prisoner of your past, you're a prisoner of your record, you're a prisoner of your failures. You're a prisoner of what happened to you when you were a kid, that you were powerless to combat. You're a prisoner of the things that have happened to you. When the reality is, is that you're really a prisoner of lies. Harry Houdini was the greatest magician, probably the world's ever known. Every time he traveled, he would go to a new city or town. First thing he would do is he would go and visit the local jail. He would try to create some buzz about his upcoming show. So he'd take people with him and he'd get to the jail and he would say, Lock me in. And town after town, city after city, Harry Houdini would escape from that jail cell, no matter how big, how strong, in literally sometimes a matter of a few seconds, sometimes minutes. And so as Houdini was getting ready to go to a new city, the jailer heard that he was coming and he thought of something. And he said, When Harry comes, I'll be ready. And so when Houdini showed up and the entourage and the paper are there, he says, Lock me in the cell. So the jailer opens the door, closes it, puts the key in. And unknown to Houdini, rather than turning it to the lock position, he turned it the opposite direction and took the key out. And so Houdini began to do what he always does, which is to escape, and kicking the lock, he unknowingly was locking his own cell door time and time again. And finally, in frustration, he confessed to the jailer and everyone else. He said, I can't get out of this. And it was then that the jailer revealed to him what he had done. See, Houdini had unknowingly been locking himself in his own cell, a prisoner, when the cell was open. Don't let yourself stay a prisoner of lies when Jesus holds the keys to set you free. Don't let the lies of the enemy, of your past, of your divorce, of your abuse, of anything that has happened to you hold you a prisoner when Jesus has the keys to set you free. What life is holding you captive? Because Jesus came to give you real life, true life, abundant life. And the life that God has available for you will never be yours apart from a relationship with Him. Don't walk out of here today, a captive. Don't walk out of here walking the same path you've been trotting over and over again and wondering why nothing changes. Today, through the power of the Holy Spirit, through what God is doing right now, let Him help you chart a new path.