Rewire Your Brain, Renew Your Mind

Breaking Free from Destructive Thought Patterns: How to Rewire Your Mind with Biblical Truth

Discover the science behind why you can know something is wrong but still find yourself doing it anyway. Learn how neural pathways form in your brain from childhood and why willpower alone cannot overcome established destructive thinking patterns. This powerful message reveals the biblical foundation for mind renewal found in Romans 12:2 and provides a practical three-step process for transformation.

Key topics covered include understanding neural pathways and their impact on daily life, recognizing destructive thought ruts that keep you trapped, training your mind with God's truth from Philippians 4:8, creating new trenches of truth through biblical meditation, the power of Scripture memorization for spiritual warfare, demolishing strongholds through divine power, and the essential role of the Holy Spirit in genuine transformation.

Whether you struggle with negative self-talk, destructive habits, relationship patterns, anxiety, depression, or any recurring mental stronghold, this message provides hope and practical steps for change. Learn why the Christian life isn't about trying harder but surrendering to God's power for mind renewal.

Perfect for anyone seeking freedom from mental strongholds, wanting to understand biblical meditation, looking for practical steps to change thinking patterns, struggling with recurring destructive behaviors, or desiring spiritual growth and transformation. Discover how to replace lies with God's truth and experience the abundant life Jesus promised through renewed thinking patterns.

Transcript

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If you haven't been with us and you I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, I'm Pastor Steve. I'm the lead pastor here at McConnell. And we kicked off last Sunday our current series called Winning the War in Your Mind. And we discovered that unless we're able to identify the lies that have been spoken by the enemy into our life and over us, then we'll never be able to defeat them. Why? Because we we can't defeat what we refuse to define. And so we are in the second part of that. Which first part, you've got to identify the lie, replace the lie with truth. And today we're gonna be talking about how do we rewire our minds. Because ever since we were born, we've been taught to think certain ways. From the cradle to the grave, we end up establishing neuropathways in our mind by how we think and what we think. And it once they're established, it makes it so much easier for us to think those same kind of thoughts again. So every time we think a thought, what we're doing is we're creating a neuropathway in our mind, and the more we do it, the easier it is to think those thoughts all over again. This is why we can uh make a drive every week to work of 30, 40 minutes and end up waking up in the parking lot and wondering how we got there. It's because the neuropathway that we created in our mind by driving that route every day, our subconscious mind takes over. And so we may be checked out mentally a lot of times, and then we pull into the parking lot and realize, whoa, I'm here. How did I get here? And did I kill anybody along the way? And uh, if you've ever been there, you know what I'm talking about. Uh, when I was teaching and coaching, I made a 30-minute drive every week to the school where I was teaching, and there would be a lot of days I I don't remember anything about the trip except leaving and pulling into the parking lot. And it was kind of weird. So, how do we end up rewiring our mind to where we don't follow the pathways that have led us to destructive patterns and behavior? I think the Apostle Paul wrote one of the most important verses in scripture that we could ever use to define this and this series. And it's from Romans chapter 12, verse 2. Listen to what Paul says to us. He says, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. And what is a pattern? A pattern is an established train of thought that has been taken root in your heart and in your mind, oftentimes without you even realizing it. It's there because from the time you're early, uh, even in the cradle, you began to create those neuropathways in your mind. And you adopt them without even thinking about it. And therefore, when we find a habit or a pattern or a hang-up that we can't seem to defeat, even though we're we're singing songs like, uh, I'm a child of God, I know that's who I am, but yet I keep living like I'm not one. How does that happen? So Paul says, don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed through the renewing of your mind. Okay. How do we renew our mind? How do we reprogram and rewire the way we think? Uh let me ask a question. How many of you ever think about doing one thing and end up doing something completely different from there? You know, you you're gonna today's gonna be a great day, I'm gonna have a positive attitude, I'm gonna do all these things differently today, and then the next thing you know, you're doing the same thing that brings you pain and grief and suffering. How does that happen? It's because of the neuropathways that you have already established in your mind, whether it's because you believed lies that the enemy has spoken over you, or lies that the people around you have spoken, that you you'll never be loved, you will never be good enough, you'll never be strong enough, you'll never know enough. Uh, and so we end up falling right back into that. Let me tell you an embarrassing part of my history. Uh for years, you know, I athletics was a huge part of who I was. As a matter of fact, it was a large part of my identity through high school and playing sports all through college. Um, when I got out of college, I was looking at how I trained, and the way I was training was the same way I did when I was playing sports, and uh I was still pushing the same amount of weight, still punishing my body, still doing all the things that I did, and eventually I began to notice that my body was breaking down, and uh and it happened in my shoulders, and so around uh 38, I ended up having a major shoulder surgery on my right shoulder. And the doctor told me when I came out of surgery, he said, Listen, don't lift over 50 pounds, don't do free weights, don't do this, this, and this. And I said, Gotcha, check. And so after I finished rehab, I started gently working back out. And before I knew it, I was right back, pushing the same amount of weight that I'd always pushed, lifting just as hard as I always did, even though I knew mentally in my head that what I was doing was not good. And so about seven years later, I end up being rolled into surgery a second time for surgery on the same shoulder. And the doctor said, I don't know, a different surgeon. And uh he said, I don't know if we'll be able to repair it or we'll have to replace it. And that was like a gut punch. I was like, why? Because I had so much taken my identity through what I was able to do physically, could do things other people wouldn't even think about doing. And so as I come out of surgery, I'm being rolled down the hallway in the hospital on a gurney, and Desi is right behind me. And when I wake up, I I look at her and I said, How did it go? And she said, they had to do a partial replacement. I went, no. I mean, laying on the gurney, still coming out from anesthesia. I'm going, no. And so when I started the rehab all over again, I still couldn't break free of the patterns that have been established in my mind about how I worked out, how I trained, why, because I I got my identity through what I did. And so several more years go by and I end up with a total replacement. I've got one on the other side to match it. And I'm going, how is it that we know one thing in our head, and yet at the same time we struggle to carry it out? We know this habit is what we're doing is habit forming and it's destructive, and yet we keep doing it. We know looking at these inner images are going to affect my marriage and my relationship, and yet we keep doing it. And we know that we need to be doing something different. So what is the issue? It is how we have trained our minds to think. If we think a thought, we're gonna sow a habit, we sow a habit, we're gonna sow a character, we sow a character, we're gonna end up sowing a destiny. And so, if we don't learn how to rewire our brains through the power of God's word and through the help of the Holy Spirit, none of us will end up breaking free from it. So all this starts when you're really early. I want you to think about this for just a second. You know, we we do it with our kids. You know, we we we smile at a kid and they they what they look at our face and they go, oh, that's they're talking really nice. And and so we go-goo garga, you know, and and they smile back. And then they learn that if they cry, we'll come running and we'll pick them up. Oh, it's okay, what's wrong? And you know, we pat them on the back. And they learn that, oh, if I cry, they come running and they give me what I want. Some of you, your kids are grown, they're married, they have kids of their own, and you're still doing it. Why? Because they learned a pattern of behavior and they trained you to respond to their input. Boy, it got quiet. Got quiet right there. What happened? It's our experience in life, as well as our thinking, creates those neuropathways in our mind that we fall right into. Once you think a thought, it's so much easier because those neuropathways have been created, it's so much easier to think it again. And we're awarded by dopamine that helps us want to keep repeating that habit. And so, how do we rewire our minds in such a way that we live the kind of life that Jesus came to give us? That He came and died to set us free from the lies of the enemy. Your mind is a battlefield, as we said last week. And every battle, most of life's battles are won or lost right here in your mind. I want you to listen to what the Apostle Paul says, because if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, God has given you all the tools and all the equipment that you need in order to be able to identify the lives of the enemy. Remember, you'll never defeat what you can't define, to identify the strongholds that He's established in your life and to be able to tear them down. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, listen to what Paul said. This is from last week. He said, For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. Repeat after me, wage war. We have to wage war with the patterns that we have established in our mind, the lies that we have bought into, the beliefs that we held to, so that we can fight back against the strategies of the enemy. He said, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. They're spiritual, not carnal. He said, on the contrary, they have divine power to bring down or to demolish strongholds. What's a stronghold? A stronghold is an established pattern of thinking that has been based on a lie that holds us captive to a habit, a hang-up, or hurt, or a wrong mindset. And so Paul goes on to say in verse 5, listen to what he says. He says, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. How do we do that? Well, we have to know the word of God. God's only given us one offensive weapon in our spiritual armor. Ephesians chapter 6, every piece of the Christian soldier's armor is defensive in nature except one. And that is the sword of the word. It is a double-edged sword, rightly dividing even our thoughts, bone and marrow, and it gets right to the core of our being. So once we identify the lies, we have to replace it with God's truth. And why? So that we can take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. So why does every thought matter? It's because your lives are already moving right now in the direction of your strongest thoughts. So the thoughts that you think on a repeated basis ultimately end up becoming the steering wheel of your life. It guides you in how you make decisions, even when you know in your head that that's not the right decision, that that decision is going to ultimately end up costing me. So, but because I've already established that pathway, I'm stuck in a rut, and I am doomed to follow that path until God helps me create a new one. So our lives are moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts. And we're this is so important because what comes into your mind often comes out of your life. And you can't have a positive life and have a negative mind. So how do we how do we break out of that? Here's the first step. Here's the first step to setting being set free from destructive habits, from wrong patterns of thinking that have been holding you back, that have been undermining your relationships, undermining your marriage, undermining your finances, is you have to first identify your ruts. Recognize your ruts. Has anybody in here ever been to Alaska? Okay. Anybody in here from Alaska? Well, if you've been from uh uh been to Alaska or you're from Alaska, you realize Alaska only has two seasons: winter and July. That's it. You know, winter, everything's frozen, and it's frozen feet deep. But come July, everything begins to thaw. And there's a highway in Alaska, and it runs through the wilderness, and it's gravel, and there's a sign there at the beginning of that highway, and it says, choose your ruts carefully. Why? Because you're gonna be in them for the next 60 miles. The same thing could be said about your thoughts. Choose your thoughts carefully because you're gonna be in them if you're not careful for the next 60 years. That should be a wake-up call, shouldn't it? Choose your thoughts carefully because from the time you're small to the time you reach adulthood, your brain is establishing these neuropathways that are ultimately gonna end up steering your life. And can I tell you something? Most of the time, when I get distracted, my thoughts do not steer me closer to God. They steer me away from God and away from his will for my life. It's only when my mind is focused on the things that God has chosen for me that says is goodest, that is best for me, do I end up moving in the right direction. So choose your ruts carefully. You need to think about what is the habits that is holding me in bondage. Why is this important? Because if you don't control what you think, you'll never be able to control your life. You'll never be able to control what you do. And can I tell you something? You know, for years I thought that training was all about what I did. You know, it was about working out, it was about running, it was about playing hard, it was about lifting, it was about increasing my endurance. But as I got older, I discovered something my body wouldn't do what it used to do. And so I learned that it's not just about what I do, it's about what I put into it that makes a huge difference. And so nutrition became a big part of it because when I was in my 40s, I was running, I was doing all these things, and I could eat anything and everything I wanted. And I discovered as I got older in my 50s and hit, you know, about 57, I realized, man, you know, if I don't change my body now, I'm gonna have to live with it for the rest of my life. And so I began to look at what I was putting into my body. The same thing is true when it comes to your mind and your thoughts. It's not just what you do, it's what you're putting into it that determines what comes out of it. So we're gonna look at some tools on how to do that. Here's the second step: you must train your mind. Train your mind. How do you train your mind? We think about training our dogs, we think about training pets, and uh we have one. We have a a mini golden doodle. He he's actually a petite mini golden doodle. He's 25 pounds of twisting steel and sex appeal. His name is Thor, and he is small, but he is mighty. When we first got him, we we thought we're gonna we're not gonna put in an underground fence, we're gonna buy one of those fancy GPS collars, halo collars. And so we got him one, and uh, we trained him with treats. So we put out flags around the perimeter where he was allowed to go and where he wasn't allowed to go. And it took weeks of training him. And so we'd say, Come, Thor, and he would come, he'd get a treat. We would say, Come Thor, we'd give him a treat. He'd get close to the boundary and it would beep. If he got a little bit closer, it would pulse. And if he broke it, it was supposed to give him a little shock. And so everything was good until Amazon delivery started coming to our house. And he hated Amazon delivery and he hated UPS trucks. And every time one would come, a loud truck at all, he would take off and he would just go right through the barrier. Going, this thing's supposed to work. And so we took it off of him and I held it in my hand, and I walked toward the boundary, and it it made a noise. Walked a little, it started vibrating, and I walked a little later. It shocked me and it hurt. And I said, Ah, I know what the problem is. The posts are too short, they're not reaching his skin. So I put longer posts in and I said, I'm gonna turn it up. And I turned it up. And so the next time he was out and he's playing, he knew where the boundaries were. Here comes the truck. He takes off, running like he always did. He got to the boundary and he went, did a backflip, and landed on his back. Now, you can't get him close to the post. We'll be playing ball, and and and he gets near the boundary, he goes. Am I gonna get shocked? You know what happened? Every now and then he'll get a wild hair and he'll run it and he always pays for it. We begin to rewire his neuropathways. So it's not just enough to identify what your issue is, you've got to begin to train your mind to think a different way. And how do you do that? You do it through scripture. You do it through the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Listen to what Paul said in Philippians 4:8. And you need to understand something. You know, you need to understand where he's coming from. And and do you understand what I'm saying? You know, if you don't understand where I'm coming from, you you really don't understand what I'm saying. Paul's writing from prison, he's on trial. And he's going to Rome, and he's quite possibly going to be executed. And you would think he would be singing, poor, poor, pitiful me. You know, nobody loves me, everybody hates me, God's forgotten me. And yet, when you read through the book of Philippians, it's one of the most powerful, joy-filled books in all of Scripture. And it's got some of the most positive thoughts about who God is and who He's created us to be. And so Paul writes to the church and in Philippians 4 8, he says this if you Want to learn how to reprogram your mind and your thinking, then you have to fix your thoughts on something other than your problem. Can I tell you something? The reason many of you are still addicted, many of you are still addicted to pornography, many of you are still having destructive thoughts and patterns in your life that you can't break through, is you are so focused on your problem you don't see God's solution. You're so focused on the problem you can't see God's solution. Can I tell you something? You will never beat your habits and your hangups by trying harder. You have to create new neuropathways in your mind, and the only way to do that is through scripture. Through the power of God. So Paul says, now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what's true and honorable, right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about these things that are excellent and worthy of praise. I like the way he puts it in the New King James Version. He says, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Meditate on these things. So as a follower of Jesus Christ, I'm not going to focus on my problem. I'm not going to dwell on the lies that have been spoken over me. I know what they are. Once I've identified them, then I'm going to begin to fix my mind and to say, can I tell you, the only way you fix your mind is you have to change your focus. You have to change your focus. And can I tell you something? It's not about you. It's about him. And it's about the people that God has put around you. So Paul said, you have to meditate on these things. What is meditation? It's not Far Eastern, mystic Buddhism, mumbo jumbo. But meditation is a biblical word. It means to engage in mental exercise. It means to focus one's thoughts. How many of you ever watch Skarate Kid? Remember Mr. Miyagi? And not version two, version one. He says, Too much mind. You need to focus. One thing. Focus. Can I tell you, some of you need to fix your focus? The only way you do it is by meditating on the word of God. Listen to what it says in Psalms 119, verse 15. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. Psalms 143, verse 5. I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. Christian meditation isn't about emptying your mind. Christian meditation is about filling your minds with God's truth. Filling your mind with God's truth. You focus on God's word. I am not who people think I am, I am who God says I am. It is found in whose I am. These are fundamental things that we meditate on, we think on, we read it, we think about it, we confess it to ourselves on a regular basis until we begin to believe it. Why? What I'm doing is I am digging a new trench of truth in my mind so that I can follow God's intended pathway for my life. I'm not creating a mental rut. I am digging a trench of truth based on God's word so that I can change how I live. If we don't control how we think, we will never control what we do. Amen? Amen. So in your mind, you have to fill it with God's truth. So here's the question: what stronghold is holding you back? Remember, you'll never defeat what you don't define. And every single one of you in here, you have a hurt, you have a hangup, you have hopes, and yet you cannot seem to ever get to that place where your life is being lived any differently than the way it was before, even though you know as a child of God you've been set free. Jesus is the one who holds the keys to open the doors and set the captives free, and yet you find yourself still in a spiritual prison. What's happening is that you are continuing to walk along the same destructive neuropathways that created the problem in the first place. So, what stronghold is holding you back? Can I tell you one for me? You know, all my life from the time I was young, I I kind of lived by performance-based acceptance. If I did well, if I achieved, if I outdid others, then I would be applauded, I would be recognized, I would be loved, I would be approved. And that way of thinking drove my life, and not only did it drive my life, it drove the things I did. Sometimes I did the right thing, not because I wanted to, but because I was looking for somebody else's approval. And as an adult and as a pastor, for over 30 years I find myself still thinking about pleasing people rather than pleasing God. And so, and if I do that, I I found out I don't end up pleasing my family. They end up getting the short end of the stick. And so I end up finding myself caught in this dilemma of how can I be and do what God's called me to do and yet please the people around me. And oftentimes I end up disappointing the people who matter the most. Anyone else? Why? It's because those pathways were charted as an early child and continued on through adulthood until I found that it was only through the power of God's written word committed to memory that I was able to break free of some of those things. So here's the second part of the question: What spiritual truth demolishes that stronghold? You have to identify, remember what I said, you will never conquer what you refuse to confront. You will never conquer what you refuse to confront. And so here's the third step. Create a new trench of truth. Create a new trench of truth. What is a rut? A rut is an established pattern of thinking that has taken you captive, and it happened without planning and oftentimes without purpose. It was a lie spoken by the enemy. Can I tell you something? Satan's not very creative, but he's very repetitive. And do you know what? He's still speaking the same lies he spoke to Eve in the garden, and he keeps saying them to us on a regular basis. You know why? Because they work. And you know what? If I say something to you enough over and over again, you're awesome, you got it, you got what it takes, you're the man. If I keep saying that to you over and over and over again, what are you eventually gonna do? You're gonna believe it, right? But if I say to you, you're worthless, you're no good, you'll never amount to anything, and I keep saying that to you over and over again, what's gonna happen? I'm eventually gonna believe it, and then I'm gonna start living out of that. So Satan, not creative, but he's very repetitive. The same thing is true. If we want to replace the lie with the truth, then we have to be repetitive with it. A trench of truth is something we don't do accidentally, it's something we have to do intentionally. Can I say that again? Ruts are nothing more than a grave with both ends kicked out. Some of you have been in the rut so long you don't realize where it's leading you. It's leading you to death. Listen to what Paul said, to what Joshua, in the book of Joshua, God's speaking to him, says, study this book of instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so that you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. What did God tell Joshua? He said, study this book, meditate on it day and night. Why? So that you will be obedient and you will walk in freedom. Does anybody in here need to be set free? You don't have to raise your hand. Some of you, you know what your stronghold is. And you've tried over and over again to break free of it and you haven't been able to. You've got to fix your focus. Listen to what the Bible says in Psalms 1 and 2. I love this. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel, does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or set in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates on it day and night. Do you know the word used for meditate in these two verses? It comes from the word ruminate. Does anybody in here know what ruminate means? I'm gonna ruminate. What is ruminate? Chew it. You know where that comes from? Anybody raise cattle? Okay, she's exactly right. Cattle. Anybody heard chewing the cud? You know what that means? It means that cows eat grass and they eat it, they chew it, they swallow it, and then they throw it back up into their mouth, a little gross, and then they chew on it some more. And then they swallow it, and then they throw it back up in their mouth, they chew on it some more, and chew on it, chew on it. Why do they do that? They do it over and over again. Why? Because they want to get the maximum benefit out of the grass they're eating. Grass isn't high in nutrients, but if you chew it, chew it, chew it, chew it, you're gonna get everything you need out of it. Look at a cow. Anybody see many skinny cows? I don't. The same thing's true with God's word. He wants us to chew on it, think on it, digest it so we can get everything that God has for us to get out of it. That's how we get free. That's how we create new pathways in our hearts and in our minds and in our lives. We chew on it, we ruminate on it. So here's what we're gonna do. Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna write it, we're gonna think on it, we're gonna confess it until we begin to believe it. We're gonna write it, find God's solution for your stronghold. Write it, think on it, confess it over your life until you start believing it. We're going to what? We're gonna write it, we're gonna think it, we're gonna confess it until we begin to live differently. Why? Because we begin to believe differently. Can I tell you something? I I've said this so many times, it gets old saying it. We oftentimes start misbelieving before we ever start misbehaving. Our sin problem at its root is an established stronghold, a pattern of wrong thinking in our life. We start misbelieving who God says he is, who he says we are, and we allow it to become a pattern that destroys us from the inside out. The problems that you're wrestling with, the hangups and the hurts, the destruction in your relationship is not just a result of doing the wrong things, it is a result of thinking the wrong things. If you want to live differently, you gotta think differently. You gotta think differently. Listen to what Psalms 119-11 says. It says, Your word have I hidden in my heart. Why? So that I might not sin against you. Your word have I hidden in my heart, so that I might not believe who the world says I am, so that I might believe who you say I am, that I'm loved, that I'm wanted, I'm accepted, I'm good, I'm God's child. Why do I write it? Why do I think about it? Why do I confess it so that I will start believing it? That's what Jesus did. Remember when he was tempted? How did he counter the attacks of the enemy? He quoted God's word, he quoted God's word. Why? Because he had written it in his heart and in his mind, he had thought about it, meditated on it all the time. He had confessed it over his life so that when the time came, he didn't need to find a Bible. It was so ingrained into who he was. That he was different. See, Jesus was fully God, but he came fully man, so that he could die in our place, so that we would not be held captive by the lies of the enemy, so that we would not be forever doomed to walk the same pathway that Adam and Eve walked, that the people in your life have walked before you, so that you could begin to walk in the newness of life that Christ came to give you. And the only way that happens is through a relationship with Him. It's not just enough. You are powerless to change yourself, even if you know every word of God. Without the help of the Holy Spirit, you can't do it on your own. You need a relationship with the living God. His name is Jesus. He holds the keys to set the captives free, and he holds the power to help you rewire your mind. What's your stronghold? What's the truth that brings it down? Write it, think it, confess it, accept it until you believe it. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, today we thank you so much. That you are the one who identifies us. We are not our past. We are not our problems, we are not our failures, we are not our mistakes, we're not what's happened to us. We are who you say we are. We are loved, we are mighty, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. That's who we are. Help us to begin to not only read it, but to write it, to think it, to confess it until we start believing it so that our lives are different. Until we change what we think, we'll never change what we do. And some of you are exhausted today from fighting a battle you can't win because you're fighting the wrong one. And you're fighting it in your own strength, and you'll never win apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. You see, Jesus is waiting to help you. The Holy Spirit is waiting to help you, not hurt you. He's here, he's calling your name. He has a key to the cell that holds you hostage. He has wiring to reprogram your mind and your thinking. And all you have to do is believe him, accept him, and commit yourself to him. It's not admit, believe, confess. It is admit, believe, commit. Some of you have never seen the life change that Christian life promises to give because you confessed it, but you never committed. You confessed Jesus is Lord, but you never committed your life to him. You never gave yourself over. You never died to yourself so that you could be raised to newness in life with him. Admit that you can't save yourself. Believe that Jesus did everything necessary for your salvation, and then commit.