Take Your Mind Back

well we're talking about winning the war in your mind and i want to start with one of the most important scriptures from god's word on this subject the apostle paul said in romans chapter 12 verse 2 he said this he said do not conform to the pattern of this world don't think like the world thinks don't act like the world acts don't behave like the world behaves do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed be renewed be changed and how are we transformed he said by let's say it allowed by the renewing of your mind we're talking about winning the war in your mind and i don't know about you all but i've been making some really dumb and irrational decisions lately have any of you done something similar i i just been making irrational decisions you want me to tell you about one do you want to hear a little story that would embarrass me so uh recently amy asked me on the weekend what would you like to do today and i said i want to do two things i want to go to church in one of the services i wasn't preaching in let's go to church like regular people and i want to go for a walk let's go to church and i want to go for a walk and she said great well because our daughters are popping out babies like popcorn she went over to see a couple of grandbabies and she came back from mandy's house our daughter and she got home 15 minutes before church started well our house is only 10 minutes away from church and she said let's get ready to go to church and for some stupid reason i decided it was too late to go to church and she said well if we leave now we can be five minutes early but i dug my feet in doubled down on my stupidity and said no it's too late to go to church for a few minutes we argued until we still could have left and been there on time but i drug the argument out for a full 20 minutes until i was finally right and it was too late to go to church so amy said i can't take your irrationality she said i'm going for a walk by myself so the only thing i wanted was to go to church go for a walk and for some stupid reason my brain misfired and i ended up self-destructing in a very very stupid moment do any of you ever do that maybe you like you want to be nice to your spouse and you're trying to make up and the next thing you know you're yelling or you want to save money but instead you go shopping you want to trust god with something but instead you just worry and you worry and you worry and it makes me wonder sometimes why is it that we want one thing but we decide to do something completely different why do we behave so irrationally i want to try to answer that question today with a story or an illustration that might give you a visual of why in our minds we often make very irrational decisions i'll tell you about my very first car if you've been here for a while you may have heard about the turbo coupe it was a 1979 buick century and i'll show you the one on the left is me um looking rather too small to play football with my ardmore tigers sign on it the one on the right is my sister if you look down in the very left hand corner you can see the eagle that looks like it's flying the one in the middle is not actually my car but that's exactly what it looked like with a spoiler and all so needless to say at the age of 17 in ardmore oklahoma it was impossible to be cool in a car that said turbo coupe on the back and looked like that so with great challenges against me i decided to do my best to up my car game and i could control the stereo system so i bought a very high-end used alpine stereo system some of you know what i'm talking about and you can almost hear the police a little aryo speedwagon some eagles or some outfield thumping right now with some def leppard on play next okay i i put in i couldn't afford to have it professionally installed because i spent all my money on so i installed the stereo myself which was obviously a mistake i didn't know how to do it it took me all day long it was well into the evening before i finally had to even turn on the lights of my car just to see what i was doing and the stereo finally started to play glory to god all things are possible even with me okay the next day i got up to drive my car to school and the stereo wasn't working i was devastated where is my reo speedwagon oddly enough the next evening when i was driving home my stereo was magically working again i was so confused the next day it didn't work the next evening it did this went on day after day after day i was so confused many of you have already figured out the problem because you're much more intelligent than i am why was it that it was behaving so irrationally it's because i had the wires crossed i had mistakenly wired my high-end used alpine stereo to the power of the headlights and had not wired it to the proper place so therefore every time that the headlights were on my stereo would work honest to goodness honest to goodness my mom will tell you this for the remainder of the car i drove around with my headlights on all during the day enjoying my music why is it that we behave so irrationally so often the reason is because in our minds we often have the wires crossed if you were with us last week we talked about the neural pathways that take place in our brain in other words every time you think a thought you're creating a new pattern of thought or a new pathway almost like a mental trail in your mind your experiences or your thoughts are wiring or programming your brain for example it starts even very young if a little baby smiles and the mom smiles back and says gugu gaga the baby's brain creates a little pathway that says smiling is good if the baby touches something hot a hot stove and the body feels pain the baby's brain creates a pathway that says hot stoves bad if the baby wants a sucker and says i want sucker and mom says no sucker and the baby starts to cry and the mom gives the baby a sucker the baby's brain says crying gets me a sucker and that's why some of you moms are the sucker right now right here's what happens when we think of thought our brain is creating new neural pathways and the more we think a thought the easier it is to think that thought again the more dominant that thought becomes which is really good news when we're thinking on truth but it's incredibly bad news when so many of us are believing the lies why do we behave so irrationally many times we have the wires in our minds crossed let's review some thoughts from the previous week what do we know about our mind our mind is a battlefield and most of life's battles are won or lost in the minds we looked last week at the powerful scripture from second corinthians chapter 10 i'll summarize it for you when the apostle paul said this he said that we live in a world but we do not wage war as the world does as followers of christ we have spiritual weapons and they are not the same weapons of this world our weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds what is a stronghold it's a wrong pattern of thinking it's a place where the wires in our brain have been crossed therefore we demolish arguments and every pretension every wrongly crossed wire that sets itself up against the knowledge of god and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to christ why does every thought matter it matters because your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts what comes into your mind tends to come out in your life you cannot have a positive life when you have a negative mind it when the wires are crossed if you don't control what you think you'll never be able to control what you do so today we're going to create some tools and in the upcoming weeks we're going to build upon these tools and what i want to do is talk to you about how do you train your minds i'm guessing that a lot of you probably haven't ever thought about training your minds you might have thought about training your dog you might have thought about training your body and thinking of training your body actually can be a good leap to training your mind for example for years i thought that training your body was all about exercise you know we're gonna run we're gonna jump we're gonna do push-ups sit-ups we're gonna do kettlebells i thought it was about what you would do with your body but when i was about 40 eating anything that i wanted i discovered that training isn't just about what you do with it it's also what you put into it this is such a good illustration of the mind it's not just on how we've been thinking but it's also what we pour into our mind that can either train our mind to continue believing the wrong thing or we can train our minds with truth it's not just what you do with it it's also what you put in it and i want to show you the apostle paul whom i love because you could watch the progression in his life and ministry as he started to renew his mind in fact we're going to look at philippians chapter 4. uh we're going to start in verse 8 and to give you context the apostle paul was writing this from a roman prison he was locked up on house arrest not an ideal situation in fact a very terrifying place to be awaiting possible execution this was kind of like worst case scenario and here's what he said he said and now dear brothers and sisters one final thing and let me tell you what he didn't say he didn't say god let me down which he could have thought that he didn't say i can't go on with life he didn't say things couldn't get any worse than this no he said this he said one final thing from a roman prison he said fix your thoughts somebody say fix your thoughts put that in the chat if you're watching online put it in the chat fix your thoughts say i'm fixing my thoughts he said fix your thoughts on what is true fix your thoughts on what is honorable fix your thoughts on what is right and pure and lovely and admirable he didn't say fix your thoughts on worst case scenario on what you hate on what you're afraid of and what could go wrong but fix your mind on what is good he said think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise i like the way the new king james version translated the same verse and the translators translate it this way if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy what do we do say it aloud we meditate on these things we meditate now wait a minute uh isn't meditation some kind of new age um you know spooky like become one with the universe cross your legs of ham you know isn't that what meditation is well that can be meditation but i want to give you another definition of meditation and i want to show you just how scriptural and healthy the right kind of meditation can be what is a definition of meditation a simple definition is this to engage in mental exercise to focus one's thoughts it's just to focus in fact if you look at scripture there are many examples of godly people meditating on the things that are true and lovely and admirable and excellent meditating on the power of god's word in fact the psalmist in psalm 119 verse 15 of god says this i meditate god on your precepts and consider your ways in other words i'm focusing my mind god on your truth i'm training my mind to see your truth psalm 143 verse 5 says i meditate god on all your works and consider what your hands have done i like this that eastern meditation may have a different focus i've been told that often times in eastern meditation you empty your mind and you try to focus on nothing and get it into a state of calm and such but christian meditation isn't emptying your mind instead it's filling your mind with truth it's fixing your mind it's it's training it and over the past few years even working with a counselor i've been on a journey to learn to focus and fix my mind one of the highest priorities in my own personal spiritual development is learning to focus my mind because focus is a skill in fact to quote the great theologian jackie chan he said in the remake of the movie karate kid which i'm sorry but doesn't live up to mr miyagi and ralph macchiano and cobra kai season one two and three no mercy sweep the leg anyway jackie chan said your focus needs what more focus some of you if i can just say to you right now your focus needs more focus your mind needs to uncross the wires that have been programmed to believe something that's not true and you need to focus on what is true fix your minds on the things of god because when our mind drifts and i don't know about you but my mind can drift very quickly it generally doesn't drift to that which is true it generally drifts to my own insecurities my own fears that my worst case scenarios and the lies that the devil's been telling me about myself for years you're never going to be good enough you're incapable you should be ashamed after what you'd how could god ever use you what we want to do is learn to meditate on truth to focus and train our minds on god's truth and what i'm going to do honestly is give you an exercise that's not real easy in other words it's like this isn't something if you've been believing a lie for 10 years or 15 years or 30 years sometimes it takes a little while to deprogram that mistruth and replace it with truth and i'm going to give you an exercise that honestly i believe can be a game changer in focusing on what is true and then i'm going to show you how i've grown in my own thoughts and how i repeat some truth over and over and over again to create new neural pathways to renew my mind with truth and then i'm going to trust that the holy spirit's going to do something in you are you ready if you're ready say i'm ready put it in the chat right now i'm ready just type it in i'm ready the question the first one is this first question what stronghold is holding you back what would you say is the top wrong mindset that's holding you hostage identify where you have the wires crossed in your brain for some of you it could be just a lie like you grew up in a household that struggled with finances and you think you're not any good with it so you just believe we're never going to get out of debt or you might have the wires crossed and think you know i've tried for three years and i can't overcome this addiction i'm just i'm never going to be able to overcome this addiction or you might think of yourself i just i'll never be healthy you know people in my family aren't healthy we're just never gonna be healthy or i've tried to get close to god i've been close to god for like five seconds and then my mind drifted i'm never gonna be close to god or i work so hard to get ahead but i'm never gonna have a meaningful job i'm always gonna do something stupid and beneath me or i'm never gonna get married i'm never gonna have a blessed marriage what is the dominant stronghold where your mental wires are crossed where the devil has trained you with a mental pathway to believe something that is not true about you that's the first part of the assignment the second part is to answer this question what truth what spiritual truth from god demolishes that stronghold what is the spiritual truth that demolishes that obliterates that stronghold then what we're going to do is we're going to take a scriptural truth not just a truth but a truth that's empowered by god's living word his active word powerful enough to bring transformation we're going to let his word renew our mind and what i want you to do is to write out some truth very specific whatever it is that demolishes that stronghold in your life and i want to encourage you to don't just write a sentence but think about it meditate on it let it be born out of god's word and write a statement that creates emotional energy toward the truth of god then what we're going to do is we're going to write it or type it or whatever and then we're going to start thinking on it and i'm going to encourage you to confess it until god starts to renew your mind i would say it like this we're going to write it think it confess it until we believe it we're going to write it think it confess it until we believe it it may take time we're going to write it think it confess it until we believe it we're creating new neural pathways god is renewing our mind with truth now let me give you some examples of what yours might look like i'll give you several you might be struggling to know god's will in your life so you're going to create a statement that could be like this my life belongs to god daily i seek him and daily he directs my steps i know his voice and he leads me to his perfect will you're going to write it you're going to think it you're going to say it until you believe it over and over again you're going to say that my life belongs to god daily i seek him daily he directs my stuff i know his voice and he leads me to his perfect way you may be lacking confidence every time you come in you feel insecure you feel inadequate you feel like you're not enough and so your statement is going to be this my confidence is in christ in christ alone because his spirit lives within me i can do everything he calls me to do it you're going to write it think it confess it until you believe it you might have a struggle with fighting lustful thoughts and you're sick and tired of being hostage to images and and shameful ideas and so you're going to let god renew your mind you're going to say this over and over again i am not a slave to lustful thoughts because god has purified my mind i will honor him with my eyes and thoughts my god is faithful even if i am tempted he will always give me a way out you're going to write it you're going to think it you're going to confess it until you believe it you might find comfort in food and you don't want to do this anymore so you're going to declare when i'm stressed i turn to god not food i come to jesus because he is what i need in him i find strength and comfort you might find yourself battling worry all the time consumed with worry but you're going to write it think it confess it till you believe it what is it because of christ i'm not anxious about anything i cast my cares on god because he cares for me i have the peace of god dwelling in my heart and ruling my mind what are you gonna do identify it what is the stronghold where the wires are crossed what is the spiritual truth that will set you free then you're gonna write it think it confess it until you believe it you're creating new neural pathways according to the truth and god is renewing your mind in fact i'm going to ask at all of our campuses today if you wouldn't mind just standing to your feet in a few moments we're going to take some time and i'm going to give you a chance to worship but what i want to do is i want to show you how this plays out in my life i'm going to tell you about some of the places where i've had the wires crossed for years as a child for some reason i always battled with thoughts of inadequacy meaning no matter what i do i've never ever felt like i'm enough and this just haunts me because as a pastor i can never get it all done never there's no i'm always letting somebody down and when i try to bring my very very best to the church then guess what i'm inadequate as a husband and inadequate as a dad and the moment i try to refocus to being a husband and a dad then i'm even more inadequate to the church and it's a stronghold that holds me back and fills me with ongoing guilt and even shame i struggle and i hate to say this but sometimes i seem to care more about what people think than even what god thinks and i don't like to admit that because um when i'm preaching empowered by god i can be really really bold and then i can come home with this overwhelming sense of insecurity of oh my gosh they they hate me and they don't like me and i'm failing and i'm miserable there are times when my priorities get out of whack where i work way way way way way too hard and then i neglect and take for granted the people that are around me there are times when i just feel incredibly discouraged thinking i don't know if i can come up with another message sometimes you say haven't you preached that before yes it's been 25 years you know it's like doing a book report on the same book every week it's the bible and there it is again still born of a virgin this year christmas again you know it's like can i can i feel inadequate how can i creatively express something in an interesting way that would engage people and and transform lives and i battle with deep feelings of inadequacy so what i've done with the help of my counselor and amy and years of developing some declarations is i have some truth that's renewing my mind and this isn't the whole list because i don't want to bore you but the whole list is in the book winning the war in your mind and i'll tell you what i declare and i don't do this daily i did for years and years now i do it when i need it and it's deep in my heart but my declarations that i've said now for probably i'd say four years um goes like this this is this is the truth this is the truth this this is what god is using to renew my mind this is what i need to uncross the wires and live according to his truth i declare jesus is first in my life i exist to serve and glorify him i love my wife and will lay down my life to serve her my children will love god and serve him with their whole hearts i will nurture equip train and empower them to do more for the kingdom than they ever thought possible i love people and believe the best about others i am disciplined christ in me is stronger than the wrong desires in me i am growing closer to jesus every day because of christ my family is closer my body is stronger my faith is deeper and my leadership is sharper i am creative innovative driven focused and blessed beyond measure because the holy spirit dwells within me i develop leaders this is not something i do it's who i am i bring my best and then some it's what i do after i bring my best that makes the difference and i declare this and believe it to be true that the world will be different and better because i served jesus today write it think it confess it until you believe it why does this matter because your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts if you don't control what you think you'll never control what you do take back your mind meditate on truth fix your mind on what is true and admirable and excellent and praiseworthy meditate on such things focus your mind on the truth what are you gonna do identify whatever mental stronghold wherever you have the wires crossed and identify the truth that completely sets you free write it think it confess it until you believe it write it think it confess it until you believe it and as followers of jesus what will we not do we will not be conformed to the patterns of this world but we will be transformed how listen not by trying harder not by being smarter not by more personal effort but by the renewing of our minds and what is the greatest power to overcome the lies it is the truth of jesus and he said and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free so father today we asked that by the power of the risen christ and by the truth of your inspired word that you would renew our minds with truth and all of our churches and those of you watching online team lc all over the world those of you who would say i want god to renew i want him to uncross the wires and in some area of my life renew it with truth would you lift up your hands right now just lift up your hands you can type it in the chat god renew my mind just type in the chat god renew my mind as your hands are lifted and you're in an attitude of prayer father i just pray that you would give us clarity of whatever lie that we've wrongly believed god i know for some people it's hard to identify the lie because we don't even know it's a lie god help us to identify that and then god give us scripture your truth and a declaration that would renew our mind with your truth god i know this may take weeks months even years for some to renew their minds but god we believe her son this will be a breakthrough god renew our minds with truth that we could live according to your perfect will and show your love in all that we do that we thank you in advance that the devil is defeated that you have risen from the dead and that you're going to renew our minds with truth as you keep praying today at all of our different churches there are those of you that you may feel like you're far from god you don't know where you stand with god maybe in your mind you feel like you've been way too bad for god how could he love someone like you let me tell you about the truth let me tell you about the truth of god's love the truth of god's love the truth of god's love the truth of god's love god loves you so much that's true and there's nothing you can do to earn his love more and there's nothing you could do that he could cause him to love you less he just loves you period so much that he sent his perfect son jesus born of a virgin one who never sinned jesus gave his life for the forgiveness of your sins and our god raised him from the dead so that anyone and this includes you who calls on his name your sins would be forgiven and you would be completely saved those of you online or if you're watching at one of our live churches locations today those who say i need his grace i need his forgiveness when you call on his name he hears your prayers he forgives your sins and in a moment he makes you new in a moment your sins are forgiven in a moment you can be filled with the spirit of god all of our churches those who say yes jesus i need your grace yesterday i surrender to you by faith i give my life to you that's your prayer lift your hands high now all over the place lift them up and say yes we've got people coming in all of our different churches right now lift up your hands lift them up high call on his name today call on his name as we have people at all of our churches coming to faith in christ those of you online just type it in the chat i'm giving my life to jesus i'm giving my life to jesus i'll give it a moment or two more for all of our churches as you're calling on the name of jesus if i can have you all back right now all campuses back we're going to pray together and then i'm going to make some declarations over you and then we're going to worship the goodness of our god would you pray aloud all of our churches pray if you're watching online just pray heavenly father forgive all of my sins jesus save me make me brand new i believe you died for me and you rose again so i could live for you fill me with your spirit my life is not my own i give it all to you thank you for new life now you have mine in jesus name i pray cause somebody worship god cause somebody give him praise today because somebody thank god for who he is and for what he's done today before we worship i want to make some declarations over you are you ready are you ready for truth are you ready for truth type it in the chat put it in the chat i'm ready if you're ready put it in i'm ready are you ready say i'm ready are you ready for those of you who are in christ you are strong and mighty you have the same power that raised christ from the dead dwelling inside of you you are a weapon of righteousness in a world of darkness you are not your past you are not what you did you are who god says you are he says you're forgiven he says you're redeemed he says you're free you are not a hostage to your unhealthy thoughts the weapons you fight with are not the weapons of this world they have power to demolish strongholds you have the mind of christ directing your thoughts you have the word of god directing your steps worry is not your master you trust in god his peace guards your heart guards your mind and guards your soul in christ jesus your god has not given you a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind the lord is your helper you will not be afraid you are not a slave to your habits you are not a prisoner to your past you have been rescued by the power of darkness and into the kingdom of god's light your god will bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times you have everything you need to do everything that god has called you to do this is truth it will set you free nothing will separate you from the love of god not death not demons not the present not the past no power on earth can separate you from the love of god that is in christ jesus our lord why does it matter most of life's battles they are won or lost in the in the mind the good news is the battle rages but you have won the war the battle rages but you have won the war come on get ready to sing the battle rages but you have won the war [Music] away and there is no darkness [Music] and all these demons [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] you see my 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Channel: Life.Church

Views: 301,599

Rating: 4.9390163 out of 5

Keywords: Craig Groeschel, Sermon, Life.Church, Lifechurch, life church, life church sermons, craig rochelle, groeschel craig, change your thinking, winning the war in your mind, renew your mind with the word of god, renewing your mind in christ, take every thought captive, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, renewing your mind sermon, mindset shift, mind, winning the war in your mind book, winning the war in your mind series, irrational thoughts, winning the war in your mind part 2

Id: 77gT1ALY47M

Length: 36min 54sec (2214 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021