Rick Warren - How To Win The War In Your Mind, According to the Bible

Don't believe everything you think. That's one of the most

liberating thoughts you'll ever get. I don't have to believe

everything I think. You see, we automatically think that if

we think it, it must be true. Are you kidding me?

You think a lot of stuff that's not true. If

you will listen to that one truth right there.

You're on the road to mental health. Now.

Our theme for fifty days of transformation is Romans twelve,

verse two, and this week I want us to look

at it. In the New Living Translation. There on your outline,

it says this, do not be conformed to the pattern

of this world, but let God transform you into a

new person by changing the way you think. We've memorized

it in by the renewing of your mind. The renewing

of your mind is the way that NIV puts it.

The New Living Translation says, by changing the way you think. Now,

let me sum up what I want to say this weekend.

In one sentence.

God is far more interested in changing your mind than

in changing your circumstances. We want God to change our circumstances.

We want them to take away all the problems, all

the pain, all the sorrow, all the suffering, all the sickness,

all the sadness, and God says, yeah, yeah, I know

that's important. But really more important than that, it's what's

happening in you. And I'm far more interested in changing

your mind before we change your circumstance. Because nothing happens

in your life until you get the renewing of your mind.

No transformation takes place, no change takes place in your

mind or in your life until your thoughts begin to change. Now,

why is it so important that I learned how to

manage my mind? We've looked at physical health, We've looked

at spiritual health. This weekend, I want us to look

at mental health. How do I have a healthy mind?

And why is that's important that I manage my thought life?

Let me give you three reasons you might write these down.

Number one, because my thoughts control my life. My thoughts

control my life. Every single action always begins as a thought.

If you don't think it, you don't do it. Now,

that's both good and bad. If you don't think it,

you don't do it. If it's a good thought, then

you then you're gonna do good. If it's a bad thought,

you're gonna do bad. But my thoughts control my life.

Proverbs for twenty three and today's English version says, be

careful how you think your life is shaped circle that

word shaped. Your life is shaped by your thoughts. He goes, well,

I was just thinking it. Well, you don't realize how

important the thought is. The Bible says the power of

your mind, The power of your thoughts says tremniscibility to

shape your life.

For good or for bad. And if you accept the thought.

If growing up somebody said to you you're worthless, you're

no good matter, you're ugly, you're uncoordinated. If you accepted

that fact, whether it was right or wrong, it shaped

your life. We're always interested in our feelings, and we're

gonna look at feelings next week when we look at

emotional health. But your feelings don't shape your life. Your

beliefs do. And it doesn't even have to be true.

If you believe it, it's gonna shape your life. And

a lot of you were taught things as a kid

about you that just weren't true, and years later you're

still acting on false information. Be transformed by changing the

way you think, Because my thoughts control my life, both

good and bad. Number two I need to manage my mind,

because my mind is the battleground for sin.

It's where I win or lose the battle.

In fact, all temptation happens in the mind. We think

temptation is something out there, something external, something that happens

that we see out there and say, oh.

That's tempting to me.

It wouldn't tempt you if there wasn't a corollary desire

inside you.

All temptation happens.

In your mind, between your ears, and as a result,

sin happens in your mind. It happens between your ears.

When we talk about the sins of pride or lust,

or bitterness or hatred, or anger, or fear or resentment,

or envy or worry, where are those things?

They're all in your mind.

If you can learn how to manage your mind, you've

learned how to manage your life. This is where the

battle ground is. Paul and Romans. Chapter seven is very

articulate in explaining how we've all felt in this battle

that pulls us many different directions in our mind. Paul

says this Roman seven twenty two and twenty three. I

love to do God's will so far as my new

nature is concerned.

But and it's always a big butt okay.

But there's something else deep within me that is at

war with my mind and wins the fight and makes

me a slave to the sin within me.

In my mind, I want to be God's.

Servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin,

and we can all identify that. I want you to

circle some words in that passage war. Circle the word war,

the word fight, the word slave, the word enslaved. What's

he saying. He's saying there's a battle in your brain.

It's one of the reasons why you get mentally fatigued,

because there's a battle in your brain and it's going

on twenty four hours a day. Sometimes you're conscious of

that battle, and sometimes you're unconscious of that battle, but

it's going.

On in your life.

And the reason why that battle in your brain is

going on and it's debilitating, it's because it's so intense.

And the reason why it's so intense is because your brain,

your mind, is your greatest asset. Satan wants to control

your mind. The world wants to control your mind, and

there's a battle for the way you think. Why Because

whatever gets your attention gets you so I need to

manage my mind, because my thoughts control my life, and

because my mind is the battleground for sin and temptation.

Number three, because it's the key to peace and life

or happiness. Because managing my mind is actually the key

to peace and the key to happiness. If you learn

what we're going to talk about this weekend, and you

begin to plat in your life, your peace of mind

will go up dramatically, and so will your happiness, and

so will your understanding and enjoyment of life. An unmanaged

mind leads to tension. A managed mind leads to tranquility.

An unmanaged mind leads to pressure. A managed mind leads

to peace. An unmanaged mind leads to conflict and chaos.

A managed mind leads to confidence. An unmanaged mind leads

to stress. If you don't manage your thoughts, you just

let them go all over the place. You don't ever

even try to control your mind and the way you

direct your thoughts, you're gonna have enormous amount of stress

in your life. But a managed mind leads to strength

and leads to security and leads to serenity. The Bible

says it like this in Romans eighty six. If your

sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. Well, by

the way, what is death. It's the opposite of life.

You're not really living. But if the Holy Spirit controls

your mind, there is life and peace. So if I

want to have a healthy mind, I want to break

free from all of those bad patterns of the way

I've been thinking. What I need to do is make

some choices. And the Bible says there are three choices

for a healthy mind. I have to feed my mind,

I have to free my mind, and I have to

focus my mind. Let's look at these three things. They're

all choices, and you have to choose them, not just

once in your lifetime, but on a moment by moment basis.

All right, let's look at what the Bible says. Number one,

if I want to have a healthy mind, I must

feed my mind with truth. I must feed my mind

with the truth. Now we all know the importance of nutrition.

Good food and good calories cause you to be better,

to be stronger, to be healthier, to have more energy.

Bad calory is bad junk food, things that don't do

good harm your body. The same is true in your

thought life. I must feed my mind not with junk,

not with poison, but with truth. But Jesus said it

like this, you will know the truth, and the truth

will set you free. One time I was given the

privilege of lecturing at Oxford University and actually at Cambridge

also in the same month in England. And while it

was there, I was invited to go to a meeting

of Oxford Analytica. This is a group you've never heard of,

but has enormous influence in the world. Every day, at

about five point thirty six a m. The leading scholars

of Oxford gather in a room to get reports from

all around the world and what's happened in the last

twenty four hours. They then discuss these things, everything from

crop prices in China to unrest in the Middle East,

to the weather on the East Coast and all kinds

of things like this, and then they make a decision

about what needs to be said about it. And then

they say, who's the best person in the world who

knows the most about this, and they send a note

to that person. They email that person. By eleven o'clock

that morning a report has been given and then that report,

the Oxford Analytical Report, is paid for by groups like

the United States, Cia, the Soviet Union are now the

Republic of Russia, China, world leaders, major corporations, they all

look to Oxford Analytica to get their daily report and

they pay big bucks for this information. And I got

to sit in on one of the meetings. They invited

me to watch what was happening. It was about twenty

people sitting in a room early early in the morning.

And Oxford Analytica was founding on the idea that the

best leaders make the best decisions when they have the

best best information. And even if you are a good leader,

if you don't have the best information, you're going to

make a bad decision.

If that makes sense. Yeah, So you've.

Got to have the best information to make the best decision.

And that whole purpose was to get the best information

on the world situation.

In the last twenty four hours.

Well you're not Oxford Analytica, but you need the best

information to live the best life that God wants you

to live. And that information is right here in the

Word of God. It's called the truth. The Bible says

in Matthew four to four people need more than bread

for their life. They must feed on every word of God.

The Bible is our soul food. It's our owner's manual

for life. Now, when should I feed my mind truth?

I mean, when should I do this? And the answer

is all the time, throughout the day, morning, noon, and night.

You know, they tell you that the best way to

eat is to eat just little every couple hours, rather

than to eat big meals and then go long hours

without eating. But to eat constantly, just kind of nibble

your way through the day, eating the right food. It

keeps your blood sugar level and all things like that.

Same is true with truth. If you're constantly thinking about truth,

it's going to renew your mind, it's going to change

your mind. Let me give you some examples of this.

Here's David. Here's three verses from David Psalm one, nineteen seven.

I rise early to cry out for help. That's prayer,

and to put my hope in your words that's Bible.

Steady circle the word hope, he says, I start every

morning talking to you, I cry out in prayer and

listening to you. I read your word, and he says,

I look for the hope in your word. There are

over seven thousand promises in this book, seven thousand of them.

If you want to have your mind renewed, become a

promised person, begin to learn, memorize.

Think on this. If you feel pretty hopeless about your.

Situation, you're not spending enough time in the promises of God.

Because they're there. He says, I start my day with hope.

Are you starting your day with hope or with despair?

He says, I start it there. And then the next

verse he says, Lord, how I love your word. I

think about it all day long. You might circle back,

and then Psalm sixteen, verse seven, he says, even in

the darkest of night, your teachings fill my mind. So

he's saying early in the morning, all through the day,

and even late at night, I'm thinking about God's truth.

That's why David is called a man after God's own heart.

Let me just give you one example of how serious

David was about filling his mind with the truth of

God's word. I told you last week that he spent

a large part of his life running for his life

because the king that he was going to replace in

Israel wanted to kill him. Saul wanted him dead, and

so David actually had to run and be a fugitive

for many, many years. Living in caves and moving from

place to place and never knowing. Am I going to

wake up and be killed the next day?

And there were.

People who are actually trying to kill him. I doubt

that's ever happened to you. But look at this verse

on the screen Psalone, nineteen ninety five. He says, when

wicked people hide to ambush and kill me, I quietly.

Keep my mind on your decrease.

Wow, I quietly keep my mind on your decrease. Now

somebody was trying to kill you, would you be thinking

about the word of God, God of doubt it. You'd

probably be calling the police. You'd be running, you'd be

bolting the door. David says, I don't care what's going

in my life morning, knew night, people trying to kill me.

I have one thing I do. I keep my mind

on the truth. You do that in the crisis. That's

called managing your mind. I have to feed my mind

daily on truth. Number two. I have to free my

mind from destructive thoughts. That's the second thing I need

to do. Free my mind from destructive thoughts. Your mind

needs to be liberated, Your mind needs to be delivered.

Your mind needs to be released because you are a

prisoner of your own thoughts, and you're a prisoner of

things that people have told you that simply weren't true.

And as I said earlier, doesn't matter if it's true

or not, if you believe that it's.

Affected your life.

You may have been told you were clumsy, and maybe

you weren't clumsy at all, but if you believed it,

you're clumsy. And you see yourself that way because you

always act in accordance the way you see yourself. And

he says, I've got to free my mind from destructive thoughts.

Now that isn't easy.

And the reason it is easy is because you got

three enemies. And those three enemies are trying to team

tackle you and keep you from having your mind liberated.

These are the things that keep you from fulfilling all

your good intentions. You know, all those good intentions about

things you'd like to change in your life. I'm going

to change this, I'm going to change that, and I'm

going to change this, and I'm going to change that.

And it never never happens.

Why Because you have three enemies in your mind that

are battling in your brain to keep you from doing

the things all your best intentions would like to do

all your good resolutions things like that, and they're not

going to give up ground easily. You're going to have

to fight to free your mind. What are the enemies,

let's write them down. Number one. The first enemy is

my old nature, my old nature. I want to show

you a verse. It's up here on the screen. Romans,

Chapter seven, verse twenty three. Paul talks about how his

old nature keeps him in mental bondage. She says this,

I see in my body a principle at war, A

principle at war.

There's that battle for your brain.

I see in my body a principle at war with

the law of my mind, taking me captive to the

law of sin that dwells inside of me. He's using

war language here. Let me put it this way. Do

you ever find yourself doing things that you don't really

want to do? That's the battle? Okay, let me say

it this way. You don't have to raise your hands

on this one. But have you ever knowingly engaged in

self defeating behavior? I know this isn't good for me,

but yeah, what's going on there? The battle in your brain,

the battle in your brain. You have all of the

best intentions in your new nature.

I want to do the right thing.

But the battle in your brain, and the first battle

is with your old sin nature. Your old nature is

not your friend. It is the source of all your

bad habits. Romans eight fives says this on your outline.

Those who are dominated by their sinful nature think about

sinful things. But those who are controlled by the Holy

Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. Notice it's

all about your brain. It's about how you think. So

the first thing that's I may have a good intention

for changing something in my life, but my old nature

is going to battle me on it. The second thing

that's going to fight me, the second enemy is Satan.

And Satan wants to can control your mind. He can't,

but he wants to control your mind and and and

so he sends these ideas, these thoughts into your mind. Now,

let me be real clear. Satan cannot force you to

do anything. If you're a Christian, you have a lot

of Holy Spirit in you. Satan cannot force you to

do anything, because the great greater is he that is

in me than he that is in the world. But

he can make suggestions, and those suggestions are very, very

powerful and He is constantly continually planting negative thoughts in

your mind. And he'll use other people, or he'll use

the television or if you know, if you know he

can't get a he'll just throw a thought in your mind.

You go, where in the will that one come from?

Have you ever been praying and you're praying real hard,

and all of a sudden, the weirdest thought comes in

your mind while you're praying.

You know.

Where did that come from? Well, I'll tell you where

it came from. The devil just dropped the little bomb

on your brain.

Okay.

Now, Martin Luther said you can't keep the birds from

flying over your head, but Rick Warren says, you can

keep them from pooping in your hair, okay, And you

can duck and you you know, and you can move,

and you don't have to accept a thought. One of

the most important things we're gonna talk about this in

your small group is don't believe everything you think. That's

one of the most liberating thoughts you'll you'll ever get.

I don't have to believe everything I think. You see,

we automatically think that if we think it, it must

be true. Are you kidding me? You think a lot

of stuff that's not true. In fact, maybe a majority

of the stuff you think isn't true. And you have

all these ideas and you think, well, if thought it, it

must be true.

Of course it's not true. So just because you.

Get a thought in your mind, it may come from

your old said nature, it may come from the devil.

It doesn't really matter. If it's not true, it's not true.

You don't have to think. You don't have to believe

everything you think. In fact, let's just say it together.

I don't have to believe everything I think.

Let's say it.

I don't have to believe everything I think. If you

will listen to that one truth right there, you're on

the road to mental health because not everything you think

is true. Stuff you think about yourself, stuff you think

about God, stuff you think about your husband or your wife,

or a life or community or the government, or it's

just not all true just because you thought it. And

we're going to cover that in detail in the small group.

But Satan puts these thoughts in the moment you wake up.

The moment you wake up, he starts dropping little seeds.

You're not gonna have a good day today.

Life is gonna really be bad. Nobody's gonna like you.

In fact, you're flat out ugly. If I were as

ugly as you, I wouldn't even show my face.

And you've got to.

Start getting all of this talk going on in your brain.

Why in the world am I even trying? It's not

gonna be any different. And he starts giving you all

these reasons to give up, and you haven't even started

the day yet. You see, if you get up in

the morning and you don't meet the devil face on,

and it just means you're going in the same direction,

follow that one, all right, And so he's gonna drop

these little thoughts on you. And then sometimes I'll say,

go ahead, you deserve it. Really, yeah, you go ahead,

get angry? Good even How dare they say that to you?

Why don't you? And he's just constantly dropping thoughts. When

the devil gives a thought, we call it temptation. When

God gives a thought, we call it inspiration. But both

of them are putting thoughts in your mind. And then

you're coming up with your own thoughts. We call that stupidity. Okay, now,

these thoughts are going on in your mind, but you

got this enemy called Satan look at this up here

on the screen, tewod Corindians two eleven says. Paul talks

about I've forgiven that man, a guy in the church.

You'd really messed everything up. He's really critical and problems.

I've forgiven that man so Satan won't outsmartest.

What's you saying there?

He's going when I am unforgiving, I'm falling into Satan's trap.

I've forgiven that man so that Satan won't out smartest.

For we're very familiar with his schemes. Satan wants to

keep you in bitterness. Satan wants to keep you in bondage.

She wants to keep you in resentment if you have

not forgiven anybody fallen into Satan's trap. And Paul goes, hey,

we're wise to this guy. He's been using the same

traps for so many on. He tries to get you hurt,

and then he tries to get you bitter, and then

he builds on that bitterness.

He gets a foothold in your life, and on and

on and on.

Anytime you refuse to forgive anybody, you've fallen for Satan's trap.

Point here is he says, Satan has schemes, and you

need to be aware of it. So you got the

enemy number one, that's the flesh, and you got enemy

number two, that's the devil.

Then the third enemy.

Is the world's value system, and that is culture around you.

The world, the flesh and the devil, and the world

is not helping you be a more disciplined person. Are they?

Does anything in our society encourage self discipline?

No, not at all.

In fact, every advertiser saying you deserve a break today,

have it your way, We do it all for you.

It's all about you.

Mountain Dew, my favorite commercial says, obey your thirst. In

other words, be an animal. Just do whatever it feels

like doing. Okay, obey your third And so the world

has their value system and is promoted by advertisers, and

is promoted by movies, and is promoted by television, is

promoted in songs, and it's certainly promoted by celebrities. So

nobody in around you is actually encouraging you to live

a responsible, mentally healthy life. One John two sixteen says

this here on the screen, all that is in the world,

the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,

and the pride of life. In other words, that's passion,

possession and position, or it's it's the lust of the flesh,

that's sex, the lust of the eyes that's your salary,

and pride of life, that's success and status. He's saying,

this is what everybody is going for. Okay, money, section

and power. He says, all these things. It's not of

the fathers, but it's of this world. And so everything

around you, all the commercials, all the media. They're not

encouraging you to think smart, to think healthy, to think wise.

They're encouraging you to do the other thing. So how

do you fight this battle? I mean, it's so wonder

you have all these best intentions for changing, but then

you got this triple threat of your own old nature

the devil. So you got the nature within you, you got

the devil against you, and you got the.

World around you. Was no wonder.

You keep struggling with discouragement and spare and failure and

things like that. How do you fight this mental battle?

Look at the next verse tewod Corinthians ten. 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. In other words, because he's

talking about the mental battle we're going through. Our weapons

have divine power to demolish stronghold.

Circle the word stronghold. We'll come back to that word

in just a minute.

Our weapons have the divine power to demolished strongholds. We

demolish any argument and every pretension. That's the arguments in

your own mind, the pretensions in your own mind that

sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

And here's the important part.

We tape captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Notice this is warfare.

Language, and he's talking about this battle going on in

your mind, this mental battle. He said, we demolish strongholds. Now,

what's a stronghold. I want you to write this down.

A stronghold is a lie that I believe. That's a stronghold.

A spiritual stronghold in my life is a lie.

That I believe.

So the lie might be God really doesn't love me.

That's a lie. The lie might be I.

Know better than God what will make me happy.

That's a lie.

The lie I should do what I want to do,

not what God wants me to do, and that'll make

me happier. That's a lie. I know better, what will

make me happy than God does. That's a lie, and

that's a stronghold. Anything that I believe that's a lie

is called a spiritual stronghold in my life. Now, stronghold

can be a false value system like in the world.

It could be a philosophical system like hedonism, which says

the only that matters is pleasure. In other words, the

whole goal of life is to have fun. That's a lie,

it is not true. Or materialism is a philosophical worldview

which says the only thing that matters is making money.

That's a lie. That's not true.

So secularism, hedonism, materialism, all that matters is money or

sex or power.

Those are all lies and if I believe them, then

I get a stronghold in my life.

Could be a worldview. That could be a personal attitude.

A stronghold could be an attitude like I'm never gonna

forgive that person. That's a stronghold. I could never forgive myself.

That's a stronghold. I will never amount to anything. That's

a stronghold. If something bad's gonna happen, it's gonna happen

to me, that's a stronghold. It's a lie that you

are believing. And he says, if you're gonna learn to

be mentally healthy, you've got to learn how to demolish

strongholds in your life. Behind every sin is some lie

that you're believing. The Bible calls Satan the father of lies.

Jesus says, I am the truth, and the truth that

you free. Satan is a liar and he's gonna enslave you.

So this stronghold needs to be destroyed. How do we

fight this mental battle? Well, notice two phrases. I want

you to circle it. First, he says, we take captive.

Circle that phrase, we take captive, and the word in

Greek is akmalog, and it means it literally means to conquer.

It means to bring under control. It means to capture.

We take captive, we conquer like a country. We mallow

tidzo a country. And then the other phrase, once circle,

he says, we make it obedient. We take it captive,

every thought captive, and we make every we make it obedient,

make every thought obey Christ And that word there literally

make it obedient. Hoopokoi means to bring in the submission.

How do you do that? What's he talking about? Here

he's talking about how do you make your mind mind?

How do you make your mind mind? You?

We bring it into submission, we take it captive, we

make it obedient. Let's just have a little confession here.

My thoughts often disobey me. They often rebel. My mind

often has a mind of its own. It wants to

go in another direction. This morning, I was studying for

this message. My mind didn't want to study. It wanted

to go watch the Olympics. Okay, it wanted to sit

down with a big sandwich, some jalapena, potato chips. Okay,

piece of mud pie. I'm making you all hungry now here.

See what I'm doing. I'm messing with your mind. Okay, okay,

you're already salivating on that kind of stuff right there.

You know. And if you got add.

Or ADHD, your mind often goes off in a whole different direction.

And you get ready to pray, and you're going, what

do I say? I don't know, I don't anything. Say

you got anything that? Say?

Lord? I don't anything.

Say is anybody identifying with this?

Okay?

And you know, I don't know. You're I'm supposed to pray?

What do I pray? Or Hello, God, Amen. My mind

often rebels when I need to ponder. My mind wants

to wander. It doesn't always obey me. When I need

to pray, my mind drifts away. He says, we take captive,

we make it obedient. What's he saying here is you

have a choice. Your mind has to listen to you

and your will. God didn't give.

You just a mind.

He gave you a will and emotions. We're gonna talk

about emotions next week. But part of your will is

to bring your mind into order.

Now.

The reason why most people are ineffective in life and

actually fail at life, and actually don't enjoy life is

because they've never learned how to fight the battle of

the mind. This is so important. I intend to teach

an entire series on it this year. We're going to

go into this in detail. I'm only doing one message

on it, fifty days Transformation. But today I just want

to explain to you one simple thing, how temptation works.

Because Paul says, we're not supposed to be ignorant of

how Satan works. We need to know how it works

so you're not caught off guard. So let me explain

to you how temptation works because it always uses the

same pattern. James one fourteen and fifteen tells us the

pattern temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires,

and these evil desires lead to evil actions, and then

the evil actions lead to death. I notice temptation is

a process. It's not an isolated event, you know when

people talk about I don't know. It just caught me

off guard. It was just a one night's stand. No

it wasn't. No, it wasn't. There were a lot of

things that you gave into before you got to lowering

that barrier. Temptation is a process, and the Bible describes

exactly how it thinks, and there are four phases. Write

these down. Phase number one is temptation starts with desire.

So number one is desire. If you don't have any

desire for something, it's not a temptation. I have never, ever,

in my life, been tempted to smoke a cigarette. Why

there's no desire in me? I think they stink. Okay,

somebody asked me one day, we'll smoking sind you to hell.

I said, no, make you smell like you've been there,

but it won't. But it's not going to send you

to hell. Okay, all right. Do you remember when they

used to have smoking on airplanes?

That was terrible.

I had a friend who used to carry a card

with him and when a guy would light up next

to him on the plane, he'd hand him the card

and said, I notice you smoke. Well, I chew. If

you won't blow smoke on me, I won't spit on you. Now,

I've never been tempted because it just didn't smell good

to me. Now, there's a lot of stuff I've been

tempted in that you haven't been tempted in. But it

always starts with an internal desire. Now, he says, there

the lure of our desire. It begins inside you. Temptation

doesn't start out there, doesn't start on TV, doesn't start

on the street corner. It starts inside your mind. And

it often begins with a natural desire, not even an

evil desire. It can begin with a natural desire. You

have a natural desire for sleep. You have a natural

desire for water. You have a natural desire for food.

You have a natural desire for sex. You have a

natural desire to succeed in life. These are all God

given drives. The drive to achieve, the drive for sex,

the drive to breed, the drive. Those are normal drives.

There's nothing wrong with them. Okay, listen closely. Temptation turns

a routine desire into a runaway desire, and that's what

makes it bad. It becomes more important than anything else.

It's all you can think about, and any desire out

of control is destructive. Fire in a fireplace can warm,

Fire on a cooking stove can cook great food, but

fire uncontrolled can burn your house down. All of God's gifts,

misused and abused, will burn your house down. Any of

them will sex, sleep, eating, any of those things. They're

good desires, good drives, but misused and abused, they mess

you up.

Now.

Often, temptation is an attempt to fulfill a legitimate desire

in your life, like I just want to be loved.

There's nothing wrong with that in the wrong way. But

the point is, it's like steel in a magnet. If

there were no desire in me, there would be no

temptations that make sense. Okay, So temptation doesn't start out there.

It starts in here, in my mind with desire. Step

two in temptation always happens this way is doubt. And

what you do in doubt is you begin to doubt

two things. You doubt that God loves you, and you

doubt that God knows best. Because when you start to

get tempted, you go, did God really say, don't have

sex outside of marriage? Did God really say forgive the

person instead of get even with him? Did God really

say it's more blessed to give than to receive? And

you start doubting God's word. We see this from the

very first temptation and Adam and Eve they're in a

perfect environment. Okay, it's paradise. They have no clothes and

no kids. Hello, how do you mess up that?

Really?

Satan comes and says, hey, see that tree over there.

Did God really say you can't eat of that tree?

What is he doing?

He's getting you to doubt God's word. And then he says,

God knows that if you eat that tree, you'll be

as smart as.

He that he is. What's he doing? He's getting you to.

Doubt that God loves you, that God's rules are for

your benefit. Every time you give into temptation, you are

believing a lie. You think you know better, You think

God doesn't know best. You think that you know what

will make you happy more than he does. So there's

always the desire, and then there's the doubt did God

really say?

Do I really love? Does God really love me?

Isn't God just being a little prudish about this?

Is it really true?

And on and on and on. Then the step three

is deception. And the third thing that Satan does is

he replaces God's truth with his lie and he says, God,

you won't die if you eat this. God had already

said he eat this fruit, You're gonna die.

Now.

God said, you can eat anything in the hole in

the entire park, Yellowstone Park called Eden. You can eat

anything in the park except this one tree. What does

man do? He goes immediately to the one tree. It's

the minimum amount of temptation possible, but it allows a choice.

Satan changes it all.

So God says you can't eat a bunch of stuff,

and reason he doesn't want you to because he doesn't

want you to be as.

Smart as he is.

He is giving you a lie. He is deceiving you.

Notice it says in that verse he says, I am lured.

He said temptation comes from the lure of our own

evil desire.

Circle the word lure. That's a fishing term.

I'm enticed you're talking about using bait there now, any

of you fishermen, some of you are the secret of

good fishing is real simple.

You got to use the right bait.

Salmon eat a certain kind of bait, and trout to

eat another kind of bait, and visually and change what

they're eating, feeding on at different times of the day.

And how many fish are you going to catch with

a bare hook?

None?

Zero, none, So obviously you got to put some bait

on there. You got to have a lure question. What

kind of bait does Satan use on you?

Do you even know? Do you know the one he

always uses on you?

And he keeps coming back to it because it gets

you everything. It hooks you every single time. It may

be from something long time ago that a parent said

to you, but man, when that thing comes out, you

are just so hooked. You immediately get depressed, or immediately

get angry, or you immediately get worried. And Satan got

her hooked. I put the right bait on that hook.

Satan knows your weaknesses and he hides the hook. And

I call this phased deception because you know why often

we know there's a hook there, but we still keep nibbling.

We know there's a hook, but we still keep nibbling.

It's like people who flirt in the office. How stupid

is that? You know there's a hook there, you know

it's gonna there's only one way it could go bad,

but you still keep nibbling. You say, I'm an adult,

I won't get hurt, I'll be careful. You're being deceived.

And there's a lure. Now, anybody who's done fishing, Tom's

a fly fisherman knows that lures can when you fly fish,

they can be pretty flashy, pretty flashy. And the flashier

the lure that what was that?

That fish goes? What was that? Holy I'm gonna swim

over there. That thing. Look it thinks it's flashy. It's shiny.

Man.

That looks like Las Vegas. You know what.

Las Vegas is one giant lure in the desert and

it's shiny and it's bright, and they've got all you

can eat buffets for nothing, and somebody's paying for that,

and you're gonna get hurt, and you know, the poor

suckers are gonna You know, Las Vegas should.

Just be called lost wages.

Next time you're going to attempt to be going to

Las Vegas, just give me your money, okay, just give

it to me, okay, okay, And then you save the time,

save the effort, and we'll use it for good, all right.

Temptation always looks better than it is. And step four

is disobedience and defeat. Disobedience and defeat. Now we've moved

from desire. There's something that's I want to doubt God's

word and God's love to deception. I'm believing the lie

that Satan's telling me. It's gonna be Okay, you can

get away with.

This, It's all right, just this once. It's not that bad,

and I don't know.

And then you go to disobedience and then defeat, and

now it's sin. What began in the mind gets translated

into action and it goes like this, My attention becomes

an attitude, and my attitude becomes an action. Well, you

really spend a lot of time on this, but this

is how it works in the battle for your mind.

I've had guys say to me, what's the danger of

a harmless fantasy? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?

It's not harmless. I want you to write this down.

What I flirt with, I'll fall for whatever I flirt with.

It may be a cupcake, I'll fall for. Whatever I

flirt with, I'll fall for. I need to refocus my attention.

The Bible says, after desires conceived, it gives birth to sin,

and the end result is death, says the tragic consequet's

death the exact opposite of living. Now, listen, you are

free to choose anything you want in life.

You're free to.

Make your choices, but you are not free from the

consequences of those choices. The moment you make that choice,

you are no longer free because there are consequences that

come to every choice, often unintended consequences, And what you

sow you will reap. And you cannot choose the behavior

and not choose the consequence.

Now what am I saying?

The best time to win the battle with temptation is

before it begins. Look at this verse on the screen

Psalm one nineteen one twelve. I have made up my

mind to a obey your laws forever, no matter what.

Until you come to that point, you're just going to

keep stumbling and stumbling and stumbling and stumbling.

I have made up my mind. That's a choice.

I have made up my mind to obey your laws forever,

no matter what. All right, Three things, I said, You

got to make these choices every day. I have to focus,

I have to free, and I have to feed.

I said.

First, I have to feed my mind constantly on truth,

not garbage. And then I have to free my mind

from destructive thoughts. We talked about how that happens. And

the third is, I must focus my mind on the

right things. For mental health, I must focus my mind

on the right things. Now we're out of time, so

let me just mention three real quick, just right?

Can you writ quick? All right? Just write these down.

Three things that will make the most difference in your

mental state. Number one, think about Jesus. Think about Jesus.

You've heard that old cliche. You become whatever you think about.

Most well, you think about Jesus. Guess what you're going to.

Become like like Jesus. Tewod Timothy two. Eight.

Keep your mind on Jesus Christ Hebrews twelve thirteen twelve.

Three Think about Jesus. Example, he held on. Are you

having a hard time holding on? He held on while

wicked people were doing evil things to him.

So do not get tired and stop trying. Don't do

that when.

You start feeling like you're ready to give up. Think

about what Jesus went through. Think about Jesus. Number two,

Think about others. Think about others. Philippians two four says,

don't just think about your own affairs, but be interested

in others too and what they are doing. Do you

realize how counterculture that is everything in the world teaches

you to think about yourself and nobody else. How many

times have you heard this phrase, I've got.

To do what's best for me looking out for Number one.

Yeah, I could go on down a whole list of

these phrases that basically say, it's all about me, It's

all about me, It's all about me, it's all about me.

That's why when I wrote Purpose Drive in Life, I thought,

what's the most counter culture statement I could think of

in our culture to begin this book with? And I

just said, it's not about you. That is the most

counter culture statement you can make in our world today.

It's not about you. It's like a slap in the face.

So I just thought I'll start the book with a

slap in the face. It's not about you, okay you,

it's not about you. It's not about you. It's all

about God. And it's only in giving your life away

that you will understand what it really means to live.

So think about others Hebrews ten twenty four. Let us

think about each other and help each other to show

love and do good deeds. And the best place to

practice that is in your small group. Practice that version

in your small group this week. Let's think about each other.

Let's help each other to show love and do good deeds.

In your small group. That's the laboratory for love. It's

the place to learn unselfishness. Think about Jesus, think about others.

Number three, Think about eternity. That's the third one that'll

make the biggest difference in your mental state. Think about eternity,

that there's mortal life than just here and now. The

problem that we do today is we have short term thinking.

We only think about what's happening right now. Colossians three

to two, Let Heaven feel your thoughts. Do not think

only about things down here on earth. King James version says,

set your minds on things above, not upon things on

the earth, Let Heaven fill your thoughts. Now, have you

heard this old canard? He's so heavenly minded, he's no

earthly good. That's a bunch of baloney.

You know what. I've found.

Only the people who are heavenly minded actually do any good,

And those who are most heavenly minded throughout history are

those who've done the most good.

On earth, bar none.

It is not the earthly minded people who get the

most done on earth. It is the most heavenly minded

people who get the most done on earth for good.

It's just not true. He's so heavenly minded and no

earthly good. The problem is the opposite. We're so earthly minded,

we're no heavenly good. All we think about is budget

and baseball and bills and stuff like that. One Corinthians

two nine. No eye has seen, no ear has erred,

and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for

those who love him.

Think about that.

When you start thinking about that, all of the problems,

little nitpicky problems in your life seems so inferior compared

to the glory, the joy, the pleasure, the enjoyment, the

things we have to look forward to in eternity. I

need to feed my mind on truth every day. I

need to free my mind from those destructive thoughts. I

can choose not to think them by changing the way

I think. We'll talk about that in your small group,

and then I can focus my mind on the right thing.

And when I'm focused on the right thing, I don't

have time to pay attention to the wrong thing. When

I'm watching a TV. I don't like what I see,

I just flipped the channel. Change your attention. I'm no

longer tempted. It's real simple. Let's about for prayer. Father,

you gave us our minds. We were made in your image.

This is the greatest gift you've ever given us, the

gift of intellect. And we realize it's our greatest asset,

and yet it is the greatest battleground. And we realize

that the world and the flesh, and the devil all

team up to thwart our best intentions. Now you pray,

just say a simple prayer, God, help me to put

into practice what I've just learned. Just say, God, help

me put into practice what I've just learned. Help me

to make the choices on a daily basis. I want

to feed my mind with truth all the time.

And I want to free my mind.

From destructive thoughts by taking every thought captive, to make

it obedient to Christ. To not just let my mind

run wild. Help me to be wise the temptation, realize

when desire is turning to doubt, to deception, to disobedience.

God today, and just say this, God, I'm going to

make up my mind to obey your word forever, no

matter what. Help me to think about Jesus, Help me

to think about others. Help me to think about eternity,

that my life may be truly transformed in your name.

I pray Amen,