Conquering Ugly Thoughts in a Battle of the Mind

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Church Podcast. Today we begin a brand new Christmas series entitled Ugly Sweater Christmas.

As ugly as some of our Christmas sweaters are, some of the things we allow into

our lives are even uglier.

In week one, Pastor Jeff brings us a message entitled Ugly Thoughts and teaches

us how to take our thoughts captive.

So grab your Bible and get ready to listen to today's message.

Before we start out and jump into this message i

just want to give a big shout out to each person that

was here not just monday night decorating but also over the weekend there were

people here danny and lisa were here decorating and how about that fake fireplace

that jeff put together i asked him about you know hey what about that idea yeah

i put it together for him said hey you think that's possible.

He took a picture of it the next day and it was here. So incredible people that

just want to serve the body of Christ.

So each one of you that came out, thank you for helping.

And for those who made yummy goodies, they were delicious. And now I can't fit into my sweater almost.

So thank you for that. But we are starting a new four-week series today and

it's called ugly Christmas sweater.

It's okay to laugh and to have a good time in church. You know that, right?

God, we are created in his image. And so we were created to enjoy life.

And so it's okay to have appropriate fun in church.

And I stress appropriate fun.

But we want to, each week, We want to encourage you to wear your ugliest Christmas

sweater. I know some of you are like, but this is my best sweater.

It's not really. It's just an ugly Christmas sweater.

So if you wore an ugly Christmas sweater, I'm going to ask you to do something.

We have a prize for the best sweater, okay?

Wear it each week. In each week, we'll have a prize. But I want to ask you to

come down to the front, and we're going to judge.

And I am not the judge. We're going to judge by applause and woo!

Okay? So come on. if you have a Christmas sweater, I see your Christmas sweater. It's beautiful.

I told you some people would say their sweaters are not ugly.

Come up. Come on up. Don't be shy.

Bob, could you not disturb the service so much?

All right. So I'm just going to walk over each person. Paul,

I love your ugly outfit today.

Nice. All right. We're going to do this by applause. Okay.

All right that was kind of a golf clap all right we got two golf claps yours

is not ugly yours is probably the pretty one it says aldi's all right we're

giving a little shout out to aldi's today.

Liz listen she's also her

own cheerleader all right right here

all right that's pretty big pretty big

how about this move oh look at that we might have might have a winner so far

you want to jump up and down oh and last but not least katie all right y'all

can go sit down except these two,

no i'm not invited to this all right so we're gonna have a move off no i'm just kidding he would win.

All right. This is for all the marbles right here.

So if you had an ugly sweater on hopefully you still have it on if you have

an ugly sweater on you can now cheer for these two. All right. Ready? Oh.

Music.

What do you do if it's a tie,

all right rock paper scissors

okay rock paper scissors everyone know how right maybe let's do snowman carrot

okay rock paper scissors best

out of three okay all right one two three shoot oh well You're down one,

Jingle Bells, rock, paper, scissors, shoot.

He won it. He won it. All right.

Maybe if you're a good sound man, he'll share it with you. Maybe.

You're welcome. Give him a hand, guys.

Well, it is good to be in God's house this morning.

We're going to go ahead and dismiss the kids at this time. now that we've had

our fun, you go have yours.

But let's go to the Lord this morning and just ask his blessing to move and to speak to us.

Heavenly Father, it is good to be in your house.

It's good to be enjoying life together as friends and family and to laugh during this season.

But most of all, we're here today to give you glory and to reflect your glory

and to lift you up and to praise your holy and righteous name for all you have

done and all you continue to do in our lives.

We love you because you first loved us.

And so let us keep our focus on you this Christmas in this season.

Would you speak to us today? We ask it in your name.

Amen. Amen. So if you were here with us a few weeks ago, we talked about the

fact that there are two kingdoms at war with each other, right?

If you were here, you'll remember it was the kingdom of this world,

the kingdom of man, the kingdom of Satan, that's all one. And then there's the kingdom of God.

And these two wars, these two kingdoms are at battle with each other.

This morning, you need to know this, and it's the big idea this morning,

that there is a battle, there is a battlefield, and there must be a battle plan

in order for us to walk this life in victory.

You can't just expect to be in a battle and not have a battle plan and think

that you're gonna be just fine.

You've got to have a battle plan.

You see, Satan and the enemy, they spend most of their time battling the minds

of men and women and children.

Because if he can get a hold of our minds, he can get a hold of his purposes.

He uses us for his purposes and for his kingdom.

And the way that he does it is through the mind.

The first thing you need to know is that there is a battle and the battle is spiritual.

The battle we're in is not flesh and blood. This is 2 Corinthians 10.

It says, for although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.

Since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful,

and I'd circle this in your Bible or underline it, through God.

Our weapons are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds.

We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God.

And we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

You see, here your scripture says that the battle that we're waged in is not

of flesh. It's a battle against the spiritual realm.

And Paul says that the battle is intense.

And if you don't guard yourself against the battle, you're gonna be in trouble.

You start to believe the lies of the enemy.

We wage war against evil thoughts.

We wage war against identities and ideas and philosophies and false religions.

And here Paul emphasizes that he refuses to live a life where he fought with his own resources.

Instead, he fought with the resources and being empowered by God.

The weapons of our warfare are we use our faith in the living God. It's prayer.

And it's the obedience and proclamation of the word of God. And it's important

that you always tag team those together.

Obedience to the word of God before proclamation.

Why is that? Let me just be clear. Because if you do not live a life in obedience

to the word, no one's going to believe you when you proclaim the word.

They're going to look at you and think, you don't even believe the word of God. You don't even live it.

So why would I want what you have?

So you have to be in obedience to the word of God and then proclaim the word of God.

This isn't in your notes, but you should write this down.

The strength of your prayer life will determine the effectiveness of your spiritual battle.

Why do we come together on Wednesdays?

Because we're doing battles, not just in the physical, we're doing battle in

the spiritual realm because our battle and our war is not against each other. We're to be unified.

Our battle is against.

The enemy and the kingdoms of the enemy, the devil, demonic strongholds.

You know that there is a battle, but there is a battlefield.

And the battlefield number two is your mind.

There's a battle that the enemy is waging daily and it takes place in the minds of each one of us.

And if you're alive and breathing, you know that to be true, don't you?

Every day, we have battles that take place in our minds.

Look what Proverbs 23 says. It says, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

You've all heard the phrase, you are what you eat, right? We're coming off Thanksgiving.

Maybe we enjoyed a little bit too much.

But the principle is that if you eat a lot of fatty things and sugary things,

although it's delicious, our bodies will reflect what we put into it.

If you're like my dad or Dean and you eat, you put in a lot of fruits and vegetables.

Likewise, your physical being reflects what you put into it.

And I wanna let you know that the same thing is true spiritually.

You are what you think. You are what you think. That's what the Bible says.

The longer that you think about certain things in your life,

the more and more you will become what you're thinking about.

For some of us, we struggle with anxiety or fear.

You know, how does that start? It starts with a single thought,

doesn't it? And as we dwell on that thought, we get ourselves worked up and

I get a little bit more anxious about that doctor's appointment coming up.

And by the time I had a headache, oh, no, it's probably brain cancer.

That's me. Like, I do that. Oh, no.

I think I have a blockage in my heart because I felt something.

And it opens the door with a thought.

And pretty soon I'm at the doctor's office and they're like,

there is absolutely nothing wrong with you physically.

Physically, but it's a thought process. We are what we think about.

If you really want to know who someone is, find out what they embrace in their

thought life in private, in the most private places in their hearts,

because that's who they really are.

You are what you think.

And that's why I encourage you constantly be men and women and young people

that are in the word of God. set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.

Isaiah 26, 3 says, you will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace. Why?

For it is trusting in you.

This morning, I want to ask you guys, as my friends and family,

is your mind focused and fully dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ this morning.

If you want peace instead of anxiety, if you want contentment instead of discontentment,

if you want joy instead of sorrow, if you want assurance and trust instead of worry,

you have to look at your thoughts and see what the thing is in your mind that

you are focused on on a daily basis.

Is it the things of God that you're focused on? Or is it the ugly sweater stuff

of the world? Is it the ugliness?

Because there is a battle going on in your mind.

And so instead of feeding our minds with the ugliness of the world,

what do we feed our minds with?

What does scripture say? Read this with me. Philippians 4, 7 through 8.

Go ahead and put that up there. Philippians 4, 7, 8. Let's read this out loud.

You guys are a little tired. You kind of got that, you know,

I just ate turkey and want to take a nap vibe going.

Philippians 4, 7, 8. Read this out loud with me. And the peace of God,

which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble,

whatever is right, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,

think about such things.

If you and I want to have peace, We've got to focus on what's true.

There's a lot of lies the enemy throws at our doorstep, right?

You've got to focus on that. You've got to focus on what's right,

what's true, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable,

whatever is excellent, and whatever is praiseworthy.

In Romans 12, Paul gives us this prescription that we need to take it and we

need to apply it to our lives.

And this is what it says. do not conform to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed. How are we transformed, guys?

By the renewing of our minds.

See, we cannot be one with the world.

We cannot be conformed to the world and still have a mind that's being renewed on a daily basis.

Our thought life, the way that you process the world around you,

the way you process your relationships, the way you relate to God,

the way you view your life.

All of these things are part of our minds and our mindset, your thoughts throughout the day.

Ezekiel 36, 26 says this, I will give you a new heart.

I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart,

and I'll give you a tender, responsive heart.

See, when you come to Christ, you've got a new heart, a soft, sensitive heart.

Have you ever known someone that before Christ was the opposite,

but then after Christ, they have just a sensitivity about them where they want

to be sensitive to other people.

They want to be sensitive now to their spouses, to their kids, to those around them.

It's because Jesus, God has given them a new tenderness and a new heart.

Ephesians 4 says, but that isn't what you learn from Christ.

Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him.

Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life,

which is corrupted by lust and deception.

Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

You want to have a new mind. You want to get rid of the ugliness that's going through your mind.

And those thoughts allow Allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind.

Renew your mind. We have the mind of Christ, Paul says, 1 Corinthians 2.16,

for who can know the Lord's thoughts?

Who knows enough to teach him? But we understand these things,

for we have the mind of Christ.

Scripture tells us that when we come to Christ, our minds and our lives and

our hearts and our motives, everything begins to be transformed.

I once was, and now I am. That's the power of a testimony, right?

Before Christ, I was that. Then there was this intersection where I came to

Christ, and now I'm this.

That is the greatest testimony that anyone will ever be shown is a life of before

you came to Christ and now after you've come to Christ, the change.

I want you to know something. If scripture talks about the mind so much and

we know that it's important to God, the power of the mind, the power of our thoughts, right?

Then I want you to think about this. If your mind and thoughts are important

to God, then they are also important to Satan as he battles against you.

Your mind is important to the

enemy. That is the battlefield with which he goes to battle against you.

He'll battle you over going to church, over your identity, over fear, over anxiety.

He'll tell you you're lonely. He'll tell you you're unloved.

He'll tell you you're ugly.

He'll tell you everything that you can imagine.

And you start to believe, and I start to believe the lies of the devil until

we take those lies and they're no longer lies to us, but we've made them into our own identity.

And so we start believing that this is who I am and I'm no good and I'm not worthy.

The battle you're in is a battle over your mind and a battle for your heart. Let me put it this way.

The battle is for your thought life and for your affections.

It's a battle over your thought life and your affections.

If you live your life as if you're not in war on a regular daily basis, guess what?

It's gonna lead you down the path of destruction.

You've got to know that we are in a battle and the enemy is seeking to destroy you.

Look what Jesus said in John 10. He said, the thief comes only to what?

Steal and kill and destroy. but I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.

The Lord Jesus gave his life for you so that you can have life and so that you can have it abundantly.

The enemy, the devil, he's come to kill and to steal and destroy.

That's his purpose for your life. He wants to kill you. He wants to steal your purpose.

He wants to steal your family. He wants to steal what you think of yourself.

He wants to steal your identity.

He wants to destroy your family. He wants to take away any witness you could

ever have for the kingdom.

He wants to kill your marriage. He wants to steal and sideline you.

He wants to get you out of the race, out of the fight.

Do you understand? Are you beginning to see the importance of the battle of the mind?

Satan knows our human nature. He knows the path of destruction is through our mind.

So there's a battle, there's a battlefield.

And then thirdly, there is a battle plan. You and I need to know the battle

plan if we're gonna be successful in the Christian life.

Let me tell you what Satan's battle plan is.

Since our most vulnerable place for attack is our minds, it should be obvious

that he's going to attack us through our minds, isn't it?

And here's what he does. He makes our minds the entry point for thoughts.

Our thoughts control our feelings.

It's in your notes there. Our thoughts control our feelings and our feelings control our actions.

And so he goes out to control your thoughts, to lie to you, because if he can

get you to believe a lie, you'll act upon that lie instead of the truth of who God says you are.

How many times have you heard someone say, I just feel this is the right decision for me.

I just feel that it's okay to live together. I just feel that it's okay to have premarital sex.

I feel like it's okay for me not to give anything to God. I feel like it's okay to not go to this.

Or I feel I can smudge against the government in this way. I feel that I can...

Now, let me ask you a question. Is happy, it'll make me happy if I do this.

Is happy logic or is happy a feeling?

Class, is happy logic or is happy a feeling?

Happy is a feeling. Let me give you an example.

Say you're sitting in church this morning and you look down.

We'll start with a wife or a girl. Ladies, you're sitting here this morning

and you look down and you see out of the corner of your mind,

corner of your eye, you see a poisonous,

venomous rattlesnake. Okay?

Let me just pause there. I can stop the analogy because you just proved the fact.

You thought of something and so it made you think something about that and then

you felt something, right? And what did that feeling cause you to do,

Sherry? She just went, ah!

She said, yuck, and jumped a little.

Now, what if your husband, what instead of, you know, reacting,

you just tell your husband, Dean, don't move.

I think there's a poisonous snake at our feet. And he looks over,

and because he's got better eyesight, he says, well, Sherry, don't be ridiculous.

That's just a rubber snake. Now, because you think it's not harmless, you feel at ease.

Your response is, oh, good, my hero, right?

And that's what happens with the enemy. That's exactly what happens.

That's why we've got to focus our mind on God and his love and his faithfulness

and his goodness and his sovereignty, the power of the mind when it's focused on Jesus Christ.

So what is the strategy of the enemy? It's to get into your mind because our

thoughts control our feelings and our feelings control our actions.

We have to know his battle plan.

Thoughts are the beginning point of all our attitudes, all of our choices, and all of behaviors.

If I say pink elephant, what are you thinking about? Pink elephant, right?

We have to understand that the enemy is knocking on the door of our minds.

Now, let me ask you a question. Do you have control over every thought that pops into your mind?

No, no. You don't have control over everything.

You could be driving down the highway and see some provocative billboard on

the highway, and you see something, and it's like this.

We're in a house, right? This is a family room.

We're getting it ready for Christmas, and it comes knocking on the door.

And you have a choice right now when that thought knocks on your door.

You can, oh, I don't want anything to do with that. And you can go back and you can be on your way.

Or you can invite it in. Come on in.

You cannot control who comes to your door, right?

That's why we get Arlos and Ring cameras, because we don't want to let them all in.

And some of you need to apply that to your thought lives.

The enemy is going to come to your door and he's going to knock and you do not have to let him in.

You cannot control the thoughts that will come across the screen of your mind,

but you can decide what you will dwell on.

I came across this quote. It was from an unnamed 18th century rabbi.

And he said this about the thought life. He said, a man's mind is the holy of holies.

And to admit evil thoughts is like setting up an idol in the temple of God.

That's deep. When you come to Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells you.

We don't have to go into a tabernacle.

We don't have to go to the, you know, in the old Testament, they had the holy

of holies and they'd go into the holy of holies.

And that's where God's presence was.

It's like we let the enemy in and we build an altar to him in our hearts when

we allow sinful thoughts to come into our hearts and minds.

Think about, you know, we see all the time in the news, there's people that embezzle money.

I actually had an acquaintance that I knew at a former church that's in prison

still today because he embezzled money from his insurance company that he worked at.

Did he just go to work one day and think, I'm going to steal $600,000 from this

company and from this boss? Did it happen all in one day?

No. It started out probably with a need.

Man, honey, how are we going to pay our bill? How are we going to do this?

How are we going to do this?

And there was this need. Now, is that need wrong?

Absolutely not. But where do we trust the need to come from.

We trust God with our needs, but instead the enemy put that thought into his

head and it probably just happened one time.

Hey, you could always skim a little bit off of this, this account right here,

put it in this and it would, you'd never get caught.

And at that opportunity, he had, it's knocking at the door.

And instead of saying, go away, I don't want any. He allowed it to come in.

He said, come on in. Let's chat about this. And so over months and months and

months, he began to think about this process.

What happens when you have company and they come in, even if they're unwanted company?

You know, the more you talk to them, the more you laugh, the more you get comfortable with it.

How many of us are comfortable with sin because we've allowed it to come into

our lives and come into our homes?

We get so comfortable with sin.

Once it began, that thought, he began to dwell on it until he felt a certain

way and he put it into action.

How does an affair happen in a marriage? Does a husband or wife just say,

I'm gonna go out and do this?

No, it's a glimpse. It's a thought.

It's an idea that instead of rejecting as sin, they allowed themselves to entertain

the thought, man, I do deserve to be happy in this area of my life.

You're right. I am taken for granted. And the enemy puts thoughts in your mind.

And let me tell you, he puts them in first person as I, I deserve to be happy.

I deserve that raise. I should leave my spouse.

I, it's always I, I, I.

Each one of us, we're all guilty of this.

We just have different sins knocking on our door. Some of us,

man, I have anxiety knocking on my door every day.

And some days I give way to it and it comes into the front porch or to the mudroom.

Some days it sits on my couch and I have to rebuke it and pray it and kick it out in the name of Jesus.

Don't get comfortable with lies from the enemy.

Address them as what they are. You have to know the enemy has a battle plan.

2 Corinthians 10.5 says this, every proud thing that is raised up against the

knowledge of God, we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

You and I, when those thoughts come to the doorway and they wanna come in,

you take it captive and you kick them off the porch.

Take your thought life captive.

Satan is the father of lies. He's a deceiver.

And if he serves up a thought that you're a loser, you know that it's not of God.

When Satan speaks, he always puts it in first person.

I can't do anything right. I'm not worthy. I'm not loved. I'm not valuable.

I'm not attractive. I'm not talented.

Satan always works in your minds. You've got to learn whether or not it's from

God or whether it's from the enemy.

And you've got to take your thoughts captive.

Is this from God or is it from the enemy?

Because this is a battle that we all struggle with. All of us struggles with

thoughts and lies that get delivered into your minds.

We've got to identify them.

Got to know if it's from God or if it's from the enemy.

Line it up with the Word of God. The more you fill yourself with the Word of

God, the more you know the truth and the character of God,

the easier it is to identify lies of the enemy.

Get into the Word of God. And when you come up with something,

when something comes at your door, Hold it up.

Is this in line with the character of the word of God?

Does what the word of God say about me line up with what this lie says about me?

And rebuke it and move on.

Don't entertain thoughts that are from the enemy.

God will never, ever give you thoughts that go against his word.

He will never give you thoughts that go against his word or tell you to do something

that's against his word.

If a thought is unchristlike, it's not from Christ, it's from the enemy.

We must reject ugly thoughts in the name of Jesus because every day is a battle

for your mind. Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, we come to you and we just ask, we ask that you would help

us to be in your word, that we would renew our minds,

that when the enemy comes.

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We've heard it from our parents. Maybe we've heard it from coworkers or a spouse,

but we know it's not in line with your character and your word.

Would you help us to take captive our thoughts and push them off the porch?

That our feelings would never give way to our actions.

Help our feelings to be in line with you so our actions are in line with you.

God, we love you and we just need you to help us in this area.

Would you help us to tell ourselves, tell our minds the truth of your word and

the truth of your character?

We need your help to do that.

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We love I love you. I ask it in your name. Amen.

You've been listening to the Generations Church podcast. If you'd like more

information about Generations Church, feel free to get in touch with us at info

at generationchurch.us or head over to our website, www.generationchurch.us.

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