3 Lies that Destroy Our Lives

Thank you for listening to the river.

Bend Church podcast Reverb in church exists to lead all people

to know love and live New Life in Jesus Christ.

We hope that you enjoy this message, we're in a series

called winning the war in my mind and I pray that God's

already. If you were with us last week or

you called it online, God is already started showing you that

we're at War because that's the thing.

You will lose a war every time unless S, you admit that you're

in a war and so this is just me as a pastor over the last

several months and praying and going, we've got to come back to

this. Too many people are losing and

God wants you to win God. There's some things that we

can't win in this life or something's God never promised

us, but to win the war. In our minds, it's actually

something he's equipped as for Look, what Jesus says here, he's

talking in context, he's talking about Satan and his desire for

us. And then his desire, he says

this. The thief's purpose.

That's what he refers to Satan as his going to kill or steal

kill and destroy. Troy, but did you know, this

Satan has no authority over you physically.

He can't touch you without God's permission it.

He doesn't have that kind of authority.

But you know what? He can do, he can lie, he can

lie. And what does he do?

Where does he go after us? Where are we being attacked more

than at any other time? It's in here.

It's between our ears in it. That's where so much spiritual

attack. The show.

So much relational attack has come.

It's right here. It would be so much better.

Tell me if I'm right. I know.

Is that dude. I know how, dudes.

Think guys would it be better for you?

Just put on the gloves and Duke it out with Satan every now and

then just get it over with like going in my bloody might, let's

come down to the front. Just go ahead and get it over

with and get on with your weak. But what happens at the time,

you least expect it, you get attacked here, don't you?

That's where the war comes from. And so, these purpose, still

kill, destroy. What does Jesus say though?

My purpose, I want to give them a rich and satisfying life.

I'm convinced that so many of us missed the rich and satisfying.

Let us that doesn't mean easy life.

Pain-free life, stress, free life.

That's not what Jesus said. Rich and satisfying, Abundant

Life, a life that you can only live.

You can live your best life without Christ, but this life

he's talking about. It doesn't even compare so much

better, rich and satisfying life, to walk with contentment,

and love, and joy, and peace in your heart.

He desires that for us or why are we missing it?

I would argue that the reason a lot of us missed it, and I

missed it on my own life and many seasons it Because I was

losing the war, my mind. I mean, I had Jesus, you know,

the old saying, I got Jesus in, my heart, is not typically just

there in my heart, like, my life is surrendered to him, but even

as a person who would say, well, my heart surrendered to Christ,

but in my winning the war in my mind, or is the enemy still

winning that? So part of this today, is this

us going not on our watch, man. Not on our watch.

Will we lose or at least not let you know that you can win?

Let me give it a transforming. Truth from scripture here today.

If you are in Christ, If you will change your thinking which

is a holy spirit empowered action, you have the ability to

change. How you think everybody here

walked in with the willpower today you can decide before you

leave. I'm going to change how think

now, it is a holy spirit if you're belong to Christ and you

have the spirit of God empowering this.

And here's what will happen, your life will change.

It's actually not contradictory to this idea what we say, new

life, one of your part of our mission.

We want to lead people to New Life to Live new life in Jesus

Christ. How do you do that?

Well primarily one of the things You do is let the Holy Spirit

begin to empower your change of thinking which will show up and

change of behavior. So many times.

We think, if I can just get my act together, if I can just get

my behavior right then I'm going to be okay.

But actually, you got to let the Holy Spirit work in your thought

life and in your heart life, if you really want to get life

change, if you want to live what he has for you.

Did you know this? If you study the word,

repentance in scripture, that's a word you'll see often.

In fact, no one can come to Christ without repentance and

it's often thought as a Change of Direction.

Like, I've been walking my own way and now I'm going to turn

around and go to God and that's not faults, that's true.

But if you dig to the root of the word, do you know what it

means to change your mind, to change your mind in such a way.

And and another way to think about it, change your

Allegiance, instead of being a, you know, I'm instead of

swearing allegiance to myself and my waist, I'm gonna go Jesus

in my mind, you were Lord, and now want my feet to follow that

path. Sir, even in the word

repentance, you see a war in the mind, don't you?

I believe all that's keeping people from coming to Christ.

Don't know if you're here, Oakwood.

If you're watching online and you're just right on the verge.

You go, Joe, I like the message. I'm hearing you talk about

Christ. I'm hearing you preach it, but,

but I'm just right on the line, I don't know.

Do you know with the Warriors? It's in your mind.

It's in your mind at the only thing, keeping some people from

coming to Jesus is the war in the mind.

The idea that I don't know if I can do it here.

I don't know if I can do it, you know, surrender myself in that

way. And so I'm praying that God

works in that this week. I brought this up last week and

I'll never make light of illness mental illnesses.

We talked about it, but, you know, there's so many people in

the house impacted by anxiety. If it's not you, it's somebody

you love. So many dealing with like

depression and it's often secret, it's just inside an

inner circle. You know, so many dealing with

insecurities anger issues and you know what happens with

these. I mean, can it be really honest?

The many times? This war in the mind is what

drives our addiction are our coping mechanisms.

It's what drives us wanting to get some relief.

I can't blame you. I'm not looking at the church

judging. I wish we could just be more

real and say, yes, that's it. I got a war in my mind.

I've been losing. So I've been trying to cope And

there are some you know, healthy coping mechanisms and then

there's some that are actually destructive to get you a point

though to say that that's what it is just to find it.

Here's what I want to do I'm not making light of any of it but I

do want to get to a point where I say, let there be no more

stigma about the fact that we have mental health, wrestles and

the gospel speaks to it. The Gospel of Jesus in his word,

he's all about helping us win the war, in our minds.

Let there be no more paralyzed Christians, because we're stuck

in our head, but to be no more suicide ever.

I say this and I say this to the day, I die.

If I never have to stay in this, a pastor of another person who

got so low in self-worth, and so beaten down and insecure that

they took their own life. I would I would consider that a

huge win in the ministry that God has allowed me to do.

May it never be. I don't want it on my watch and

so this is just me going. Hey, let's remove the stigma and

talk about it. Let's get into this.

So here's what I want to do today.

I prayed over the last couple of weeks and got kind of change the

direction of today's message from about two weeks ago.

Because, as I looked at it, I want you to identify today

three, common lies that I think all of us are either believing

right now or either. We've decided not to believe

lies that. You may not even know you're

believing. That's when I look at these

there's some of them at every at a point in time in my life.

I was believing it and it was the soundtrack of my mind, but I

didn't know I was believing it but it was showing up in how I

behaved was showing up the fruit in my life.

It's only walk through that. But before we walk through that,

actually want to go to the winning, the war kind of battle

guy. That that I gave you last week

and if you're just joining today, kind of review for us.

And so if you want to win the war, here's the first thing we

have to do, evaluate your thoughts and behaviors, you got

to actually think about what you're thinking about.

Why are you hurting here so much?

I know that it's a scary thing. You go, Joe, you don't want to

get inside my head. I don't even want to get inside

my head. I just want to live my life man,

but sometimes you have to stop and I call it this, turn the

white noise of life down down low.

And just get still and go God, what's going on in me?

What is this? And you go Joe.

It may be really scary. Yeah.

But what, if that's the only path to Healing?

If you get to that point where you say what's going on,

evaluate, there's a guy that's there that I think you got on

the way in, if you didn't get this morning here and it Oakwood

and it'll be online as well this week, but you can pick one up

and here's what it has. It has kind of a guy to battle

playing guide that walks you through this process and you can

sort of take it like a journaling note guide this week

but the questions are this. If you want to evaluate your

life you have to think about this, what repetitive

destructive thought am I having what keeps coming in my head

about me, what intrusive Thought keeps happening to you.

What negative thoughts are triggered by emotions.

Some people when they get sad, all of a sudden all the optimism

and joy, get the leaves are life completely.

It's almost like everything has gone to pot just because they

felt sad for a moment. Some people have - mm actions or

negative thoughts tied to Joy Soon as you feel like okay,

everything's good today. Well, something bad, just around

the corner happens every time that's a broken thought process,

here's another two questions. What sinful thoughts are you

entertaining in your head? Was the enemy keep putting back

before. You went Temptations or

overwhelming, your thoughts. Once you evaluate those

thoughts. What'll happen is it'll rise to

the surface really quickly the ones that you know okay these

are trouble. These are what's troubling me.

Paul says this in second Corinthians that we have to do

this take every thought captive and then make it obedient to

Christ. You know what that means?

If we don't take them captive, then then you're never gonna be

able to win the war. You got to take them captive in

evaluate. Now, here's the second piece

once you have Evaluated you can't just diagnose the problem.

You now have to do this in, this is the hinge point of the entire

series. If I had to say what's winning

the war in my mind about is this replace lies or truth, every one

of us, believe, a lie. We've been taught lies and we

don't sometimes we don't even know what the truth is.

Once we know it though, and we do this right here, it literally

changes Us in the power of the Holy Spirit replace lies with

truth. This is where transformation

comes. You know where we're Lies.

Come from we looked at it last week, Satan.

His weapon against us is lies. If I can lie to you, because you

believe a lot about yourself about the world about God about

scripture, they can get you to believe a lot.

I can get you off track. Leave you powerless to live the

new life. We look last week at what I

called a lie. What do you got a broken way of

thinking Naraku? It's called a neural pathway.

If you got a broken way of thinking that's going to be your

go to every time you come up on, you know, hurtful situation or

every time you, you know, every time you fail, you're going to

feel like I'm a failure if that's the thinking process.

Going to go back to when you felt like a failure as a kid, or

when you felt like a failure because your marriage didn't

work. When you felt like a failure

because you didn't do a good job raising your kids or now your

families, broken apart, whatever that broken thought process,

you're gonna go back there until you do something about it.

God wants to help us. He's given this but Li ruts can

be replaced with what I call truth trenches.

You have to change your mind. That's replacing lies with

truth. Now, what is our primary weapon?

If you're going to fight a war, you gotta have a weapon, right?

This is not surprising, but it's still Oh, something we Overlook.

Do you know what the war is won? With God's word.

It's crazy. He designed it like this but

it's God's word. See, look what Hebrews says

about the word of God. The word of God is alive and

Powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest

two-edged sword, cutting between Soul and Spirit between joint

and Marrow. It exposes our innermost

thoughts and our desires. The word not only is our weapon

against Satan, it's the weapon that transforms us internally.

Look what Ephesians says Paul second talking to the church

about putting on the armor of God, he says, put on salvation

as your helmet and take what the sword of the spirit, which is

what the word of God. Let me tell you this.

If you're only picking up God's word on the screen on Sunday

morning, that is not doing battle.

That is not War. I met, hang on.

I'm so glad you're here and you're taking in the word on the

screen, thank you for listening, but I'm just telling you like

you're fighting your fight to sword fight with a pocket knife

at best. Like, put your pocket knife up,

go home and get out the word of God could.

This is it is? It is powerful.

For you. You can find truth that you need

for your specific situation. After you've replaced lives of

Truth, or you at least acknowledge what needs to

happen. Here's what you have to do.

You have to, then? Establish new thought patterns

those true. Trenches you've got to decide

how you want to think about yourself.

Well, what informs that God's word?

If he says you're his child and he'll never let go of you, then

you got to start thinking that way.

If he says that his Mercy is new every morning, you got to stop

beating yourself up for stuff that he's already forgiven you,

for sure. You may have to walk through

some consequences on Earth, but you got to understand God is not

going to dangle your sin over your head.

If you are forgiven him, when you come to him and you accept

his cross, and you accept his forgiveness, he says it.

You're forgiven. It's done.

So, the only people bringing it up again, as you and your enemy.

It's not him. So, you have to decide.

I want to establish a new thought pattern.

If you feel like I'm a failure and I'll never be good enough,

you're going to have to change it up and go to Ephesians 2:10

Ephesians 2:10

where it says, you know what, you're a masterpiece and God

decided long ago that there are good things that he wants you to

do. So you're not a failure.

You actually by Design who you are, you may need to work on

yourself and let the spirit of God transform you.

But listen, you're not worthless established that new way of

thinking. And then here's the last one.

Declare it If you read the Old Testament scripture, this was a

much bigger thing than and I think it's still something.

That's so powerful families would speak, truth over each

other, the priest, before they dismissed from the temple, he

would speak truth and hope over people.

May the Lord shine his face upon you and be gracious to you and

give you his peace. They would speak things like

that. Over people, we speak things

over people. But how often is it?

Declaring truth and how often do you declare truth over your own

life? How would it change you?

If you got out of the bed every morning and said, I'm a child of

God and I'm going to live as such today, instead of saying

I'm probably going to fail because I always do.

What's that story? That self-talk is killing a lot

of people and you don't even see it as connected to the gospel or

the Holiness but it is it's a scriptural truth, declare the

truth, over your life. You go Joe.

I don't believe what I'm saying. That's okay.

Keep saying it. Declare it until you actually

begin to believe it especially if it's the truth of God's word

seat, we can't just hope we have to fight.

Hope is not a strategy, and hope is not a battle plan.

That may help. Our hearts get up and get in the

fight. Hope is about inspiring us to

stay in the battle but it Battle plan actually helps us win.

So here's what I want to do. Walk through three lies in the

rest of the time. We have this morning.

Then I think all of us are wrestling with or have, but let

me give you that reality again, you want to win the war.

You will never defeat what you refuse to Define.

I watch this as people. Get to go have lunch with people

who are struggling or do premarital counseling or do

marriage counseling and you hang out and you listen and do you

know, one of the common culprits of a lot of our issues is

refusing to acknowledge that. We're actually what we're

actually battling against. You just think it's another

person you just think it's your past and actually something very

Easy to understand if you'll just Define it.

Sometimes it is like when you when you define it then you can

begin to battle against it. If it's how you were raised then

just on it. Sometimes we're so scared to

say, you know, that my family messed me up that we think we're

going to not be loving our family to it on that.

I can love my family and say I picked up some things from my

family, that's not who God says I am and therefore I'm just

going to own, I'm not gonna slam them, but I'm just going to own

it in myself. God, there's some things I learn

some ways of thinking. I've learned some patterns of

behavior, I learned. And it's Active.

And that's not how I want to live.

I want to be a generational breaker if there's a

generational string of addiction in your home, guess what?

You can just Define it and say, yes that's not who I am, though.

I'm a Child of God, I'm in Christ.

That's not who I am. So I want to make changes in my

life, based on the strength of God's spirit in me, and you

actually can do that, but you will never defeat it until you

define it. If you refuse to say that you're

at War, you're going to keep losing the war.

So as I thought, and I prayed, I thought I could give us 100 lies

that I think we believe, but only have time for three this

morning. And so these are these are I

think kind of surprising one of the core lies.

I'm first one, I'm gonna give you.

I think it's one of the core lies that we don't believe that

we're believing and we don't know, we're believing, but we

doing here, it is lie. Number one doing?

Right means missing out. You come in that.

Don't even sound spiritual. Where's that in the Bible?

Hang on. I'm going to show you.

Doing right means missing out. Let's say there's somebody

walking down the sidewalk and you see a hundred dollar bill

fall out of their pocket. And they don't see it.

What do you do? He like, bro, I just got me a

hundred dollars, Finders Keepers, losers weepers, right.

But see this, if you pick it up and hand it back to him, you

know what you lost? You lost $100.

But you know what, you gained relationship.

Trust it was built if you gain a hundred dollars, guess what?

You lose relationship, trust Integrity.

See there's always a give and take when it comes to doing,

right? AKA following Jesus actually

being obedient because there are some things that whenever you do

it you're actually going to feel like you're missing out, but you

got to go back and say, but am I saying your will not mine God.

Like do I really trust that you won't best?

I'm gonna do right? And trust you.

And so as we look through this, I think it's a common lie that

we believe because it was the very first lie ever told.

Did you know that? It was the very first light ever

believed in scripture. Let me show you.

The very beginning Adam and Eve, Adam is in the garden.

It says the Lord placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend

and watch over it, but the Lord warned him, you may freely eat

of the fruit of every tree in the garden except there's one

role Adam except the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.

If you eat it, you're sure to die.

Now, that's truth. That's God.

Saying you can have everything? Enjoy it all name, the animals,

climb the trees. Eat the fruit.

Like swing on the vine. Do whatever you want to do like,

enjoy. It is Paradise.

For you. There's one rule though this is

true. If you eat at this you're gonna

die so don't do that. There's one thing not to do.

That's true. Enjoy everything except one now,

Satan comes along possessing, the body of a snake and to this

day, most of us, you're smart like me.

You know, that snakes still possess the bodies to, I'm just

kidding. Got a good to keep a good shovel

at hand, right? Here's what it says, the serpent

was, the shrewdest of all the wild animals, the Lord God had

made, and one day he asked the woman.

Did God really say right here? The enemy starts twisting, just

a little bit. Let me just see if I can get you

off a little bit. I'm not just gonna throw a

blatant lie at you, but let me give you a half-truth.

Did God really say, You must not eat the fruit from any of the

trees in the garden. God didn't say that.

God said, you can eat the fruit. Just not from one, right?

So see how you starting to twist it already.

Of course, even answers, we may eat the fruit from the trees in

the garden. It's only the fruit from the

tree in the The middle of the garden.

We're not allowed to eat. God said, you must not eat it or

even touch it if you do, you will die.

Now, here's the blatant lie. He was warming her up.

This is how the enemy works, by the way.

He just Butters you up a little bit and getting any to hit you

with a lie. You won't die.

The serpent replied, the woman God knows that you will your

eyes will be open as soon as you eat it.

AKA God is holding something back from you Eve.

I mean, listen, I know you got everything else, but why would

he tell you? You can't have that one.

He is holding good things back from you.

You won't die. You'll be like God knowing good

and evil verse 6. The woman was convinced first

six in scriptures. The first time any person ever.

Believed a lie. You ever traced all sin back to

somebody believing a lie. You want to know why today it's

so important that we replace lives of truth.

It's his only tactic. It's what Satan comes with.

I fucking lie to you and then verse 6, if I can convince you

that the Lions truth are going to start living as though it is.

You're going to believe nothing. God says about you and

everything. You feel about you and

everything. The enemy says about you.

And so she was convinced. She saw the tree was beautiful.

Its fruit. Look delicious.

She wanted the wisdom. It would give her.

So she took some of the fruit and ate it.

And then she gave some to her husband who was with her and he

ate it too. At that moment, their eyes were

opened suddenly they felt shame So when they believe the lie, I

guess what, just like many times once we realize we've been

believing a lot there was shame that hit their hearts

immediately so they sewed fig leaves together to cover

themselves up. They try to hide from God.

Do you know what Satan did? He calls Eve to doubt.

God's goodness. God's holding something back

from you. This is a wrestling match.

All, I wish I could say, you know what, let's just check that

box and move on, but hitting it hard, sometimes to do.

What we know God saying is the right thing.

Whenever we feel like we're missing out.

But isn't that part of the Christian Life, though?

It in part of it to say, you know what, Lord, there's some

things that I'm going to have to trust you home.

Satan comes and tells a partial truth and then he just hits her

with the truth and she's convinced and then she loses.

What's the fruit of the LIE? How does it show up in our

lives? You know what happens when we

believe that God's holding back from us?

That will begin to doubt God's goodness.

Once you doubt God's goodness you stop praying the way you

used to pray. You stop treating people.

The way you used to you stop forgiving.

And you know what happens? You Unser render your life.

I used to be surrendered to Jesus Christ.

But you ever met people? And you can just tell, they're

not as surrendered as they used to be.

What happens is we doubt God's goodness and we've start

believing these lies like we did in Satan twist.

It. Did God really say you should

live a holy life. That got to really say don't be

jealous. You got a really safe forgive

those who wronged you? I mean, come on, doesn't it feel

good? Just to hate somebody.

A little bit some of your like yeah.

Feels good. Did God really say that?

She love the Lord, your God with everything.

Put him first in your life. Let me give you another fruit of

believing. That God is holding something

back, doing, right? Equals missing out.

Is this broken relationships? You see what happened in

scripture? Adam and Eve first were

separated, from God said, be kicked out of the garden only

because Jesus Christ came and shed, his blood for us can man

woman can be, we be redeemed back to him again, that's it.

But at this moment, the lie was believed the sin was committed.

They exited the garden and relationship with God.

The father was broken, they got to walk intimately with The Lord

up until that point. And then the relationship is now

broken. But not only that.

Do you know what happened to their sons?

They had two sons Adam and Eve after the the curse here, this

happens Cain and Abel. You see the first murder ever

committed. Cain killed.

His brother Abel. So the first two siblings, ever,

ever wonder if, you know why, my kids always fighting listens

ever. Since then came in the first two

siblings literally killed each other one of them killed the

other It's the impact of believing a lie.

You can trace it back to Genesis 3:6.

Genesis 3:6

She was convinced she was convinced that a lie was the

truth. And so what happens is, when we

do that in essence, break up with God, break that

relationship up with God. And I thought about it, what if

instead of breaking up with God by choosing not to believe him?

What if we just decided to break up with our sin every day?

You get up every day and go, you know what?

I'm a sinner and I messed up, but I gotta break up with you

sing because you are not my owner, you're not my master,

you're not my partner, You Don't Own Me Anymore.

I've been redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

I've been Blood Bought, I'm bought with a price.

I'm a new creation, I'm a new person.

I'm a child, I'm Royal I'm a freestyle.

A queen. What if we begin to speak those

things in Jesus name, over our lives?

Let me give you the truth. If the LIE is doing right is

missing out. Here's the truth.

If we do right and trust in Jesus, he'll promise to take

responsibility for everything else.

You need everything else in your life.

Here's what Jesus said in Matthew seek the kingdom of God,

above all that. So let me break it down.

Put God first, don't put anything else.

First in your life, just put him first.

I believe this God is stripping somebody down in the room so

you'll put him first. I've been there, I don't ever

want to be there again, but I may be, but God will do whatever

it takes. He will strip you down to get

you to the place where you're like.

All right. Big boy.

Now, who's first in your life? Now we can proceed with the

blessings in the favor in the plan that I want to pour out,

but maybe I'm stripping you down to a place to where you go.

God, your first seek me first and do what live righteously.

That's that change of thinking, that showing up in Behavior.

Got a, I'm not perfect, but I do want to put my feet in what's

right? And then it says, he'll give you

Everything you need. That's God saying.

Then I'll take responsibility for all the stuff you're worried

about. Stop worrying about all the

other things. Put me first, I'll take

responsibility if we can get to the point of believing that

truth. Guess what?

There's an exhale. It's just God, you got this?

Let me give you the second lie. Here's the second one.

I am my feelings and experiences.

You'll talk about a lie that's not just destroying people who

try to follow Jesus and our file is destroying the world.

I am my feelings and it feels to see this is a core identity lie.

It says that who you are is what you've been through and what you

feel inside. That's gotten so many things

into a mess in our world. Let me give you one of my

favorite verse first is intrusion.

All scripture says this and this is, this is, you know, you could

call this a core identity scripture.

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person, that is an

identity statement. That means that you are not your

feelings and experiences, I'm not invalidating.

Your feelings and experiences. I'm not saying that they don't

matter. I'm not saying that they don't

hold weight in your life. I'm just saying when we come to

Christ, do you know what? We Do we're willing to say Lord,

I have feelings and experiences but I'm going to say that my

identity now is in Christ, which means my identity is bigger than

those things, I may still feel certain ways.

I may still wrestle with things. I may still have some baggage

from my past but I'm going to put you first.

So my new identity is in Christ belong to Christ.

It says it's the old, then is gone her passing away and the

new is coming. And this is transformation is

where transformation comes from. So, what is the fruit of this

lie? Do you know what you'll start

believing when you start believing light?

Do you know it'll show up in your life, your work will begin

to be based on your performance Karma.

We turn Christianity into Karma often.

We think that because we've done good that God loves us and

because we've done bad, God doesn't love us and listen,

karma is nowhere in Scripture. It says, for by Grace you have

been saved. God decided, I love you, you're

jacked up and messed up and you can never be good enough.

And that's things you like, whoa.

But any good that God looked at us Romans 5:8 while we were

Romans 5:8

still Sinners at the lowest scum bag version of ourselves.

That I'll take that one. You ever go pick out a puppy

before and, you know, there's that one little runt.

Nobody's getting that one. God look at the runts and he

said, I love that one. I'll take that one home.

So many times, we get to a place where worth is based on

performance. You know what happens when you

don't do well, you don't have any worth anymore.

This goes back to addressing that place of work with this

where you can feel like it's not you're not worthy of existing if

that's a broken. Thought pattern in your head

that what I, you know, my worth is based on what I've done, then

you have to change it. My, my grandfather, my Papa, he

was an amazing man. He's been gone.

A lot of years now and I have you don't even realize until

people are gone years. Slater how much they actually

impacted you but he was a hard-working guy, he's 80 years

old, he's getting up at sunrise and getting on a tractor every

day he could and he come in at dark every night and that was my

whole life. So we went to the farm in the

Summers. Like we just we stayed with him

all day long. And so I thought, when I got my

first real job, this is the easiest thing I've ever done.

And I'm only working like six hours.

Because will Papa, man. I mean everything I ever

compared to. You pull corn for four and a

half five hours in the morning when it's about 95 degrees and

go work. Another job is so easy.

You're like this. This is easy.

Well, he was such a hard worker and he instilled that in my

brothers but I had friends from school and they would go, I want

to go work on the farm with you this summer.

Like, oh cool, let's go. Well, they get down there and

they make it about 30 minutes man, they're like over there,

you know, my what's wrong with you?

You Wimp. And so, my grandfather though is

one of these guys. I mean, he grew up in the Great

Depression. He went straight, grab got

drafted straight to WWII, came back with nothing and started

life. And so his work ethic was how he

valued people. And so for my friends, that were

lazy, he go there, Sorry man, don't bring them back down here

that I'm not worth anything. Now, hang on I'm not saying he

was a perfect guy, but very much because of how he was raised.

He had this broken thought pattern of saying, well worth is

equal to worth is equal to whether you work hard or not and

I'm not brother and I, we were scared not to work hard because

you ever told it to custom before.

You know what that is. If you do, you can do to cussing

on the farm. If you didn't work just right.

And so listen, working hard was it?

But I thought, you know, I wonder if that if that's in my

broken thought patterns though somewhere.

Because you start looking at other people and going with,

they don't have work ethic. They don't have value.

Do you know where that comes from your upbringing?

You don't even realize it. I'm not I'm not condoning.

That we should be lazy. I'm just saying sometimes it

needs a little things, you didn't even realize were there

and they're there. And you go, man, I need to, I

need to back up and make sure my mind is not on the roller

coaster of squishy identity, but you're worth will be based in

performance. Also, here's another fruit of

this like, you have a constant sense of inner Brokenness.

Yo, what do you mean Joe? Well feelings change.

Don't they? Especially passing fleeting

feelings, they can change. You can be livid one day and

then you have peace. The next day you can be okay

again, You can be so upset with somebody and then, you know,

Mercy, the Lord is new every morning, you can get through it.

So, what happens is, when we attach our identity to our

feelings and our experiences, there's constantly this inner

Brokenness like why can't I get out of this?

The LIE Drive some anxiety and depression that inner Brokenness

is there the lie also drives people to get to a point where

you feel like it's not worth living anymore because the way I

feel right now, what I've been through, what's been done to me

experiences, what I've done to other people experiences,

failures, regrets all that's in that one statement, right?

Out there. So I get this, what we what we

do does matter, that's what we're talking about, change your

mind, change your life change, what you do, and so it does

matter what we do. But what we've done doesn't have

to tell us who we are if we're in Christ.

Let me give you the truth here. Who then can tell you who you

are. If it's not feelings and

experiences after study of scripture and prayer and looking

for it, I really believe this only God gets to tell us who we

are. Who gets to decide when they

create something, how much they're going to sell it for the

Creator, right? Who gets to decide how much that

object is an object, is it's actually worth the person who

pays for it, right? If you go on eBay and you're

bidding on something. Guess who determines, what that

object is worth the highest bidder.

The Creator gets to say, here's what I want for it, the highest

bidder gets to say, here's what I'll pay for it, think about

this, why can God tell you who you are?

Who created you He did. Who bought you?

He did what price did he pay for you?

The blood of his only son. So if he created you and he paid

blood for you, isn't he? The one that gets to tell you?

This is who you are stopped. Listening to the last.

Somebody needs to hear this, stop listening to the live from

your past that you can't find Healing.

Stop listening from the LIE of your of your past, what your

parents beat you down and said you'd never amount to anything

or a teacher. Or that terrible sexual

experience, you had when you were younger or that broken

marriage, that you've been through in the enemy, still

comes in. Just pounds on.

You about it all the time, can we?

In Jesus name? Be free so that we can live as

free people. So they could be lived a full

Abundant Life, that he's giving us only.

God gets to tell you as a Jesus follower who you are.

He gets to tell you before I get too fired up on that point.

Let me go on to number three. This is the law that every

person here at some point, has believed in.

You may not believe in this this one, I'm hopeless.

I'm not staying here at sometimes, we find ourselves in

what seems like a hopeless situation?

And I get that. But this is again, this is an

identity thing, I am hopeless, maybe it was because you failed.

Your experience is, I'm a failure.

And then your feelings have told you and backed up and validated

that that you are worthless and hopeless.

And so you get to this place where you believe the lie I'm

hopeless. Do you know what the fruit of

the LIE is? This may be surprising, but when

you believe this lie, you will begin to live in shame.

And shame is not this feeling that you've done something bad

because that's called guilt. God uses guilt all the time.

Listen God will bring guilt over us.

It's called conviction to bring us back to himself, but he never

pours shame out on a shame is something that the enemy brings

and we bring on our self and it says not that you've done

something bad, but you are bad. You're messed up.

You never going to get better. Never ever going to get any

better. So you live in shame over and

over and over again, hopeless people feel that they aren't

worthy of forgiveness. I wonder if there's anybody here

today. And you feel like I'm Unworthy

of forgiveness. I'm Unworthy of it.

Maybe you've bought into the lie that I am hopeless and so shame

is like a shadow that follows you around everywhere.

Let me show you. One of my favorite verses, in

all the scripture first, John 1:9, if we confess our sins to

John 1:9

him who is we? It's anybody in the house?

It's anybody at Oakwood, it's anybody watching on.

If you will confess your sin and say God, yes, I'm a sinner, I

don't get it. All right, Lord, I get it wrong

and here's some of the things I know that I've done wrong.

Here's some of the thought processes that have been broken

to me, confess it to him. He is faithful and just to do,

what forgive us. Us of our sins and cleanse us.

You know what? Cleanses remove the shame so you

can live in Freedom. Here's another fruit.

Of this lie, you begin to destroy your life and the life

of other she ever. Heard this hurt, people hurt

people, you show me somebody that lives as hopeless and

worthless and that's really what they believe inside you will

begin to hurt other people, maybe not even intentional.

Broken people will often begin to break people.

This is where that suicidal thought demon comes in as well

by the way, comes over you to say.

Yep, you're not worthy, you can't live anymore, you know,

you're not, you know what you've done, you can't be forgiven.

And so the enemy. Spoken this over lives today,

you are hopeless. And I just want to look at you

and say no. What's the truth?

Here's a scriptural Truth for us.

No one is hopeless in Jesus Christ.

No one is hopeless in Jesus Christ.

What situation has the enemy lied to you about and said it's

impossible. Where do you wish you had

forgiveness in the enemy has lied to you and said it's

impossible. If you're right on the verge of

surrendering your life to Jesus Christ, but you could judge,

don't know if I can, it seems impossible like he would accept

me. I'm gonna give you a verse.

This is a verse that's on repeat in my mind right now.

By the way this is not something I just got for the message.

This is something that's like my soundtrack and it's Luke 18:27.

Luke 18:27

What is impossible for people as possible with God.

Now, let me give you context and I don't take it out of context,

use his talking about people who are rich and don't have any

needs in this world that it's harder for them to come to know

him as Lord. Alright, that's the context.

But I thought this actually applies because, didn't he?

The god, that spoke the Stars into existence in either God,

that spoke everything we see into existence.

He got that formed us from the dust of the ground.

He said what is impossible for people?

Is possible with God. And so here's where I want to go

to, I don't know if maybe the Lord is showing you that you've

been believing a lie but you go, maybe I have.

I'm starting to see it and it didn't have to be one of the

three. It can be something else, but

the Lord is showing you today. You know what, you've been

believing a lot and it seems impossible to change.

Can you let that? What if we let this become the

truth? Soundtrack, what is impossible

for people as possible with God? What is impossible with people

as possible? Got what is impossible for?

Michael is possible with God, what is it possible for?

Estill. It's possible with God.

What is impossible Cheryl listen?

You know what is impossible with Cheryl?

It's possible with God. It was impossible for Joe.

It's possible. We got if I didn't believe this

this morning, I couldn't preach with authority.

I couldn't bring this word as if it's actually part of my life

and who I am. But, you know, I do Doug.

You know what, what is impossible with people, guess

who it's possible for is possible with God being, what is

impossible with people whose it possible for its God, right?

Like what, if what if we change the sound track instead?

Doubting God and believing he's not going to.

What if we put our feet on the floor tomorrow morning and let

this be our statement? God, what is impossible with

people? It's possible with you Lord we

only get a few more years to walk around on this dirt ball

before we're going to go Be Heaven.

What if we just change the soundtrack of our mind is Lord?

I'm not going to believe lies anymore.

I know who I am. It is possible for you to save

somebody like me. It is possible for you to redeem

somebody like me. It is possible for you to change

somebody like me. It is possible for you to heal.

It's possible for you to bring the dreams and desires that you

It in my heart to pass, it is possible for you to write new

life and new story Into Me. It's possible for you to bring a

kid into my life. Even though it seems impossible,

it's possible for you to bring a spouse even though I don't know.

It's possible to find a healing after an abusive relationship.

It's possible to find Freedom from addiction.

But we have to change the soundtrack and let the Holy

Spirit begin to work. So let me give you the question

this morning. What lies have you been

believing? And here's the Declaration.

Let's go to war. Let's go to war Church.

Go to war over declare war and say I declare a thought War over

this. Here's what I want you to do.

All over the house, Oakwood. I want you to stay with me if

you're at home online, right now wherever you are, I love for you

to participate in this. But here's what I want to do.

I want to pray for you today. If you'd be willing to say now

just I'm gonna have you stand right where you are and just a

moment. But if you'd be willing to say

Joe, you know, I think I have them believing a lie and I need

to change the script to whatever is impossible with man is

possible with God want to ask you do is just by showing the

Lord and you know, even the people around you, you're not

telling them what it is but just show them.

God's showing me today that I've been believing a lot and I've

got to declare war over it this week.

Maybe the lies men that I can't become a follower of Jesus and

you just need to stand up. And by standing today, you're

saying I'm surrendering my life to him, I'm not holding back

anymore, maybe that's your declaration as you stand.

But both here to do quit, I'm gonna count to three and I, what

I want you to do is I want you to stand to your feet.

And as you do, everyone else here, we're going to pray, we're

going to pray over you this morning as we declare a thought

or what lies. Have you been believing?

Stand with me. If you will, they are no code.

Here we go. One two three.

Come on. If that shoe right where you are

just stand up, I want to pray for you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your honest.

Listen, the Lord sees your acknowledgement.

If you're there are no quick God sees your acknowledgement of

even just being this a willing to say I'm standing to say I

need help, I want you to pray for me.

I'm declaring war today. So I want to ask you to do this.

If there's somebody standing around you, you don't know their

situation but your prayer is powerful.

And so will you join me both here?

And there and let's pray, let's pray over them in the thought or

this morning Lord. Thank you for people who are

honest and got maybe today. You just brought him to this

place of surrender or realization, they've been

believe in lies and Jesus. This series is about freedom and

so I speak Freedom over it in your name.

But Lord, I just wanted to Claire.

You've already given them the weapons that they need.

You gave us the word. You gave us your spirit.

It to dwell in US, you gave us forgiveness and healing and

hope. And so God you've already given

us the tools you given us the spirit which means that we have

love and patience and peace, Joy, kindness gentleness

self-control in US, Lord. And the enemy of to tell it tell

them that they don't have any of that.

But God ice to Claire it, according to your truth.

We do have it, it's hard, but Lord, we have it.

We can pick up the weapon and fight and so Lord.

I just pray over your people. Today, Lord, those are standing

to their feet right now. Lord, we declare war on these

thoughts that want to take them. Lord I pray against any

Suicidal. Thoughts this morning in the

house, Lord, it Oakwood I pray against it in Jesus name that

you would remove that demonic attack and Lord that you would

pour out your worth and your grace and your love and your

mercy over them. Lord we pray that we will be

able to get up in the morning. Got it wouldn't just be a Sunday

thing we get up on Monday. We would declare thought or and

we would use this when I speak it over and what is impossible.

What is impossible for people this possible with you father.

So, Lord, I speak it over your people today.

God may we walk out of here as Warriors in your name and we'll

give you all the glory. In Jesus name, everybody said,

amen, come on, let's worship together.

Thank you for listening to the river.

Bend Church podcast. Learn more about who we are as a

church and how to connect you can head over to our website

Riverbend Church dot life.