Rick Warren - Changing Always Starts With Choosing

Hello, everybody. Today, we're gonna continue in our series on

resetting my life with part two. Now, this weekend, I'm

actually visiting a couple campuses, but I wanted to begin

by saying I love you all. I love you so much.

In fact, let me just say I love you to

all of our campuses. I love you, Anaheim. I love you, Berlin.

I love you, Brea. I love you, Buenos Aires. I

love you, Eastvale campus. I love you, Espanol. I love you,

Hong Kong. I love you, Newport Mesa. I love you,

Irvine North. I love you, Irvine South. I love you,

Laguna Woods. I love you, Lake Forest. I love you,

Los Angeles. I love you, online. Saddleback, I love you

Rancho Capistrano, I love you San Clemente, I love you

San Diego, and I love you Santa Rosa, Philippines, and

I love you South Bay. That's a mouthful. We are

all celebrating your Easter reports from all of our campuses. Now,

if you pull out your message notes, in part one

of this series last week, we introduced the fact that

God is in the transformation business, life transformation. And by

the way, so is this church. Saddleback is all about

changed lives. We are all about that. Now, God didn't

just create you. He wants to transform you into what

he's always intended for you to become. Now, I mentioned

this last week. This transformation has many, many different kinds

of names. It's called salvation. That's when you first step

across the line. It's called sanctification. That's the rest of

your life growing in Christ. It's called conversion. This life

change is called starting over. It's called being born again.

It's called getting a fresh start. It's called having a

life reset. Our own Saddleback family here, hundreds of thousands

of people have experienced this spiritual reset in their lives.

And every one of you could probably give a personal testimony,

or most of you could. Now, Here's the point. After

you experience the first reset of salvation in your life,

where your life takes a big U-turn, you're gonna have many,

many other moments of change, transformation, life reset, and improvement

in your life. You can have a reset in your

connection to God many, many times in your life. You

get disconnected some way. You can have a reset in

your health. You can have a reset in your relationships

or in your marriage. You can have a reset in

your career, in your finances. You can have a reset

in your parenting, the way you deal with certain kids.

You can have a reset in your energy and literally

hundreds of other areas in your life. That's why we're

doing this series called Resetting My Life. Now, if you

missed part one, I wanna ask you to please watch

it because in that message, we talked about four preparation

steps that have to happen in your life in order

for you to have a transformation a new leaf, a

new life, a resetting of your life. Okay, so watch

that message. Now, today I want us to look at

how changing always starts with choosing. Let me say that again.

Pull out your message notes. Changing always starts with choosing.

Until you start making some choices, nothing's gonna change in

your life. But changing always starts with choosing. choosing. Your

ability to choose, your ability to make moral choices is

actually one of the greatest gifts God has given you

and given to all of us as human beings. It's

part of being created in God's image. The ability to

make moral choices is what makes you different from animals.

Animals don't have moral choices. They don't have right and wrong.

Animals have instincts. instead of the ability to make moral

choices between good and bad, right and wrong, and better

and best. Now, your choices shape your life far more

than your circumstances do. Let me say that again. Your

choices shape your life far more than your circumstances do.

You can overcome circumstances, anyone, by making good choices. And

as I said last week, You're a product of your past,

but you're not a prisoner of your past, okay? You

don't have to stay stuck in the past. You can change,

you can reset your life by making good choices with

the help of the Holy Spirit. Now if you do that,

if you make good choices, you're gonna see good results

in your life. But if you make bad choices, you're

gonna suffer the consequences. in your life, bad consequences. Now

in this series, we're gonna look at many different kinds

of choices because choosing is what starts changing in your life.

But today, I want us to just focus on choosing

what you think about. Choosing what you think about. Choosing

how you think. Choosing what you allow to be in

your mind. Now this is a starting point. The first

step to a life reset is choosing to change what

you think about. Now, there are many, many, many, many,

many scriptures on this in God's word. Let me just

give you one. It's there at the top of your outline.

Romans chapter 12, verse two says this. Do not be

Romans 12 · chapter mention

conformed to the pattern of this world, but let God

transform you, circle that, That's a reset. Let God transform

you into a new person. How? Circle this, by changing

the way you think. By changing the way you think.

God says, I will change your life when you let

me change the way you think. So you have a

choice to make. Am I gonna choose to let God

change the way I think? When people wanna reset their

lives in some area, or they wanna get a fresh start,

they often think that the first thing they need to

do is to change their location. Okay, I just need

a change of venue. I need some new scenery. I

need a change of location. Well, a change of location

might help you, but it's not the very first thing

that needs changing in your life. It might take a

while to change your location, but you can start changing

your mind right there where you're seated right now. To

reset your life, to have this transformation, to get a

fresh new start in any area, career, marriage, relationships, health, whatever.

To reset your life, the first thing you need to

work on is your mindset. What do you mean by that?

How you see yourself, how you see your problems, and

most important of all, how you see God. If you

don't change your mindset first, a change in your location

or a change in your scenery is not gonna help much.

You know why? Because you could go to Tahiti, but

you take you with you wherever you go. And so

if the stress is in your brain and you go

to Tahiti or anywhere else, you're taking the stress with

you because the stress is between your ears. As I said,

you may need a vacation in some beautiful spot in

the world because of the pressure that you feel in

your mind. But if you don't deal with the mental

stress first, you're just gonna take it with you, even

if you're laying on a beautiful beach in a beautiful location,

no matter where you go. So today, I just want

us to do two things today, this weekend. First, I

wanna look at three reasons You have to begin any

change in your life with changing your mindset. If you

wanna reset your life, three reasons you have to start

here in your mind. And then I wanna share three

choices from God's word that you need to make every

single day of your life that will reset your mindset, okay? First,

what are the reasons? Why must I begin with changing

my mindset in order to reset my life. Three reasons,

write these down. Number one, the Bible says this. Because

my thoughts direct my life. My thoughts direct my life.

Proverbs 4.23 says this. Today's English version. Be careful how

you think. Your life is, notice this, shaped by your thoughts.

Circle that word shaped. Your life is shaped by your thoughts.

Every action in your life, every reaction in your life,

everything you feel and everything you do starts as a thought.

It all begins in my mind, in your mind. And

if you don't think at first, guess what? It doesn't happen. Now,

you can use this truth, this fact, this reality for

good or for bad because good thoughts lead to good

behavior and good actions, and bad thoughts lead to unhealthy behavior,

unhealthy habits, unhealthy actions, and unhealthy reactions. You see, the

truth is, we don't realize how often we sabotage We

sabotage our own success by the way we think and

by the way we talk to ourselves internally. You're talking

to yourself all the time. You're talking to yourself right

now going, does this make sense to me or not?

Now God tells us in his word, the Bible, as

a man thinks, so he is. So you cannot reset

any area of a relationship. You got a relationship problem,

it doesn't start in a relationship. It starts in your brain.

You got a problem with a habit, doesn't start with

a habit, starts in your brain. You got to start

in your thought life. First changing how you think about money,

how you think about sex, how you think about food,

how you think about your life, the future, how you

think about other people, God, your work, everything. So the

first reason is, it's the fact that my thoughts direct

my life. Now here's the second reason you have to

start with inside your brain to make any change in you.

And it's because my struggles happen in my mind. My struggles,

your struggles happen in your mind. That's where it all starts.

Now you may not realize it, but every second of

your life, there's a battle in your brain. Right now,

there's a battle going on in your brain constantly. It's

a mental battle. It could be between right and wrong.

It could be between what's easy and what's hard. It

could be between good and evil. It could be between

doing what's healthy, making a healthy choice, or doing what's unhealthy,

making an unhealthy choice. This is constantly going on in

your life. Stress is a mental struggle. Depression If you're

feeling down, depression is a mental struggle. It's a battle.

And so is every other negative emotion. Anger is a

mental battle. Starts in your mind. Fear is a mental battle.

Starts in your mind. Jealousy, resentment, loneliness is a mental battle.

Starts in your mind. Addictions, discouragement, low self-worth is a

battle going on in your brain. all of your internal conflicts,

and by the way, all of your external conflicts, the

conflicts that you're having with other people right now, guess what?

They're not starting in the relationship. They're starting in your mind.

Look at this verse. The screen tells us James chapter one,

chapter four, verse one. It asks the question, what causes

fights and quarrels among you? In other words, why do

you get in conflict with other people? And he says,

the Bible says this, They come from the conflicting desires

that battle inside you. There's a battle going on inside

your mind between conflicting desires. And that battle can continue

in your mind, by the way, even when you're sleeping

and you have restless sleep or you have bad dreams.

That battle in your brain can go on 24 hours

a day. You know, one of the things I love

the most about this book, God's Word, the Bible, is

how gut-level honest it is about our human nature and

about the internal battles that all of us face and

fight literally every second of our lives in our minds.

We often battle in our minds over what's right. What's

the right thing to do? And we're wondering, is it this,

is it this, is it that? And sometimes even when

we know the right thing to do, We can't always

get ourselves to do it. And that's a battle too.

Now Paul, Saint Paul, the Apostle Paul, who was probably

the greatest Christian who ever lived next to Jesus Christ himself,

was gut level honest about this mental battle in the

brain that's going on. Romans chapter seven, look there on

your outline. Paul gives a personal testimony of his battle

in the brain. He says this, I love to do

God's will so far as my new nature is concerned.

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

war with my mind. War with my mind, that's the

battle in your brain. War with my mind and wins

the fight and it makes me a slave to the

sin within me. In my mind, he says, I wanna

be God's servant. But instead, I find myself still enslaved

to sin. Now, if you're taking notes, you got a

pen or pencil right now, I want you to circle

these words in Romans chapter seven, verses 22 and 23.

Circle the word war. Circle the word fight. War, fight.

Circle the word mind. And circle the word enslaved. That

pretty much describes all of us. There's a battle going on.

in your brain. And sometimes you're conscious of it. You

can feel the tension going on, but a lot of

times you're totally unaware of the competing thoughts and competing

desires and competing goals that are in your brain. But

this is a major cause, my friends, of mental fatigue.

And it's been on high all during COVID. Now, the

reason this battle in your brain is constant and is

intense is because your brain, your mind, is your greatest asset.

Without your brain, you're not you. You are your thoughts,

your will, your emotions, your soul. Without your brain, nothing's

gonna happen. If you have God's spirit in you, now

listen to this, should be comforting you. If you have

given your life to Christ, God's spirit is in you,

Satan can't control your mind. but he can make suggestions.

The only influence Satan has in the life of a

Christian is he can put thoughts in your mind. He

can make suggestions. He can get your attention. And that's

a pretty big deal because whatever gets your attention gets you.

So he can't control your mind, but he can put

thoughts in your mind. And then you have to decide,

am I going to accept or reject it? All right.

Why are we Talking about resetting your mindset before we

talk about resetting your life. Because my thoughts direct my life,

and number two, because my struggles happen in my mind,

in my brain. And here's the third reason you have

to start changing the way you think to make any

change in any area of your life. Number three, because

it's where God's spirit works in me. Because it's where

God's spirit works in me. Where does God's spirit work

in your life? In your toenail, in your fingernail, in

your spleen? No, God's spirit works in your brain, in

your mind. Now it's interesting, both we, and of course

the Bible does too, we often use the metaphor of

our heart as being the place where God works. So

you say, I invited Jesus into my heart. Well, technically,

heart is just a symbol for your brain. because that's

where you think. God works in your brain, God works

in your mind, God works through your mind, and God

works suggesting thoughts too. It is in your mind that

God begins the change process. It's where the reset takes place.

Now look at this next verse, very important verse. The

Bible says in Ephesians chapter four, 23 and 24, let

the spirit Change your way of thinking. You might underline that.

Let the spirit change your way of thinking and what

is the result of it? Make you into a new person.

That's how you reset your life. It starts in your thinking.

You were created to be like God. Now this verse

right here, Ephesians 4, 23 and 24 is one of

the theme verses for this series on resetting your life.

And I wanna urge you to go home Write this

verse down and then memorize it. So let me read

it again. It goes like this. Let the spirit change

your way of thinking and make you into a new person.

You were created to be like God. Ephesians 4, 23

and 24. Well, you say, how does this work? When

Satan suggests an idea in your mind, we call that temptation.

When God suggests an idea in your mind, we call

that inspiration. But it's your choice, every moment of your life,

what to choose, what ideas you're gonna hold on to,

which ones you're gonna reject. Whether I accept or reject

a temptation, or whether I accept or reject a temptation. inspiration.

You get to choose what ideas are gonna control your life.

Romans chapter eight, verse eight, excuse me, verse six says this.

If your thinking is controlled by your own old sinful ways,

it leads to death. It leads to death. But if

your thinking is controlled by the Holy Spirit, that leads

to life. That leads to life. You get a choice.

I'm gonna have life and peace in my life or

I can go to a dead end. Now, these are

the three reasons we had to start today by talking

about your mindset because nothing's gonna change until you change

your mind. Now, I wanna quickly give you three very

practical choices that you can start making every day to

reset your mind and therefore reset your life, okay? So

write these down. These are three things you can start

doing every day to reset your life and your mind.

Number one, every day I must choose to feed my

mind with the best thoughts. It's your choice. Every day

I have to choose what I'm gonna feed my brain.

Am I gonna feed my mind with the best thoughts

or am I gonna feed them with bad thoughts? Philippians

chapter four verse eight gets very, very specific here about

what are the best thoughts. Philippians four eight. Brothers and sisters,

fill your mind with thoughts that are, and here's the list,

thoughts that are true, thoughts that are noble, thoughts that

are right, thoughts that are pure, thoughts that are beautiful.

You should have beautiful thoughts, thoughts that are admirable. Think

about things that are excellent and think about things that

are worthy of praising, worthy of praise. Now, to be honest,

does that list of things to think about accurately describe

what you typically think about most of the time? I

don't think so. If you're honest, the answer is no.

This is something you have to train yourself to do,

to think thoughts, okay, that are pure, that are beautiful,

that are right, that are true, that are noble, that

are admirable. Think thoughts that are lovely. Think thoughts that

bring peace in my life. This is your choice. You

get to choose, all right? Now, Because it says this

is what you should be thinking about, I need to

pause right here for a moment and talk to you

very frankly about you monitoring and limiting your media intake.

Because that list does not represent the stuff that's on

TV or on social media. It's not things that are true, noble, right, pure, beautiful, admirable, excellent,

and worthy of praise. If you're serious, about letting God

transform your life, if you're serious about getting a fresh restart,

it is likely that the most practical thing you can

do would be to, one, number one, unplug your TV

for a while, and number two, stay off social media

and internet for an extended period of time. Why? Think

about this. In your mind, there's like the scales. And

on one side is the good news, the gospel, the

truth of God's word. And on the other side is

all the junk and the poison and the stuffing that

is put out by the media. If you came to

church every weekend and you listened to a message that

is maybe 45 minutes long, that's this much on the scale.

But if you go home and you watch one or

two or three hours of network cable news every night,

Where's your mind balancing out? If you get up and

you read your Bible for five minutes in the morning

and then you spend hours on social media, hours reading

the internet, hours in front of a screen, your life's

out of balance and it's not gonna work. So let

me just show you a few Bible verses This is

so important for you to monitor your media intake. That

means lower the stuff you're getting in your mind from

the world and raise the amount of time you're getting

stuff from the word. You're always listening to the world

or the word. Let me just show you a few

Bible verses and then I'm gonna ask you to consider

some very personal questions about how much you allow in

your mind and what you allow. Here's the first verse.

It is Proverbs 15. Verse 18, a wise person is

hungry for truth while the fool feeds on trash. You

could type that one up and put it on a

card and stick it on your television. A wise person

is hungry for truth while the fool feeds on trash.

Now here's the first question based on that. Am I

being wise or am I being foolish with what I

allow in my mind? Are you allowing more from the

world or more from the word to fill your mind?

Are you wise? What does a wise person do? Hungry

for truth. What is the truth? The Bible says thy

word is truth, John 17, 17. It's how we're changed,

thy word is truth. What am I allowing in my mind?

God says that there's between a wise person and a

foolish person is what fills his or her mind. You know,

it's interesting. You can learn a lot about a person's

physical health by simply looking at their physical diet. Are

they eating a lot of junk food? Are they eating

a lot of unhealthy food? Okay, you look at your diet.

A doctor will say, tell me what you're eating. And

then they'll know how your physical health is relating to that.

Same is true spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. You can know

a lot about your spiritual condition, about your emotional health.

about your mental health by looking at your mental diet.

So what's on your mental diet? Hours of talk radio,

hours of cable news, hours of soap opera, hours of

social media, hours of one internet troll dissing and disregarding

and pontificating and putting down everybody else. Hours of social

media can have a mental diet of poison, of junk food,

of stuffing. It's certainly not health food, all right? So

the question, am I being wise or foolish with what

I allow in my mind? It all depends on what

you're allowing in it. Okay, let me look at another verse.

Matthew 4, verse 4, Jesus said this. People need more

Matthew 4:4

than bread for their life. They must feed on every

word of God. This, friends, the Bible, this is the

word of God. This is soul food. It's food for

your soul. And he says, you can't live by bread alone.

You have to have soul food. You have to have

the word of God. If you're not feeding on the

word of God every day, you're starving to death spiritually.

It's not like, well, I go to church on Sunday

and I get a banquet and then I fast for

the next six days and I don't get any of

God's word in my life. Here's the second question. Am

I feeding my soul every day with God's word? Because

if you're not, you're spiritually fasting from God's word. It's

no wonder you're spiritually malnourished. It's no wonder you have

no strength against temptation. It's no wonder you get under

stress and under pressure and get depressed and discouraged because

you're not feeding your soul. You are on a spiritual fast. Now,

think about this, friends. A lot of what we put

in our minds is just temporary information. The stuff you

read on social media, it doesn't matter an hour later,

much less days, weeks, months, years. A lot of what

we put in our mind is just temporary information. And

of course, news channels make whatever's the latest news sound

like it's the most important thing in history. But it's

just temporary information. It's not gonna last. But there's one

kind of material that's gonna last forever. What is it?

It is this book, the truth of God. Let me

show you some verses. Isaiah 48, 40 verse eight. The

grass withers, that's temporary. The flowers fall, they fade, that's temporary.

But the word of our God stands forever. Circle that

last word, forever. If it was true a thousand years ago,

it'll be true a thousand years from today. Isaiah 40

verse eight, the grass withers and the flowers fall, but

the word of God stands forever. Jesus had said, heaven

and earth will pass away, but my word will never

pass away. And then look at this verse, 1 John 2, 17.

This world and every desire that people want in this

world is passing away. Okay, I want tickets to that game.

I wanna go see that concert. I wanna have that meal.

I wanna go surfing. I wanna have that experience. Everything,

all the desires that people have in this world, they're

passing away. They're not gonna last. But those who do

the will of God will, circle this, live forever. So

based on these verses, heaven and earth will pass away.

My word will pass away. You can listen to temporary things.

You can listen to eternal things. Here's the next question,

all right? Do I pay more attention to temporary news

or to the eternal truth of God's word? How much

news are you getting every day compared to how much

good news are you getting every day? It's not rocket science, folks.

You're either putting the good news in or you're putting

the bad news in. And what's in, garbage in, garbage out.

Now here's another verse. John chapter eight. This is Jesus talking.

Verses 31 and 32. If you continue in my word,

that means you're constantly putting it in your mind and

thinking about it. If you continue in my word on

a daily basis, then you are truly my disciples. And

he says, then you will know the truth and the

truth will make you free. You know, people take that

verse out of context. Non-Christians quote this verse all the time,

not even knowing that it was Jesus who said it.

The truth will set you free. Well, what kind of

truth are you talking about? Look at the verse before it.

It's the word of God. It's not mathematical truth. It's

not musical truth. It's not a physics truth. It's the

truth of God. He said, that's what will set you free. Now,

he says, if you continue in my word, then you

are my disciple. So here's the question. Based on this qualification,

you're in the word of God every day. Would Jesus

say I'm a disciple? Would Jesus say, you are a disciple?

If you continue in my word, then you're truly my disciple.

If you're not continuing in his word, you're not his disciple.

And then look at the next, my next question is this.

Is my current media consumption creating freedom or frustration? He says,

when you know the truth, it will make you frustrated. No,

he says, when you know the truth, it will set

you free. So if you're feeling free, then you're getting

a lot of God's truth in your life. If you're

feeling frustrated, you're getting a lot of the world's truth

in your life. You're getting it off of television or whatever, internet. Now,

based on these things, that it determines who I am,

it determines how I live, that what I put in

my mind is gonna affect every area, then I need

to maximize the amount of truth in my life from

God's word. Here's the question. When should I feed my

mind with God's truth? And the answer is all the time.

All the time. Let me show you a couple verses.

Psalm 119, 97 here on the screen. Lord, how I

love your word. I think about it all day long.

If you're thinking about it all day long, you're not

gonna be worrying. You're gonna be worshiping. Psalm 119, 147.

I rise early. to cry out for help and put

my hope in your words. Start on that early morning

quiet time. I put my hope in your words. You know, hope,

where does hope come from? Well, it comes from the

over 7,000 promises in God's word. Become a promised person

and your life will change. Get into this word every

day and your life will change for the good. Every

day I have to choose to feed my mind with

the best thoughts and the best thoughts are God's word.

Here's a second daily choice I'm gonna have to make

if I want my life to change. First, I have

to feed my mind, okay, feed my mind on the

best thoughts. Second, I must choose every day to free

my mind from destructive thoughts. I have to choose to free,

and this is a choice, I have to choose to

free my mind from destructive choices, all right? Very important.

Here's a verse on that. Romans chapter eight, verse five.

Those who are dominated by their sinful nature, okay, that's

my old way of doing things, the way I'm habitually

trained to act. Those who are dominated by their sinful

nature think about sinful things. It's what you think about.

But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit Think

about things that please the Spirit. Now notice in that verse,

he talks about dominated and he talks about controlled. You're

either controlled by the devil's thoughts that he puts in

your mind and you allow them, or you're controlled by

God's thoughts, the Spirit puts in your mind. Here's the point.

Your mind has to be liberated. Your mind needs to

be delivered. Your mind needs to be released. Your mind

needs to be set free. Why? Because otherwise it's dominated

by all those wrong things. All those wrong thoughts. It

needs to be set free. Now this isn't easy. Because

there are three forces around you that battle in your

mind against good intentions. And none of us give up

ground easily. And none of those enemies give up ground easily.

You have to fight to free your mind. What are

the enemies? Well, there are three enemies that wanna put

wrong thoughts in your mind. First is your old nature.

My old nature. The verse on the screen, Romans 7, 23.

I see in my body a principle at war. It's

at war. I'm in battle with the law of my mind,

taking captive to the law of sin that dwells inside

of me. Your old nature wants to think wrong thoughts.

Somebody puts you down, you wanna put them down. The

truth is, often you find yourself doing things that you

don't wanna do. Have you ever, ever knowingly engaged in

self-defeating behavior? Yes, and you knew it was bad for you,

but you still did it anyway, why? Because your old

nature is not your friend. It's the source of all

bad habits. That's the first thing working against you, your

old nature. Second thing we're working against is Satan. He's

the second enemy. And as I said, he can't force

you to do anything, but he can use suggestion. And

he's continually planting negative thoughts in your mind about that

person and about that person and about yourself. And from

the moment you wake up, he starts suggesting thoughts in

your mind. Go ahead, you deserve it. Get angry with

that person. Write something mean to them. Get even. How

dare they say that to you? He's putting all those

thoughts in your mind. Look at this verse on the screen.

Second Corinthians chapter two, verse 11 says this. Talking about

a guy he'd forgiven. Paul says, I've forgiven that man

so Satan won't outsmart us. For we're very familiar with

his evil schemes. Interesting. He says, I had to forgive

that guy so Satan couldn't take a foothold in my mind.

Did you know that any time, listen, Anytime you refuse

to forgive anybody, you've just fallen for Satan's trap. He

just got a foothold in your mind. Any area of

your mind that you're holding onto bitterness, any area that

you're holding onto resentment, jealousy, envy, you've already yielded that

part of your brain to the devil. You've fallen for

Satan's trap. So you got your old nature working against you.

You got the devil working against you. The third enemy

of your mind is the world's value system, which is

constantly promoted by advertisers and movies and TV and music

and celebrities. 1 John 2, 16 says this, all that

is in the world, the lust of the flesh and

the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,

it's not of the Father, it's of the world. Did

you notice it says nothing around you encourages you to

do the right thing? Nothing All the stuff in the

world is trying to get you to go the wrong way.

Nothing encourages you to be disciplined. Nothing encourages you to

be unselfish. So how do you fight this mental battle? Well,

the Bible tells us, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse three

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

to five, there on your outline. Though we live in

the world, we don't wage war as the world does.

He's talking about the mental battle. The weapons we fight

with are not the weapons of the world. Our weapons

have divine power to do what? To demolish strongholds. Circle that,

we'll come back in a minute on that. Our weapons

demolish strongholds. That's a mental stronghold. in your mind. We

demolish any argument that's in your mind and any pretension

that's in your mind that sets itself up against the

knowledge of God. That's in your mind. And we take

captive every thought that's in your mind. to make it

obedient to Christ. That whole passage is about the mental warfare.

Spiritual warfare is mental warfare. It's in your mind. The

battle for sin is won or lost in your mind.

The battle for habits is won or lost in your mind.

The battle for being like Christ is won or lost

in your mind. Now a stronghold, it says we tear

down strongholds in our mind. What's that? A stronghold is

a lie, I believe. That's what a stronghold is. Stronghold

is a lie that I believe about myself, about other people,

about God. It can be a false value. It can

be a world value system. Hedonism, live for fun, live

for pleasure. Materialism, live for money and for things. Secularism,

live for myself, make myself God. It could be a

personal attitude. A stronghold could be worry. You could have

a stronghold of worry in your life. You could have

a stronghold of envy in your life. You could have

a stronghold of resentment or pride or self-will. All of

these are strongholds. We tear these down. This is a

mental battle. Now I want you to notice two phrases

in that passage. First, circle the phrase take captive. We

take captive every thought. Take captive. What does that mean?

It means, the Greek word, akmalotizo literally means conquer, bring

under control, capture. You're gonna bring under control. You're not

gonna just let your mind run and let it go

anywhere you want to. You bring it under control. We

make it obedient. That's the other word, circle that. That's hupakoe.

Hupakoe in Greek means bring into submission. We take my thoughts.

I don't just let my thoughts go anywhere they wanna go.

I bring them into submission. to the truth. How do

you do that? How do you, listen, how do you

make your mind mind you? How do you make your

mind mind you? That's a very important question. Let me

give you a personal confession here. My thoughts often disobey me. Okay?

My thoughts in my mind often rebel against what I want.

my mind sometimes has a mind of its own. My

thoughts often go off in all kinds of directions. I

don't intend them to do. Does this happen to anybody

else besides me? You don't always have control. Your mind

just go off in different directions. And a lot of

times when I need to ponder a passage of scripture,

when I need to ponder, my thoughts start to wander.

Some of yours are wandering right now. When I want

to ponder a truth, my mind thoughts to wander away

from the truth. When I want my thoughts to pray,

they just drift away. And I'll start thinking about other stuff,

even in my prayer. Now I'm sure that never happens

to you. But the reason most people are ineffective and

defeated in life is because they don't know how to

fight the battle of the brain. The war that's going

on in your mind. So let me just quickly review,

I don't have time, this is a whole nother message,

but let me quickly review how temptation works in your mind.

You need to know this. James chapter one, 14, 15

says this, temptation comes from the lure of our own

evil desires. Doesn't start out there, it starts inside. Temptation

comes from the lure of my own evil desires inside me.

These evil desires lead to evil action and these evil

actions lead to death. Temptation is a process. It's not

simply an isolated act. And it happens almost instantly in

four steps. This could happen like quickly. I'm gonna give

you the four steps, but it can happen really quickly.

Step one is desire. It begins inside you. Our own desires.

And by the way, any temptation often begins with a

natural desire. You have a natural desire to eat. You

have a natural desire to drink. You have a natural

desire to sleep. You have a natural sexual drive. These

are all God-given. There's nothing wrong with these drives. But

temptation turns a routine desire into a runaway desire. And

all of a sudden, that desire becomes more important than

other things. And it's all you can think about. And listen,

any time you have a desire out of control is destructive.

Fire can warm a home or it can burn a

home down. Water can slake your thirst or you can

drown in it. Any desire out of control is destructive.

The desire isn't necessarily destructive. For instance, sexual desire is

a normal, healthy desire. But out of control, it will

destroy you just like any other. Often temptation is an

attempt to fulfill a legitimate desire in the wrong way

or time. but it's like steel and magnet. There's an

inward pull. It's all temptation starts with the desire in

you before it shows up outside. Step number two, after

desire comes doubt. These can come instantly. And this is

where you begin to doubt God's word and you begin

to doubt God's love. We can see this in the

very first temptation. When Satan goes to Eve, he goes,

did God really say not to eat of this fruit?

We can see this in the temptation. Did God really say?

Anytime you're wondering, well, I know the Bible says this,

but did God really say this about sex? Did God

really say this about food? Did God really say this

about money? Did God really say this about money? Anytime

you've already gone to the second step, which is doubt.

You've moved from desire to doubt. Step three is deception.

And that's when you're lured and enticed away, that's a

fishing term, You gotta have bait, okay? And you start

believing a lie. Now, you know, I like to fish

because my dad was a great fisherman. But one of

the keys to fishing is you gotta use the right bait, okay?

If you've ever gone fishing, how many of you have

ever caught a fish with a bare hook? Zero. None

of you have ever caught a fish with a bare hook.

but you catch fish with the right kind of bait.

What kind of bait does Satan use on you? He

knows your weaknesses. He knows what'll get you. He knows

what'll get your attention and move you from desire to

doubt to deception. I call it deception because he always

hides the hook. Sometimes you're in a temptation and you

know there's a hook there, but you still keep nibbling

You keep nibbling and you go, I'm an adult. I'm

not gonna get hurt. I'll be careful. No, you are

being deceived. You've moved from desire to doubting God's word

to deception. You're just, I'll be careful and you're nibbling

on that hook. Friends, let me just tell you this.

Temptation always looks better than it is. Vegas is filled

with very fancy, attractive lights everywhere. It's a giant lure

in the desert. And poor suckers get hooked and go

blow all their money. You move from desire to doubt

to deception. This could happen in a second in your

brain to finally step four is disobedience and defeat. Now

it's a sin. What began in the mind translate into action.

What got your attention turns into attraction. and attraction becomes

an attitude, and the attitude becomes an action. Attraction is

not sin, action is. Let me say that again. Attraction

is not sin, action is. It's when you move from

I'm being tempted to behavior. This is why when people say,

what's the danger of a harmless fantasy? Because it's not harmless.

Whatever you flirt with, you'll fall for. Whatever you flirt with,

you'll fall for. The Bible says after desire has conceived,

it gives birth to sin, and the end result is death,

which is the tragic consequences. You're in a dead end.

What is death? What is death? It's the exact opposite

of living. Friends, you are free to choose, but you're

not free to choose the consequences. You're free to choose

whatever you think about in life. You're not free from

the consequences of your choices. And the best time to

win the battle is before it happens. Psalm 119, 112

on the screen says this, I have made up my

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

you made that decision? Have you made up your mind

that you're going to obey God's laws no matter what?

All right, let's review. I feed my mind with the

best thoughts, and I free my mind from destructive thoughts.

And the third choice I have to make every day

is this, I must choose to focus my mind on

the right things. There are a lot of things you

could focus on that aren't the right things. Let me

just quickly close with three. Just write these down. I

won't even talk about them. Number one, think about Jesus.

You've heard it said you become whatever you think about most. Well,

2 Timothy 2.8 says keep your mind on Jesus Christ.

Think about Jesus. Number two, think about others. Don't just

think of yourself. Philippians 2.4, don't just think about your

own affairs, but also be interested in others too and

what they're doing. Let me ask you this. Would that

transform your life? Would all our lives be transformed if

we all thought about each other first? Yeah. If you

thought about how your kids see it, how your husband,

your wife sees it, if you think about how other

people see it at work, Hebrews 10.24, let us think

about each other and let us Help each other to

show love and to do good deeds. So think about Jesus,

think about others. Here's the third thing you have to

focus on. Think about eternity. Colossians 3.2, let heaven fill

your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here

on earth. I'm sure you've heard the phrase, oh, she's

so heavenly minded, she's no earthly good. You know what

that is? It's what you get when you cross a

crocodile on an abalone. It's a crocabalone. The truth is

the heavenly-minded people always do the most good on earth.

The problem is most Christians are too earthly-minded to do

any good. You can't be too heavenly-minded. The more heavenly-minded

you will be, the more earthly good you'll do. Now,

I've loaded a lot on. You might have to listen

to this message a second time, but let me summarize it. Today,

we looked at three reasons you have to start with

changing your mindset if you wanna change your life. First,

because your thoughts direct your life. Second, because your struggles

that you're going through, they're happening between your ears, they

happen in your mind. And third, because your mind is

where God's spirit works inside of you. That's why you

gotta start with changing your thoughts. Knowing that, then you

have three choices to make every day. Number one, every

day I must choose to feed my mind with the

best thoughts. Number two, every day I must choose to

free my mind from destructive thoughts. And number three, every

day I must choose to focus my mind on what

matters most. Now let me close by asking you a

simple question. How serious are you? about changing your life,

about resetting an area or all of your life? Are

you serious enough to start limiting television, social media, talk radio,

and other stuff that fills you up so much that

you're not hungry for God's word? Are you serious enough

to start reading your Bible every day? I'd pick the

book of Psalms or Proverbs, just start there. This is

one of those things, you know it, but it won't

make any difference unless you do it. Let's bow our

heads for prayer. Father, you gave us our minds and

you've given us the instruction on what to do with

our minds. So now you pray. Say, Lord, I realize

that my thoughts direct my life. Say, Lord, I realize

that the struggles that are going on me are actually

happening in my mind. And I realize that It's in

my brain where God's spirit works in me. So I

really do wanna change. I'm gonna ask you to help

me every day to choose to feed my mind with

the best thoughts, to free my mind from destructive thoughts,

and to focus my mind on what matters most, you Lord,

and other people and eternity. If you've never invited Jesus

Christ in your life, that's the starting point. Jesus Christ,

come into my heart and mind. Fill me with your presence.

Fill my mind, Lord, with your love, your grace, your mercy.

I wanna get to know you. I wanna open my

life totally to you. And I'm asking you to help

reset my life in a new direction. We humbly ask

this together in Jesus' name, amen.