Sermon
Change Your Mind
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Open your Bibles, Proverbs chapter 23, meet me at verse 7, Proverbs chapter 23, verse 7.
Proverbs 23 chapter mention Proverbs 23:7
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We are in a series that we have called Who Are You?
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Subtitle, Who Am I? And we've been going through the basis of who we are in Christ Jesus.
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And the proverb here tells us, for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
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And so as we've been reflecting and discovering who we are in Christ Jesus,
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it's imperative that we know that who Jesus says we are and who we think we
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are should be synonymous.
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It should be the same. Whatever Jesus said about us, whatever the word says
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about us, we should think that way and it should be the same.
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And so we've gone through certain basis of we are a new creation in Christ Jesus,
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right? Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
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We've walked through being born again.
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What that means is we're born from above, a spiritual birth.
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And we come from God. We are born of God.
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So you and I become sons and daughters of God. So we're born again.
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We've talked about being complete in him.
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Nothing missing, nothing broken.
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You don't need her. You don't need him. You don't need them in Christ Jesus. You are complete in him.
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We talked about what it means to be a bond servant. We talked about what it
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means to give our life to Jesus and that he owns us and we belong to him.
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We talked about being in Christ Jesus that because he was made poor,
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you and I have been made rich.
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And that's what the scripture says, rich in grace and rich in mercy and rich
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in favor, rich in kindness.
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Our identity is rich and rich materially, rich financially. Amen.
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We're supposed to have more than enough so that we can be a blessing to others.
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So we've been going through these things of who Christ Jesus says that we are,
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and your life tends to go in the direction of your most dominant thought.
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I want you to consider this, that your life will go in the direction of your most dominant thought.
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And scientists and psychologists, I should say, tell us that we think anywhere
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from 60 to 80,000 thoughts per day.
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And because you and I are not sovereign, all these thoughts that are bombarding
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our thinking do not come from us.
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You don't have an original thought.
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Your thoughts are either going to come from Satan or they're going to come from God.
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And so our thoughts are not original. They're floating around in the air.
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They're coming to us at an alarming rate. They're coming to us.
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And we have to be able to decipher between what is of God and what is of Satan.
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And we also have to be able to understand that every thought that comes to you,
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you don't have to think about it.
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Now, I can't stop the birds from flying around my head.
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Can do nothing to stop the birds in the air, but I can so enough stop them from
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laying a nest on my head. Amen.
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I can eliminate them laying a nest. This is the same way with thoughts.
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They're going to come to you.
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You can't stop them from coming, but you can consider what you're thinking about.
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You can think about what you're thinking about.
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And that's why Isaiah 8, 11 in the New Living Translation says it this way.
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It says, the Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does.
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Now, this is a strong warning, a command from the Lord.
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Do not think like everyone else does.
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Because if you begin to think like everyone else does, you begin to act like
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everyone else does, and you begin to receive what everyone else does.
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But how many know that we're supposed to be abnormal? We're supposed to be supernatural.
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We're supposed to be different than the world.
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Because your thoughts will then begin to affect your feelings.
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You feel a certain way because you think a certain way. So your thoughts will
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affect your feelings And your feelings are going to affect your words.
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And so you're going to say what you feel. This is why faith means we got to
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say what we believe, not what we feel.
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And so it's a fight to not say what you feel.
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You got to say what you believe. And if you trace it back, it goes back to your
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thoughts. Because when you begin to say things a certain way,
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then you begin to act a certain way.
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Your words will begin to precede your actions. So you begin to act a certain way.
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And then if you continually act that way, you'll then create habits,
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whether good or bad. You'll have habits in your life that are very hard to break.
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And then if you continue to have these habits, someone will look at you and
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say, that is your character.
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That's who you are. The way you continually act is who you are.
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That's your character. And how many of you know that our character leads us
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to a destination, our destiny?
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Destiny but if we want to change our destiny we're going to have to change our character,
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and if we want to change our character we're going to have to change our habits,
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and if we're going to change our habits we're going to have to change our actions,
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if we're going to change our actions we're going to have to change our words
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if we're going to change our words we're going to have to change our feelings
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if we want to change our feelings we're going to have to change
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our thoughts and this is what i want to talk to you about today because i'm
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going to answer some questions today regarding why is it not working in your life?
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Why do I keep spinning around and I don't see the results that I'm supposed to see?
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Why am I not getting the answers that I believe I should be getting at this
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point in my life? We're going to answer these questions today.
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And I feel like we're going to go deep today, but it's not going to be too deep
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because you're able to withhold what we're going to share today.
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I've been doing some study. I feel like I might be a psychologist,
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all this study I've been doing, but it's going to be all word-based,
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amen? And we're going to get some results. Say amen to that.
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Somebody say, I receive what the Lord has for me.
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Today. Romans chapter 12, 1 and 2.
Romans 12 chapter mention
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Romans chapter 12, 1 and 2. The apostle Paul says, I beseech you therefore,
Romans 12 chapter mention
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brethren, by the mercies of God,
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that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
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which is your reasonable service.
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In verse 2, He says, and do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed, how?
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By the renewing of your mind that
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you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
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Let's get to work here. Paul tells us, I beseech you, or he says, I urge you.
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Or even more intense, I beg you.
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I beg you. I am begging you that you, how am I begging you?
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By the mercies of God.
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Or you could say it this way, by the benefits of God.
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So I am begging you, I'm urging you by the benefits. What are the benefits of
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God? Well, Psalms 103 tells us the benefits. Let's take a look.
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We'll be on the screen here.
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Psalms 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
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Bless the Lord, O my soul, and watch this, and forget not all his benefits. What are his benefits?
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He forgives all your iniquities.
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He heals all your diseases. Say amen to that.
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He redeems your life from destruction.
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He crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, and who satisfies your
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mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
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Stop saying you're old and start saying I'm young.
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I'm being renewed like the eagles, glory to God. And so Paul is telling us,
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I'm begging you by the benefits of God in light of the benefits of God that you present your body.
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And we've been talking about this, that we don't own our bodies.
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Christ owns our bodies. We can't do what we want to do.
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We got to do what he's called us to do. He owns our bodies.
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So he's saying, in light of all of the benefits that you did not earn,
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you do not deserve, you shouldn't have gotten, but by his grace and mercy,
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he has given you benefits.
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You should then say, not my will, but thy will be done.
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Not what I want to do, but what does God want me to do?
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Not what I want to come to pass, but what does God want to come to pass?
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And I've told you all this recently. I've gotten to this place.
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I'm starting to tell myself no a lot now. No.
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Well, my body said, get him, get that ice cream in the freezer.
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No. You know what I'm talking about over there, huh?
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You know what? That man cut you off. Let him have a piece of your mind.
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No, I'm not going to let him have a piece of my mind.
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Well, you know, that person lied on you. You should go over there and punch him. No.
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No. Say no.
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Say, say no. You need to start telling your body. Telling no, no.
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This is my will, and I say no to my will, but God's will be done in my life.
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So I'm going to lay down my desire, my ambition, my will. I'm going to present
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my body to God, not as a dead sacrifice, but as a living sacrifice.
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And so I'm still alive, but Christ lives in me.
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It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Come on, say amen to that.
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And so we're to present our bodies wholly acceptable to God.
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Watch this, which is your reasonable service or your practical and rational
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response to the benefits of God.
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This is just only the right thing to do, is to present your body to God because
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of in light of all he's done for you,
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it's just a rational thing to do, to say, God, you own me, I'm yours to command,
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whatever you have me do, I'll do, whatever you have me give,
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I'll give, wherever you have me go, I'll go, whatever you have me do, I will do.
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That's the rational thing to do, and scripture calls that worship.
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You read this in another translation, it's called worship. Present your bodies
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to God as a living sacrifice.
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The other translation said it's an act of worship.
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So we think worship is hallelujah, hallelujah. No, worship is doing what God
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tells you to do. Worship is not doing what you want to do.
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I knew I'm going to get a lot of amens on that, but that's worship.
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Not doing what you want to do is worship because I am presenting my body to
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God to do what he wants me to do.
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Now, let's go deeper. Verse 2,
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it says, and do not be conformed to this world. Don't be like the world.
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The world is a society, a godless society that is against all things God.
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That is the world. And I believe, this is my personal opinion,
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I believe the spirit of the world is the media.
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Amen. I got a hearty amen. The spirit of the world is the media.
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He who controls the media controls the population.
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And so the world is a godless society and we're not to be like the world.
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We're actually to look different.
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Somebody should look at you and say, you're weird.
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You're odd. Something's wrong with you. You don't think like I think?
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No, I don't think like that. I'm commended not to think like that.
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They should think that something, you know, you think you're too good.
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Well, no, I'm just highly favored of the Lord. That's not my fault.
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God just loves me. Amen. And so we should be different in the world.
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And they should actually make fun of us.
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We should be getting made fun of, you know?
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We should be getting talked about because we're different than the world.
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We're not going to conform to the world, but we're going to be transformed.
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Somebody say transformed.
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That word means changed. How many of you remember transformers?
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You know, it was a robot changed into a car and a car back to a robot.
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A transformer is changed.
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Changed how are we changed by the renewing of your mind,
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and then you're going to prove what is that good acceptable perfect will of
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God the renewing of the mind this is what we're going to talk about today
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and I'm going to go a little deep today I've got some things written down but
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I want you to lock in I want you to really lock in and listen to what I'm going
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to share with you today because there needs to be a renewal of our mind.
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And your mind is the control center of your life.
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We want it to be our spirit, but it really is our mind. Everything is after,
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our mind, our thought patterns.
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The billboards are after it. Commercials are after it.
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The devil's after it. Even God is after your mind. What we're thinking about,
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everything is after our mind.
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And our mind consists of our mentality, our way of thinking,
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our philosophy, our reasonings, and our thought life.
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It is encompassed with our soul.
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Humanity, you are a three-part being.
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You are a spirit, which has been recreated in the image of God.
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You have a soul, which is your mind, will, and emotions.
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And then you live in this body, which is different shapes, sizes,
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colors, whatever the case may be. You are not the color of your skin.
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You are not your body. This body is decaying and dying.
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Thank God that our spirit man is being renewed day by day, but our body is dying.
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I looked in the mirror the other day. I said, I look a little older.
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And then I said, wait a minute. My youth is being renewed like the eagles. Amen.
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I don't want to say what I feel. I want to say what I believe. Amen.
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And so our mind is a part of the soulless realm of humanity.
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And I went deeper in this. Your mind consists.
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Now listen, of your conscience, C-O-N-S-C-I-E-N-C.
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Your conscience, C-O-N-S-C-I-O-U-S, and your subconscious.
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This is all a part of your mind. Your conscience, your conscience, and your subconscious.
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Your conscious mind, subconscious mind, and conscience are three distinct aspects of how we think,
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make decisions, process information, determine what is right and what is wrong.
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And so renewing your mind involves an intentional,
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attack, if I can use that word, to recognize and discover what is happening
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in your conscience, your conscience and your subconscious.
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And we're gonna go deeper in that today. Let's start with your conscience,
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C-O-N-S-C-I-E-N-C, which all is a part of your mind.
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Your conscience is the moral aspect of you.
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It's how you value right and wrong.
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It's the part of your awareness that locates morals or morality.
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All right. It helps you process whether your actions align with your understanding
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of what is right and what is wrong.
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That's your conscience. Your conscience can warn you about wrongdoing.
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Produce feelings of guilt. If you feel guilty, that's that comes part of your conscience. All right.
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The Holy Spirit doesn't make you feel guilty, and we'll get into that.
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Your conscience will make you feel guilty.
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Your conscience will affirm decisions that you believe were right.
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Somebody would think, well, what you did was wrong, but your conscience would
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say, no, that was right, and I'll stand by that because it was the right thing
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to do. I don't care what Pookie and Ray Ray said about that.
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I know that was the right thing to do.
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Your conscience can also accuse or excuse your behavior.
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All right? Your conscience will excuse your behavior, but notice your conscience
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is not a trustworthy guide unless your mind is being renewed to the word of God.
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Now, the renewal of the word, I'm sorry, the renewal of the mind consists with
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the word of God, and that renewed mind means that there is a renewal,
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or a renovation or even a complete change,
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of your mind and so let's take this for example your conscience you may have
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grew up in a certain way where your conscience uh was okay with maybe um fornication,
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you know you were okay with that hey everybody's doing it i'm doing it and that's
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you know sex outside of marriage and and all other things that come with that
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and you might be saying that that's fine my Conscious is okay with it But when
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you start renewing your mind.
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Your conscience ain't going to be okay with that anymore You're going to start
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feeling a little different about that
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And that's where things are going to have to change There must be a renewal
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of the mind That will get you to
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change your mind About what you think is right or wrong Say amen to this,
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Now the conscious mind C-O-N-S-C-I-O-U-S,
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It's the part of you that thinks, reasons, and makes intentional decisions.
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It's responsible for what you are actively aware of at any given moment.
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That's the conscious mind. You are aware, actively aware that you're in this
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beautiful facility. Hey, man, thank God for it. We are here, praise God.
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And it's nice. You're consciously aware that the AC is on, and I feel good.
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You're consciously aware you're looking at a good-looking man bringing the word of God.
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You're consciously aware of this right amen watch out now my wife's gonna get me praise God.
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It's what causes you to think deliberately, to analyze information,
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to reason through situations,
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to choose your actions, to focus your attention, to make decisions,
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to evaluate and process what you hear and what you see.
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This is all a part of the conscious mind.
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Let me give you an example of
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the conscious mind. Now you hear someone preaching about God's provision.
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Your conscious mind processes the message and says, I believe God will provide for me.
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You are intentionally choosing to believe what you heard.
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This is a conscious mind. You're consciously making decisions.
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And you know what you're doing. It's intentional. This is a part of your mind that is conscious.
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And this is the part of the mind that I believe we have allowed the word of God to enter in.
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We've allowed the word to enter into the conscious mind and say, that's right, pastor.
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That's good, pastor. Man, the word I just read it, that's exactly what I'm looking for.
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That is good, and I'm consciously agreeing with it.
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But here's the part I want to talk about today that I really want to address,
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and it's the subconscious mind.
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Somebody say subconscious. Say it again, subconscious.
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This is the part of you that mentally
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processes and influences you without requiring conscious attention.
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All right. You're subconscious. You do things and you're not even thinking.
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You can jump in a car and drive subconsciously.
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You can get to where have you ever got there like, well, how did I get there
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so fast? Or or that's all subconsciously. You weren't intentionally doing much
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of anything except subconsciously going through the motions.
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You wake up. I know for me, I wake up and I go brush my teeth.
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That's just that's subconscious. So I automatically just do that, right?
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I'm doing it without a lot of thought or focus and attention.
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These things are contributed to established habits, automatic reactions,
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learned emotional responses. Are you with me today?
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Familiar patterns of behavior, skills you perform through experience without
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thinking, like driving a car.
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I like this familiar patterns of behavior. I thought about this Subconsciously,
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I haven't ridden a bike in a long time.
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I'm talking about a real bike outside I mean you get on the bike at the at the
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gym or whatever But the real bike outside haven't grabbed one in a while I grabbed
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one the other day jumped on it and rode up and down the road because my kids
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had the bike How did I remember to do that?
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Subconsciously That just it's a learned behavior that I will never forget I'll
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never got a ride back jump on the bike and I do it Subconsciously
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the one thing about subconscious is it is always set on autopilot.
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It is set on autopilot. Your subconscious is set on autopilot.
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And when the scripture says that we need to renew our mind, I think we understand
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consciously we need to change the way we think.
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I think we understand from our conscience we need to value and have a little
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more morality than we do.
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But I think we don't go deep enough into our subconscious. You hear me, Martin?
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Where it's set on autopilot, you can hear something and your subconscious says, we reject that.
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Let me give you an example. I wrote this down. You consciously believe God will
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supply all my needs, right? Amen. Say amen to that.
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But when an unexpected bill arrives, your immediate response is fear.
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Why is that? It's your subconscious.
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So you conscious, God will provide Philippians 419, he'll supply all my need
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according to, and all of a sudden the unexpected bill, fear.
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Subconscious is on autopilot because of your observation, your training,
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your teaching, or even experience where money's concerned, you sense danger.
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Oh, unexpected bill, how in the world are we going to pay it?
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Fear comes and subconscious takes over,
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and now you are wandering around in fear over the years you've conditioned yourself
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to automatically associate financial uncertainty with danger,
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this doesn't necessarily mean you lack faith listen to me now it means you learned
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responses your learned responses have not yet caught up with your consciously held beliefs.
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Listen to me now. Are you following me? Doesn't mean you necessarily lack faith.
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You just your learned responses have not yet caught up with your consciously held beliefs.
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Recently, I was talking to Stacey, my wife, and one thing I love about Stacey,
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she's very observant of me.
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Sometimes I don't even know what I like or don't like. I have to ask her, do I like that?
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And she'd be like, no, you don't like that or whatever. I mean,
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she know me better than I know myself.
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I love it. She studies me. She knows me. She knows what I like, what I don't like.
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She knows if something's heavy on my mind or not. She just, she studies me.
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And she said, I want to share something with you. I said, go ahead.
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She said, when you talk about this particular subject, and she named the subject,
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she said, you always sniff. I said, what? She said, when you talk about it, you always say it.
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And I said, well, you know, allergies. And she was like, no,
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no, it's not allergies. I've noticed if we bring this subject up,
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you will sniff in the conversation.
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I said, what in the world? And so I said, okay.
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And then maybe the next day I said something about that subject and I sniffed.
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I noticed it because she told me.
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I sniffed. She said, did you see it? I said, I did.
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I said, I noticed it. She said, why? I said, I don't know.
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Now, I'm not trying to get too deep with you guys, but I did a little Google research on this.
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And ultimately, can I be transparent with you? It's either one,
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a strong sense of excitement or a strong sense of fear regarding that topic.
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That my subconscious automatically responds with a sniffle which is a symptom
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that I have some reservation about this topic,
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some in the subconscious mind I have been put on autopilot and I don't really
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know if God's going to come through for me in this situation can I talk to you today,
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consciously I know it.
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I can preach it to you. I know it. But when you start recognizing the subconscious,
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and start identifying your responses,
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this is where I believe the word of God is telling us that we need to renew.
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It's in the subconscious.
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We've been trying to change how everybody thinks, which is important,
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but we've got to change what everybody believes deep-rooted on the inside of them.
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This is why it's not working, because you consciously believe it,
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but you subconsciously are responding like it's not true.
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We were believing God for the money to get in this facility to purchase this
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property, believing God for a large sum of money to get in here,
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And bless God, it came in. Amen.
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The money came in. We're here now. Praise God. And there's some other things
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the Lord will have us do in the new year. And we renovated this place and furnished it.
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And I'm making confessions. I believe and I'm declaring. I'm consciously knowing.
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I'm reading the word and I'm declaring.
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But then I notice if I'm at a stoplight, I reach for my phone and automatically
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start looking at the bank account.
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Can I be transparent with you?
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Subconsciously, we don't have enough Consciously, God's going to do this thing,
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Subconsciously, I don't know how this is going to happen I mean,
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look what's in the account and it looks like it's going the other direction
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How is God going to do this?
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And the Lord started talking to me about My subconscious, which has been set On autopilot,
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let me say some things to you your subconscious is designed to keep you in the comfort zone.
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It's designed to keep you in the comfort zone. Don't do nothing out of your
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comfort zone because danger's out there.
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It's scary out there and sharks are out there and they bite.
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And so those who've been with me a while, you know, it's the last few years
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I've been saying get comfortable what? Being uncomfortable.
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Get comfortable being uncomfortable. It's the reason why Jesus gave you and
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I the Holy Spirit, and he is called the Comforter.
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So when we are in uncomfortable situations, we have the Comforter to comfort
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us in uncomfortable situations. Say amen to that.
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And so we got to get used to just being uncomfortable. We got to challenge this subconscious.
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We don't even know it's an operation until someone like me diagnoses it.
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Now you're going to be recognizing that.
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When Satan told me to sniff, I never noticed it. Now I notice it.
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Now I'm very hard to think. We'll talk about the subject. I'm like,
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I'm not going to sniff. I'm not going to sniff.
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And my nose will be like, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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I'm not going to sniff. Why? Because I'm in the process of renovating my mind.
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Completely to where it even gets into my sub. What does sub mean?
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Under. It gets underneath that conscious mind that I'm aware of.
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Now my actions have to change because I am now aware of what's going on in my subconscious.
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You may not understand someone does something to you. I don't know.
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Something that, you know, this is a trigger.
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You know, that's a trigger for me because it's deep down in your subconscious.
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I said this earlier and I'll say it again this couple Mondays ago I ran some errands,
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and I was in line one particular place in line there was a guy standing behind
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me the person that was supposed to help me wasn't there yet the person come
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up the guy behind me literally jumped in front of me,
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consciously that wasn't subconscious that was conscious he knew that he went
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behind me to get in front to ask the lady for something now the old Devon would
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have handled that verbally with that individual, okay?
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I mean, I would have had a whole lot to say, and if we want to throw them hands,
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we might throw them hands too, okay?
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That's the old Devon, okay?
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Listen, I said, my goodness, that man just jumped right in front of me.
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Now, a trigger started happening, you know what I'm saying?
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Trigger started coming up in me like, wait a minute, and I said.
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No, I'm in the process, come on somebody, of changing my subconscious,
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renewing my mind that it impacts the underneath of my awareness and consciousness
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that I don't have to get upset by that.
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I just took a step back and said, I just thank God I'm not in a hurry. I wasn't in a hurry.
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Thank God. Go ahead. Help that man. And then I just let it go.
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Stacy was with me. She was at a table. I went to the, I said,
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you see that man jumping in front of me? She goes, yeah, I did see that.
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You didn't say that. And I said, you know this. Okay.
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I said, I didn't. I said, I just let him do it. Just let him do it.
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I said, you know, I'm not in a hurry. I'm here eating with you,
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beautiful wife. You know, I'm having fun.
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I'm not, I'm changing my subconscious.
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You know, I don't care what they think, what he thinks about me or not.
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I know what, how God thinks about me.
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Because you know, what really happens is, how dare he jump? He think I'm a nobody?
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You remember me? You know what I'm talking about. Who do you think he is getting in front of me?
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Hey, I'll be, hey, exactly. Hey, I'll throw these things quick, you know?
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And so, listen, you remember people when the Popeye's chicken sandwich came
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out? And people was fighting?
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Literally fighting. Why is that? Triggers. Somebody jumped their head.
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Triggers. And their subconscious.
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No, somebody, they fighting over chicken. They weren't fighting over chicken.
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Their subconscious was on autopilot
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and just acted like they have always experienced. Don't disrespect me.
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And they just jumped out and started fighting.
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And we've got to renew our mind.
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Are you with me? A complete renovation of the way we think subconsciously so
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that we can identify I will not respond on autopilot.
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I will grab a hold of that steering wheel and I'll direct this car.
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I'll direct this airplane. I'm not going to let the autopilot do it. Why?
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Because the subconscious mind always rejects change.
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I want to let this soak in. Your subconscious is going to always reject change.
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Change. Whatever the change may be, whatever it is, the subconscious will reject it.
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And so the renovation of your mind has to force your subconscious to embrace change. Right?
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It changed for the better. I'm going to embrace this is better.
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And subconsciously, we're going to have to change. There were,
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this happened, this is over a period of years when I first started pastoring.
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I used to be very concerned what people thought about me.
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I just, oh man, oh, did I miscommunicate? Oh, did I say that wrong?
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Oh, did the people not understand? Oh, did they take me wrong?
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And I used to, I used to be up at night, Rose. I just, oh gosh,
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Sunday night was the worst night.
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I couldn't sleep on Sunday night. I was so concerned about that.
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I communicate effectively and that I mislead people. And oh,
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I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep. And I've gotten to the point now.
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I'm like, I've done what the Lord's told me to do.
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I've said what the Lord told me to say. I responded the way the Lord told me to respond.
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And if I miss it up, I hope there's enough grace and mercy on you guys to understand.
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Pastor's human, and he just missed it there, or he, you know,
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he didn't speak to me, he should have, but he didn't, he's okay,
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I'm okay, and we just keep it moving, right?
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And that used to really bother me, and then I started, as I got mature and older
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and developing a renewal of my mind, I remember one particular family reached out to me, and I was
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early in pastoring, and it was a Friday, and I should have never answered the phone.
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But they called. I was at dinner with my family, and they said,
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Pastor, we got some good news to share with you.
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I said, listen, I can't talk about it right now. Listen, hold that good news.
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I'm out eating with my family.
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We'll touch base on that a little bit later on. Sunday's coming.
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I can't wait to see you face to face to tell me on Sunday. Oh,
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okay. Get on the phone. I found out they left the church.
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Left. I'm like, what happened? Where'd it go well you didn't take my call and
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you didn't listen to my good news and the good news was they got a new car Okay.
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And you didn't listen. We leave it. Man, that that used to bother me.
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I was bothered. I was hurt. I was upset. I should have took the call.
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Oh, I just struggle with it. And I said, no, I've got to change my subconscious.
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Because my conscience knew, man, that shouldn't bother you. Right.
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My conscience knew that was the right thing to spend time with my family because we're at dinner.
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But my subconscious was like oh you want people to like you and you got to have
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people you know that you know In order to grow in the ministry people got to
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like you you know and and you got to be liked and and I said no Never again now I said now,
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People mad at me talking about me making fun of me and what you don't know I'd
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be sitting on my couch googling how many how many lives does a cat have I can't care less and.
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I don't care. I've done what God's called me to do. I said what he called me to say.
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I'm doing it to the best of my ability. If that makes people mad, then so be it.
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Be mad. Go find Dr. So-and-so and whoever you want to find. But over here,
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you're going to get some good teaching.
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You're going to get some integrity. You're going to have a man of character.
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And if you just stay with me, you're going to grow. Amen.
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But Dr. Doolittle, go find him, and he might cheat on his wife. I don't know.
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But over here, that ain't happening, praise God Say amen to that,
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I had to work on myself Now I ain't bothered by none of that,
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I heard recently somebody making YouTube videos against me They take it and
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say this is a false teacher And they create YouTube videos I could care less,
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Amen I had to work on renewing my mind,
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So that subconsciously I embrace who I am in Christ Jesus,
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I am who I am because your subconscious will control the mental activity deep
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within you that sets the boundary for your life.
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Your subconscious gives you boundaries. You can't do that. You can't do this.
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Many years ago, I'm not the best swimmer.
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I want to say I can't swim, but I can survive.
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I can float for a short period of time.
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And I had this fear of getting in the water.
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I always had this fear. My mom had the fear, and she just transferred it right
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on to me. You know that can happen, by the way.
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Just gave it right on to me, and I've always had this fear. Listen,
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I'm in and out the shower. You know what I'm saying? I mean,
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just being engulfed in a big body of water.
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Now, I like cruises, okay? I do like a cruise, but I'm not in the water.
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Praise God. And so being in the water was always a fearful thing for me.
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And my conscience said, you need to learn how to swim. You got kids.
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My kids love to swim. My conscience, you got to learn how to swim.
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My conscience says it's the right thing to do to learn how to swim.
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My subconscious said, don't get in that water.
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You're going to die. You're going to die. Don't get in there.
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Can you touch the bottom? You can't. Don't get in there. Don't get in there. You can't do it.
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And so here I am in my 40s taking swimming lessons.
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Why? Overcoming the subconscious, which was rooted in the fear of the world.
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Now I'm not afraid of it. I just don't like it, but I'm not afraid of it.
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It's the subconscious that must be renewed. Are you with me today?
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Because your subconscious is setting a boundary. There's some things that God's wanted you to do.
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There's an amount of money that he's wanted you to step out and give.
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There's some things that he's wanted, some barriers he's wanted you to break,
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some territory he's wanted you to take, but subconsciously you feel like, woe is me.
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This, here I am. I'm just a little me. And I mean, who am I? And what am I called?
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Why would God use me? Or why would he have me do that? I'm just,
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I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody.
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Who can save anybody? That's what your subconscious will tell you.
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But you're going to have to get off of autopilot. You're going to have to break
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the mold. You're going to have to get free from that. And the only way you do
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it is by the renewing of your mind.
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And this is what the word of God does. The word of God will renew your mind.
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Now, Ephesians 4.23 in the contemporary English version says it this way.
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Let the spirit change your way of thinking.
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That's it right there. Let the spirit change your way of thinking.
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The spirit, Jesus said, my words are what? Spirit. And they are what? Life.
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So get in this word, this spirit, and let the spirit change the way you think.
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Let his spirit change the way you think.
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I was, I'll share this with you.
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When we first got the church going, there was a man that came to prophesy and
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he said that, and I'll share with you. He said that the Lord is going to,
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there are people that are going to come to your ministry.
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He prophesied in front of everybody. You remember this? And he said,
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they're going to give five, tens and twenties. Talking about money.
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He said, receive them, call them blessed.
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He said then there will be people that will come That will give hundreds Receive
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them, call them blessed People will come and they'll give thousands Receive
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them, call them blessed He said people will come and give ten thousands And
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at the time I was like, ooh,
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Wow, okay And myself kind of said, that ain't gonna happen.
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Right? The conscience said, oh, that sounds good. The self-conscious ain't going to happen.
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He said, tens of thousands. He said, receive them and call them blessed.
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He said, people will give hundreds of thousands.
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He said, receive them and call them blessed. He said, if you believe in and
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receive it, people will give millions.
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And he said, to get big things done quickly for me, saith the Lord.
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I remember this prophetic word the Lord gave me.
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Where at the time I'm thinking, Lord, why would someone do that for me?
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In our ministry, why would that?
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Why would that happen? And I said, no, I'm going to change my self-conscious about this.
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And I started meditating that word. I had it transcribed. And I would read it daily.
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And I would listen to it and read it and listen to what's happening.
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I'm changing the way I think.
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And I read it and I would declare and read it and say, yes, I receive everybody
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that gives any denomination. I call them blessed. I receive it. And God will send.
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And then the first $10,000 check came in. Glory to God.
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Hallelujah. Remember that? We shouted over that. Praise God.
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Receive it. Call it blessed.
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And then another 10,000. And then 15,000. And then 100,000 came in.
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We received it. Call it blessed. And the Lord said, if you'll change your subconscious,
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I'll send people to give more.
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And then 250,000 came in. Glory to God. We received it.
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Call it blessed. And the Lord said, I'll send millions at a time.
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That's coming in, praise God.
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It's coming in in Jesus' name. And I believe it's coming through you.
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Hallelujah. It's coming through you. Don't wait for somebody else to do it.
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It's coming through you.
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What is it? I had to change my subconscious and say, God can do that for me.
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He can do it for our ministry. He wants to. This is what God wants to do.
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And it's happening just as the man of God prophesied.
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It's coming in, just as he prophesied. Praise God.
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What is the, what am I saying? You're going to have to change your subconscious.
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And it's by the renewing of your mind. You.
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Can change what you consciously think about before your automatic responses begin to change.
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So you can change what you consciously think about and then if you continue
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to meditate on that Then it will change your subconscious.
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It's the meditation of what you consciously hear and see your Consistency in
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it will change your subconscious renewing the mind goes deep down into the subconscious
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mind and changes the autopilot and.
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Renewing of the mind goes deep down into your subconscious. That's where it has to change.
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And it changes the autopilot. Now, I'm not up. Remember I mentioned I used to
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be up Sunday nights? Sunday nights, I'm the best sleep I get now.
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Changed my subconscious. Now, I even sleep in. I wake up late.
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On Monday's my day off. Don't call me on Monday because I might be in the bed. Amen.
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I changed my subconscious with the word of God. Consistency and reputation are
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imperative for developing new habits.
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And those new habits is what changes your subconscious.
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And so if we're going to renew our minds, one translation says we need to renew the spirit of our mind.
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If we're going to renew the spirit of mind, we're going to have to take God's word,
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put it in our mouth, put it in our ears, put our eyes on it, let it create a picture,
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meditate the picture of something different. Are you with me?
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Keeping on the inside of you.
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Maybe it's a picture of a new you. Like, hey, the old man is gone. There's a new me.
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And meditate a new you, or maybe it's something that you need.
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Put it on the refrigerator, put it on your computer, whatever the case may be.
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Keep your eyes on it. This is something we've done. There are things on my refrigerator,
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in my office, stuff like that that I have set up so I can put my eyes on it, let it create a picture.
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It goes on the inside of you. Once it's on the inside of you and you begin to
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have consistency and repetition, it will change your subconscious.
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And now your response will be different than what it used to be.
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This is how you experience true life.