Winning the battle in your mind | pastor Scott Marshall | September 20th, 2026 transcript

Hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. You Hey. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey >> [music] [music] >> people. Well, good morning church. Why don't you go [music] ahead and stand up with us? It's a great day to be in the house of the Lord. Why don't you turn to your neighbor and say, "Will you praise the Lord with me today?" And and say [music] yes.

Would you say yes to your neighbor? Amazing. Come on, let's sing together this morning. [music] I praise in the [music and singing] valley. Praise on the mountain. [music] I praise when I'm sure. Praise when I'm doubting. [singing] I praise when I'm numbered. [music] our face when surrounded. [music] Cuz praise is the word the enemy drowns in. As long as I'm breathing, I got a [music and singing] reason to praise the Lord, [music] oh my soul.

Praise [singing] the Lord, oh my [music] soul. I praise when I'm feeling. I praise [music] when I don't. I praise cuz [music] I know you're still in control. [singing] My praise is a weapon. It's more [music and singing] than a sound. My praise is [music] the shout that will tear you down. [singing] As [music] long as I'm breathing, I [singing] got a reason to praise [music] the Lord, oh my soul. Praise [music] the Lord, oh my soul.

I [music] won't be quiet. [singing] My God is alive. So how could I keep it inside? Praise [music] the Lord, oh my soul. I praise [music] cuz you're strong. Praise you. Praise cuz you rose and [music] defeated the great. I praise cuz you're faithful. Praise cuz you're true. Praise cuz [music and singing] there's nobody gater than you. I'm praise cuz you're [music] praise cuz you're [singing] great. Praise cuz you're defeated and great.

[music] I'm praise cuz you're faithful. Praises are true. Praise his body. [music] Praise the Lord, oh my soul. [singing and music] Praise [music] the Lord, oh my soul. Praise [music] the Lord, oh my [music] soul. Praise Praise [music] the Lord, oh my soul. I won't [singing] be quiet. My God is alive, [music] so how could I keep it inside? I won't be [music] quiet. [singing] My God is alive, so how could I keep it inside?

[music] I won't be quiet. My God is alive, [music] so how could I keep it inside? Praise [music] the Lord, oh my soul. [music] [music] Come on, somebody praise the Lord this morning. He's so so worthy. Amen. Come on, [music] sing it with me this morning. When all I see is the battle. Here we go. When all I [music] see is the battle, you see my victory. [music] When all [music] I see is a mountain, you see a mountain.

[music] And as I walk through the shadow, your [music] love surrounds me. There's nothing to fear [music] out. So when I fight, So when I fight, [music] I'll fight on [singing] my knees with my hands lifted [music] high. Oh God, battle [singing] belongs to me. Every year I lay at your feet. [singing and music] Oh, I sing through the night. Oh God, the battle belongs [singing] to you. [music] And if you are for me, you can't be against me.

And if you [music] are for me, you can be against me. For [music] Jesus, there's nothing impossible for you. [music] When all I see are [singing] the ashes, you see the [music] beauty. Oh, when all I see is [music] the cross, God, you see the empty. Oh, [music] so when I fly, I'll be right on [singing] my knees. With my hands lifted high, oh [music and singing] God, the battle belongs to you. Every year I lay out [music and singing] your feet.

Oh, I sing through the night. Oh [singing] God, the battle belongs to you. >> And all mighty fortunes. [music] You go before. Nothing can stand against the power [singing] of our God. [music] You shine in the shadows. You win every battle. [music] Nothing can stand against the power of Come on, [music] sing it again. You al mighty fortress. You go before. [music] >> Oh, we thank you God. >> Nothing can stand against the power [music] of >> Nothing can stand against shining shine. >> Oh, you in every [music] power. >> Nothing can stand against the power.

[singing] We sing. We sing. [music] Oh mighty fortress, you go before us. Nothing [music] can stand against the power [singing] of our God. Shine. You shine [music] in the shadows. You win every battle. Nothing can stand [music] against [singing] the power of God. So when [music and singing] I fight, I fight on my knees. With my head lifted high, oh [music] God, the battle [singing] belongs to you. Oh, every year I lay at your feet.

[music] I sing through the night. Oh God, [music] the battle [singing] belongs to you. Oh [music] God, that all belongs to you. Amen. Amen. Come on, give it over to him this morning. [music] >> [music] [music] >> What gift of grace is Jesus my redeemer? [music] For there's [singing] no more for heaven now to [music] give. He is my [singing] joy, my righteousness and freom. My [music] steadfast love, my [singing] deep and boundless peace.

To this I hold. [music and singing] My hope is only Jesus. [music] For my life is [singing] wholly bound to. [music] Oh, [singing] how strange and divine. I can [music] see all yet not [singing] but through Christ in me. [music] The night [music and singing] is dark but I am not forsaken. You're by [music] my side. The Savior, he will stay. I labor on [music] in weakness and rejoicing. For in [music and singing] my need, his power is displayed.

[music] To this I [singing] hold. My shepherd will lead [music] me through the [singing] deepest [music] valley he will be. Oh God [music] has been one and I shall overcome [music and singing] yet not but through Christ in me. >> [music] >> No fate I [singing] dread. I know I am forgi. The [music] future sure the price it has been paid. For [music] Jesus bled and suffer for my garden [music] and he was raised to all the grave.

[music] To this I [singing] hold. My sin has been defeated. [music] Even now and never mind. [music] Hold the shades are released. I can see [singing] I am free and not [music] but through Christ in me. With every breath I long to follow [music] Jesus for [singing] he has said that he will bring me [music] home. Until I live, I [music and singing] know he will renew me. Until I stand with joyful. [singing] [music] To this I [singing] hope is only Jesus.

[music] All the glory ever more to me. [music] When the race is complete, still my [music] shall repeat and none [singing] of you who rise in me. [music] To this I hope [singing] my hope is only Jesus. [music] All the glory ever more. When the race [music] is complete, still my race shall remain and not [music] but through Christ in me. When the [music and singing] race is complete, still my lips shall repeat. Yet not I but through Christ.

[music] Let my life but through [music] Christ in me. Let my life but through [music and singing] Christ in me. [music] Amen. Church, would you pray with me this morning? God, we worship you today, God, for no other reason except that when we are in your presence and when we behold you, when we encountered you throughout this week and throughout our lives, when when we remember, Lord, the things that you've done for us, our only option is to praise, is to worship, is to bow down and to remember, God, your goodness.

It's a reaction. It's built into us. And so today, God, we worship you because you alone are worthy. You alone are righteous. You alone are holy. You alone are the source of all that is good and beautiful. And anytime we encounter that in the world, anytime we see something lovely or delightful, we know, God, that your hand is in it and upon it. And so God, we thank you for it today. God, we confess that the truth is we try to do what we wish we could do on our own.

We try to live life without you. We try to pretend as if good can somehow exist separate from you and we can go and grab that for ourselves. And yet, Lord, time and time again, we find that good alone belongs to you. And so, you're the one that we're really after. And so, God, today we do pray that Christ would be at work in and through us. And we know, Lord, that you're already at work in and through us. But God, we just ask for more.

We ask for more of your Holy Spirit, more of your goodness, more of your presence, God. Not not so that we can be comfortable, not so that we can enjoy life, but God, so that we can bless others. [music] So that we can carry that goodness with us everywhere we go. So that when we walk into work, when we walk into Quick Trip, Lord, when we walk into the store, people see Jesus on us. May we share that with others, Lord.

That's that's our prayer tonight. Help us, Lord. [music] Help us, Lord. We love you. Pray this in the mighty, mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. You may be seated this morning. Well, it looks like [music] it has passed. Looks like the heat has passed. It It passed like a kidney stone, but it's passed. Come on. If anyone of you have ever had a kidney stone, you know what I'm talking about. whole lot of crying, flopping around on the floor, throwing up, all the things, but it's passed.

Hey everyone, my name is LP. I serve as one of the pastors here. And just have a few quick things for you this morning as we continue to worship. Would love it if you would uh reach for it. If you're in the room with us, grab a connect card and uh begin filling that out. There are other ways you can do so. On the screen, you can scan the QR code. If you're online, there's a link that you can click and do that. And uh we as a staff take time each uh and every week and pray for all the prayer requests uh that you share and we also share in the celebrations of what God is doing and answering prayers in your life.

So we love it if you take a moment and do that. Um if you've done so, you know that you've received a little text just to let you know that we're praying for you um and uh just walking alongside you in your journey of faith as well. On the front of the card, there's uh a little information that you can give us how to contact you if you if you need something. Make sure you're on the right lists. And I will say this. I will say this out loud in here so all of you are listening.

Um for some of you in here, um you need to put your birth date somewhere for us. Some of you are reluctant uh to do so because of what um you know you you ever have to fill out something online and you scroll that wheel like you're on um the price is right how long it has to go. I want to just tell you stop doing stop not filling that out because we want to I mean that should be a badge of honor really that that you you know the Lord's been with you and you've made it this long.

So, uh, we want to make sure you're on the right list so that you get the right information. And if we do a search for college age students [music] and some of y'all's names pop up in there, you lie and do not speak the truth. Okay? So, help us out. Um, I've given you enough time to fill out the connect card now. U, so, just kind of messing around with you this morning. Uh, but on the front there are some places that you can uh check the boxes to take some next steps.

Maybe it's uh to serve. Maybe it's to um a next step in your faith or whatever that is. But there's also an opportunity to uh check a couple of boxes whether you're a first time guest or a second time guest with us. If that is you, I would uh just ask that um when you check that and meet me back at the start here booth at the close of service and one of our pastors will be back there and we will uh we'll exchange your connect card with a gift that we have specifically for you.

And so uh hope to see you back there um at the back whenever we're finished. We use a phrase around here a lot. We say, uh, give us 3 weeks. And what we what we the reason why we say that is we think that if you're here for 3 weeks, you'll get just a small glimpse of what God is doing through the people here at 1400 East Kellogg Drive. We believe that God is up to something special. And we're just thankful to be a part of that.

And so, um, be here for three weeks and see what God is doing in our lives and in your lives as well. So, uh, we talk a lot about mission around here. A few weeks ago, I said these words. I said, "Can we just say the mission of our church?" You're beginning to see it pop up in different places in the lobby and um and uh you know, in different uh places of print around here. But but it's this. We make disciples who love God, love people, and serve the world.

Can you say that with me? We make disciples who love God, love people, and serve the world. That is what everything that we do is aimed at. In fact, we believe that so much. Not only do we uh reach out and connect people with Jesus here in the city of Witchah as one of our mission statements uh talk about we um take the message of Jesus around the world. There is a team that's leaving for El Salvador uh a missions team leaving for El Salvador on this Tuesday.

If you're in the room with us and you're going I know one one is back uh at the camera. There might be some uh working in the nursery, but if you're part of that team, there's there's seven. Um so it's kind of like the they're small kind of like the Delta Force. Uh if you're if if that's you, um you feel free to make your way down front here. We're just going to um offer a word of prayer. Um and [music] uh we just want to pray for you as you take the mission that God has for us here all around the world.

And feel free to come uh forward. Uh, and if you're in uh your seat, would you just in a in a symbolic way, reach your hand out, reach it forward, and and let's pray for uh our team that's headed to El Salvador. Father, we give you thanks for what you're doing here in the city of Witchah and around the world. Lord, thank you for uh a team that's willing to go to El Salvador and just share the love of Jesus with the people there to do some work in your name.

Uh and and so God, we just want to lift them up. We pray for uh we pray for safe travel. Uh we pray for safety on the the job site and the work site. We pray for interactions that will result in lives being transformed forever. And so God, would you just be with them this week as they go and share the love of Jesus and serve the people around the world? We lift them up to you. We give you thanks and we give you praise.

And everyone said, "Amen." Amen. Thank you, team. We'll be praying for you. Uh, and expect to see some great pictures and some great video. And my personal favorite, send us the weirdest thing. Send me the weirdest thing that you're going to eat while you're there. Okay? I I want to see that. I'm I'm weird like that. So, when we we talked about transformation and and I just want to say, thank you for your faithfulness.

When you give, you give with the intention of lives being transformed. And that's what we're about here. um every decision that we make we believe is about transformation of lives. So we just want to say thank you. The ways that you are uh that you can give are listed on the screen. And so each week when we give as an act of worship, we say these words together. So if you wouldn't mind, stand with me. We're going to say these words together.

Freely we have received. Freely we give. God put us first, loved us, and redeemed us by giving with joy. We give with joy today. Put God first, love the people he loves, and be a part of redeeming our city in Jesus name. Would you please remain standing for the reading of the teaching text? The teaching text today is 2 Corinthians 10 1-6. By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you, I, Paul, who am timid when face to face with you, but bold toward you when away.

I beg you that when I come, I may be I may not have to be as bold as I expected to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience once your obedience is complete. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. May the word of God shared be a word we share. You may be seated. >> If you reached out to me and you said, "Scott, I I need some insight. I need some wisdom into my life. I I You're a pastor and you work with people and I'm sure you see all kinds of things in inside people's lives, hearts, and minds.

And man, I just could I could just really use some insight and and I I want to have coffee and could you just tell me ask me the question you think I most need to answer. Just I want you to start there. I I need to I need to really understand what's happening in my life and why it's going this way. Here's here's the question I would ask you. I would ask you, are you winning the battle in your mind? Are you winning the battle in your mind?

Now, here's why. This is the open secret of life. The open secret of life is that is that most of not all but most of our outer problems that are around us that we wish we could solve are really manifestations of inner problems in us in other people between us and other people. And we don't realize that. And so what we spend our energy on is fighting the outer problem and not the inner problem which is the source of the issue.

And so we never win at the source. I it's a very common thing a principal of a school will have a a kid you know a younger kid or middle school kid high school kid and they have some behavioral problems and and when um that teacher or principal digs down underneath the behavioral problem what they find out is that there are some inner problems in the life of that child that student or the life of that family and that's where the real issue is and it's expressing itself as behavior or it just goes this way uh at home, issues at home with your kids, you know, you're trying to wrestle with your kids, you something in your marriage that's just not clicking.

What we're trying to do in this series is we're we're learning how to put on what the Apostle Paul called in 2 Corinthians uh or 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the mind of Christ. We're trying to learn how to think about all of our life and ourselves and other people and God u the way Jesus thinks about those things. We want to put on the mind of Christ. And so uh what I want to do today is just a little unique is here's kind of the road map.

I want to give you some um some theology and then I want to give you a really really practical application. If that sounds overwhelming to you, let me reframe reframe that for you. I want to explain to you why you're wrestling with the things you're wrestling with and then I want to give you a really take home aable you can put this into practice this week way to do something different in your life so that you can actually begin to win the battle in your mind or let me break it down even sports metaphor right we're going to talk about the playbook what's in the playbook and why it's all there and then we're going to learn how to run the play playbook and then run the play.

Okay, here's the context of the playbook. Um, here's what Paul's doing. You read that heard that passage of scripture there in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Here's what Paul's doing. Paul is giving a master class on winning the battle in your mind. Because what was going on is Paul was being he was being pummeled and beaten by people. They were making up stuff about him. They were making accusations against him for all of his best efforts.

He was being misunderstood. Have you ever had that happen in life where you're doing everything you know to do? You're trying to get it right. You're trying to say it right and people take you wrong and they misunderstand you and it it feels awful, doesn't it? It feels painful. It feels con like you're confusing. It feels very confusing. It feels like you're losing and you're like, what do you do? And so what the Apostle Paul does here is he gives a master class on what to do, how to win the battle in your mind.

Now, do you know what I mean when I say a master class? Usually it's reference to music. I've got a picture here of Yoyo Ma. Some of you will recognize this as a meme. I just want to tell you that's Yoyo Ma, world famous chist. But uh if you were a string player and Yoyo Ma pulled into town, he's like, "I'm going to do a master class." If you knew who Yoyo Ma was, you'd be like, "Sign me up. I'm I'm there." and he would explain to you how musicality happens and and technique and you would learn some things from a master practitioner and you would go, "Oh, I can do that better." Or or maybe a sports metaphor will work for you.

You're working on baseball and Pete Rose, greatest hitter of all time, I know he's passed away, but if you had the opportunity to learn from the AI version of Pete Rose, I don't know. I guess that exists somewhere. you you Pete Rose could uh coach you on your swing or you're like just trying to get a little better on the golf course and Scotty Shuffler's like, "Hey, let me let me give you some lessons." You know, master level class.

That's what the Apostle Paul is doing. And if he were here, he would say, "Okay, everybody, welcome to the master class." And he would tell us three things. He would say, "I'm going to help you understand the source of your struggle. I'm going to give you a better option that's available through God's spirit. I'm going to show you the fight that you're going to have. And then lastly, he would give us the play. He would say, "Here's the play.

I'm going to show you how to win the fight." Are you ready to enter into Paul's master class? Here's the first thing he would tell us. He would he would say, "Let me tell you about the source of [snorts] your struggle." Uh 2 Corinthians 10:3. For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war as the flesh does. Now, I know some of you are like, "Wait, wait, wait. My my Bible says, and it was said in the thing, world.

What's it?" That's the NIV translation. The original Greek literally says the flesh. So, I'm I'm giving you what the original Greek says. We though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war as the flesh does. So, here's here's what happens. Someone comes at you, some difficulty happens, somebody says something about you. You go through something, it's not working out the way you think it ought to work out and something happens inside of you in your body, in your mind, uh in your in your stomach, you know, you feel anxiety and and you're like, what what's happening?

Paul's acknowledging that's where the struggle is. And he uses this word, the flesh. Um, the flesh is a is it's like a metaphorical image when the Apostle Paul uses it in his letters and it's got a couple levels of meaning that Paul's trying to help us understand. Number one, he's saying it's an energy source that people use for fighting the battle. Now, this is what every parent of a three-year-old knows. How does a three-year-old win?

They are a a great example of the flesh. How do they win? They win by things like hitting and screaming and demanding. I know, not your kids, other people's kids, right? We're not talking about your kids, right? Not my kids, your kids. Um, we we were in the office uh earlier this week and Gwen Markham's part of our church. She comes in and volunteers and does some stuff around here every week. She's amazing. and she had her little 5-year-old granddaughter and so we were all kind of just chatting with the little 5-year-old daughter and asking her questions and she was talking about how she's a big sister and you know I got my little sister and she said and she's you know has little kids do she just says and she bites me and pulls my hair like like that is a description of the How many of you know don't nudge anybody okay no elbows today how many of you know somebody that's kind of still how they work their way through life they're they're hitting they're They're screaming.

They're demanding. They're biting. They're pulling hair. And metaphorically or realistically, again, no elbows. Paul's saying, "It's the easiest energy because it's what I'm feeling in the moment, and I want to feel satisfaction for what I'm feeling in the moment." And Paul says, "Hey, listen, listen, listen. We we live in the flesh." The word literally is we walk around in the flesh, but we don't live according to or we're not governed by the flesh.

I'll give you an example. Let's just say that you were a member of the military and you were in the Air Force and you're stationed at McConnell. You would go on to the base and you would walk around on the base and and that might be something you would experience. You go, you know, to where wherever it is that you work and you're stationed, but also you are also governed by the military code, the code of the air force and the ethics of the air force and protocols of the air force. you live according to that code in addition to walking around on the base.

But if the rest of us who are civilians, we could go onto the base and walk around on the base, but we're not governed by that code that dictates the everyday life of all of the people there on the military. And what Paul is saying is, listen, you can be on the bay. You can walk around in the flesh. You have a body. Things happen to you. You respond, you feel things. But you do not have to be governed by what you feel.

You can be governed by another code because the flesh is flesh is an easy energy source. Second component is the flesh in the New Testament, the way Paul uses it is is a biblical construct that's that describes a living life without reference to God. It it's sin, but it's also what's driving the sin. is what's behind the sin. Augustine, one of the great theologians of the church, the bishop of Hippo in Northern Africa and the first centuries of the Christian church and then several hundred years later, Martin Luther, both of them said they described it this way.

They called it the inward curve. They're like the inward it's it's here's how Luther said it. that scripture describes mankind, you and me, as so curved in on ourselves that we use not only physical but even spiritual goods for our own purposes and in all things seek only ourselves. Is anybody honest enough to go, "Yeah." In other words, it's me curved in on me to the exclusion of anyone else. I'll give you a few examples.

We talk a lot now about narcissism and narcissists and you're like, I live with one. I work for one. Maybe, maybe you do, maybe you don't. But that's kind of the extreme example. And the narcissist, they're just make everything about them that's that's uh, you know, indicative of a narcissist. But, but it works other ways, too. It might be like you work for a boss and they will never promote anyone because they don't want to look bad.

Or maybe it's a a dad who spends all of his money and his time on himself and his toys. Again, no elbows. [snorts] What happens when we curve in on ourselves, when we only think about ourselves to the exclusion of anybody else, is it it creates around us a a kind of death. Paul even says this when he's writing to the Christians in Rome. He says, "The mind governed by the flesh is what?" Say it out loud with me. Is what is death.

But the mind governed by the spirit. The spirit of God, an alternate energy source, is life and peace. Here's what Paul is doing. He's saying he's he's describing the destruction principle. It It's why things implode around you. Have you ever been like in a business setting and it just kind of implodes and blows up and personalities get involved and egos and or you're in a family and the family disintegrates in a multitude of ways.

Either the the immediate family or the extended family or parents with children, adult children to parents or there's a rift with a neighbor. don't raise your hand. Like there's a, you know, like a neighbor thing that goes on and and it's it's why things implode because the flesh is a mind that is set on getting whatever I think I need to have in order for me to be okay. And the only thing I can the only thing in my field of vision is I see my need for satisfaction.

So, I can't see. I'm I'm just unable to see other people. And that results in the death of relationships. And it results in the death of purpose. And there's inside of that no life and no peace. Do you recognize that? I hope you recognize that cuz Paul's trying to paint the picture of the human condition. If you want a a a a an equation that would tell you what the flesh is, the flesh is it's you and your decisions minus God and God's will.

That's how you always end up with just the flesh. Because here's what happens is you don't believe that either God will come through or that God is there to come through for you. And so you believe that you have to take matters into your own hand. That's the source of the struggle. Paul says, I'll give you an example. You could go to the book of Samuel in the Old Testament and Samuel who was the book is named after um his mother Hannah um came to God year after year after year.

She was uh unable to have children. I know many of you have been through that experience or going through that experience and it's like why can't I have a baby? And so she's going through this emotional experience of not being able to have a baby and she comes up year after year. Samuel 1 says she would year after year she feels something but she goes to God with it. She walks around in her flesh but she's not governed by it.

She's like I feel this thing God but I'm going to bring it to you. And so year after year and then finally her son Samuel is born and Samuel fast forward in the narrative of of the book of 1 Samuel. Samuel is anoints King Saul the first king of the Israelites. and and Saul, there's this episode in in 1st Samuel 28 where Saul is is afraid and he asks God for a day. He's like, "A day?" He's like wants God's help and he walks around in his flesh, but he's governed by it.

Here's here's how it's recorded in 1st Samuel 28:5 and 7. When Saul saw the Philistine army, he's who was against them, about to defeat them. He was afraid. Terror filled his heart. That's normal, right? Up against something. He inquired of the Lord. Great. Wonderful. He prayed. He asked God, but the Lord did not answer him. You could insert there immediately by dreams. Saul then like immediately he's like I'm like I got to have satisfaction for this.

He said to his attendants, find me a woman who's a medium so I may I may go and inquire of her. In other words, he's like I've got to have satisfaction for what I feel. It's the source of your struggle. Paul would say in his master class. Second thing he would do is Paul would say, "Okay, well, let me show you a better option, a better way to go about it. Um, live by a different code in your flesh, but not governed by it." Here's how he says it in verse four.

The weapons we fight with are not literally in the original language, are not fleshly. They're not they're not from me. They're not from inside of me. I I can I give you some examples? Um this this is again no elbows allowed here um when I give you these examples but some examples of three fleshly weapons that we very often deploy. People around you deploy them. I've deployed all of them at one point or a time. Uh you probably have too.

And again no elbows, right? Here's the first one. Cynicism. Have you ever been around somebody and what cynicism is is they take doubt and mistrust which are internal things and they express it verbally outside of themselves as criticism and sub and suspicion? I It's the guy in the meeting who always shoots everything down. It's the coworker who always sees the negative. It's the person who makes it sound like they see how things really are.

Well, it's not they're cashing the check on somebody else as like they're it's like they've got insider knowledge, but you know that it comes from doubt and mistrust, not from a positive place. Do you know this? Again, no elbows or passive aggressive. This is the person who won't say what they want directly, but they let you know indirectly. And what they're doing is they're walking around with eggshells and just like tossing them everywhere around them so that everybody's like, "Oh." And what they do is they control situations not with their words by being uh able to ask directly for what they want, but they control things with their moods.

Do you know anybody like this? Yeah. Or dominance. This is another fleshly tool that we use. This is the person who they dominate every like you walk into the meeting and you see them there and you're like, "Oh no." Like they they can't stop monopolizing. It's the mom who takes over at social functions and everybody just wants to say, "Hey, chill, Linda. Like, take a chill pill." Right? It's the boss who they always let everybody know they're in charge.

These are fleshly tools. And and what are what are these? These are entrenched ways to not be out of control. I want to have control. They're it's they're real needs. Like you want to feel like you're in control. You want to not have doubt. You don't want to trust. But but you give in to whatever you feel and you're living then according to those fears and according to those anxieties and you're dominated by them. And and Paul's like, we don't we don't use weapons like that.

We don't that's not how we go about it. He says on the contrary, second half of verse four, they have divine power available to you is divine power to demolish strongholds. The word there is is uh demolish is like you take something apart. You tear something down. You deconstruct something and and not another person but an idea. You you decon you deconstruct and tear down strongholds. We're going to talk about um all next Sunday.

We're going to talk about that. a friend of mine who's been a he's a Christian. Um he's a a lover of Jesus. He's been a therapist for 40 years. He's worked with people all across the spectrum. Met him through a mutual friend Sam McVey. Wonderfully wise guy. He's going to be here and help you understand how you got into these places where you have inside of you what Paul calls strongholds. Like how do I and how do you break free?

You don't want to miss next week for that. We'll be inter I'll be interviewing him and talking to him. But it's these strongholds, right? It's this it's this fortified place inside of you. It's this fortified way of thinking that you're just not going to budge from. And Paul is saying this is where the battle is, but you can have divine power to demolish those strongholds. You don't have to be stuck by those anymore, Paul says.

And so then the third thing Paul gives us in his master class, he says, "Okay, so let me show you how the fight is going to go. Let me show you the fight that you're going to have." Verse 5, he says, 'We demolish arguments and every pretension. I'm going explain these that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And so here's where the fight happens. You feel things. You feel like you need satisfaction for those things.

And if you don't believe that God is there and present for you, you don't believe that there's divine power to help you meet your real need and understand it, you will believe that you must in that moment find satisfaction. And it will feel to you like a life or death moment. And so here's what Paul's saying. Where's the battle? Where's the real battle? It is in your mind. The arguments and opinions that that come against you that tell you that God is absent.

So this is the fight. He says, "So what we have to do then [snorts] is we have to we have to demolish these arguments. We have to we have to deconstruct them." That's a word that gets thrown around a lot. And you may know somebody who would say, "Yeah, I'm deconstructing." And generally what what happens is the person deconstructs themselves out of faith. Actually, the Apostle Paul says it's not bad to deconstruct. It's just deconstruct the things that keep you away from knowing and understanding the goodness of God.

So if you need to tear down some ideas and some thoughts about understanding the goodness of God, Paul's like, "Yep, that's exactly where you need to go. You need to be tearing those things down." And he says, "We we deconstruct arguments." The word there might be translated today a meme. Like just this idea that gets thrown out there and pretensions are these kind of lofty sounding opinions. And and can I can I give you a couple examples so you're not like, "What are you what are you talking about?" um he he's saying, "Okay, we have to fight against the things that make us believe that God's not present to us." So, I want to reach back to in 2 Corinthians in his letters and I show you what Paul says about God because this is what Paul's saying is you got to understand what God's like.

[snorts] Here it is in 1 Corinthians chapter 1:es 3 and 4 or 2 Corinthians, sorry. Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of my favorite verses. the father of compassion or the father of mercy and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves and receive from God. If you've ever been through grief, this verse means a lot.

Means an incredible amount. So what's Paul saying? He's saying that God is God is the father of mercy. God is the father of compassion. So what comes from God always because he's the father of mercy and compassion is mercy. God is the source of the true comfort that you are looking for. Now here's how it works. Paul says so if we think that God isn't merciful and doesn't offer us comfort or we think I don't well I don't feel that mercy and comfort in my life right now.

Guess who has to find comfort and kindness somewhere? You and me, right? we get into the flesh and we say, "Okay, well, God isn't merciful or God doesn't comfort." And again, these arguments, these memes float around and and what's that based on? Well, you know, there's just too much pain in the world. Too many bad things happen. There's too much pain in my world. Like, you might look at diseases that happen in different places around the globe and you go, "Why is that disease take those people out?" Or you may have been lost someone to cancer like I've lost my mom to cancer and and and you're like why does canc's not good?

God's not full of mercy and comfort. And so this meme develops. I I'm going to show you some cultural memes, literal memes on the internet that I pulled up here. Um I'll give you this one. Here's one like, hey, God works in mysterious, violent, ineffective, and breathtakingly cruel ways. It's a way to say don't trust God. He's not full of mercy. He's not the God of all comfort. And so what Paul says is you and I have to deconstruct that.

We have to take that apart. We have to recognize what's actually going on. Here's what I suggest to you. The way you deconstruct something like that is you have to say, "Okay, wait. I got to understand the created world that I live in." I'll give you one example. Okay? [snorts] I'll give you example of the eyeball. I am not a an expert. I'm not an opthalmologist on the side. I don't have a side hustle of eyeballing, whatever that is.

Um, but I'll tell you a little bit what I do know about the eyeball. There are literally thousands of proteins that have to line up in a very specific order for you to see out of these two lovely things that reside in your cranium. They all have to line up. It would be like going out to the parking lot and seeing one of the cars out there and saying, "You know what? That car, the metal somehow randomly ordered itself together. the tire and rubber and hoses, they they just randomly one day in a in a yard somewhere all just kind of magically came together and that's how we have the car.

If I told you that's how cars were made, you would go, "That's ridiculous. That's how cars are made. They're designed and they're put together and they're carefully thought through." Well, the eyeball is a way to say, "Wait, I I'm just I'm giving you one small little snippet. You could expand this to anything in creation and you would go, "Wait a second. behind all that we see is a mind that understands how things need to work and creates beauty and goodness.

And if that if that God exists and that God says that he's the God of all mercy and all comfort. Okay. See, you have to you have to deconstruct the argument. Let me give you um let me give you a second one from 2 Corinthians chapter 3:1 17. Paul says, "Okay, so the Lord the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Now, if you think that there's no freedom from God or you don't currently feel like you're free and you feel like you're trapped, guess who thinks they have to create the freedom?

It's like it's up to me. It's up to my flesh. And so the idea that lodges is actually you know what it's a cultural idea is that actually what religion does is religion puts you in bondage. It's the rules that are in the Bible or in religion that bind you up. And you're only actually free when you can do whatever you want. And doing what God asks is hard. And if you do what God asks, you won't be free. You'll be in bondage.

I just can't. I just can't do that. I don't I I've got to be free. I've got to be me. I got to be true to myself. Here's a cultural meme that goes along with that. It's like, well, you know what? God invents free will. um invents life, gives it free will, then proceeds to write a book of rules. You see, it's the meme. This is just the idea. Well, how do you deconstruct that? Well, this is actually the plausibility structure of our society.

It's an unquestioned assumption that we believe without scrutinizing it as a culture that I'm only free when I express who I truly am. And that's actually not a very old idea in the human experience. And it contains within it no responsibility for other people. And what it does is it if if all of us lived by that, it leaves us together as a human community full of selfish people who don't know how to love because we're just focused on ourselves.

But what Paul is saying is when you do God's word, when you listen to it, when you put it into practice, you actually become free. You actually move into love and you actually move into joy and you move into peace and you move into hope because you're you're only free in the environment you were designed to flourish in. I it'd be like a fish who's in an aquarium and looks out and says, you know, I just Here's the sea, right?

Like it's just I'm so trapped by this sea with all of its beauty and these coral. I just I'm so trapped. I look and I see there's people there and I just want to be free and just works up the courage one day and flops up onto the shore and says, "I'm free." Right? What's going to happen now? The fish is going to have to say, "And I'm dead. I don't like that's not the environment the fish is designed to flourish in." Do you know the environment that you and I are designed to flourish in?

It's love. >> [snorts] >> Love requires give and take. And if I'm only being true to me and what I want, I then cannot be present to you and what you need. Therefore, I am not free. But if I follow what God says, if I do what God commands us to do in the scriptures, then Paul says, you find freedom. You find love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control. You want those things in your life.

You know who you get them from? The God of heaven and earth. That's who you get them from. >> Okay, Paul. Deep breath. There's the playbook. Now, let's talk about running the play. Let's get really, really practical and let's talk about how to run the play. And here's what he says in verse 5. He says, "So what we do is we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." That's the plate. You got to go, "Okay, I have these thoughts that come into my head.

The battle is here in my mind. So what I have to do is I have to learn how to take captive every thought that comes into my mind and make it obedient to Christ." So I've got an acronym for you. Okay? This is not in the Greek text, but it's really close. Okay? And it's really simple. It's it's four things. Now, I don't mean this tritly. I don't mean if you do these four things, everything's going to work out in your life.

What I'm suggesting to you from from Paul and understanding what Paul's trying to say here is this is a pathway that you if you'll put it into practice will take you on a new path toward freedom. But you're going to have to do it. You're going to have to work the path. You ready? Here we go. Take is the acronym. [snorts] You're going to have to take inventory of the source of the thoughts that are coming to you. real practical here.

There's there's three places that thoughts come from. Um, number one, thoughts can come from you. Number two, I'm I'm going to flesh these out. Number two, thoughts can come from evil. Number three, thoughts can come from the Holy Spirit. Let's just start with the Holy Spirit because you got to take inventory of where where who is who's who's giving me these thoughts. Where are they coming from? If a thought is from the Holy Spirit, you know what it's going to feel like?

It's going to feel like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control because those are Paul says the fruit of God's spirit. So if this thought enters into your mind and you have to say, okay, does this thought lead me toward more love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control? You get, well, Scott, Jesus also said the Holy Spirit came to convict us of sin.

That's exactly right. Because what the Holy Spirit very specifically points out, hey, the way you said that to that person did not bring love and joy and peace to them. It's very specific. It's not condemning. Very specific. So, Holy Spirit's a source of thoughts. The Holy Spirit works with our thoughts. You're a source of your own thoughts. You um curiosity, questions, those are all places that thoughts come. You're just sitting out looking out the window and you go, "Why is the tree like that?" That's you.

But there's another one. This is the more diabolical is it comes from evil. It's it's the it's the thoughts of condemnation and the thoughts of blame and the thoughts of shame. I've told you this before. Um there's an author who wrote a book called the art the the war of art and he's talking about the creative process and and [snorts] he got these letters. He said when you start to create something you always run into what he calls um resistance.

And he said it's so prevalent that every time people go to create um these these thoughts will impede these thoughts of condemnation, the thought these thoughts of blame, these thoughts of shame, these just horrible thoughts, these difficult thoughts that feel overwhelming. And he's like, "You know what? I've gotten letters from every almost every uh nation in the world because he's a well-known author and and people have come in and from all different kinds of cultures and the letters all say the same thing.

I have these specific thoughts and he's not a Christian and he's like, "Well, there has to be some force out there that is putting these thoughts inside of people." Now, we know that we're like the devil. He's a liar and he's the father of lies, Jesus says. So, you're not Here's how John Gordon, who's a a Christian and he coaches um NFL and MLB and NBA and um athro athletes and people at high levels, he this is what he says because he works with people on their mindset and how they think.

He says, "You know what? you have negative thoughts. He says it's so freeing. He says, you are not your negative thoughts. Have you ever has that ever occurred to you? Like you have negative thoughts and you're like, why am why do I have those negative thoughts? Why do they come at me? And he's like, you're not your negative thoughts. They aren't from you. They're not from you. Um Marcus Warner wrote a wonderful book on this.

We're going to talk a little bit about what he um said in that book next week with um Dr. Brock Mccay, but he tells this story about this missionary who was serving the Lord in another place. And he said he would go in to a church service and they're singing songs and and praising God and and you know trying to be in God's presence and all of these horrific thoughts of that he'd seen and put into his mind over the course of his life would flood his mind while he's trying to praise God.

And so he goes to Marcus Warner and he says, "I don't know what to do. I just I'm I'm like overwhelmed by it. I I don't know why these thoughts come at me." and it's so difficult. And and and Marcus said, "Well, well, do you fill your mind with those thoughts through the week?" He says, "No, it used to be a long time ago, but I hate those things. I stay away from them." And this is what he said. I'm going to read it to you.

He said, "If you are not putting those thoughts in your head, and God is not putting those thoughts in your head, where do you think they are coming from? Do you hear that?" So the missionary left, came back, and he said, "You know what? that set me free. He said, this is this is what he said. I had no idea how often the enemy was planting unwanted thoughts and then accusing me for having them. I'm going to read that again cuz that's bold.

I had no idea how often the enemy was planting unwanted thoughts and then accusing me for having them. So, you got to take inventory. Where are those thoughts coming from? Second is you've got to accept only what's in line with scripture. Here's what that means. You have to know the scriptures. If you read the scriptures and you read one little verse one time a day, that is fantastic. That is a start. But you're not going to you're not going to break free from all of these thoughts with this little splash of the of God's words.

It's like little drop. It's not going to push away a lot of dirt. You need to you need to wade into the water of God's word and understand what God's word says. hide God's word inside of your mind and your heart so that when these things come you can go I don't I'm not accepting that I don't accept that negative thought I don't accept that condemnation because that's not in line with God's word so you hear things like condemnation and you go no Romans 8:1 there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus get away from me Jesus said in John 3:17 I did not come to condemn the world but to save it so get away from me thoughts of condemnation you have fear thoughts you're like no first Timothy God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind.

Self-loathing thoughts come in, you go, "No way." Uh-uh. Romans 8. I'm convinced that neither death nor life, angels or demons, present or future, hide or death, nothing in all creation, shall separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. You can only do that if you know the scriptures. Are you following what I'm saying to you? Like Jesus when he was tempted, you know, the devil quoted scripture at him, but Jesus knew what it actually meant.

The there was a study done, it's called the reveal study, um big massive study of of spiritual growth in America. And they found out that the number one tool for your own personal growth in your understanding of God, your growth as a follower of Jesus, is reading the scriptures. Number one. Number one. Here's the third thing you have to do. You have to kneel. Meaning you have to pray. And I might actually help if you actually kneel.

I you that might help you. What I'm trying to say is it's you can't operate in like I'm going to toss up a prayer to the big guy up in the sky and hope he hears. Big guy, did you hear what I had to say about that? Like you got to you got to bring those thoughts. I was talking with a dear friend this week and he was talking about this practice. I would commend it to you. He's like, "You know what? I've I've gotten into the place where I don't know what to say about the situations in my life necessarily.

I don't necessarily know how to solve them or fix them. He said, "So, what I've been doing is I've been imagining myself by the altar and I I if it's a person, I take that person and I imagine myself lifting that person up and Jesus is standing there and I take that person and I put that person into Jesus' arms and I go, God, here I don't know what to do about this situation. I don't know what to do about this person, but here you go.

And he said, "If it's a problem, I'm not sure what to do about it. It's just stuff." He There's a jar on the altar and I take that thing. I take that problem and I see that problem going into the jar and I'm like, "Here you go, God. I don't know what to do about that, but that's what is." And maybe you got problems. Maybe you need to add a trash can. And you're like, "You're in the trash. Lord, is that you have to kneel." Last thing is you have to exit the hopeless story for the hope story.

You're making your thoughts obedient to Christ. I was listening to a neurologist, a brain surgeon who's a follower of Jesus and he was talking about the process of healing the difficulties that we've been through in our life. And he said, you know, the way the brain works is whatever gets fired meaning you the thoughts you think over time gets wired. That's the line in neurobiology. Whoever's fired is wired. You literally lay down a path.

He said, "So what happens is many people just rehearse the same thing over and over again. They just rehearse the negative story. They rehearse the pain. They rehearse the shame. They rehearse the blame. They rehearse the condemnation. They rehearse the talk that's from evil. They rehearse the negativity. They re they rehearse it again and again. And what you're doing is you're laying down a path." And he said, "No." He said, "What you got to do is you got to rehearse the healing.

You got to rehearse what's available to you from God. You got to rehearse the hope that's yours in Christ. Cuz you make it obedient to Christ, you're making it obedient to everything Christ has to give us on the cross. That's grace. That's forgiveness. That's hope. That's joy. That's freedom. That's peace. I I love this. Marcus Warner told us in his book. He said there was this 5-year-old little boy who got it. His mom was listening to him from the other room and he was he he was talking out loud. 5 years old.

This is this you need. Here it is. exit the hopeless story for the hope story. So he said, "Bad thoughts, go away right now in Jesus name. You are not welcome here. And if you don't leave, I'm going to call on the Lord and he's going to smash you to smithetheriness." [laughter] Isn't that great? Isn't that beautiful? That's it. Bad thoughts, go away right now in Jesus name. You are not welcome here. If you don't leave, I'm going to call on the Lord.

He's going to smash you to smitherings. Come on. Come on. and you need the healing, I'm going to invite you to stand. We're asking you uh during this series especially to just let someone We're going to have some folks come down and pray. If you guys would come down front and um I'm I'm [music] asking you I'm I'm going to I'm going down every time having someone pray for me cuz it's so powerful to have somebody join you in prayer with the things that you're up against in your life.

Guess what? Everybody in this room has issues, [music] problems, situations. There's not a person here to your right, your left, in front, behind that doesn't have issues, problems, and situations that you don't [music] need the help of almighty God to deal with. And so, it's a privilege to have someone come pray some during the series at some point, you can't do it today, like have somebody come pray for you. I'm going to have someone pray for me.

Someone last week did it for me. I was so beautiful. Help me so much. I will invite you to respond because this might be a healing moment for you. You need you need to win the battle in the mind. You need to you need to take these thoughts captive. You need to put but you need some healing. You need somebody to pray over you. You need to pray someone to pray a blessing a prayer of blessing over you. I would invite you while we're singing this song.

Just come forward. Let somebody pray for you. I'm going to come down. Britney, if you'd be down here and um someone's going to pray for you and receive the healing that is available to you [music] through the spirit of God, the power of God that's available to you today. Don't miss it today. Don't miss it. Let's sing and [music] respond. Pull [music] me in closer. Close [singing] to your heart. [music] May I be a pure reflection of all you are.

[music] Love that is patient. Love [music and singing] that is kind and love that keeps no offense or wrongs [music] in mind. Make me like [music] Jesus. Make me like Jesus. My [music] heart is an open space for you to come and have [music and singing] your way. I'm open. [music and singing] I'm open. My [music] heart is an open space for you to come and have your way. I'm open. [music and singing] I know [music] you're faithful to find me right where I am.

[music] Though even in my wondering, you call me friend. [music] Mercy receives me and miss me to my feet. And I'm called [music and singing] to be the wonder and the mystery [music] of knowing Jesus of knowing [music] Jesus. My [music and singing] heart is an open space for you to come and have your way. I'm [singing] old. [music] I'm open. [music] My heart is an open space for you to come and have your way. I'm [music and singing] open.

I'm open. [singing] [music] and do whatever you want to do and [music] say whatever you want to say and move. However [music] you want to move and [music] change however you want to change. [music] Come on and do whatever you [music] want to do and say [music] whatever you want to say. and move [music] however you want to move and [music] change whatever you want to change. [music] My [singing] heart is an open space for you to come and have your [music and singing] way.

I'm open. I'm [music and singing] more open space. You [music] can't have your will. I'm [singing] >> I don't want you to miss [music] the chance for a blessing. So, these guys are going to keep playing and uh we'll dismiss real quietly. If you'd like to sneak up and have somebody pray for you, don't miss [music] it. Don't miss it. We'll talk more about it a little next week. You I promise you want to not miss what the Holy Spirit can do in your life today.

[music] Respond. Don't miss out on responding to what God's saying to you. When you respond to God, what you get is everything the Holy Spirit has. [music] Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, [music] self-control. You do not get condemnation, shame, blame, ugliness, difficulty, and pain. You do not get that from the Holy Spirit. [music] You get all of the goodness of God. And I want you to have that.

I don't want you to miss next week. Dr. Brock Mccay will be here. He and I will be talking. And I I promise you do not want to miss that. You need to tell six people, "Hey, you need to be there, too. It's going to be incredibly powerful." Um I don't want you to miss it. We send you with a blessing. You receive this as you go. You're sent to know the love of God for you expressed in the Holy Spirit who is the power of God who who gives you his divine power to demolish strongholds who who [music] gives you the path to take every thought captive and make it obedient to the goodness of Christ.

That's what's available for you this week. Don't miss it. You're sent now to love that God, to love the people who are made in his image, to serve them in Jesus name. Hug somebody. Tell them you love them. Come down for prayer if you'd like. See you next week. [music] [singing] [music]