Thank you for listening to the river.
Bend Church podcast Reverb in church exists to lead all people
to know love and live New Life in Jesus Christ.
We hope that you enjoy this message, we're in a series
called winning the war in my mind and I pray that God's
already. If you were with us last week or
you called it online, God is already started showing you that
we're at War because that's the thing.
You will lose a war every time unless S, you admit that you're
in a war and so this is just me as a pastor over the last
several months and praying and going, we've got to come back to
this. Too many people are losing and
God wants you to win God. There's some things that we
can't win in this life or something's God never promised
us, but to win the war. In our minds, it's actually
something he's equipped as for Look, what Jesus says here, he's
talking in context, he's talking about Satan and his desire for
us. And then his desire, he says
this. The thief's purpose.
That's what he refers to Satan as his going to kill or steal
kill and destroy. Troy, but did you know, this
Satan has no authority over you physically.
He can't touch you without God's permission it.
He doesn't have that kind of authority.
But you know what? He can do, he can lie, he can
lie. And what does he do?
Where does he go after us? Where are we being attacked more
than at any other time? It's in here.
It's between our ears in it. That's where so much spiritual
attack. The show.
So much relational attack has come.
It's right here. It would be so much better.
Tell me if I'm right. I know.
Is that dude. I know how, dudes.
Think guys would it be better for you?
Just put on the gloves and Duke it out with Satan every now and
then just get it over with like going in my bloody might, let's
come down to the front. Just go ahead and get it over
with and get on with your weak. But what happens at the time,
you least expect it, you get attacked here, don't you?
That's where the war comes from. And so, these purpose, still
kill, destroy. What does Jesus say though?
My purpose, I want to give them a rich and satisfying life.
I'm convinced that so many of us missed the rich and satisfying.
Let us that doesn't mean easy life.
Pain-free life, stress, free life.
That's not what Jesus said. Rich and satisfying, Abundant
Life, a life that you can only live.
You can live your best life without Christ, but this life
he's talking about. It doesn't even compare so much
better, rich and satisfying life, to walk with contentment,
and love, and joy, and peace in your heart.
He desires that for us or why are we missing it?
I would argue that the reason a lot of us missed it, and I
missed it on my own life and many seasons it Because I was
losing the war, my mind. I mean, I had Jesus, you know,
the old saying, I got Jesus in, my heart, is not typically just
there in my heart, like, my life is surrendered to him, but even
as a person who would say, well, my heart surrendered to Christ,
but in my winning the war in my mind, or is the enemy still
winning that? So part of this today, is this
us going not on our watch, man. Not on our watch.
Will we lose or at least not let you know that you can win?
Let me give it a transforming. Truth from scripture here today.
If you are in Christ, If you will change your thinking which
is a holy spirit empowered action, you have the ability to
change. How you think everybody here
walked in with the willpower today you can decide before you
leave. I'm going to change how think
now, it is a holy spirit if you're belong to Christ and you
have the spirit of God empowering this.
And here's what will happen, your life will change.
It's actually not contradictory to this idea what we say, new
life, one of your part of our mission.
We want to lead people to New Life to Live new life in Jesus
Christ. How do you do that?
Well primarily one of the things You do is let the Holy Spirit
begin to empower your change of thinking which will show up and
change of behavior. So many times.
We think, if I can just get my act together, if I can just get
my behavior right then I'm going to be okay.
But actually, you got to let the Holy Spirit work in your thought
life and in your heart life, if you really want to get life
change, if you want to live what he has for you.
Did you know this? If you study the word,
repentance in scripture, that's a word you'll see often.
In fact, no one can come to Christ without repentance and
it's often thought as a Change of Direction.
Like, I've been walking my own way and now I'm going to turn
around and go to God and that's not faults, that's true.
But if you dig to the root of the word, do you know what it
means to change your mind, to change your mind in such a way.
And and another way to think about it, change your
Allegiance, instead of being a, you know, I'm instead of
swearing allegiance to myself and my waist, I'm gonna go Jesus
in my mind, you were Lord, and now want my feet to follow that
path. Sir, even in the word
repentance, you see a war in the mind, don't you?
I believe all that's keeping people from coming to Christ.
Don't know if you're here, Oakwood.
If you're watching online and you're just right on the verge.
You go, Joe, I like the message. I'm hearing you talk about
Christ. I'm hearing you preach it, but,
but I'm just right on the line, I don't know.
Do you know with the Warriors? It's in your mind.
It's in your mind at the only thing, keeping some people from
coming to Jesus is the war in the mind.
The idea that I don't know if I can do it here.
I don't know if I can do it, you know, surrender myself in that
way. And so I'm praying that God
works in that this week. I brought this up last week and
I'll never make light of illness mental illnesses.
We talked about it, but, you know, there's so many people in
the house impacted by anxiety. If it's not you, it's somebody
you love. So many dealing with like
depression and it's often secret, it's just inside an
inner circle. You know, so many dealing with
insecurities anger issues and you know what happens with
these. I mean, can it be really honest?
The many times? This war in the mind is what
drives our addiction are our coping mechanisms.
It's what drives us wanting to get some relief.
I can't blame you. I'm not looking at the church
judging. I wish we could just be more
real and say, yes, that's it. I got a war in my mind.
I've been losing. So I've been trying to cope And
there are some you know, healthy coping mechanisms and then
there's some that are actually destructive to get you a point
though to say that that's what it is just to find it.
Here's what I want to do I'm not making light of any of it but I
do want to get to a point where I say, let there be no more
stigma about the fact that we have mental health, wrestles and
the gospel speaks to it. The Gospel of Jesus in his word,
he's all about helping us win the war, in our minds.
Let there be no more paralyzed Christians, because we're stuck
in our head, but to be no more suicide ever.
I say this and I say this to the day, I die.
If I never have to stay in this, a pastor of another person who
got so low in self-worth, and so beaten down and insecure that
they took their own life. I would I would consider that a
huge win in the ministry that God has allowed me to do.
May it never be. I don't want it on my watch and
so this is just me going. Hey, let's remove the stigma and
talk about it. Let's get into this.
So here's what I want to do today.
I prayed over the last couple of weeks and got kind of change the
direction of today's message from about two weeks ago.
Because, as I looked at it, I want you to identify today
three, common lies that I think all of us are either believing
right now or either. We've decided not to believe
lies that. You may not even know you're
believing. That's when I look at these
there's some of them at every at a point in time in my life.
I was believing it and it was the soundtrack of my mind, but I
didn't know I was believing it but it was showing up in how I
behaved was showing up the fruit in my life.
It's only walk through that. But before we walk through that,
actually want to go to the winning, the war kind of battle
guy. That that I gave you last week
and if you're just joining today, kind of review for us.
And so if you want to win the war, here's the first thing we
have to do, evaluate your thoughts and behaviors, you got
to actually think about what you're thinking about.
Why are you hurting here so much?
I know that it's a scary thing. You go, Joe, you don't want to
get inside my head. I don't even want to get inside
my head. I just want to live my life man,
but sometimes you have to stop and I call it this, turn the
white noise of life down down low.
And just get still and go God, what's going on in me?
What is this? And you go Joe.
It may be really scary. Yeah.
But what, if that's the only path to Healing?
If you get to that point where you say what's going on,
evaluate, there's a guy that's there that I think you got on
the way in, if you didn't get this morning here and it Oakwood
and it'll be online as well this week, but you can pick one up
and here's what it has. It has kind of a guy to battle
playing guide that walks you through this process and you can
sort of take it like a journaling note guide this week
but the questions are this. If you want to evaluate your
life you have to think about this, what repetitive
destructive thought am I having what keeps coming in my head
about me, what intrusive Thought keeps happening to you.
What negative thoughts are triggered by emotions.
Some people when they get sad, all of a sudden all the optimism
and joy, get the leaves are life completely.
It's almost like everything has gone to pot just because they
felt sad for a moment. Some people have - mm actions or
negative thoughts tied to Joy Soon as you feel like okay,
everything's good today. Well, something bad, just around
the corner happens every time that's a broken thought process,
here's another two questions. What sinful thoughts are you
entertaining in your head? Was the enemy keep putting back
before. You went Temptations or
overwhelming, your thoughts. Once you evaluate those
thoughts. What'll happen is it'll rise to
the surface really quickly the ones that you know okay these
are trouble. These are what's troubling me.
Paul says this in second Corinthians that we have to do
this take every thought captive and then make it obedient to
Christ. You know what that means?
If we don't take them captive, then then you're never gonna be
able to win the war. You got to take them captive in
evaluate. Now, here's the second piece
once you have Evaluated you can't just diagnose the problem.
You now have to do this in, this is the hinge point of the entire
series. If I had to say what's winning
the war in my mind about is this replace lies or truth, every one
of us, believe, a lie. We've been taught lies and we
don't sometimes we don't even know what the truth is.
Once we know it though, and we do this right here, it literally
changes Us in the power of the Holy Spirit replace lies with
truth. This is where transformation
comes. You know where we're Lies.
Come from we looked at it last week, Satan.
His weapon against us is lies. If I can lie to you, because you
believe a lot about yourself about the world about God about
scripture, they can get you to believe a lot.
I can get you off track. Leave you powerless to live the
new life. We look last week at what I
called a lie. What do you got a broken way of
thinking Naraku? It's called a neural pathway.
If you got a broken way of thinking that's going to be your
go to every time you come up on, you know, hurtful situation or
every time you, you know, every time you fail, you're going to
feel like I'm a failure if that's the thinking process.
Going to go back to when you felt like a failure as a kid, or
when you felt like a failure because your marriage didn't
work. When you felt like a failure
because you didn't do a good job raising your kids or now your
families, broken apart, whatever that broken thought process,
you're gonna go back there until you do something about it.
God wants to help us. He's given this but Li ruts can
be replaced with what I call truth trenches.
You have to change your mind. That's replacing lies with
truth. Now, what is our primary weapon?
If you're going to fight a war, you gotta have a weapon, right?
This is not surprising, but it's still Oh, something we Overlook.
Do you know what the war is won? With God's word.
It's crazy. He designed it like this but
it's God's word. See, look what Hebrews says
about the word of God. The word of God is alive and
Powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest
two-edged sword, cutting between Soul and Spirit between joint
and Marrow. It exposes our innermost
thoughts and our desires. The word not only is our weapon
against Satan, it's the weapon that transforms us internally.
Look what Ephesians says Paul second talking to the church
about putting on the armor of God, he says, put on salvation
as your helmet and take what the sword of the spirit, which is
what the word of God. Let me tell you this.
If you're only picking up God's word on the screen on Sunday
morning, that is not doing battle.
That is not War. I met, hang on.
I'm so glad you're here and you're taking in the word on the
screen, thank you for listening, but I'm just telling you like
you're fighting your fight to sword fight with a pocket knife
at best. Like, put your pocket knife up,
go home and get out the word of God could.
This is it is? It is powerful.
For you. You can find truth that you need
for your specific situation. After you've replaced lives of
Truth, or you at least acknowledge what needs to
happen. Here's what you have to do.
You have to, then? Establish new thought patterns
those true. Trenches you've got to decide
how you want to think about yourself.
Well, what informs that God's word?
If he says you're his child and he'll never let go of you, then
you got to start thinking that way.
If he says that his Mercy is new every morning, you got to stop
beating yourself up for stuff that he's already forgiven you,
for sure. You may have to walk through
some consequences on Earth, but you got to understand God is not
going to dangle your sin over your head.
If you are forgiven him, when you come to him and you accept
his cross, and you accept his forgiveness, he says it.
You're forgiven. It's done.
So, the only people bringing it up again, as you and your enemy.
It's not him. So, you have to decide.
I want to establish a new thought pattern.
If you feel like I'm a failure and I'll never be good enough,
you're going to have to change it up and go to Ephesians 2:10
where it says, you know what, you're a masterpiece and God
decided long ago that there are good things that he wants you to
do. So you're not a failure.
You actually by Design who you are, you may need to work on
yourself and let the spirit of God transform you.
But listen, you're not worthless established that new way of
thinking. And then here's the last one.
Declare it If you read the Old Testament scripture, this was a
much bigger thing than and I think it's still something.
That's so powerful families would speak, truth over each
other, the priest, before they dismissed from the temple, he
would speak truth and hope over people.
May the Lord shine his face upon you and be gracious to you and
give you his peace. They would speak things like
that. Over people, we speak things
over people. But how often is it?
Declaring truth and how often do you declare truth over your own
life? How would it change you?
If you got out of the bed every morning and said, I'm a child of
God and I'm going to live as such today, instead of saying
I'm probably going to fail because I always do.
What's that story? That self-talk is killing a lot
of people and you don't even see it as connected to the gospel or
the Holiness but it is it's a scriptural truth, declare the
truth, over your life. You go Joe.
I don't believe what I'm saying. That's okay.
Keep saying it. Declare it until you actually
begin to believe it especially if it's the truth of God's word
seat, we can't just hope we have to fight.
Hope is not a strategy, and hope is not a battle plan.
That may help. Our hearts get up and get in the
fight. Hope is about inspiring us to
stay in the battle but it Battle plan actually helps us win.
So here's what I want to do. Walk through three lies in the
rest of the time. We have this morning.
Then I think all of us are wrestling with or have, but let
me give you that reality again, you want to win the war.
You will never defeat what you refuse to Define.
I watch this as people. Get to go have lunch with people
who are struggling or do premarital counseling or do
marriage counseling and you hang out and you listen and do you
know, one of the common culprits of a lot of our issues is
refusing to acknowledge that. We're actually what we're
actually battling against. You just think it's another
person you just think it's your past and actually something very
Easy to understand if you'll just Define it.
Sometimes it is like when you when you define it then you can
begin to battle against it. If it's how you were raised then
just on it. Sometimes we're so scared to
say, you know, that my family messed me up that we think we're
going to not be loving our family to it on that.
I can love my family and say I picked up some things from my
family, that's not who God says I am and therefore I'm just
going to own, I'm not gonna slam them, but I'm just going to own
it in myself. God, there's some things I learn
some ways of thinking. I've learned some patterns of
behavior, I learned. And it's Active.
And that's not how I want to live.
I want to be a generational breaker if there's a
generational string of addiction in your home, guess what?
You can just Define it and say, yes that's not who I am, though.
I'm a Child of God, I'm in Christ.
That's not who I am. So I want to make changes in my
life, based on the strength of God's spirit in me, and you
actually can do that, but you will never defeat it until you
define it. If you refuse to say that you're
at War, you're going to keep losing the war.
So as I thought, and I prayed, I thought I could give us 100 lies
that I think we believe, but only have time for three this
morning. And so these are these are I
think kind of surprising one of the core lies.
I'm first one, I'm gonna give you.
I think it's one of the core lies that we don't believe that
we're believing and we don't know, we're believing, but we
doing here, it is lie. Number one doing?
Right means missing out. You come in that.
Don't even sound spiritual. Where's that in the Bible?
Hang on. I'm going to show you.
Doing right means missing out. Let's say there's somebody
walking down the sidewalk and you see a hundred dollar bill
fall out of their pocket. And they don't see it.
What do you do? He like, bro, I just got me a
hundred dollars, Finders Keepers, losers weepers, right.
But see this, if you pick it up and hand it back to him, you
know what you lost? You lost $100.
But you know what, you gained relationship.
Trust it was built if you gain a hundred dollars, guess what?
You lose relationship, trust Integrity.
See there's always a give and take when it comes to doing,
right? AKA following Jesus actually
being obedient because there are some things that whenever you do
it you're actually going to feel like you're missing out, but you
got to go back and say, but am I saying your will not mine God.
Like do I really trust that you won't best?
I'm gonna do right? And trust you.
And so as we look through this, I think it's a common lie that
we believe because it was the very first lie ever told.
Did you know that? It was the very first light ever
believed in scripture. Let me show you.
The very beginning Adam and Eve, Adam is in the garden.
It says the Lord placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend
and watch over it, but the Lord warned him, you may freely eat
of the fruit of every tree in the garden except there's one
role Adam except the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
If you eat it, you're sure to die.
Now, that's truth. That's God.
Saying you can have everything? Enjoy it all name, the animals,
climb the trees. Eat the fruit.
Like swing on the vine. Do whatever you want to do like,
enjoy. It is Paradise.
For you. There's one rule though this is
true. If you eat at this you're gonna
die so don't do that. There's one thing not to do.
That's true. Enjoy everything except one now,
Satan comes along possessing, the body of a snake and to this
day, most of us, you're smart like me.
You know, that snakes still possess the bodies to, I'm just
kidding. Got a good to keep a good shovel
at hand, right? Here's what it says, the serpent
was, the shrewdest of all the wild animals, the Lord God had
made, and one day he asked the woman.
Did God really say right here? The enemy starts twisting, just
a little bit. Let me just see if I can get you
off a little bit. I'm not just gonna throw a
blatant lie at you, but let me give you a half-truth.
Did God really say, You must not eat the fruit from any of the
trees in the garden. God didn't say that.
God said, you can eat the fruit. Just not from one, right?
So see how you starting to twist it already.
Of course, even answers, we may eat the fruit from the trees in
the garden. It's only the fruit from the
tree in the The middle of the garden.
We're not allowed to eat. God said, you must not eat it or
even touch it if you do, you will die.
Now, here's the blatant lie. He was warming her up.
This is how the enemy works, by the way.
He just Butters you up a little bit and getting any to hit you
with a lie. You won't die.
The serpent replied, the woman God knows that you will your
eyes will be open as soon as you eat it.
AKA God is holding something back from you Eve.
I mean, listen, I know you got everything else, but why would
he tell you? You can't have that one.
He is holding good things back from you.
You won't die. You'll be like God knowing good
and evil verse 6. The woman was convinced first
six in scriptures. The first time any person ever.
Believed a lie. You ever traced all sin back to
somebody believing a lie. You want to know why today it's
so important that we replace lives of truth.
It's his only tactic. It's what Satan comes with.
I fucking lie to you and then verse 6, if I can convince you
that the Lions truth are going to start living as though it is.
You're going to believe nothing. God says about you and
everything. You feel about you and
everything. The enemy says about you.
And so she was convinced. She saw the tree was beautiful.
Its fruit. Look delicious.
She wanted the wisdom. It would give her.
So she took some of the fruit and ate it.
And then she gave some to her husband who was with her and he
ate it too. At that moment, their eyes were
opened suddenly they felt shame So when they believe the lie, I
guess what, just like many times once we realize we've been
believing a lot there was shame that hit their hearts
immediately so they sewed fig leaves together to cover
themselves up. They try to hide from God.
Do you know what Satan did? He calls Eve to doubt.
God's goodness. God's holding something back
from you. This is a wrestling match.
All, I wish I could say, you know what, let's just check that
box and move on, but hitting it hard, sometimes to do.
What we know God saying is the right thing.
Whenever we feel like we're missing out.
But isn't that part of the Christian Life, though?
It in part of it to say, you know what, Lord, there's some
things that I'm going to have to trust you home.
Satan comes and tells a partial truth and then he just hits her
with the truth and she's convinced and then she loses.
What's the fruit of the LIE? How does it show up in our
lives? You know what happens when we
believe that God's holding back from us?
That will begin to doubt God's goodness.
Once you doubt God's goodness you stop praying the way you
used to pray. You stop treating people.
The way you used to you stop forgiving.
And you know what happens? You Unser render your life.
I used to be surrendered to Jesus Christ.
But you ever met people? And you can just tell, they're
not as surrendered as they used to be.
What happens is we doubt God's goodness and we've start
believing these lies like we did in Satan twist.
It. Did God really say you should
live a holy life. That got to really say don't be
jealous. You got a really safe forgive
those who wronged you? I mean, come on, doesn't it feel
good? Just to hate somebody.
A little bit some of your like yeah.
Feels good. Did God really say that?
She love the Lord, your God with everything.
Put him first in your life. Let me give you another fruit of
believing. That God is holding something
back, doing, right? Equals missing out.
Is this broken relationships? You see what happened in
scripture? Adam and Eve first were
separated, from God said, be kicked out of the garden only
because Jesus Christ came and shed, his blood for us can man
woman can be, we be redeemed back to him again, that's it.
But at this moment, the lie was believed the sin was committed.
They exited the garden and relationship with God.
The father was broken, they got to walk intimately with The Lord
up until that point. And then the relationship is now
broken. But not only that.
Do you know what happened to their sons?
They had two sons Adam and Eve after the the curse here, this
happens Cain and Abel. You see the first murder ever
committed. Cain killed.
His brother Abel. So the first two siblings, ever,
ever wonder if, you know why, my kids always fighting listens
ever. Since then came in the first two
siblings literally killed each other one of them killed the
other It's the impact of believing a lie.
You can trace it back to Genesis 3:6.
She was convinced she was convinced that a lie was the
truth. And so what happens is, when we
do that in essence, break up with God, break that
relationship up with God. And I thought about it, what if
instead of breaking up with God by choosing not to believe him?
What if we just decided to break up with our sin every day?
You get up every day and go, you know what?
I'm a sinner and I messed up, but I gotta break up with you
sing because you are not my owner, you're not my master,
you're not my partner, You Don't Own Me Anymore.
I've been redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
I've been Blood Bought, I'm bought with a price.
I'm a new creation, I'm a new person.
I'm a child, I'm Royal I'm a freestyle.
A queen. What if we begin to speak those
things in Jesus name, over our lives?
Let me give you the truth. If the LIE is doing right is
missing out. Here's the truth.
If we do right and trust in Jesus, he'll promise to take
responsibility for everything else.
You need everything else in your life.
Here's what Jesus said in Matthew seek the kingdom of God,
above all that. So let me break it down.
Put God first, don't put anything else.
First in your life, just put him first.
I believe this God is stripping somebody down in the room so
you'll put him first. I've been there, I don't ever
want to be there again, but I may be, but God will do whatever
it takes. He will strip you down to get
you to the place where you're like.
All right. Big boy.
Now, who's first in your life? Now we can proceed with the
blessings in the favor in the plan that I want to pour out,
but maybe I'm stripping you down to a place to where you go.
God, your first seek me first and do what live righteously.
That's that change of thinking, that showing up in Behavior.
Got a, I'm not perfect, but I do want to put my feet in what's
right? And then it says, he'll give you
Everything you need. That's God saying.
Then I'll take responsibility for all the stuff you're worried
about. Stop worrying about all the
other things. Put me first, I'll take
responsibility if we can get to the point of believing that
truth. Guess what?
There's an exhale. It's just God, you got this?
Let me give you the second lie. Here's the second one.
I am my feelings and experiences.
You'll talk about a lie that's not just destroying people who
try to follow Jesus and our file is destroying the world.
I am my feelings and it feels to see this is a core identity lie.
It says that who you are is what you've been through and what you
feel inside. That's gotten so many things
into a mess in our world. Let me give you one of my
favorite verse first is intrusion.
All scripture says this and this is, this is, you know, you could
call this a core identity scripture.
Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person, that is an
identity statement. That means that you are not your
feelings and experiences, I'm not invalidating.
Your feelings and experiences. I'm not saying that they don't
matter. I'm not saying that they don't
hold weight in your life. I'm just saying when we come to
Christ, do you know what? We Do we're willing to say Lord,
I have feelings and experiences but I'm going to say that my
identity now is in Christ, which means my identity is bigger than
those things, I may still feel certain ways.
I may still wrestle with things. I may still have some baggage
from my past but I'm going to put you first.
So my new identity is in Christ belong to Christ.
It says it's the old, then is gone her passing away and the
new is coming. And this is transformation is
where transformation comes from. So, what is the fruit of this
lie? Do you know what you'll start
believing when you start believing light?
Do you know it'll show up in your life, your work will begin
to be based on your performance Karma.
We turn Christianity into Karma often.
We think that because we've done good that God loves us and
because we've done bad, God doesn't love us and listen,
karma is nowhere in Scripture. It says, for by Grace you have
been saved. God decided, I love you, you're
jacked up and messed up and you can never be good enough.
And that's things you like, whoa.
But any good that God looked at us Romans 5:8 while we were
still Sinners at the lowest scum bag version of ourselves.
That I'll take that one. You ever go pick out a puppy
before and, you know, there's that one little runt.
Nobody's getting that one. God look at the runts and he
said, I love that one. I'll take that one home.
So many times, we get to a place where worth is based on
performance. You know what happens when you
don't do well, you don't have any worth anymore.
This goes back to addressing that place of work with this
where you can feel like it's not you're not worthy of existing if
that's a broken. Thought pattern in your head
that what I, you know, my worth is based on what I've done, then
you have to change it. My, my grandfather, my Papa, he
was an amazing man. He's been gone.
A lot of years now and I have you don't even realize until
people are gone years. Slater how much they actually
impacted you but he was a hard-working guy, he's 80 years
old, he's getting up at sunrise and getting on a tractor every
day he could and he come in at dark every night and that was my
whole life. So we went to the farm in the
Summers. Like we just we stayed with him
all day long. And so I thought, when I got my
first real job, this is the easiest thing I've ever done.
And I'm only working like six hours.
Because will Papa, man. I mean everything I ever
compared to. You pull corn for four and a
half five hours in the morning when it's about 95 degrees and
go work. Another job is so easy.
You're like this. This is easy.
Well, he was such a hard worker and he instilled that in my
brothers but I had friends from school and they would go, I want
to go work on the farm with you this summer.
Like, oh cool, let's go. Well, they get down there and
they make it about 30 minutes man, they're like over there,
you know, my what's wrong with you?
You Wimp. And so, my grandfather though is
one of these guys. I mean, he grew up in the Great
Depression. He went straight, grab got
drafted straight to WWII, came back with nothing and started
life. And so his work ethic was how he
valued people. And so for my friends, that were
lazy, he go there, Sorry man, don't bring them back down here
that I'm not worth anything. Now, hang on I'm not saying he
was a perfect guy, but very much because of how he was raised.
He had this broken thought pattern of saying, well worth is
equal to worth is equal to whether you work hard or not and
I'm not brother and I, we were scared not to work hard because
you ever told it to custom before.
You know what that is. If you do, you can do to cussing
on the farm. If you didn't work just right.
And so listen, working hard was it?
But I thought, you know, I wonder if that if that's in my
broken thought patterns though somewhere.
Because you start looking at other people and going with,
they don't have work ethic. They don't have value.
Do you know where that comes from your upbringing?
You don't even realize it. I'm not I'm not condoning.
That we should be lazy. I'm just saying sometimes it
needs a little things, you didn't even realize were there
and they're there. And you go, man, I need to, I
need to back up and make sure my mind is not on the roller
coaster of squishy identity, but you're worth will be based in
performance. Also, here's another fruit of
this like, you have a constant sense of inner Brokenness.
Yo, what do you mean Joe? Well feelings change.
Don't they? Especially passing fleeting
feelings, they can change. You can be livid one day and
then you have peace. The next day you can be okay
again, You can be so upset with somebody and then, you know,
Mercy, the Lord is new every morning, you can get through it.
So, what happens is, when we attach our identity to our
feelings and our experiences, there's constantly this inner
Brokenness like why can't I get out of this?
The LIE Drive some anxiety and depression that inner Brokenness
is there the lie also drives people to get to a point where
you feel like it's not worth living anymore because the way I
feel right now, what I've been through, what's been done to me
experiences, what I've done to other people experiences,
failures, regrets all that's in that one statement, right?
Out there. So I get this, what we what we
do does matter, that's what we're talking about, change your
mind, change your life change, what you do, and so it does
matter what we do. But what we've done doesn't have
to tell us who we are if we're in Christ.
Let me give you the truth here. Who then can tell you who you
are. If it's not feelings and
experiences after study of scripture and prayer and looking
for it, I really believe this only God gets to tell us who we
are. Who gets to decide when they
create something, how much they're going to sell it for the
Creator, right? Who gets to decide how much that
object is an object, is it's actually worth the person who
pays for it, right? If you go on eBay and you're
bidding on something. Guess who determines, what that
object is worth the highest bidder.
The Creator gets to say, here's what I want for it, the highest
bidder gets to say, here's what I'll pay for it, think about
this, why can God tell you who you are?
Who created you He did. Who bought you?
He did what price did he pay for you?
The blood of his only son. So if he created you and he paid
blood for you, isn't he? The one that gets to tell you?
This is who you are stopped. Listening to the last.
Somebody needs to hear this, stop listening to the live from
your past that you can't find Healing.
Stop listening from the LIE of your of your past, what your
parents beat you down and said you'd never amount to anything
or a teacher. Or that terrible sexual
experience, you had when you were younger or that broken
marriage, that you've been through in the enemy, still
comes in. Just pounds on.
You about it all the time, can we?
In Jesus name? Be free so that we can live as
free people. So they could be lived a full
Abundant Life, that he's giving us only.
God gets to tell you as a Jesus follower who you are.
He gets to tell you before I get too fired up on that point.
Let me go on to number three. This is the law that every
person here at some point, has believed in.
You may not believe in this this one, I'm hopeless.
I'm not staying here at sometimes, we find ourselves in
what seems like a hopeless situation?
And I get that. But this is again, this is an
identity thing, I am hopeless, maybe it was because you failed.
Your experience is, I'm a failure.
And then your feelings have told you and backed up and validated
that that you are worthless and hopeless.
And so you get to this place where you believe the lie I'm
hopeless. Do you know what the fruit of
the LIE is? This may be surprising, but when
you believe this lie, you will begin to live in shame.
And shame is not this feeling that you've done something bad
because that's called guilt. God uses guilt all the time.
Listen God will bring guilt over us.
It's called conviction to bring us back to himself, but he never
pours shame out on a shame is something that the enemy brings
and we bring on our self and it says not that you've done
something bad, but you are bad. You're messed up.
You never going to get better. Never ever going to get any
better. So you live in shame over and
over and over again, hopeless people feel that they aren't
worthy of forgiveness. I wonder if there's anybody here
today. And you feel like I'm Unworthy
of forgiveness. I'm Unworthy of it.
Maybe you've bought into the lie that I am hopeless and so shame
is like a shadow that follows you around everywhere.
Let me show you. One of my favorite verses, in
all the scripture first, John 1:9, if we confess our sins to
him who is we? It's anybody in the house?
It's anybody at Oakwood, it's anybody watching on.
If you will confess your sin and say God, yes, I'm a sinner, I
don't get it. All right, Lord, I get it wrong
and here's some of the things I know that I've done wrong.
Here's some of the thought processes that have been broken
to me, confess it to him. He is faithful and just to do,
what forgive us. Us of our sins and cleanse us.
You know what? Cleanses remove the shame so you
can live in Freedom. Here's another fruit.
Of this lie, you begin to destroy your life and the life
of other she ever. Heard this hurt, people hurt
people, you show me somebody that lives as hopeless and
worthless and that's really what they believe inside you will
begin to hurt other people, maybe not even intentional.
Broken people will often begin to break people.
This is where that suicidal thought demon comes in as well
by the way, comes over you to say.
Yep, you're not worthy, you can't live anymore, you know,
you're not, you know what you've done, you can't be forgiven.
And so the enemy. Spoken this over lives today,
you are hopeless. And I just want to look at you
and say no. What's the truth?
Here's a scriptural Truth for us.
No one is hopeless in Jesus Christ.
What situation has the enemy lied to you about and said it's
impossible. Where do you wish you had
forgiveness in the enemy has lied to you and said it's
impossible. If you're right on the verge of
surrendering your life to Jesus Christ, but you could judge,
don't know if I can, it seems impossible like he would accept
me. I'm gonna give you a verse.
This is a verse that's on repeat in my mind right now.
By the way this is not something I just got for the message.
This is something that's like my soundtrack and it's Luke 18:27.
What is impossible for people as possible with God.
Now, let me give you context and I don't take it out of context,
use his talking about people who are rich and don't have any
needs in this world that it's harder for them to come to know
him as Lord. Alright, that's the context.
But I thought this actually applies because, didn't he?
The god, that spoke the Stars into existence in either God,
that spoke everything we see into existence.
He got that formed us from the dust of the ground.
He said what is impossible for people?
Is possible with God. And so here's where I want to go
to, I don't know if maybe the Lord is showing you that you've
been believing a lie but you go, maybe I have.
I'm starting to see it and it didn't have to be one of the
three. It can be something else, but
the Lord is showing you today. You know what, you've been
believing a lot and it seems impossible to change.
Can you let that? What if we let this become the
truth? Soundtrack, what is impossible
for people as possible with God? What is impossible with people
as possible? Got what is impossible for?
Michael is possible with God, what is it possible for?
Estill. It's possible with God.
What is impossible Cheryl listen?
You know what is impossible with Cheryl?
It's possible with God. It was impossible for Joe.
It's possible. We got if I didn't believe this
this morning, I couldn't preach with authority.
I couldn't bring this word as if it's actually part of my life
and who I am. But, you know, I do Doug.
You know what, what is impossible with people, guess
who it's possible for is possible with God being, what is
impossible with people whose it possible for its God, right?
Like what, if what if we change the sound track instead?
Doubting God and believing he's not going to.
What if we put our feet on the floor tomorrow morning and let
this be our statement? God, what is impossible with
people? It's possible with you Lord we
only get a few more years to walk around on this dirt ball
before we're going to go Be Heaven.
What if we just change the soundtrack of our mind is Lord?
I'm not going to believe lies anymore.
I know who I am. It is possible for you to save
somebody like me. It is possible for you to redeem
somebody like me. It is possible for you to change
somebody like me. It is possible for you to heal.
It's possible for you to bring the dreams and desires that you
It in my heart to pass, it is possible for you to write new
life and new story Into Me. It's possible for you to bring a
kid into my life. Even though it seems impossible,
it's possible for you to bring a spouse even though I don't know.
It's possible to find a healing after an abusive relationship.
It's possible to find Freedom from addiction.
But we have to change the soundtrack and let the Holy
Spirit begin to work. So let me give you the question
this morning. What lies have you been
believing? And here's the Declaration.
Let's go to war. Let's go to war Church.
Go to war over declare war and say I declare a thought War over
this. Here's what I want you to do.
All over the house, Oakwood. I want you to stay with me if
you're at home online, right now wherever you are, I love for you
to participate in this. But here's what I want to do.
I want to pray for you today. If you'd be willing to say now
just I'm gonna have you stand right where you are and just a
moment. But if you'd be willing to say
Joe, you know, I think I have them believing a lie and I need
to change the script to whatever is impossible with man is
possible with God want to ask you do is just by showing the
Lord and you know, even the people around you, you're not
telling them what it is but just show them.
God's showing me today that I've been believing a lot and I've
got to declare war over it this week.
Maybe the lies men that I can't become a follower of Jesus and
you just need to stand up. And by standing today, you're
saying I'm surrendering my life to him, I'm not holding back
anymore, maybe that's your declaration as you stand.
But both here to do quit, I'm gonna count to three and I, what
I want you to do is I want you to stand to your feet.
And as you do, everyone else here, we're going to pray, we're
going to pray over you this morning as we declare a thought
or what lies. Have you been believing?
Stand with me. If you will, they are no code.
Here we go. One two three.
Come on. If that shoe right where you are
just stand up, I want to pray for you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your honest.
Listen, the Lord sees your acknowledgement.
If you're there are no quick God sees your acknowledgement of
even just being this a willing to say I'm standing to say I
need help, I want you to pray for me.
I'm declaring war today. So I want to ask you to do this.
If there's somebody standing around you, you don't know their
situation but your prayer is powerful.
And so will you join me both here?
And there and let's pray, let's pray over them in the thought or
this morning Lord. Thank you for people who are
honest and got maybe today. You just brought him to this
place of surrender or realization, they've been
believe in lies and Jesus. This series is about freedom and
so I speak Freedom over it in your name.
But Lord, I just wanted to Claire.
You've already given them the weapons that they need.
You gave us the word. You gave us your spirit.
It to dwell in US, you gave us forgiveness and healing and
hope. And so God you've already given
us the tools you given us the spirit which means that we have
love and patience and peace, Joy, kindness gentleness
self-control in US, Lord. And the enemy of to tell it tell
them that they don't have any of that.
But God ice to Claire it, according to your truth.
We do have it, it's hard, but Lord, we have it.
We can pick up the weapon and fight and so Lord.
I just pray over your people. Today, Lord, those are standing
to their feet right now. Lord, we declare war on these
thoughts that want to take them. Lord I pray against any
Suicidal. Thoughts this morning in the
house, Lord, it Oakwood I pray against it in Jesus name that
you would remove that demonic attack and Lord that you would
pour out your worth and your grace and your love and your
mercy over them. Lord we pray that we will be
able to get up in the morning. Got it wouldn't just be a Sunday
thing we get up on Monday. We would declare thought or and
we would use this when I speak it over and what is impossible.
What is impossible for people this possible with you father.
So, Lord, I speak it over your people today.
God may we walk out of here as Warriors in your name and we'll
give you all the glory. In Jesus name, everybody said,
amen, come on, let's worship together.
Thank you for listening to the river.
Bend Church podcast. Learn more about who we are as a
church and how to connect you can head over to our website
Riverbend Church dot life.