Battle of Our Minds

We Are At War

War on this Earth from the beginning

Since dawn of humans - enemy has stood against us

Our mission is plain and simple

Mark 16:15 “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

Luke 14:23 ““Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.”

Matthew 28:19–20 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””

Acts 1:7–8 “He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””

Our mission is simple - win souls.

But what about the battle for our own soul?

Quote scripture

Talk about our Savior

Encourage our brothers and sisters

Lead people to Christ

All the while we are losing the fight inside ourselves.

Get Ready For War

I fear so often we go to war unprepared.

We want to win souls and share the Gospel, but the Gospel has not won the battle in our own lives

Basic Training

10 Weeks

Learned how to go to war and win.

Prepared my mind - Breakdown and build up

Prepared my body - Physically able to do the job and learn to enjoy pain

Prepared my heart - made me believe in the Army way

All of that before I could even learn a job

Could have gone straight to war

May have done OK May have survived

But I would not have been nearly as effective

To win the war out there, we must win the war in here.

The Battlefield

May ask what war are we fighting inside?

There is a scripture we are very familiar with

May not realize it but it explains exactly what battles we fight.

Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”

Jesus spoke those words in response to the question of which commandment was greatest.

Actually quoting all the way back to

Deuteronomy 6:5 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

So Jesus is very clear as to what our first mission as Christians is but he goes on to explain our full mission....

Mark 12:31 “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.””

Now I believe this sums up all of those scriptures we just read

We love our neighbors by sharing the Gospel with them

But before that Jesus makes it clear that we are to love Him with ALL of ourselves.

What we sometimes don’t recognize though is that Jesus is also laying out the battlefield of the enemy with His words.

If the greatest commandment or as we could say the most important thing we do is to love God with

Heart Soul Mind and Strength

Where do you think the enemy attacks?

Our Heart Soul Mind and Strength

That is the battlefield.

Going to War

Over the next 4 weeks or so we are going to dig into the war within ourselves

If we want to live out

Matthew 28

Mark 16

Luke 14

We need to be able to live out Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”

The Mind

Today we start with the mind

Because EVERYTHING starts with the mind. Nothing survives WITHOUT the mind.

Let’s think for a second how we became Christians

We heard the Gospel some way.

We processed it. We thought about it. We felt something within ourselves. In our heart.

And we REALIZED which is something done in our minds.

It was a movement in our heart and soul but it was recognized in our minds.

And we then made the DECISION to follow Christ.

Our knowledge of God and His word is in the mind.

Our ability to take what He lays on our hearts and transfer it into the world requires the mind!

Guess what? It is probably the most volatile battlefield.

Just as we use our minds to transfer what God lays on our hearts, satan uses our minds to transfer poison into our hearts.

Matthew 5:28 “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

The mind is a two way highway. It is how the desires of the Father come out of you, but also how the desires of the flesh get into you.

The Attack

I’ve said this many times before.

I do not give any kind of credit to satan, but I also know he is not stupid.

He attacks so often with pinpoint precision.

Plant that thought in your mind

Plant seeds of doubt

I’m not good enough

I have done too much God could never love or want me

Seeds of anger

Shown towards your spouse

your children

yourself

Seeds of lust

our minds typically go to sinful desires with other people. Looking at someone with a sinful desire.

but it can also apply to greed or power, and it's distinguished from healthy desire because it's selfish, objectifies others, and pulls one away from love or God.

What is even worse is the enemy will use these to create a cycle.

Thoughts of lust lead to thoughts of doubt which leads to anger.

For any Star Wars nerds like me Yoda said it best

 Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering,

Lust is probably the biggest sin we deal with whether it be sexual, greed, power, but truly ALL sin can lead to the same cycle

SIN leads to DOUBT. DOUBT leads to ANGER. ANGER leads to ABANDONMENT.

The Solution

To win the fight for our minds there are a few very simple steps.

The first is Recognition

Sometimes when we get into these cycles we do not even realize it is the enemy.

But if we stop and actually recognize what is happening we can start to turn the tide of the battle.

HOW? So how do we recognize it? It is actually really simple. Put it against God’s Word.

I have been lashing out at my wife for the last week. I go off on my kids at the smallest incident.

Is that God? Is this what God wants for me and my family?

Ephesians 5:25–28 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not exasperate (irritate or frustrate intensely) your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Colossians 3:21 “Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.”

So I put that against God’s Word and quickly realize that I am not in alignment with my Father.

So immediately I know this is an attack of the enemy.

Secondly- Take captive the thoughts of the enemy.

2 Corinthians 10:5 “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.”

The first part of that scripture is what we just talked about. Anything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God we demolish by recognizing it through scripture.

The second is not just recognizing the thoughts of the enemy but taking control of those thoughts and forcing them into submission.

Easier said than done I know........But here is the comfort if you actually see it for what it is.

Our battle may not end and honestly hardly ever ends because we recognized satan’s attack.

he keeps coming with the same weapons.

Your confidence

Your anger

Your lustful desires

Your pain

But what we have is the WORD of God that NEVER changes.

he can come at us 1000 times and we may fall 1000 times, but the Word stays true through it all.

So even when we faulter we know we can come back to the Word.

It never shifts.

satan will shift his attack, but God and His Word never change.

This right here is why getting into God’s Word is SOOOOOO important.

Our training, preparedness, weapons and ammo are all found in HIS WORD.

It may seem overly simple. You may say Zach you have no idea all the things I am being hit with.

You’re right I don’t. But He does and I promise you His Word will make a way of your escape.

We just have to stand on it!

The key to our heart and soul and strength is the mind.

When we take control of our thoughts through Christ, we start to take control of EVERYTHING.