Control your Thought Life

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. So we are in part two of a series called Downhill Habits. We started last week, and the idea of this series is that we are what we repeatedly do. Someone once said that it's attributed to Aristotle.

We don't know that for sure, but we are what we repeatedly do. In other words, we form habits, and habits form us. We form habits, and habits form us. We have habits that come into our lives, whether they're good or bad, and they kind of develop, and they form us. They form who we are.

And the thesis of this series is that most people have uphill hopes. We have really uphill hopes. We have these big dreams, these uphill hopes, and downhill habits. So if you're following the notes, most people have uphill hopes, but downhill habits. So we have these dreams, we have these hopes, and unless we're intentional about it, we kind of lose those hopes.

That's why we get into the end of January. We build these resolutions. We build these. We say, I'm going to be better with my habits this year. I'm going to form good habits.

And when we start trying to create those habits and do these things, we have these huge hopes. But we have all these downhill habits in our lives. And it comes from changing the downhill things. What we want to do is change the downhill habits and make them uphill habits. But the thing about these uphill habits is uphill is kind of hard.

It's difficult. But if you can stay with it, because God gives us some things in Scripture that can actually help us, and we can reach some of these things. And here's our Scripture for the day, Romans 12, 2 in the message. I love how it says, how can we do that? How can we form these up?

Fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Because what happens, we start from the outside in, right? That's why we're failing so much, because we want to fix the outside. If I get slimmer, if I go on a new diet, if I try to better organize my closet.

For me, I mean, I'm already organizing my closet and getting everything. You know, maybe my life would be better. And we fail at it because it's really not an outward thing. It's not about doing better on the outside. It really is an internal thing.

It's about changing the inside out. So fix your attention on Jesus. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants for you. Because it's really about what he wants for you.

What does he want for you? He wants good things for you. He wants the best version of you. And quickly respond to it. So we want to quickly respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you that's dragging you down. And most of you have experienced that, right? The culture, it seems good. And we roll towards the culture. But it consistently drags us down.

It drags us down to its level of immaturity. God brings the best out of you. He brings the best version of you. Develops well-informed maturity in you. We want to be mature people, mature believers and Christians today.

So fixing our attention on Jesus. But nothing good comes easy, right? Nothing good comes easy. It takes work. It takes intentionality.

And that's why we're calling this series Uphill Habits. These are things that's going to take some time. It's going to take some putting them in. But God says, if you follow these things, I'll bring the best out of you. Because I want the best version of you.

The best version of you. So last week, we shared the first habit. And that's to put God first. Putting God first. Making first things first.

Giving Him our first of our day. Giving Him the first of our week. Giving Him the first of our month. Giving the first of our year. Day and setting up a time to be with Him.

Our week. Coming together on Sunday mornings. Make it a habit this year to come and start your week off. Celebrating God together. Being with fellow believers.

And being with people that love you and love God. And then the month. Just starting off each month. Getting together with your spouse and your family. And making decisions in which are putting God first.

And your year, which we are currently in 21 days of fasting. And I know that's something that we've decided as a church. To set aside. To give God first of our year. Because I believe that God will make our year.

Will bless us so tremendously. By giving Him first fruits in all those areas. And as Seth shared, we're in the middle of that. And I know many of you are probably broke through some things. Or you're still struggling with it.

But I challenge you. And I encourage you to stay on board with it. God wants to do some amazing things. There's different types of fasts. It's not just food.

Some of you are doing social media fasts and different things. Some of you are doing kind of special diets with your fasts. Just getting rid of the sugar and the bread and the things you love. It's got to hurt a little bit, you know? Right?

We want to give God our first. And we're replacing it. What we're doing when we're doing that. When we're putting that first. Is we're killing the flesh.

We're killing the flesh. So the spirit can thrive. So we want to feed the spirit. We're not feeding the flesh. We're feeding the spirit so that God can speak to us in this new year.

And if you want to go back, I've given you some practical, some more practical areas of how to do all those things. You can go to saltchurch.org slash messages and look over that. But this week, I think, is really equally as important. And I think it's a very strategic thing that our enemy works on us in.

And that's our thought life. How to control my thought life. Controlling my thought life. That's habit two. Control my thought life.

If you're following your notes, write that in. Thoughts have the ability to direct your life. Did you know that? Your thoughts have the ability to decide where you're going to be. Where you're going.

You define yourself based on the way you think about yourself. And it might be environmental. It might be nurture nature, whatever it is from a psychological standpoint. But perhaps you were told that you were worthless as a child. So you see yourself as worthless, right?

It's directed your life. And today, you have this worthless thought process. And it's hard for you to be successful. Maybe you failed over and over again at something that you've tried. And you're just struggling in that area.

And you're like, well, I'm just a failure. It's our thought process that directs us into thinking that way. Or maybe you're a bit of a bully. Maybe you're somebody who thinks, you know, it's survival of the fittest. And I've got to, you know, knock a few people around to get.

And maybe that was the way you were raised. Or maybe that's the way you think or whatever. So you kind of push people around. You give people a hard time. But that's just what you believe because it's a thought process.

And then you find out that it really hasn't gotten you where you need to be. Because it's the wrong type of thinking. There may be substance behind those things. But it really is. And the enemy is strategic about starting with our thoughts.

I love how the message paraphrase says this in Ecclesiastes 10.2. He says, wise thinking leads to right living. But stupid thinking leads to wrong living. Stinking thinking.

I know some of you have heard that term before. If we have stinking thinking, we'll be stinking people, right? So we want to do that. So everything. Here's the first point I want to make today as we launch into this thought process.

There's everything. There's everything. There's everything. There's everything. There's everything.

There's everything. Everything begins with a thought. Everything begins with a thought. Write that in your notes up there. Everything begins with a thought.

If you try to change your behavior without changing your thoughts, it just won't work. It just won't work. Everything begins with a thought. That's why so many of you started off this new year, and you're already done with your resolutions, right? You're done.

I can't do it, right? Because your thought process is, oh, you know? And your behavior, it's just your behavior. And why? Because we focus on the outward too much.

We're focused on the fleshly things when God is trying to do something in the inside. And this is why it's important for us to start with our thoughts out every day. From the first part of our day, we need to get our thoughts right. Maybe the reason you're so grumpy every morning when you wake up is because you start out on the wrong foot. Maybe you're cutting on the news and you hear some politics go on, right?

And you're just angry as heck at the world, right? Or maybe you open up that email or that social media account and you know how that is. You know, everybody thinks they have a voice in the world through social media now. And we start our days off like that. And that's why we start out with an attitude, right?

And some of you are waking up grumpy every day. You're not starting out on the right foot. You're not starting out with your thought process in the right place. A lady told me once, I wake up with grumpy every day. And sometimes I let them sleep in, right?

So we need to change our thought process. And the Bible talks a lot about thinking. It's wild how much the Bible talks about our thought process. And Paul speaks to the church of Corinth to give them a wake up call of what's really going on. What's really going on in their lives, looking at the spiritual battle rather than the physical battle.

2 Corinthians 10, 3 and 5 is a great scripture that we can use to know what's going on. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. Meaning that the flesh and blood that's around us, the people that aggravate us, the things that cause us to be grumpy, those things, that's not what we're fighting. It's a spiritual battle that's happening.

It says, on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. Meaning that those spiritual weapons can be used to demolish strongholds, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive, I love this part, we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. What is a stronghold for just for a second? The literal interpretation or definition or word from stronghold in scripture is a mental block.

A mental block. It's about our thinking. The strongholds we have in our life, as Seth mentioned up here earlier, praying over those struggles we have. There are mental blocks that block us from the knowledge of God and the purposes that he has called us to. A mental block.

That's Satan's strategy. He wants to change your thoughts. And if he can change your thoughts, hence he could change your destiny. He could change your whole course. He could change your thoughts.

A stronghold can be anything. It can be a worldview such as materialism, hedonism, Darwinism, secularism, relativism, communism, atheism, all the isms out there that block or mental strongholds that people set up against the knowledge of God. And it can be those or it can simply be a personal attitude. Maybe it's worry. Maybe I'm worried about things all the time.

Or maybe it's seeking the approval of others. When we go on social media and we see Jim down the street is a whole lot more successful than me and I work just as hard as him and I'm just as smart as him and blah, blah, blah. And look at where he is and I is. We went to the same school and this and that. It can be those things.

It can be attitudes we have. Anything or it can be anything that makes an idol, as I talked about last week, the idols that we set up in our life, they can be strongholds. That can be anything. It's not an engraven image necessarily. It's the heart of the engraven images that we put in our lives all the time.

Whether it be a food, which we're giving up some of us. It may be, it may be any, it could be anything. It could be sports related. It could be, it could be anything that comes more, it could be CrossFit, right Seth? It could be CrossFit.

It gets in the way of, of, of God. And God has not given us any, any other options but to put him first in our lives. He hasn't made wiggle room for something else to be before him. And, and, and, and maybe that stronghold is there or maybe it's fear, guilt, resentment, insecurity. All these things can be strongholds in your mind.

And the Bible says that we can tear them down. We can abolish them. They can be gone. They can be eradicated from your life. I love how Romans 12 says in NLT, going back to Romans 12 too, it says, don't copy the behaviors and customs of the world because they don't work.

That's Leon's version. They just don't work. But let God transform you into a new person. He can, he can take those things. God wants to help you and transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Because with God's help, we can change. With God's help, we can change. And it really comes down to us understanding that strategy is thinking. How we think about ourselves. How do we think about life?

How do we, how do we think in general? And we can be transformed. We can have a new direction. You don't have to be the same person. You don't.

You don't always just, we're just going to be, do the same thing every year. I try it. It just doesn't work. I've just resigned myself to, to being this way. I'm, I'm just a failure.

I'm just never going to, I'm always going to be this. I'm always going to be that. No, you don't. Because God can take, can take you through that process. Because here's the deal.

Here's, here's a point I want to make. What we think determines how we feel. What we think determines how we feel. Did you know that? How you feel every day, whether you feel good or you feel bad or you feel mad or you feel whatever it is, it's, it's about your thinking.

That's really what it is. It's about changing our thinking. And it's important to filter out the garbage that we're putting in our minds and our thoughts and replace it with good things. If we complain all the time, it's probably because we got a lot of garbage in our heads. We got a lot of garbage in our thought pattern.

So it determines how we feel. Philippians 4, 8, 9 says this, and I've used this scripture probably in multiple sermons and, and messages that I've shared because I think it's so important that we think this way as, as Paul's talking to the Philippians. He says, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, think about such things. And the God of peace, and that's, you know, I want some of that peace. I don't know about you.

The God of peace will be with you. And as a pastor, as a pastor of this church, that I so desperately want that for you. I don't want you to be in a place where you feel desperate and, and, and, and feel uneasy. I want you to be at peace. And God wants that for you too.

I may not be able to change your circumstances. I may not be able to walk into your house and cut off that TV or, or, or, uh, take you away from what you're reading or doing. I can't do any of that. And, and, and that's obviously, that's not even my place, but I can lead you to the water through the word of God, what God shares with me and, and, and, and, and shares with you through this message and other messages. I can lead you to the water.

You have to make the decision and go in that way. So, he's got something for you. And thinking determines how we feel. Thinking determines how we feel. It also determines our destiny.

Did you know that? It determines our destiny. Where you are this time next year will be determined what you're thinking this year. Did you know that? The path you go on, the decisions you make, are determined by your thinking.

It can be stinking thinking, or it can be right thinking. Look at it this way. It always begins with a thought. So, sow a thought, reap an action. If I can get that on the screen.

Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a lifestyle. And sow a lifestyle, reap a destiny. And it all begins with sowing of a thought.

Let me say it like this. You are today because of where your thoughts have taken you. You are today from the process of your thinking in the past. And you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you today. So, guess what?

Today you can make a determination to think the right way. That's why Paul says this in a New Living Translation, Romans 8, 5, and 6. He says, those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things. So, if you're dominated by sin, if you're dominated by filthy and wrong thinking, then you're going to think that way. But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.

If your sinful nature controls your mind, where does it go? There is death. There's your destiny. There is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, and that's where I want to be, and that's where I want you to be, then there is life and peace.

So, we need the Holy Spirit to control our thoughts, our life, so that we can have life and peace, and we can be put in the right direction. So, let's get a little practical today then. Mastering our habits. Let's talk about mastering our habits today. How do we master our habits?

2 Corinthians 10, 5 says, take every thought captive. Kind of going back to that verse earlier. It says, take every thought captive. So, we need to take every thought captive. So, number one, here's what we have to do.

We have to find a plan to control our thoughts. So, if we want right thinking, if we want God to really give us the destiny that He's already created for us, and we can walk in that destiny and pursue greater things in our life this year, and for 2019, we need a plan. You need a game plan. And you need to determine that, first of all, before you even make that game plan, that I will not allow my eyes or my thoughts go the places they shouldn't. I'm just going to determine that.

I'm going to make that stronghold that I was talking about. I'm going to determine to break those strongholds and not allow my eyes, which leads to my thoughts, which leads to my heart, lead me places that it shouldn't go. Psalm 101, 3 says, I will not set. I love how the psalmist says this. I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.

You need to claim that today. I will not set before my eyes anything that's worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away, and it shall not cling to me. It shall not cling to me. You make that bold, authoritative statement today.

It will not cling to me. I will set my eyes towards the knowledge of God, and I will filter out the garbage in my life. I've got to make decisions to filter out the garbage in my life and fill it with the knowledge of God. Some of you, it might be social media. Some of you, it might be just the Internet.

Maybe it's news outlets. Maybe it's movies. Come on, you know. I see the movies you guys are watching on social media because I'm using social media, right? I'm judging you because of that, right?

But I know, I know, I know. And obviously, I wouldn't ever judge you or condemn you because everybody. But there's some things that we just need to make decisions. If we want the best that God has for us, we've got to make some determinations. We've got to make some decisions in our lives that we're going to filter out some garbage so that we can fill it with the good things, with the knowledge of God.

And one of those things is read the Bible. We need to read the Bible. Hebrews 4.12 says this, For the Word of God is living and active. Living and active.

It breathes, guys. It's not just 66 ancient letters that were just placed there. This is like thousands of years of letters that have been placed in one book that communicate one story. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that miraculous?

No other book in history can do that, can say that. It comes closest to being authentic from a scientific standpoint, textual criticism, archaeological evidence, prophetic evidence. I can go across the board, scriptural evidence, everything, every statistical evidence, all are there. This is a beautiful, breathing book, and it's miraculous that it can even be where it is today. If you take the oldest manuscript, the oldest manuscript, and compare it to the most recently found manuscript, and that's how we compare those.

And the number of manuscripts that are available, this is the science of it. This is how people determine whether Homer's Iliad and different things are actually authentic. And it goes far. I mean, thousands of archaeological proof, oldest scripture to newest scripture. It's just miraculous.

You know why? Because it's a miracle. Because it's God's Word. And He preserved it for us today. So it's living and breathing and active and sharper than a two-edged sword.

It penetrates even dividing soul and spirit. That's how powerful it is. It kind of makes you look at yourself, right? And, you know, it calls you out, right? Because it's telling you this is how you need to live.

Don't live this way, but live that way. It's about your thinking. It divides the soul and spirit, joints and marrow. Man, that's powerful. And when they think about a two-edged sword back in that day, they were so sharp and so powerful, they were just one sling you could slice a body in half.

That's how powerful it judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. So that's why we have scripture. That's why we have the Word of God. It helps us. And there's all kinds of ways that you can read scripture.

You know, you need to read the Bible. And you have a one-year plan. Some people in here are on one-year plans and are reading through the Bible together. And others are doing devotionals and different things. And like I said last week, it doesn't take you long.

It doesn't just wake up in the morning, give 15 minutes like we talked about in the first 15. Well, pastor, I don't have 15. Well, then give 10. Pastor, I don't have 10. Well, give five.

Come on. Just give something. Give something to the reading of the Word of God. Give it some time. Give it some time.

Give it an opportunity to change your life. So we need to read the Word. And then secondly, we need to focus our prayers, your prayers. Focus your prayers. Focus your prayers.

If you want to write that down, I don't think it's in your notes. But focus your prayers. I had a lot of notes today and couldn't fit it all on the page. And I hope you can see your notes okay. Because I had to make them a little smaller.

Because there's just so much good stuff in our thought process. So focus your prayers. Philippians 4, 6, and 7. Do not be anxious about anything. Now, everybody needs to know that here.

I think we live in the most anxious time ever where our thoughts are constantly running because we're worried about tomorrow, right? We're always thinking about tomorrow. And we make poor decisions because of our thought process. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. It's directional prayer and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.

Meaning, we don't understand how this peace comes to be, will guard your heart and your mind in Jesus Christ. And the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and guard your mind in Jesus Christ. So find that place. Get in that place. Directional prayer is important.

Specific prayers are important. Number two, do this. Find a place to focus your thoughts. Find a place to focus your thoughts. Find a time to turn the world off.

The volume of the world off. Turn it down. Get along. Get along so you can hear. Guys, could you hit that next slide, please?

And write that down. Find a place to focus your thoughts. Find a time to turn the world's volume down and get along to hear him. And do this. Have a daily conversation with God.

Have a daily conversation with God. Isaiah 26 3 says this, you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you. All whose thoughts are fixed on you. Colossians 3 2 says, think about the things of heaven. Think about heavenly things.

Not of things of the earth. Not the things of earth. We need a time where we can really focus and we can get along with God. We can turn all that bad stuff off and really kind of listen to God. Quiet time.

Time where we just, we're alone with God. A daily conversation. And you know what? Some of us ask, well, I don't know how to pray, Pastor. I don't know.

Look, just talk to God. It's conversation. God didn't speak King James, okay? So you don't have to preach King, you don't have to pray King James. Thy and these and thou.

You didn't. He, he, have a conversation with God. So think of it. So just, just, we need to focus on eternal things and cut off the earthly things. And I promise you, it's, it's a first fruit principle even there that we, that we cut off the things of the world and, and, and, uh, allow God to just minister to us.

A lot of times we can't hear God because all the noise in our lives. We're so out of focus. So we need to focus on God. And number three, find a place to stretch your thoughts. Find a place, uh, find a people to, I'm sorry, find a people to, to stretch your thoughts.

Find a people to help you stretch your thoughts. That's why community is important. Being together. If you have a sin, you can confess it to God, right? He is just to forgive you of that sin.

But if you confess to one another is what the scripture says, you will be healed. So you actually need people to help you get through the problems and issues in your life, right? You need that. And, and, and that's why we offer salt groups here at the church. And we're launching salt groups February 10th.

I believe Chris is going to meet with some people that are interested. If you're interested in hosting a salt group or, or, or, uh, uh, leading a salt group, uh, there's going to be a short meeting after church, but we'll launch those on February 10th. We don't launch them the first of the year because we know that people like to eat together and that's really important. And many of us are fasting and we want to focus on fasting and praying together and things like that. But, um, you need to focus, uh, uh, you need a salt group.

You need a small group. You need a people that you can be with, that you can have community with. Not Sunday morning for an hour doesn't really do it. You really need people to live this with, to walk this out with. Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 says this in a new living translation, let us think of ways to motivate one another, right?

We need to motivate each other to, to acts of love and good works and let us not neglect our meetings together. Right? That, that not only applies to corporate worship, which is kind of what we hit on last week, but, uh, it applies to meeting together in groups and, and, and fellowship and, and really just iron sharpening iron, helping us discover who we are, our purpose. And it is best done when we're together to, to heal, to get through all this wrong thinking that we've had. We need help with the right thinking.

And that's why God ordained fellowship. And let us not, uh, neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the days of his return are drawing near. What does that mean? The days of his return are drawing near. It means that the days are getting harder and harder and harder.

It just is a, is a, is a hard world that we live in, but God desires for us as believers, as his children to gather together. There's nowhere in the Bible anywhere, anywhere that says that a Christian should be a lone ranger. Not even Jesus was alone. So anybody comes to me, I walk my walk alone with God and you're doing it the wrong way. You're not going to get where you need to get to.

You're not going to be able to break strongholds in your life. You're not going to be able to, to get anywhere in life because, uh, in your Christian walk, you're not going to be able to mature. You're not going to, you're not going to, uh, receive the full benefit of living life as a believer, as, as a Christian, uh, the life that, that God intended you to live. You, you'll never get there on your own. That's why you need each other.

We need each other. And, uh, and as, and it says, encourage one another, especially now that the days of his return are drawing near. The fourth thing is find a purpose to land your thoughts on. What do you mean by that? Find a purpose to land your thoughts on.

The healthiest thoughts are those that help focus our purpose. The healthiest thoughts that we can have in our life are those that help us discover who we are and focus our destiny and our purpose. The thing that God has, has commissioned us or, or created us to do. The most miserable people in this world are those who have no purpose. They're the people that are just walking and know, and don't even know who they are.

Those are the people that are most, but, but the happiest people, the most fulfilled people that you know, and you see in the world today are those who are walking exactly in their purpose. And that is one of the intentions of our church. We created this church around the idea that we are helping people discover who they are. And we have what we call a salt life track that you can take, that you can go through. And, uh, you can be with me next week is lunch with Leon.

I have every, once every third Sunday, we have lunch with Leon. And if you're new with our church, you can have, have lunch with me, hang out with me, and, and we'll, we'll share some things about the church with you. And we'll give you some information to help you target who you are, how to reach your destiny, how, how, who you, how God developed you, your personality, the giftings that, that scripture talks about. You have giftings. Some of you don't know who you are.

You don't even know your giftings. And we want to help you discover those things. So, uh, Romans 12, two, uh, says it like this, uh, in the, I know I'm using this scripture a lot today, but I'm using it in different, different ways because I love the way they're communicated in different ways. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed, transformed by the ruling of the mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

So ultimately that's what we want to get to. You're never going to be content in this life until you're walking in the perfect will of God. And we want to help you discover that. Land your thoughts on the purpose. That, that, that will get you to where you need to be.

Landing your thoughts on your purpose. And then number five, find a power to fuel your thoughts. Find a power. Fuel your Thoughts. What do I mean by that?

Open up our lives to the power of the Holy Spirit. You need to open up your life to God, to the power of the Holy Spirit. You need the Holy Spirit to be living in your life. Open up your life to Him. Isaiah 55 9 says this, As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Right? Meaning that His thoughts are much higher than our thoughts, so we need to hear from Him. The Holy Spirit is called our Counselor. He speaks to us. He walks with us.

He talks with us. He does things through us and in us. He helps us. He pushes us along. And He helps our thought process.

We need to think like the Holy Spirit. We think like the Holy Spirit because we're listening to the Holy Spirit. God wants our thoughts to be His thoughts because His thoughts are bigger than us. He wants to go beyond what you are capable of thinking. Isn't that cool?

That we have a God that can actually carry our thinking past what we're capable of doing. His ways are greater than ours, right? Now that's a hard thinking thing, right? Because the devil's strategy is your ways are greater than God's. And a lot of God's ways are kind of counterintuitive, right?

They don't make a lot of sense, but guess what? We're down here and He's up here and He knows. And He asks us to trust Him and seek Him. Ephesians 3.20 in the New King James Version says, Now to Him who is able to exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that is at work within us.

He can do abundantly above. That was a prayer. That was a prayer. That was a prayer. That was something that was chanted by the early church over and over again.

And I need us to do that. I need us to take the Scripture. Now to Him who is able to exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that is at work within us. He wants to work within us. And we need the power of the Holy Spirit to help us with our thoughts.

Now we've had, you know, in history there's been some misconceptions about the Holy Spirit. And we did a whole series on it a little while ago to kind of give some understanding of what it really means and where we're... But we believe that a church has to be filled with the Spirit. We need people who need the power of the Holy Spirit in order to get us to where we're going. Your purpose and your design.

I desperately need you to take my thoughts, God. I need you to think that. Show me that I'm more than where my thoughts have taken me. Show me that you've got a destiny for me far beyond what I have always thought of myself. I may not have been dealt the best hand in life.

Maybe you're saying that. Or I've made decisions in the past that have taken me places and I've gone. But I can tell you this. God doesn't care. He only cares about where you are now.

And depending and trusting in Him for today. Because the way you think today will ultimately determine your tomorrow. With all heads bowed and all eyes closed, I just want to pray for our church today. I want to pray for you because as a pastor I desperately, desperately, desperately want this for you. I want this.

You need this, okay? You need the Holy Spirit. You need God to work in your life. Lord, I pray over this place, God. I pray for everybody here today.

Wherever they are on their spiritual journey. Wherever, wherever, maybe they haven't, maybe they've walked away from you and are just coming back to you, Lord. Maybe, maybe they're very mature Christian, but just they need, but they've allowed their thought process to go haywire, Lord. Today we need you. We need you to intervene.

We need you to come and help us, Lord. Because we can't do it on our own, Lord. So today I pray over this congregation. I pray over every person in this seat, individually, individually, row by row, seat by seat. That your Holy Spirit, minister, God.

Minister your grace. Minister your mercy. We just wait on you for a second, God. We wait on you. Change our thought, Lord.

Change our patterns. Change our attitudes. Because we want what you want, Lord. In that same spirit, there are some here today that maybe you've walked away from God a long time ago, but you had a relationship with Him at one point, but you've kind of fallen away. Something brought you to church and whatever that might have been.

Maybe that's you today and you're ready to make a decision. Or maybe you've never, maybe you're in another category. Maybe you've never been a part of a church. You've never known what it's like to have a relationship. Maybe you've called it religion all of your life.

Can I say today, it's not religion. It's not about doing right or wrong. It's simply about having a relationship with the living God, the creator of your soul. He wants a relationship with you today. That's what He's about.

He loves you. It's a desperate, reckless love that He's willing to break down walls to know you. So whatever, wherever you are today, if that's you today, I want you just to casually lift up your hand because I want to pray for you. If that's you today, are you ready today? Amen.

Amen. Anybody else? Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Hands are going up. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hands are going up.

Hallelujah. Jesus, we thank you for your grace and mercy. We thank you for your grace and mercy. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus. Today, it's not about a science. It's not even about an art. It's just about just saying, Lord, I'm just having a conversation with God like this. Just say it with me.

Just pray it with me. Just, Lord, I believe that you are the Son of God. And that your ways are greater than my ways. And your thoughts are greater than my thoughts. So today, I give my life to you.

I believe everything the Word of God says. That you died and you rose again. Proving that you had the power. Amen. You had the power over sin and death.

So today, I give you my life. Today, I give you my heart. Today, I completely surrender to you. Because there's nothing more I want in this life. My thought process, I surrender it all to you.

Because I know that you know me better than I know myself. Because your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Your ways are higher than my ways. Life are higher than my根. In Jesus' name.