Winning The War In Your Mind

Today, I want to share some thoughts with you that honestly is a bit heavy for me to talk about because I realize that this is a battle. It's a battle for everyone. No matter where you are in life, there is a battle. I'll never forget the day I received the phone call. I'll never forget the day I heard one of the men in my life, a devout man of God, planted over 100 churches in Eastern Africa, a man full of faith, a man who would walk minefields in the name of Jesus marching, believing in faith that God was going to get him over into the Congo to connect with some people.

to plant a church, a man who had a spirit about him that nobody would have ever matched up to, his love for God, his love for people, his love for the church. I'll never forget him the day I received the phone call that he had taken his own life. How could that have happened? How could a man with so much faith, how could a man who led many, many, many people to Jesus Christ, how could a man who was excited excited about eternity and excited about heaven and excited about the kingdom of God, how could he have taken his life? The medical examiners or the medical professionals would have said it was a post-surgery drop in a chemical imbalance that caused him to have that dip and depression that made him to make a decision that he could never come back from.

But what I want to say today is the mind is a powerful thing. The mind is an incredible thing. It can make us do things, say things, act in ways that we normally wouldn't. And for me as a pastor and as a leader, I battle. I battle.

I battle with my mind. I never feel like I'm ready. I never feel like I'm good enough. I never feel like I'm righteous enough to lead. Sometimes I feel weak.

Sometimes I feel fake. Sometimes I feel like I don't have what it takes. Can anybody relate to me today? Can anyone say that they battle with this? I see hands raised all over the place.

And those who don't raise their hands are not being honest right now because we all battle. We all battle with our thoughts. We all battle with our minds. We battle between faith and fear. We battle wanting to trust God, but wanting to have confidence in our calling.

But at the same time, we have this crippling insecurity that paralyzes us. This battle. Because most of life's battles are won and lost in our minds. Most of life's battles are won and lost in our minds. But here's the good news.

God's Word has power. It has power not just to band-aid our issues, not just to help us out for a little bit, but to completely renew and transform our minds. In fact, the Bible talks a lot about this. The Apostle Paul was the ultimate thought warrior. He was the man who battled thoughts.

Even in Romans 7, he even wrestles. We love this verse. The things I want to do, I don't do. And the things I should do, I don't want to do. And he talks about these things.

We hold on to that. But what we see is Paul didn't give up. Paul warred. Paul battled. Paul conquered his thoughts, and Paul won.

And we can win, too. We can be encouraged by the Apostle Paul, the ultimate thought warrior. He never surrendered to his thoughts. And we will watch in this series how he progressed from battling. To Overcoming.

And hopefully we'll learn over the next few weeks how to do that. Now, if you have your Bible apps, you can turn there to 2 Corinthians 10, beginning with verse 3. You can go there. You can pull out your Bibles if you want to do that. Just pull those out.

Open them up. If you take notes, kind of do it the old-school way. And walk along with us on this. Beginning with verse 3 in 2 Corinthians 10, here's what Paul says. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does, right?

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have the divine, and I want you to underline this, power. Okay? Power. They have the divine power to demolish and underline this, strongholds.

They have the power to demolish strongholds. Now, that word, the Greek word for power is dunamis. That's where we get this idea of dynamite. That's where we get the word dynamite. It has the ability to explode.

It has the power to break something. It has the power. The power of God is something that's explosive. It's something that's powerful. It's something that's dynamic.

And that is available to us. He says we have the divine power, but he also uses this word okuroma, which means a military stronghold. A fortress. A military stronghold was a fortress. If we go back.

In fact, I have a picture up here. If the tech team will give me that picture. Is it up on the slides today? This is an old ruin of a fortress, and usually it was put up on a high hill in a city, and usually the walls were 20 feet thick. It would be a place where soldiers would battle, soldiers would protect, no one could get in.

And he's talking about this battle with this divine power, this weapon, this dynamite that has the ability to break strongholds. So what does the enemy do? He creates strongholds of deception. He creates strongholds of unbelief. He shapes our thinking one thought at a time.

He takes one thought and he begins to imprison us with lies. He shapes our thinking. He shapes our thoughts. And he tells you this, people, you can't trust people. You can't trust people.

You won't succeed. You'll always break down. You'll always be broke. You'll never be good at marriage. You'll never be these things.

He tells us these things, and God doesn't hear your prayers. God doesn't care about you. And he whispers these lies, and he begins to affect our thoughts. But here's what verse 5 says. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the power of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Amen? So the title of this series and this message is Winning the War in Your Mind. And Craig Rochelle wrote a book just recently, and I'm adopting a lot of the ideas from that, but I'm also making my own, my own study, kind of meshing it together a bit. So it's an incredible, incredible book, incredible series we're going to be in. And I really feel like I've been impressed with my heart to really share this, these things, because I know in my personal life and through our church and through many different things, we battle with thoughts.

And this is a war ground. So let's just pray today, last God. God, I pray that you would renew us, Lord, that your word would speak and it would be powerful, that there would be no interruptions, Lord, there would be no thought interruptions today. We pray silence over this place in our heads so that we can receive what you have for us, Lord, so that we can be renewed and we can be restored and that we could live. A life above our thoughts, the imprisonments, the strongholds that we have in our lives.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. So let's get our minds right today. Amen. Let's get our minds right.

Because our lives are always, as Greg says, our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts. Our lives are always moving, always walking in the direction of our strongest thoughts. And science and the Bible would agree, because in cognitive behavioral psychology, it shows that there's relational challenges, eating disorders, addictions. Some forms of anxiety are all results of toxic thinking. Like a lot of sickness is a result of toxic thinking.

And the Bible says this, For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. So our thoughts go to our hearts, and our hearts live out those things. The way we live is a result of the thoughts we think. Look at your life, look how you're living, and it's a result of your thoughts. So work those thoughts that way.

Work your thoughts in a negative direction. What comes out? Negativity. Your thoughts are positive, then you have a positive life. The way we live is a result of the thoughts we think.

And our thinking determines who we become. So who you are today is ultimately a result of your thoughts. You think you can't do something, or you're probably not going to do anything. You're probably not because you have that thought, I'm not able, I can't do it, I'm not, you know, I don't have what it takes. You're probably not going to do it because it's a result of your thoughts.

If you dwell on problems all the time. If you have, oh, this is bad, this is this, and this is that. And you probably are overwhelmed with the problems. But if you think about solutions, if you put your, in your context of thinking, your solution, solutions to the problem, solutions come, right? And if you're always feeling like a victim, oh, poor is me, oh, look at the life that I had.

If you feel your thoughts that you're going to be a victim, you're going to live out this victim mentality. But if you live a life saying that I am more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ, that he that is in me is greater than he that is in the world, I can overcome anything through him. I can live that way. I live out what is going into my mind. The life we live is often a result of the thoughts we think.

So I want us to stop for a minute and let's do a test on ourselves real here real quick. So pop quiz, pop quiz, everybody pop quiz. Let's think about what we think about. Let's think about what we think about for a minute. Does your, from a scale to one to ten, does your thoughts drift more towards being worried or being peaceful?

Does your, does your thoughts live, drift towards being more fearful? Does it, does it, what, what's going to happen in my future? What are my kids going to have to go through? Am I going to have enough money? I need this, this, this kind of, kind of bank account, you know, to get here by this time in my life.

Is my retirement fund there? Oh, is my stocks, bonds, and all these things. Are you dealing with that? What is the, what is going on with the government, health care, economy, all these things. Do you tend to think about those and it worries you?

Do they drift that direction or do you think positive casting all your cares on God for he cares for you, right? Or, or, or there's some kind of peace that you trust God that no matter what I'm going through, even when times are hard, even when times are difficult, even when it seems negative, I feel that God has my back. He, I have peace in him. I have joy in him. I have hope in him.

The next one, does your, does your thoughts tend to drift towards negativity or positivity? Do they tend to, the flow towards being negative, when you, people, you know, you're critical of people and you don't think the best of people, you're always thinking about what they're doing wrong and what they need to fix, or you find fault in everything and everybody, or you're discontent with life, or it's so hard and I'm so busy, the badge, you know, I'm so busy, everybody look at me, I'm busy, I'm so busy, oh, it's so, it's such a tough world, the world is bad, going in the hell in a handbasket, you know, all this, do you, they tend to go that direction, or do you tend to believe the best in people? Do you tend to believe that life is good, no matter what I'm going through, no matter what problems are in the world, Christ is working out all things for the good of those who love Him, are called according to His purpose, so I have a joy in my heart that's deeper than the things that I'm going through. Is that where you tend to go, negative or positive? How about this?

Does your mind tend to focus more on the worldly, from scale of one to ten, does it drift towards the worldly, or does it drift towards the eternal? Does it drift more towards material possession, what I wear, what I have, how I look, what my Instagram picture looks like, what, how many likes I get on my post, does it tend to go that direction, to, to the worldly, or does it go to, God has given me this life to steward well, and has given me every gift, and has given me the ability to reach people, and use my gifts to, to, to love, and, and encourage people, and to grow His kingdom, and, and I have everything that I need, and everything I put back in is for eternal purposes, it's not for myself. Is that where we are? Assess, because what comes into your mind comes out in your life. So if you got stuff in your life, it's because you got stuff in your head.

If you got junk in your life, you got junk in your head. So no matter what you do, let me just say this, no matter what you do, no matter where you go, no matter how many vacations you take, no matter where you travel around the world, no matter what you buy, no matter where you live, see, see the negative people, what do we do? We do, oh, I can, oh, Virginia Beach is terrible. I know I'm calling some people out today, and you know who you are. Virginia Beach, oh, it's terrible.

I just come back, yeah, and, and, and, and you, you focus on that, right? You focus on, on, on, and that, and, and, and, and no matter what you do, no matter where you travel, no matter where you go, you cannot have a positive life with a negative mindset. You will always be negative wherever you are. You can live at Christina's house in Hawaii, all, you know, which, uh, by the way, I'm waiting to go, um, uh, at Christina's house in Hawaii, in a little tropical place, and you will be negative if your mind is negative. You need to be positive.

You've got to live out a positive life, and when you discover that, when you tap into that, living a positive life, having a positive mindset, what comes out in your life is positive. You have a joy that nobody can take away from you, and nobody can touch. So the question is, if your life always is moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts, are you excited about the direction your thoughts are going? Are you excited about the direction of your thoughts? We need to renew our minds.

We need to renew our minds. So how do we do that? So we're going to build a foundation in the coming weeks to learn how to rebuild, break down those old things, and rebuild our thought. So today, I just want to give you an introduction. This is just, this is what you do.

I'm going to give you really simple things today. There's two really simple things. The first one is to identify your greatest stronghold that's holding you back. Because if you can't define what it is, you can't beat it. You need to define, identify your greatest stronghold, maybe that's, I'm not good enough, or my past is so bad and so broken, you know, I can never be fixed, right, or I can't trust anybody because I've been let down so many times, I just can't trust anybody, I'm always going to be overweight, there's just nothing I can ever do, or I'm not good with money, I'll never be good with money, I spend money, I can't, I can't do anything with it, or God doesn't like me, so I'm just such a terrible person, God can never have a relationship with me, I can never have a close relationship with God, or my job, I'll never find the job that I want, or all my relationships break down, and I keep dating psychos, and you know, like, like, maybe that's your stronghold.

But every time you have a negative thought, and this is what's cool about the Bible and science, because the Bible and science agree, but every time you have a negative thought, it changes a chemical makeup in your brain, did you know that? So God knew what he was talking about when he said we need to renew our minds, because every thought, and get this, every thought creates a neurochemical change in your body, did you know that? If you think positive thoughts, there's this thing called dopamine, and it's this really cool, free, illegal drug. And what happens is, there's this surge of rewarding neurotransmitters, these dopamine just shoots through these neurotransmitters, and hits your body, and it causes a chemical buzz, that's why every time somebody says your hair looks good, you know, and you're like, woo, yeah, you got a little dopamine, you know, you're all jacked up, anybody says something nice about you, dopamine, when your boss says something, you did something good at work, and you're getting a raise, oh, dopamine, you know, you get all excited about that, right? Anytime somebody posts on your comment on Instagram or Facebook, you know, you get a little dopamine there, right?

Yeah, dopamine. Anytime you have a positive thing happen in your life, there is a chemical surge through these neurotransmitters in your body that cause dopamine to happen. And you're doped, you're doped, you're doped, you're doped, you're doped in a legal way. And that's why more than often we think thoughts, when we think thoughts, we are more likely to think those thoughts again. So, these neuropathways, billions of pathways, ropes to your brain, more often you think a thought.

So, the more often you think a thought, the easier it is to think that thought again, and then it becomes the default thought. So, it becomes a part of your thought process. And in the same way, we can have negative thoughts. And it creates strongholds in your life. It creates strongholds in your thought process, and you start to believe the truth about a lie, and you get stuck.

It's just like walking a path a lot. Let's say that you have a path in your yard that you just walk every day. You go out and you walk it, you walk it and walk it. It's the very same path. You have grass, you have all of that out there.

But the more you walk it, after about 100 times of walking that path, it starts to develop a trail. You start to see that trail form, and the grass goes away, and it creates a crevice in the pathway, and it creates a pathway. And you begin to forge a pathway to whatever you're thinking. And that's how it works in your mind. It's like a pathway that you're forming.

If you think a thought 100 times, you're going to start believing that thought about yourself, about others, about whatever it is, and it becomes a default. It's a default. Thought. But the Bible tells us that when we create these unhealthy thoughts, these unhelpful neural pathways, we need to capture them and create new paths, renew our mind. See, what happens is when we create new thoughts and we start thinking those thoughts after a hundred times of thinking those thoughts, and this doesn't happen overnight.

I want you to understand that instantaneous gratification generation here, okay? It doesn't happen overnight, but the more we think those thoughts, the more they start, the grass starts growing back, and new paths are formed, and those old thoughts start to go away, and ultimately it sets us free. It sets us free. Science and God, amen? Science and God work together, and that's why Romans 12 says, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, His pleasing, and His perfect will. So if you come home one day and you've had a bad day of work, and your wife or your husband is at, and there's chaos around the home and the kids are running around, your first response usually is to, yeah, ah, what is going on? I can't do this. Where is I? And you start fighting.

If you could just change that thought process by coming home, and if it is chaotic, what do you do? You stop. You pray. You take a pause. You go, and you hug it out, and you encourage, and you can create new pathways.

Maybe you feel bad or feel depressed a lot, and you go through those seasons. Instead of going to the refrigerator, all right, you know, I'm going to get my ice cream out and get my cookies out. For me, it's chocolate. You know, I've got to have a lot of chocolate, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and I've got a big pile of them, you know. Instead of doing that, how about going out and taking a walk, you know, and release some dopamine in your system, right?

Or work out, or do something that's helpful. We change our thought process. Maybe you're somebody who gets bored a lot, and the first thing you do is go to Instagram or social media, and you start scrolling through it, and before you know it, like an hour of your life is gone. Maybe instead going to the YouVersion Bible app, or going to something, a nice podcast that really encourages you and lifts you up so you're not comparing yourself to those fake people on there anyway who are putting filters on their account and won't even post a picture unless it looks a certain way anyway. And then you see yourself as a loser when you can go to Scripture, and you can see yourself as somebody who is created in the image of God and is beautifully and wonderfully made.

No matter who you are, what you look like, your talents and your gifts are all designed for God's purpose. To think in a different way, you have to forge new paths in your brain. And the more you walk the path, the easier it becomes to travel that path. And it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't.

You have to walk that path every day. And the more you stay off the old path, that old path weakens. And the harder it is to think about that old path again. Amen. So identify the greatest stronghold that's holding you back.

And I want you to do this. Just one, okay? Don't go out and pull all your strongholds in your life because you're going to be exhausted trying to keep up with all of them. Start with one. What is the greatest?

What is the number one stronghold, fortress in your mind, the prison that's been keeping you where you are for so long? It could be, I'm not lovable. I'm not good enough. I don't deserve anything good in this life. Maybe that's where you are, or you're always broke.

Whatever it might be. Identify. Identify that stronghold that leads you to hopelessness and helplessness and worthlessness and pointlessness and identify it because you cannot defeat what you cannot define. You cannot defeat what you cannot define. You need to be honest with yourself and identify the stronghold.

The second thing is, name the truth that destroys that stronghold. Remember I said it's power? Remember I said it's dynamite? That 20 foot wall that's on your mind? You need to identify the truth because you will know the truth and what will the truth be?

The truth, what will the truth do? The truth will set you free. Truth sets you free. So many people are walking around in prisons and they're in prisons that are unlocked. You're in prisons that are unlocked.

There's freedom there for you but in your thoughts and in your mind you think that prison is locked. I think about a dog for instance. Growing up we had a lot of dogs. We just introduced two new dogs in our family and my wife is now a dog lover. She was not a dog lover before but her mind has been renewed.

It's fully renewed. It happened quicker than I thought. Praise God for that. On the other hand, I'm keeping cats away from her because I'm not there. Okay?

I'm a dog person. But I think about, you know, growing up we had a lot of dogs and different dogs. We love dogs. My family loved dogs. We had animals all around the house.

We'd just collect animals. If a cat showed up, a stray cat showed up, there's a cat, you know, was on the porch every morning, you know. That was Tom the cat, you know. And Tom was there and he just showed up, right? And I found I was out in college.

I was on the Appalachian Trail, Appalachian for some of you people from up north. But North Carolina, we call it Appalachian and this was in North Carolina. And I ran into a dog and I found a dog on the trail in college. It was a black lab and nobody claimed him. We waited forever and we took him home with us.

And I had him in my apartment and then the landlord said I couldn't keep the dog, so I took it home to my parents, you know, and said, hey, y'all want a new dog? And they're like, oh, Lord, he's bringing us a dog. But we can't say no because we love dogs. So, Captain, that was a really, really good dog. But we had this invisible fence.

So, we dug the invisible fence around it and you put it in the ground. And if you know anything about the invisible fence, it really trains the dog to stay in your yard without having a real fence up. And you put the collar around them and it has this little electrical advice and every time it crosses the line, it zaps them, you know, a little bit. Just a little bit. Just kind of scares them and they jump back.

And then eventually what it does, and some of you are probably like, that's awful, you know, but it kind of works, you know. And then eventually you cut the, or turn the fence off and the dog will not go out of the fence because they know they've been conditioned to think that that fence is there. And a lot of us are like dogs and invisible fences that aren't on. And freedom's right there for us. It's available to us, but we sit in that fence thinking that that's where we are and that's we never can get out because our thoughts have strongholds on them.

And the devil wants you to think that the prison is locked, but it is unlocked and it is available for you because God is a conqueror, that our thoughts can be conquered. And Paul understood this and Paul gives us instructions like this. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. We have the ability to take captive every thought. We can actually manhandle a thought.

We can take captive that thought, every thought, make it obedient to Christ. We are not prisoners. We are free in Christ. As believers, we do not. I'd have to hold on to those thoughts that have kept us locked for so long because they're not locked anyway because we have power to demolish those strongholds.

I love the Greek of that take captive. That term in the original Greek means to capture by spear or sword. By spear or sword. And if you notice all the pieces of the armor, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the belt of truth, and the feet that spreads the gospel, all these pieces are defensive weapons, but there's one offensive weapon, and it's the sword of the Spirit. And it says that the Word of God is like a double-edged sword, and it's able to slice and cut and take away those lies, and we have truth available to us, and the Word of God that we can attach to any thought, anything that comes against us, we can take capture of that thing by the Spirit of God.

We can do it. So what's your stronghold? Destroys your faith and steals your intimacy with God, and steals your joy, and robs you of your calling. What is that stronghold that's kept you away from what God has called you and made you to be, to prosper in, and to be whole, and to be joyful, and to be a true person that God really created you to be? What is that thing that has kept you back?

For me, as I mentioned a little bit, and just using my, just to be vulnerable today, my stronghold has always been, it's haunted me since I was a kid, is that I am not enough. I am not enough. Always been under the spotlight, raised in a preacher's home, expected, the expectations that were placed on me. I'm not righteous enough. I'm not godly enough.

I'm never, I'm never enough. I'm never enough. I'm not righteous enough to lead. I'm not a good enough father, or I'm not a good enough, if I focus more on the church, I feel like I'm not being good to my family. I'm not being the best father, and the expectations of that, I feel like I'm not able to enough.

But if I, but if I focus on my family more, I feel like I'm failing my church, and the ministry that God has entrusted me, and honestly, I cannot meet all of your expectations, and it's impossible to meet your expectations, because, you know, I am not enough. And there's some truth in that. There's truth in that. I am, I'm not enough. I'm not enough.

So I have to fight that with truth. I have to fight that with the truth. And this one in Peter, 2 Peter 1 and 3, it says this, His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. So I put that on my heart. His divine power has given me everything I need for a godly life, so I can do it in His power.

In His power alone can I do the things that I do. I can't do it alone, but by His power, I am capable of doing it. And I can spend my, I have the power to, in the patience and with time, and I have the energy, and I have the wisdom, and I have the resources, and I have the resolve by the power of Jesus Christ, because in Him, I have the power to demolish that stronghold that says that I am not good enough, because I am not good enough. Only in Jesus, I am good enough. And He gives me everything I need, so you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Not the world, not people, not Satan's lies, but God's truth. Nobody gives you truth but God. Not the world, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not people, not So we. You need to embrace truth, open the door, and be free. Embrace truth, open the door, and be free.

Well, you may say, and as in closing here, we can have the instruments up here, you may say, I can't get it all done, I'm just, there's just so much going on in life, there's just no way I can get everything done. Well, you know what, there's a truth for that. You can do all things, you can do all these things through Christ, who strengthens you. And your weakness, He is strong, right? When you're weak, He is strong.

Some of you might say, I'm not attractive, or I don't look like that, or I don't have that kind of ability. Well, let me say this, you're fearfully and wonderfully made. You're afraid that God designed you in such a way that He made you who you are for His glory, and He loves you just how you are. That truth is available to you. He has given you gifts, He has given you the abilities, He has given you everything you need to be exactly who you are.

You don't have to be anybody else, you can be who God made you to be. Maybe, maybe some of you are just miserable and depressed all the time, and you just, you don't know if you'll ever get through it. Let me just say, the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength. And whenever I go through those times where I feel like I'm down and out, I tap into that joy.

Anyway, I think about a God who has joy, and who has it available to me. When I feel alone, when you feel alone, perhaps you're somebody, everybody feels alone at times. Whether you're married, whether you're single, whether you're alone, whether you're a lot of people, people can be in a room like this and feel alone. But God says, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, I am always with you, and I will be with you till the ends of the earth. We have that truth with us.

Maybe you have a victim mentality. You feel like everything just goes wrong in your life, that I don't deserve, and I can't get out of this. You can be an overcomer in Christ, because He says, I am an overcomer by the blood and the word of my testimony. I have authority over my enemies. In the name of Jesus, you can be an overcomer today.

Life is always moving in the direction of our thoughts. What comes into your mind comes out in your life. But you cannot have a positive life with a negative mindset. We must capture the lies and replace it with truth. Don't stay locked in a prison.

Don't stay locked in a prison that's unlocked already. Because Jesus holds the key to set you free. If you're honest with yourself today, just being real today, if you're honest with yourself, how many of you would say, I have strongholds in my life? I have a major stronghold in my life. Hands all over the place.

I want to pray with you today. In fact, if it's such a major stronghold that you need prayer, we have a prayer team right here available for you at the altar. And you're welcome to come up during this prayer, and you lay it down, and we'll be glad to pray it with you when we're a church. I'm a pastor that believes in prayer. You can lay them here.

We'll come up and Keisha will be available to pray with you. Justin will be available and Crystal will be available to pray with you. They're right here. They'll be available to pray with you. You can pray over that.

But I want to pray over the whole congregation today, God. I pray that we tap into that power, God. Give them the power. Show them that your power is enough, Jesus, to break every stronghold in their lives, to break them out of the prison that they think that they're in, Lord. Renew their minds.

Renew their thought process. Give them the instruction, the wisdom to reform, to build new pathways, that you would change them and renew them. In the name of Jesus. And with all heads bowed and all eyes closed today, there may be some of you in here today that you feel like you just can't get close to God. That you're just so bad.

That you've done so many wrong things. That a stronghold has been formed in your mind. That you can't have a relationship with God. I'm so removed from God. There's no way I can have a relationship with Him.

Can I tell you? Can I tell you? Can I tell you that's a lie that Satan has projected on you? That you've believed? Because you have a Father that loves you.

And He gave His life for you. He gave His Son for you. His Son's own life for you. So that you can have a relationship with Him today. And if that's you today, I want you to believe with me.

And pray this with me. Because the Bible says when you confess with your heart, confess with your mouth and believe with your heart, you will be saved. You will be saved. So just pray this with me. Father, I believe that you are the Son of God.

God, that you died on the cross for my sin. And you resurrected on the third day. Establishing and proving who you are and that you conquered death. And today I trust in you. I believe that you died on the cross so that I can be forgiven.

Forgive me of my sin. Forgive me of my shortcomings. Break the stronghold that are on my life, Lord Jesus. To believe that I can't have a relationship with you. So today I receive you as my Lord.

And Savior, come into my heart. Come into my life today. And make me new. Renew my mind. Renew my heart.

In Jesus' name.