Speaker 1: 0:00

Now I have a question for you, and maybe it's just me, but has your mind ever been dominated by negative thoughts, thoughts like man, how am I supposed to do this? They picked the wrong person for the job. I can't do this, isn't it safe to say? At times it feels like as if there is a war going on in our minds. It's like a battlefield. Sometimes we have faith, but other times we have fear. Sometimes we have all the trust in God, like the song we sing, or other times we don't.

Speaker 1: 0:35

Now there is this one particular time in my life where I remember I was really having this constant thought of I can't do it, I can't do it. I signed up for this thing called the Rugged Maniac. All right Now. The Rugged Maniac is a three mile race with 20 obstacles that you do in the mud Sounds awesome, okay. My friend first told me about it and I was like yeah, sign me up, I'm in, let's do it. Then, when it started to get closer to the date, I went to the website and I discovered that during this race, you got to jump through fire, you got to army crawl in mud with barbed wire over top of your head and I thought to myself isn't life dangerous enough without these added obstacles? And so I was like why did I sign myself up for this? But not only did I sign myself up for it, I signed my wife up to do it with me too. Now, getting closer to the event, she was feeling all confident about it. She said oh yeah, I'm ready to do this. I got this Fire Me. I was like yeah, I'm good too, I'm straight, I'm ready for this. But inside my head, I was saying to myself I don't want to jump over fire. I don't even like the mud. You know, I don't know if I could do it. Now there's this one particular obstacle that I wasn't looking forward to, which was called the rings of death. That's what I called it anyways, because that's how it made me feel. So, this obstacle, you have these rings that are hanging down, and you got to jump to one to the other, like a little monkey. You just got to jump to the rings and get it. Now here's there's two problems with this. There's two problems with this thing. You know, I kept telling myself I can't swim, and I kept remembering my days in elementary school. I couldn't even do the monkey bars back then. How am I supposed to do it now? Then the second thing is underneath the rings is a water pit, and I can't swim, and so I was saying this is it. This is how I'm going to die right here. This is going to be the end of it. So here you go, heading to the rugged maniac.

Speaker 1: 2:40

Me and a couple of guys that were doing the race. We went to one of those trampoline parks and they had a bunch of like the practice things that you can do there. So we went to the rings of death the rings of death that I called it and both of my friends, they did it Easy. Now it was my turn. I grabbed the ring and I went to swing and my hand ripped out, and then I saw slow motion fall into the foam pits. And as I was falling to those foam pits, I had a future glimpse. This is what it's going to be like at the race, but instead of nice foam, comfortable foam, it's going to be mud and water and death, and I'm not going to like it. So here you go. So I wasn't looking forward to it. I kept telling myself I can't do it. There's no way I could do it.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Now we get to the race and I still have this thought here I got a picture of me and a couple people who did the race. That's us. We don't know these two other people that my friend Parker slapped in the head, but that's us at the race. We got there and I'm feeling pretty good. The race is going good.

Speaker 1: 3:38

Then we get to the rings of death. All right, my friend John kills it, friend Parker kills it. My turn now Aaron's behind me. She says you got it, babe, you can do this. And I say no, don't look at me. Just, you don't want to see me there in this part, just look away. But then there's all these buff dudes doing all these obstacles. I'm like, actually don't look at them because I don't want you to see them and see me do this. So just close your eyes for this segment of the race, just close your eyes. And so then I go and grab the ring and I tell myself Jacob, you can do this, you can do it. And I go to swing and I reach for the other ring and I nip it. I miss it. And then my arm, like Michael Jordan from Space Jam, grew and I grabbed the other ring and I went to another one and to the other one. And I did that thing. Baby, come on, somebody, I got a picture of it. There's me. The caption is oh shoot, I did it. That's the caption on that. Yeah, I did it.

Speaker 1: 4:47

And at that moment, man, I felt like I could have stopped the race right there and I would have accomplished everything. But here you go, here you go. I had to take captive my thought. I had to tell myself I could do it. And here's the thing that I learned in that moment the battle was in my mind. The battle was not based on my ability to do it. The battle was not the obstacle that was before me. The battle that I had to fight was in my mind.

Speaker 1: 5:17

And, friends, I'm going to tell you today the battle that you are faced in oftentimes is a battle in our mind. It's a battle that we have to give to God. So often, like I said, I want to trust God, but yet I also want control. So often I believe that God can, but I wonder if he really wants to. Maybe you're like this. Maybe you can walk in one moment and feel full of spiritual confidence that God is with you, that he's for you, he's called you, but in the next moment, you have this crippling insecurity, this paralyzing fear that holds you back, and what I discovered is this is that the battlefield the mind, is a battlefield, and most, most of life's battles are won or lost in our minds. They're won or lost in our minds. The good news is this, though the good news is that the Bible is God's word and that God's word is powerful, and as we begin to understand God's word, we can begin to see healing in our lives. So today we start a new series called Winning the War in your Mind, and, as everyday people who are going through everyday challenges and problems, I believe God wants to teach us how to trust in him. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Second Corinthians says this. The Apostle Paul says this 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. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't know how often you use the word stronghold in your everyday life. Man, I got some strongholds going on. Man, my boss, man, he a stronghold, you know, I don't think we do that right. So what is a stronghold. In the Greek, it literally refers to a military stronghold. Picture this a fortress, often built in the heart of a city, with walls 20 feet high. It's a place where military leaders were protected during battles or where prisoners were held captive so they couldn't get away. Now I want you to think about this.

Speaker 1: 7:24

The devil, our spiritual enemy, wants to build strongholds in your mind, wants to build strongholds in your mind. How does he do it? How does he do it? What's his tricky way from doing it? Planting little lies. Planting little lies Lies that we begin to believe long enough that we begin to think those lies are true.

Speaker 1: 7:46

He'll whisper things like this and, no matter where you are in your faith journey today, you probably have these thoughts. You probably have these thoughts come through your head. You probably have thoughts. Like man, you can't trust people. That person lets you down. This person's definitely going to let you down. You'll never succeed. You'll always be broke. Your marriage is not going to work out. God doesn't hear your prayers. He hears their prayers, but not yours. God doesn't care about you as much as he cares about them. You're never going to make a difference. You'll never amount to anything. So these are the lies that we can begin to believe.

Speaker 1: 8:24

So how do we fight back? How do we do battle in our minds? How do we confront those lies with the truth of God's word Paul contains. He says this, he said and here you go. And we take captive every thought to make it what Obedient to Christ, make it obedient to Christ. So another way of saying this our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thought. Your life, my life, our lives are always moving in the direction of whatever we put in our heads first, the strongest thought, what we tend to think about, comes out in life.

Speaker 1: 9:12

And here's the funny part Both science and scriptures agree. Science and scriptures agree. Cognitive behavior psychology shows that a lot of problems are actually related to the wrong thought processes. Some relational challenges, some eating disorder, addictions, forms of anxiety and depression are a direct result of toxic thinking. So that's what science says, but, interestingly enough, scripture says the same thing, because Proverbs 23 says this for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. So is she as she, as he thinks in his heart.

Speaker 1: 9:49

So it's interesting, though, because how do you think in your heart? Don't you think in your head? Aren't we supposed to be thinking in our heads. How can we think in our hearts if we're supposed to be thinking in our heads? But I just want you to, I want to just throw something out there for you to think about, for you to just kind of contemplate.

Speaker 1: 10:02

I just kind of believe it seems like there is this ongoing, relentless assault against our hearts. Doesn't it just feel that way sometimes? Like, even think about this, even think about this when you think about some of the worst decisions you made, or some of those decisions that you made that you know you got to go back and fix before you made that decision. Didn't you have an attack against your heart? Didn't someone say something? Or someone did something, or you felt something? It felt like there was an attack there.

Speaker 1: 10:30

And so the scripture is saying there, because Jesus even says this, he says out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. It's interesting when we look at the teachings of Jesus, he was far more interested in the conditions of our hearts than the things around us. Because it's kind of like if our hearts are right, then our lives can be right. Because the trick is this Sometimes we want to fix the things outside, but never addressing our heart. And so here you go.

Speaker 1: 10:57

So we got to begin to wonder how is my heart? How is my heart? Because the life we have so often is a reflection of the thoughts we think. What we think determines who we become. If you think you can't guess what, you probably won't. If you think you can, by the grace of God you probably will. If you dwell on your problems, don't problems seem to get even bigger. But instead, if you look for some solutions, if you have some faith, you'll find those solutions. If you always feel like you're a victim, you'll become a victim, and a victim mindset will sabotage the God opportunities in your life. Instead, you have to believe that you can overcome. By the power of Christ within you, you can overcome. By the power of Christ within you, you can overcome.

Speaker 1: 11:48

I want to encourage you for a moment to just stop and think about what you think about. Isn't it funny that our lives are so fast-paced? We have so many notifications always popping up on us. When was the last time we just paused and stopped and thought about what I think about? Because I'm always thinking about the next thing. How can I be present with what God's trying to do right now? Here I got something I want us to do real fast. I want us to do a thought audit. Here you go, we're going to do a thought audit. All right, I got three categories up here. I got word versus peaceful, negative versus positive, worldly versus eternal. Let me break these down. I want you to grade yourself. Okay, we got a little assignment right now. I want you to grade yourself.

Speaker 1: 12:33

Worried Worried. People tend to think what man? What about my kids? What about their future? What about the economy? What about this election? What about the money? What about all the stuff? What about this election? What about the money? What about all the stuff? What about health? I can't, I don't know. I'm worried. Where do you grade yourself? Secure people, securing God's promise. People think, well, I can't fix everything, but I can trust God with the things I can't control. I'm going to begin to trust God with the uncontrollables in my life. You know things aren't where I want it to be, but thank God they're not where they could be and I got peace. Okay, where are you in this audit? Here you go.

Speaker 1: 13:09

Negative versus positive, negative what you're typically what critical of people? You find faults. You do the positive jab. Have you ever been around people that do the positive jab. They'll say, oh, you did so good, but you could have ran a little bit faster. Man, those people drive me nuts. You know, maybe you're always so critical of things and what other people are doing and you criticize other people because it makes you feel good about your insecurities.

Speaker 1: 13:36

And if you're like I don't know what he's talking about, I've never done that, it's you or are you more positive, positive leaning, believing the best in people. That's hard to do sometimes, but I'm going to believe the best in people. I'm going to believe that things are going to work out, because Jesus even says this. Can I add anything to my life? If I worry, can I add anything to it? No, I can't, so I'm going to believe the best. I'm going to believe the best and last one, last one, worldly or eternal.

Speaker 1: 14:09

What do I mean by that? Worldly meaning? Your mind is consumed with this life, your mind, the material possessions I got to buy? The next thing, got to get the next thing, got to get this, got to get that, got to prove to everyone I made it that I'm good. Or do you have a mindset set on eternal difference? Another way you can say that is do you want to leave a legacy that when people talk about you, they say, man, they went all out, they did great.

Speaker 1: 14:36

What is your mindset at in those things? Because here's the thing, what would you say, characterizes your thoughts? Because you cannot have a positive life when you have a negative mind. Why? Because your life is always, always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. So let me ask you if your life is moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts, are you excited about the life that's coming ahead of you? Are you excited about the future? Are you excited where you're going? Does it fill you with joy or grief? Here you go.

Speaker 1: 15:10

I'll share a personal story. I had to ask myself this question back in the summer of 2020. Everyone remembers 2020, right? I had to ask myself this question back then. On the outside, my life looked pretty good, to be honest. Obviously, besides all the stuff that happened in the world, my life looked pretty good. You know, to be honest, obviously, besides all the stuff that happened in the world, my life looked good. I love my wife, my daughter Kingsley. She was so young and fun. Aaron was pregnant with our firstborn son. You know, I like being a pastor. It was great. But on the inside, here you go. But on the inside, man, my mind was filled with so much negativity. I mean, I carried a victim mentality with me everywhere I went feeling like everything was against me. And it's kind of funny, because I remember the moment that I really had to let God step in.

Speaker 1: 15:55

I remember the moment Aaron and I planned a little family vacation down to the Outer Banks in July of that year, and the goal was simple Forget everything, forget about COVID, forget about whether our church plant was going to survive or not, forget about all the stress, just be with our little family. And here's the thing. Here's the thing, even when you leave problems behind here's the crazy thing that happens Even if you try to leave your problems behind, you still take your mind with you everywhere you go. That's why, if you try to run away from your problems, your problems always seem to creep back up on you, because it's not about the external things, it's about the what? Heart, as he thinks in his heart. So you can't run away from things because you still have your mind and your heart. And so here you go, I'm on this trip, and I still, for some reason, brought my mind with me.

Speaker 1: 16:45

And so we get to this beautiful, quiet beach resort. Erin's excited, she's like we're going to have a blast. Kingsley, my little daughter, she's excited, she's pumped, she loves the water. Erin says let's grab some drinks, let's head to the beach. And I'm over here being all grumpy. I'm grumpy, I'm carrying all the stuff, which that's one thing they didn't tell you about when you had kids, that when you became a dad, that you're going to have to carry awkward stuff places all the time. So I'm just trying to carry this stuff. I'm getting to the beach.

Speaker 1: 17:12

So we get there. We set it up. It's perfect. We got our chairs, we got our blankets, we got sandcastle toys, I got my pina colada. Come on somebody. We look at the water. I look at the water, I see my daughter playing and I think this is it. This is what I needed. Thank you God, I needed this peace, thank you, thank you, lord. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, a wave comes up, whoosh, goes all over our blankets, over my phone, over the chairs, knocks over my pina colada, and I say see God, I can't even have a moment of peace. The world's out to get me. But here's what happened next. Okay, here's what happened next? That trip. It ended up being one of the most confrontational trips I've ever been on. Now Aaron and I we faced some real issues in our marriage. On that trip we confronted the reality of where the church was at that time. It was not a restful beach trip okay that I thought it would be but it was exactly what we needed. It was exactly what we needed.

Speaker 1: 18:25

We came back home on July 5th and that morning I went for a run and I made three decisions that day that changed my life forever. I made three decisions on that run. Number one I refused to live with the victim mentality and I committed to spending daily time with God. The second thing I did I decided to shift my identity from being just a church planter to a child of the Most High God. And the third thing I did I decided that I was done with being overweight. I decided I was done with being overweight. That was my decision. So I started the most basic daily devotional plan and it worked. I got Christian counseling, got healing, and that worked too. I committed to working out for at least 10 minutes a day, and that started small, but it became something very truly meaningful in my life, and all that came from one thing changing the direction of my thoughts. Changing the direction of my thoughts.

Speaker 1: 19:21

Now, I want to give us two foundational thoughts that we're going to build on. Okay, I want to give us two foundational thoughts that we're going to build on. Okay, I want to give us two foundational thoughts, okay. The first one is this Identify the biggest stronghold holding you back. I want you to identify the biggest stronghold that's holding you back, whatever it is. Remember stronghold. It means you're a prisoner, locked up by a lie. What is the biggest mental stronghold that's holding you back? If you catch yourself stuck in those negative thoughts, here's what I want you to do. Those negative thoughts are actually changing the chemical makeup in your brain. Come on, I'm about to be science, jacob, for a second. Okay.

Speaker 1: 20:11

Every time you think a negative thought, your brain is rewiring itself, creating pathways that make it easier for you to think that thought again. I want you to think about this, okay. The reason is because every thought creates a neurochemical change in your body. This is getting deep. When you think a positive thought, though, you get a surge of rewarding neurotransmitters releasing a very legal come on, an exciting drug called dopamine. It's legal and it's powerful. And every time your brain drops some dopamine, you get this hit, you get this buzz, you get this thrill. And someone says to you girl, your hair looks good, dopamine hit. If you're at work and your wife texts you and says, come home early thinking about you, dopamine hit and you leave Johnson, you got the reports. Okay, it's a positive surge of release in your brain and what's so interesting is that the more often you think a thought, science tells us it's easier to think that thought again. Once you think a thought, you're creating neural pathways in your brain and literally we have billions of neural pathways in our brains. The more often we think that thought, the more connection there is and it's easier to think that thought again, meaning you're creating a stronghold or demolishing the stronghold.

Speaker 1: 21:29

If you believe a lie for long enough, you start to be impacted as if that lie were true and you get stuck in a rut. Imagine this If I walked out of my front yard and walked across the lawn for 100 days straight, what do you think is going to happen to my lawn? I'm going to create a straight. What do you think is going to happen to my lawn? I'm going to create a pathway right. My grass is going to change. It's going to get smashed. I'll create a pathway In my mind, in our minds. If, for 100 days straight, I think a lie, I start to believe the lie and I create a neural pathway through my brain. With God's help, what we're going to do is this we're going to renew our minds, we're going to stay off that old path. And what happens? If I stay off the grass? Grass, grass grows back. It grows back. And this is science and this is godly, because God created science. Just in case you didn't know.

Speaker 1: 22:24

But Romans 12 says this. Paul gives us a little bit more insight to it. He said don't be conformed to the patterns of this world. We might even say it like this Don't be conformed to the wrong ways of thinking. Stop thinking that you're that lie that was told over you when you were a teenager. Stop thinking that you didn't belong when that loved one walked out on you. Stop thinking that you'll always be just that mistake. Your whole life will be defined by that one thing. And if we're being honest, today in church, haven't we all made decisions for our future based on our traumas from yesterday, based on our hurts, based on our brokenness and the enemy the spiritual enemy he would love to keep you in that lie, so that you'll never experience the freedom that God actually has for you.

Speaker 1: 23:28

And so there's this pathway. There's this pathway, but how do we be transformed? How do we be transformed? By the renewing of your mind. We're staying off the destructive, negative paths. We're creating new paths of truth. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 23:41

I got another assignment for you. By the renewing of your mind, we're staying off the destructive, negative paths. We're creating new paths of truth. Here you go. I got another assignment for you. I want you to pick just one stronghold, just one, not 99 of them. Just one stronghold that's been holding you back. We're not going to attack all of them, just one. What is it for you? Is it feeling not lovable? Never good enough, don't deserve anything good, always will be broke. Don't have this. I have that. All these different things. Identify one stronghold and name it, because you cannot defeat what you don't define. You can't defeat what you don't define. Identify the biggest stronghold, and the second part of your assignment is this Name the truth that demolishes that stronghold. Name the truth that demolishes that stronghold. Name the truth that demolishes that stronghold. Name the truth. Why does the truth matter? Because Jesus says this. He said you'll know the truth, and once you know the truth, the truth will set you free.

Speaker 1: 24:37

For too long, so many of us have been in the bondage created by a lie, and God's truth is trying to get to your heart today that you are loved, that you are favored, that God has a plan for your life, a purpose for you, that you are not an accident but God has a divine purpose for you in your life. That the thing that happened to you, god's heart breaks for you, but he's also picking you up and cheering you on and say you won't be defined by that thing, but you'll be defined by my love for you on the cross, and so you can get back up again. See, the truth will set us free. Another lie is not gonna set us free the lie of if I only gain this much financial success, then I'm gonna be happy. The lie if I only gain this much financial success, then I'm going to be happy. The lie if I get into this relationship, then I'm going to be complete. The lie that says if I get this thing, that's going to erase those pains. No, no, no. The truth will set you free the lies that put you in spiritual bondage.

Speaker 1: 25:36

Some of you have been living a life based on a lie for far too long, and the Apostle Paul says this. He said we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. We take captive every thought. We're not prisoners of our thoughts. We take them captive and make them obedient to Christ. In fact, the Greek term that's translated take captive. It's a term that means to attack with sword or spear. I like it because I like this? Because when we look at scripture, paul gives us some more insight to the kind of battle that we do.

Speaker 1: 26:14

Ephesians 6 tells us this that we have spiritual armor. What do we have? We have the helmet of salvation. We have the breastplate of righteousness. We have the helmet of salvation. We have the breastplate of righteousness. We have the shield of faith, the belt of truth, the shoes prepared for the gospel and readiness of peace, and all those are defensive weapons. You want to know what our one offensive weapon is that Paul says it's the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, which is the Word of God. It is the Word of God that sets us free, because it's His powerful, living Word that is sharper than any double-edged sword and it cuts away at the lies of the enemy. We let God's Word take captive any lies that held us hostage.

Speaker 1: 26:57

So I ask you today what's your stronghold? What's your stronghold? What's the dominant lie that your spiritual enemy has tried to use to destroy your faith, kill your relationships, rob intimacy with you and God? What's your stronghold? Mine, for the longest time, the one that haunted me was that I was second best. I just felt second best Wasn't quite good enough. I'll never be good enough, and I spent too much of my life running away from insignificance and trying to find acceptance. Man, that got me in some bad spots at times, but here's the truth that I see from God's word. 2, peter says this His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. It's about Him and it's about His power. It's about what he says about us. It's about living for Him. Now I'll close with this.

Speaker 1: 28:00

There's this story in the gospels. There's this story in the Gospels. There's a story in the Gospels about a woman who was sick for 12 years. She was sick for 12 years and based on her condition, based on the condition she had, she had to remain isolated. She couldn't go to the temple, she couldn't be in community. She was isolated, with everyday reminders that she's sick and she's stuck and there's no help and there's no hope. Scripture says that she used all of her resources to find doctors and rituals and things to help her get better. And scripture says but instead of getting better, she grew worse. Have you ever tried your best to get better but you felt like things are getting worse, like things are getting worse? He said, but only if I had this, god, if only I had that. But things got worse. But then, but then scripture tells us.

Speaker 1: 28:54

Text says she heard that Jesus was passing through. She heard Jesus was passing through her town. And the stories at this time, the stories about Jesus were running rampant all through, all over the region, stories of him healing people and saving people and loving on the unlovable, loving on the outcast, and he has this power to bring healing. And she heard that he was coming through. So for 12 years, her mind began to tell her you'll never get better, you'll never be healed, you'll always be isolated, you'll always be stuck. Because every time she made an attempt to get better, on the other side of her attempt was a new disappointment, and her mind has convinced her that you will never move on. Yet she heard Jesus was passing through, and so she said to herself I love this. She's like talking to herself, she said to herself. She said if only I can touch the edge of his shirt, then then maybe then I'll be healed.

Speaker 1: 30:09

She was in desperation mode, and so she did something risky. And here's the thing If you want to live a life filled with faith, it's going to require you to be a little bit risky. She did something a little bit risky. She said I'm going to go out and I'm going to touch him. To be a little bit risky, she did something a little bit risky. She said I'm going to go out and I'm going to touch him. But here's the problem. Here's the problem Based on her condition, if she was caught in public space, she would be stoned to death.

Speaker 1: 30:33

She risked her life, and so this is what she does. She gets up. I can visualize that she puts a hood over herself. She sees this crowd At this time in Jesus' ministry. He has thousands and thousands of people following him. He was more famous than Taylor Swift. That's famous. He had thousands of people following him. And so here she goes, she puts this hoodie on and she's like I got to touch him. I got to touch him.

Speaker 1: 31:04

And so she starts to elbow her way through the crowd. She starts to make her way through the crowd and there's all these people around her miracle, her miracle, is in the middle and she's saying I'm right here, but I'm going to make my way to my miracle, I'm going to elbow my way to my miracle. I'm going to elbow my way to my miracle. I'm going to do what it takes to get to my miracle. And I just got to say I had this picture when I was writing this that a lot of us that's how our minds are, man it's so cluttered with doubt and shame and self-hate and lies, and our minds are cluttered. But I'm going to tell you this If you will start to just elbow your way through those strongholds, elbow your way through those lies, elbow your way through that thing that someone tried to tell you back then, it ain't true. I'm going to elbow my way because my miracle is in the middle and I'm going to get to my miracle. And so she elbows her way, she gets to him and she touches him. And scripture tells us immediately, not next week, not next month, not when he got around to it, but immediately. She was healed.

Speaker 1: 32:13

And Jesus says it felt like power left my body and Jesus stopped. He stopped the crowd and he said who touched me? And Peter, being Peter, says Jesus, there's about a thousand people around here who you mean touch you? Come on, man, let's keep going. And Jesus is like Peter, why are you always saying something? He said no, someone touched me and power left me. Did you know that when you touch Jesus, power leaves him and goes to you? Come on, it's scripture, baby. It's scripture. When I touch Jesus, I get a little bit of his power. Scripture even tells us the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in me. So anxiety, you got to take a step back because the power of Christ lives in me. Come on, somebody. And so she touched him.

Speaker 1: 33:04

Jesus stopped everything, looked at her and said daughter, come on, how intimate, how playful is our God. Daughter, your faith has healed you. Your faith has healed you. And her life was changed in that moment because she got done with being stuck. Friends, get done with being stuck. Take one thing and say God, I give you this thought. And who the Son sets free is free indeed. So, father Jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your goodness, lord, and your favor. We say come, holy Spirit. We say come, holy Spirit. We say come.

Speaker 1: 34:26

If you're in here today, man, I just feel like the Holy Spirit is saying you have believed a lie for far too long and you know what that lie is. I actually feel the Holy Spirit saying right now there's a lie that's trying to resurface its way back up to you and I want us to pray that God's truth will overcome that lie For someone here. I feel like you need to hear that you are a good dad. Don't believe that lie. I feel like there's someone in here that needs to hear let me do it. God is saying to you, let me do it Release control. Specifically, I feel like the Lord is saying release control of your teenager. Yep, and just like this woman in the story, stuck for 12 years, some of you you're dealing with a problem that feels like I've been stuck for so long. I've been stuck for so long and that's like the Holy Spirit wants to right where you are. I feel like the Holy Spirit just wants to hear you say that to Him. God, I've been stuck for so long. I need your healing, I need your freedom. So come, holy Spirit, begin to speak to your people. I feel like there's someone in here. You've been hurt by a friend. It's caused you to put up some guardrails. Now you're living jaded. God, bring healing there, in Jesus name. Come, holy Spirit. Come, holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 36:50

If you're in here today and you don't know this Jesus I've been talking about or maybe you did, but life got in the way. You kind of walked away. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life or trust him again, I just want to lead you in a prayer. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Nothing like that. Just right where you are. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus or trust Jesus again with your life, I want to lead you through this prayer. Just right where you are. Say this Say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new. Today I trust in you. Today I follow you. Today I go after you, god In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.