well, good morning Mission Grove family both here in the room and watching with us online today as we continue our series battles and blessings. Let's spend a few minutes and chat about going through really a version of mindful tug of war. Remember that game tug of war? I think back to when I went to summer camp, soda hills christian camp there in southern Ohio, I remember the cabins we would face and each other and you and they always did it in the mud which was horrible and awesome at the same time. Right? And so you would pull on the rope and and you you hope that your cabin had the really strong big kid that you could just put at the end, you know rap almost wrap around his waist and he could just stand there and and you would you would fight and you would pull and your feet would always slip and then if they pulled you in to the mud in the middle you would lose. Now when I became a youth pastor and we started doing youth camps they changed the game a little bit. And so I remember actually at U C Y C we would play this game called Punjabi can can and so it's like a form of tug of war but there are small pieces of rope and everyone gets in a circle and kind of every other of the cabins, every other team. And so you and craig is a youth pastor. So he knows this game very well. And so you would have rope on either side and when you would say go, you would try to pull the person off the rope or they would always put a trash can or a kiddie pool of water or something that you didn't want to touch in the middle of the circle. And so you got out, if you let go of the rope or if you had if you got thrown into the puddle of water, trash can of water in the middle and so they would say go and would go crazy and and if you were smaller in size, you would get like flung around sometimes over the trash can and back to try to avoid it. Well, I remember one day there was an epic match and I say epic because in our cabin we had a kid named Sam actually, Dylan's here for, you might have been at that camp and so he's not in his head, he knows, and so uh so this kid named Sam, he just had himself a day, You know what I'm talking about? Like that day you think about you ever have yourself a day when you're a kid and you you one field day you won that draw and you won that prize and you think back of that day, like that was possibly the height of my existence as a child, right? You know, I'm talking about like you had that moment, this was this moment for this kid because he had just won the previous challenge, we're now playing Catch Abby can can and it was like three on one of the other cabin and they started just like picking each other off and it's down to one. He was playing against a kid who was bigger than him. The guy pulled him, he jumped over the kiddie pool of water and the guy spun him around and he thought he was stuck, so he went to push him in but sam happened to be in the right position, leveraged him and flipped him over his shoulder into the pool of water and the crowd just went nuts and then we like lifted him up like he won like this ultimate game of tug of war. Now why do I share that? I share that because I want everyone in this room. I want everybody watching right now to have that spiritual moment of victory in the tug of war that we face each and every day because our series is called battles and blessings and that's because life is filled with both challenges and then great experiences and sometimes side by side you can get a phone call and your life has changed sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. And so we walk through so many difficult situations and as a believer in jesus for those who call themselves christians, it seems like now more than ever we are being pulled in different directions and so I want to talk about that being pulled back and forth. You know you have this desire to do what is right to do what God tells you to do, but then we are pulled in the way of the world and were pulled in the way of temptation or desire or sinful things and we find ourselves kind of stuck in the middle. Sometimes we choose God, sometimes we choose the world, sometimes we choose ourselves and and we find ourselves in this middle where we want to do better, but we're not where we've been, but we feel stuck in some sense is that resonated with anybody today, right? You know what I'm talking about, this, this sense of you just, you just feel stuck, you feel pulled, you struggle. Pastor Craig Groeschel puts it this way is that your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts and what you think impacts how you live actually. He wrote a book, winning the war of your, in your mind and in there, he shares a story about Houdini, the magician from years ago, decades ago. Uh he would go into jails and he was so good at breaking out that he would go into physical jails and say, okay, go ahead and try to Lock me in and well one jailer knew how he would do it and he actually set it up a little differently. And so when Houdini was in the, was in the jail jail cell, he actually turned the key the opposite way. And when Houdini started, what he didn't realize was that when he was trying to break free, he actually was repeatedly locking himself into the cage when we all had to do was just push it open. So what he thought he was doing to unlock was actually making him captive. And so Houdini believed a lie, he believed a certain way, had a certain way to get free. But in fact it was actually through those actions, through that lie, he found himself remaining in the jail cell. Well today I want to talk about the battlefield of the mind, but before we get to the solution of what God's word has to say to us what the apostle paul who wrote to the church in Ephesus has to say to us, I want to take a few minutes here and identify what are the things that compete for our attention and what is it of the world? What is it that actually pulls us in the other direction? And so I believe there are three enemies to peace that I want to share with you three enemies to peace. The first one is the devil, the devil itself. Now, you know, we live in an age now where the devil is almost commercialized, right? I mean we just came out of Halloween. And so this idea of demons and spirits are seen as like cute and fun and a costume, but the reality is is that we are in a spiritual war and that there is a spiritual realm and the bible talks about the existence of satan a fallen angel and that the bible describes the devil as prowling around like a lion looking to devour those. And so there is someone who is called The Father of Lies, that's his natural language. Like if you walked into, if you went to another country and you're walking around and all of a sudden you heard somebody speak english, you would be connected to that person because you recognize the language that they speak, well, satan or the devil's natural language like his language from birth is lies and so he wants to speak lies and and not just blatant lies, but these half truths kind of thing. And so we we do go up against the devil. Then we also battle the flesh. The flesh is our own selfish desires. James writes in James chapter one that is not God that tempts people, but it's our own selfish desires that we want, what we want. And then you face things in the bible talks about the world and that we have the society that pulls us in different directions and kind of, here's how these three work together. And this is a quote from john Mark come are just released, a new book called Live No Lies. And he puts it this way, he says deceptive ideas, that's the devil play into disordered desires, that's the flesh and are normalized in a sinful society, that's the world. And if you think all the way back to the very first story in the bible and you have Adam and Eve in the garden and you had the serpent which was satan, what did he do to tempt Adam and Eve? Or how did that first sin take place? Well, first he planted the seed, he planted a lie in there that to Adam and Eve. And it wasn't it was to Eve, but Adam was standing right there because it says that after Eve took a bite, she handed him and he took a bite. And so so they're both standing right there. What did he say? He said, you are not like God, you you want to be like God, don't you? If you take a bite of this, you can be like God. And the lie wasn't that they could become like God. The lie was the fact that Abby and Adam and Eve because they were created in God's image were already like God and they didn't understand their identity and the power that they already had at hand. They were walking day by day with God in the garden naming all the animals walking through and and because there's this idea of free will, there was one tree in the garden that they were, they would not eat. And so you have this deceitful idea that you need to take this bite of this forbidden fruit and you will become like God. Then it matched with the disordered desires. The fact that they wanted that fruit because we want what we can't have right. And so and then um it ultimately played in the rest of society. And so now we live in a sinful society who celebrates creation over creator. It celebrates really pleasures over purpose and that you need to fill in the blank to have value. Maybe you need money, you need a promotion, You need this sexual relationship, you need whatever that says you do, you you bu whatever makes you happy. The problem is, you are not the author of your life. God is. And so the way we find ourselves entrenched in battles is a combination of the devil, the flesh in the world. So satan puts in these lies into our mind that gets us to doubt or question what God has for us. Then we have our own sinful desires, our own disordered desires that placate that. Well, because I want that, I want to look at that, I want to be angry. I want to speak that way. I wanna I wanna promote myself by tearing other people down. You know, I want that thing that's greed, that's pride, but then you look in a society in a world that actually celebrates that, that it is, it is seen as the highest peak, is that when you live out your best self now, not only is it accepted, it's actually celebrated and so we find ourselves in a world that celebrates the things that are against the will of God. And so now what do we do with this? You see the mind I think is what separates us from the rest of the animals Now, some would say the soul, but the fact is is that we can even ask these questions about what is a soul indicates that we have a mind like christ we have a mind that's different than the animals. Like I don't think there are dogs having existential debates, right? I don't, I don't see animals doing a whole lot of their like their loyal and they love and they and they want food and they want love, they want companionship and they're awesome, but but they don't go to that next level. If you think about your mind at its best, you think of things like creation, we can create entire worlds, look at storybooks and movies and, and sports and and some do fantasy with like dungeons and dragons and others do fantasy when it comes to fantasy football and sports and and we, we come up with these plays and, and games and ideas and if you put kids together, they're gonna come up with some kingdom too to save or to rule or to rain. And so when you unleash your mind at its best, your mind was created to, to create to imagine, to love to encourage, but on the flip side, we've also experienced in our mind, things like anxiety and depression and worry and doubt and lust and lies lies about other people, lies about ourselves and truth at its core is connected to the very person of jesus. And so your mind is the battlefield in which we have to win the war that impacts the rest of our life. So if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. That renewing your mind refreshes your soul, renewing your mind refreshes your soul. We're going to pick things up here and Ephesians chapter four, but before we do, I want you to see that God himself values truth. See in john 14 6, jesus himself actually said this, he said, I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me a little bit earlier in that gospel in john chapter eight it says so jesus said to the jews who had believed him. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you shall know the truth and the truth shall what set you free. And then he goes further just a couple of verses later in verse 36 and it says, so if the sun again, he is the truth. So if the son sets you free, you will be free. Indeed and so we have this idea of freedom. Freedom for our mind. Freedom for our soul because when you renew your mind, It refreshes your soul last week we talked in Ephesians chapter four about how we are called to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. And we said that when you feel stuck in your circumstances that you can walk in your calling, that when you are surrounded by difficult situations, you can pray to an eternal savior that God is with you every step of the way that our purpose, our meaning, our value comes directly from christ. And so now we pick up this letter and we're going to see one of the main battles that christians face. And it starts right up here Verse 17 it says this of Ephesians chapter four I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as gentiles do in the futility of their minds since they are darkened in their understanding alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality greedy to practice every kind of impurity. And so the way that I would think about this is that this really identifies the problem. These first verses really are the problem. It says in here. You see these verses that you no longer walk and now gentiles isn't just geographical or group of people identification. What he's saying here is there's jews and gentiles, but he's making a broader declaration that you used to live. Like people who don't believe in God. You could you could substitute today for things like americans. Okay, now this I can testify before the lord that you used to walk like the average american. You used to walk like the average and you fill in the blank. You used to walk in this way and notice all those references to mind. I want to repeat some of these things here. It says that they're in the futility of their minds verse 18 they were darkened but where they were darkened and what they were darkened in their understanding, they are alienated from the life of God. Why? Because of ignorance. You see all these mind words, these mindful words, it's it's not just mindfulness which is this idea of being present and aware of yourself. It is a christ based mindfulness that Are you actually aware of the presence of God or are you callous to the things of this world? I was on crutches for a couple of weeks and I'm still recovering from a torn ligament in my foot And as as I was walking around on crutches, I have a callus on my hand that where my skin hardened because of repetitive use in the same way our world lives in a way that you repeat sinful behavior so often that you eventually become callous to that and you think, well this is just the way it is, this is the way life is. But paul's gonna after identifying the problem after he's saying that hey, the world has given themselves up to greed and sensuality and the practices of the world. If I just left you there in those three verses, this would not be very encouraging. Like if you ever want to just sneakily throw a dig at that sibling or friend, like hey I I read Ephesians 4 17 through 19 and I thought of you today, you know, you remind me of these verses and just they probably won't read it because they're living in that way anyway. Like I just want to encourage you. And so, but here is the description of the world, here is the description of the illness, of the description of how, how far our world has gone, he says, but you no longer walk this way. And so we go from the problem now to the process, here's how you renew your mind, here's how it changes. And it says this, it says, but that is not the way you learned christ, not learned about christ, but rather learned christ. That is not how you learned who jesus christ was and who jesus christ is because at the end of the day, it's about knowing jesus as your personal lord and savior. You know, you have this old lifestyle and then you, it changes when you meet jesus actually when I was taking notes, when I typically when I sermon prep, I just read through the passage and I just start taking down thoughts and notes, this kind of bulleted form and I I realized that previous passage described a lifestyle, but I accidentally left out the word or the letter F. And so when I typed it, I accidentally typed that describes the lifestyle and the spelling check came up, but then I realized, you know what, That's also true that when you live in sensuality, when you live in greed, when you live without God, you are living in fact a lie. But paul actually says, but that is not the way you learn, jesus, that is not your identity. I encourage you if you've just joined us today to go back and watch some of the earlier messages in this series, because paul, in the very beginning of this letter, calls them saints and Children of God, that we are redeemed and forgiven and loved and God's workmen. And so he's saying that is not you, that's not your identity, that's not where you were made. And so he continues on, it says, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth. There's that word again, the truth is in jesus Here, it says verse 22, to put off the old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and it's corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds And then it says in verse 24 and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in the true righteousness and holiness. And so we see in here this picture of the change to put off the old self, to renew your mind to be renewed through christ and then to put on the new self, there isn't a process and an exchange from old to new and salvation. That point of salvation happens at once because that happens on the death and burial and resurrection of jesus. And so that's considered justification to be declared right? Do you trust jesus christ as Lord and savior? Do you admit that you have sinned? Do you believe that jesus is God and savior and you commit your life to him. There is a moment where that decision happens, but if you've been a christian for any length of time, you understand that even though you get saved in that moment you still have a lot of baggage and stuff you gotta work through, right? It doesn't change the fact of how you previously lived. It doesn't change the fact that you still have battles and struggles now, but I heard it put this way, it's kind of like imagine imagine yourself boarding a train and you board the specific train because you want to get to a certain destination and you get on the train and you ride the train and you don't quite know when, but at some point the train crosses the border into a new state or new area and you eventually get to where you want to go in the same way in Christianity. You might not immediately change, You might not immediately overcome these addictions, but when you board the right train, when you understand that you attach your identity with the identity of christ and you allow him to fight the battles for you. Eventually you find yourself in the right place and then there's this connection between the mental of knowing what to do and then actually living that out. And so in one sense he's saying this is not how you learned jesus, so it's all about jesus. But then there's still action to be taken where he says, okay, so put off the old right. Those are the things that describe the old way of life, that's if you were dead in sin, that would be what I would describe as grave clothes, right? When people were buried back then if you think of Lazarus, he was buried in grave clothes, he was buried really this idea of um just wrapped in linens that was closed, meant specifically for the dead. Well, if we have been made alive in christ and we are now set free, we have to put off the grave clothes and then put on the grace close, we have to see this process of change and transformation and it moves from one thing to the next. Because without it we find ourselves stuck in the middle and and no one wants to be out in public naked. Okay, there's a put off. It's like, okay, I don't want to say and I don't want to sin, I don't want to sin, but we never actually take the step to put on the righteousness of God to put on healthy thinking and boundaries and emotions and feelings and obedience in christ. And so we never fully make that change. But renewing your mind refreshes your soul because it changes everything. And so there's the process now he's gonna go and continue on in the passage and give us what we would call the product. He says this here in verse 25. Therefore, and I want you to notice the contrast here. He's going to give you a negative example, positive example, negative example, positive example. And he's going to share some motives throughout. Therefore, having put away false hold a falsehood. Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor For we are members of one community. So put away the lies. Start speaking in truth because you care about your community. Verse 26. Be angry and do not sin. That's interesting because notice he doesn't say anger is a sin because anger is an emotion, but he says be angry and do not sin. And so you can feel angry. But the sin actually comes when you decide what you do with your anger because there's a reaction that's anger, there's what you do. That's response. So it says be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity for the devil. You see where these things come into play, deceitful ideas, disordered desires. Simple society, Verse 28 Let the thief no longer steal. Okay, put off the old way, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands. So the same hands that used to steal are now producing says so he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupt corrupting talk come out of your mouth. That's the old way, but only such as good for building up. That's the new way as it fits for the occasion that it may give what grace to those who hear. So it's grave clothes. Grace Close Verse 30 and do not grieve. The Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with malice. And so we put that away. And then what do you replace it with verse 32 it says to be kind to one another tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Now the question is how can we do all this? Because there's a lot of change happening, we can make this change because the bible actually calls us knew he doesn't just make us from take us from bad to better. He makes us for he takes us from dead to alive. Second Corinthians 5 17 it says therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The oldest passed away and behold the new has come Romans 6 4 says for we are buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ raised him from the dead by the glory of the father. We too might walk in newness of life. We have been made new to walk in newness of life. And then in John 13, Jesus is speaking and he says a new commandment I give you that you love one another just as I have loved you so love one another. So we have been made a new creation to walk in the newness of life so that we can love people in a new way. The way that jesus has renewing your mind refreshes your soul and it changes everything. I was getting gas at circle K by my house and it struck me they had a stock photo Like save six cents or whatever if you sign up for the deal and I'm just gonna be real with you. There is no one has ever been so excited to pump gas as the person in that photo. Have you seen that? Like they put in stock photos? You don't have, you know, it's pretty common and marketing but it was like there at the gas station and said save six and the person was like, and well I mean in light of the way gas prices going, maybe we would be excited. But anyway, like, like I looked at it and there was a group of friends and they were like, and they were all like popular and like good looking people and they're like, yeah, circle okay. And I'm like, that's no one has ever been that excited for gas. I'm sorry. Like and you see that marketing everywhere. Don't you see the stock photos of people like you want to sign up for insurance alright. Or it's like, you know someone by the beach or someone there and it's like, oh yeah, I want mountaintop. That's why I take this medication right? Like I just go through and like they have all these like descriptions and then they like mumble the side effects underneath, right? And they're like, this might cause death and like, whoa, he said that real fast, right? You distracted us with the ocean view there. But this is what the world offers the world takes a stock photo and says, look what you can have. But really there's nothing there. It's kind of like if you've opened up a document or your, you open up a template and you start typing something in for a report, it's filled initially with lips. Um have you seen that with lipson? Lipson is like lettering that looks like words but it doesn't say anything just to give you a visual of what it could look like when you put words in there. I think people without christ their lives look like lips. Um yes, there's lettering on the page but their life doesn't actually say anything. And so if you think about renewing your mind in christ, it gives you a clear vision for who God has called you to be and what God has called you to do. And you can put off the old way of life, renew your mind and your identity in christ and then put on the righteousness and live in freedom. And so here are some things I want you to consider today. The first question I want you to consider is that what beliefs are behind your actions? What beliefs are behind your actions. We identified initially that this passage the problem. And so I want you to actually think back to any sinful behavior you have and actually ask yourself why did I do that? Right? Why did I say those things? Why why did I look at the computer when I shouldn't have, why did are the things on the computer? Why did I treat someone that way? Why did I lie? Why did I go through and and do some self reflection here and try to identify the belief that is underneath the tip of the iceberg because I'm guessing there is a trigger or a wrong belief or a deception that satan tempted you with or doubted with you that matched with a desire that you wanted that led to that action? Because the end goal is not simply not to look at porn, or not to be a jerk or not to do this thing. The end goal is to ultimately become like jesus to live free to live with purpose, to love one another. You've been called to such a higher calling. And so when you struggle, when you battle, take a moment to reflect, okay, what am I believing that's causing me to do that? What do I think that's going to bring me? Because if you can identify that you're not just treating symptoms, you're treating the disease? So the first question, ask yourself, what what is the belief behind your action In the problem? # two, ask yourself, okay, are you wearing grave clothes or Grace Close? You've been set free. You've been given the power of the Holy Spirit, You've been given a resurrected life, jesus who conquered death? Now gave you the keys to the kingdom and now said go, so you have to ask yourself, does your action reflect the sinful old way of life? Or does your actions reflect the fruit of the spirit of someone who is becoming more like christ. So we identify that you're able to put things off renew your mind and put things on that God has called you to and the last thing here, as you need to ask yourself, how is God's word lived out in my world? How does this the Word of God impact how I treat my coworkers in that meeting, how I love and serve my spouse, my kids friendships because connecting God's word to our world starts with renewing our mind in christ because if we do that, it changes everything because at the end of the day, renewing your mind refreshes your soul. I want to close with. This is the band's kind of coming up ah had the joy and the challenge with my wife this week of cleaning out our garage. Have you done that or done a big cleaning project? It's, it's both horrible and cathartic at the same time. You know what I'm talking about, You're cleaning out old stuff, going through memories, things and so we actually just hung last night a pegboard in our garage and peg boards are awesome. I don't know why I would have been missing in my life. And so you hang this thing on the wall and there's just holes everywhere and you can just put whatever you want on the wall and you can organize stuff and you know where everything is and it's great and it got me thinking as I'm walking into church this morning that if you think about your mind as a pegboard here, you can structure, you can configure anything you want. But here's the reality. You choose what you put on your mental pegboard, you choose what you focus on your mind. Your life is going to move in the direction of your greatest thoughts of your strongest thoughts. So if you're focused on being a victim, how do you view yourself, if you're focused on the sin that you're battling, what are you gonna think about? If you're scared about an unknown future? What's gonna keep you up at night? But if you decide to put on your mental and spiritual pegboard, the promises of God, the power of God that he is holy, that he is big, that he is creator, that he is the savior that he died. So that I could live. That he forgave me so that I can forgive, that he gives me hope, he gives me life that I am not defined by my sin, I am defined by the savior who conquered that sin. And so I'm gonna walk in freedom. I'm gonna walk in that relationship. I'm gonna walk in honesty and truth and it's gonna be difficult, but it is gonna be worth it. And it is going to be worthy of the calling to which I've been called. You have the choice to make that decision today of what is it that you put in your mind. There might be fleeting thoughts that come in from the world, temptations that come from your desires, lies that come in from satan himself. But you get to decide through the power of jesus, what you keep, what you hang on to what you believe because what you believe will impact how you live and when you believe that christ is lord of all, you can take on anything and everything in this world amen. And so what I want us to do right now is that we're going to take communion and some of you receive these cups on your way in. If not we're gonna have somebody help pass these out. Um you have the wafer on one side, the juice on the other and what I want you to do is that I want you to open these and I want you to hold them out two hands and and if you feel uncomfortable with it, that's okay. Um I want to give you the freedom to pass on this, but if you claim to be a believer in jesus, I want you to take these and I want you to ask yourself, what is it that I'm battling right now, what is the worry, the sin, the doubt, the struggle and I want you in this moment to give that up to christ because that sin that struggle was crucified on the cross with jesus. So it does not have to define you and then I'm gonna come up in a few moments and we're gonna take these elements together. Please spend these next few moments in prayer. Yeah.