Today, we are launching a new Sermon Series called: Mind Monsters!

October seems to be month (Halloween) that capitalizes on fear.  Elections coming up.

We all deal with Mind Monsters: fear  Death – Public Speaking – Mondays – Health – Conversation w/Inlaws

What is in your mind matters!  Everything you do begins with a thought: successful business, your degree, an affair , your legacy.

Let’s start with these questions: WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND DURING THE DAY? HOW DO YOUR THOUGHTS CHART YOUR COURSE?

There are so many things in our modern times that are HEAVY.   There is a barrage of thoughts coming toward you.  In fact, the problem with most of us is that we TOO MANY thoughts coming towards us: Television, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Books, Movies.   We see: rape, murder, abuse, neglect, financial crisis, world issues over and over every night on news or cable channel or favorite feed, you are inundated with a HEAVY SITUATION.   We feel so inadequate, weak, and ultimately so hopeless.   The election, the supreme court, iran, isis, immigration, terrorism, financial crisis.

Not to mention OUR OWN problems: raising kids, making ends meet, pressure to fit in, expectations of your boss, sales quotas, retirement questions.  PRESSURE. FEAR.

HOW DO WE NAVIGATE THESE TIMES?   HOW DO WE HANDLE THESE SITUATIONS THAT ARE PRESENT RIGHT IN FRONT OF US?  We are going to talk about these answers over the next few weeks with: Mind Monsters!

Mind Monsters are Fearful Imaginations, Despair, Anger, Worry, Insecurities, Guilt, Inaccurate Assumptions.

A couple of years ago I preached a message about being honest with your emotions and thoughts.  If you are experiencing some of these Mind Monsters, our solution is not to deny that we have them.  Confess that you have them.   Allow God to deal with them.

It all starts with this!

1. You Can Not Have a Positive Life With a Negative Mind

It is impossible to have a positive life with a negative mind.

WE HAVE TO DRIVE OUT THE NEGATIVE INVADERS.  Kevin Gerald wrote a book called Mind Monsters, in it he said this, “You can be on your way to heaven, but your life could be hell.” 

Am I transformed by simply coming to church?  NO. You can sit in a church and not be transformed (sitting in a garage not becoming a car).  We are transformed by actively renewing our mind. Your mind is enslaved.  You mind is trapped. You have mind monsters. Your mind has to be renewed!

You have to “walk out” your faith.  Things don’t come automatically. You need to walk through some trials and trust in God through the struggle.  Walking through the struggle will prove your faith strong and your overcoming will arrive.

There was a time in Israel’s history when they had gone far from God and the Midianites have come in and contaminated the thoughts and faith of the Jews.   They weren’t in slavery. They were still at work and at their house, but they are being robbed by some people that they have allowed to be amongst them.

The angel of the lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the lord is with you!”  “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”  Then the lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”  “But Lord,”(Mind Monster) Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest (Mind Monster) in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least (Mind Monster) in my entire family!”  The lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”  Judges 6:12-16

Gideon starts debating with God because of his mind monsters. He allowed a filter to dictate his perception and reality.  We do the same thing!

***We Allow Faulty Filters to Define Us.***

This begins at childhood.  Your race, Your skin color, Your parents education level, Where you grew up,

We look at our lives through filters.   Some of you started looking at your life through an ugly filter and you make every decision based on the faulty filters.

God tells Gideon to GO IN THE STRENGTH THAT YOU HAVE.  God is with him. God Is With You!  If God says: GO, then Go! No matter what you think about yourself.  God knows the end from the beginning. He knows what he created you to be. He sees what you should be, not you are right now.

Even if you are predisposed to something condition or thinking, that doesn’t mean that God lacks the power to help you overcome it.  God has power over the things that were passed down to you.

You actually need to be in the place where your future looks impossible. God wants to do some great things in your life that seem impossible AND He wants to get all the glory for it!

2. Get Started NOW in the Strength You HAVE

The truth IS that God loves you and your future so much that he came to this world to secure you and it.  Jesus’ purpose here on earth was to reclaim your future and redefine your identity.  Jesus came to redirect your course.

Maybe all you have today is a tiny faith.  Faith the size of a mustard seed, but for Jesus…that is enough!

Faith for your future begins in your mind!  Because of the death, burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, no matter what you have been through or what you have done, you HAVE A FUTURE!  You have possibilities!  The Good News of Jesus

Isaiah 43:19  For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness.  I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Recognize where you are!

2 Corinthians 10:5  We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

We are not fighting or wrestling with physical things or persons. Instead, we are fighting spiritual battles.

The Jews were allowing Midianites to live amongst them.

I wonder what kind of MIND MONSTERS we allow to live in the strongholds of our mind!  What kind of MIND real estate are we giving up to the enemy to contaminate our identity and the prospect of our future??

It is time that we start evicting all the negative, ungodly thoughts and attitudes that are holding us hostage!  You ever around negative nelly?  My job is bad, my neighbor is bad, my sister in law is mean, I’m always sick…. Blah blah blah!!!

GET AWAY from negative nelly!  TURN THE radio channel!  TURN OFF the news!   Your surroundings are creating the habitat for your thinking.  Your thinking is creating the habitat for your future!  It’s not just Kanye and Kim that are bad news for your thinking!

Gideon gets out of the cave and God starts changing his surroundings. God starts whittling down the support of Gideon. God starts taking away the solution that Gideon thinks he will bring him victory.

3. The Battle for YOUR Mind is YOUR Battle to Win

It’s Your Battle.  It is MY Battle.  God is going to give us the resources and strength to accomplish the task, but it is up to us.  The Bible is FULL of instructions.  Instructions mean that we play a role in this.  We must participate in the great work that God wants to complete in us.  The battle for your mind is not something that I can fight for you.

The battle for your mind is not something your spouse, or parent, or friend can fight for you.

I want to encourage you to get into a Small Group if you haven’t done so already.   MIND MONSTERS might have told you not to get in a group: “You are too busy, people in a small group are losers, they boring, they are invasive,  THOSE ARE NOT the thoughts you need to ride on!”  Believe the truth! There are people that are going to go with you to new places.

TODAY IS THE DAY! TODAY IS THE DAY OF NEW BEGINNINGS. I DON’T CARE WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN, IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOUR SITUATION OR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE DELIVERED YOU TO… This is a new season.

I want to invite everyone that wants a new perspective and deliverance from some sort of mind monster to join me at the front today.

If you are struggling with: Fearful Imaginations, Despair, Anger, Worry, Insecurities, Guilt, Inaccurate Assumptions or any other monster…join me at the front as a sign of a new season. Step out into the aisle and step into  your new season!