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Now, here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Hi, this is Robert Jeffers, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. on today's edition of Pathway to Victory. If our thoughts are so critical to our eternal destiny, should it be any surprise that Satan wants to influence our thoughts? God wants to influence us through our thoughts.
Satan wants to influence us through our thoughts. And sometimes we feel those contrasting thoughts and desires playing war against one another in our minds. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. Some thoughts are helpful, others are distracting, and some might even be destructive.
But here's what many Christians don't realize. Our thoughts are the primary battlefield where our spiritual lives are won or lost. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress helps us recognize Satan's tactics. and shows us how to gain control over our thoughts.
But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. I'm going to begin today with a bold statement. If you're a devoted Christian who loves God with all your heart, the enemy is out to get you. Please don't assume that he's given you a pass.
Make no mistake, the devil would love to take you down. And on today's program, I'm going to show you how the devil is messing with your mind, trying to confuse and defeat you. My brand new teaching series is called Spirit Wars. And while preparing for this study, I wrote two brand new resources for you and your family. The first is a book just for the little ones in your life.
It's called Suit Up. the armor of God for kids. Look what's happening in our culture these days. It's obvious that the devil has gone after our kids. He's trying to steal their hearts.
But he doesn't stand a chance when our kids suit up with the armor of God. And it's our role as parents and grandparents to help the kids we love understand how to keep Satan from destroying them. Let me send this creative learning tool for you and your family. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Plus, I've written a brand new book for adults called Angels and Demons.
Fact vs. Fantasy. I'll make sure to include a copy, along with the book for kids, when you respond to day.
Alright, it's time to open our Bibles now to consider the next topic in our teaching series on spirit wars. I titled today's message, Winning the Mind Games. In his book, Among the Heroes, Author Jerry Longman describes in horrifying details The final preparations before Islamic terrorists made, before they hijacked, United Flight 93 on September the 11th, 2001, and crashed it in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The hijackers believed they were in a holy war. against the forces of evil, and they prepared for that war.
accordingly. Jerry Longman writes, by now, The morning of September 11, Before Islamic men in the first class section were to have made an oath to die. Showered and shaved the excess hair off their bodies and splashed themselves with cologne. They blessed their bodies by reading the Koran. By a rubbing of the hands, they also bless their luggage, clothes, knives, IDs, passports, and papers.
Check your weapons before you leave and long before you leave. They tighten their clothes before the battle. They secured their shoes and wore socks to make sure their feet would stay in their shoes. They said a morning prayer as a group. O Lord, take out your anger.
against the enemy. And we ask you to protect us from their evils. when the confrontation began. They were to clench their teeth. and strike like champions who did not want to go back into the world.
They were to shout, Allah Akbar, God is great. Because this strikes fear in the hearts of the infidels. Prayer. Mental focus. The sharpening of knives, the Tucking in of socks.
Mental focus. All of these were an absolute necessity. if these terrorists had any hope of winning the battle. Contrast their precise preparations. With the laxadaisical attitude most Christians have about the very real battle we're in between good and evil.
Oh sure, many Christians will acknowledge the existence of Satan. They will acknowledge that, yeah, he does have a plan to destroy us. And yet, in spite of that, most Christians find time to read their Bibles only if there's nothing interesting on TV. They only are motivated to pray if their backs are up against the wall. They possessed little knowledge of their opponent or his methods.
They allowed the enemy to distract them in such a way that they're not aware right before the fatal blow is inflicted upon them. And they believe the enemy's lie that we are effectually powerless against Satan's attacks. No wonder so many Christians today are falling into immorality, experience the dissolution of their marriage, are controlled by depression, or end up wandering away from the faith itself. With such a passive attitude towards Satan, they have no chance of winning. Contrast the passivity of most Christians with the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6.
Turning your Bibles to Ephesians 6:10 to 13. And as we read this together, I want you to underline the action words in this passage. Paul says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
But it's against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up. The full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Be strong. Put on.
Stand firm, take up. These are phrases that describe how alert we need to be in the midst of this battle. Instead of snoring soundly asleep, while the bullets buzz and the bombs burst overhead. What is the reason we need to be active rather than passive? It all centers on this word, struggles, in verse 12.
You need to understand the struggle you're in right now, whether you realize it or not. We are in a struggle. That Greek word struggle, palai, refers to a wrestling match. A wrestling match.
Now, when we think wrestling, we think entertainment. We think fake. We think what we see on TV. I remember in a previous church. We were having a one-day revival.
Remember those revivals? And we decided one night to have a special guest come and share his testimony, World Wrestling Federation champion Ted DiBiase. He was known as the Million Dollar Man. And the staff came up with an idea before the service, he was going to share his testimony. They decided to clear the parking lot and put a wrestling ring in the middle of our parking lot.
and invite people in the community to come and watch a wrestling match. between Ted DiBiase, the million-dollar man, and gorgeous George. Guess who got to be gorgeous, George? I allowed them to convince me to wear a long flowing. blonde wig.
And they dressed me up and put me in the ring with Ted DiBiase. And we went through the motion of a wrestling match. Thousands of people were in the parking lot hooting and hollering. It was all great entertainment, but that's all that it was. Because Ted and I had carefully choreographed.
Our steps and our actions, what we were gonna do, so I didn't get destroyed in the wrestling ring. But that's not what Paul is talking about. In Paul's day, Palais, a wrestling match, was a life and death match. in which the loser would have his eyes gouged out. and then be executed.
Paul says it's that kind of death struggle you and I are in every minute of every day, whether we realize it or not. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and against the unseen forces of darkness. We've been talking in this series about spiritual warfare. We first of all talked about the reality of spiritual warfare. Just because it's invisible doesn't mean it's not real.
It's a reality. It's every bit as real as what you see around you. We talk about the reality of spiritual warfare. We talk about our enemy in spiritual warfare. You've got to have a knowledge of the enemy.
Our enemy is Satan and his demons. And we talked about who they are, where they came from, what their goals are, what their strategy is. In the days ahead, I promise we're going to turn to a brighter subject: our resources in spiritual warfare. God has given us the weapons we need, the strategies, if you will, six of them to defeat Satan's plan to destroy your life. But today, Before we get to the resources, we're going to talk about The battlefield of spiritual warfare.
Where is this war being fought? Is the primary battlefield the church? No. Is it the home? No.
Is it Washington, D.C.? No. The primary battlefield for spiritual warfare is our mind. It's in our thoughts. Our war against Satan and his demons is won or lost by our thoughts.
And that's what we're going to talk about today. First of all, let's look in Scripture about the centrality of our mind. We know from our anatomy lessons that the brain. Is the originator of every thought, every impulse, every desire, every action of our body. It all begins with that mass of tissue and blood cradled in your cranium we call the brain.
And yes, on one level, our thoughts and our impulses are the results of a series of electrical and chemical reactions in our brain, but they're more than that. There is a spiritual element. You know, we make a tremendous mistake when we don't understand that man is not just one part, he's three parts. In theology, we say he's trichotomous. body, soul, and spirit.
And in fact, these three, body, soul, and spirit, are so closely related, as one person said, if one element, one component of our being catches a cold, the other one sneezes.
So it's a mistake to try to isolate certain things as spiritual issues and certain things as physical issues. We're trichotomous. There is not an issue that is uniquely spiritual that doesn't have some physical or emotional component to it. And there's no issue that is strictly physical or emotional that doesn't have a spiritual component to it. We need to understand we are body, soul, and spirit.
Nevertheless, the mind is the beginning place of our thoughts. And that's why the scripture talks so much about the mind.
Now, many times, the Hebrews understood the center of thoughts to be. The heart. The heart wasn't the place of emotion, it was the place of thoughts. And that's why Proverbs 23, verse 7 says: For as a person thinks within himself, in his heart, So is he. If you want to understand the centrality of your thoughts, just think about this.
Most every major milestone in your life, every major event, begins with a thought. Think about your marriage. You said? I think. I'm in love with this person and want to spend the rest of my life with her or with him.
Or think about your education. Students, you'll be making a decision about where to go for college. Many of you will be. That decision will have profound impacts on the rest of your life. Think about your vocation.
I think this career would be the best use of my time and my talents and my interest. Or think about your salvation, how your thoughts are instrumental in that. I believe with all of my heart that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for my sins. Most of our major decisions begin with a thought, but beyond these major milestones, every day we're making hundreds of decisions that are made in our minds. Will I take this route to work or this route?
Will I put this on or that on? Will I exercise or not exercise? All of these choices are made every day. And when you think about it, our lives are pretty much the sum total of the decisions, both major and minor, that we make. If our thoughts are so critical to our not only life, but our eternal destiny, should it be any surprise that Satan wants to influence our thoughts?
God wants to influence us through our thoughts. Satan wants to influence us through our thoughts. And sometimes we feel those contrasting thoughts and desires playing war against one another in our minds. Henry Newhan, the philosopher, compared our mind to a banana tree filled with monkeys that are constantly jumping up and down. It is rarely still or quiet.
All of these thoughts, like so many chimps, clamor for our attention. By the way, I just guess that's happening in your thoughts right now. You're not thinking one thing. I wish you were just thinking about what the preacher is saying, but you're not. Like any audience, you've got a number of things that are going through your mind.
Don't forget to stop off at the grocery store and get milk on the way home. I wonder if my boss is going to be there tomorrow. I wonder how I'm going to make it through the month financially. I wonder why the pastor chose to wear that tie. I mean, you've got all of these thoughts that are going through your mind right now.
Now, not every thought is godly or satanic, good or evil, but my point is our thoughts are the primary way through which both God and Satan impact our lives. For example, turn over to Philippians chapter 4, verses 8 through 9. Here's a wonderful promise from God. Finally, brethren, whatever is true... Whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence or anything worthy of praise, dwell on, think on these things.
For the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace. will be with you. And as we're going to see next time, Worry, anxiety is a paralyzing emotion. But it begins in the mind. All worry begins in the mind.
And so, if Satan wants to paralyze us with worry, he does so by influencing our thoughts. It should be no surprise that if anxiety begins in the mind, God's antidote. To worry also begins in the mind. Whatever is good. And lovely and of good repute, dwell on, learn to think on these things.
Well, Pastor, I don't have any argument that Satan wants to influence me through my mind, but how exactly does he do that?
Well, in the few minutes we have, I want to suggest to you from God's word four channels through which Satan. Tries to influence our thoughts. Write them down. First of all, he tries to influence us through our desires.
Now, I use an Apple computer every day of my life. But when I turn on my Apple computer, There is no unseen engineer in Simi Valley who's controlling my computer and determining what it can and can't do. That was already decided before I ever took the computer out of the box. When it was being manufactured, there was what was called an operating system installed in that computer. And that operating system, already put in the computer, determines what it does and doesn't do.
Did you know when you and I are born, we are born with an operating system already installed in us? Unfortunately, that operating system is flawed. It has a virus in it. that causes it to default. In every situation, to oppose God and His plan for our life.
Whenever God says, you shall, The operating system says, I shall not. Whenever God says, you shall not. This flawed operating system says, I shall. Why do we all have that system inside of us? It can be traced back to Adam and Eve and their rebellion against God.
When Adam and Eve sinned against God, Romans 5:12 says their choice became our choice. And each one of us has that natural inclination to be rebellious against God. That means If Satan were to be destroyed tomorrow. There would still be murder, immorality, greed, and idolatry in our world, even though Satan had been destroyed. Why?
Because he was successful in making sure that every human being born is born in this flawed condition. Remember the temptation equation we talked about in James 1.14? James said, But each one of us is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. What causes sin? Corrupt desires plus the right bait plus the wrong choice equals sin.
But notice what James talks about: the two major components of sin. They cause us to be carried away, Ekomai, that means to be drawn with an inward power, and enticed, that means to be hooked. by his own lust. Remember, Satan is that master fisherman. He's always dangling the right piece of bait at the wrong time to get us to bite.
But that bait would have no influence on us if we didn't have a hunger for what he's dangling in front of us. And that hunger. Didn't come from Satan directly, it came from our old nature that he successfully made sure each one of us have.
So, the beginning place for sin is this inward corrupt desire for those things outside God's will. You could say well, if Satan has that internal deficient system in every human being. I guess he can just take the day off. He doesn't have to do any work, right?
Well, wrong. Satan is smart enough to know that he can't rely on people's flawed nature to do his dirty work for him. You see, there's another truth that Satan understands better than most Christians, and that is when somebody trusts in Christ as his Savior, he not only receives a pardon from sin, he receives the power to say no to sin. When we become a Christian, we have another operating system that's installed in us. It's not defective.
This operating system, we call him the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit gives us the power to override that flawed operating system, to override our natural rebellious spirit toward God, the power to obey God and everything. And so, Satan can't just rely on our corrupt desires. He has three other methods he uses to lure us into sin. Secondly, he speaks to us through other mediums.
through other mediums. Go back to Adam and Eve for a moment before they sinned. Remember what Genesis 3.1 says?
Now, the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed has God said, you shall not eat from the tree of the garden. When Satan approached Eve for the first time. He was wise enough not to appear in his normal appearance. What is Satan in his normal appearance?
Revelation 12 tells us he is like a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns.
Now, just think: if that beast had approached Eve, would she have run toward him? No, she would have run from him as quickly as she could and jumped back into Adam's arms. But he didn't appear as he really is. He appeared as the serpent. Genesis 3:1 tells us that the serpent.
was the most crafty.
Some translate it the most beautiful of all of God's creations. No, he wasn't slithering into. Grass at that time. He walked uprightly. He was beautiful and he was crafty in his appearance.
That's how Satan. spoke to Eve through the medium of the serpent. These are the underhanded tools that Satan uses to defeat you and me. And it's absolutely essential that we learn how to put on God's armor. Earlier, you heard me describe two resources I've written for you and your family.
I'm eager to send copies to your home. The first one's for the children in your life. It's a book called Suit Up. the armor of God for kids. God has given us weaponry to deflect the devil's attacks.
And this book clearly describes the spiritual armor God has provided. Let me send you a copy today. with my thanks for your generous support of Pathway to Victory. Plus, when you give today, I'll be sure to include my brand new book for adult readers. It's called Angels and Demons.
Fact vs. Fantasy. inspired by our current study on spiritual warfare. Finally, in a moment, David will describe how to receive audio C Ds and video DVDs so that you can share these important messages with friends and family. There's also an option to receive the Spirit Wars teaching series on a USB thumb drive.
These resources are intentionally designed to help you and your family be successful in your Christian walk. and it's all made possible because friends like you give generously the pathway to victory. Thanks so much. Here's David to tell you more. You're invited to request Suit Up, the Armor of God for Kids, along with our newest resource for adults, Angels and Demons, Fact vs.
Fantasy, when you give a generous gift to support the Ministry of Pathway to Victory. Make your gift today and request both books by calling 866-999-2965. or visit ptv.org. And when your ministry gift is $100 or more, You'll receive both books plus the complete Spirit Wars teaching series on audio and video discs. Plus, you'll get a copy of Dr.
Jefferson's best-selling book, The Divine Defense. Just call 866-999-2965 or online. Go to ptv.org. You could also send your gift by mail right to PO Box 223-609 Dallas, Texas 75222. SPO Box 223-609 Dallas, Texas 75222.
I'm David J. Mullins. Inviting you to join us next time for part two of the message, Winning the Mind Games, right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.
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