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There is freedom waiting for you on the other side of tough times. I’m praying that you begin to identify the blessings in your life and focus on them until you breakthrough into a new, anointed light. PLEASE do not hesitate to reach out to me if you need someone to walk through the process with you.

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Blessings and Honor,
Scott

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TRANSCRIPT – How to Renew Your Mind in Christ and Experience a Life of Victory / Ephesians 4:17-25

when Leah and I were dating and then we

got married and like I was still chief

of police and so my closet was full of

uniforms and I was still doing

triathlons and my master closet was full

of what she calls unitards and it was

bicycling jerseys and pants and and

shoes and helmets and and um and and I

had one pair of blue jeans

like I own one pair of jeans and I had

one pair of loafers and they were from

college 30 something years earlier

and I was so happy in my life

and when we met Leah’s like that ain’t

gonna cut it

and so she started like getting new

clothes and I was very resistant but I

understood that I considered my Crocs my

fancy clothes

but if I was going to move into a new

season of my life it required for me to

take off those old garments of an old

life and be willing to put on the new

garments

what I want to talk to you a bit about

today we’re gonna we’re continuing our

walk through the book of Ephesians

and and the one thing that the Lord put

on my heart for today to share with you

was we’re going to talk about renewing

the mind

and one thing he put on my heart was for

you it’s you got to get rid of that

stinking thinking

you got to get rid of the stinking

thinking like God is the creator of your

brain but only you can renew your mind

and why is it important well spiritual

maturity it starts with a mature mind

and we’re going to walk through Paul’s

going to tell us how do we get to that

state of having a renewed mind and we’re

going to start with our anchor scripture

so we can stand as the body and we’re

going to read the word that renews the

mind we’re going to read the word that

brings spiritual maturity and we’ll do

this in reverence of the Lord and we’ll

stand as the body and let’s begin

since you have heard about Jesus and

have learned the truth that comes from

him throw off your old sinful nature and

your former way of life which is

corrupted by lust and deception instead

let the spirit renew your thoughts and

attitudes put on your new nature created

to be like God truly righteous and holy

so stop telling lies let us tell our

neighbors the truth for we are all parts

of the same body thank you Jesus for

that word for that word

today we’re going to talk about about

the mind game

and and it’s about renewing your mind

everything begins with the renewing of

your mind and you know

the brain and mind they’re words that

are used interchangeably but they’re

actually very different and it’s

important that we understand a

distinction going forward for the rest

of the message is that your brain is is

the actual it’s the physical organ

that’s inside your skull so that’s your

brain that beautiful complex thing and

it actually is the most complex organ in

your body there’s over a hundred billion

neurons in your body that fire trillions

of connections through the different

synaptic gaps if you watch the video of

your brain the activity it’s like

lightning

it’s powered it’s back and forth

that’s the complexity of the of the of

the brain now your mind your mind is the

product of that brain your mind is is

amazing

your mind as amazing as it is

still limited to error and and and

limitation and erroneous thought

that’s why Paul tells us that we’ve got

to renew our mind we’ve got to renew our

mind not with another binge of your

favorite News Channel or or another

Scroll of Facebook reels you renew your

mind by the reading of the word

you know that’s what the that’s what God

tells us to do so you say that’s cool

that’s cool like I dig it I’ve got to

renew my mind like that’s like telling

me well you got to lose some weight okay

that’s cool I gotta lose some weight but

how do I do it well this is how we’re

going to renew our mind this is how

we’re going to do things uh Romans 12 2

says renew your mind by transformed by

the renewed over your mind in anatomy

and physiology and biology it’s called

neuroplasticity

I always love it when science verifies

what the word of the Lord’s always told

us renew your mind that’s great how do I

do it so the world in all its Academia

comes up because it’s called

neuroplasticity

and what is neuroplasticity

it’s Renewing Your Mind like your brain

so so I get to counsel a lot of men that

with addictions usually pornography and

they’ll say I was just born this way let

me tell you God didn’t create you with a

brain to consume pornography you see the

brain

your little baby brain it’s not the same

brain as your I know it all a 15 year

old brain and it’s not the same brain

that now we have because of because of

neuroplasticity because your brain

changes your mind changes as this as

your life changes

so the quick example where it refers to

addictions or pornography or false

thinking is usually statistically as as

horrible as it is children are first

exposed to pornography at about the age

of eight years old now it could be

unintentional or it could be intentional

but that first exposure and you’ve got

your pure baby brain and now you’re

about eight years old and that first

look

at something corrupt and it’s just an

etching on the mind and another look is

another etching and you continue to come

back for those looks and now you’re

starting to dig these neural Pathways

these tunnels in your brain that that

now pornography sin lust addiction it

travels through those tunnels

but let me assure you

that God’s got the answer

and it comes from Romans 12 2 renew your

mind

so if you looked at your mind and you

see all these trenches and tunnels and

neural Pathways and you start reading

the word of the Lord

and it starts to wash it it starts to

cleanse it it starts to smooth it and

then these neural Pathways they start to

fade they start to disappear and what’s

now trenched and what’s now etched and

what now becomes renewed

is scripture prayer faith belief

Miracles so when you look at the

undercarriage of your brain now you see

same neural Pathways but firing

different thoughts wiring together for

different thoughts that’s how we’re

going to do that that’s how we’re going

to get to spiritual maturity

you see spiritual maturity requires

mental maturity like everybody says oh

Armor of God Armor of God Onward

Christian Soldier give me my helmet and

my breastplate and a sword and a snack

because it’s heavy like you can’t forget

the snack but let me tell you something

what we don’t do is we’re not willing to

go through the process of maturation you

see any Warrior who shows up at boot

camp or special forces training and you

dump all that equipment on them they’re

going to fail they’re going to fail they

don’t have the maturity to carry because

they don’t they’ve not renewed their

mind

you see what I want to tell you is as we

move into spiritual maturation so we can

carry the armor of God so we can

understand the victory that we have over

the enemy is that you did nothing you

did nothing to earn the call of God

you did nothing

to earn the anointing of God

but you you got to do everything to grow

in the character of God

you see character don’t just happen

character comes from the process of

maturation we’re called to be a new

preacher I want to share with you when

when you go to when uh soldiers report

to boot camp when I reported a special

operations training that’s meant to

break you it breaks your body

breaks your body down

but it also breaks your mind you see and

and building your body is easy we can

all do it right now we could eat less

and move more

and we’ve improved our body you see but

if you can’t reprogram your mind

then you wash out of the program

you wash out of the program you see God

can change all things

but you got to change your mind

you got to renew your mind

we always talk about well I’m not a

robot I’m not this I’m not that you’re

right God gives you free will because

God’s crazy about you God gives you free

will you get the choice to renew your

mind you get the choice to go into

spiritual maturation

you get the choice to stop drinking milk

and start eating meat and the word so

how do we do that let’s look at

practical terms Ephesians 4 we’re still

walking through the book of Ephesians

and you know the first three chapters

where Paul was talking about the wealth

the riches in Christ you’re a coheir

you’re a coheir with the King you’re

sealed in the Holy Spirit now he’s

talking about the Walk The Walk For

Christ what does it look like to be a

coheir in the kingdom and then we’re

going to move in to spiritual warfare

and you’re going to realize you know

when I when I was carrying tactical gear

it was about 75 pounds of tactical gear

from helmet to ballistics to Weaponry to

water to Communications and if we’re not

going through that process of maturation

I’d have been just a heap on the ground

I would have been no good to anybody

that needed my help especially no good

to myself this is what Paul’s doing is

he’s walking us through the process of

maturation so we can put on the

Spiritual armor so we can declare our

Victory from a mature posture not like a

child screaming in the dark

so he tells us and and four um one a 17

I’m sorry this I say therefore and

testify in the Lord that you should no

longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles

walk in the futility of their mind now

Paul is talking to the church in Ephesus

this church is going to grow into the

largest Christian Church in the

Civilized world

so he’s talking to Believers he’s not an

evangelist out there yelling Against the

Wind

these are believers and he’s saying stop

walking like the heathens and the reason

you’re walking like them the Lost is

because of the futility of your mind you

see the battlefield for you is in your

mind

your spirit is 100 perfect because it’s

the righteousness of God you did nothing

to build up that righteousness except

receive Jesus as your savior Boom the

100 righteousness of God is your spirit

your soul we’re working on the

sanctification

your body

we’re working on that too

but you know what it starts in the mind

so in the Greek when Paul’s talking

about futility the Greek application of

this is folly or vanted vanity or wrong

thinking or false Doctrine

you can see how easy it is let’s go yay

team Jesus and somebody go well you know

this is what team Jesus is really about

oh

oh that team Jesus listen there’s only

one Jesus there’s only one team and

there’s only one way to understand team

Jesus and it’s by renewing your mind if

you get caught up in the futility of

your mind you’re going to get mired down

in false Doctrine in wrong air and

um erroneous thinking you know in the in

the Greek when he used futility of the

mind it refers to frame of mind and then

reference and what does a frame do a

frame boxes you in a frame limits Your

Capacity a frame defines the terms and

the functions

so what Paul’s saying is you’re limiting

yourself to wrong thinking you see like

false religion is not about your

emotions

it’s about shifting your focus if I can

get you away from the truth of the word

from the meat of the word if I can get

you away from Renewing Your Mind with

the word

then I’ve I’ve been able to steer you to

some false Doctrine now we’re in a whole

new religion

and there’s only one there’s only one

way to think about it and that’s the way

the Lord thinks about it so how do we do

that how do we make sure we stay on the

path of renewing our mind

you got to focus on God like what you

focus on you magnify

if you’re so worried about that that

blister on your toe and you’ve got a

marathon to run you’re not going to run

that Marathon you’re going to behoo the

blister on your toe

the blister on your toe that came

because you were training to run a

marathon

you got to stay focused you got to put

on the new self

you know how do we do that

well

it’s amazing how Lord has the answer for

it all in Colossians 3.

therefore you have been raised with

Christ

keep seeking the things that are above

where Christ is seated at the right hand

of God set your mind on the things that

are above not on the things that are on

this Earth

like that is so important and I just

want to give you a very practical

tangible example and so I asked the body

like do you give do you tithe do you sow

seeds into the kingdom

and like a lot of times when you mention

money in church people oh that’s my

money that my money like don’t make me

go crazy we’re talking about money well

if you believe God and you believe that

God created everything then you believe

that everything belongs to God so

everything you have from your money to

your old garments to my 30 year old

loafers from college God created and

they belong to God and if you believe

that

and if you believe that then I ask you

are you giving regularly are you making

an investment in someone sees into the

kingdom because if your first attitude

is well that’s my money that’s my money

then you’re missing the point you see

it’s God’s money and God don’t need your

money God needs your heart

God needs your heart so when I say

tithing giving investing sowing if your

first thought is your bank account

instead of the kingdom of God then I

would submit to you that you’re thinking

not of things above but things on the

Earth

the next thing is to elevate your

thinking Philippians tells us finally

brothers and sisters whatever is true

whatever is Honorable whatever is right

whatever is pure whatever is lovely

whatever is commendable if there is any

excellence and if anything worthy of

Praise hey y’all

think about these things

think about these things like don’t

worry about who’s going to take Don

lemon’s place on CNN don’t worry about

where Tucker Carlson’s going to show up

on the podcast don’t worry about what

Joe Rogan’s saying or who he’s talking

to if you if you’re like I don’t know

I’ll ask our kids hey what y’all doing

nothing

parents right worst thing you can tell a

parent when he said what are y’all doing

nothing or what’s the other thing I’m

bored oh let me tell you something

you’re going to be busy and you’re going

to be on board so if you’re sitting

there Renewing Your Mind and you’re like

well I don’t know what to think about

I don’t know what to think about let me

give you some suggestions

you think about what’s true

you think about what’s honorable you

think about what’s right

think about what’s pure

you think about what’s lovely

you think about what’s commendable

I mean if you can’t find something in

that list to think about

then you’re not willing to renew your

mind

yeah it’s good stuff so let’s rewire our

mind we started with the story of the

example of Romans 12 2 about renewing

your mind and let’s read it it says do

not conform to the patterns of this

world but be transformed by the renewing

of your mind now we’ve explained that

about the neural Pathways and using the

word of the Lord thoughts that that fire

together wire together if you’re looking

at porn and you’re thinking about

addiction and lust and you’re wondering

whether or not to return that text

message from the person at work or at

the gym then that’s where your mind’s

gonna go but if you if you’re reading

the word of the Lord and you’re speaking

the word of the Lord and you’re sharing

the word of the Lord that’s where your

mind’s gonna go so that’s cool why do we

do that well let me tell you why it’s

important it says then you’ll be able to

test and approve what God’s will is his

good pleasing and perfect will so so

many times we’re talking to brothers and

sisters like I don’t even know what

God’s will is I don’t even know what his

will is well let me ask you what’s the

standard with which you’re measuring

God’s will you know you go to Zachariah

and he talks about zerubbabel held the

Plumb line what’s the Plumb line it’s a

standard when we would take our kids to

Disney World it says must be this tall

to ride this is a Plumb Line This is a

standard if your kid’s not this tall he

don’t ride

if the word of the Lord doesn’t say this

then you’ve got nothing to measure that

standard by so why is that important let

me tell you why it’s important you know

when we’re oversaved and we’re and we’re

hashtagging on social media test the

spirits test the spirit test the spirit

What Spirit what test

what test

well we know whether or not our kid can

get on that ride why because there’s a

standard there’s a test but when it

comes to testing the spirits this is

what the test is

but it starts in your mind

first John 4 tells us beloved do not

believe every Spirit but test the

spirits whether they’re of God

because many false prophets have gone

out into this world

by this you will know the spirit of God

every spirit that confesses that Jesus

Christ has come in the flesh is of God

and every spirit that does not confess

that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh

is not of God

and this is the spirit of the Antichrist

which you’ve heard was coming and is now

already in this word

you see this is the consequence it’s not

whether your kid cries because he can’t

ride the zubu roller coaster

that’s not what the standard in the

Kingdom’s meant to do it’s whether or

not the spirit of the Antichrist that

was there then and is here now whether

or not you’re gonna you’re gonna fall

for the false prophets for the spirit of

the Antichrist and believe me if if all

the if all the the roller coaster places

ah he looks okay next thing he’s being

ejected from the seat belt right this is

Kingdom consequences you’ve got to have

a standard with which to measure things

and you know what we do a lot of times

you know what our you know how we test

the spirit in the in the

by our feelings

oh I hear what you said

and I know you read it from that Bible

but it don’t make me feel good

you know what I’m going to do I’m gonna

go find me another church

that talks about your feelings and gives

me ice cream at the end of the service

and tells me how special I am

you know that’s the church I want to go

to

I want to go to the church with the

petting zoo and the bouncy houses look

there ain’t nothing wrong with petting

zoos and bouncy houses and ice cream

but if it ain’t anchored to the word of

the Lord

you just had an amusement park

you got to control your thinking why is

it so important well Second Corinthian

tells us we are human but we don’t wage

war as humans do we use God’s Mighty

weapons not worldly weapons to knock

down the strongholds of human reasoning

human reasoning

and to destroy false arguments we

destroy every proud obstacle that keeps

people from knowing god

we capture their rebellious thoughts and

teach them to obey Christ and after you

become fully obedient we will punish

everyone who remains disobedient like

again mentoring guys they’re like these

thoughts just pop up in my head these

vile thoughts these nasty thoughts this

fantasy this lust like they just pop up

listen that’s being a victim you have

the authority to take your thoughts

every thought captive every thought

captive

every thought captive you have the

authority

God’s not calling you to be weak-willed

and weak need and hoping that you

measure up to the ride measurement at

the at the amusement park God’s giving

you an eternal standard with which to

measure everything by

everything by you know I want to tell

you we started talking about my mole

shoes and stuff and and you know one of

the habits that I’m hoping I’m going to

stop is every time Lee and I go to leave

the house to go somewhere like the Cajun

in me I grew up down the body in the

south Louisiana I’m like you can wear

that

you go where that even if it’s like a

beautiful dress just out of my mouth

involves you’re gonna wear that

and I know she walked out before I said

it because she said I’m gonna punch you

if you say it in the second service but

but you know can you imagine God

looking at you

you can wear that

you’re still wearing that old garment

you go wear that

I Gave You All These Fine robes and you

go wear that

hmm you see out with the old

Ephesians continue to tell us that you

put off concerning your former conduct

the old man which grows corrupt

according to the deceitful lust and be

renewed where renewed where not in your

closet not in your wardrobe not at your

grandma’s house not on your video game

selection not on your iPad

but in the spirit of your mind

the spirit of your mind the beauty of of

sharing this message and picking

different scripture everything’s

consistent renewing of your mind

renewing of your mind if you don’t set

the standard if you don’t set the

standard with which to test everything

then everything tests you

but let me tell you you’ve got to make

the decision to strip off those old

filthy clothes you’ve got to make that

decision you’ve got to repent you’ve got

to repent and you’ve got to submit to

God you see that old church when you oh

I don’t know I don’t want to be told I

got to repent because that means I’ve

got to take action like I can’t just

take a pill and get better I can go to

sleep I can take a pill and go to sleep

but when I wake up I’m still wearing

them those same garments you got to make

the decision

you’ve got to repent and you’ve got to

submit to God let me tell you something

you cannot you cannot substitute the

cleansing power of God’s word with

workshops and conferences and social

media posts and other people’s opinion

other people’s opinion listen

I eat the meat

you’ve got to eat the meat of the word

if you want to grow spiritually mature

so now we took off the old what do we do

now

on with the new

Ephesians 4 tells us and that you put on

the new man which was created according

to God

and true righteousness and Holiness

again you got to make that decision to

put on those new garments

you got to make that decision it only

occurs through the renewing of your mind

that’s the only way it’s going to happen

man and you get to make that choice you

know people say

well you changed

hallelujah we’re supposed to change

we’re supposed to change

so when when the people that knew me for

30 something years

you got a new pair of jeans

what you do with them black Crocs

I changed

because I’m supposed to change

okay

you see second Corinthians tells us

therefore if anyone is in Christ

he’s a new creation

old things have passed away behold all

things have become new

and you know when you put on those new

dods

y’all remember

when you had those brand new white

sneakers the first day of school some

people were proud of them white sneakers

some people were a little embarrassed

because they’re a little too shiny you

kind of scuffing them up but you know

what this is what new looks like in the

Kingdom

from Ephesians 4 25 therefore

putting away lion

that’s the first thing

putting away lying controlling taming

your tongue that’s the first thing you

see

because you cannot Minister from a dirty

vessel

it’s next Let each one of you speak with

truth

speak truth with his neighbor for we’re

members of the same one body

see what is the truth and lie have in

common

they both take effort

they both take effort nobody’s ever just

accidentally tumbled a lie at it oh I

messed up my mistake I told a lie the

mistake is that you told a lie the LIE

wasn’t a mistake it was intentional just

like the truth you see the beauty or the

thing with a lie you got to have a good

memory because you got to remember who

you lied to and then what you lied about

and then when this person becomes part

of the lie you got to be able to

remember your Alibi you got to keep

lying and lying see the beauty of the

truth the truth’s like a lion right you

ain’t got to defend that thing you set

it free it’s going to defend itself

I had a brother oh Terry Terry’s telling

me one day I’m driving to church and I’m

like

it’s so good not looking over your back

it’s so good to be free and I’m like I

hear you

we both spent most of our life looking

over our backs

but we’re free you’re free you can only

stay free if you wear that new garment I

want to tell you something that trust

trust is gained and drops

but it’s lost in buckets

it’s lost in buckets you get to make

that choice and I want to go back a

little Old Testament and share this with

you from uh Zechariah says these are the

things you shall do now in the legal

side if you read a document and it says

you will do this that means there’s some

subjectivity to it the word will if the

legal document says shall you got no

choice

you got no choice you’re gonna do it

unless without and there’s not there’s

going to be consequences penalty of law

so this is this is what the Lord says

these are the things you shall do speak

each man the truth to his neighbor

give judgment in your gates for truth

justice and peace let none of you think

evil in your heart against your neighbor

and do not love a false oath

for all these things that I hate says

who

the Lord

the Lord

these things I hate

like we got the choice

we’ve got the choice to take off the old

garments we’ve got the choice to be

adorned with the new but it’s your

choice but listen it can’t just happen

by wanting to be a good guy or a good

girl

I’m just gonna behave

got to renew your mind

with the word of the Lord you’ve got to

eat the meat there’s no other way

so the one thing that I want to share

with you and it’s you got to get rid of

your stinking thinking you got to get

rid of your stinking thinking you got to

renew your mind with the word of the

Lord

[Music]

you know God loves you and God wants you

to walk in Victory

God wants you to wear the armor God

wants you to to proclaim the victory

but that comes to a process of

maturation

like like our 13 year old wants to drive

my my Bronco with a stick shift and he

will one day but not today physically

he’s not mature he doesn’t have the

skill set to work a stick shift I bought

a stick shift because I know nobody

under 50 is going to steal it

and I know that none of our kids will

ever drive it

it’s about coming into maturation

it’s about coming into maturation

and if we could have our altar Ministry

leaders foreign