This is The Battle Plan for Peace - Bible Study

You can also find a PayPal link below if you want to give a one time or give a monthly to support the channel . Anything , great or small , is appreciated . Now let's get into the video . What is up ? Faith and failures , people . Are we going any further ? I'm just going to check my audio . Are we going any further ? I'm just going to check my audio .

Got it , so we're going to be talking a little bit tonight . This is kind of a continuation . We skipped a couple weeks of a kind of a Bible series that I've actually preached at my church , and so if you haven't yet , if you don't mind , please like this video . If you're watching on YouTube , helps the algorithm Subscribe to the channel .

Make sure you hit that bell notification so that you can see when we go live and we put out new videos and when we put out shorts . So one thing we're going to be talking about tonight is a . Well , let's just start off with scripture .

So what I want to show you is is this go to , if you want to take a screenshot with your phone , if you want to write this scripture down . This is kind of going to be throughout this entire kind of series . It's going to be a common thread that I'm going to probably say over and over and over again , because it's important .

I tell my churches if you don't know if it's your first time here or you've been watching just for a little bit , I'm a pastor of a church . I tell my people all the time that repetition sorry repetition produces replication . So what I mean by that is , the more you do something , the more you repeat something , the more you will be able to remember something .

And the whole reason I decided to start doing more of a Bible study type and diving deeper into scripture is because I wanted you , as the viewer , to be discipled better than me just reacting to some videos , and I'll still do that when I have time .

But to me , spending my time , my time is very precious , I'm very busy , and so I decided that I would rather , instead of quantity , put out a lot of videos , do multiple things in one setting . I would rather give a very deep and very biblical and theologically sound episode or series , and that's kind of where this stems from .

So this will be more of my routine and also , too . So I watched and I reacted to some of his videos on here before , and what I don't want this channel to be , what I don't want this podcast to be , is something that I am not Like . I don't want to chase after what somebody else is doing .

I want to do what I'm called to do and I know that I'm called to preach and I know that I'm called to teach . So that's my heart . I have the heart of a teacher . If , if you know me , I'm actually wearing the shirt right now .

I tell him media it's a media company that I have to do weddings , real estate , drone stuff , all that photography and I I really love that . But when people start asking me what do I do with it ? Uh , they , they try to pick my brain of what do I use for for this and that , like right now I'm using a light . Uh , somebody asked me at church Sunday .

She was like can I call you Because I want to shoot a video , but I don't know where to start . I don't know what to do and I'm like , yes , I love to teach . I have another YouTube channel that's called Steven Tillman and it had I have a whole series of 26 videos where I teach my real estate process of shooting photography . So I love to teach .

It is , I believe , one of my spiritual gifts . I really enjoy it . It doesn't take a lot for me to get excited about something and want to learn and dive deep into something . So , that being said , let's get into our key text .

So this is going to be in second , as you can see on your screen , second Corinthians 10 , five , and it says and if you think about the , the verbiage of this scripture , the way the author Paul is writing and the way he is framing this up , is that our thoughts can be our biggest enemy .

I don't know about you , but I've been in seasons where my thoughts would run away . I'll tell you in just a minute , after we read this scripture , a story of some arguments , some holy disagreements that me and my wife got into when we were first married . So we destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people , keeps me , from knowing God .

We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ . So one of the things that I had to learn in a short amount of time when I was married to my new spouse in 2015 , was that I would have these fights . So I spent a lot of time on the streets , I was homeless , I spent time on drugs , I spent time in alcoholism and I destroyed .

I had a fair , my fair share of destroying my first marriage and so putting a child through divorce , and he was very young I don't even know if he can walk yet , or he was close right after , and so all this stuff was still things that I thought I pushed past .

I actually realized once I got married again that those things were still buried in there , and so what happened was I would copy and paste attributes of a previous damaged relationship and I'll copy and paste that onto her , and so what that would do was unfairly um , unfairly make it where she would pay for things that she actually would never do .

And what does that mean ? That means that she would have a fight with me in my head . So I would get upset about something , and in my head I'm I know , because I've been here before . Right , I have all the answers . I know how this conversation is going to go .

I know exactly what she's going to say and what happened was excuse me , in this argument and in this destructive behavior of copying and pasting my past relationship , my past trauma it was very real to me my past trauma onto a new person , I ended up robbing myself of peace .

So today , I want this episode to be completely about a plan , a battle plan for peace . Now , why do I say battle plan ? Why do I frame it up that way ? For peace . Now , why do I say battle plan ? Why do I frame it up that way ? Because peace is something that the enemy tries to destroy .

He knows that if he can get you off , if he can get you thinking wrong , if he can get you confused or conflated in arguments and struggles and issues , he can get you and rob you of your peace , and this leads to being robbed of your joy , and the Bible says that the joy of the Lord is our strength .

So , for robbed of joy , for robbed of peace , we're literally being stripped down bare to where we will have no more fight , no more desire to fight , and this is what happens a lot in marriages .

You end up having things that's undiscussed , untalked about , and people end up just slowly separating from each other because they don't want to have , excuse me , a real conversation , and their , their peace ends up being destroyed because they wouldn't fight for it . There was not a battle plan .

So in my perspective , my , my perspective as a pastor , my perspective as a man you're watching this and you're a guy , you understand , you've probably done this multiple times , and women do it too , but it's in my experience what I've seen is it's mostly men that will suffer in silence , never say anything . They won't get a battle plan . They never say anything .

They won't get a battle plan . They will exclude and seclude themselves and just be trapped up here and in here and nobody ever knows they're struggling or going through anything , and that will damage everything it touches . It is not something that is easily obtained or gained .

It has to be fought for , and this is why I wanted to call this the battle plan for peace . So I want I want to uh , kind of grapple with something for a minute . So in today's culture , I want you to think about this .

Actually , I'll turn it like this so in today's culture , we oftentimes can find ourselves overwhelmed , like we will find ourselves in the trap of complacency , the trap of redundancy . I don't know if you've ever done it , but I've done life in such a way to where you , you , you get in this groove .

Okay , it starts off as a groove and it ends up stuck in a rut . You get these , these patterns down , you enjoy , you know what you got going on , but then , uh , I don't know if you've noticed or not , but after a while , ladies , your husband may get bored with you .

If you are the same all the time , now he wants you to always be how he remembers you . And then , fellas , we always never change , we stay the same or we get worse , and it ends up being a struggle to keep it fresh with her because we no longer pursue her , because now we have her .

So we end up having to have a conversation with each other that will , in return , help us remind ourselves why we fell in love , why we're even here . So let's forget why we even got married . Like I've heard people say , why did I even marry this person ? Well , you know , know , we all make mistakes , but you're stuck , you are stuck .

So if , if , you will follow along . So I want you to think about this . Being overwhelmed with the burdens of life , being constantly robbed , can constantly rob you of your peace . Now , what do I mean by that ? So the moments , the overwhelming circumstances of life , I am reminded , as a believer , of this powerful truth that I need God . Let me move this .

I must rely on God to renew my mind . I need God to renew my mind because I cannot do it myself . If you don't believe me , if you've ever tried to do things yourself to get peace up here , you'll get a false sense of peace , just like we try to find joy , but it's in a temporary , false sense of happiness that actually has no substance to it .

And then we walked around . We walk around malnourished because we think we're getting substance from something that actually has no true substance . So his truth is not just a shield , remember we talked about a few weeks ago . It's not my truth , it's not your truth , it's God's truth . We must rely on God's truth .

Now I want you to ask yourself this when do you place Jesus in your life ? Is he Lord or is he not ? Now , if you go to church , chances are just like if someone were to ask are you saved or are you a Christian ? You'll start naming off all the things you do , the places that you go ? Yeah , I go to church .

I go to church over here oh yeah , I'm a member over here . When that has nothing to do with your salvation ? Oh yeah , I pray and I read every single day . That has nothing to do with your salvation and I read every single day that has nothing to do with your salvation .

The Bible says that by faith , through grace , jesus Christ is the only doorway into heaven . You cannot earn it . So that means you can't read enough of the Bible . You can't pray enough hours in the day . You can't do enough . You can't earn it . You can't do it . Now , faith without works is dead .

That means that once you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and as your savior , that does produce works , but works does not gain you salvation . So is Jesus actually Lord of your life ? Now , how do you measure this ? How , how , what is something I like ? Tangible things , like to be able to put my hands on it . That's how I learn . Like I can watch videos .

That's great . But uh , it's like I need , I need . I need to put my hands on things to learn . I have to have it that way . I have to for it , for me to retain it , I have to touch it . So how do you measure if Christ is Lord of your life ? So I said this actually last Sunday to my congregation .

I said if you don't know , if you have truly given everything over to God , look at the people that don't serve God , that don't know God . How are , how is their life compared to your life ? Are you doing the same things ?

And I don't mean the restaurants you go to , I don't mean you know , do you shop at Walmart and you shopping with the same people in the same aisle ? You all going to hell . It's not what I'm saying . I'm saying is the fundamental things that you do every day that should scream or should show Christ .

Are they living a life in contradiction to what the word says ? And are you measuring up and living how the word says , or do you look just like the world ? Churches are producing weak Christians who don't actually have any discipleship or discernment of what actually is saved and what is not .

So we end up living lives that are not anything close to a Christian walk . We live lives according to how we feel about things or how we see things , and it ends up being a diluted , dumbed down version of what God actually intended for us to walk in and we have a lot of non-authority Christians .

We don't have the authority in Christ like we should , that all of us who accepted Christ as our savior should have the authority . We're not stronger than the dominions and Satan that lives here , but Christ in us gives us the power and authority over those that are here in rule . So ask yourself is Jesus Lord of your life ?

Where are your thoughts falling short of his life-giving truth ? Remember , we're looking at the battle plan for peace , so we have to have some sort of plan .

You shouldn't go into your life or live your day-to-day life , or if you have torment in your mind , if you have issues in the way that you think , the way that you see yourself , the way that you perceive others , the way you receive instruction or correction , like all of these things are so important to have a healthy walk and be a part of a healthy church ,

to be a healthy Christian . You giving out correction in love is just equally important as you being able to receive correction from a brother or sister in Christ because you've done something wrong and you've stepped out of line .

And we as Christians , as believers , have the right to speak into each other's lives and help each other get back on the path that we need to get back on . The problem is , people come to church and they want to be a part of the church , but they forget that the church is the people and the people are supposed to help the other people .

The church is supposed to build up and strengthen and help guide each other in the church . It's not just a pastor's prerogative , it's also the people's prerogative , like it is mandated for the church . Here's what I try to set up in my church . This is a little bit of a rabbit trail sidestep , but just think about this for a second .

The church , if you're a believer and you go to a church , if the , if the pastor or whatever you call them , lead pastor , then there's executive pastor , assistant pastor , whatever they're trying to label it as today I get so annoyed with labels but whatever , if , if you were at your church service and the pastor did not show up or he stepped away , could your

church still function and still be effective in the community ? Now , that's a very serious question and you probably need to pause and think for a second . But I guarantee you the healthy churches the pastor can step away and things will go on as usual . It's very rare I had this set up in my church . It's very rare . On a Sunday morning I do .

Sometimes , especially if I feel led , I do , I will come down from the stage and I will pray . But if not , I stand on the stage and I pray over the people .

So what I've set up is that I have a prayer team come up , they stand in the altars and they face towards the audience and so when someone comes up , they're received , they're loved , they're talked to .

I have instruction for all of them to make that connection with these people that come up that need somebody to pray with them , reach out to them during the week , get their number , get their email , whatever it takes to reach out to them , make that connection and be connected with them , which is the name of our church . So I'm folding over on top of .

Like a piece of paper is very thin . It can be holes , can be punched in it pretty easy . But the more you fold the paper on top of itself , the thicker it becomes , the harder it is to tear and the harder it is to puncture .

And so that's what I'm trying to do is create this fabric in the church , this folding , so to speak , in the church , to where , when things happen , when issues arise , these people are so involved in each other's lives that the devil can't just come and poke holes in things . He actually has to do some serious work to get any damage done .

And so I don't come down . Sometimes I do , especially if there's like everybody's being like . Last Sunday I came down to pray with the , a fellow believer . He was having some issues , uh with a friend of his , was sick and and uh wanted to believe healing over her and everything , and , and so I I came down off the stage .

But I try to set it up to where , if I never came to church , the church would still be the church Like . That's how I set my church up .

I don't . I don't come in with like an authority . I have the authority to come in and say things are going to be the way things are going to be and it has to be that way . I'm the pastor by our denomination . I have that right .

I can make , I can do whatever I want , but I don't because I don't think it will bear the fruit that is good and healthy for the body , and that is number one . On .

What we should be worried about is what is going on in the body , what is being infected and affected , what is it that needs attention , what is it that has holes in it , what needs to be folded over , what needs to be strengthened , what needs to be examined holes in it , what needs to be folded over , what needs to be strengthened , what needs to be examined

. And if you do that , you will design for yourself a battle plan for peace , because there won't be room , there won't be cracks in the foundation , there won't be areas and places , or not as many . There's always something that can happen . I mean , come on , I'm doing this at 830 at night because everything happened today and made it .

Where I could not get online , that's fine . In the last two weeks I couldn't get online . Stuff kept happening . I'm not going to stress about it . If it happens , it happens . If it doesn't , it doesn't . And if we look that way and we have a plan before we get inside of the pressure , are you hearing me ?

If we have a plan before we feel the pressure , we will not crumble under the pressure . We can actually stand and be healthy believers . So is Jesus Lord of your life ? Is he truly Lord of your life ? Does he have every part of you .

Now , some people they'll automatically say yes , amen , in church and then they go do what they were doing last weekend , the weekend before and the weekend before and there's no change in their life . So what that tells me , that's the fruit of their heart . They're bearing sinful fruit , they're bearing fleshly fruit .

So that means I mean we're allowed to judge People . Try to use that . Don't judge me . Only God can judge me . That should scare the crap out of you , because he is holy , all right . So are you stuck ? Think about this . What is the negative effects ? Why do we need to think on things above ? Why do we need to be people of peace , believers of peace ?

Why do we need to seek after peace ? Because , if not , we'll end up doing this . We'll be stuck in a negative , hurtful and poisonous rut . So what will you do ? Well , like I said a second ago , you need to get a battle plan . Now , if you've ever studied MMA or boxing or if you've ever seen one of those matches , dude , they tear each other up .

So , outside of strength , techniques and tools , how do they win Consistency ? Day in , day out , they show up , they beat themselves , they get beat they over and over and over and over . They continue to persist , even under pressure . So let's look at four tools of renewing your mind , four tools of renewing your mind .

So , number one we've touched on these as we've been going along in this little series .

Number one the replacement principle , the rewire principle , the reframe principle and the rejoice principle . How many of you know , you got to take time and praise the Lord for what he has done , even if you don't feel it . So let's go on the first one replacement principle . Look over in John 8 , verse 44 . This is point number one , the replacement principle .

He has always hated the truth verse 44 , because there is no . It's talking about Satan . There's no truth in him . When he lies , it is consistent with his character , for he is a liar and the father of lies . We understand that our enemy uses lies as a weapon . It is his way , it is what he does , it is how he does it .

It is what he does , it is how he does it , and you need to be able to recognize , to have a battle plan and recognize the lies when they come up against you , so that you can speak truth . When Jesus was tempted , we talked about this . Last time he went out . He was led by the spirit . He was tempted . What happened ? Jesus went out there .

He knew scripture . He knew how to battle what the enemy was saying . He knew Satan was going to use scripture . He was going to manipulate and twist , but he knew that if he stuck with what he knew the truth he would not be defeated . And that's exactly how it defeated him . So we understand that our enemy uses lies as weapons .

Now the replacement principle teaches us to remove the lie and replace it with God's truth . Remove the lie , replace it with God's truth , because Satan is the father of lies . So if it is coming out of his mouth , it is a lie . If it is in conflict with scripture , it is a lie .

If it is in conflict with what God says about you who he says you are it is a lie . If it is in conflict with what God says about you who he says you are it is a lie . Satan is the father of lies . Now let's look at the key text again . So , now that you're thinking about it , you got this in your mind .

You understand that Satan is the father of lies . So he's going to try to lie to you , to trip you up . He's going to try to lie to you , to manipulate you . Go to the second scripture again . Don't copy the behaviors of this world . Oh , I'm sorry , that's the sorry . We destroy every proud thought , every obstacle it keeps people from knowing God .

We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ . Don't let your thoughts run . You Tell your thoughts how it's going to be . So the second point is I guess I didn't put a thing for it , but that's okay , just write this one down . Then the rewire principle . Now I want you to think about this .

God doesn't try to turn you , turn a bad person into a good person . He doesn't try to make you fade into good . The Bible says that we kill our flesh daily . That means something needs to die .

What was can no longer be , or you will be ineffective as a new christian or as a believer , because you're allowing things that should not be alive to be alive in your life .

And I I say this it kind of confused somebody the other day , but I'll say it to you and hopefully you understand that if you are in 99% obedience and that 1% is disobedience , you're still disobeying God . Think about that Like . God wants all of you , he wants every part , he wants every piece , the good , the bad , the ugly .

He wants everything so that he can be the true Lord of your life . We are to kill our flesh by being a living sacrifice . If you come into Christ was because someone at a church told you to , or because everybody else in your family is , or you didn't have anybody else to turn to , so you're like , okay , well , this seems like the next best thing .

You aren't grasping what Christ , being the Lord of your life , truly is Like . You need to understand that when you come to Jesus , it should cost you everything , everything you are , every ambition , every desire . You must pick up your cross . What's the cross for it leads you to death ? Pick up your cross . What's the cross for it leads you to death ?

Through a spiritual death , the heart that was of stone will be brought back to life through Jesus Christ and made of flesh . So he takes what was dead and he makes it alive again through himself . Life comes through Christ . Death comes for all those who stay in their sinful nature .

You don't hear it's not very popular on the YouTube preachers or the , or the big churches or what you know . I , at my church , I give an altar call , which means a call to salvation every single Sunday . I've done .

My dad did it growing up and it was one thing I picked up from him that I think is so valid and so vital to the church being strong and the church being like the church . What are we doing if we're not trying to get people saved and to know Jesus but there comes that initial step out to do something ?

There's no magical prayer that you say and it gets you into heaven . It is a lifestyle of sanctification every single day that you must follow , that you must cling to and that you must take everything that you are and lay it at the feet of Jesus and pick up his life , his will for you . And that's really hard to do .

Like saying yes to Jesus is like stupid easy , because in that moment it may cost you a little pride , it may cost you . I mean , in that moment it's probably one of the best feelings you can feel when you say yes to jesus . I remember I don't remember the time or the day , but I remember that the , I remember the . The moment don't have a date .

I don't remember I was out of jail , had to be probably a few weeks after and I was just like ugly crying . You know what I mean . Like I stood up from the altar and there was snot . It was just like you know . I had a big old beard then and I had a bag of meth in my pocket and I still went home that day and I smoked it .

I cried the whole time . I didn't even get to enjoy it , but I knew I was doing wrong , because I just told God I wanted everything to change and I didn't . I didn't do it right . I still didn't give him everything , even though I had a powerful moment , a powerful moment in the altars , when I stood up . I remember feeling like a giant .

I felt like I was 10 feet tall , but I didn't stick to what I promised at that altar . And so what happened ? Well , even though it was a powerful moment in the altar and I went home and I smoked that little thing of meth I had left and I cried .

It was after that that I began to go through the painful process of really allowing Christ to be Lord of my life . That's what I'm trying to say to you . Like you can have a powerful moment in the altar , but if you don't actually let him be the Lord of your life , you wasted your time . God's not looking for emotionalism in the altar .

If you want peace in your life , don't come to an altar and try to be emotional . Don't come down to an altar and and pledge to God you're going to do this and you're going to be different . You're going to talk different or whatever . Put some action behind what you're claiming .

Start reading the words so that you can know what God expects of you , because this is why we have weak Christians in the church . We act like God does not expect anything from us after we come to salvation and know his son . That is the exact opposite .

We are called every single day to kill the flesh , to die daily so that we can live , sanctified and be a holy , righteous child before a holy God . And I think sometimes we lose that reference , that reverence of God , and we don't actually act like God is holy anymore .

We think he's nothing but grace and mercy and that's it , when in reality he is all of , but he is so much more . And I believe that God is calling the church , the church people , to be more of what he expects and stop being so bland , tasteless Christians .

So the rewire principle you have to take what was , destroy it , allow the spirit to destroy it and let God rebuild it . And that's the beautiful thing , when you allow . When I had that moment , it was like , oh , that was yes , that was beautiful , that was awesome .

And then I failed , like I don't know if it was that day , the next day , whatever it was , doesn't matter . And I failed a couple of times . After that I tried to stay right , but it just I didn't .

There was some serious things in my life that had to be buffed out and I had to exclude myself from the area that I was living in because things were too easy for me to get ahold of .

So what does salvation mean ? Well , let's look at this next scripture Romans , chapter 12 , verse 2 . Now , this is salvation , wrapped up in a few words Don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world , but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think . Why is it so important to change the way that you think ?

Because if you can change , if you allow God to change up here , it will bleed down into here . So if you have a bad mindset , say , say you have an addiction , uh , addiction , fellas . Let's talk to you for a second . Let's get real . If you have an addiction with pornography , you're allowing that filth to go into here . What does it do ?

You cannot watch it for six months and be clean , and you can still have replays up here in your mind , am I right ? You will still have replays of the things even if you come to God and you are so sorry for once again messing up ?

And you can live six months with clean , sober , not touching it , and you can still see it in your mind because God needs to . It's a process to wash all the things , all the dirty , out . You can , in a moment , get saved , but sometimes it takes a lifetime in the process of sanctification , to getting closer and closer .

And listen , I'm very blunt and I'm very honest . And listen , I'm very blunt and I'm very honest . There's a difference in messing up and struggling and living a life style that is in direct conflict with God . Those are two separate , different things . I just want to be clear on that .

So don't copy the behavior and customs of this world , but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think . Then you will learn to know God's will for your life , which is good and pleasing and perfect . Now this verse . It simply maps out a couple of things . Let's talk about it for a second .

I have to get a new thing , so let's talk about this just for a second . Let's get this down here , all right ? So this verse explains the rewire principle that we just talked about , where we can create it's so crazy how god created our minds . We can literally create new neural pathways to replace old , damaged ones .

Like I've said this a thousand times I say it all the time and it is so true your life will move in the direction of your strongest thoughts . However you think , so will your body move . If your mind is thinking in a direction , so will the rest of you follow .

So you have to make sure that you are locking down those thoughts , like we read in the beginning , because if you don't , your life will end up moving in a direction that is not pleasing to god . It won't be fun for you .

One of the most frustrating and , uh , miserable times of my life is where I knew what I was supposed to be doing , where I was supposed to be , and I was running from God . I was running hard from God , and it was not fun .

I thought I was having fun , but instead , what I was doing is just making things worse for myself down the road and leaving a wake of bodies Like , for instance , let me so right now I'm in the process of I think I'm going to get a different vehicle . Right now I'm in the process of I think I'm going to get a different vehicle .

The one I have has passed 160,000 miles . Hadn't had any issues out of it , but I am , I'm going to change , I'm going to add a little money to it and like , even if I do a payment , it'll be like $50 a month . So my son is the same right now .

He's been , he's about to turn 16 in November and he is itching to look at vehicles , this and that I think he's found one , probably , I think , excuse me , by a truck from his grandpa . We're under , we are parents that we were first borns in our house and we didn't get the best of anything . So he's getting the rundown vehicle .

I don't care how much money we have . He's going to have to learn . Character is what it is Now . That being said , because he's been talking with his friends , because I've been looking online , and now he's getting excited about me getting another vehicle and he's looking . I've been looking online .

And now he's getting excited about me getting another vehicle and he's looking . We were getting ice cream earlier because he got all A's and Cora took our first steps today , and so we were out celebrating with some ice cream . Andy's ice cream , that's the lord's ice cream , just like Chick-fil-a's guy's chicken . Come on somebody .

We were out there and every car that passed by he knows what car I'm looking for and he's's like looking like . He's like Dad , there's one right there , there's one , and he's like pointing it out . And so this is a good example of whatever you're in the market for , you will see .

If you're in the market for trying to bring people to Jesus , you will see the lost and the hurting . Jesus did this . He saw people that were in pain , he saw people that were hurting , and he was able to See people Beyond the facade they put up .

Now , was there some sort of Mass conspiracy when I was looking for a vehicle , when Tristan was looking for a vehicle , that all of a sudden the manufacturers put out 500 times more vehicles because I was looking ? Or , excuse me , or was it because I was in the market ? And so when I begin to pay attention to things , I begin to see what I wanted .

Now , if you see in your life negativity , the negative part of life , what's going to happen ? You're going to be negative . If you see the pain and the hurt that what somebody did to you , what's going to happen ? You're going to be bitter all the time .

Because if you're in the market for something , if it's what you are subscribing to , subscribe to the channel , you will , by proxy , be looking for it all the time . If you think nobody likes you , you're going to assume every conversation you have they're hiding something , they're trying to manipulate , they're trying to do something and everyone is against you .

If you think , for instance , if you think like , if you believe , of course it's biblical , if you believe demons are real and they are . I have seen a manifestation when I was a small kid and then a couple of times in between , as a small kid and then a couple of times in between .

But a lot of people , a lot of good church people , will say the devil is out to get me , when it's really not the devil . It's either self-inflicted or it's very possible God loves you enough to try to teach you something . So if you're in the market for unforgiveness , in the market for anger and hate .

When you seek you'll find , but we have an option , a choice every day . So you know what I am going to forgive , you know what I am going to make a battle plan to get my peace back , because that's God's desire for every single believer . So number three is the reframe principle .

So let's look in the book of James , chapter one , verses two and four , two through four . Sorry , dear brothers and sisters , when troubles of any kind come your way , consider it an opportunity for great joy . I don't know about you , but I don't really think about opposition as opportunity .

But when we have our mindset right , as what Christ tells us to do , it changes things . For you know that when your faith is tested , your endurance has a chance to grow .

The refrain principle helps us change our perception of the events in our lives , changing how we view past hardships and future uncertainties , taking the focus off of what we see and how we feel . Feelings will jack you up , your feelings will mess you up .

You'll get stuck in what you feel instead of what you know , and when you are in a state of uncertainty or you don't know which way to go , you'll end up because of the pressure you feel , the feelings that you're feeling , instead of basing your path , your steps , on facts , you'll end up stepping in the wrong direction and making bad choices under pressure .

So breathe , just take it in and allow God . Allow the Spirit to lead you . So number four , the rejoice principle . Now , this is the one I like . I like to get happy , I like to get like to , uh , enjoy life . It's terrible when you're feeling like always something is butting up against you , always to look at this philippians 4 , 4 through 7 .

It says always be full of joy in the lord . I say it again rejoice . Let everyone see that you are , you are considerate in all you do . Remember the Lord is coming soon . Don't worry about anything . Instead , pray about everything , tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done . Now , what does this say ?

Does it say wait until God works it out for you and then praise him and rejoice ? Or does it say always be full of joy and praise him for what he has done ?

So that's telling us that , in spite of what he has done , in spite of how we feel , in spite of the season we're in , that we should rejoice and praise him and thank him because he is God and he is good . That's the bottom line . This is the rejoice principle , and this should emphasize to you the power of praise .

So I don't know if you've been in the bad season before , but I have . I've been in a few of them , some self-inflicted , some out of my control . Either way , it doesn't matter . I'm not called to nitpick and tell God what his business is , and if my life belongs to him , then what he decides is what he's going to do , and that's it .

So , that being said , I have chosen in my life , when a bad season comes or issues happen , to rejoice in spite of what things look like , in spite of how I feel and that puts me in a posture of great perspective that my joy and my peace can't be robbed from me .

And you know , joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit and peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit . And so I feel when the devil tries to attack us and tries to rob us of these things , he's trying to attack the spirit through us . We had uh , we have discipleship class on wednesday nights .

It's a smaller one-on-one , about 20 or 30 people , and we were talking about the fruit of the spirit and we kind of had fun with it . We told the opposite of what , what some of the fruit of the spirit are , and and then we were asked who who had issues with the fruit of the spirit ? And I don't have issues with producing the fruit of the spirit .

I believe the enemy attacks me in a personality quality that I have that will rob me of the fruit of the spirit . If that makes sense , let me explain .

So I am . If you know me personally , or if you've been on this podcast at all , you know I like to joke around , I like to have a good time . Uh , I am a person who likes to laugh . I come from a family of laughter . Like we make jokes , we pick on each other , we mess with each other . We always have something smart to say .

I got in trouble so many times as a kid because of my smart mouth and I was good at it and I still am . But , that being said , laughter always being a part of my life . So it seems to be that joy was kind of a natural state that I constantly stayed in . So having that fruit of the spirit was not hard for me because I always found joy in life .

So it wasn't like I was like I've never had a job . I didn't like I've had hard work , hard jobs , but I've never had a job . I actually didn't like . Like I enjoyed being there If there was people there . Even if there wasn't , like I used to drive a forklift at a Walmart warehouse .

I'd be by myself for several hours , you know , getting stuff out of the racks and putting pallets up and all this other stuff . I was having a blast . I'd be singing a song or whatever . I'm just in my own little world . I don't care . I love people . But if I'm by myself I'm having fun . If I'm with people , I'm having even more fun .

But it seems that when , when I have issues in me , it seems that the enemy attacks that joy area . So he tries to rob me of my laughter . He tries to rob me of that joy . And so ask yourself , like , okay , today's podcast is the battle plan of peace . All right , fine , maybe peace isn't what you need to make a battle plan for .

Why do we want to make a battle plan ? Because we want to prepare before the pressure hits . How many times have you I know I've done this several times you something all of a sudden , out of your control , blindside you . You have no clue where it came from , you have no clue how it happened and all of a sudden , out of your control , blindside you .

You have no clue where it came from , you have no clue how it happened and all of a sudden you're standing there in the middle of the mess and you're supposed to pick up the pieces or you're leaning on everybody else because everything blowed up . And now you're wondering what do I do next ?

Now , which is more advantageous for us to do Plan before the battle hits or try to play cleanup after the battle destroys ? I have done the cleanup part and it is miserable . So what I've decided to do in my life ? I actually did this earlier , like I was planning this podcast today .

I try to do it on Mondays and there was everything that would come against me trying to schedule this , like I was going to schedule it for 6.30 or 7 , something like that . We even ate early and literally everything kept going wrong . We went to one place to get some water and the water was gone . It was just .

It was just some weird fluke and I could feel . I could feel my blood boiling a little bit because I had plans . I don't know if you've ever done this . But when you have plans and things go against those plans , you seem to be , uh , not a fun person to be around . That's me . I'm driving and I feel it rising , like I could feel my anger getting worse .

I'm driving with my two kids in the back , my wife in the passenger seat , and and I'm like , and it just it hits me for a second . It's like why ? Why am I letting this get to me ? I don't have to . I have not scheduled it yet . I don't have to . I can just go live when I want .

So why don't I just enjoy my family time and stop worrying about what's going on and what's stopping me from doing other things I had planned to do ? And I told my wife in the truck I was like listen , if I don't get to live stream tonight , it's fine . She was like no , no , no , no , you're going to .

I was like listen , it's a podcast episode , it's not important to family . And so it was like I took the control back . I felt it rising , I felt the pressure , I felt the anger , I was upset and I took control back before the damage was done .

Why I had things in my mind that I was going to smart off and say to my wife about things not working out and this and that , and we should have planned things better . And I was like you know what , why don't I use the gift of restraint and just keep this to myself , and that way I won't do any damage ? And that's exactly what I did .

But here's the facts . I can try to help you with the battle plan until the day that I die , but if you are not a person who is willing to sit down and maybe you need to do this maybe you need to get a pen , you need to get a paper . You need to sit down and say okay , if this happens , think , think about your .

If you're married , get with your spouse , ask them , say , listen , what is it that you see in me ? Or get somebody that you love and trust . If you don't want it to be your spouse , that's okay . If it's causing issues , or maybe right now that's a serious issue and you can't talk to your spouse like that .

My wife is my best friend , so we can talk like that . God has blessed me with a woman that I can actually say whatever I want to to and work things out Even my struggles and issues and pain , and she loves me , embraces me and just prays for me . It's a beautiful thing . You may not have that . Just because I do doesn't mean you do .

So let me ask you this Is there somebody in your life and if you're a believer , even if you're not a believer somebody you love and trust , that you know will speak truth to you without the um , without the purpose of hurting you ?

So they love you , they care for you and if you were to ask them hey , do you think I have a pride problem that they and listen ? Here's the hard part . It's easy to ask people questions , especially when you're expecting a good , positive answer .

But you have to prepare yourself in here that when you ask somebody you love and you care about and you actually trust to give you good , honest , wholesome answers and they actually give that to you .

You have to , even if you got to step away and chew on it , even if you got to say , okay , I need to think about that and hang up whatever you got to do , but it will be for your betterment .

No discipline feels good at the time , but if it's implemented over and over and over and over , repetition will produce replication and you will be stronger and better for it in the end if you allow them to speak truth into you . That's hard . So my biggest question is to you . I know it's labeled the battle plan for peace .

What is it that you've allowed the enemy ? What is it that you've allowed your job ? And listen , let's get personal for a second . This is why maybe it's not a good fit for you and your spouse to talk about this . What is it that you and your spouse , what have they been robbing you of ?

It may be your peace , it may be your joy , but I guarantee you this I've been in a bad marriage and now I'm in a good one to two different people , not the same person , and now I'm in a good one to two different people , not the same person . And I know this that , whether it's good or bad , I still have a part to play in it .

I don't know your situation . I don't know if it's your job . I don't know if it's kids . It could be your small kids . I know we have a toddler right now . She just turned one , lord knows . Sometimes the kids can make you want to pull your hair out . You love them .

Sometimes you want to love them from a distance , just to get a little bit of peace back . You know what I mean . Maybe it's a sibling , a brother and sister , mom or dad , grandma , grandpa , whatever it is . What is it in your life that's been robbing you of your peace ? What has been robbing you of your joy ?

What has been robbing you and taking from you and it seemingly never gives back , so you feel depleted .

I'm a pastor , so in ministry this happens all the time and sometimes I feel it pretty heavy because I pastor a church , but I also work full-time work a lot , and so sometimes for me to get pulled in so many directions all the time it feels like my head's about to explode . But I'm the kind of person that I will .

I will love my wife when she's feeling that way and I will hold her and I will tell her it's going to be okay .

And I will never tell her that I'm feeling the same , because and I'm not saying it's right , I'm just telling you , I'm being honest with you it's like I feel like I'm supposed to be the strong one , that I can't let her know that I'm hurting too .

It actually strengthens the relationship between us because we're both feeling , going through some emotional issues right now and we're loving each other . She's not now , she is not by herself , and it just took some pride for me to get over to say you know what I feel it too , and all this is great . All these points are great . You know four points . Amen .

It's points are great . You know four points . Hey , man , it's this , it's a , it's a full sermon , but if you don't have the courage for application , then this was a wasted podcast for you to listen to . You can listen and read to all the self-help books you can .

You can go through and listen to all the best preachers and messages , and you know , you know , you got this , you know . But if you don't apply anything and you don't start self-examining and self-assessing , my my go-to for me that works , because it's biblical is when something is wrong , I immediately ask myself what am I doing wrong ?

And even if I'm not in the wrong , I know that I can be wrong for not being compassionate and loving and looking past when someone else is wrong , and that's biblical as well . So , as believers , we should look at ourselves , we should look at the world , we should look at our problems through the lens of Christ .

Now the first question you want to ask yourself whether you know God or whether you don't . If you don't know God and you don't understand what I'm talking about , I want to show you a scripture and I really think it'll make some sense to you a little bit . And it's some strong verbiage , just hold on , okay . So listen to this . Romans 8 , 6 , it says so .

Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death , and so this death is more of a spiritual death now and later . So you're not getting life from Christ . But letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace . God's desire for every believer is for us to live in peace .

His desire is not for us to live some half-cocked , shoot-from-the-hip life . We have purpose , we have meaning . That's the beautiful thing about God is that he cares enough for us to design us for a purpose , to drop little seeds in our hearts as children that we can grow up and we do things .

And it may be an astronaut , it may be a yard guy , it may be a maintenance guy , a janitor , maybe a preacher . It may be an evangelist going and preaching . It may be a worship leader , or it may be just a good church , solid church goer that prays for people . Every person has a part in the place .

But you won't be content where you are if you are being robbed of your peace . But we are promised that through Christ , we are made more than conquerors . God is more than conquerors . God is more than enough . Let me be very clear . Some motivational speakers that they label themselves as pastors they will tell you keep doing what you're doing .

God will bless you . You got this . You are more than enough . Your blessing is coming , it's on its way . It's a bunch of nonsense . You will never measure up . If you did measure up , if you were good to go , you wouldn't and I wouldn't need Christ . But because we are sinners , we are not able to do for ourselves what Christ did .

We need him , we must lean on him , we must trust him and , that being said , god not you , but God is more than enough and all he wants is you . There's a scripture in the Bible I can't remember where it's at off the top of my head , but it's talking about us being willing vessels , and I said this last Sunday .

I was like you know what One thing that I believe that God desires for his people ? He wants brokenness to be back in the church . And why do you say broken ? He wants me to be broke . No Brokenness Like when I gave my heart back to God . There was the level of brokenness when I took over this church over here in Longview .

We lost somebody to death very close to me Actually several people in a row that were very close to me and there was a brokenness . And in that brokenness it was like when the ground has to be toiled and broken up for good seed to be planted and the crop to grow .

I feel that's what God did in my life and I feel that if I want seed to be , for the Spirit to be able to put seed in my heart so that the fruit of the Spirit can grow , I need to remain broken . And so , willing vessels , I want to be a broken vessel . And what do I mean by that ?

When God pours out into me , I want to be broken so that I seep out and I pour out on other people . Through the cracks . Through my brokenness , I can pour out on other people . Now think about that for a second .

God gave me that this past Sunday and to me that's a pretty amazing visual of God pouring out into me and through that outpouring , my brokenness actually allows for other people to receive as well , and I believe that's what God wants for all of us .

I believe that God desires for us to not be selfish Christians , but for us to go and make disciples , as the last mandate that he said before he left this earth was go , preach , preach , make disciples , baptizing people in the name of the father , son and the holy ghost . So thank you so much for all of you .

If you haven't , please make sure to hit that like button and subscribe to the channel .

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You can ask questions there and not be judged , instead of posting them online . But if you have a question , a biblical question or stuff that's going on in our culture right now , I would love to answer you . Just comment on any video and ask the question and I will make a video specifically for that . I have some coming up about .

Well , I'm not going to tell you , I'm going to wait and let it simmer . So I love you all . I'm praying for you and I hope you all have a great rest of your week and God bless you .