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Max Lucado – Tame Your Thoughts: A Powerful Message for Ministry Leaders · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Just for the fun of it, I attempted to count them.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: No simple task. Try it sometime.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Take a pen and paper and make a mark each
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: time you have a thought.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: I'm hungry.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Mark.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Looks like rain.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Dash.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Was I supposed to feed the dog?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Dot.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Thoughts are everywhere. You know them. You hear them.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: They are the internal narrator who calls play-by-play on our deeds.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: And We are the sum of them. We are what
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: we think.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: A fact which elevates the power behind this promise from Scripture.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Do not be conformed.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: To this world, but be transformed by the renewal of
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: your mind. In the Greek language, the word transform is metamorpho,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: from which we translate the noun transform.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Metamorphosis.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Anyone who paid attention in science class remembers the process
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of turning a caterpillar into a butterfly is called metamorphosis.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: God promises you an even greater transformation. The thoughts that
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: have characterized your past need not characterize the rest of
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: your life. God has not left you alone in this
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: battle of the mind. He loves you too much to
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: let you lead a life marked by poor thinking.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: He made your brain. He can retrain your brain.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: How? Well, I find three tools to be especially helpful.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: An ancient trio of strategies that I know well and
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I know work well. What are these tools? First, practice
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: picky thinking. Paul wrote, the weapons we use in our
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: fight are not the world's weapons, but God's powerful weapons,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: which we use to destroy strongholds. We destroy false arguments.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: We pull down every proud obstacle that is raised up
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  Speaker 1: against the knowledge of God. We take every thought captive
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: and make it obey Christ. The implication is clear. The
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: battle is on. It's a high-stakes contest for the health
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of your mind. At issue are the strongholds that have
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a stronghold on your life. The term used in the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Bible has a dual meaning. First, it refers to a
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: prison that keeps people in. The word can also be
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: translated as fortress. It keeps people out. Strongholds or unmanaged
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: thoughts do both Wouldn't it be great to destroy them?
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  Speaker 1: The image Paul presents is that of a warrior, a soldier,
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  Speaker 1: a fighter. And rather than indulge such thoughts, we take
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: a wrecking ball to them. And once the stronghold is shattered,
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  Speaker 1: we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: We filter, we monitor, we challenge Christ. The literal rendering
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: of the phrase is to take one captive with a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: spear pointed into the back. So we point a spear
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: against the spine of toxic thoughts, march them outside and
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: toss them out on their derrieres. This brings us to
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: our second tool, identify UFOs. Not the UFOs of outer space,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: but the UFOs of thought progression.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: It works like this.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Untruths lead to false narratives that prompt overreactions, UFOs. One
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: of my early encounters with an untruth had to do
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: with a fellow fourth grader named James. Everybody in our
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: class liked James. The girls liked James. The guys liked James.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: James was cool. And James had a clique, an entourage
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: of guys and girls who followed him everywhere. And Max, well,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Max didn't make the guys laugh or the girls swoon.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Max wasn't part of James's clan. So I concluded Max
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: is not cool. Call it a lie, a false assumption,
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  Speaker 1: but for the sake of this acronym I'm showing you,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: call it an untruth. Satan traffics in untruths. In fact,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the greatest weapon in his arsenal is untruth. Fourth grade
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Max didn't know how to fight back.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Maybe you don't either.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: But if you don't retaliate these untruths, create the F
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: in UFO, which is a false narrative. A narrative is
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: a message that plays in your mind. It is the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: way you see yourself and what you say to yourself.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Do you know anyone who seems to be incurably irritable, cranky,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: or melancholy? Well, I would bet a dollar to a
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: donut that a negative intrusive thought loop dominates their thoughts.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I'm such a loser. I messed up again. It's me
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  Speaker 1: against the world. The untruth has dredged a rut in
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  Speaker 1: that person and the rut has resulted in a false narrative.
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  Speaker 1: And that false narrative left unchecked will define how that
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  Speaker 1: person sees themselves and what they say to themselves. In time,
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  Speaker 1: the untruth will that created a false narrative will lead
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  Speaker 1: to the O in UFO, which is an overreaction. Shadow
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: came across a man's face recently when he learned of
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: my profession.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Don't talk to me about religion, he blurted.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Turns out that he, like many people, had a bad
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: experience with a clergyman. It had something to do with
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: getting called out as a teenager for misbehaving in church.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: And the event left a mark.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: He extrapolated the pastor's action to include all ministers. And
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  Speaker 1: untruth entered his world. Pastors are unfair. The untruth led
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: to a false narrative. Religious leaders mean to harm, not
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  Speaker 1: help me. And this led to an overreaction. I'll never
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  Speaker 1: have anything to do with the church. So the man
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: had closed himself off to faith because of a single event.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: There were certainly more contributors. Perhaps his parents maligned the church.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe he crossed trails with a huckster. Whatever the cause,
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  Speaker 1: the reaction was an overreaction.
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  Speaker 2: So, what about you?
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Any aliens messing with your mind? If so, practice picky thinking.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Identify UFOs and then, tool number three, uproot and replant.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: My dad put me in charge of taking care of
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: our lawn when I was 12 years old. My assignment
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: was to eliminate the grass burrs. I hope you never
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: have a run-in with a grass burr. They grow on
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: a stalk that rises some four or five inches out.
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  Speaker 2: Of the ground.
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  Speaker 1: My brother and I would throw them at each other.
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  Speaker 1: We were such loving siblings.
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  Speaker 3: Ouch!
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Grass burrs are not fun.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: My dad was smart to tell me to deal with them. I, however,
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  Speaker 1: was not so smart in the way I chose to
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  Speaker 1: do so.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: I cranked up the lawnmower and cut them down.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Dad came home to a freshly cut lawn with no
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: weeds in sight. Yet days later, when the blades of
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  Speaker 1: grass returned, the grass burrs returned with them. Dad proceeded
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  Speaker 1: to give me more detailed instructions.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: He took a.
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  Speaker 1: Garden spade, got down on his knees, and dug up
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  Speaker 1: a weed, then another, then another, until he had a
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  Speaker 1: small stack of extracted grass burrs ready to be thrown out.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: He then handed me the spade and said, pull them out. Well,
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  Speaker 1: your toxic thoughts are like those graspers, and they prompt
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  Speaker 1: a predictable chain reaction, untruths that lead to false narratives
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  Speaker 1: that result in overreactions, UFOs. They stick, they prick, they hurt,
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  Speaker 1: they agitate and aggravate, they sour your mood, they load
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  Speaker 1: your life with unnecessary weight. So, yank them out by
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the roots. My dad handed me a garden spade. Your
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: father gives you his word. He invites you to treat
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the lies of hell with the words of heaven. Jesus
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: showed us how. Remember how Satan assaulted him with untruths?
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: In the wilderness, Satan said, if you are the son
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: of God. Now, why would Satan say this? Well, because
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: he knew what Christ heard at the baptism.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: This is my.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Are you
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: really God's son? Satan asked. Then came the dare.
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  Speaker 2: Prove it.
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  Speaker 1: Prove it by doing something. Satan did not denounce God.
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  Speaker 1: He simply attempted to sow seeds of doubt in Jesus's mind.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus responded by taking each thought captive and treating each
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  Speaker 1: untruth with scripture. Three temptations, three declarations, no razzle dazzle.
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  Speaker 1: He just quoted the Bible, his weapon of choice. If
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Jesus used the Bible for his thought management, shouldn't we
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: do the same? In one of his most intriguing teachings,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus described a demon who had been cast out of
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  Speaker 1: a person. It roams about, he said, looking for a
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  Speaker 1: new home. It never finds one. It decides, I'll go
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  Speaker 1: back to my old haunt. On return, it finds the
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  Speaker 1: person spotlessly clean but vacant. It then runs out and
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  Speaker 1: rounds up seven other spirits more evil than itself, and
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  Speaker 1: they all move in, whooping it up. Jesus envisions a
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  Speaker 1: person who has said goodbye to the former life. The demon,
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  Speaker 1: no longer welcome in this updated heart, goes in search
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  Speaker 1: of a new address. Not finding one, it returns to
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  Speaker 1: its former residence and finds it spotlessly clean but vacant.
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  Speaker 1: The key word is vacant. The heart is unoccupied. The
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  Speaker 1: person has tidied up and not replaced the old furnishings
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  Speaker 1: with new. He has just enough religion to be unhappy.
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  Speaker 1: She has an exterior appearance, but little to no inward power.
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  Speaker 1: The demon sees no barrier, alerts its buddies, and they
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  Speaker 1: show up with a keg of chaos. A swept but
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  Speaker 1: unoccupied home results in a haunted heart. You see, to
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  Speaker 1: clean out the old is wonderful, but to usher in
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  Speaker 1: the new, that's essential. Uprooting weeds of lies is necessary.
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  Speaker 1: Replacing them with truth is vital. The implied command of
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  Speaker 1: Christ is to fill the house, to refurnish our hearts
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  Speaker 1: with the gospel, to decorate our walls with scripture, to ruminate, meditate, contemplate,
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  Speaker 1: and fixate our thoughts on his truth. This is our
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  Speaker 1: Tame Your Thoughts Toolkit. Practice picky thinking. Just because you
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: have a thought, you don't need to think it. Identify
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: UFOs and untruth leads to a false narrative that creates
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  Speaker 1: an overreaction. Uproot and replant. Rather than let the untruth grow,
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  Speaker 1: give the lie a tug and replace it with God's truth.
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  Speaker 1: One final thought about thoughts. To think about thoughts is great.
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  Speaker 1: but to think about the way God thinks about us
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  Speaker 1: even greater. The psalmist wrote, how precious it is, Lord,
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  Speaker 1: to realize that you are thinking about me constantly. I
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  Speaker 1: can't even count how many times a day your thoughts
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  Speaker 1: turn toward me. And when I awaken in the morning,
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  Speaker 1: you are still.
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  Speaker 2: Thinking of me.
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  Speaker 1: God never stops thinking about you. And he thinks not
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  Speaker 1: thoughts of condemnation and judgment, but thoughts of love and adoration.
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  Speaker 1: He will turn all those thoughts that run through your
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  Speaker 1: mind every day into countless opportunities for your day to
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  Speaker 1: be better and your life to be happy.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: Everything I used to live for Faded slowly out of
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  Speaker 3: sight Now my days just circle around you Like I'm
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  Speaker 3: lost without a light All.
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  Speaker 4: The noise just turns to silence When your memory comes
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  Speaker 4: through And the world I once was chasing Now feels small.
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  Speaker 2: And shaped like you.
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  Speaker 5: My whole world is only you Every thought keeps breaking
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: through You're so close inside my mind But so far
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  Speaker 5: in real life I can feel you everywhere In the
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: things we never shared All.
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  Speaker 3: This love I'm going through Never reaches you.
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  Speaker 4: Every image feels so real now like you're standing next
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: to me. But the truth is in the silence you
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: were never.
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  Speaker 5: Meant to see. My whole world is only you. Every
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: thought keeps breaking through You're so close inside my mind
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  Speaker 5: But so far in real life I can feel you
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: everywhere In the things we never shared All this love
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: I'm going through Never reaches you.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: If you felt it for a moment Would.
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: It change the way you stay Or would I still
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: be the shadow that just fades away? But your world's
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: a different view I'm just someone passing by In your
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: open sky Still I hold on to what's true Every
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: heartbeat calls for you All this love I always knew
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: Will never reach.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: You Ooh.
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: Hmm.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: Hmm.