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Pastor Scott L. Harris
Grace Bible Church, NY
September 20, 2026
* The Battle for Your Mind
Selected Scriptures
Introduction
Last Sunday I spoke on Why We Believe the Bible as the first of three sermons dealing with the subject of truth and the importance of knowing and following the truth. Today I will be focusing on the Battle for Your Mind which is part of the war on truth. My sermon following that will be on Discernment, Decisions and Direction for what you discern to be true will govern your decisions and the direction you will take. Truth is essential to being able to live properly before God and have a life with meaning beyond the temporal.
If you missed last week’s sermon, please go to our website and read the notes or follow the links to listen or watch it (Why We Believe the Bible). *There are many philosophies that claim to be or lead to the truth, but the musing of man will always fall short due to the effect of sin which blinds and corrupts the mind. However, since the God of truth has revealed Himself, His work and His will in the holy Scriptures, man can know the truth if he will believe and follow it, for the Bible is true and it leads its reader to the truth.
*In brief, we believe the Bible because if its many claims to be true due to its supernatural origin in being God breathed, and its veracity being proven by all other lines of evidence. The physical world of Creation proclaims God’s divine power and nature as the Creator. Observational science backs up all the Biblical claims about nature. *The Bible continues to be proven to be historically accurate though written over a 1,500 year period by about 40 authors and covering the period from creation through the first century and by prophecy to eternity. The Biblical writers were men of integrity who had to give an account to the God of truth. Its many fulfilled prophecies prove it is from God because only He could give such detail before it happened about what would occur in the future both in near time and in ages long after the prophet had died. *Finally, the Bible is unique in its character of being accurately transmitted over long ages and unsurpassed in subjects treated, quality and variety of literature within it, and realistic treatment of man’s sinful condition yet offering hope of redemption in God’s mercy and grace.
*Spiritual War – Ephesians 6:10-20
The starting place for today’s sermon is understanding that each of us is in the middle of a spiritual war that makes military conflicts pale in comparison. The consequence is not the political control of territory or even how many people will die, and its carnage is not always as graphic as that of physical war. However, lives maimed by sin are much more serious than bodies maimed by bombs, and the consequences of this war determines the destiny of your eternal soul.
I preached a series of 21 sermons on Spiritual Warfare in the past, so I refer you to that on our website (Spiritual Warfare) for an in depth study of this subject. This morning I simply want to point you to the fact that we are in a spiritual war and that a major element in this war is the battle for your mind which begins with a conflict over truth.
* Turn to Ephesians 6:10-13 which describes the nature of this war.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly [places.] 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
*It is because of this spiritual war that we are exhorted to put on the whole armor of God described in verses 14-17. 14 “Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, 17 also receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
*This scripture passage concludes in verses 18-20 with a call to prayer which again emphasizes that this is a spiritual conflict. 18 “praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the Spirit, and to this end, being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 as well as on my behalf, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel— 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains—so that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
*Be warned that you will be attacked by these spiritual forces, and if you do not have your armor on, you will lose the battle. 1 Peter 5:8 states it plainly that “our adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Christians do not need to be afraid of the devil and his host of demons for as James 4:7 points out, if you submit to God and resist the devil, he will flee from you. But without your armor, you are easy prey for the devil because you will not be firm in your faith and you will have little resistance to him.
*Spiritual warfare is real, and a major element in it is this constant battle for your mind. God wants you to know the truth and live accordingly. Notice that the first piece of armor is to gird your loins with truth. Our adversary, the devil, wants you to believe lies. Jesus said in John 8 that the devil was a liar from the beginning, that it is his nature to lie, and that he is the father of lies. *What did Satan do to Eve in Gen. 3? He deceived her with his slander against God and lies telling Eve in verses 4-5, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” From the beginning there has been a battle for the mind with Satan seeking to deceive mankind with lies and perversions of the truth so that you will not believe and follow God. That is why I had nine sermons just on the belt of truth and its importance in protecting us from Satan’s lies against God and His character in my sermon series on Eph. 6:10-20.
*We see this battle for the mind continuing throughout the books of Moses in which be has to keep fighting with the children of Israel because they kept believing lies and would not believe God. This eventually resulted in God judging that generation so that they died in the wilderness over a period of 40 years. It continued in the history of Israel with their reoccurring practice of worship of false gods. They believed the devil’s lies which eventually resulted in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. God had warned them about this many hundreds of years earlier in detail in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 27 & 28 and He sent contemporary prophets to warn them. Yet Israel and then Judah as nations choose to believe the false prophets instead.
In the Gospels we find that Jesus has constant battles with the lies of the Scribes and Pharisees. Throughout the New Testament there are warnings to seek out and know the truth while being careful of deception and false teachers. In the book of Revelation we find the battle for the minds of men continues after the millennial reign of Christ when the devil is released for a season and he deceives many and they make war against Jesus. The final end of all liars is being cast into the Lake of Fire.
*Let me reference just a few of the many verses demonstrating this war on truth and the battle for your mind.
Matthew 7:15, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s’ clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”
Matthew 24:4, 11, “See to it that no one misleads you” . . . “And many false prophets will arise & will mislead many”
Romans 12:2, “be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind . . .”
Ephesians 4:17, “This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart:”
Ephesians 5:6, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
Colossians 2:18, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind”
Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3, “let no one deceive you in any way . . .”
2 Peter 2:1, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”
1 John 3:7, “Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil . . .”
We could go on and on with such verses. I think it would be safe to say that quotes concerning the war on truth and the battle for your mind could be taken from every book of the Bible. *Historically, lies and deception were Satan’s most effective tools in leading people astray from knowing and following God. That is still true today and is a grave danger even to those professing to be Christians.
*Keep in mind that the devil only has to skew you away from the truth enough to lead you off the narrow path leading to life and onto the broad path leading to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). That is why a Christian cult is as dangerous if not more so than a blatant false religion or even occultism. Cults are often close enough to the truth to think they have it even to the point of calling Jesus Lord and boasting of the ministries they have done in Jesus’ name. Yet, like the false teachers Jesus described in Matthew 7:21-22, they will be shocked to hear Jesus say to them, “I never knew you, Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”
I grew up in gospel preaching churches, but by the time I reached my later teen years, there were many that I knew that had made professions of faith as children that were no longer walking with Christ in High School and College. It is a story I have heard over and over again since then. Their manner of life and interests which were far from God made it obvious they were not true Christians, yet it was common to find they still believed they were safe having gained their fire insurance against hell because they had been baptized or prayed the sinner’s prayer. Neither of those can save you. You can only be saved from sin and its consequence of eternal death in hell by God’s grace alone through faith alone in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Truth matters. Satan’s lies and deceptions not only cause problems in the here and now, but they also result in eternal damnation of the soul.
I hope this implants deeply into your mind the fact that you are in a spiritual war and a crucial area of the fight is the battle for your mind over what is true and what is not. *There are many ways in which the truth is attacked and we must be aware of where the attacks come from. There are both obvious attacks and the more subtle deceptions that are in many ways much more dangerous.
Since I have preached on this subject of the battle for the mind in the past, I am not going to go into the detail as I did then about both frontal assaults and flank attacks. You can find those sermons on our website (The Battle for Your Mind). However, I do want to briefly point out the dangers we face in this battle for the mind before concluding with some practical points on being pro-active to not only be able to defend yourself from these attacks, but more importantly to go on the offensive in developing the mind of Christ so that you can reach those who have succumbed to the devil’s lies and deceptions.
*Philosophical Attacks on Truth
There are many avenues by which the devil can attack you with his lies and deceptions, but underlying them are philosophical foundations. I spoke about the area of epistemology in the sermon last week on Why We Believe the Bible because your understanding about how you can know things will lead you either toward truth or away from it. I pointed out the dangers of conscience being your guide, as well as the various forms of empiricism, scientism, hedonism, rationalism and even supernatural revelation if the source of it is a false god. We believe the Bible because it demonstrates itself to be true in every area of epistemology.
*The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
*The word “philosophy” means “love of wisdom.” It is not “philosophy” itself that Paul is warning us about, but the type of philosophy he defines in the verse. Beware of the philosophy that is based on the traditions of men and not according to Christ. As Paul describes so well in 1 Corinthians 1 & 2, the wisdom of man does not understand the wisdom of God nor can it compete with it. The things of God are foolish to a man that does not have the Spirit of God within him (1 Cor. 2:14), but the foolishness of God is wiser than men (1 Cor. 1:25).
*God is not against wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to take information and apply it in life. The Bible makes it clear that God wants us to be wise, but you must have the right type of wisdom, and that begins with the fear of the Lord (Prov. 9:10). Paul wrote in Romans 16:19 that he wanted them to be wise concerning what is good and simple in what is evil. It is the type of wisdom that we must be careful about. If the wisdom is based on information that is false, then the conclusions and applications will also be false. Understand that one error, one bit of false information, one missing factor can and does lead to false conclusions and actions. One mistake leads to bombing civilians instead of the enemy in a war. One error can be the difference between sin and righteousness and between spending eternity in heaven or in hell.
*Christians must be cautious of the wisdom of man lest we be influenced incorrectly by it and fall into its deceptions, but we do not need to be fearful of it. It really should be the other way around. We have the superior weapons in spiritual warfare, but we need to know both how to defend ourselves from attack as well as go on the offensive. Paul comments on this briefly in 2 Cor. 10:3-5 saying, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 [We are] destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and [we are] taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ . . .”. Please take note that the fortresses, speculations and lofty things referred to here are raised up against the knowledge of God. These are false religions, worldly philosophies and the wisdom of men which are in opposition to or hinder a person coming to a knowledge of God. The truth destroys these things and brings people to obedience to Christ.
*Philosophical Frontal Attacks
In our confrontations with philosophy and the wisdom of man some things are very obvious while others are very subtle. Among the more obvious philosophical frontal attacks on truth are false religions, well known cults, false science, and secular / humanistic ideologies.
*For example, if someone comes to you and starts speaking about Krishna, Buddha, Allah, or any other god, you will almost automatically be ready for the conflict because you know their belief system is not Biblical. The same would be true if someone identified themselves as a Jehovah Witness or a Mormon because those cults have been so well exposed as being based on the writings of men that are held by the cult as superior to the Bible itself. If someone identified themselves as a secular humanist, an atheist or as non-religious, you would also be quickly aware that you were talking with someone that has either little knowledge of the Bible or has rejected it.
*Another obvious attack comes from scientism and in particular the evolutionist, though many professing Christians are blind to it. Evolution is based on a philosophical system and not on true science. This is easily seen in the fact that evolution cannot even qualify as a theory but only as a hypothesis since it is neither observable or testable by the scientific method, yet I have found that most who identify themselves as evolutionists defend it with religious fervor as being a fact. That is not true science.
All these and many more philosophies are quickly obvious to us, and we prepare ourselves accordingly to contend with them. More dangerous are the subtle elements of worldly philosophies that disguise themselves and pretend to be in keeping with Christianity.
*Philosophical Flank Attacks
What are some of the subtle philosophies that attack us from the flank? Certainly the cults would fit this description because they usually reference the Bible in their teaching and they use a lot of Biblical terms even though they mean something else by them. There are also those within mainstream Christianity that teach false doctrine. *Paul warns about them in both 1 Timothy 4:1-5 and 2 Timothy 4:1-4 as well as Colossians 2:16-19. There are preachers who tickle the ears of people telling them what they want to hear in the pursuit of their own desires. *The prosperity preachers are an example of these. There are gnostics who claim to have hidden knowledge and those that espouse religious myths to sound spiritually superior. The Hebrew Roots movement is an example of this. There are those that advocate various forms of asceticism as the means to holiness. There are a lot of pietistic groups that fit this description with their many rules. What all of them have in common is direct contradiction of or twisting of the Scriptures. *That is why you must be careful to be like the more noble minded Bereans of Acts 17:11 and check out what people say in comparison to the Bible itself. Every Christian needs to obey the command in 2 Timothy 2:15-17 and 15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid godless and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, 17 and their word will spread like gangrene.”
*Theological liberalism has its foundation in the philosophy that Christianity is a highly evolved religion. They deny the Bible is God-breathed, but instead think it is a book that evolved as oral histories where were edited over and over and then finally written down after which they were further refined by other editors over the centuries.
*Modern psychology was founded by enemies of Christianity. Some examples are: Sigmund Freud was a Jewish atheist; Carl Jung centered his theory in an exoteric religious tradition; Wilhelm Reich suffered from messianic delusions; Erich Fromm was strongly inclined to Buddhist thought; Abraham Maslow was the pioneer of humanistic psychology. *Evolutionary philosophy is also embedded in psychology because it views man as an evolved animal and not as a creature made by God in His image. This is a reason drugs have become so central in controlling human behavior because man is seen as just an animal that has to have his chemical interactions balanced.
*Tragically, much of Christianity has adopted psychology as vital to its approach to counseling in denial that the Bible through the ministry of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to enable us to live the Christian life as clearly stated 2 Peter 1:2-4, 2 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” Verses 5-8 make it clear that you have to put forth the effort to obey, grow and mature. “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in [your] moral excellence, knowledge; 6 and in [your] knowledge, self-control, and in [your] self-control, perseverance, and in [your] perseverance, godliness; 7 and in [your] godliness, brotherly kindness, and in [your] brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these [qualities] are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
*Psalm 1 states “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.” Don’t be surprised that those who do end up standing in the way of sinners and sitting in the seat of scoffers. *The delight of the blessed man is the law of Yahweh on which he meditates day and night. While human behavior studies may give helpful general insights and there may be times a particular pharmaceutical could be helpful in getting a patient to regain control, psychology and drugs are not the means of godliness. That requires knowing, trusting, and walking with God on a daily basis.
There are many other areas in which the devil’s deceptions turn people away from God and hinder Christians in their walk with Him. *The self-esteem movement errs in what gives value to life by promoting selfishness and pride, both of which are ungodly. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, and for Christians, God is first, others are second, and self is third. *The pursuit of happiness errs in the purpose of life and has affected many Christians and even perverted gospel presentations into being man centered. Yes, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” It is a plan of redemption, forgiveness, breaking the bondage of sin, adoption into God’s family, and eternity with Christ. All of it was initiated by God and paid for by Christ’s death on the cross. It is also a plan that includes being hated and persecuted by the world because we love Christ. It is a plan to make you holy, not happy. For a Christian, happiness is a by-product of living a holy life.
*Redefining sin is another deceptive flank attack that errs by seeking to remove personal responsibility for sin by labeling it as a disease, an addiction or claiming it is the result of a childhood experience or something forced upon you. Examples include habitual drunkenness being labeled the disease of Alcoholism. *Many churches allow and use Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) and its model in which any higher power will do and the alcoholic remains an alcoholic for life. It is contrary to 1 Cor. 6:9-11 in which the drunkard is washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God becoming a new creation in Him. Other sinful practices such as adultery, fornication and pornography are labeled as addictions to be treated instead of immoralities to repent. William Kilpatrick wisely observed, “Sin is often seen as an exciting and pleasurable possibility; sickness is not. Men do not pursue arthritis the way they pursue adultery.”
*The Dangers of Amusements
In the battle for the mind what will win the battle will depend a lot on what you let your mind dwell on. To muse is to think deeply about it. The word “amuse” is the negation of musing, and so it means to not think deeply. *Webster defines “amuse” as “to entertain or occupy in a light, playful, or pleasant manner.” It is also defined as “to divert the attention of so as to deceive.” The latter is extremely dangerous because you do not even realize it is happening and it is often done by means of former. *You get occupied in something that is entertaining, playful and pleasant and you fail to recognize the content of what is being communicated and taught along with the entertainment. Getting people to laugh at what is unacceptable is one of the ways to shift them into accepting it.
*We live in an entertainment saturated society. There is not only all those things that are presented as entertainment – music, shows, art, video, games, hobbies, etc., but even serious subjects are presented in an entertaining manner. Educational content is presented in the form of “info-tainment.” News is presented in fast paced clips and short articles to keep you engaged, and you can find news programs skewed to your interests and political bent. Politics has been reduced to clips and sound bites of who can make a pithy statement or give a cutting remark or great comeback. Political debates are timed to be in short sequences. Can you even imagine a political debate lasting three hours or more and only covering a few subjects related to the question of the debate? That was common at one time. The Lincoln – Douglas debate of Oct. 16, 1854 in Peoria, Ill lasted seven hours not including the dinner break. Serious analysis of issues has become hard to come by in any media.
*Church worship services have also been affected by this mindset which is why so many churches now look like entertainment venues with a stage, variable lighting and even theater seating. Music becomes a presentation to please the audience instead of leading the congregation in songs of reverent praise and worship of God. Sermons are kept short, full of stories, and designed to make the congregant feel good when they leave. The ability of the preacher to speak well becomes more important than the ability of the pastor to explain the text of Scripture and apply it to the people he is shepherding.
I will speak more about the problems of entertainment in the next sermon since it has become such a problem in people being able to be wise in their discernment and therefore foolish in their decisions and heading in the wrong direction.
*Winning the Battle
I want to close by pointing to some very practical means by which you can win the battle for your mind by laying down a few strong principles about what you should allow your mind to dwell on.
*1) Romans 16:19, ” . . . but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.” Become an expert in what is good, but be innocent, simple, harmless in what is wicked. The word used here is ajkevraioV / akeraios which has a root meaning “to be unravaged, unharmed.” It points back to the innocence of Adam and Eve before they ate of the forbidden fruit and were untainted, even ignorant of sin. You don’t have to put your head in the trash can to know it stinks. You don’t have to participate in evil to know that it is sinful. Heed the warnings and avoid sin and depictions of it as much as you possibly can. Be careful what you allow yourself to see, to hear, to do, to think about.
*2) Romans 12:2 – “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Don’t fall victim to peer pressure or the fear of missing out to join in the pursuit of what is worldly. Instead, be transformed. The word here is metamorfovw / metamorpho which refers to radical change in essential form and nature. Christians are new creatures in Christ who are transferred to His kingdom, so don’t go back to living in the domain of darkness under your previous master. (See: Keys to Godliness, Part 2 and Having a Renewed Mind)
*This transformation takes place by the renewing of your mind which occurs as it is “cleansed by the washing of water with the word” (Eph. 5:26). That points back to Psalm 119:9–11, 9 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. 10 With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. 11 Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.” Verse 105, “Thy word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”
*3) Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” This is in the command voice, so it is not optional for Christians. We are to live with eternity in view, and that hope of Christ’s return is motivation to live a pure and holy life in the present (1 John 3:2-3).
*4) James 4:13-18 which I will summarize as pursue the wisdom from above which is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy and results in righteousness and peace. Do not follow worldly wisdom which is earthly, natural, demonic and leads to jealousy, selfish ambition, arrogance and lying against the truth.
*5) Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” Consider this, if you applied this standard to everything you read, watched or listened to, what would change in what you are allowing to fill your mind? What do you think would change in your attitude and how you live your life? Then the time to do it is now! (See: Thinking Rightly, Part 1 and Thinking Rightly, Part 2)
*Conclusions
We are in a spiritual war and the opening attack is against truth in a battle for your mind because that will determine what you think and therefore also your attitudes and behavior. *The first action of preparation for battle is to gird yourself with the belt of truth. Learn to discern truth from error by applying these standards to what you allow into your mind. If you do, you will be able to have victory over Satan’s lies and deceptions. If you do not, you will be putty in his hands.
Sermon Notes – 9/13/2026
The Battle for the Mind – Selected Scriptures
Introduction
Many philosophies claim to be or lead to the truth, but they all fall short due to man’s __________sinful mind
Why we believe the Bible: *God-breathed, *Creation, *Historical accuracy, *Authors, *fulfilled __________,
Spiritual War – Ephesians 6:10-20
The spiritual war is __________than any military conflict with greater consequences
Ephesians 6:10-13. The ___________of the spiritual war
Ephesians 6:14-17. Put on your spiritual ___________
Ephesians 6:18-20. __________is critical in spiritual conflict
The devil will attack, but Christians need _________if they submit to God, have their armor on and resist him
A major element in spiritual war is the battle for your ________- the first piece of armor is the belt of ______
From the beginning Satan has used slander, lies & deception to _____God to keep people from following Him
This battle for the mind can be seen ____________the Bible
Some of the many verses demonstrating the war on __________ and the battle for your mind:
Matt. 7:15; 24:4,11; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:17; 5:6; Col. 2:18; 3:2, 2 Thess. 2:3; 2 Pet. 2:1; 1 John 3:7
Lies & deception are Satan’s most effective ______in leading people astray from knowing and following God
The devil only has to _______ you away from the truth to have victory in this battle
The truth is attacked in many ways, both obvious and more _________deceptions which are more dangerous
Philosophical Attacks on Truth
Colossians 2:8 – philosophies based on the ___________ of men and not according to Christ
Wisdom is the ability to take information & apply it in life, but it must be based on what is right & _______
The wisdom of man is ____________, but it falls before the truth – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Philosophical Frontal Attacks
Obvious attacks on truth include: _____religions, Known cults, False science, Secular / humanistic ideologies
Your ____________will be up if you are talking to someone from a false religion, a known cult or an atheist
Scientism should be obvious, but many Christians are _________to it due to receiving compromised teaching
Philosophical Flank Attacks
Unknown cults & false ______________in mainstream Christianity are especially dangerous
1 Tim. 4:1-5, 2 Tim. 4:1-4, Col. 2:16-19. Examples: ____________Gospel; Hebrew Roots Movement
Be like the more noble minded Bereans in Acts 17:11; Be a diligent ______of the Scriptures – 2 Tim. 2:15-17
Theological Liberalism – its roots are in ______________philosophy
Modern Psychology – founded by ________of Christianity – and also embedded with evolutionary philosophy
Much of Christianity has adopted psychology as vital to counseling in _________of 2 Peter 1:2-8
Psalm 1 – The blessed man ________ _______ __________ in the counsel of the wicked
The ____________of the blessed man is the law of Yahweh – needed to know, trust and walk with God
The self-esteem movement errs by promoting selfishness and _________, both of which are ungodly
The pursuit of happiness errs in the purpose of life and leads to a perverted gospel that is _________centered
_______________sin by labeling it as a disease, an addition or claiming it is something that is not your fault
The A.A. model is allowed & used in many churches ____________to Biblical theism and 1 Cor. 6:9-11
The Dangers of Amusements
Amuse = “to entertain in a light, playful, or pleasant manner.” “To divert the attention of so as to _________”
The entertainment aspect ____________the attention from what is actually being communicated / taught
Our society is entertainment saturated being applied to even ___________subjects, education, news & politics
Many churches have shifted to an _________________style of worship that is man centered
Winning the Battle
1) Romans 16:19 – Become an expert in what is good, but be innocent, ________, harmless in what is wicked
2) Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your _________
The mind is renewed by the _________________(Eph. 5:26) to walk in purity instead of sin (Psalm 119:9-11)
3) Colossians 3:2 – Set your ___________ on the things above, not on the things that are on earth
4) James 4:13-18 – pursue the wisdom from __________ and not worldly wisdom
5) Phil, 4:8 – Let your _________on what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtue, praiseworthy
Conclusion
We are in a spiritual war & the opening attack is against truth in a battle for your ___________
The first action of preparation for battle is to gird yourself with the belt of _________
Learn to ___________truth from error by applying these standards to what you allow into your mind
KIDS KORNER
Parents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents at lunch. Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Count how many times the words “labor” & “leisure”are said. 2) Count how many times the term “mind” is used in the sermon. Talk with your parents about what things influence our thinking?
THINK ABOUT IT!
Questions to consider in discussing the sermon with others. How aware are you of spiritual warfare? Do you make sure your spiritual armor is on everyday (Eph. 6)? What are Satan’s most effective weapons in spiritual warfare? List some Biblical examples of the battle over truth and for the mind. What is Paul’s warning against philosophy in Colossians 2:8? What is the difference between godly wisdom and worldly wisdom? How do Christians battle worldly wisdom / philosophies? Name some of the more obvious attacks on truth? Why are so many Christians blind to evolution’s an attack on truth? What is Paul’s warning in 1 Tim. 4:1-5; 2 Tim. 4:1-4 & Col. 2:16-19. Give current examples of groups that fit these descriptions. What is the foundation of theological liberalism? What is the foundation of modern psychology? How does psychology deny 2 Peter 1:2-8? Why then do churches rely on psychology in counseling? According to Psalm 1, what conditions enable a man to be blessed? What is the problem with self-esteem? With the pursuit of happiness? What are some ways sin is redefined in order to remove man’s responsibility? What is amusement & why can it be dangerous? How can you win the battle for your mind? (Rom.12:2; 16:9; Psalm 119:9-11, 105; Col. 3:2; James 4:13-19; Phil. 4:8)
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