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Since 2000 Every Man Ministries has been activating men worldwide to live out their truest identity in Christ through its discipleship resources, live events, and steaming platform.
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The Battle for Identity 0:00 Hey, men. Kenny Luck here, founder of Everyman Ministries. I'm so glad you're here from wherever you are, on your way to work, in the backyard, around a fire pit, with your men's group, in a church hall. We're just so0:10 glad as a part of Everyman team that you've chosen to open up God's word and grow spiritually. Now a couple coaching tips. Just make sure you have your bible handy. It's always a great reference point. Make sure you have0:21 the downloaded notes. Those help you not only follow along, but then you can teach it and give it away. Now, fun fact, you know, this live stream is only 1 time a week. But we0:33 have a community of 70000 plus men who receive fresh insight and encouragement from God's word in the Everyman daily devotional. You wanna join that community and get just a fresh0:44 encouragement on a daily basis versus just the once a week meeting, go ahead and go to the bottom of the home page. There's a little space there. You put in your email and just sign up. Lastly, before we go to the0:56 study, if you have been ministered to or blessed by the every man in life for you, let me encourage you to bless another man. Somewhere in the world, on a military base, maybe it's a group of friends, maybe it's a1:07 church, give financially.1:19 There's a little donate there. It just helps us to get what you're gonna watch out into the spaces and places where men are so they can become like Jesus.1:31 Now, let's join today's study. If you have a Bible, I want you to hold a spot in Genesis chapter 3 and second Corinthians 10. We're in part 4 of a series1:43 called Shadow Self. And to get you thinking in the right direction today, I wanna ask you kind of a personal question. Have you ever had your identity stolen or1:56 ever had your computer hacked or ever had a malware or a ransomware infect your hard drive? Have you ever been impersonated? Now, the2:07 reason I asked that question is that in today's world, we read about identity theft. We read about data breaches. We read about malware attacks.2:20 We see these cyber attacks on a corporate level, on personal levels, and on global systems level shutting down entire companies, entire2:32 networks, and the individual lives of people who get hacked. Right now, I think the number is between 15 and 20000000000 dollars2:44 is stolen from corporations and individuals on an annual basis because hackers steal the identities and data of corporations and individuals.2:56 And I'm 1 of those numbers. Recently, I received an email and the email was from our our financial person at Everyman Ministries and she said, why3:08 didn't you tell me about this invoice? And it was for 16000 dollars. Now, that's a lot of money to pay a consultant and apparently,3:21 the email was from me. Now when I looked at the email, I saw that something was off. There seemed to be a few red3:33 flags, like the tone of the email was off. It was very impersonal, very distant, very demanding. It was using power language3:45 like this needs to be paid right away. And so I pressed the pause button on the payment of that and I called my good friend who is a cybersecurity expert3:57 and he came in, gave him access to my computer and it was the wildest thing. But the hacker was in my RSS feed and inside my4:09 computer at the time that my cybersecurity friend was examining my system. Now, I don't understand all of it, but he asked me, do you4:21 want to watch this person try to hack in and get more information? And so he he put some windows up and all of a sudden there was this page and then there was there's this there's4:32 this code that was being written and then it'd be erased and there's this code that was being written and then it would be erased and then more code. And my friend said, that is the hacker trying to get4:44 your personal identifiable information. I said, what's that? He says, in our industry, we call it PII, personal identifiable information. It is the4:56 prized information when it comes to stealing an identity. So like a password or your social security number. And it was just unbelievable.5:08 And he said, I've also traced this to a cafe in London, 5400 miles away. And I just5:20 thought, wow. Here's someone 5400 miles away using fear to intimidate my controller5:32 for our ministry to pay an invoice for 16000 dollars. The good news is is that my controller, the person who5:44 distributes checks and pays for things here at Everyman Ministry, she reached out to me and she didn't pay it even though, the language was very5:56 demanding. But I just thought to myself, wow, she could have been made afraid by this power language. She she could have active impulse impulsively. But what I6:07 love about our our gal, Colleen, is that she's like, nope. Instead, she emails me. She's like,6:14 why didn't you talk to6:15 me about this? So why do I share that story? Because in in the spiritual supernatural realm, your identity in Christ6:27 can be stolen. And there is a hacker, capital h, whose name is Satan, and he uses fear in moments,6:39 and they're timed, and they seem to come. The fear is planted and seems to come right at the right time that causes you to act on fear6:51 versus act out of your identity in Christ. To act out of God's assurance of his love. To act not act in God's acceptance. To to not remember that you are a7:03 son of the king. The fear mutes that, it hijacks your mind, you believe the fear, and now, guess who's in control?7:16 Your shadow self. And so in part 3 of shadow self, we talked about, the Apostle Paul. Today, we're gonna talk about Peter because we're7:28 gonna look at how this very thing that I'm describing. Right? Fear, fear hijacking the mind, believing the fear, and then behaving out of the fear happened7:40 to Peter, right? Then we're gonna get God's mind on your mind. Right? And that's what we do as God's men on any issue, you know, whatever the7:52 issue is, we wanna get God's mind. But this is probably in terms of you winning, you overcoming your shadow self, you transforming, you need to get God's mind8:04 on your mind. As God's men, we need to get our head straight, you know, on on all the issues and get God's perspective on that. Then what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about that8:16 deceptive evil hacker who traffics in fear, and then we're gonna sort of assess ourselves. Okay. Are there any red flags in my own life8:28 where I'm being manipulated by fearful suggestions or thoughts, where then the shadow self is given control? And then we're gonna go8:40 practically to how do you lock down your mind. Sort of like how do you double authenticate, that's what they say in cybersecurity circles,8:52 so that that your mind doesn't get hacked by the trafficker and the hacker of fear. Alright? So let's look first at Peter, and I need to9:04 provide a little bit of context. In Luke 22, Jesus is having a conversation with the the disciples and and right after he9:16 tells Simon, you know, you're gonna be Peter and on this rock I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, Right? He follows that9:27 up with this, Luke 22 31 to 34. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift9:39 you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, once you have turned again,9:51 strengthen your brothers. But he, Peter, said to him, 'Lord, with you I am ready to both go to prison and to death.' And he said, 'I say to you,10:03 Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied 3 times that you know me. And of course, we know10:15 what happened next. That in the context of Jesus's arrest and trial, Peter is following at a close distance,10:26 and Jesus's prophetic prediction about Peter's denial of his association with Jesus comes true.10:39 And what did Peter learn? Well, he certainly learned something about himself, that his connection and association with Jesus was not as10:50 strong as he thought it might be under pressure. He also learned that there's a real enemy that stages real attacks and he can hack into11:02 even a person who's walked with Jesus for 3 years, and plant fear, and steal his personal identity11:14 to the point where Peter says, I'm not with him. Like, emphatically, like, with energy,11:26 kinetically. I'm not with him. Can you imagine? I mean, this is the same guy who was with Jesus, saw Jesus take command over nature, saw Jesus drive11:37 demons out, saw Jesus feed the 5000 with a few loaves and fish, saw Jesus heal Jairus' daughter, saw Jesus raise her from the11:49 dead, saw what went on with life. I mean, no 1 had been more convinced and confident that Peter. So his his language12:01 there, you'd think, oh, yeah. I you know, if I was Peter, I probably coulda coulda said that too. But then Jesus gives Satan permission to test12:14 Peter, to test his identity, to test his will. The image of sifting is violent. In the first century, Peter knew what that word meant.12:26 You had wheat thrown into a sifter, 2 men holding the sifter, and what they did was they they shook it violently. And and then the the12:38 chaff would fall through and then the colonels would remain in the bay of the sifter. Okay? So Jesus is telling Peter, okay, you're gonna get12:50 assaulted. It's going to be a violent assault and these circumstances are going to unsettle you and then fear is going to be planted in you13:02 and then you're going to enter a circumstance where because you believe that fear, you're gonna get tested and you're gonna deny me 3 times. And so Jesus sees the beginning and the end. He knows13:14 what's gonna happen, but Peter has no idea and it overwhelms him. It's like a mental ambush and a circumstantial substantial ambush or just like, wait, what just what just happened? Did I just did I just do that? You13:25 ever feel like that? So I think it's important to see that we are in good company when it comes to the shadow self, that we are vulnerable, that we have13:37 1, that the devil knows that we have a shadow self that we wanna hide and we're afraid people are gonna see, that we saw in David and the apostle Paul and now in13:49 Peter that that that we all have a shadow self, we have this internal, this inner man, and there's a war for control of that inner man. And14:01 sometimes we get tested and fail, other times we get tested and win. The goal here is to not let the shadow self be manipulated and controlled by fear, but to remember14:14 who we are and how loved we are and have that love conquer all fear. Okay? So what we're gonna talk about for the balance of our time is we're just gonna get God's mind on our mind. We're14:25 gonna see the hacker very clearly. You got to understand the enemy and how he is constantly trying to hack into your mind. And then we're gonna look at14:37 ourselves and go, okay, have we been hacked? Some of us, unknowingly. Alright? And then we're gonna we're gonna lock it down. Alright? So let's just kind of look at scripture and let's get14:49 God's mind on our mind. Proverbs 4 23 says, Be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life.15:00 Woah. Okay. There's an admonition. Okay. Your thoughts run your life, and that that's proven by neuroscience. You always move toward what you think about.15:12 So if you're thinking about something, if you're believing something, that is a short bridge to behavior. So I can always track my behaviors with a15:24 preceding belief. That's why the scripture says, Be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life. You're going to you're going to behave out of the thoughts you believe. Okay?15:36 Let's go to a very common passage. You'll know it most likely. Matthew 22 37 says, and Jesus answered, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul15:49 and all your mind. I want to focus on that part. Love the Lord your God with all your mind. Okay? What does that signal? It means that16:00 we can choose thoughts that don't show love for God. It shows us that all thoughts are not equal. You know? It shows us that we are16:12 called and commanded by Jesus himself with the red letters that, you know, your thought life can can show love for God by what you choose to let in to your16:24 mind, and it can show that you're not loving God by what you choose to let in to your mind. Now we talked16:36 about how there's actual hackers in the computer world and how they target corporations and individuals in global networks, right? Because they want to steal personally16:48 identifiable information. Okay? But in the spiritual realm, the hacker is the devil and he is on the other side of this battlefield. You see God says, love me with your16:59 mind. Okay? The thoughts that you let in, the thoughts that you think, and be careful what you think. In other words, have a filter for assessing what thoughts come into your17:11 head. Alright? And then on the other side of the battle is the hacker or in Genesis chapter 3, the serpent. Listen to this hack, right, with17:23 the first people, Adam and Eve. The serpent, the Bible says, was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. 1 day he asked the woman, did God really17:35 say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? You won't die. The serpent replied to the woman, God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat17:47 it. You will be like God, knowing both good and evil. So this is the original fear of missing out17:59 or FOMO attack. Right? The strategy is simple. The strategy is effective. Plant a fearful thought about missing18:10 out on something. Do you ever say that? Like in my family, we don't say FOMO, fear of missing out, we say ROMO, reality of missing out. But I want you to see18:22 that in this spiritual battle, you have created beings being attacked and it's just a suggestion that18:34 creates a lot of fear and the response to that suggestion here, we all know, was that sin and death came into humanity18:46 through this planting of the fear, the believing of the fear, the taking over of the inner person, and then and18:58 then sin and death come in. Strategy hasn't changed. That context was the garden. You have your context and your issues,19:10 and the shrewdest person, the hacker, the liar, the devil himself who hates God and who hates you, his loved created19:22 being, and he's gonna attack you just like he attacked the original couple in the garden using your personal context, your19:33 personal concerns, your personal situation to see if he can plant some fear in the moment and get you to act. So what does he know?19:45 Okay? What does the hacker know? Well, here's what he knows. Few things. Write these down. We'll just check through these. The hacker knows thinking determines living. Thinking determines living. Remember that19:57 verse that we read? Be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life. Proverbs 4 23. Second, the hacker will attack your20:08 thinking to compromise trusting. Okay. You look at that situation in the garden in that context. Right? And so he just wants to he just wants20:20 to change Eve's thinking about what God had said. And it's not it's not dramatic, but it it is reassuring when20:32 he says, oh, God knows that just he just knows that your eyes will be open and as soon as you eat it, you'll be like, God, knowing both good and evil. And so very subtly, the message20:44 is, Oh, God's holding out on me. God doesn't want me to experience this wonderful thing of of knowing and the the difference between good and20:55 evil. And so what that does is it erodes trust in God. Fear always erodes trust in a relationship. Alright?21:07 If you have a fear like that. And so you see the hacker strategy. Third, the hacker's goal is to compromise trusting and to21:19 foster fearing. So there's the attack, there's the plant, and it's okay if I could just get her to believe this lie that God's21:31 jipping her, that God's holding out on her, that's gonna compromise her trust and her trust in God is gonna go down and her fear is going to rise and fear always destroys21:44 and separates in relationship. Lastly, the hacker wins when fear fuels replacing God. Okay. Well who takes God's21:55 place? The shadow self, the selfish person, the impulsive person, the person who wants what they want when they want it, right? So the shadow self takes control,22:07 starts calling the shots when? After the fear is suggested and the lie is believed. Alright? So here's what I want us to22:19 see just in our setup, for this session. Here's a fact that I want you to write down. Inner fear is universal, but inner corruption22:32 is optional. Inner fear is universal. We all have fears. We all have worries. That's why the Bible addresses our fears and worries. You know, the most repeated phrase in the Bible is do not be afraid. So22:44 interfere is pretty much universal. But inner corruption of the mind, that is optional because we have weapons. Now22:55 365 times the Bible says, don't fear. Okay? And the devil knows that we live on a broken planet with broken people, with human23:07 beings who have suffered and who are afraid. Okay? Well, that's why God goes to so much effort. Right? To let us know, that,23:19 you know, corruption, even in the midst of a broken world and planet where fear rules and does terrible things inside of people, we can conquer that fear and we don't have to be23:31 corrupted. Why? Because we have weapons. Second Corinthians 10 4, and 5. We have weapons that we could fight with with the mind. So here's what it says. The weapons we fight23:43 with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have power to demolish strongholds, to demolish arguments, and every pretension that sets itself up against the23:54 knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought, circle that, to make it obedient to Christ. I want you to see just a couple of things there. A,24:06 that we're in a spiritual battle. Alright? That and that God has provided an arsenal of weapons specifically designed to demolish strongholds. Now, I24:18 have to unpack that word. Okay? A stronghold is a believed way of thinking that gets locked in to the human mind.24:30 And when a stronghold, a way of thinking, a pattern of thinking, a way of seeing and perceiving something becomes locked in, alright, you're gonna behave24:43 out of that belief. So that's why it's strong. Okay? We behave in response to the things that we really believe. But these weapons that God provides,24:56 they demolish those strongholds. Okay? So if the weapon of the enemy is fear and lies and we believe out of fear in those25:08 lies, okay, on a repeated basis, we hash it over in our mind and then we get more fearful, we hash it over, we get more fearful, that becomes a stronghold,25:20 then we behave out of that. Okay? The Bible is telling us that we don't have to live like that, that we can actually demolish arguments, which is25:31 just a pattern of thinking that the fear creates and things that Look look at the context that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. So there's relationship and the knowledge25:43 of God and the experience of God because we have the knowledge of God and then there's this war for our brain. Okay, that's getting assaulted, right? And the goal is to25:55 is to have us not know God and not have us experience God. So major battle, well, how do we win? It gives us the answer. We take captive every thought to make it obedient26:07 to Christ. So the best picture I can give you is that of going through customs in a foreign country. We live in the United States. If you're not from the United States, you land in the United States, you go through26:19 customs. If I leave, I go to Europe or Mexico or Canada, I go through customs. And everybody who goes through customs gets in a line and they get in front of a person and that person26:31 is handed documents and then what happens? You get inspected. Questions are asked. How long are you gonna be in our country, mister Luck? Where are you staying in while you're26:43 here? What are you gonna be doing? Are you traveling with anybody? So then that person who is in the box looking at my documents gets to decide.26:56 In or out? And there's that moment where we're just like, okay, I hope everything works, right? That's a picture of 2 Corinthians27:08 ten:five. We take captive every thought to make it obedient and correct. You gotta you gotta manage your mind like a customs booth. Not all thoughts are equal. Okay. We've concluded that.27:20 We gotta be careful what we think, which means that not all thoughts are equal. Thoughts present themselves to your mind initially. They show up at the box of your27:32 mind where you get to make the decision and then you have to decide, am I am I going to inspect it? Does it help me love God with my mind? Or not?27:44 If it doesn't help me love God with my mind, it gets kicked out. It does not get entertained. It doesn't get dwelled on. I don't let it in. It gets rejected. Okay?27:55 Rejected. No admission. Right? So you have weapons. The assumption of this passage is that we regularly use them. We demolish strongholds. Sort of28:07 like that's what we do because we know we're in a spiritual battle. It's truth versus lies, and we use truth to demolish the lies. Now, now what we need to look at is,28:18 okay, am I believing some things? Am I am I getting hacked by the hacker who's maybe planting some fears? And28:30 so, you know, just like the red flags that accompany that email that I shared at the top of the session, like there were some red flags, the tone, the language, the amount. It just the28:42 relational dynamics in the email were off, off, off, off. Just like there are red flags, you know, in that communication. When it comes to28:54 your shadow self, your inner man, and God's presence there, and God's love, that can be corrupted by a lie that we believe. And when29:06 we believe that lie, and it might even be subtle and subconscious, but when we believe that eye, we start acting out of character. We start29:17 acting out of fear and that inner corruption produces outward signs just like the inner corruption of my computer29:29 by a hacker started to produce outward signs that something was going on. So that's what we're gonna talk about next. We're gonna talk about some29:41 spiritual red flags that that your inner security system in God's love, key key phrase there, in God's love has beenShow more In this video 0:00 The Battle for Identity29:43 Recognizing and Overcoming Spiritual Red Flags
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