Apr. 12, 2026

Today, we are starting a new series called Mind Games – Winning the Battle Within.  We are really looking forward to this conversation because life is so hard, and we face so much on the outside that I’m not sure we realize the real battle is being fought on the inside.  Our lives can feel like a whirlwind; they are so busy and intense that it's hard to pick up on the thoughts and inner conversations we have that impact so much of our lives. We need to understand that our minds and what we think matter more than we think!  Our thoughts shape how we see ourselves, how we see other people, how we respond to life, how we see and relate to God, and, really, how we live our lives.  Our thoughts are so powerful.  What you consistently think will become what you believe, and what you believe will drive how you live and experience life. And over the next several weeks, we’re going to talk about the mind games we face every day.  We don’t often realize it, but our lives are opposed; there is a battle happening, and so much of it is taking place in our minds. We may not realize this, but we do feel it every day. It is that inner voice telling you you’re not enough. It is that guilt that won’t go away. It is that pressure to please people, that self-doubt that holds you back, that pride that sneaks into our lives, that quiet belief that you’re unlovable, or inadequate, or a failure. We need to understand that those are not just random thoughts; they are intentional, strategic assaults on our lives.  The reality of our lives is that we do have an enemy, and we are opposed.  Our enemy doesn’t just attack our practical circumstances; he attacks our identity by messing with our minds through lies, deception, and twisting how we see life.  Your mind is a major target, because if he can shape what you think, he knows he can influence your life.  These are ‘The Mind Games’ the enemy plays, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to expose five of the enemy’s favorite mind games.

These are five of the most common mind games we face: guilt, people-pleasing, self-doubt, entitlement, and unlovable thinking.

We’re going to expose them and learn what happens when those lies are replaced with the truth. Because real-life change doesn’t start with changing our behaviors, it starts with changing the way we think, and that idea isn’t something we thought up or that neuroscientists recently discovered; it comes right from God’s Word.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind… NIV

The mind is a powerful thing, impacting our lives and relationships.  It shapes how we see life, making it a focal point of the spiritual war.  And that is where we need to start this Mind Games conversation.  We need to recognize that we are in a battle. The Christian life isn’t a playground; it’s a battlefield.  And Scripture tells us that this battle is very different from how we humans visualize war.

2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. NIV 

Spiritual Warfare is a massive topic, and we could go so many directions with this, but we want to keep this very practical.  

So here are a few things to remember anytime you're talking about this spiritual war.  Have you ever heard the statement, "You are your own worst enemy?"  I think we all have, but we need to understand, it isn't true.  You aren't your own worst enemy, but you do have an enemy, and it isn't you.  This is the first step, understanding that we do have an enemy and that we are opposed. Our enemy has done a tremendous job of convincing the world that he doesn’t exist, which is brilliant because it’s hard to engage and prepare for a fight that we don’t know we are in.  So often, we accept lies and thoughts because we hear them in our minds and they just sound like us, but they aren't us; they are our enemy.  He is that good, and that deceptive.  You must understand that you aren't your own worst enemy; your enemy is your worst enemy.  You are opposed. 

Another important fact about this war you are in is that you are not fighting for victory but from the stance of victory.  Your job is to stand firm; the victory has already been won.  So, a huge part of winning the battle within is understanding that Jesus already won it for you, and we simply need to stand firm in Him.  This is why your enemy doesn’t fight fairly; he can’t because he has already been defeated.  That was what we just celebrated at Easter.  Jesus won, and because he has been defeated, he resorts to sneaky tactics, assaulting our minds and trying to trick us into giving him ground in our lives, because the only way our defeated opponent can take any ground from you is if you give it to him!  Our job, and you will see it as we dive into our study today, is to stand firm, not win; Jesus already handled that for us.  Today, we will focus on Paul explaining how to stand firm and navigate the spiritual battle in our daily lives.  He does this by telling us to put on the full armor of God.

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. NIV 

We are at war, and this battle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil. In the Message version, we can really feel the intensity of this…

Ephesians 6:12 This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. MSG

But nothing about our lives really feels all that urgent, does it?  It doesn’t feel like we are in a life-or-death fight to the finish against the devil; it’s just life, and for the most part, we can walk through life without recognizing the mind games the enemy is playing.  We may not see it, but we are under attack, and the war rages on.  And today, I want to get very practical with you. 

Remember the statement I made at the start of this talk? I said that your mind and what you think matter more than you think, that your thoughts are literally shaping your life experience, your entire reality.  Well, let’s build on that.  Have you ever had a thought that you just couldn’t shake?  You say to yourself.  “I’m not enough.”  “I’ll never change.”  “What’s the point?”  “God is probably as disappointed with me as everyone else seems to be.”  “I can’t do anything right.” Now, no one said that to you, but it feels very real because you believe it.  That’s why our thoughts are a major focus of the spiritual war.

Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…” NKJV

Your thoughts are a big deal; they literally shape your life.  Which makes them a strategic target in this war, because, as Solomon points out, as we think, so are we.  Let me show you an example or two of how our thinking can affect our life experiences.  We just had the Winter Olympics.  During that time, I read a study on the emotional experiences of Olympic medal winners that found bronze medalists are significantly happier than silver medalists.  That may seem strange because the silver medalist is standing higher on the podium and performed better than the bronze medalist, so why would someone in third be happier than someone in second?   Well, it comes down to their thinking.  The bronze medalists are focused on the fact that they won a medal, while the silver medalists are focused on the fact that they didn’t win the gold.  What they think determines their experience, as Solomon just said; as we think, so are we.  It’s funny, years of scientific studies are done to figure things like this out about how powerful our thinking is, but we could have saved these neuroscientists and psychologists a lot of time by having them read Scripture, which all their studies keep proving to be true!

Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. NIV

But hey, odds are you and I won’t compete in the Olympics, so let’s get a little more relatable and set up an imaginary real-life scenario.  Let’s say two people lose their jobs on the same day.  We will call them Fred and Frank.  

Fred keeps telling himself this. “I’m a failure. This always happens to me. I’m never going to recover from this.”  He feels defeated and stressed as he accepts those thoughts in his life, and he stops applying for other work, begins withdrawing from others, isn’t networking or thinking he can find work, and over time, the situation does get worse, and not just financially.  His thoughts shaped his actions, and those actions led to the outcome his thoughts had warned him was coming all along.  And now his thoughts say to him, "See, you are a failure."  Do you see what just happened?  

Now let’s look at Frank.  Frank is also devastated about losing his job, but he tells himself, “This is hard, but maybe it’s an opportunity to find something better.  I can do this, I can get through this, I can grow from this.”  Now, those thoughts do not magically lift the pain or remove the challenge he faces, but they help Frank move forward.  He updates his resume, reaches out to contacts, and even begins to think through and explore a new career path. Months later, he finds himself in a better job than the one he was devastated to lose a few months earlier.  Same event for Fred and Frank, but very different experiences driven largely by their thinking.  As Solomon said, as we think, so are we. 

Now, I don’t want you to misunderstand me.  The idea is not that our thoughts magically control reality for us, that isn’t it.  But they do shape our way of viewing things, they influence our decisions, and ultimately guide our behaviors, which impacts the outcomes in our lives.  

So, someone who constantly thinks “I have no friends, people are so rough, will let me down, and they don’t like me” will typically come across as guarded and distant around others, which tends to push people away, which reinforces those thoughts, and says, “See, what I believe about people is true.”  Meanwhile, someone who is thinking, “I can connect with people, and need people in my life, even if it is messy,” tends to go out into the world, act open and warm, and find the relationships they believe and expect to find.  

Look at it this way. Your thoughts act like a pair of glasses you wear and see life through. They form your reality. These thoughts form the lens you see life through, which affects your emotions.  Your emotions influence the choices you make, and those choices literally build your life experience.

How are you doing so far?  I’m checking in because I know this can be a lot to think about, and catch up on if you haven’t thought about it before.  Maybe this is a new way to think about this stuff. On top of that, you may be thinking, “I don’t know Sam, you guys talk so much about the heart, and scripture tells me to guard my heart above all else, so I’m not sure why you are talking about my thinking and these mind games the enemy plays.”  And that is true, the heart is everything.

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. NIV

Think about it this way: those thoughts, inner conversations, and your beliefs in your mind are all part of “the everything” that flows from your heart.  If your inner world is filled with fear, bitterness, or lies, those things will flow into your life.  If your inner world is grounded in truth, love, and trust, well, that flows into your life. 

When it comes to our thinking, Scripture brings it up a lot.  We have already read a few.  We read earlier in Romans 12:2 that we can live a transformed life by renewing our minds, and we also read in Philippians 4:8-9 that we are to choose to think about what is good and true, which means we do have a say in what we think.  But for fun, here are a few more examples.  

Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. NIV

If you think about it, that means that our thoughts do affect our emotional experience.  Scripture says that those who focus their minds on God will find perfect peace.  No steadfast thinking will lead to the opposite.  Now take that to a day in your life.  What you think about shapes how you feel that day.  Let’s do one more just for fun, and this is an important one because we have so many thoughts in a day. 

2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. NIV

Studies have shown that we can have up to 60,000 thoughts in a day, with up to 40,000 of them negative, and over half of those negative ones repeating daily.  That’s a lot to deal with, but scripture says we must (and we can) take every thought captive. That is important because not every thought is true; some need to be challenged, rejected, and replaced with truth. Our minds are a major battleground because as we think, so are we.  We want you to understand that our thoughts impact our life experience. While our thoughts do not eliminate life’s challenges, they do direct how we respond to them, which drives our life experience. Your enemy knows this, and every day this battle wages on, he plays every mind game possible to keep you from standing firm in the victory we have through Jesus. 

So, for the rest of our time, we are going to look at how Scripture tells us to equip ourselves each day to stand up against our enemy’s mind games.  So, let’s get into our study of Ephesians 6…

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. NIV

So, Paul is helping us understand that we are at war, but it isn’t physical; it is spiritual. We are learning today that so much of this battle is fought in our minds, as the enemy throws lies, fears, doubts, temptations, and discouragements at us.  But Paul doesn’t say we just take the beatings, like a human piñata; he tells us three times in this section to stand up and defend ourselves from the devil’s schemes: we are to put on the full armor of God, and he says that twice, and you know what I say about scripture on repeat, it’s important!

Vs 13 Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. NIV

Then he walks us through this armor we are to put on each day.

Ephesians 6:14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. NIV

You may have heard this before, but let’s slow down and walk through the equipment Paul says we need to wear each day.

The Belt of Truth. This is important because the battle we are in is really fought between truth and lies.  The enemy does whatever he can to lie, deceive, and distort the truth.  If we want to stand firm against the enemy, it starts with the truth. Do you remember what Jesus says about the truth?

John 8:31-32 Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” NLT

The enemy's goal is to distort the truth, and if we aren’t entering equipped with God’s truth, it is easy to believe our emotions, this world, and the people of this world.  Remember, you’re standing against a defeated opponent; he wants you to accept and live out lies. We stand firm, anchored in God's Truth.

The Breastplate of Righteousness. Let me ask you something.  As imperfect people, how are we made righteous?  We are made righteous through Jesus, which means our identity and self-worth aren’t defined by what we do but by what Jesus did for us. That means that even if you fail today, you aren’t a failure; your worth isn’t based on today’s performance, so you can relax and live out the day understanding God’s love and care for you.  This is important because when you go out into your day and inevitably mess up or things hit your life that you didn’t see coming, the enemy will go right after you, accusing, blaming you and wanting you to feel like your failures, mistakes, issues, and hurts are who you are, but with the breastplate of righteousness we don’t’ accept his accusation and lies that make us feel like less, we know we are defined by Jesus and what He did, not by us, and what we do. 

The Shoes of Peace.  Earlier, we read in Isaiah that when we focus on God, when our minds are steadfast on Him, we will experience perfect peace.  When we put on the shoes of the Gospel of Peace each day, we can stand firm because, as we focus on God, we enter the perfect peace we need to make good decisions.  This is a peace that we have even when we are walking through tough stuff, which makes it a peace that doesn’t make sense to human eyes.

Philippians 4:7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. NLT

The Shield of Faith.  It’s our faith that allows us to block all the mind games, all the ‘what-ifs’, and ‘yeah buts’, and lies that press in on us.  What if everything goes wrong? What if I completely fail?  You don’t accept or entertain these mind games; we block them with our shield of faith and trust that even if today is hard, God is with us.  Remember that perfect peace we just spoke of?  That comes to those God-focused people because of their faith, because they trust Him.

The Helmet of Salvation.  Many of us struggle to put on our Salvation every day.  It isn’t all that intentional, but life hits, life is busy, stressful, and distracting, and over time, our salvation becomes a distant memory, a thing we once did, rather than something we put on every day.  When we wear the helmet of Salvation, we never lose sight of who we are, who we belong to, or where we are headed.  This does a couple of things for us.  First, we live in constant joy and gratitude for what Jesus has done for us.  We are saved!  And second, this keeps us focused on eternity, rather than today.  This is so important because life, our emotions, especially fears, and stress, often make us focus on a single moment. Your enemy doesn’t want you thinking about eternity to come; he wants you focused on the now. But with the helmet of salvation, we focus on all of eternity to come!  We know where we are headed, and we look forward to it, which helps guard our minds against stressful, hopeless thinking and keeps us mindful that today's tests and trials are temporary. When we hold our salvation close, we have an unstoppable, eternal mindset that Paul explains so well here.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal. NIV

Lastly, your weapon, the Sword of the Spirit, which is God’s Word!  This is so important because it’s God’s Word that gives us the truth to anchor in, and it’s The Word of God that we use to actively combat our enemy’s mind games.  This is what Jesus modeled for us: as the enemy tempted Him in the wilderness, Jesus countered every mind game the enemy played with Scripture, and so should we.  But we can’t do this if we aren’t reading God’s Word, and we learned a few weeks ago that only 30% of Christians are picking up their sword and engaging God’s Word every day.  You’ve heard of taking a knife to a gun fight, well, this is worse, because we have no weapon at all.  We need God’s Word; it is how we nourish our souls. It is our guide, our manual for living. It gives us The Truth to stand firm against the enemy's lies.  God’s Word is our weapon against these mind games and gives us what we need to avoid falling for the enemy’s schemes, and while 100% of Christians know how important God’s Word is, 70% percent of Christians today aren’t engaging it.

Psalms 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. NIV

This is the full armor of God that Paul says we must put on each day.  It was funny. As I put this talk together, I was going to give you a checklist or system to use each day to make sure you are putting on the full armor so you could stand firm…it would have looked impressive, and been a good sermon ender for sure, but I kept thinking about you, and just how daunting that may feel.  You may look back over the full armor of God, and think… “Well, Sam, this is great, and it’s cute that you are this excited about it, but honestly, it’s a lot, and I live in the real world, and I don’t have the time to spend hours with God before I jump into my day.”  Well, that is fair, believe it or not, I get that, and I told you that I want this talk on Spiritual Warfare to be very practical.

So, try to picture tomorrow with me.  It’s Monday morning, the alarm clock goes off, you wake up, and the battle is already on; the mind games have already started.  Thoughts hit like “I’m not enough, I’m a failure, why do I even try?”  And you have a choice to make.  Will you just accept that thought, or take it captive? Will you believe the lies, or stand in truth?  We need to put on our armor and engage, because whether we like it or not, we live in a world at war.  We prepare, equip ourselves, and anchor ourselves in truth.  We remember who we are because of Jesus.  We fix our minds on God because the battle is happening inside us, because how we think shapes how we live. 

So, here are some important questions as we close. 

First, get honest, what thoughts have you been believing lately, maybe about yourself, or other people, or life that just isn’t true? 

Are there lies that have been playing on repeat in your mind?  Think about this. 

Where has the enemy been quietly, subtly gaining ground in your life? 

What would change if you took those thoughts captive, if instead of agreeing and believing them, you were able to stand firm and replace them with God’s truth? 

This week, as you jump back into life, try to keep it simple.  Don’t try to fix your whole life, just start with this.  Remember you are opposed and that your enemy comes after your mind, and simply do this.  Notice your thoughts.  When something seems off, see it for what it is.  Name that lie from the enemy if you can, and replace it with God’s truth.  Remember, because of Jesus, our job is not all that hard; our job is simply to stand firm, not win this war, because Jesus has already done that for us.