You were born physically into this world, but you were born without the Spirit of God in your soul. You were born spiritually dead. Yes, God created you, but He gave you a freewill to decide for yourself where you will spend eternity. God never forces anyone to accept Jesus as their Savior. He simply offers a warm invitation to anyone who wants to have their sins forgiven and go to heaven. Salvation is a free gift, paid for by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We must accept God's gift of eternal life or it WILL be forever forfeited when we die.

John 3:16 is probably the most memorized verse in the Bible, and not without good reason. It talks about God's love for the world-which doesn’t' mean the physical earth, but human beings living on the earth. That is HUGE! God is not indifferent towards us. God is passionate for us. He is so passionate for us that He sent his only Son to be our Savior. The reason God made that sacrifice is because people are perishing in the battle for our souls, and that is not what God wants for us. He wants us to have eternal life. This invitation is for everyone...whoever believes.

Do you ever feel beat up and defeated? Everyone has felt this way at some point. There is only on hope against the enemy whose main purpose is to defeat us and fill our minds with lies. It is Jesus Christ who is our fortress and stronghold. Do you need a place of refuge today? Jesus, our stronghold is waiting for you. Always remember that a stronghold is of no use if you are standing outside its walls. Stop trying to do everything on your own. You are not alone, God is with you and waiting for you to enter his fortress of refuge. He is waiting for you to come into His refuge.

The passion of Christ is to heal the brokenhearted. People who are brokenhearted are easy prey for the Devil's strongholds. Most mental strongholds start with hurt and trauma. Healing leads to freedom, which leads to release to fulfill God's purpose for our life. God's plan is to enable us to love Him, others and ourselves. Satan's master plan is separation. He will cause you to be brokenhearted and allow your flesh to separate you from God. But God's Word tells us to loose and bind these stronghold that Satan puts on us. And We can only do this with God's help.

It can happen at anytime, and any where. You can be having a great day just worshiping and praising Jesus for all He has done for you and then it hits! It comes out of left field and can destroy you with one word. Deceptive thinking! Someone may say something to you or a bad thought might enter your mind. Then you are left feeling unloved and unworthy. It is an attack from Satan himself. He is out to kill, steal and destroy us. The great news is that God had given us power, authority, and spiritual weapons to combat every attack. All we have to do is receive these gifts.

There are so many voices giving us very good advice. Those voices are filling our mind with many words of wisdom. The problem is that not every thing we hear is what God would want us to hear. He has given us the best piece of wisdom and it will never steer us wrong. God's Word shows us the path to travel. It fills our minds with wisdom from God. When Satan tries to fill our mind with lies we need to pray and ask God for wisdom from the most useful tool. We should read His word daily. Hear it and proclaim it in worship. He will replace those wrong thoughts with the Word.

Our mind is full of thoughts all of the time. But who we allow to control our thoughts is up to us. Either God or Satan will take control of our thoughts. The Holy Spirit can free us from uncontrolled thoughts. It's the idea of replacement-whatever you want to change in your life, don't resist it; replace it. We should ask the Holy Spirit to give us new ideas to think about that will replace the old, bad thoughts. When you think of something from God's word, Satan's negative thoughts must leave. So, invite the Holy Spirit to have free access to your mind to replace bad thoughts.

As Christ Followers we live in a battlefield everyday. The battlefield is our mind. The way you think determines that way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act. Satan gives you thoughts-they are temptation and God gives you thoughts-they are inspiration. Which one are you going to choose? Will you choose life and peace over death. But the truth is we have self-destructive thoughts all of the time. So what should we do? Pastor Mark walks us the dangers of allowing Satan to control our thoughts instead of God.

We will see in today's message that all temptations can be overcome by the power of God. Christ demonstrated that sin can only be overcome by prayer, fasting, and studying the Word of God. Just like Jesus, the more in tune you become with the Word and the ways of the Lord the more apt you are to be able to distinguish His voice from the enemy's in times of temptation. God has promised to give us a way out of the temptation. He also offers us forgiveness if we do give into the temptation. God will always be there to catch us when we fall and renew a relationship with us.

From the Bible we realize two important principles about temptations. Most importantly, God is not responsible for tempting us because it is against His character to lead anyone into sin. James 1 shows us that sin originates both from the yearnings of our sinful nature as well as from the devil. We cannot blame God for the temptations in our lives. It is not God that tempts you to visit an inappropriate website. It is not God that tempts you to give in to addiction. It is not God that gives you the idea to cheat. It is our selfish desires to be accepted that tempts us, not God.