When the Lie Knocks: Recognize, Renounce, Replace, Resist

Researchers at Queens University estimate that

we experience more than 6000 thoughts a day, and they weren't

measuring whether those thoughts were good or bad. Just how often

our minds move from one thought to another. And so, what we're

going to talk about today are what thoughts am I agreeing

with? Because there's a lot of knocks on the door. You don't

always have to open

it. Yeah.

Hey, I got to give credit where credit is due.

Pastor Jimmy Pruitt of Bridge Church in Fredericksburg,

Tennessee, actually threw out this idea. He he kind of did it

in about two minutes on a podcast talking about it. And

when I went to his website. He's been stretching this out for

weeks, so I'm going to try to do it in about 20 minutes. But I

love the idea, and so we're going to talk about different

R's here. And the first R is recognize. You have to recognize

the lie because we like to believe a lot of lies that then

keep us down. Now, why do I have to recognize it? Because you

can't reject a lie that you haven't recognized. If you think

about any 12-step approach, it's always you know admit you have a

problem. Well, we have to recognize the lie, and it can be

difficult because a lie doesn't always enter your mind saying,

"Hey, hi, I'm I'm here. I just want to let you know I'm here to

deceive you." No, in fact, many times it sounds a lot like our

own voice. Things like "You'll never change" or "Man, you've

messed up way too many times," or "If people knew the real you,

well, they wouldn't love you, and so we're not talking about

pretending that everything is wonderful. We're talking about

learning to distinguish what happened to you from what you

concluded about yourself. So I failed at something is not the

same as I'm a failure, someone rejecting me is not the same as

I'm unlovable. I don't know how this will work out. Is not the

same as there's no hope. And look, the event may be real, the

pain may be real, but the conclusion it still needs to be

examined, and one of the things that Satan did in Genesis three

was to question God. Right in Genesis three, he says, "Now the

serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God

had made, and he said to the woman, 'Did God really say you

must not eat from any tree in the garden, right? Question God.

And the woman said to the servant, "We can eat from the

fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must

not eat fruit from that tree that is in the middle of the

garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die." And of

course, question God, you're not certainly going to die, for God

knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and

you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So He's kind of

pointing out, look, you're you're going to gain some stuff

here if you do that, and so that gives us a question to ask when

we examine our own thoughts, and that thought is asking me to

believe about God, and what is it asking me to believe about

myself? Is it asking me to believe that God is

untrustworthy, that obedience is pointless, that my worst moment

is my permanent identity. So what we need to do is, when we

hear that thought come in our head, what if we just said

Jesus? Hey, is is this true? And testing the thought against

Scripture, because Jesus calls the devil a liar and the father

of lies, deception is central to how Jesus describes him. So he's

going to try to trick you. But we we don't have to figure out

where every thought came from before we examine whether it is

true. But what we can do is separate the feeling from the

conclusion. Like I said, if I say I feel alone, that's

different than saying nobody cares about me. That's a

conclusion. You know, one describes an experience, the

other makes a claim, and we can be honest about the experience

without automatically accepting. Accepting the claim, if you

said, "Lord, I feel forgotten," that is an honest prayer. We

don't have to hide the feeling, but we can bring the conclusion.

You know, therefore, you've forgotten me. You know, bring

that before God rather than treating it as a settled truth.

And I'm pretty sure if you said that to God, you would feel

yourself go, "Oh, that's not true." The goal is not to shame

yourself for having a difficult thought, because again, that's

how Satan's going to work.

The goal is to stop giving every thought unquestioned authority.

A thought, it can be loud without being true. It can be

familiar. It just keeps coming back. We'll talk about that in a

second. Without being true, and you can have a thought without

choosing to agree with it. And so, name the lie specifically.

You know, couple things. What exactly am I telling myself? You

might want to ask yourself that. What happened? What's going on?

And what have I added to it? Right. If it was something like,

"Well, I wasn't invited," that describes what happened. No one

will ever want me around. Yeah, that's something you've added.

And does this agree with Scripture? So again, the first

step is to recognize it, not to deny the pain, not to pretend

you have no questions, not to criticize yourself because a

thought entered your mind. Simply bring it to life and say,

"This is what I've been telling myself, but is it true?" Don't

ask yourself. Ask Jesus. Think about it this way: If you get

suspicious mail, and that could be regular mail or email, it may

you know use your name. It may look official. They've got the

logo, but there are times, especially around PayPal and

anything about your bank account, you really kind of go.

Is this for real? Should I really be clicking on this?

That's the pause that we need because recognizing the lie

gives you an opportunity to respond differently, and that

brings us to the next R. Right. Once I recognize the lie, I can

renounce my agreement with it. So again, step one: recognize.

renounce. So, am I going to keep agreeing with

this? Once you again recognize it, to renounce something is to

say I reject this. I no longer accept it as true, and so for

our purposes today, it means saying I've been treating this

lie like the truth, and I am withdrawing my agreement. Now

you don't have to pretend you never believed it. You don't

have to pretend it didn't influence your decisions. You

simply stop defending its right to define you, and you could

simply either in your head or out loud say, "In Jesus' name, I

reject and renounce that lie." And so, when you hear things

like "You're a failure," you could instead say, "I hear that

thought, but I'm not going to accept that verdict. You'll

never change. That is a prediction I am not going to

treat as a promise. Renouncing is this thought is present in my

head, but it does not have my permission to define who I am,

and don't let things be your identity. You could say

something like, "I can own what I did without agreeing that it

is all I will ever be." Have you ever done anything stupid in

your 20s? Yeah, me too. Quite a few, as a matter of fact, and in

my 30s and 40s, and yeah, and so you could say, Lord, I've been

agreeing with the belief that my past disqualifies me from any

meaningful future. I renounce that agreement. I have been

treating someone else's rejection as the final verdict

on my life, I will no longer give that rejection the

authority to define me. Now, look, these aren't magic words.

We aren't looking for a formula that makes every painful feeling

disappear. We're making an honest declaration about what we

will. And what we will not accept as true, and if the

thought returns later, and we'll talk about that in a second, its

return does not cancel the decision you made. This is why

our last point, when we get to that, will be about resisting

when it returns. Not every painful statement is false. If

you say, "I am grieving," that may be completely honest. You

might say, "I need help," and that may be the most truthful

thing you can say. But Satan loves to spin that. You could

say, "I'm grieving," and Satan's going to tack on, and I will

never have a meaningful life again. You could say I need

help, and Satan's going to tack on, and that makes me worthless.

Those are lies that you have to go. Nope, sorry, and you could

simply reach out to God and say, Father, help me recognize where

I have accepted a lie as a truth, where I have agreed with

it. I withdraw that agreement.

I will not defend it, rehearse it as a settled fact, or let it

have the final word over my life. Teach me to agree with

what is true. So the first R recognize, second R renounce.

So, if I don't believe it, and if I don't accept it, what do I

do? You replace it with the truth, because the goal is not

to simply stop saying something false. The goal is to begin

agreeing with what is true. If you spent years telling

yourself, "Look, I am beyond forgiveness," it's not enough to

say, "You know, I I probably shouldn't think that." You need

a trustworthy answer to that accusation, not just something

that sounds encouraging, not something you made up because it

makes you feel better. You need truth, and this is more than

positive thinking. We are not replacing everything is terrible

with everything is wonderful. Why? Because sometimes

everything is not wonderful. Sometimes you've been hurt.

Sometimes you've made a serious mistake. And I don't know about

you. You ever been standing somewhere and you realize, oh

man, this was a doozy. Sometimes you're facing a situation you

cannot fix by changing your attitude, and faith does not

require us to mislabel those things. The question is, what is

true about God and what is true about my situation in light of

who He is? Romans 12 two says, "Do not conform to the pattern

of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of

your mind." We aren't just saying, "I refuse to believe the

lie." We are asking, "What have you said that I need to believe

instead. I mean, imagine getting a letter saying you owe a debt

that you've already paid. You could stand in your kitchen and

say, "Look, I'm a good person. I'm hardworking. I have a

positive attitude." But none of that answers the letter. What

answers That accusation, the receipt, the receipt says, "Hey,

no, it's paid." You need something that addresses the

actual claim, and in the same way, when the thought is, "God

can never forgive someone like me. I'm just so bad. I'm

horrible. A vague statement like "Today is going to be a great

day" doesn't answer that, does it? But Romans eight verse one

does. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ. That addresses those feelings. Notice that the

assurance rests in Christ Jesus, not because I have a spotless

history, not because I finally feel good about myself. The

passage grounds freedom from condemnation in what God has

done through Christ, not in our ability to produce a better

opinion of ourselves, so the replacement can be: I have

sinned, and I need to take responsibility. But because I

belong to Christ, condemnation is not the final verdict over my

life. That doesn't excuse the sin. It answers the

hopelessness. So don't replace one lie with another, because we

we need to be a little careful here. If the lie is nobody will

ever like me, the truth is not everybody's going to love me. If

the lie is I will fail at everything, the truth is not. I

will succeed at everything. If the lie is following God is

pointless because life is hard, the truth definitely is not

following God guarantees an easy life. Those replacements are

promises we cannot honestly Make instead, we can say someone's

rejection does not establish that I am unlovable. We could

say a past failure does not prove that every future effort

will fail. Instead, we can say I can acknowledge how difficult

this is without concluding that trusting God is pointless. We're

not looking for the most flattering sentence here. We are

looking for the most faithful one. In Philippians four eight,

Paul tells believers to think about what is true, noble,

right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

Notice that his list begins with what true. So here's an example:

the lie I've been believing because I have sinned, there is

no hope for me with God, or the truth I am learning to trust.

Romans eight one says, "Here is no condemnation for those who

are in Christ Jesus. My hope rests in Him, not in pretending

I've never sinned." See the difference between the two

there. And then read that Romans eight one. Think about it during

the day. Bring it into your prayers. Put that reminder

somewhere you will see it.

Get a post-it note. Put it on the bathroom mirror. Not because

the words on a card can have a magical power, but because you

are deliberately giving your attention to something you have

reason to trust. And then ask, what would agreeing with this

truth look like today? Perhaps it means confessing instead of

hiding. Maybe it means apologizing without adding "I'm

just a horrible person." Maybe it means asking for help rather

than assuming you are beyond help. The point here is not to

merely have a new sentence on paper; it is to let the truth

shape your next response. So, you could talk to God and say,

"Father, I recognize the lie, and I'm withdrawing from my

agreement with it. Now, teach me what is true, help me understand

your word faithfully, rather than searching for something

that simply tells me what I want to hear. And where I have built

my identity around shame, teach me to understand my life in

light of Christ. Let your true shape what I believe and how I

live. So, what happens when you've recognized it, you

rejected it, and answered it, and then you hear it again? Its

return does not make it true, and its return does not mean

your earlier responses were meaningless. It means you have

another opportunity to stand on the truth you have chosen to

trust, and that brings us to our fourth point: resist when it

returns, because you'll see here in Scripture we know that if we

tell the devil to flee in the name of Jesus, he will flee. But

you'll also see in Scripture where it says he's not going to

go away forever. So the fourth R we had recognize, we had

renounce, we had replace, and the last one is resist. So with

that, let's say you are on a Tuesday, and that same thought

shows up after you did all that stuff. You'll never change.

You'll hear something like, "God must be tired of you." You know,

you've already tried this. What makes you think this time will

be different? And now there's a second accusation because you

resisted. You, you know, you did the 3r's. What the heck? And

then you'll hear this in your head: If you really believed

God, you wouldn't still be having this thought. Ooh, that's

a good one, isn't it? You're like, yeah. But listen

carefully. The return of a thought is not. The same as your

agreement with it. You've not undone your decision simply

because you have another opportunity to practice it. And

remember, practice does what makes perfect. Well, makes

perfect for you, not so much for that thing to go away forever.

The word for this fourth step, is resist, not panic, not

condemn yourself, not assume everything you've learned was

meaningless. Resist. In Luke four chapter 13, and this is so

telling. This is after Satan attempted Jesus in the

wilderness. It said, "When the devil had finished all this

tempting, he left him until an opportune time." And isn't that

always the case? Satan is waiting for that perfect moment

to hop back in and fill you full with another lie, and that's

when you need to resist, and you have to think about it. All

right, I know he's coming back because he's you know Satan. How

am I going to respond? All right. Well, yesterday you may

have accepted the accusation without questioning it, but

today, well, you're going to recognize it. Maybe yesterday

you may have let it make your decisions. Where today you can

pause and choose a different response. That is not nothing,

because resistance begins with submission to God. In James four

seven, it says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. And notice, James

doesn't begin with "Hey, you need to be tougher." He begins

with "Submit yourselves therefore to God." Our

resistance is not a declaration that we are strong enough to

handle everything alone. It's actually the opposite. It's an

expression of dependence. It's saying, God, I need you. I'm

placing this situation or this thought and my response under

your authority. The practical question remains: Is this true?

And what would faithfulness to God look like right now? Because

we are not trying to become experts at identifying every

possible source of a thought. We are learning not to surrender

our decisions to lies.

You don't have to reopen the case every single time. Imagine

again that suspicious email, and it shows up again, and you're

like, "Huh, same false claim, maybe a different subject line."

Its arrival does not create a new obligation to click. You can

recognize it and say, "Ah, I've seen this before. I know what

this is." In the same way, when a familiar lie returns, you do

not have to spend the rest of the afternoon putting yourself

on trial. You can answer simply, "I recognize that accusation."

You can answer. I'm not accepting that as truth. This is

what I I have reason to trust instead, and then take the next

faithful step. If the lie says you should hide because you

failed, the next step may be an honest conversation. If it says

there's no point in trying, the next step may be doing the one

responsible thing in front of you. If it says you have to

handle this alone, well, then the next step may be asking

someone trustworthy for help. Resistance is not always a

dramatic speech. Sometimes, it's a quiet refusal to let the lie

choose your next action. Standing on truth, without

demanding an intimate feeling, you may answer a lie and still

feel unsettled. You may make a faithful decision while your

emotions are basically still catching up, and don't feel that

to take the next step you have to feel this immediate sense of

peace. What you can do is pray, talk to God, and say, "Look, I

still feel afraid, but I'm not going to treat fear's prediction

as a fact. I still feel ashamed, but I will not use that feeling

as a reason to hide what needs to be brought into the light.

You can see I don't know how everything will work out, but I

can choose honesty and ask for help. And do what is right in

front of me. Maybe we're not trying to win an argument with

every feeling. Instead, we're choosing what will guide our

response. And also, because Satan's going to try to do this,

don't turn resistance into Self punishment. Remember, we talked

about this a little earlier. Having an unwanted thought is

not the same as endorsing it. So when it comes back, and it's

going to, don't add another burden. Don't because you're

going to. I must be a terrible Christian because well, I'm

thinking that again. No, instead respond without turning the

moment into another accusation against yourself. And this

framework, these 4r's, it's not a demand to handle every single

struggle alone. Many times God has put you into a church or a

community where there are people you can call on, so that you

don't have to handle it alone, but you don't because you think

you should solely rely on God when God has given you the

tools. You can pray with people and you can help them seek

appropriate support. Those don't have to be In competition, so

again, a prayer might be, Father, man, this thought is

here again, but I I don't have to agree with it. I'm submitting

myself to you. Please help me remember what is true, refuse

what is false, and take the next faithful step. Where I need

support. Please give me the humility to ask for it, and keep

teaching me to trust you, even when the struggle is not over.

So those 4r's again. When those lies come around, and we know

they're going to, first recognize the lie. What are you

being asked to believe? And then renounce your agreement. I will

not accept that as true. Then, what do you do? You replace that

lie with the truth. What is God's word understood

faithfully? Give me reason to believe, and then the fourth R

resist when it returns. I will stand on that truth again and

take the next faithful step. You may not get to choose every

thought that knocks on your door, but a knock is not a

command, and you don't have to hand the lie a key. I hope you

enjoyed this lesson. The website again, feedingmyfaith.com. If

you want to share it with someone, I'm Dave Jackson from

the School of Podcasting. Thanks for listening.

Feeding my faith, where God's word is made simple.