Welcome to the Bethel Church Sermon of the Week.

We hope you enjoy this message by Pastor Bill Johnson.

For more information about this podcast and other resources, visit bethel.com.

I want to talk to you out of the book of James, and that's scary all by itself.

Anytime somebody opens James, it's with fear and trembling.

And so if you would open to James, chapter four, I'm actually going to read a verse or two out of chapter three.

And we're going to read a little longer portion than I normally do, just because, just

because, just because I need to do it to get where I feel like we're supposed to go.

This, what we're going to talk about today is the battle over the heart. We often talk about

the battleground of the mind. And we know that the enemy

works so hard to bring confusion or distraction or wrong values or all kinds of crazy things. And the

battleground is over our thought life. We've said that for many years and it's absolutely true.

But I believe that what the enemy is targeting is not just my thought life, he's actually targeting my heart.

I had a friend of mine, oh, it would be 48 years ago,

and it might even be 48 years to this month.

48 years ago, I think close to this month,

share a verse with me.

And you don't always remember when a

friend shares a verse with you 48 years later, but this one, in a good way, just punched me upside

the head, and God just deposited something in me that has been one of my life verses for the last

48 years. And it's been a primary verse. I would say I have three,

but this would be the primary initial verse.

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