Built 4 More - Week 3

We're going to uh, we're gonna continue in our series

Built for More Today, and we're gonna continue to talk

about beliefs, those things that act as the filter for

our lives and uh and really get I want to

encourage you. I don't do this often, but if you

missed last week and you didn't hear last week's message,

I want to encourage you to go back and listen.

To it, because it was uh.

I think that it's it's it's kind of a launching

pad for the rest of this I don't normally preach

messages that build one on top of the other, but

these are somewhat built on top.

Of the other. So go back and listen to that.

Don't leave. If you didn't, you'll be okay.

I mean, if you just leave and go listen to that,

we just have to still listen to this one, so

you might as well stay and get this. When they

go back and get that will be like a prequel

to you, amen, like but but not like Star Wars prequels.

That ruined the whole franchise. It'll be a good prequel. Amen. Uh.

You know, one of our uh, one of our most

how our most powerful beliefs go unexamined. The most powerful

beliefs in our life are the beliefs that go unexamined.

I mean they feel obvious, that they feel like truth,

they feel like reality.

And because they.

Feel like that, we never really examine those beliefs to

see if they limit us, to see if they filter

out what God is really trying to speak and do

and show us.

We just allow those beliefs.

To exist and be a filter that often holds us

back from our purpose and our destiny because they feel

like truth and they feel obvious. But the reality is

most of our beliefs are in some way affected by

the things that have happened to us.

Amen, the things we've seen, the way we were raised. Listen.

That was the I think that was the pivotal moment

last week when I looked at y'all.

And I said, Hey, have you ever said or heard

somebody say, I was just raised that way? Sometimes we

got to get over our raising.

Amen. You may have been born that way, but be

born again. Amen. And when we.

Challenge those beliefs at the very basic level, we learn

more about who God is, and we learn more about

who we are. And Jesus even does this at the

most pivotal time, and that he's getting he's setting everybody up.

He knows he's getting ready to die. He knows he's

getting ready to give his life to rise again and

then to go to heaven. And he's about to commit

the world wide ministry. I want you to think about

this for a moment. He's about to commit the global

care of the God.

Gospel, the most important message humanity's ever heard. He's about

to commit it into the hands of a few guys

that at best were a ragtag bunch. He didn't pick

Bible scholars, he didn't pick any He picked a thief,

he picked a doubter, he picked a tax collector, he

picked some fishermen, a couple. We don't know what they did,

and we don't know where they went after. They just

kind of were there and then they weren't amen. And

he's about to He's about to commit this ministry into

their hands. And he needs them to understand that what

they really believe, what they really have in their hearts,

is going to dictate how effective they are working on

his behalf. And in Matthew chapter sixteen, starting in verse thirteen,

one of my favorite passages of scripture Matthew sixteen thirteen says,

when Jesus came into the region of Cesarea Philippi, he

asked his disciples, saying, who the men say that I am?

Or who the men say that I the Son of

Man am? So they replied and said, some say John

the Baptist.

Wrong, some say Elijah wrong, others Jeremiah wrong, or one

of the prophets wrong. So Jesus says, Okay, first of all,

I want you to see how wrong everybody else says

about me. What Who do men say that I am?

What are other people's beliefs about who I am? Because

everything is about to rest on this next question. So

he points out and he says, do you think I'm

any of those things? Do you think I'm John the Baptist?

I mean, y'all saw me be baptized by him. How

can I be him? How can I How can I

be Jeremiah? How can I be how can I be?

These other things? But that's what other people believe, that's

what other people say, So that belief is there, and

Jesus's challenging, what do what do?

Who do other people say that I am? And they

answer and they give him these ridiculous answers, and then

Jesus looks at them, and today Jesus is looking at you.

Jesus is looking.

At you today and he's asking you this question, But

who do you say that I am? It's okay for

other people to believe that because I'm not hinging the

entire development of my gospel message on them, I'm building

it on you.

Who do you say that I am?

And then, of course Peter speaks up, because Peter always

speaks for the group. He's the one that sometimes his

mouth gets ahead of his head. Amen, Peter speaks up,

and he says, Simon. Peter answered and said, you're the Christ,

the son of the Living God. He hit the nail

on the head, said you are the Christ. You were

the son of the Living God. And Jesus answered and said,

blessed or you, Simon, son of Jonah. For flesh and

blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father,

who is in heaven. You got your mind in a

place where you could receive it.

That's what Jesus has said.

He said, yeah, you've got your mind in a place

where you could receive it. And now the Father spoke

to you, and he has revealed this to you. Nobody

else made that declaration except Peter, because in that moment

he had some clarity. He put aside his preconceived ideas

and he said you you are the Christ. And Jesus says,

you heard this from my father in heaven.

You're right.

And then he looks at him and he says, Okay,

now that you have a belief system and you understand

who I am, let me show you who you are.

Everything about you is predicated on who you believe he is,

not who I've told you who, not who I told

you who you is, not who your praying granny told

you he is, amen, not who your Bible teacher in

private school told you he is, not who your math

teacher told you he wasn't. Everything about you is predicated

on who you believe he is. And then Jesus looks

and says, now that you got that right, let me

fix you think about yourself.

Names are everything in Scripture.

That's why we see Jesus or God change names all

through scripture, and here we see a significant shift. The

name Simon means unstable like water, unstable, and that's what

he answered to.

Listen, just think about your whole life.

Every time somebody calls your name, you know that it

means unstable. One, Hey, unstable, come over here and help

me with this. Oh, unstable, go do this? Unstable, Unstable,

Why are you.

The way you are?

I guess it's because I'm unstable. And Jesus says, but

because now you understand who I am. Now you can

understand who you are. And he says, and I also

say that.

You were Peter. And on this rock I'll build my.

Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

He said, You're not unstable. You are a firm foundation.

There is no instability about you. You and the knowledge

that you have or something worthy to build my church on.

Now the catholet's take it so far that they think

that literally it was Peter. But it was the belief

that Peter had. But Jesus needed to under Jesus needed

Peter to understand that he wasn't unstable, that he was

the most stable of the group. The loud mouth that

got it all wrong was the most stable of the group,

and he would lead the way when we get to

the upper room, when the Holy Spirit comes. Peter is

the one that's in charge because he was the stable one, and.

He didn't need the others to believe it. He needed

Peter to believe it. He doesn't need anybody else to

understand that you are who he says you are. He

needs you to understand you are who he says you are,

the actual belief down at the core of who you are.

He was about to talk about his death, and he

needed that anchor belief set in people's hearts. When we

talk about I dropped something, I don't know what it was.

When we talk about the way things happen, everything in

our lives are triggered by some event. Something happens and

there's a response from us. We get a bad report,

we get a raise, we get fired, we get hired,

we have a baby, our spouse loses their mind and

tells us we're crazy, and they go find somebody else.

At all of these events.

Start some kind of cataclysmic or as a catalyst in

our life that moves in some direction. So you have

an event and the event then is filtered. This is

where beliefs live, So filter is where our true beliefs live.

I know y'all can't read it, but just listen to

what I say and pretend like you can read it.

So the filter area, that's where our beliefs live. Now,

other things filter too, but our beliefs are the number

one filter. Our spouses can act as a filter. Amen,

Our jobs can act as a filter, Our resources can

act as a filter.

Some limiting, some not limiting.

But you have to understand that there are multiple filters.

But the number one filter before anything else matters, is

our belief system.

Our beliefs filter.

What just happened to us, and out of that there

is for most people.

An emotion.

So our beliefs are going to trigger some emotion on

the inside of us. That's why you can see something

happen and one person will get mad about it, one

person will get sad about it, one person will get

happy about it. We have a huge news issue going

on right now that happened the other day where a

lady was shot. And based on what you believe on

the video you saw, or which side of the aisle

you stand on, or whatever it is, that's what causes

you to feel the way you do because you filtered

it and it generated an emotion. Come on, everybody still,

when we say, amen, am I helping you today? Say, amen,

it generated an emotion, and out of that emotion, there

was an action. Out of that emotion, there's I should

have wrote this in a straight line.

There's action. That's why you can have the same event

that happens.

Different beliefs and you get different outcomes. The same event.

But filtered by different beliefs, and you get a different

outcome that same event. Depending on your belief system, you

may have.

Grabbed a sign and started protesting, or you may have

hit your knees and began to pray for the family,

or you may.

Have grabbed a different sign and went.

To protest against the people that are protesting. But either way,

it doesn't matter because the belief system is what causes

that to happen. The same event, different beliefs, different outcomes.

So based on what you believe, that's what generates it.

But for believers, watch this. If we believe Jesus is

who he says he is, if we believe the Kingdom

principles that are taught, if we truly believe not not

we read those things, but we are so invested in things.

You can't everybody look at me.

You can't get to where we're talking about just by.

Coming to church. You can't you can't do it.

You can't get there just by coming to church and

serving on a team. You can't get there us by

coming to church and going to group.

The way you get there is you come to church.

You're on a team, you're in a group, you're chasing purpose,

and you put discipline in your life, and all of

those disciplines point towards Jesus. That's how you get to

this place. So right here at the filter level, at

the filter level, if you really believe Jesus is who

he says.

He is, it doesn't go to emotion, It goes to

the spirit.

You bypass the emotional part and you go to the

spirit part. So rather than fear being the response, faith

is the response. Rather than joy over calamity being the response,

Seeing the brokenness underneath what everybodybody else is rejoicing about

is the response.

When we really get into.

The fact that Jesus is who he says he is,

and I'm really who Jesus says I am, we're no

longer governed by those crazy emotions. Core value, exercise, transparency.

How many of you have ever done something that now

you look back on it and you deem, that was crazy.

Let me show you what happened in my beautiful diagram.

Let me show you what happened. Your beliefs were wrong.

You believed you should handle it. You don't really buy

into that whole thing. That vengeance is mine, right, says

the Lord. You don't really buy into the hole. Jesus

is gonna handle it. You just get a kid or

a knife. You go punch a tire or scratch a car.

You cust somebody out because bless God, I'm gonna stand

up for myself.

And guess what you should listen.

There are moments in your life, a life even governed

by the spirit, where they strike you on the cheek,

and Jesus says, if he hits you on one side,

turn the other side.

I only got two sides. And if he hits me

there and then he hits me there, his next action

better be duck. And that can be a completely spiritually

governed response.

Because Enian ask you to be a doormat. He asked

you to understand who he says you are, and what

he says is worth fighting for and what he says

is worth taking a break for.

He needs you to.

Understand those things. And it takes getting your belief system right.

If you fall in love, every time somebody blinks their

eyes at you, you're worth more than that.

Jesus says, you're not unstable.

You're a rock, and you know that God has something

special for you. Every time money gets a little low

in the bank, you don't go rob a convenience store. Now,

some of these things that I mean, I'm going over

the top, but that's how some people's belief system works.

It's why we see the things we see, and that's

why maybe you don't go that far, but you have

the thought because you got enough Jesus that you don't

go but you don't really understand Him at the depth

that you don't think about it. Next week we're gonna

get all the way into renewing your mind, but not

this week. The belief is what does the real work

in our lives. Your belief system is what does the

real work in your life, not your capacity to figure

it out that split moment where an event happens and

the filtering process begins. Your beliefs through the heavy lifting

in that moment.

Having the mind of Christ.

Is simply aligning your actual beliefs with him. He said again,

having the mind of Christ is just simply aligning your

beliefs with him. We think it's this magical thing, and

you eat even how many of you have prayed, Lord,

give me the mind of Christ. I pray it, and

I just realized it this morning because I knew always

going to say this to you. I pray it every week.

I've prayed it every week for years. I stand right

there before I walk on this stage, and I say, Lord,

anoint my feet for your words, as beautiful are the

feet of he that.

Carries the Gospel.

Anoint my knees that they would stay bent and humble

submission to you. Anoint my hands that they would carry

the anointing of healing and miracles. Created me a clean

heart and a steadfast spirit. Let me hear what nobody

else hears. Let me see what nobody else sees. And

then I say, give me the mind of Christ. And

Jesus says, I can't give you something you're not trying

to do if you just want my mind, so you

don't say the wrong thing when you're preaching. That is

a bad approach to gospel life.

Amen.

And then I finish that prayer by saying and anoint

my mouth to speak your truth boldly, with no fear

of the repercussions of men or women. But I've prayed

a prayer that is actually not lined up with what

Scripture says. One Corinthians, Chapter two, verse thirteen says, these

things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches,

but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Everything in your life is spiritual.

Let me say that again, Everything in the life of

a believer is spiritual. There are no secular things and

sacred things. Everything is spiritual. So when I understand my

belief system says that everything is spiritual, every action is

a spiritual action, then we can begin to understand this

passage of Scripture for which the Holy Spirit, that the

Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. But

the natural man does not receive the things of God

for their foolishness to him. If I don't believe, if

my belief system is not absolutely married.

To the true truth of Jesus.

And the truth of who Jesus says I am, we

are foolish. It's the word of God, not the word

of Steve Amen. I just deliver it. I don't write it.

The natural man does not receive the things of the

spirit for their foolishness to him, nor can he know them.

Because they are spiritually discerned. Now I watch this.

If my spiritual life is when I pray, my spiritual

life is when I go to church. My spiritual life

is when I give. My spiritual life is this. My

spiritual life is that. But there are areas of my

life that are not spiritual. Then when I'm not in

my spiritual life and something happens, I have a carnal,

fleshly response to it. I get emotional about it, and

I make bad choices that create bad outcomes. Have you

ever heard anybody say this, Never make a decision when

you're mad.

There is a lot of truth to that.

I would add, though, don't ever make a decision if

you're a believer, don't ever make a decision before you

consult Jesus about it. You know, we uh one of

the sickest times I've ever been in my life. We

were in Panama City Beach and we had to go

to Valdosta to see my oldest daughter. She was doing

something for school there and in high school, so we

were gonna eat lunch and then we were gonna leave.

And we went to this restaurant. Never been to the

restaurant before, and I ordered seared tuna, so I knew

it was gonna be raw in the middle, right, That

was my intention to have that to eat. But when

they brought it out, it was like this weird gray color,

like not on the outside, in the middle. And I

reached down and I touched it and it was mushy

and warm. Even seared tuna should still be cold in

the middle. And I had the pressure of time on

me because we had to leave and get there and

check into the hotel room.

So I ate that junk.

We left the restaurant and before we could get across

the Hathaway Bridge, which is that long bridge going out

of Panama City Beach, I started.

Throwing up, not once, one hundred times.

My wife said, I've got to stop and get something

to eat, so she bought Chick fil A chicken nuggets

grilled ones. I cannot take it to this day because

it triggered a whole nother round of one hundred. We

got to the hotel, I went in and I fell.

Across the bed. No, I didn't.

I went in the bathroom. I went in the bathroom.

I collapsed in front.

Of the toilet and I just put my head on

the toilet.

And Angie went to get and Lexi was laying outside

the bathroom door screaming that he's dying.

Don He's dying now. Watch. I tell you all that

funny thing.

Embarrassed myself because I made an emotional response.

I let ten minutes calls me to make.

A poor response that caused all of that catastrophe because

something in me was bent in such a way that

time was more important than the certainty of health.

Every decision we make has an outcome. If those pastor Clay,

you guys can come and get ready.

If those decisions are governed by the spirit, because our

beliefs are right, then we have spiritual kingdom outcomes.

If our beliefs.

Are not fixed on Jesus, we have an emotional reaction

which gives us poor outcomes. If you were serving the

creator of the universe, who knit every single thing together,

who has perfect fore knowledge of all the things that

are to come, and he's willing to give you insight,

why do we continue to.

Make emotional decisions. It's because we don't want to do

the hard work of renewing our mind and training.

Ourselves and burying a belief system that dictates every part

of our lives. Because we will not challenge those things

that just seem obvious and real to us. We will

not listen to Jesus when he says, who do you

say I am?

And you're not really unstable? I'm gonna build my church

on you. Lois. He wants to build his church on you. Jason.

He wants to build his church on you, Buddy, Ashley, Marlene,

one of my favorite people in the whole world. He

wants to build his church.

Bigger than anything we can ever see, on you, on

every single one of you.

That's his desire is that you so believe it that

it happens.

And this is how we start aligning ourselves. This is

it right here. Ask yourself these three questions every single day.

This is how you start positioning yourself to understand.

That God's for you and that he wants to use you.

What is one thing? Listen? Do it as a family,

just like last week.

Sit down with your kids, sit down with your grandkids,

sit down with people at work, sit down and ask

these questions, what is one thing we're thankful for today?

It blows that idea that God's not doing anything for

me just completely out of your mind. Next question, where

did we notice God today? Even in something small? It

gets rid of that thought that he's out there somewhere

but he's not close. He is watching and he is

interacting in every moment of your life. Changes the way

you think, and then it creates dependency. Is there anything

coming up where we need to ask God for peace

or for wisdom?

And if you do that every day? Now listen, I'm

gonna be honest with you.

We didn't get it right every day my family, we

didn't do it every day. This week we're playing catch up.

So now we're glad to do it like three times

a day to catch up.

Amen.

But if you will make this part of your daily habit,

launch a family devotion out of these three questions every

single day. Your kids are getting some version of these

three questions over there where they are right now. We're

already helping them get out of the emotion and get

into the spirit. Now if you reinforce it on top

of what they're getting here, because your home is the

epicenter of spiritual growth by the time they're teenagers, by

the time they're young adults, they're going to have a

filter that is instant on, an instant off, and they're

going to be able to hear the word of God.

Yesterday and that board meeting we're talking about, And this

is what I told those gods. I said, right now,

we're wrestling with sixty thousand dollars questions. But if we

can really build our next generation, we can build our

next generation so.

They know who God is and they know who they are.

They are.

They don't wrestle with sixty thousand dollars questions. They wrestle

with six hundred thousand dollars questions because God has positioned

them and blessed them so much that a sixty thousand dollar.

Miracle is nothing. This is the most pivotal moment in

your life. Will you commit right now to ask these

three questions every single day? Sit down with your family,

carve out time and ask these three questions.

I'm gonna call you on the carpet right now. If

you'll commit to do that, raise your hand. I'll ask

these three questions every day. I'm gonna take a picture

of them. I'm gonna I'm gonna use them in my home.

I'm gonna retrain my mind so that I know who

God is and he can tell me who I am.

Some of you have the first part right and the

second part wrong. Some of you have the second part

right in the first part wrong. If you got any

part wrong, it's wrong.

But you know what. You could ask these questions all

you want. But if you've never had an encounter with Jesus,

if you've never had what I call a grace collision

with Jesus, or you've asked him to forgive you of

your sins, you've asked him to be the lord of

your life. If you've never taken that step, your mind

can never become that of Christ because you're not spiritual

to start with. So if you're here today you want.

To give your life to Jesus, you want to ask

them to forgive you of your sins and be the

lord of your life. Or you're here right now and

you know that, you know that, you know that you've

allowed sin to come into your life and create a

disc that's between you and the Lord. If it's either

of those things, With every head bowed and every eye closed,

I'm gonna ask you if you want to give your

life to Jesus, you want to make things right with

the Lord. If that's you, slip your hand up and

say that's me, Pastor, that's me, Pastor. I want to

give my life to the Lord today. I want to

trust him. I want to come to him with no

strings attached, just me and all of me. But you

got to do is put your hand up and put

it right back down. Amen. Amen. Amen, every eye open,

every head looking around. As a matter of fact, everybody's

standing to your feet. Father, I pray.

That you give us the stark.

Revelation that church is not a place we go who

we are, and that we would carry spiritual principles into

our homes, and that we would take these three questions.

Completely serious. Lord, I pray that you work and move

in the lives of your people in Jesus' name. Amen,

let's worship together.