Built 4 More - Week 2

Amen.

Amen, we're going to start in Mark chapter nine. This morning,

Mark chapter nine. We're in our very first series of

the year. The name of the series, to go along

with the theme of our year, is built for More.

I believe that God has more for you. I believe

God has more for our church. I believe has more

for your family. I believe God has more for you

in every area. And we have to position ourselves to

receive what God looks for us.

Amen.

You know a lot of times we look around and

we think everybody else is living in more, but we're

not living in more.

So over the next few weeks, I want to tackle.

A limiting belief that exists in most of us, if

not all of us, to try to overcome that limiting

belief so that we can step from where we are

into a whole new level of faith and trust in

the Lord.

So if you will go with me, Mark chapter nine.

Starting in verse seventeen, it says, then one of the

crowd answered and said, teacher, I brought you my son,

who has a mute spirit, and wherever it seizes him,

it throws him down. He foams at the mouth, gnashes

his teeth, and becomes rigid so I spoke to your

disciples that they should cast it out, but they could not.

Let's pray, Father, thank you for your word. It's the

only change agent that we have on the face of

the planet. And Lord, I pray that it takes root

the very fabric of our being. Lord, that we are

so overwhelmed by your spirit and your grace, your wisdom,

your power that were never the same Again, Lord, I

ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen, Amen, and amen. So this is uh.

Let me give you a little backstory here. So there's

a crowd gathered. Jesus has been teaching. This man has

a son who has been vexed by at who every

single time it chooses to move causes him to seize.

It's thrown him into the fire, it's thrown him into

the water. And of course, as a parent, he is

just uh. He's just broken that he can't do anything

about this. So he hears about Jesus, he hears about

jesus ministry team. He brings his son, He goes to

the disciples and they pray for him. But nothing changes.

The spirit doesn't come out, nothing happens. The boy is

still sick. He's still uh. He's still vexed by the

same things, and now he has audience and he and

he yells out to Jesus and he says, hey, I

brought my son at the the these guys that that

are working for you, they couldn't do anything about it.

Where does that leave me?

Is basically what he's asking Jesus. Here he says, there's uh,

there's there's something happening, and I need a check. I'm

desperate for a change. Let's jump to verse twenty one.

So he asked his father how long has this been

happening to him? And he said from childhood, and often

he's thrown him both.

Into the fire and into the water to destroy him.

But if you can do anything, have compassion on us

to help us, Jesus said to him. If you can

believe underline the word believe. If you can believe, all

things are possible. To him who believes, Jesus says, listen,

I know you said that that that that these guys

couldn't do it. But now I'm looking at you. This

is your situation and your circumstance.

If you can believe you, if you can believe, then

all things are possible. If you if you can.

Believe all things are pas. You know, belief is different

than faith. Belief is actually our lens and how we

filter and how we see the things.

That are happening around us.

Our belief system effects and actually causes us to live

in a lot of the reality we live in, even

if the reality we live in is not the actual

reality of what's happening. Do you know you can live

in a reality that is not actually the reality that

is really happening.

I know that sounds confusing, But our belief.

System, those things that we believe, those things that from

an early age, those things that we've learned through process,

or that things that have happened to us that have

caused us to have these filters in our minds about

the way things should be, in the way things should

work or the way things do work. They actually set

us in a context, and they set us in a

place where we filter everything that comes in through that lens.

And did you know that your brain listen to me.

Your brain is more concerned with consistency than it is truth.

Let me say that again. Your brain is more concerned

with consistency than it is.

With actual truth. Your brain will reject things.

That are true if it feels abnormal to the way

you've always thought about things. In other words, if you

thought and listen I did. At one point in my life,

I thought I was a great baseball player. Listen, y'all

are like I didn't always look like this. I actually

I was. Actually I was a good ioley. But I

was never a great baseball player. But I thought I

was a great baseball player. I thought major leagues. I

thought that was the reality of my life. That's what

I was gonna do. I was gonna go be a

major league baseball player, that I was gonna be a broadcaster.

That's what I thought.

And I would look back over everything that happened, and

my brain would really magnify the good.

Moments and diminish the bad moments.

My brain would make me think that I was better

at everybody else, because I would compare the best part

of me to the worst part of everybody else. Until

I found myself surrounded by people who were all better

than me, and I could not find one single area

where I was better than them. They were stronger than me,

they were faster than me, they could throw better than me,

they could hit better than me, they could do everything

better than I could, and it caused me. It forced

me to realize that my belief about myself was wrong,

that I couldn't just believe myself into the major leagues.

Come on, somebody, because there's a reality that exists beyond

the reality we create for ourselves. And at the same time,

a lot of you are on the other end. You

think you're not good enough, you think you're less than.

You've had people that have spoken over your life, that

have said things to you, that have placed curses on

you through their words, those teachers that said you're never

going to you're not smart, you can't And we buy

into those things, and it forms a belief system that

lives in us. And then we filter all the good

things and all the potential that we have. We filter

those things out, and we grab those moments where everything

looks bad and we cause that to be the reality,

even when other things are good.

And Jesus says, hey, if you can believe, he's not

talking about faith yet, he's not talking about any higher

spiritual concept yet.

He says, listen, if you can just believe that the

situation will change.

Everything starts with what you believe.

What you believe about God, what you believe about yourself,

what you believe about others, what you believe about the

situation you're in. All of those things impact how we

interpret God's word and his moving and his presence in

our lives, to the point where we can have our

belief system so skewed that God can show up and

we think it's bad that God will open a door

and we can't walk through the door, because every time

we've gone through a door.

In the past, things have been bad. Before we can.

Ever get to faith, we have to correct belief before

you can ever see that there's more. You have to

realize that you may be the limiting agent in everything.

We've been blaming the This is not an easy one

to preach, first of all, because I like to just

tell y'all.

How great you are. Amen. That's like nine out of.

Ten sundays I come in to make Terry feel like

the best Terry he can be.

Amen.

That's but you know, there is a reaction that we

are the limiting agent in most of the things in

our lives, and we blame the devil. We blame our boss,

we blame our wives, we blame our husband, we blame

our kids, we blame where I grew up, We blame

our parents. We you know, I don't know how many

times I've heard this statement in people's lives when something

is pointed out or a reality comes and they say,

you know, that's just the way I was raised. Okay,

practice of core values here, we have a series on

core values. Now let's put them an application in transparency.

How many of you have ever made the statement or

heard the statement, that's just the way I was raised.

The rest of y'all are you have not lived in

the Southeast United States and not said or had that

said to you, That's just the way I was raised.

Do you have a certain outlook towards people that are

not like you and you.

Say, well, that's just why I was raised. You have a.

Problem managing money and you say, well, that's just why

I was raised.

Do you know why hurt people? Hurt people.

Because they have a belief system that somehow that's an

expression of love and discipline, that they've been in a

context long enough that it's created neural pathways in their brain,

that every thought is pushed through those pathways, and that's

why they respond the way they respond.

Because of their belief system.

And Jesus looks at this man, his boy, being thrown

into the fire, thrown into the water. He's desperate, and

he says, if you can believe, because he had already

seen it fell so many times. He had exhausted every option,

he had wept, he had done everything, and nothing had changed.

And then he comes to Jesus' own disciples, and they

couldn't do anything.

So Jesus just looks at him and.

Says, hey, if you can believe, all things are possible

to him who believes Verse twenty four. Immediately the child,

the father of the child cried out and said, with tears, Lord,

I believe, help my unbelief. This is what he says

the original language, he says, I believe you have divine authority.

I believe you have divine authority, and I see it

in your character in nature.

Is literally what he said.

We shorten things a whole lot sometimes, and we linked

them things a whole lot sometimes. He says, I believe

in your divine nature. It's in your character, it's in

your nature. I believe you have the divine authority. That's

what the word lord means. I believe it.

Now he's not confessing salvation.

He's not doing any of those things. He's just saying

you're above the situation. And then he turns right around.

He says, I believe that, but help my unbelief, because

even though I believe that, I don't know if you can.

I know who you are, but it's never been.

Done for me before, so why would it be done now?

He says, I believe that, but help my unbelief. Do

you know one of the biggest limiting factors in us

becoming everything God wants us to be, to living out

the fulfillment of our purpose and our destiny is that

we see God do things for other people, but we

don't believe God will do them for us. We all

have those questions. We look around and we see the miracles. Listen,

we see literally in this church I've been in. I

have been in services where somebody's come to the altar.

I've watched people lay hands on them and cancer tumors

shrink and.

You can see it happen. I watched it right here

one night. We've seen God provide.

Time after time after time after time after time, and

then our nose runs and we don't even say a prayer.

We run straight to the er. Come on, somebody, now listen.

First of all, this is not against doctors. Some of

y'all need to go the doctor a couple of times, probably,

I mean, especially for this and I'm just kidding for

this area now, I'm just but because we believe that

God does that for other people but not for us,

we take on the role of trying to be God

in those areas and trying to do it ourselves, and

trying to tough through.

It and make it through it and all of those things.

And I'm not opposed to any help you can get,

but the first place you should go is God, not

the last place.

It's an expression.

Of our belief system. It's an expression of what we

really believe. At the heart of the matter, Jesus said,

if you believe, it's possible, and he said, I believe

you're who you are, But help me with what.

I don't believe.

Verse twenty eight. Now, before we get into verse twenty,

let me tell you what happens.

So Jesus does it. Jesus does it.

He cast this thing out of this little boy. He's free,

Father's grateful. Now Jesus feels it necessary.

To go back.

To the ones who had prayed and it didn't happen,

because they're asking questions. They're like, now, Lord, why.

Were you able to make that look so easy? But

we struggled with it.

Why were you able to just kind of like snap

your fingers? And they're trying to they're trying to rationalize

these things, right, I mean, they truly want to know

because they do not have the benefit of looking back,

But they also don't have the hindrance of looking back.

They're still figuring out who Jesus is at this point.

They're still figuring out if he's really the Messiah. They're

still processing those things. They know he's Rabbi, they know

he's special, they know he's anointed, but they don't quite

yet know if he's Messiah, even those that are close

to him. So they're still trying to rationalize. Now, when

we read this story and we look back at it,

this is what our brains say, because this is the

filter we have. Well, they couldn't do it, but he

did it because he's the son of God, and no

matter what he asks, it's going to happen because he's

the son of God. Wrong, that's not what was happening here.

And Jesus is about to explain it to them. He's

about to give them tools to move to a new.

Depth of spiritual understanding.

He's about to give them tools because he's not going

to be there.

Forever walking in the flesh.

And in verse twenty nine, he says, and when he

had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately,

couldn't we cast it out?

Jesus, why why? Why? Why were we embarrassed? And you weren't.

What was different about you in that situation than us

in that situation?

And in a roundabout way, Jesus said, belief. He said belief.

He said, I've done the things to create the pathways

so that I don't have the same limiting filters in

my life you have in your life, he said. He said,

they come into the house and ask, right, why could

we not cast it out?

And he said to them this kind.

Talking about that spirit that vexxed that little boy and

his whole family. Listen, the spirit was physically attacking the

little boy, but he was emotionally attacking everyone around. Stop

thinking that because you may be the focus of the attack,

that you're the only one under attack. When you're under attack,

other people are under attack also, so on board them

into the situation. Get a little bit of their understanding.

Ask them how they see things and how they would

pray about things because it's affecting them. Also, if the

enemy really wants to throw punches at me, he doesn't

do anything to me because I don't care. Listen, I

can be sick and lay in the bed and I'm

fine laying in the bed.

I can be.

Broke and I'm okay going and finding out how to

make a few extra dollars. I just don't care. That's

just the way I think about things. I am engaged

in the moment because Jesus is living in the moment. Well, boy,

my wife comes down with the flu and it turns

my world upside down. If he wants to make me

feel bad, he doesn't try to attack me. He'll make

my wife, I'm sorry, baby, wake up grumpy. And if

she wakes up grumpy, somebody's.

Gonna hear about it.

Usually, Master Clay, not that my wife is grumpy, but

that he is. What's wrong with the world right, Stop

trying to live through everything alone, saying woe is me,

I'm the only one that this is happening. Too, I'm

the only one that's being attacked. Invite people into your struggle.

Invite people into what's happening so that they can also

bring the benefit of their perspective. Jesus said, hey, this

one comes out by only prayer and fasting. And why

did he mention prayer and fasting because those two things

change our belief system. Those are two things that change

our belief system. If you pray, if you spend time

with God, it will begin to alter what you believe

about God, not what you read about God, not what

everybody else says about God, but at the very core

of who you are, in the filter of your brain,

what you really truly believe about God.

Because the reality is zero.

Percent of us, get your feelings hurt and send an

email to Gary at seastone dot TV. It's fine, every

single one of us doesn't really have our belief system

right about God. Some of us believe he's more generous

than he really is. Some of us believe he's more

punishing than he really is. Some of us believe that

he's just out there somewhere, but he's not really involved.

And we show that by that knee jerk reaction that we.

Have when circumstance happens, that's what we really believe.

That immediate gut, that slice, that that that initial reaction

is what we really believe about.

God in those situations.

But when we pray and we spend time with God,

we begin to learn more about his character and nature.

We begin to learn about who he truly.

Is, and how much he cares, what makes him mad,

and what makes him glad. Listen, God talks to me

rough sometimes, because sometimes I need to be talked too rough.

I've told you all the story about being in my

basement that day just praying.

I was.

I was so spiritually. I was just, Oh, I was.

I was on it. I was like Pentecostal on it,

come on somebody. And I was like, Oh God, just

rolling in the floor in my basis.

Oh God, heal the sick, Oh God.

Feed the hungry. I mean, I was just I was wailing.

This went on for a few minutes and God faly

said shut up.

And I said what he said, do not ask me.

To do something I've already told you to do. He said,

stop asking me to feed the hungry, go feed them.

Stop asking me to clothe the neck. And I've already

told you to go do it. But I had a

belief system that God shattered because I spent time with

him in my false religiosity. He punctured that veil, and

he said, this is who I really am.

I'm the one.

Who calls my church and equips my church and believes

in my church to be able to accomplish it, to

accomplish what I.

Put it here for. He believes you.

Can accomplish all the things he's delegated to you.

He trusts you, and he knows you can. He knows

you will.

There is more we can do more, we can reach more.

We can make a bigger impact. We can influence our city,

we can influence our nation, We can influence the world

right here from Oakwood, in this building. We can be

influencers because God trusted us and sent us.

Here to do it. And he knows more about what's

in your heart than you know. So he said, prayer

and fasting.

He said, listen, when you fast, and you tell God,

I care more about you than a Reese's peanut buttercup.

Come on, now, I care more about you than a

PEPSI I care more about you. I'm willing to have.

Some hunger pains for you, Jesus, because you're my sustainer.

And I read in scripture that Moses went up on

the mountain for forty days, and when he came back down,

he didn't eat. He got mad, and he went back

up the mountain for forty more. I read about Israel

wandering in the wilderness, and all they got except for

one day, was this weird stuff that fell out of

the sky, and they gathered it up and they ate

it with no questions. God, I believe you can sustain.

And the moment you trust God on the primal level

for one of those primal desires in your life, for

one of those those self sufficiency things in your life,

the moment you can do that and engage in that,

it changes what you believe about God. It engages your

belief system and changes the filters in a moment. Starting

in February, we' we have our twenty one days of

prayer coming up, and we want you to participate in

twenty one days of prayer. If you want to add

fasting to it, fantastic. I'm not calling you to a fast,

because if I call you to a fast, you're gonna put.

All the religious part of it.

And you're gonna fight about what you're supposed to not

eat and what you are supposed to eat. And that

is the most When we used to do that, that

was the most miserable twenty one.

Days in my life.

I would have people text me and call me and

say I was at the restaurant and so and so

was eating bread. And I would text back and say,

I don't care. Fast between them and God, not between

them and me.

Maybe they were fast.

In butter because they usually eat a pound of butter

with every slice of bread.

I don't know. Let me give you. Let me just

I just want to throw this out there, just real quick.

Daniel fast. Let me go ahead and clear it all

up for you. Okay.

We've turned it into this magic formula. Twenty one days.

You don't eat anything that was on the king's table.

You don't eat this, you don't eat that.

Let me tell you something.

Daniel fasted that way because it was the only way

he could fast. Those were the things he had to

give up, So he gave them up, and he fasted

for twenty one one days. Not because there's anything mystical

about it. His answer came on the twenty first day.

He got his miracle on day twenty one day. If

his answer had come on day thirteen, we would be

doing up thirteen day, Daniel Fast. We take the wrong

principles from scripture and apply them because we want formula,

because formula.

Says it's going to work.

And I don't have to believe differently about anything. I

can still stay insecure, I can still stay fearful, I

can still stay in all of those things because if

I just do two plus two, it's gonna work.

It won't.

It's about changing how we really believe about God. God

can't forgive me. What does scripture say? God can't really

heal me? What does the Bible say? And until we

destroy that limiting belief, will never be able to step

from belief to faith. Some of you have been living

in wishful thinking rather than faith. But when our beliefs

get right, faith comes automatically. If I really believe God

is who he says he is, I don't have any

choice but to have faith. Faith shouldn't be effort. It

should be a response, and it should be an action.

So here's what we're gonna do. I believe that all

the way across the board, one of the things that

gods can come on and get ready if you want

to pastor clay all the way across the board. I

think that one of the things we need to get

right as a church is we need to shatter this

limiting belief of God does it for others, but he

doesn't do it for me. That God will bless somebody

else his business, but he won't bless mine. God put

his hand on that person to start a business, but

he won't put his hand on me to start my business.

God help them come listen.

My story of overcoming addiction is not your story of addiction.

Of overcoming addiction, but the story is overcoming addiction.

Not the how, but that it happened.

You may fight it for twenty years. I fought it

for twenty seconds. Does it make me better or worse

than you? God trusts you more to go through a

longer testimony process, but He will set you free. So

let's get rid of those limited beliefs that says God

will do it for others but not for us. And

now here's where, here's how this year is going to

be different than the other years. The answer most of

the time in Pentecostal churches is Now, let's.

Come to the all.

I'm going to shake the Holy Ghost into you and

everything is going to be okay. Now, I'm still about

to lay hands on you, but we're adding too.

Because I want your belief system to be right. So

here's a.

Here's an exercise that we're going to do every single

day with our families. I'm asking you, for two minutes

a day, fourteen minutes a week for you to prioritize

shattering limiting beliefs in your life. And it's a series

of three questions that by yourself, with your wife, if

you don't have.

Kids yet, with your kids, if you're.

A parent, if your grandkids live in the house, with you,

with your grandkids, whoever is in your circle of influence.

I need you to find a place to sit down

for two minutes every single day and ask these questions,

what is one thing we're thankful for today? Because if

you start looking for the things you're thankful for, some

people have already caught on it. Go ahead and get

your your throne out and take a picture of that.

So you have these questions, we're gonna send them to

you too. You're gonna hear about these things over and

over and over again. What is one thing we're thankful

for today? Rather than coming home and talking about how

tired we are and how exhausted we are, We're going

to seize the moment to change the narrative and say, God,

I thank you that I had a job, that I'm

able to pay the bills. God, thank you for the

opportunity of supply. God, We've been in the hospital four

times this week at the emergency room, but we weren't today,

And I thank you for divine help today. And by

shifting the narrative, it starts training our minds to look

for what God is doing rather than what he's not doing,

for what I do have rather than what I don't have.

And suddenly we begin to.

Think about God in a whole different way. You know what,

He's doing something for me every day. He's doing something

for me every hour. And because we're talking about it

with our families, listen, your kids are going through this

exercise every day too. Your kids are getting these exact

same things in kids Church. Right now, they're gonna come

home and they're gonna be ready for this activity, and

every single week they're gonna practice this in all their gatherings.

You're gonna practice it in all your gatherings. What is

one thing I'm thankful for? I thank God.

That you're here.

Today because this is the beginning of the most significant

life change you're ever going to have. That's what I'm

thankful for. Number two, Where did we notice God today?

Even in the small things?

You know, that car pulled out in front of me

and I didn't flip them off today.

God, you were right there in the car with me.

All.

Hey, you know before I told you how much I'm

thankful for.

My job, but you showed up in that moment where

I could have ruined it all you showed up and

I held my tongue.

God, you're showing up for me.

You're not just doing things, but you're showing up for

me every single day.

And the last thing, is there anything coming up where

we need to ask God for peace? Wisdom?

Is there anything on the horizon that we really need

God to bring us through. Mama's got a doctor's appointment

about that thing, and it's coming up, and I know

everybody's a little anxious.

So God, can you give us peace about it?

If you're not practicing family devotion, this is a great

place to start if you are added to it.

If you're getting your.

Kids up and listen, If you're that family that gets

your kids up and gets them ready, and you know

you're not just like chasing them to the car with

a belt because you're gonna be late, right, do this

in the morning, first thing in the morning.

It sets the day.

If you're not that family, when you sit down to dinner,

do this then, because it reframes the day. It doesn't

matter when you do it, as long as it is consistent.

And if you do it can consistently, you will stop

thinking that God does it for other people and not

for me.

Maybe you're here today.

Though, and you don't even have a relationship with Jesus yet,

you don't even really know what to think or what

to believe. In One Corinthians, chapter five, verse seventeen, it says, therefore,

if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

If you're here.

And the filter of your mind is so bogged down

with the hurt, with the embarrassment and the shame of yesterday,

Jesus says, just come to me, Come to me, I

will wash away the guilt and the shame and the

hurt and the brokenness with my blood, and I will

make you a new creation with your feet on solid ground,

that can look ahead to what's new and what's better.

Today is your moment, This is your moment in time.

Just start moving in the direction that God has for you.

I'm gonna ask every head about every eye closed, and

if you're here today and you'll say, Pastor, I'm.

Struggling with something. I'm struggling with.

A bad mindset. I'm struggling with these limiting beliefs. I'm

struggling with addiction. I'm struggling with sickness. I'm struggling with

just filling the blank. I'm just struggling. If that's you

slip around and saying that's me, Pastor, I'm struggling and

I need freedom.

Amen.

Amen, Amen, Amen, there's two or three more wre I'm

not gonna move from here until you put your hands up.

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen.

You put your hands down. You know there's a few more.

You can open your eyes. There's a few more people

that didn't raise your hand. But in just a moment,

the Holy Spirit's gonna start pulling on your heart. You're

gonna realize you should have That's okay. The altars open

for you whether you raise your hand or not. But

everybody's staying with me all over the room. I want

the altar team to come unless you raise your hand

and you're responding to the altar call.

If you're responding to the altar call, don't come now.

Some of y'all just flipped out.

Yeah, people that work on the altar team need to

come to the altar sometimes too. Sometimes people on the

stage need to come to the need to come to.

The altar because God's still working on us all.

Now. If you're here, then you raise your hand. It

doesn't matter what it was for you're here and you

want to meet Jesus for the very first time. You

want to ask him to forgive you of your sins,

be the lord of your life. You want him to

smash those beliefs.

To heal you. But it doesn't matter what it was.

I'm going to count to three, and when I get

to three, I want you to step out from where

you are and make your way to the front. Don't

look to see if anybody else is moving. This is

not about them. This is about you. It's on the

count of three. If you need the Lord to do

something for it a step out and move.

One, two three, step out and move right. Now, come on,

come on, come on, come on, come on, come on,