Welcome To Mountain View Online

[Music] so [Music] hey everybody welcome to mountain view church we're so glad that you are here today it's awesome to be in church i'm so excited to be here thank you to all those joining us online let us know where you're watching from and to all those in the room welcome make sure you share the celebration tag some friends send them a text message invite them to church with you today because uh it's gonna be a great day we got a powerful message some amazing worship you do not want to miss it and you don't want your friends and family to miss it so invite them right now comment down below tag them send them an email whatever it takes but say you got to be at church with me today yes hey we have uh something cool coming up marriage conference let's go it's a one-day event it's uh 9 00 a.m to 3 p.m it does have a cost but we're excited about it it's gonna be so i've heard it's gonna be rad it's gonna be it's gonna be a rad day out it's gonna be uh september 25th you don't want to miss it saturday from nine to three uh what better way to spend a saturday right what better way to spend anything in your marriage and work on your marriage to grow closer to one another uh and i think you don't want to miss this i actually know you don't want to miss this so make sure you go to nv.church forward slash events or you can use our app and register right now there's even breakouts you can choose there's going to be guest speakers games food it's going to be so fun so check it out right now and if you don't have the app you need to download it um you can find it on any app platform from your phone if you're in the auditorium you can scan the qr code in front of you and um get get connected to events that way yeah definitely hey we've also got some coming out this friday you do not i'm not yeah i'm gonna say this everyone listen right now you do not want to miss this friday we got praise party let's go it's gonna be bananas yes there's gonna be a parking lot party before the praise party we're having a party before the party and a party after the party yes and we're having an after party in the courtyard so we're just gonna be partying all night long but praising jesus and it's gonna be incredible starts at 5 30 outside in the parking lot we'll open doors 15 minutes before it starts so make sure you're here so you can get a good seat it's going to be awesome we have some amazing stuff for you you guys do not want to miss it hot dog eating contest at 5 00 around 5 30 uh at the pre-party i'm going to miss it there's away hot dogs we're giving away merch we're going to have so much fun online you can join us as well at 5 30 mbonline.churchfacebook.com.church or on youtube check it out you don't want to miss it invite your friends invite your family invite your co-workers invent every person your granny anybody that could that you know just say you got to be here with me praise parties yeah so this is for all uh ages we have the students um joining us in the room it's gonna be fun all generations worshipping together come hang out with us let's party together there ain't no party like an envy party because an envy party don't stop that's right girl yeah and we um are gonna play a game let's do it so like a little preview to praise parties and some of us have grown up in church right not everybody grows up in church but we have some old church photos let's go uh that we thought would be fun so we're gonna show these here and if you're in the room take a guess at who you think this is yes definitely if you're online or online put it in the chat yeah put it in the chat let's see there's two hammers this one is recognizable and it looks like it's arizona right it does kind of i don't know if it's here though that's miss amy it is miss amy she looks the same okay oh man this is a little handsome booger the one in the middle the one in the middle this is you that is this is pastor jeff i was probably five years old in a church play at that point and my mom painted did like cheeks oh yeah that looks just like your oldest son all right this one there's a lot of flowers in this there's a lot of floral uh uh i think was this the 80s look at look at that hair 1990s okay uh who is this one it is miss christina duhain who's outreach here mountain view yeah so cute she's on far right let's see what's the next one all right this one's easy this is miss maddie she is our kids director she is she is awesome she leads worship every week and she's awesome if your kids are nimby kids you know her she's amazing oh my goodness who is oh is that the guy on the right yeah no no they're great no uh don't lost one of the hosts here and also one of our students as well yeah oh there he is again with his dad who is that handsome man on the right oh my goodness that looks like anybody have a guess that's rev d all right last one is this is porphyria he's our next gym yeah yeah he looks happy there he he actually grew up here he did church he basically he he probably lives here somewhere he's probably got a hidden room somewhere in this in this building yeah hey we are so excited the celebration is about to begin okay that was fun playing that game but let's let's get to the party atmosphere the party starts right now ready to stand with us we're gonna worship together here from god's word we're gonna celebrate jesus i want you stand right now let's go what is up mountain view church my name is caleb we have a few truths that we would love to sing with you guys today so if you're watching online or if you're in the room we would love it if you guys would sing with us come on just one [Music] call the storm word surrounds me just one word the darkness has to retreat just one touch i feel the presence of pain just one touch my eyes [Music] oh the name that makes away there's nothing that our god can't do just one word you hear what's broken inside [Music] just one way and you revive every just dream touch i feel the power of baby oh there's nothing that i can't do [Music] there's no power like the power of jesus let faith there's no power like the power of jesus i will believe for greater fate there's no power like the power of jesus their faith arises there's no power like the power of jesus there's no power like the power of jesus is [Music] god [Music] there's no scene you can't carry even when it looks like mine [Music] i won't let it define me no not this time no not this time and i'm taking myself for grace [Music] no longer [Music] even when it's hard to let go [Music] and i know lift [Music] [Music] put it in the ground everything that i was i am laying it down put it in the ground put it in the ground everything that i was i [Music] now now this freedom i know who i am [Music] [Music] shame in the ground i'm [Music] cause [Music] i can't go back to the beginning [Music] i can't control what tomorrow will bring but i know here in the middle is the place where you promise to be [Music] unless you come will you meet me here again cause all i want is all you are will you meet me [Music] come on sing as we walk in the valley [Music] let your love rise [Music] unless you come will you beat me here again [Music] [Applause] [Music] come will you leave me here again [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] the is the lord is in this place is [Music] i'm not enough unless you come will you meet me here again cause all i want is all you are will you meet me here again [Music] man thank you guys so much for singing with us you know that song we're just saying i love it it's one of my favorite songs and i shared this uh with the team a while back but that song part of what that song talks about is uh it says that part of our faith is about awareness you know it all comes down to what we fix our eyes on and when we choose to fix our eyes on god no matter what we're walking through whether it's a good day bad day whatever it is we start to realize that god has been here the whole time god he never left us he's always been here he's always been faithful but guys we have to be faithful to god in return guys that is why we give see because of your generosity lives are changed we couldn't make things like what we do here we couldn't make not just this environment but our kids environment we couldn't make that happen without your generosity we couldn't have people pouring into your kids each and every week because of your generosity me personally i get to leave worship for our student ministries on wednesday nights and it's because of your generosity that we get to have that environment and i'm so thankful for that and guys that is something to celebrate today it's so exciting that we get to celebrate god's goodness through what you guys are giving so guys in a moment there's gonna be a link on the screen for a text to give in our online options and the moment the ushers are going to come forward to pass the buckets so guys let's continue to worship today by giving back to god of course let praise be a weapon that conquers all anxiety let it your rise in the dark and it changes everything we sing with all we are we claim your victory [Music] you cannot survive we praise you the god of breakthroughs that overcomes [Music] let it rise you cannot survive when we praise you come on put your hands up how many y'all got a phrase inside of you this morning come on i can't hold back my praise i gotta let it out i can't hold back my [Music] [Music] this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like this is what it sounds like we praise you we praise you this is is you cannot survive foreign we praise you we praise you amen let me give the lord a shout of praise today [Music] i'm praising like you believe it today i love that song because the song aligns up with scripture and it's talking to the israelites as god is speaking through joshua and he's giving them plans about the walls of jericho and he said you have to keep walking one time every six days but on that seventh day we're gonna have to make praise and part of the plan see praise is a very important weapon in our arsenal meaning when you're up against the wall where you're up against the giant sometimes you can praise your way through it sometimes you can praise your way around it sometimes you're over it but you have to make praise and part of the plan in fact that's what it says in psalms 100 without praise and without gratitude you're not getting past the gate and some of you are up against a wall you're up against a a chasm maybe you've got a door in front of you you want to open and god's just saying if you start praising then i'll start working if you'll start worshiping then i'll start moving you got to make praise a part of your weaponry in a part of your your arsenal day come on church if you believe that praise is a part of the plan or you need to make praise and part of the plan then let's do it right now let's lift those hands open his mouth this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like we praise you we praise you this is what freedom feels like we pray is amen hey man father we're praising our way through it we're praying our way over it because we believe that we've got the one two put a punch of prayer and praise then we can overcome whatever it is that's overcoming us we can celebrate through chains and the chaos praise ourself out of the pit or the prison or even into the palace we can gratitude or be grateful to get us through the gate so we're bringing our best praise for so much to sacrifice for others man they just come because they're just they're glad to be alive man they've already been through some stuff and they're on the other side of it so they're grateful whatever side of the storm we are in or or whatever boat we are on that's rocking right now we're going to keep praise we're going to fix our eyes upon jesus the author and the finisher the perfecter of our faith we believe that today god we're excited about the word of god we believe there's going to be some releasing today some freedom today there's going to be some chains breaking today some addictions being abolished we believe that we believe that we also want to pray for our friends today is we've got people all over the country in the world watching mountain view right now we're praying for our friends down in the mississippi delta area the new orleans area lord we are praying that you will speak stillness over that storm we believe you can do that peace be still we prayed the storm would dissipate our friends would be safe we're praying for that today lord there's others that are in a metaphorical storm right now and we're saying the same thing to them peace be still you are a great god the fact that you allow us to come into this house today in the greatest country in the world we're grateful for so lord we pray for every military man every every every police officer anybody that's on the front lines we're praying for their protection wisdom to be given to our government surround them with godly people peace be still you are a great god and you are greatly to be praised so all of god's people gave one last shout of praise amen amen and amen man go ahead and have a seat i'm glad you guys are here today on the last sunday of august 2021 some of y'all don't even know that next week is september i know because my birthday's this week hey listen i want to say uh hi to all those watching online i know that you guys hear me say that often but we have a special group of people that have been watching us from uh british columbia canada and they don't have a pastor so i heard that they've been tuning in to mountain view weekly we just want to say hi this group of people right here everybody turn on say hey to our canadian friends uh we don't know you personally i haven't met you yet we look forward to that day where we can build a bigger table that crosses the uh the international borders and we can come meet all of our friends up there uh in in canada so thank you for joining with us stay engaged uh with us through uh the message and and you always get more out of it when you do others of you maybe you're down in old mexico or wherever you're at it's just an honor that you'd be here man i am glad you guys are here and i'm excited about this week this week because this week y'all on friday night is gonna go bananas up in here because we are having our praise party and there ain't no party like a mountain view party cause a mountain view party that's right we ain't leaving until six in the morning so what you gonna do that's what i'm telling you right now you don't got to go home but you can't stay here because we have to clean up after midnight so i'm just telling you guys we're excited about our praise party man we're going to have so much fun it starts at 5 30 we're gonna have the pre-party a hot dog eating contest yeah and then we're going to have an after party i mean we cover the the the before the durian and the after party we're just going to party we're going to party because that's what we do here in mountain view we celebrate because we live on the resurrection side of the cross yeah they're saying a funeral this is a celebration that our god is not dead he is alive so we're gonna be doing that uh this friday night so it's a lot of fun um we're in a little short sermon series called own worst enemy and i don't know about you but i have discovered that i am my own worst enemy that if i kick the person in the backside who is most responsible for my troubles i would not sit down for a month and i think that's true about you as well and the title of today's message is turn down the volume turn down the volume and over the the past few years i have been on a personal quest and you guys have been on that journey with me whether you know it or not but i have been on this quest to discover what's wrong with me and a few years ago i even wrote a book called the monsters in me the monster is me and what i've discovered over the past couple years through several dozen different books that i have read on emotional health and in mental health or brain health is that i am my own worst enemy and that if i can change my thinking that i can realistically change my life because almost all of life's battles are won or lost in the mind john milton said the mind is its own place it can make heaven of hell in hell of heaven and that's why solomon and i love when when science finally catches up with scripture because in the scripture it tells us in proverbs 23 7 that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he so along this journey on emotional health and mental health i've learned a lot about the brain and the brain truly is a remarkable creation but it's also a big jerk your brain is wired towards negativity in other words left to its own devices your brain is bent towards fight fight or freeze well why it's a protection mechanism which makes complete sense in the animal kingdom but unless it's black friday at kohl's or black friday at target you and i don't live in the animal kingdom but the bible is very clear if you don't change the way you think you will never change the way you live because you cannot think negative thoughts and expect to live a positive life so last week i told you about john acuff and he he did a study to ask people if they struggle with overthinking and 99.5 of the people he surveyed responded with resounding yes and for those of you don't know what overthinking is it's when your brain is marinating or ruminating on a thought or a conversation or an email or a text longer than you anticipated and when that happens all of a sudden it's creating this perfect storm in the brain we are now experiencing unnecessary fear or unnecessary worry or or loneliness or insecurity or anxiety and god does not want his children to be spiritually strong but emotionally or mentally weak god wants his children to take a super problem and turn it into a superpower how by thinking about what we are thinking about not chancing our thoughts but getting up every morning and choosing our thoughts because every habit begins with the first time every pattern with a first line every journey with the first step every action begins with a first thought because listen we don't see the world as it is we see the world as we think it is and the stories that we tell ourselves eventually become the situations that we find ourselves in so last week i ended the message by saying that thoughts are like logs that are floating down the river another way that i explain it is is it you can't control all the birds that you have flying around in your mind but you can't control whether you let them land and all of us are going to have unwanted thoughts or we have unnecessary anxiety that goes through our mind but you and i get to choose are we going to stack up these longs are we going to let them stack up themselves so they build a dam which is up creating a swamp are we going to choose to eliminate the bad ones by asking is this thought kind is this thought true is this thought helpful does this thought pass to philippians 4 8 test which i encourage you to memorize philippians 4 8 would i say this thought to a friend if i did say this to a friend or if i keep saying this to a friend will i have any friends because we need to let these negative thoughts pass or they stack up and the waters of peace cannot flow freely here's the the good thing about all this it's not about ignoring or denying our thoughts and emotions in fact they say that the the power of positive thinking actually doesn't work in fact they say that you're actually i take to say you're actually healthier in the long term if you're more of a pessimist or realist at least can we say amen to all the realists in here today because y'all been making us feel bad for all these years because the power of you know positive thinking you're not acknowledging there's some hurt here or there's some anger here you have to acknowledge that you can't will your way through it you have to acknowledge that this pain is real however you can separate yourself from what the motion or say i may think this but this is not who i am i may feel this but this is just a feeling in feelings come or go so i'm labeling it and i'm acknowledging it but i'm also letting it pass in other words i'm holding on to these feelings and emotions and these thoughts loosely because i'm observing them for just what they are they're just thoughts they're just emotions they're just feelings they are not who i am now that sounds like a wonderful process and last week man we were catching thoughts like oh i caught a thought and i imagine all week long you were like oh i caught a thought i caught a thought and then you went to work on monday and as you were capturing thoughts you ran into that co-worker at the coffee machine are you into the coffee machine and there wasn't no coffee or maybe you lost an account or maybe you got stuck in traffic or maybe you received an unwanted text or email or an uninvited guest showed up your house or maybe you had to stop at circle k when you really wanted to go to qut but there's no qt in sight so instead of catching our thoughts we got caught in a thought how many of you got caught in a thought last week yeah it happens because yes the weapons that we fight with are not of this world but neither is our overthinking our overthinking is persistent it's evasive and i'll be honest with you it tends to laugh at me when i'm trying to shoot away and some days i win but other days i lose because the same thought that i thought i blew up yesterday rushes back in and it brought with it a few of his unwelcome friends and some of my thoughts they have an ungodly amount of frequent floater miles so as i've been on this journey of reasoning reading all of these books i began to read about mental health and i read a book written by dr caroline leaf called switch on your brain and there it was i thought i had found my answer yes there's a switch yeah and if i can just find that switch all i have to do is go like doo doo and now listen i can turn off all my negative thoughts forever and some of you are living the very same way today if i can just find that one book or i can just get that one exercise or that one diet or that one man or that one woman or that one job or that one more change or one more article of clothing or one more hit or one more drink i can find the switch and my life will be different in the switch it's different for all of us it's any positive thing that we assume is going to deliver instant silence but here's what i discovered there is no switch but there is a dial and for all of you enneagram ones out there today are all of you perfectionists breathe easy because you may not be able to turn it off forever but yet you can get up e every single day and turn down the volume so when negative thoughts come and they will you and i get the choice to turn them down now that takes the pressure off of us because when you hear that thought again or you have that emotion again or you have that feeling again all of a sudden you assume that you've failed no no no you haven't failed it's just a sign to you you need to take action and turn the volume down which is what i find myself saying more and more and more as i approach the age of 42. turn the volume down i never thought i would say that i never thought i would be the one yelling at my kids to turn the volume down because that's what my dad used to say to me do we have anybody here today who understands what i'm talking about at some point all of a sudden your ears get sensitive things they weren't sensitive two years ago so every single day of my life i find myself yelling at my kids turn the volume down because noise creates chaos in chaos clouds are judgment you see in our brains there's this little almond shaped nuclei known as the amygdala and the amygdala is actually a very helpful part of the brain because it's wired for survival the amygdala is what makes us run from things that might be potentially dangerous for instance when you see a snake your amygdala says ah scream like a little girl and run for your life it's a good thing i mean because if you're in bed in the middle of the night you hear a loud noise your amygdala says listen you need to grab your wife's three hair brushes that she has on the nightstand or the one million hair bands put them together and channel your inner chuck norris the amygdala only has one job and that is to protect but there's another part of the brain called the free front the prefrontal cortex is what we call the logical part of the brain the prefrontal cortex actually speaks up when the amygdala gets out of control so now when you hear a noise in the middle of the night your amygdala shouts you're going to die you're going to die but the prefrontal cortex says no no no it's probably just the cat and then your next thought from the prefrontal cortex is determining how do i get rid of that stupid cat which is something i should have done years ago to keep that little demon from discaring my amygdala half to death in the middle of the night i love offending the cat people in here today because y'all send the best emails y'all are vile people and i just let it entertain me he doesn't irritate me anymore a few decades ago neurologists believe that the brain doesn't change after adolescence in other words that after a certain age about the age of 12 or 14 that your brain was fixed well we know today that the brain is constantly changing because that's a great thing because believe it or not people used to smoke a pack of camels before they ran a marathon because they thought that smoking opened up your blood vessels the capillaries and all of a sudden the blood could flow more smoothly so you would smoke before you ran a marathon thank the lord that we have changed our thinking on that because people were dropping dead at 26.1 miles so we've understood that the brain is always changing it's rewiring itself and i love when when science catches up with scripture because it's good news that the bible tells us in romans 12 2 that you and i get to think godly thoughts every day and that in itself is renewing our mind thus renewing our thoughts thus renewing and changing our life so they came up with a new term called neurotheology it's actually a scientific medical term neural theology is the study of the brain in its belief in god but guess what paul already wrote about this in colossians chapter 3. so let's read it together colossians chapter 3 he's writing to the church of colossae since then you have been raised with christ set your hearts now you have to understand in their grecian way of thinking they considered the heart to be the seat of emotions like the center of their being so paul is talking to them and made in the image of god is this trying triune being this mind body and soul and he said first of all you need to set your thoughts you need to set your feelings you need to set your emotions on things above where christ is seated at the right hand of god set your mind which is in their thinking the seat of intellect so now it's your feelings and your thoughts on things above not on earthly things for you died and your life is now hidden with christ and god now i'm going to skip to verse five here i'm going to skip a few just for the sake of clarity and time put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature sexual immorality impurity lust evil desires and greed which is idolatry verse 8 but now you must also rid yourself of all such things as these anger rage malice slander and filthy language from your lips do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in the the knowledge in the image of its creator so again in this passage god apollo sent my mind body soul your entire being because you're made in the image of god let's go verse 12. therefore it's god's chosen people holy and dearly beloved clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience bear with each other and forgive one of you you guys are noticing that some are bolded in a talus telesees something like that you guys know what i'm talking about can you see that behind me that's that's intentional pay attention to all those bear with each other and forget one other if any of you has a grievance against someone forgive as the lord forgave you and all over all these things these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect heart unity verse 15 let the peace of christ rule in your heart since as members of one body you were called to peace and be thankful let the message of christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish or admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms and hymns and songs from the spirit singing to god with gratitude in your hearts and whatever you do whether in word or deed do it all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through him now i feel like the lord is telling me we need to go to verse 18 for some reason so let's just read verse 18 together wives submit yourself to your husbands that's fitting into the lord has nothing to do with what we just read i thought i would just throw that in for the fellas in the room has nothing to do with the first 17 verses but i'm like hey let's just go for it paul says in order for us to change our life two things must be involved the supernatural and the natural god does his part and we do our part we work like it depends upon us but we pray like it depends upon god because miracles often happen on main street where grit and grace are intersecting in other words there are no cheat codes it's not magic that makes it work it's the way that we work that makes it magic because check this out between the stimuli and that is whatever event it could be somebody getting mad at you it could be an email it could be an awkward conversation that's the stimuli and now the sudden you have a response and in between the stimuli and the response is a space and that space is the power to choose and it may be the most power that god gives to his children the power to understand i can make the choice whether it's to rejoice or whether it's to get angry whether it's to forgive or whether to get bitter you and i have the choice how will we respond to the event that just happened to us and god says that power is the most power that you may ever have in your life the power to choose our actions and i bolded things and i italic italicized things or underlying things for a reason because those are all the things that you and i are required to do and when you went through there you will see that most of the onus and responsibility falls upon us let me back up i 100 believe in miracles amen god could speak something into existence today he can make the land lame walk the blind see god has the ability to knock down the wall and to loosen the chains god has done it before and he's going to do it again and i pray it's today but most of the time those miracles come dressed in overalls covered in sweat and look a whole lot like work because james 1 22 says don't just listen to god's word do what it says otherwise you are only fooling yourselves one of the most remarkable miracles in the gospels and i love the gospel of john man there are seven action-packed miracles y'all got to get into the word of god oh the word of god is so good i wake up in the morning i just rub the word of god i love me i learn it because it's by osmosis or the fusion but i'm going to get this thing in me and i love the gospel of john he's talking about these seven miracles and one of the most remarkable miracles in the gospel of john is a man who had not taken a single step in 38 years 38 years he has not put one foot in front of the other but in john chapter 5 jesus arrives on the scene and he asks him what first appears to be a insensitive question oh that's too nice an offensive question have y'all ever noticed how offensive jesus is i mean he's defending everybody he had 500 apostles he ends up with 12. he's like does this offend you why because leadership is offensive teaching is offensive preaching can be somewhat offensive so jesus asked what appears to be a heartless question do you want to get well is this question even necessary he'd been laying on a mat for 38 years of course this man wants to be well but not so fast because the man did not answer jesus in the way that you and i would think he would he answers jesus with an excuse do you want to get well well when the water starts to stir i have no one to help me into the waters i'm about to defend you guys i have learned that in 24 years of ministry that not everyone who asks for help wants to get well not everyone who's down wants to get up not everyone who complains about their weight wants to lose it not everyone who harvests about breaking a habit actually wants to break it because some people roll up to church every sunday and you got no desire to change that you come to feel better but not get better you come to be comforted but not necessarily be confronted [Music] so kurt cobain once said i mean you know i'm a lyrical gangster when i'm up here like do we got like biggie and tupac and and is it snoop dogg and now it's kurt copeland he said he said he said watch us i miss the comfort of being sad because some of y'all are addicted to your affliction you love guilt even though you're not built for guilt that's why you experience tension you love sadness it's like melatonin to your soul the more that you cry the more that you are a victim the more that you whine the more that you have an excuses it's like a warm blanket straight out of the dryer and you can just huddle up in the corner and feel sorry nobody likes me everybody hates me i guess i'll go eat worms nobody knows the trouble i've been through nobody but jesus and that's where we find ourselves in john chapter five he he he was he was just conf he was just overcome with this he loved being the victim he said how do you know that because the greek word used to describe this man's situation is astathanaea so what does that mean it means sickness or weakness whatever he had it was not paralysis so jesus asked this man do you want to get well not do you want it to change not do you want your circumstance to change but i want to know today do you really want to change because the question was not one of ability but desire have you become so comfortable with the situation that you'd rather sit here and complain about it than do what it takes to be healed and jesus that's the weakest clap i've ever heard in my entire life help me out mama and granny if you're watching today can my people in canada give me some amen because jesus looks at you and i the very same way he looked at me and said do you really want to change do you really want to get well or do you really want to continue making an excuse because breakthrough always begins with you until the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change nothing would change because nothing changes until something changes and you will not be made well against your will and as long as we shift the blame we stay the same if we pass the buck we remain stuck so what i've learned through all of my studies over the past few years is that change starts with the choice and it may be one of the most powerful things that you and i have the gift of choice we can't control all the thoughts that fly through our mind but we can control whether we let them land or build a nest or to build a dam it's the gift of choice and mental health starts with realizing we do have the power to choose our emotions and miracles are often sparked by these simple choices that we make i will not let this define me yes this happened to me 38 years ago but i can't keep carrying this with me wherever i go these people don't care about it nor is it doing me any good at some point i have to make the choice and say yes i'm a victim but guess what i'm so much better now i'm so much healed it's the choice name it it sucks it hurts but i get to make the choice to move on i'm not letting that situation have power over my life anymore because let me show you this look like y'all be the the charismatic people over here and just shout me down because these baptist people over here they born they doing nothing for me i'm going to lean into y'all okay presbyterians in methodist y'all are in the middle just help these two out i'm an equal opportunity offender that's what i'm just saying in john chapter four we read about a royal official hit this exact opposite situation a royal fish in his son is dying he walks 16 miles to beg jesus to come heal his son now you would not get that if you don't understand the map of the geography of this land at first glance it seems that jesus doesn't care he's like offensive like come on jesus can you be generous and kind and compassionate for once because everybody says he didn't say that that was that was me but he does say unless you see miraculous signs and wonders you're never going to believe because most of us kind of like want miracles to fall like gun drops from the sky but sometimes god says you got to walk a long dusty 16 mile road to get to canaan because most of us pray for what we're unwilling to pay for oh you should have said that pastor why'd you say that because we ask for god to use us and then we complain when we feel used oh man i'll tell you what somebody better hey i'm gonna preach the scream back here today at least that guy likes he just so jesus says go your son will live you missed it a man who is desperately seeking help is asked to believe without one visible sign he has received and that's what faith does faith creates attention faith creates a dilemma between our part and god's part because if this man goes home with no visible sign of help and no visible jesus his wife's gonna say where did you go did you just go for a long walk there's no visible sign he did anything but yet if he hangs around there's no visible sign that he believes jesus so he's faced with the dilemma because you can't text mama back home and ask if the boy's healthy he didn't just live around the corner he's got to walk 16 lonely miles all lost in his thoughts all wondering is my walking working oh this is good let's read let's read about it y'all tired listen to me let's listen to the jesus listen the word of god the man took jesus at his word everybody say out of his word he took jesus at his word and departed watch his watching verses we have god's part jesus spoke and now we have our part he did the walking and while he was still everybody say steal this is so good while he was still in his way the servants met him with the news that his boy was living when he inquired to ask you the time when his son got better they said to him yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him then the father realized this was the exact time that jesus has said to him your son will live somewhere along that old dusty road he saw his servants shouting master your servant is healed and after comparing uh iphone watches i don't know if they had them uh beepers didn't have those sundials they realized the miracle happened at the exact time that jesus said the boy will be healed he walked god worked oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no pastor i've been walking a long time and i'm at the end of my rope i don't feel like i'm walking any further and i don't even know what peace looks like anymore i get it i understand man it's hard it's difficult when you've been walking 16 miles or 16 years and you don't feel like you're walking it's working but maybe god's not asking you to walk 16 miles today maybe god's just asking you to walk seven and a half feet so what are you talking about in john chapter 21 jesus is on the shore his disciples are out at sea again jesus asked what looks like a ridiculous question have you caught any fish now there's nothing worse for a fisherman than having to admit we fished all night and we caught nothing but miracles are the miraculous often starts with the ridiculous because jesus shouted back try the other side now let me break this down for you it was only seven and a half feet from one side of the boat to the other do you really think the fish are hiding on the other side of the boat because any fisherman will tell you it's gonna take a whole lot more than that but they obeyed and because they obeyed they were not able to haul in all of the miracles and all of the fish that god had brought with them let me just put an asterisk in here don't ask for miracles or blessings that you're not willing to haul because some of y'all asked for a kid and you got a kid yeah and they brought some burdens with them didn't they some of y'all asked for a man oh he brought his dysfunction with him some of y'all asked for a woman god gave you a woman but he also he gave you her mother and he gave you her sister this is so good don't ask for a miracle if you can't carry it because blessings bring weight but your miracle may only be seven and a half feet away although to you it feels more like 16 miles and it's the simple steps of obedience that often take the most faith so i'm going to give you a few things and we've done this before but sometimes repetition is really what creates the change is i'm going to ask you to write down two things it's just two things and one is i'm gonna ask you do what you can do and you ask yourself in this moment right now is there anything i need to do you know in every situation and every problem and every demon that i face i ask myself three questions do i have to let god take care of this or do i need to let god take care of this do i need to do something about this or do i need to let them do something about this and you know where 90 of them lie i need to do something about this so i'm gonna do what i can do i'm asking some of these questions because believe it or not there are simple steps simple things that you and i can do every single day to turn the dial down i know what you're thinking today this is so elementary yeah you know what i think church should smell a whole lot less like a library and more like real life so i'm gonna give you some things here today they're so simple if i've got a health issue you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna go to the doctor then i'm going to exercise and then i'm going to eat right because you know that our body needs endorphins like fish need water i'm going to do what i can do if i've got a big exam coming up guess what i'm going to do i'm going to study i'm going to go to class i'm going to take notes and then i'm going to waffle house at three in the morning there's something about going to waldows at three in the morning that just helps us all remember things better if i've got a financial issue i'm gonna make a budget i'm gonna cut up some credit cards not to be more than i make if i'm lonely i'm gonna join a group i'm gonna volunteer are you gonna be voluntold by serving on the greeter team you're going to hang around here all weekend because i'm too i'm dope i got dope stories and it's just dope to hang around me so you're going to hang around church all sundays you're going to meet people if i'm depressed i'm going to admit my loss you see the majority of depression starts with grief that has never truly been dealt with this hurts distincts this isn't fair i'm admitting it i'm labeling it it stinks and then i'm gonna grieve then i'm gonna count my blessings i'm gonna celebrate what i have if i'm addicted i'm gonna get an accountability partner stop going to bars i'm gonna set a limit on my computer or maybe my tv usage where it shuts off after a certain time when everybody's in bed if i'm bitter i'm going to confess it i'm not going to repress it i'm going to admit it today if i'm feeling guilty i will be honest about the reason if i'm not feeling pretty i'm gonna get out of my pajamas and put on a belt that's a win cover taught us that i'm just gonna get up i'm gonna dress up i'm gonna go out and i'm gonna treat myself that'll make you feel better all but right now if i'm feeling crazy i'm going to go to the park and i'm going to chase the geese i'm going to turn the corner on her right now i'm going to chase them geese i'm going to yell at my squirrel and i'm going to i'm going to feel better simple steps that everybody can take turn on some music turn off the news go for a drive take a walk pet a puppy drink a pepsi caffeine is nectar of the gods if i'm if i'm sad about what's going on in the world i'm gonna google how rocky and rambo keep saving the world you will not be disappointed i'm to take a nap i'm going to get out a pen and a paper and i'm going to write a thank you note i'm going to turn on some 80s hair metal i'm going to take a bath and eat his snickers because that commercial was right gonna play duck hunt i'm gonna shoot the dog that's how much fun i'm gonna have i'm gonna turn on youtube and i'm gonna watch members of the military return from home and surprise their family [Applause] i'm going to call my mom or i'm not gonna call my mom whatever works for you because paul very clearly stated that if you and i want to get better we have to make the choice to get better we have to consciously do things that help us turn down the dial god can deliver in the day oh he's done it again or done it before and i hope he does it again but you have to back up that deliverance by creating healthy disciplines by establishing daily routines by breaking bad habits by establishing good habits because consistency beats intensity and the longer that you wait the harder it's going to get and i'm so amazed how many christians just over spiritualize things um well you asked sister wait a minute who just said that i'm gonna preach to you sister okay because there is a pastor would you pray for me to find a job yeah i'd love to pray for you find a job have you applied for any jobs no have you sent in any resumes no are you networking no well what are you doing well i'm trusting in jesus to send me a job that's great you can trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in jesus unless you get a resume and go apply for a job oh i'm preaching who's that where are we at over here somebody show me where yeah don't don't be shy hey pastor is that roger i said that roger pastor would you help me find a spouse sure are you going out to meet people no have you gotten on an online dating site no are you going to the gym no are you serving on the greeting team no what are you doing well i'm waiting on god to bring you my boaz well yo ass better get off the couch clean yourself up stop acting crazy as a har z hard z because god's not going to give you a man through amazon prime say this with me i will do what i can do and i'm going to trust god to do what only he can do according to cybernetic theory y'all didn't even know i knew that word cybernetic theory there are two types of change behavioral and conceptual you have actions and you have beliefs what we can do and what we believe god can do dr r.c sproul said the hard part of faith is not believing in god even the devil believes in god rather believing god because nothing reveals more about our belief than our actions and our prayers because the transcript of our prayers becomes the script of our lives and that's why paul told us in philippians chapter four do not be anxious about anything does that include the thing that you were overthinking about this week yeah but in every situation by prayer petition with thanksgiving present you're gonna just give it hear god give it to god give it to him and i think a lot of y'all do that i'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt you're a lot like me like we give it to god and we prayed about it but because you're a lot like me after a few hours or a few days you're like okay god do you really want me to handle this situation so god i'm just gonna take that back from you because you know i'm getting a little nervous it's taking longer than i thought so if you don't mind god i'm gonna handle this and paul said don't be anxious about it pray about it present it to god and leave it there prayer is a transfer of trust do you remember the new term that's been developed called neural theology dr leaf went on to say that 12 minutes of daily prayer over an eight week period changes the brain to such an extent that it can be measured on a brain scan prayer not only touches the heart of god but it changes the chemistry of the brain prayer heals and renews the mind when you go to bed counting your blessings it actually enhances your rem cycle praise is the exclamation point that starts today and prayer is the punctuation point that ends today and he says in verse 7 and the peace of god which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in christ jesus this is so awesome how do we experience peace we experience through the pathway or prayer but the problem is for so many of us prayer is a last resort ever heard anyone say all i can do now is pray can you imagine god gathering his angels in heaven around saying omg guys this is an emergency situation they're down to prayer they're so dead is not a last resort it's our first line of defense you and i as children of god can go boldly before the throne of gays to find helpless in her time of need and jesus said we should come before god with shameless boldness believing that whatever we ask in his name for his will out of his glory we will receive prayer not only moves god it changes us and our circumstances it tells your thoughts where to go and our mindset is determined by where we let our mind sit so now i'm going to give to god what i cannot do here's what i ever want to do and we talked about this before but it's so important you're going to go home you're going to find a box shoe box kleenex box amazon box whatever it is and you're going to write god on it and i wrote godbox just for clarity for you guys don't put god in a box just write god on the box and you're right god and every worry and every burden and every fear and every concern every anxiety whatever it is you're gonna write it on a piece of paper and you ask yourself is there anything i need to do about this if there is you're gonna do it if not you're gonna write on a piece of paper you're gonna open up you're gonna pray and say god i'm giving this to you i'm trusting you with this person i'm trusting you with the situation i caught a thought and i'm putting it in a box now let's just say that you wake up at two in the morning and you want to worry about it okay get out of bed go to your god box take out your worry and say okay god i don't trust this with you anymore because i think the problem is too big for you god i think your power is too small and the weight has been too long so god i think i can handle this better than you so i'm going to take this back go ahead and do that but i'm just going to tell you right now you're dumb because he can handle it a whole lot better than you acknowledge it you got to acknowledge your feelings and your emotions you have to acknowledge them write them down and then look at them from that perspective because you probably would feel different about it if you saw from a perspective a piece of paper not internalizing it as happening to you so write down give it to god and leave it there do what you can do and give to god what you cannot do because a mind of peace and a heart of joy a different life is possible but it starts with a choice and you choose where your thoughts will go you sure you choose where your your mind will go and you may not ever be able to completely turn it off let's just acknowledge that down now but you can turn it down and a few small adjust of the dial can make a huge difference in your life i was reading this week i like to read i don't think there's anything good on tv so i like to read and i think that reading is the gymnasium of the mind and so i was reading i try to read one or two books a week not all the time sometimes i get out the little golden books and i read them and it makes me feel better about myself but i was reading this week about age and something happens when you hit 40. i know y'all laugh at me if you're like you know you know jesus and stuff like that but the rest of us who are still young we're hitting that 40 mark and i told you like i'll be 42 this week like you start thinking about life differently he's like you can fight it all you want to but i was reading about age and it's its effect on the brain and they they did a study they they took a a two contr control groups out of college these 18 and 19 year old kids who who were new on the scene and they had they timed them which they did not know from entering the the doors to the uh to the building to uh the door to the classroom they were going in so they had two control groups uh one group they had to read they had them read about aging how what it feels like to get old another group they had them read about being young and then they timed them how long it would take them to leave to leave that door and get back to the door they came in it was remarkable those who read about age walked so much slower it was like two to four minutes i think longer it took to get from one door to the other than it took coming in but those who read about youth were like sprinting to the door and the point is it's not how old you are it's how old you think you are and how old you feel you are that makes all the difference in the world see what does it have to do because i'm telling you the thoughts that you consume are consuming and controlling you choose good ones did this help anybody in here today father we give you praise [Applause] oh because we battle in the mind and i pray today that we would realize we going we are going to have negative thoughts well let's just call them what they are they're just thoughts and emotions and not who we are we can't control what flies but we can control whether we let it land we can catch our thoughts and take them captive and lord i just pray that we will do that as children of god realize how much power we have in our choices but it also starts by acknowledging his lord of our life if we've never acknowledged you as lord of our life that's where it has to start so lord we admit we are not good enough to save ourselves we're dependent upon a savior and that's who jesus is he died to set us free rose again to give us a life of victory so lord we place all of our sins and all of our selfish in your hands we say lord forgive save me change me and empower me to live a life of victory by thinking new thoughts in jesus name amen god bless you guys amen amen thank you pastor for a powerful message amen amen hey this idea um with the god box is actually a really great idea we've done it in my family with my daughter who struggles with anxiety and so we'll she'll write it down we'll put it in here and then we'll pray about it and just say that's god's to figure out so man it's a bunch of quotes this message don't write them all down there's maybe a couple that we shouldn't write down just kidding uh but uh you know i view the holy spirit like an am radio station where you're you know pastor daniel's talking all about the noise of this life and the chaos noise his chaos and you go through that uh am radio station you hear all that static but then you get to that one station where you're locked into the holy spirit's voice and that's where we need to be but hey there's two things i want to let you guys know about that are coming up one is september 25th and that is our marriage conference yes it's going to be here on campus we'd love to have you guys there of course if you are married or engaged um what a great way to start start off your marriage and how many of you remember the the message title how many remember the message title what was it today what was it turn the volume down exactly and that's one thing that we are not going to do this friday night because it's the phrasing of the prayer party come on somebody you guys excited about it i'm excited about the praise party it's gonna be good it's gonna be good make sure that you guys are there it starts at 6 30 but we are starting stuff sooner than that the first 100 people get a free hot dog i'm going to suggest nathan's hot dogs because those are my favorite uh but until then we will see you guys friday night yes we are streaming it don't forget that online we'll see you guys there as well so we'll talk to you guys on friday night [Music]

Channel: Mountain View Church

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Id: le1Gwm8ua5k

Length: 79min 47sec (4787 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021