Abundance Mentality (Draft)

OUTLINE:

Introduction:

Message Title: How to Overcome Toxic Thoughts

Have you ever been consmumed by toxic thought, to a point to where it clouded your mind from seeing something clearly?

The lies Depression, Aniety, Fear, Worry, Insecurity, and other toxic thoughts can brainwash us, living in a state of delusion (rooted in a lie)

Delusion - a false belief of judgment about external reality

Example:

Self cutting

worthlessness

Lack of confidence

Comparison

Galatians 5:1 (LEB)

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

God’s Word promises a life of victory and freedom, but many of us struggle to live in that promise of God in our minds.

Maybe toxic thinking has kept you from finding and living in spiritual freedom in your mind.

Do you ever feel like this?

Proverbs 4:23(NLT)

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

The word “Heart” - Léb means our whole being: Will, Emotions, & Mind - In other words the verse is telling us to guard how we think!

Why?

God’s Word teaches that - How we think dictates how we live our lives

3 categories:

How you think about God

Example -

How you think about your self

Example - Deppressive, Worthlessness, Comparioson

How you think about others

Example - I can’t be around those church people they are judgmental

You don’t have to be a prisoner to your thoughts

God wants your mind to be free. It doesn’t belong to depression it belongs to God...

The devil Is a lie

Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world !!!

PRAYER:

Main Passage Intro:

Our main passage tonight is John 5:1-15

John 5:1–3 (NIV)

“5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

Context - Why they lie there & What they beleived...

The world wants to compartimentalize people based on their issues

These people were identified by their issue

The Problem: The devil & world wants your Issue to become you identity?

Im tired

Im depressed

Im anxious

Im stressed

**REVIEW VV***

Example: “Idea I just don’t fit in with those type of people”

Your blind becasue you like to hang out with the blind

Your paralyzed because you like to hang out with the paralyzed

Same groups of people hang out together....

Weed smokers

Athletes

Nerds

**REVIEW ^^***

How I know your Issue has become your identity is because you only hang out with one type of people

If all you do is hang out with people as the same problem as you…then it has become your identity

Funny how we use our friends to affirm things about us

Significant other always disrespects you, but your still with them

“He gets me” - That’s the problem (You are blind and he is blind)

Example: Trauma Bonding Vs. Love

They can’t help you they can only get you.......

The world and the devil wants your issue to become your identity

God has given you a knew identity!!!

What you do is not who you are! Jesus has given you a righteousness that is not your own

You may have an appetite or issue for sin, but it’s not your identity

John 5:4-9(NIV)

[4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,”

Jesus asked a parlyzed man if he wants to get well . Surley any disabled person that is asked this question would want to get well

Jesus can heal, that’s not a problem. He is exposing something on the inside of him

Read whiney: “Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get In, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

PROBLEM: VICTIM MENTALITY

Victims always have a sad story

The problem wasn’t his disability, the problem was his mentality.

Notice how he responds to Jesus’s questions with why he can’t be healed

RELATE: Oh how I know of so many that live the same way.

How do you know you are a victim? Because all victims do is blame!

I cant become free from because ...

That thinking keeps you from your healing!

Jesus asked him the questions because He know that HEALING COMES WITH RESPONSINBILITY!!

38 years: If he got healed he would have to get a job… He couldn’t sit there and beg like he was used to

Some people like being a victim! Becasue as long as you are a victim you don’t have to take responsibility of you life...

YOU MAY NOT LIKE BEING HEALED

Because: If God heals you, you can’t blame anyone anymore!!

Example of people that take responsibility:

Address students that get free of something at church and how they have to be responsible to set boundaries and create accountability...

Jesus Response:

Jesus response shows us how his mind operates > Abundance Mentality

Jesus want’s us to live in a state of beleif not in a state of blame

You have to Reject Victim Mentality because

YOU CANNOT HAVE PITY AND POWER AT THE SAME TIME

He wants to empower you

His power creates abunace

His power can heal you

With Him no obstabcle can stop you

SO RECEIVE A MENTALITY OF ABUNDANCE

____________

**BAND COME OUT**

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)

“18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

One critical componenant that helps us live in abundace - OUR FOCUS

Are you focused on the seen or the unseen?

The lame man was entirly focused on what was seen

His focus was on his SITUATION, LIMITATIONS, AND WRONG THE SOURCE

When JESUS was standing right in front of Him

Preach this: how often the answer is right in front of us but we are so focused on the wrong things

healing is not in being famous or rich

healing is not in drinking or smoking

helaing is not in having a great job and family

Ask yourself, where am I looking now?

Am I focused exclusively at the limitations of what I can see? Or on the unseen realities Jesus has for my futrue?

If you want healing fix your gaze on the healer -Jesus

FOCUS ON JESUS NOT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCE

Altar Call:

If your eyes are set on the wrong reality, this is an opportunity to come to Jesus and put your eyes on Him. Surrender your heart and set your mind on Him!

Thoughts:

Even though the man was in victim mentality, Jesus still called him out and healed Him

Even though your intentions may have been wrong or misguided Jesus can still work a miricle in your life

He is graceful & merciful!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Diagnose Your Patient:

Victim Mindset

They are brainwashed. Certain thought patterns and habits have caused them to live a life as victim or lack.

Issues are becoming identity

Outcomes are becoming identity - Idendtity is traced in what they do

Pray:

Father God, thank you so so very much again for the opportunity to minsiter and teach your word to the youth students and my leaders in our youth minsitry. Thank you Lord for trusting me with such a noble and honorable task. I am in awe and grateful for this and I love that I get to do. It is a privalage and may I never forget that. I won’t forget that.

Lord I pray that you give me wisdom in preparation for this message. Help me to organize this content and present it in a biblically sound way. Also help me to teach and preach it in a way that students can understand and apply. Father help me to have a pure heart oh Lord and a sober mind so that I may be guided by the promting and directions of your HOLY SPIRIT. Jesus I am so excited to preach this and share your word, thank you again. I just invite your guidance, your spirit, your heart, your will, your motive, your purpose, your nature, your character in every momemnt of prepration and on the stage. Father may this give you all the glory, non for me all for you! Thank you again Lord and thank you for having grace and mercy for me. I know I can be off and have bad motives at times, but you are transforming me Lord and changing me. Thank you and Amen!

Passage/Scripture:

John 5:1–16 (NIV)

“5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.”

Proverbs 4:24 (NIV)

“23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)

“18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Observations:

Proverbs 4:24

The word “heart” in Proverbs 4:24 encompasses ones mentality, emotions, and values

It’s out of the heart that everything flows from. The heart encompasses my whole being - Including my mind!

Humans need reminding constantly. We forget. If the heart is our mind our will and our emotions then guarding it and allowing God to pour into it will effect us physically, mentally, and emotionally

The mouth reflects what’s in the heart (Luke 6:45) When someone speakes I can see what is in their heart. Guarding my mouth is guarding my heart.

All one thinks, decides, plans, does and says flows like streams from one common source—the heart

What your heart is like is what you are like

It’s important to keep your heart true to God’s word and pure and unpolluted to the poison of the world

What ever is stored in your heart dictates what you speak, what you look at, and where your feet take you.

Heart - léb (Hebrew) kardia (Greek)

Bibically: Psychological herat - attends intellectually (Jer 12:11), preceives (Jn 12:40), understands (1 Kings 3:9), debates (Mk 2:6), reflects (Lk 2:19), remembers (Lk 2:51), thinks (Dt 8:17), imagines (Lk 1:51), is wise (Eccl 1:17) or mad (Eccl 9:3), has technical skill (Ex 28:3, and much more.

Biblically: The heart experiences - intoxicated merriment, gladnes, joy, sorrow, anguish, bitterness, anxiety, despair, love, trust, affection, lust, callousness, hatred, fear, jealousy, desire, discouragment, sympathy, anger, irresolution, and more.

Biblically: Volitionally the heart can - purpose, incline to, prompt, be steadfast, willing, or willfull, contrieve evil, or follow its “treasure”

Biblically: Morally the heart can - be gentle, lowly, holy, faithful, upright, pure, singleminded, clean, loving toward God, and loving toward others, hardened or sensative, self-deceiving, deceitful, avaricious, lustful, arrogant, impious, perverse, and impenitent. Nothing defiles a man but his own heart.

Cont. The heart can smite, good can come from the heart, mans heart is divided

The heart signifies the TOTAL INNER SELF

Close attentiveness leads into the promise of life and health

The key to being healthy is addressing and guarding the whole self not compartments of oneself. The heart embodies all of us. Addressing the the outward without dealing with the inward is foolish for scripture says its out of the heart all things overflow.

John 5:1-15

Jewish festival - possibly passover feast

Sheep Gate (pool) in Aramaic is Bethesda - A house (or place) of mercy

“five porches” - shelter for the disabled to lie

It was beleived an angel would stirr the waters in certain seasons. The first to enter would be healed. - Competition.

Jesus knows where to find His patients… He knew the man was there and saw him

The word “learned” - implies that Jesus was informed by bystandards. The man was well know for beggin there for so long

“Do you want to get well?” - Ofcourse any disabled wants to be well. Otherwise he would not be at the well. The questons is meant to expose other things rather than a desire to heal. Jesus could be addressing Victim mentality so deeply rooted just as the Isralites had after the exodus. Jesus could be deeping a hope that true healing is found only in Him.

“‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’” - Instead of responding with a simple yes I want to be healed. He responds out of his helplessness or hoplessness. He responds with a desire for Pitty. Yet he is not fully hopeless since He is at the well.

Healing shrines or santruaries where common in this day - comparable to escapes (drugs, sex, prusuit of riches, riches). The passages protrays Jeus as being greater than any healing santuariy or shrine.

Jesus heals on the Sabbath

The man had been sick longer than many people lived on average in his day. Life expectancy was 35 years of age (roughly)

Nothing else including the pool succeded in healing him

Could it be possible that he was struggling so long so that Jesus could save Him and receive glory from it? John 9:3

The man could have been in the temple to thank God for his healing

Opposit to the Blind man healed in John 9:30-34 He reports Jesus to the authority.

To carry anything on the Sabbath was a violation to the law and Jesus commanded the man to carry his mat. This agitated the Jewish leaders.

The man had no ide of the identity of his healer

Yet Jesus had compassion while the man had a lack of interest

Vs 14 strongly implies that Jesus is warning about a “moral lameness” - In other words do not revert back to a life of sin. Thought patterns of sin.

The man had a slavish sense of duty. He was a sheep or follower to the wrong things. He reports directly to the jewish leaders

The mans perserverance was rewarded regardless of his doubt, apathy, ignorance etc....

The man thought his only hope of healing was in a well when Jesus asked the question.

We tend to think that the longer a person is in ailment or sin the small their chances to be saved. What is impossible for man is possible for God.

The man lacked in faith and beleif yet Jesus still healed him

The miricle had a message and a method. Jesus could have healed all who where there, but he did not. One of the main messages is that Jesus is Lord and thus the sorce. Another message is that Jesus is authority over Sabbath

But God does not need “stirring pools” to work in our lives. We do not need crosses around our necks, a saintly figurine on the car dashboard, or even oil on the head for healing

Man has a desire for rules not grace. They want to boast about their merit and how they worked for things they have received. Jesus was a point of dicussion over the violation of Sabbath law for days....

The religious leaders are focused on the carried matt and not on the new legs.... a hard heart misses the things of God that are blantly in front of them

Don’t forget that Jesus found the beggar not the other way around

The moment the man tried God added his supernatural power to heal Him. Jesus said “Get up” the man had to get up!

Thesis:

How we think dictates how we live. Unfortunatly many of us are brainwashed by depression, anxiety, stress, lies and so much more. This cuases a state of delusion. God has called us to live in freedom wholistically, including our minds. Today we will learn in God’s word how we can live in the freedom He has called us too.