Your Beliefs Are Holding You Back

 

What you believe impacts the choices you've made in your life so far.

~~Watch the Video~~

Scriptures:

• Romans 10:8-10
• Proverbs 23:7 KJV | NASB | Amplified
• Proverbs 27:19
• Hebrews 4:12
• Matthew 6:21
• Matthew 12:33-35
• Luke 24:25
• Matthew 15:16-20
• 2 Timothy 2:22
• Ephesians 6:6        
• Luke 10:27
• Proverbs 4:23
• Psalms 51:10

Romans 10:8-10

8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Because of your belief…you are considered to be righteous

…you won’t be judged for your sins

What you believe matters…

“With the heart…a person believes”

• What does that mean?

The word is “in your mouth and in your heart”

• Mouth = confess
• Heart = believe

Why the heart and not the head?

What exactly does Paul mean by “the heart”?

Intro

If you’re going to be in a store for about 15 minutes and the parking meter outside has 10 minutes on it…would you put in any money?

• Why [not]?

Beliefs

• It’s unlikely that someone will come in that 5 minutes..why waist a quarter
• It’s only a dollar risk a $200 ticket
• I’ll invest a dollar to protect against a $200 ticket
• The city doesn’t need any more of my money…I worked hard for it
• Parking police don’t patrol here after 3:30

What you believe is going to dictate how you act.

Your belief matters

Your thought process matters

Unspoken Beliefs

We have many spoken and unspoken beliefs

Some of those beliefs may conflict with the word of God

Some of them, we never actually voice aloud, but we believe them.

Our believes impact:

• How we behave
• What we believe to be true in the world
• The risks we take
• The opportunities we miss
• The relationships we have
• Our health
• Our finances
• Which verses in the Bible commands we ignore
• Our view of God

Example: you have to always have clean shoes

• Clean my shoes when I get home
• Won’t buy certain shoes
• Won’t participate in certain activities
• Avoid crowded places where people might step on my shoes

The Story of Bunker Bean

Book written in 1912

• movie 1936

<see video>

Sometimes the things happening in our lives are a result of our belief system

What if some of the problems in your life are the result of a wrong belief you have?

Outline:

• Intro
• The Story of Bunker Bean
• Traits of Wholeness
• Quick Review of Positive & Negative Self-Talk
• What Is Belief
• The Source of Our Beliefs
• Examples of Our Beliefs
• Your Belief Could Be Your Problem
• The Brain vs The Mind
• The Heart
• What the Bible Says About The Heart
• Pure Heart
• How to Develop a Pure Heart

Traits of Wholeness

We are in our series called Seeking Wholeness

How can we be  _______ healthy

• spiritually
• emotionally
• mentally

Dealing with life’s current stresses and also being healed from experiences/wounds of the past

We’re not just supposed to have eternal life

• We’re supposed to have: joy, peace, patience, and self control here on earth

What are some of the traits of wholeness?

Traits of Wholeness

• Authenticity
• Honesty
• Kindness
• Not seeking external approval / validation
• Living by values and principles
• Setting Boundaries
• Taking ownership of your responsibilities
• Living with purpose and passion
• Optimism
• Confidence
• Healthy relationships with others
• Not losing control of your emotions
• Free from addictions
• Addressing Conflict
• Vulnerability
• Not critical or Judgemental
• Not jealous
• Genuinely applaud the success of others
• Forgive those who have wronged you in the past
• Know that you’re worthy of receiving love
• Not afraid to fail
• Able to manage irrational fear, worry, and anxiety
• Selfless encounters with others
• Not manipulating others trying to control their actions/reactions
• You care about how others feel
• Patient
• Don’t give into peer/social pressure
• Can communicate directly
• Don’t take responsibility for other people's emotions
• Take responsibility for your own emotions
• Being led by the Spirit

Quick Review of Positive & Negative Self-Talk

These internal dialogues can

• shape beliefs
• influence emotions
• Influence behavior

Elijah

We saw in the story of Elijah that he was powerful and fearless when obeying God, but lost his courage when left alone to focus on his fears.

Once God came and gave him another assignment, he was emboldened again.

Psalms 42

We used the song is Psalms 42 & 43 as an outline of how we should talk to ourselves

1. Acknowledge the Problem
2. Speak to Yourself in 3rd person
3. Present a Solution
4. Focus on the Future Instead of the Past
5. Focus on Your Potential
6. Say What God Says
7. Focus on God Instead of Yourself

What Is Belief

Belief is:

• Deep conviction
• Perception of reality
• That which one holds to be true

The concept of belief is expressed in many different terms

• Trust
• Hope
• Mindset
• Thinking
• “I don’t like your thinking”
• Persuasion
• conviction

Your belief motivates your

• Action
• Priorities

Goals and Priorities

If I believe that staying healthy is the most important thing

• I will diet and exercise regularly

evangelism

• I will spread the word
• Mission trip

relationships

• I’ll make time for my friends

how much money you make

• Prioritize my career

Story: first job

• Picker vs packer

The Source of Our Beliefs

We get our beliefs from

Your family and culture

• Success
• Relationships

The World

Your beliefs are influenced by what you watch and listen to

• News
• Television
• Movies
• Music

If you see it once it won’t impact you

• If you play it on repeat you’ll absorb it in your mind

Your Self Talk

Pay attention to the thoughts in your head

• Do you believe in these thoughts?

voices

• You ain’t gonna be nothing
• You’re just like your daddy
• You’re stupid
• you dumb

Inner Vows

We made a promise to ourselves to prevent us from being hurt again

Example:

• I’ll never let anyone publicly disrespect me again
• I’ll never give myself completely to anyone again because I don’t want to get hurt again

The Enemy

The enemy will get behind you and push

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CZmmLIsDNfx

• If the enemy can’t get in front and stop you he’ll get behind you and push you

Your beliefs don’t necessarily change when you become a Christian

Examples of Our Beliefs

Think about your beliefs in these areas

Think of what other beliefs people have in these categories?

Conflict

• Avoid conflict at all costs
• Don’t get people mad at you
• If you argue with someone it means you don’t want to be in a relationship with them
• Loud angry fighting is normal
• It’s ok to curse when you’re mad
• Daily conflict is normal in a relationship

Example: avoiding conflict

• Non-authentic
• Less intimacy
• Trust
• Didn’t give the other person a chance to change

Money

• Money is the best source of security
• The more money you have the more important you are
• Make lots of money to prove that you have made it

Sex

• Sex is not to be spoken about openly.
• The more people you have sex with  the less valuable you are
• The more people you have sex with  the more valuable you are  
• It’s ok for a single person to have sex on Valentine’s Day
• As long they’re not lonely

Grief and Loss

• Sadness is a sign of weakness
• Real men don’t cry
• Christians don’t get depressed
• Get over losses quickly and move on

Expressing Anger

• Anger is bad
• Explode in anger to make a point
• Sarcasm is an acceptable way to release anger
• If someone yells at you you have to yell back or else they got the better of you
• Yelling in an argument is normal

Family

• You owe your parents for what they have done for you
• Don’t speak of the family's dirty laundry in public
• Duty to family and culture comes before everything

Relationships

• People will let you down
• Nobody will ever hurt me again
• Don’t show vulnerability.
• Don’t let them know how much you like them or they will take advantage of you.
• I shouldn’t return their text right away…I’ll look desperate
• If you love me you will do everything that I ask

Example: he wouldn’t massage her feet

Marriage

• It is important to learn your partner's love language
• You can never get divorced
• You shouldn’t stay in a situation where you’re not happy
• I can only marry someone of a certain
• social economic class
• education level
• religion

Gender Roles

• The woman should serve the man
• The man should spoil the woman and treat her like a queen
• The man should chase the woman
• The woman should play hard to get
• Men should be the provider
• Women should take care of the kids

Story: queen

• King or servant

Attitudes towards different cultures

• Only be close friends with people who are like you.  
• You can’t marry someone of another race, culture, or tribe.  
• Certain cultures/races are not as good as mine.
• My race is inferior to the dominant race.  

Example: can’t marry a different tribe

Success

Success is

• Getting into the right schools
• Making a lot of money
• Getting married and having children
• Buying a house

Feelings and emotions

• You are not allowed to have certain feelings.  
• Feelings are not important.
• Reacting with your feelings without thinking is OK

Disadvantages

My life would be easier if I was a different _______

• Race
• Gender
• Weight
• Height
• Income
• Social class

What Beliefs do you have about?

• Authority figures
• The government
• Parenting
• Singleness
• Physical affection and touch
• God
• Other churches
• Other faiths
• Other political parties
• Other income brackets

Your Belief Could Be Your Problem

If life is treating you badly that could be a sign that you’ve got a faulty belief

Example: When keeping it real goes wrong

It may be true, but do you focus on that?

Example: tomorrow’s not promised

• 35 living on mama's couch

Your Belief Changes Reality

… or at least your perception of reality

Example: buying a Toyota

• Notice Toyotas on the roads everywhere

11M bits

Our brain gets 11M bits of information per second from senses - Britannica

Our conscience attention can process 60 bits per second - MIT

The rest goes into your unconscious mind

Reticular activating system

Filters:

• Images
•  Pictures
•  Sounds
• Tastes
•  Colors

Exercise: look for everything brown/white

Filters based on

• Focus
• Your Belief
• Information to prove you right
• Goals / Obstacles
• Desires
• Safety
• Questions you have
• What you think about

Whether you want it or not

• Your fears

Example: hasn’t worked out his chest

• You believe nobody likes you because you have man boobs
• But you have offensive slogans on your shirts

Your belief shapes your reality

The Brain vs The Mind

The Brain

• The brain stores your memories
• It can recall things that happened from your childhood

Your brain receives the input from your 5 senses

Your Mind

What is the mind?

faculty of consciousness

The faculty of thought and thinking

Electromagnetic Field

“Each human has an electromagnetic field around us that is not there when you die. That is your mind.  That is responsible for your thinking, choosing and feeling.

The relationship between the body and the mind allows you to express your behavior.”

If you don’t get your mind right everything else is just data

– Dr. Caroline Leaf (Christian)

The Heart

What organ in your body do you use to think?

Have you heard the verse:  “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”?

Proverbs 23:7 KJV

7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

Proverbs 23:7 NASB

For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.

Proverbs 23:7 Amplified

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he [in behavior—one who manipulates]. He says to you, “Eat and drink,” Yet his heart is not with you [but it is begrudging the cost].

What does it mean by “his heart is not with you“?

The Heart

lebab

the inner man, indefinite the soul, comprehending mind, affections and will

Jewish Encyclopedia

As in the Bible (Gen. vi. 5, viii. 21), the seat of good and evil impulses alike is neither the body nor the soul, but rather the heart (not, of course, the physical organ, but the willing and thinking self).

…

The heart is the organ of conscience.

…

The heart is also the seat of feeling, of courage, of hatred, of pride, and of deceit.

…

The heart is most exposed to the ills of the flesh, and most sensitive to all changes of temperament, hatred and love, fear and vengeance

“The heart” in the Bible is used to talk about:

• The mind
• Knowledge
• thinking, reflection
• inclinations, resolutions
• determinations of the will
• conscience
• moral character

• “Good heart”

• Intentions / motive
• seat of the emotions and passions
• the seat of the appetites (figuratively)
• seat of courage

• “Take heart”

• seat of pride

It Stores

• Belief
• experiences
• Resolutions (decisions)
• Convictions
• Secret hopes
• Fears (deep fears)
• Residence of desires

Your Heart Holds Your Beliefs

For this study we’ll use the definition…

Your heart is

• Your beliefs
• Your motives and true intent
• The seat of your feelings

What’s in your heart is what you really believe

What the Bible Says About The Heart

Proverbs 27:19

As water reflects the face, so a man’s heart reflects the man

What’s in your heart defines who you are

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Your heart holds your thoughts and intentions

Matthew 6:21

For where your treasure is there shall your heart be also

Your heart reflects what you treasure

Whatever you believe in you’ll pay for it

“Show me your calendar and your bank statement and I’ll tell you what’s most important in your life”

Your belief affects your treasure

Matthew 12:33-35

 33 “Either assume the tree to be good as well as its fruit good, or assume the tree to be bad as well as its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 “You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. 35 “The good person brings out of his good treasure good things; and the evil person brings out of his evil treasure evil things.

What you say reflects what’s in your heart

Your fruit [results] reflects what’s in your heart

When you believe something it shows up in the way that you live

Story: Japan - nice to foreigners

Luke 24:25

And then He said to them, “You foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

• This is Jesus speaking to the disciples on the road to Damascus after his resurrection

They were slow to believe and understand that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah

Your heart is your belief

Matthew 15:16-20

16 Jesus said, “Are you also still lacking in understanding? 17 “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? 18 “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and those things defile the person. 19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, acts of adultery, other immoral sexual acts, thefts, false testimonies, and slanderous statements. 20 “These are the things that defile the person; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the person.”

“Those things defile the person”

• speaking of the things in your heart not the words coming out of your mouth
• What you believe

“It’s what’s in your heart that determines if you’re a Christian… Not whether or not you pray before you eat“

Adultery

What belief can people have to justify adultery?

• This relationship is “already over”
• He/she cheated on me
• God never meant for a man to only be with one woman

Well my spouse isn’t treating me like they used to

• … what is the unspoken belief here?
• that justifies me cheating

Stealing

What belief can justify stealing?

• They won’t need it
• They won’t miss it
• I need it more than them
• It’s not really stealing (taking a pen from work)
• I earned/deserve it

Story: taking from work

Lying

What belief can justify lying?

What about?

• “I’ll be there in 5 minutes”

• When you know it will be at least 15

• “I’ll be ready in 5 minutes”

Slander

• Slander is to tell the truth for the wrong reason
• When you tell the truth about someone to destroy them or damage their character
• Tell the truth in love not to slander

• If you love a person you want the best for them

What belief do people use to justify slander?

• I’m telling the truth
• This person will be better off if they know the truth
• I’m protecting them by letting them know

Example: I talked bad about Myles Munroe in the last lesson

Pure Heart

God can save you instantly, but that doesn’t mean that your heart is converted

God wants us to have a “pure heart”

“ if you can control a man how a man thinks… You don’t have to worry about his actions“

2 Timothy 2:22

22Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Flee lust of:

• The eyes
• The flesh
• The heart

When you have a pure heart you are pursuing

• Righteousness
• Faith
• Love
• Peace

When your beliefs are in alignment with God’s beliefs, your priorities are His priorities

Ephesians 6:6        

Not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

Not just in deeds, but in belief

Religion is doing the actions

Repent - to change your mind

• Not just doing good, but believing what God believes

Luke 10:27

And he answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

The heart is the first thing on the list

Your love for God should be reflected in what you believe

These should be our ultimate beliefs

• Loving God comes first
• Loving others comes second

How to Develop a Pure Heart

How to have Godly beliefs

Self-Talk

We use self talk to get it from our head to our heart

1. Acknowledge the Problem
2. Speak to Yourself in 3rd person
3. Present a Solution
4. Focus on the Future Instead of the Past
5. Focus on Your Potential
6. Say What God Says
7. Focus on God Instead of Yourself

Lust

• “Your body is the temple of God”

Prejudice / judgment

• “God loves everybody…they are a child of God”

What other self-talk can we have to change our beliefs?

Guard Your Heart

Proverbs 4:23

Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

The gate to the heart is the brain

• The gate to the brain is the senses

Whatever you don’t want in your heart… You shouldn’t allow it in your

• Sight
• Smell
• Taste
• Touch
• Hearing

The control of the content of your heart is in your power

You can’t tell the Holy Ghost to close your eyes

• You can’t tell the Holy Ghost to change the TV channel or the radio station
• You can’t tell the Holy Ghost you don’t wanna smell pizza
• You can’t tell the Holy Ghost you don’t wanna taste things

The Holy Ghost is here to assist you not to control your lives

Example: took a break from listening to rap

Prayer

Psalms 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

We should be praying for a clean heart

Instructor: Michael Leadon

References

The Power of Belief

Dr. Myles Munroe

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

The Power of Belief

Toure Roberts

Extra

Heart Verses

Matthew 5:8

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God

Psalm 37:4 ESV        

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Not that God will fulfill all of your current desires, but God will give you new beliefs

Wickedness in Our Hearts

All of the “beliefs in our hearts” aren’t from God.

Genesis 6:5-6

5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. 6 So the LORD was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

If the evil is in their heart then I might as well destroy them now

Jesus it out of the heart flows the issues of life

God has “a heart”

Proverbs 21:2 ESV        

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.

a. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: By nature, we justify ourselves. Sometimes we do this in sincerity, sometimes with deception, but stubborn pride makes us generally think every way of a man is right in his own eyes.

b. But the Lord weighs the hearts: Men and women are confident in their own way, but God knows. We justify things according to our hearts—“It was in my heart” or “I must follow my heart” or “In my heart I know”—but God weighs the hearts of men and women, knowing that the heart itself doesn’t justify anything.

i. “Yahweh’s power of discernment goes beyond unmasking those who fool others; he even finds out those who have fooled themselves.” (Garrett)

— Commentaries — David Guzik

Jeremiah 17:9-10 ESV        

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”