Dharius Daniels - A Mindset Reset

Numbers 14:1: That night, all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, «If only we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?» And they said to each other, «We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.» I want to talk about a subject for a few minutes today, and that subject is a mindset reset. There are times when we have to reset our minds—say yes if you’re ready for the word!

Family, recently I reflected on an experience I had as a teenager. I was in high school having a conversation with a few family members, and I was articulating some of the schools I was contemplating attending after graduation. One of the schools I mentioned was called Morehouse College in Atlanta. As I spoke about this school, an adult family member immediately vocalized their opinion and communicated to me that I couldn’t do that, beginning to list all the reasons—many of them valid—as to why it would be unlikely that I would attend that school. My father, who was not part of the conversation but close enough to overhear, immediately interjected and very publicly and sternly said to that individual, «Don’t tell him that.» They wondered what he meant, and he replied, «Don’t ever tell him what he can’t do.» He looked at me and said in front of those around the room, «If you put your mind to it, you can go wherever you choose to go.»

If you allow me the opportunity to analyze that experience, I believe it holds value for those of us seated in this space today. I realized something, family: in that moment, my father gave me more than his facial features; he gave me—watch this—faith for my future. I realized that as a father, he gave me more than money; he gave me a mentality, a mindset, and an attitude of achievement—a paradigm of possibility. It was a mindset that wasn’t set on limitation but on possibility—one that believed I could do anything I set my mind to. From Kill Michael, Mississippi, with a population of 830, to a high school graduating class of 33 people—do it anyway! No stoplights, a quarter of a police officer, and one part-time police officer who kept the police car in his front yard—do it anyway!

Ladies and gentlemen, as we ponder the relevance of this principle for today’s sermon in this series called «Bloodlines,» I realized we inherit more than traits, trends, and tendencies in our bloodline; we also inherit mindsets and mentalities. You’d be amazed at what mentalities are passed from generation to generation. Some victim mentalities are inherited; some limited mentalities are inherited. Watch this: some racist and biased mentalities are inherited. Listen to this: some sexist mentalities are inherited. We inherit more than traits, trends, and tendencies; we can inherit mindsets. Sometimes, our minds are set in places and phases that serve us well, but other times, they may be molded in ways that set them in spaces that don’t serve us well. This is why evaluation is crucial and important: wherever your mind is set, your life will follow. Proverbs 23:7 says, «As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.» God moves us from level to level, from faith to faith. Head first—no matter where you may be stuck, I came to tell you today that if you get your head straight, your life has got to follow.

Am I making sense, family? I said, am I making sense? I think our passage, our foundational text today in Numbers 14, is an incredible example of the importance of examining how our minds are set. We pick up in Numbers chapter 14, but these people’s story really begins in the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus introduces us to a group of people that the Bible calls Hebrews, who were in Egyptian captivity for over 400 years. There was one generation that grew sick and tired of that cycle, one generation that began to engage in activity aimed at freeing themselves from the limitations of Egyptian bondage. The Bible says they cried out to God for deliverance, and God then began a different kind of conversation with a man named Moses. Rather than sending deliverance, God sent a deliverer because He doesn’t always answer your prayers the way you expect. Sometimes, God answers our prayers in ways that are so different and distinct that the answer is right in front of us, and we don’t even realize He has answered it. They were asking for deliverance, and God sent a man named Moses.

This is interesting because when God instructs Moses that He wants to use him to lead Israel out of Egyptian bondage, the Bible shows that Moses begins to share his insecurities and inabilities with God. He says, «Number one, I’m a background person; that’s my ministry. I stay in the background.»