Dharius Daniels - This Doesn't Make Sense

Family, allow me in this introduction to elucidate what I’m attempting to articulate when I say «uncommon sense.» I am arguing and contending that sometimes common sense is not common, and if common sense isn’t always common, then we don’t want common sense; we want uncommon sense. We can only live an uncommon life when we’re operating with uncommon sense. If you explore objectively all the words that the Scriptures use to describe the life of a person who is living according to God’s creative intent, you will discover that «common» is not one of them: salt, light, peculiar, chosen, accepted, beloved, head, not the tail, above only, not beneath, not just the conqueror, but more than a conqueror—all words that the Scriptures use to describe the life of those who follow the person, the practices, and the principles of Jesus. I think those of us who are seated in this sacred space today, whether watching online or in person, if we were to honestly audit our desires, would conclude that we don’t want common—common joy, common peace, common relationships. We want nothing more and nothing less than God’s best for our lives. Can I hear a good amen?

What I’ve learned is that there is an invisible contributing factor that greatly determines whether or not this uncommon possibility becomes our actual experience. It is the root of this series of sermons we’re beginning today and is something called a belief system. «Pastor Adair, what is a belief system?» It’s an accumulation of beliefs that we have unconsciously acquired throughout our lifetime through information, observation, exposure, and experiences. It is an accumulation of beliefs, listen to this, that we have oftentimes unconsciously acquired—not intentionally—but through the information we’ve received, observations we’ve made, exposure to things, and experiences we have had. Our belief system is the invisible force behind our behavior. Stephan Pierre says it is your «autopilot,» and it greatly impacts the course and the quality of your life. Are you following me so far? They’re going to put a diagram on the screens. I want you to see this because I think it depicts what I’m attempting to convey.

We all have beliefs—somebody say yes. Those beliefs create emotional states—somebody say yes. Our emotional states impact our thoughts—someone say yes. They both impact our behavior—somebody say yes. And then our behavior creates results—somebody say yes. And then those results reaffirm our beliefs—somebody say yes. All right, you got me. So we have beliefs that create emotional states that impact our thoughts that drive our behaviors that create results—are you following so far? But belief systems are root systems, meaning they are underneath the surface, and without intentional introspection and exploration, we don’t always know what we are. What we know is how we feel, what we’re thinking, how we’re behaving, and the results that we are producing. Is everybody following me so far?

Now this is important because some belief systems are based on the results we’ve gotten, but the results we’ve gotten are based on something that’s feeding them. See, the one thing that’s not on the board is the one thing that affects everything because something is feeding this, and if what is feeding this is wrong, then this will be wrong, then this will be wrong, then this will be wrong—even though it’s real. Just because this is real doesn’t mean this is right. So if something happens that tells me I’m a failure, I’ll start feeling like a failure, thinking like a failure, behaving like a failure, and then I will have results consistent with failure. If I have those results long enough, I will define myself as a failure when I got the wrong information that created the wrong beliefs, which made me feel the wrong way, think the wrong things, behave the wrong way, get the wrong results, and give a wrong definition of myself. You are not a failure; you are not inadequate; you are not at a deficit. You are more than capable, more than competent, fearfully and wonderfully made.

I want you to see this because if we don’t get this, then religion will never work the way God intended for it to work. Religion is only transformative when you allow it to be the authority that determines what you believe, and for many people, God’s Word is not the authority—rather, their experience is. Right? So God’s Word can say you are more than able, but if experience tells you that you are inadequate, many people unintentionally place their experience above God’s Word.

Let’s look at this now because part of what the Scriptures teach us is that one of the ways our faith benefits us—not the only way, but one of the ways our faith benefits us—is that it improves the emotional quality of our lives. You cannot read the New Testament, specifically the Pauline epistles, without coming away with that conclusion. If you look at Galatians chapter 5, verse 23, Paul talks about what he calls the fruit of the Spirit. It is the evidence of the Spirit’s work in our lives, and some of that fruit, he notes, includes emotions. Joy— is that what he says? Peace— is that what he says? Long-suffering? Temperance, which is self-control? It improves the emotional quality of my life. So what the enemy does is this: if I can get over here and have the wrong thing feed this, it affects this. But here’s what’s scary: my emotional state affects my thought life, but then my thought life also affects my emotional state.