God and Self

how many why didn't they choose truth herb why didn't you choose truth just once why don't you choose truth you're afraid of what you're going to be asked yeah that's scary isn't it right yeah you take almost any dare over telling the truth like uh no i can't i can't tell that about myself man i'm telling you we picked i should have done that at like the middle or the end of the lesson because now i'm trying to kind of oh my comedy ain't going to work like that but the truth is hard to tell especially about ourself tonight we're going to talk about our truth and self we when we look at ourselves sometimes we don't like what we see or we don't want others to know the truth we don't want them to know who we really are so this week i asked everyone that possibly could to take the enneagram test this is just a tool the enneagram is just a tool right this this is not the bible this is not this is not something to live your life by but it is a tool to see some self-perception to self-awareness to to heighten your self-awareness uh it is it's not an end-all be-all it doesn't replace the scripture or the gospel and it can be used it's it's used to know something about us our faults our failures our strengths our weaknesses how many were able to take it was was everybody able to yeah all sum that is great because we're going to we're going to talk about the enneagram for a little bit we're going to look at the different types and then we're going to split into groups based on that and we're going to go into it a little more in depth on how we how we view the scripture how we how we receive uh the the word of god how we interact with god how we interact with others based on our personality and how that's different for everyone right it's uh it's our being is not summed up in a test it's not who exactly who we are and sometimes we don't even know who we are how many has ever asked yourself that question who am i yeah am i what this person thinks of me am i what that their perception of who i am who am i the endogram is i'm just going to give you a brief history of it it's shrouded in mystery there's a lot of not a lot of documentation on where it actually came from people say it came from centuries ago but in reality uh the only the documentation of it starts around 1970 in the 1970s before that who knows this thing could have been i don't know it could have been used for pagan worship for all i know all right i'm serious like i mean it could have been i don't know but we you know christmas was kind of it was a pagan holiday and we kind of used that for our gone good and our own use so i figured it'd be all right and just just to be on the safe side here i wanted to throw that disclaimer out there you know well i'm not a heretic later if that comes out i don't know and in in modern history the enneagram it originated in the catholic church they used it internally for training for different things but they did not write it down until this one guy got a hold of it in night in the 1970s richard rohr he was told he was taught this and told to never write it down and only pass it down verbally to like somebody he was mentoring well he did not listen to that at all wrote it down and started like a whole fad over personality types so and before we get too much into it the enneagram does it focus on nine main perspectives of life that people exhibit the more granular you study so these are very umbrella perspectives everyone is different everyone is unique but these are just umbrella terms that we will look at uh it helps us to be it helps us to be more self-aware right self-awareness just conscious knowledge of one's own character feelings motives and desires how many has been doing something and you didn't know why you were doing it yeah you get in the middle of it what are you doing i don't really know you ever like come home from work from school and you're like mad at the world don't know why no clue your significant other your brother your sister your family they're like what is going on take that out take take that down a notch ain't nobody here done nothing to you why are you bringing that to me but it and we're reacting and then if we go a little step further sometimes we react certain ways because things have triggered us right we've we have emotional scars we have emotional you know sometimes we get not just scars we have emotional jumps and joys and and peaks and we don't know why why are you so happy today i i don't know but reality in reality something triggered that why are you so sad today i don't know but what it was was you heard this song on the radio it reminded you of this time this girl said something to you and you were like man you started feeling bad about yourself and you didn't realize it that self-awareness there is it's sometimes hard to trace through because it might go through three or four five six ten filters before you get to the bottom of it i found for myself uh that i have blind spots in my personality sometimes i do things some would say all the time i do things that just it doesn't make any sense to somebody why are they doing that to me why they being mean why are they being hateful why are they picking at me all these things and in reality i'm just just woefully unself aware i have no clue i'm just a bumbling through the you know just trying to survive and not starve to death you know there was an underlying motive to it i was just bumbling around but those blind spots can be very much a hindrance to us at work uh school in relationships in our walk with god in in in life in general we have a i don't know it's like we're looking in a mirror but we can't see yourself we can see everything else around us but we're just perfect good old perfect me hair is fixed just right ain't nothing wrong with me but them they look kind of funny that's the that's that blind spot is that's how it works and in in god i found myself going through the same thing time and time again right it may be a monthly cycle it may be a yearly or every five years or a situational cycle the way i react personally to something i'm like wait a minute i've been here before what how did i get here before and a couple years ago i met lauren and she at some point in time was really obsessed with ennia graham and i just thought it was just a bunch of hippy stuff and i was like all right i'm living that alone and it is i i mean it is it's something who knows it's just a tool but going through that researching it and studying it out there have been it's really helped me personally to understand to put at least put some words to things about myself that i didn't know that i didn't understand um and in that in those blind spots in matthew chapter 7 verses 3 and 5 you'll see that jesus he calls out these blind spots in us things that i didn't see in myself that helping me go through and and maybe reading an umbrella term about myself helped me to see help me to understand but jesus put it this way he said why do you why do you see the speck and i'm reading in the english standard version says why do you see the spec that is in your brother's eye but you do not notice the log that is in your own eye how can you say to your brother let me take that speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye that inner self that blindness it's so easy to not know we are so scared by as just proven out by this i was really hoping they would both choose more dares than truth or my whole lesson would have been shot but it worked out as shown by this the truths weren't that bad i went through and made sure no one was confessing their life sins on here i did not want to get up after that but just telling the truth sometimes in an unbarred complete truth is hard it's hard to face it's hard to come across uh our inner voice will it'll get a hold of us and and it'll come out in those blind spots and we'll react in ways that we didn't realize we would react in david benner he is a he's an internationally known psychologist he said the lack of awareness is the ground for our dis ease he done a play on words there and brokenness choosing awareness opens up to finding god in the midst of our present realities awareness is key to so much that is why in my opinion the single most impor it is the single most important spiritual practice psalms put it like this said search me oh god know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting that's tough stuff the inner self there is a part in this tonight that we're going to look at called the false self it is it is something in us that in our culture today we'll look at things called called doing the right thing or we'll we'll look at our in our culture today we focus on results the right results how we get to that results it's not really mattered right the ethics of how we got there maybe the ends justify the means in culture but god says no i want you to do the right thing the right way the false self deals with we can deceive ourselves in in in looking at well i'm doing a good thing even though the motives behind that are not pure even though the the the purpose behind that uh for for example the false self it is a selfish centered self the ego self the old self the competitive self the well defended self and ultimately the self that deceives us and the world the the self is not automatically a sinful self now that's that's that's taking it a bit far i'm not saying everyone's just deceiving themselves and going out and sinning but it is or things that we would categorize as sins but they're they're not pure thoughts so and not pure or authentic actions we're doing they can be good but the motivations behind that can be a false self uh when we do good things for the wrong reason false self wants the credit and distraction there's a biblical example of this there's there's basically a biblical example of everything i think luke 10 40 42 we'll notice i think most of us will be familiar with the story but we'll see that martha was distracted with much serving she was going about and she went jesus was teaching and her sister was sitting there listening to jesus teaching and she said to jesus said lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone tell her to help me but the lord answered her and said martha martha you're anxious and troubled about many things but one thing is necessary mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her mary had chosen to sit and listen to jesus martha no doubt was motivated by the comments of how good the food was or how good the service was how how much everything was prepared and she forgot to look at the self-motivation the motives behind that the pureness of just sitting and listening to the lord was very important in that situation the false self says my kingdom come the true self says thy kingdom come right when uh when we when we live in the false self and i'm doing all this as a preface okay we think we should be in control of our lives each one of us each one of our if you've taken the enneagram test each one has a different thing it it struggles with each person has a different battle each person has something that they need to work on a little more than the rest or not one's not better one's not worse one's not great one's not terrible it's it is what it is uh the false self said we think we are entitled to have our own goals and desires or we deny our own limitations and weaknesses we overtly or covertly look for appreciation and recognition even fame others when we live in our true self we live freely limited only by god's love we occasionally and consciously let go of our desire for control we to learn to distinct distinguish between the voice of our ego and the voice of god's love these are all important things because the false self is self who what are my motivations what am i needing what am i getting out of this then we get into the a brief summary of of each of these uh numbers these enneagram numbers and i'm not gonna on this initial part i'm not going to cover all the false stuff of it we're going to look at the good side first all right jess if you have the image one we'll see we'll see how it throws up there we see number one is the reformer or in and there's different names for these as you study it people kind of refer to them as differently but the definition how they work out are basically the same uh this may or may not be a pentagon i'm not really sure i'm not sure okay i repent whatever you know that symbol is please remember the disclaimer at the beginning right who knows where this came from the number one is gifted with goodness they do things very well they're conscientious and ethical and striving for excellence how many ones we have in here who who tested out to be a one we got one one we got two of them all right they're ethical that's good they're pastors how many twos do we have here today twos wow look at them all right these are they're gifted with love they're naturally amazing caretakers i'm sorry herb here but uh many women initially miss typist twos because as culture teaches you know women are supposed to be caretakers and things like that how many threes we got in here tonight oh all right everyone stay away from these people all right they're mean no they're gifted in being effective uh if you want something done just give it to a three they'll bulldoze their way to the end of it right they'll just run with it how many floors do we have uh-oh got these two college snowflakes over here these guys are gifted and being creative normally speaking here uh poetically expressive musical uh dress expressive they want to express creativity in any manner that they can how many fives we have any fives here today uh-oh uh-oh y'all watch out for these guys they're gifted in wisdom knowledgeable visionaries they must know all of the information they're also they're also very humble right yeah how many sixes who we got we got a oh man all right we've got sixes all right we've got sixes they're gifted in faithfulness they're loyal and do very well under authority they they know what it means when when that guy in the bible he said i know what it's like to be under authority they know how to follow uh how many sevens any sevens wow yeah oh yeah we got two that's it i'm sorry i'm sorry gloria you're sorry we're in i feel bad for you because we're in the same company here i did not mean to influence you badly we're joyful all right i just want y'all to know that just just want y'all to know that best the best one um to be because you're happy all the time there's no bad things in the world um always finding the silver lining of a situation how many eights do we have we've got these two eights wait you're seven seven or eight i had my grandmother take that this weekend and she tested out that as peace and i was like that ain't right i'm like i know you that ain't right you lied somewhere if we can put up image too so these these are divided into different categories all right uh that's uh image yeah image two all right so we have it's called a triad we have the heart or the feeling triad we have the thinking and the gut triad all right so numbers two three and four how many's got a two three and four all right can y'all gather on this side of the church all right how many's got a uh i need a five six and seven if you guys can get in the middle and then eight nine and one on the right and take your papers with you you go with your top number so two all right so two three fours over here five six sevens over here and then man why'd y'all get all the way over there was a whole section right here i'm just aggravating y'all right wow the heart triad so if we'll do we'll do each triad individually so you guys get to make fun of them or boo them or whatever while we're going over that no i'm just don't do that they'll they'll cry don't guys they'll cry the heart triad they're strong relational energy right almost if they have a magnetic attraction to other people in relationships wow they are usually very helpful and effective they adapt to what they think others want of them their attention is focused on making connections with others now when they hit roblox they start to feel responsible for the world around them and the problems of others now those of y'all do you all kind of agree with these things as we're going yeah kind of makes sense do y'all feel this way is this is this speaking to you feeling a lot okay all right guys just give them a minute to decompress do y'all need a safe space when they're stressed they give in to anxious busyness so if you need your house clean just stress one of those out you're good to go they live with uh oh man all right we're just gonna get deep here guys uh they cannot fix a problem they live with an inadequacy and an incompetency they feel very deeply but tend to be more aware of others feelings than their owns when they're their false self they strive to win the love of others now not trying to like pick out anything but i want to talk in a very calm voice here um now how many twos again can we twos all right now these guys are what you would call the helper right these i'm telling and honestly like really if you ask them anything like they're going to like go out of their way to make sure they do it right the the the desire the significance and identity and their ability to empathize and serve and feel helpful right i mean honestly if i just get spiritual for a minute let's just say twos may be really good prayers i'm not really sure but they can empathize really well with others okay now on the other side of that if you offend one of them you're dead to them so you're gonna yeah pray for you or kill you you're right now the enneagram does have some advice slow down be still before god without needing to do something be found in the presence of god without feeling like you have to constantly do just sometimes rest in him uh in matthew 25 in the key 25-34-46 in verse 40 says and the king shall answer and say unto them verily verily i say unto you and as much as you have done unto them to the least of these my brethren you have done unto me these are servers they're helpers they're going to do their best now they are heart driven right so in in thinkers when when we're talking to them it's not the same right gut guys when you just grab something and go it's different heart people when you're giving us all your emotions okay well that person's crazy already then now a biblical example of this people went through and kind of took things from the bible in this biblical example might be john the disciple he was the he was the the disciple that god loved i mean in his writings he wrote more about love than anything else now in the achiever someone got in my notes here and said this is the best top all around stand by it okay all right well well anyway so glad we can validate you threes over there they uh desire significance and identify with the ability to fulfill successful and accomplish now tend to be preoccupied with their image and live with shame related to their failures oh so don't tell them they failed right it's going to take it very personal now a biblical example of these guys well actually it's suggested it's suggested social media fast for threes only come on because they made use they may they may i don't know i'm not looking at anybody says be you tempted to use social media and self-promotion fast away from it may help threes focus less on their false self and more on seeing themselves through christ uh good scripture to go along with this guys something that threes it might it might be good for you guys though i speak with first corinthians 13 and 1 though i speak with tongues of men and angels have not charity i am become as a sound a brass a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol now jacob might have been a three he was deceptive but he was very driven uh in the bible he was very driven uh now force we got two of you guys right individualists they you can't put them in a box you can't tell them this is the way you got to do that because they're going to go around it they're going to build their own thing every single time right i mean come on have you seen the way they dress let's just be real fantastic now there are different different examples of that and there are different things to go into each of these a biblical example of four may have been joseph he was a dreamer he just kind of had a different perspective a different take on life now heart triad now i was afraid i was really afraid that i was going to be really too hard on the heart triad and i was going to be a little biased on the thinkers okay so i asked lauren because she introduced me to this if she would do this section that way there was no biases going on i wouldn't be picking on anybody i'm just trying to stay stay good with y'all i'm just trying to stay good with y'all all right it's all right i'm a three so now i can just pick on these people over here and win the competition so i'm just kidding i'm just kidding so i am here to talk about the thinkers is that you guys yes the thinkers five six and seven yes all right thank you thank you very much i am a heart triad so uh i do lead with my emotions but people in the head triad are the thinkers they tend to lead more with their brain instead of their heart you know do you agree with that do you agree with that no that's all right that's right there's exceptions everyone's unique all right so thinkers are the head triad observe life in order to take in information okay these are people most likely i mean this is general broad umbrella so of course we know that everyone is unique and everyone has their own thing um but as a general rule people in this triad tend to sit back and observe people maybe in this triad tend to jump in and you know impulsively begin i'm talking about myself impulsively begin to do do things um but the thinkers they'll sit back and they'll observe they'll take in information and then they will they will act you know they won't really act impulsively they got to take it all in understand it and then act when people in the thinking triad encounter life maybe their first instinct is to think and plan for some in this triad they collect endless information some others may collect rules and guidelines to live by others might collect experiences they meet roadblocks when they keep collecting information but allow fear to keep them from acting upon the information that they've gathered so it's kind of like it just keeps piling up and then they get overwhelmed by it you know um pretty much um so i uh and some maybe something that that people in this triad the thinking triad might say before they make a decision is you know what i don't want to make a decision i don't know enough yet i don't have enough information to be able to make a logical decision and so i don't want to make that decision yet and so they'll hold off okay there are three different types number five the investigator who are my fives all right you guys are over thinkers okay you gather information and you feel safe when you feel like you know enough okay now i'm not saying these these are not things coming from me i may be speaking them but these aren't things that are coming from me okay i gathered all the information and i looked at multiple resources you know i'm just kidding okay so overthinkers okay they might distort the image of god by becoming detached in order to possess enough whether that's money time knowledge resources okay people in this triad they may have a battle to allow god to be himself and work in omniscience you know i'm scared to say all that about the twos so but it's important fives to rest in the fact that he does know it all okay there are some um suggestions here maybe dig into scripture and ask the hard questions like who what when where why and how that's these people right here right um another suggestion to serve fives can be reclusive i'm not reclusive introspective maybe and enjoy their privacy but in order to live like christ practice getting out of our getting out of our heads and engaging hearts and hands through service deuteronomy 6 4 and 5 says hero israel the lord our god is one lord and thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thine hearts and with all thy soul and with all thy might so we are made to worship god with our whole self right so some biblical examples of a five maybe thomas or nicodemus uh we see thomas he's kind of known as doubting thomas i'm not looking at you doubting thomas um we also see nicodemus he came to jesus in the middle of the night and asked questions he was like how how do i do this why do i do this what you know he asked the hard questions so sixes the loyalists tend to overthink by creating worst case scenarios they feel safe when they feel like they have planned and prepared enough they might distort the image of god by doubting excessively or thinking of worst-case scenarios it's important to fight against their flesh and trust in the steadfastness of god right to rest in the fact that he goes before you and behind you okay first peter 5 6-7 says humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of god that he may exalt you in due time casting all your care upon him for he careth for you sixes may have a very anxious mind very anxious spirit but it's important that we cast our cares upon him because he does truly care for you biblical example might be peter we see that he was loyal to jesus um you know he denied him but he came back he came back and he was loyal um he walked on the water and he took his eyes off jesus when he became anxious when he became anxious he began to sink right but the lord reached down and he pulled him right back up yeah it's hard number seven the enthusiasts tend to fill their time with things that bring them joy they feel safe when they are busy they might distort the image of god by avoiding pain through excess whether that's fun things people whatever fear might creep in when they are still and they combat this by filling their time the fight against their flesh they must fight against their flesh and trust in the joy of the lord the true joy of the lord to rest in the fact that he is the source of true joy and allow him to show that joy show him show you that joy sorry in the stillness and the mundane i don't think sevens like stillness or mundane right all right uh john 15 and 5 says i am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and i in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me you can do nothing i'm going to skip down to verse 10 and 11. if you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love even as i have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love verse 11 says these things have i spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full biblical example of a type 7 might be you know this is we can't like prove this we don't know these people but uh might be king solomon he was wealthy and wise but he kind of lived in excess and it kind of there's a little bit of demise there's a little bit of demise in that um and yeah so that is the thinking triad in a very very broad umbrella all right i'm done give her a hand guys i'm re-typing it's something else now that can't work out i'm not i'm not solomon emma okay all right the gut triad you guys are scary strong and opinionated people people of high moral standards ethical they're often leaders and challenged systems they see as ineffective or unjust they see life as a battle to be won oh man and offer services in the leading and leading the charge they often meet resistance in their efforts to control other people and their circumstances many of their emotions are converted to anger and they try to control this intensity with reasoning and logic good job guys good job avoid being weak or vulnerable type 8 the challenger enjoys being in control anger creeps in when they feel they're losing control or power every one of them said fight against your flesh and trust in god and trust in power and god that's i mean that's most important rest in the fact that he has all authority his final say however aids are good at rooting for the underdog they can lean in their true styles by stepping in and serving those who may be considered the underdog tennessee tennessee wow you're not a nat you can't be saying that i will vote second corinthians 12 9 i will boast more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of god may rest upon me biblical example may be sampson strong and commanding but every now and then it kind of you know doesn't doesn't mean you are sampson please i'm sorry oh okay all right the peacemaker all right nine stones please nuns the peacemaker the enjoy connection in unity got two dates okay well i'm sorry google messed up all right i did not make that you challenged google go for it the peacemaker they enjoy connection and unity anger creeps in when they feel their peace is threatened they withdraw and check out so i'm done rest in the fact that rest in the fact that god's peace passes all understanding counsel and encourage others in the gospel revolve your life around certain types of prayer consistent predictable now therefore romans 5 1 therefore being justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ biblical example might be jonah he was really laid back and then when tasked by god he was like nah he's with the opposite direction nah i don't want to go there number one the reformer they pursue goodness uh anger creeps in when they're not perfect or perceived as good um they rest and rest in the fact that god is the center and source of all goodness uh meditate um on god's word and the source of truth and goodness now these people also make lists lots and lots and lots of lists oh don't point fingers you got to keep the peace romans 5 and 8 but god commanded his commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us so we don't have to be perfect all the time god loves us a biblical example might be paul he was a self-proclaimed lover of the law right any rule regulation that's the way to go yeah i'm sorry y'all it doesn't have to have love behind it it's just rule and regulation i'm sorry oh it doesn't have to make logical sense it's just a rule and regulation but he never abandoned his desire for a just world now as as i'm coming to a close here guys i do want us to take just a few minutes talk with some people in your group all right so there are a few talking points if you have the if you have the handout i gave you we've went over what each uh overview of what each triad is so think about this talks among yourself how does my triad and number affect how i respond and communicate with god how how am i receiving the gospel what speaks to me does when the preacher gets up and says for god so loved the world right makes all the difference when all these different everyone has a different receives a different perspective so talk among yourselves make some notes real quick let's take about two minutes and and discuss this real quick all right guys let's go to our last question here real quick let's wrap that up real quick so this in health and in unhealth dealing with our true self and our false self how do i react to stress or uncomfortable situations through my triad and my number so which way do i go some so this would be this was something that we didn't really just all the way touch on but what do we tend to do when we're stressed do we lock it down do we just go do we just make a list because sometimes you switch when you're stressed right you go from list to apathetic you're like all right i just ain't nothing i can do about it so talk about that amongst yourself that's not something we covered but let's let's talk about that in a group of what are what are our personal tendencies to do when we're when we're stressed let's take about 30 more seconds guys and circle that up circle the wagons here all these relational people over here can't get them to quieten down for nothing i said all these relational people over here you can't get them to quieten down for nothing you y'all be talking to midnight wouldn't you connecting all of a sudden everyone's in everyone's wedding well i just brought these people with me we're not we're blood related but we're all at the same family reunion now so guys if you could let's all stand to her feet i'm coming to a close as we see everybody's different but we are all just a little bit like and i found that at work that we we've got a we've got a good sized team i work with you know almost 14 people that we interact with pretty heavily and in order to build a cohesive team there it was we had to know a little bit about one another we had to understand and appreciate our differences when we we've done this we didn't do it officially we just kind of done it on our own went through it all this it opened our eyes to see each other as we are instead of as they are you know instead of our own pre-suppositions on who someone is it helped us understand how someone acts why they act that way and i hope that i i put some sources on this this material here uh on this handout there there are some really good books or some really good instagram pages there's some really good videos on youtube to to follow to look at this if you want to learn a little bit about yourself it's not all great you know it's not all like the best stuff in the world but it is some good stuff because knowing who we are helps us know how to interact as a church helps us to love one another better to understand where the everyone else is coming from and it helps us to con know how we're connecting with god why are we connecting with god to understand our false self to understand our motives to understand why i'm doing this to understand is this real love is this un unfettered love are these thoughts are they are they even taking god into the equation or are these this action did i even think about how this is going to affect my walk with god this all these things come together to make who we are we're we're a body of christ you know we kind of thought that we would be a little heavy in the in the heart direction because you know we we're a very philly touchy feely people but in reality it it kind of it balanced out better than what i thought it would honestly i was afraid everybody would just be on this side of the church and i'd be standing over here like okay thank you guys thank you so much for your attention your attentiveness tonight if we can let's all lift our hands let's close our eyes bow our heads and let's pray god we love you we thank you so much for your goodness for your word god i thank you lord so much for your kindness so much for your love and your patience god and to each and every one of us god i ask you lord to help us help us to know our hearts god search our hearts o lord to find anything and everything in it god that doesn't please you help us to remove it god and lay it before you god so be the best servant for you god i ask you lord these things god help us lord protect us this week god help us to go in the love and the grace and the nurture of god in jesus name we pray amen