 I want to speak today on the title, Dead Dog Mentality. I want to read the verse in just a second. But we want to continue talking about our faith and our position in Jesus Christ. When I was born, I was born into a family, and I was the first born mom and dad. I didn't choose to be born in this family, even though if I would have the choice, I probably would still choose that family, but it wasn't my choice. I was born in a family as an infant. I was born in a family without any abilities to do anything at that moment, but in that family, I right away occupied a position in the heart of my father and in the heart of my mother. And this position was called a son. I was an infant, but also a son. With years, I grew older, I learned how to walk, I learned how to talk, I learned how to write, but I still maintained the same position, a son. Then time came when I became a lot older, I graduated from school, I became a driver, I learned how to drive. I got a Facebook account. I still maintained a position in their heart as a son. I forwarded until I started to preach and I started to minister in the church. I still maintained a position, a son. I got married and have my own family now, have my own house and have my own vehicle, but I still am a son. I will have children and one day I will be old and one day I will be toward the end of my life and I will still have the same position as a son. My position in the family never changed. My condition always does. Here's pictures of when I was a kid. See, I went from this to this and to this. But no matter what condition in life I had, whether it was crazy, I had long hair, short hair, my physical appearance, I still had the same position. And this position that I have in the heart of my parents is nothing to do with what I did. It has nothing to do even with what I do. It has to do with my birth in the family. Same thing happens spiritually. Because you get saved as a children of God, you acquire a position in the heart of God that you can be in diapers today conditionally. You can be conditionally in the place where you're still maybe struggling or still not there where you're supposed to be. In the heart of God you are His child. He doesn't look at you through your diapers. He doesn't look at you through your abilities and does not look at you through your efforts. He looks at you through the love and the affection He owes to you. Not because of what you've done, but because of your birth into His family. You know, my father and my mother, they love me. My father and my mother, you know, they have a special place in their heart. When I think of that place, it has nothing to do with my abilities. It all has to do with my birth. And that helps me to understand. When I look at God, and for example if, you know, I didn't have maybe a day of prayer or I didn't read the Bible and my thought wasn't into it, or in some ways I don't measure up. I always reflect at the fact that when I was an infant, my parents didn't throw me on the streets because I couldn't vacuum the house. I always remind myself that when I was an infant, and because I cried too much and annoyed them and then I couldn't hold certain issues on my body, I released them into this little thing called diaper. And I caused my dad and my mom not to, you know, have their hands dirty. And I made a mess, but still then, though they were not very delighted about me doing that, but still they were not planning how do we get rid of this kid? They had love. Because of that position in the family, my conditions always improved. My conditions always changed. So the same happens with our relationship with God. If you look at this graph, you will see that our condition, it fluctuates, but our position in God always remains the same. When you became a Christian, you have a position in the heart of God as a child of God. You're special to Him. You mean a lot to Him. He loves you in the same way you love your baby girl. In the same way you love your baby boy. There is nothing they can do or cannot do to make you disown them. God's love is even greater. When you begin to meditate and how much He loves you, because of this position you have in His heart, the condition you have in your life today, that condition will always change. You will grow out of your diapers. You will learn how to walk. You will learn how to talk. You will get your license spiritually speaking. You will get into your own house spiritually speaking. You will overcome. One day you will be a leader. One day you will be a pastor. One day you will pray for the sick and they will be healed. The position and the love that God has for you will never change. You will change because of that, but God's love for you will never change. And when you receive that love, when you receive that position, when you receive that understanding, you are free not to get stuck in the situation that you are in, but to constantly evolve, constantly grow, go from one stage to another stage. Go from poverty to prosperity, from weakness to strength, from sickness to healing. From disappointment to God's appointment, because God's love is constant. Your problems are not. Does somebody say amen? If you read Corinthians, if you can put the Corinthians verses. Corinthians, Paul starts a letter to Corinthians and he says this to the church of God and he describes, he says, you are sanctified in Jesus and called to be saints. You have this picture of Corinthians. They are holy people. He says, and you are in him righteous. You are sanctification. You are redemption. You are God's wisdom. So you see this picture of Corinthians and then Paul begins to take a turn. And he says, you're still carnal. How fast they grafted from chapter one to chapter three. They became carnal in the same epistle. And then if you continue to read chapters later on, he says, actually there's sexual immorality among you. And he says, and by the way, you're also puffed up. First two, he talks about their position in Christ. He said, you are holy. You are sanctified. You guys are awesome. He says, and you guys are fleshly. You guys have some issues with lust and you got some issues with pride. You may say, how can one church, how can one person have all of that in themselves? The same way, a child can be a son and still wear diapers. But because the child is a son and is connected to the family, they grow out of those things. And they become who they are in the heart of their parents. Can somebody say amen? It's a basic truth, but without this truth, we will never grow as Christians. And without this truth, few problems happen. People could not understand how Christians can have demons because they don't know this truth. People cannot understand how can you be healed in the stripes of Jesus and still have symptoms in your body? How can you have victory in Jesus and still struggle with something? How can you be righteous in Jesus and still have certain behaviors that you're not happy with? In Jesus Christ, you are righteous. But in life, you are becoming that which Jesus gave you for free. Can somebody say amen? It's like the story of this Japanese soldier who went to war, World War II. And he went to war in Philippines. And when he was there, the war after a few years, the war ended. And this brother, Hiro Onoda, he was a Japanese soldier who continued to fight World War II 29 years after the war was over. He was hiding in the mountains of Philippines, fighting, war was over. The position that the war was in already, that the war is over, war is done. But the condition this man was, was the condition of, I still have to fight. I still have to fight. I still have to fight. They kept bringing flyers. The Japanese were bringing flyers on the mountains, dropping through the aeroplanes. So the people will read the flyer that the war is over. And when he would see the flyer, he would think that this is a propaganda. So he would destroy the flyers. When one of his workers, there's three of them. When one of them defected to the enemy and he came back and he says, listen, you don't have to fight no more. The war is over. He says, listen, they paid you. I'm not going to believe that lie. And he stood his ground until one day a college student heard about this man and decided to put a backpack on and go into the mountains in Philippines and search for him. And he found him and he says, it's been 29 years since the war you're fighting has already been won. It has already ended. I'm sorry, it has already ended. You need to come back home. And the man said this, I'm not going back home until the very man, the general, that sent me to this war comes and tells me that the war is over. The college student leaves that meeting with him, goes back to Japan, he tracks, took some months to track the general, who is a librarian now. Comes to the general, who is a librarian, says, please, I'll buy you a ticket. We've got to help this poor guy who's still fighting a war that's already ended, 29 years ago, that go into the mountains with this librarian who used to be a general. They sit down with him and they tell him, the war has ended. He can now come home. Positionally, the war ended 29 years ago. But because his mind was not changed, he still was in that war for 29 years. What happens today? God did it 2,000 years ago, but many people still live in sin. 2,000 years ago, Jesus ended Satan's reign over this earth spiritually. But we can still live in bondage practically because that's why we need to go to church. That's why we read the Word of God. That's why we listen to podcasts so that our mind gets renewed. It's not a propaganda. It's not a preacher's have to say something. It's not a pep talk. It's not just inspiration that people's lives can't change. People can be healed. People can be delivered. People can prosper. You don't have to repeat the cycle of the past that they've always seen. Through the blood, through the cross, through the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit, our life can be changed. And that's why we come to church to hear that, to change our thinking, to align it with the Word of God. Can somebody say amen? If you have your Bible, I will read 2 Samuel 9 verse 8. And this is a story of David finding Mephibosheth, who was the son of Jonathan and grandson of King Saul. And David remembered the contract he made with Jonathan and decides to search him out to show him kindness. And when the news came to Mephibosheth, this is what had happened. He then bowed himself and said, What is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as I? Mephibosheth said of himself, Why should you look at me if I'm just like a dead dog? Dogs have a simple purpose in the family. Very little purpose, not too much purpose. They take up their food and then they make up a lot of mess. But they're still good. They give certain responses, certain feel in the family, bring things together. Dogs are not bad. A dead dog is completely pointless. A dead dog is worthless. A dead dog cannot bark. A dead dog cannot be petted. A dead dog is worthless. And Mephibosheth says about himself. He says, Why is the king interested in someone who's a dead dog? He says, I don't even have teeth. I can't even bark. I'm nobody. My life is meaningless. My life is purposeless. My life has no purpose and no meaning. The dead dog mentality plagues our country today. Yesterday I came across a statistic. A suicide rate in America recently reached a 25 year high. Every day in America 105 people die out of suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. Suicide kills more Americans than car crashes making it number one form of self injury. Across the globe suicide is the 15 leading cause of death taking lives of 800,000 people a year. One person dies in this country by suicide every 13 minutes. And every 40 seconds in the world somebody takes their own life. In a single year 8.3 million have had suicidal thoughts. For every person that commits suicide 25 people attempted. For every person that commits suicide 25 people attempt to take their own life. Around the world 350 million individuals have been affected by depression. American association of a suicide finds that untreated depression is number one risk for suicide in young people. More than half of people who attempted suicide talk about their suicidal thoughts and the feelings beforehand means they expressed it to someone. They told someone I feel this and afterwards this is what happened. 80% of those who seek treatment for depression see improvement within 6 weeks of getting professional help. How can someone who is a son of a king but he feels like a dead dog. He feels completely purposeless and senseless. As Suicide is a very sensitive topic. It's a very sensitive for those of us even in the church and for those of us who ever had somebody who took their own life. I came across to a wonderful gentleman just last Sunday who came to me and he says, you have no idea what I went through just 3 days before that. He says I was on the edge of taking my own life. With tears rolling down his eyes. A young man that if I would point this young man you would say you have so much to live for. You have such a destiny. You have such a purpose. People would kill to have your health. People will die to have your problem. You must see that what the enemy does is the enemy bombards us in our condition, in our circumstances, in our environment and our predicament. It's not what we're surrounded with that's the biggest problem. It's what creeps into our head. And the enemy settles a fact in our mind. Says you are a dead dog. Your life has no purpose. Your life will never change. Your life will never get better. Your health will never improve. You will never find somebody to settle with. Your finances will never change. Your situation will never change. Your marriage will never change. So you know what just opt out. There are people all around the hospital in this city who would pay any price to take your health and to give you theirs. If you have a heart that beats, lungs, kidneys, bones that are not broken. If you have a brain that operates. If you have nerves that are connected to your brain and none of them are injured. If you have no skin infection, go to a cancer patient. Go to someone laying on a dialysis today. And you will see they'll pay any price just to have the body. Not the life, just the body that you have. But the enemy uses our situation to paint a new picture of a lie and give us a picture. You're a dead dog. Your life has no meaning. Why? Because your parents are getting divorced. Your life has no meaning. Why? Because your husband left you. Your life has no meaning. Why? Because your children are acting up. Your life has no meaning. Why? Because you have a little minor health condition. Your life is purposeless. Why? Because somebody didn't shake your hand in the church. Because nobody takes you back and nobody loves you. The devil is a liar. A dead dog mentality needs to be trashed and God needs to give us a new mentality in Jesus' name. Can somebody say amen? See this dead dog mentality comes from four reasons. Number one is because of our past family history. Mephibosheth, his grandpa was consulting a witch doctor. His grandpa Saul was a maniac. And many times when we come from a family where we see a traces of depression. Where we see traces of demonic attacks. We see traces of divorce. It begins to affect us. The demons use the past history of our family. To infiltrate our mind. Not just our circumstances, but to infiltrate our mind. To paint a picture. You are worthless. You have no purpose. And your life has no future. But just because you had a past, it doesn't mean it has to be your future. Just because you had a past, it doesn't mean it has to be your future. Can somebody say amen? The second thing that the enemy uses to bring this mentality over dead dog. Is that he uses our past trauma. Mephibosheth at the age of five, he was dropped by a nurse. When the war broke out and his father was killed in a battle. His nurse dropped him at the age of five. Being dropped by someone who is supposed to carry you. Brings a trauma into your life that many people seldomly recover. Without help of professionals. And without the help of deliverance. And we have many times people who get dropped. The people that you trusted in and they maybe break the trust. Or maybe somebody took advantage of you physically and abused you. Or just the words that were called into us. Or certain situations that created in us in our past. Where we carry a certain drama. Certain trauma, certain drama. And what it does is it creates a mindset. I'm not good enough. I'll settle for anything. My life is not going to mean anything. I'll never get married. If they find out my secret, if they know what I've been through. You know, they'll never want to be with me. But the devil is a liar. Because every trauma, the Bible says Jesus Christ came to heal the broken hearted. He didn't come just to put a bandaid on it. He came to completely cure and completely restore our trauma in Jesus' name. Because somebody say amen. But another reason why many times we have this mentality is because of the name calling. Word means from a mouth of shame. Every single day when he was called, his name was from a mouth of shame. How would you like to be referred by that name? I mean, that's a terrible way to go around being called from a mouth of shame. I don't know why they call them. Who ever thought of them. Who was drunk maybe. Who called them like that. This is completely inappropriate. But a kid walks around every day being called with this weird name. Maybe your name is not Mephibosheth. But maybe it's people call you or you call yourself now fat, ugly, no good. We'll never amount to anything. I'm not successful. I don't amount to things. That's why one of the first things that God did with people when he met them is he would change their names. He would change some names who were bad into great. And some names who were good into great. He met Abraham and Abraham's name was Abraham means a glorious father. That's a good name. And God says no. That's a name that reflects your father. You're going to kick it with me? And you're going to be a father of multitudes. We're going to add one more A, Abraham. Jesus meets Peter and says that you're shaking. He says no wonder you're acting like that. He says I'm going to give you a new name. You're going to be a rock. God comes and meets Jacob. He says you're a suplenter. You trickster. You lie. You always trick your way to the top. And God says I will give you a name Israel because you wrestle with God and you will prevail with man. God always when he meets you, he rips the label that people put on you, that you put on yourself. And God says I'm going to give you a label that reflects a relationship you have with me. God wants to change your name. And you need to change the way you call yourself. The way you see yourself. Every day when you wake up you have to look at yourself in a mirror. And you have to tell yourself I am blessed. You have to tell yourself you are good looking. You have to tell yourself that you are righteous. If you don't tell yourself and you expect someone else to do that. Why should people treat you better than you treat yourself? You owe it to yourself by the word of God to call yourself by the name God calls you. And somebody say amen. The last thing is why we get this mindset is because of our current environment. For Mephibosheth he lived in this place called Lobodar. It's called no pastor. He lived in a place that was parched. Lived in a place that was famined. He currently at that point when he lived there was nothing growing. Kind of electricity. Without irrigation we're just a desert. And in those days if you are like that you're not going to make it because everything was based on farms. And so he lived in a place that was parched. Place of no pastor. And so no wonder was easy for him to live every single day with a mindset. I am a dead dog. I am no good. Nobody is interested in me. And I will never amount to anything. I'm crippled. My grandpa was a psychopath. My legs are not walking right. I live in a terrible location. All of the property of my father has been taken away. I've been traumatized. I've been called with names. And I'm old. And I'm going to die like that. And the Bible says while this was happening. There was something else happening behind the scenes. A long time ago his daddy Jonathan and David made a pact together. They made a covenant. And the covenant said where David is going to be nice to Jonathan's descendants. And one of these descendants was Mephibosheth. And when David became a king things were going good. He had a lot of finances a lot of resources. He thought to be nice to the descendants of Jonathan his friend. And he comes and sends a messenger and says find me a Mephibosheth. And bring him into my court I want to be nice to him. For his father's sake. Not for his sake but for his father's sake. And I want to tell you something today. The reason why David was nice to Mephibosheth. Was not because of Mephibosheth. It was because of a covenant between his father and David. Mephibosheth had nothing to do with it. It's almost like Mephibosheth see and David comes to Mephibosheth and says come. You will come to my court and Mephibosheth says I'm nobody. David says it has nothing to do with you. I'm not coming here because of you. I'm not coming here because of your education. I'm not coming here to hire you as somebody to be in my court. This Mephibosheth stop thinking about yourself. You're so conscious that somehow you qualified or you maybe applied for a lottery. It has nothing to do with you. I am being kind to you because of your daddy. You happens to be with your daddy. That's why. I want to tell you something today. God's goodness and grace is not dependent on you. It's dependent on Jesus. The Bible says God made a covenant with Jesus. You know we see five covenants in the Bible. We see the Adamic covenant. We see the Noah's covenant. We see the covenant God made with Israel. We see the covenant God makes with David. And there is one more covenant God makes. And it's not with us. It's with Jesus Christ. When he makes the covenant with Jesus Christ and you are in Jesus. God wants to treat you good because of that covenant. God wants to treat you good because of that covenant. You are positioned in the covenant with Jesus. That means that your life can change dramatically. That means that your life can be transformed. It's interesting. What I love about Mephibosheth is that though he felt below the carpet. He still dragged himself to the king's court. He admitted how he felt. He says I'm not good. I'm terrible. Yet he still ended up in the king's palace. That encourages me. I can feel like a dead dog. I don't have to act like a dead dog. Sometimes I can think like a dead dog. But I still have to act like God calls me. Even if within myself there is a battle going on. Because how I lived, what I've been, who dropped me. Who was my grandparents, the generational curses. But if the king calls and the king says. I am interested in you. My feelings, my thoughts, my past, my trauma. All of that has to go back in the trunk. Because the king's word has to prevail. And what the good is, is not only we see how he felt. But we also know where he was feeding himself. The Bible says he was eating at the table of the king. I want you to learn this today. How you feel should never determine where you feed. How you feel should never determine where you are feasting. How you feel should never determine where you are sitting. You may be feeling like a dead dog. But God says I want to position you at my table. That means with the way you feel. You act what God says. And you will see that your feelings will take a back seat. And we see what happened with Mephibosheth. Is that the properties of his father. All of them was restored to Mephibosheth. Because he acted not on his feelings. But on the word of the king. Not only that. We see when he was seated at the king's table. His lame legs. His crippled legs. They were covered by the table. And nobody saw except him and the king that Mephibosheth was crippled. When you begin to stop acting on how you feel. But start acting on what God says about you. You will begin to see that you will no longer be conscious. And people will no longer be conscious of your infirmity. Of your situation. And your past or your background. They will see you as a different person. Because you will present yourself as a different person. When our Lord Jesus Christ faced a Lazarus tomb. And the Bible says that everybody cried and groaned. Jesus Christ, he says he groaned inside. That means the tone of his voice. His emotional, his facial expression changed. And the Bible says the shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. He emotionally got down to the level that he was in. He was crying. He was broken. He was shot. Emotionally Jesus was connecting with where people were. But what I love Jesus for. It's not only that he feels the emotions. It's that he's not led by emotions. Because you see in the next verse he says show me where you buried him. And you would think oh he wants to go see by the grave and just cry more. He wants to go and just groan more. But he comes to the grave and he says remove the stone. Why would you say that? Because Jesus felt one thing. He acted completely on a different level. See you can feel the level of death. Make sure you act on the level of life. You can feel the level of depression. Make sure you act on the level of God's promise. You can have tears rolling down your eyes. Confusion filling down your mind. You can have emotions raging against you. But when all of that is done you said I know who I am. I know who is behind me and who lives inside of me. His name is the Holy Spirit. You can have prognosis. Symptoms raging in your body. And tears rolling down your eyes. And your heart be confused. But your heart is submitted to the word of God. And God's word settles everything. Because somebody say amen. I want to challenge each person this morning. How you feel has very little to do with your future. You can feel like a dead dog. You can feel like you don't have ideas for your future. You can feel like your finances will never change. You can feel like your future in relationship will never change. But God says I want to be good to you. Because Jesus paid a heavy lofty price on the Calvary. And God says allow me to be good to you. By not imprisoning your future. To the predicament of your mindset today. Set free your mind to dream with God. Set free your mind to be on the level of God's promise. Not on the level of your situation. Or on the level of your feelings. And when you set your mind free. And you say I'm crippled. And you say I am from the place of no pastor. I've been traumatized. But in my mind I let it out. And I say God I'm going to be at the king's table. He prepares me at table. In the presence of my enemies. In the presence of sickness. God says come up. Sit down. Let's eat. He said but Lord the enemy is staring at me. Do you see the dirty looks the enemy is giving to me. And God says keep eating. Keep feeding. Keep feeding. Keep eating. Why? And drive the devil nuts. And if he can't stand you blessed give him a chair.