Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / IMPORTANT MESSAGE from The Lord- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: I really appreciate this opportunity that you give me each
- 0:05Speaker 1: week to study the Bible and share ideas with you.
- 0:08Speaker 1: And we're tackling this whole theme of anxiety because I
- 0:12Speaker 1: really believe that we can win the war on worry.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Anxiety has its place, It comes with life, but it
- 0:21Speaker 1: doesn't have to run our lives. And God has a
- 0:24Speaker 1: prescription for worry. He has a solution and antidote for anxiety,
- 0:29Speaker 1: and it's in the Book of Philippians in the summer.
- 0:32Speaker 1: We're dissecting it phrase by phrase. The words are about
- 0:36Speaker 1: to appear on the screen. Many of you have memorized
- 0:38Speaker 1: the passage. If you'd like to look at the screen
- 0:41Speaker 1: for the words, you can. Let's all read it and
- 0:44Speaker 1: cite it together. And I want you to sit up straight,
- 0:46Speaker 1: put your shoulders back, and fill your lungs with her
- 0:49Speaker 1: and your hearts with hope. Let's say it like we
- 0:52Speaker 1: mean it. Are you ready rejoice in the Lord always? Again?
- 0:57Speaker 1: I say, rejoice. Your gentleness be known to all men.
- 1:03Speaker 1: The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for it, and
- 1:16Speaker 1: the peace of God well guard your Finally, brethren, there
- 1:39Speaker 1: is anything praiser. Meditate on these things, Yes, Lord, grant
- 1:46Speaker 1: that we could do just this. Would you please take
- 1:50Speaker 1: the anxiety out, replace it Lord with meditation on good things.
- 1:56Speaker 1: We would request this peace that passes understanding. We lift
- 2:01Speaker 1: up to you all of our requests, but we do
- 2:03Speaker 1: so with thanksgiving and gratitude for all the good that
- 2:05Speaker 1: you have done for us. Forgive our speaker today his
- 2:09Speaker 1: sins are many. Help us to see Christ, just Christ.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Through Christ, we pray and all the Church said. You
- 2:19Speaker 1: might consider adding to your summer reading a wonderful book
- 2:22Speaker 1: that just came out as called Called for Life, authored
- 2:27Speaker 1: by Kent and Amber Brantley. You may remember their story
- 2:33Speaker 1: this time last year, doctor Brantley's name was in the news.
- 2:38Speaker 1: In fact, it was on Wednesday evening July twenty third,
- 2:42Speaker 1: twenty and fourteen, that doctor Brantley took a seat on
- 2:46Speaker 1: his couch and he opened his journal and he needed
- 2:49Speaker 1: to collect his thoughts because he had spent the day
- 2:53Speaker 1: feeling the effects of an illness that he knew would
- 2:57Speaker 1: either be malaria or ebola, and he was praying for malaria.
- 3:05Speaker 1: He was a medical missionary in Liberia waging a war
- 3:09Speaker 1: on the cruelest of viruses, ebola. There was no sure cure.
- 3:15Speaker 1: The epidemic was killing people by the thousands, and as
- 3:18Speaker 1: much as any person in the world, doctor Brantley knew
- 3:22Speaker 1: the consequences of the disease. He had treated dozens and
- 3:26Speaker 1: dozens of cases. He knew the symptoms, the soaring fevers,
- 3:30Speaker 1: the severe diarrhea, the nausea. He had seen the results
- 3:34Speaker 1: of the virus, and yet for the first time he
- 3:37Speaker 1: was feeling them himself. His colleagues had drawn blood and
- 3:41Speaker 1: begun the tests, yet it would be three days before
- 3:45Speaker 1: anyone knew the results. Doctor Brantley quarantined himself in his
- 3:50Speaker 1: cinder blockhouse and he waited. His wife and family were
- 3:54Speaker 1: across the ocean. His colleagues were not permitted to enter
- 3:59Speaker 1: the resids. He was quite literally alone with his thoughts,
- 4:04Speaker 1: and in that moment he opened his Bible and he
- 4:09Speaker 1: found a passage from the Book of Hebrews and began
- 4:12Speaker 1: to meditate on it. The passage reads, the promise of
- 4:16Speaker 1: entering his rest still stands, so let us never give up.
- 4:21Speaker 1: Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest.
- 4:25Speaker 1: Brantley called to mind the phrase make every effort, and
- 4:30Speaker 1: he circled it and decided, now that's exactly what I'm
- 4:33Speaker 1: going to have to do. He kept reading. He paused
- 4:37Speaker 1: in Hebrews, chapter four and verse sixteen, let us then
- 4:40Speaker 1: approach the throne of Grace with confidence, so that we
- 4:44Speaker 1: may receive mercy and grace to help us in our
- 4:47Speaker 1: time of need. He wrote the verse word for word
- 4:50Speaker 1: in his journal, and when he came to the word confidence,
- 4:53Speaker 1: he wrote it in italics. Then he closed the journal
- 4:58Speaker 1: and waited. The next three days brought unspeakable discomfort, and
- 5:04Speaker 1: then brought the news that they feared he had indeed
- 5:08Speaker 1: contracted ebola. Amber Kent's wife, was across the ocean in
- 5:14Speaker 1: her hometown of Abilene, Texas. She received a call from
- 5:20Speaker 1: Kent the following Saturday afternoon. When the phone rang, she
- 5:24Speaker 1: stepped into her bedroom to receive it. She was actually
- 5:27Speaker 1: at her parents' house, so she stepped into her former
- 5:30Speaker 1: bedroom and there Kent went straight to the point over
- 5:35Speaker 1: the phone. He said, the test results came back. It
- 5:38Speaker 1: is positive. She began to cry, and they talked for
- 5:43Speaker 1: a few moments until Kent said he was too tired
- 5:45Speaker 1: to talk anymore, but he would call soon. Now it
- 5:49Speaker 1: was up to Amber to process the news. She told
- 5:52Speaker 1: her parents the three sat on the edge of her bed,
- 5:56Speaker 1: and they wept for several minutes. After some time, Amber
- 6:00Speaker 1: excused herself and she went outside, and she walked across
- 6:04Speaker 1: a large field toward a mesquite tree that had a
- 6:08Speaker 1: low hanging branch. She sat on the branch. She tried
- 6:12Speaker 1: to pray, but she could. She found it difficult to
- 6:15Speaker 1: put her concerns in words, so she began to sing
- 6:19Speaker 1: hymns that she had learned as a young girl. She sang,
- 6:24Speaker 1: there is no shadow of turning with THEE. Thou changest,
- 6:27Speaker 1: not that compassions. They fail, not as thou hast been,
- 6:30Speaker 1: Thou forever will be. That lifted her spirits, and so
- 6:34Speaker 1: she sang even louder, I need THEE every hour, in
- 6:37Speaker 1: joy or pain. Come quickly and abide. Her life is
- 6:41Speaker 1: in vain. I need THEE. Oh, I need THEE every hour.
- 6:45Speaker 1: I need THEE. Come and bless me. Now, my Savior,
- 6:49Speaker 1: I come to THEE. She later wrote these words, I
- 6:54Speaker 1: thought my husband was going to die. I was in pain.
- 6:57Speaker 1: I was afraid. Yet through those hints I was able
- 7:01Speaker 1: to connect with God in a meaningful way. Maybe you
- 7:05Speaker 1: remember this story, Maybe you remember watching the news reports
- 7:10Speaker 1: of the Brantley family unfold. Maybe you remember the decision
- 7:14Speaker 1: of the caregivers to give an untested treatment to Kent
- 7:20Speaker 1: because they had no other option. Maybe you remember watching
- 7:23Speaker 1: his transport from Africa to Atlanta, watching him as he
- 7:27Speaker 1: climbed out of the back of the van and was
- 7:31Speaker 1: carefully walked into the hospital. We celebrated at the news
- 7:34Speaker 1: of his improved condition, and then we thank God when
- 7:38Speaker 1: we heard the news that Kent was cured of ebola.
- 7:43Speaker 1: But you know what, I think we can celebrate the
- 7:46Speaker 1: curing of yet another disease, a virus that is every
- 7:50Speaker 1: bit as contagious and every bit as deadly, the unseen
- 7:56Speaker 1: virus of anxiety. Kent and Amber were prime candidates for worry.
- 8:05Speaker 1: Yet they reacted to the presence of anxiety with the
- 8:09Speaker 1: same deliberate resolve that they reacted to the presence of
- 8:14Speaker 1: the Ebola virus. They went on the offensive. They took
- 8:18Speaker 1: control of their thoughts. Kent opened his Bible, Amber opened
- 8:23Speaker 1: her heart. They pondered scriptures, They meditated on hymns before
- 8:27Speaker 1: anxiety could get a hold of them. They got a
- 8:30Speaker 1: hold of the anxiety and they marched it out. They
- 8:34Speaker 1: did exactly what the Apostle prescribed in Philippians, chapter four
- 8:39Speaker 1: and verse eight. Finally, Brethren, whatever things are true, whatever
- 8:43Speaker 1: things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure,
- 8:47Speaker 1: whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report.
- 8:50Speaker 1: If there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy,
- 8:53Speaker 1: meditate on these things. If the Bible has a recommend
- 9:00Speaker 1: a diet for the mind, this is it. These are
- 9:05Speaker 1: the green vegetables for the soul. My wife, Dinlon likes
- 9:10Speaker 1: green vegetables. I don't, but she does, and she has
- 9:15Speaker 1: a list of vegetables that are good for the body.
- 9:18Speaker 1: It includes things like broccoli and asparagus and lettuce. As
- 9:23Speaker 1: I read over the list, I don't see anything that
- 9:25Speaker 1: I think is a health food. Donuts and barbecue, potato
- 9:30Speaker 1: chips and Oreo cookies and ice cream. But I don't
- 9:35Speaker 1: ask why. I know the answer. I've heard all the slogans.
- 9:41Speaker 1: What tastes good on the lips does not look good
- 9:44Speaker 1: on the How did you know that already? So if
- 9:49Speaker 1: you want to feel good tomorrow, then eat good today.
- 9:52Speaker 1: These are principles of a healthy diet, but they are
- 9:57Speaker 1: also principles of a healthy It is good to be
- 10:02Speaker 1: a picky eater, it's equally good to be a picky thinker.
- 10:09Speaker 1: In the Apostle, Paul sets himself up here as our
- 10:13Speaker 1: thought dietitian, because just as not every food qualifies to
- 10:19Speaker 1: be eaten, not every thought qualifies to be thought. It
- 10:25Speaker 1: must meet a standard, and he gives us the nine standards.
- 10:31Speaker 1: First of all, it must be true. It must be
- 10:33Speaker 1: based on God's word. It must align itself with scripture.
- 10:37Speaker 1: It must be noble. The word here means worthy of respect.
- 10:40Speaker 1: Boy that eliminates everything that's immoral or inappropriate. It must
- 10:45Speaker 1: be just. It advocates fairness to all parties involved. It
- 10:50Speaker 1: must be pure. This is a call for high and
- 10:53Speaker 1: lofty thoughts. Must be lovely. Lovely thoughts focus on whatever
- 10:58Speaker 1: beauty can be found in any situation. It must be
- 11:01Speaker 1: of good report, no need for slander or gossip. It
- 11:05Speaker 1: must be of good report. It must be of good virtue.
- 11:07Speaker 1: It must be praiseworthy. So we welcome any ideas that promote
- 11:12Speaker 1: the best of life, hi ethics, lofty goodness. We meditate
- 11:17Speaker 1: on these things, and as we turn our thoughts toward
- 11:21Speaker 1: these things, a wonderful thing happens. We turn our backs
- 11:25Speaker 1: on their opposites. As we fill our minds with veggies,
- 11:30Speaker 1: we avoid a junk food diet of deceit, unsavory thoughts,
- 11:35Speaker 1: ugly thoughts, dishonest thoughts where you tend to rose that
- 11:38Speaker 1: this will cannot grow. We focus our thoughts on good things,
- 11:43Speaker 1: so the weedy thoughts do not have room. So, just
- 11:47Speaker 1: as some people are picky eaters, we choose on purpose
- 11:51Speaker 1: to be picky thinkers. The big idea in this passage
- 11:56Speaker 1: is simply this, meditate on good things. Meditate on good things.
- 12:03Speaker 1: You want to treat anxiety. Turn your thoughts toward good things.
- 12:08Speaker 1: This word in Greek. As you know, the Bible was
- 12:10Speaker 1: written in New Testament was written in Greek. This word
- 12:13Speaker 1: in Greek is a great word. Look at it. Logisomine, meditate,
- 12:17Speaker 1: logismid Do you see an English word, the roots of
- 12:20Speaker 1: an English word inside that? Anyone? Logic? Logic? We meditate
- 12:27Speaker 1: on good things. We treat our anxiety with logical thinking,
- 12:32Speaker 1: with clear thinking, with rational thinking. Easier said than done.
- 12:38Speaker 1: The consequence of anxiety for many is muddled or unclear
- 12:43Speaker 1: thinking if we think at all. In July nineteen forty three,
- 12:47Speaker 1: a British Army officer by the name of Lionel Weygram
- 12:50Speaker 1: studied the reaction of soldiers to intense battle. He noted
- 12:55Speaker 1: a predictable pattern. He said, in a typical platoon of
- 12:58Speaker 1: twenty two men, there will be a small number who
- 13:03Speaker 1: respond and courage. There will be a small number who
- 13:06Speaker 1: respond in penning. The vast number of the men will
- 13:09Speaker 1: go into mental neutral He called them sheep, bewildered sheep.
- 13:14Speaker 1: They will quit thinking. He writes, every platoon can be
- 13:18Speaker 1: analyzed as follows six men who will go anywhere, twelve
- 13:22Speaker 1: sheep who will follow a short distance behind, and four
- 13:25Speaker 1: to six men who do not have what it takes.
- 13:29Speaker 1: Another psychologist by the name of John Leech has spent
- 13:33Speaker 1: the last couple of decades studying the human response to
- 13:37Speaker 1: sudden stress like airplane turbulence or economic downfalls. According to
- 13:42Speaker 1: his studies, about ten to twenty percent of us remain
- 13:45Speaker 1: cool and composed under stress, another ten to fifteen percent
- 13:51Speaker 1: freak out, but about seventy to eighty percent of us
- 13:55Speaker 1: become what he calls mentally paralyzed thinking. Well, long before
- 14:01Speaker 1: this research, the apostle Paul was calling on us to
- 14:05Speaker 1: mind our minds in times in which we're anxious to
- 14:08Speaker 1: be careful. What we think our most valuable weapon against
- 14:13Speaker 1: anxiety weighs two point seven pounds, and it sits right
- 14:17Speaker 1: here between our ears. This was the point of Jesus
- 14:21Speaker 1: and the most famous sermon ever preached on the topic
- 14:25Speaker 1: of anxiety. He begins the sermon by telling us, quite bluntly,
- 14:31Speaker 1: do not worry about your life what you will eat,
- 14:35Speaker 1: or what you will drink, or about your body what
- 14:37Speaker 1: you will put on. And then he gives us two
- 14:40Speaker 1: commands with which to fulfill. The first, he says, look
- 14:45Speaker 1: and consider. First of all, he says, look, look at
- 14:50Speaker 1: the birds of the air. He invites us to go
- 14:52Speaker 1: outside and just look at the ravens, or look at
- 14:55Speaker 1: the at the cardinals, look at the birds. And when
- 14:58Speaker 1: we do, we notice something. They're not grumpy, they don't
- 15:03Speaker 1: frown if, they don't look sleep deprived. They're not lonely.
- 15:10Speaker 1: In fact, they appear just the opposite. They're quite happy.
- 15:14Speaker 1: They sing, they soar, they whistle. And then Jesus says,
- 15:21Speaker 1: they don't sow or gather into barns. In other words,
- 15:25Speaker 1: they don't work, they don't save money, they don't get
- 15:31Speaker 1: stressed out and occupations. But they look happy. And then
- 15:36Speaker 1: he tells us to lower our gaze from the birds
- 15:39Speaker 1: and look out over the valley. He says, consider what
- 15:44Speaker 1: the lilies. Consider the lilies. Remember, he's helping us treat anxiety.
- 15:49Speaker 1: So he tells us to look at the birds, and
- 15:51Speaker 1: now consider the lilies. Same point. If they don't look unhappy,
- 15:57Speaker 1: they really are very beautiful. In fact, Jesus says, even
- 16:01Speaker 1: though their life span is short, they're here today and
- 16:03Speaker 1: tomorrow they're going to be thrown into the fire. Even
- 16:07Speaker 1: Solomon and all of his glory was not dressed up
- 16:10Speaker 1: like one of these. He's the richest king in history.
- 16:13Speaker 1: In the field of lilies is prettier than he was.
- 16:16Speaker 1: The point we disarm anxiety by looking and by considering,
- 16:21Speaker 1: by thinking, by processing. We look at the birds, we
- 16:25Speaker 1: look at the lilies. We don't get lost in our
- 16:29Speaker 1: negative downward spiral of thoughts, nor do we get frozen
- 16:34Speaker 1: in no thinking. We stop, we collect ourselves, We look
- 16:37Speaker 1: at the birds, We consider the lilies. We manage anxiety
- 16:41Speaker 1: by managing our thoughts. We manage anxiety by managing our thoughts. Now,
- 16:47Speaker 1: maybe you wanted something that was a little more mystical,
- 16:51Speaker 1: a little more supernatural, a little more angelic, maybe some
- 16:55Speaker 1: heavenly visitations or chariots of fire. Maybe you thought that
- 16:59Speaker 1: God treated anxiety through these supernatural visions. Paul and Jesus
- 17:06Speaker 1: would tell you otherwise. The key to peace is not
- 17:11Speaker 1: in the emotion you feel, but in the thoughts you think.
- 17:15Speaker 1: The key to peace is not in the emotions you'll feel,
- 17:19Speaker 1: but in the thoughts you think. Do you want to
- 17:20Speaker 1: feel peace tomorrow, then think godly thoughts today, meditate on
- 17:25Speaker 1: good things. Years ago, a renowned British pastor by the
- 17:30Speaker 1: name of d. Martin Lloyd Jones wrote these words about
- 17:34Speaker 1: the passage in Matthew chapter six, that we just looked
- 17:37Speaker 1: at faith, according to Our Lord's teaching in this paragraph,
- 17:43Speaker 1: is primarily thinking. And the whole trouble with a man
- 17:46Speaker 1: of little faith is that he forgets to think. He
- 17:50Speaker 1: allows circumstances to bludgeon him. The way to avoid that,
- 17:55Speaker 1: according to our Lord, is to think. To look at
- 17:59Speaker 1: the birds, to think about them, to draw your deductions,
- 18:02Speaker 1: to look at the grass, at the lilies of the field,
- 18:04Speaker 1: consider them. The trouble with a person of little faith
- 18:08Speaker 1: is that instead of controlling his own thought, his thought
- 18:11Speaker 1: is being controlled by something else. And he goes round
- 18:15Speaker 1: and round in circles. This is the essence of worry.
- 18:19Speaker 1: That is not thought. That is the absence of thought,
- 18:23Speaker 1: that is a failure to think. Paul Elsewhere said, Kent,
- 18:29Speaker 1: set your mind on things above, not on things of
- 18:33Speaker 1: the earth. There is a time in which we intentionally
- 18:36Speaker 1: and deliberately set our mind on things above. That's what
- 18:40Speaker 1: Kent Brandy did when he was about to spend three
- 18:44Speaker 1: days waiting on the results from the Ebola test. He
- 18:48Speaker 1: set his mind on things above. That's what his wife
- 18:51Speaker 1: Amber did when she got news of her husband's positive diagnosis.
- 18:57Speaker 1: As she didn't panic. It was not easy, but she
- 19:00Speaker 1: did deliberate things. She took deliberate steps to set her
- 19:04Speaker 1: mind on good things. I did something like this once,
- 19:11Speaker 1: and it had to do with a little lemon and
- 19:14Speaker 1: a little phrase that was written on the lemon that
- 19:18Speaker 1: I had attached to the dashboard of my car. One
- 19:22Speaker 1: of the most difficult days of my life happened when
- 19:25Speaker 1: I was nineteen years old and I was in a
- 19:28Speaker 1: town called Dalton in the state of Georgia. I had
- 19:34Speaker 1: never been to Dalton. I didn't know anyone in Georgia,
- 19:38Speaker 1: and I wondered What in the world had happened? I
- 19:42Speaker 1: was nineteen years of age. This was the summer of
- 19:45Speaker 1: my first year in college. I found myself sleeping in
- 19:50Speaker 1: the Salvation Army because it was cheap, and the night
- 19:54Speaker 1: before a person who had had too much to drink
- 19:58Speaker 1: rolled over in his bunk up above mine and vomited
- 20:02Speaker 1: right down on the floor. I was so homesick. If
- 20:08Speaker 1: homesickness was water, I was soaked. What had I gotten
- 20:12Speaker 1: myself into? Well, I'm the promise of some fast cash
- 20:18Speaker 1: and some new science. I had joined up with two
- 20:21Speaker 1: buddies and signed on to sell books door to door.
- 20:28Speaker 1: We went to sales school. My friends went home during
- 20:30Speaker 1: sales school left me to go to Georgia all by myself.
- 20:36Speaker 1: I went to the field after sales school, and the
- 20:39Speaker 1: first day I discovered something. People don't like door to
- 20:42Speaker 1: door salesmen. They don't, not even when they're a nice
- 20:48Speaker 1: kid from West Texas. That first day was terrible. Hello,
- 20:54Speaker 1: I'm Max Slam. Hello, I'm Max Slam. Hello, I'm Max Slam.
- 21:04Speaker 1: The second day was just as bad. I didn't know
- 21:07Speaker 1: if I was gonna make it. I couldn't envision going
- 21:09Speaker 1: through a whole summer like that. So I ended up
- 21:13Speaker 1: at that diner for lunch, and I ordered a hamburger
- 21:17Speaker 1: and I treated my bruised ego. And as I was
- 21:22Speaker 1: paying for my burger checking out at the cash register,
- 21:26Speaker 1: I noticed that to the right of the cash register
- 21:28Speaker 1: there was this display, And upon this display was a
- 21:33Speaker 1: collection of rubberized magnetized truisms, the kind that you stick
- 21:41Speaker 1: on a refrigerator door. Do you know what I'm talking about?
- 21:44Speaker 1: Little statements? And there was one of them that was
- 21:48Speaker 1: shaped like a lemon, and on that rubberized lemon, these
- 21:56Speaker 1: words appeared. I bet you know what I'm about to say,
- 22:00Speaker 1: When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade. Well it's old,
- 22:09Speaker 1: it's a chop worn, it's corny. But I'd never heard
- 22:13Speaker 1: that before, and that was exactly what I needed. That
- 22:19Speaker 1: little slogan told me that my problem was not my problems.
- 22:23Speaker 1: My problem was the way I was looking at my problems,
- 22:27Speaker 1: and it was just enough to convince me to stay
- 22:30Speaker 1: on the job. I bought that little thing and I
- 22:33Speaker 1: took it out to my plymouth duster. My plymouth duster
- 22:37Speaker 1: had a metal strip on the dashboard, and I stuck
- 22:41Speaker 1: that magnetized lemon on that metal strip, and every day,
- 22:47Speaker 1: at least a dozen times I would reach up and
- 22:49Speaker 1: I'd rubbed my thumb across that, and I think, Okay,
- 22:55Speaker 1: I can either be miserable or I can make some lemonade.
- 23:01Speaker 1: I survived the summer. That's been forty years. Much has happened,
- 23:09Speaker 1: much has changed, but friends, this much has not. Life
- 23:16Speaker 1: still gives lemons. It does, and my prospects of a
- 23:25Speaker 1: miserable summer are nothing compared to the lemons that some
- 23:29Speaker 1: of you have received. Just a few days ago, I
- 23:33Speaker 1: found myself in a conversation with an elderly lady whose
- 23:38Speaker 1: husband has been diagnosed with dementia and she's gonna have
- 23:44Speaker 1: to tell him he can no longer drive. And she
- 23:47Speaker 1: was telling me how she was gonna have to take
- 23:49Speaker 1: the car keys away. Life has given her a lemon.
- 23:54Speaker 1: I found myself in a conversation with a young mom.
- 23:56Speaker 1: She already has one child, and now she has a
- 23:59Speaker 1: new born. It seems like she can't remember the last
- 24:02Speaker 1: time she had a good night sleep, and she's really
- 24:05Speaker 1: worried if she'll be a good parent. I had lunch
- 24:11Speaker 1: not too long ago with a fella who's trying to
- 24:15Speaker 1: get through a very, very difficult divorce. He underestimated the
- 24:20Speaker 1: damage it would do, and he's worried about his kids.
- 24:24Speaker 1: He's worried about himself, if he'll ever be happy again.
- 24:28Speaker 1: Life gives lemons, doesn't it has life given you a lemon? Lately?
- 24:35Speaker 1: Life gives lemons to good people. Life gives lemons to
- 24:39Speaker 1: bad people. Life gives lemons to old people. Life gives
- 24:42Speaker 1: lemons to young people. Life gives lemons to medical missionaries.
- 24:49Speaker 1: Life comes with lemons, but we don't have to suck
- 24:54Speaker 1: on them. This is the point of the Apostle Paul.
- 25:07Speaker 1: You can read your Bible from beginning to end. You
- 25:11Speaker 1: can capitalize every letter in the epistles of Paul, and
- 25:14Speaker 1: you will never find a promise that says fall of Christ,
- 25:17Speaker 1: and you'll have no lemons. It's just not there. But
- 25:22Speaker 1: there is this promise that when life gives you a lemon,
- 25:27Speaker 1: God will show you how to respond to it, how
- 25:31Speaker 1: to handle it. When life gives you a bucketful of anxiety,
- 25:37Speaker 1: Christ will show you a way to respond to that
- 25:41Speaker 1: anxiety so that that anxiety does not get to you.
- 25:47Speaker 1: This is the promise that God gives that you can
- 25:51Speaker 1: cast all your cares upon him because he cares about you.
- 25:54Speaker 1: That you can be anxious for nothing, but in everything,
- 25:57Speaker 1: by prayer and supplication, you can make your request known
- 26:01Speaker 1: to God. Life comes with a bushel full of limits,
- 26:05Speaker 1: but if you're sucking on them, they're going to make
- 26:09Speaker 1: you sour. But you can respond to them in a
- 26:14Speaker 1: better way. Meditate on good things the passage one more time.
- 26:19Speaker 1: Read it out loud with me as the words appear
- 26:21Speaker 1: on the screen. Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,
- 26:26Speaker 1: whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things
- 26:31Speaker 1: are lovely, whatever things are of good report. If there
- 26:35Speaker 1: is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate
- 26:41Speaker 1: on these things. Lord, would you grant us the strength
- 26:45Speaker 1: by the power of your Holy Spirit to obey this promise.
- 26:49Speaker 1: Thank you, Lord, for we're excited that we're going to
- 26:52Speaker 1: have a new way of thinking, and we're no longer
- 26:54Speaker 1: going to get lost in that downward spiral of criticism
- 26:58Speaker 1: and negativism. But we're excited Father about this new way
- 27:02Speaker 1: of thinking that carries us into the lofty thoughts that
- 27:05Speaker 1: come from Heaven itself. We surrender to you our problems
- 27:10Speaker 1: and we await your work through Jesus we pray, and
- 27:15Speaker 1: all the church said hettattata.
- 30:24Speaker 2: You know you don't have to stay close. As long
- 30:36Speaker 2: as you're somewhere out there. That's enough for me.
- 30:46Speaker 3: I don't need to hold you near me, don't need
- 30:49Speaker 3: promises to keep just the thought that you are breathing
- 30:55Speaker 3: somewhere in this world less see, even if I'm not
- 31:00Speaker 3: beside you, even if you never know, there's a quiet
- 31:06Speaker 3: kind of comfort just in knowing you still blow. I
- 31:13Speaker 3: don't need forever, I just need you to exist.
- 31:24Speaker 4: You don't have to stay with me.
- 31:27Speaker 5: You don't have to be the same.
- 31:31Speaker 4: Just as long as you're still out there, calling softly
- 31:36Speaker 4: through my days.
- 31:38Speaker 5: You don't have to look my way.
- 31:41Speaker 3: You don't have to be in my home.
- 31:45Speaker 5: It's enough to know your little in the world. I'm
- 31:49Speaker 5: not alone.
- 31:54Speaker 4: I won't chase it through the distance, won't disturb your
- 31:59Speaker 4: chosen life.
- 32:01Speaker 1: I'll just keep you.
- 32:02Speaker 3: In my silence, like a star that shines at night.
- 32:08Speaker 1: Through the darkened, through the bloom.
- 32:15Speaker 4: I still think of you.
- 32:19Speaker 5: You don't have to stay with me, You don't have
- 32:24Speaker 5: to feel the same.
- 32:26Speaker 4: Just as long as you're still out there, calling softly
- 32:31Speaker 4: through my days. You don't have to look my way.
- 32:36Speaker 5: You don't have to be in my home. It's enough
- 32:41Speaker 5: to know you're living in a world. I'm not alone.
- 33:02Speaker 3: I don't need to be all late. I don't need
- 33:06Speaker 3: to cross your mind. All I need is just the
- 33:09Speaker 3: truth that you're somewhere, still alive.
- 33:17Speaker 4: You don't have to stay with me, You don't have
- 33:21Speaker 4: to feel the same. Just as long as you're still
- 33:26Speaker 4: have the calling softly through my days.
- 33:31Speaker 5: You don't have to look my way.
- 33:34Speaker 1: You don't have to be my home.
- 33:38Speaker 5: It's enough to know you're living.
- 33:43Speaker 3: In a world.
- 33:44Speaker 5: I'm not alone.