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Is Your "Wanter" Working? · Mental Health and the Mission of the Church

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right, everybody.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Ready to talk to you a little bit this morning about uh hopefully some cool stuff that'll be helpful to you.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about the whole idea of um uh enduring authentic happiness.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about how can you and I kind of push, direct, nudge uh this year, our our journey through this year in uh the directions that we'd like it to go.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, as I've said, that's kind of what we're all about.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're all about I'm all about you just grabbing life.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I have come that you might have life and have that life more abundantly.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um again, for me, it's just a matter of honoring God by appropriating what he purchased.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh aligning ourselves with his purposes.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Forgive me for my voice, must be from my coffee.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I put a good bit of creamer in it, sorry.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: But um just the whole idea of making the year as good as we can make it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so, in that in that spirit, let me ask you a question.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: You ever uh this is pre, you gotta pretend you don't have a smartphone.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So this is pre-GPS, okay?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: So uh somebody invites you somewhere you've never been before.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh an area of the country or whatever that you're not familiar with, don't know the roads, don't know the terrain, all right?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they ask you to uh, you know, hey, come visit.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So what are you gonna do?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're going somewhere you've never been before, and um, you know, what are you gonna do?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're probably gonna get a map.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're probably gonna hunt down a map, you know.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Used to be you'd get them at a gas station.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're uh on the map, you're gonna kind of plan your route.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm gonna take Route 23 to Route 57 to whatever.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna cut, and you might even, you know, in the old days, we'd even use a highlighter and you know, whatever, man.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was crazy.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um you might you might even find someone who's familiar with that area, who's been there.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you might pick their brain and you know, whatever.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, best case scenario is bring somebody with you who's been there, but uh, which obviously has implications for your spiritual journey as well.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: But um the the key is this when you're on the journey, from the minute you get in the car to start, what you're gonna do is you're gonna start watching for signs.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna start watching for, you know, if if you said Route 23 to Route 57, you're gonna start watching for signs to Route 57.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have some idea of when that should happen.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you're going to be anticipating um direction changes or adjustments in course or uh signposts, sign markers, trail markers that are gonna help you get where you want to go.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um so what am I talking about?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's one that's so obvious that it uh we we kind of ignore it.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: We or we take it lightly or we we just have mixed feelings about it, being selfish or whatever.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So earlier this year, and earlier this year, obviously it wasn't very long ago, you know, in one of my times with God, just kind of hanging out with God, I felt like he asked me a question.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like he just sort of stirred in my heart this question.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: If I, God, if God gave you three wishes for this year, what would you ask for?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: If God gave you three wishes for this year, what would you ask for?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I thought it was kind of weird, but I also thought, you know, that's kind of cool.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, let me say to you, why'd I give you the map and the destination uh illustration?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's something powerful about wanting something.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, lately, lately, meaning the last few years, as I've studied people and their growth cycles and how we change and how we don't.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I've gotten to where I study is the brain.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what here's the thing we've learned about the brain.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: When you tell your brain you want something, like I want a, honestly, right now I'd love to have a BMW X6M, X4, X6, X6M.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh who cares, right?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but here's the deal.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you tell your brain what you want, guess what it does?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: It starts looking for it everywhere.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what else it does?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: If it has any clue as to how to get that, it starts looking for the trail markings to get you there.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does that got to do with anything?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of important for you to identify and say to yourself, maybe even to someone else, I want blank.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's I believe this, it takes courage to say you want something.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why does it take courage to say you want something?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because then you risk the pain of not getting it.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing how many of us have gone through life pretending, even deceiving ourselves?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't really want that.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't I didn't really care about that.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is you did.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is it hurt.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is you're you're you're you think you're avoiding the pain by not owning and acknowledging to yourself that you really did want that.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: You really did want that other girl in high school to pay attention to you.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: You really did want a certain gift for Christmas.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: You really did want your spouse or your kids to respond to you a certain way.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing: admitting you want something is really a pretty big deal.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in fact, there's a story in Mark chapter 10 involving blind Bartimaeus.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, there's a phrase here that's one of the most astounding phrases in the whole Bible.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: But blind Barnamaeus, he's a beggar, he's by the side of the road.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Gosh, there's so many cool parts of the story, but I'll just get to the heart of it.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he makes a ruckus because he he hears the crowd following Jesus.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he yells out, Jesus of Nazareth, son of God, uh, son of David, have mercy on me.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And there's theology in that phrase, son of David means he he believes he's the Messiah and all this cool stuff.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have mercy on me.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And bottom line is he gets the attention of Jesus.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that'd be pretty cool?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Hey, bring that dude over here.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So they bring this blind beggar, blind beggar to Jesus.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what Jesus says to them?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to a blind beggar, what do you want me to do for you?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, God in the flesh, third person of the Trinity, or one of the three of the Trinity, says to a blind beggar, how many think you could probably figure out what that blind beggar wants, you know?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says to a blind beggar, what do you want me to do for you?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but I got a feeling Jesus is a pretty smart guy.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: He was initiating a process.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the process, guys, is as simple as this.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta have some skin in the game.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to have some skin in the game.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what your skin in the game sometimes is, or at least the starting point is just admitting to yourself you want it.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's called faith.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Having the courage to say, I want a great marriage, I want to break this cycle of destructive behavior in my life.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Saying you want something is an act of courage.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are we talking about as we start the year?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm taking a long time, because I'm gonna have to end here in a second, but I'm taking a long time.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is like our third session for the year, and I'm taking a long time getting around to the simple question where I felt like God said to me, Chipper, if I gave you three wishes for this year, what would you ask for?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm what I'm trying to tell you is don't take something like that lightly.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you just like, oh, I want, you know, a new dress or a new, you know, book or something.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what I'm talking about.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: The deeper you can go with the yearnings of your soul, the more powerfully it's gonna affect you.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm trying to talk to you about today is this wanting is like setting your GPS.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's like setting, getting that map and marking your journey.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what your brain automatically does.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as you admit to yourself what it is you want, there's parts of your brain through think through information they filter, through information they ignore, through information they focus on.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's parts of your brain that once you say, I want blank, your brain starts watching for the trail markings, watching for the turns and twists of the route to get you what you want.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's really, really important for you to think about, contemplate, spend some time alone if you need to, to answer the question what do I want God to do for me this year?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're gonna be talking about as we plow ahead and uh give it some thought.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: See what your answer would be to that question.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Post it in the comments if you want to.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: If God gave you three wishes, what would you ask him for?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And please connect it to how we're discussing it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Love you guys.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so honored that you hang out with me.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we're gonna keep doing it, man.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Every Wednesday, 8 08.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Boom, later.