Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / June 30, 2019 | Special Guest Warwick Cooper - Transforming Our Emotions

Transcript

June 30, 2019 | Special Guest Warwick Cooper - Transforming Our Emotions · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
0:01
SPEAKER_00: Good to see you all here.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: My name is Warri Cooper.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm uh from Canada, so I hope you can understand my accent.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: I'll try to speak clearly.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: Um I was here a few months ago and we spoke about um transforming your body.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: If any of you remember that?
0:17
SPEAKER_00: No?
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we do we we don't have much to uh to keep us entertained up in Canada, except we we watch your politics and we think that's just really amazing.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: It's so great.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: So we watch politics, you American politics, and pray that we don't get sick um from our diseases, which um but that's a whole other thing.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, I boy, the the crowd gets better looking each time.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that?
0:49
SPEAKER_00: I said that to the other other services too, but never mind.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Um I would I would like to talk this morning about something that I really feel we need to talk about.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Can we can we talk?
1:01
SPEAKER_00: And and and that's about transforming our emotions.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Our emotions.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Any of you experience trouble dealing with your emotions?
1:11
SPEAKER_00: People come up to you all the time.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: So how are you feeling?
1:14
SPEAKER_00: And you you you look at them right in the face, you tell a big lie.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm fine, everything's fine.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's fine.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, really, but that's uh yeah, that's probably good rather than sharing everything.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: But so how are you feeling this morning?
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Are you feeling feeling good?
1:28
SPEAKER_00: You want to want to stay here for another half hour or so and then then leave?
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, we'll we'll do that.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: Feelings are really, really important, aren't they?
1:36
SPEAKER_00: We deal with feelings all the time.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: We will do anything to feel better.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Most of us spend a lot of our time with a lot of negative self-talk.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: I am I the only one in the room that's like that.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're we're saying a lot of stuff to us ourselves that can be quite depressing.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the United Nations, bless their hearts, have have discovered and uh have come up with the fact that uh depression is the number one disease in the world.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: There are more people fighting depression than anything they're calling it a disease.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh and perhaps it is, because we all kind of suffer it every once in a while.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh what does it mean to be human?
2:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, we got emotions.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh some years ago, and uh there there was a movie out called Um City of Angels with Nicolas Cage, and apparently the angels were trying to uh figure out what it would be like to be to be a human, and and so one of the characters, Nicolas Cage, becomes a human and and falls in love with Mick Ryan.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: And and uh at the end of the movie um he's asked, was it worth it to become a human?
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Because it's kind of messy being a human compared to being an angel.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: And he he says this wonderful line, uh I would rather have had one kiss of her lips, one touch of her hand, than an eternity without it.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Right, okay.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: My wife loves that line.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking, corny, man, that's corny.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: And at the end, all these angels are fluttering around the beach, watching with either envy or delight at this man and woman uh hugging and kissing.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: And and because in our society, feelings, feelings have risen to the to the level of a moral absolute.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh people they're falling in love all over the place.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: And then they're falling out of love a few days later.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's all about feelings.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: I had a couple I went through marriage counseling with because I love doing marriage counseling, and they said, Would you marry us?
3:43
SPEAKER_00: And I said, No.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: No?
3:46
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you supposed to marry everybody that asks you?
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, your marriage isn't gonna last.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean it's not gonna last?
3:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, you're only marrying her because you you you don't want to have sex outside of marriage.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Good for you.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And and and you're marrying him because you want some help with your adolescent kids.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Good for you.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: But that's not good enough to make a marriage last.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you three months.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: They said, Oh, oh, three months.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: They came back in two months and said, uh, you were right in everything, except you said three months and it's two months, and we're getting a divorce.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Can you help us with a divorce?
4:21
SPEAKER_00: I said, Why should I help you with a divorce?
4:23
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't help you with a marriage.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: You weren't listening.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, we fell in love.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: And then it was only two months later we fell out of love, so we figured we should get a divorce because we don't feel like it.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Wow, really?
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Really?
4:36
SPEAKER_00: I want us to look in the area of emotions this morning because they are making a mess of us.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: That's my first point.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Emotions are messy.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Folks, emotions are messy.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: And the only reason you're not showing your emotions right now is because it's it's too messy.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh secondly, my emotions, my emotions have meaning.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna encourage you not to ignore your emotions, okay?
4:58
SPEAKER_00: So I it's not about you know pushing your emotions down and disregarding your emotions.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: No, I think it's really important that you uh get in touch with your emotions.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, is my emotions motivate my life.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: And Pebby, that explains why I'm in the mess I'm in, because I've let my emotions push me.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: So my emotions are messy.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: How how many emotions do you go through uh in an average day?
5:23
SPEAKER_00: There's probably a huge palette of emotions here.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: The simple point is that what explains the powerful grip of addiction in the modern world is that our emotions are are pushing us and pushing us.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: We we want to do whatever we can to feel good.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: We live in a feel-good world, and it's kind of my my right to feel good, at least we're told.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: And and if and if and if this relationship is not making you feel good, then get out of it and go to another relationship.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: It's all about feelings, and we don't know what to do with negative feelings, and we'll do anything to replace them with positive feelings, and it's it is such a mess.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Some people say, you know, men don't have emotions.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that?
6:16
SPEAKER_00: No?
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Women are the only ones that have emotions, right?
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And they have so many.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: I would tell you, folks, men have just as many emotions as women, only we're not we're not allowed to show them, which is why we're so messed up.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh men and women, we all have emotions.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: It's just not acceptable to show it.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Why do why am I saying that?
6:39
SPEAKER_00: Because God God gave us emotions, He He made us, and He put emotions in our life that they they're important, they're important for us to look at.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Um because emotions are God given.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: But why do our emotions have such control of us?
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Because they have meaning.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: If you're feeling something right now, there's a reason why you're feeling it.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, you remember if you're driving along the road and you see that white red light flashing, that means there's something wrong with your engine.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, in my car, I always say there's something wrong with the light, right?
7:22
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with my engine.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: The manufacturer says, you know, there's something wrong with your engine, please change.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: No.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: The red light flashing is your emotions.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And it's pointing to it's pointing to what you're believing in the moment.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: And so I can't change your emotions.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: You can't go to a counselor and they and you say, I'm feeling depressed, and the counselor says, Well, be happy.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Be happy, that's your advice?
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a dollar,$150.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: Be happy.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: What?
7:51
SPEAKER_00: You can't just change my emotions.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, I can though, actually, by changing your beliefs.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Let's say if someone came in here yelling in the top of their lungs, fire, fire, and their smoke, shirts burning, and like all of a sudden, we'll all feel panicky, won't we?
8:11
SPEAKER_00: And we'll probably run out of the parking lot.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: And then we'll see the guy in the parking lot laughing his head off.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Why are you laughing?
8:17
SPEAKER_00: There's no fire.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to see if I could get you to go out.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, all of a sudden, we change our emotions from panic to we're gonna kill this guy.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna, I don't care if you are the pastor, Jim.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna, you know, I mean no.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: No, we're angry now.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: We've changed our emotions.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Why?
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Because we've changed our belief about what was happening.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: Our emotions get us out in the parking lot.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Because if it was true, we should be on the parking lot.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: But if it's not true, then we then our emotions change.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: My emotions have meaning, they they direct me to my belief system.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: So it's really, really important.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: That's why when you're going to counselors, they're asking you how you're feeling.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're asking.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Because you're they're trying to get you in touch with your emotions.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: But the there's there's an agenda here.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: What are you really feeling and why are you feeling this?
9:12
SPEAKER_00: Let's examine why you're feeling depressed, why you're feeling lost.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: I want to use two passages of scripture.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: One is a very common story that you've probably heard many messages on.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Another one is in Romans.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: But the first one is a story that takes part in in Luke chapter 10.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus is talking to his disciples and some lawyers and Pharisees over here, and they want to know how they can become part of the kingdom.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says you must love God and then love your neighbor as yourself.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: And they say, in order to justify themselves, feeling good about themselves, they say, Well, who is my neighbor?
9:54
SPEAKER_00: How can I love my neighbor?
9:56
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus tells this wonderful story about the the uh good Samaritan, we call it.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: And I want us just to look at it very briefly and see it from the point of view of the guy that was robbed and left to die on the side of the road, not by the three people that passed by, but from the guy that was uh robbed.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells a story in Luke 10, 30 a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hand of robbers, and they stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: So the picture of this guy is naked, bleeding, on the side of the road, like just so much trash.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden a priest comes by and uh he is uh uh going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passes by on the other side.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: And then a Levite comes, sees the man, and he passes by on the other side.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: We don't know anything about what they're thinking, we just know that they pass by on the other side.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: And I'm putting myself in the place of the guy who is uh probably a businessman on a on a journey from Jerusalem to Jericho with the money that he's made in Jerusalem for the day, and all of a sudden he sees the priest coming, and maybe he thinks, oh, I know that guy.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, this is embarrassing.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: This is really embarrassing.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Here I am, you know, a businessman wants to look good, he wants to influence people, he wants to do things.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: Here I am, naked, bleeding.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: I I don't have any strength even to sit up.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: I hope that priest passes by, I hope he passes by.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: And he passes, he just passes by.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and now comes here comes a Levi.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, not a Levite, oh man, well, of all places, I hope he doesn't pass, and he passes by.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden a Samaritan, a Samaritan passes by.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, that I bet that guy, I bet that I bet he'd understand me.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: Because we Jews, we we hate Samaritans.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: We're always mocking them.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we won't even go through their their land.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: We we hate them, we we we feel we feel like they've that they've uh uh betrayed us.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Uh here's a guy, if anyone understands what it's like to fall in hard times, I bet it's that Samaritan.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And and sure enough, the Bible says, a Samaritan as he traveled came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: Huh.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Because maybe he understood all too well what it's like to be on the other side, on the other side of the road, rejected, despondent, depressed.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine any good feelings coming from this man who's lying half dead on the side of the road after meeting robbers that took everything he had and stripped him of his clothes, unnecessary.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Why do that?
12:47
SPEAKER_00: And beat him up, bl bl bloody.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: What why?
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Just take his money and go.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Why do they have to do that?
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
12:56
SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine him having any good thoughts.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: But the Samaritan has pity on him.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: I think the other guys they had eyes to see, but we don't hear about any of their emotions.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: They just, emotionless, pass by.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they had good reasons, they had appointments to keep.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: After all, they were important men, a priest, a Levite.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: These are men of stature in their community.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time for this.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: This is this is not this is not part of my job description.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: I I I simply don't have time to help this guy.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's enough people passing by here uh that someone will take pity on him.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: I I I I don't have time.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm just conjecturing because we don't know.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is said about them.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: But the Samaritan comes, has pity on him, and stops and bandages his wounds, pouring oil and wine, and puts him on his own donkey and takes him to an inn.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Folks, God gave us feelings, they are from him, but they're not an end in themselves.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: They come from our belief system, they point to what we believe about life.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: It was the good Samaritan who took pity and acted to help out that man.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan was moved by this man's condition.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: The Bible warns us that we can sometimes have the most destructive attitudes towards our nearest and dearest.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Close friends and family members commit most murders in North America.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that?
14:39
SPEAKER_00: Most murders that are committed in this town, in this city, in this state, and in this country are not by perfect strangers.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Of course that happens sometimes, but the vast majority are people who at one point loved each other, family members, close friends.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: It's only occasionally that complete strangers commit murders.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: James says, What causes fights and quarrels among you?
15:00
SPEAKER_00: Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?
15:03
SPEAKER_00: You want something but don't get it.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: You quarrel and fight, and our emotions are a cauldron of evil sometimes to the people that we supposedly love.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: If we don't actively show distaste and hatred towards each other, I find more and more families are having fights and cutting loved ones off.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to speak to mom and dad, haven't spoken to them for 10 years.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to speak to my brother and sister after what he said about us.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to speak to my cousin.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm just cutting them off.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what the world says.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: If it's not working for you, move on.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: If it's not working, move on.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: And we don't know how to handle the negative emotions.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: And so, in order to for us to feel good, because we're uh like programmed, I have to feel good.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to spend my life in misery.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: I want to feel good.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: And how can I feel good?
16:02
SPEAKER_00: I'll find something.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: I'll find something.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: And so my feelings start leading my way, and I make wrong decisions because of them.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: But but what can I do about that?
16:17
SPEAKER_00: If, in fact, feelings motivate my life, it's it's feelings I go to places that I I know I will feel good at.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't come to this church if every Sunday you felt miserable and you met people who are just making you miserable.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't come.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's not one person sitting in the back there, but you're not going to mention that.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: But most most of the reasons why you're here today is because you kind of like the fellowship.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look what you guys did at Camp.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: What was it?
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Camp?
16:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, were you there?
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Good, good.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what a what a lot of fun.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: You have a lot of fun here, and if you didn't have any fun, you wouldn't come.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: You're motivated by it, and that's a good thing.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: But what about the negative feelings that we all struggle with?
17:11
SPEAKER_00: What about the negative self-talk that we're all guilty of?
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5, 1 to 8, I think, gives us some hope here because I I want to help you, and as God has helped me deal with my emotions, I have negative emotions just as much as you are.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: It's not the positive emotions that I'm worried about.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, are you kidding?
17:33
SPEAKER_00: It's the negative ones.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Initial faith in Christ gave me peace with God.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5, 1.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace, in which we now stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: When God invaded my life when I was about 13 years of age, my life has never been the same.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: I remember confessing my sins at 13.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: How many sins can a 13-year-old boy commit?
18:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I didn't rob any banks.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: I felt I should go out and rob some banks so I could confess about it.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: But my life wasn't, I was living the Christian life before I had the Christian life.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: I lived in a Christian home and you learn how to live like a Christian, even though you're not a Christian, you learn how to do the right thing.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: But at the age of 13, when I met up with God, or when God met up with me, I confessed I needed him.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: I was a sinner.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: And he began his work in my life.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: And I've never been the same since.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: My salvation, your salvation, is entirely God's thing.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: He does something in your life, and he continues to do it.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: God transforms my life, beginning in my emotions.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: That's why so often, not all the time, but so often when people first come to Christ, there is an emotional overflowing of sorrow and joy all mixed up.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: This is new birth in God's kingdom.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: It puts an end to the war between us and God that has gone on most of our lives and surrounds us with God's grace.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: We always thought God was against us.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: That's why many people take years before they come to know God, because they've always got this feeling that God's so negative and he hates me.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: And other people, I can see why he loves those people, but me, no, I've done something, it was too much.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: And we realize God never hated us.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: It's while we were still sinners that's when Christ died for us.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: Too many believers in Christ are filled with negative self-talk.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: It breeds hopelessness.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: I'll never pass, I'll I'll never graduate.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm not that smart.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: I'll never get married.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: We have four daughters.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Our youngest daughter, she used to say before she got married that uh, men are like parking spaces.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: The good ones are taken and the rest are disabled.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, she's got seven kids now, so she found a good parking space.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: But for a while, it's like, I'm the only one not married, I'll never find someone, or I'll never get a job that I really, really like.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: Every job I get sucks.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Or I'll never have kids, or my kids are gonna end up in jail, or I'll never get better, I'll never be able to retire in in this economy.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: How can I?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: It's just all this negative self-talk and like spaghetti wrapped up around our brains.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: And we're looking for signs that this isn't true.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: I I can't live in this negativeness.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's why you even stop talking to so-and-so because they're so negative, right?
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Is that why you would you would you ever do that?
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Bobby just in Canada would do that.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: But it's like, I can't then I can't be around that person, they're so negative.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're the person that no one can be around.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of guilt looking on that out there.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: That's not true.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a movie called uh Signs.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: Did you see it uh uh made in 2002?
21:26
SPEAKER_00: It was about this mysterious appearance of large symbols in the cornfields around Graham Hess's house.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: And this as the story develops, we learn that Graham Hess is an ex-Episcopal priest who lost his faith and left the priesthood six months earlier.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: And and after his wife died in a tragic accident, uh, we also learn that these crop circles were made by aliens in preparation for a War of the Worlds life style invasion of Earth.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: And and as the story developed, uh we saw uh uh hope built up in in this farmer's life.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Because, oh, there's something greater than me happening in this world.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, I think to this date the aliens haven't landed, and that's not the point of the illustration.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: The point of the illustration is if you want to see God work, open your eyes.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: You can see him working.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: And that gives you a sense of hope if you have the eyes to see it.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: God is alive.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: And there is hope in this world, but the hope is not outside of Christ.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: The hope is in Christ.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: He is our hope.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: And if you have the eyes to see it, you see all that God is doing.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I have devotions in our garden in the mornings on a pretty regular basis.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: And my wife is a gardener and she planted these beautiful morning glories on the side of our fence.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: And the one thing about morning glories is they only last for a day.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: They come up in the morning, beautiful, colorful.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: And then by the night they're all dead.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: And the next morning, another group comes up.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not there, no one sees it because our yard is just us.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: But why did God make morning glories when millions of them and not everyone sees them?
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Because God's God.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: He has a plan.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: And he's a God of beauty.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: And God has a plan for your life.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: If he can make a flower just to bloom for one morning and replace the next morning, what's he doing in your life?
23:28
SPEAKER_00: What's he doing in my life?
23:31
SPEAKER_00: God is up to something good, he cares about us.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3 says, not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now you've lost me, preacher.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: I get it, God is our hope.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: And I get that, you know, God wants us to shine.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: And I get God wants us to feel good.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: But hold it.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: We are thrilled in our tribulations.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Really?
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Is that true?
24:15
SPEAKER_00: Are you thrilled?
24:17
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want to pray that you go around the troubles?
24:19
SPEAKER_00: And God says, No, I want you to go through the tribulations.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go through the suffering.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go through the dealing with the job loss.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: Why?
24:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't have an answer.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: But I believe that one day when we all stand before God, not one of us is going to look there, turn their finger to God and say, God, you messed up with me.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, you didn't mess up with them or them or them, but with me, you messed up.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: No, no one's going to be able to say that because you know what?
24:48
SPEAKER_00: When that day comes, we'll understand things like we don't understand them here.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Because right now we're going through the tribulation, we're going through the suffering, we're going through the disagreement, we're going through the silence of God, as it were, and we don't see the end from the beginning, but then we will see the end from the beginning and we'll say, I get it.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: It all makes sense.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Why you wanted me go through those years of suffering?
25:17
SPEAKER_00: Because you had a you had something else in mind.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just about me.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: It was about what you are doing on this planet.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: And you knew that I was going to be someone that others were looking to.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like that grandma that some of us have going through tremendous suffering.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: But when you go to visit her, she's like, isn't God good?
25:44
SPEAKER_00: But but grandma, you're you're in pain.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: You're on medication.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: You can't I know.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: But but I have time just to pray for you.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: And and I and my mind I can go all over the world and pray.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: And isn't God good, son?
26:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Huh.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about in the States, but in Canada, most of us before we die, we get sick.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Does that happen here?
26:14
SPEAKER_00: And some of us get sick for a long time.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people I talk to, they're not afraid of dying.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: They just don't want the you know the chapter before.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, could you just take me, maybe when I'm at an ice cream tour, ice cream store, having a gelato or something like that?
26:31
SPEAKER_00: That'd be great.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Take me, I'll be with you, Jesus.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: None of this suffering.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't mind the dying, Lord, but it's the th, you know, the six months of my back with the tubes stuck.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: Ah, this is so depressing.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Let's move on.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, No, I got a purpose.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: I got a purpose.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to go around.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go through.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go through that suffering.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing something in your life and not just in your life, but all those around you.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: Because folks, it's not just about you.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Let God be God in your life.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: Folks, we need hope.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: If we don't have hope in our life, what do we do?
27:16
SPEAKER_00: We get depressed.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: That's why people get depressed.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: There's no hope.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't talk to me about hope.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: There's no there's no hope.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: And they get depressed.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: And if without hope, people get depressed.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: We do anything for hope.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: It's constantly being repackaged.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: People are trying to stimulate us.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: Oh, do this and do that, and you'll feel better, you'll take this, you'll take that, and you try it and fails and try it and fails.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: Folks, outside of Christ, there is no hope.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Outside of Christ, there is no ultimate hope.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for it in politics or in the economy, or in business, or even family relationships, you're looking the wrong place.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you one great example.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember World War I?
28:15
SPEAKER_00: Anyone remember World War I?
28:16
SPEAKER_00: You saw the movie?
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Horrible time.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: One of the first times where the whole world was kind of get together, called it World War I.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: At the end of World War I, all the nations got together and said, we can't let this happen again.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: Can't let this happen again, 1914 to 1919.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: We've got to do something so this never happens again.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: They formed the League of Nations.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: And the League of Nations had a charter known as the Covenant.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: And it was approved, all the nations signed it, the Treaty of Versailles, the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: The mission, as stated in the Covenant, was to promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, their goals were magnificent.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: In January 29th, 1938, the League of Nations, after many years of work, adopted a statue.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: It was actually the only thing they ever accomplished, called the Communication and Transit Organization, which finally gave the world an international standard for road signs around the world, the League of Nations.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: So every time you see one of those signs with a diagonal, that came from the League of Nations in 1919.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: All over the world, wherever you go, you see international signs.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing they actually accomplished.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: And it went into law January 29th, 1938.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: In March 20th, 1938, Hitler occupied Austria.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: And on April 18th, 1946, they dissolved and transferred all their assets to the United Nations in New York, whose goal is to make sure that World War II never happens again.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: Folks, there is no hope outside of Christ.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: In Christ, there is hope because in Christ, He is the creator, the sustainer, and the one who is leading us in history and in time to a climax where all we will gather all day, one day, before his throne, before the throne of the Lamb of God.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: God is a God of hope.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: My life needs hope.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: And the only thing that gives it is Christ in me.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: You see, Romans 5.6, at just the right time, when I was still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: He lives in us.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: Christ in me, the hope of glory.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: Christ did everything he ever needed to do for us before we became Christians.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: While I was still a sinner, Christ died for me.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: He's done it all.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Nothing more for us to do.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: It's finished.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Relax.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the ride.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: Have you recently had some bad news?
31:41
SPEAKER_00: Have you been fired from your job last week?
31:44
SPEAKER_00: Have you been diagnosed with some terrible illness?
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Have you been turned down by the only love of your life?
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Have you been overlooked for promotion?
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Have you been denied that one thing you've been wanting for years?
32:00
SPEAKER_00: I've got hope for you.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Go through it.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Christ will take you through it.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: Some years ago, um Johnny Erickson Tata was interviewed by uh Larry King on his interview show.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to quote part of that interview where he was questioning how this young lady who you know had a diving accident hit her head in the bottom of a uh uh uh body of water and was quadriplegic all her life.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: And she said that had she not had that accident, she would have just been an ordinary housewife.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: But today she has a ministry helping people all around the world deal with suffering.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: He asked her how this could have happened, why she has such a positive attitude.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: This is what she says.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think, Larry, up until that point of the accident, following Jesus Christ for me was a religion.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: But after my accident, it became a warm, deep, personal relationship.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: Because the weaker I became, the harder I had to lean on him.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: But the harder I leaned on him, the stronger I discovered him to be.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, Larry, 37 years later, don't be thinking I'm spiritually strong.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm no veteran at this paralysis thing.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a professional quadruplegic.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: I I wake up in the morning many times and I'll hear my girlfriend come in the front door and she'll be running water for coffee in the kitchen.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: And I know she's going to come in my bedroom in a minute, and she's going to give me a bed bath, get me dressed, and sit me in a wheelchair, brush my hair, brush my teeth, and blow my nose.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: After, and there are times I'm still having my eyes closed, thinking, God, I have no strength for this.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: I can't face this.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: I can't.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: I have no resources for this, I have no smile for this woman.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: But you do, God.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: You have strength.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: You have resources.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: Can I please borrow your smile?
34:03
SPEAKER_00: And by the time my girlfriend comes through the door with that cup of coffee and a happy good morning, I give her a little smile already hard fought for, already won, straight from heaven.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Her God is our God.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: Same God.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you're going through, you don't know what I'm going through, but we're going through stuff.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: And God says, My hope is in me.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: I am your hope.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: God wants us to have hope.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want us to be strolling around on our negative thoughts and our negative emotions.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: So trace those negative emotions to what you're believing about your situation.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: And question your beliefs.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: And start believing the truth because the truth is God has a future for all of us.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: And he's taking us through, whatever he's taking us through.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: Not just for you, it's not just about you.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about me, it's about what he's doing in this world.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: So people in this city can see the people in this church saying, I don't understand whether why they're so positive.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Because quite frankly, I I wouldn't waste my time on those uh day camps and stuff like that.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's more, there's bigger fish to fry.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's up with those people?
35:23
SPEAKER_00: It's not about religion, it's about Jesus.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: Jesus in me.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: The hope of glory.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: That's all we've got.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: But until it's all we've all until we realize it's all we've got, we won't realize that's all we need.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: And when we realize that he's all we need, we'll realize that's all we've got.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: And God help us to live the lives that He is calling us to.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: Lives filled with hope.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: Lives filled with I can do this because Christ is doing it in me.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: I have a rental car uh today.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: Came over here, and they they gave me the keys.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: And when she gave me the keys, I said, there's no keys on that.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: What's going on here?
36:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's this you know, it's those newfangled cars.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: You don't need a key, you just need a fob.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: And and and you go in the car and you press a button and it goes on.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: But the button won't work unless you have the fob.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: So you go up my car and you can try to get in, you won't get in.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: Because you don't have the fob.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: I got the fob.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: When I go to my car, my car knows I'm there.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: Because I got the fob, folks.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: And I just I don't even have to show it.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: I just have it out in my pocket.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: I sit there, I open the door, it's open, press on the thing, and because I got the fob, my car goes.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: You don't have the fob, you can't make my car go.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: What's the illustration?
36:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: No.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: The illustration is, folks, you got the fob.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: You got Jesus in you.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: The car doesn't react because of me.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: The car reacts because I got the fob.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: So you got the key to life.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: You got the creator, the sustainer of the universe living in your body.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: He gave you the emotions so you can figure out how to live your life.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to live a godly life filled with hope, filled with grace, filled with joy.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: He's given you all you need.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: So you can press any button that he wants you to.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: You got the fob, it's gonna work.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have the fob, you're gonna be one frustrated Christian.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: Worst thing in all the world are people who want to live like Christians, but they're not Christians.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was living like a Christian before I became a Christian.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: Why?
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Because I lived in a Christian home.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: We didn't, we didn't swear or chew gum or any of those things.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: That's a Baptist church, never mind.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we had all these rules.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: I was doing the right thing, but that didn't make me a Christian.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: It's only when Jesus came in and he unlocked the door.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: And I've never been the same since, and neither have you, if you know Jesus.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: That's all you need.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: If you got Jesus living in you, you've got life throbbing through your veins, through your emotions.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: May God give you the grace to live for Him in the power that He's provided.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you that you have made us, the wonderful creatures you've made us, made in your image.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Creative, sustain us, Lord, as we live for you this week.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Open the doors that you want to open.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: Shut the doors that you want to shut, and we'll we won't go through those doors.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: But the doors you open, we'll go through because you're the giver of life and the giver of every good gift.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for that in Jesus' name.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Amen.