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