Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Powerful Preaching CARE OF YOUR MIND- 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.
- 0:07Speaker 1: We're tackling this whole theme of anxiety because I really
- 0:12Speaker 1: believe that we can win the war on worry. Anxiety
- 0:15Speaker 1: has its place. It comes with life, but it doesn't
- 0:21Speaker 1: have to run our lives. And God has a prescription
- 0:24Speaker 1: for worry. He has a solution, an antidote for anxiety.
- 0:29Speaker 1: And it's in the book of Philippians. In the summer,
- 0:31Speaker 1: we're dissecting it phrase by phrase. The words are about
- 0:35Speaker 1: to appear on the screen. Many of you have memorized
- 0:37Speaker 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
- 0:43Speaker 1: cite it together. And I want you to sit up straight.
- 0:46Speaker 1: Put your shoulders back and fill your lungs with air
- 0:49Speaker 1: and your hearts with hope. Let's say it like we
- 0:51Speaker 1: mean it.
- 0:52Speaker 2: Are you ready?
- 0:53Speaker 1: Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let
- 0:59Speaker 1: your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is
- 1:03Speaker 1: at hand. Be anxious for it. And the peace of
- 1:16Speaker 1: God will guard your heart. Finally, brethren, Meditate on these things. Yes, Lord,
- 1:46Speaker 1: grant that we could do just this. Would you please
- 1:49Speaker 1: take the anxiety out, replace it, Lord, with meditation on
- 1:54Speaker 1: good things. We would request this peace that passes understanding.
- 2:00Speaker 1: We lift up to you all of our requests, but
- 2:02Speaker 1: we do so with thanksgiving and gratitude for all the
- 2:05Speaker 1: good that you have done for us. Forgive our speaker today.
- 2:08Speaker 1: His sins are many. Help us to see Christ, just Christ.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Through Christ we pray. And all the church said. You
- 2:18Speaker 1: might consider adding to your summer reading a wonderful book
- 2:21Speaker 1: that just came out.
- 2:22Speaker 2: It's called Called for Life.
- 2:26Speaker 1: Authored by Kent and Amber Brantley. You may remember their
- 2:32Speaker 1: story this time last year.
- 2:35Speaker 2: Dr. Brantley's name was in the news.
- 2:38Speaker 1: In fact, it was on Wednesday evening, July 23rd, 2014,
- 2:42Speaker 1: that Dr. Brantley took a seat on his couch and
- 2:47Speaker 1: he opened his journal and he needed to collect his
- 2:50Speaker 1: thoughts because he had spent the day feeling the effects
- 2:54Speaker 1: of an illness. that he knew would either be malaria
- 2:59Speaker 1: or Ebola. And he was praying for malaria. He was
- 3:05Speaker 1: a medical missionary in Liberia, waging a war on the
- 3:09Speaker 1: cruelest of viruses, Ebola. There was no sure cure. The
- 3:14Speaker 1: epidemic was killing people by the thousands. And as much
- 3:18Speaker 1: as any person in the world, Dr. Brantley knew the
- 3:22Speaker 1: consequences of the disease, He had treated dozens and dozens
- 3:26Speaker 1: of cases. He knew the symptoms, the soaring fevers, the
- 3:30Speaker 1: severe diarrhea, the nausea. He had seen the results of
- 3:34Speaker 1: the virus, and yet, for the first time, he was
- 3:37Speaker 1: feeling them himself. His colleagues had drawn blood and begun
- 3:41Speaker 1: the tests, yet it would be three days before anyone
- 3:45Speaker 1: knew the results.
- 3:47Speaker 2: Dr.
- 3:47Speaker 1: Brantley quarantined himself in his cinderblock house, and he waited,
- 3:52Speaker 1: his friends, Wife and family were across the ocean. His
- 3:56Speaker 1: colleagues were not permitted to enter the residence. He was
- 4:00Speaker 1: quite literally alone with his thoughts.
- 4:04Speaker 2: And in that moment, he opened his Bible.
- 4:08Speaker 1: And he found a passage from the book of Hebrews
- 4:11Speaker 1: and began to meditate on it. The passage reads, the
- 4:15Speaker 1: promise of entering his rest still stands, so let us
- 4:19Speaker 1: never give up. Let us therefore make every effort to
- 4:22Speaker 1: enter that rest. Brantley called to mind the phrase, make
- 4:29Speaker 1: every effort, and he circled it and decided, now that's
- 4:32Speaker 1: exactly what I'm going to have to do.
- 4:34Speaker 2: He kept reading.
- 4:35Speaker 1: He paused in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16. Let
- 4:39Speaker 1: us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so
- 4:43Speaker 1: that we may receive mercy and grace to help us
- 4:46Speaker 1: in our time of need.
- 4:47Speaker 2: He wrote the.
- 4:48Speaker 1: Verse word for word in his journal. And when he
- 4:51Speaker 1: came to the word confidence, he wrote it in italics.
- 4:55Speaker 1: Then he closed the journal and waited. The next three
- 5:00Speaker 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.
- 5:22Speaker 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
- 5:36Speaker 1: test results came back.
- 5:38Speaker 2: It is positive.
- 5:40Speaker 1: She began to cry, and they talked for a few
- 5:42Speaker 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
- 5:53Speaker 1: three sat on the edge of her bed, and they
- 5:56Speaker 1: wept for several minutes. After some time, Amber excused herself,
- 6:01Speaker 1: and she went outside. And she walked across a large
- 6:04Speaker 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 found it difficult to put her concerns in words.
- 6:17Speaker 1: So she began to sing hymns that she had learned
- 6:21Speaker 1: as a young girl. She sang, there is no shadow
- 6:24Speaker 1: of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they
- 6:28Speaker 1: fail not. As thou hast been.
- 6:30Speaker 2: Thou 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
- 6:38Speaker 1: quickly and abide, our life is in vain. I need thee,
- 6:43Speaker 1: oh I need thee, every hour I need thee. Come
- 6:46Speaker 1: and bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee.
- 6:50Speaker 2: She later wrote these words. I thought my husband was
- 6:54Speaker 2: going to die. I was in pain. I was afraid.
- 6:58Speaker 1: Yet through those hymns, I was able to connect with
- 7:01Speaker 1: God in a meaningful way. Maybe you remember this story.
- 7:06Speaker 1: Maybe you remember watching the news reports of the Brantley
- 7:10Speaker 1: family unfold. Maybe you remember the decision of the caregivers
- 7:15Speaker 1: to give an untested treatment to Kent because they had
- 7:20Speaker 1: no other option. Maybe you remember watching his transport from
- 7:24Speaker 1: Africa to Atlanta, watching him as he climbed out of
- 7:28Speaker 1: the back of the van and was carefully walked into
- 7:31Speaker 1: the hospital. We celebrated the news of his improved condition.
- 7:36Speaker 1: And then we thank God when we heard the news
- 7:38Speaker 1: that Kent was cured of Ebola.
- 7:43Speaker 2: But you know what?
- 7:43Speaker 1: I think we can celebrate the curing of yet another disease.
- 7:48Speaker 1: A virus that is every bit as contagious and every
- 7:52Speaker 1: bit as deadly. The unseen virus of anxiety. Kent and
- 8:00Speaker 1: Amber were prime candidates for worry. Yet they reacted to
- 8:06Speaker 1: the presence of anxiety with the same deliberate resolve that
- 8:11Speaker 1: they reacted to the presence of the Ebola virus. They
- 8:15Speaker 1: went on the offensive. They took control of their thoughts.
- 8:19Speaker 1: Kent opened his Bible. Amber opened her heart. They pondered scriptures.
- 8:24Speaker 1: They meditated on hymns. Before anxiety could get a hold
- 8:29Speaker 1: of them, they got a hold of the anxiety and
- 8:32Speaker 1: they marched it out. They did exactly what the apostle
- 8:35Speaker 1: prescribed in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8.
- 8:57Speaker 1: If the Bible has a recommended diet for the mind,
- 9:03Speaker 1: This is it.
- 9:04Speaker 2: These are the green.
- 9:05Speaker 1: Vegetables for the soul. My wife, Dean Lynn, likes green vegetables.
- 9:11Speaker 1: I don't, but she does. And she has a list
- 9:15Speaker 1: of vegetables that are good for the body. It includes
- 9:18Speaker 1: things like broccoli and asparagus and lettuce. As I read
- 9:23Speaker 1: over the list, I don't see anything that I think
- 9:25Speaker 1: is a health food. Donuts and Barbecue potato chips and
- 9:30Speaker 1: Oreo cookies and ice cream. But I don't ask why.
- 9:35Speaker 2: 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? If you
- 9:49Speaker 1: want to feel good tomorrow, then eat good today. These
- 9:52Speaker 1: are principles of a healthy diet, but they are also
- 9:57Speaker 1: principles of a healthy mind. It is good to be
- 10:02Speaker 1: a picky eater. It's equally good to be a picky thinker.
- 10:09Speaker 1: And the Apostle Paul sets himself up here as our
- 10:12Speaker 1: thought dietician. Because just as not every food qualifies to
- 10:19Speaker 1: be eaten, not.
- 10:20Speaker 2: Every thought qualifies to be thought. It must meet a standard.
- 10:27Speaker 2: 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.
- 10:36Speaker 1: It must be noble. The word here means worthy of respect. Boy,
- 10:40Speaker 1: that eliminates everything that's immoral or inappropriate.
- 10:44Speaker 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
- 10:52Speaker 2: and lofty thoughts. It must be lovely. Lovely thoughts focus.
- 10:57Speaker 1: On whatever beauty can be found in any situation. It
- 11:00Speaker 1: must be of good report. No need for slander or gossip.
- 11:04Speaker 1: It must be of good report. It must be of
- 11:06Speaker 1: good virtue. It must be praiseworthy. So we welcome any
- 11:10Speaker 1: ideas that promote the best of life. High ethics, lofty goodness.
- 11:16Speaker 1: We meditate on these things. And as we turn our
- 11:20Speaker 1: thoughts toward these things, a wonderful thing happens.
- 11:24Speaker 2: We turn our backs on their opposites.
- 11:27Speaker 1: As we fill our minds with veggies, we avoid a
- 11:30Speaker 1: junk food diet of deceit. Unsavory thoughts, ugly thoughts, dishonest thoughts,
- 11:37Speaker 1: where you tend to rose a thistle cannot grow We
- 11:41Speaker 1: focus our thoughts on good things so the weedy thoughts
- 11:44Speaker 1: do not have room. So just as some people are
- 11:47Speaker 1: picky eaters, we choose on purpose to be picky thinkers.
- 11:53Speaker 1: The big idea in this passage is simply this. Meditate
- 11:58Speaker 1: on good things. Meditate on good things. You want to
- 12:03Speaker 1: treat anxiety? Turn your thoughts toward good things. This word
- 12:08Speaker 1: in Greek, as you know, the Bible was written, New
- 12:10Speaker 1: Testament was written in Greek.
- 12:12Speaker 2: This word in Greek is a great word. Look at it. Logizomai. Meditate. Logizomai.
- 12:17Speaker 2: Do you see an English word, the roots of an
- 12:19Speaker 2: English word inside that? Anyone? Logic. Logic.
- 12:26Speaker 1: We meditate on good things. We treat our anxiety with
- 12:30Speaker 1: logical thinking, with clear thinking, with rational thinking. Easier said
- 12:37Speaker 1: than done. The consequence of anxiety for many is muddled
- 12:41Speaker 1: or unclear thinking, if we think at all. In July 1943,
- 12:46Speaker 1: a British army officer by the name of Lionel Wygram
- 12:50Speaker 1: studied the reaction of soldiers to intense battle.
- 12:54Speaker 2: He noted a predictable pattern.
- 12:56Speaker 1: He said in a typical platoon of 22 men, there
- 13:00Speaker 1: will be a small number who respond in courage and
- 13:04Speaker 1: There will be a small number who respond in panic.
- 13:07Speaker 1: The vast number of the men will go into mental neutral.
- 13:11Speaker 1: He called them sheep, bewildered sheep. They will quit thinking.
- 13:15Speaker 1: He writes, every platoon can be analyzed as follows. Six
- 13:19Speaker 1: men who will go anywhere, 12 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
- 13:30Speaker 1: name of John Leach has spent the last couple of
- 13:33Speaker 1: decades studying the human response to sudden stress like airplane
- 13:38Speaker 1: turbulence or economic downfalls. According to his studies, about 10
- 13:43Speaker 1: to 20% of us remain cool and composed under stress.
- 13:48Speaker 1: Another 10 to 15% freak out. But about 70 to
- 13:53Speaker 1: 80% of us become what he calls mentally paralyzed.
- 13:59Speaker 2: We stop thinking.
- 14:00Speaker 1: Well, long before this research, the Apostle Paul was calling
- 14:03Speaker 1: on us to mind our minds in times in which
- 14:07Speaker 1: we're anxious to be careful what we think. Our most
- 14:11Speaker 1: valuable weapon against anxiety weighs 2.7 pounds and it sits
- 14:16Speaker 1: right here between our ears. This was the point of
- 14:20Speaker 1: Jesus in the most famous sermon ever preached on the
- 14:24Speaker 1: topic of anxiety. He begins the sermon by telling us,
- 14:28Speaker 1: quite bluntly, do not worry about your life, what you
- 14:33Speaker 1: will eat or what you will drink or about your body,
- 14:36Speaker 1: what you will put on. And then he gives us
- 14:39Speaker 1: two commands with which to fulfill the first. He says,
- 14:43Speaker 1: look and consider. First of all, he says, look, look
- 14:49Speaker 1: at the birds of the air. He invites us to
- 14:51Speaker 1: go outside and just look at the ravens or look
- 14:54Speaker 1: at the cardinals, look at the birds.
- 14:57Speaker 2: And when we do, we notice something.
- 14:59Speaker 1: They're not grumpy. They don't frown. They don't look sleep deprived.
- 15:07Speaker 1: They're not lonely. In fact, they appear just the opposite.
- 15:12Speaker 1: They're quite happy.
- 15:13Speaker 2: They sing. They soar. They whistle. And then Jesus says.
- 15:20Speaker 1: They don't sow or gather in the barns.
- 15:23Speaker 2: In other words, they don't work. They don't save money.
- 15:29Speaker 1: They don't get stressed out in occupations, but they look happy.
- 15:35Speaker 1: And then he tells us to lower our gaze from
- 15:37Speaker 1: the birds and look out over the valley.
- 15:40Speaker 2: He says, consider what? The lilies.
- 15:45Speaker 1: Consider the lilies. Remember, he's helping us treat anxiety. So
- 15:49Speaker 1: he tells us to look at the birds and now
- 15:51Speaker 1: consider the lilies. Same point. They don't look unhappy. They
- 15:57Speaker 1: really are very beautiful. In fact, Jesus says, even though
- 16:00Speaker 1: their lifespan is short, they're here today and tomorrow they're
- 16:03Speaker 1: going to be thrown into the fire. Even Solomon in
- 16:08Speaker 1: all of his glory was not dressed up like one
- 16:10Speaker 1: of these. He's the richest king in history. And a
- 16:12Speaker 1: field of lilies is prettier than he was. The point,
- 16:16Speaker 1: we disarm anxiety by looking and by considering, by thinking,
- 16:22Speaker 1: by processing.
- 16:23Speaker 2: We look at the birds. We look at at the lilies.
- 16:27Speaker 1: We don't get lost in our negative downward spiral of thoughts,
- 16:31Speaker 1: nor do we get.
- 16:32Speaker 2: Frozen in no thinking.
- 16:34Speaker 1: We stop, we collect ourselves, we look at the birds,
- 16:37Speaker 1: we consider the lilies, we manage anxiety by managing our thoughts.
- 16:44Speaker 1: We manage anxiety by managing our thoughts. Now, maybe you
- 16:47Speaker 1: wanted something that was a little more mystical, a little
- 16:50Speaker 1: more supernatural. a little more angelic, maybe some heavenly visitations
- 16:56Speaker 1: or chariots of fire. Maybe you thought that God treated
- 17:00Speaker 1: anxiety through these supernatural visions.
- 17:04Speaker 2: 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
- 17:15Speaker 1: is It's not in the emotions you feel, but in
- 17:18Speaker 1: the thoughts you think. Do you want to feel peace tomorrow?
- 17:21Speaker 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
- 17:31Speaker 1: Lloyd-Jones wrote these words about the passage in Matthew chapter.
- 17:36Speaker 2: 6 that we just looked at.
- 17:39Speaker 1: Faith, according to our Lord's teaching in this paragraph, is
- 17:42Speaker 1: primarily thinking about 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,
- 17:54Speaker 1: according to our Lord, is to think, to look at
- 17:58Speaker 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
- 18:10Speaker 1: is being controlled by something else. And he goes round
- 18:14Speaker 1: and round in circles. This is the essence of worry.
- 18:18Speaker 1: That is not thought. That is the absence of thought.
- 18:23Speaker 1: That is a failure to think. Paul elsewhere said, Kent,
- 18:28Speaker 1: set your mind on things above, not on things of
- 18:32Speaker 1: the earth. There is a time in which we intentionally
- 18:35Speaker 1: and deliberately set our mind on things above. That's what
- 18:39Speaker 1: Kent Brantley did when he was about to spend three
- 18:44Speaker 1: days waiting on the results from the Ebola test, he
- 18:47Speaker 1: set his mind on things above. That's what his wife
- 18:50Speaker 1: Amber did when she got news of her husband's positive diagnosis.
- 18:56Speaker 1: She didn't panic. It was not easy, but she did
- 19:00Speaker 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
- 19:18Speaker 1: had attached to the dashboard of my car. One of
- 19:22Speaker 1: the most difficult days of my life happened when I
- 19:24Speaker 1: was 19 years old. And I was in a town
- 19:28Speaker 1: called Dalton in the state of Georgia. I had never
- 19:34Speaker 1: been to Dalton. I didn't know anyone in Georgia. And
- 19:38Speaker 1: I wondered what in the world had happened there. I
- 19:42Speaker 1: was 19 years of age. This was the summer of
- 19:44Speaker 1: my first year in college. I found myself sleeping in
- 19:49Speaker 1: the cellar. Army because it was cheap. And the night before,
- 19:55Speaker 1: a person who had had too much to drink rolled
- 19:58Speaker 1: over in his bunk up above mine and vomited right
- 20:02Speaker 1: down on the floor. I was so homesick. If homesickness
- 20:08Speaker 1: was water, I was soaked. What had I gotten myself into? Well,
- 20:14Speaker 1: on the promise of some fast cash and some new sites,
- 20:20Speaker 1: I had joined up with two buddies and signed on
- 20:23Speaker 1: to sell books door to door.
- 20:27Speaker 2: We went to sales school.
- 20:28Speaker 1: My friends went home during sales school. Left me to
- 20:32Speaker 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.
- 20:40Speaker 1: People don't like door-to-door salesmen.
- 20:44Speaker 2: They don't.
- 20:46Speaker 1: Not even when they're a nice kid from West Texas.
- 20:49Speaker 1: That first day was terrible. Hello, I'm Max.
- 20:54Speaker 2: Slam. Hello, I'm Max. Slam. Hello, I'm Max.
- 21:01Speaker 3: Slam.
- 21:03Speaker 1: The second day was just as bad. I didn't know
- 21:07Speaker 1: if I was going to make it. I couldn't envision
- 21:09Speaker 1: going through a whole summer like that. So I ended
- 21:12Speaker 1: up at that diner for lunch and I ordered a
- 21:15Speaker 1: hamburger and I treated my bruised ego. And as I
- 21:20Speaker 1: was paying for my burger, checking out at the cash register,
- 21:25Speaker 1: I noticed that to the right of the cash register,
- 21:28Speaker 1: there was this display. And upon this display was a
- 21:32Speaker 1: collection of of rubberized, magnetized truisms. The kind that you
- 21:40Speaker 1: stick on a refrigerator door. Do you know what I'm
- 21:42Speaker 1: talking about?
- 21:43Speaker 2: Little statements.
- 21:45Speaker 1: And there was one of them that was shaped like
- 21:48Speaker 1: a lemon. And on that rubberized lemon, these words appeared.
- 21:56Speaker 2: I bet you know what I'm about to say.
- 21:59Speaker 1: When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade. Well, it's old,
- 22:08Speaker 1: it's a shop horn, it's corny, but I'd never heard
- 22:13Speaker 1: that before. And that was exactly what I needed. That
- 22:18Speaker 1: little slogan told me that my problem was not my problems.
- 22:22Speaker 1: My problem was the way I was looking at my problems.
- 22:26Speaker 1: And it was just enough to convince me to stay
- 22:29Speaker 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
- 22:40Speaker 1: that magnetized lemon on that metal strip. And every day,
- 22:46Speaker 1: at least a dozen times, I would reach up and
- 22:48Speaker 1: I'd rub my thumb across it. And I'd think, okay.
- 22:55Speaker 1: I can either be miserable or I can make some lemonade.
- 23:00Speaker 1: I survived the summer. That's been 40 years. Much has happened.
- 23:09Speaker 1: Much has changed. But friends, this much has not. Life
- 23:16Speaker 1: still gives lemons.
- 23:19Speaker 3: It does.
- 23:21Speaker 2: It does.
- 23:23Speaker 1: And my prospects of a miserable summer are nothing compared
- 23:27Speaker 1: to the lemons that some of you have received. Just
- 23:32Speaker 1: a few days ago, I found myself in a conversation
- 23:35Speaker 1: with an elderly lady whose husband has been diagnosed with dementia.
- 23:43Speaker 1: And she's going to have to tell him he can
- 23:45Speaker 1: no longer drive. And she was telling me how she
- 23:48Speaker 1: was going to have to take the car keys away.
- 23:50Speaker 1: Life has given her a lemon. I found myself in
- 23:54Speaker 1: a conversation with a young mom. She already has one
- 23:57Speaker 1: child and now she has a newborn. And it seems
- 24:00Speaker 1: like she can't remember the last time she had a
- 24:02Speaker 1: good night's sleep. And she's really worried if she'll be
- 24:06Speaker 1: a good parent. I had lunch not too long ago
- 24:11Speaker 1: with a fellow who's trying to get through a very,
- 24:15Speaker 1: very difficult divorce. He underestimated the damage it would do.
- 24:22Speaker 1: And he's worried about his kids. He's worried about himself.
- 24:25Speaker 1: If he'll ever be happy again. Life gives lemons, doesn't it?
- 24:30Speaker 1: Has life given you a lemon lately? Life gives lemons
- 24:36Speaker 1: to good people. Life gives lemons to bad people. Life
- 24:39Speaker 1: gives lemons to old people. Life gives lemons to young people.
- 24:44Speaker 1: Life gives lemons to medical missionaries. Life comes with lemons,
- 24:50Speaker 1: but we don't have to.
- 24:53Speaker 2: Suck on them.
- 25:03Speaker 1: This is the point of the Apostle Paul. You can
- 25:07Speaker 1: read your Bible from beginning to end. You can capitalize
- 25:11Speaker 1: every letter in the epistles of Paul. And you will
- 25:14Speaker 1: never find a promise that says, fall across and you'll
- 25:17Speaker 1: have no lemons.
- 25:18Speaker 2: It's just not there.
- 25:21Speaker 1: But there is this promise that when life gives you
- 25:25Speaker 1: a lemon, God will show you how to respond to it.
- 25:30Speaker 1: How to handle it. When life gives you a bucket
- 25:34Speaker 1: full of anxiety, Christ will show you a way to
- 25:39Speaker 1: respond to that anxiety so that that anxiety does not
- 25:44Speaker 1: get to you. This is the promise that God gives.
- 25:49Speaker 1: That you can cast all your cares upon him because
- 25:52Speaker 1: he cares about you. That you can be anxious for nothing.
- 25:55Speaker 1: but in everything by prayer and supplication. You can make
- 25:59Speaker 1: your requests known to God. Life comes with a bushel
- 26:02Speaker 1: full of lemons. But if you're sucking on them, they're
- 26:08Speaker 1: going to make you sour. But you can respond to
- 26:12Speaker 1: them in a better way. Meditate on good things. The
- 26:16Speaker 1: passage one more time. Read it out loud with me
- 26:19Speaker 1: as the words appear on the screen.
- 26:22Speaker 4: Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, Whatever things
- 26:27Speaker 4: are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,
- 26:32Speaker 4: whatever things are.
- 26:33Speaker 2: Of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there.
- 26:37Speaker 1: Is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.
- 26:42Speaker 2: Lord, would you grant us this? Thank you.
- 28:18Speaker 1: So so.
- 29:44Speaker 4: Thank you.
- 30:16Speaker 5: I don't.
- 30:19Speaker 4: Know.
- 31:34Speaker 2: So so so.
- 32:05Speaker 1: Thank you.
- 32:43Speaker 2: Loving you alone feels so beautiful. And yet, it hurts
- 32:54Speaker 2: the most.
- 32:59Speaker 5: You became my quiet sunrise, the dream I never dared
- 33:04Speaker 5: to say. Every smile you gave so freely took my
- 33:10Speaker 5: breath a little away. held this love like fragile glass
- 33:17Speaker 5: so precious soft and true but every beat inside my
- 33:22Speaker 5: heart was only.
- 33:24Speaker 2: Reaching out to you.
- 33:27Speaker 3: Unspoken love is sweet and painful like honey mixed with
- 33:33Speaker 3: rain a tender hope i hold so tightly while it
- 33:40Speaker 3: Slowly breaks me. Loving you from just one side now
- 33:45Speaker 3: leaves my soul in silent blue. Cause the deeper that
- 33:50Speaker 3: I fall alone, the lonelier I do.
- 33:58Speaker 5: I can't blame my heart for choosing someone it could
- 34:03Speaker 5: never keep. So I smile through hidden heartache and love
- 34:09Speaker 5: you quietly. Unspoken love is sweet and painful like honey
- 34:17Speaker 5: mixed with rain. A tender hope I hold so tightly
- 34:23Speaker 5: while it slowly breaks me. Loving you from just one
- 34:28Speaker 5: side now leaves my soul in silent blue. Cause the
- 34:34Speaker 5: deeper that I fall alone, the lonelier I do. Maybe
- 34:46Speaker 5: loving you in silence is the closest I can stay.
- 35:03Speaker 5: Though it leaves behind a sorrow that may never fade away.
- 35:13Speaker 5: Unspoken love is sweet and painful, like honey mixed with rain.
- 35:21Speaker 5: A tender hope I hold so tightly while it Slowly
- 35:26Speaker 5: breaks me loving you from just one side now. Leaves
- 35:31Speaker 5: my soul in silent blue. Cause the deeper that I
- 35:36Speaker 5: fall alone.
- 35:40Speaker 3: The lonelier
- 35:44Speaker 2: I do.