Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Think About What You Think About- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Where you can win this war on worry. You really can.
- 0:06Speaker 1: You can say goodbye to anxiety. You can say farewell
- 0:09Speaker 1: to fret. Anxiety does come with life, but it doesn't
- 0:13Speaker 1: have to run our lives. God has a solution. God
- 0:17Speaker 1: has a prescription for anxiety, and it's found in the
- 0:21Speaker 1: Book of Philippians. And this summer, we're going phrase by
- 0:24Speaker 1: phrase through this wonderful promise. The words are about to
- 0:28Speaker 1: appear on the screen. Maybe you've memorized the passage by now,
- 0:31Speaker 1: so you don't need to look at the words. Just
- 0:33Speaker 1: say it. If not read the words, let's all say
- 0:36Speaker 1: the passage together. I encourage you to sit up straight
- 0:39Speaker 1: and fill your lungs with air and your heart's with hope,
- 0:42Speaker 1: and say this passage like you mean it. Are you ready?
- 0:47Speaker 1: Here we go. Rejoice in the Lord always. The Lord
- 0:57Speaker 1: is at hand. Be anxious for nothing but in everything
- 1:09Speaker 1: and the peace of God. Whatever things are true, whatever
- 1:24Speaker 1: things are just great. Job. Before I pray, I want
- 1:41Speaker 1: to say thank you on behalf of Delon and myself
- 1:45Speaker 1: for the prayers and encouragement our Deland's mom went to
- 1:50Speaker 1: be with the Lord. Just a few days ago. We
- 1:52Speaker 1: said goodbye to her last Monday, and we appreciate so
- 1:55Speaker 1: much your encouragement and thoughts. Roma Deane Preston was a
- 1:59Speaker 1: one of a kind who didn't have to change much
- 2:02Speaker 1: to become a resident of heaven. She was already angelic.
- 2:06Speaker 1: We miss her, but we're looking forward to seeing her soon.
- 2:10Speaker 1: Thank you, Lord for great people like her. Thank you
- 2:13Speaker 1: so much, Father for this opportunity that you've given us.
- 2:17Speaker 1: We bless you, Lord, and ask that you forgive our
- 2:20Speaker 1: speaker his sins, her too many to count. We pray
- 2:23Speaker 1: that you'd have mercy upon us, that we might see Christ,
- 2:26Speaker 1: just Christ, and through Christ, we pray, and all the
- 2:31Speaker 1: Church said. In her short thirteen years, Rebecca Taylor has
- 2:37Speaker 1: endured about with severe pancreatitis that has resulted in more
- 2:42Speaker 1: than fifty five surgeries and procedures, approximately one thousand days
- 2:47Speaker 1: in the hospital, and all in all, a ride on
- 2:51Speaker 1: a roller coaster that never stops. Kristen, Rebecca's mom, talks
- 2:57Speaker 1: about pancreatic complications with the ease of a surgeon. The
- 3:03Speaker 1: vocabulary of most mothers includes phrases like cafeteria, food and
- 3:08Speaker 1: cell phone and slumber party. Kristin knows this vernacular as well,
- 3:14Speaker 1: but she's also acquainted with words like blood, cells and scents,
- 3:19Speaker 1: and most recently, hemorrhagic stroke. A few months ago, she
- 3:24Speaker 1: wrote these words in her blog. This past week's new
- 3:28Speaker 1: landmine was the phrase hemorrhagic stroke, a phrase I heard
- 3:34Speaker 1: dozens of times by numerous physicians, over and over and over.
- 3:39Speaker 1: I was hit with a possible affliction that filled my
- 3:42Speaker 1: mind and consumed my thoughts, and affliction that not only
- 3:46Speaker 1: had not happened, but might not ever happen, and yet
- 3:50Speaker 1: emotionally crippling. Nonetheless, this past Sunday, our preacher Max Locato
- 3:56Speaker 1: started a very fitting series on anxiety, and we reviewed
- 4:01Speaker 1: the familiar Philippians four six passage, do not be anxious
- 4:05Speaker 1: for anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
- 4:10Speaker 1: present your request to God. I presented my request to
- 4:14Speaker 1: the Lord, as I had done so many times before.
- 4:17Speaker 1: But this time, this time I needed more, and so
- 4:22Speaker 1: using Philippians four eight and nine as a guide, I
- 4:25Speaker 1: found my answer. Finally, Brothers, whatever is true, what was
- 4:32Speaker 1: true in my life at this particular moment? Answer the
- 4:36Speaker 1: blessing of all my family members eating together, whatever is noble,
- 4:42Speaker 1: the blessing of enjoying each other's presence outside of a
- 4:45Speaker 1: hospital room. Whatever is right, The blessing of experiencing my
- 4:50Speaker 1: two sons' daily lives, whatever is pure, The blessing of
- 4:55Speaker 1: all three children laughing and playing with each other, whatever
- 4:59Speaker 1: is lofe. The blessing of watching Rebecca sleep peacefully in
- 5:03Speaker 1: her bed at night, Whatever is admirable. The blessing of
- 5:08Speaker 1: an honorable team working tirelessly on Rebecca's care, if anything
- 5:12Speaker 1: is excellent, The blessing of watching a miracle unfold or praiseworthy,
- 5:17Speaker 1: the blessing of worshiping a Lord who is worthy to
- 5:20Speaker 1: be praised. Think about such things. I stalked the dreaded
- 5:25Speaker 1: phrase hemorrhagic stroke from sucking joy out of my life.
- 5:30Speaker 1: Its power to produce anxiety was now rendered impotent. And
- 5:35Speaker 1: when I dwelt on the bountiful blessings in my life
- 5:38Speaker 1: happening at this very moment, the peace of God, which
- 5:42Speaker 1: transcends all understanding, did guard my heart and my mind.
- 5:47Speaker 1: In Christ Jesus, a true, unexpected miracle. Thank you Lord.
- 5:55Speaker 1: Now did you see what Christen did? She practiced thought,
- 6:00Speaker 1: She stopped the dreaded phrase from sucking joy out of
- 6:03Speaker 1: her life. She took time to think about what she
- 6:06Speaker 1: was thinking about himorrhagic stroke was a phrase hovering over
- 6:13Speaker 1: her life like a South Texas thundercloud. But rather than thinks,
- 6:18Speaker 1: she had to stay with that thought in her life.
- 6:21Speaker 1: She took that thought and walked it to the exit
- 6:24Speaker 1: door and told it to leave. I think the Apostle
- 6:27Speaker 1: Paul would have been very proud. You probably know this,
- 6:32Speaker 1: but in case you don't, I'm so happy to let
- 6:35Speaker 1: you in on some good news. You select your thoughts,
- 6:42Speaker 1: you do. You didn't select your birthplace. You didn't select
- 6:47Speaker 1: your birth date. You didn't select your parents or siblings.
- 6:51Speaker 1: You don't determine the weather. You don't get a vote
- 6:53Speaker 1: on how much salt goes in the ocean. There are
- 6:57Speaker 1: many things in life over which you and I have
- 6:59Speaker 1: no say, But the greatest and most important activity in
- 7:04Speaker 1: your life is one over which you have absolute dominion.
- 7:08Speaker 1: You get to choose what you think. You are the
- 7:13Speaker 1: air traffic controller of your mental airport. You determine which
- 7:19Speaker 1: thoughts get to land and which thoughts need to leave.
- 7:22Speaker 1: You sit in the control tower, directing the mental traffic
- 7:25Speaker 1: of your world. If a thought lands, it is because
- 7:30Speaker 1: you gave it permission to do so. If a thought departs,
- 7:34Speaker 1: it's because you commanded it to do so you select
- 7:38Speaker 1: your thoughts for that reason. The wise man urges be
- 7:44Speaker 1: careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.
- 7:52Speaker 1: Thoughts have consequences. Do you want to be happy tomorrow,
- 7:56Speaker 1: then so seeds of happiness today. Do you want to
- 8:02Speaker 1: be cranky and irritable and downcast tomorrow, then just crawl
- 8:08Speaker 1: into the mud pit of anxiety and guilt and negativism.
- 8:13Speaker 1: Today we become what we believe. This was the teaching
- 8:19Speaker 1: of Jesus. A couple of blind men once asked him
- 8:22Speaker 1: for healing, and he responded by saying, do you really
- 8:27Speaker 1: believe I can do this? They said, why yes, Master,
- 8:32Speaker 1: and he touched their eyes and said, become what you believe.
- 8:38Speaker 1: We become what we believe. Healthy thinking results in healing,
- 8:48Speaker 1: or another way of saying it, healing begins with healthy thinking.
- 8:54Speaker 1: Your challenge is not your challenge. Your challenge is the
- 8:57Speaker 1: way you think about your challenge. Your problem is not
- 9:02Speaker 1: your problem. Your problem is the way you look at
- 9:04Speaker 1: your problems. The issue is not the traffic. The issue
- 9:08Speaker 1: is the way you're thinking about the traffic. Your problem
- 9:14Speaker 1: is not your boss. Your problem is the way you're
- 9:17Speaker 1: processing life with your boss. There are many circumstances in
- 9:22Speaker 1: life that we simply cannot change. What we can change
- 9:27Speaker 1: is the way we think about our challenges. We are
- 9:31Speaker 1: the sum of our thoughts. Now Satan knows this. For
- 9:36Speaker 1: that reason, the devil is always messing with our minds.
- 9:40Speaker 1: He is he has one aim, and that is to
- 9:43Speaker 1: pollute your thoughts. And he traffics and lies. He traffics
- 9:48Speaker 1: in deceits. He fills the sky with airplanes that carry
- 9:52Speaker 1: nothing but anxiety and fear. And he is doing his
- 9:56Speaker 1: best to convince you and to convince me, to let
- 9:59Speaker 1: these planes land in our mind and unload their stinking
- 10:05Speaker 1: cargo into our thought process. He promotes a fraud or
- 10:10Speaker 1: a false wisdom that the Bible describes as earthly, unspiritual,
- 10:17Speaker 1: and even demonic. Did you know Satan has never spoken
- 10:21Speaker 1: a word of truth. He has never never spoken a
- 10:28Speaker 1: word of truth. He lied to Eve in the garden.
- 10:31Speaker 1: He lied to King David in the throne room. He
- 10:34Speaker 1: lied to Judas in the upper room. He lied to
- 10:37Speaker 1: Peter at the night of the Trial of Christ. He
- 10:40Speaker 1: lies to unbelievers by blinding their minds. He lives a
- 10:45Speaker 1: lie Jesus said about Satan, he has always hated the
- 10:49Speaker 1: truth because there is no truth in him. Just as
- 10:55Speaker 1: God cannot tell a lie, Satan can tell anything except
- 11:02Speaker 1: a lie. He is a living lie. He is the
- 11:07Speaker 1: master of deceit. But the good news is he's not
- 11:11Speaker 1: the master of your mind. You are, and God will
- 11:17Speaker 1: help you direct your thoughts. You have God on your
- 11:20Speaker 1: side and you have God helping you learn to manage
- 11:25Speaker 1: your thoughts. High on the priority list of God is this.
- 11:29Speaker 1: He wants you to think and act like Jesus. He
- 11:36Speaker 1: wants you. He wants to transform you into a new
- 11:40Speaker 1: person by doing what Church, by changing the way you
- 11:45Speaker 1: want think. He's going to get inside your mind and
- 11:49Speaker 1: he's going to help you think healthy thoughts. One of
- 11:53Speaker 1: the ways that God helps us do this is by
- 11:56Speaker 1: equipping us with Satan's playbook. Yes, we know exactly what
- 12:02Speaker 1: Satan is up to. Every one of his thoughts fits
- 12:06Speaker 1: into one of three at least one of three categories, godless, negative,
- 12:14Speaker 1: and amplified. All of the thoughts of Satan are godless, negative,
- 12:23Speaker 1: and or amplified. So anytime you find yourself thinking godless thoughts,
- 12:35Speaker 1: you know where they come from. A godless thought is
- 12:38Speaker 1: something like, well, God doesn't care, or God does not exist,
- 12:43Speaker 1: or if he does exist, he's not near, or he
- 12:47Speaker 1: can't help me. Anytime you find yourself wading into a
- 12:52Speaker 1: difficulty without consulting God, then the devil is doing to
- 12:57Speaker 1: you what he did to even convinced Eve to make
- 13:01Speaker 1: a decision about the Forbidden Fruit without consulting her creator.
- 13:06Speaker 1: This was his first and this is his oldest trick.
- 13:09Speaker 1: He wants you and me to face problems without facing God.
- 13:13Speaker 1: He does not want God included in the conversation because
- 13:17Speaker 1: once God is included in the conversation, out goes the devil,
- 13:21Speaker 1: in comes hope. So the moment you sense that you're
- 13:26Speaker 1: in the middle of this negative thought pattern and you
- 13:29Speaker 1: haven't thought about God in moments, days, months, then he
- 13:34Speaker 1: has you where he wants you, because his thoughts are
- 13:37Speaker 1: always godless. Also, the thoughts of Satan are always negative.
- 13:44Speaker 1: He has never encouraged anyone any time. His goal with
- 13:52Speaker 1: Job was to so consume Job's sadness that Job had
- 13:57Speaker 1: no friends and Job had no hope. His goal with
- 14:00Speaker 1: Judas was to lead Judas to a place that was
- 14:04Speaker 1: so dark that Judas finally took his own life. Here's
- 14:09Speaker 1: what Jesus says about Satan. He comes with the soul
- 14:15Speaker 1: intention of stealing and killing and destroying. He wants to
- 14:21Speaker 1: lead you and me to a dark place and convince
- 14:25Speaker 1: us that no light will ever come into this dark place.
- 14:31Speaker 1: Some of you are there today. You think no window
- 14:35Speaker 1: will ever open, no light will ever come. That is
- 14:37Speaker 1: a lie that comes straight from the pit of hell.
- 14:41Speaker 1: It's a lie. No life is irredeemable, No life is irredeemable,
- 14:48Speaker 1: no person is unlovable. No problem has absolutely no solution.
- 14:54Speaker 1: It may come with difficulty, But Satan wants us to
- 14:59Speaker 1: stay in this negative world that is dark. And once
- 15:02Speaker 1: he has us there, you know what he does. He
- 15:06Speaker 1: turns up the volume. And the thoughts he distributes are
- 15:11Speaker 1: not only godless and negative, they are amplified. They are overstated,
- 15:20Speaker 1: They are exaggerated, They are irrational. They are inflated phrases
- 15:28Speaker 1: like I'll never get out of this, We'll never get
- 15:31Speaker 1: out of death, I'll never get a job, I'll never
- 15:35Speaker 1: lose this weight, I'll never have friends. Those overstatements, those negative, overwhelming,
- 15:43Speaker 1: amplified statements, those are the mark of the Beast himself. Now,
- 15:50Speaker 1: maybe you've never had those thoughts, but most of us have.
- 15:54Speaker 1: Satan wants to leave us in this kind of thought pattern. Yes,
- 15:59Speaker 1: we are the sum total of our thoughts. And some
- 16:03Speaker 1: people lead thoughts that are nothing but godless, negative and amplified.
- 16:08Speaker 1: What kind of person would these thoughts create? An anxious,
- 16:14Speaker 1: troubled person. They have nothing but godless, negative, anxious thoughts.
- 16:24Speaker 1: They are surrounded by a swarm of gnats everywhere they turn.
- 16:34Speaker 1: They've got gnats everywhere, and they follow them wherever they go.
- 16:39Speaker 1: Do any of you have gnats buzzing in your head? Well,
- 16:45Speaker 1: now you know where they come from. Now you know
- 16:48Speaker 1: you don't have to think them. Did you know that
- 16:52Speaker 1: just because you have a thought, you don't have to
- 16:54Speaker 1: think it. That's a nice idea, isn't it. Just because
- 17:01Speaker 1: you have a thought, you don't have to think it.
- 17:05Speaker 1: You don't have to let it in. Just because that
- 17:08Speaker 1: plane of negativism or godlessness, just because that plain full
- 17:13Speaker 1: of amplified impossibilities and irrational thoughts, just because it's circling
- 17:17Speaker 1: over its head, you don't have to give it permission
- 17:20Speaker 1: to land. You can do what the apostle, Peter says.
- 17:23Speaker 1: Peter says, be alert and a sober mind. Your enemy,
- 17:27Speaker 1: the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for
- 17:30Speaker 1: someone to devour. Resist him, resist him, standing firm in
- 17:36Speaker 1: the faith. In other words, don't let him get into
- 17:39Speaker 1: your head. Fix your thoughts on what is true and
- 17:45Speaker 1: honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think
- 17:51Speaker 1: about these things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
- 17:56Speaker 1: Remember you're there, traffic controller of your mind. And if
- 17:59Speaker 1: a thought what comes into your world is because you
- 18:02Speaker 1: permitted it, you are not a victim. You are not
- 18:06Speaker 1: left without protection. God has empowered you to control the
- 18:11Speaker 1: thoughts which come. And since belief proceeds behavior, you can
- 18:16Speaker 1: correct your behavior by creating the right beliefs. And your
- 18:20Speaker 1: most important job is to keep Satan's thoughts out and
- 18:25Speaker 1: bring God's thoughts in. So we resist the thoughts of Satan.
- 18:30Speaker 1: We identify them, and we resist them, and then we
- 18:34Speaker 1: welcome the thoughts of God. The thoughts of God are
- 18:39Speaker 1: easy to identify, because just as the thoughts of Satan
- 18:43Speaker 1: are godless, the thoughts of God are what God centered.
- 18:51Speaker 1: The godly thought quickly calls God into the situation, quickly
- 18:56Speaker 1: consults God, quickly turns attention to God, saying, God, I'm anxious.
- 19:00Speaker 1: Would you help me? God, I'm anxious? Are you sovereign
- 19:03Speaker 1: over this? God, I'm guilty? Is your grace big enough?
- 19:07Speaker 1: You go quickly into the throne room of God. You
- 19:10Speaker 1: don't dwell out here without involving God. You talk to
- 19:13Speaker 1: God before you talk to anyone or anything else. You
- 19:17Speaker 1: go quickly to God. It's not a matter of taking
- 19:20Speaker 1: the problems to the bar. It's not a matter of
- 19:23Speaker 1: taking your problems out on your kids. It's a matter
- 19:25Speaker 1: of taking your problems quickly into the presence of God
- 19:29Speaker 1: and leaving them there. Be anxious for nothing but in
- 19:32Speaker 1: everything by prayer and supplication. Let your request be made
- 19:35Speaker 1: known to God. So God is quickly involved into the conversation.
- 19:41Speaker 1: You can do this, and I can too, So godly
- 19:44Speaker 1: thinking I'm sorry. Thoughts from God are quickly God centered.
- 19:48Speaker 1: Thoughts from God are always inspirational, Always inspirational. God quickly
- 19:58Speaker 1: brings hope. He is the Lord of hope. He is
- 20:01Speaker 1: the Lord of light, and he wants to bring encouragement
- 20:04Speaker 1: into your world. And he does so by using this
- 20:09Speaker 1: book right here, the Bible. He equips you with scriptures
- 20:16Speaker 1: that will give you strength with which to stare down
- 20:20Speaker 1: the thoughts of the devil. So when these fearful, anxious
- 20:25Speaker 1: thoughts come, you turn quickly to some passages. Jesus you said,
- 20:31Speaker 1: if anyone is weary, let him come to me and
- 20:33Speaker 1: I'll find and he'll find rest. Okay, Lord, here I am.
- 20:36Speaker 1: You said that. Lord. Lord, you said you taught us
- 20:40Speaker 1: to say. The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall
- 20:43Speaker 1: not want Will you be my shepherd? Right now? Will
- 20:45Speaker 1: you walk me through this? You have said, Lord that
- 20:48Speaker 1: even if I walk through the flood, I will not drown,
- 20:50Speaker 1: even though I walk through the fire, will not be burned.
- 20:52Speaker 1: I'm going to stand upon that. Lord. Your word says
- 20:55Speaker 1: that you can take that which is evil and you
- 20:56Speaker 1: can redeem it, and you can turn it into something good.
- 21:00Speaker 1: At the very moment Satan is buzzing around you with
- 21:02Speaker 1: all of these gnats, you are waiving those thoughts away
- 21:07Speaker 1: by using truth out of the scripture. And God brings inspiration,
- 21:12Speaker 1: and he also brings the truth. His thoughts are always factual.
- 21:22Speaker 1: The first thing the apostle Paul says is meditate on this.
- 21:27Speaker 1: Whatever is what true, whatever is truth. The devil wants
- 21:34Speaker 1: you to go down a path called possible assumptions. Well,
- 21:38Speaker 1: if this happens, then that's gonna happen. Then that's gonna happen,
- 21:41Speaker 1: and then that's gonna happen, and then all this it's
- 21:43Speaker 1: gonna be terrible. That's where Satan wants you to go. Paul,
- 21:48Speaker 1: inspired by the Holy Spirit, says no, just meditate on
- 21:50Speaker 1: what is truth? What's factual? What's the truth? Well, the
- 21:55Speaker 1: truth is I messed up. I did. But the truth
- 21:58Speaker 1: is God's grace is greater than my sin. Does that
- 22:01Speaker 1: makes sense. The truth is we're really struggling to pay
- 22:04Speaker 1: the bills. But the truth is God still loves us,
- 22:08Speaker 1: and he's gonna help us. He's gonna walk us through this.
- 22:11Speaker 1: The truth is, the sermon is long today, nothing but
- 22:17Speaker 1: the truth is there's something in here I want to learn.
- 22:21Speaker 1: And so we focus on the facts. We don't. Oh,
- 22:24Speaker 1: if only we could learn this, We don't allow Satan
- 22:28Speaker 1: to lead us down these rabbit trails of possibles and
- 22:32Speaker 1: what ifs, And this is gonna happen in Oh my goodness,
- 22:35Speaker 1: he wants to lead us into this world full of
- 22:38Speaker 1: alarm and anxiety. There is no joy out there. There
- 22:46Speaker 1: is no joy out there. But there is peace right here,
- 22:52Speaker 1: So don't let Satan take your thoughts down that trail
- 22:55Speaker 1: of assumptions. Jesus said, the world has enough trouble today.
- 23:00Speaker 1: He has enough trouble in today. Don't worry about tomorrow.
- 23:04Speaker 1: So these are the thoughts from God. Where Satan brings
- 23:10Speaker 1: nothing but nats. God brings what gifts? Aren't I clever?
- 23:17Speaker 1: He brings gifts and this clever? Yeah, go ahead applaud that.
- 23:21Speaker 1: That's just wonderful. I'm just kidding. But the choice is yours.
- 23:28Speaker 1: Every day, you and I have the choice. Are we
- 23:30Speaker 1: gonna live surrounded by nats? Are we gonna live surrounded
- 23:34Speaker 1: by the gifts of God? Okay, here's how this works.
- 23:39Speaker 1: So tomorrow morning, a message is left on your cell
- 23:42Speaker 1: phone and it's from the doctor's office, and the doctor says,
- 23:47Speaker 1: or his assistant says, a doctor Jones would like you
- 23:50Speaker 1: to come into the office because your tests are in.
- 23:55Speaker 1: What are you gonna do with that? What are you
- 23:58Speaker 1: gonna do with that? Well, Satan is right outside the door,
- 24:04Speaker 1: and he wants to creep in, and he wants to
- 24:06Speaker 1: bring with him a swarm of nats. He wants you
- 24:11Speaker 1: to go down the godless path the godless path says, well,
- 24:16Speaker 1: if there is a God, he doesn't care. Things have
- 24:18Speaker 1: gone haywire. I gotta fix this myself. Oh no, I
- 24:21Speaker 1: must be be punished for something. He wants you to
- 24:25Speaker 1: engage in a self conversation that does not include God.
- 24:30Speaker 1: He wants to lead you into a path of negative thinking. Oh,
- 24:35Speaker 1: I just knew it was gonna happen to me. You know,
- 24:37Speaker 1: my dad got sick, my mom got sick, my grandma
- 24:40Speaker 1: got sick, my grandpa. I guess it was just a
- 24:42Speaker 1: matter of time. You know, I have been noticing blurry
- 24:45Speaker 1: vision lately. I bet I have a tumor. Oh my goodness. Now,
- 24:48Speaker 1: who's and then this negative thought is going to lead
- 24:51Speaker 1: to what amplified thoughts. Amplified thoughts like who's going to
- 24:58Speaker 1: raise the kids? Who's gonna pay the bills? I don't
- 25:02Speaker 1: think my insurance is going to handle this? Oh my goodness.
- 25:07Speaker 1: All this happens just as a result of one phone call.
- 25:11Speaker 1: This person, if they're not sick, is going to be
- 25:14Speaker 1: sick by the time they get to the doctor. Do
- 25:18Speaker 1: you know that the Bible says anxiety weighs down the
- 25:23Speaker 1: human heart. Anxiety itself can make the heart sick. But
- 25:29Speaker 1: there's a better way. In This better way is prescribed
- 25:32Speaker 1: by God again through the pen of the apostle Paul.
- 25:35Speaker 1: He says, capture every thought and make it give up
- 25:41Speaker 1: and obey Christ. Well, you talk about an empowering verse.
- 25:45Speaker 1: You can do what Christen did. You can capture the
- 25:48Speaker 1: thought hemorrhagic stroke comes into your mind. Well, I'm going
- 25:52Speaker 1: to capture that thought, and I'm gonna make it give up.
- 25:56Speaker 1: I'm gonna make it surrender to the authority of Christ.
- 25:59Speaker 1: So when these thoughts of anxiety come into your world,
- 26:01Speaker 1: you slap handcuffs on them, right, instead of just letting
- 26:06Speaker 1: them come in, you slap handcuffs on them, and you say, well,
- 26:08Speaker 1: wait just a second. Now, I don't know if you're
- 26:11Speaker 1: from Christ or not. And so you take that anxious
- 26:15Speaker 1: thought and you march it over before Jesus himself, who
- 26:18Speaker 1: has all authority in heaven and on earth, and you
- 26:21Speaker 1: just ask him, Jesus, is this anxious thought from you
- 26:25Speaker 1: or not? And he always tells the truth, and he
- 26:30Speaker 1: will help you say to that thought, Satan, get thee
- 26:33Speaker 1: behind me. He will tell it to leave. And when
- 26:37Speaker 1: Jesus removes an anxious thought, he always replaces it with
- 26:42Speaker 1: a godly thought, and he will bring a different thought process.
- 26:48Speaker 1: And instead of over reacting to a phone call about
- 26:51Speaker 1: needing to go to the doctor, you will respond like this.
- 26:56Speaker 1: You'll respond with god sinnered thinking. Before you call your mom,
- 27:00Speaker 1: before you call your kids, before you call your neighbors,
- 27:05Speaker 1: you're gonna call out to God. I mean, you've not
- 27:07Speaker 1: even hung up the cell phone, and you're saying, well, Lord,
- 27:10Speaker 1: I'm gonna need you on this one. Oh, I need help.
- 27:14Speaker 1: I'm feeling some fear coming. But I believe Lord that
- 27:17Speaker 1: You're mightier than this. And then you turn quickly in
- 27:19Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, who has assigned the task of guarding
- 27:22Speaker 1: your heart and mind through Christ Jesus, and to give
- 27:25Speaker 1: you a peace that passes understanding. He will bring to
- 27:28Speaker 1: your mind verses some of which you've memorized, some of
- 27:32Speaker 1: what you've heard a preacher say, or some of which
- 27:34Speaker 1: you've seen on a wall you know, hanging in somebody's house.
- 27:38Speaker 1: These verses will come to your mind, and you will
- 27:41Speaker 1: stand on those promises, be anxious for nothing but in
- 27:44Speaker 1: everything by prayer and petition, unless your request of being
- 27:47Speaker 1: made know it. Okay, God, I'm gonna stand right there.
- 27:49Speaker 1: I'm gonna be anxious for nothing. But here's my prayer,
- 27:51Speaker 1: here's my petition. Would you please give me that peace
- 27:54Speaker 1: that passes all understanding, and you'll begin to receive this inspiration.
- 27:59Speaker 1: It's not that it's easy, please, but it is that
- 28:02Speaker 1: it's possible. And it's certainly that anxiety and getting caught
- 28:06Speaker 1: up in the anxiety is an option. Anxiety comes with life,
- 28:11Speaker 1: but it doesn't have to run your life. And so
- 28:17Speaker 1: god less thoughts are replaced with God's centered thoughts, and
- 28:21Speaker 1: the negative thoughts are replaced with inspirational thoughts, and all
- 28:24Speaker 1: those amplified thoughts are replaced with what with the truth,
- 28:29Speaker 1: with the fact. Here's the fact the doctor called, that's
- 28:34Speaker 1: the fact. I don't know why, So I'm not going
- 28:39Speaker 1: to chase the assumptions. I'm not going to assume something
- 28:42Speaker 1: as bad when it's not. For all I know, he
- 28:45Speaker 1: may have good news. For all I know, he may
- 28:48Speaker 1: think I'm such a picture of health he wants to
- 28:50Speaker 1: take a picture of me and put me on a poster.
- 28:53Speaker 1: For all I know, he may send me on a
- 28:55Speaker 1: funded tour so I can inspire other people to be
- 28:58Speaker 1: as healthy as I am. Why do we assume that
- 29:03Speaker 1: bad is going to happen. Why do we assume that
- 29:07Speaker 1: bad is going to happen. I'll tell you why. Because
- 29:10Speaker 1: there is a devil who prowls around like a lion,
- 29:13Speaker 1: looking for someone whom he may devour. But we're going
- 29:16Speaker 1: to resist him and be firm in the faith. And
- 29:18Speaker 1: when those thoughts come, we're going to stand them down.
- 29:21Speaker 1: We're going to take every thought captive and make it
- 29:23Speaker 1: submit to the authority of Jesus Christ. And we're going
- 29:28Speaker 1: to receive not the gnats, those buzzing insects to the devil.
- 29:32Speaker 1: We're going to receive the gift of God, which is
- 29:35Speaker 1: a peace that passes understanding, and a gentleness that is
- 29:39Speaker 1: made evident to all. Which would you prefer me too?
- 29:44Speaker 1: I never like nats to begin with. Kristen and her
- 29:49Speaker 1: family have found this level of peace. Just a couple
- 29:53Speaker 1: of weeks ago, the family went back to Minnesota, where
- 29:57Speaker 1: earlier in the year, Rebecca received a transplant. Seven months ago,
- 30:01Speaker 1: Rebecca was barely surviving. Now, just the day before her
- 30:05Speaker 1: thirteenth birthday, Rebecca was full of life. She was vibrant,
- 30:11Speaker 1: She had gained a remarkable thirty pounds, her liver was
- 30:15Speaker 1: steady and her health was improving, and she was named
- 30:18Speaker 1: the transplant team's walking Miracle. The doctors could not imagine,
- 30:23Speaker 1: with such complications that she would be doing so well.
- 30:28Speaker 1: Kristin made another entry in her blog. She wrote, just
- 30:33Speaker 1: a few days ago, I watched these interactions with a
- 30:36Speaker 1: silent sense of awe. It is easy to praise God
- 30:40Speaker 1: during seasons of wellness, but it was during my greatest
- 30:43Speaker 1: distress when I felt the Lord's presence poured upon me.
- 30:47Speaker 1: And it was in those heartbreaking moments I learned to
- 30:50Speaker 1: trust this God who provided unimaginable strength during unimaginable pain.
- 30:57Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul calls that a peace that passes understanding. Amen, Lord,
- 31:05Speaker 1: this is our prayer today, that you would grant us
- 31:08Speaker 1: a new way of thinking, that we would not be
- 31:10Speaker 1: the victim of thoughts, but that we would take our
- 31:13Speaker 1: thoughts captive before they take us captive, And that Heavenly Father,
- 31:19Speaker 1: we would let our thoughts be God sinnered, we would
- 31:23Speaker 1: let our thoughts come and bring inspiration from your scripture,
- 31:27Speaker 1: and that we would let our thoughts be factual, built
- 31:29Speaker 1: on truth, and that we would receive this gift that
- 31:33Speaker 1: you so want to give us. Father. I'm very excited
- 31:36Speaker 1: to offer this prayer because I know you will answer it,
- 31:39Speaker 1: because this agrees with your will and so.
- 32:01Speaker 2: At Loving you alone feels so beautiful, and yet.
- 34:23Speaker 1: It hurts the most.
- 34:28Speaker 3: You became my quiet sunrise, the dream I never dared
- 34:33Speaker 3: to say. Every smile you gave so freely took my
- 34:39Speaker 3: breath a little away. I held this lovel like fragile glass,
- 34:46Speaker 3: so precious, soft and true, but every being inside my
- 34:51Speaker 3: heart was only reaching out to you unspoken.
- 34:57Speaker 4: Love is sweet and painful, like honey mixed with rain.
- 35:04Speaker 2: Let's send the whole bial.
- 35:06Speaker 4: So tightly while it slowly breaks me. Loving you from
- 35:12Speaker 4: just one side now leaves my soul in silent blue.
- 35:18Speaker 3: Because the deeper that I fall along, the lonelier I do.
- 35:27Speaker 3: I can't blame my heart for choosing someone it could
- 35:32Speaker 3: never keep, so I smiled through hidden heartache.
- 35:37Speaker 1: Hell love you.
- 35:39Speaker 5: Quietly spoke in.
- 35:41Speaker 4: Love is sweet and painful.
- 35:45Speaker 5: Like honey mixed with rain.
- 35:48Speaker 4: Let's end the whole bial so tightly, walid.
- 35:53Speaker 5: Slowly it breaks me. Loving you from.
- 35:57Speaker 6: Just one side now leave my soul in silent bloom.
- 36:02Speaker 5: Because the deeper that I've follow long the lonely I do.
- 36:25Speaker 5: Maybe loving you in.
- 36:27Speaker 6: Silence, this is the closest Dia can stay, though leaves
- 36:33Speaker 6: behind the sorrow that may never fast away.
- 36:42Speaker 4: I spoken loud is sweet and painful, like honey mixed
- 36:48Speaker 4: with rain, A tender whole, wild, so tightly wal it.
- 36:55Speaker 5: Slowly breaks me.
- 36:56Speaker 4: Loving you from just one side. Now leave my soul
- 37:01Speaker 4: in silencause the deeper that.
- 37:05Speaker 5: I followed, the lonely
- 37:12Speaker 1: Her to