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The Reason You’re Stuck Your Mind Hasn’t Been Renewed- Minister Max Lucado · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Hi friends, I'm Max Locato coming to you from this
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: beautiful spot in the Texas Hill Country, not too far
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: from my home. I love it here. Reminds me of
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  Speaker 1: some of the fishing ponds I used to frequent as
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  Speaker 1: a boy. Water has always brought me peace. And you know,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: we live in a world where it is difficult to
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  Speaker 1: calm our minds. I recently wrote a book entitled, Tame
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Your Thoughts, and I invited some friends to sit down
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: with me and have an honest conversation about how we
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: can win the battle for our minds. Together, we explore
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  Speaker 1: three practical tools based on biblical principles to help us
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  Speaker 1: manage our thoughts. No matter who you are or where
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  Speaker 1: you come from, progress is possible. With God's help, we
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  Speaker 1: can learn to tame our thoughts and, in the process,
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  Speaker 1: become a little more like Jesus. Won't you join us?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Welcome, everybody. We're so grateful that you're here.
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  Speaker 3: What a fine looking group and what a great place
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  Speaker 3: to be and what a terrific conversation to have. We're
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  Speaker 3: going to talk about the one topic that none of
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  Speaker 3: us can escape and that is our thoughts.
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  Speaker 2: We cannot see them.
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  Speaker 3: We cannot always predict them, but we cannot deny this
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  Speaker 3: about them and that is they define our lives.
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  Speaker 2: Think well, live well. Think poorly, live poorly. So let
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  Speaker 2: me ask you a question.
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  Speaker 3: Raise your hand if you have recently dealt with out-of-control thoughts,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: either positive or negative, and you just couldn't turn your
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  Speaker 3: brain off.
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  Speaker 2: Me too.
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  Speaker 3: You know, the way we think directly impacts everything in
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  Speaker 3: our lives, especially our.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Joy and peace.
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  Speaker 3: I've been thinking about thoughts for a long time, writing
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  Speaker 3: and pastoring, and it seems to me that we are
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  Speaker 3: in a season of history in which our thoughts are
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  Speaker 3: losing the battle. Our stinking thinking has taken us down
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  Speaker 3: the tube. I don't know when I've witnessed or experienced
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  Speaker 3: such a battle for our peace of mind. And that's
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  Speaker 3: what motivated me to think about thoughts. And the result
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  Speaker 3: is this book, Tame Your Thoughts. So the question, how
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  Speaker 3: often do you think about what you think about? Well,
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  Speaker 3: thoughts really do make a huge difference, don't they? Most
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  Speaker 3: of us would agree that positive thoughts lead to positive
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  Speaker 3: actions and negative thoughts can lead to bad behavior. But
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  Speaker 3: I wonder if we understand that we really can manage
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  Speaker 3: our lives by managing our thoughts. Neuroscience agrees with that.
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  Speaker 3: The Bible teaches that. It's embedded throughout Scripture. In fact,
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  Speaker 3: one of the most famous verses in the Bible says,
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  Speaker 3: Romans 12 and verse 2, do not be conformed to
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  Speaker 3: this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
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  Speaker 3: So God's promise is to help us renew our minds.
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  Speaker 3: He loves us too much to let us lead a
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  Speaker 3: life that's marked by out of control thinking. So, Anyone
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  Speaker 3: have any thoughts about thoughts? Before we dive into our conversation,
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  Speaker 3: let's get acquainted. Everybody, please tell me your name and
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: a little bit about yourself.
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  Speaker 4: Yes. And thank you, Max, for having this conversation with us.
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  Speaker 4: My name is Amanda May, and I can definitely relate
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  Speaker 4: to Swirling Thoughts because I have two kids under four
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  Speaker 4: and I work full time.
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  Speaker 2: Two kids under four.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I remember one time my wife was looking at videos from,
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  Speaker 3: we have three daughters, they're all grown now, but She
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  Speaker 3: looked at some videos from when they were kids and
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  Speaker 3: then she turned to me and she said, I think
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  Speaker 3: I was tired for 10 years.
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  Speaker 5: 10 more years.
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  Speaker 2: That didn't encourage you, did it? Well, God bless you.
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  Speaker 2: God bless you. Pat, we're so glad you're here.
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  Speaker 6: Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Glad to get
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  Speaker 6: to meet you. I am a grandmother and I have
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  Speaker 6: 14 grandchildren. and just had our 25th great-grandchild, and we
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  Speaker 6: have three more on the way.
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  Speaker 2: Well, way to go. You know, you don't have to
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  Speaker 2: replenish the whole world all by yourself.
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  Speaker 6: No, but it did, you know, we.
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  Speaker 3: Really believe in that scripture. Be fruitful and multiply. I'm
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: a granddad, but only four times. Not so you've left
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  Speaker 3: me in the dust. But I love this whole idea
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  Speaker 3: of being a grandparent where you, you know, sugar them
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  Speaker 3: up and send them home.
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  Speaker 6: Oh, and when you get to be the great?
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  Speaker 4: Great.
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  Speaker 6: Then you don't even have to change the diaper. I mean,
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  Speaker 6: when you're grand, you still change the diapers, but they're fun.
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  Speaker 2: Darnell.
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  Speaker 7: Max, thank you for having me here.
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  Speaker 2: Very, very honored. I appreciate the opportunity.
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  Speaker 7: I'm a husband, father of three, head football coach and
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  Speaker 7: athletic coordinator here at a local school in San Antonio.
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  Speaker 7: So just excited to learn some ways to tame some
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  Speaker 7: thoughts that fly around in this big old noggin of mine.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you have a great influence on young men and women.
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  Speaker 3: I know, you know, there's a prodigal season in my
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  Speaker 3: life where I quit listening to my parents, didn't listen
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  Speaker 3: to my pastors, but always listened to my coaches. You
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  Speaker 3: serve a critical role in the lives of these young
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  Speaker 3: men and women. We're honored to have you.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: And you as well, Libby.
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  Speaker 8: Thank you, Max. It's good to be here. I work
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  Speaker 8: in education and my husband and I have three adult
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  Speaker 8: daughters and they're families. and a lot of little grandchildren
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  Speaker 8: and aging parents. So we're juggling a lot. And I'm
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  Speaker 8: really excited to be here today to learn some tools
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  Speaker 8: that can help us do that better.
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  Speaker 2: You're not alone.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, this thing called sandwich generation, you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: really real where you've got people needing you from both
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  Speaker 3: sides of the age spectrum.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So we get that.
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  Speaker 8: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: We're with you.
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  Speaker 7: Thanks.
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  Speaker 9: Hi, Pastor Max. I'm Kate. I'm a college student. And
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  Speaker 9: I'm just excited to hear what you have to say
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  Speaker 9: about identity and how to team your thoughts, especially in
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  Speaker 9: such an in-between stage of life where I'm growing up
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  Speaker 9: and deciding what comes next.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Being careful to guard your thoughts is a great
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  Speaker 2: tool to learn. And you know what? We're pulling for you.
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  Speaker 3: We pray that your generation does a better job than
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  Speaker 3: our generation.
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  Speaker 2: And I think you will. I hope so.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Hello, Pastor.
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  Speaker 4: Hey, Max.
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  Speaker 2: My name's Brian.
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  Speaker 5: I am a pastor in town as well. And I'm
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  Speaker 5: really looking forward to hearing just more and learning about
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  Speaker 5: Taming Your Thoughts.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm so glad you're here. Thank you. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: The challenge that we pastors have is that we feel
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  Speaker 3: like we want to help people, but we only get
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  Speaker 3: one shot a week. Sometimes you are able to develop relationships.
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  Speaker 3: But if we can help people manage their thoughts and
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  Speaker 3: give them some tools... we feel like we're equipping them. Well,
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  Speaker 3: I know you all have very busy lives and it's
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  Speaker 3: so very, very great to have you. I'll try not
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  Speaker 3: to bore you. I hope that we can deal with
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  Speaker 3: some questions that you have. In writing this book, Tame
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  Speaker 3: Your Thoughts, I try to make a big deal out
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  Speaker 3: of the big deal that scripture makes about our thoughts.
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  Speaker 3: Some of the great lines in history in the literature
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  Speaker 3: about thought management are in the Bible and we'll unpack
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  Speaker 3: a few of those here but we really are what
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  Speaker 3: we think and and God made our brains and so
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  Speaker 3: there is this scriptural conviction that God can retrain our
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  Speaker 3: brains right there there was a season I can recall
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  Speaker 3: early early in my life I had the assumption I
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  Speaker 3: think I was taught this that the brain is kind
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  Speaker 3: of like a like a block of stone and it
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  Speaker 3: can't be changed, you know, and you're born with certain
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  Speaker 3: habits that are ingrained. Neuroscience is reminding us now that
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  Speaker 3: really the brain is more like putty. It can be shaped.
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  Speaker 3: It can be trained. It can be developed. It can
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  Speaker 3: be strengthened. And the challenges that you're dealing with today
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  Speaker 3: don't have to characterize your life forever.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's great news. Amen.
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  Speaker 3: God is always in the process of changing us to
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  Speaker 3: be more and more like Jesus. There's a passage in
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  Speaker 3: Ephesians chapter 6 that talks about the.
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  Speaker 2: Full armor of God.
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  Speaker 3: And one of those is the helmet of salvation. I
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  Speaker 3: think that's interesting, right? The helmet of salvation. I would
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  Speaker 3: have thought something to protect our heart for salvation. When
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  Speaker 3: you become a believer, God puts a helmet on your head.
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  Speaker 3: And he sets about the task of protecting your mind.
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  Speaker 3: And when you say yes to Christ, he enrolls you
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  Speaker 3: in the school of godly thought. And he begins helping
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  Speaker 3: you manage your thoughts. And the scripture offers some wonderful tools.
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  Speaker 3: And then we take these three tools and we apply
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  Speaker 3: them to toxic thought patterns. whether it be greed or
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  Speaker 3: whether it be fear, whether it be lust, whether it
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  Speaker 3: be anger, whether it be guilt. But these three tools
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  Speaker 3: will fit in your dealing with any of these quagmires
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  Speaker 3: of toxic thought. Tool number one, picky thinking. Practice picky thinking.
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  Speaker 3: This may seem elementary, but you might be surprised how
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  Speaker 3: many people don't know you don't have to think about
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  Speaker 3: everything you think about. You need to learn and I
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  Speaker 3: have to learn to stand at the entryway to the
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  Speaker 3: doorway of our thoughts. And just because a thought appears
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  Speaker 3: in my head doesn't mean I can invite that or
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  Speaker 3: I should invite that thought into my life. OK, number two,
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  Speaker 3: identify yourself. UFOs. And I'm not talking here about green
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  Speaker 3: alien riding around in spaceships. And untruth becomes a false
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  Speaker 3: narrative that becomes an overreaction. And untruth becomes a false
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  Speaker 3: narrative that becomes an overreaction. Satan traffics in untruth. So
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  Speaker 3: if he can deposit an untruth in my thoughts and
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  Speaker 3: that's probably gonna lead to a false narrative. A narrative
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  Speaker 3: is the way I see myself and what I say
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  Speaker 3: to myself. And then that untruth that leads to a
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  Speaker 3: false narrative often results in an overreaction, overreaction. And I
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  Speaker 3: think it's helpful as teachers, parents, pastors, friends, colleagues, that
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  Speaker 3: when we're trying to help people and we see these overreactions,
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  Speaker 3: these outbursts of anger, or these sullen withdrawals, rather than
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  Speaker 3: deal with that overreaction, go upstream and ask the question,
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  Speaker 3: what's the untruth that led to the false narrative that
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  Speaker 3: leads to an overreaction?
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  Speaker 2: Does that make sense? So we talk about that.
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  Speaker 3: That leads us to the third tool, and that is
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  Speaker 3: uproot and replant.
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  Speaker 2: Uproot and replant.
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  Speaker 3: When I was a kid, my dad... I was 12
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  Speaker 3: years old. He put me in charge of our lawn
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  Speaker 3: one summer. We had a rash of grass burrs. I
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  Speaker 3: hope you never have a run-in with a grass burr.
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  Speaker 3: If you have, you know how painful they can be.
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  Speaker 3: Stickers on stalks that come three or four inches out
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  Speaker 3: of the ground. And so my dad said, I need
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  Speaker 3: you to deal with those weeds. So, well, he went
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  Speaker 3: off to work. I went and got the lawnmower, and
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  Speaker 3: I mowed them all down. When he came back, the
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  Speaker 3: lawn looked great. But you know exactly what happened.
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  Speaker 1: What?
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  Speaker 3: It spread. They came back and they spread. So on
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  Speaker 3: a Saturday, he said, all right. And he took a
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  Speaker 3: spade and I took a spade. And he said, watch me.
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  Speaker 3: And one by one, we began uprooting those weeds, uprooting them. Now,
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  Speaker 3: your mind is like that lawn. Your toxic thought are
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  Speaker 3: the grass birds. And as we learn to practice picky thinking,
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  Speaker 3: identify these UFOs, Then we get real serious and we
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  Speaker 3: uproot them.
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  Speaker 2: We pull them out. We get vigilant. We get serious.
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  Speaker 3: No, I'm not going to think that anymore. I'm going
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  Speaker 3: to quit that. No, that's not from God. We uproot
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  Speaker 3: those thoughts. But it's not enough to uproot. We must replant.
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  Speaker 3: We must replant. You've got to deposit a healthy seed.
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  Speaker 3: You pull the weed and you plant the seed. This
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  Speaker 3: is where scripture fulfills God's intended purpose. And that is,
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  Speaker 3: as I'm pulling up that root of insecurity, I then
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  Speaker 3: quickly plant a seed of God's security. You know, I
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  Speaker 3: can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I
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  Speaker 3: pull up, boy, it's going to be a terrible day.
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  Speaker 3: And it's, wait a second, I'm not going to think that.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm going to pull that thought up, but you
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  Speaker 3: can't stop there. because you have to plant a seed
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  Speaker 3: of truth in it. And so a part of what
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  Speaker 3: we learn to do in managing our thoughts is defer
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  Speaker 3: to God's word when these anxious thoughts or fearful thoughts
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  Speaker 3: begin to surface.
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  Speaker 2: So those are the three tools.
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  Speaker 3: Practice picky thinking, UFOs, identify.
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  Speaker 2: Those, and uproot and replant. I really think these simple
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  Speaker 2: tools can help us to learn to think rightly as
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  Speaker 2: well as think clearly. Now, sometimes you only need one
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  Speaker 2: of them. Sometimes you have to use all three.
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  Speaker 3: But these are practical tools that can help us get
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  Speaker 3: our thoughts under control. So now that we have our toolkit,
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  Speaker 3: maybe we have a few questions or topics or application,
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  Speaker 3: we can discuss these.
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  Speaker 2: Amanda May, can we start with you?
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  Speaker 4: Max, thank you so much for those practical tools. It's
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  Speaker 4: a lot to think about. So my question is for
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  Speaker 4: a lot of my mom friends and me, there's a
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  Speaker 4: lot of conflicting messages about education and health and culture
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  Speaker 4: and relationships or even something like bedtime and how to
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  Speaker 4: do that. And so how do I deal with all
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  Speaker 4: those conflicting messages when I just want to raise my
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  Speaker 4: kids the right way?
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  Speaker 3: Amanda Mae, you're bombarded with advice. And counsel and suggestions
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  Speaker 3: and opinions about everything. And the result of this can
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  Speaker 3: be the fear of not doing it right.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, UFO.
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  Speaker 3: So what's the untruth that leads to a false narrative
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  Speaker 3: that leads to an overreaction? Well, the untruth in this
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  Speaker 3: case might be something like, well, the world is spinning
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  Speaker 3: out of control.
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  Speaker 2: Spinning out of control. And I got to control it.
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  Speaker 2: I got to control it.
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  Speaker 3: If I don't do something, It won't be controlled, and
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  Speaker 3: so I become hyper-controlling. So there's the untruth that leads
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  Speaker 3: to a narrative. I've got to do something, and that
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  Speaker 3: leads to being hyper-controlled, right? So what can we do
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  Speaker 3: about this? Well, I think we go back and we
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  Speaker 3: begin to deal with that untruth that created it. And
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  Speaker 3: the truth is this airplane has a pilot, right? And
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  Speaker 3: the pilot is named God Almighty, you know. And he's
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  Speaker 3: in control. We develop habits of thinking just like we
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  Speaker 3: develop habits of living. Neuroscientists tell us that our brains
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  Speaker 3: literally have ruts in them. And these ruts are neural
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  Speaker 3: pathways that have developed over the years. Part of healthy
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  Speaker 3: thinking is identifying these ruts that we get into. These
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  Speaker 3: habits of thinking. And rather than stay in those ruts, maybe...
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  Speaker 3: the first step would be to say, Lord, why is
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  Speaker 3: it that I struggle so much in this area? And
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  Speaker 3: could you help retrain my brain? You know, could you
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  Speaker 3: renew my mind with a new way of, of thinking?
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  Speaker 2: And so I don't know anybody who has to.
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  Speaker 3: Pray about thought management more than a mom, because you
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  Speaker 3: have the heart of God for your children. Uh, but
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  Speaker 3: you're going to do great. You're going to do great. And, uh,
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  Speaker 3: The Lord will help you manage those thoughts.
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  Speaker 2: He sure will.
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  Speaker 8: Max, I really love that perspective. As a mother of
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  Speaker 8: grown children now, many of my friends and I have
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  Speaker 8: thought that it would be much easier now that our
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  Speaker 8: children are grown and less stressful. But many times it's not.
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  Speaker 8: So what would you say to that? You've gone through
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  Speaker 8: that process as being a father.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I get that. You know my daughters. They're grown
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  Speaker 2: and they have kids of their own.
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  Speaker 3: The truth is you never... Stop being a parent. And
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  Speaker 3: part of being a parent is trying to control the
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  Speaker 3: outcome that your children face. I think it's helpful to
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: cut ourselves some slack when it comes to this whole
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  Speaker 3: world of anxiety. It is a scary world we live in.
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  Speaker 3: So please don't beat yourself up. Don't feel guilty for
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  Speaker 3: being anxious. anxiety comes with life. It's not the presence
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: of anxiety that's troublesome. It's the prevalence. It's kind of
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  Speaker 3: like a house alarm that never shuts off. That's unhealthy anxiety, right?
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  Speaker 3: Since God has claimed our brains for his purpose, is
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  Speaker 3: that he will help us uproot our anxiety and replace it.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: Studies have shown that gratitude is one of the quickest
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  Speaker 3: ways to deal with anxiety. The old saying is true,
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  Speaker 3: anxiety and gratitude can never share the same heart. And
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  Speaker 3: where anxiety sees gratitude come in, anxiety leaves. Gratitude overshadows anxiety.
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  Speaker 2: Another practical tool, of course, is prayer, prayer.
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  Speaker 3: You know, the scripture says, be anxious for nothing, but
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, Let your
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  Speaker 3: requests be made known to God. And so as we
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  Speaker 3: pray about these things, I always encourage people, pray specifically.
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  Speaker 3: And it's one thing to say, Lord, help me with
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  Speaker 3: my anxiety. I think it's even better to say, Lord,
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  Speaker 3: why am I anxious? Where's this coming from? Help me
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  Speaker 3: find the untruth. Somewhere upstream from this 930, of anxiety
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  Speaker 3: that I'm feeling, there's an untruth that I've welcomed into
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  Speaker 3: my life.
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  Speaker 2: And so what is that? And then allow the Lord
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  Speaker 2: time to reveal that to you as well.
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  Speaker 7: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Pat, you probably don't have any anxiety.
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  Speaker 7: I have none.
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  Speaker 6: Until all the kids get together. And then that might
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: be a different thing. We have great-grandchildren from the age
• 20:12
  Speaker 6: of 14 all the way down to two weeks. I
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: do get concerned about what the world is offering as
• 20:19
  Speaker 6: far as media and peer pressure and just, you know,
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: what that means because we didn't have that back in
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: my days. So, you know, it's very different.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: I'm from the pre-NOAA generation, so we didn't have it
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: in my day either.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: And this is such a huge issue now. I bet
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: you see it a lot, don't you, Coach? Yes, sir, absolutely.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Maybe it falls under the topic of or the umbrella
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: of comparison. You know, we're always comparing ourselves with others.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: And this comparison trap is something that I think we
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: really need to talk about. It's something that all of
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: us deal with, you know, regardless of our age. You know,
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: I've got plenty of clothes in my closet, so why
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: am I wanting more clothes? You know, I've got plenty
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: of devices, but why do I think I need to upgrade?
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: You know, and we do, I think we do our
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: young people a big favor when we help them understand
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: this very fundamental of truth that comes from the teachings
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: of our Lord. And that is, there is no life
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: in stuff. You can have everything and still be miserable.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: And I cannot imagine a generation that more desperately.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Needs this truth.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: And so it's, it's the same principle, you know, Pat,
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: we're going to, Practice picky thinking. We're going to practice
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: the UFOs. Oh, no wonder I'm overreacting like this. And
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: then we're going to uproot and we're going to replant.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Uproot the lie that says, I am what I own.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: And we're going to replant with the truth that says,
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: for God so loved the world, I'm already loved by him.
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Good question. Thank you. Good question.
• 22:00
  Speaker 9: Yeah, that's so good. And I feel like in college...
• 22:04
  Speaker 9: It's really hard because there's so many people my age
• 22:07
  Speaker 9: and they just have social media looking at them and
• 22:10
  Speaker 9: contentment can be something difficult. So that's really encouraging. I
• 22:13
  Speaker 9: feel like with social media, it's so easy to get
• 22:17
  Speaker 9: into a trap of who am I and what is
• 22:19
  Speaker 9: my identity, especially college gives a lot of opportunities to
• 22:24
  Speaker 9: be able to just be involved with different things and
• 22:27
  Speaker 9: find your true identity in that. So I'd love to
• 22:30
  Speaker 9: hear just like how do I find my true value
• 22:33
  Speaker 9: and how do I find my true identity?
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's a great question. True value, true identity, truth.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: One of the challenges that every generation has, but maybe
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: yours more than ours, is the absence of objective truth.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: Yours is the generation that says, you be you, I'll
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: be me, right? You do what you want to. So
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: where is the standard? I played catcher in high school,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: and one thing I noticed is that the width of
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: home plate never changed.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: It was dependable. I might complain.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: I want it wider or narrower, but I didn't get
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: to change that. Every society needs a home plate, right,
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: something that never changes. And what I would love to
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: instill in all of our minds, but especially younger people,
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: is that there is an objective truth. That truth is
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: found in scripture. It's not found in social media. It's
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: not found in the locker room. It's not found in
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: my roommate, not found in my best buddy or girlfriend
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: or boyfriend. The truth is in scripture. And so to
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: that topic of comparison and insecurity, I would say the
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: truth is God loves you. You are known by God.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: You are cherished by God. You are made by God.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: You're destined to spend forever with God. So you let
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: that be your source of identity. And so you begin
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: by identifying your source of truth, the home plate. So, OK,
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: I'm going to believe that. And I'm wearing the helmet
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: of salvation. So the Lord is going to work through
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: that truth. And whenever those thoughts of insecurity come, I'm
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: going to say, no, God loves me.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: And I'm going to hold on to that.
• 24:17
  Speaker 7: I love the sports analogy. And I think it's wonderful
• 24:22
  Speaker 7: for myself as a coach. I love to influence my
• 24:25
  Speaker 7: kids in a positive manner. I don't think there's any
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: better reward than having a kid come back after five
• 24:30
  Speaker 7: or 10 years and giving me something that I said
• 24:33
  Speaker 7: that I probably don't even remember that I said, but
• 24:35
  Speaker 7: it really stuck with them. But in a world now
• 24:38
  Speaker 7: where we live in, where so much of their identity
• 24:41
  Speaker 7: is tied to their performance, whether in the classroom or
• 24:45
  Speaker 7: on a field of play, you know, how do we
• 24:47
  Speaker 7: navigate their thoughts when it comes to failure and rejection
• 24:50
  Speaker 7: and still have that same positive impact on them?
• 24:53
  Speaker 8: Hmm.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: By the way, I know that you played nose guard.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh, and I, and I, did I tell you
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I played center?
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: And did I tell you I got beat up by
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: nose guards all the time? I went up against this
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: all state guy back in my high school and I
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: think my.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Teeth are still loose. He hit me so hard. My
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: ancestors felt it. I shook.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: And, and in many ways, uh, I've used the story
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: of going up against him. He was really a great
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: athlete as an example of when we go up against
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: our challenges, you know, and we feel overwhelmed by them.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: And this is what you're describing is one of the
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: great challenges, and that is that feeling like I have failed,
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: that feeling like I have let somebody down, like I'm not.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Quite good enough. You know, Coach.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: As you well know, this fear of rejection is like
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: an oil spill.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: It's disastrous.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: It creates people-pleasing perfectionists. The untruth is I've got to
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: make everybody happy. The false narrative is I never make
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: anyone happy. The overreaction is I'm a failure. So if
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: we can dial back to the beginnings, And look at
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: what scripture says, an uproot, that original bad seed, some
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: serious uprooting has to take place.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: And sometimes this takes time. Let me point that out.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Since we've got these habits, sometimes it takes time to
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: get this uprooted from our thought process.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: But we deal with it by planting these seeds of,
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Nothing will ever separate me from the love of God
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: that is in Christ Jesus, my Lord. What a wonderful promise.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Nothing can separate me from God's love. What we're talking
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: about here is rewiring our thoughts. We're creating new messages
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: that go through our brains. This presupposes that we live
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: with open Bibles and open.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Hearts, right?
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: That we create a list of verses, maybe a database
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: of our own personal verses that really help us. But
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: when we're dealing with this insecurity, the best and really
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: only way to deal with it is counterbalancing it with truth,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: with God's security. You know, a person who is managing
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: their thoughts or taming their thoughts would say, yeah, I
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: blew it today, but you know what?
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: I still belong to God.
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: I didn't do as well on that test as I wanted,
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: but I'm still going to heaven, you know, I may
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: have messed up in that decision, but God's grace is great.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: So those are the kind of conversations, the narratives that
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: people have who are managing or taming their thoughts.
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: You know, Max, you said something really good there. You know,
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: I think we all sometimes get into that people pleasing
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: or want to please those.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: That we love, coaches.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: But also at a deeper level, like we wrestle with that, man,
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: am I good enough? And maybe I've done things wrong.
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: or wrestle with things, done things that are too far gone,
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: and maybe I'm just beyond God's forgiveness. What would you
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: say to them?
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: I would say, you know, guilt is the Muhammad Ali
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: of emotions. And then it comes at us with punches
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: and knocks us down and beats us up. The inability
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: to deal with guilt in a godly way is devastating.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: The Bible talks about two types of guilt, one that
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: leads to repentance in life, One that leads to shame
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: and death. It metastasizes into shame. There's an acrostic somebody
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: told me for shame, self-hatred at my expense. That's really
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: accurate because guilt.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Can beat us up.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: Now, the most wonderful tool, a most practical tool provided
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: by God in dealing with our guilt is confession.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: It's confession.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: And confession is a Greek word, homologeo, which means to
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: agree with. Confession is simply to agree with God. And
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: the scripture says if we confess our sins, he will
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: forgive our sins because we can trust him to do
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: what is right. So when we deal with guilt, let's
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: uproot and replant. Let's uproot and say, no, I'm not
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: designed by God to live with a burden of guilt.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I'm going to replant.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: in Christ Jesus. I'm in Christ Jesus, so I'm an
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: uncondemned person. I'm going to lay claim to Romans 8.1.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: So we uproot and we replant and we thank.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: The Lord and we move on.
• 29:52
  Speaker 8: Max, I had a question too. I don't know about
• 29:54
  Speaker 8: the rest of you, but dealing with the pain of
• 29:56
  Speaker 8: life is hard for me. Watching those I love suffer
• 29:59
  Speaker 8: is is really difficult, and taking care and honoring and
• 30:02
  Speaker 8: loving aging parents is hard. How would you give me
• 30:07
  Speaker 8: advice about how to do that well?
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: You know, it's one thing to have pain that we deserve, right?
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: If I misbehave, I deserve the consequences. But so much
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: of our pain, you know, a child born with a disability,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: somebody who gets hit by a drunk driver, the things
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: that happen to us, Those can be breeding grounds for
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: anger toward God and anger toward others and the lack
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: of faith or the disappearance of faith. I think where
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: we start is a biblical truth, and that is pain
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: comes with life. There is no passage anywhere in the
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: Bible that says you're going to have a pain-free life.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: Nobody ever has, and no page in the Bible says that.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: Another truth says everybody does something with their pain. They
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: suppress it. They drown it with alcohol. They deny it.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: Everybody's doing something with their pain. But then there's a
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: biblical truth that's really important, and that is that even
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: our pain can be used by God to develop us
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: and to reflect His glory. When we use our pain
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: or invite God to use our pain for His glory,
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: then we find ourselves in a very small population, a minority.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: Because most people say, God, take away my pain. Spiritual
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: maturity urges us to say, God, can you use this pain?
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: I realize that my purpose on earth is to reflect you.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Can you use this pain?
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: As I was writing this book, my sister called one
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: day and said, Max, this morning, Fred, my husband, your brother-in-law,
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: was killed in a car wreck. Just as I was
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: writing this book. And I said, Joan, are you all right?
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: She said, you know, God never said I'd get through
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: life without problems.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: So look what she's doing. She's already managing her thoughts.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: God never said. And that's true. God never said that.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: She said, and God told me he'd be with me
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: to the day I die. And I'm going to trust that. Now,
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: it's been tough. She's heartbroken.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: She misses her husband. But look what she did. She
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: was standing on a foundation, standing on a foundation. So
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: processing pain is crucial. And I would never want to
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: minimize the pain that people face. But I would never
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: also want that pain to lead to further pain by
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: not knowing how to process it correctly.
• 32:58
  Speaker 7: Thanks. Pastor Max, kind of piggybacking off of Libby's wonderful question,
• 33:02
  Speaker 7: and you've touched on it a little bit. We're talking
• 33:05
  Speaker 7: about pain and, you know, so much of us in
• 33:08
  Speaker 7: the coaching business, we carry burdens for people. I coach
• 33:12
  Speaker 7: in a low socioeconomic area and there's a lot of
• 33:17
  Speaker 7: fatherlessness and there's areas where I end up bearing the
• 33:21
  Speaker 7: burden for not only children, but coaches as well. And
• 33:24
  Speaker 7: so when you're talking about dealing with other people's pain,
• 33:28
  Speaker 7: how do I find time to focus on what I'm
• 33:30
  Speaker 7: going through and my rejection and not getting the job
• 33:33
  Speaker 7: that I applied for while still being the person that
• 33:36
  Speaker 7: God has called me to be?
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: That's a great question.
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: And again, thank you for your love for these young
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: people and for your love for the city.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Really appreciate you. You know, there's a scripture about this.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: It's 2 Corinthians chapter 10. beginning in verse 3, for
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: though we walk in the flesh, we do not war
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: to the obedience of Christ. Here's kind of a Thought
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: Management 101 passage. It feels a bit like a combat manual,
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: doesn't it? I mean, when you look at these words,
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: we do not war according to the weapons of the flesh.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: Our weapons of warfare, pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: The implication is really clear, and that is this is
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: a war we're talking about.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: There's a battle. There's a high-stakes contest going on. for
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: our minds.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: And the apostle here wants us to take it very seriously.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: He talks about strongholds. I think this is an interesting
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: word because in the Bible strongholds can mean a structure
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: that keeps people out or a structure that keeps people in.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: It's used both ways.
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: There's a fortress that keeps people out and there's a
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: prison that keeps people in. Mismanaged thoughts do both. So
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: Paul's talking about dealing with the strongholds that have a
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: stronghold on our minds. And he says we can destroy them.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: This is a real powerful verb here. We can destroy them.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: We can explode them. What a promise, right? Those strongholds.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: And once we have done that, we can take these
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: thoughts captive. Another interesting verb here, because it literally means
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: you poke a spear into the spine of your It's
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: an aggressive military term. It's like you're marching your enemy
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: into the presence of the king. In our case, we're
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: marching our mismanaged thoughts into the presence of the king
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: of kings. We're saying, Jesus, here's anxiety trying to get in.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: Or Jesus, here's lust trying to get in. Or Jesus,
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: here's guilt or shame trying to get in. Do I
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: tolerate this? Do I indulge this? And if the answer
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: from Christ through scripture is no, then we kick them
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: out and tell them to get lost. And so it's
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: an aggressive, militant, disciplined approach to our thoughts.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: You know what?
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: I think being a Christian is basically learning to think
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: like Jesus thought. You remember those wristbands that were popular
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: a few years ago, WWJD?
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: And those are wonderful. What would Jesus do?
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: Maybe we need a new batch that say WWJT because
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: thoughts lead to actions, right? And I know we all
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: want to deal with our actions, our behavior, but you
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: deal with actions and behavior by dealing with thoughts first.
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: You know, Max, as a pastor like you, so many
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: interactions with people and they're trying their best to serve God,
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: do the right thing, be a good person, but in
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: their own way, personal faith, sometimes it just feels very dry,
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: very weary and just lack that joy. You know, how
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: can you help us say, man, how do we find
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: that joy?
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: I have a grandson who has a PhD in joy.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: He's six months old. Right. And he just giggles and laughs.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: And when I watch him, I think how long since
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: I had that level of joy and happiness. Jesus said
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: to the followers, I have told you all these things
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: so that your joy may be full and that my
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: joy may be in you. So this is another gift
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: God gives us. And that is the promise of his
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: joy entering us. Now, again, society says we find joy
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: by what we do. But Jesus says you find joy
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: by who you know. Some time ago, I was in
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: O'Hare Airport. And, you know, it's crazy, chaotic airports. A
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: lot of thunderstorms going on. A lot of flights getting delayed.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: And everybody was grumbling, including me. And I heard this singing.
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: And I turned and there was a mother breastfeeding her newborn.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: The baby was covered in a blanket. The mother was humming.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: And she was, without a doubt, the mother and the
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: child were the two most peaceful people in the airport.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: And I thought, that baby is... is just the picture
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: of peace in the middle of a world of chaos. Now,
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: had somebody removed that baby from the mother, panic would
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: have erupted, the baby would have cried. But as long
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: as the baby was connected to the mom, the baby
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: was peaceful. The promise of Christ is that as we
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: are connected to him, just like the baby was receiving
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: the mother's milk, the mother's warmth, the mother's comfort, just
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: like we are connected to Christ, as we receive His nourishment,
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: His kindness, His love, He promises to put His.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: Joy in us.
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: Not the joy from out there, but the joy from
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: up there, His joy. And so thought management is the
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: key here. If you find yourself going lost, times without
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: any genuine joy, and remember joy is not just some giddy,
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: giggly feeling, but it's a deep conviction.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: That God is in control and things are going to
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: work out.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: And if it's been a long time since you had
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: that thought, then go back to the beginning and practice
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: some thought management. What do you have that no one
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: can take? And that's Jesus Christ. It's Jesus Christ. And
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: so reclaim that, stabilize yourself, and you'll begin giggling like
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: my grandson who has a PhD in joy.
• 40:01
  Speaker 6: I love that illustration. You know, I'm 80 years old,
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: so there's a lot of 80-year-olds that feel life is
• 40:09
  Speaker 6: done and, you know, are sad all the time. I'm
• 40:14
  Speaker 6: also surrounded. I'm a widow, so I'm surrounded by widows.
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: They've lost their husbands and they're looking for to fill
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: that hole with another husband. For me, when I lost
• 40:25
  Speaker 6: my husband and my son back to back, I would
• 40:29
  Speaker 6: always say, God, just give me peace. And he'd say,
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: I'm right here. And give me joy.
• 40:35
  Speaker 7: I'm right here.
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: And so I've learned in just the last few years
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: after losing my husband, how much he is here. I
• 40:44
  Speaker 6: don't have to go find it somewhere else. But I
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: am concerned about those that feel that they need to
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: go do something to get that happiness and joy back.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And we can trace it all back to an untruth,
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: can't we? I mean, when we learn to see this
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: UFO progression, we see it everywhere. The overreaction would be,
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: I've got to get out and get me a mate,
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: or I've got to find me a husband, or I'm
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: not worth anything anymore, or.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: My life no longer has value.
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: When just the opposite is the case, right? You know,
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: how many times have we at funerals, right, Brian, quoted Jesus?
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: He said, don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: Trust also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: If it were not so, I would have told you
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: I will come back so that you can be with me.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: I will come back and get you so you can
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: be where I am. The fact that Jesus said, don't
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: let your hearts be troubled. that it's possible to live
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: and face the end with an untroubled heart. It doesn't
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: mean it's easy, but it does mean we don't let
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: our troubles become our driving force. I'm in my eighth decade.
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: You're in your ninth. I have begun to really appreciate
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: what Paul said about death. He said, I honestly don't
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: know what's better, to depart and be with the Lord
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: and be wonderful but to remain here with you would
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: be profitable for your sake. I catch myself thinking thoughts
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: like that. And I'm grateful that comes out of a
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: Christian worldview, right? That we believe this life is just
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: a speck, just a, you know, rustle of the wind
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: and then we'll be with him forever. So the untruth
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: would be something like the world has passed me by,
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: but we're not going to tolerate that. You know, we're
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: standing guard like a Doberman over the entryway to our
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: brain and we're going to challenge that thought where I say, no,
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: I believe that I can do all things through Christ
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: who gives me strength. And instead of indulging that thought
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: that comes from the devil, we're going to trust the
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: truth that.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Comes from God.
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: Thank you, Max.
• 43:00
  Speaker 9: That was so good. And I kind of have a
• 43:02
  Speaker 9: question for the other end of life. I feel like
• 43:04
  Speaker 9: for myself and a lot of people my age, we're
• 43:06
  Speaker 9: kind of going into a stage of life where we're
• 43:09
  Speaker 9: asking a lot of questions about what am I doing
• 43:12
  Speaker 9: next and where am I going? And What are my
• 43:14
  Speaker 9: friends doing? And she's asking lots of questions about the
• 43:18
  Speaker 9: future and feeling very overwhelmed with it all. So what
• 43:21
  Speaker 9: would you say for us who are feeling very overwhelmed?
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: And thank you for that question, because unless we learn
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: to think rightly about these overwhelming challenges, they will get
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: inside our heads and they will begin to create a
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: whole downward spiral of fear and anxiety.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: We're all acquainted.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: With the story of David and Goliath. David met an
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: overwhelming challenge. When he saw Goliath, his immediate response was,
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: the battle belongs to the Lord. In fact, he hardly
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: acknowledges Goliath. I think he refers to him twice, neither
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: time in a positive way. But he talks a lot
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: about God. He talks about the armies of God. You
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: can tell that his mind is set on God. Now,
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: David didn't.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Always do this. None of us always do this. But boy,
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: that's a picture.
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: Of someone who did it really, really well. He didn't
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: even want to put on Saul's armor. Remember, he wanted
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: to trust God. He wanted to use the skills that
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: God had given him. He had such absolute faith in God.
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: So maybe we should put that.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: Rock in our sling and say, you know, this battle
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: belongs to the Lord. He's right here.
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: Whatever this challenge is that I'm facing, he's right here.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: Mark it down. Jesus said, never will I leave you.
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: Never will I forsake you. I'm with you always until
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: the end of the age.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: He's with us.
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: So if you're being wheeled into the emergency room, he's
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: right there. He's with you in the cemetery.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: He's with you.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: When you're taking exams, silence the voice that says it's
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: up to me and the challenge is too great.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: And increase and welcome the voice that says the battle
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: belongs to the Lord.
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: Max, thank you so much. That was really encouraging. And
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: I just am really excited to get back to a
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: place of true peace and joy. And is there anything
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: else you want to share with us that we should know?
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: Well, I think let's remember that this is a spiritual battle.
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: It's a spiritual battle, so it requires spiritual weapons. Sometimes
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: we need extra help. For many of us, maybe most
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: of us, this kind of conversation will suffice. But there
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: are many people who battle deep wounds and need professional help.
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: And if.
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: If someone is hearing these words and you feel like
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: you need to go see a therapist, go see a counselor,
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: and that counselor or therapist even recommends deeper therapy or
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: medicinal support, that's okay.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: That's okay.
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: God has all kinds of people to help us. And
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: so don't beat yourself up for struggling with emotions. This
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: is the battle right here. This is the battle. But
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: we don't have to be afraid. He who stands and
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: fights for us is far greater than the one who
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: comes against us.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: So we don't need to be afraid. We don't need
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: to panic. But we do need to be on the alert.
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: And we need to simply lay claim to promises like
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: the one we started with. And that is, do not
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: renewal of your mind. And that word transformed is that
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: same word for metamorphosis. When a caterpillar becomes a butterfly,
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: You know, God has a far greater transformation for us.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: And he will do this with us. He'll do this
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: for us. He will help us. And so let's trust him.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: Let's practice our tools.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: Let's realize that our greatest privilege each day is to
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: invite God to help us to manage our thoughts. And
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: who knows, in short order, our thoughts will be as
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: calm as that lake outside.
• 47:29
  Speaker 9: Amen.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Friends, thank you so much for joining me today. My
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: prayer is that this conversation has given you some encouragement
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: and some practical tools to win the battle that goes
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: on in our minds. We all struggle at times, but
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: we do not fight alone. We can take God at
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: his word. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7 says, For
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: God has not given us a spirit of fear, but
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: of power and love and of a sound mind. With
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: God as our helper, we can discover a new way
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: of thinking and a better way of living. Together, let's
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: tame our thoughts and allow our great God to renew
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: our minds and transform our lives.
• 48:20
  Speaker 8: Thank you, Dave.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: Great to be with you, Brian. Thank you. Well done, coaches. Libby,
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: thank you.
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 49:10
  Speaker 6: Bye. Bye.
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: Bye.
• 50:40
  Speaker 5: You you you.
• 51:06
  Speaker 6: I, I am.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: Thank you.