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