Speaker 1: Good morning, Saddleback. My favorite time of the year, the summertime.
Speaker 1: You guys all look pan, rested, ready for whatever. Take
Speaker 1: out your message notes. This summer we're doing two major
Speaker 1: series back to back. One of them is a case
Speaker 1: doing a series on Choose Joy. And this week on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: we literally had thousands of women involved in that in
Speaker 1: the morning and the evening. And how many of you
Speaker 1: were there at look at that. That's great and we
Speaker 1: had a great, great study and actually a couple thousand
Speaker 1: women watched online. Now, guys, you may say, well I
Speaker 1: need joy too, Well, I'll tell you here's how you
Speaker 1: can cheat and get into the women's study. Watch it online.
Speaker 1: That's what I did. I watched Kay teach on Choose
Speaker 1: Joy last Tuesday, and I was sitting there taking notes, going, man,
Speaker 1: I wish I had said that. And now now you
Speaker 1: understand my secret weapon where I get all my good
Speaker 1: material is actually or my wife. So ladies, you can
Speaker 1: join on Tuesdays Tuesday morning or Tuesday evening with thousands
Speaker 1: of other women here at Saddleback and study Choose Joy.
Speaker 1: And then on the weekend I'm doing a major series
Speaker 1: on the Invisible War. And what I told you in
Speaker 1: the first two sessions, is that the Bible teaches that
Speaker 1: you have three enemies that are trying to mess up
Speaker 1: your life. They want to defeat your family, They want
Speaker 1: to defeat your life, They want to steal your soul.
Speaker 1: They want to keep you from having joy and purpose
Speaker 1: and meaning here in life. And these three enemies come
Speaker 1: against you as kind of triple team and you know
Speaker 1: tag team wrestling or you know double team take down
Speaker 1: things like that. And the Bible calls these three enemies
Speaker 1: that you have the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Speaker 1: The world comes around you, Satan comes against you, and
Speaker 1: the battle with you is within you. And this summer
Speaker 1: we're going to go in detail into each of these
Speaker 1: three enemies, because if you don't know who the enemy is,
Speaker 1: you can never win the battle, and you're going to
Speaker 1: go through life defeated. Most of your life. Now we're
Speaker 1: beginning with your biggest enemy. And your biggest enemy is
Speaker 1: not Satan, it's not the world, it's you. You are
Speaker 1: your biggest problem. And as I said last week, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, when you want to run away from your problems,
Speaker 1: you want to go to Cancun. The problem is you
Speaker 1: take you with you, and all of that internal stuff
Speaker 1: is inside you. Now. What we looked at last week
Speaker 1: as we began studying the battle inside you, is that
Speaker 1: you really do have two natures. If you are a believer,
Speaker 1: you have your old nature. What's once to do, what's fun,
Speaker 1: what's once to do, what's convenient, not necessarily the right thing,
Speaker 1: the best thing, or even what's good for you. A
Speaker 1: lot of things you want to do are actually self
Speaker 1: destructive to you. And you know for a certain fact
Speaker 1: that there are things you know you would be good
Speaker 1: for you, be healthy for you, and you don't do them.
Speaker 1: I know that there are things that are bad for you,
Speaker 1: that are unhealthy for you, that mess up your life,
Speaker 1: and you still do them anyway. And last week we
Speaker 1: looked at this great Testimony of Romans, chapter seven, where
Speaker 1: Paul says, you know what, I can't figure myself out.
Speaker 1: All my best intentions aren't good enough. He says, I
Speaker 1: want to do the right thing, but I don't. And
Speaker 1: I don't want to do the wrong thing, but I do.
Speaker 1: And that is the story of you, and it is
Speaker 1: the story of me. You know far more than you're
Speaker 1: actually doing. If you were actually able to practice all
Speaker 1: the good things you know to do, you'd be a
Speaker 1: lot more successful in life. But it's not just knowing it,
Speaker 1: it's getting yourself to do it. And there's this battle
Speaker 1: because we have a natural resistance inside of us that
Speaker 1: wants to do what's easy, what's convenient, what's quick, rather
Speaker 1: than what's right and what's best. In fact, our entire
Speaker 1: nation is in a financial crisis because of this tendency
Speaker 1: of human nature to have an inability to delay gratification.
Speaker 1: We want it, and we want it now, whether we
Speaker 1: can afford it or not. So we go out and
Speaker 1: we charge it even though we can't ford it. And
Speaker 1: the government's been doing that for years, and now we
Speaker 1: have a financial crisis that teeters on the brink of
Speaker 1: collapse because all because the ability of buying things we
Speaker 1: don't need with money we don't have to impress people
Speaker 1: we don't like, and thinking we can have it all.
Speaker 1: Let me just tell you right now, you can't have
Speaker 1: it all. That is a myth that advertisers will tell
Speaker 1: you can't have it all. Life is about choices. You
Speaker 1: have to make choices in life and go, Okay, what's
Speaker 1: the best for me, what's right for me? What does
Speaker 1: God want for me, and so best intentions are not
Speaker 1: good enough. And the truth is the battle for you
Speaker 1: inside you. Much of your unhappiness, in fact, I would
Speaker 1: say it this way, most of your unhappiness in life,
Speaker 1: Most of your unhappiness in life is because you listen
Speaker 1: to you instead of God. And when you do that,
Speaker 1: you tell your self stuff all the time that isn't true.
Speaker 1: Just because you have a thought doesn't mean it's accurate,
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's true, doesn't mean it's correct. A lot
Speaker 1: of things you think of are not right, they're not correct.
Speaker 1: A lot of things I think of aren't right, aren't correct.
Speaker 1: In fact, a lot of things I think are actually
Speaker 1: lying to myself. Rationalizing where we tell rational lies to ourself. Now,
Speaker 1: what I want us to do this weekend is look
Speaker 1: at how to overcome the six weapons of self destruction.
Speaker 1: Now you've heard of the weapons of mass destruction, but
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about what the Bible
Speaker 1: teaches about the weapons of self destruction. There are things
Speaker 1: that you do to yourself all the time that dammage you,
Speaker 1: that hurts you, that cause you to self destruct, that
Speaker 1: cause you enormous stress, enormous pain, enormous unhappiness and unneeded
Speaker 1: pressure in your life. And then I'm going to show
Speaker 1: you from God's word in Romans chapter eight, how the
Speaker 1: Bible tells us that the spirit of God living within
Speaker 1: you can give you the antidote to every one of
Speaker 1: these weapons. Now, before we even get into the text,
Speaker 1: I want you to write these seven things down. It's
Speaker 1: not on your outline, so you're just gonna have to
Speaker 1: write it somewhere, scribble it over on the side. These
Speaker 1: are the seven weapons of self destruction. You can talk
Speaker 1: to any psychologist and they'll tell you that these are
Speaker 1: the seven things that mess up people's lives more than
Speaker 1: anything else. And we're going to look at the cure
Speaker 1: for these weapons of self destruction. The first weapon of
Speaker 1: self destruction is shame. Shame. You cannot be happy and
Speaker 1: feel ashamed at the same time. When you feel ashamed,
Speaker 1: when you feel guilty, when you feel regrets, that just
Speaker 1: robs all your happiness. God doesn't want you to walk
Speaker 1: around feeling guilty. God doesn't want you walking around feeling exhamed.
Speaker 1: God doesn't want you walking around with regrets. In fact,
Speaker 1: that's why I send Jesus on the cross to die
Speaker 1: for all of your sins, but shame is the first
Speaker 1: number one destroyer of happiness. The second weapon of self
Speaker 1: destruction is uncontrolled thoughts. If you don't learn how to
Speaker 1: control your thoughts, your thoughts will ruin your life because
Speaker 1: you say to stuff to yourself that causes unhappiness, causes grief,
Speaker 1: causes pressure. You must learn how to control your thoughts.
Speaker 1: The third weapon of self destruction is compulsions. Compulsions are
Speaker 1: those inner drives, inner desires. You can call them less
Speaker 1: you can call them habits, you can call them impulses,
Speaker 1: but they are those things in your life you feel like,
Speaker 1: I felt like I just had to do it, even
Speaker 1: though you knew it was wrong. I just had to
Speaker 1: do it. And those compulsions. You got to learn how
Speaker 1: to deal with those and how to fight that weapon
Speaker 1: of self destruction, because if you do things by your compulsions,
Speaker 1: you'll mess up your life. The fourth weapon of self
Speaker 1: destruction is fear, and fear is an enormous destroyer of happiness,
Speaker 1: of potential, of God's purpose for your life. It will
Speaker 1: limit your life. You got to learn how to master
Speaker 1: your fears. The fifth weapon of self destruction is hopelessness.
Speaker 1: Hopelessness keeps you from keeping on. When you start to
Speaker 1: feel hopeless about anything, you get discouraged and want to
Speaker 1: give up. If you feel hopeless about your marriage, if
Speaker 1: you feel hopeless about ever getting married, if you feel
Speaker 1: hopeless about your finances, or you feel hopeless about your health.
Speaker 1: Hopelessness is a self destructive weapon that you use on you,
Speaker 1: and when you turn it inward, it robs you of
Speaker 1: God's plan for your life. Number six. Bitterness is a
Speaker 1: huge weapon of self destruction because life is unfair and
Speaker 1: we don't all get the same thing, and life is
Speaker 1: broken and we're stuck, and some people get better than you,
Speaker 1: and you get jealous and you get envious, and some
Speaker 1: people hurt you. You can either get better or bitter,
Speaker 1: And bitterness is a cancer that will eat you alive
Speaker 1: and will It's a poison that will eat you on
Speaker 1: the inside. You never hurt other people with your bitterness
Speaker 1: like you hurt yourself. You always hurt you the most.
Speaker 1: It is a self destructive emotion. There is no value
Speaker 1: to bitterness in your life. There's no value to holding
Speaker 1: onto a grudge. All it does is make you miserable.
Speaker 1: And the seventh weapon of self destruction is insecurity. You
Speaker 1: gotta deal with this one because if you don't learn
Speaker 1: how to deal with insecurity in your life, it's going
Speaker 1: to cause you to do foolish things. When you're insecure
Speaker 1: and you're trying to show everybody else as you're very confident,
Speaker 1: you'll say stupid things, you'll do stupid things, you'll pose
Speaker 1: And the only people impressed by posers are other posers. Okay,
Speaker 1: everybody sees through it. The only people are impressed by
Speaker 1: fakes are other fakes. So you know, when you're insecure,
Speaker 1: you can't hide it. You have to deal with it. Now.
Speaker 1: The classic passage on dealing with these weapons of self
Speaker 1: destruction is Roman seven and Romans eight. If you miss
Speaker 1: the last two weeks, you need to run, not walk,
Speaker 1: out to the patio and buy the CDs from the
Speaker 1: last two weeks so you'll be caught up, or you
Speaker 1: need to watch them online on MP three's or on video.
Speaker 1: But Roman seven explains what these seven things do in
Speaker 1: your life, and Romans eight gives us the answer. Now.
Speaker 1: At the end of Romans seven, Paul says, this look
Speaker 1: up here on the screen. He's outlined the battle going
Speaker 1: on inside himself, and he says What a miserable person
Speaker 1: I am? Hecaes, I'm miserable. You know, as I said,
Speaker 1: all those things I want to do that I know
Speaker 1: are good, I end up not doing, and all those
Speaker 1: things that I don't want to do, I end up doing,
Speaker 1: and I'm really messing up my life. What a miserable
Speaker 1: person I am. I've tried everything and nothing helps. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've watched Oprah, I've been to Tony Robbins seminar, I've read
Speaker 1: a Doctor phil book. You know, I've done all these
Speaker 1: different things. He has. None of this stuff really works
Speaker 1: and getting me into shape? He says, who will free
Speaker 1: me from this life? Dominated by saying now, he doesn't
Speaker 1: say what will free me? Because the answer to you,
Speaker 1: the problem inside you, the mess ups in your life
Speaker 1: that you'd like to change. The answer is not a pill.
Speaker 1: It's not a program, it's not a book, it's not
Speaker 1: a it's not a seminar, it's not hypnosis. The answer
Speaker 1: is a person. It is Jesus Christ and his spirit
Speaker 1: inside you. And Romans eight is the answer to Romans seven,
Speaker 1: that the spirit of God inside you gives you the
Speaker 1: antidote to all seven of these negative emotions. Now what
Speaker 1: I want us to look at this weekend is how
Speaker 1: can I be free from me? How can I be
Speaker 1: set free from me? And the way we're gonna look
Speaker 1: at this is the truths of Romans eight. I have
Speaker 1: put them in a practical way of listing seven mental
Speaker 1: habits that you need to do that will help you
Speaker 1: apply the truth of Romans chapter eight. And so we're
Speaker 1: gonna look at these seven mental habits that explain the
Speaker 1: great truths of Romans eight. Romans eight is the greatest
Speaker 1: chapter in the Bible. In my opinion, it's the greatest chapter.
Speaker 1: They once stood to study of of Bible scholars and said,
Speaker 1: if you could only have one chapter of the Bible
Speaker 1: and on a desert island, which one would you take?
Speaker 1: And about ninety percent of them said I'd take Romans eight.
Speaker 1: So this is a very strong passage. You need to
Speaker 1: take a lot of notes today. Number one. The first
Speaker 1: step in being set free from me is this, I
Speaker 1: must remind myself daily what Jesus did for me. That's
Speaker 1: the starting point. I got to remind myself every day
Speaker 1: of what Jesus did for me. What is salvation? What
Speaker 1: are the benefits of it? You see, we have a
Speaker 1: lot of people who saved you don't act like it.
Speaker 1: They run around all the time filled with shame and
Speaker 1: uncontrolled thoughts and compulsions and fear and bitterness and insecurity.
Speaker 1: And they're believers, but they're not set free from me.
Speaker 1: And the first step is you've got to remind yourself
Speaker 1: what Jesus actually did for you. And this is how
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit sets me free from shame. Let's look
Speaker 1: at these verses Romans eight one to four. First, he says,
Speaker 1: so now there is no condemnation for those who belong
Speaker 1: to Jesus Christ. And let me stop there before we
Speaker 1: go any further. No condemnation means God doesn't judge you
Speaker 1: for all the things you've done wrong, if you've trusted Christ,
Speaker 1: because Jesus took all that judgment on the cross. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have to judge you. Because Jesus was judged. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have to condemn you. Because Jesus took your condemnation,
Speaker 1: He took your wrap, he paid your penalty, he did
Speaker 1: your time for you. Now, the Bible says that if
Speaker 1: I'm a believer, I belong to Christ. Look at that verse.
Speaker 1: There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ
Speaker 1: Jesus circle the phrase belong to Christ Jesus. This old
Speaker 1: passage is talking about people who've given their life to Jesus.
Speaker 1: This doesn't apply to you if you haven't made that
Speaker 1: decision yet. But if you've received Christ into your life,
Speaker 1: the Bible says you're under no condemnation. I means God
Speaker 1: doesn't get mad at you when you sin. Did you
Speaker 1: hear that God does not get mad at you when
Speaker 1: you sin if you belong to Jesus Christ, because he's
Speaker 1: already taken the payment. Now, notice it doesn't say that
Speaker 1: after I become a Christian, I won't sin, You're still
Speaker 1: gonna sin. It doesn't say I'm not gonna make mistakes.
Speaker 1: You're still gonna make mistakes. It doesn't say I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna fail and look stupid. You're gonna fail and look stupid.
Speaker 1: It just says you're under no condemnation. In other words,
Speaker 1: you don't have to walk around with shame. You don't
Speaker 1: have to walk around with guilt, because when Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: died on the cross, he not only paid for all
Speaker 1: of the sins you committed last week, last year, and
Speaker 1: your entire life he committed. He's already paid for the
Speaker 1: sins that you're gonna commit tomorrow, next week, and the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. They're already paid for. That's good news.
Speaker 1: That is good news. No condemnation means there is no
Speaker 1: reason for a Christian to walk around in shame because
Speaker 1: I stop and I remind myself Jesus paid for all
Speaker 1: of my sins. He already knew before I was born,
Speaker 1: every sin I was going to do, and he paid
Speaker 1: for it. Now, the next part of that verse says,
Speaker 1: for the power of the life giving spirit, that's the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. God's Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus
Speaker 1: from the power of sin that leads to death. And
Speaker 1: what does that verse means? The second thing I remember
Speaker 1: is that because I'm a believer and I have Jesus,
Speaker 1: I have a new power in my life, greater than willpower.
Speaker 1: You see, before you became a Christian, the only thing
Speaker 1: you had to use against your bad habits was sheer willpower.
Speaker 1: And how long does that work? Now? Very long, he says,
Speaker 1: Now there's a new power in you. Unfortunately, a lot
Speaker 1: of Christians are still simply relying on willpower to change.
Speaker 1: They've never figured out how to connect into spiritual power,
Speaker 1: into the power of the Holy Spirit, into the power
Speaker 1: of Jesus inside you. He says, there's a new power
Speaker 1: in you. There's a new sheriff in town. And when
Speaker 1: you want to change things in your life, it's not
Speaker 1: just if it's to be, it's up to me. It's
Speaker 1: not just my own willpower. It is God's power in me.
Speaker 1: I have been given a power greater than willpower. We're
Speaker 1: going to look at this more in the next versus.
Speaker 1: Then the next thing. It says, the law of Moses
Speaker 1: could not save us because of our sinful nature. Now laws,
Speaker 1: keeping God's laws cannot save you. Guy says, well, I
Speaker 1: know I'm going to heaven. You say, how do you know?
Speaker 1: It's because I keep the Ten Commandments. I say, name them.
Speaker 1: You don't not only not keep the ten commandments. You
Speaker 1: couldn't even name all of them. If I ask you
Speaker 1: to stand up right now, you couldn't even How can
Speaker 1: you keep them if you don't even know them all?
Speaker 1: By the way, keeping laws never works, why, it says,
Speaker 1: because of our sinful nature. Laws simply work on outside behavior.
Speaker 1: They don't work on inside change. They don't change you
Speaker 1: on the inside. For instance, if I were to bring
Speaker 1: a pig out here, a big sow that had been
Speaker 1: rolling around in the mud and the dirt and eating garbage,
Speaker 1: and it stinks to high heaven, and say what is this?
Speaker 1: You'd say, it's a pig. Now, I take that pig
Speaker 1: backstage and I run it through a couple of car washes,
Speaker 1: and then I put it in a bathtub, and I
Speaker 1: have bath salts and perfumed soap SuDS, and I get
Speaker 1: it all cleaned up, and I brushed the you know,
Speaker 1: their teeth, the pig's teeth. And then I sprinkle some
Speaker 1: food food juice on it, you know, some corral number five,
Speaker 1: you know that would be appropriate for a pig. Okay,
Speaker 1: And I rub it down with oil of olet so
Speaker 1: its skin is just silky, silk soft. And then I
Speaker 1: tie a ribbon around its neck, and I put a
Speaker 1: bonnet on it. And I put some eyeshadow and fake
Speaker 1: eyelashes on this pig. And I put a dress on it.
Speaker 1: And then I put some lipstick on this pig. And
Speaker 1: I bring this pig out and I say, now, what
Speaker 1: is it? Still a pig? Okay? You may have spiffed
Speaker 1: up the outside, but the nature has remained unchanged. And
Speaker 1: this is what happens with self help programs is that
Speaker 1: we spiff up the outside and we my sheer will
Speaker 1: powers say I'm gonna take a bath, I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: on some new clothes, I'm gonna change my behavior, and
Speaker 1: all the outside looks different, but inside it's still the
Speaker 1: same nature. If you're gonna have radical change, transforming change
Speaker 1: in your life, it's got to change your nature, and
Speaker 1: only God can do that. No self help program can
Speaker 1: change your heart, which, by the way, is why I'm
Speaker 1: not a politician. I have zero faith in politics or
Speaker 1: laws to change human behavior. Why because it's just fixing
Speaker 1: the outside. You can pass a law that says nobody
Speaker 1: will be a bigot or a racist. Is that going
Speaker 1: to change anybody's heart. No, Only Jesus can change that heart.
Speaker 1: And I have seen people come to Christ and they
Speaker 1: change from a racist into a compassionate person, and from
Speaker 1: a bigot into a loving person. Only Jesus can change that.
Speaker 1: If I thought you could change human behavior by laws,
Speaker 1: I'd be a politician, but there's no track record that
Speaker 1: it actually changes people. Only God can change the inside, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, is why we don't spend so much
Speaker 1: time promoting all political laws. You know, there are some
Speaker 1: Christians who think they're going to make the world a
Speaker 1: better place just by creating a law. Will people just
Speaker 1: break it? I mean they want a law against this
Speaker 1: and a law against this sin, and the law against
Speaker 1: this sin, and the law against this sin and the
Speaker 1: law against this sin. And they think that's going to
Speaker 1: change people. No, people just going to break the law.
Speaker 1: You do. God has given all kinds of laws in
Speaker 1: his word, and you don't obey those, and you break
Speaker 1: them all the time. See. One of the things we
Speaker 1: know here at Saddleback is you don't expect somebody to
Speaker 1: act like a believer until he is one, because he
Speaker 1: doesn't have the power to change. He doesn't have the
Speaker 1: ability to change. So passing a law that says everybody
Speaker 1: is going to be moral or everybody's going to do this,
Speaker 1: that doesn't change. That's fit, that's cleaning up the pig.
Speaker 1: It doesn't change our nature. God put into effect notice here,
Speaker 1: so God knew that laws couldn't save us. But God
Speaker 1: put into effect a different plan to save us. He
Speaker 1: sent his own son in a human body like ours,
Speaker 1: except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sins control over
Speaker 1: us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins.
Speaker 1: In other words, he gave us the power to make
Speaker 1: those changes, to forgive us and the changes. And then
Speaker 1: it said he did this, Jesus died on the cross
Speaker 1: so that the requirement of the law would be fully
Speaker 1: accomplished for us. Circle the phrase for us. What is
Speaker 1: he saying there? That Jesus not only paid for all
Speaker 1: your sins, he did all the right things for you,
Speaker 1: those of us who no longer follow our sinful nature
Speaker 1: but instead follow the spirit. Now, if you really are
Speaker 1: serious about changing your life for the better, you got
Speaker 1: to start where God tells you to start. And God
Speaker 1: says you don't start with your behavior, your actions, and
Speaker 1: you don't start with your feelings your emotions. You start
Speaker 1: with your mind. The battle for you to be set
Speaker 1: free from me starts in changing your mind. Be renewed,
Speaker 1: be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The Bible
Speaker 1: teaches very clearly that the way we act is determined
Speaker 1: by the way we feel, and the way we feel
Speaker 1: is determined by the way we think. For instance, if
Speaker 1: I'm acting depressed, it's because I feel depressed. And if
Speaker 1: I'm feeling depressed. It's because I'm thinking depressed thoughts. And
Speaker 1: if I want to get over my depression, I don't
Speaker 1: force myself to change my behavior. That doesn't work. And
Speaker 1: I don't force myself to change my feelings. You can't
Speaker 1: change a feeling. You cannot force a feeling. A guy says,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't love my wife anymore. So I said, well, okay,
Speaker 1: what are you going to do about it? Well, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to force myself to feel that I love her.
Speaker 1: How will that work? It doesn't work. You can't force
Speaker 1: a feeling. It's like telling the crying kid, Now I
Speaker 1: command you to be happy. I try it, daddy, you
Speaker 1: try it. You cannot force a feeling. In fact, when
Speaker 1: you try to force a feeling, everybody knows you're faking it.
Speaker 1: You can't force a feeling. You can't fight that feeling anymore.
Speaker 1: If you laughed at that, you're really old. Okay, you
Speaker 1: are really really old. Okay. Now, what you do is
Speaker 1: you change the way you think. And if you change
Speaker 1: the way you think, that's going to change the way
Speaker 1: you feel and it will change the way you act.
Speaker 1: So if you do, you know, I don't have any
Speaker 1: feelings for my wife anymore. You can act your way
Speaker 1: into a feeling, and you can think your way into feeling,
Speaker 1: but you can't feel your way into feeling. If you
Speaker 1: start acting loving towards your wife and you start thinking
Speaker 1: loving thoughts toward you, right, I'm gonna tell you what,
Speaker 1: the feelings will come back. They will return. You act
Speaker 1: your way into a feeling and you think your way
Speaker 1: into feeling, but you don't feel your way into feeling. Now,
Speaker 1: the good thing about this is that now that you're
Speaker 1: a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you,
Speaker 1: and so you can ask him to help you put
Speaker 1: good thoughts in your mind. So now you're not just
Speaker 1: on your own. You're not just out here trying to
Speaker 1: think up stuff by yourself. And what would be a
Speaker 1: good thing for me to think about? You can say,
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, put good thoughts in my mind. That's the
Speaker 1: second thing we learned from Romans eight. Write this down
Speaker 1: number two. The second mental habit to defeat the weapons
Speaker 1: of self destruction is I ask the Holy Spirit to
Speaker 1: give me better thoughts. I ask the Holy Spirit to
Speaker 1: give me better thoughts. And if you ask him to
Speaker 1: give you better thoughts, do you think he will? Of course,
Speaker 1: he will. Of course, he's going to give you better thoughts.
Speaker 1: That's a prayer he's going to answer. I ask the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts. This is the
Speaker 1: second key to permanent change your life. Now, this is
Speaker 1: what it says in the next two verses, Verses five
Speaker 1: and six of Romans eight. Those who live according to
Speaker 1: the sinful nature have their mindset on what the nature
Speaker 1: that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with
Speaker 1: the Spirit have their mindset on what the Spirit desires. Now,
Speaker 1: there's two kinds of mindsets circle the mindsets. There's the
Speaker 1: mindset of your old nature, and there's the mindset of
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. There's the mindset of the way I
Speaker 1: normally think about my life, and there's the mindset of
Speaker 1: how the Spirit sees my life. Which one's gonna be
Speaker 1: true the one that the Spirit says. So I have
Speaker 1: to choose between these mindsets. Am I gonna set my
Speaker 1: mind on the way I normally think about my life?
Speaker 1: Am I gonna set my mind on the way God
Speaker 1: thinks about my life? Now there's a big difference in
Speaker 1: choosing these mindsets, because if you choose one, you're gonna
Speaker 1: get one response and if you choose the other, that
Speaker 1: you're going to get another. And the next part of
Speaker 1: the verse tells us what that is. The mind of
Speaker 1: sinful man is what that means. It's self destructive. Thoughts
Speaker 1: that you come up with yourself are going to tend
Speaker 1: to be self destructive. The mind of sinful man is death.
Speaker 1: But the mind controlled by the spirit is what life
Speaker 1: and peace. Okay, I don't normally do this, but how
Speaker 1: many of you would like to have life and peace
Speaker 1: this summer? Yeah, me too, I would like to have
Speaker 1: life and peace of summer. And it's all about the
Speaker 1: mindset you choose. The economy may not change, it probably won't.
Speaker 1: Your problems probably won't change those ones that are persistent,
Speaker 1: but your mindset can change. And that's the difference between
Speaker 1: a life of self destruction or a life of life
Speaker 1: and peace. Now, this is the Holy Spirit's answer to
Speaker 1: uncontrolled thoughts. What I do is I ask the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit to give me better thoughts. And this is the
Speaker 1: principle of replacement. I want you to write this word down, replacement.
Speaker 1: The principle of replacement is anytime you want to change
Speaker 1: something in your life and you're serious about changing it,
Speaker 1: you don't resist it, you replace it. When you got
Speaker 1: something negative in your life, you don't resist it, you
Speaker 1: replace it. You say, I want to stop smoking, you
Speaker 1: don't smoke. I don't want to stop smoking. I want
Speaker 1: to stop smoking. I want to stop smoking. It's like
Speaker 1: the frog and towd together, that story we read last week.
Speaker 1: I don't want to eat a cookie and I just
Speaker 1: ate one. I don't want to eat a cookie and
Speaker 1: I just ate one. I don't want to eat a cooking. No,
Speaker 1: because the whole time you're focusing on what you don't
Speaker 1: want and whatever if you focus on, gets your attention.
Speaker 1: Whatever gets your attention gets you. That's why, if you
Speaker 1: want to break any bad habit in your life, the
Speaker 1: key is not to resist it, but to refocus. Whatever
Speaker 1: you resist persists because you keep focusing on it. Now.
Speaker 1: It's it's like if I'm flipping TV channels and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden there's something on TV that I don't
Speaker 1: really want to watch or I shouldn't watch. I don't
Speaker 1: sit there and go I don't want to watch it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to watch it. I don't want to
Speaker 1: watch I just flip the channel, I replace it, and
Speaker 1: the moment I replace it. It's gone. It has no
Speaker 1: grip on me anymore. So. I mean, if you're standing
Speaker 1: in an airport bookstore and they've got all these girly magazines,
Speaker 1: and you're standing in front of you saying, I don't
Speaker 1: want to look at them. I don't want to look
Speaker 1: at them. Up, what do you do? Well, you don't
Speaker 1: stand there. You walk away, Okay, you slam the door
Speaker 1: if you want, don't want to get stung by the bees.
Speaker 1: You just get away from them and you replace it
Speaker 1: with something else. Now, let's say I had a big, fat,
Speaker 1: juicy doughnut sitting right here, Okay, I mean, and it's
Speaker 1: hot and the glaze is just kind of dripping off
Speaker 1: the side. Now I'm on the Daniel Plan, okay. And
Speaker 1: as I told you last week, our church has lost
Speaker 1: over two hundred thousand pounds together, which is amazing. And
Speaker 1: it's not too late to join us. We still got
Speaker 1: half a year more. It's a one year program, and
Speaker 1: you could go to Danielplan dot com and join up
Speaker 1: and get your numbers and get all the doctor's help
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Now, if it's sitting here, I
Speaker 1: don't go. I don't want that donut. I really really,
Speaker 1: I'm just smelling it. Oh baby, old baby, that yeasty smell.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, No, what do I do? I just look
Speaker 1: over it down to you guys, And the moment I
Speaker 1: see you guys, I've lost. It's lost its grip on
Speaker 1: me because my tension has changed. Now. As long as
Speaker 1: I resist the donut, it hadn't work. But the moment
Speaker 1: I refocus on something else, I don't even think about
Speaker 1: it anymore. Does that make sense? Okay? So I ask
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts to replace
Speaker 1: the negative ones in my mind. Now, you choose what
Speaker 1: you dwell on. Satan gives you ideas. As are called temptations.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit gives you ideas. Those are called inspiration. You
Speaker 1: get ideas. But the truth is you choose what you
Speaker 1: focus on. But now now that you're a believer, you
Speaker 1: have a helper and you can say, Holy Spirit, I
Speaker 1: invite you to give me your ideas. And a lot
Speaker 1: of times the Holy Spirit, the God's Spirit will say
Speaker 1: to me, hey, Rick, why don't you think about this instead?
Speaker 1: Good idea and I just change my thoughts. Now I
Speaker 1: would encourage you to invite the Holy Spirit to have
Speaker 1: free access to your mind. You say, God, you have
Speaker 1: put your spirit in side of me. I give you
Speaker 1: free access to my mind twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 1: I invite you to suggest good thoughts. Why Because they'll
Speaker 1: always be the truth, They'll always be right, they'll always
Speaker 1: be helpful, they'll always be pure. Those are the things
Speaker 1: we are to think on. So you invite the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit to put thoughts in your mind? Why? Because those
Speaker 1: who live according to sinful nature have their mindset on
Speaker 1: one thing, but those who live according to the Spirit
Speaker 1: have their mindset on another. And the mindset that I
Speaker 1: normally have leads to self destruction, and the mindset that
Speaker 1: God's Spirit gives me leads to peace. And I want
Speaker 1: peace in my life. So, and that's why I said,
Speaker 1: you know earlier, we don't expect unbelievers to act like
Speaker 1: believers until they are. They don't have the power. Look
Speaker 1: at the next verse. The sinful mind is hostile to God.
Speaker 1: It does not submit to God's law, nor can it
Speaker 1: do so. It can't even do it. Those controlled by
Speaker 1: sinful nature cannot please God. So why do you work
Speaker 1: on passing the law when they don't have the ability
Speaker 1: to change it? To change Only God can change it.
Speaker 1: Change comes from the inside out. Third principle, Third mental
Speaker 1: habit You're going to need to develop to apply the
Speaker 1: truths of Roman's aid in your life, and that is this,
Speaker 1: I realize I have a new ability to say no.
Speaker 1: I need to remind myself. I need to remember on
Speaker 1: a daily basis. I need to realize that now that
Speaker 1: I'm a believer, I have a new ability to say
Speaker 1: no to the things that are self destructive in my life.
Speaker 1: Now this is very important because before you became a believer,
Speaker 1: all you had was will power, and you lost most
Speaker 1: of those bad habits because lost to most of them
Speaker 1: because you don't willpower wears out. It's not enough. But now,
Speaker 1: with the Spirit in your life, you have a new
Speaker 1: ability to say no, a new power, and you need
Speaker 1: to learn how to tap into that power. I don't
Speaker 1: know about you, but I could admit pretty honestly that
Speaker 1: before I had the Holy Spirit in my life, there
Speaker 1: were some things I just couldn't say no to. I
Speaker 1: didn't have the ability to say no to them. And
Speaker 1: you can call them compulsions, you can call them habits.
Speaker 1: You can call them urges, you can call them lusts,
Speaker 1: you can call them impulses. You can call them your
Speaker 1: old nature. But the truth is there were some things
Speaker 1: in my life I just couldn't say no to. I
Speaker 1: had no ability to say no because I didn't have.
Speaker 1: All I had was willpower. Now now I have God's power,
Speaker 1: and he gives me the ability to say no. Look
Speaker 1: at this verse up here on the screen. Galatians five
Speaker 1: point sixteen says this, let the Spirit direct your lives,
Speaker 1: and you will not satisfy the desires of the old
Speaker 1: human nature. Now, if I let the Spirit live through me,
Speaker 1: does it say I won't have those desires? Is that
Speaker 1: what it said? No, it says I won't what I
Speaker 1: won't satisfy those desires? I won't satisfy those desires. In
Speaker 1: other words, do I still have the same desires I
Speaker 1: had before as a Christian? Yes? Do I still have
Speaker 1: the same temptations? Yes? Do I still have the same
Speaker 1: urges and compulsions? Yes? Do I fulfill them? No? Why?
Speaker 1: Because I have a new power inside of me, and
Speaker 1: it's not just will power anymore. Now I've heard people say,
Speaker 1: but why should I limit any desire in my life
Speaker 1: that seems natural? Why should I rein it in if
Speaker 1: it seems if it's a natural desire. Friends, Not everything
Speaker 1: natural is good for you. I mean, I might naturally
Speaker 1: want to punch you in the nose. That doesn't mean
Speaker 1: I should do it. I have a lot of natural
Speaker 1: desires that I need to not fulfill. For instance, sometimes
Speaker 1: I have a natural desire to cuss people out on
Speaker 1: the freeway. Does it mean I should just do it? No.
Speaker 1: Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good. Arsenic is natural,
Speaker 1: but you drink it and it'll kill you. A lot
Speaker 1: of natural things are poison. So just because it says
Speaker 1: natural doesn't mean it's good. There are things in my
Speaker 1: old nature that are very natural for me to do,
Speaker 1: but they're self destructive. I mean, people say, well, if
Speaker 1: I feel this way, why shouldn't I give into it?
Speaker 1: Because that's called maturity. Maturity is when you do the
Speaker 1: right thing, not what you feel like doing, because what
Speaker 1: you feel like doing isn't always the best for you,
Speaker 1: the best for somebody else, God's will or whatever. If
Speaker 1: everybody just did what they naturally feel like doing, nobody
Speaker 1: go to work tomorrow morning. Nobody would go to work.
Speaker 1: If everybody did what they naturally feel like doing, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, every girl would be pregnant. Long before she
Speaker 1: got married. You got to realize that I have a
Speaker 1: new ability to say no. Now this is the good
Speaker 1: news of Romans chapter eight. Look at the next verse,
Speaker 1: verse nine. But he says, you are not controlled by
Speaker 1: your sinful nature. You are now controlled by the spirit
Speaker 1: if you have the spirit of God living in you.
Speaker 1: Anybody who does not have the Spirit of God living
Speaker 1: in them does not belong to Christ. And let me
Speaker 1: stop here and explain this. Some people mistakenly think that
Speaker 1: you get God kind of piece meal, that Jesus comes
Speaker 1: into your life at one point in your life, and
Speaker 1: then maybe a little bit later, the Holy Spirit comes
Speaker 1: into your life, and then maybe a little bit later,
Speaker 1: you get the Father into your life. No, God is
Speaker 1: a trinity three and one. When you got Jesus, you
Speaker 1: got all of God. God doesn't come into your life
Speaker 1: piece meal. When Jesus comes into your life, the Spirit
Speaker 1: comes into your life. When Jesus comes in your life,
Speaker 1: the Father comes into your life. When the Father comes
Speaker 1: into your life, the Spirit in Jesus come into your life.
Speaker 1: You can't separate him. You can't divide them up like
Speaker 1: a piece of pie. So the moment you gave your
Speaker 1: life to Christ, Jesus. Christ put his self in your life,
Speaker 1: in his spirit, the spirit of God, the spirit of
Speaker 1: the Father, the spirit of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: So you don't get God a little bit at a time.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? Okay, God, the Holy Spirit doesn't
Speaker 1: come in in the later point. He comes in and
Speaker 1: you get all of God when you give your life
Speaker 1: to Christ. Now the question is does he have all
Speaker 1: of you and the rest of your life. You're going
Speaker 1: to be given more and more of your life life
Speaker 1: to him, and then the more you give, the more
Speaker 1: power you have. But he says, because I have this,
Speaker 1: I now have a new ability to say no. Look
Speaker 1: at the next verse. So, dear brothers, you have no
Speaker 1: obligation anymore to your old sinful nature to do what
Speaker 1: it begs you to do. This is how God sets
Speaker 1: me free from my compulsions. Before, when I have felt
Speaker 1: compulsed to do something, compelled to do something, I didn't
Speaker 1: have anything except willpower to stop myself. Now I've got
Speaker 1: a new power inside me, and I don't have any
Speaker 1: obligation anymore to listen to my old nature. Now I've
Speaker 1: heard people tell me, oh, I can't tell me. People
Speaker 1: who have had an affair, committed adultery. Who told me
Speaker 1: I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't help myself. I just
Speaker 1: had to do it. I just felt compelled to do it. Well,
Speaker 1: now you have a new help to stop you. And
Speaker 1: when somebody says I'm a Christian, but I couldn't stop myself,
Speaker 1: they're lying. They're lying because they si the fleet didn't
Speaker 1: call on the power that was there available to them,
Speaker 1: and they didn't rely on the Holy Spirit in that
Speaker 1: moment of temptation compulsions. You know you can ruin an
Speaker 1: entire life with one second of compulsion. Just go ask
Speaker 1: a bunch of the politicians had scandals this last year,
Speaker 1: spent decades building a reputation, and in a moment of compulsion,
Speaker 1: lost it all. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But I have a
Speaker 1: new power, a new ability to say no. Number four,
Speaker 1: the fourth mental habit I need to develop if I
Speaker 1: want to change my life is I need to turn
Speaker 1: my thoughts to God. Whenever I'm afraid. That's the fourth
Speaker 1: antidote to these weapons of self destruction. I remind myself
Speaker 1: every day what Jesus did for me. I asked the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts. I realize I
Speaker 1: now have a new ability to say no. And then
Speaker 1: I turned my thoughts to God whenever I'm afraid. Whenever
Speaker 1: I'm afraid, And this is how God spirit sets me
Speaker 1: free from me with the attitude of fear. Romans eight.
Speaker 1: Look at the next verses, verses fourteen to sixteen. For
Speaker 1: the spirit God gives you does not make you slaves
Speaker 1: and cause you to be afraid. Instead, the spirit makes
Speaker 1: you God's children. And by the Spirit's power, we cry
Speaker 1: out to God Father, my father. This is actually the
Speaker 1: Aramaic word abba. Abba is not the group. It means daddy, papa.
Speaker 1: You know, it's dad dad. It's the most basic intimate
Speaker 1: form of father, Daddy, Daddy, my daddy. We cry out
Speaker 1: to God Daddy, my daddy, Papa, my papa. Ahba my Abba.
Speaker 1: God's spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that
Speaker 1: we are God's children. Now, when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I wasn't very fearful at all. I really had almost
Speaker 1: no fears as a child and was pretty reckless and
Speaker 1: had a lot of fun growing up. But sometimes as
Speaker 1: a young child at night, if I heard something that
Speaker 1: was kind of scary and I was afraid, I would
Speaker 1: always cry out to my father. I'd say Daddy, Daddy,
Speaker 1: and he could hear me from my room in our house,
Speaker 1: and my dad would come and see me. Now, when
Speaker 1: I was afraid, I never called out for my mom.
Speaker 1: And the reason why is I knew my dad was stronger. Now,
Speaker 1: my dad wasn't a big guy, but he was very
Speaker 1: strong because he was a hard worker, and I knew
Speaker 1: he could take on anybody. And so I'd say Daddy.
Speaker 1: Whenever I was afraid, I would cry out to Daddy.
Speaker 1: This is exactly what God tells you to do when
Speaker 1: you're afraid. Stop focusing on fear. Start focusing on your father.
Speaker 1: That's the antidote. Stop focusing on your fear. Start focusing
Speaker 1: on your father. Now, he says, the antidote to fear
Speaker 1: is two things. First, he says, the spirit that God
Speaker 1: has given you doesn't make you slaves, make you afraid,
Speaker 1: but he makes you God's children. Whenever you are afraid,
Speaker 1: the first thing you need to do is remember this
Speaker 1: whose family you're a part of. I'm a son of God.
Speaker 1: I'm a daughter of God. I'm a child of God.
Speaker 1: I'm in the family, and families take care of each other,
Speaker 1: and there's family protection. Now, Let's say you grew up
Speaker 1: in Chicago or New York City and your family was
Speaker 1: a part of the family okay, the mafia family. Okay.
Speaker 1: And you're walking down the street as a kid, okay,
Speaker 1: and somebody starts to assault you and you stop me.
Speaker 1: He says, oh, wait, just a minute. Do you know
Speaker 1: who I am? Do you know who I am? My
Speaker 1: father is Guido, and Guido works for Bruno, and Bruno
Speaker 1: is the Copo de capo de Capo de capo. He
Speaker 1: will make you an offer you can't refuse. Are you
Speaker 1: sure you want to touch me? Because I'm in the family.
Speaker 1: And Guy says, well, on second thought, you can have
Speaker 1: your money back because the family protects you. Now, when
Speaker 1: you start to be afraid, God says the first thing.
Speaker 1: He says, wait a minute, do you know who my
Speaker 1: father is? My father is the creator of the universe.
Speaker 1: My father is God. I'm a child of God. I'm
Speaker 1: in the family. God takes care of you kids. And
Speaker 1: then I cry out to Father, Father, would you take
Speaker 1: care of this fear for me? Will you handle this
Speaker 1: one for me and my heaven? The Father says, of course,
Speaker 1: I'll handle it. For me, go back to sleep. You
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about it. I'll take care of you.
Speaker 1: When you were afraid, you remember whose family you're in.
Speaker 1: You're a child of God. You're not a slave. You're
Speaker 1: a child of God and he's going to take care
Speaker 1: of you. And second you call out to your father. Now,
Speaker 1: what are you most afraid of? What are you most
Speaker 1: afraid of? These days? You know the number one fear
Speaker 1: people have. I know all the studies people say it's
Speaker 1: the fear of speaking in front of others, It's the
Speaker 1: fear of heights, or you know, the fear of new
Speaker 1: social situations. Actually, what I've found is a pastor talking
Speaker 1: to people for thirty years. The number one fear people
Speaker 1: have is the fear of being out of control. And
Speaker 1: when you feel your life is out of control, it
Speaker 1: creates enormous fear in your life. And the longer you
Speaker 1: feel it's out of control, you start thinking I'm out
Speaker 1: of control, and then you start thinking maybe I'm losing
Speaker 1: my mind, and you start feary, maybe I'm going crazy,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm going insane. You've all felt this at different
Speaker 1: times in your life, so don't act like so self righteous.
Speaker 1: Everybody I think I'm losing my mind. I think I'm
Speaker 1: going crazy. I'm afraid I'm going nuts. Now, let me
Speaker 1: just put you at ease. You're not going crazy because
Speaker 1: crazy people don't fear that. Crazy people are very happy
Speaker 1: to be crazy and don't care. The very fact that
Speaker 1: you are afraid you're going crazy means you're rational, so
Speaker 1: you're not You're not going crazy. The fear that you're
Speaker 1: going crazy shows that you're very very rational. Crazy people
Speaker 1: aren't afraid of being crazy. So I want everybody to
Speaker 1: say this. I'm broken, but I'm not crazy. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: say it a lout together. I'm broken, but I'm not crazy.
Speaker 1: Let's say it again. I'm broken, but I'm not crazy. Now,
Speaker 1: some of you are afraid to say it, so let's
Speaker 1: say it again. Okay, ready, I'm broken, but I'm not crazy.
Speaker 1: Everybody's broken. I'm broken, you're broken. The person sitting next
Speaker 1: to you is broken. We're all. Nothing is perfect in
Speaker 1: this world. But you're not crazy. Now. The Bible says
Speaker 1: that we should not be afraid, but we turned to God.
Speaker 1: I remember one time in northern California. It's the year
Speaker 1: I got married. At the end of the year, that
Speaker 1: I got married thirty six years ago, my health broke
Speaker 1: and I began to develop a fear that it's never
Speaker 1: going to go away, that my life is over shoot.
Speaker 1: My life hadn't even started. I hadn't even started, but
Speaker 1: I was afraid, this is the end of my life.
Speaker 1: I'm never going to mount anything. Nothing's going to happen
Speaker 1: in my life. God isn't going to use me. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be an invalid my entire life, and on
Speaker 1: and on and on. And I was filled with these fears,
Speaker 1: and so we took a month off from work and
Speaker 1: Kay and I went to northern California, where my parents
Speaker 1: lived out in the country in the redwoods. And while
Speaker 1: we were there, one day, I got up in the
Speaker 1: morning and I was so depressed because these fears were
Speaker 1: just clawing at my mind all the time. And the
Speaker 1: phone rang and my mom picked it up and she
Speaker 1: handed it to Kay and the man said, is this
Speaker 1: where Rick Warren is staying? And they said, yes, Can
Speaker 1: I talk to him? She said yes, She hands me
Speaker 1: the phone. This guy says, Rick, we've never met. I
Speaker 1: don't know you, you don't know me. I'm calling from
Speaker 1: San Diego. But I heard that you were going through
Speaker 1: a tough time, and I just want to give you
Speaker 1: a verse, and it is this, God is two Timothy
Speaker 1: one seven. God has not given us a spirit of fear,
Speaker 1: but a spirit of power and love and self control.
Speaker 1: And he hung up that verse changed my life. Here
Speaker 1: it is on the screen. For the spirit that God
Speaker 1: has given us does not make us fearful or timid. Instead,
Speaker 1: his spirit fills us with power, love and self control.
Speaker 1: Now get this, The more controlled you are by the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, the more self control you've got to have,
Speaker 1: you're going to have, you're going to have. Now get this.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are afraid of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't want to be filled with the spirit.
Speaker 1: Fill the spirit. That'll turn me into some nut. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be some religious fanatic. I'm gonna be like some
Speaker 1: of those people on TV saying, babe, you know, out
Speaker 1: foul spirit a nicotine, you know, and I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: falling over backwards and I'm gonna be you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna lose control. Actually it's the exact opposite. The more
Speaker 1: you have of the Holy Spirit, the more self controlled
Speaker 1: you are. In fact, God does not give us it says,
Speaker 1: a spirit of fear. So if you are afraid, that's
Speaker 1: not from God. That fear is not from God. When
Speaker 1: God's Spirit comes into your life, you're filled with love.
Speaker 1: I want that you're filled with power. I want that
Speaker 1: you're filled with self control. I want that. Okay, Holy Spirit,
Speaker 1: I want all you got film me. It doesn't make
Speaker 1: me some nut case. It makes me more human, It
Speaker 1: makes me more natural, It makes me more loving, It
Speaker 1: makes me more in self controlled, mastered by the Master.
Speaker 1: I can master anything. Throw it at me, handle it.
Speaker 1: Why because I can do all things through Christ, who
Speaker 1: strengthens me. So the spirit in me doesn't make me
Speaker 1: a lunatic or religious nut. To be filled with the
Speaker 1: spirit makes me more self controlled. And believe me, brother,
Speaker 1: you need more self control. The more spirit controlled I am,
Speaker 1: the more self controlled I am. Number five, the three more.
Speaker 1: Let's move these real quickly. The fifth thing we learned
Speaker 1: from Romans eight is about the antidote the hopelessness, and
Speaker 1: that's verses seventeen and eighteen. And the habit I want
Speaker 1: you to learn to develop is to focus on the
Speaker 1: long term, not the short term. Focus on the long term,
Speaker 1: not the short term. You know, there's a very famous
Speaker 1: study done by Harvard University, very very famous study that
Speaker 1: found out that figured out that the more long term
Speaker 1: you're thinking is the more successful you're going to be
Speaker 1: in life. The shorter term you're thinking is the more
Speaker 1: failure you're going to be in life. People who fail
Speaker 1: at life have short term thinking. They're only thinking about today.
Speaker 1: They're only thing about here and now, the only thing
Speaker 1: about what feels good to me right now. But the
Speaker 1: longer term you think, the more successful you'll be in life.
Speaker 1: In fact, the longest term thinkers are those who are
Speaker 1: most successful in life. Now, as a Christian, we can
Speaker 1: win this one hands down because when we think in
Speaker 1: terms of long term thinking, we call it eternity, because
Speaker 1: we're not just thinking about life here on this earth.
Speaker 1: We're not thinking about forty fifty years ahead. We're thinking
Speaker 1: about trillions and trillions and trillions of years ahead. And
Speaker 1: living in light of eternity is the key to being
Speaker 1: the most successful you could possibly be thinking in long term. Now,
Speaker 1: when you think in long term, you're able to handle
Speaker 1: short term pain a whole lot better. You're able to
Speaker 1: handle short term losses, short term failures, short term hindrances
Speaker 1: because you're thinking long term. Here at Saddleback, we went
Speaker 1: fifteen years without a building. A lot of pastors would
Speaker 1: have given up not having a building for fifteen years.
Speaker 1: Saddleback groot over ten thousand people before we built this building.
Speaker 1: But it didn't bother me because I was thinking long
Speaker 1: term of in spending my entire life as a pastor
Speaker 1: of one church. So fifteen years, so what that's just
Speaker 1: fifteen years. I was thinking long term. And while you're
Speaker 1: thinking about today and this week for your life as
Speaker 1: your pastor who loves you, I'm always thinking ahead for
Speaker 1: your life. I'm thinking about what are you going to
Speaker 1: be at the end of the year, What are you
Speaker 1: going to be at the end of five years, What
Speaker 1: are you going to be at the end of ten years.
Speaker 1: It's called decade of destiny, and that's why I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about how to help you become all God wants you
Speaker 1: to be. I'm doing some long term thinking for your
Speaker 1: life and going where do I need to take you
Speaker 1: so that you'll be what you want to be and
Speaker 1: what God wants you to be in ten years. Most
Speaker 1: people aren't thinking that. The whole society teaches you to
Speaker 1: think short term, and we'll look at that when we
Speaker 1: get to the world. Now. Romans Chapter eight, verses seventeen
Speaker 1: and eighteen talks about focusing on the long term, and
Speaker 1: it talks about the promises of God the next few verses.
Speaker 1: Since we are his children, we will possess circle the
Speaker 1: word will. That's a promise that's in the future. It's
Speaker 1: not now. Doesn't say we do possess, we will. It's
Speaker 1: long term. Since we are his children, we will possess
Speaker 1: the blessings He keeps for his family, and we will
Speaker 1: also possess this is really cool. We will also possess
Speaker 1: with Christ what God has kept for him. Did you
Speaker 1: know that The Bible says that when you get to heaven,
Speaker 1: you're going to get rewarded. You will be rewarded for
Speaker 1: how well you did with what you were given. What
Speaker 1: did you do with your time? What did you do
Speaker 1: with your money? What did you do with your influence?
Speaker 1: What did you do with your talents, your time, your talents,
Speaker 1: your treasure. This is called the stewardship of life. And
Speaker 1: God has put stuff in your hands, and your steward
Speaker 1: of you're going to be evaluated on that in heaven
Speaker 1: and your rewards will be based on that, and you're
Speaker 1: going to be rewarded. But not only that. The Bible
Speaker 1: says you're going to be rewarded not just for how
Speaker 1: well a steward you were. You're going to be rewarded
Speaker 1: for what Jesus did. Did you know that? Look at
Speaker 1: that verse again, it says, and also we will possess
Speaker 1: with Christ what God has kept for him. Did you
Speaker 1: know that? The Bible says that in heaven we are
Speaker 1: going to co reign with Christ. We're going to be
Speaker 1: heirs with Christ from the Father. We're going to co
Speaker 1: reign with Christ. The easiest way for me to explain
Speaker 1: that is, imagine in heaven this giant theater sign, like
Speaker 1: a big Vegas sign that's flashing that says, now starring
Speaker 1: for eternity Jesus Christ, co starring your name. That's what
Speaker 1: it means to share in Christ's glory. You're going to
Speaker 1: do that in heaven. So you need to focus not
Speaker 1: on your little pity, petty pain right now, but on
Speaker 1: the long term benefits of doing the right thing and
Speaker 1: sharing in glory forever. Notice it says the rest of
Speaker 1: that verse, for if we share Christ's suffering, we will
Speaker 1: also share his glory. I consider that what we suffer
Speaker 1: at this present time cannot be compared, in other words,
Speaker 1: of small potatoes, with all the glory that is going
Speaker 1: to be revealed in us. To us, he said, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what, it's not always easy living for Christ.
Speaker 1: It's not always easy doing the right thing. It's not
Speaker 1: always easy making the moral decision. But the benefit long
Speaker 1: term is going to far outlast the pain. You need
Speaker 1: to focus long term, not short term. Now practical example,
Speaker 1: Daniel plan. Daniel Plan means you put up with short
Speaker 1: term pain and exercise and eating and things like that
Speaker 1: for long term benefits, and you don't give up. Same
Speaker 1: thing with Bible study, same thing with witnessing, same thing
Speaker 1: with tithing giving of your money. You put up with
Speaker 1: short term pain for long term benefit. Focus on the
Speaker 1: long term. Not sure if you're focusing all in short term.
Speaker 1: There's a one word for it. It's foolish. It's foolish.
Speaker 1: If you're a college student, I beg you to not
Speaker 1: focus on the here and now, the parties and the
Speaker 1: fund and all that stuff, but focus on the long
Speaker 1: term where you want to be. Number six. The sixth
Speaker 1: habit is to remind myself that God is good and
Speaker 1: in control. This is an application of what the Bible
Speaker 1: teaches in Romans chapter eight. This is how God sets
Speaker 1: us free from the self destructive weapon of bitterness. Remind
Speaker 1: myself that God is good and in control, and you
Speaker 1: are mean to remind yourself of that over and over
Speaker 1: and over and over and over every single day. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't have time to get into this, but in
Speaker 1: verses nineteen to twenty five of Romans chapter eight, Paul
Speaker 1: describes how sin has damaged the world. If I got
Speaker 1: into this, the sermon would be twice as long. We
Speaker 1: don't have time to get into it, so let me
Speaker 1: just summarize. In verses nineteen to twenty five, Paul says,
Speaker 1: everything in the world is broken. Everything in the world
Speaker 1: has lost its original purpose. Everything in the world is suffering.
Speaker 1: Everything in the world is in pain, and everything in
Speaker 1: the world is frustrated because Sin broke it all down.
Speaker 1: Everything is frustrated. The fact, look at this verse on
Speaker 1: the screen, verse twenty. Everything created is subject to frustration,
Speaker 1: waiting to be liberated, set free from me, waiting to
Speaker 1: be liberated from its bondage to decay. All of creation
Speaker 1: groans in pain, like childbirth, and we groan inwardly. We're going,
Speaker 1: oh man, this is tough. This is hard, this is difficult.
Speaker 1: Why is life so hard? Says the environment is groaning.
Speaker 1: I think earthquakes, and I think you know, hurricanes, and
Speaker 1: I think all the wacky weathers. There is the environment
Speaker 1: groaning because it's broken. And we grown in pain because
Speaker 1: relationships are broken. And later you're going to find out
Speaker 1: that this Holy Spirit groans in pain for you. There
Speaker 1: are three growns in this chapter. Now. He says that
Speaker 1: the result of living in a broken world is pain,
Speaker 1: and the result of pain is bitterness. And that's a
Speaker 1: self destructive weapon. When I look out and I go,
Speaker 1: he's got a nicer house than I do, she's got
Speaker 1: a better job than I do. How come her kids
Speaker 1: are like that? How come my? And you start comparing
Speaker 1: and you start getting envious and you start getting jealous,
Speaker 1: and then people hurt you and you get bitter and
Speaker 1: you get grudges and you get resentful. That's a pain
Speaker 1: that's going to eat you up. You got to learn
Speaker 1: how to deal with that weapon of self destruction. And
Speaker 1: the way you do it is remind yourself that God
Speaker 1: is good and in control that God is good, is
Speaker 1: in control. The result of living in a broken world
Speaker 1: is pain, and the result of pain is bitterness. And
Speaker 1: as a result, we get bitter inside and we start
Speaker 1: getting resentful and lea fair life is unfair? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: what else is new? Life is unfair? It's because it's broken.
Speaker 1: But the Bible says in Romans eight that there are
Speaker 1: four things you need to remember to get over bitterness.
Speaker 1: Now listen, pain in your life is not optional. But
Speaker 1: misery is pain in your life is You're going to
Speaker 1: have pain in your life. It's called life. Suffering in
Speaker 1: your life is not optional. You're going to suffer. Misery is.
Speaker 1: Moaning is optional. Bitterness is optional, and you overcome bitterness
Speaker 1: by remembering four magnificent truths. In Romans eight, Verse twenty
Speaker 1: six and twenty seven says this, the Holy Spirit is
Speaker 1: praying for me. You write write that down. The Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit is praying for me. That helps me overcome bitterness
Speaker 1: because no matter what I'm going through, I know God's
Speaker 1: on my side. He's praying for me. It says here
Speaker 1: the Spirit helps us with our weakness. And we don't
Speaker 1: know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit
Speaker 1: himself speaks to God for us. God's praying to himself.
Speaker 1: He's talking to himself about you. He said, how does
Speaker 1: God talk to himself? Oh, you don't ever do that.
Speaker 1: You talk to yourself all the time. When God talks
Speaker 1: to himself about you, that's called prayer. Okay. The Spirit
Speaker 1: of God, it says, prays for us and even begs
Speaker 1: God for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain.
Speaker 1: God sees what's in our hearts, and the spirit speaks
Speaker 1: to God for his people in the way that God wants.
Speaker 1: So when you're no matter what you're going through, the
Speaker 1: first thing, he goes, you know what, right now, the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is praying for me. That's cool. Second thing,
Speaker 1: God is using it all for good. That second thing,
Speaker 1: I remember, God is using everything in my life for good.
Speaker 1: It's not all good good, but he's using it all
Speaker 1: for good. The next verse says this, and we know
Speaker 1: that in all things God works for the good of
Speaker 1: those who love Him who've been called according to his purpose.
Speaker 1: It's not all good, but God is using it all
Speaker 1: for good. God is greater than my problems. God is
Speaker 1: greater than my enemies. God is greater than my critics
Speaker 1: and God is using it all for good in my life.
Speaker 1: Number three, God wants me to succeed. Did you know that?
Speaker 1: Did you know that God wants you to succeed. He
Speaker 1: doesn't want you to fail in your life. He wants
Speaker 1: you to succeed in your life. God is not against
Speaker 1: you if you're a Christian, if you're a believer, God
Speaker 1: is for you. The Bible says in verse thirty one,
Speaker 1: So what can we say against such wonderful things, about
Speaker 1: such wonderful things, all the stuff we've talked about, What
Speaker 1: do we say about all these wonderful things? If God
Speaker 1: is for us, who can be against us? Remember, I'm
Speaker 1: in the family. My father is God, and so God
Speaker 1: wants me to succeed. And finally, number four, God will
Speaker 1: give me what I need. When I'm feeling blue and
Speaker 1: when I'm feeling bitter, I need to rememb mind myself
Speaker 1: that God is good, He's in control, his spirit is
Speaker 1: praying for me. He's using everything for good in my life.
Speaker 1: He wants me to succeed, and He's going to give
Speaker 1: me what I need Verse thirty two. Since God did
Speaker 1: not spare even his own son, but gave him up
Speaker 1: for us, all won't God give us. Won't God who
Speaker 1: gave us Christ give us everything else? Wow? He said,
Speaker 1: If God loves you enough to let Jesus die on
Speaker 1: the cross for you, don't you think he loves you
Speaker 1: enough to help you with your debt? Don't you think
Speaker 1: he cares enough to help you with your health? Elth
Speaker 1: don't you think he cares about you when your face
Speaker 1: breaks out? There is nothing in your life that God
Speaker 1: doesn't care about. I threw that one in because it
Speaker 1: seems so ridiculous. There is nothing in your life that
Speaker 1: God doesn't care about. You got set upset tummy. God
Speaker 1: cares about it. He knows every hair on your head.
Speaker 1: God will give me what I need. If God didn't
Speaker 1: spare his sun to solve my biggest problem, everything else
Speaker 1: is small potatoes. It's all minor to him. There is
Speaker 1: no big problem in your life. They're all small problems
Speaker 1: to God. Now, finally we come to the last habit
Speaker 1: you need to develop. These are all mental habits. You
Speaker 1: need to take this home, write it down, put it
Speaker 1: on your windshield, of that windshield so you can't see
Speaker 1: it right, Put it on your mirror and you in
Speaker 1: your bathroom. Put it on your refrigerator. Put it on
Speaker 1: your visor in your car. So every day you can
Speaker 1: remind yourself to practice these habits that defeat the habits
Speaker 1: of self destruction. And the seventh habit destroys the seventh enemy,
Speaker 1: which is insecurity. Now, the fact is, when you feel insecure,
Speaker 1: it really messes up your life. And the worst fear
Speaker 1: that we have in insecurity is the rejection. Many of
Speaker 1: you have experienced rejection. You felt it from your parents.
Speaker 1: Why can't you be like your sister or your brother?
Speaker 1: You felt rejected by kids on the playground and they
Speaker 1: made fun of you and they made up names. You
Speaker 1: felt rejected by a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Maybe you've
Speaker 1: been rejected by a spouse. And nothing hurts more than rejection.
Speaker 1: But one thing I can tell you this is God's
Speaker 1: never going to reject you. And the seventh habit is
Speaker 1: this trust that God will never stop loving me. Trust
Speaker 1: that God will never never stop loving me. I'm in
Speaker 1: the family. He cannot not love his family. He will
Speaker 1: never stop loving me Romans eight thirty eight and thirty
Speaker 1: nine in the chapter Now, I'm convinced that nothing ever
Speaker 1: can ever separate us from His love. Death can't life can't.
Speaker 1: The angels can't, demons can't. Satan can't separate you from God.
Speaker 1: Our fears for today are worries about tomorrow. Even the
Speaker 1: powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we're
Speaker 1: high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing
Speaker 1: in all creation will ever be able to separate us
Speaker 1: from the love of God that is revealed in Christ.
Speaker 1: Jesus our Lord. I may lose a lot of things
Speaker 1: in life, but I'll never lose my salvation. You can't
Speaker 1: lose it because nothing. Once you're in God's hand. He's
Speaker 1: not letting go of you. You may want to let go,
Speaker 1: but He's not letting go of you. You cannot lose
Speaker 1: your salvation. Now, my question is this, do you belong
Speaker 1: to Christ? Because none of these things are true in
Speaker 1: your life unless you belong to Christ. Do you have
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit in your life? You say, well, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Well let's make certain of it right now.
Speaker 1: That's bow our heads and I'm going to pray a
Speaker 1: prayer as we close, and I'm going to ask you
Speaker 1: to pray it. Say this in your heart, Dear Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: thank you for all that you did for me. Thank
Speaker 1: you that there's no condemnation in my life. For all
Speaker 1: the sin I've done, you took that condemnation. Thank you
Speaker 1: that you did what the law couldn't do. Thank you
Speaker 1: that you destroyed sins control. Thank you that you accomplished
Speaker 1: the law in my life. And my righteousness is nothing,
Speaker 1: but your righteousness is what ticket I get into heaven on.
Speaker 1: Help me to never forget what you did for me.
Speaker 1: And when I feel ashamed me, remember what you did
Speaker 1: on the cross for me, Holy Spirit, I ask you
Speaker 1: to give me better thoughts. I want to switch mindsets.
Speaker 1: I don't want the mindset of self destruction. I want
Speaker 1: the mindset of life and peace. I don't want to
Speaker 1: think my old ways. I want to think your new ways.
Speaker 1: I invite you to put thoughts in my mind all
Speaker 1: the time, for they are the truth. And help me
Speaker 1: to remember and realize that I have a new ability
Speaker 1: to say no. Lord. I used to just have willpower,
Speaker 1: but now I've got spirit power. I'm not obligated to
Speaker 1: give into those compulsions anymore. That if I ask you
Speaker 1: for help, you'll help me and give me the strength
Speaker 1: to say no. Thank you, that no temptation is too strong,
Speaker 1: and when I'm afraid. Help me to turn my thoughts
Speaker 1: to you. Help me to reme remember that I'm your child,
Speaker 1: and help me to cry out to you, Father, Daddy,
Speaker 1: I'm afraid to focus on my father, not my fears.
Speaker 1: And help me to focus on the long term, not
Speaker 1: the short term. You know the pain in my life,
Speaker 1: you know the suffering. I want you to use it
Speaker 1: for good and I want you to use it for
Speaker 1: your glory. And I want to look and focus long
Speaker 1: term on eternity, not just to hearing now. I want
Speaker 1: to do the right thing, not the easy thing. And
Speaker 1: when I start to get bitter and I feel life
Speaker 1: is unfair, and when I feel hurt, help me to
Speaker 1: remember that you God are good and you're in control,
Speaker 1: that you are praying for me. Thank you for doing that,
Speaker 1: that you are working all things for good. Thank you
Speaker 1: for doing that. That you are for me, not against me.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, And that you didn't spare Jesus
Speaker 1: and so you'll give us whatever we need. Thank you
Speaker 1: for that. Most of all, I thank you that you
Speaker 1: will never let go of me, You'll never stop loving me,
Speaker 1: you'll never reject me. Thank you that I cannot lose
Speaker 1: my salvation, No matter what else I lose on this planet,
Speaker 1: that you will never stop loving me. If you've never
Speaker 1: invited Jesus Christ in your heart, Jesus say, I want
Speaker 1: you to be my lord, my savior. I want you
Speaker 1: to be the manager of my life. I don't understand
Speaker 1: it all, but I want to trust in you completely.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your grace to me. I want to
Speaker 1: love you for the rest of my life, and I
Speaker 1: ask you to accept me into your family by faith.
Speaker 1: In your name, I pray Amen.