WORLDLY THINKING

Audio Files

Worldly Thinking

(Audio)

Looking Up

(Audio)

Money, Health and Heaven

(Audio)

Ecclesiastes

(Audio)

These are excerpts from messages given to those in a recovery program. 

Most of the subject matter in these clips applies to all Christians.

TRANSCRIPTS

It's just a matter of saying, my life is not this moment. My life is from now till the time I die, and I might live to 90 or a hundred years old. I might. And if I might live that long, it wouldn't hurt to take care of my body and take care of things and make decisions that help that person. because you know what? That's a real person. I can tell you 67, you know, when I was 30, 67 like that, that's like really, really old. Like, like, whoa, don't people die then? Like, they get heart attacks if they go up stairs too fast, don't they?  

There's a real, there's a you that extends on, and there's a you that goes to heaven, right? That goes the whole way. And we want to have long-term thinking.

Why do I share this kind of stuff about health? Because the same thing with our spiritual health. 

We need to think long-term.

We keep thinking in terms of just what's happening right now, instead of what the Bible says, set in Colossians three,

   If you're so shortsighted you can't even think of taking care of your body

for how you're going to feel the next day,

   it's really hard to be thinking of heaven,

right? And God wants you to do both things. He talks about, our bodies, our temples of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19) They're what he's given us. We're stuck in them. All right? We're stuck in our body. If you take care of your body for the most part, it will take care of you. Okay?

There's a thing called, I call it "the God factor." It's a sin factor because some people can take really good care of their bodies and they still have trouble with things, the genetics. It's because of Adam's sin that entered into the world. (Romans 5:12-14) And there's some people who have such really good genetics, that they can really abuse their bodies, and it goes on. I believe God does that so we're not in control, okay? Because otherwise, we could just say, Hey, if I do this and this and this and this, I'm going to be healthy at 95 and nothing's going to happen to me, and we'd be in control.  

   He said, no, you're not in control. The sin is in the world, I'm in control.

(Proverbs 19:21) Anything can happen.  

But there's a principle, there's a proverb and the, and the, and the principle is, if you don't waste your money and you save it, if you work hard as working for the Lord and not for men, alright? If you work hard, you save your money, you're going to have more money. (Proverbs 6:6-8) If you take care of your body and eat right and exercise, your body is going to last longer. These are principles that, that are, are true on the average, okay? But the principles that we can count on forever are God's principles of life.

And what you sow you reap. And it doesn't mean you reap it the same way, but when you sow good things, you reap good things for eternity.  (Galatians 6:7-8) And God wants us to, to live our lives for him. And

   when we live our lives for him, we have peace.

When the scripture says

When you trust in God, you will have peace. The amount of peace you have will be in proportion to the amount you're trusting God. Okay? I'm going to say it again.

   The amount of peace you have will be in proportion to the amount you're trusting God.

So there's, again, there's a cause and effect there that you can count on. The things in the world. You can't.

   You can take care of your body and go to pieces. But when you're trusting God, you're going to have peace.

Is it going to be easy? No. It didn't feel good for Jesus when he went to the cross. It didn't feel good for the apostles when they were being flogged and beaten and stoned and all those things. (Acts 5:40-42) But they go, this is not what it's about. I can handle this.

When athletes go through a workout, it does not feel good. It does, it does not even feel good. A little bit, you know, I still work out. I still run. I sprint and I push my body really hard to where I'm breathing so hard, it does not feel good. And when I'm breathing that hard and I'm pushing it, I'm going, I'm going to do another. I'm doing the 10 yards, another 10 yards, another 10 yards. I can do it. And I, and I go, I'm doing it. You know, I'm not thinking about the pain. I'm thinking, this is making me stronger. This might make me be able to run down that dude when I come home. You know, you just never know. It might, and I'm thinking of the prize beyond what I'm doing. It's not on the pain at all.  

We need, when we're going through this earth and we're experiencing pain and difficulty, we need to be looking as scripture says, look beyond that,

   these light and momentary troubles we're going through

are nothing compared to the eternal glory that we're going to have.

(2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

And, and the struggles we go through. 

SPEAKER PICKS UP CHAIR WITH ONE HAND

When you go through the struggle and you say, carry this stuff across the room, say, oh, I’ve got to carry this thing. It's hard. Hold it out there. That's really hard. You know, your muscles get stronger. You say, “This is so hard. I don't feel like doing this.”  

I don't feel like carrying this, you know, if I had to carry this around the whole time, I'm going, okay, come on this, get to be kind of a pain. But you know what, at the end of the day, at the end of the hour, I'd be stronger.  

My core is completely engaged right now; has to be. That's okay. All my stomach muscles are engaged to be able to do this. They're getting stronger and

   we fight against the things that are actually making us stronger.

But because we think

   we have this lie from the devil saying, your life should be easy.

And that's why, that's why we have, we have this lie that we believe life is supposed to be this certain way. (1 Peter 4:12-14) The way that life's supposed to be is this. 

SPEAKER WALKS AMONG AUDIENCE

You walk and you take a step in life and something happens. That's the way life's supposed to be because God's in control. Take another step. Oh, I'm over here. I thought I was going to be there. Nope, you're here. Oh, I'm over here.

Oh, maybe I'm supposed to talk to this guy. Hey, what happened to your arm? AUDIENCE MEMBER: "Nothing. Nothing." That's okay. Well, I understand you don't want to share.

It's a cool watch, man. You know, and maybe you're supposed to have conversation, but it was, I was supposed to. No, he's supposed to be here. See, that's the way life goes. 

   "Why do you have me here Lord?"

Wait, maybe you're supposed to talk to that person, but that's not my schedule.

And when we do that through our entire life, moment by moment, we have this rest, this incredible rest that God's got everything. (Philippians 4:6-7)

And

   He's ordaining our life for His glory and for the purpose of us growing in Him.

(Ephesians 2:10) And this wonderful peace comes over. because you go, you don't have to worry about anything. It's like the scripture when I say you don't need some of the scripture verses

Well, you don't have to even have that verse when you're trusting God. because you're not going to worry about tomorrow. because you're going to say,

  why would I worry about tomorrow? He's got every moment handled.

He's got it all handled. He's got the whole world in his hands. He has me in his hands. He's got it all handled. (Romans 8:28-39) And

   that's where he wants us to walk. 

In fact, I met this young guy at the ski resort that went there a couple of weeks ago. I've been able to go skiing twice this this year, and I've had years, I haven't gone at all. And I started to kind of witness to him, found out he is a Christian, got his phone number, but he said, yeah, the thing's off to the, and he's like 22 years old. He said, yeah, the kiosk is is off to the right. And I looked over there and there's nothing out there. And I said, whose right? And he goes, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My right, your left <laugh>. You know? And, then he said, good afternoon, Good evening, or something like that. I said, dude, it's morning he goes, I had a late night. And I said, you know, If somebody in their sixties did what you just did, they’d say you’re senile, you know  

You don't know your left from your right, and you don't know what time of day it is, but when you're 20 years old, it can, yeah, Big deal. You know, Anyway, I got his phone number. We've been conversing and he's a really deep Christian Guy. It's really, really cool, you know?

  But sometimes we don't know our left from right. We don't know what's going on. But we always know up and down.

You always know. And God wants us to go there.

   Set your heart and your mind on things above.

(Col 3:1) And that's what he wants.

   And that's the only place you are going to find fulfillment.

 (John 6:35) Alright?

   That's the only place you're going to find peace.

 (John 14:2)

   That's the only place you're going to find love.

 This is where love is. Jesus says, I am the way, not a way. I am the way. (John 14:6) So when you're lost that you’ve got to go look for the way, and you're not going to find on your own.  

 Okay? And that's talking about unbelievers that think they can find their way. All right? He's the truth. He says, I'm the way. I am the truth. And so when you're seeking for truth, you don't say, I can't find the CDC, FDA, or politicians  

Or anything. I mean, I don't think people look for truth in politicians for a long time, but for decades. But anyway, but even truth in people. Jesus says  

He's the truth.   And no one comes to Father except by me. And

   we go to the Father vertically with Jesus. And this is where, when our hearts and our minds are set here, nothing touches us.  

It's saying, we started off talking about faith. And what faith does, what faith does, it gives you power over your circumstances. It gives you power in the midst of them to overcome and make it through. When all hell's breaking loose,  (John 16:33)

Even if it kills you, you die in faith looking up and saying, I'm coming home like Steven did. He looked, they were stoning him and he's looking up. I see the Son of God, son of man, the right hand of Father. (Acts 7:55) He's looking up and he's dying in peace while he's getting stoned. That's how God, that's because He lived by faith because he knew that like it said in Hebrews 11, that we’re aliens and strangers here. And

   this world is not our home.

(Heb 13:14) Our problem is we get attached to the physical and the world because it's right there and it keeps pulling us and pulling us and pulling us. And God said, this is not where it's at.

   You're in the world, but not of the world.

(John 17:16) All right? And walk, walk in that.

So, Lord God, we thank you for this morning. Thank you for your love, your care, and that we can always come to you as the way, the truth, and the life in Jesus' name.  

Amen.   

I just want you to, to,

   if the temptation ever comes up, it always starts in your mind.

 (2 Cor 10:5)

It always goes there. And you start considering it. Just like me considering cheating on my wife.  

Okay? It's got to start here. And if the thought doesn't even come, okay, the thought doesn't even come there. If it came, I go, you've got to be kidding. I'm going to give up my marriage to go have sex with somebody. What? Because I'm thinking down the road when I spend money or don't spend money, I save, you know, it's a chance to go out to McDonald's and it's $8. I go, you've got to be kidding. I'll just eat an energy bar. $8, $1 energy bar water. Fine. You've got to be kidding.  

Eight, Ten. I mean, it's ridiculous when you go out to fast food, what it costs, right? I think about that. What you spend every week,

  what you don't spend every week, 30 bucks a week, you multiply it by a thousand. That's what you end up in. 20 years

without interest. You say 30 bucks a week, $30,000 in 20 years.  

People look at that Corvette, that must be nice. You've, I can show almost everybody where you're spending $60 a week more than I'm spending over the last 20 years on one thing or another. because we don't, I don't go out for fast food. If I go out for fast food. Wendy's, we stop at Wendy's four for four, four bucks, <laugh>. That's not bad. Not too bad, you know, but I'm, you always think down the road and we think down the road with our health. And so when I'm watching what I'm eating and keeping my, my weight down and exercising, I'm always thinking, I, I'm selfish and I want to be healthy later on. But

   God wants us to take this concept that we would use with money and with health and take it all the way to heaven

where we're thinking of where we're going to be in heaven and what we're going to have in heaven.  (Matt 6:19)

But God wants you to practice longer-term thinking now in everything. (Col 3:1-3) Because with money, he talks about the aunt that stores up during the summer for the winter. (Prov 6:6-11) So we store up when times are good, so we have extra when times are bad. When you're younger, you're able to do things for your body that help your body, that will reap a benefit later on. And so build these habits of, not just thinking in the moment, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. You know, we don't, wouldn't have that kind of thinking, but have the type of thinking where you're, you're looking at your two things. You're looking at your whole life because there is a, you who is 60 or is already hit it. Maybe . I'm, I'm 67, so it it's there. Okay? There's a you that's 60. There's a, if you don't die, there's a you that's 70. There's a you that 80, right? Okay.

The, we have a friend who's a doctor. He weighs about 275, 300.  All right? He's super smart about knowing what not to do with your body and what to do with your body and what works. And he can hardly walk. And he's very rich. He had a yacht. What good is it? What good is it when you, you got to go and he is just 70. What good is it?   

It doesn't do any good. And that's our body. But God has something, he wants it to look beyond that. But he wants to take care of our body because how if, if I couldn't walk, if I couldn't get around, how could I be effective in helping other people? Right? All right. And so

   if there's a good reason to stay healthy, it's so you can be a help to others.

   If there's a good reason to save your money, it's so you have an abundance to be able to pass on to others.

That's what you want to be thinking of. If I take care of my health, if I take care of my money, I will have, not only enough for me, but I have enough to be able to be a blessing to others.  

That's the idea. All right? And then you're pleasing God because you're having a focus you want to have this focus, a long-term focus that I'm living where? Where's the Bible verse for this? Colossians three, one,

 he wants us to be thinking of heaven, our minds and our hearts to be focused on the long term. 

So Ecclesiastes says  

And, and think about this now, this next verse.

   Do you guys know who the most giving or powerful person was 200 years ago in the whole world?

One of the top 10. How about one of the top a hundred? Listen to this one

.  

Chasing after the wind. How good does it do to chase after the wind? You ever catch the wind? He said that's how ridiculous it is.

Now he's speaking in earthly terms here, right? So if you talk about saying, what's the use? I'm out of here. You know, everything's meaningless. Everything's worthless. But we need to understand that because our tendency is to think, well, if I just do this, if I just do that, I get my life together and everything's going to have meaning. And part of the reason you guys use is because you didn't feel there was meaning to life.  

All right? And so what I'm basically saying, no, there isn't.  

If there isn't meaning, there isn't purpose at all. Everything is meaningless.

   And so where is the meaning? And the meaning is in our relationship with God and the love relationship with Him.

And that's the only place you're going to find meaning.

   If you keep looking in other places for it, you're going to continuously be disappointed.

And you're continuously going to feel like life isn't what it's supposed to be because it isn't what it's supposed to be. So you accept that. Say, okay, this is not a cool place to live.  

It really isn't. This world was made subject to frustration. (Rom 8:20) The scripture says, when Adam and Eve sinned, sin entered into the, into the world itself. (Rom 5:12) And it was made subject to corruption. So mankind had to work, okay? We had to till the fields and do all that kind of stuff. So we had to work just to keep things going.  

Everything was going downhill. Okay? Everything's everything going. You can tell our bodies, everything goes downhill. Everything's wearing down. The sun is wearing down. Hey, if we were able to live for millions of years, pretty soon the sun's going to burn up. We're going to freeze to death. Sun's going away. That will find another star. Oh, it's going to burn up too. Everything's going downhill. Everything,

   the whole universe is going downhill.

That's what happened. It wasn't that way from the beginning, but everything's wearing down and sin entered into mankind. Okay? And so each of us has sin in us and other people.  

And so we're in this corrupted world where physically everything's going downhill and everything around us is full of sin. This is where we live in. And so if you just accept that and see the truth of the matter, then you say, okay, this is where we're at. Now. what do we do about it? We're in this spot, this crummy spot. What do we do? And God says,

  I will never leave you or forsake you.

(Heb 13:5)

In this world, you will have much trouble. 

Okay? He said it. But take heart. I have overcome the world. (John 16:33) And we're overcomers through him. (Rom 8:37) See? Audience: Amen!. And so be, we're to be in the world, but not of the world. (John 17:14) And so when you have that perspective, it changes everything when you say, okay, because

   it's our unrealistic expectations and our thinking that causes the trouble.

Because that's the, that's the start to anger.