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You know, we're starting a brand new series called Wise Guy,
and it's gonna be about a four week, kinda character study
of the wisest man in the Bible,
wisest man other than Jesus probably
who ever lived, Solomon,
and we'll be reading from Proverbs,
and also taking his story
from some of the other books that talk about him.
And I thought, here's something I'd like to do.
I'd like to issue a Wise Guy challenge
to everybody at the beginning of this series.
Now, what does that mean?
You know what, Proverbs I think
is one of the best books ever written,
and I think it's the best business book out there.
If you're a business person, you can benefit so much
from the wisdom and insight from Solomon.
I think it's the best relational book,
relationship book out there.
And so what I wanna do is I wanna challenge you
that during this series,
about 28 days, we'll do it for 31,
read a chapter a day from Proverbs.
Start today on,
just do the day of the month, this is the 9th of September,
and so look up Proverbs 9 and read that today,
and ask God to speak to you from it,
and go through until the end of the month,
and then start over it, beginning 'til,
we do it for 30, 31 days.
How many of you will join me
and you'll take the Wise Guy challenge,
put your hand up above,
elbow up above your ear, remember last year?
Okay, last week.
All right, good,
and all over the campuses you're doin' the same thing,
and we'll do it together.
All right, so, what's the best,
absolute all time best piece of advice
that you've ever received, okay?
- [Man] Believe in God.
- Believe in God, that's a good one. (chuckles)
What's the best, all time,
that's a great one, you probably can't top that one.
You got it in mind?
Maybe your mom told you, or a friend told you,
or you heard somewhere, best piece of advice.
I remember my brother, who's here this weekend,
I was having a,
I was gonna say an argument,
but I was just, I was educating someone on something, and,
(congregation laughs)
and he heard me doin' it, and he said,
here's a piece of advice for you, he said,
never wrestle with a pig,
because the pig loves it and you'll both get dirty.
How many of you know that's true,
just might as well not do it.
All right, so here's 10 that will help you,
all right, here's 10 pieces of advice.
Number one, buy a plunger before you need a plunger,
how many of you know-- (congregation laughs)
Yeah, that's good, that's good.
All right, don't ruin a good apology with an excuse.
Anybody ever done that?
Yeah.
If you keep comparing your life to someone else,
you'll never be happy.
Don't give up what you want most for what you want now.
Isn't that good?
Somebody needs to write that down.
Don't give up what you want most
for what you want now.
Short term thinking.
Get it working first and then make enhancements,
anybody have a testimony on that?
You're only seeing everybody else's highlight reel.
Okay, how many of you know on social media,
good advice, you're just seein' their highlight reel.
All right, living well is the best revenge, that's good.
Giving up is almost always easier than holding on.
That's good advice.
If you blame it on someone else,
don't expect it to get better.
Isn't that good?
I mean, if you want it to get better
don't be blamin', 'cause it may not.
And here's the best one,
be friends with people who own boats, okay?
(congregation laughs) That's good advice.
That's me.
I don't own a boat, but I have lots of good friends.
All right.
So, the wisest guy in the history of the world,
other than Jesus,
gave his son the best advice that's ever been given,
how many of you think that would be good stuff to know?
One person back here thinks,
maybe you're just scratchin' your nose,
but hey, I'll take anything right now.
The wisest guy who ever lived
gives his son the single best piece of advice.
It's like he's saying,
there's all this wisdom I've collected,
I'm gonna give you the one single best piece of advice.
How many of you think that'd be helpful to know?
Okay, I think so.
So what is it?
Here it is, right here.
Above all else, can you say above all else?
- [Congregation] Above all else.
- That means more than anything else,
more important than anything else.
Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Keep your mouth free of perversity,
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you.
Best piece of advice, above all else.
It's simple but profound, and what I wanna do
is I wanna take that and just teach on it,
and I've called the message
how to have the best day ever, best day ever.
How many of you could use some better days,
anybody use some better days?
I had a bad day this week.
Few months ago, or no, a couple weeks ago,
friend of mine who is a fly fishing guide in Montana
gave me a brand new fly rod, okay.
Brand new fly rod, and a nice one.
And so I brought it home
and I took it out of the package, put it together,
and just went out and practiced just a little bit
on a pond that's close to our house,
and so the next day I was gonna go try it out for real,
see if could catch a fish with it,
so I parked it right by the door inside our house.
Now, we have a vacuum cleaner
that is one of these self-propelled deals,
you guys familiar with those?
It's called a Roomba I think,
it's like a little robot about like this.
They're just incredible,
you tell 'em when you want it to vacuum,
you do it while you're away, while you're at work,
and they go and they vacuum your house,
and it's just a really cool little deal.
Well, I got home on Thursday from work
and the Roomba had actually eaten my fly rod.
In fact, here's the wire and all that,
and that's no problem, you can get new wire,
but the rod's broken in half.
I wanted to throw the Roomba,
wanted to destroy it, it's worse than a dog,
you understand what I'm sayin'?
Some of you love dogs, that's awesome.
But,
then I thought, that would make this
a really expensive bad day if I did that. (chuckles)
It's a bad day, you know.
But I believe, here's what I believe,
I believe that if we apply the wisdom from this passage
we're gonna have better days.
We have a better day, you have a better week,
and a better month, and a better year,
and ultimately you'll have a better life,
and so above all else, above all else,
let's take this passage and let's learn some things.
How can I apply this to bad days, to good days,
how can I have a better day?
And here's the first one,
is just simply guard your heart.
Guard your heart.
He says, above all else,
say above all else with me.
- Above all else. - Above all else,
guard your heart.
Because everything you do flows from it.
You know, when I was thinkin' about that passage
and how do I teach this this week,
'cause it's simple,
not easy, but it's very profound,
guard your heart.
I thought, what does a guard do?
What does a guard do?
A guard lets the right things in
and keeps the wrong things out, right?
So, a little over a year ago
I got a phone call and got an invitation to have dinner
with an Irish lead singer in an Irish band
that apparently still hasn't found what they're lookin' for,
and so he said, I want you to come and have dinner with me,
and then I want you to come to one of my concerts,
and we're gonna have the concert with or without you,
and it's gonna be in a stadium in Dallas
on a street with no name. (congregation laughs)
I've wanted to drop this name for over a year, Bono,
but anyway, so. (congregation laughs)
So I went, and we had a wonderful dinner,
and then went to the concert,
and what he says, he said, you're gonna be in a place
where the only people they're gonna let in
are friends and family of the band,
and so you've gotta wear this wristband,
it'll be right up front.
And so I put the wristband on
and I went to where I was supposed to go
and there was a guard there.
You know what the job of the guard was?
Was to let the right people in
and keep the riffraff out.
Well, I've never been anything but riffraff,
how many of you have ever snuck into something
that you should not have been?
You were riffraff, put your arm up high, okay.
That's me, I've gotten into all kinda fun things,
but never legally, you know,
and so now I'm somebody,
not because of me but because of the band that I was wearing
and I thought about that for two reasons.
Number one, I thought it made a good illustration
and I wanted to drop a name. (congregation laughs)
But that's what guards do,
guards keep the wrong thing and wrong people out
and let the right things in,
and so as you apply it to this scripture,
when you're guarding your heart what should you keep out?
Because out of it flows the issues of life.
And Ephesians 4:31 is very specific
about what you oughta guard your heart against.
It says get rid of, say get rid of.
- [Congregation] Get rid of.
- All. - All.
- Bitterness. - Bitterness.
- Yeah.
Guard your heart against bitterness,
and rage and anger, and brawling and slander,
along with every form of malice.
Guard your heart, because bitterness will ruin your day,
bitterness will ruin your week, it will poison your month,
and ultimately it will suck the life out of your life.
In fact, this verse right here, Hebrews 12:15,
says, look after each other.
It's talkin' to you and I, talkin' to the church,
and he says, watch for each other,
just look after each other,
that none of you fails to receive the grace of God.
Watch out for one another
that no poisonous root of bitterness
grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
No poisonous root.
How many of you
have ever done a garden, anybody ever done a garden?
Okay.
How many of you ever had weeds in your garden?
Everybody, everybody.
Everybody always has, there's always weeds in the garden,
and in the same way,
if you're alive, check your pulse, if you're alive,
you're gonna have opportunity to be bitter.
There's gonna be bitter weeds
that grow in the soil of your life.
Now, when they're like this
and when you're able just to pull 'em out,
then you can deal with 'em, it's not,
the fact that you have weeds, that you have bitterness,
that's not unusual.
If you deal with it, it's okay,
but if you let it go it'll choke the life,
there'll be no fruit that comes out of your garden.
And in the same way, the garden of your life,
if you allow a root of bitterness,
poisonous bitterness, in your heart,
if you don't guard your heart and you allow it in,
it will choke the life out of the fruit,
there'll be no fruit,
it'll choke the life out of you.
And here's what's interesting about bitterness,
and this is why we need a community,
is because you're usually the last person
to know that you're bitter.
In fact, if somebody points it out, you get mad.
Isn't that true?
Somebody says to you, I think you're a little bit bitter.
I'm not bitter.
Come here, I'll show you what bitter is, you know.
(congregation laughs)
And if we truly understood,
if we truly understood that we all get bitter,
how do you get bitter?
Somethin' doesn't go your way.
You think somebody gets a better shake than you.
She always gets all the breaks, you know.
Or if you're in relationship, there's a rub.
And listen, when you've got conflict in relationship
it's never 100% right, 0% wrong.
It could be as high as,
I've seen it occasionally as high as 90/10,
but usually it's about 65/35, or 45/55,
it's in that realm, and so what happens
is when you have any kind of conflict at all
you're both gonna get weeds,
you're both gonna get bitter, okay,
you're gonna get bitter weeds,
and if you understood that those bitter weeds are poisonous
and they will totally suck the life out of you
here's what you'd do if your friend or neighbor says,
I think there's some bitterness,
you'd go, oh please, please, please, please help me,
let's get rid of the bitterness
before it poisons me, our relationship,
and everybody, does that make sense?
So what we've got, we've gotta see it as huge
and we've gotta guard our heart.
We cannot let any bitterness in, because it will destroy.
Rage and anger is something else
that the scripture said that will ruin your day.
You've gotta put a guard,
you've gotta keep a guard against it.
How do you know if you're just upset, we all get upset,
or if you have an anger problem?
There's a difference.
Everybody gets upset, some people have an anger problem.
How do you know?
Do you find yourself gettin' mad over little things?
Somebody cut you off in traffic,
you can't control your fingers,
or you just, you get (growls).
In the parking lot at Seacoast I've seen that.
(congregation laughs)
It's gonna get worse
when we move into a 2500 seat auditorium, get ready.
Or, you know, you're in line at a grocery store
and you find yourself counting the number of products
in the cart in front of you. (congregation laughs)
It's 23, the sign says 20, you know,
and you're just boilin' over that stuff.
You probably have an anger problem.
You find yourself interrupting other people,
you're constantly interrupting,
it's anger problem, probably.
Do you rant a lot?
Politics, you just rant, rant, rant, rant, rant, rant, rant?
You have an anger problem.
Or even if it's about something as innocuous as sports.
You have an anger problem,
you're just rant, rant, rant, rant, rant, okay.
Do you hold grudges?
If you're gonna have a great day
you've gotta keep bitterness and anger and rage out,
you gotta guard, no tolerance,
no tolerance for those things, zero tolerance.
So, what should you let in when you guard your heart?
Here's some things.
The presence of God.
This is what's gonna give you a better day,
is the presence of God.
Well, how do you let the presence of God in?
Currently, I am practicing to be a blues guitar player.
I will never play anywhere,
but it's somethin' I wanna do
and I'm havin' a good time doin' it,
I've been doin' it for about a year and a half,
and there's somebody in the church that's teachin' me,
and it's kinda fun.
But here's what I've noticed about practicing
is that when you practice you get better,
would you agree with that?
And with guitar playing it's like,
sometimes you'll hit a road block,
I just can't do that, can't do it,
you practice enough, and then all of a sudden,
boom, you have a breakthrough.
Sometimes the breakthrough is unexpected,
but if you continue to practice, you'll get better.
Well, wouldn't it make sense
that if the most important thing in our lives is finding God
as the brother said earlier, the advice,
that practicing the presence of God
would be a positive thing for you,
would you agree with that?
Well, the question is,
how do you practice the presence of God?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Let me give you some ideas.
Be intentional with the first part of your day.
The first part of your day, be intentional.
You know, do you wake up just full of sweetness and light?
God bless you. (congregation laughs)
For the rest of us,
when you wake up, discipline your mind to do this.
It doesn't take a lot.
You just wake up, lights on, and you go,
God, thank You for today,
because I know several things about today.
Number one, You've been way out ahead of me on this day.
Number two, there's nothin' that I'll face today
that You haven't already conquered,
and number three, You love me more than I can imagine.
Just that little,
those little thoughts first thing in the day
helps you to, then you sense God's presence.
Or maybe it's during the day when there are disruptions,
or there's frustration, somethin' doesn't go right,
use that as an opportunity to practice gratitude.
Let me tell ya somethin'.
When entitlement walks in, gratitude leaves,
and entitlement is this idea
that I deserve more than I have.
And you do, but it's not good.
Gratitude, gonna practice, and as you practice gratitude,
thank You God, thank You for what You've given me,
even in this situation, God, I'm gonna trust You in it.
The presence of God,
presence of God comes into your heart
and you have a better day.
Or, I like to think about
30 second kinda God breaks throughout the day,
just 30 seconds.
God usually speaks in a still, small voice.
It's hard to hear when the radio's on,
it's hard to hear when the news is on,
it's hard to hear when you're doin' all kinda things,
and so in a 30 second period, just tiny periods of silence.
God, I wanna experience You.
I wanna be mindful of who You are
and what You're doing in my life,
and you begin to practice the presence of God,
and what happens is you get better
at experiencing God's presence, and you have a better day.
So the first thing you let in is the presence of God.
Second thing you let in is the power of Christian community.
I've already just alluded to this just a little bit,
but it's so very, very important,
the power of Christian community.
You weren't created to do this alone.
We have a church planning arm called the ARC,
Association of Related Churches.
Next weekend we're plantin' over 30 churches
in one weekend, if you can imagine,
and it will put the number of churches over 800
that we've planted in the last 15, 20 years.
And so I talk to pastors a lot.
We're havin' a west coast conference in two weeks
in Los Angeles, Orange County,
and we'll have a couple thousand pastors there,
we have a east conference, and it's gonna be here,
not next year, but the year after,
that we'll have 4000 pastors that will come to.
And then we host little events, I do this all the time,
of 10, 15, 20 at the most groups of pastors,
and be a two or three day event,
we'll have some fun, maybe go fishin',
and at night we'll sit around a table,
and I'll do the same thing.
I'm gonna give you a little illustration that will help you
because it helps create community.
In fact, just four, five weeks ago I was in Montana
and had a group, and there were 16 guys,
and only two of 'em knew each other.
And so you know how awkward that is,
kinda a little awkward, you know,
you don't know what to say and all this,
so we're sittin' around a table, and I said, okay, guys.
We'd just finished what I call our family meal, and I said,
I want each one of you to take about 30 seconds for each
and I want you to give me your high and your low right now.
You can be honest,
it can be in your church, your family,
personally, whatever.
High and low.
Now don't preach, 'cause they could preach for 20 minutes,
they're all preachers.
Just give me a high and a low.
Well what happens, it's always the same, always the same.
The first person or two'll, you know,
they'll share somethin' kinda surfacey
because that's kinda where we are at that point,
and person number three or four on their low,
it's never on the high,
on the low will share something
that's really from their heart.
You know, this just happened in my family,
or this just happened in my church,
or this just happened in a relationship,
or this is somethin' that's goin' on with me,
and they're always kinda hesitant to share,
but they share it.
This always happens.
Somebody over here will go,
you know what, I'm goin' through the same thing right now.
Somebody over here will go, me too,
I'm glad you brought that up.
Somebody back here will go,
here's somethin' that really helped me
'cause I just went through that.
Somebody else will say, why don't we pray
for these three guys right here?
You know what happens?
Community happens.
It just opens, opens,
there's a connection that's deep that God meant to happen
because, here's what I'll tell these guys,
is you weren't meant to do ministry alone.
And it's not just pastors, it's everybody.
You weren't meant to do life alone.
You were meant for community.
In fact, when you're alone too much,
assumptions go unchallenged.
I call it spending too much time in your own head.
How many of you have ever done that?
Okay, you have these assumptions that're unchallenged
and they just begin to build and grow,
or when you're alone you feel like you're the only one,
you don't realize, no, there's somebody here,
and somebody here, and somebody here,
and there's this guy or girl over here
that has just recently gone through that,
and this is some encouragement that they have.
When you're alone, the problem seems insurmountable,
and so you've gotta guard your heart
and you've gotta keep out the wrong things,
you gotta let the right things in,
which is the presence of God,
and the power of Christian community.
Do you have that now?
You've gotta have it.
I believe everybody needs to sit at at least one table,
and I'm at several tables,
with people who love you but are not impressed with you.
We're not trying to impress one another,
we just love one another.
This happens to be a Connect weekend at Seacoast,
we try to do that right at, a couple times a year,
right at the first of the year
and also when school's starting back,
and it's a time to get connected,
and we've got all kinds of booths in every campus
that are small groups that you can connect to,
every possible kind of small group you can imagine.
But you need to understand something.
I want you to take advantage of that,
but I also want you to know
that our value is not small groups.
'Cause you can have good small groups,
mediocre small groups, bad small groups.
Our value is community,
and I wanna challenge you to find that.
In fact, if you're in a small group right now,
I'd encourage you to take one week out of your study
and put the book away.
I don't know that I have the authority to do this
'cause I'm not over small groups,
but I founded this church, I can do anything I want to.
So, (congregation laughs)
I'd put the book away one week,
and I'd do a high/low, and see what happens.
See what happens.
See if we don't get some community.
So, let the power of community,
and then, you know, if you're stuck
and you're havin' a bad day,
the protection of a trusted counselor, let 'em in.
Don't stay stuck.
You may be stuck in your marriage right now.
Don't stay stuck.
Talk to a counselor.
I cannot believe, I mean, it just blows my mind,
and I've seen it many times over the years,
where you've got a couple that are havin' serious challenges
and one or the other of 'em won't talk to a counselor.
That's insane is what that is, that's insane.
Allow 'em in.
There are trusted counselors that can help you
get off of stuck, all right?
So, when guarding your heart, let these people in,
keep the wrong things out.
The first thing you've gotta do to have a great day
is guard your heart.
Here's the second one, and the second one's so important
because when you get the first one,
you go okay, there's bitterness, anger,
I'm gonna be honest about it,
but I'm not gonna let it in, I'm gonna pick the weeds,
I'm gonna get people around me
that will help me pick those weeds,
and I'm gonna get the right people,
I'm gonna practice the presence of God,
you get all of these things goin'.
This second one derails ya, and that's this.
Zip your lip.
(congregation laughs)
Anybody here have problems with your mouth?
Yeah, we all do.
Zip your lip.
Look what the scripture says.
It says keep your mouth free from perversity,
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
Zip your lip.
Anybody here ever ruined a perfectly good day
by sayin' the wrong thing?
Might've happened on the way to church today.
(congregation laughs)
That's why when I'm preachin',
Debbie and I have a two car policy.
(congregation laughs)
We can be fightin' like hell in the parking lot,
and I can be bringin' heaven here, you know,
it's not good. (congregation laughs)
It's not a good thing, I'm just bein' honest.
Bein' honest. (chuckles) (congregation claps)
Does that give you hope?
All right, so. (congregation laughs)
In a perverse kinda way, right?
I didn't say that in the other services,
I'm sorry, we'll bleep that out for the Internet.
All right.
Where are we at,
Ephesians 4:29 (congregation laughs)
says, do not let any unwholesome talk
come out of your mouth.
How much unwholesome talk is allowable?
- None. - Zero tolerance policy.
Zero tolerance policy.
But only what's helpful for building others up
according to their needs,
that it may benefit those who listen.
I used to think when I was a kid,
I used to think, I got that one down.
Unwholesome talk is swear words.
Not true.
You can be as clean with your swear words as you can be
and be violatin' the daylights out of this.
Now, there are other scriptures
that are important to keep your language clean,
but it's not this one.
This is talking about unwholesome talk,
things that tear people down rather than build 'em up,
doesn't matter what your needs are, it's for their needs.
You say, well what do you talk about then?
(chuckles) Might have to figure some new things out, okay.
James 1:26 says, those who consider themselves religious
and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues
deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless,
okay, it's worthless.
In fact it goes on, he says,
all kind of animals, birds, reptiles, sea creatures
are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind,
but no human being can tame the tongue.
You say, well, there you go,
there's nobody else that can do it,
I'll just keep, no, no, no, that's why you need Jesus.
That's why you need the power of the Holy Spirit,
you just need to recognize, I have a tongue problem.
I can't deal with it, I need God's power to help me.
It's a restless evil full of deadly poison,
and here's what Psalm 141:3 says.
It says, so set a guard,
that sounds like that first verse that we looked at.
Set a guard over my mouth, Lord.
The writer of the Psalms,
set a guard over my mouth,
keep watch over the doors of my lips.
Why is that important?
Because that'll ruin a good day.
You can get the other things right,
and destroy it with your mouth and with your lips.
So, how do you zip your lips,
how do you set a guard over your lips?
Let me give you three ideas.
One, make a covenant with your friends.
Let's start with your friends.
Make a covenant and say something like this,
maybe it's at a small group,
maybe it's a dinner, at coffee, or whatever,
and say, I wanna say somethin' to you right now,
and that's this, I will never speak evil of you.
I will never speak evil of you.
I don't care what you do,
I don't care what other people say,
you need to know I got your back,
I will never speak evil of you.
Set a covenant with your friends.
Here's the second thing.
Be willing to make people uncomfortable
by what you don't say.
You ever been around somebody
that makes people uncomfortable by what they do say?
Well, this is the opposite.
You ever been in a group
where people are talking about things and people
that they shouldn't be,
because the people that they're talking about
aren't in the room, and if they're not in the room
this is probably not a solution session,
this is a session that the zip the lip thing works for,
and you've got one person that won't say anything.
And pretty soon it gets really, really uncomfortable.
I challenge you to be that person, okay.
You be the person
that makes people uncomfortable in your group
by what you won't say.
And the third thing is redefine loose talk as wicked deeds.
Wicked deeds, it's not just a problem, it's wicked.
In fact, remember the verse, 141:3 Psalm,
where he said, set a watch over my mouth,
look what he says in the next verse, verse 4.
He says, don't let my heart be drawn to what is evil.
What's evil?
It's the talk, it's the talk, evil talk.
So that I take part in wicked deeds
along with those who are evildoers,
do not let me eat their delicacies.
It's talk, it's talk.
He sees how important that is.
Zero policy for lame talk.
If you're gonna have a great day,
you've got to guard you heart,
you gotta zip your lip,
let me give you one more,
you're gonna like this one better.
Although this one was good,
how many of you would agree this was good?
Three people over here. (congregation laughs)
All right, here it is, fix your gaze.
Fix your gaze.
How many of you have ever taken a carriage ride
in Charleston, the city of Charleston,
anybody ever, or been on a cart that a horse pulls,
you ever done that?
Anybody that comes to Charleston,
pastors, friends, guests, they always ask me,
what's the one thing that I should do in Charleston?
I always say, take a carriage ride,
'cause I think it's probably the best thing you could do.
I don't know if anybody owns a carriage company here,
but you owe me money for that,
but anyway, (congregation laughs)
this ride brought to you by Greg Surratt
so he can buy a new fly rod.
Okay, so. (congregation laughs)
So, what are these called?
- [Congregation] Blinders.
- Why do horses that pull carriages
have blinders or blinkers on,
they call 'em blinkers and blinders.
Why?
'Cause they want to keep 'em from gettin' distracted
by what's around them,
and they want to keep them from being terrified,
or spooked by, or panicked by what's behind the wagon.
And so the blinders force the horse
to look in a forward direction.
Can I ask you a question?
Have you ever been panicked
by what you see behind your wagon?
Have you?
Maybe it's somethin' relationally goin' on back here,
and you're kinda spooked by that,
or maybe it's a financial deal that's happening back here,
you're kinda spooked,
or maybe it's a career thing, or a health thing,
or maybe it's a hurricane,
and it's behind your wagon, it's behind your wagon.
Well, here's true, here's what's true,
what is behind your wagon
has either already happened,
or hasn't happened yet and probably never will.
500 years ago a philosopher named Michel de Montaigne said,
my life has been filled with terrible misfortune,
most of which never happened. (chuckles)
Would you agree with that?
Well you know, that was just a funny statement for 500 years
until recently, this last year I think,
they did a study about whether that's true or not.
What they did is they looked into
how many of our imagined calamities never materialize.
So what they did is they had
the people who were in the study,
they asked 'em to write down their worries
over an extended period of time, and then identify
which of their imagined misfortunes didn't happen.
And what they found out is that 85% of the things
that people worried about never happened.
85%.
You say yeah, but what about that 15?
Well, on that 15 what they found out is
that a large percentage of the subjects discovered
that either they could handle the difficulty
better than expected,
or the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning,
which meant, when they did all the numbers,
that 97% of what you worry over
is not much more than your fearful mind
punishing you with exaggerations.
97% of what you worry about is worthless.
So, if you're gonna have a great day,
you're gonna have to learn to fix your gaze.
Maybe you need some human blinders.
The Arnold has some here.
If those are kinda weird for ya,
I looked through to find some stylish,
there's some stylish ones right there,
maybe you need to invest in some of those.
So, here's what the scripture said, the proverb,
he said, let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze, say fix your gaze.
- [Congregation] Fix your gaze.
- Fix your gaze directly before you.
So here's the question,
if you're gonna have a good day, great day,
you've gotta learn to fix your gaze,
what do you fix it on?
Colossians 3:1.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,
set your hearts on things above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds, your minds,
your eyes, think about things above,
not on earthly things, which are temporal,
the things above are eternal.
Fix your thoughts on Jesus,
whom we acknowledge as our apostle and our high priest.
Fix your thoughts, look straight ahead,
fix your thoughts on Jesus.
Let me tell you what I know about Jesus.
Because of Jesus, your future is better than your past.
What's ahead of you is better than what's behind your wagon,
okay, that's why you need blinders.
Because Jesus, His sacrifice paid for your sin.
I mean, every mistake, every careless word,
everything you've ever done,
will do, or are doing currently,
Jesus paid for it.
His death paid for your sin.
I know this,
He promises to turn everything out for your good.
You may be havin' a bad day.
I mean, there may be things goin' on
that you go, man, nobody oughta go through this.
Here's what I'm learnin', is that I'm very,
I'm very slow to put a good tag or a bad tag on a day,
on what happens, how many of you ever had
somethin' you thought was good and it ended up bein' bad,
or somethin' bad that ended up bein' really good?
Only way you can know whether it's good or bad
is if you're omniscient, so why worry about that,
let's just not put the big tag on it
and then weigh our mind down.
And here's the second thing I know,
is that even if it ultimately ends up to be a bad thing,
God's word promises that He'll turn everything out
for our good, even the bad things.
Romans 8:28, all things, say all things.
- All things. - All things,
bad things, good things,
all things work out for the good of those that love Him,
that's why Paul says, who had some days that I'd say bad,
were bad in my eyes, he said, you know what,
if God is for me, who can be against me?
That's how to have a good day,
because Jesus died for our sins,
makes us promises that He'll turn out
even the difficult things for our good,
and then here's somethin' else I know about Jesus,
is that He's preparing a place for you
that's beyond description.
That's what He's up to right now.
You ever had a conversation
where somethin' bad had happened
and somebody says how you're doin',
and you say, well, better than the alternative.
You ever said that?
It's not true.
I don't care how good your day is,
it's not better than the alternative,
because the alternative is heaven.
I'm not sayin' that you oughta take your life,
that creates a whole 'nother set of issues,
but whatever you're experiencing right now, good or bad,
it pales in comparison to what He has planned for you.
The Bible says, no eye has seen, no ear has heard,
no mind could conceive
the stuff that He's got planned for your future.
Fix your gaze on Jesus.
Fix your gaze.
See, your only concern ought to be, am I in Christ?
That's the only concern.
Everything else is of no concern.
Am I in Christ?
See, the wisest guy in all the world tells his son
that the keys to living a great life, havin' a great day,
boil down to three basic principles,
guard your heart, zip your lip, fix your gaze.
What if we all took him seriously at that?
What if all of us set a guard
over what we let into our hearts?
We kept the wrong things out, the right things in,
we said, I'm not gonna have bitterness in there.
I mean, it'll crop up from time to time, that's normal,
I'm gonna get it, and you help me look at it, okay,
make sure I don't let that spoil everything.
I'm not gonna allow anger to destroy my day
and everybody's day around me, help me with that.
What if we all did that?
What if we invited God's presence
on a regular basis into our lives,
or maybe we let people in into community.
What if we set a zero tolerance policy on lame talk,
and put blinders on so that we're blissfully unaware
of what's behind the wagon?
Do you think that'd make a difference
in the quality of your life?
I do.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank You for this wonderful church,
people that You've gathered together today.
We're here to seek You,
to come after You today.
And so God I pray that in the next few minutes
as we process what's been taught
that You would help us to make commitments,
to develop relationships,
whatever's necessary,
in order to taking that next step
to havin' a great forever.
And so God, I pray that Your kingdom would come
and Your will would be done,
in Jesus' name we pray, amen.