Mr. Les McCullough

Sermon Transcript
October 12, 2002

Your Image

I have a question for you today. How would others describe you? You know oftentimes you ask someone, Well, what kind of a guy is so and so? What is it about you that sticks out in other people’s minds? When asked about you, what is the impression that comes to their mind? Your image, what is your image? Now there are obvious things, you’re short or you’re tall, stooped or well-built, fat or skinny, introvert or extrovert, you have blond hair, black hair, red hair or no hair. Those things all stick out, they remember those. You seem happy or maybe you’re morose, maybe you’re pleasant. What is it that people remember? Now I know that not all first impressions are right and that over a period of time those impressions may change, but also over a period of time, those impressions may stick. So what is it that sticks out in the minds of other people when they get to know you, when they meet you and get to know you?

You know many years ago, some few in the audience will remember the individual I have reference to, I mean nothing derogatory at all, but many years ago there was a man at the college in Pasadena, I think he graduated by the time I got there, he was red-headed, quite a homely individual, really no one would say he was a good looking man. Quite a homely individual had two fingers on this hand and a thumb and three fingers on the other hand, I don’t remember exactly. But when you first met him you were struck by the fact that this is really one homely individual. He’s dead now, I’m not defaming him in any way. But as the years went by, as time when by and you got to know him, you realized this man is really a fine man. Couldn’t say anything negative about him, couldn’t say anything bad about him, all of the immediate impression that you see disappeared and when you thought of him, when you heard his name, you thought of a certain type of personality, certain friendly smile and a guy that was willing to work and help in whatever way he could to do whatever he could. And so my point being, sometimes that first impression completely washes away.

But since this is the Sabbath, what is the spiritual impression that you make on other people? Do they say, That’s a converted person, they’re kind, considerate, dedicated, fair, zealous? And of course there are some people that others would say, Well they’re weak, lethargic, poorly motivated, selfish, self-indulgent. Now it’s obvious which impression we’d like to have, but I’m asking, what impression do you really ultimately present? Whichever one a man may think he sees, God sees in reality. When you read the bible, you see that down deep God saw and says that Noah was a just man, that Abel was a righteous man, that Moses was a meek man. These are terms that were descriptive of the individual that made the impression so much so that they were stated and they ended up in the bible. Timothy was fearful, that doesn’t necessarily mean something bad, but he was timorous. Peter was impetuous, Paul was hard to understand, Zacharius and Elizabeth were called righteous and Mary, well-favored in God’s sight. So I don’t need to go on, you can see my point, but God did sort of categorize or name people in a certain way and explained or said this is what they are or the way they are, this is the impression you get when you get to know them.

Well I’d like to start with you today in Proverbs 23 and in Prov. 23, I know you’ve all heard this scripture before, I don’t know how deep of an impression it may have made upon you, I would hope that today it will help it to make a little deeper impression on you. But in Prov. 23:7 it says:

Prov. 23:7 — For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

As a man thinks in his heart, that’s what he is. Now sometimes we have people who describe themselves in all kinds of ways and they tell you how loving and caring they are and so on, and yet their actions overall indicate that that really isn’t the case. They may say it, they may talk about it, they may talk a good fight, but that really isn’t the way that it is. That the heart speaks far more loudly than what we say orally. We can keep up appearances for a long time. I honestly wonder, Mr. Jewell was referring to the fact that so many people have left, I honestly wonder if in many cases those people finally just wore out. They could keep up a good appearance, they heard something and they had a certain identification with it, it didn’t necessarily go way down deep, but they knew that this is the way that it should be and they could go ahead and conduct themselves in a certain way and give a certain appearance, but as time went by, they simply gave out, they could no longer maintain that appearance, they could no longer keep up the show.

Because if enough pressure comes upon, from whatever, we ultimately react by what is allowed in our hearts. So if a lot of pressure is put on you, then the first thing, or sooner or later, the thing that comes out is what really is down deep in the heart and unfortunately so many times, secretly held resentment or bitterness well up and begin to influence and cause the person to act in a different way altogether. So people then begin to look for the loose brick, they’re going along the brick wall, wiggling and working every brick there, trying to find the loose brick in God’s way, so if they can get that brick loose, they can go ahead and duck out, go through the hole where the brick was and go a different way. And obviously if we look hard enough, we’re ultimately going to find a loose brick. You know if you keep wiggling all the bricks in the wall, sooner or later you’re going to find one that will give a little bit and then you wiggle it some more and it gives a little more and finally you can work it out of the place it has in the wall and have the escape hole where you can get away, if that’s what you’re looking for. Back in Matthew 12:33, Christ was speaking and He said:

Matt. 12:33 — "Either make the tree good and its fruit good…because obviously for a tree, what is down in its roots, what its base is, what’s the core of the tree, that’s what the fruit is going to come out and if the tree has been lacking in water and lacking in fertilization and having all kinds of deficits in that way, the fruit that comes out is not going to be strong, it’s not going to be ripe, it’s not going to be delicious, but rather you’ll get some pretty poor fruit that comes out of it. Now that’s not exactly what He’s talking about, obviously, but He says…either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for a tree is known by its fruit."

Now what I’m saying to you today is, we are known by our fruit. We are known by what our heart speaks. Sometimes when we’re not on our guard. He went on to say:

V. 34 — "Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."

V. 35 — "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth evil things."

So maybe we don’t think too much about what our heart is, maybe we don’t think too much about what we allow to go into our minds and sort of feed upon, so it becomes a part of us and then as a result, is what ultimately comes forward when we are put under pressure. In Matthew 15:18 it says the same thing. Christ was speaking to them and they’d been talking about what goes into the mouth defiling and so on and He says:

Matt. 15:18 — "But those things which proceed out of the mouth…those things which are spoken by the individual or acted upon, as far as the way they act and the way they conduct themselves…come from the heart, and they’re what defile a man." They’re what show his true image is, what his motivation is.

V. 19 — "For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses and blasphemies."

Now certainly this past week we’ve had several news stories that you wonder, what makes an individual act that way? Why does some guy grab a couple of girls out in the parking area and throw them into a vehicle and run off with them? What motivates him? Well, of course what he’s put into his heart and mind, what he’s allowed himself to think about, what he’s sat back and nurtured is what ultimately causes him to act and sometimes it finally comes out and obviously then other people pay a very serious price. He goes on to say:

V. 20 — "These are the things that defile a man, not eating with unwashed hand…

You know many times people get very frustrated or get very worried or they get very concerned that they find themselves under pressure and what happens, they wreck their car or they smash their finger or their child gets picked up by the police or something and they revert to cursing and then they sort of think, Oh man, I’ve really done it now, I’ve really cooked my goose, because that may have been the way they conducted their lives previously and when the huge pressure comes on, they may slip, they’ve been controlling themselves, but it may be something, maybe they can slip and something can pop out that they really would rather not pop out and then they have to say, Well I guess I’d better repent of that, because that’s not what they intended, that’s not what they want, and yet at the same time, it’s buried there so deep, I mean all of us have buried things so very deep from our past, whatever things they may be. I had a dream last night and it’s generally the same sort of dream that I have had over the last 25 years, same individual involved, same sort of circumstance and situation where they’ve been my boss and they’ve directed me and so on and periodically, every once in a while, I have a dream about this individual and we’re doing something and I’m going along, I’m being told what I am to do and so on and it’s buried down there so deep, I can’t get rid of it. It just comes up. I haven’t thought about the individual, I haven’t talked to the individual, I haven’t been around the individual, but it’s just so much a part of me and the past, so deep down there that something, some little thing triggers something and I go to sleep and then I dream that night about this particular person. They’re not bad circumstances, they’re not anything wrong with him, but it’s just that it’s there and you can’t seem to eradicate it entirely and that’s what I mean, something so far down inside you that you…at a time of stress, may react.

Now what we need is to be replacing that or to be putting so much over the top of it that are the right things, the right thoughts, the right actions, the right meditations, what we’re putting into our mind are the right things going into our minds, not dwelling on all kinds of evil, all kinds of filth, all kinds of other things. Our minds are sort of like a computer, garbage in, garbage out. And if you let yourself think wrong thoughts and you sort of take pleasure in thinking, boy someday I’m going to get even with that guy, I’ll fix his wagon and sort of think of all the things you might want to do, that’s not right, you need to cover that up, you need to try and get rid of it entirely, because what’s in the heart finally comes out and that’s what creates the impression that other people have. Proverbs 16:1.

Prov. 16:1-2 — The preparations of the heart belong to man…what we put into our heart, that belongs to us…but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits.

He looks at what the intent of the heart is, He looks at what is going on down deep that is going to motivate us and cause us to go whichever way we go, so He can have a fairly good idea, looking down into the future, He can have a fairly good idea, based upon our track history, how under pressure we’re going to react, unless He gives us a great deal more help. So sometimes we can fool people, but God knows. And that’s the reason we need to keep our hearts and minds as pure as we can, as filled with right things, I don’t necessarily mean you need to go around quoting scriptures to yourself all the time, but filled with the right kind of thoughts, with the right kind of hope, the right kind of expectation and reminding ourselves once in a while, I really ought to be more concerned than I am about this situation. I don’t know, you know your bible tells you that you’re suppose to pray for the government that we have, that we may have peace, that we may have contentment, that we may not have difficulties.

Now you can answer for yourself you know, when was the last time that you thought about asking God to bless the government of the United States of America and Britain…to bless George Bush, that he might make proper decisions. Now you may think, well he’d never make a proper decision one way or the other, O.K., maybe you need to be praying a whole lot more about it then if you think he doesn’t have the ability to make a proper decision, maybe you’d better be asking God to go ahead and intervene and make him make a proper decision. But I’m not trying to embarrass anybody or anything, but you know you stop and think, I know I sometimes stop and ask myself, Well, wait a minute, now when was the last time I really prayed about it and asked God to help them resolve the problem with the terrorists, in whatever way He sees fit? That doesn’t necessarily mean capture Bin Laden and kill him, but whatever God knows is the best thing for His plan, the best thing for the future, because He is going to work out His plan, He’s going to do the things He intends and we need to go ahead and support that as much as we possibly can. But if we can just say, Father, we need Your help, we’re human, fallible, weak individuals and our government, it’s the best that there is, that’s not necessarily saying much, so give us the help and guidance that we have need of. Direct our men in government. Now I don’t know, I’m sure God wasn’t involved with Traficant, but at least he’s been taken care of, he’s got 8 years he’s looking at for everything he’s done and yet he professes his own righteousness and his own fairness and everything.

So I’m just saying, we need to allow ourselves to be so filled with appropriate thoughts, ideas, desires, hopes, that what does come from us is based upon something very very solid, very substantial and very worthwhile. Now back in Matthew 5:48 it says:

Matt. 5:48 — Therefore, become perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Now there are those in the past who really knock that in the head, saying, Well obviously you’re never going to be as perfect as God and that’s not really what it’s saying. Well, I prefer to go ahead and accept it the way we’ve always thought about it. It’s a progressive thing…become….now I think the Old King James says, "be perfect." No, obviously we’re not going to be perfect, nothing in this life is perfect, but we need to be striving for it, we need to be striving to get some kind of perfection in our lives, to be reaching forward for better goals, for higher better thoughts and desires, for a lifelong goal — our goal in life is to attain salvation. Now we have salvation in that we’ve repented, in that we have God’s spirit, but we do not have salvation in that we’re a part of the family of God and that needs to be out there, that we’re reaching for, we’re stretching for, that we’re thinking about, that is a motivator to us, I want to attain salvation. And in attaining salvation, we ultimately then also will obtain perfection! But in this age, we’re going to make mistakes, we’re going to do things we ought not to do, we’re going to have bad luck, if you want to call it that, happen to us, there are things that aren’t going to go necessarily the right thing, but at the same time, if we’re striving for perfection in our thoughts and in our minds and desires and attitudes, then we’re reaching out and we get to a higher plateau and then a little higher plateau and some of those plateau’s take a long time to arrive at! And some of us have had a long time to get there! We’ve had a lot of years to go ahead and be perfecting. Oh there are still all kinds of flaws and all kinds of problems, but hopefully they’re being worked upon. In Hebrews 4, a very important thing for us to keep in mind:

Heb. 4:14 — Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession…take a hold of it with a death grip and don’t ever let anything pry your fingers loose.

Now I would assume that for most of us, over the last six, seven, eight years, we’ve perfected our grip a bit, that we’re hanging on more tightly than perhaps we have in the past. But we need to hold fast our profession and not let it slip, not let it get away from us. But it goes on to say:

V. 15 — For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Now the temptations came upon Him, the five senses reacted to things around Him, and He might have been tempted in some way, well, it says He was tempted in all points, so He had some aspect of temptation in all things and He didn’t let it affect Him. His mind was so much on His purpose in life that He had to live a perfect life in order to be our Savior and He was determined to do that and He did that. But then it goes on to say:

V. 16 — Let us therefore…because of that fact, that we have a High Priest, we have an advocate that is so very much desireous of our attaining to what He has set out for us, that He’s going to intervene, that He understands the points of weakness and He’ll give strength and help, if we’re trying for it, if we’re striving for it, so it says…Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

That when those difficult times come about and when we may tend to slip a little bit, that we have the ability to call upon our advocate, to call upon the holy spirit, and His spirit can accomplish great things with us. We think "great things" — let’s see, what would be a "great thing?" Well a great thing would be — well you put in whatever. A great thing would be to become the President of the United States, a great thing would to become a president of some big company. A great thing might be to have the ideal mate come along, all kinds of things that we think of as great things. It says His spirit can accomplish great things with us, but do you realize how many great things God’s spirit has accomplished with you, since you were converted, since you were baptized? How many great things He’s accomplished, which would never be accomplished otherwise. You look at yourself, however long ago you want to go back and you stop and think, what kind of an individual was I and then you look at yourself today and I would surely hope you see some vast changes, some almost immeasurable changes, and you didn’t do that by yourself, you had God’s spirit giving you help, you had God’s spirit conquering whatever it was that was a major difficulty for you. And I’ve counseled people about all kinds of difficulties and some people have had some horrendous problems, just horrendous problems and there was no way they were going to conquer those if God didn’t intervene, if He didn’t give them strength. But time goes by and slowly they begin to overcome and they ultimately come to the point where they’ve conquered it and it doesn’t trouble them anymore. Back in Genesis 17:1.

Gen. 17:1 — When Abram was ninety-nine years old…ninety-nine years old, I have a mother-in-law that is ninety-six and I can honestly say, I hope I never get there, I mean life’s pretty boring for her, she doesn’t hear very well, can’t see very well, doesn’t have a lot of physical strength, so she gets up at 5 in the morning, starts her day bright and early and sits down in her chair and sits there and looks out the window or maybe turns the TV on and that’s the day. Finally at night they help her get back in bed and she hopes she sleeps, boy I don’t know, that just doesn’t look like much of a life to me, but of course, that’s up to God, He will do what He will do…ninety-nine years old and the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am the Almighty God, walk before Me and be blameless."

Now did God give him an impossible task? Did He say, Well Abram, you poor character you, I’m going to give you a job to do and there is no way you’re ever going to do it, you can’t accomplish it, but if you don’t accomplish it, I’m going to go ahead and deal with you most severely, because He said, Walk before Me blameless. My point being, He gave Abram, Abraham as it became, a task and He said, Become blameless. Well the same applies to us, that we’re suppose to be blameless. I have a sermon that I, well, I won’t give it here, you don’t get it, but on being blameless. You know, how can you be blameless with all the mistakes and problems you have? But you can, so anyhow, He told Abraham to be blameless, but he made mistakes, he did some pretty silly things, he lied to the Pharaoh about Sarah and said that she was his sister. It’s technically, if you stretch it far enough, she was, but at the same time she was more closely his wife and you know all kinds of other things, I won’t try to go into them, I’m not trying to beat up Abraham, but he had mistakes, he made mistakes and yet he’d been told, You are to be blameless. But God gave him help, He gave him strength and finally, He made a comment about Abraham that if you could just have that made about you, whoever you are, in Genesis 26:4, He said to Abraham:

Gen. 26:4 — "I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven, I will give to your descendants all these lands and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed"…the reason why:

V. 5 — "because Abraham obeyed My voice, kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My law."

Abraham was blameless in that sense. So what I’m saying is, it’s not an impossibility for us. Sure, Abraham’s humanity showed through occasionally, but he didn’t let it become an excuse to go off some other way. He struggled with it and worked with it and he ultimately overcame it to the best of his advantage and God gave him the power of the holy spirit to go ahead and help him move along that way. In Deuteronomy 18:9, it’s talking to the people of Israel and it says:

Deut. 18:9 — "When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations."

So when I say we need to watch what we put into our hearts and minds, the things that he’s talking about here are a part of what people put into their hearts. They begin to think in wrong ways and they begin to allow that to affect the way that they conduct their lives. So he went on to say:

V. 10-13 — "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or anyone who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead, for all those who do these things are an abomination to the Lord and because of these abominations, the Lord your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God."

Today we have people doing all those things, we have the Church of Satan that people become a part of, we have people going to seerers, we have people going to sorcerers and so on to have their future told by the stars or whatever, all kinds of strange and weird and foolish things that the people of God, or the nation of God are doing. But He says you’re not suppose to do that, you’re to be blameless.

V. 14 — "For these nations which you will depose, listened to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you."

So as we see the wrongs in our lives, or the wrongs in the lives around us, we need to not allow them to go down into our hearts, to continue to ask God to show us how to change. People become hopeless when they look at all of the things that could possibly be sin, all of the temptations and the weaknesses and the problems that we battle everyday and sometimes people just say, I can never do it. But my point is, God wants us to be striving, He wants us to be moving that way, He’s perfectly happy to give us the holy spirit and the kind of strength to go ahead and accomplish it and we have to have a positive attitude, that our God is so magnificent and so powerful and so wonderous that He can make us perfect. Each one of us, He can make us blameless. He is so powerful that He can make each one of us blameless.

Now we simply have to come to the point that we realize we can’t live by "what if." You know, so many times people say, "Well, but what if this happens, what am I going to do? And what if that happens? Then it’s going to be a real problem. What about this?" You can’t live on that, you can’t live that way. You have to put the "what ifs" put them aside and look at the promises that God gives, that He will give help and that He will provide, we’re going to have to work hard at it, we’re going to have to struggle with it, we’re going to have to push ourselves, but He will provide and the advocate is there, knowing what our hearts are, and if our hearts are honest and sincere, He’s going to go ahead and give us the help and the strength that we need. Hebrews 4:12.

Heb. 4:12 — For the word of God is living and powerful…I would hope that we would think about that occasionally, that as we pick up our bibles, or as we prepare for our studies or as we are just mulling things over in life, that we realize that the word of God is living, it’s not dead, it’s not just something that is in the pages of this book, but it lives…and is powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and the spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

You know if you can’t hide from God, then the best thing to do is to strive to make the intent of the heart so right that we find favor in His sight, that we’re doing everything we can to make it appropriate, that we begin to show the impression that the Father has upon us. Now I don’t know all of you, I know many of you, and I do know that for those that I know, that certainly you can say that God has made an impression. Some I’ve known for years, but God has made an impression, there have been real changes, that really the individuals reflect God a whole lot more than they did in the past. I certainly hope that’s true of all of us. In Philippians 2:12 it goes on to say:

Phil. 2:12 — Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only…not just because it’s the Sabbath and you’re at church, but your way of life, your way of thinking, your way of acting is one of obedience…but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

V. 13 —…for it is God who works in you both to will…to give you the will, and to give you the ability…and to do His good pleasure. That that God has that power and that strength and that ability and allows us then to become blameless in that way.

What goes into our hearts ultimately affects the way we live our life. So certainly we need to be sure that what goes into our hearts is the best possible material that can go into someone’s heart. You know someone who is a rancher, a breeder of fine stock is most particular about what kind of feed he gives that stock. You know he’s got a hundred thousand dollar race horse, then he’s most particular about what that horse eats, what goes into it and what’s around it, because that’s a money maker for him. Now we can all think, we can all identify with money, we can all identify with making money, but that’s the way that it is, if it’s going to make money for you, we can be pretty careful, but what we have as far as the calling we’ve been given, is so much more valuable than all the money in the world, that there simply is no comparison, there is no way that you can come to any comparison. In I Corinthians 2:6:

I Cor. 2:6-8 — However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature…talking about spiritually mature…yet not the wisdom of this age, nor the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, that none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory. They simply wouldn’t have done that.

V. 9 — But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

V. 10 — But God has revealed them to us through His spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

So on the one hand he says man doesn’t know, man can’t understand, man’s not able to appreciate and then on the other hand he says, but God has revealed to us, to His people, those incredible things of what His plan is, where it’s going, what it’s going to accomplish, how it is accomplished and all of the tremendously good things about it. I Chronicles 28:9. Solomon is getting some direction. It says:

I Chron. 28:9 — "As for you my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you and if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever."

But He knows the thoughts of the heart, He knows the intent, He knows what our motivations are and He can tell us what caused us to have that kind of motivation, what we put into our minds that allowed us to start in thinking that way. Back in Philippians 3, we’ve been in Philippians a lot today. In Phil. 3:12, Paul was saying:

Phil. 3:12 — Not that I’ve already attained, or am already perfected…Paul knew he wasn’t, he hadn’t attained and he wasn’t yet perfected…but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

V. 13 — Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I strive, I struggle.

V. 15 — Therefore let us, as many as are mature…spiritually mature, spiritually maturing…have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. What he’s saying, press toward that high mark, to that great calling.

Now I started out by asking you, what do you like? Short, fat, handsome, ugly, impetuous, sort of slow, happy and bright and smiling or morose? You know you see people sometimes, the corners of their mouths are turned down and you just look at them and, oh gag, what happened to them? There was a woman on television that they were interviewing and you thought, boy, what happened to that poor lady? Life must be really bad for her, but her mouth was turned down and her eyebrows were frowning. So what are we like? What sort of impression do we make? The best answer that can be given, the one that we certainly ought to hope that others think of when someone asks them about us, what kind of an image do we portray, what are we like? That someone would simply say, they portray the image of God. Now they probably wouldn’t say that, because we don’t like to get too religious, but wouldn’t it be nice if every time someone thought about you, they thought, There’s a Christian. That’s the image we want, a Christian with all the warts and all the imperfections and all of the difficulties and problems that we may have, but the greatest thing they can say about you is that you’re a Christian, that the impression you give is that you’re striving for the image of the Father, to be your way of life.