Sermon Transcript — November 13, 2004
Let's begin the sermon with an apology. I prepared this sermon for a certain group of people. Last week I prepared a sermon on Marriage Killer No. 4 on selfishness. This week I would like to speak to a certain group in the room today. I would like to speak to the teenagers. I would like to speak to the young, single adults. I would like to speak to the young married adults, people that probably run from about twelve, thirteen up to about thirty. For the rest of you in the room, I don't know what to do for you, but what I'll do is I'll just simply say to you, perhaps you already know all of these things and perhaps you can turn around and be a good mentor as Titus 2 says, that the older men with the younger men, the older women with the younger women to teach them these things because I'm sure that all of you probably know most of these, but today I'd like to take our young group into an area that I hope will be helpful to them and give them some principles today to work with.
I entitled this sermon "How to Develop Your Full Potential" or "What I Wish I Knew When I Was Twenty-One." How to develop your full potential or what I wish I knew when I was twenty-one because today I will take you through some principle that I would like to share in a spiritual area that has to do with your physical life.
Some years ago there was a psychologist named Abraham Maslow and you had before you a pyramid. That pyramid is a pyramid of what he described as hierarchical needs that each person has, certain basic drives and needs which have been, while he doesn't call them creative, we call them created as a part of the human being. Now he listed these needs in the order of their importance starting at the foundational level as you see by the diagram that is given. You see that they start at this bottom level and then they begin to move up in this pyramid from one through five.
He then tells us that the objective for a human being is to move up the ladder of hierarchical needs to finally come to the place that what you do is you self-actualize or become the person that you are capable of becoming. I would like to take you through those and while I will put a disclaimer on this afternoon, while perhaps some people don't agree with all five of these principles or the way that they're set up, I'm going to for the sake of the sermon take you through these five and then bring you back to some principles upon which you can understand the proper application or the best application of those principles in your life.
Mr. Maslow said that the first need that a human being had at the basic level was a physiological need that is there was a necessity to maintain human life, the ability to survive, to live as a human being and you needed food, you needed water, you needed oxygen and you needed rest. And those are the basic foundational needs of every human being. This is what he said.
The second thing he said you need is have safety needs. This includes a lifestyle that gives protection and avoidance of danger. It has structure rather than total disorder and chaos in an individual's life.
He then went on to say that the next need that is there, this need as I call it before you; the created need is a need for love. It is a desire for affection and for affectionate relationships with people, not just one person, but with many people. He goes on to say that the fourth level of this particular pyramid is called esteem needs, which simply suggests receiving suggestion as a worthwhile person or the ability to feel wanted and needed and loved and also to see yourself as an individual that is capable, worthwhile as a human being. We call it, some people call, self-esteem. Some people call it godly esteem. Some people call it by various things. I'm just going to simply call them esteem needs.
And number five self-actualization needs. This is the need to become the person one has the potential to become, and I do believe that when we begin to understand this in the light of where I'm going to go with the sermon, I'm going to also include with that the incredible human potential. The incredible human potential.
Now in our western culture there are these five basic drives or needs can find fulfillment in many people. A lot of human beings find that they are able to carry these out. In a society like we live in financially, wealth-wise we are able to find a greater fulfillment of these five basic things that Maslow talks about than perhaps the third world countries because in the third world countries they struggle just simply to survive, just to live, just to find food to put in their mouths at the end of the day.
But Professor Maslow missed one basic need, which is the key to being able to reach our incredible human potential. He simply did not understand it. He did not grasp it, but it is the key that we're going to work from today as we deal with this particular physical ladder of needs created, I do believe in an overall sense, by God.
I want you to turn to I Corinthians 2:14. I want you to read what the apostle Paul said. This is the basis upon which we will operate the principles about how to reach your potential as a young person, as a young adult, as a young married couple in this particular realm or this particular area that we're going to talk about today. This is I Corinthians 2:14. Paul says...
I Corinthians 2:14. "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God..."
He simply doesn't get it. He doesn't understand what human beings need, he doesn't understand how human beings are made and they, the man simply doesn't grasp these spiritual matters and so he says that...
Verse 14. "...the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
This is the missing dimension; this is the missing dimension that Mr. Maslow did not understand. The sixth, or most important need, of yours and mine is simply the need to have what we describe simply as this innate hunger and thirsting that is there to be satisfied to be able to feel a sense of satisfaction with life, with yourself, with knowledge, with understanding, the ability it is for the spirit of God to unite with the spirit in man to find, complete, and total fulfillment.
To self-actualize or to reach your incredible human potential requires the foundation that goes below this particular one on physiological needs and that is simply the need for God's holy spirit which allows us then to build upon all of the other five that God simply has not said in his word that he's against them, in fact, I think you will see that many principles of both the Old and the New Testament point out that Mr. Maslow may have a handle on some of the right principles of the drives and needs of man.
But the prophet Isaiah said, everyone that thirsts come you to the waters. And he said, come drink, he said, you don't have money, you don't have those things, but he said because you're thirsty and we recognize that there is a basic innate need for a human being to have the missing element that Adam and Eve did not have. Adam and Eve were not all there. They simply one particular thing and that is the fact that spirit of God did not come to dwell with the spirit in man to produce a whole new approach to life. It is upon that approach to life that we encourage all people to begin their question to reach their incredible human potential.
Jesus said it in another way, he said, if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink, and he said out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water, which he was talking about the holy spirit, which was not yet given. So we recognize that there is a need to satisfy this thirst that a human being has. Every human being has it because human beings are made incomplete. They are made to need the spirit of God and it is the only way by which you will ever be able to have a certain sense of human satisfaction to the degree that you're able to reach the potential that God has given for each human being.
I'd like you to do go over to John 4 with me for a moment. John 4:13. Jesus talked to this lady that was at the well. This is chapter 4 beginning in verse 13 of the book of John.
John 4:13. "Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water..."
...from this particular well that she was drawing water from...
Verse 13. "...will thirst again..."
Meaning physical does not satisfy for long because you recognize that you can take a drink, a good cold drink of water or any type of thing and you will find that within a few hours later you will have the same craving, the same need which is coming there because the human body is not satisfied for long. It needs to be replenished. It needs to be renewed. We come to understand the spiritually. We come to understand that particular need.
So Jesus said...
Verse 13. "...whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
So we see this foundation that Mr. Maslow never found. We see this principle that Mr. Maslow did not understand and that is he looked at all things physically. Now for a moment let's stop and look at the book of Ecclesiastes just for a second. You don't need to turn there because you can go back and read it for yourself, but the book of Ecclesiastes is such a fantastic foundational set of principles from chapter one through chapter three because there are three basic principles that Ecclesiastes shows us as a human being.
Number one. He shows us that there is a governor which controls the physical. There is a governor which controls the physical. That is you can only go so far in life; you cannot go any further. It's kind of like, you've got this wall here or this ceiling and you bump up against and can't go any farther than that particular place. There is a governor. It does not allow you to do certain things beyond a certain point. For instance, nothing physical really satisfies of and by itself. It doesn't satisfy of and by itself.
Let's use an example. You go to the Feast of Tabernacles, you enjoy a good steak. You say, wow, that was wonderful and you think about it, you go four or five days after that and what happens? The dissipation of that particular satisfaction goes and so you have another one if you have the money to do it. And the point is very simply that you'll see that it doesn't last all that long. Stop for just a moment and evaluate. You have just mowed your lawn. It's one of those wonderful hot days in August, dog days. You know how it is. You're dying, the water is rolling down, you have water all over you. You look like something that the cat dragged in and then dragged back out when you come in.
And you're thinking all this time one small bottle of that bubbly stuff. This one small beer. And you finish your mowing of the lawn and you tip up this bottle, maybe you have a cold glass. I don't know how you do it, but how I do it is I have this pilsner glass and I pour that in there and I look at and I say, you know, down the hatch and through the gums. Here we go. And it's such a nice feeling, you start tipping that back and you say the first quench of that particular thirst that you had that beer just kind of bubbles on your tongue going down, down the drain.
It's just a nice feeling. So nice. You know, you say, I could just die and go to heaven. This is so good. What do you do? Do you stop there? No, no. You go and have another swallow and then you have another swallow and then you have another one. And as you get about half way down that particular glass you begin to find out it doesn't taste quite as good as the first sip.
Now we've got crazy people who think that they have to have two, three, four, five, six bottles of that before they really get satisfied, but the problem is that they end up really losing what the taste buds started out with and God has intended for you to enjoy, he has intended for you to enjoy certain things where there is that first taste which is wonderful, but you know what? It doesn't last, and as you continue to drink or as you continue to eat, that particular physical thing doesn't last.
Point number two that Solomon shows you after he sees that nothing really satisfies of itself. Nothing physical is lasting. It doesn't last all the time. You have to go back and try to renew it and you go back and try to renew it and actually as you try to go back and renew it you come to point number three. It is a law of diminishing returns. The more you try to enjoy, the more you try to squeeze out of, the more you try to drink or eat or whatever it might be that you want to do the less you enjoy it.
It's crazy, but that's the way God intended for man to be. There's a lesson to be learned that you cannot enjoy this life in totality. It's impossibility because those physical governors will continue to slow you down and finally bring you to the place that nothing satisfies for too long because there is something far greater that we should be shooting for. Now Jesus said this. This is what was saying if we come to understand.
John 4:13. "...Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again..."
So what I'm saying to you as a young person that ultimately you have to come to resign yourself to the reality that before you can really enjoy the five that are here, you've got to remember that the whole thing is foundationalized on the concept that...
Verse 14. "...whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst..."
Now that's hard to accept. That's hard to realize because we always fill our eyes with certain things, our ears with certain, our nose with certain smells, our mouth with certain tastes, our fingers touching, whatever it might be. Whatever you put on your body which makes you feel good. All of those things are a part of the physical world that you live in. Nothing wrong with the physical world. Richard is not saying there is anything wrong with the physical world that you live in. It's okay to enjoy those things.
But the point that I'm making in the sermon is that all three of the principles that I gave you from Ecclesiastes show that there is something far greater than simply this physical life, and you have to build all things from a certain foundation. Now if you're willing to place point number six as the foundation of your basic needs, then we can begin to look at how you can develop your full potential. So let's start there. Let's begin by understanding that first and foremost principle.
God has given to man a supreme goal. That supreme goal will result in perfection. Jesus even told us become to be therefore perfect even as your Father which is heaven is perfect. Now we recognize that that is a goal. That is something we shoot for. That's something that will take all of our lifetime, but you must understand that shooting for that goal, that ultimate spiritual goal and not any other lesser goal is the focus that you start with. Point number six on Maslow's scale. I added the sixth one for your information.
And that is all Christians have to focus, all human beings ultimately if you want to be satisfied in the way that you can capably be satisfied as human beings you have to start with that foundation. Now let's go to Matthew 6:33 for a moment. We've heard the scripture, we've read it, we believe it, but I think we want to go back and we want to look at the context of this particular scripture to see that we have two dimensions that are emphasized by this particular section of scripture. To achieve our ultimate spiritual goal and any other lesser physical goal in this all Christians have to focus firmly on the relationship that they have with God the Father and with Jesus Christ through repentance, baptism and belief. Faith in Christ to lead them.
All areas of life must be viewed from this perspective. So we see Matthew 6:33, which simply says...
Matthew 6:33. "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..."
What does that mean? It means that the foundational bottom line of everything you do is driven by that particular vision, the very thing that was talked about by Mr. Cook today. That whole concept, that whole flavoring, that whole idea, that whole frame of mind is found in verse 33.
Verse 6:33. "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..."
Now look at what it says in the last part of verse 33.
Verse 33. "...and all these things shall be added to you."
What things? Well he beings by telling you in verse 24 what those things are.
Verse 24. "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Meaning simply that you can't have two separate goals. Your foundation has to be singular and it has to be focused on that one thing. And you build everything from that singular focus because notice what he says in verse 25.
Verse 25. "Therefore I say to you, take no anxious thought for you life..."
I'm reading in the translation there.
Verse 25. "...what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on."
And the point is that what are you looking at. Okay you look at the rest of those five principles. You see they're all apart of the physical and mental makeup of a human being, but he says start here and this is what will happen. All of these things will be added onto you. So the rest of the five points are those which as you work through life and as you work toward perfection, you're going to see those things begin to be fulfilled in your life as a human being as you do some of the things I encourage you to do in the sermon today.
Now he goes on to talk about how the fouls of the air don't sew, they don't reap, verse 26. How can you by anxious thought add one cubic to your stature. Why do you take <inaudible> arraignment, verse 28. Solomon was arrayed in glory, but the things that are physically created by God are far greater than Solomon's glory, he's telling us in verse 29. Verse 31, he says...
Verse 31. "Don't take any anxious thought..."
Verse 32. "For after these things do the gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all of these things."
Now let's stop and look at something here. God created the need and the drive that you see that Mr. Maslow seemed to understand to some degree. Maybe there are more. Maybe there's one or two less. I'm not going argue that particular point, but the point is God created man physically; he has created and he understands the needs of every one of you in this room, and therefore, he says in verse 33...
Verse 33. "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things..."
What things? The ability to take care of those needs.
Verse 33. "...shall be added to you."
This is a promise. There are literally dozens and hundreds of promises in the Bible. It says God can't lie. It talks about Abraham. There are two immutable things God said he would do when it came to the covenant and the oath that he made, and he said he could not lie. And what you begin to understand is that when you lay the foundation from point number one, which is the sixth point on Maslow which is the bottom line, you begin to understand that these things will be built and they will begin to bring what we call the harvesting of what you have sown in a positive way.
Look there are only two dimensions so far as our goals in life can seek. The physical or the spiritual. We must emphasize one or the other. If you emphasize the physical over the spiritual, you will eventually lose everything even the fleeting physical goals you seek. That's what it says about the man who had these barns and he built greater barns and he continued to build them up and he continued to grow in all of this and God said through Jesus Christ, you fool this night your soul is going to be required of you. And you know you can't take it with you and we all know that. You know that, I know that, but I think you've got to think about that sometimes, but if you emphasize the spiritual, you can gain everything. The physical and the spiritual. You can gain through putting the emphasis on the right syllable. Understand what I mean?
If you've not been to some places in the United States, you might not understand that about emphasizing right way, but the point is that you do have to understand that you emphasize the spiritual and the rest will follow as you do these other things that I'm going to talk about. It is important. So the following principles that I'm going to give today in the sermon I hope will help you begin to develop and reach your full potential and the goals that you're setting before you.
Number one. Number one thought. I'm not going to in a pointed sermon, but I'm going to give you some principles that I'm going to share with you today. You need to first of all in dealing with Matthew 6:33 you have to realize that you make your walk with God your highest ambition and your supreme desire. From the beginning God has shown mankind that all of his desires, goals, potential and yearnings are going to be fulfilled through him.
It tells us to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and mind and cleave unto him and the end result of that will simply be the reaping of those benefits starting spiritually and then ultimately physically. You have to stop and realize that what ever you do, whether you eat, whether you drink, whatever you do, you do all to the glory of God. That's the principle that we follow, that we practice in the church of God.
Unless that spiritual relationship is right and acts as your foundation in life, everything else is wrong. Everything else is wrong because that's what Matthew 6:33 says. We emphasize that, we encourage that and we encourage you to realize that. Apart of that is repentance, part of that is belief, a part of that is striving to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, but making walking with God your highest ambition and your supreme desire. That's the first most important principle, foundational.
Now let's go to the second one. You need to keep your eye on the day of judgment. You need to keep your eye on the day of judgment. There are two directions that you can head. One, eternal life in the kingdom of God. The second one is eternal death in the lake of fire. You're either going to be here for all eternity or you're not going to anywhere.
I remember reading the Catholic Encyclopedia some years ago at Ambassador College, and they said we can't understand how God would ever just get rid of somebody and not have a living soul to have to suffer in hell because we can't imagine somebody not being there at all. It's just impossible to believe it. Why not? When you're gone, you're gone. And there is no more remembrance of the dead, so you got to ask the question do I want to live forever or do I want to be gone and there will be no more remembrance, it'll be gone, that'll be the end of it. There's no soul over here burning in hell, but it's gone.
Now if you stop and you look at what Stephen Covey said in his book the Seven Habits that he discussed habit number two was begin with the end in mind. That was his statement. Begin with the end in mind. Or to put it another way, mental creation precedes physical creation. So think about where do you want to be. People say I don't want to think about that. I don't want to think about that. Yes, I think you ought to think about that. I think it ought to scare you just a little, you know and say, wow, I don't want to be gone forever.
You it's amazing on the Sabbath after 9/11, after the airplanes hit the towers and they went down we had record attendance in the United Church of God. We had people coming from all over. I remember I was in Portland; I couldn't get home. There we were setting up dozens and dozens of chairs. We had myriads and myriads of people coming everywhere coming. You know why? Because they got worried. They wondered is this the time of the end? And does this mean that, you know, we're going to go a place of safety.
That's what they wanted to do; they wanted to save their little hide. And the sad part about it was three, four weeks later they weren't there any more. They went back to hiding in their, wherever they hide. But the point was, you see, they didn't, the fear of God and the desire to do what was right and need to do what was right did not always follow through and the sadness was that they did not have in mind what they needed to do so far as the right thing in order to be prepared for the time of the end.
That's the principle of Luke 21. It says simply to watch and pray that you might be counted worthy to escape. It doesn't say to pray that you'll be counted worthy to escape, but watch and pray so that you will be. The end result of that is to escape or to be protected. And those are two basic principles. Watch and pray. So habit number two, begin with the end in mind. Mental creation precedes physical creation. Let's go over to Hebrews 11:24. Notice this is an example of a man who knew what he had to do. This is Hebrews 11:24. His name is Moses.
Hebrew 11:24-26."By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward."
But notice why he did all of these things.
Verse 27. "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible."
You know when you get the focus right, when you get your eyes on what it's all about and you begin to think about some of those things, it is important. When I first came to the church in 1956, I wanted to save my little Italian hide, and I did everything because I needed to save my body. I wanted to save it because I, well, everybody loves themselves, don't they? To at least some degree. And so therefore I wanted to save it, but gradually as I began to understand the importance of all those things I began to look at the difference of fearing from the point of view of saving myself and fearing from the point of view of reverencing the principles and the precepts and the concepts.
I fear God today in a different than I did in 1956 and I think probably most of you do, too, and that fear moves from simply fear to reverence and the respect that we have and the realization of the importance of that particular vision that mental creation precedes physical creation and Moses endured as if he saw him who was invisible and you begin to get the, how shall we say the perspective of all things in proper order. You think about those things as being the most important. Now when you first begin, when you're young, yes, you want to be delivered from those things, but when you come back down I think you see to the final respect that you do have the decisions and actions that you will make day-by-day will show which course you're on.
Emphasizing the loving and respecting of God as you live your life, you know that that's going to be your reward in the kingdom of God, but you know the bottom line is the choice is yours. The final day of reckoning is the bottom line. It shows that you've chosen eternal life. Remember the words of Solomon? I'm going to go back to the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes for just a moment because I thought it was interesting that Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes put an emphasis here in Ecclesiastes 12 on something most unique. When you get to verse 13 and 14 which we read all the time, which is the summarization of everything from the book of Ecclesiasts, I thought it was interesting to note that what he was really emphasizing was verse 1 and then showing you the importance of the rest of it through the rest of the chapter. Notice what verse 1 says...
Ecclesiastes 12:1. "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth..."
It doesn't say anything more than the fact in your young part of life you remember your creator. It doesn't say as a teenager, it simply says youth. Youth as opposed to being older. Okay? Now he goes on to say...
Verse 1. "...Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, "I have no pleasure in them."
So he's talking about the difference between being young and being old. That's the emphasis that he's putting on here at this particular time because he begins to talk in verses 2-8, he talks about the fact that as you grow older humanly the body begins to break down. You don't see as well, you don't hear as well, you don't enjoy things as well. You find out that some things don't work as well as they used to and some things just simply stop working as you get older and you wake up in the morning with fourteen pains you know between your knuckles and your toes and you say, I need some ben-gay or whatever you feel your need to have. You know what I'm talking about some of you who are in the same condition I'm in.
We're trying to keep the body together. Sometimes we think of piano wire and other things to try to keep it together. But he's saying remember now, because when you finally get down to the latter part of your life, he said in verse 7...
Verse 7-8. "Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "All is vanity."
It's a futile world if you don't put the things properly in mind and start seeking God only in the latter part of your life. Start seeking early and then he says that when you come of the end of your life then you will have been acutely aware of what you needed to do and you did do that was going to bring about the proper results in your life. Then he goes to talk in verse 13...
Verse 13-14. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil."
So it's just simply showing you the principle of being young and being older, it shows you that the struggles that we go through as we grow older and you cant do some of the things that you used to do and you begin to realize that that's all there is to life. As we get older, we begin to realize that that's it. So I better be doing what I need to be doing earlier so that I can follow the principle that we simply are looking forward to the future in a positive way because for those of us who are older we recognize this body is not going to make it. I hope I don't have to live the rest of my life in the kingdom of God with this body. I think most of you would say, Amen, because there are parts missing and then there are also that are not made of steel and other metals and you know what I'm talking about. It's just that isn't what God has intended ultimately in the end and we look forward to that. To the fact of being with a new body.
Point number three. You learn to recognize that humility is God's great grace. Humility is God's great grace. All powerful as God is, God's humble. The psalmist David talked about God who dwells and who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth, so we recognize that as a human being we kind of try to rise above our inferiorities and our insecurities and we try to rise to a certain level to put those things out of our mind by doing things.
Nothing wrong with learning to do, nothing wrong with accomplishing, but I think we have to realize that as human beings we simply have nothing to boast ultimately in the end. Compressed into solid matter sixteen elements, individually we would be reduced to a small pile of the earth or dust. As the Bible says, dust thou are and unto dust we shall return.
But the devil has a way of trying to get you to think about yourself in the wrong way. He broadcasts pride; he broadcasts arrogance; he broadcasts vanity, self-will. These things to toot up the insecurities and the inferiorities that come when man doesn't know he's really inferior to God not to one another. And men don't understand that. We just simply don't understand that. Yet if you have an attitude of mind with these things in mind you will find that your attitude will go a long way in preserving you as a member of the church of God.
Point number four. You need to be acutely aware of what enters your mind and how character is formed. Man created the mind of man as a wonderful and a marvelous instrument. Over in Job 32:8. Job writes these words, he said...
Job 32:8 "But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding."
See the natural man has the spirit in man, but he does not have the spirit of God uniting with the spirit in man, which gives this individual inspiration and understanding. We understand that the greatest purpose of all for man is to become in character like God as a separate entity, as a separate personality to develop his divine love, to develop his divine hope, his divine faith. All of those concepts that you see over in Galatians 5 where it talks about the fruits of the holy spirit. Those are the things that we develop. Those are the things that we take with us. That's the most important thing. All of these other things are that which you can build upon to enjoy this physical life as God has intended for you to. As I said, Matthew 6:33 says that.
Psychologists have said that about five percent of your brain is the thinking part. I don't know whether that's still true over the last four or five years, but in the books and the reading that I've done, but about five percent of your brain is the thinking part, the tiny tip of the iceberg. And that ninety-five percent of your subconscious mind were facts, knowledge, data, experience, habits, etc., are stored is just simply that. Before knowledge can be stored for use <inaudible> or future, it has to be approved and allowed to filter through into the subconscious mind. It is from this vast storehouse of knowledge and experience that you and I think and make decisions. Could it be possible this is where the character of God is developed? I don't know, but I ask the question.
At any rate, it is vital that we monitor our thoughts and only allow that knowledge which is true and good to enter into our minds. Our society today runs more on emotion than facts and logic. You see that happening. You find people saying things like "I feel," but what is it based on? Is it based on God, the Bible, the law as fact? Men reason, it says, and they reasoned well, the only problem is sometimes they reasoned on feelings and not on the facts.
The best thing that ever happened back when I started Ambassador College was to prove the existence of God, to prove that the Bible is the inspired word of God, to prove that the law of God was to be kept and point number four, why was I born? Those are the four basic foundational things. I didn't know what I was doing. I just went to study those things. And you know what? They have been the best thing that ever happened because that foundation has never been lost in all of the struggles and stresses that I've gone through.
I had to fight before in 1954-55 when I went to a Sunday keeping church when there were the arguments over Colossians 2 and Romans 14 and all of these other places that supposedly did away with God's law. Learning that and learning how to understand that with the overall word of God put me in good stead in 1995 when they tried to rip the law of God out of our hearts. It was amazing. But the point is that we recognize that in our society today for some reason emotion is running very, very high, more than facts and logic among many people. And God, the Bible, and the law just simply is not a part of the thinking of so many individuals. They think differently about what is factual upon which they stand. And they say "I feel" or I have this feeling and their emotions tend to give them a great deal of difficulty.
Point number five. Create a mental image of the person you wish to become. The Bible says that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7. You become what you think about most of the time. If you grovel in bad thoughts, wrong thoughts if you get your fat face in front porn at your computer, you'll pay. You will pay. We've got church members who are telling us that they are addicted to porn. And we are struggling to work with some of them. Not very many, but you do have some. So the Bible is very simple. What you think about most of time is what you become. And so as a man thinks in his heart, so is he and so there is where you and I have to think about what is the important thing, where are going? What is the foundation upon which we build? I Timothy 4. notice what the apostle Paul says here in I Timothy 4:15. The apostle Paul writing about the importance of meditating on and inculcating into our thinking a difference frame of mind. He said...
I Timothy 4:15."Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all."
Meditate on these things, get your mind zeroed in on those things, get your mind off some of that which is just simply going to cause you a problem. So you create a mental image of the person that you want to become. You ask the question spiritually and then you ask the question in long-range what are your goals toward that particular end. Vision and setting goals becomes a most important thing that we can develop.
Point number six. Determine your overall goal and what it is you want most out of life. The kingdom of God and spiritual growth, of course, are primary goals for all of us. We are physical creatures; we have physical responsibilities to carry out. We have lifetime goals of careers, marriage that we must be prepared for. The Bible is very simple when it says prepare your work without and makes it fit for yourself in the field and then afterward build your house. So we see that there are priorities that we must set as individuals.
Get yourself some good books on career, get yourself some good books on material that will help you develop these frames of mind. Think about your vocational goals. Do you want to be this or that or another thing? Decide, prepare for it. You'll find that girls think about that a little bit sooner than guys and guys come along a little bit later. I found that that was so with many, many young people that we worked with. It's a wonderful experience to be able to work with both the female and the male and to see the way God has wired them and to work with them to see that I think we simply recognize that girls come to a certain maturity earlier and fellows a little bit later, but I'm simply saying to you keep at it. Don't just simply sluff off and let the problems of life get the better of you. Remember opportunity favors the prepared man. So invest some time in preparing and qualifying because there are many doors of advancement that are available.
Then the seventh point that I had was make of all the lesser goals you hope to achieve in life. I'll tell you something interesting. I've never said this to my wife, so I'm telling her now. I have gotten everything in life, I use that word gotten, that's a bad word, I know. I have been able to enjoy everything that I have ever wanted to enjoy in life, places to go, things to do, houses to live in, cars to drive, all of those things. And the problem with all of that was it went so far beyond that that I can't believe how far it's gone. I still have two goals. All of the other goals have been fulfilled and someone says, boy, you must have really short, shallow goals, huh? No. I'm sixty-seven and I've been trying to work at this since I've probably been about nineteen, but I've got two left to do.
There are two parts of the world I want to go see and there's some things in those parts of the world I want to do. Haven't told my wife yet, so she's going to say to me, you go by yourself there. I can just see it happening now. But I do. And one of these days when she twists my and arm and beats up on me and gets me down on the floor and says, now you tell me, then I probably will tell her, but until that time I'm going to wait a little bit because I do have two of them. And I know both of them require getting on an airplane and flying long hours and that, Mary, you know what I'm talking about right now.
But it's true that those are things that you do. You make a list of these things that you want to do, places to go. I have a friend of mine who in Canada wanted to buy a house. Now up there it's a little bit harder to buy a house than it is down here. The cost of living is much higher. They had actually when we were living there it was forty percent higher to live in Canada than it was to live in the states, but my friend decided that he wanted to buy a house and that he said that I was going to work at it for seven years to buy that house. And you know what? He got the house in three. Because he put that, even though it was a lesser goals, even though his job was being a good minister, trying to strive to do his part to do that, he just simply did not procrastinate, he started with something, he listed things to improve and to plan for and this is what I'm talking about. If you start planning, you can make it happen. Nothing will happen unless you simply make a list of all of those lesser goals and I think it becomes important.
Point number eight. Whatever you do strive for excellence. Don't settle for mediocrity. God inspired a principle over in the book of Ecclesiastes that says whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your might. We used to play racquetball and I played with a group of younger guys. The reason I played with younger guys was because there was certain something to try to keep up with those younger guys and I kept up with them until I turned about, I'm not going to say when, I got to be a little bit older and I couldn't keep up with them anymore. And little by little it began to, I began to slow down and I was, on the four guys playing on the court, I always had the lowest score.
And that's when you begin to realize that you simply had to strive for doing with all of your might and after you've done it with all of your might as you work through life then you begin to realize that you've been doing very well, but sometimes age is going to takes its toll on you as well, but I think this approach that you have in doing things and not settling for mediocrity develops confidence, it develops self-respect, a determination to drive ahead. It doesn't allow you to be bored. It doesn't allow laziness, neglect or discouragement. You don't give up and quit because you recognize that you're settling for excellence and infusing quality into everything you do.
As a man once said, whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. Herbert Armstrong spoiled me. He taught things about quality and I go down to K&G Men's Ware and I put my hand right across the suits. I just put my hand, you know I look for a certain size and that's for dwarves, you know that type of thing, my size is much smaller, so I put my hand across the suits. I just feel them, and I can just move along and I can say, no, no, no. And then I look at that suit and it's a much better suit. You can feel it. And the man taught quality. He really did, and I don't think we can afford some of things that obviously Ambassador College afforded. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying that I think when you strive for quality in what you do and all the things that you do, I think it is a wonderful principle. And you instill the discipline in your life to simply not settle for mediocrity. Do the best you can. Strive for the best you can. The Bible says that everything God did when he created man; remember the first chapter of Genesis? He said, and it was very good. That's what God said about the creation. Why was it good? Because it wasn't mediocre. The closer you look to the creation it's absolutely gorgeous.
Point number nine. Follow through and finish what you start. Jesus said no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. It's that part of that determination, sticking to your goals sometimes even though it hurts. I assure you that sometimes you will find that it won't build character unless you do so. Sometimes you've got to set some things aside momentarily but come back to it and complete the job. As Jesus said I have finished the work that you have given me to do.
Now the key to it is to be sure your goals are intelligent and attainable. Make sure your goals are intelligent and attainable. To try for the US presidency obviously is probably unrealistic, and in this day and age, I'm not sure you want to do that, but I think the point was that, you know, look for the attainable things. I think we have to become experts in some ways. You have to try to be good at something. I think everybody has to do that. That's a part of what you learn to do. Try to be good at something. You don't let routine and boredom shrivel you up. I think you learn to work at these things.
Another point that I want to make was simply, sharpen your powers of observation, imagination and creativity. I think you'll find that you live in a world of wonderment and endless variety. You can become sensitive to sounds and things and people and to the whole of your environment. One of the most enjoyable things that I do is to do sit in a mall and watch people. I love that. Especially California. You understand what I'm talking about? I sat in the mall while my wife and my daughter and my granddaughter went off doing things and it was quite an experience. It was quite an experience. The way people dress, the way people thought, the way people acted toward each other. It was amazing. It was just interesting. I just love to just sit there. I sat there for several hours just enjoying the look of people.
So you know you observe, you think and you learn. It is a wonderful experience and appreciate that God has given that ability to sharpen those skills, whether they be as a conversationalist or whether they be just simply as an observer of things. Another point that I've been told for years. Experience every grand and rare opportunity afforded you. You know experience, you think, people never drink in of all the joys of life because they're afraid to venture out and try new things. God says, don't be fearful. You know, learn to, don't do things are stupid, but really special opportunities come your way, accept them, enjoy them.
I think that that's one of the most enjoyable things. My two grandsons could not believe that at age sixty-five their grandfather that he wanted to go with them on a certain ride. This ride has this power. You go all the way to top and people sit in a round circle and it takes all the way to the top and then it drops you free fall, you know, what is it? About a couple hundred feet. Then it puts the brakes on and you finally get to the bottom. And you leave your stomach at the top as you come flying down. Grandpa, you want to go on there? So we started up and we got three-quarters of the way, and I said, oh, this isn't bad, and they said, we're not up to the top yet. And I said, okay and all of a sudden bang that thing hit and we went flying down and you know what? It was fun leaving your stomach at the top. One time. And the rest of the day, I ate a whole lot lighter, but I wanted to try it. You understand what I'm talking about. Some of you are laughing because I know some of you have done those things as well.
But the point is you have all of these opportunities. Another thing you can do is spend some time in the realm of nature and the wonders of creation. A lot of people just simply don't take the time to do that. People don't walk into the creation, look about you and learn of the creator. Simply little things like observing a beautiful sunset. Did you know coming to the office last week the sun rise coming across the clouds that was a beautiful blue and a salmon color, like a flamingo color, coming up, you know, I said, boy it would be nice if I could just get a picture of that.
But the point is that you begin to see that there's so many things like. The most fun was last winter in the dead of winter, while you were down at about five degrees; I was over at my daughter's place in southern California looking at a xena flower. I sat there; I know they thought I was crazy some people, but I was looking at all the ribs and the different colors. You had kind of an orange and then a little bit of a red and then a yellow and then a lighter yellow in the bands within that flower. And I said, wow! This is the creation of God. And it was really inspiring just to simply stop and enjoy that.
And as you grow up, I think you've got to realize that we live in this wonderful city. Sometimes every so often you see something really, really gorgeous like yesterday when I almost hit two deer. Beautiful deer. I was grateful that I didn't get there in time. I had an apple on the seat and it rolled off and it landed on the side, so I was trying to get it and as I was driving down the hill I was trying to drive the car with one hand and grab for the apple. I finally couldn't do it, so I picked up the apple. I stopped the car, picked up the apple and I drove back down and right in front of me, just about twenty feet, there was the two deer that came across. If I had not stopped, I might have had myself an opportunity to impale on the bumper of my car, but beautiful, gorgeous. And there was the buck chasing the doe. You know it's that season of the year. They're really stupid. They don't pay any attention to anything when they're chasing a female. They just don't know what they're doing.
I had a great big buck one time in Illinois come right across the front of my car. I had to stop my car. I was going sixty miles an hour. I stopped right there and he walked right in front of me. And he wasn't paying attention. He had his nose on this sniff that he had for this female over in the woods somewhere and all of a sudden he looked at me and he like, he was saying, good night, there's a car there and he started spinning his hooves to try to get off road and I said that's what you get for chasing women. I could've killed him. Then I would've paid fourteen hundred bucks to get my car fixed.
But the point is there are some beautiful things about the creation. I don't know how I got off on that. But there's some beautiful things about the creation that you want to look at. And I think these are things that are really important and that are really very, very important for us.
One thing that I encourage all people to do and that is cultivate the friendship of people who are older. One of the things you'll find that sometimes just being able to be around some people that have no heirs about them anymore, they've lived their life and now they're older, I think the wisdom of those older people is something you can grow in. The <inaudible> is a crown of glory if it's found in the way of righteousness. Older people can show you the valuable lessons from their storehouse of experience. Their wisdom can often give you what I call strength in a time of crisis. Sitting down in front of a person who taught me years ago and then, of course, a little bit later put it in an autobiography, was very helpful. Especially when you're out somewhere, you know, somewhere about eight hundred and fifty miles away from everybody in forty below zero weather and you're having to figure out how to take care of a particular problem and it's a wonderful thing to have the cultivation of that friendship of those people that were older.
Two more points. Practice at least one act of love or kindness everyday that you live. It just pays big dividends to get outside of yourself. We talked about that last week in selfishness. Kindness often repeated transforms itself into habits. It molds the character within you. It results in blessings being poured back on your own head. Like I read you the scripture in Luke 6:38.
Luke 6:38. "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom..."
Opportunities abound to help your fellowman. I think we use them both in the church and out of the church to learn those things.
My final point today. I think it's a very important one, but I'd like you to turn to Philippians 4. Remember I talked to you about the pyramid of needs that Mr. Maslow talked about. Talked about simply actualizing, esteem, love and belonging, safety needs and just simply the physical life that you have, but I think there's something very important. It's found here in Philippians 4:6. I simply say to you that it's important that as a young person, as a young adult, as a young married person, to maintain an ongoing, positive mental attitude. Life is filled with blessings from God as we follow the principles that I gave you, but there are also going to be some trials. Life doesn't always give you simply lemonade all the time. Sometimes you have to take the lemons that are thrown and make lemonade out of it.
No matter what happens, I think you have to keep your eyes on the values and the kingdom of God. There's a time when everything can simply, you feel like everything has been swept away from you. And I think that's when you have to sustain your faith in God and press on. But I think we have to recognize that there's a very important principle here that is found in Philippians 4:6. It says...
Philippians 4:6-7. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
That in good times and in bad times you will find that that will happen.
Verse 8. "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things."
We talk about a positive attitude. I'd like to conclude with a man who wrote this and I don't know who the author was. I think I do, but I don't want to quote it unless I was sure.
"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a school, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is plan on the one string we have, and that is our superior attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% of what happens to me, and 90% of how I react. A superior attitude will produce superior results."
I don't know who wrote it, but I thought it was a priceless statement that was made. You and I are at different ages in this room. Many of you are very young. Many of you are younger people and I felt today I would like to share some of those thoughts with you. Principles of the Bible that will I hope be inculcated into your thinking as you grow older and as you experience life and as you work at these things.
My hope is simply that you will pick up on those things and understand your incredible human potential and understand how you can develop as we start using the concept of the bottom rung, that is the foundational rung of God's holy spirit and developing the other five that Mr. Maslow is talking about to whatever degree you can as a human being and as you do that, I hope that God will bless you. And I hope that as he said in Matthew 6:33 that as you see that kingdom and do those things that all of these things that you need will be added unto you.