Are You Battling Ghosts?

The title of today's sermon is, Are You Battling Ghost? Are you battling ghosts?

Do you at times find yourselves battling with ghosts? Now, obviously, I hope you would understand this, that I am not talking about those ghosts many people seem to believe in, those so-called disembodied souls of the dead. No, that's not it. Those who follow God in Christ know from Scripture what? That ghosts of the dead do not exist. There's no such thing. Ecclesiastes 9.5, just to point out a few scriptures, Ecclesiastes 9.5 tells us that the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward for the memory of them as forgotten. Also, Psalm 146, verse 4 tells us that when one dies, his spirit departs, he returns to his earth, and that very day his plans perish. The dead know nothing. We've always followed what Scripture says. It's asleep. Death is like asleep. Human beings do not have immortal souls. The souls of the dead don't meander anywhere on, under, or above the earth, and what people may see, if anything, are likely spirit beings, likely demons, but they are not ghosts of the dead. Now, that aside, the kind of ghosts I'm talking about battling is a different kind of ghost. You might already kind of have a sense of where I'm going with this. These are kind of ghosts that linger around in our thoughts. They meander in our hearts and minds, and sometimes they are figments of our imagination. The American Heritage Dictionary comes close to defining the kind of ghost I'm referring to here. This kind of ghost is a returning or haunting memory or image, a recurring or haunting memory or image. This ghost, these haunting memories we might add, may be real. They may be even imagined. But in any case, these sort of ghosts, these old memories and thoughts, can cause us needless anguish. They can cause us to have great doubts and fears and worries. They can disrupt our hopes, and they can often even ruin our efforts to reject temptation to get rid of sin. Now these fusty, old rotten things in our hearts and minds, because they're not pleasant to keep, these old memories, thoughts, and feelings can go by various names. Sometimes we might call them regrets. We might call them grudges, bitterness. They can include wrong assumptions we've made, maybe wrong assumptions we've received. They can be false accusations. They can include lies that keep echoing in our minds. They can be made up of doubts and fears that are really what all those what-ifs that frighten us occur in our minds, those what-ifs, or along with the what-will-we-do's. These can all be some of those ghosts that plague us and bother us from times. They haunt us, perhaps. But really, they shouldn't. They should not. In fact, those old thoughts and ways of thinking, they need to stay buried.

They need to stay buried, for they belong to the old man. It's an old man way of thinking, old man referring to Paul's definition, our old way of thinking, as opposed to the new man, Christ in us. They belong to the old man, which we bury at baptism, and which should stay buried. While God, through his Holy Spirit, helps us to put on the new man, which is Jesus Christ. Now, Paul explains this ongoing process, its process of conversion, of becoming more like Jesus Christ. Let's turn to Ephesians 4, verse 17 through 24. Again, I'm just putting down the foundation, the introductory material here. Ephesians 4, 17 through 24. Paul explains that we are to be thinking and living, being a different way than before, through Christ. Ephesians 4, verse 17, This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of the mind, the way we think, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness and greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off then, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, and true righteousness and holiness, true righteousness and holiness. And so we need to battle the ghosts of our old man way of thinking, that old man way of thinking that can linger and meander around in our hearts and minds and keep us miserable and not in the best state of mind. We need then to identify what our wrong thoughts, what our wrong ways of thinking are. We need to identify them so we can repent of them and conquer them and overcome them so that they can be then, through repentance and faith and Christ's sacrifice for our sins, buried and no longer a plague to us. And so today we'll identify by Scripture some ghosts of our wrong old man way of thinking. So no, I'm not talking about the Halloween spooks. I'm not talking about the ghost of a Christmas carol somewhere. I'm talking about ghosts that do plague us, those old memories and thoughts. And by identifying those wrong and troublesome ways of thinking, we can then more effectively put on the mind of the new man, Jesus Christ. And so the title of today's sermon is, Are You Battling Ghosts?

Now our minds can sometimes, rather spontaneously, its names generate problems. We can come up with sudden suspicions. We could be moved to accusations and conflicts, both real and imaginary. That's what our mind can do to us sometimes. Suddenly we can be angry about things. We can be frightened. We can be terribly worried, but maybe for no good reason. Now why is that so? And why do we do it? Scripture reveals, let's be turning back to Genesis chapter 821. Scripture reveals that since the time of Adam and Eve's rebellion against God, they wanted to live life according to their own ways. They rebelled against God in His way. Ever since then, this mindset has been the way we naturally think and behave. Let's notice a few scriptures. Genesis 821. Genesis 821, in the description of Noah's sacrifice to God after the flood, God reveals to us in His words the natural bent of mankind's heart. Genesis 821. And this is talking about, it refers to God smelling the soothing aroma. This would be the aroma of that first sacrifice after the flood, the sacrifice Noah made to God. And then the Lord said in His heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination, the imagination, His insight, His thought of man's heart is evil from His youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20. We're talking about why do we think this way? Why does that seem to be our natural proclivity? Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20.

And here we see Solomon echoing God's judgment. We just read there in Genesis, God's judgment, His insight shared with us about humanity. Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20. Solomon wrote, For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.

We have that proclivity in us. Also Matthew 15 verse 19. Matthew 15 verse 19. We find Jesus Christ's similar judgment about humanity, about mankind and its mindset. Matthew 15 verse 19.

And here Jesus says these words that are familiar to us.

He said, For out of the heart, speak into the heart of mankind. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts. Evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, faults, witness, blasphemies.

And so we begin to see that there is a natural way, that natural old way, the old man way of thinking, that is bent away from God's way of thinking. So even after we've been baptized and received the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit, we can still be afflicted by those rotten old man-ghost thoughts. They have a way of keep coming back to us when we don't want it to. Sometimes you might, I know we don't watch things like this or know anything about it, but sometimes they're like zombie thoughts. They keep rising back up from the dead. And how many times do we put them back and they keep coming back? They're a plague and they're a haunt to us, but we can get rid of them with God's help. And sometimes these ghosts come from others, of course, that are just not always from our own hearts and minds. Sometimes these old thoughts can come from others in the form of rumors and lies and fear-mongering. I'm not sure if you've heard any fear-mongering lately. If you listen to anything on the news, it seems like there's always something out there to make us get scared about some new thing. We must guard our hearts and minds from this sort of wrong thinking. And so now I'd like to shift gears a bit and let's begin to identify from Scripture some examples of this old way of thinking that we need to control, we need to put away. Some ways of old thinking that we might ourselves sometimes do. And so the first example I want to share with this—let's be turning back to the book of Job—the first example I want to share with us concerns how we must not trust our assumptions. We must not put faith in our assumptions and our rush to judgment, however it is you might want to say it. We humans seem to have that proclivity to jump to the wrong conclusion. We rush to judgment about ourselves, sometimes about others and what they're really doing. And sometimes we can even rush to judgment conclusions about what God is doing. Sometimes we think we have God all figured out. Now we can do this sometimes when we see somebody maybe suffering terrible pains. Suffering terrible trials. It just seems like it's one right after the other.

And we might then think, well that person obviously, in our great judgment, that person's being punished by God. But we're not God. We're not God. That person could actually be receiving God's blessing. And of course, that's partly what happened to Job. That's part of what we learned from Job. Now the book of Job does contain much wisdom about humanity's relationship with God. It also has much wisdom about why there is such suffering, why we do suffer at times. Sometimes people suffer because they are being punished by God. That is true. But that is not always the case. And this book of Job does relate how we human beings can make wrong assumptions about people. We can even make wrong assumptions about God. It's a great book. We should read it. And I'm just going to share bits and pieces of it with us today to my purpose. And so in Job chapter 1 verse 1, part of what we learned there that, yes, Job was a man from the land of Oz, but he was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. He was blameless. Does that mean he was without sin? No, no, you're shaking your heads. That's right. He was not without sin. Romans 5, 12 tells us there is none who do not sin. But Job did what he was supposed to do when he sinned. He repented and he sought God's forgiveness. And of course, that's what we're to be doing, too. We can be blameless. You can be blameless when we handle sin the right way. And then we also learned, Job 1, and continuing on, I'm not going to read all this, but we also learned that God allowed Satan to test Job's faithfulness.

God allowed Satan to test Job's faithfulness, and Satan was quick to do that. And as we probably can recall, Satan very quickly stripped Job of much of his wealth. He stripped him of, seems most of his children, perhaps he had younger children at home, it's possible. But he definitely was allowed to have seven of Job's grown children killed, and he also then was allowed to afflict Job's health. In fact, Job is left sitting on an ash heap, scraping away at his painful boils with a broken piece of pottery, using great excruciating pain. And that's what we see as we begin then in chapter three of Job. In chapter three, by the time we get to chapter three, Job's three friends have found him. Job had three very loyal friends. So they came from a long ways, distance, they met an appointed day, and they came to comfort Job. But Job's three friends, when they found him and they discerned his terrible plight and suffering, he had fallen so far from where he had been, as it were, they concluded that Job had committed a great sin, and he needed to repent. He needed to repent of it. However, these three well-meaning friends assumed a reality that was not true. They jumped to the wrong conclusion. They thought Job was a great sinner. You see, they did not know the backstory that God allows us to know, that God had allowed Job to be tested, to be tried by fire, to become better. They jumped to the wrong conclusion. Instead of helping Job, they actually increased his misery to a degree. For example, let's notice some of the things that they suggested and said, actually said about Job. Job chapter four, verse seven. Eliphaz insinuates in this verse, one of the oldest of his three friends there, Eliphaz insinuates that Job is not innocent of wronging God. He says there in chapter four, verse seven, Remember now, whoever perished being innocent, or where were their upright ever cut off? So Job, you're suffering so much, you could not be innocent. You cannot be upright.

Of course, a question that comes up, for those of us who know our scriptures, and Genesis especially, perhaps Eliphaz didn't know, or perhaps he didn't remember, that Cain murdered righteous Abel. Abel was an innocent, righteous man. In Job 8, verse 6, a second friend, the second friend named Bildad, he also assumes that Job has committed a great sin. In Job 8, verse 6, he tells Job, If you were pure and upright, surely now he, surely now God, would awake for you, and prosper your rightful dwelling place. Again, he says, Job, you've committed a great sin. And let's talk about what the third friend, Zophar, said. Job 11, verse 6, and again, they say much in this book. We're just picking out a few verses to highlight their approach, their thoughts, their opinions, their conclusions about Job. Job 11, verse 6, as he breaks down, as we go further down, I'm looking for the last two sentences, two lines, but I'll go ahead and read the whole verse. Zophar says, Oh, that God would show you the secrets of wisdom, for they would double your prudence. And then he concludes this passage. He says, Know therefore that God exacts from you less than your iniquity, less than your sin, deserves.

In essence, so far, again, he means well, but he bluntly tells Job that God is actually letting you off easy. You deserve worse than what you're getting. Again, God does punish the wicked. Scripture reveals that. We understand that. But that was not Job's situation. The wisdom they have makes sense, but it doesn't really apply to Job in this case, because we have the backstory. We have the backstory. None of Job's three friends knew that God had called Job blameless. They jumped to the wrong conclusions about why he was suffering, and they became insistent that Job was simply being stubbornly unrepentant. When I read this, I always get nervous about the lesson, because I pray that I would never make that mistake. That's something we should pray we would never do. Now, in turn, in response to their accusations, Job argued that he was blameless. He had not committed a great sin, as they were assuming he had. And then in his own defense, he itemizes many of his good and righteous works. And if you're not going to read it, because it's a long list, but in Job chapter 31, Job analyzes. He examines his life as we should. He examines what have I done. He talks about, well, if I have walked with falsehood, verse 5 of chapter 31, if I have walked with falsehood, or if my foot has hastened to deceit, then let me be weighed on honest scales, that God may know my integrity.

If my step has turned from the way, verse 7, or my heart walked after my eyes, or if any spotted hears my hands, then let me sow in another eat. Yes, let my harvest be rooted out. Now, of course, as Job is making those protests of his good works and his righteousness, his friends are thinking, okay, now you're just being self-righteous. Now you're just being self-righteous. Again, that's their conclusion, but they're wrong. Job is not self-righteous. He was listing and arguing that he had not committed sin. He did not understand what had happened to his relationship with God. Something seems broken. And so in Job chapter 31, verse 35, while we're there, Job chapter 31, verse 35, Job is, by the way, this trial is not for a day or two. When you read, it says it appears that he had been suffering going through this for several months. This is not a quickie trial by any means. Job 31, verse 35, Job cries out for the opportunity to justify himself before God. In essence, Job wants to have his day in court with God. He wants to argue with God that, God, you're prosecuting me. You're treating me wrong.

And he says, verse 35, oh, that I had one to hear me. Here is my mark, meaning his signature. This is this is his testimony. Oh, that the Almighty would answer me that my prosecutor had written a book.

Another word for prosecutor, my margin the Bible suggests, is accuser. He feels that God is wrongly accusing him, that God is somehow, in Job's mind, God is making a mistake.

Job wants his day in court with God, as it were, but Job also wasn't aware of the backstory. He also wasn't aware of God's greater purpose for his trial no more than did his friends. And here we find the evidence, and there's more that we could pull out, but, and we did this a couple years ago as a Bible study, but here we find evidence that Job also has made an assumption about God, and he's made a wrong assumption about God. Job believes that God has made a mistake with him, and Job even went so far as to justify himself instead of God. He unwisely accuses God of being unjust. That's something God cannot be. God can never be unjust. And, of course, neither Job or any of us are in a position to judge God. And so that's why Job's fourth friend, let's look at chapter 32, that's why Job's fourth friend, Eli, who is angry with Job. He, I guess we might say, he had righteous indignation with what Job was saying. Job chapter 1, excuse me, Job 32 verse 1, and so these three men, his three friends, ceased answering Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. That's their evaluation of Job, that he was righteous in his own eyes. The three friends concluded that he was self-righteous. Verse 2, and then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Berakal, the buzied of the family of Ram, was aroused against Job. His wrath was aroused because he justified himself rather than God. That is Job's true problem at that point. Job's sin, as Eli who correctly identifies, is that Job came to want to justify himself, say he was right instead of God being right. Now God later appears, sometimes we should be careful what we pray for. Job wanted, in his sense, his day in court with God. He wanted to face God and argue his case, but Job quickly found out we need to be quiet in God's presence. And Job quickly found that out, and he became a much wiser and more humble man. God later appears and corrects Job. In Job 42, verse 3, Job begins to reveal and admit and repent. He makes his confession. Actually, go ahead and read verse 1, chapter 42. Then Job answered the Lord, the Eternal, and said, I know that you can do everything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. Verse 3, you asked, Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?

Job admits it was him himself. He says, Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak. You said, I will question you, and you shall answer me. And here's Job's answer, verse 5. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent, and dust, and ashes.

So God corrected Job, and Job humbly received that correction. But God also corrected Job's three friends, for they had spoken wrong words. They were thinking a wrong way about Job. Verse 7, continuing on. And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

And so they had made the mistakes. God showed them that he God is and can only be just. He's letting them know that they do not know God. They may know a bit, but they did not know God as he revealed himself to them. And of course, the lesson of Job, the lesson of the book of Job, is that God must be justified, and mankind must be judged by God. And so it happened. The men, all of them repented, got right with God, and God forgave them.

And so there are many, many lessons we can draw from Job, but my lesson, the point I want to draw for my purpose today in this message, is the example of how Job and his friends had rushed to wrong assumptions. This lesson of Job warns us about making wrong assumptions, about assuming we know more about what's going on in someone's life than we really do.

We must be careful about assuming we know what God is doing, even in our own lives, when sometimes maybe we really don't. And maybe sometimes, like Job, we just need to be silent and let things work and see how God works these things out. We do our part and trust God to do His. And so we need to guard our thoughts and tongues. We need to be careful about rushing to judgment, especially when we do not have all the facts. And so the battle goes born of the figments of our imagination, thinking we know it all, we've got it figured out, which can be just wrong assumptions. We'd be wiser to keep to the facts.

We'd be wiser to keep to what we do know. And what we do know is God can be trusted, that God is righteous. God can never do anything wicked or evil. God can only do what's good. And there are going to be so many times in our lives we just cannot seem to understand God's purpose in allowing what to us is a terrible tragedy. Or maybe to us we may feel at times is a terrible injustice. We have to be humble, like Job came to be, and recognize that God knows what is best, that God can be trusted, and that God will help us through.

We must keep to the facts and trust to God. And so the point, point one here, don't trust in our assumptions about people and about God. Don't trust in our assumptions about people and about God. Now another second type of old man way of thinking concerns excessive worrying. Excessive worrying. Worrying is so often born of our doubts and fears. This is where, remember that old saying, I don't know where it comes from, I guess I should have looked it up.

Sometimes we can be very good at making mountains out of anthills. Yeah, I know it's molehills. But sometimes we can even do it out of the tiniest little bump in the road. Matthew 6, 31. Let's turn to, again, what Jesus says here.

Matthew 6, 31 through 32. Jesus doesn't want us to be filled with worrisome thoughts, excessive worrying. Again, it's our proclivity as human beings. We're mortal, we're flesh, we're going to worry. But we should not let worrying consume us. Matthew 6, 31 verse 32. Here's some comforting words, and I'm just going to break into a longer narrative, longer discourse that Jesus gives here. Verse 31, Matthew 6.

Jesus said, therefore do not worry, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? And I'm going to insert, how can I pay for my bills? How will I get my car fixed?

What if I get sick? Where am I going to live? And other such questions. And why? Verse 32, for after all these things, the Gentiles, those who don't know God, seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

It's kind of like what we learn from Job. God's got this. He's watching out for us. We can trust Him. Now, I hasten to add, Jesus isn't telling us that we should just, you know, look up to God, run out in the middle of the yard. Don't run out in the middle of the street. But we don't want to run out the middle of the yard, in the middle of the... and just plop on the ground with our arms wide open, our mouths open like some kind of baby sparrow and tell God, feed me! Give me my food now! Of course, that's not what He's quite talking about. The point is, we do have to plan for the future. We do want to plan and prepare. We can and should, as much as we are able to do, to procure these things that we and our families need. We have our part to play. If we can work, we should work. Whatever we can do, we can do. Doing our part and trusting God for the rest will help us be rid of those worrisome ghosts that can trouble us, those fears about the future. Now, if you turn with me now to 2 Chronicles 17, there's a little episode here from the past. Remember what's written is there for lessons for us. 2 Chronicles chapter 17. There's important principles that we might learn from the account of Jehoshaphat, the good king of Judah, principles about battling excessive worries and fears. So we're going to start in 2 Chronicles chapter 17. What we will find here is the account of King Jehoshaphat, who rolled over Judah during a very dangerous time, and the future of Judah looked very grim. Their constant warfare with the kingdom of Israel to their north, and they had very many enemies around them. But Jehoshaphat trusted in God. He did not sit in the middle of his kingdom saying, arms open mouth wide, God protect us. Well, I'm sure he did pray that, but he also did his own part. He did his own part as king of Judah to defend, prepare, and to defend God's people. Notice verse 2, 2 Chronicles 17 verse 2. And he, Jehoshaphat, placed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah. So he fortified his cities. He got the army ready. He said, garrisons in the land of Judah and the cities of Ephraim, which Asa, his father, had taken. So he did his part. He also took seriously the need for his people to be devoted to God. He recognized being prepared was not just a matter of being physically prepared for the enemies. He also did his part to make sure his people were spiritually defended and ready for their enemies. So we continue on verse 3. Now the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because Jehoshaphat walked in the former ways of his father, his ancestor David. He did not seek the bales, but he sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments and not according to the acts of Israel. Israel had turned their backs on God. Israel had set up all sorts of...had set up calves to worship, false gods. And let's look at chapter...excuse me, verse 9. Let's also look at verse 9. Chapter 17, verse 9. He set up...he sent out the priests. He sent out the Levites to go out and teach the people God's law. He didn't make the people come to him, come to the priests. He had the priests go out to them. Verse 9, So they taught in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them. They went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. So again, Jehoshaphat did what he could to prepare for the future, both physically defend the cities and spiritually for his people. Let's look at 2 Chronicles 20 now. 2 Chronicles 20.

Now, because Jehoshaphat had prepared his kingdom's defenses and he had done all that he was able to do to teach his people to trust and obey God, when the enemies around him, Ammon and Moab, and Edom, they suddenly launched a surprise attack. They were not expecting it. They launched a surprise attack, and it happened so quickly, Jehoshaphat did not have time to call in reinforcements from other places, other corners of the kingdom of Judah. And they had great fear. But what did they do? Despite all their preparations, something unexpected happened, something too big for them to handle alone. They turned to God. 2 Chronicles 20, verse 3. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. All people. All of them turned to God. Verse 4. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord, and from all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord. The Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord before the new court, and he said, here's his prayer, O Lord God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? And in your hand is there not power in might, so that no one is able to withstand you?

Now today we call this rhetorical question. The answer is known. The answer is a sounding, resounding, yes, they knew this. Both king and people knew who God was and what he could do for them. They trusted in God. They took it to God. In verse 15, after Jehoshaphat's prayer, a prophet announced God's response. Verse 15, and he the prophet said, Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you, Do not be afraid nor dismayed, because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's.

They had all these fears. They took them to God. When we have our fears in life, take them to God. The battle so many times in our life really doesn't belong to us. We have to give it to God, and he will take up the battle. The next morning, Jehoshaphat and the people walked out of Jerusalem, and they were sinking. Praises to God, and the army followed behind them. Verse 20, verses 2024.

And so they rose early in the morning, went out to the wilderness of Ticoa, and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established. Believe his prophets, and you shall prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who could sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army, and were saying, Praise the Lord, for his mercy endures forever. And now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord said, Ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, that's Edom, who had come against Judah, and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end to the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. And so when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude to this vast invading army, and there were their dead bodies fallen on the earth. And it notes, no one had escaped.

They tore each other apart. They destroyed each other. God can do the same thing with our worries and fears about tomorrow. Jehoshaphat was faithful to fear and obey God. He taught his people to be faithful. And when their need was great, they did not fearfully fret about tomorrow, but they bravely and confidently put their trust in God. Now, they saw the hard facts. Sometimes people think, they saw the hard facts. Sometimes people think, oh, just trust God. That's kind of a, like an ice cream type of thing. Just let God worry about it, and we don't have to do anything. We don't really need to know what's happening. I'm not sure if that would be the right approach. I don't think so. Jehoshaphat and the people, they face the hard facts, just like we need to face the hard facts of whatever is our challenge, whether it's economic, whether it's health, whether, whatever it might be. We can face the hard facts, and we should. And with those facts, we can turn to God with confidence and ask Him, here's our problem. Please help us, because I do not know how to fix this. I do not know what to do. And we can trust God to provide. And so we need to fortify ourselves. We need to fortify ourselves, whether troubles are flood or fire, whether our trouble is illness, whether our trouble is just simply getting older and facing that reality. We can go to God, and He will help us. Romans 13, verse 12 to 13. Romans 13, 12-13 reminds us that God is our protector, and we can find great protection, confidence, and strength through His Word. Romans 13. We can and must learn to practice God's way of thinking and doing. We can fortify ourselves spiritually, through God's Word and His Spirit. We can arm ourselves in God. Romans 13, verse 12-13, Paul calls the armor of God in this verse, the armor of light. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Christ is coming, the age is drawing near to the end. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness. Don't we see a lot of moral darkness in our world today? Cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. That's what the world's involved in. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. Don't get caught up in the ways of the world. Just as light dispels darkness, so does God's Word and His strength. That Word of God, the light into our feet, can help us dispel those old ghosts, those rotten old fears and worries about tomorrow. We can't have true peace of mind that comes from God. And so, point number two, don't fret, but prepare ourselves for tomorrow and trust in God. Don't fret, but prepare ourselves for tomorrow and trust in God.

The third kind of thinking that often haunts us are those unpleasant memories. There's that old song, Precious Memories. But there's other memories that plague us, the ones that are not so precious, that seem more easily to invade our thoughts. Those memories can be thoughts and feelings maybe associated with past mistakes we made, maybe guilt that still bothers us. Sometimes it could be bitterness over things that happened in the past. Our old man way of thinking, that old man way of thinking that's wrong, it wants to cling to the bitter memories. It wants to cling to those old hurts and feelings. Instead of doing what God tells us to be doing, the new man tells us to be doing, and that is to forgive and to learn to love. We want to hold on to the bitterness, but when we hold on to the bitterness, we are actually hurting ourselves.

Let's look at what Jesus said in Matthew 6. Matthew 6, 14.

I hope we remember this part of Matthew 6. This occurs right after Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has just taught the disciples how to pray. He asked and he answered. Then he says, in Matthew 6, 14, Jesus said, you know, to forgive men or to forgive people who sin against us, forgive people's trespasses against us. He says, For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, us. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Now, these are very serious words. These are words that should make us tremble, at least in our hearts, about the meaning of those words. If we do not let go of our hate, if we do not learn to forgive, if we don't battle and overcome that old dead way of thinking of being bitter and bearing grudges, then we are jeopardizing our own salvation because God won't forgive us our sins. They're very definite cause and effect here. And so that's why I say, when we don't forgive others, we think we're being righteous by not forgiving them. I'll teach them. I'm not going to forgive them. Well, we're hurting ourselves most. We got to let go of that hate. We got to let go of the bitterness and then allow God to help us learn to love and to forgive it. We can learn from an example back in Genesis 27.

Here's an illustration for us to learn from. Again, another example from the Old Testament. Now, I know we are familiar with how Jacob had deceived his father, Isaac. Jacob, with the help of his mother, had put on goatskin on his arms, on the back of his neck, to deceive his father that he was pretending he was being deceitful. He was pretending to be Esau. He did that in order to get his brother Esau's blessing of the firstborn son. He didn't have to do it, but he did. God would have worked it out in his own way. But in any case, Jacob pretended to be Esau, and Esau was filled with hate and murder when he discovered what Jacob had done. We read this in Genesis 27, verse 41. Genesis 27, verse 41. Pretty blunt language here. So Esau hated. He hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then I will kill my brother Jacob.

No mincing of words there. In the words of Esau, her older son were told to Rebecca, so Rebecca sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, Surely, I don't think your brother's joking, surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you. Now therefore my son obey my voice, arise and flee to my brother Laban and Haran, and stay with him a few days, a few days, until your brother's fury turns away. Yeah. The vessel-aid plans of mice and men gone off a glee. Well, Bobby Burns said, they don't think so. Our plans don't always go as we think.

Those few days turned into 20 years. That's what Genesis 31-38 tells us. Let's turn back Genesis 32 now. We're just going to cut to the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.

After 20 years, Genesis 31-38, God had...

We begin to learn, you know, Jacob says these 20 years, Genesis 31-38, these 20 years I've been with you, you know, so that dates it. And it's in Genesis 31, verse 3, that we read that God commands him. Then the Lord said to Jacob, return the land of your fathers into your family, and I will be with you. God made very clear that I am sending you, and I will be with you. It's after 20 years.

The thing is, even after 20 years had passed, Jacob had never stopped thinking about what his brother had said. He had never stopped thinking it would seems... I don't... I guess I should... Don't rush to assumptions. Okay. I should be careful of thinking that... what I say here, but it would seem to me that Jacob never forgot what he had done to his brother Esau 20 years before. I say that because Jacob is rather terrified in some ways. He's fearful of going back home. He still remembered, and he greatly feared his brother's wrath and intent to kill him. He still was haunted by old memories, old guilt, old things he had done.

Genesis 32. We read how Jacob is getting... going back home to the family, and as he draws near to the land, he sent messengers ahead to Esau. He was trying to calm, to get... make things... make... test how things were between him and Esau. The messengers returned that he'd sent ahead of him to Esau, and the news was not really good. Genesis 32, 6 through 8. And then the messengers returned to Jacob saying, We came to your brother Esau, and he is also coming to meet you. And 400 men are with him. 400 men. I don't think they're coming to have a big barbecue. Well, who knows? Again. We know how Jacob responded to that. Verse 7. So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. Jacob thought he knew what that meant. And then he divided the people, his family, his people, who were with him in the flocks and herds and camels into two companies. And he said, If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape. So he made his plans. He made his plans and prepared.

The past had haunted Jacob, and Esau's hate still caused him to fear. But Jacob took that fear to God. Verse 9. And then Jacob said, here's his prayer, he said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, return to your country, to your family, and I will deal well with you. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant. And then he said, It sounds like Jacob had learned a few things during those 20 years. Truth, he says. For I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, just this piece of wood, and now I have become two companies, great people. Do you lever me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him. Look at this wonderful confession. I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.

And so Jacob didn't ignore the facts. He accepted the hard facts. His brother's vengeance was real, and that's the reason he also sent out a series of different droves of cattle and goats, sheep, camels, cattle, donkeys ahead of him. As a present, no doubt his intent was to soften any anger Esau might have been. We might say it was his effort to make peace. It was his effort to find reconciliation with his brother. Now, the next morning, Genesis 33, next chapter, the next morning Jacob and Esau have that reunion, a reunion after 20 years. Genesis 33, verse 1, 1, Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there Esau was coming, and with him were four hundred men. And so yes, he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maidservants. He put the maidservants and their children in front. Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last. And then he crossed over before them, and he bowed himself to the ground seven times. He would have put his head to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

Is it kind of something to think about? Whatever hate Esau might have had, it seems to have been let go by the time of that reunion. And all those fears Jacob had so long dread, things that would what might happen, the what-ifs, they never happened. All that dread he had experienced, all those sleepless nights, it never happened. All those things that had haunted him never happened. Now, it's quite possible the gifts and his humility did soften Esau's anger, yet Jacob surely knew that it was God. It was God that had answered his prayer. It was God that had made Esau's heart soften so that they might have their own form of reconciliation here. They did meet in peace. They did not meet in bloodshed and murder. What might we learn from Jacob and Esau's example to help us battle those old lingering ghosts from our past, those old wrong ways of thinking, old guilt, old bitterness, old hate? The fact is, we need to think like God thinks. Isaiah 55 verse 6 through 9.

Because we do not think like God thinks. And because of that, we get filled with fears and worries, and we don't let go of rotten old thoughts that should have been gone and buried a long time ago. And they can be, with God's help. Isaiah 55, 6 through 9. And even the righteous need to let go of some of their old thoughts.

Verse 8.

When we give in to God's way of thinking and learn to love and forgive, then we can overcome those old fears that would have us stay bitter and hateful until the day we die.

But you know, sadly, perhaps you know things like this.

Some people choose to remain haunted by the past. Some people don't want to let go of old griefs. I've met some people and heard of others. They choose to stay bitter about things people said or did to them.

Not just 20 years ago, sometimes 30, even 50 years ago. Maybe the company they used to work for, the organization, it could be folded up and gone decades ago.

The people that caused them so much grief, the people they still fight bitterness with, are dead and buried. They're gone. What remains? Our old memories, our old bitterness, our old grudges.

And mics call it to a degree those figments of our imagination. They keep haunting us. They keep hurting us.

Because we haven't yet forgiven. We haven't yet let it go. And as Jesus warned us, if we do not let go and forgive others, God will not forgive us. And so the question for those who cling to old and bitter memories is this.

Is your bitterness worth the loss of your salvation?

Rhetorical answer is no. Absolutely no. God will help us get over that. God will help us forgive. And so point three, don't let the past keep us from loving and forgiving others. Don't let the past keep us from loving and forgiving others.

And so today we've talked about battling ghosts.

To keep battling the ghosts, those figments of our imagination, those bitter memories that can deter us from becoming more like God, again, we must do these things and others I'm sure we can add to it. Again, don't trust in our assumptions about people and about God. Be careful of that. Don't fret but prepare ourselves for tomorrow and trust in God.

And don't let the past keep us from loving and forgiving others.

Through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, let's keep putting aside our old man way of thinking and let's put on the new man.