God's Seven Day Diet

Today's sermon is titled, God's Seven-Day Diet. God's Seven-Day Diet. There's a game-changing book written in 1935 by Emmett Fox, titled The Seven-Day Mental Diet. It was popular for a few years, but then it kind of phased its way out. I'll reference that today because I thought it was a very good idea. I'd like to incorporate that into our next week's walk that we'll be doing. His well-laid-out plan forms a discipline for us to become aware of what the contents of our minds and the process in which we learn how to manage those thoughts, or vice versa, which he prefers, then vice versa, where our thoughts manage us. It happens. I hear David snickering, so obviously it has happened to you too. It's happened to everyone here. The simplified version is to not hold a negative thought for seven straight days. I look at you and ask myself, can we do it? Because I will be taking this diet along with you, hopefully, this week. And I challenge you as a congregation to take this seven-day diet. It sounds so simple, but it is very difficult.

Perhaps it sounds like psycho battle to you. Like, ah, it just sounds like a motivational speaker or somebody trying to tell me to change my ways. I don't have a problem. I don't have a negative attitude. Well, if you kind of say that, it's as tense as you are. You do.

Actually, this process that I'll be talking about today is Bible-based. It's biblical. I like to go there to prove that. I'll be quoting here from the Good News Translation. You don't have to turn there. I'm just going to read actually what it says in Proverbs 4 and verse 23. It says, Be careful how you think, because your life is shaped by your thoughts. Your life is shaped by your thoughts. Now, maybe there are some young people in here who do not believe that, but I can guarantee you anyone with a gray hair on their head or a gray hair that's colored will tell you that that is very true. As a matter of fact, I'd like you to turn with me to Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23, I'll read from the New King James Version. It actually says in Proverbs 23 and verse 7, For as he thinks in his heart, so is he or she. What's in that heart? What's in there? God talks about the heart over 500 times in the scriptures. He wants us to dig deep because why did he call us, he said?

He says he's looking for hearts, right? David was a man after his own heart. There are many times, but, you know, as we think, we kind of end up where we set our minds, both good and bad.

And even in the New Testament writings, Paul writes to the Philippians, remember? Philippians 4, verse 8, Think on those things that are good, that are pleasant. Set your mind on these things, he said. But in the New Living Translation, the last of that verse says, Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Pretty positive affirmations there that we need to get control of this mind, that we need to rule it instead of it ruling us. How many people made mistakes? He says, I don't know what I was thinking. I've said that before. The thing is, I visited people in prison, said the very same thing, except they're in there for life for many years. I don't know what I was thinking when I did this thing. Oh, or I just wasn't thinking. Well, yes, they were. And yes, sometimes we are. We're just thinking the wrong thoughts, aren't we? We allow things in life to influence us. We can allow people to influence us to a point that we kind of lose the ballots that we typically try to live our life with. It happens to me. It's happened many times in my life as I look back on things. And boy, just thankful that God guided me down a path that didn't make me have to answer that question in prison.

Physically, I'll let Nicholas finish his diatribe before I go on.

That's all he wanted was his mama. Well, then physically, you become what you eat. But spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually, you become what you think. You do become what you think. If you dwelt on evil constantly, guess what you're going to be? As David talked about this young man, that they go back and look in the last six months of his life and where was his thoughts. They weren't positive, were they?

Satan can lead us down this path if we're not careful. Most of us, this time of the year, as we're preparing for the Feast of Tabernacles, where we'll spend eight days feasting on the physical and spiritual, we usually try to lose a few pounds. I do. I already started this week. I dropped about four. I need about four more to go. Next week will be the tough part. But I try every year so that I can be healthier and happier at the Feast of Tabernacles. And it typically results when you lose a few pounds, when we do a certain diet or various diets. We usually feel pretty healthy or healthier. David and Annie can attest to that. As they told me, they're feeling great now that they are on their keto diet, have been on there for a while, have more energy. But like Emmett Fox's small little 19-page book from 1935, I want to suggest another kind of diet, a mental diet that rids us of the negative thoughts and actions seven days before the Feast of Tabernacles. Because we have tomorrow is Sunday, and we have Monday, and we have Tuesday. And right in the middle of this seven-day week comes Wednesday, and that's the Day of Atonement. Time to help us to focus. Really a good time to help us to have our minds right, have time to study. Well, the reason I bring this up is we have all met those people at the Feast who personify negativity. There are stories that people have. Hopefully, no one has stories about you or about me.

I remember, I spent probably 25 years ago, maybe more, I guess maybe close to 30 years ago, Mary and I were attending the Feast of Tabernacles in Kauai, Hawaii, on the beautiful island of Kauai. And it is called the Garden Island, and it is one of the most beautiful places you will see. Anybody here ever been there? No, Mary has. It's a small island, but there are abundance of food. Everything you can think of grows just wonderfully there. And it has a very mild climate, 80 to 82 degrees during the day, slight little breeze that blows at night, maybe 70 to 72 degrees. And it's that way all year round. Just a beautiful place to have the Feast of Tabernacles. Well, back then, I wasn't a pastor. I wasn't anything. I just volunteered to help. And so the very first or second year we were there, they asked us, because we'd been coming to Hawaii quite a bit at that time, asked us to man the information table. Now, there were, I don't know what, 600-700 people there at that time, I guess. Quite a few people. They had to limit, because of the hall, how many people could come. So we kind of enjoyed this. Okay, we've eaten in most of the restaurants. We've been around, seen the sites, did all this stuff. And so we kind of knew. So yeah, we'll take the information table. And so you would get there early, like what, 30 minutes, 40 minutes before services, and stay 30 or 40 after. And you would stand behind this table, and it had all the literature there. And I so remember, man, everybody, which was nice, I wish it was our culture here, every, nobody wore a suit. I didn't wear suits, they wore Hawaiian shirts, because that's their culture, so forth. And so I was in a great mood. So the opening night, we got there early, but everybody was rushing around. And so we stayed afterwards, a little bit, met a few people as they came and went. And the next day, we had services in the afternoon, and we got there early. And there was an individual I so remember, I don't know his name, but he came there, had this red, flowered shirt on, very bright. And so he actually came over to me and he goes, what do you think of this island? I said, I think it's beautiful. I said, I've been here just a couple of times, but it is a beautiful island, beautiful people, weather's great. I said, this is paradise. He goes too humid for me. I said, well, you'll get used to it in a couple of days. You know, you'll be used to it. I doubt it. I'm from Arizona or whatever, and our humidity is so low. He says, you know, this is stifling. I said, well, just don't think about it. You'll get used to it in a day or two. You'll adapt. So he kind of left. After services, he was back, brought up, oh, how about these restaurants? You ever eaten at any of these? I said, yeah, I've eaten at quite a few of them, three or four of them. This one's really good, and this one's, oh, no, I ate there. That was terrible. I said, well, have you tried this one? The food is excellent. He said, look at the prices. Why would I buy from there? He said, what do they think? These people are rich here? This continued every single day for eight days.

Until finally, I was just looking for anybody to come and rescue me from having to talk to because no matter what, wasn't that a wonderful sermon we heard? Yeah, but way too long.

Well, did you like the special music? It's okay. I've never heard that song before, though. Okay. Do you know a lot of songs? Yeah, I know a lot, and I don't know that one. So, you can imagine how this began to grate on me to whereby the end of the feast I was on that had the negative attitude towards him because it's like, can you not see anything that is good? Pure, whole. Yeah, he never did. I don't know whatever happened to him. I know his name. I was just so thankful when I moved here. He wasn't one of you. I know I'd have had my work cut out for me or just asked for a transfer.

For too many, negativity is a way of life, but we have to understand that's not God's way of life.

Jesus Christ was not negative. He had to deal with a lot of negative people every day. They were like this guy, except they were the religious leaders of the day. They came to find fault with him, what he did, and he was perfect. And the very laws they tried to find fault with him, he created!

It is amazing.

The Feast of Tabernacles is the highlight, usually, of our year. It is for most of us. It should be. We go somewhere for eight days, and we do exactly what God asked us to. These are very important to him. God sanctified the Sabbath day. He set it apart. He said every seven days. He loves seven, doesn't he? In fact, I gave a sermon on it one time. And the only thing he asked is, nobody else can sanctify or set aside or make holy a day. He does. He does the Sabbath day. And only seven days out of the year does he sanctify and set apart what he considers and calls holy days.

And they are to worship him because they're his. They're not anybody. They're not the Jews. They're his. Just like the Sabbath is not just for the Jews. It's for mankind. They just don't see it that way. Like you go with me. New King James, I like you go with me to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 14. Deuteronomy 14 and verse 22. Deuteronomy 14, New King James, verse 22. He says, you shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. Okay. So my wife and I, as this is done, we take 10 percent of our income and we set it aside in a separate account to keep the feasts of God.

We use a little, maybe in the spring holy days, if we have something, but the majority is kept for the eight days that we are to come and to worship God. And we don't have to worry. Are we going to have enough? We just do it every year. When we get back from the feast this year, our account will be pretty well drained and we will look. And in November, it'll be very small and then it begins to grow.

And by the time you get spring holy days, it's like, wow! But let's see what God said here. He set that aside, but then he said in verse 23, And you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place that he chooses to make his name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil and the firstlings of your herd, and your flocks that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. So this is about him, not necessarily about us. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, if you were close and you were farmers or anything else, you would do this as people have done in the past.

But where we travel, we take the money, as he says here. Journey is too long for you, so you're not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money. Take the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.

And you shall spend that money. Now this is where we get into positivity as we look at it. I hear, Elliot, a yes or amen back there. Yes, for those who have experienced it, it is the greatest culmination of physical and spiritual eight days you can accumulate. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires, you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice.

Rejoice! You and your household. Very, very positive things. You're going to eat. Unlike you eat most of the year, we will. We'll be able to have a nicer bottle of wine than we would have at other times, or we'll be able to share that with people or take people out even at the Feast of Tabernacles. We try to find people, widows or whatever, just so we can share the blessings that God has given to us.

But it is an amazing thing that He has allowed us to set. He's told us, set money aside, and I want you to come and worship me. And I want you to enjoy it physically, but also not forget why you're there. It's to rejoice, but to honor Him, worship Him. And that's why we have services every day. It's an hour and a half to two hour services, and we gather there together. We hear God's Word. We sing. We usually have an incredible choir. For those going to Jamaica this year, your choir is huge.

And able to do things as a group of people that you typically don't have the opportunity to do. Or the means in which to do it. And you're able to see people from all walks of life who are following God just like we are.

I think as God looks down, because this is His feast, He wants to make sure we... He gives us every example to really enjoy it and to make it special. So that you think He wants to see us have a good time, to have positive attitudes and relations with people. But it doesn't always happen. See, it's very important. It's very important because the feast, as we know, was kept by Israel. It was kept by Christ. Feast of Tabernacles. As a matter of fact, He addresses that in John 7 and 8. He addresses that. We know the New Testament Church kept those. And we do know that in the future, Kingdom of God, that the Feast of Tabernacle pictures. Let's go there. Look. Zechariah 14. Zechariah 14. That it will be kept in the Millennial reign of Christ.

As you can read chapter 14, you can see the rest of the story that will probably be hit on different times. I want to go down to verse 16. After the Kingdom is set up, my title says, The Nations Worship the King because Jesus will be here on earth as King of Kings. Verse 16, It shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and who keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Very important. So it was kept. Now it'll be kept in the Kingdom of God. And it shall be that whoever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. You're going to be cursed. It's important to him. If the family of Egypt will not come up and shall have no rain, they shall receive the plague from which the Lord strikes the nations, who do not come up to keep what? The Feast of Tabernacles. This is the punishment. Or one translation says, this is a sin. So I think it's pretty important that we keep it. And I think God wants us to have a time to celebrate our life and our walk together with other people. But as I think about it, I, because you see people there who I don't know if they realize that God really wants us to be positive. Because I've seen people with the Feast of Tabernacles. It reminds me of Charles Dickens' book, The Tale of Two Cities. As he says, it's the best of times and it was the worst of times. Because I've actually seen people who had all these blessings that God had given them come to the Feast and their attitude just drug them, their family, and anybody that had anything to do with them down to where you really didn't want to be around certain people. And personally anymore, I'm a festival coordinator. I actually have four feasts to oversee this year. I'm just going to be at one, but I've had to oversee this and this. And while I'm there for the eight, nine days, I don't want to be around negative people. Now, I've got to handle negative problems. I've got to handle them, but that's all. Let's get them done. Let's move on. But I'm not going to be around. I'm not going to say, well, why don't with all that negative attitude, and I just love how you're depressing everybody here, let's go have lunch. I want to eat.

I'm not going to do that. And I think it's important. I want to help people, but this is something that we need to view. Like you do, just visualize if you can a feast of tabernacles for those who have been there many times, and it's completely full of non-negative people. I've been there. I've seen that. And it is a very positive, uplifting, empowering, we found you found, stay over, somebody over for dinner or cook some stuff out. I know you can cook and have people over, people you don't even know. And then you get to talking about this and talking about Scripture, and it's just so empowering. You find out people's lives and what they've gone through, how you can help them and they can help you. Very powerful. Would your eight days go better if everybody there had a positive attitude? I think so. It makes me almost think of that phrase that is commonly used. It actually came out in print in 1943. It's useless knowledge books that I have. These things pop in my head. And it's the phrase, duh. Everybody remembered duh. D-U-H. So I had to look it up because it popped in my head. And it's another way of saying, that's true, Captain, obvious. It's just something to happen. But it came out in 1943 and it was given as a statement of slow-witted people, is what it said. I guess that's why people in the South use duh sometimes. When you say something that everybody's like, duh, we all know that. You know, or somebody's standing out here, oh, we all look out the window, hey, it's raining. Duh. Yeah, it's one of those things that we should look towards. I'd like to go, if I will, in the New Living Translation. You don't have to turn there. Isaiah 26 and verse 3, because I like the way they put it here. Isaiah 26 and verse 3. Because we look to God, we look for Him to bless those. We ask for protection as we travel when we come back home. But we want to make sure that He doesn't get lost in the shuffle and that our attention and focus is having a great time and to rejoice and to feast. And it's not the fast of tabernacles. And I am so thankful of that. One letter makes it all better. I don't want to have to go and fast for eight days. Okay. I just ask us fast for one atonement. And then that better helps us to propel us into this feast. But in Isaiah 26 and verse 3 from the New Living Translation, it talks and it actually quotes God. And He said, or He actually talks about God here. He said, God, You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you. Now that is a positive statement. I feel good about that. I need perfect peace. I just need to make sure according to the Scripture that I trust in Him. I do. It isn't enough. That's for me to work on. Okay. You will keep in perfect peace all who trust you. All those whose thoughts are fixed on you. To me, that's the center of the feast. I can have a great time. I'm going to enjoy myself. I'm on fellowship. I'm going to, you know, probably go out on a boat. We'll probably go into the mountains. We'll probably go various waterfalls. We'll be able to see things. We'll be able to share food. We'll be doing all this. And He made it all possible. I won't forget the knowledge that I have because a lot of people don't understand. Not only the seventh day every week, but the seven holy days that He's given us. And they all are a blessing if you put your trust in Him, which I hope we do. So, starting tomorrow, Sunday, I'm asking you to go on a diet. A seven-day mental diet. A seven-day, even spiritual, diet.

We can either look at a diet as a challenge, and, oh, I really don't want to do that. You talk about anybody about diet, and it's just like you're getting a little personal. Right? Wait a minute, you're just a little bit back up, big boy. You know? I'm fine. If you get sick, if you don't feel good, it sounds like that's your problem. So, I know what I'm doing because I'm doing this with you. I'm going to take this challenge because it is a seven-day mental and spiritual diet to take out negativity out of my life. And I'm going to start Sunday so that by the time I get seven days, I will be ready for the opening night of the Feast of Tabernacles. So, it gives me a time to focus on me and these negative thoughts that I have so that I can benefit other people.

But it's kind of like trying to get in shape physically. I started that this week. Mary was gone, so I got up and I would like to think I ran on the beach. Other people say I fast-walked on the beach. I'm a thick sand so that I could kind of, you know, I want to lose a little bit of this. I want to feel good.

But nothing that we ever start is really that thing that we anticipate. Because it's like working out, I felt after I got home from the beach and doing that this week, I felt like the old movie Rocky, you know, where he's running the steps of Philadelphia his first day when he did it. And I'm going, and I'm thinking, you know, maybe I should wait till after the feast. Mary doesn't know. And then I'll probably feel better. But the first day and the first week are always the toughest. And it's that way, same thing mentally and spiritually. If we're trying to make changes in our spiritual life, the first week is always the toughest. If we're saying, I need to get rid of this attitude, I need to get my focus off of this, I've got my eyes set on the things on the earth instead of up above. It's always the hardest. But once you kind of get after a few days, like, Neil and Winston started running this year. It was pretty good after you got going first week, and then they, you know, it feels good. And then it's a lot easier to keep it up because you've kind of formed that habit. Well, so is the mental aspect of what we deal with every day. The spiritual aspect of what we deal with and how we put those into work.

There are three basic rules for the seven-day diet. I'd like to give them to you now, because I would like us as a church to look at ourselves and see, can we have more of a positive mindset instead of negative?

The first rule is, for seven full days, you must not allow yourself to dwell on any negative thoughts. You must not allow yourself to dwell on any negative thoughts.

I was praying this morning, and all of a sudden, my mind, because of what I thought of something, my mind went all the way back to my high school days, on something very negative. I had to stop that and move on. I was in prayer anyway, but this didn't have anything to do with God.

But just to think of the negative, because there are things we can dwell on, things that come back around that shouldn't come. It says not to dwell on them. It doesn't mean they're not going to happen. They're not going to come, but do we dwell on them? We may have negative thoughts about people we live with. Will we let that dwell? Because you know what happens when you dwell on something? You always say that. You always do. Why did you? Next thing you know, what's your attitude? Snap back. To not dwell for seven days is something that will be very hard to do. That's why it's the first one. Don't dwell on it. You know things are coming up. Wait a minute, I've got bills coming up. You know, man, am I going to be able to make this payment? Am I going to do this? Dwelling on it doesn't pay the bills. It just causes you more panic in your life. It creates less faith, right? Faith is something that God's intimately involved with. It's faith in Him that He's in charge and that you're not. Number two, whenever a negative thought enters your mind, you must let it go. Any time a negative thought enters your mind, you must let it go. Well, that sounds kind of like the first one, doesn't it? No. The first one is dwelling because it's kind of in you. You've got these things that pop up all the time and you may have paths that pop up or thoughts or people. But here is you're going to have negative stuff coming at you. You do every day. Do you grab it and go, ugh, chew on it? Or do you? Nope. You're not going to affect me that way. It's not like that guy at the Feast of Tabernacles affected me. He didn't for the first few days, but he kept coming back. And I was sick and tired. And you know, my thought was, oh, I don't want to see that guy. You know, and I would just, oh, here's somebody. I'll end over here, and he's standing over there waiting for me. And my first thought is, Mary, get over there and talk to him. Why should I have to talk to him? But he wanted to talk to me. And so we must watch those things, fight them off, because they are darts. There are fiery darts that come at us every day, in many ways, in many shapes. And they want to bring us down. Finally, number three, the hardest thing to do. We must stop the diet and start over when you fail, one and two. Now, the reason you do this is because if you didn't, you would go, yeah, it's negative. Oh, you know, it's kind of like the diet. Well, wait a minute. I've been so good. Just one hamburger this week, some McDonald's, and throw those fries in, and throw a shake in there, too. Because as soon as I get home, I'm going to throw this away. I'm going to eat and throw it away. I'm not going to go back and do that again. Right? And that's what happens. So we have to stop it and say, okay, I held on to that, and it controlled me. So let it go and start over. And what's okay, so you get two or three days, and then you have to stop and go over. What's it going to do? It's going to send you into the feast, where you have an environment where there's more positive people than you do out here, or it should be. You have a little more controlled environment, hopefully, and you will be able to do that.

If we reflect on ourselves and our minds, on our thoughts, our mental, even spiritual, and so many aspects, the thoughts you harbored last year, they've led you to the life you're living now, this year. So why don't we get a hold of the thoughts this year so that we can direct a more positive, a more spiritually uplifting life for next year? Let me ask you a question. According to research, and I've studied this this week, how many thoughts do you have during the day?

You're a big thinker. The researchers actually said that, the average, well, I'm not giving you average, that the studies they conducted went all the way from 1500 thoughts a day to 15,000 thoughts a day. Now, if you're just towards the lower end and say 5,000, 5,000 thoughts a day, how many of those are negative? Have you ever thought about it?

You see how it will shape you and how you can begin to think, well, you know, if you really thought about it, only 10 percent, and that's 500 negative thoughts a day. You do not think that shapes you? Hell shaped me! And then, if you actually, only one percent, you still have 50 negative thoughts a day. You see how you can get shaped? Oh, I can get shaped by allowing negativity to not only grow, they breed, multiply, and then you just, and then you're in and out. So, you understand now why negative people? I love to hang around negative people so they can create more negative people. Yes. These are things that I have asked for you to consider. Do people get your vibe? Everybody sets off a certain vibe. Usually, people look at that vibe as either negative or positive. They either look at that vibe as, I'd rather, you know, I don't, I like being around that person. Or what? I can't stand being around that person. Everything you say, I just, ooh!

What do we do? How do we face it? I'd like you to patronize me here as we begin to wrap this sermon up. And I know you're going to have a hard time with this. Some of you won't. Yes, that's a negative thought. I don't start till tonight at sunset. That's a positive statement. Yeah, so, you know, just so I can keep my diet, I don't want any of you calling me this week.

Handle it yourself! No. Every one of us has got an ugly face. Right? You ever have an ugly face? One that you really don't want, you know, if somebody took a picture, you don't... You have one of those faces you just don't, you know, that you wouldn't want anybody to see. Because we've all gone on vacation going somewhere and we took a bunch of pictures and you're just like, ooh, I don't want anybody to see that, right? And then somebody takes it and puts it on Facebook. But no, I mean, it's that ugly face. And we've all got one. Right? We've all can look that... I used to have a second grade teacher. I remember her name. McElroy. She said, McElroy. And when I moved from Indiana to Tennessee, besides the language barrier and I had to overcome, Mrs. McElroy had a statement that I couldn't understand. And she would get on somebody and say, don't be ugly. Well, I thought she was talking about, you know, ugly people. Well, she was talking about how they acted, attitudes, and so forth like this. So I'd like you to imagine a negative mirror. Okay? I'd like you to imagine this as a mirror. And every time you were negative and you looked in that mirror, it gave you the ugly face that you would not want anybody to see. Can you imagine that? Twilight Zone. No. Sci-fi. Twilight Zone, they actually had a show one time where the people, their face turned, no matter how what they looked like, it helped them, their face turned into what they actually were inside. So some beautiful people could be like, oh, they were hideous looking because of what they were inside. Movie Shallow How. If any of you have seen that, you know, it's kind of that same concept, right? But imagine a mirror that you could look into, and every time you were negative, it's the ugliest version of you you can think of. Brethren, you don't have to imagine. Because when you have such a negative attitude, that's how most people see you. It's how most people see me. Do we want that? I don't think so. So are you a magnet?

At both positive and negative, right?

You usually attract what you are. Don't you? People want to hang around people like them. They don't want to hang around people who are not like them. How many marriages have fallen apart? How many relationships have fallen apart? Because one, it's just constantly negative. It's all shaped by the mental. And when we, as a man thinks so, he is, and it shapes our spiritual lives, we must be on top of this. That's why I have suggested this seven-day mental diet to where we do not hold a negative thought for seven days. Because it will help you to see what kind of condition you are in and just how negative you are, unless you're so negative that you don't think any negative thought is a negative thought. And then you really got problems. Okay? And then hopefully somebody in here will show you how negative you truly are, and that you need help, because we all need a little help.

So you go to the feast, and for eight days you will practice living with called-out ones, the ecclesia. Okay? These are people who are looking forward to the kingdom of God. They understand the plan of God. They try to obey His Word as best possible. They're not there to drive you crazy. They're not there to take, to steal, to do anything else. You don't have to be like you do here and just always have your head on a swivel or watching your back if you live in Miami or some other area.

It's a very positive atmosphere you're going to. Will you contribute or not?

You might just say, God gets to see for eight days. Are you really what He wants to live with for a thousand years? Does He really want you around all His wonderful family for a thousand years and then into eternity?

Eternal life is a gift from God. It says it is. That means He gives it. Does He want to spend? Does He want to have to deal with your negativity? I doubt it because that's not what the kingdom of God is about. So as you go on this eight-day interview before God, afterwards, will you be in demand? Will you be in demand? Because I've had people when I had my company, I had guys that came in who interviewed for a job three or four, you know, and I would see that someone would just knock your socks off and he'd be like, I'm going to hire him. And you're going, you know, it was half of the interview and it was like, done. I want this guy. He had everything at a positive age. He's like, you knew. You just knew. I wanted him and my company. And then that dreadful answer would come. Well, I got a couple other interviews.

Sure.

And I remember one guy I hired that day. He said, well, I do have now. I said, tell me what you need. What do you want? What do you want from that other company? Tell me. I said, done. Hired him. Great person. Great individual. I had to have him.

Well, let me how it is with God and Christ as Christ sitting on the right hand and going, we got to have that one. Did you see that? Did you see how they did? He had eight days and he was just, wow. Can you imagine what a king and a priest he will make? The king of God. I want that. We can look at Hebrews 11 and it's the faith chapter. And you read about these incredible examples, all those who will be in the kingdom of God. And we have that to look at because in chapter 12, verse a few verses, he said that we are surrounded with such a great cloud of weaknesses. So it gives us a chance to look at those.

And say, I want to join that group. I want to join that elite group.

Brethren, we need to be there. We need a positive attitude. We need to make sure we do not allow Satan to win the battle of our minds because he wants to. He started out with Eve. That's how he got Eve, right? You will not surely die. She said, if I eat of this, I will die. No, you will not die. As a matter of fact, the actual Hebrew says, no, you will not die. Bring me that negative no. God's a liar. We must overcome that. Final Scripture. Final Scripture.

Like turn to 2 Corinthians. Read from the New King James. We'll wrap this up today. 2 Corinthians 10. If I can find it through here.

You know what I said last year before the feast? I lied. I lied before all of you from this pulpit. I said, last year my Bible is a part. I've got a brand new and I'm going to transfer everything over in the next year. I haven't transferred anything. I'm still hanging on as the Bible is falling apart. I'm going to have to make that. I can't be negative about transferring it over. But 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. Hopefully all of you know that. Where those thoughts, the prince of the power of the air, gets us. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, fleshly, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. You have some strongholds? All of us have strongholds in there that we keep holding on to these things. He says, let them go. Tear down those strongholds. And if negativity is one of them, let's knock it out. Let's make sure that it's not a stronghold. Casting down arguments and every high thing that exhausts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring every thought into captivity. Brethren, let's bring every thought into captivity for the next seven days. Let's take that seven-day diet. Let's try.

So without being personal, don't take it personal. Don't be negative. Okay? Are you fat? Are you overweight? Are you obese? Brethren, with negativity. That is the kind of diet I want us to have. So that when we get to a feast of tabernacles, they know Fort Lauderdale has arrived. And it isn't because we're negative. It's because of the most positive people. The kind of people that people want around. It's time for God's seven-day diet. It starts tonight. It can be life-changing. And brethren, if nothing else, it can create your best feast ever.