Spiritual Exercise

Well, I am thankful for water. It comes from... is this Chuck's? He said Zephyr Hills. That's where Chuck says he... that's from... that's in this area? Really? Okay. I didn't... and I know that Chuck was telling me how great it was. I said, was it great since you moved there? Or was it before that?

He didn't say. Okay, let me see how I can do this. Because speaking in the Caribbean, as it's done, does this throw you off back there? No? Okay, so I'm not... how close I get doesn't bother you. Alright. In the Caribbean, so many of our places do not have microphones, so I'm not tied to one, so I'm a walker.

So I walk. I'm gonna try to hold myself in, rein myself back, because you just learn... you have to learn to project there, and then you also have to learn how to save your voice at other times being... services go along there. Yes, my wife and I are from Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, outside of Nashville, and Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Does anybody know where Murfreesboro, Tennessee...

how did you know that? Man! Oh, I see Kathy back there. Okay, yes, I know she knows, but I didn't know all of you knew Murfreesboro, Tennessee, so I... gonna have to make a change from seeing hills to seeing water and palm trees. So Chuck asked me to... I asked him what he thought I should speak on. He and I have been a speaker for... been giving sermons for the last 15 years, and I have quite a few that I could give, and he said, well, why don't you...

you could do something on Thanksgiving. I didn't cover that. And I said, well, if you like me to, whatever you... being he will be my boss, and I do know how to take orders. I have been married for 26 years, and so hopefully you... you have a sense of humor.

I typically do, so you can laugh even if it's not funny. But... I wanted to give something that's close to my heart, something I deal with, but I also thought about what Chuck said, and I have various Thanksgiving sermons I've given over the years. But I thought, of all the things I could be thankful for, and I'm sure you spent time, hopefully, Thursday, praying to God, thanking him for the many blessings, whether it be of...

because of your family, because of the freedoms we enjoy from this country, whether it is the physical financial lessons that we're able to enjoy if you spend enough time in third world countries, you will realize how blessed we are. And I also thought how thankful I was for God's truth and God's plan of salvation, and that we know that. But I guess one of the things I'd like to talk about today is an introduction to me, my wife, and us serving here, is that one of the things I'm most thankful for is God's Word.

It's so powerful to have this and to have the understanding of this Word. One verse in this book can change and has changed people's lives. One verse may have changed your life. Like Hebrews 4 and verse 12 says, the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and it is. Our 2nd Thessalonians 3, 16, these are all memory scriptures, all scriptures given by the inspiration of God. It means it's God-breathed. And so I want to look at today an very inspiring scripture. Something that you can take not one verse, but a half of a verse, and if you do this thing, if you're able to do this, it can forever change your life for the better.

I want you to turn, if you will, to that half verse. It's in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5. My father, while we were working out on the farm a couple years ago, mending fences that you typically have to do. He was talking about, my father's been in the church for 40 years, raised us, set the right example. My brother is in the church. My sister is in the church. Sorry you had to meet her with Stan Martin, but she's Stan Martin's wife, so if you know Stan Martin, you know what I'm talking about.

He's a brother-in-law. But my father and I were working on the fence one day, and he was giving sermonettes at the time. He brought up faces. What's one of the most difficult scriptures you have to do, to keep? And I said, well, I guess one of those might be, Let this mind be in you, which is also in Jesus Christ from Philippians 2, or esteem others better than yourselves. Those are easy to say, but hard to do.

And I said, but I guess one of those might stick in my mind would be, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and all your being. I would think it would readily be the most broken commandment of all, because none of us do it the way we should. But then I came to this verse that, to me, is the beginning of a life change. If you're a young person, it can change your life. If you're an old person like me, 52, it can change your life.

It can keep your life going where you know it should go. And that's the second part, the B part of chapter 10, verse 5, as we break in a thought here, as Paul is teaching to the Corinthians. And it says in the B part, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Bringing every thought into captivity. And the more I research this, the more I found that may be the most difficult Scripture in the entire Bible to do, to keep.

The good news translation says, take every thought captive and make it obey Christ. It's hard to do. Especially when you're dealing with what goes in this mind is what we receive from the world, isn't it? From radio, television. You see, all this stuff that comes in.

Not all good, is it? A lot of it bad. And as we try to sort through this life, and we sort through these sins and trying to put them out of our lives, seeing the sins in our life is a must. How else are we going to truly repent? How are we going to bring every thought into captivity? Romans 16 verse 19 says what? Paul's telling him, be wise in what is good and innocent concerning evil.

He also says in Romans 12 verse 1, overcome evil with good. Overcome evil with good. So we better be able to find out what's the evil stuff getting in here. What's the evil stuff that is trying to get into our lives?

Amos 5 verse 15 says hate evil, love good. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Isaiah said the same thing. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Better for sweet, darkness for light. So there's something here that we need to be able to understand that God is wanting us to find the worldly stuff is evil. And the godly stuff is good. And it's that simple. But we have to contend with the world.

Driving down the interstate of I-75 Thursday night. Friday morning we got up and had a few hours to go. And here was a billboard talking about abortion. I go, wow, that's a powerful statement. Showing a little baby with beautiful blue eyes. Before I knew you, I formed you in the womb.

I thought, wow, I think I'm going to like a state. And the next thing I see is, we bear all. Sign right behind it. And then there's more bear all signs. Oh, here it goes. Good, evil. As I'm going down the interstate.

I remember growing up when I was 10 or 12 years old. I would hear something on the radio. Hear a song and I'd start humming. That's nice. Next thing you know, I'm thinking, me and Mrs. Jones. Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, we got a thing going on. Not even knowing.

My dad, what did you just say? I don't know. I was singing a song. I didn't think anything about it, did I? I had a country song. If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right.

What? That gets in your head. You watch your stuff on television. You may say, oh, that's a good show. You watch it for 30 minutes. Next thing you know, they're advertising how much better the next show's going to be.

And then you get bombarded with these things. Are the commercials? It's trying to put stuff in your mind. If it gets in your mind, your brain cells hold it.

Then the neurons cross and then there's more space in there. Let's link those things together. Paul knew what it took to overcome the flesh and to let the Spirit reign in his life. He knew that he had to bring every thought into captivity. But how do we do that? How do we bring every thought into captivity?

Paul's words there in the Greek, captivity, comes from the root word that means to take captive, to take captive, to lock up, to imprison, to confine, to detain behind bars. Which brings the question, how good is your jail? How good is your jailer? Let me ask you that. Do you run a minimum security prison or a maximum security prison? When your thoughts just can anything come in anytime?

Okay, it's out there. Oh yeah, welcome, welcome. Open the door. Come in. Because it says, let bring every thought into captivity, not some bring every thought into captivity.

Which begs the question, do you need a better jail for your thoughts? Do you need a better jailer for your thoughts? Because that's your job. Growing up, I used to watch the Andy Griffith Show. Hopefully you all knew the Andy Griffith Show. It's on 20 times a day on some channel. Okay, well. And you had the sheriff, Andy Griffith, and you had the little Peep-Squeak Barney as the deputy.

And in this town of Mayberry, they had a jail. And it had two sales. You remember? It had one sale here, one sale here, and Barney always locked himself up in jail. Well, what's interesting is they had the old town drunk.

Otis Campbell, if you remember, Otis. And Otis was always drunk. They called him town drunk. Now they'd say he has a substance abuse problem. Back then, they'd lay it out. He's town drunk. Right? But here, Otis Campbell was a drunk, so when he'd get drunk, he knows he shouldn't have done that. So he went, and they would have... You could walk in, and he would go to the jail cell and grab the key that was sitting behind the two cells and open it up and let himself in. And then when he's over it up, he'd let himself out.

Not very secure jail when the keys are hanging right there. Easy access, in and out. Is our mind and our prison the prison of our mind? Do we allow things to just come in without checking them? What kind of jailer are we? James 1, one of my favorite books of the Bible. I'm here. You'll hear much from James. He's one of my heroes. James 1, verse 14 through 15. Here, this is very personal. I hope we take this as personal. He said, each one... what's your name, Aaron? Each one, Moses Summer.

Okay? Kathy. Cassie is tempted when Chuck Smith is drawn away by his own desires and lusts. So James is telling us what it is that causes us when we get pulled away by our own desires and lusts. And says, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when full grown, will bring forth my death, my spiritual death. If I let this sin rain, if I don't have the gate shut, if I don't make sure, I don't let stuff in this brain. You know, almost all things in this world must be controlled.

They must be harnessed. Take WMDs. Weapons of mass destruction. Everybody wants to know where they are. Why? Because they're dangerous. And a time is coming, Christ says, in Matthew 24, when this out of control mindset puts this world on the brink of extinction. Complete annihilation. Not a matter of if, but when. It's going to happen. It's in here. It's in the book. I believe it. So, what about us? Where do we go?

How do we learn to have better mind control? Because that's what it is, isn't it? In Galatians 5, 22, which is memory scripture for almost everyone, the list of fruits of God's Spirit, right? Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, love. And then what? What's the last one? Self-control. Self-control. We need it, don't we? You may have stayed a little long at the Thanksgiving meal. You may have eaten four or five meals. It's hard to have that self-control in all that food sitting there, isn't it?

For a lot of people, it's just not food. It's drink. It may be sex. It may be drugs. It may be anything. What's important is self-control. And how do we bring every thought into captivity? Self-control. But it's hard to practice in this world. When the world preaches, do as you see fit. Don't let anyone judge you. Everyone does what's right in their own. Good. You read the Bible, too. Good. Everyone does what's right in their own eyes.

Raise your hand if self-control is not a problem. But lying is. Sorry, I didn't. You had somebody who doesn't have any problem with self-control. I've never met that person before. And then the sermon seven or eight times, never had that happen. Chuck said you'd be different. How about our examination? We examine what goes in our minds. You know, I need cleansing. I sin. I sin every day. And I have to cleanse myself every day. I need more control. I need more self-control. That's the fruit of God's Spirit. I wish I had more of that I have to ask for. I read a book many years ago, which I read a lot.

This was a book that told the background history of Joseph. It was an incredible book. I enjoyed it. I have a couple of sermons even about the story of Joseph. But the author made the point, and I think all of the men in here, which looks like, this is one of the few churches, looks like men almost outnumber the women in this church.

That's amazing. Usually there's more women than men. I can't read a woman's mind. Twenty-six years, I can't read a woman's mind. But I do know men's minds. I know our minds. I know where they can go. I know where they shouldn't go. I know where I have to reign them in. And all you men know it, too. In the deep recesses of our minds, we have things we have to fight back.

But in the book, he told about Joseph what an incredible example he was, because he had looks. He was a good-looking guy. He was very sharp. Mentally, he was a mathematical genius of his day.

He had everything a man could want, and yet he learned self-control, didn't he? And his author brought to the point, that's what I so remember from the book, all things. And he made the statement, as he was relating it to today's world, that not many men can carry a full cup.

Not many men can carry a full cup. Look at your athletes. Look at Tiger Woods. Good-looking guy. Money. Talent. Athlete. Look at your Hollywood stars. The more they get, the more destructive their life becomes. Men, can we carry a full cup? Can we carry a full cup? If it is given to us, sometimes I'm thankful it hasn't been given to me, because I couldn't carry a full cup like Joseph could carry a full cup.

I always loved the movies, and I love old movies, and I'm a film fan from the 1930s and 40s movies. One of my favorites, my wife got it for me on DVD, is Casablanca, because I always watched and liked Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart. But there was a line in that movie that I could not get out of my head, because it so told me about me. That's why you don't want to hear about me.

That's why it only took a few minutes. There's nothing good about me. Okay? Anything good is happening, because God's directed my life, and that woman over there has made me a better man. But in the movie, Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick Blaine, had this bar that he had there.

And this young lady came to him. Her and her husband were trying to get money or a passport to get to this other country. And they couldn't get there, and it was a really bad situation. And so she came, and to save their lives, she was willing to submit to an immoral act with the police, and the acting commissioner there.

And so he promised, if she would whatever it never said with him, that he would make sure that she was able to get the stuff and escape the Nazis and be able to live in America. And she came there, and she asked, she said, I know you're an honest man, I told you you're an honest man. And she said, will the captain keep his word that if she did this thing, he would give her this passport visa?

And he said, well, he's generally kept his word. And she said, what kind of man is he? And I'll never forget that line. He said, he's like any other man, but more so. He's like any other man, but more so. That's any of us men. If we do not reign in, we will be as bad as any man out there.

We will be without God's help, without His word, without His Spirit, and without His word. We will be as bad as any man in this world. Be like any other man, but more so. I realize that about myself. That's why it's so important, this word.

This book is so important to me, because she would not like me if this did not reign my life. She wouldn't want any part of me. So how do we bring every thought into captivity? How do we have this self-control? Well, I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to let the Bible tell you. That's where I get all my answers. It will give you every answer you need. You just need to study it. I'd like you to go to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4 and verse 7. It says, but reject profane and old wives' fables.

And then comes this important part. Here's what it is. This is the instruction God has for each and every one of us. And sometimes you can look over it because it's half a verse. Half a verse can change your life. And it says, exercise yourself rather to godliness.

Exercise yourself rather to godliness. It's interesting because the New American Standard puts it, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. It's interesting you go to the Greek word, which they got exercise from, where they took discipline from. The Greek word is actually gumnaso. G-U-M-N-A-Z-O. The transliteration, as we would understand it in English, is gymnaso, G-Y-M-N-A-Z-O. It's where we get the word gymnasium. Gymnasium. So we're talking about physical conditioning. And it says, exercise yourself. The good news translation says, keep yourself in training for a godly life.

So he's comparing the physical and the spiritual. And we need to be in shape spiritually. Message translation says, exercise daily in God. No spiritual flabbiness, please. Train yourself for godliness. Train yourself to be godly. Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness. And finally, the Phillips translation says, take the time, take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit. That's how important it is. That's how important it is. And it says, verse 8 down there, For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come.

The kingdom, eternal life. So he's comparing here that we've actually got to do something. We've got to do a little spiritually conditioning, spiritual conditioning, right? You take physical. You can't just go out here and run. Hey marathon, you can't say, well, I think I'll go out around that tomorrow. Oh, you can! They'll pick you up on the side of the road. You can't run at 10k, five miles.

Chances are, unless you, what? Train. You have some conditioning. You can't go out and walk 10 miles. Unless you've walked a few miles first, most of us can't. So conditioning yourself raises two points. The first, conditioning involves repetitive training exercises. Doesn't. Any of you, anybody ran a... Okay, let's start at 10k. Anybody ran 10k? I know Cassie has. Anybody ran a marathon in here? Okay, you're on 10k. You've got to run some miles. I remember the first 10k I ran. I remember I was running and running, and it's 6.2 miles now.

It's been quite a few years ago, as you can tell. But I had to run for a couple months before I could run, and I got up to about seven or eight miles, just so I could make sure, because I wanted to increase my time. Anybody when I ran the race, guess what? I've been training for months. All of a sudden, there was this girl running right beside me. And so she was running at a faster pace than I was, and here, what?

Machoism stuck in. And I said, man, I've got to at least keep up with her, because my buddies will be at the end of the line. They'll say, you got beat by a girl. So I'm running at a faster pace than what I should have been running at. I wasn't conditioned enough. Conditioning involves repetitive training exercises. Spiritual does like what? Bible study. Reading the book every day, that's why we do it. It helps us to be conditioned spiritually, just like prayer does. Prayer. Meditation. It would be nice to meditate every day. And what about fasting? No, I don't want you to fast every day. You wouldn't last long, would you? But we need to fast some for spiritual conditioning.

That's so important. Second point is no one can condition someone else. Can they? No one can condition someone else. It'd be nice if we'd go down to the store down here and say, I want to rent a runner. Okay? And I want him to run five miles and I'll feel great. Doesn't do any good, does it? We can't lease a faster, can we?

Well, I want to fast tomorrow, so I'm going to pay you to fast and get the benefit out of it. And there's no such thing as why you're praying. You go, time out, God, I want to substitute prayer. Right? This doesn't happen. You've got to. You've got to do it yourself. Right? Conditioning is between you and God.

You are the jailer and no one else can do it. You have to do it. I'd like you to turn to Proverbs 25, verse 28. Is this the hour and 30 minute service that I'm supposed to do? No. Okay, I just need to know how I don't usually...58 minutes is my... If you've ever known Fred Keller's, anybody know Fred Keller's? Fred Keller's my mentor and teacher for 20 years. He will stop in the middle of a sermon. He'll just watch and go off a gun. He is...and he never wanted to go over an hour, so I always try to keep it 58 minutes. And he usually keeps people very happy. Because they're going, oh, he didn't go an hour. The young people are going, all right. Windbag? Didn't go an hour.

Proverbs 25, verse 28 says, Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit. Hmm. Put it in today's terms. If I can put it into today's terms. When we fail to control our desires, when we allow our human nature to control us, we are like a bank vault with a screen door. You want to put your money in that bank? Because that's what it's like. We're just like that bank vault with a screen door on it. You can just go in! Why do people get in all this trouble? Problems. Self-control. Mind control. Bringing every thought into captivity. This self-control. Do you have it? Do you have it in your life? It's interesting because the Greek from Galatians 5, 22, the Greek word for self-control is incratia. E-N-K-R-A-T-E-I-A. Incratia. And it comes from the root word kratos, which means strength or might. And it's often translated dominion. And they put the prefix E-N in kratia. They put that prefix because that personalizes it. So in kratia, this word for self-control, incratia is the ability to have dominion over one's impulses or desires. That's what that word means.

The exercise of this discipline called self-control prevents desire, rather than from becoming a dictator. It prevents desire from becoming our, our dictator. Because it will.

How many times you see on the TV shows or all this, oh, I couldn't help myself. I've got this problem, and my father treated me bad one day out of all my life, and I'm that way. Right? You've heard it?

We have control over our lives. And one of the ways in which we can do that is have self-control about what goes in here. In 1 Corinthians 9, turn there, 1 Corinthians 9, the church at Corinth was very different than a lot of the other churches that Paul taught at. And Paul actually spent time in Corinth. And to really understand, you realize that the Corinth, the Corinthians, God's people living in, at that time, were living in a very worldly society, and they were affected by the world around them. And it showed in the church. And guess what, brother? It was showing this church.

You may already see it in this church. And Paul understood, and he wanted us to understand. That's why we have 1 and 2 Corinthians. Because he understood that worldly people marry worldly people who get more worldly people. Convertive people marry converted people who get more converted people. Leucaront people hang around. Leucaront people, you're going to get what? More Leucaront people. But godly people spend time with godly people, you're going to get more godly people. Why? That's what he had. Iron sharpens iron. That's what we're here for. As a family, as a church, to sharpen each other's iron, to help. Because some of you have no problem in certain areas with self-control, and others of us do have.

And so we're able to share this. How did you overcome that? Help me!

That's how you build a strong church, where everybody's in it for each other, not for themselves. They care about each other. There's love. So in 1 Corinthians 9, we have some verses starting in 24. I don't want you to start reading yet.

Because it's only three verses. As you can see, whenever I give a sermon, I don't use many verses. There's so much in a verse, I take it apart, because that's how I want to know it. I want to learn it. And I don't know all the stuff in this book, but I'm trying. And by breaking it all down, what I do know, I know. And I understand why God put it there.

But something you may not understand about Corinth, and it kind of helps to have some background. If Paul was telling about Tampa, St. Peter, he might even put in and make a reference to water, he might make a reference to palm trees, he might make a reference to certain things that people do here. I doubt he didn't mention Tampa Bay Buccaneers as bad as they are. But I can't say it, because we Tennessee Titans play them tomorrow, so I hope they are bad. But here in Corinth, there's something that took place. Corinth was a large city. The city of Corinth was. It had a lot of people. But they all had, like the cities back then, Alehead Stone or rock walls built around them as a fortress. And they were very Corinth. You can read about it in the Smith Bible dictionary if you have one.

My personal favorite. But the dictionaries will tell you that it was a city of sin. There was so much sin going on in Corinth, they would even make jokes about it. There were even phrases about he's a Corinthian because of the debauchery that was going on in that city.

But here, Paul is talking and he's making reference here because there was a set of games taking place in that time in Corinth outside the walls of Corinth, and they were called the Isthe-men games. I know it's hard to say. Isthe-men games. I-S-T-H-M-A-I-A-N.

They were held every two years, and they were almost as popular as the Olympic games.

People would come all over to participate in this game. You could come from all over the world and participate in these games. They were actually threefold, well fourfold later on. But they were started by the Greeks, and then they were carried on by the Romans when the Romans conquered the Greeks. But they had this Isthe-men games. So here they were running, wrestling, or as we say in the south, wrestling. And then there was boxing. They actually had boxing. You didn't wear gloves, you just barefisted. They were fighting later on. The Romans put in chariot racing. But this is what Paul is talking about here. And what is interesting is the games were open to anyone. The prize was sixfold. So you could win in one of these three. Running, wrestling, or boxing. And if you won, this is what you want. First you got this pine, woven pine fronds. This crown. You go, whoo-hoo, that's big. But then the victors were treated like royalty. And on that rock wall, on that block wall around there, they would actually take something and bust out a hole out of the side of the wall and take bronze and engrave your name in it. Wow, that's pretty nice. But then your debts were canceled forever. Your debt was canceled. Whatever you owed. If you owed somebody that's supposed to pay them five years in a row, it was canceled. All your debts were canceled. They were paid. That's pretty good. And then you were allowed to live tax-free for the rest of your life. I could stand that, couldn't you? And then, if you lived around Corinth, you received a lifetime supply of foodstuffs. So literally, it's like you won the lottery if you won one of these games. That's how big it was. Just like one of our guys went in the Olympics, and you're on television and say you get these endorsements, and you get to live the high life, and say, you've got to pay taxes. But that's what was the background of the next few verses. So let's go to those verses. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24, says, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives a prize? Of course they know it! They might have tried to compete in it themselves. Run in such a way that you may obtain it. For everyone who competes for the prize is temperate or... in crakia... self-control... is temperate in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we, for an imperishable crown.

What does he say, though? Therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight not as one who beats the air. What's he talking about? Boxing. Okay, if you're a boxer, you have shadow boxing. And that's what boxers do. My father was a boxer. And when I was young, he would teach me... Oh, I guess six years old, he bought me the first thing boxing gloves. And so he'd have me out there. And you learn the shadow box, and you keep this... You keep that shoulder up so it bounces off. You keep your chin down. You keep this up here. And then you stand there in the shadows doing this. Okay? It's a repetitious... It's a way of training, isn't it? And he's talking to physical here. What do we do? Do we have those certain training regiments in our lives? In our spiritual lives? What he's saying is, this is a fight. This I fight not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. Lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. So he's saying, this is not play. What we're doing is not a sport. It's a way of life. We must discipline our bodies. Right? Just as a boxer, we'll train. Just as a runner, we'll train. So we need these things to train us. And it's interesting. It says, I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. The Greek word translated there, discipline. Here, it literally means to strike under the eye. To strike under the eye. And it's a word for beating your face black and blue. You can see these people knew that these people who came for the Ithman game, especially the boxers, they would fight and fight and fight. Their face would be black and blue. Because there wasn't the rules that there were, that there are now in boxing. The only thing was, you either won, you either got knocked out, or you fought till you died. And these people were wrestling. They would wrestle. And if they got in a bind, they had the chance to either raise their hand, or if they couldn't, if they got choked out, they would just be choked to death. It was that important in the Ithman games that the winner wins, and he did whatever it took. That's why Paul's given these incredible examples that people will do this physically. And he's saying, if they'll do this physically, why won't we do it spiritually? You ever had to take a beating? You had a black eye? You have spiritually, haven't you? We all have, and we've all experienced it. He's saying that's going to happen, but you're building strength. You're becoming stronger spiritually. And that's good. The point of discipline, or self-control, is to make the body serve us, rather than us serve our bodies. Because that's what happens too much in the world. Feels good. Why don't I do it? Who are you to judge? Well, I want to wrap this up, make the young guys happy, and the young ladies happy. One more scripture. And like you turn to Hebrews. Hebrews 12, verse 1.

So therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run. Run! Run, people! Run with endurance the race that is set before us. That's our race. And it says, then, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher. Hmm. Does anybody have an Old King James? Anybody have an Old King James? Yeah, what does it say there? It says, verse 2. Looking unto Jesus, the author is ready for the Lord's sake. For the Lord has assessed the Lord in the Lord's cross, and started to say, and is set down at the right hand of the Lord. Right? We need to look to Him, the heavyweight fighters many years ago. They used to look to Muhammad Ali. They used to look to these boxes, the ones who were champions, who had achieved. Runners. They would go and study the people who had won before. That's our job. We've got three and a half years of His life, word for word, that He gives us, so that we can bring every thought into captivity, because Jesus Christ did, didn't He? Not one time. Not one, itty, bitty, teeny, tiny sin did He commit. And yes, Satan went after Him, time after time after time. And Satan is coming after us, time after time after time. This fixing our eyes, this word looking or fixing, comes from the Greek word, a forio, a-p-h-o-r-a-o. And it means to look exclusively at something and study it intently while consciously looking away from all distractions. I had to read that twice. I had to read that twice, because it's that important. And what it was describing after reading it twice, I said, wow! What He's talking about is tunnel vision, isn't He? He's saying, if we look like this at Christ, when you look at Christ's life, then what happens? We're going to make, we're going to finish a race. We're going to make it. Tunnel vision. Fixing our eyes on Christ causes all other things to dim in significance. It will. Haven't you gone through problems and trials and you've become fixed on something? You've become tunnel vision a little over a year ago, my younger sister. That her youngest boy was in a car wreck and he had head damage, brain damage from the car wreck. And then he was in a hospital for about a week and it was touch and go. One day, man, he's getting better. The numbers are down and then next day, I'll know they're up again. The brain is swelling. And you know, we went through there for about a week until they finally, we had to remove the life support because his body, heart attack, he's 15 years old. His body just started shutting down. They didn't want to bring him back to life anymore. And you know, during that entire week, I, my wife and my whole family stayed up at Vanderbilt Hospital. And we saw all the people who had children in there and just ripped at your heart. Because other times, I wasn't thinking about that. I never realized that people went through such traumas. It's a touch and go every day. But you know, during that week, I spent so much time in prayer. I spent so much time focusing on wanting Jesus Christ, God the Father, to answer my prayers. And I take, didn't give me the answer I wanted, but he gave me the answer. And I accept him because he wrote the book. He knows. And it's hard to accept. I'm a 15-year-old boy that you love. But my eyes were so focused on Christ and His will and everything about that, that I never thought about my business. Here I had a business and it was going, I didn't care. I didn't care.

I didn't care if I got a job. I didn't care about that. I didn't care about that. We didn't care about anything. We didn't care about anything. You've been through that, a lot of you too, haven't you? A lot of people have experienced that. And you've had that tunnel vision. See, because that's what God wants us to have all the time to Him. That's why He says, don't worry about tomorrow. If you have your eyes fixed on me, you have your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, you're not going to be worried. I'll take care of you.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ.

It starts right there in the book. We can't fix our eyes on Herbert W. Armstrong. We can't fix our eyes on Chuck Zimmerman. You can't fix your eyes on anyone. It is Jesus Christ who we must fix our eyes on. That is the author and the finisher. He shows us we can do it if we follow Him. Follow those instructions.

I remember telling this at... I had public Bible lectures this year in two or three places in the Caribbean. And we would have people come in and they study the Bible so intently, and even the people off the street. And one of the things that I said was, We, as a church, the United Church of God, we do not believe the Bible contains the Word of God. And I saw people go. You can see them actually draw back.

And I paused, and I said, Because we believe the Bible is the Word of God. It does not contain the Word of God. It is the Word of God.

And with His help, with this Word, His Spirit, and looking towards Christ, there's nothing we can accomplish. We can live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. I want to finish now with a story.

Because it so brings a point home.

It brings a point home to me. I need to bring every thought into captivity. And it's that important that I don't let stuff in. That I keep tunnel vision. I keep focused.

The story of a grandfather.

And he took his little grandson, who was six years old. And the grandson always looked up to him and loved him so much. And you can imagine if you have grandchildren or whatever, and you spend time and just love to talk. And his grandfather loved to take his grandson, his six-year-old grandson, to the zoo.

And the little boy just loved going, and the grandpa would tell all these stories, and so forth, telling him about the animals. But there's one part he loved. He loved the wolves. He loved to go see the wolves because of their eyes. Their eyes looked like they looked right through you. And they were so strong in their muscles, and then their teeth, when they would throw food out, they would just, argh, argh, argh. And the little six-year-old was just amazed at it. And he always wanted to go and look. Finally, his grandfather thought, I need to work with him. And so he told his little grandson, he said, do you know something? He said that inside you are two wolves. He said, really, grandpa? Inside you are two wolves. One is mean, bad, evil, and the other wolf is good, kind, and gentle. And they fight all the time, and they battle. And he said, well, grandpa, which one will win? He looked lovingly at his grandson, and she said, the one you feed. Brethren, the one you feed. Bring every thought into captivity.