Participants: Jim Gilley
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000018
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00:12 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth live from the 3ABN Worship Center.
00:17 Thriving Faith In Difficult Times, with Jim Gilley. 00:23 Ellen White writes in the second volume of the Testimonies, 00:27 page 319, a note of encouragement to a 00:31 woman who had been suffering for a long time. 00:34 And she says this, "I saw that God would be to you 00:39 a very present help if you would only trust yourself with Him." 00:45 But here's the operative part of this sentence. 00:47 She says, "But you worry yourself out of the arms 00:51 of your dear loving Savior." 00:54 Ellen White goes on to say in this particular letter, 00:58 and in others, that we can indeed worry ourselves 01:02 out of the arms of Jesus. 01:04 We can take our burdens to the Lord and, through worry, 01:08 pick those same burdens back up and carry them once again. 01:12 And so, last night's message was so very, very crucial 01:16 and important to our Christian walk because Jim told us 01:22 that worrying is not going to help us and it really 01:26 does an offense to the care and the love of God. 01:29 It was a beautiful message backed up and buttressed 01:32 by what Ellen White had to say in this particular volume 01:36 of the Testimonies. 01:37 Good evening and God bless. 01:39 My name is C.A. Murray and it is my privilege and pleasure 01:42 once again to welcome you to presentation number three 01:45 in this practical godliness series where we are 01:49 dealing with the practical issues that appertain to 01:54 walking with Jesus Christ. 01:56 We all have feelings, we all have emotions, 01:58 we all have ups and downs in our Christian experience. 02:01 And as wonderful and as good and as important as it is to 02:05 talk about prophecy and eschatology and soteriology 02:08 and ecclesiology, and all of those wonderful things that 02:11 make of the warp and woof of Seventh-day Adventism, 02:14 is it also important to talk about how we're going to 02:17 make it tomorrow. 02:18 What happens when the month is long and the money is short? 02:23 What happens when someone cuts you off on the road? 02:26 What do you do when you have fear? 02:28 What do you do when you are prone to worry? 02:32 These practical things that make up our life. 02:35 And Jim has been walking us through that 02:37 these past two nights. 02:38 Tonight, we change directions just a little bit 02:43 because we're going to be talking about 02:45 a settled mind in an unsettled world. 02:48 A Settled Mind in an Unsettled World. 02:51 And I know that Jim Gilley is going to give us the 02:55 Word of God this evening as he has on the past two occasions. 02:58 And I would ask from you for him, your prayerful 03:01 and undivided attention. 03:02 Not only here in this house, but around the world 03:05 as we listen to the man of God deliver the Word of God 03:08 this very evening. 03:10 Before Jim comes and speaks... 03:11 Some 36 years ago, I was pastoring the Bethel church 03:15 in Brooklyn New York. 03:16 And there came to church each Sabbath, a young man, 03:20 street jockey from Brooklyn, with a large lollipop afro 03:25 and an attitude. 03:26 He came into church and he certainly wasn't thinking about 03:28 being a pastor back in those days. 03:31 But he did have a girlfriend who loved the Lord 03:36 and who thought it not robbery to drag him to church 03:39 every Sabbath morning to hear me preach. 03:41 And I don't know if he often liked or always liked 03:44 what I had to say, or even liked being there, 03:46 but Angie got John there. 03:48 And sometime between then and now, his attitude changed. 03:53 He got a new attitude. 03:54 And he got a relationship with Jesus Christ. 03:57 And he found out that God had given him a voice. 04:00 And he chose to use that voice for Jesus Christ. 04:03 I'm talking about my pastor, my friend, John Lomacang. 04:06 And the Lord is quixotic in His dealings with us sometimes, 04:10 as I was then his pastor and he is now mine. 04:14 But I still think of him as little Johnny Lomacang 04:17 with the big afro, running the streets. 04:20 And I am very, very proud when I hear him preach 04:23 and listen him sing, almost as a father would be to a son, 04:27 though our ages are quite similar. 04:28 He is my friend and I've watched him over these years. 04:32 And God has blessed him. 04:33 And so before Jim speaks, we're going to call John to sing 04:37 the song just before he speaks. 04:40 But just now, I'm going to ask you to join with me 04:42 in a word of prayer. 04:44 Gracious Father, we just praise You and thank You 04:46 for this season. 04:48 And as we stand just now on the very edges of the Sabbath, 04:52 we ask that Your Spirit might draw very, very near 04:56 to this place. 04:58 There are parts of the world where the Sabbath has begun 05:01 many, many hours ago. 05:03 There are parts of the world where the Sabbath 05:05 is still to come. 05:06 But here, we look to the edges of the Sabbath 05:09 and we joyfully welcome in the Sabbath, which will come 05:13 in the next hour or so. 05:15 And we ask even now that as our hearts turn towards You 05:20 and we listen to Your manservant, that we may be 05:23 filled with Your Spirit, that we may be encouraged 05:27 as we seek to walk this road that leads to glory. 05:30 We love You Lord, and we praise You, and we thank You 05:33 for Your power and the power in Your word. 05:36 And we ask You to fill us with that power this night. 05:39 In Jesus' name, amen. 05:42 John Lomacang and then Pastor Jim Gilley. 05:58 Search me, oh God, reveal my heart, 06:04 expose my sin that it may be confessed. 06:15 Search me, oh God, unveil each thought, 06:22 and leave no hidden motive unaddressed. 06:33 Uncover every action born in pride, 06:42 show me the worldly ways I still embrace. 06:52 May every anxious thought be brought to light, 07:02 and each unspoken fear with faith replaced. 07:17 Search me, oh God, observe my life, 07:24 bring to my mind each idle word I speak. 07:35 Search me, oh God, test my resolve, 07:42 and alert me where You find it weak. 07:52 Reveal all weakened walls within my soul, 08:01 show me potential dangers unforeseen. 08:12 Then clothe my conscience with Your holiness, 08:21 help me to guard it well and keep it clean. 08:32 Search me, oh God, that I may walk in peace, 08:42 filled with the joy of knowing all is well. 08:52 My heart surrendered and my conscience clean, 09:02 so great a joy my tongue can scarcely tell. 09:11 Oh what a joy of knowing that all is well. 09:40 Praise the Lord. 09:42 It's so good to see each one of you tonight. 09:45 And I believe that as we open God's word, 09:48 that He is going to speak to our hearts. 09:51 We're going to ask Him to do that right now. 09:54 Let's bow our heads. 09:55 Father, we pray for a message from You. 10:00 We pray that through the power of Your Holy Spirit, 10:03 that You will speak to our hearts. 10:06 Give us courage, Father, because we know that 10:09 You speak of courage, so that we might be able to face 10:14 those things that are coming upon the earth. 10:17 Some of which we have no knowledge of. 10:21 We don't even know what they will be. 10:24 But You will see us through them, Father. 10:27 Thank You for that assurance. 10:29 We pray in Jesus' name, amen. 10:34 My mother was a great preacher. 10:38 Now she never mounted a pulpit, but she could preach. 10:44 I received most of her sermons. 10:49 Five children, but it seemed that she preached more to me 10:52 than any of the others. 10:55 And also, after I went off to school, mother wrote letters 11:03 that were unbelievable sermons. 11:07 I wish I had all of them. 11:08 I lost some of them in the fire we had, and also was not 11:13 wise enough to keep some of them. 11:16 And to be honest with you, there were some of them that 11:19 I didn't really want to keep. 11:22 My mother's name was Pauline. 11:25 And she was a great Bible student. 11:28 Most of her letters to me were sermons 11:32 with scripture and admonition that was direct. 11:37 And some of it hurt at times. 11:41 In fact, after I got married, when her letter came, 11:46 I would say to my wife, "Read this and let me know 11:51 when you think I can read it." 11:54 And sometimes she would hold it for days. 11:58 And sometimes, I think she wanted to give it to me. 12:01 So she gave me that letter probably agreeing with mom 12:06 that I needed that counsel that was in that particular letter. 12:11 Pauline epistles. 12:13 Mother had high blood pressure. 12:16 And she took some medication for high blood pressure. 12:21 She did not want to increase that medication. 12:24 She went to the doctor one time and the nurse was taking 12:28 her blood pressure and the nurse said, "Mrs. Gilley, your 12:31 blood pressure is a little high." 12:33 And she said, "Could you wait a minute and take it? 12:35 I was hurrying here." 12:38 And the lady kind of helped her along, she said, 12:40 "Well, and maybe you're a little apprehensive about 12:43 having your blood pressure taken. 12:44 Yes, Mrs. Gilley, you sit here a wait for a little bit. 12:50 And then we'll take it again." 12:52 Mother told me about this and she said, "I began to quote 12:57 that famous text from Isaiah the 26th chapter verse 3." 13:03 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 13:07 whose mind is stayed on thee." 13:12 And she said, "I quoted that to myself several times. 13:17 And then I told the lady, 'Go ahead and 13:19 take my blood pressure.'" 13:20 And she did and the lady said, "Wow, it's right there. 13:24 Right on normal. 13:25 We will not have to increase your blood pressure 13:28 medication at all." 13:31 And mom said, "That assurance lowered my blood pressure." 13:37 You know, I kind of smiled and I thought to myself, 13:42 "Yea mom, it was just accidental probably that 13:46 your blood pressure came down." 13:47 But I didn't say anything to her. 13:49 I did say, "Are you sure that's what did it?" 13:51 And she said, "Yes, I know that's what did it." 13:57 Years later, I was at a general conference session 14:00 running from place to place and moving around. 14:03 I had excellent blood pressure. 14:05 In fact, I had many physicals from Dr. Kenneth Cooper 14:08 there in Dallas. 14:09 And he use to look at me and he'd say, "This is ridiculous. 14:13 You've got the blood pressure of a 15 year old kid." 14:17 And he said, "It's just amazing how 14:20 good your blood pressure is." 14:22 And so I was so proud of it. 14:24 But this particular day, we were moving around quite a bit. 14:28 You know, general conference session can be really a 14:31 time of pressure and stress. 14:34 And so they were taking blood pressures. 14:36 And somebody said, "Hey, I'm going to have my 14:39 blood pressure taken. What about you?" 14:40 I said, "I'm not. Okay, I will." 14:42 So they took my blood pressure and it was a little high. 14:47 And I thought, "Wow, it shouldn't be up like that." 14:52 And then I remembered mother's experience. 14:56 And I said, "Wait a minute and take it again." 14:59 And again, I said to myself Isaiah 26:3, 15:05 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 15:08 whose mind is stayed on thee." 15:13 You see, when they took my blood pressure again, 15:18 it was normal. 15:20 And I said to myself, "My mother was right." 15:25 Again, mother was right. 15:28 You know, the Bible is so full of good things that really 15:34 talk to you and to me today. 15:37 We don't have to go reading literatures somewhere else. 15:40 If you go to the Bible, you can find the answers 15:43 to most of the things that we face in life. 15:47 They are there, in scripture, in God's holy Word. 15:53 Now let's say tonight, that you've come to 15:55 the doctor, so to speak. 15:56 And we're going to be talking about stress. 15:58 There's a lot of stress in the world. 16:00 You know, I was back stage just getting ready here to come on 16:04 and John came back and he started talking to me. 16:07 And he starts telling me about, and I'd heard about this, 16:10 but I hadn't really thought about it all that much. 16:13 I just casually heard about this dwarf star 16:16 that's out there that they're predicting some things 16:19 for in the fall. 16:21 And maybe we'll look at that some time. 16:23 Maybe John can present something to us on some of these subjects. 16:27 But it's Elenin, I think that's the way it's pronounced. 16:31 And the possibilities of the destructiveness. 16:37 This thing is larger or about the size of Jupiter. 16:42 And some time this fall... 16:44 And by the way, they say it's very erratic. 16:46 I'm not going to get into this. 16:47 I'm just telling you what John told me back there. 16:50 It was enough to stress me out, I can tell you that. 16:55 Here, I'm preaching on stress tonight and talking about 16:58 having peace tonight. 17:00 And then John comes back there and disturbs my peace 17:04 telling me about this. 17:07 But you know, the Lord is going to take us through. 17:10 No matter what it is. 17:12 In fact, sometimes when I see all these things lining up, 17:15 I'm saying, "Come on, bring them on. 17:17 Let's get out of here. 17:19 Let's go home with the Lord." 17:21 Because we know we've got to see these things take place 17:25 before He comes back. 17:27 So let's don't get all bent out of shape and start worrying 17:30 or try to prevent some things. 17:32 There are some things you can't prevent anyway. 17:34 There's no way you can prevent that star. 17:36 And they say it is totally unpredictable. 17:41 Usually you can predict stars. 17:43 You can set clocks by them and the time right to the second. 17:46 This thing is totally unpredictable. 17:49 And it moves around in such a way. 17:51 However, they are predicting, I think, John, that it will be 17:54 somewhere this fall, in alignment between 17:58 the sun and the earth. 18:02 Now that becomes a dramatic situation. 18:07 And they say that three of these major earthquakes that we've had 18:10 were times when it was in an alignment, I think it was 18:13 on the other side of the sun at that time, 18:15 but still aligned with the earth, and caused the 18:19 earth to actually move off its axis several inches 18:24 in the North Pole. 18:26 And so, we know that these things are very serious. 18:31 We live in a world where we've got enough stress at home 18:35 to keep us busy. 18:37 We don't need something like this to come along, do we. 18:41 So let's turn to the great Physician 18:46 and let Him give us three pills. 18:49 Three pills, John 14:27. 18:53 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; 19:00 not as the world giveth, give I unto you. 19:03 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 19:10 That's pill number one. 19:12 That's your prescription. 19:15 "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 19:21 Don't be stressed out over all of this. 19:24 He says, "My peace I leave with you. 19:28 My peace I give you, 19:30 not as the world giveth, give I unto you. 19:33 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 19:40 And then the second one. 19:41 Job the 22nd chapter verse 21. 19:44 "Acquaint now thyself with Him..." 19:49 Get acquainted with Him. 19:51 "...and be at peace." 19:54 As we become acquainted with our Lord, our God; 19:57 through Scripture, through prayer. 19:59 But especially through Scripture. 20:01 I've come to the conclusion over and over again in my life 20:05 that I want to pray with God's Word in my hand 20:09 because He's answering me through Scripture. 20:14 The Word speaks back to you as you pray. 20:18 We need to do more praying with our Bible in our hand. 20:22 You know, I like to tease a little bit about my mom 20:25 and those Pauline epistles, as we called them. 20:28 But I will tell you this. 20:30 She was a praying woman. 20:33 She prayed her boys through. 20:36 And I'll tell you something else. 20:39 That she prayed with her Bible in her hand. 20:42 It never really occurred to me until recently that this was the 20:45 way mother prayed, was with her Bible. 20:49 And I talked years later to a lady who told me she was 20:53 mom's prayer partner, one of them. 20:56 And she said, "Your mom would pray from 3 to 8 hours a day." 21:01 Now, she's praying with the Bible. 21:03 She's studying the Bible. 21:05 She's not on her knees the whole time, 21:07 but she's talking to the Lord. 21:08 She's communing with the Lord. 21:11 Now this was in her later life. 21:13 Because when she was younger and had five kids, 21:15 I guarantee you she was not praying eight hours a day. 21:20 Now she might have been praying all night to try to 21:22 get through the day, I'm not sure about that. 21:25 But we kept her so busy and she had to put those 21:28 meals on the table. 21:30 But the Bible says that if we become acquainted with Him. 21:37 And then that third one is Isaiah 26:3, we had before, 21:41 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 21:44 whose mind is stayed on thee." 21:48 A text that is a real prescription for peace. 21:55 Keeping your mind on Jesus Christ; our Lord, 22:00 our God, and our Savior. 22:01 Now stress is a root problem of most diseases today. 22:08 You would be surprised. 22:09 It is the root problem of most diseases. 22:13 When you get down to it, you will find that 22:16 stress is involved. 22:19 In fact, they tell us that the three largest selling 22:23 medications all deal with stress. 22:26 And stress as it relates to different functions of the body. 22:31 Now there are two ways, two parts of the body; 22:34 there's the thought process and there's the motor process. 22:38 And it is very much in control of these processes. 22:45 Stress changes the ability of the thought process 22:49 to work properly. 22:50 It changes the motor processes to where they're 22:53 not working properly. 22:55 And this brain is extremely sensitive. 23:00 These are two very sensitive aspects of our brain. 23:04 Our thought process and our motor process. 23:09 Now what are some of the major causes of stress. 23:13 You know, you need some stress, now. 23:16 Don't misunderstand me. 23:17 There is good stress, but stress taken too far becomes too much. 23:23 Let's say for instance... 23:24 If Danny were here. 23:25 And he's going to be with us in the morning. 23:27 He'll be singing for us in the morning. 23:29 But if Danny had his guitar, you don't want those strings 23:34 totally loose. 23:36 You know what a guitar sounds like when the strings are loose. 23:41 You want them tight. 23:42 But if you tighten them too much, what happens? 23:46 So you see, you've got to reach the right point of stress. 23:51 They say when're stressing steel, there is a point 23:55 at which the steel will give way. 23:57 But you want to take that right up to that point, 24:00 but not beyond that point. 24:02 And so in our lives, we want a certain amount of stress, 24:07 but not too much stress. 24:10 You don't want someone that is so relaxed they're getting 24:14 absolutely nothing done. 24:15 Now there are a number of major causes for stress. 24:21 Number one is change. 24:25 Change. 24:26 Holmes and Rahe, who did the study that's probably the 24:30 best known on stress, said that there are 43 events 24:36 in life which cause major stress. 24:39 And the key word, or the implied or written word, 24:43 in each of those is "change". 24:46 Something changing. 24:48 It can be the change caused by death. 24:50 It can be change caused by moving. 24:53 Losing a job, changing a job. 24:56 Having some other things happen with relationships, 24:59 and so forth. 25:00 Change causes stress. 25:06 15 times it appears directly and 28 times it's implied 25:12 in their study. 25:14 The death of a spouse, money reversals, 25:17 and all types of things that cause change, cause stress. 25:24 Then secondly is conflict. 25:26 You add to change the element of conflict, 25:30 and this stress mounts when this conflict comes in. 25:34 Now this conflict can be between two ideals that you have. 25:38 Or it can be a conflict between two people. 25:42 Whatever. 25:44 It can be just an inner self conflict. 25:48 But all of these things cause the adrenaline 25:53 to come into the body. 25:56 And when this comes into the body... 25:58 You see, when you get into conflict, 26:00 you've got two choices. 26:01 You've got the choice to fight 26:04 or you've got the choice to flight. 26:08 You either fight or run. 26:09 That's the choice that nature sort of gives you. 26:13 And you need adrenaline for either one. 26:16 But we have to learn to handle things in our life 26:19 without doing either one. 26:21 By facing those things. 26:24 And how we are able to face them. 26:28 But when conflict is persistent, then we go into an agitated 26:32 state of stress. 26:34 And folks, this is the condition that many people find 26:37 themselves in today. 26:39 And they need relief from these things. 26:42 You see, this is all about the way that God has made us. 26:46 We are beautifully and wonderfully made, 26:49 as long as we keep things in balance. 26:52 And we are not meant to live without having a relationship 26:56 with our Lord and Savior, with our God. 27:00 We are meant to have a relationship with Him. 27:03 And when we get out of kilter with that, 27:07 then all of these things start happening that throw our 27:10 whole bodies and minds into a stressful condition. 27:15 There's another element, another thing that causes stress. 27:19 The third is criticism. 27:21 Sometimes people say, "I want to give you some 27:24 constructive criticism." 27:28 A lot of times, I wonder who it is constructive for. 27:31 It's usually not constructive for the one that's receiving it. 27:35 It may be. 27:36 There may be times that we need to give counsel. 27:38 But we need to be very careful in criticizing because 27:44 the person that is criticizing doesn't realize that 27:47 this can be really debilitating to the individual. 27:53 It can hurt them, it can bring a stress into them. 27:56 You find a sensitive person and you criticize them, 28:00 and you can do great damage to them. 28:03 But the amazing thing is that if you really look at the critic, 28:08 you'll find that there's usually a greater problem there 28:11 than the person being criticized. 28:14 You usually will find that there's perfectionism; 28:18 the critic is one who sees themselves as perfect. 28:25 Or perhaps there's jealousy. 28:29 Maybe there's competition. 28:31 But the real reason is a lack of self esteem 28:35 in the critic themselves. 28:38 And when that person does not have good self esteem, 28:42 they look for something to criticize in someone else. 28:46 And if they can bring that person, the other person, 28:50 to have as low a self esteem as they themselves have, 28:55 then somehow they feel equal to that individual. 29:00 Does that make sense? 29:02 I'll tell you something. 29:03 As you look at the Bible and you see some of these things, 29:07 you see some of the examples taking place in Scripture, 29:10 and you see that some of these things are real. 29:16 And we have them, of course, in our own lives today. 29:20 And then there are concerns, worries, anxieties. 29:24 We worry about our health, as we talked about last night. 29:26 We worry about success or the lack of it. 29:30 We worry about unsolvable frustrations, 29:34 anticipated trouble and problems. 29:37 And we worry about some of these things, 29:40 and then tiredness sets in. 29:42 Tiredness sets in, effectiveness is dulled, 29:46 and depression will come when we get too concerned. 29:50 Somebody said that we have the CDT's; 29:54 we have the cares, difficulties, and troubles 29:59 that we face in life. 30:01 And then there's compression. 30:03 Trying to put too much into too little time. 30:08 Trying to do too much, trying to perform too much. 30:12 Taking too much responsibility. 30:15 And compression means that we will overload our schedule. 30:20 We'll have conflicting dates, we'll have imperious deadlines, 30:25 and we forget about our own need for rest and recreation 30:30 when we put too much into life. 30:34 And then there's another "c", this is number six. 30:37 And it's our conscience. 30:39 I believe it was Huck Finn, Mark Twain's mythical character, 30:46 that said, "My conscience is so big that there's no 30:51 room for the rest of me." 30:54 You know, we want to have a good conscience. 30:57 But we don't want our conscience to become so sensitive, 31:02 we don't want our conscience to become so out of control, 31:08 that we cannot live a normal life. 31:12 You see, we have to be very careful to keep the 31:15 conscience in balance. 31:17 And the best way to do that, again, 31:19 is through God's promises and through the Word of God, 31:26 and by trusting in the Word of God. 31:28 I used my good friend, Dr. Carl Markstrom, 31:32 for many, many years. 31:34 Over 35 years, he was my personal physician. 31:38 He's resting now waiting for the resurrection. 31:42 And was a wonderful man. 31:45 But he took care of a lot of preachers. 31:48 He took care of me, never would let me pay. 31:52 That's not the reason I went to him, but that would have 31:54 been a good reason to go to him. 31:57 He was the best doctor I've ever known. 32:00 His ability to diagnose was uncanny. 32:02 All of the specialists would talk about that if he sent them 32:07 a diagnosis, it was right on. 32:10 When they did the tests, the specialists, I've had a 32:13 number of them tell me... 32:14 In fact, all of those specialists that he had 32:16 dealt with over the years, were at his funeral. 32:19 And I mentioned that and they came up afterwards 32:22 and said to me, "Yes, you're absolutely right. 32:26 Carl had an uncanny ability to diagnose." 32:32 He took care of dozens and dozens, it could have even 32:35 run into the hundreds, of ministers 32:38 throughout his practice. 32:41 And he told me that almost all, he would say well 80 to 85% 32:48 have what he called, a preachers gut. 32:52 And the preachers gut was IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, 32:59 or Crohn's disease, or something of that nature. 33:07 Because ministers often have a very sensitive conscience. 33:12 They don't want to be phonies. 33:16 And they take, sometimes, too much on themselves 33:21 and expect too much from themselves. 33:25 And they worry themselves into a physical condition. 33:31 And he use to try to tell them over and over again 33:34 that they should trust more, trust more. 33:41 And then that means that we have got to find some answers. 33:48 How do we find the answers to this? 33:50 How do we come to the place where we have an answer 33:54 to stress in our lives? 33:56 Well first of all, we need to make sure that we have a 34:00 relationship with Jesus Christ. 34:01 That's where it all starts. 34:03 That is the number one thing that we do, 34:06 is a relationship with Jesus. 34:10 And then we take a very good honest look at our life 34:15 and at all of the activities of our life. 34:20 Sometimes, there's some of us that can't say "no". 34:23 I read a story about Thomas Jefferson. 34:26 You know, it's amazing when you look at our founders; 34:28 the President of the United States riding a horse 34:31 when he's out traveling somewhere. 34:33 That's amazing, but we've come from that in this country, 34:36 and the history of our country. 34:37 Thomas Jefferson, on horseback, was next to a river 34:45 and there was a man who wanted to go to the other side. 34:47 Now Thomas Jefferson was not going to the other side. 34:50 But Thomas Jefferson is standing there with a group of people 34:55 and this man walked up and said, "Sir," and he looked right at 35:01 Thomas Jefferson, "would you take me to the other side?" 35:04 And Jefferson said, "Yes." 35:07 And he got on back of Jefferson's horse 35:10 and Jefferson took him across to the other side. 35:13 The man was on foot. 35:17 Later, somebody said to him, "There were a number 35:20 of people there. 35:22 Why did you ask the President of the United States?" 35:29 He said, "Because he had a 'yes' face. 35:32 I knew he would not say no to me." 35:36 You know what the amazing thing is? 35:37 A lot of people have a "yes" face. 35:40 That's good, but that can also get us into trouble. 35:43 About this time of the year, it's nominating committee time 35:47 in churches all over the country. 35:51 And people will overload their schedule. 35:55 They will take too much, far more than they should do. 36:00 And they will wish they hadn't. 36:04 It will not be good for them physically, 36:06 it will not be good for them spiritually, 36:09 and it will not be good for the church, as well, in time. 36:13 You must learn what to accept and what to say no to. 36:19 Any you should not have any trouble saying no. 36:22 And by the way, if somebody wants to press it after 36:26 you say no, don't be afraid of hurting their feelings 36:29 because they don't have any, or they wouldn't be pressing you. 36:32 So don't be worried about hurting their feelings at all. 36:36 And you may have to use that cliché, "What part of 'no' 36:40 is it you don't understand?" 36:41 You may have to use that. 36:44 But there are some other ways that you can nicely say no. 36:48 My daughter, Amy, came to me one time and she said... 36:51 Something came up and we were talking about how to say no. 36:55 And I said, "You just say, Amy, you say to them, 36:59 'I'd like to, but I can't.' 37:01 And you don't go beyond that." 37:03 "I'd like to, but I can't," or "not at this time." 37:08 "Not at this time." 37:10 And you qualify it in that way, but you say it. 37:14 Later on, I wished that I'd never said that to her 37:16 because I'd ask her to do something and she'd said, 37:18 "I'd like to, but I can't." 37:19 And she used that with me quite a few times. 37:24 But you see, we have to be able to say no. 37:30 Otherwise, we fill out schedules until they're too complete. 37:34 And we have to make sure that this is not 37:38 the case in our lives. 37:40 We have to put Him first. 37:43 Because He is the joy of our life. 37:48 It says in Psalm 87 verse 7, "All my springs of joy 37:52 are in you." 37:53 He will give us His joy. 37:57 And we are the joy to Him. 38:00 Number two, thank God for everything that 38:03 comes into your life. 38:04 1 Thessalonians the 5th chapter verse 18 says, 38:07 "In everything give thanks." 38:10 Everything. 38:12 Now that gets difficult sometimes. 38:15 "For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 38:23 I had a good friend many years ago. 38:24 His name was Ray Rushing. 38:26 He was the editor of the National Voice, which is 38:31 a temperance magazine around the world, around the country. 38:35 A wonderful Christian man. 38:36 He knew everybody. 38:37 He knew everybody from the President of the United States 38:40 to the governors. 38:41 I've walked right in past the secretary without an appointment 38:45 with Ray, right into the Governor of Texas office. 38:49 Didn't even slow down, just said, "Hi," to her and 38:51 walked right by. 38:53 The governor jumped up, "Ray, how are you?" 38:55 He had that kind of relationship with senators, congressmen. 39:00 The President even of the United States, 39:02 he could go in and see him. 39:04 What a guy. 39:06 On the back of his card, he had this phrase, 39:11 "Praise the Lord anyhow." 39:15 Anyhow. 39:17 Do you get it? 39:18 Praise the Lord anyhow. No matter what. 39:23 Even if things weren't going well. 39:25 And many times, for Ray, things were not going well. 39:28 But he would praise the Lord. 39:31 And you know something? 39:33 The Lord got him through all of those things. 39:37 Praise the Lord anyhow. 39:41 Thank Him no matter what comes our way. 39:46 Then we need to trust the promises of God. 39:49 I mentioned Glenn Coon the other night. 39:52 And if you ever want to read a good little book, 39:55 that book by Glenn Coon on Bible promises is tremendous. 40:00 It's just nothing but texts and the promises 40:03 that he's put together. 40:04 But I will tell you, they've still got some of them 40:07 in some of the Bible houses. 40:08 And it is a great little book. 40:11 But Psalm 46:1 says, "God is our refuge and our strength, 40:17 a very present help in trouble." 40:20 Turn to those promises. Claim those promises. 40:25 Number four, a quiet meditation on the life of Christ. 40:29 We mentioned this the other night about praying. 40:33 1 Timothy the 4th chapter and verse 15 says, 40:37 "Meditate on these things." 40:39 Now I'm not talking about that Eastern meditation stuff. 40:41 We're talking about meditating on the Word of God. 40:44 We're talking about meditating on Jesus Christ. 40:46 Not talking about emptying you mind, talking about 40:48 filling your mind with the power of the Holy Spirit. 40:52 "Meditate on these things; give yourselves entirely to them, 40:56 that your progress may be evident to all." 41:02 And then number five, rest and relaxation. 41:08 You know, we need rest. 41:10 We need to abandon our work every year 41:14 for at least a short period of time. 41:16 They say that your body does not really begin to relax 41:20 until you have had two weeks of complete abandon. 41:24 After that is when the progress really starts. 41:28 You see, sometimes some of us go on vacation and we still 41:31 take a call or two a day. 41:34 And when you're doing that, your body never 41:37 actually begins to relax. 41:41 You need to abandon. 41:43 You need to rest. 41:44 Mark the 6th chapter verse 31, Jesus, "And He said unto them, 41:49 'Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place 41:52 and rest for a while.'" 41:56 And it was right then that He explains what was going on. 41:58 It says, "For there were many coming and going, 42:01 and they did not even have time to eat." 42:05 They were so busy healing the sick and preaching the Word, 42:10 they didn't even have time to take nourishment. 42:14 And He said, we need to come apart and rest for a while. 42:20 Exercise is good too. 42:21 Even sometimes in a time of stress. 42:25 One of my aunt's, it was my dad's baby sister. 42:28 My dad had six sisters. 42:30 He was the only boy. 42:32 I just thank the Lord there was one boy in that family, 42:36 or I wouldn't be here tonight. 42:38 But one boy, my dad. Six sisters. 42:43 His baby sister was a bit spoiled. 42:47 Now you've got to understand that with all that family, 42:52 the baby has got to be a little bit spoiled. 42:55 Well, she was a whole lot older than I was, of course. 43:00 And she was married to my uncle, Uncle Herb. 43:03 He was uncle by marriage. 43:06 Uncle Herb, we use to say, there had to be a special place 43:10 in heaven for him to live with my aunt. 43:18 And Uncle Herb was a peaceful man. 43:23 And one time, somebody asked him and I was able to listen to it, 43:27 "How do you handle this?" 43:31 And he said, "Every time something comes up, 43:34 I go out and walk around the block." 43:38 Uncle Herb was in excellent condition. 43:43 He walked around the block a lot. 43:46 And he outlived my aunt by many, many years 43:50 even though he was considerably older than she was. 43:53 And I often thought it was because he determined 43:57 he would not be taken over by stress, but that he would 44:02 get out of the house and go for a walk. 44:05 And then number six, you need to plan your work. 44:10 This is extremely important, folks. 44:13 I've got a text for this. 44:14 The apostle Paul, and he's planning ahead. 44:19 Philemon 1:22, "But meanwhile, also," he said, 44:23 "prepare a guest room for me." 44:26 You know, sometimes we go out and Camille 44:29 will say, "Where are we staying?" 44:30 I'll say, "I don't know, we'll find a place when we get there." 44:33 "Don't you ever prepare? 44:35 Don't you ever get a place ahead of time?" 44:38 Well, usually I do. 44:39 But sometimes I figure, well I'll look things over 44:42 when I get there. 44:44 There have been times on vacation when she would say, 44:48 "Have you got us a place for tonight?" 44:50 And I'd say, "Oh we'll find a place." 44:52 We ended up driving all night too, because 44:55 we couldn't find a place. 44:57 But Paul planned ahead. 45:01 He planned his work, he wrote ahead. 45:03 He said, "Prepare a guest room for me." 45:05 And then he said, "For I trust that through your prayers, 45:08 I shall be granted to you." 45:11 In other words, "You know, you owe me some favors too," 45:15 he was saying. 45:16 "I'm going to collect it when I get there. 45:18 You prepare a place." 45:20 And number one, don't plan more than you can do. 45:25 This is so important to relieve stress, folks. 45:29 Because so many times, we do prepare more than we should. 45:34 Secondly, arrive early for appointments. 45:37 Somebody says, "But that's a waste of time to arrive early." 45:40 Listen, take your Sabbath School quarterly with you. 45:43 And when you get there, sit and study your 45:46 Sabbath School quarterly. 45:47 Take your Bible with you. 45:48 Sit out in the car, read your Bible. 45:51 But get to your appointments early. 45:54 Because it will relieve stress. 45:57 You start running late and you're rushing through traffic; 46:00 your body, the stress is building in your body. 46:04 And I think this is a scriptural, a very 46:08 scriptural principle. 46:09 And I could prove it with many, many texts. 46:11 Even more than this one. 46:13 And then, avoid living beyond your income. 46:17 You've got to plan your finances. 46:20 If you think there's not stress by getting behind, 46:25 then you've got another thing coming. 46:27 Because it does make a big difference. 46:30 Avoid financial decisions that will create 46:34 stressful buying later. 46:36 You've got to look at those things and make sure 46:38 this is not going to create a stress down the road. 46:43 Sometimes we need to listen to our wives, gentlemen, 46:47 when it comes to some of these things. 46:49 They may be a whole lot more cautious than we are 46:54 on reaching out and maybe biting off more 46:58 than we can chew. 47:01 It is important to plan your work. 47:05 And then number seven, we need to ask God to help us 47:10 control our ambition. 47:12 Nothing wrong with having ambition. 47:14 We should have ambition. 47:16 We should try to accomplish things. 47:18 Not for ourselves, but for God. 47:21 And for our fellow human beings. 47:24 But we should be reaching out and trying. 47:26 But we need to resign from the kingdom of thing-dom. 47:32 We don't have to have every thing that comes along. 47:37 And we need to get out of that particular mode 47:43 of looking for everything and hoping that these things 47:47 will become part of us. 47:49 You know, the Lord is so good to us. 47:52 He gives us so many things that are so important. 47:55 I found this statement in the 47:57 Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing. 47:59 It says, "If you have given yourself to God to do His work," 48:04 It's found in Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing page 100-101. 48:09 "...given yourself to God to do His work, 48:11 you have no need to be anxious for tomorrow. 48:14 He whose servant you are, knows the end from the beginning. 48:18 The events of tomorrow, which are hidden from your view..." 48:22 Even that star, John. 48:24 "...are open to the eyes of Him who is omnipotent. 48:29 When we take into our hands the management of things 48:33 with which we have to do, and depend upon our own 48:36 wisdom for success, we are taking a burden which God 48:40 has not given us, and are trying to bear it without His aid. 48:46 We are taking upon ourselves the responsibility that belongs 48:51 to God, and thus are really putting ourselves in His place." 48:58 We're trying to be God. 49:00 "But when we really believe that God loves us and means to do 49:05 us good, we shall cease to worry about the future. 49:09 We shall trust God as a child trusts a loving parent. 49:15 Then our troubles and torments will disappear, for our will 49:21 is swallowed up in the will of God." 49:27 You see, my friend, trusting in Him makes all of the difference. 49:34 And then Philippians the 4th chapter verse 6 and 7, 49:38 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer 49:42 and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests 49:46 be made known to God; and the peace of God, 49:50 which surpasses all understanding, 49:54 will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 50:00 Guard your hearts and your minds; keeping us from stress. 50:08 Guarding our hearts, guarding our minds. 50:13 Trusting God as a child trusts a parent. 50:17 Not long ago my daughter, Mary Ann, was talking to me. 50:20 And she said, "You know, dad, all those nights 50:25 that we would drive." 50:26 And there were many, many nights that we drove 50:29 either all night or late into the night coming back from 50:32 evangelistic meetings. 50:34 She said, "I would go to sleep in the back seat 50:36 and never worry a bit because I knew my dad 50:40 would never go to sleep at the wheel." 50:43 I don't know that she ever knew all the struggles 50:46 I had to stay awake. 50:49 But I knew one thing. 50:50 With that load I had, I would not go to sleep, I knew that. 50:54 I would pull over first, but I would not go to sleep. 51:00 But you know, that trust of a child is the trust 51:08 that we need in Jesus. 51:11 I told you last night about my sister being killed. 51:16 It was an unbelievable dramatic time... 51:20 Dramatic is not the word. 51:22 Traumatic, thank you. 51:24 ...in our life. 51:27 Before that, we'd been a happy-go-lucky family. 51:30 We went on fishing trips, we went on picnics. 51:33 We did all these things together. 51:36 I remember some of those big fish fry's that we would have 51:40 when all the men would go out and they would 51:43 do all the catching of the fish early in the morning. 51:46 I was just a little kid. 51:48 We would be running around with our cousins. 51:51 And then they'd have a big table outside. 51:56 And they would fry all that fish and all that unhealthy stuff. 52:02 And they would have it all there. 52:06 And I remember my mom, she was always very 52:09 sensitive about flies. 52:10 So it was her job to keep the flies off everything out there. 52:14 But she was always there doing that. 52:18 Christmas time, all the family together. 52:22 I've got a picture at home of all the Gilley family together 52:27 at my grandmother's. 52:29 And you know, I don't think we ever did it 52:34 after my sister died. 52:35 I don't remember any family gatherings after that. 52:41 Things changed dramatically. 52:44 The first thing that happened was that... 52:48 Dad... we had no money to bury my sister. 52:52 I don't know where he got it, but he came up with 52:55 enough money to do that. 52:56 No insurance, nothing of that nature. 52:59 People urged him to sue the drunk driver that had hit, 53:04 and he said, "That won't bring my daughter back." 53:06 They said, "Yes, but at least you'd get some money 53:08 to help with these expenses." 53:09 And he said, "I don't want that money. 53:13 I don't want it, I don't even want to think about that." 53:16 And he didn't. 53:18 Stress comes into the family. 53:20 They say that something like 80% of marriages fail 53:24 after the loss of a child. 53:27 Even a teenager like my sister was. 53:31 Something like 80% of marriages fail. 53:35 I'm sure that the marriage was very close to stress, 53:40 right to the stress limits in our home. 53:46 You know, the first thing that dad told us... 53:48 This happened in November, just before Thanksgiving. 53:52 I don't even remember that we had a Thanksgiving. 53:55 And then he told us, "There's no money for Christmas." 54:01 We never got too much for Christmas anyway. 54:04 But there would be no money for Christmas. 54:09 I would look forward... 54:10 I was 7 years old, had just turned 7 that October. 54:15 I was seven and I'd been promised a bike. 54:18 When you're seven, you get a bike. 54:20 I had a scooter. 54:22 I had worn out that scooter. 54:24 It had started out red and now it was rusty 54:27 and it had no color, no paint on it hardly at all. 54:31 And I would run with that scooter up and down the driveway 54:35 and anywhere I could find any type of... 54:38 And that was gravel but I still did it with that scooter. 54:42 And I would push it with my right leg and I'm going. 54:46 And my brother would tease me and he'd say, 54:47 "You better start using your left leg because that right leg 54:50 is getting a lot bigger than the left leg." 54:53 And I was hoping to get a bicycle where I could 54:55 use both legs. 54:58 And dad said, "Son, I'm sorry. 55:01 But I can't get you a bike. 55:03 And I don't want you to be expecting it, because I can't." 55:07 My older brother Ed, 12 years older, 55:10 he knew I was heartbroken. 55:14 And he came to me and he said, "Let me have your scooter. 55:19 I'm going to fix that scooter up. 55:21 What do you want me to do to it?" 55:22 I said, "I want it blue." 55:24 Because I'd seen a blue motorcycle that I thought 55:27 was beautiful; a Harley Davidson. 55:30 And I wanted a blue scooter. 55:32 And I said, "Put some reflectors on the front." 55:36 I wanted real lights but that was impossible. 55:38 So reflectors so I can play like I'm a policeman. 55:41 You know. 55:43 And he said, "I'll do it." 55:44 And he started telling me all the different things 55:46 he was going to do to that scooter. 55:51 And it made me forget about a bicycle. 55:54 And so I kept looking forward, "When, 56:00 when is it going to be ready?" 56:02 "It'll be there Christmas morning." 56:04 Christmas morning came. 56:06 Oh man, I could hardly wait until daybreak. 56:09 I jumped out of the bed and I ran into where 56:13 the Christmas tree was. 56:14 And I knew there would be a scooter there, painted. 56:21 But it was not there. 56:24 In its place was a little 20 inch bicycle. 56:30 My brother, only 19 years old himself, 56:35 had gone out on credit and bought that bicycle. 56:40 He paid a little bit down and was paying it off 56:42 a dollar or two a week. 56:45 But he got it. 56:47 I kept that bike until Camille and I were married. 56:51 I'd still have it but when I got back home, 56:53 mom had given it away. 56:56 You know how mom's do. 56:57 She gave away my baseball cards too. 56:59 They'd be worth a fortune. I could retire on those today. 57:04 But you know, we've got a big brother like that; 57:07 Jesus. 57:10 He's coming, because He loves us. 57:14 Trust Him. 57:15 He's our Lord, He's our God. 57:19 And He's our Savior. 57:21 And He cares for us. 57:24 And He wants us to keep on keeping on with Him. |
Revised 2014-12-17