Anchors of Truth

A Settled Heart In An Unsettled World

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim Gilley

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000018


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.


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Revised 2014-12-17