Think About It, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. See, think about your life and the most terrible things you've ever faced. As though you're in a boxing ring on the other side of the ring, there it is, the most terrible thing you've ever faced.

Okay? It's pretty intimidating. Now think of it this way though. And God says, He puts you behind His arm, behind Him and says, I got this. If God is for you, who's against you? Tell me what's on the other side of the ring that's going to whip up on God. You see, tell me. There is nothing. He said, that's why He said, if God's for you, who could be against you?

See, that's the way He's thinking. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Philippians 4 verse 13. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Wow.

What? I can do a couple things through Him who strengthens me. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. I can remember the first time I ever read that. One of the things I promised myself was I'd never say it until I could do it.

It's been a long time coming. You see, I can do all things. Is that the ultimate Zig Ziglar positive thinking verse? I can do all things. Not some, anything. I can get any news. I can go through any circumstances. I can get through them all because He strengthens me. Wow.

That's amazing. Oh, by the way, He's in prison. And He's waiting to see if He's going to be executed. He gets out this time, next time He doesn't. But He's in prison waiting to be executed and that's what He says. Is that what you'd say? I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Well, He said He's an apostle after all.

Yes. He's been beaten with rods on more than one occasion. He's been stoned and left for dead. He says to the Corinthians, I'm not sure if I was figuratively in heaven or literally in heaven, but I was there. You see. Wow.

Oh, yeah. He was shipwrecked and snake bit and everywhere he went, he had people who hated his guts. On top of all that, Paul was probably filled with a natural guilt. I want you to think about what he went through. Paul was the one who probably orchestrated Stephen being martyred. He not only had Stephen killed, but Paul spent his life hunting down Christians and arresting them. He's on the road to Damascus to do that.

Whenever Christ appeared to him and he converted. And he just imagine how he felt. And he said, I can overcome all that through him who strengthens me. And you're thinking, golly, you know, how does he do that?

Henry Jowett says this. His eyes are narrowly illumined. His cheery tone is never absent from his speech. The buoyant and springy movement of his life has never changed. The light never dies out of his sky. Paul is the ultimate optimist.

He is. And then he tells us why we're so optimistic. Look over now at verse four. In verse four, he says, let me start out and say this. Rejoice in the Lord.

Always. Again, I say rejoice. Now, you and I are fine with that verse.

All except for one word. How many of you like Christmas morning? You see, how many of you like a Super Bowl win?

How many of you like a raise? You see, but there's a word in there, isn't there? Always. No, he doesn't really mean always. Always. Always. That just doesn't make my thinking.

That doesn't make sense to me. Always. I mean, what if you get a bad prognosis? Always. They thought about this so much, they said to Paul earlier in Philippians, if you had a choice, would you like to die? How many conversations have you had with people?

You had a party, you just meet someone, say, oh, I wanted to always ask you. Would you like to die now? Security. You see, I mean, what? They asked Paul, you know what his answer was?

Yes, I would. If you gave me a choice, he said, I'd like to die. However, if God wants me to be here for your sake, I'm more than happy I'm staying. Wow, that's peace. You see, when Rome was trying to threaten Paul, we could take your life.

Paul was like, hey, go ahead. How does he think this way? You see, how do you think this way? Because that's not the way we normally think at all.

He's no, I rejoice always. He goes on and says, be anxious for nothing. There's how many things you can be anxious about. Nothing. Well, not big things like covid and political upheaval. No, not little things. Nothing.

He said, be anxious for nothing. In everything, by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. Go ahead and pray.

Something's bothering you. Pray. And with supplication means I can throw my emotions into this. This is exactly what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's sweating droplets of blood and he says, Father, let this cup pass from me. You see what he did, he want to experience the wrath of God for all the sin of the world. Not as a human being, he didn't.

He knew what was coming. But how did he end that prayer? Nevertheless, not my will be done, but yours. So he gives us permission to pray that way.

That's fine on our part if we have a nevertheless with it. He said, if that happens, the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. I'll add the word always.

No matter what the circumstances are. So he says, finally, brother, let me tell you how you should be thinking. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute. He said, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Wow.

Is it true? What's the word dwell mean? Think. Think on these things. Keep thinking on these things. If it's true, think about it.

You see, if it's true, think about it. Again, back to the prognosis, you get a stage four cancer prognosis. He says a doctor says you have 11 months. That's a true statement. Maybe.

You see, the doctor's looking at the disease and he's making an analogy. But my question is with God, how much how many months do I have? Whatever God says, I might only have six. I might have 30.

It might go away. See, the ultimate control of everything in life is a sovereign God who loves me. I should think about this. You see, I should think about this. This is in God's hands. See, that's an important part.

If it's true, I'll think about it. He said not only what's true. That's why Jesus said, if you know the truth, it will set you free from the anxiety. Honorable. That which inspires. Worthy of respect.

It's just Christ. Anything that's honorable and true. Right. Righteous. Pure.

That ceremonial purity without sin of a good reputation. And then he summarizes that section by saying, and if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. You have to think. The joy, peace and hope that we have is all between our ears.

It's not out there. You see, it's an inside job. And it's a job of how you think about it. Albert Einstein, who was a pretty good thinker. Albert Einstein called it sits in danken.

They said, how do you think? Sits in danken. Sits in danken.

Yes. What it literally means is I sit thinking. I sit thinking, he said, with extreme concentration about one thing. And sometimes it's hours and sometimes it's days and it has even been weeks.

Sits in danken. I think about it. I think about it enough. I can make progress.

That's what we need. David said it this way in Psalm 145. On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on the wonderful works that you have. I will meditate.

It sits in danken. You see, I know Christians that always like Bible memory. It's so important to Bible memory. Look, I'm not against Bible memory, but I can tell you this. It's much better to have Bible meditation. I need to think about what those words are saying, not just I can spew them back to you. I have to knit, sit down and think about this. You see, it really helps you if you start up with a sovereign God who loves you and is going to spend eternity with you.

And that's your bedrock of your thought. You're going to be amazed at how much peace you have as you go through life. Go with me to Romans Chapter eight again. I want to go back to verse thirty five. Romans 8.

Thirty five. Now watch. These are some of the thoughts you and I should have. By the way, it's a great chapter for thoughts.

You want some thoughts in your head? Read Romans eight. How about verse 18?

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. By the way, does Paul know suffering? Yes. Does he know a lot of it? Yes.

He said, I don't even compare it. He calls him another passage momentary light afflictions. Now, being stoned and left for dead, beaten rods. That doesn't seem that momentary light afflictions momentary compared to what? Forever.

It's just momentary, he said. And I look at this, I consider what's considered me think. I think about this, that the sufferings of the present time aren't even worthy to be compared to the glory. There's glory. Yes.

My father's house of many dwelling places were not so I would have told you. I'm going to come and receive you to myself. Welcome home. How long is that going to last forever?

What kind of place is it? No more sorrow, no more tears. He said, Well, I think about that. This is momentary light affliction to me. That's thinking.

How about eight twenty eight? And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and those are called according to his purpose. So Paul's going some bad things. Paul said, God, I use it for good. Yeah, but it's bad. Yeah, I know. But God will use it for good. I think that way.

I believe that. Verse 31. What shall we say of these things?

If God is for us, who's against us? See, think about your life and the most terrible things you ever face as though you're in a boxing ring on the other side of the ring. There it is. The most terrible thing you've ever faced. OK, it's pretty intimidating.

Now, think of it this way, though. And God says he put you behind his arm, behind him and says, I got this. If God is for you, who's against you? Tell me what's on the other side of the ring that's going to whip up on God. You say, tell me there is nothing. He said that's why he said, if God's for you, who could be against you?

That's the way he's thinking. Verse 35, who will separate us in the love of Christ? Will tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword.

Verse 38. I'm convinced that neither death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things that come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creative thing will be able to separate us in the love of God. There are 17 things there. You know what it covers? Everything.

Everything in the physical world, everything in the spiritual world, everything in the past, present and future. He said, nothing will ever separate me from Christ. He thought this way. So is he anxious? Fearful? No.

Why? It's the way he thinks. You see, he thinks in a very different way. Even at the end of his life, in Second Timothy, when he's dying, he says, I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. Like it's a plane flight.

I love the time of my departure. Paul boarding. That's the way Paul saw it. He said, I fought the good fight. I finished the course. I've kept the faith.

So I look forward to what's coming next. All because of the way he thinks. See, that makes such an enormous difference. This is not this is not positive thinking in it for its own sake. This is biblical thinking. And it makes such an enormous difference in your life.

It affects everything about you, even physically. Norman Wright says we're constantly processing our thoughts, depending on how active our mind is. You may produce about forty five thousand thoughts a day.

So I invite you to count yours for a day and let me know that came out like I don't know how he thought that, you know, I got to believe they counted thoughts for five seconds and then extrapolated it out. But forty five thousand thoughts a day. He said every time you have a thought, it triggers an electrochemical reaction in your body. Each thought sets off a biological process, about four hundred billion of them per thought. Four hundred billion biological processes in your body for every thought you have. Because of that thought, chemicals surge through your body. They produce electromagnetic waves and these set the and these set off your emotions, which affect how you behave.

Science simply confirms what scripture has been saying all along. We are shaped in our lives by our thinking. How I feel has to do with my thought life. You see all those things that happen to us, what I feel emotionally. And you know, if your thought life is bad, how quickly it is that you become anxious, worrisome, depressed. You see, when you talk to a person who is depressed, clinically depressed, especially, they all describe it the same way. It's like falling down a well. It's circular thinking.

You just keep going back to the same thought and you just keep sinking to a point you become clinically depressed. It's thought life. He says, look, you can either think like the world thinks in your first thing.

So you can think the way God wants you to think. Eight thirty seven, though, he noticed what he said in the middle of it all. But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. Overwhelmingly victorious.

That word overwhelmingly is a great word. It's hyper Nikeman. Hyper Nikeman.

You might know the main word there. Nike. The Greek god of victory. And they make shoes. That's their company. Nike.

The great Greek god of victory. Great name for a shoe. But here it says hyper Nike. You know what hyper is?

You probably have had a child like that. When I say he's a hyper active child, what do you mean? He's like over the top. You see, he's over the top. He's hyper.

This is hyper Nike. You are hyper victorious conquerors. Through him. Same thing he said, I can do all things through him and strengthens me. That's the way this happens.

Wow. The battle of the Christian life is a battle between your ears. You'll change when you change your thinking. And you can be victorious in your life when you begin to think about who God is and what he's done for you. That becomes your natural thought process. And when you think this way, not only will you have a lot of peace, but you'll be a typical prevailing optimist.

If there's one thing we should be known for is our optimism. Why? I know the meaning of life. I know the direction of life. I know how it's going to end. I should be optimistic about this.

So should you. I found this story to explain to us what happens to us in the middle of real trials. And it's all based on a book that was written. And it's interesting that what this lady wrote that I found really fascinating.

Her name is Tracy Miles, and she wrote a book called Unsinkable Faith. She says it was back in November of 2007 when a tough old Alaskan fisherman named Alan Ride and took a month long trip at sea in his 42 foot boat. During the trip, he encountered a nightmare when his boat capsized in an absolutely terrible storm.

I couldn't imagine what the water off of Alaska with temperature would be. Ride managed to get in a raft wearing a survival suit and a fleece jacket. And he got off a Mayday signal to the Coast Guard. But the weather then became worse. And his little raft, what he said, was just tossed around like a cork, shivering in his buffeted raft. Alan felt himself losing hope. His mind panicked and quickly sunk into discouragement and hopelessness. He began wondering that he had enough life insurance for his family. Suddenly, Alan realized his own thoughts were pulling him under more than the seas. And he made, he said, one of my toughest and most important decisions of my life. I determined to cast out my negative thoughts.

I tossed them right out of the raft and into the sea. And I began quoting scripture to myself, speaking God's word out loud. He started thanking God for all the good things that came to his mind. He even said to himself, well, at least I'm in a survival suit.

My suit does have a top of the line strobe attached to it. And at least I'm in some kind of a craft. And at least I got a fleece jacket on to stay warm.

And I am strong and I'm a good swimmer and I'm not afraid of the water at all. Ryden's mental thoughts, he said, he mentally he struggled as deeper darkness set in. But he remained committed to hanging on with all the strength he had and all the hope he could muster by simply thinking only about God and what he has done. He said their debt was definitely a grace from God given to me.

I had to fight for every inch of my thought life. Ten hours later, he was rescued. She wrote this in an unspeakable and she goes on and says that he wasn't rescued so much outwardly. He said he was really rescued inwardly. The real rescue that took place for me was in my thought life. It had been achieved during the storm when, by grace, Ryden had anchored himself in God and he embraced biblical positive thoughts.

And that changed everything for him. That's exactly what happens to us. You have a chance in your thought life when something really terrible happens.

Which way are you going to think here? The way you always have in the flesh or the way you can now as a child of God? We all go through rough seas. Jesus told us storms will come, tribulation will be part of our life.

He also said be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. That's a very important thing. Ask yourself the question, do I have control over what goes on in my head? Do I have control over my thought life? And also, I need to anchor my thoughts on the person and the promises of God. I need to anchor the way I think.

And you can do this. Because Paul said, you can do all things through him who strengthens you. Think about it.

Let's pray. Father, we all know that if we're honest with ourselves, often the worst enemy we face is us. It's our inside thinking. We don't find our thinking renewed.

Through your word. We find ourselves thinking in the way we've always thought. You end up, Father, full of anxiety and worry, fear. We have no peace, no joy and no hope. And life becomes despairing for us. Your children in a despairing life.

It's an oxymoron. Father, I pray that we think about thinking. We fill our thought life with all these true and pure and honorable and good things that come from you. We take your promises and we meditate on them and we allow them to steer us and to guide us. We know, Father, it's your will for us. It's an acceptable sacrifice that we give to you. And so we pray for your glory. But we also pray for our good. That once we get control of our thought life, Father, how much better it will be for us. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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