If you're kind of disappointed, you're going to have to hear me. If you came here to try to get something from God, he's quite capable of feeding you no matter who's up here. And it won't make any difference who's here. If he's the one that's doing the feeding, it's going to be worth the consumption. A few weeks ago, Brother Mark asked me about this. And I started talking to the Lord about it. And I said, what do you want me to preach on? Certainly, you've got plans. You've got purpose. You've got design. But unfortunately, you know, a lot of times the Lord won't tell you until right up to the end. He didn't show Moses until he was standing right on the edge of the Red Sea and said, okay, now. Why is that? Because we got to live by faith. But the message is, what were they thinking? I've been looking at some things in the Bible over the last few weeks, and the Lord's been showing me some things about how different my life is now from what it was a couple years ago, and how things have really changed. You know, there's a song about I'm tired of being stirred and not being changed. You ever come to church and get stirred? It doesn't seem like it lasts. You know why that is, don't you? If I stuck that pen in that glass and stirred it up, let it go, it's just gonna stop. You know what has to happen? Something has to physically change that stuff for it to be any different than just being stirred. And what's going to happen in churches this morning, people are going to go and they're going to get stirred, and they're going to leave just like they came. They're just a little bit stirred up. The Lord started showing me, you're not just stirred, you're different. And things are different in your life because of what I did. But what are people thinking? You ever seen any of those programs where people do some really crazy stuff? What were they thinking? Now there's a few of them that I pulled up here just to kind of give you an idea of some of that crazy stuff, what people think really does make a difference. There's one guy who was in Indiana, and he decided one time that it'd be really fun to put one of these mortar-style fireworks on his helmet, because that'd protect him. When that thing went off, there was such a flash that they couldn't even see anything for a minute or two. When the flash went away, he's laying on the ground, the helmet's blown to pieces, and he's out cold. It knocked him completely out. Took him several weeks to recover. What's going on in a guy's head right before that? Obviously not enough. In March of this year, There was a guy looking for scrap metal in an old elevator shaft. He was out trying to find some scrap metal to sell, trying to pay for the price of gas. And he gets in this old elevator shaft and he looks up into the pitch blackness, you know, and he sees these cables and the elevators just sitting on the ground. He said, man, I can get my hacksaw and cut these cables off and drag those things out. You know, that's something I can handle, haul it off to the scrapyard. Nobody's using it. It was just an old junk building, you know. I mean, I'm sure they probably wouldn't have cared if he got it. He goes and cuts and cuts and cuts and cuts and finally cuts through that thing. And here comes the cables with a balance weight on it. That was more than he'd asked for, you know. Also March of this year, there was a Florida man, thought he'd have a big time down here in Florida riding in a shopping cart, holding on to the side of an SUV in a parking lot in the middle of the night. Having a great time, man. Faster, faster, you know. Until he hit a speed bump. There's another guy in January this year in Florida. He's 37 years old. He's riding along on one of his motorcycles, you know. just feeling really good, and this drawbridge in front of him starts open, he decides he's gonna jump it. Believe it or not, the motorcycle made it. You know what the problem was? The arms that came down kind of scraped him off. Motorcycle went on by itself and made the jump. My favorite window is this guy that's up in Tennessee. He was up there cutting trees alongside of an old dirt road and he'd gone down there and cut this big tree over and it fell down. He was gonna get it back up the hill. So he decided rather than try to cut that thing up into small pieces and drag it piece at a time up this hill, what I'll do is I'll take one of my old rims and I'll jack up the back wheel of my truck, put just that empty rim on there, tie a rope to it, and then I can pull that down there and it'll act like a winch and it'll wind this tree up the hill. So he jacks the truck up, gets it all set up, ties it off to the tree, starts the thing up, opens the door. He says, well, I've got to be able to see it. So he opens the door and reaches in with his foot on the gas pedal, watching that tree, you know. It's automatic and nothing happened. Finally, he shoves down on that thing really good. That truck and him and everything went flying off that hill, boy. It wound that truck down to the tree, not the tree up to the truck. That tree weighed four or five times what that truck weighed. Now, what were those guys thinking? I don't know, but I know this, that almost every one of them, that was the last thought they ever had. Now, how would you like to find out that the last thought you ever had was just that destructive? That'd be bad, wouldn't it? It does make a difference, though, what we think. It really does. Let's turn over to 2 Corinthians 10, and we'll read three to five. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And the Bible shows us two examples. from the beginning to the end. You say, two examples? I thought there was a bunch of them. No, there's only two. The two examples are how not to and how to. And I want to look at some of how to and how not to and the question, what were they thinking at the time? Let's start back in Genesis with Adam and Eve. Genesis 3, 6, it says, And when the woman saw the tree, that it was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit therefore, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat. And what do you think she was thinking? It was real simple. She was thinking about herself and how she could benefit. That's exactly what she was thinking about. You know what all those previous examples that I read off to you were? Those are all people thinking about themselves. How much fun I'm gonna have, how much money I'm gonna make, how much easier it's gonna be, what a thrill this is gonna be. What else? Over in Genesis 13 tells you about Abraham and Lot. And at that point in time, Abraham and Lot's herdsmen were fighting with each other, because there wasn't quite enough ground for all the stuff that God had blessed them with. And so Abraham, or Abram at that time, he says to his brother Lot, he said, look, there's no reason for us to fight. We're brothers. There's no point in our herdsmen fighting with each other. Let's move apart a little further, because there's plenty of land out here. Let's separate a little bit so that this fighting and bickering stops. And he says, you pick whichever way you want to go. And Lot looks around and he looks over toward the plains of Mamre where Sodom and Gomorrah was, which was well watered at the time. And he says, I'll go that way. Now why do you think he went that way? What do you think he was thinking? He was thinking about what's in it for me. Lot chose the best. You notice his brother gave him the choice first. Whatever you want, I'll take second. There's two different ways of thinking right there. And it's a different thought process. Genesis 16 talks about Sarah, Abraham, Hagar, Ishmael. What happened there? Oh, Sarah, she was unhappy because she didn't have children. And she goes to her husband and she said, look, I want some kids. Now, here's my handmaid, Hagar. Now, you've got to understand that the way we think about things and the way God thinks about things are quite a bit different than you understand most of the time. You've got an opinion about it, but that doesn't mean your opinion matches God's. Sometimes you'll find out that God's opinion's quite a bit different than yours. And there's a whole bunch of stuff in this society today that's like that, and one of the primary ones is political correctness. You think God's worried about being politically correct? He's God. Nobody tells him what to do. You're not gonna tell him anything. But anyway, so Sarah says to Abraham, she's going to Hagar, you know, and have me a child. So after all that happens, then Sarah gets mad at Hagar, and now she's jealous of her, because now instead of feeling like that's her kid, she feels like it's Hagar's kid. Big old battle ensue, you know, and she kicks her out. What was she thinking about? Her desires. Once again, it was all about me. You know where all those Arabs came from, don't you? Right there. That right there is gonna be the problem, as far as I can tell, right on through the end of time when God finally draws the line on it and says, that's it for this church age, and he's gonna deliver the Jews out of that thing. But that all started with just somebody wanting something for themselves. What else? Look over in Genesis 22. We'll take another look at one here. This is Abram. He becomes Abraham at this point. Genesis 22, start with eight. This has to do with Abraham and Isaac and God telling him to go offer his son, his only son. Now you understand that Abraham is a type of God the father. Isaac is a type of God the son. And instead of stopping him, God let Jesus Christ die for your sins. He stopped Abraham and he provided another sacrifice. Because Isaac's blood wouldn't have saved you guys anyway. Anyway, look at verse eight, 22-8. It says, and Abram said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together and then jump up to 15. And the angel of the Lord called Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, by myself I have sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou has done this thing that thou has not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gates of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. You wanna know where some of your blessings come from? Right there. You want peace? Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. You want a blessing? You get on Israel's side. Don't worry about the rest of them people. You get on that side and you stay there. That's the right side to be on. Why? Because that's God's side. What you don't want to find out is later on in life that happily you'll be found to fight against God. And what was that choice based on? That was a choice that Abraham made and his thoughts were on being obedient to God, the one that made him. And it didn't make any sense to him. All he knew was that God said, do it, and I'm going to do it. You ever had God try to get you to do something that didn't make any sense? What are you thinking about at the time? There's quite a bit of difference in what happens based on what people think. You got Moses over in Exodus 17. Look over there real quick. There's two contrasting things that are pretty interesting. Now this is a friend of God. Nobody ever talked to God like this, face to face. God showed him his glory. He did stuff with him that he hadn't done with anybody else. I don't know how the thing with Enoch worked exactly, but I do know this, that he says he was a friend of God, and that was quite different than anybody else on the earth. Exodus 17.6, it says, Behold, I will stand before thee upon the rock in Horeb, and now shall smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Now you contrast that one with Numbers chapter 20. Numbers 20, verses 8 to 11. Take thy rod and gather the assembly together, thou and Aaron and thy brethren, speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of this rock. So thou shalt give the congregation their beast's drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Here now, you rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand with his rod, and smote the rock twice. And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also." Now, those are two separate things. That wasn't the same situation. He's not repeating it like he does in the Gospels. That first time, he said, smite the rock. And then what? Out of it shall come rivers of living water. And it says Jesus Christ was sacrificed once for all, one time. And he says, now what? How do you get this living water, God? All you have to do is talk to it. What do you have to say, God? Lord, I'm a sinner, be merciful to me and come into my heart and save me for Jesus' sake. You don't have to crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame. God said, Moses, you just messed up. You think you're gonna get away with it? Not gonna get away with it. You're dying before you get into Canaan. What was he thinking? Must we fetch you water out of this rock? Oh boy, here we go again, you bunch of rebels. He's thinking about himself. I tell you, it makes a difference what you think about. You got David and Goliath. What gave David the boldness to go in and fight with Goliath? That's what he was thinking about. Is there not a cause? Must this uncircumcised Philistine go against the armies of the living God and curse our God? They said, who are you? I'm nobody. But I remember what he did. What'd he do? Slew a lion and a bear. He said he'd do the same thing to him. You think it would have mattered to David if he hadn't? You think he'd have still gone? He'd have gone. Why? It's because of what he was thinking about. and he wasn't thinking about what's in it for him, that's what kept everybody else back in the camp. I mean, I can't imagine all the rest of them sitting back there and willingly, now listen, willingly letting this little kid go out and fight that giant, and what was on the line was all of their freedom. But they were willing to go sacrifice their freedom based on that little kid losing the battle because, well, it's better to be imprisoned than dead. We'll take anybody, just let anybody go out there. Why? Because none of us want to die. What about David and Bathsheba? Man after God's own heart. That guy was back there in his castle at a time when kings go forth to battle. Where should he have been? Out there at the front line. What happens? He goes up on his roof, looks out, and sees a woman bathing herself. He's thinking about self the whole time. And then he ends up destroying Uriah. Why? Trying to protect himself, trying to cover it all up. That's a mess, isn't it? That's the same guy that whipped Goliath. What happened? What were you thinking, David? About the same thing most of us think. What do you think about most of the time? That's a good question. You got the three Hebrew children. What were they thinking about? It doesn't matter if God saves us or not, we're not bound down to your gods instead of ours. They're thinking about God and what he thought about what they were gonna do. Not about what's in it for them. Well, we just go ahead and bow down a little bit, you know, just kind of throw in the towel a little bit, and then after that, we'll go ahead and witness. That's the way most of us think. Figure a way around the problem. Not if you're thinking clear, not if you're thinking right. You know what the difference is? It wouldn't have mattered whether God bailed them out or not. They had purpose in their heart. I'd rather offend you than him. Elijah kills the prophets of Baal, then turns around and runs and hides in the cave. One place, let's see who God is. And the other place is, oh me, I'm gonna die. And he runs off. You got the disciples in that sinking ship out there. Come on, master, carest thou not that we perish? You know what they were saying, don't you? They were saying, get a bucket and start bailing. You say, oh no, they were saying, come on, stop the wind. Are you kidding? When he did it, they were shocked. That's not what they expected at all. They expected him to come up there and grab a bucket. They were all hands on board, you too. Care not that we all perish, we're all gonna die. What were they thinking? They were thinking about themselves. What about Peter walking on the water? Is that really you, God, manifesting the flesh? Come on. And he starts out there. Then he gets looking around, oh boy, I'm in trouble. Down he goes. What are you thinking, Peter, what are you thinking? Oh, I'm just worried about what was gonna happen. You don't worry about what's gonna happen, do you? How you doing when you start worrying about what's gonna happen? Not too good? How's that working for you? Anyway, Martha and Mary, master, bitter therefore, she come and help me. That's a perfect example of one person thinking about themself and one person thinking about the master. Crystal clear. What are you guys thinking? Mary wasn't thinking about herself, she was thinking about the master. He said, that's what I like right there. You ain't getting her help. Why? Because I know what's in her heart and that's what I desire right there. I want to be the center focus of my creation's attention and she ain't going to help you. Now, I'm not gonna slam you in front of all your friends, but you sure are careful and troubled about many things, aren't you? Don't you find yourself careful and troubled about many things when you're thinking about yourself? Sure do. So what are you thinking? Why are you thinking it? One more. Paul says, there is given me this thorn in the flesh that I have besought the Lord thrice to take it away. You haven't prayed God take anything away from you, have you? No. Why was he praying that? That's no different than what we pray routinely. If we had that thorn in the flesh, you don't think we'd be praying God get rid of it, God get rid of it? You know what the difference was? In that particular case, God opened his eyes to something he didn't understand. What was it? He said, That thing is given to me for a purpose. When he finally tells you about his beseeching the Lord three times, he said, there was given me this thorn in the flesh, thus I be exalted above measure of the abundance of the revelation. Now the idea is keep your mouth shut and don't think you're somebody because no matter what the results are, you don't get credit for it unless I give it to you because I'm the one that does it. Paul says from then on, man, I glory in my infirmities. He starts telling you a bunch of stuff in there that you can't even understand when you read it. And the reason you don't understand Paul saying, I glory in my affirmities and all of that stuff that he starts explaining, it's because you lack understanding in those areas. Just like he did before he understood the purpose behind it. Like I said in Sunday school this morning, you think God does anything without purpose? What would that be? If He can design your eyeballs to function with your brain and be able to look back at me and I can look at you and see all the colors that He created and I can function and think and move and I can enjoy food and I can enjoy pleasures and I can weep with those that weep and I can appreciate the one that made me and understand God's creation and see His glory in it. You think anything God did, He actually did by accident? You think God ever said, oh, I didn't mean to do that. Like I said in Sunday school, before the foundation of the earth, that thing was laid out in perfect detail. Not one tiny flaw, and he had the whole thing laid out before he ever started. Well, does that mean the problem's in your life? It's he that worketh in you both the will and do of his good pleasure. What you think changes your understanding. You say, what are you talking about? Mark chapter eight, I won't read it for sake of time, but Mark chapter eight, it talks about the Lord out there with his disciples and they start someplace in a ship and they said, oh man, we only got one loaf of bread, we're gonna run out of food. And the Lord says, beware of the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees. Oh man, he's saying that because we forgot to take bread. And he comes back at him and he said, don't you remember the 5,000, how many baskets did you take up? Uh, 12. And the 4,000, how many baskets? Seven. What's going on? Why don't you understand, disciples? You know what's wrong with them? It's called stinking thinking. And when you are not thinking right, you won't understand God. Just like the disciples couldn't understand God. Those problems are gonna overwhelm you. You're gonna be constantly praying. It's not gonna have purpose. All you want's relief. You're not gonna understand God's involved in anything. You don't give Him the glory for it. It doesn't matter if it's infirmities or thorns in the flesh or blessings from God. Can't you take them as from the Father's hand? You can't as long as your attention's on yourself. All you're gonna want's relief. He said, don't you see and hear and remember or understand? Disciples had to say, nope. Why? Their attention's in the wrong place. That's all that's wrong with them. What were you guys thinking? You're thinking wrong. You're not thinking the way I designed you to think. Romans 3.11 says, there is none that seeketh after God. You think that's geographical? Well, I never thought about that. I kind of thought we were playing hide-and-seek with God and he was up there hiding in the clouds and we had to build a big tower to get up to him or pray for him to come on down or something like that. What do you think it means, none that seeketh after God? You think Paul was seeking after God when he was praying to have that thorn in the flesh removed? Nope. What was he praying for? I want relief, God. Wrong prayer. What did he need? Understanding. I needed to understand the purpose for it. Oh, now it makes sense. Now it has a benefit. Now I can not only accept it, but enjoy it. Why? Because now it's profitable to the one that made me. What were you thinking, Paul? Well, I got my thinking straightened out after a little while. It's his will, his purpose, his way, his plan, his knowledge, his desires, his pleasures. All Paul wanted when he prayed the first time was relief. Sound familiar? It does. I'll tell you what, unless you're so different from me, that's all too familiar. I'm not praying for the will of God, I'm praying for relief from God. Take it away, God, take it away. What are you praying for? Solomon didn't know what was in his own heart, did you know that? As wise as that man was, he couldn't tell what was in his own heart. Back over there in 1 Kings 11, it talks about Solomon taking to himself wives of the people that God said, don't do it because they'll turn your heart away to other gods and to their idols. He went ahead and did it. You think he saw that clearly? for somebody that had all that wisdom and started out by saying, Lord, give me wisdom and knowledge. I can't handle these people. These are your people and I gotta have wisdom and understanding, compassionate heart to deal with these people. And God says, oh, because you didn't ask for all these riches and for peace and relief from your enemies and relief from your enemies. I'm gonna go ahead and give you all this stuff too. You see the pattern back there in the Bible when that stuff is focused on God. The results are not only either relief or great peace through it, or understanding through it with purpose, or God miraculously just simply delivers them. Three Hebrew children. Why do you think he did that? Trying to show you something. Why do you think he put the story in there for you to understand and to see? Beware the leaven of the Pharisees. Oh, it's because we didn't bring bread. Oh man, that was pretty cool, them guys walking around there in the fire. All scripture is given for our profit. It's for our edification, it's for our understanding. There's benefit in there for us. And if we don't understand it, we're just gonna go, well, that must mean this, it's just another Bible story. Oh, that's pretty cool. Parting and rising, oh, that's pretty cool. There's more in it than that. Anyway, Solomon didn't know his heart. Can you know yours? I'm glad you asked. because God does give us some insight and understanding to know it. Colossians 3.2 says, set your affections on things above and not on things on this earth. What are your affections? James 5.16 says, the effectual fervent prayers of a righteous man availeth much. So where does that lead you? You pray about what's important to you. You want to know your heart? Look at your prayer list. You say, well, I don't hardly ever pray for much of nothing. I pray for food. That's because you're supposed to. That's duty. When was the last time you actually were lifted up with a feeling of exhilaration and gratitude for what God had provided for you and the flavor that was in it and the ability to enjoy it? He's given you all things richly to enjoy if they be received with thanksgiving. Well, I said thanks, but you didn't mean it, did you? You're still treating God like he's this celestial bellhop. Like he's this figurehead somewhere out there. You're not treating him like he's right in here with you. You're not treating him like in him I live and move and have my being. That's where he's at. This is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ moved in. He's in here. By him I consist. You've missed your creator, you've missed great blessings. As long as it's all about you, you can't even think in those terms. I'll just cut this cables down and get this scrap metal. What happened, God? Stinking thinking, that's what happened. Man, that sounds a little bit scary to me. You think he's like that? Did you see him straighten those disciples out when he said you're without understanding? Did you see him explain anything to them? Why? They weren't looking. You pray about what's important to you, but are those things really important to God? How you're being treated, what's bothering you, your financial bills, your medical needs, the frustrations in life, your job, your kids, your wife. You think if they're important to you, they gotta be important to God and he's just neglecting his duty by not doing something. You think that's all by accident, do you? He said, man, I thought this was gonna be a lot easier on me. It is easier. Easier than what? It's easier than a whipping, isn't it? God had to whip me to get my attention. If I could impart it to you with just words, I'd choose that way every time. I used to tell my kids the easy way or the hard way. You know, if God had done what he did with my wife and myself privately, I probably would have kept most of this stuff secret. So why would you do that? Because I figure if he wanted you to know, he'd have involved you. Guess what he did? To whomsoever much is given, much will be required. Let me ask you this, things you pray about, does that fit that category, set not your affections on things on this earth? Does it? What are you thinking about when you pray? Mm, you mean to tell me we might have some of this stuff backwards? Yeah, we got it backwards. It's not just the Laodicean church that missed the whole glory of God. It's about us too. Why? We're in the way. It's about us. It's so much about us, we forget who God is. We underestimate him every day. We think it's some kind of a big error on his part not to help us. Where else can we go, God? You're the only one that can help me. Don't you understand I am helping you? Your problem is you're focused on yourself instead of me. You turn your attention to me, things are gonna start straightening out in your life. All of a sudden, everything will begin to change. You say, do you know that for sure? I do know that for sure. How do you know that? Personal experience. So what's this message about? It's about how I've changed, what's different about me. I find myself driving along thinking about God and the trees that he made and the planets that he made and how my taste buds work and my ears work and my fingernails grow right where they need to be and my teeth. You say, that sounds kind of crazy, you know? It was designed. Can't you appreciate that? I mean, you ever walk into a house or a building where you say, man, this is really neat. I don't like this. If you can appreciate that design, why can't you appreciate something that goes so far beyond that you can't even grasp it? And if you can appreciate this, you ought to be able to appreciate the one that made it, considering he made it and gave it to you. I mean, he made all this stuff for himself and then let you in on the deal. That's pretty good. Those examples of how not to in the Bible was a case of people thinking of themselves first. That's what the problem was. If you continue to pursue your opinion, your desire, your needs, relief, don't be surprised if you remain a frustrated Christian. You can't get there from where you are. Paul couldn't get relief. You're not gonna get relief. You say, well, God does answer prayers. Don't you see purpose in things that happen around here? You say, well, how do we change all of that? How do we get out of this self-indulgent rut? By the way, you know what a rut is, don't you? It's a grave with both ends kicked out. How do we get out of this self-indulgent rut? It says over in Psalms 107, 8, 15, 21, and 31, it repeats itself again and again and again. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of man. That's what's missing. They were supposed to talk of His mighty acts and His wondrous works from one generation to the next. Nobody taught us. You know what they taught us? They taught us how to work for Him, how to serve Him, and taught us we were supposed to be in church every time doors were open. Stuff like that. Anyway, it says, bitter therefore did she come and help me. What's that? That's an exact reflection on James 4, 1 to 3. You ask and you receive not, but you might consume it upon your lusts. Why is that consuming it upon your lusts? Who are you thinking about? Who do you want it for? What is lust? It's your inner desire of self. He said, whatsoever I ask in His name, believe and I shall receive when it's in His will. You know why you don't get a bunch of stuff you ask for? Because it ain't His will. Why? Because you're asking for the wrong purpose. You're asking for a self-indulgent object, whatever it might be to help you out. He said, I did not make you so that I could serve you. I made you to appreciate me. I don't need your help. What do you want, God? I want your love. I want to be the center of your affection. I want to be the center of your attention. I want you to think about me at least part of the day. The question here is, what are you thinking about? There is a difference in the rest of your life if you begin to consider God more than you do. And I guarantee you, if you find yourself going day after day without considering who you are and who made you and where your future is and all the great things that He's given you, you're missing out on a major portion of what He's given you to enjoy. And that's why you can't enjoy it, because the stuff you do for yourself is very shallow and hollow, and it doesn't last. You have to constantly go from one to the next to the next to the next to the next. If you want to find something that'll last, you start doing stuff for Him. Let's close in prayer.