Nearly 50 years ago, a little girl was born outside of Nashville, Tennessee. She happened to have been born with some major problems that left her crippled in her legs. She had a lot of brothers and sisters, a wonderful mom and dad. While other boys and girls ran to play and jump and run, she couldn't. In fact, she was really required to wear those braces. She went into Nashville periodically to have those legs massaged and worked on. And it was a tremendous sense of disappointment to her little child who wondered what life would be like when she was old. She used to ask her mother. She said, Mom, will I ever be able to run and jump and play like other kids? And her mom and dad were a strong Christian stock and looked at her and said, Honey, only have to believe. Just believe. God will make it happen. Well, given that kind of motivation, she used to take those braces off and have her brothers and sisters help her to walk around the room, unbeknownst to the doctor and the parents. Well, when she was 12, on her birthday, she surprised everybody. In fact, her doctor, couldn't believe it, taking the braces off, in the office, walked across the room. She said, is this okay? Well, maybe occasionally. That's all she needed to hear. She never wore them again. She watched her older sister, who was a basketball star and wanted so bad to be like her, but it wasn't long with that kind of courage and inner motivation and strength, she began to run and play like other little children. In fact, she went out for basketball within a couple of years. and was disappointed that she was the 13th one. She didn't make the team. And that afternoon when she found that out, she came home and the coach was there. She thought, how dare he? At least let me tell my parents. But he wasn't there for her. He was there for the older sister. But the father was a wise man and looked at that coach and said, my daughters come in pairs. If you want one, you take the other. Well, begrudgingly, she did, but she got last year's uniform and she worked out with the team. One day she walked into the coach and looked at him and said, if you will give me just ten more minutes every day, I'll give you a world-class athlete. He laughed. Then he realized she was serious. He said, all right, I'll do it. Half-heartedly, he gave her some extra time, but on her own, with her best friend and two boys, after practice, they did additional two-on-two kind of basketball. It got to the point where she was really good, and she went on to the state championships in terms of basketball, and it just so happened that the referee at that basketball game was the coach at the internationally famous Tiger Belts. And asked the girl if she'd ever tried track. No, she never had. Well, I think you should. Well, with that encouragement, she went off for track. She ran a few races and she started to win some. Went on to the state tournaments. At the age of 16, this girl in 1956 went to the Olympics in Australia and won a bronze medal. anchoring 400-meter relay team. Not satisfied with that, Wilma Rudolph practiced for four more years and in Rome in 1960, won the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and anchored the 400-meter relay, all in world record times. Not only that, she won the prestigious Sullivan Award as the most outstanding amateur athlete in this country. You only have to believe. Is that true? Can faith do that for us? Is that powerful a thing available for you and me? What is it that allows some people to rise above seemingly incredible odds and achieve things that others cannot? Is it true that with God all things are possible if we will believe that? What is our limits in this area? What does it mean to walk by faith? How can we tie that in to what we've been talking about so far? In your syllabus you'll see a personal worth appraisal. Now, it's hard to see the time here, but that's my goal, is to show you. But if I was to ask you honestly now, how successful are you? Well, I would be more successful if. Well, I don't feel very successful right now. Scale to one to five, ah, two or three. How significant are you? Fulfilled are you? I would be more fulfilled if. Now, I'm gonna leave this here just for a moment and come back to it a little bit later. Because I'm convinced that every child of God has a legitimate right to circle a five in every one of those. I mean God has not doomed me to failure here people. If we understand what it is that God is trying to do in our life and how it relates to faith. So I'll come back to that. But let me first of all share something about faith itself. We have a tendency to think of faith as some kind of a mystical thing or belongs in the realm of the spiritual. That is really not true. If you can cement in your mind three simple aspects of faith that brings it out of the abstract and into the concrete where you and I live. Three simple things about faith. One is that faith itself is dependent upon the object of its faith. It's not that you believe, it's what you believe or who you believe in that counts. Everybody walks by faith. Everybody walks by faith. You drove here this morning, I'm sure, by faith. Especially in Southern California. But when you came to the intersection and you saw a light and it was green, did you believe that the other direction saw a red light? Could you see it? No. But if you didn't believe it, what would you do? Well you'd come up to that intersection and probably stop or look both ways and proceed very cautiously. You didn't see that, see. You were driving by faith. Now you do that all the time. Everybody does that. Everybody walks by faith. It's the operating principle of life. Suppose tonight you go home and open up a can of Campbell's soup. Now I personally have never had a bad can of Campbell's soup. Now I've had some I didn't like, but it wasn't bad. Now suppose tonight I go home and pop open the top of that can and there's two or three worms floating around on top. Oh my gosh. Would you reach for the next can the same way you reached for that first one? I wouldn't. Now I probably would try another one. Suppose the second can is bad however. Third and the fourth one is. That'd be it for Campbell's soup. He'd probably never eat it again. Now you develop that kind of confidence and trust in our own American way because you reach up, you believe what that label says is in that can, and you have confidence in our governmental system here that that certain amount of regulations are going to make sure that that food is good for you. When I was in my earlier days of ministry and life, come back from a youth outing, slipped in my dime, can you imagine that, and got a bottle of Upper Ten. They don't even make that stuff anymore. Took a great big swig out of that bottle and then spit it out immediately. Then I looked and a bottom third of that was filled with junk. Incredible. I never had a bottle of upper ten since. Maybe that's why they stopped making them. I don't know. But you know what you do people? You pop open a can. You don't even get to see what's inside and you drink it by faith. Don't you? And you read the label, and you probably read it out of, drink it out of ignorance even, but it's, but see we're required there. We live by faith. You fly an airplane by faith. You believe that that person knows how to fly, that he didn't drink for the last 24 hours and whatever else, but you do that by faith. Once it's lost, hard to regain. I never regained it for a pretend. If there's certain stock items of trade I've got to live with, however, I'll probably try it again and maybe two or three times, but boy, a long period of frustration will leave me, you know, no more. If I can live without it, I won't do it because I just don't trust it anymore. You set your watch and your calendar and regulate your day because of the consistency of the sun, S-U-N. If that happened to miss a beat one day, if the world didn't rotate, boy, it'd throw everything into chaos. But we believe that. Why? Because it's always been there. It's predictable. It's certain. It's true. It never changes. See, there's your confidence for the S.O.N. son. He says, I never change. It is basically the immutability of God. The fact that he never changes that makes him the ultimate object of our faith here. If he didn't show up one day and do what he said he was going to do, then our faith in God would be destroyed. It is being destroyed, incidentally, not because the object of our faith is not good, but because people have false expectations of God, unrealistic expectations of God, and they expect God to operate a certain way, or to answer a prayer a certain way, and he doesn't. Forget you, God. You aren't good to your word anymore. Well, that's a faulty understanding of the word, or of God. But it's not God that's changed. You see the real critical issue then is Jesus a valid object for our faith. And he is because he'll never change. He's always true to his word. He's always good. He's always faithful. Now, people don't know that by and large and so they put their confidence elsewhere. We are told as Christians to put no confidence in the flesh. But what I'm trying to suggest to you is that keep that always in view here. Because if it is the object of my faith that determines the quality of it, then it's what I believe that counts. It's who I believe in that counts. Now, you're dealing with a couple, for instance, where one has been unfaithful, and asks forgiveness, and says, would you forgive me? Or one bad act, maybe. Now, what both need to realize is that I've lost faith now, and that can't come back just like that. And so probably for the next six months, the guy says, well I'll be home tonight at six, and doesn't show up until eight. And then he's upset because, where were you? Well, you see what's happened there, you know, I don't have the same trust in you I used to have. Now I want to have it, it's a choice to stay with you, to trust you, but give me some time to work that back. You see, if it took years to develop that trust, it can be lost in one act. It's going to take a long time of good continuous behavior to bring it back. That's trust. It's true in every dimension of life. I had a rather interesting experience talking about spiritual conflicts one time in a church. I mentioned the fact in my message that a boy who could not say Jesus, just could not express it. As an act of his will, could not say Jesus. Well, this young guy came to me and said, boy, I've had that happen. I've been sitting down in devotion. I can't say it. What's wrong with me? Well, I said, let me hear your story. Well, the story was several years ago. He'd apparently found Christ down at Calvary Chapel here in Costa Mesa several years ago when they were in their tent. He said, I'm not certain about it today, but I think I was a Christian. Well, I decided at that time I was going to go up into Oregon and discover my roots and my faith. So I lived with some Indians and a few other things, and that didn't work out. Came across the border, went to an Assemblies of God church. fine people. But there he said, if I didn't make my decision before, I did now. Well, given the kind of belief that they have, the pastor encouraged them to go out into the woods and fight that lonely battle and had a second work of grace. And apparently that for him happened and he came back and the pastor now said, now go out and walk by faith. Now people, faith in what? Just walk by faith? He said, I've been doing that for three years. It has been one trial after another. And now I've even got spiritual conflict. Do you know what that is? That's faith in faith. That's not faith. That's presumption. You see, faith in order to be valid has to have an object. I believe in God. It doesn't make God true or real. I believe in it because it's true. See the new age is coming along now and it's trying to say if you believe hard enough it'll happen. That believing it makes it happen. Be careful in this area because when we respond by faith we respond to something that's true out there. So when I believe who I am in Christ I believe it and it works out. And it happens now but it's already true. I make it real in my life and it becomes a part of my experience because I believe it. But I believe it because it's true. Believing something doesn't make it true. Not believing something doesn't make it false. I don't believe in hell. That didn't lower the temperature down there one degree, did it? Nothing changed by not believing it, in terms of truth. But belief, in a sense, is a response then to God and His Word because it's true. Thy Word is truth. Well, the second simple concept then about faith is that if it's dependent upon its object, what I believe, Then, if you're going to increase by faith, you're going to have to increase your understanding of the object of your faith. Case in point, little knowledge about God, little faith. Little knowledge of God's word, little faith. It can't be any other way. Can't be any other way. Now let me illustrate that if I can. When my boy was one years old, I'd put him on a table like that, and I would say, come on Carl, fall into my arms. I'd be just, you know, six inches away and he'd gingerly fall into his arms. And then I'd back off another foot or so and as he would, you know, respond to me, as long as I caught him, you know, he would keep stretching a little bit in faith. And it wouldn't be long and I'd be three, four feet away. He'd jump into my arms and I'd catch him, provided I always caught him. If one day I said, come on Carl, jump in my arms, you know. And he'd go, pal, I'll teach you to trust in anybody, you know. That's so true in anything of life because if one time somebody's let you down, boy, it's rocky to get back to it. Unless your name is Charlie Brown and you got a little girl here who wants you to kick that football every fall. And so we laugh at that. We know how ludicrous it is. It's humor to us. Why? Because you know Lucy's going to jerk that football out and he's going to do a double gainer laying flat on his back. And you look at him, what a sucker, what a dummy. How in the world could he trust Lucy? Would you? I wouldn't. You know, throw in the football, kick it, but I ain't gonna run up there and do that double gainer like old Charlie Brown does every year. You see, not a valid object for her faith. Now as my son matures a little bit, you know, I go out, he's two years old, I put him in the limb of a tree. And I stand, come on Carl, jump down. Now provided, you see, that the limb is not too high. And I'm there, he'll jump into my arms. But one day, he's in the limb, and I change the object of his faith. His sister's there. Come on Carl, jump into Heidi's arms. He's two, she's four. Think he'll jump? No, he won't jump. He'd squash her. And he kind of knows that. He's only two years old, but he knows that. When he changes the object of his faith, he's not going to jump anymore. Now what's going to happen? Can he go to the top of that tree and jump into my arms? No. I'll get squashed. See, I am not a perfect object for his faith. I'm the best he's got as his father. But eventually, you see, I've got to transfer that trust off of Dad when there was a time when he thought I could do anything, which was doomed to fail on him eventually. And I have to transfer that confidence onto his new identity as a child of God now. Your father, however, he's able to catch you no matter how far you fall. No matter how far you fall. because he's a valid object for your faith. He's a perfect object for your faith. And so I'm going to establish that confidence now, no longer in father. Now, I'm going to do the best I can, son, but I can't always catch you. That's why, incidentally, faith itself can't be pumped up. We have a tendency to think that, oh, if only I could believe, if only I could believe. No. The moment that you that you ask people to step out in faith beyond their knowledge of God and His ways, it's no longer faith, it's presumption. We're limited to the degree that we can respond by faith dependent upon how well we know God and His ways. If you've got 7,000 promises of God memorized, you've got a 7,000 You know, promise faith. But if you only know three, that's the best you've got. Well, live by those. Now let me tell you, you say, well boy, there's a real limit to our faith then. I said, you know, the limit is our own understanding. The limit is not God. The object of our faith is infinite. But my understanding of God is limited. But even as I say that, you say, boy, there's not an awful lot of potential here then. I said, boy, let me be honest with you. There's not one person here, including myself, that's lived up to our potential of faith yet. Not one. We already know enough about God to live a very, very victorious and fruitful life right now. Now, I'm not putting you down or myself down. That's why we encourage one another, to give courage to another, to walk by faith and not by sight, to put into practice that which we believe, to live according to our belief system, and to do it regularly, to take stands, for instance, against social injustices and this type of thing, because I believe it's wrong. and I'm willing to die for my convictions. That kind of a thing. So encourage one another. So nobody here I don't think is really coming close yet to living to the potential of what you already know about God and yourself. But that comes in practice. Well the reason that that's important to understand is the third simple thing. That faith then really is an action word. If my son went back to that table, stood there, and kept growing up, he's two, but he never stepped off that table and kept asserting, oh I believe, I believe dad can catch me. But he never stepped off the table. Biblically, does he believe? No, he doesn't. It's wishful thinking. It's not belief anymore. There's a lot of Christians that say, I've got a great belief in God, but I'm a couch potato and never do anything. Well, God looks at that faith. Faith without works is what? It's just dead. See, that's what James is trying to teach us. It's meaningless. So, faith is an actual word. It's like love in the same way. When you use love as a verb, it's got to be expressed. If you see the world in need and have the means to meet that need according to John and don't do anything, how can the love of God abide in you? For God so loved the world that He gave. Now when you express love as a noun, you're talking about character. Love, joy, peace. You're talking about love as patient, love as kind. When you express it as a noun. When you express it as a verb, it's got to be given away. Love in essence is meeting another person's need out of the character of my life. Well faith, when you talk about faith as a noun, this I believe, you're talking about really the object of your faith now. But when you talk about it as a verb, which is typically expressed, you're talking about something by which I walk. And if you don't walk, it's not faith. It's not expressed. It's like the little guy in a unicycle riding across the tight wire across Niagara Falls. And everybody cheers and applauds. How many believe I can do this with a man on my shoulder? Okay, hop on. See the guy who hops on is the guy who believes, isn't it? The rest would like to think he could. Or like somebody else to do it. There's an old illustration, most of you probably heard it before but I want to use it again if I can, which I think expresses beautifully that tension of faith. that here's a four-day trip across the desert. This is back in the last century where the horse and the man could get halfway across but needed more water at that time. Well, there's supposedly a well out there. So this guy takes a cross and he's run out of water and he comes to this well and he pumps the handle and burps up sand. And then he looks down and there's a sign down there that said, buried two feet over and two feet down is a jug of water. Dig that up. Use that water to prime the pump. It'll take all it's got, but when you're done, you got all the water you need. You can water your horse and yourself, fill up the jug, bury two feet over, two feet down for the next person that comes along. Feel the tension? See, there's enough water in that jug to get you the next two days across that trip. You know what I do? I drink the water in the jug. That disappoints you. You know why, to be honest with you. And then I would try to get that water back and fill it up again. Because I don't know who wrote the sign. I have no idea who wrote that sign. It could be a joke. What a cruel thing. Pour it down that well and nothing come up. That part of the tension of faith I don't have because I know who wrote the sign in my Christian walk. See, God's word, the word became flesh. His word is no good if his character is no good. If you're going to put your name on something, then you're putting your character and your reputation at a stake behind that thing. And so, I have one aspect of that tension of faith, however. That tension says, if you believe it, do it. And if you don't do it before God, you really don't believe it. That tension exists. But I know who wrote the book. I read the last chapter. It all works out in the end. I'm on the winning side here. It isn't as though that we are on the losing side. We have got a picture of the church today that sits out here in a defeated kind of a pattern, thankful that maybe our sins are forgiven, a place is prepared for us. But right now, I'm turning it on until the rapture comes. Is that the picture you'd read in the New Testament? Are you kidding me? You know what the church is? We've made it a hospital. Yeah, sick people come get well, you know, and we'll hold each other's hand. Well, that's true, but the hospital is not the whole thing. A church by God is intended to be a military outpost that's called to storm the fortresses, that praise God has an infirmary, because we got a lot of weak and wounded people out here today, but we don't exist for that. The infirmary exists that we may accomplish what we've been called to do. How in the world are we going to be salt and light if all we're doing is trying to fix the lamp and replace the salt? We're really to be change agents in this world today, to take our stand, to live by faith, to accomplish something for the glory of God, to make His presence known. That's what we've been called to do. Now I spend a lot of my time helping people in that infirmary. And praise God it's there because we need it. Because we got a lot of hurting, wounded people out here today who are really hurting bad. But we don't exist just for that purpose. Do we? I think our mentality gets there sometime. Now we come back to the question then. So how do you walk by faith? Well you walk according to what you believe. But here's how you do it. One of our pages, they're walking by faith and the renewing of our minds. When you look at those statements, I will be satisfied if, I will be successful if, I will be happy if, I will etc. Whatever we believe is the answer to the above statements is what constitutes our belief system. And we will walk, literally live, by faith. Assuming our psychological needs are met, we are basically motivated by whatever we believe will make us happy, satisfied, successful, etc. The question is, what if our belief system isn't quite right? That is, what if we have the wrong goals? Now, I would like to encourage you sometime to just take that form there and give it to somebody. And they'll go down and check out one or two or five or whatever else. But what you look at is that next little statement there. I would be more happy if... Now, whatever they put there is what they believe. And that is how they are going to walk, by faith, according to what they believe. Every person, that's true. Now, if your physiological needs aren't being met, food, safety, shelter, if you're hungry, I'll tell you what will motivate you. Food will. If you're cold, shelter will motivate you. But by and large, in our culture, our physiological needs are met. I mean, nobody in this country, really, with very, very minor exceptions, doesn't have food and safety and shelter. Now, there are places and pockets where that's a problem, but by and large, what we're motivated to do is one of those eight things or others. And whatever we believe right now in our own mind will make us happy and successful and wealthy, etc. is what constitutes our belief system. And right now that's how you're living your life. What if it's wrong? What if it's off just a little bit? Not 180 out, just off a little bit. How will that show up? Well, it's kind of like playing golf. When my boy was young, I gave him a little starter set, one of those little things, and he'd wail away at it and get it out to 50, 60, 80 yards. He'd spray it all over the place. But you know, when he was young, he could be 10, 15 degrees off because he could only hit it 60, 70 yards. He'd still be in a fairway. But as he grew up and got a little bigger set, the ball got out to 150, 200 yards. Now he's 15 degrees off. Where is he? He's in the rough. Well, you start banging that ball out there about 250 yards and you're 15 degrees off, you could be out of bounds. Okay? And let me tell you, that depicts life so well because if you've got a wrong belief system that doesn't square with the way God created this fixed order of the universe and you're walking down life, you're 15, 20 years old and you're 15 degrees off or so, You're not going to experience an awful lot of major problems in life, but when you're 20 and 25 and 30 on that path, you're going to find yourself more out and out in the rough and finally out of bounds. That's your midlife crisis, folks. You wake up when you're 35 or 40 years old and realize, well, I believed if I did this, it would work out, but it didn't work out. And it didn't show up. Now what's happening is that some of our kids are 90 degrees off, and by the time they're teenagers, they're in trouble. They're bankrupt already. They found out what they believed isn't going to work at all. Look at it in the physical realm. When you're young, you can eat almost anything and still somehow survive. Keep eating that way and you know it'll happen. You'll look like some of us when you're about 40 or so. But, you know, don't you now look in the age and say, I can't eat that way anymore. If I eat that way, boy, it'll show up in my body. How I feel and perform and whatever else. Boy, I tell you what, it's the same way in your old soul. What you thought you could do a few years from now, you realize you're off base. You're out of bounds and the system is going to show that. Now, do I have to wait until I'm 45 or 20? No. I believe that God really has a daily way of giving you feedback. Daily way. and it's gonna show up in your emotional side of your life. Now, if your goal isn't right, if it can be blocked, for instance, or impossible, or uncertain, what do you think you're gonna feel? I'm talking about day-by-day type of things. Oh, boy, I was gonna have a fun time here tonight, and now my dad won't let me go. He blocked my goal. And if you get that goal blocked, emotionally, what do you think you're gonna feel? You're gonna be angry at him, aren't you? What if he said, well, talk to me in two weeks and I'll let you know? Oh my gosh, I don't know whether or not I'm going to be able to go or not. That's uncertainty. How do you feel? Anxious. What if it's impossible? What if you got an impossible goal? Boy, in order for me to be successful, this has to happen, but it's not going to happen. Is that depressing or what? See, there's your basis for depression. All depression is hopelessness. It's all hopelessness. Hopelessness. I wish I had more time to talk about depression, because getting back into a God model here is that hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, the help of my countenance. Why are you in despair, O my soul? You're in despair because the ultimate object of your faith in God, if your hope in God is gone, you're going to be depressed. If you've got a wrong thought about God, you can get depressed. Psalm 13, for instance. How long, O Lord, without forgetting me forever? How long will I despair in my soul? How long will I take counsel to myself? He's talking to himself. Now let me ask an honest question here. I believe in the inerrancy and the authority of scripture. But Psalm 13 says, How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget me forever? Now is that true? Will God forget me forever? No, that's not true. Now if you feel that way, however, if you believe that, that God forgot you and you think forever, how are you going to feel? Well, abandoned. But that's why he's depressed. Why? Because his hope in God is gone. That's why. But it started with a wrong concept of God. Now, does David stay there? No, he doesn't. The beautiful part about that passage is he comes back and says, wait a minute, I'm a child of God. I've tasted the kindness of the Lord. I will sing. I can do something as an expression of my will right now. And not only that, he said, I shall. Future orientation, I will rejoice. And I'm getting right back with God now. And so He is my hope. He is my hope. And therefore there is no more depression. Well, we're going to take a look at several illustrations here. Here's a young gal who is a lovely person in every way. She's a senior in high school. She's been gone for a while. Mother and father said she's almost clinically depressed with diaphragm. I said sure I'd love to. So she comes in. And when we sit down, I take a piece of paper and draw three lines. I would be happy if home, school, church. Well, church was fine for her. Really no problems there. Home, I'd be happy if mom and dad would do something differently and brother or whatever. And school, I'd be happy if I had a lot of friends. So I zeroed in on that for a little bit. I said, you don't perceive you have a lot of friends. No. I said, is there somebody at school that you perceive that has a lot of friends? Oh, yeah. I said, describe the one that stands out most in your mind. And what she described was her physical, temperamental, everything opposite. I said, if you were like her, you'd have a lot of friends, right? Right. What does she have? She's got an impossible goal. There's no way she could be like that other person. There's no way she should be like that other person. She shouldn't even make one iota of attempt to be like that other person. Nor sit there and feel sorry because she's not like that other person. She's herself. And if you could see this girl, you'd look at her and say, man, gosh, you got it together. When we begin to show what I'm going to go through next here, how God has a goal for her life that's not impossible, and begin to see that, within a week her depression was gone. I go over to this church, This woman has been depressed for so long and she asked me after hearing me speak if I would come over and have dinner with her family. I said I'd love to do that. So we were over there and this is always a little frustrating for people in ministry but you realize your real reason for there is not just a social visit. But I was there to win her husband to Christ. She'd been going to church for 20 years and her husband wasn't a Christian. Nice fella. adequately providing for them financially in every way, just in his own experience and seeing the need for God right now in his life. Well, that didn't happen. I struck up a nice relationship. I was able to talk with him and share with him. But I mean, it just was a forced thing to sit down and use that social engagement to talk about. But we established a nice relationship. She also has two children. Neither one are Christians. Now the tragedy of the story like this is, is that you can begin to sense what this woman who's going to church by herself for 20 years, overwhelming goal in life is. Overwhelming. But it's gotten to a point right now, I don't see how possibly it can happen. I've said everything I could, tried everything I can, and it's just as impossible. And I'm depressed. Well she came to me after I did a series on depression, and my last one was on endogenous depression, which means it's physical in its origin. Chemical imbalances, that kind of thing. And she said, that's me, endogenous depression, and my psychiatrist said, don't anybody tell me otherwise, but right now the chemical imbalances are not right, and I'm still depressed. But I gotta be honest with you, I don't think that was her case at all. I really don't. I really believe that in her case, her whole mindset and thrust in life. You say, well isn't that a good thing? Let me tell you the tragedy of a story like this is, What's happening to her witness? Uh, hey kids, why don't you become a Christian like me? Uh, no thanks, Mom. You know, Dad's doing better than you are. And he is. In the world's eyes, he is. He isn't in God's eyes, but he is in the world's eyes. I want you to know, here's a delightful woman. She's a wonderful person in every way. But somehow or another, her faith is not working for her. Something's wrong here. You look at a homemaker today. Boy, my goal in life is to have a loving, harmonious, happy family. Who can block that goal? Every person in that family can block that goal. Not only can, they will. We don't live with perfect people today. I'll tell you what, homemaker, if that's your goal, you will crash and burn so many times They will call you yo-yo. You'll be up and down in your life and say, wait a minute. Is that a good goal? We'll look at it. I teach pastors and they walk out of seminary and they're excited. My goal is to reach this community for Christ. Who can break that goal? Every person in the community, half the church and two board members probably will. Pray him out of here. Think God wants to pray him out of there? I'll tell you what, that poor guy, he'll go through so many cycles in life, he'll think he's a motorcycle. Here's a man who's coming to midlife. He said, boy, I've worked all my life for this next promotion. And the boss says, I really don't know whether this will be the year if we get a new contract. On the other hand, we got some young bucks coming along. And he's got his whole life based on that promotion. And he's uncertain about it. Tell me how he's going to feel over here. Anxious, right? Well, the big day comes and he gave it to the young buck. The boss says, I'm sorry, we promoted so-and-so. How do you think emotionally he's going to respond to that? Angry. What if he realizes now, after a period of time, as long as he lives there, he's never going to get promoted. Is that depressing or what? I remember About three years ago, I was asked to do a family retreat for church. The whole church was going to go up to this retreat center. It's going to be the Sunday weekend after Mother's Day. Well, they called me a month in advance and said, we had to move it back a week to Mother's Day because they double booked in the camp. Do not come up then. Well, man, I wasn't scheduled to be away on Mother's Day. Joanne was there and heard the whole story. So I looked at her and she said, I think you ought to go. were committed and working towards it. I said, sure day hun. I said, my inclination is to say no. She said go. I was a total wipe out because when I got back I spoke in a church in the evening. I was home for about an hour so there was no Mother's Day. While I was up there, however, they had this really neat gift shop. Had a little basket of some pre-made muffin mix and some apple jelly and stuff like that. It was just a cute gift. In my mind, I had a goal to atone for my sins. I was going to wake up Monday morning, bright and early, do my devotions and that kind of stuff, and I was going to sit down and make this breakfast. Boy, this big, just banquet-type breakfast. I had eggs and sausage and muffins mixed in on it. And I'm out here stirring away and singing and feeling great. My son walks out, sleep in his eyes, reaches up and gets a bowl of cereal. I said, hey, Carl, just a second. We're going to sit around the table and have muffins. I don't like muffins, Dad. Carl, we're going to sit around the table and have muffins. I don't like muffins. We're going to sit around the table and have muffins. Throws the cereal box back in the drawer, goes back into his room. He blocked my goal. This is what our family was going to do. We're going to sit around this table just like this. I realized what happened. I walked back there. I said, gee, Carl, I'm sorry. You can have cereal. We wouldn't eat cereal. The problem is you show this to your kids. I remember my daughter had this boyfriend. Not what I had prayed about. He was on a world trip. surfing around the world and during that time I had put together this next page on your worth appraisal issue and I had my whole family look down and Heidi put 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 all the way down. I said my gosh Heidi you know Well, how can I be successful if Richie's are over there? And how can I be satisfied if Richie's over there? Everything was based on Richie. Everything was. Everything. Your entire existence, success, happiness, everything was based on this guy. And I'm sitting here, I don't even know how to pray. You know, whether a great white shark be appointed or somebody would witness to this kid. Well, you know, That period passed, praise God, and new men have come on the scene. But see, everything, her entire existence was dependent upon something she had no control over, and consequently she was won all the way down the chart. I remember the same kind of a scene I was telling you about earlier. I got the whole family together, I said, we're going to leave this morning, that's 15 minutes after to get to church. Same thing happened. Five minutes I'm sitting out in that car, trying to resist honking that horn, you know, So I get to church on time. So I walk in the house, I said, Hurry up for crying out loud. I told you we had to leave five minutes ago. From the back of the room. What's wrong dad? Am I blocking your goal? I'll tell you what folks, there's only one answer to that. Two cars. Two cars. Well, how do people respond to other people or circumstances that frustrate their goal? You see, what I find is that the initial thing is the attempt to control or manipulate people and or circumstances. That's what they attempt to do. Now, you see, if my self-worth is dependent upon whether or not you behave a certain way, it is not hard to see where you're going to start trying to control that person or those circumstances, is it? Here's the pastor, he's out there, boy, my goal is to do this, and there's a couple of people blocking that goal in there. Well, man, You can go into some kind of power mode here and somehow get that stumbling blocks out of the way so you can accomplish your goal. I wonder how godly that is. Or here's a mother who really believes that her self-worth is dependent upon whether or not those children respond a certain way. And so here's a time now when they should be progressively letting that child go, giving them more and more freedom. But they don't start acting right. They don't use their freedom quite right at first. So what does she do? She clamps down. Because if my self-worth is dependent upon this child, you know, responds a certain way, then boy, I better control your behavior. And guess what happens? It gets worse. Why? Because really, honestly, you're working against what really should happen. It's a natural progression of letting go here, and you're hanging on more and more. You say, well, our churches teach this. They really put that pressure on us. My kids don't turn out a certain way. What will happen? I'll never be an elder. We're killing ourselves. Don't even realize it at times. Your self-worth doesn't depend on that. It depends on something else, which we'll get at in a moment here. We don't stop manipulating and controlling people here. That's not God's plan for us. Nor am I going to allow circumstances beyond my control to control me. If I can't control and manipulate, then I just get bitter and angry and resentful. Or like this poor dear woman, whose husband wouldn't come to Christ, I'm a martyr and I'm going to hang on to the rapture. It's just my cross carrying life. But boy, taking a very defeated response to something here. Now, here's the faith stretcher. If God wants something done, can it be done? Are you sure? If God wants it done, can it be done? With God, most things are possible. All things are possible. All things that are right are possible, aren't they? Now, here's the faith stretcher. I am personally convinced that no goal that God would have for my life is impossible, uncertain, or can be blocked. No goal for my life that God would have for my life is impossible. Now, if you think otherwise, think how that would be. Well, listen here, I've called you into existence in here and I made you my child and this is what I want you to do. Give it your best shot. I know you won't be able to do it, but... That's really ludicrous, isn't it? Would you even do that to your own child? Hey, go on, mow the lawn. There's rocks out there and the mower doesn't work and there's no gas. But give it your best shot, son. You wouldn't do that, you know, as a parent. I can't even imagine, for instance, God doing that. I'm simply saying now, get out there, but you won't be able to make it. Is that ludicrous? I hope you think it is. And I'm convinced that God has, anything that God would have me to be or do, by the grace of God, I can do. I can do it. But I've got to know what I'm supposed to do. Okay? Let me distinguish then between two important concepts. A godly goal and a godly desire. I'm not playing games here, but this something has to happen in our own minds to make a distinction. First of all, a godly goal is any specific orientation that reflects God's purpose for our lives that is not dependent upon people or circumstances that are beyond our ability or right to control. Not only ability, but a right. I may not be able to control somebody, or even if I can, I don't necessarily have the right to do that, I don't think. I'm not their God, see. Secondly, any godly desire which is any desired result that is dependent upon the cooperation of people, the success of events, or favorable circumstances. Now let me go back and look at some issues here. First of all, does God distinguish in his own mind between a goal and a desire? What does he say about the lost, for instance? I desire, doesn't he now say, that all would come to repentance? Will all? No. And I can't imagine that God is sitting up there, you know, so uncontrollable that he looks down and says, oh, good, he's sharing the four spiritual laws with that guy. He's reading, oh, he did trust in Christ. That really is ludicrous, isn't it? I mean, you know, God is not on that kind of an emotional roller coaster at all. Now, I believe God desires that all would come to repentance. But not all will. And I don't think he's going to crash and burn up there in heaven. I really don't. You get a chance to see the heart of God and his desire. God has some things he has predetermined. They're going to happen. They're a goal, but they're going to happen. There's going to be a great white throne someday. Satan's going to cast them to the best. It's going to happen. And it's going to happen. And it's going to happen. Because he's going to make it happen. There's a lot of other things that really God intends to work through the church that aren't that absolute. Because it really requires the cooperation of us to participate in them. But he's declared the outcome of the ages. So I lean at least 51%, 49% that the sovereignty of God is really superior over the free will of man. The only way that can happen to have the ages predetermined is for that to be true. So we rest in the providential care of God here. But there's an awful lot of things going on that really depend upon whether or not you and I participate with him. He's designed it that way. So let me suggest a goal for a homemaker here. My goal is to have a loving, harmonious, happy family. Good goal according to that definition? No. If that's your goal, you'll crash and burn. That's a great desire. That's a godly desire, actually. But it won't always happen, people. If that is your overwhelming goal, let me tell you, you go through so much emotion in your life, it used to be a basket case after a period of time. How's this for a goal? I'm going to be the wife and the mother God wants me to be. That's a great goal. Who can block it? Only I. I'm the only one who can block... What if my kids rebel? Are you kidding me? If they ever needed a mother, they need one now. That didn't block your goal from being a mother. It may have blocked your goal if your goal was to look good in front of people. But it certainly didn't block your goal from being a mother. My goal is to lead this church to reach this community for Christ. Great desire. But you'll start manipulating and controlling people to bring that about and you'll be sick after a while. How's this for a goal? My goal is to be the pastor God wants me to be. That's a great goal. That is the goal. Hang on to this people, there's something tremendously liberating here. There is a path that God has prepared for us that you and I can walk on. He said, well, what happens if a desire isn't met? Disappointment. But we're going to have to learn to live in this lifetime with a lot of disappointments. Even God does, I think. I think he was disappointed with Israel. I think he was disappointed that Jerusalem didn't trust in Christ. And when he wanted to gather them in, his mother would gather in the church. But I do not believe that God goes through periods of depression and anxiety. I don't even think God gets mad, to be honest with you. I think He is mad. I think the wrath of God is an abiding issue. You and I get mad when our little goals aren't blocked and that kind of stuff. But I think God's wrath is a continuous thing against all unrighteousness. I really do. I don't think He gets mad. I think that's part of the wrath of God. It's really part of His nature against sin. Against unrighteousness. You and I get mad when things don't turn out our way. I was sharing this with a bunch of middle-aged, really kind of yuppie engineering type people from the church. Halfway through, this one guy raises his hand and says, this is great stuff. He said, but I got one problem with it. He said, you're taking my right to blame away from me. I said, how do you feel about that? He said, I don't know. I'm thinking about it. But he went on to say, he said, I really think there's a path here of freedom. I mean, wouldn't it be great, Mother, if you could free yourself? from all of the junk pressure that's put upon you out there and just simply decide to be the person that God called you to be. To accept our station in life and say I'm just going to give my best shot God and I'm going to leave the results to you because I can't control and manipulate people or events anyhow. I'm not God and shouldn't even try to be. I'm not going to play that role in somebody else's life either. Take your Bibles and turn to Romans, chapter 5. Romans chapter 5 verse 1. Therefore, having been, past tense, justified by faith, we have, right now, peace with God. We'll get to that next hour, but I want you to jump down to verse 3. He says, not only this, but we exult in our tribulations. How does that grab you? That's like James 1. Count it all joy, brethren, when you encounter various trials. What are you, a masochist or something? You think I like to be flogged through life out here? Well, there's got to be some explanation for this thing or we're in deep trouble here. Become a Christian and go through trials and tribulations. But finish it. Exalt means actually heighten joy. We exalt in our tribulation knowing that tribulation brings perseverance. Perseverance, proven character. Proven character, say it, hope. And that hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God has been poured forth out into our heart. Now watch what he's saying here. Let's say hope is our goal here. I'll tell you where that's going to come out of. It's going to come out of proven character. Because that's God's goal for our life. Now here's a person who comes to see me whose husband separated from her, for instance. And her overwhelming goal is to do what? Get that guy back. Good goal? No. No. That's a desire. What's the goal? I'll sit down. I want to give this person some hope. I want to give him some real hope. Don't say, oh, we'll win him back. False hope. False hope. He may come back, but you don't have any control over it. And if you try to control it, that's probably why he left in the first place. Now, I can sit down with this person and say, listen, I want to help you work through this crisis right now. And the best way I can help you to do that is to become as committed as you can to be the person God wants you to be. If you haven't been the best wife before, I want to be the best wife I have before. And I want to share this with you because you can come out of this win-win. You can come out of this crisis a better person than you went into it. Whether he comes back or not. Now we've all seen that. We've seen people go through break up the marriage and actually end up being better people than they were before. Now that's true. Now the interesting part about that is, that is by far the best way to win that person back anyhow. Not trying to change the circumstance or change the other person, but commit yourself to become what God wanted you to be. It was 90% him anyhow. So, you don't have control over that. What you do have control over is yourself. And that's what you commit yourself to. Because it's a win-win thing. Oh, my job is hopeless. Solution? Change jobs, right? My marriage is hopeless. Solution? Change marriage. Is it working, people? First marriage is failing 50%. Second marriage is 80%. You not only have the same problems going to the next marriage, you got it compounded by the previous problems of the first one. You know what God's plan is? Hang in there and grow up. Isn't that great? You spend a lot of money to come here and say that. Hang in there and grow up. But that's it. That's God's plan. Because you're going to come out of this thing with proven character and proven character of hope. You know what's fascinating about that passage? Do you know what those trials and tribulations allowed by God are designed to do? Reveal wrong goals. That's what they do. in order to make possible God's real goal for your life, which is to conform back into his image and to become like Christ. Proven character. This is not character that sounds good because I never had any trials. This is those who have gone through God's fiery ordeal in order to be purified in that refiner's fire to become the kind of person God wants me to be. Is there an easier way? Yeah, I've been looking for it. But I got to go back and honestly say some of the testing times in my life and trials are what have brought me to this point in my life. You don't grow in a mountain house, boy, you grow down in those old valleys. That's when you grow. So we can count it all joy when we encounter various trials because we know that through this thing, and here's our hope, see, I walk through that valley of shadow of death, I don't just stop in there, but I walk through that trial and that tribulation and I come out of this thing with proven character. That's the vision that you and I have to have. This too shall pass. It'll pass. But I've got to walk by faith here. I'm convinced by God that says I can put a five in every one of those. Where do you get your self-worth from? It isn't from spiritual gifts. It isn't from intelligence, it isn't in talents, it isn't in the natural indulgence of this physical world. It's knowing who we are in Christ, number one. And number two, it's growth in character. Now here's my point. Do you think a person today, who deep down inside knew that he was the child of God, knew that? And he committed himself to God's goal in his life to become like Christ, where his life was filled with love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and faithfulness, and gentleness, and self-control. Do you think he'll feel bad about himself? You know what's so beautiful about that? God's great equalizer. Every person here has exactly the same opportunity to experience the fruit of the Spirit as another person does. It has nothing to do with talents or intelligence. Nothing. Nothing. In fact, my observation in life is those who have more of natural life indulgences usually end up struggling most with character. Because they accept easily the gifts of the world and don't even hardly look then for the gift of God's grace in their life. Well, let me put it this way. Who would you rather be, a child of God or anything else? Not only that, what would you exchange for love, joy, peace, patience and kindness? A nice house? How about a degree? a motorboat, a car, some status in the community. Would you exchange that for love, for joy, for peace, for patience? You see, let me close. If, you see, I've got a wrong goal, we're going to feel depression. But if our goal is love, look at the fruit of the spirit, what's the first one? Joy. Instead of anxiety, next one is what? Peace. Instead of anger, what's the next fruit of the Spirit? Long suffering, a long time to become angry, patience. That's God's plan, that's the goal of our instruction, love. Is it a possible goal? Absolutely. How do you get there? You abide in Christ. You know who He is. What we're going to do when we come back now is take a look at those eight issues, those self-worth appraisals, and just take a subtle look at what we believe right now will make us happy and healthy and successful. And see if God has a way that's not dependent upon circumstances or people that legitimately, everybody you know of, could have a true sense of self worth today. So let's take about a 15 minute break and we'll come back.