A Shaken Mind 1-18 1996 Wed

 1-18 1996 Wed

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

2 Thessalonians chapter 2. What's uh I was just thinking as I was praying back there. Uh when you shake hands, I go back and pray. Um today's date is what? January 28th. January 28th. Uh this might won't mean a whole lot to to you, but uh right around uh January 21st, 24th, right in that area of 1984 was when I became interim pastor here at the church. And so uh I know pastoring, I became officially the pastor in March, but for me, it wasn't when they voted me in that I started pastoring. It was the first night I stood up, the first morning I stood up and started preaching. You don't wait on the vote to become a pastor, you start pastoring if that's your job, even as an interim. And uh here are here we are, I'm getting ready to start the 13th year. And I was thinking, you know, um I I have tried, I want you to know this, I have tried not to duplicate messages. Only once or twice in those 13 years have I come out with a purposely planned, duplicated message to preach something maybe some people who'd been here or not been here five or six years ago hadn't heard. Uh, you may say, well, it sounds kind of the same sometimes, but it's never planned that way. And you know what? You say, well, uh, you know, you ought to study harder. You know, in 13 years, you're gonna repeat yourself once in a while. Try it sometime. Amen? Uh, I've never really talked about the subject matter at hand tonight, though, I don't think. Probably in some way, shape, or form, but never, never quite this way. So I hope you'll listen tonight. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Look at verse 1. Verse 1. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon. What's the next three words? Shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that day of Christ is at hand. Tonight I want to talk to you about when a mind shakes. I don't know if you've ever had a shaken mind before, and maybe it was uh because of a a spirit or someone's spirit, uh, maybe it was because a word said to you, or some words said to you, or maybe it was because of a letter you received. But may I say this? Uh a mind that is shaken, and I don't think I need to describe what a shaken mind is, do I? Have you ever had one? Has your mind ever shook because of trouble? Because something was said to you, or something you heard, or something you read? Uh uh a shaken mind can be confused. Uh, a shaken mind, if you would, can begin to doubt. A shaken mind can be fearful, uh, a shaken mind can be unstable. A shaken mind can be dangerous. I want to show you a couple of illustrations of what I'm talking about, this idea of a shaken mind. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 30. Would you turn there? 1 Samuel chapter 30. And in 1 Samuel chapter 30, you've read this before, but maybe not with the idea about a mind that's shaking. A mind that's shaking can be a very, very dangerous thing. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 30, brethren. And notice, uh, read with me just a little bit. This is when David goes down and he has his uh band of misfits with him, a bunch of mercenaries. And it came to pass, verse 1, when David and his men were come to Ziglag on the third day, they go down and they have just been out and they smite, they, they, they beat the Amalekites, or uh, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziglag and smitten Ziglag and burned it with fire. So they come back, and the city from which they come out of, it's all burnt, verse two. And had taken the women captives that were therein. They slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire. How'd you like to go home tonight, and the place where you live is burned? Wouldn't that shake your mind? You know, sometimes when we have a tragedy happen, it shakes our mind. They come back into the city, and the men, when they come back in, they they see the cities all burned, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. They just cried it all out. Why? Their minds were shaken. And David had his two wives taken also, if you would. And look at verse 6. And David was what? Say it. Greatly distressed. You ever been greatly distressed before? And if you haven't, it's coming. If you've never been greatly distressed before, brother, sooner or later your mind's going to shake because of something that happens to you. It'll just hit you like a ton of bricks, it'll shock you, maybe, and it'll shake your mind. But look what he was, he is greatly distressed. Dressed why? For the people spake of stoning him. Not only did he lose his family, but those men were turning on him. Let me just give you a little statement that when I heard it, it made sense to me. Why'd they turn on him? Simple statement. Because hurting people hurt people. These men, they came back and all they saw was the city in flames. And when they looked, they saw that their wives and their children. And don't you think that they felt hurt because those families weren't back there? And by the way, brother, I say it again, hurting people do hurt people. A shaken mind is something that's very dangerous. And look what he says. For the people spake of stoning him, verse 6, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David, look what he did. Encouraged himself and the Lord his God. One of the greatest things we can do, brother, when our mind begins to shake is go back to God and learn how to get encouragement from God. This world doesn't have that opportunity to go to God and get that mind that's shaken. What do they do? They take their shaken mind down to the bar. They take their shaken mind to the drug den. They take their shaken mind to psychologist. They take their shaken mind and try to escape through TV. Are you with me? A Christian doesn't need to resort to those tactics. A Christian can go to God with his or her shaken mind and say, I need some encouragement tonight. I need you to stabilize my mind. We've got somebody that we can go to. If you would, so David encouraged himself in the Lord. Look, if you would at 2 Kings chapter 6, please. 2 Kings chapter 6. I wonder tonight if your mind's shaken. 2 Kings chapter 6. I'll guarantee you, as a church, as a family, as an individual, I'll guarantee you this year something's coming down the trail that's going to shake you. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And I'm not trying to be sometimes a doomsday prophet, but brethren, we need to live in reality. And reality says that we've got trials coming, we've got trouble coming, we've got something's going to happen to us, but also it tells me that we've got a God that we can go to. Look at 2 Kings chapter 6. In 2 Kings chapter 6, and you know this story, they're down Elisha's at Dothan or Dothan. Dothan, I'll call it. And they rise up early in the morning. Verse 15. And when the servant of the man of God, who's that? You know who the servant of Elisha was? I'll let you look it up for homework. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city, both with horses and with chariot. How would you like to wake up and look out, and all around the city are horses and chariot brethren? You know a horseback in that time and a chariot back in that time? Just call it a tank. That equates to where we're at today. How'd you like to wake up and you are surrounded by tanks? You say, eh, it's just horses and chariots. But back then those were strong, strong, if you would, type of weapons. And his master said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? You know what was going on here? The man of God's servant had a shaken mind. He was troubled. Why? He was surrounded and he didn't, he couldn't find a way out. You ever had a problem, if you would, brethren, that comes in on you, and this problem seems to surround you, and there's just no way out of it if you would. And you feel hopeless and helpless. And it's beyond you to know what to do. You ever been there? If you haven't yet, it's coming. That's why we say, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen. At least we got hope to get out of this world one day. But my point of it is here, every once in a while, brethren, God allows some things in our life. And it surrounds us. And we don't know what to do. You don't know how many times as a pastor over these 13 years I've been surrounded. I don't get up here and try to complain about it or anything like that, but I don't mind saying that there's times I feel overwhelmed with what's coming down the pike. How about admitting reality? I don't think it's a weakness to say every once in a while I feel surrounded and I feel hopeless and helpless. Hey, you walk in the realm of faith, and you're gonna get there sooner or later. You're gonna feel like you're out on the edge of the cliff of faith, and you're wondering if you stepped out too far. Verse 16. And he answered, what? Say it. Fear not. The prophet says, the preacher says, Hey, servant, fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. Now, if he would have just left it at that, I don't think that would have helped the servant shaken mind. Hey, uh Elijah says, Hey, don't be afraid of anything. Those that be with us are more than those that be with them, and stopped right there. The guy always said, Well, that still doesn't help me. All I see is those chariots out there, and I can't do anything against it. And Elijah says, Don't worry, everything's going to be fine. But look at verse 17. And Elisha what? Say. He did what? You know what we ought to do when our mind shakes? Don't run to the alcohol, don't run to the liquor, don't run to the drugs, don't run to the psychologist, run to God in prayer. Run back to your book and find out something God gave you three years ago that you underlined, that you highlighted it. Get back in those daily devotions, and you'll find when you have a shaken mind, He might give you something to settle it down. Didn't we sing a song, Thou Has Kept Us in Perfect Peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee? We talked about this morning about the concept and then and the idea of our heart fixed on God. You know, it's sometimes when we backslide that our mind shakes even more. Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may what? See. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots and fire round about Elijah. Don't you think that stabilized his mind? He said, now wait a minute. If we pray, is God going to give us a vision? Brother, sometimes when we pray, God opens up the mind of our understanding and we see something more clearly, and we go, you know what? I can see what God's doing now. I can see how he's got his plan. I can see his hand now. I can handle this thing. I'm not unstable anymore. Look, if we went a little bit further with me, look at 2 Chronicles chapter 18. You say, preacher, this doesn't apply to me tonight. File it away later. You'll need it. 2 Chronicles chapter 18. You know this story. We won't go into the whole thing. 2 Chronicles chapter 18. This is the story where Jehoshaphat joins up with Ahab. And they make an alliance, and Ahab says, you know, didn't, isn't Ramath and Gilead ours? And they make this alliance, and you know the story and everything. And they call the prophets together, and the prophets tell King Ahab once he wants to hear. And Jehoshaphat says, you know, isn't there somebody else here that we can inquire of? And you know, Ahab says, uh, yeah, there's one more, but I don't ever like what he prophesies. He never tells me what I want to hear. He always speaks evil about me. You remember that? And they bring uh Micaiah up or Micaiah, and he says, uh, he tells them something, and Oh Ahab says, you know, tell me the truth. And so he tells him the truth, and he says, see, he never says anything good about me, but he was telling the truth. He says, hey, there's going to be a battle and there's going to be death among the leadership. Look if you would, but Jehoshaphat goes on anyways. He makes this affinity and he makes this decision. Please look up here, and he lets someone else, ungodly, affect his decisions. And look what happens, verse 28. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went into Ramoth Gilead. The king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and will go to battle. And he put thou, and but put thou on thy robes. He's listened to the wrong counsel. So the king of Israel disguised himself and they went to battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of the chariots that were with him, saying, Fight ye not with small or great, save only with the king of Israel. He's speaking about Ahab. The problem was now Jehoshaphat had dressed up to look like Ahab. And by the way, you've got to understand, all the kings had certain colors that they wore. And those soldiers knew who they were looking for. By the way that they were dressed, verse 31. And it came to pass when the captains of the chariot saw Jehoshaphat. They said, It is the king of Israel. They said it's Ahab. Therefore they compassed about him to fight. They surrounded him. But Jehoshaphat, what'd he do? Look at me, what'd he do? He cried out, I'll guarantee you his mind was unstable. I'll guarantee you his mind was shaken. I'll guarantee you he had some problems that day. And the reason was he got messed up with the wrong crowd. We tell our children, don't get messed up with the wrong crowd. But we at adults better make sure that we get the right counsel and that we don't get messed up with the wrong crowd. May I say to you, the counsel that goes on the TV is not godly counsel. And most of the counsel on the radio is not godly counsel. I mean that. If you're getting your advice from the world, sooner or later you're going to get in trouble. You may have a godly boss or a godly employer, and maybe they give you some godly counsel. But if you have an employer that's worldly, I wouldn't go to him or her for counsel. Why? Sooner or later you make the wrong decision and you'll find yourself surrounded by that decision. But look what happened. Jehoshaphat cried out. And the Lord did what? Helped him. And God moved them to depart from him. You know, I know this. Sometimes there's decisions made as a young adult, maybe you get you weren't saved and you made some decisions. And they were decisions because you ran with the wrong crowd. And it cost you something. It costs you a bunch of hurt. May I say something until you listen to me? If before you were saved, or maybe you were saved and you backslid, and I'm not talking about anybody specific, nobody comes to my mind right now, but I know I've counseled people in the years. And maybe uh maybe you listened to the wrong counsel and you made a decision and it was a bad decision. And it really hurts you in some way, shape, or form. Please look up here. Sooner or later you've got to lay that thing down. It'll come back up and shake your mind over and over and over and over again. It'll come back on you and you'll say, Why did I do that? I messed up this way. I should have never listened. And it'll be brought up in Prince of Powers and Powers will bring that thing up again. It'll shake your mind all over again. Sooner or later you've got to lay it down and forgive yourself. So you made a mistake. Maybe you were lost. So you made a mistake. Maybe your backslidon didn't know any better. At least you're in church tonight. God can give you stability tonight. Well, I went to God and asked him for forgiveness. And by the way, he probably already forgave you. When are you going to forgive yourself? Lay it down. Don't let your mind shake now. Let that thing come up and shake and shake and shake and shake that mind. Because that mind can be shaken and cause confusion and doubt, and there can be anger and bitterness that comes up. Please listen to me. Look at 2 Kings 18. 2 Kings 18. You doing okay tonight? 2 Kings chapter 18. In 2 Kings chapter 18. Hezekiah is the king. And the group, there's a group that comes up against him. The king of Assyria in verse 17. 2 Kings chapter 18. By the way, let me say this again, brethren, the Old Testament is written for our ensemble. 2 Kings chapter 18. I appreciate you listening tonight. By the way, if you want to know where we're at, we're halfway through the message already. 2 Kings chapter 18. I ran last week with a guy, and he's a guy that I respect a great deal, and he drove me back and forth in the meeting when he had good fellowship. And at the end of the week I said, hey, I've enjoyed fellowshipping with you and going back and forth in the meeting. And it's a wonderful thing to be around a guy, and we haven't even had any gossip between each other. I just want you to know there's nothing in my heart that I've said or that I've heard you say that has caused me to have to go and repent. It's a wonderful thing to be around those kind of people. We talk positive, we encourage each other. One of the things he's always been an encouragement to me, and I'm going to try to take it to heart maybe a little bit. He's a 35-minute preacher. Now don't get excited about that. He didn't affect me that much. But he preaches for 35 minutes. But I tell you what, he's what's commonly called a hacker. You know what that means? He hacks, meaning he doesn't breathe when he preaches. I think he takes a breath about every 10 minutes, whether he needs one or not. It just rolls out. It just rolls. We'll have him in one day. I think you'll enjoy him, maybe. Anyways, uh, he preaches, and I said, Man, how'd you get it to where you just preached that long? He said, Well, preacher, when I when I was a pastor, I had a little radio broadcast from our little church down there, and he's in the hills, the Appalachian Mountains is where he pastored. And he is Southern. Southern. Southern. And uh he said we had a little radio broadcast, and he said it would go on at the start of our services, and I had 15 minutes on the radio. So he said I had to learn to preach 11-minute messages. I said, 11 minutes? 11 minutes? He said, Yeah, 11 minutes. He said it was good for discipline. I said, brother, if you ever come preach for us, don't ever give us an 11-minute message. If you have to, combine about four or five messages together, amen. But he's a good preacher. And uh the idea, though, was it was good to be with the man, and all week long, nothing we said shook each other's mind as far as gossip. Look, if you would, what happens here though, in 2 Kings chapter 18, the king of Assyria comes up. He sends three guys up, and what they're going to do is they're going to try to shake the minds of Hezekiah's kingdom. And they're starting to tell these leaders that, first of all, how bad Hezekiah is and not to trust in Hezekiah. And then look, if you would, and pick up in verse 26. Verse 26. Then said Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah and Shibna and Joah unto Repsheekah, speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the what? In the Syrian language, for we understand it. And talk not with us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall. Don't you understand what they were trying to do, though? They were trying to affect the people on the wall. They were trying to take away the confidence they had in the leadership. Look at verse 27. But Rabshekah said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall? You know what he's saying? Hey, listen, I didn't come just to talk to the leaders, I came to talk to those men on the wall. And then what you see in verse 28, Rabshekah stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. By the way, we call this propaganda. Verse 29, thus saith the king, let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand. You know what they're trying to do? They're trying to shake their minds. They're trying to shake their confidence in the leadership. And don't you think that in a church that sooner or later there won't be things that come up and people start talking called gossip and sowing discord that will try to shake the minds of those who are trying to follow leadership. I'm not saying it might happen in a church, it will happen in the church. If I know principalities and powers very well, sooner or later they'll start some rumor or start some gossip or start something off, and it'll be spread by men and women, and they'll get to the thing where this shaken mind will want to tell someone else it's a dangerous thing to have a shaken mind and an uncontrolled tongue. God hates discord. Mark it down. Amen. Thus save the king. Verse 29, let not Hezekiah deceive you. They're trying to propagandize, if you would, verse 30. Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying the Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Verse 31, hearken not to Hezekiah. They don't know what's going on, although they know there's besteged, and Hezekiah is saying, God's going to deliver us. They don't know that, though. He's telling them that by faith. God's going to deliver us, and they're saying, don't hearken unto Hezekiah. And it's shaken their minds. Listen, I've seen churches shook up before. I've preached in churches that are shaken. You know where it comes from? Long-tongue gossip. Misinterpretations. And the story grows and gets exaggerated. And nobody thinks to check to find out the truth. Nobody thinks to check to find out the facts. It just grows and grows and grows. And people get on the phone and people are working side by side somewhere and they're talking about it. Be careful. You say, What have you heard, preacher? I haven't heard anything. What have you heard? That's what I'm saying. It was so nice last week to be with a pastor all week long. We ate some lunches together and not hear anything that would be considered gossip. Oh, I can't believe that. We didn't talk about anything negative. We talked about his son and how well his son was doing in the ministry. We talked about our families. We talked about God's goodness and God's grace. We prayed for the meeting. We didn't talk about this guy and that guy and what's going on wrong there and what's going on wrong there. And it was a blessing. Amen? If you're hanging around people that are shaking your mind, maybe you ought to decide who is good for you and who is not good for you. And by the way, brethren, look up here. We've all done it. Guilty? How about you? I've had a shaken mind before and uttered some words with an uncontrolled tongue before, and probably sealed my own doom in some way. Guilty? But it ought to not be a habit. And we ought to get convicted about it, and we ought to get convinced about it, and we ought to see that God hates discord. Hates it. This is a real exciting message on Super Bowl Sunday, isn't it? I've been guilty before. I've sat in those conferences before and going out to eat and set around the table talking about trash that we shouldn't be speaking about. And I'm not talking about, when I say trash, I'm not talking about dirty, filthy stuff. I'm talking about who's doing this and who's doing that and what's going on there. You hear what he believes and all that kind of stuff. Doesn't do your mind any good. You go back to your your room at night and you feel dirty. I'm supposed to preach the next day, and I think, man, I just been a bunch of pastors and I got involved in the conversation too. I think I'll just go back to my room at night. A lot of times I'll tell you where I eat at night after the preaching. Down at what's called the Ghee Dunk Machine. Down in the hotel lobby where they got the little buttons that you push and Eminem peanuts in there. That's why I'm picking up some poundage, amen. But I'm not picking up gossip that way. It's hard to gossip with yourself. I'm trying to help our church tonight. I'm trying to help our families and our marriages tonight. I'm trying to help our ministries tonight. I'm trying to help your friendships tonight. I'm trying to help your children tonight. Because they hear, they listen. Hey, I knew what was going on in our household. We were up on the second floor back in Ohio. There was a two-story house, but there was a register. Do you know what a register is? There's a couple of things that we don't have out here: basements and registers. A register is a little thing that they put in the floor, and it was right above the heater. And you open the register to get the heat up there. Do you know what I'm talking about? Many a times I got dressed on the register because that's where the heat was coming up in the morning. Is that right? Some of you kind of go, I don't understand what you're talking about. I'll tell you what the register was good for too. You couldn't see very far because it had these little bars, but you could put your ear and hear everything. Every once in a while they'd look up and say, You guys go to bed up there. We didn't say a word. We did not acknowledge that we were even there. My brother and I used to listen by the register. What we were listening to, what was going on with dad and mom. They're listening. So he got out there. Are we okay? He says, hearken not into Hezekiah. By the way, you'd be surprised what your teenagers already do know about what's going on between your marriage. They're listening. They know your attitudes. And by the way, please look up here. They're picking up on our attitudes. We've got to be careful. Guilty. Harken not unto Hezekiah. Come on now, smile at me a little bit. I'm trying to help our church. We need to make sure our minds don't shake for the wrong reasons. Who are the gods, they say? And they they go on and they now you got me all confused. No, I'm not confused. Now it said, hearken not unto Hezekiah. Now look at verse 37, please. Verse 37. Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household in Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to who? Hezekiah, they're coming to the leader. How'd they come? With their clothes rent. And told him the words of Rab Shekah. What were the people supposed to do? Verse 36. Verse 36. But the people held their peace. Answering him not a word. Why? For the king's commandment was saying, Answer him not. You know what he said? Don't talk to him. Look at chapter 19 and verse 1. And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes and covered himself with saff cloth, and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, Shebnah. And they go down and they put saff cloth on. Verse 3, and they go down to Isaiah the prophet in verse 2, verse 3, and they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, this day is a day of what? Saith trouble. You know why? Hezekiah's mind is shaken. It's a day of trouble and of rebuke and of blasphemy. For the children are, for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. And he's shaken because he's shaken because he's fearing that the people are listening to this thing and that they're starting to lose confidence a little bit in his leadership ability, maybe. Or they're they're they're they're thinking about it too much. Maybe they're talking about, I'm telling you, Hezekiah is shaken. We have a lot of leaders in our church in various capacities. Everything from ladies who lead the nurseries and ladies who lead our beginners to men who lead many, many different ministries. If you ever get involved with a shaken mind and an uncontrolled tongue and start talking about leadership, it's probably because you've never been a leader. You don't know what it's like to be talked about. And you can't do anything about it. It'll kill a church from within. It's like the Trojan horse from within. It'll grieve the spirit of God. It'll grieve the spirit of God in your house. It'll grieve the spirit of God in your personal life. Why? Because he doesn't like discord. Or aren't we allowed to address problems? Sure. Address problems to the individual involved with that problem. If you need to discuss it with someone to get some counsel, do it to get some counsel, but not to spread the word. Amen? I mean, we just come off of a big day and a big push, and we came out of Christmas and we're in January. Don't you think right now, before we ever get to the spring, Prince of Powers and Powers would love to stir us up and get us at each other for some reason? Shake our minds. Hurting people. Hurt people. They go to Isaiah. And Isaiah says, Go tell your master, be not afraid. Then they send a letter of Sheki. He outlines what he's going to do. And look at verse 14, what Hezekiah does. And Hezekiah received the letter at the hand of the messengers and read it. And look what he does. And Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord. And look what he does. He spread it, that letter, before the Lord. And what did he do? And he prayed. He spread that letter out there that was saying what was going to happen and everything. And he got before his God and he prayed. I'll guarantee you, God stabilized his mind. Because it wasn't too long later that God's speaking to him and telling him, Don't worry. Your kingdom's going to go out and take root downward and bear fruit upward. Where's that at in verse 30? It gave him some confidence again. I'm telling you, brethren, we need the Lord. We need to walk with the Lord. A backslidden person's mind automatically shakes. I'm not saying you have to do anything. A backslidden person's mind, the farther back they get, the more it shakes. And the more they try to do something about it in a worldly way, the more it shakes. There's only one thing to do when we get backslidden, repent, and get back to God. A guilty person's mind shakes. Sin will shake our mind. Sin will trouble us. And when that sin brings guilt, you know what it doesn't? It shakes our mind up because we know something's not right up there. We know the spirit left us against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. And we know our conscience is telling we're off track and we're not right with God. But if we're not careful, after we've heard that so many times from the Holy Spirit gently wooing us, we'll begin to sear our conscience from his words in our minds. That doesn't help the problem, it compounds it. Are we okay? Did I say something wrong? Are we on track tonight? I mean, uh, you're kind of looking at me like, well, this doesn't apply to me. I I think I'm hitting it. You've been at it for a while and you you fought the battle spiritually for a while. Please look up here. Sometimes fatigue sets in. Just spiritual fatigue. And that can shake them off. You're fighting a health problem, that can shake them up. You just get tired out. Look at 1 Samuel 27. One of the last verses we'll turn to. 1 Samuel 27. Thank you for turning there. 1 Samuel 27. No doubt fear. Apprehensions. Let me show you one other one. Please don't miss this. 1 Samuel 27. Verse 1. Now let's go to verse 25 of chapter 26. Chapter 26, verse 25. Then Saul said to David, Blessed be thou, my son David. Thou shalt do both great things, and also shall still prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place. It was when David had an opportunity to kill him. Verse chapter 27, verse 1. And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day. By the hand of who? Saul. That wasn't true. But his mind was shaken. Please look up here. And his imagination started running. A shaken mind. Imaginations start to come up. Fears and apprehensions. And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than I should speedily escape. You know what he thinks about? Running. There was nothing to run from, really. It was his imagination. Sometimes our mind shakes. Please look up here. And brethren, if there weren't Prince of Powers and powers and opposition, I think this life would be a lot better. But there is. There's opposing forces, if you would, down here. Opposing spirits that want to throw us off track. And brethren, if you don't believe that, you just don't know that there's a battle going on. You need to realize there's a spiritual battle going on. And what it's trying to do and what they're trying to do is neutralize us. Neutralize our effectiveness in our marriage and neutralize our effectiveness in our families and neutralize our effectiveness in our ministries and in this church. They don't want more people to come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. They don't want God glorified anymore. They don't want those bus children reached. They don't want those Spanish people reached. They don't want those deaf people reached. They don't want those prisons reached with the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't want those convalescent center ministries and the convalescent center homes reached. They don't want the gospel going on down the streets of San Diego. They don't want those teens going out door knocking and passing out tracts. They don't want us going out on Thursday night. They don't want us to be strong in the Lord and be stayed in our minds so we go on. They'd rather see us crack and fall apart and turn on each other. That way we'd stop doing the work of the Lord. Are you listening to me? I believe we're in a battle. Do everything they can to shake trust. Sometimes this concept of the imaginations of our minds come up and we we we misperceive something and we have a misperception about what someone said, and then we go around and please look up here, and you've done it before, and I've done it before. We misperceive someone's body language or what they said. Please look up here, and then in our idle times, our mind dwells on it. And magnifies it. And it begins to shake our mind and this imagination. And we got this thing in our mind this person meant that, or this person said that, or this situation is really going in this direction, and we we get that idle time and we dwell on it and we and we think about it and it begins to bother us and our mind begins to shake. And then, if we're not careful, rather than running back to God and getting our minds stable again, we we let it go and we begin to dwell on it more and more. And rather than bringing our thoughts back into captivity to the obedience of Christ, we let it go more and more and more, and then we talk about it to someone, and they add fuel to the fire, and that thing begins burning more and more, and before long, now the gossip starts or the rumors start, and it comes from our imaginations, and now someone else, his mind's shaken, or her mind's shaken because of our shaken mind, and they've got a perception according to our imagination, and it's a mess. And people get hurt. We all have to be careful. A shaking mind can doubt. Begin to doubt the faith. I can tell you when our mind begins to shake at times sometimes, brother. It's when we lay this Bible aside and we're not in it on a daily basis like we should be. Please look up here. It's when we think we've got it all. And we know most of it already. That it's not being stirred up in our minds, and the the knowledge of God is not increasing because we think, man, I've been a Christian for a while, and so I miss a few days. What's the big deal? Or so I miss some message. What's the big deal? And our minds not stayed on Him. And it starts to wonder. And we hear a message like this, and ah, I've heard it all before, and our hearts are a little cold and our conscience is seared, and we just can't wait to get out of here. I'm tired of hearing about it. Brother, we need correction once in a while. We need to look at ourselves once in a while. I said we. I didn't say you, I said we. Hey, uh, every message is not going to be just flowers and and and lace and and uh and glory and and incense burning. Every once in a while we need to be rebuked. Correct it a bit. Get our tongue and our mind back under control. Trouble's coming. If our minds aren't strong, when that trouble comes, they'll shake even more. This church has been through some trouble. We've had our challenges. It's not always easy to cross over the next big step of faith. Some of y'all have been around here for a while. You know there's been times. It's been a little difficult. You'll have that in your family. But, brethren, if our minds stayed on him, hey, please look up here. I am convinced that the more we know the Holy Spirit as a person, and the more he's real to us as a person, not as some force somewhere or some, you know, uh out in the pie in the sky, by and by that he's living with us, that God's living with us, and we get to know his perceptions, and we get to know his leanings, and we get to know when he's saying no, don't do that. And get it to know when he's saying yes, that's okay, do that. And when he puts us in check, the more we get to know the Holy Spirit, the more stable our minds will be. I need to leave you with a thought. Now that I've presented something that's somewhat negative, I guess. I leave you with this thought. I don't believe our Lord Jesus' mind while he walked the face of this earth was ever shaken. At the age of twelve, when he got before the doctors and the lawyers, his mind wasn't shaken. When he went in the wilderness and fasted 40 nights and out came, and the devil himself started to attack him and tempt him and accuse him, his mind, the Lord Jesus Christ, his mind was not shaken. When the Pharisees and the Sadducees began to ask him questions to trap him and to snare him, his mind wasn't shaken. He says, Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. That tells me that I can go to my Lord and I can go to my Savior, and because he lived this life and his mind wasn't shaken, then I have that. In the garden, when they came for him, his mind wasn't shaken. When they lied about him, we made up some false acquisitions. It'll happen much sooner or later. His mind wasn't shaken. Look at them. His mind wasn't shaken. Shake you from your foundational position for the Lord Jesus Christ. This thing was gonna see you through. Even if it's a misperception type of lie. It's like you never heard nothing. But I'll guarantee over the years there's been lies about me. Mark it down. What'd you do? Attack them? Never. Not that I know of. Maybe in my younger industry somewhere, but not in the last five, seven years. Because God says he'll recompense trouble to those that trouble me. But if I take it in my own hand, God may not deal with it, and I'll mess it up. I'd rather just look the other way. Deal with it if we have to. But I'd rather not have to deal with it never let God deal with it. Amen. Oh Pontius Pilate said I can just see this. There's Jesus down there. And I mean, he's just in the middle of the middle gun of a rag that he was wearing the front of his garments, if you would, and then he was looking down at his pilot looking like he had no power down, and we can almost strip down if you would of any type of man who had everything and powered down and said, Don't you know how the power to crucify them on the wheel? And his mind wasn't shaken at all. They came to him and they beat him and they said prophesy. Who is it that's buffeting you? His mind wasn't shaken. It must made a fool out of him. But he wasn't a fool in heaven. I'm telling you, we got an example here. And everything that we face, and everything that we go through, and everything, and everything happened to him. Outside of our own sin. He was tempted in all points like we are. I don't think it shook his mind. You say, Well, what about in the garden when he prayed? He said, if it be possible, it wasn't mankind that was shaking his mind. He knew what he was facing. And brethren, at death. Oh man. This is what's so great about being a Christian. At death, our mind doesn't have to shake. Worst thing we've got to face is to go through death. It's the graduation. That's the worst thing we gotta face. Suffering. Death. We've got somebody that's gone through it and come up on the other side. And through faith in him and belief in him and trusting him and obedience to the Spirit and obedience to this book, we don't have to walk around with a shaken mind, shaking the minds of others. You men in here tonight, I call upon you as the pastor of this church to be strong and quit yourself like men. And not be a part of things that come up that might shake the ministry in the church. If it's something concerning me and I've done something wrong, you come to me directly and let's work it out. I'm not a little boy. I'm not a novice leader of a couple years. I've had people come to me before. I'll take your correction. I'll apply it to my life. Amen. If it's something concerned my family, come to me. We'll handle it. I won't be I won't I won't be unkind to you. I think I can take it. My family doesn't all walk on water. If it's something concerning my wife, come to me. I'll ask somebody else to try and talk to her. I'm just kidding. Her mom can do it. No, I'm just kidding. I'm serious about that. We ought to not run scared of each other. We're not out here to we're not down here to destroy each other or hinder each other. We're down here to work as a team. We're down here to edify each other, to comfort one another, to encourage one another. I've been guilty before. Probably so some of you. But we ought to learn from our mistakes and grow up a bit. We okay tonight? Nothing worse than being in a church that doesn't trust each other. I mean that. I've been in churches. I've gone there on a Monday night to preach. And I'd look out and I said, Something's wrong here. Something is wrong. And I'd preach a message that I didn't even know what was going on. And I'd just go into that thing, and I mean the altar would flood, and there'd be balling and squalling, and I didn't even know what I hit upon. And later the pastor would come and said, You didn't know, did you? I said, didn't know what? He said, Man, oh man, I'm glad God sent you here. I said, Why? No, better yet, I don't want to know why. He said, Preacher, you helped us tonight. I couldn't preach what you preached and get away with it. I'm not trying to lift myself up, but the Holy Spirit knows. A couple days later, by the time we were done, I get a phone call a week later and say, it sweetened the spirit of our church. Just stuff going on. It'll happen. You can't work as close as we do together and spend as much time as we do together working in the ministries without there being some falling outs from time to time. It is going to happen. If you think I'm asking you to be perfect, I'm not that foolish. But when it happens and we got a problem and our mind shakes, better than letting that thing get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and grow and grow and grow and grow and get bitter and let that root of bitterness spread, go to that individual, go to that person, and try to get it resolved. And if somebody comes to you, let them come to you. Man, we can grow thereby. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Some of the most faithful men of this church are men that have come to me through the years and said, Preacher, I don't know if we're doing this right, or I don't know if I agree with this. I just want to express it. Now stand in line. But when you come, come with the right spirit and right heart. And you've heard me say that before. I'm not above correction. You say, well, what about the ladies? I'll just say this. Help us, ladies. That's all I need to say. Just help us, ladies. Let this mind be in you, brethren, that was in Christ Jesus. Thou shalt keep them in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee now. Here we are. Finished. Please look up here. I'm going to give an altar call tonight. And there are going to be some people saying, I'm not going down there. No way. Absolutely not. I don't care what he says, I am not coming to an altar tonight. I'm not going to do it. People will think that I'm guilty of that and I don't want no way, no, absolutely not. Get a divorce from what people think. And be obedient to God. When we have an altar call, brethren, please look up here. It's not for a show in the flesh. I don't look to see who's coming. In fact, very, very often, I try not to look at an altar call from the standpoint of checking it out. I don't do that. That's between you and God. And you know what? I always think about this when someone comes. Maybe they're praying for someone else. Maybe they got somebody else in their heart and they're praying for them. Last week there was a message preached. I hit the altar. Man, it was a good one. I needed it. We as leaders cannot be above hitting the altar. And if it's been a while, maybe tonight it'd be a good night to pray for you. And you're if you're an individual and that you are your family, pray for your family if that's just you. If you have an extended family, pray for them. I know we're not going to go out of here shouting, and you feel like maybe I've scolded you a little bit. But brethren, please look up here. All I've tried to do is be obedient to Christ tonight. We ought to be able to take the rebuke here. Why? Because it'll take that shaken mind and it'll stabilize it. And all of a sudden, the peace of God that passes all understanding will return again. And that prayer life will come back again. And that sweet fellowship with God will come back again. And that song will come back again. And all of a sudden, glory be to God, you'll enjoy being around other Christians again. And you look forward to coming to church again. And you wake up in the morning and say, I need my Bible again this morning. I gotta get back to it. I've been running from it because my mind's been shaken and I didn't want to face it. Now it's time for me to get back to it again. Tonight. There are Christians who no longer don the doors of churches. They no longer go to church. They've got a reason. They were hurt. And chances are they were hurt. The problem is tonight they're bitter. Please look up here. And the years are passing them by. And the opportunities to serve are passing them by. And there's no way to recover that last year that they missed. And there's no way to recover that last month that they missed. And there's no way to recover those last five years that they missed. It's gone. They can't recover it. And there's no way to recover that ten years. And they can blame it on as many people as they want. But when they get to the judgment seat of Christ, there'll just be missed opportunities. Because they've got a way to come and get back right again with God. You ought to thank be to God if you're in church tonight, which you are, and you're serving. You don't know the hundreds and hundreds of people in our community that are bitter. Against who? God? Well, against Christianity. And you know what? It's hard to be right with God if you're bitter against Christians. It's real hard to be right with the Father if you got something against a bunch of his sons. It's real hard to be right with the Father if you got something against a bunch of his daughters. Let's not let that happen to us. Thou shalt keep us in perfect peace who mine stayed upon thee. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. When our mind shakes, brethren, let's go back to the one who can stabilize it again. Learn from it. Grow. And be an encouragement one to the other. Now I need to make this statement and I'm finished. This message has been developing for a while now in my heart. I told my wife last night. I went to bed, and sometimes I do this when I don't know about you and how your time clock works in metabolism, but every once in a while, my time clock says at about eight o'clock at night, about every two weeks, really. About eight o'clock at night on a Friday night or a Saturday night, it's time to crawl into bed. I'm tired. And last night I had on what time I crawled into bed, I probably eight thirty, nine o'clock. About eleven thirty or twelve o'clock, I woke up and I thought it was five o'clock in the morning. Did you ever have your mind just go boing? And it just starts reeling. So about 12.15, I'm laying there and I'm talking with Patty a little bit, and she's trying to go to sleep, and I'm just and she listened. In between sleeping, waking up. But I told her last night, I said, you know, Patty, I think God's given me one of those nights where my mind's not real stable. So I can preach this better tomorrow night. I had one of those restless nights last night. Thinking about different things and praying for different people and different things in the church. I'd tell you by about 3.30 this morning, my mind was fixed on him. And I said, Okay, Lord, I I don't know, you may want to keep it going. I mean, I I think I got the idea now about this thing about the stable mind. I think I know which message to preach tomorrow night. So if I could get a couple hours of sleep, I'd really appreciate it. You do give your beloved sleep, and I hope I'm still of the beloved. Next thing I woke up, it was 7:15. A little bit late for me to get up, but I got the rest I needed. But I can preach this with a current example tonight. I hope you'll take it that way. Let's all stand. We have a baptism tonight. Don't leave. It's a quarter till eight. The game's over, it doesn't matter. Somebody won, somebody lost. Now, brethren, please look up here. We're gonna have an old-fashioned altar call. If you need to come, don't be concerned about the person next to you as far as what they think. Maybe it's for yourself, maybe it's for someone you know. But brethren, please don't get to the place where you sear your conscience from the preaching of the word of God to where you just say, I'm not going, I'm not gonna do anything about that. I don't even want to hear it. Please be careful. Please. There's been other people that felt the same way. They didn't do anything about it. And they went back to the bottle. Christians. And they went back to their drugs. Christians. And they went back to their bitterness. Christians. Please. Let God work with you if he wants to tonight. He's a wonderful, loving God. Maybe my presentation wasn't as good as it could have been, but I guarantee you his presentation will be. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed. If you'd like to use an old-fashioned altar tonight, even if you're up in the balcony, you need to come down and come a long way. Let's do this for our church and our homes and our family. If you'd like to come, you come. And if you need to move on up on the platform, come. Doesn't matter whether you're a leader, a follower, a man, a woman, a teenager, a young boy, a young girl. Doesn't matter. If your mind's shaking tonight, trouble. I'm giving you examples. Just maybe take a little time and say, Lord, stay my mind. Stay my mind.