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choice and health presented by don mackintosh recorded february 25, 2022
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in this show, you'll hear choice and health recorded february 25, 2022
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in this episode you will hear the presentation of choice and health done by don mackintosh recorded february 25, 2022use my link of
https://zen.ai/harmonicaplayer12
to get 12% off when you purchase a blendjet 2
the discount automatically gets applied at checkout
use my link of
https://zen.ai/harmonicaplayerpod
to get 30% off a zencaster pro account :)
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Transcript
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00:02:44
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Greetings, ladies and gentlemen.
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00:03:59
Speaker
Gaining demos and other interests On Joseph Weekland's Harmonica Player Podcast A presentation by Don McIntosh called Choice and Health, so enjoy, and thank you for listening.
Spiritual Reflections and Hymns
00:04:36
Speaker
Let's go ahead and turn in our hymnals to page 500. Take time to be holy.
00:04:52
Speaker
Take time to be holy. Speak oft with thy Lord. Abide in him always and feed on his word. Make friends of God's children. Help those who are weak.
00:05:20
Speaker
Forget it in nothing. Here's blessing to seek. Take time to be holy. The world rushes on. Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone.
00:05:48
Speaker
By looking to Jesus like him thou shalt be.
00:05:58
Speaker
thy friends in thy conduct, his likeness shall see. Take time to be holy, let him be thy guide, and run down before him.
00:06:21
Speaker
whatever be died. Enjoy your in sorrow, shall follow thy Lord. And looking to take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul.
00:06:45
Speaker
Each lot and each motive beneath his enthrall. Thus led by his spirit to fountains of love. Thou soon shall be flitted for service above.
00:07:14
Speaker
Amen. Don't we all want to be fitted for service above? Let's go ahead and turn to 516. And we'll just sing the first and last verses.
00:07:41
Speaker
All the way my Savior leads me What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy Who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace define his comfort Hereby faith in him to dwell
00:08:06
Speaker
For I know what air befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what air befalls me, Jesus doeth all things well. Last verse.
00:08:26
Speaker
All the way my Savior leads me O the fullness of his love Perfect rest to me is promised In my Father's house above When I wait to life immortal Wing my fight to rounds of day
00:08:52
Speaker
Is my song through endless ages? Jesus, let me hold the way. Let me hold the way. Thank you, Pam and Frank, and good morning. A warm welcome to everyone. Isn't it a beautiful day outside? Take advantage of it here in Michigan.
00:09:21
Speaker
You know what's coming, but God
Health Discussion and Introduction of Pastor Don McIntosh
00:09:24
Speaker
has blessed us. Hey, who have been to all of the series on Thursday and Friday so far? How many here? So a good number of hands up there. So what I'm thinking about is yesterday talked about vitamin D. This is a perfect vitamin D day. So get outdoors, enjoy the fresh air and the sunshine because it brings health to us. So today,
00:09:46
Speaker
We have our speaker, Pastor Don McIntosh, is going to be speaking on choice and health.
00:09:55
Speaker
We're looking forward to the presentation. We have been blessed. The past four sessions that have been presented here, the Holy Spirit has been poured out in a mighty way. God is working with these men and the work that he has them to do. Praise the Lord that they're here this weekend with us. I know it's a special weekend for them, seeing some old friends that pop in from now, from time to time.
00:10:18
Speaker
I saw your brother Don back there probably hadn't seen someone in many years talking with them. So praise the Lord that we can come together like I'm looking forward to that family reunion someday when we're all together. So brother, we appreciate your ministry. If we can have you come up, this is Pastor.
00:10:35
Speaker
Don McIntosh, and this is his third presentation. So if you didn't get the chance to see the two that he presented the other day, you can go on live to the Holley SDA live stream website and view some of these presentations. So thank you, brother. God bless you. Good morning, everybody.
00:10:55
Speaker
If you're looking for a seat, there's plenty up front here. Well, it's good to be back here in Holly. As I mentioned earlier, my grandfather was a pastor of the Holly Church in the 50s. And someone just told me I look like my grandfather. Thank you, Rich. I appreciate that very much. He actually said I look like my dad, which also is a great compliment to my father.
00:11:25
Speaker
And I was here during the academy during the time of Eric Beckleweese, Dwayne Barnett, Jack Stiles, and we wore out three principles together. They couldn't handle it, so they just kept switching the principles.
Pastor Don's Journey and Spiritual Insights
00:11:43
Speaker
It was a great time here at Adelphian, and I was able to walk around the campus a little bit the other day. And I tried to find an old picture of myself when I was in academy. I only found one. So this is what I look like. This is why Rich says I look more like my dad now. And there's my young son. I don't look like him at all. He's much better looking than I was.
00:12:08
Speaker
And this, thanks to Todd Gardner, who graduated in 1985, he sent me, he emailed these pictures to me today, and you can see some of the people that are, this thing would work, yeah. This is Sue Sleiman.
00:12:26
Speaker
And she's right here, looks exactly the same. And Kato, Lauren Kato is supposed to come today. And then I see Sandy Felbush, but I don't know if she's going to come or not, I doubt it.
00:12:41
Speaker
and some others there. Then this is my class, class of 81. And so thanks to Todd for showing me these pictures. These were the coolest people in the school I thought at that time. I thought, man, these are cool people. These are the Jardines. How many of you ever thought the Jardines were like cool? These were like the five foolish virgins at that time.
00:13:10
Speaker
They were cool. Max. And I looked up to these guys and many others. They knew how to play sports. I never knew how to play sports. I remember going to the gym, EP Weaver gym, and someone gave me a pair of cleats.
00:13:23
Speaker
You know what cleats are, right? For when you're playing football. I wore them in to play basketball. That's how out of clueless I was. So I walked in clickety clack, clack, and you could have seen, I never was chosen really first ever after that for anything when it came to athletics, but I did get better.
00:13:44
Speaker
And really had a blessed time going to Adelphian, and then all of these were the institutions that I frequented growing up.
00:14:02
Speaker
This unfortunately is a picture of me in the middle. And if you could see that, that's green hair. And then working as a nurse when I knew Sheila way back, Sartre, that's back in the day when I lived in St. Joseph. And you would think that I just really was a great card-carrying Seventh-day Adventist, but I really,
00:14:25
Speaker
I really started to reject God and certainly the Adventist Church while I was going to Adelphian. I mean, it's sad to say, but I really did. And my dad gave me this Bible.
00:14:44
Speaker
When I graduated from college, this would be five years after I graduated here, lots of love to a wonderful son. But I was not a wonderful son, okay? But the Bible said that. It's in the Bible. But I was not a wonderful son. And I got so angry when my dad gave me this Bible, I threw the Bible down the road. I was out in the parking lot and I remember throwing the Bible. My mother started crying.
00:15:14
Speaker
And my dad was, of course, angry. But I was so angry. And, you know, during those years, I said, I hate the Adventist church and I hate Adventist education and I'll never, ever send anyone to Adventist education. I think the schools should all be torn down. I actually rejoiced when Adelphian was sold. I thought, that's good.
00:15:40
Speaker
That's how far gone I was in my mind, although maybe you couldn't tell it. So I want to show you a Psalm today that I show people all the time now, because we're talking about hope in the Old Testament. In our Sabbath school lesson, my wife told me what it was about on the way over here. So I didn't read it this week, to be honest.
00:16:06
Speaker
I'm pretty familiar with the Old Testament. So I wanna take a psalm from the Old Testament that's gonna demonstrate something to you and put it along a little bit with my testimony if that's okay. Is that all right with you?
00:16:17
Speaker
So it might make it come alive a little bit. And this is Psalm 77. Psalm 77, if you want to look in your Bibles at that, shows the steps down to depression and it shows the steps to recovery. And I guess you might say that's my life. Depression, recovery. The steps down to depression and the steps up out. Let's read it together. I cried out. Read it with me. You can't out loud if you want.
00:16:44
Speaker
I cried out to God with my voice, to God with my voice, and He gave ear to me. And the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out."
00:16:54
Speaker
In the night without ceasing, my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed." You'll notice here the I, I, I focus. I, I, I, me, me, I, I. I think that's like a recipe just to begin with for depression if you're focusing on yourself. And this is what the Psalm is saying.
00:17:18
Speaker
Perhaps we should pray here again before we read the scriptures. Father in heaven, bless us today as we're reading these words. You know our journeys in life. You know my journey has not been perfect even today, but thank you that yours has been perfect. And you put that in place of ours if we ask you. So bless us as we read today in Christ's name, amen. So I cried out.
00:17:45
Speaker
And the day of my trouble, I saw it. My hand was stretched out. My soul refused to be comforted. How many of you have ever gotten a situation where you maybe had a good life or something, and then something went wrong, and then you refused to be comforted? How many of you have ever made that decision? I refuse to be comforted. Nobody besides me. Only one guy is honest.
00:18:14
Speaker
But this could happen. And you know, I do a lot of counseling now about 80 to 100 days out of the year. I do counseling as a part of my work. And I ask people, have you ever refused to be comforted? And if you make that decision not to be comforted, what does it lead to?
00:18:36
Speaker
Well, looks like this guy's got insomnia. Looks like he's troubled about God. Looks like he, what does he do? He complains and his spirit is overwhelmed. Then he blames God for his insomnia. You hold my eyelids open. I'm so troubled I can't speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I called remembrance my song in the night. No longer singing, but I can remember when I did.
00:19:03
Speaker
And I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search by myself alone. So this is kind of a negative rumination, negative thoughts, negative ruminations, negative ideas, negative worldview.
00:19:19
Speaker
And then the questions, so you complain and then you start the question, will God cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more? Has his mercy ceased forever? Has his promise failed forever more? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Like now God's Hippocampus doesn't work. You can't remember stuff. And getting steps downward in the Psalm, how you can see that?
00:19:48
Speaker
And that's the picture. And you know, during those years, although it was a trickle, you might say at first, it became a flood, critical words and thinking in my life, usually about my father.
00:20:02
Speaker
My father was very strong, individual, and as I mentioned the other night, he had had a head injury, and every teenager walks around with a head injury, so two people with a head injury in the same room are not really good. Ninety-five percent of subjects who use few positive words and related to their parents, rated their parents low in parental caring, had diseases diagnosed in midlife. And I went through some of this the other day. You might want to watch my first presentation from the Harvard Masters of Stress study.
00:20:32
Speaker
Only 29% of subjects who use positive words rated their parents high in parental care and had diseases diagnosed in midlife. And at that time, I didn't hack or say about my father. I have a lot good to say and think about my father now, but not then. And so I was in my mind, although jovial, it was kind of a gallows humor. I was always pretty funny, but not really.
00:21:02
Speaker
And when you're angry, this is what happens in your mind. Anger interrupts the functioning of your frontal lobes. That certainly was the case for me. And not only do you lose the ability to be rational, you lose the awareness that you're acting in an irrational way. When your frontal lobes shut down, it's impossible to listen to another person, let alone feel empathy or compassion.
00:21:27
Speaker
And that's why it says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 24 through 26, the servant of the Lord must not quarrel. Don't quarrel with kids. It doesn't work. But be apt to teach in humility, correcting those who oppose themselves if God
00:21:42
Speaker
per chance will grant them repentance, they'll come to their senses and escape the snare set by the devil having been taken captive to do his will. So you don't quarrel with people, but you teach and you kind of take your opportunity when it comes. So the steps down, let's just review. I was troubled, I refused comfort, I complained, I questioned God, I was overwhelmed,
00:22:11
Speaker
I was alone and I said, Psalm 77 verse 10, the first part, I said, this is my anguish. Nobody else understands. Don't talk to me about it. It's my anguish. I know all about it and you know nothing about it. So just leave me alone. I mean, I think that's kind of a recipe for disaster.
00:22:39
Speaker
So, overwhelmed alone, all kinds of questions as well, questioning God. And that's really what my life was like at that time. Down, steps down. Depression, you might say, okay. Well, what are the steps up? How do we get out of this and how do we escape negative thoughts and negative thinking?
00:23:09
Speaker
I said this is my anguish, but, I think that word but is very important. However, is another way to say that. However, and now here's the way out. Here it is. I will, what's it say? I will remember the years of the right hand of the what?
00:23:28
Speaker
of the most high. I was in my neighborhood not so long ago. I know most people in the neighborhood because we get out of the neighborhood. One thing here at Adelpian, I don't remember really doing outreach that much. We always stayed on the campus like hermetically sealed within this bubble at that particular time. So, you know, I started this, I helped restart a school.
00:23:51
Speaker
I mean, I hated Adventist education, but now I help start a school, actually help start a university. Can you believe it? It's an Adventist university. You believe that? That's what leads to depression. So we get out every single week in the neighborhood for five hours to faculty and students, and we go serve people. And it's amazing what happens when you start focusing on other people besides yourself. Amazing.
00:24:21
Speaker
Anyway, so I was in the neighborhood, and I'm walking into this place, you know, this is before marijuana was legalized a few years back. It smelled like marijuana. I don't even know how I know how that smells, but I do. And I was out there, and I was like, wow, this is rich smell here.
00:24:42
Speaker
And the guy said to me, he goes, I said, so you guys are getting high, right? You guys don't have the best stuff. They go, what do you mean? I said, I got some better stuff than you guys got. The guy goes, where is it from, Jamaica?
00:25:01
Speaker
the cockpit country or something? I said, how did you know about Jamaica? So we started talking about it. I go, my stuff's much better than Jamaica. He goes, well, bring it out. Bring it out. Text. I said, I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high. Can you say hallelujah? Not just high, but most high. And they looked at me like, what's wrong with you? But I got to tell you something.
00:25:30
Speaker
A lot of my friends when I went to Adelphian did drugs. Some of them are not alive now. But I tell you what, there's something even better than alcohol and drugs. It's the most high. And that's what I've discovered. I will remember the ears of the right hand of the most high. I'll remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old.
00:25:55
Speaker
I will meditate. That word meditate, I have it in italics because it reminds me to say something about it. The word literally means to mutter, to grunt. Go ahead, let's try it together. Look at the person next to you in grunt. That's meditating. How many of you have ever had something that you really thought about and you go,
00:26:20
Speaker
Nobody besides me. So it's actually a form of witnessing for me now. I'm on a plane or something. I might read a book and I just, you know, they have their headphones on. No one's listening to you at all. You're isolated even though you're next to someone. And you want to get their attention. You got to do something radical. So what I do is just meditate. Pretty soon they go, wow, that must be a very interesting book you're reading.
00:26:44
Speaker
So notice these statements, though. All of these texts, number one, two, three, and four, begin with two words. What are they? I will. Everything depends on the right action of the will. I will. I will meditate on your work. I will talk of your deeds. Notice this. Notice this. You start out totally alone. I said this is my anguish.
00:27:14
Speaker
my anguish, I'm alone, but now I'm remembering, that's my hippocampus, in the years of the right hand of the most high, I remember the works, wonders, starts to meditate and talk. This is a person that's not talking and then is talking. He's moving from totally just in his head to then meditating and then talking. He's coming out of depression in those verses because he's using the power of choice.
00:27:44
Speaker
to choose something different. How did he use the power of choice in the first two verses? How do you remember that? But now he's saying, I'll think it over again. And that's what happened in my life. I refused to be comforted. I became depressed. I became at one point suicidal. I mentioned that the other night and how my mother's prayer saved my life at that time. And this is the journey out. If you want to overcome negative thoughts,
00:28:14
Speaker
and a negative life, the will, everything depends on the reaction of the will. Now we know exactly where that is, just take your finger and go like this, right there, that's the will. And where there's a will, there's a way.
00:28:33
Speaker
And it's a choice that we make. And I hope someone makes that choice again today as I'm presenting. I know it was a struggle for me to even make the choice to think about things in a different way. But everything changed once I did. As a man, think is so easy. Now, let me see if this sound clip works.
00:29:00
Speaker
Back to smarter every day. You've heard people say it's just like riding a bike, meaning it's really easy and you can't forget how to do it, right? But I did something. I did something that damaged my mind. It happened on the streets of Amsterdam and and I got.
00:29:16
Speaker
like you can anymore. Before I show you the video of what happened, I need to tell you the backstory. Like many six year olds with a MacGyver mullet, I learned how to ride a bike when I was really young. I had learned a life skill and I was really proud of it. Everything changed though when my friend Barney called me 25 years later.
00:29:31
Speaker
Where I work, the welders are geniuses and they like to play jokes on the engineers. He had a challenge for me. He had built a special bicycle and he wanted me to try to ride it. He had only changed one thing. When he turned the handlebar to the left, the wheel goes to the right. When you turn it to the right, the wheel goes to the left. I thought this would be easy so I hopped on the bike ready to demonstrate how quickly I could conquer this. And here he is ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Justin Sandlin. First attempt riding the bicycle.
00:30:05
Speaker
I couldn't do it. You can see that I'm laughing, but I'm actually really frustrated. In this moment, I had a really deep revelation. My thinking was in a rut. This bike revealed a very deep truth to me. I had the knowledge of how to operate the bike, but I did not have the understanding. Therefore, knowledge is not understanding. Look, I know what you're probably thinking. Destin's probably just an uncoordinated engineer and can't do it. But that's not the case at all.
00:30:32
Speaker
The algorithm that's associated with riding a bike in your brain is just that complicated. Think about it. Downwards force on the pedals, leaning your whole body, pulling and pushing the handlebars, gyroscopic procession in the wheels, every single force is part of this algorithm. And if you change any one part, it affects the entire control system.
00:30:48
Speaker
I do not make definitive statements that often, but I'm telling you right now, you cannot ride this bicycle. You might think you can, but you can't. I know this because I'm often asked to speak at universities and conferences and I take the bite with me. It's always the same. People think they're going to try some trick or they're just going to power through it. It doesn't work. Your brain cannot handle this. Okay, so why did I show you that clip?
00:31:16
Speaker
Is it easy to change negative thoughts? Is it easy to just say suck it up cupcake? Just change the way you think? You can't even ride a backward bicycle without some real work.
00:31:34
Speaker
And so when you get yourself down, I was just describing for those of you just coming in how I started out and I started to have negative thoughts, negative ideas, went into a far country, became suicidal and all that kind of stuff. And you think it's easy to come out, it's not really that easy. It's not that simple. It's not this simple of saying, hey, here's some information, take the information and change. I'm going to give my people that. They like to give you a bunch of information.
00:32:05
Speaker
but it's kind of hard to apply it. Does that ever happen to you? So, it was a personal challenge. I stayed out here in this driveway and I practiced about five minutes every day. My neighbors made fun of me. I had many wrecks, but after eight months, this happened. One day I couldn't ride the bike and the next day I could. It was like I could feel some kind of pathway in my brain that was now unlocked.
00:32:33
Speaker
It was really weird though, it's like there's this trail in my brain, but if I wasn't paying close enough attention to it, my brain would easily lose that neural path and jump back onto the old road it was more familiar with. Any small distractions at all, like a cell phone ringing in my pocket, would instantly throw my brain back to the old control algorithm and I would wreck, but at least I could ride it.
00:32:50
Speaker
My son is the closest person to me genetically and he's been riding a normal bike for three years. That's over half his life. I wanted to know how long it would take him to learn how to ride a backwards bike so I told him if he learned how to ride a backwards bike he could go with me to Australia and meet a real astronaut. Are you gonna give up? No. Go ahead. This is how it starts. Look at this.
00:33:12
Speaker
This is such a big deal. Get up, you got it. Did you see his brain get it? So he, in how many weeks have we been doing this? Two weeks? In two weeks he did something that took me eight months to do, which demonstrates that a child has more neuroplasticity, am I even saying that right, than an adult? It's clear from this experiment that children have a much more plastic brain than adults. That's why the best time to learn a language is when you're a young child.
00:33:37
Speaker
All right, today's bike log. I can ride smooth. I can ride fast. I'm thinking the experiment is over. So what did you learn from that clip? This is the interaction time of the service. Go ahead, speak up. What did you learn? That we can retrain our brains, OK? There's hope.
00:34:06
Speaker
Okay, how much time? Is that what the clip said? I mean, it's not the Bible or something. Let's just go by the clip. How much time did he spend a day? Just five minutes. How many months? So this is a consistent devotional life he has.
00:34:26
Speaker
It's not a lot, but he's reorienting every day. By the way, I don't agree that the kid, I mean, kids do maybe have a more plastic brain, but people that are very old, I've had people 95 years old change. You can change no matter if you're young or old, but it takes a choice. I had to get up every day. Didn't he have to get up every day?
00:34:47
Speaker
and slowly things can be rebuilt no matter where you've been here in the far country. Things can change. Can you say hallelujah? And that's why I love this clip, right? But that's not the last part of it. Let's look at the next part. Next part here.
Mental Health and Neuroplasticity
00:35:06
Speaker
This is my favorite one, all right?
00:35:13
Speaker
It's backwards, it's backwards. This was one of the most frustrating moments of my life. I had ridden a normal bike since I was six, but in this moment, I couldn't do it anymore. I had set out to prove that I could free my brain from a cognitive bias. But at this point, I'm pretty sure that all I proved is that I can only redesignate that bias. So what you're not seeing is just a group of people here looking at me, looking at the strange American.
00:35:37
Speaker
that can't ride a bike because they think I'm dumb. But I'm actually two levels deep into this because I've learned and unlearned. All right. After 20 minutes of making a fool out of myself, suddenly my brain clicked back into the old algorithm. I got it. I got it. I got it. I'm back. Oh, it clicked. It clicked. I got it. I got it. OK, there it is. There's the moment. OK, I can ride a bike. What did you learn from that clip?
00:36:06
Speaker
Go ahead, say something. It could be wrong, but that's okay. We've got eight months to change that. It's possible to go back your old ways. Anything else? It doesn't take nearly as long. That's kind of pessimistic, but that's okay. It took 20 minutes. That's a long time. Doesn't that give you time to turn things around? Yeah.
00:36:40
Speaker
Oh, look at this. Look at this. We got a professional here. Look, Mom, no hands. I don't know. But what I like about this clip is that it takes quite a bit of time to go back to the old way. In other words, there's this buffer. How many think that's great? Not only can you change your mind, not only can your mind be changed, but you can actually be protected from going back
00:37:10
Speaker
to the other way. Is this good news? So now what did he tell his kid that he would be able to do if he rode the bike? Yeah, for us, we get to go to heaven. He gets to go to meet an astronaut. We get to be astronauts if we change our mind. How many of you think it might be worth changing our minds? And now notice this.
00:37:36
Speaker
I felt like the only person on the planet who had ever unlearned how to ride a bike and I couldn't articulate it to anyone because everybody just knew that you can't forget how to ride a bike. Where are they? What's that? Who's he with? Why are they there? Why are they there? Promise to do what?
00:38:01
Speaker
Go to Australia, see an astronaut as he learns to ride the bike correctly. What's the promise for us if we change our minds? We get to go to heaven. We drive around the planets. And what are they doing? Where were they in Australia? Where were they? Were they out on the street? Where were they? On a stage, doing what?
00:38:26
Speaker
And all the stadium was filled, the stage was filled. He goes around the world doing this. Why were people coming to see him? Why? Because he changed his mind. Wait a minute. Did you get this idea? He changed, he was able to change his mind. Look at that person next to you say, you're able to change your mind.
00:38:57
Speaker
And as filling stadiums up, people coming all over, let's just see these people drive bikes backwards. Because people are very impressed if you change your mind. Is anybody here today need to change their mind? I know I did, and still do. I don't know if this is hopeful to you.
00:39:26
Speaker
And this is the whole idea of Psalm 77. I complained, my spirit was overwhelmed, I had all these questions about God, this is definitely my life. I'm alone. But then that decision, I will, I will, I will, I will remember, I will, I will, I will, that's all choice. Next text in Psalm 77. Your way, O God, is in the, who is so great a God is our God.
00:39:55
Speaker
You're the guy who does wonders. You've declared your strength among the peoples with your arm, right arm, redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and of Jacob. These are case studies now. After showing how a person gets down and depressed,
00:40:13
Speaker
Now the case studies of coming up and out. First case study is the sanctuary. This is 1.5 million people who needed to change their mind, and God got them out of depression helping them change their mind. We have signs on all the buildings here that I've noticed in Michigan. And they all say the same thing. What's it say over there? What's that named after? So the next time you go out to eat, just say, man, you guys must be very religious.
00:40:43
Speaker
Look at that. You've got an Exodus sign. This is the kind of stuff I say at restaurants. Or yesterday I was explaining why they give away free cheese at the Olive Garden. My wife always cringes when I do that one. But anyway, what's this all talking about? This is changing your mind, okay? I will.
00:41:09
Speaker
And there's these case studies of the exodus of Jacob and Joseph. I'll come back to those in a minute. But I'm gonna show you something here and I'm gonna ask you to make a decision today. You all will anyway. Everybody always makes a decision in every church service. Many times it's a bad one. It's no decision or it's a program non-response. But I'm gonna ask you to actually make a decision today. And I may never see you guys again.
00:41:39
Speaker
Right? We're getting older. Some of our classmates and people we know, we're not gonna stop. Why did I come out here after 40 years? I came out here because I thought, you know, it's probably the last time I get a chance to go to an alumni. I know that sounds kind of morose, but that's what I thought. So I came. I'm gonna put this up to you and I'm gonna relate it to the sanctuary. How is it that we can get over these negative thoughts
00:42:08
Speaker
Treating them as material objects, if you treat negative thoughts as material objects, can increase or decrease their impact on evaluation. However, you take your thoughts as trash or worthy of protection seems to make a difference in how you use those thoughts. At some level, it can sound silly, said the scientist, but we found that really works. By physically throwing away or protecting your thoughts, you influence how you end up using those thoughts merely or imagining engaging these actions has no effect.
00:42:35
Speaker
We talk about our thoughts as if we can visualize them. We hold our thoughts. We take stances on issues. This all makes our thoughts more real to us. So they did some studies. In one study, they had students study body image. Each participant was told to write down either positive or negative thoughts about his or her body during a three-minute period. All participants were asked to look back on the thoughts they wrote. Researchers told half of the students to contemplate their thoughts.
00:43:06
Speaker
and then throw them in a trash can because their thoughts did not have to remain with them. The others contemplate their thoughts and check the grammar. In other words, obsess over the thoughts. The third, then they were to rate their attitudes of their own bodies based on a nine point scale, bad, good, attractive, unattractive. Results, participants who wrote positive thoughts had more positive attitudes than the ones who had negative.
00:43:33
Speaker
If they threw their thoughts away, whether positive or negative, they didn't impact them anymore. And this is why the researchers say, hey, look, if you take something, materialize it, write it out, and then incinerate it, it doesn't affect you as much. How many of you have some negative thoughts you think maybe should burn today? I did this once inside, and it put the sprinklers on, so we're not doing that.
00:44:04
Speaker
This, we did this at St. Joe once. Remember how we had those shredders on the front as a response time? I don't know if you were there that day, Sheila. Another study, they studied the Mediterranean diet and asked them to write negative or positive thoughts about it. In this case, some threw their thoughts away, others left them on their desks, still others put them in a pocket or in a wallet or purse to keep it with them. All of them were asked to rate their attitudes.
00:44:34
Speaker
As in the first study, those who kept the list of thoughts at their desk were more influenced by them than those who threw them away. However, those who protected their thoughts by putting them in a pocket or a purse were even more influenced than those who kept the thoughts on the desk. In other words, the closer you hold the thoughts to you, the more they influenced you. You can magnify your thoughts. You can make them more important to you by keeping with you in your wallet or your purse. But how important was the physical act of throwing these things away?
00:45:03
Speaker
To find out, they conducted another study, 78 college students, and they were told to write their thoughts on a computer word-based word processing document. Some later used a mouse to drag the file into the
00:45:18
Speaker
computer recycle bin. Others moved the file to a storage disk, just as in the previous studies. They made less use of those they trashed by dragging the recycle bin than those who saved the thoughts by transferring them. In one of the conditions, some participants were told simply to imagine dragging the negative thoughts. This had no effect. If they actually put them in the trash, it made them less powerful.
00:45:48
Speaker
The more convinced a person is, the thoughts are really gone, the better. Just imagining didn't work. Of course, even if you throw the thoughts in the garbage can or put them in the recycle bin on a computer, they're not really gone. But the representation of those thoughts are gone. And at least temporarily, it seems to make it easier not to think about them. How many think this is fascinating research?
00:46:12
Speaker
So now the researchers say, hey, look, what we need to do is help people that have recurrent negative thoughts materialize them and incinerate them, get rid of them because it will give them some freedom.
00:46:27
Speaker
So we do this in our depression recovery program. We have a burning in the middle of the week. People start to see all the things where they're complaining, where they're turning against God or others and all those different things. They see all those negative things and we have them write them out and actually burn them. How many think that might be a good idea based on the science?
00:46:51
Speaker
Okay, three of you, good. This is a response time. How many of you think that may be a good idea based on the science? Okay, just to make sure you're ambulatory. I'll call the ambulance if this happens again. So, it's often difficult to get rid of these thoughts. We want to find out there's a way to keep them from coming back. Now, let me ask you a question. Do you think the science comes up with stuff that's new or just discovers stuff that's already there?
00:47:20
Speaker
Kepler said we think God's thoughts after him. And by the way, someone I mentioned the other day, the scientific method is actually found in the scriptures. We don't get truth from science, we get truth from scripture that laid the foundation for science. Does that make sense?
00:47:43
Speaker
And the oldest scientific study known to man, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, is in the scriptures. But look at this. What system did God set up for the removal of evil? Remember our psalm? Thy way, O God, is in the... Oh, great a God is our God. And there's all these people that were in a negative situation.
00:48:02
Speaker
And then Jacob was in a negative situation. And then Joseph was in a negative situation. And then Moses was in a negative situation. And Aaron was in a negative situation. All these are Old Testament people. We're talking about hope in the Old Testament, right? Well, let's look at this. Did God have a system in the Old Testament? Yeah, it was called the sanctuary system. And this system set where?
00:48:33
Speaker
Where was it? Not in the wilderness, but with who in the wilderness? In the midst of what? All the people, kind of like your alimentary canal, getting rid of all the trash you eat. It has a system. And that system was right there, and they would bring all the negative things, representatives from the family, bring those how often?
00:48:59
Speaker
Every morning and every evening, that's morning and evening devotion, they would materialize the sin by taking their hand and transferring it from them to the sanctuary animal. Does that make sense? And it says, our sins are written with a pin of iron with a point of a diamond on the altar. And you're transferring that. Then that animal would be killed
00:49:27
Speaker
The blood drained out called the Holocaust complete destruction. The priest would wash his hands, go in to the holy place, last this lampstand and then the table of showbread, put some of the blood on the altar of incense, transferring it further in. God does not minimize your negative thoughts or the negative things that happened to you. It has a whole year process. And then he would take it where? Into the what?
00:49:54
Speaker
Most holy place where it would be totally eradicated on that day by going by fire number one most holy place, fire number two holy place, fire number three outer court. That's three fires on the same day totally incinerating that and obliterating that sin. How many think this actually is quite profound?
00:50:22
Speaker
Does God actually understand the science that we just went through? Did it catch him by surprise when they found that? Oh, look at that. No, this is how he operates. And when we're not involved in church, when we're not involved in the sanctuary, when we're not involved in that, things in your mind, you cannot handle the negative things that come as a result of that. It's going to overwhelm you. It will kill you. I know, I've been to that point.
00:50:52
Speaker
How many were thankful for the system God set up? How many were thankful for the system God set up? And I tell people when I'm counseling with him, I said, look, I'm not minimizing what you had to say and neither does God. He takes a whole year to think about what you said. Sometimes even longer. Does God care?
00:51:19
Speaker
Well, that's not the only thing God does. Would you like to see another one? Oh, by the way, the Bible says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. He wants to move things as far as the east from the west. Now, let me ask you this. If you go north, do you ever end up going south? If you go east, do you ever end up going west?
00:51:48
Speaker
No, you never do. That's how far he wants to deliver you. As far as the east is from away, that's forever away. Isn't God good?
00:52:02
Speaker
Here's another one. This is from the New Testament. Sorry, I no hope in the Old Testament, but the Old Testament is the foundation of the New. And in the Old Testament, there were many of these as well. In fact, this particular clip and all these things I'll show you next are based on Old Testament paradigms. Look at this one. It was now the day before the Passover festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world.
00:52:31
Speaker
and go to the father. He had always loved those in the world who were his own, and he loved them to the very end. Jesus and his disciples were at supper. The devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, the thought of betraying Jesus.
00:53:02
Speaker
Jesus knew that the father had given him complete power. He knew that he had come from God and was going to God.
00:53:28
Speaker
So he rose from the table, took off his outer garment, and tied a towel round his waist. Then he poured some water into a wash basin and began to wash the disciples' feet.
00:53:57
Speaker
and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter. Are you going to wash my feet, Lord? You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later.
00:54:27
Speaker
Never at any time will you wash my feet. Do not wash only my feet. Wash my hands and head too. What do you think of that? Does that sound familiar?
00:54:50
Speaker
In the Old Testament, there was materializing of sin by a sacrifice. In the New Testament, you have foot washing, which was materializing sin by saying it's like dirty feet. How often do they have foot washing in the New Testament? Once every four months? No, we do that and are hermetically sealed. Let's not do that so often, Adventist mentality. How often do they wash feet in the New Testament?
00:55:20
Speaker
every single day, two, three times a day. And we say, oh, we don't want to be too Catholic. They do that every day. I think maybe we need to rethink how we think. Because we're overwhelmed. That's suicidality. How many of you noticed? That's because people are trying to do stuff on their own. You can't do it on your own.
00:55:53
Speaker
How many of you agree with me? Anybody agree? You can't handle the negative. You can't. In the hotel this morning, I watched the news just briefly, not because I wanted to, but it was so loud. And I started to get depressed just hearing the news. And you got these inputs all the time. You cannot handle it.
00:56:16
Speaker
And that's why God says materialize it, incinerate it, wash it away, and these things are not busy work. When I went to academy here, I thought all this religious stuff was busy work. It's not busy work. It is essential for your mental health. You think you don't need the church? You're wrong. Church is the best thing ever for your mental health. If I didn't have the church, I'd be dead.
00:56:49
Speaker
That's not the only thing in the New Testament. Want to see one more? You probably know what it is. What's that? Look. I mean, I'll just say it.
00:57:23
Speaker
Do you need to consider what we've been going over today? How many of you have had negative thoughts about God, negative thoughts about others, negative thoughts about yourself? And how many of you have ever sensed that you're overwhelmed by those? Nobody except me?
00:57:50
Speaker
I still have these. Look, a person has 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day. 80% of them are negative. 90% of them are repetitive. Don't tell me you don't have negative thoughts. And don't tell me you don't need to know how to deal with those. Look at the person next to you and just say, you got to deal with that. Just go ahead and say it.
00:58:22
Speaker
Be bold, folks. Someone's sitting alone, go tap them on the shoulder. Anyway, so, look, these things are not busy work. I thought, what am I gonna say after 40 years? Let me tell you this. It took me a long time to understand what I'm telling you. I fought against it for years. But finally I saw it. And I began to see how powerful God is at what he's trying to do. He's not out to get you, he's out to keep you.
00:58:52
Speaker
And that's why we covered Psalm 139. If you didn't come the first night, go back and watch that. It's essential. And that's why there's a logic to his law of love. It's really liberty. That's the second presentation I made. He came into the country about Jordan preaching a baptism of what? Repentance and remission. And this is what we need.
00:59:19
Speaker
Deep down, repentance and remission. What does the word repentance mean? This is the dialogue time of, go ahead. What's it mean? What? Okay, confession. Turn from. The word literally is metaneo, metanos in the Greek language. It means to change.
00:59:48
Speaker
metamorphosis, meta, the mind knows. Have I changed your mind at all this morning? Have the scriptures changed your mind at all this morning? It's to change the mind. When Dr. Nedley and I, two alumni, we work together, A and A. We work together all year, really, 80 days out of the year, helping people, giving them information that hopefully will lead them to do what? Change their minds.
01:00:20
Speaker
That's repentance. And when they start changing their minds, they are on the move. They then go into remission. What's the word remission mean? Someone talked to me the other night. They have a friend who has cancer. They wanted a referral. They want the person to maybe go into what? Remission. The word remission is aphesis in Greek, which means to release from bondage or imprisonment. Are you imprisoned?
01:00:47
Speaker
Buy your negative thoughts that are leading to negative habits. Are you self-medicating with something other than the most high? Maybe it's food. Maybe it's drugs. Maybe it's alcohol. Maybe it's pornography. These are not something that I'm saying in a condemnatory way. You're trying to get high because you're low. You're depressed. That's why you're doing those things.
01:01:17
Speaker
But how many think maybe turning to the most high would be more effective potentially? Is it worth a shot? He's the ultimate shot. As many as received him to them he gave what? Power to become sons of God even to them that believe on his name.
01:01:41
Speaker
which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God, not my will, but thy will, not of the will of man, but the will of God." That's his other way of saying the law of God, isn't it? Adam's nature became so weakened through transgression, it was impossible for him in his own strength to resist the power of evil.
01:02:06
Speaker
You couldn't tell him, look, have self-control. It was impossible for him to have the self-control. He could not have the self-control. Impossible. He was made captive by Satan and would have remained so forever had God not specially interposed. He interposed. Can you say hallelujah? And when God ever interposes, the fruit of the spirit is love, then coming from love is joy, peace, long-suffering, self-control. We need more of God's love.
01:02:37
Speaker
knowing that he interposed. Like I said the other night, I had people here that gave me glimmers of interposing. Norm and Mary Wilson interposed in my life. My mother interposed in my life. Mr. Penny interposed in my life. And when we show the love of God to others, that's God interposing himself in our lives. And all year, this is what
01:03:04
Speaker
Neil and Erica and I and others on our team do. We interpose in people's lives. God uses us. The thing that changes their heart is love. They go, we never had someone treat us like this. It opens their heart. And then they want to control themselves. Can you say hallelujah?
01:03:29
Speaker
Jesus himself withdrew from them about a stone's throw, knelt down and prayed and said, Father, if it's your will, take this cup from me. Nevertheless, what? Not my will, but thy will be done. Jesus was going through depression because he took the whole sins of the whole world. And that's depressing. How many think that might be depressing? Take this away from me, he says. There's no way God could do it, except for when he said this.
01:03:59
Speaker
Not my will, but thy will be done. This is the secret to overcoming negative thoughts. Not my will, not my thoughts, but your thoughts. Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Your ways are higher than my ways. Does that make sense? This took me so long to learn, and I'm still learning it. I'm still a disaster, but at least I know that.
01:04:29
Speaker
Notice what happens when Jesus did this, and the same thing will happen to you. Then an angel appeared to him from heaven strengthening him. How many of you want to have an angel strengthen you? And that's when you're saying, truthfully, not my will, but thy will be done.
01:04:52
Speaker
How do we operate? Should we keep on sinning that God can show us more and more of His grace? Of course not. Since we died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined Him in His death? You want to enter into the cross? Not my will, but thy will be done. Do you want to enter into that experience? It's baptism, folks. Baptism.
01:05:19
Speaker
For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father. Now also we may live new lives." How do you want to have some of the glorious power of the Father in your life? You know what Adventists, unfortunately, believe once saved always saved. Once going to a Delphian always saved. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way at all. It doesn't work that way at all.
01:05:48
Speaker
We gotta get rid of that once saved, always saved stuff. You need Jesus as much today as you did yesterday. Don't you think?
01:06:01
Speaker
I'll notice when Jesus, Jesus himself, he was sinless and he got baptized, notice what it says. The word God sent unto the children of Israel preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is the Lord of all. The word I say you know was published throughout all Judea and began in Galilee after the baptism when John preached. How God, what does it say? Anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power. How do you know he had the Holy Ghost? How do you know he had power?
01:06:32
Speaker
He was the Messiah. How did you know that? Please don't tell me a dove came down. If a dove came down on you, I would not be that impressed. I remember Nick Evans got dive-bombed by several pigeons when we were kids and they love-bombed him, but I didn't think he had the Holy Spirit. How do you know that he had the Holy Spirit?
01:07:01
Speaker
because he went about doing good and healing all manner of sickness among the people. The book of Matthew, Mark and Luke and John have all the miracles of Christ. When you surrender yourself to God and the glorious power comes into your life, it not only erases your sin and gives you victory, it also gives you a ministry. Can you say hallelujah to that?
01:07:29
Speaker
Your way of God is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God is our God? We're gonna finish up now. You're the one who does wonders. You've declared your strength among the peoples. How many of you now understand that more fully? You with your arm have redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. What was Jacob? Who was Jacob? Who was he before he was a prince with God or Israel? Who was Jacob? Jacob.
01:07:58
Speaker
Even if you were a deceiver, God doesn't give up on you. He wants to save you. What about Joseph? I'm convinced Joseph had very low EQ. He was sharing his dreams with people that couldn't handle it. In fact, the Spirit of Prophecy says he shouldn't have told the dreams to them.
01:08:28
Speaker
But God meant it for good. And even though he made some mistakes, did God use him to deliver not only himself, but his people and all the other nations of the world? Amazing. You know, and I think the sanctuary is the ultimate mental health, entered and engaged with thanksgiving and an accurate offer that sacrifice of praise. Be baptized at the labor, begin to,
01:09:01
Speaker
Drink and eat his body with devotions, have an altar of sacrifice, and be baptized, or be rebaptized. Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I could spend time going through all these, but how many of you get the idea? It's the ultimate depression recovery program.
01:09:31
Speaker
Then the notice, like we said the other night, you move from being dissatisfied, telling lies, being ashamed, having adulterated intimacy, wanting to kill yourself, the last five commandments.
01:09:43
Speaker
from getting high your own way because of all those things, to listening to the first five commandments, the fact that God delivered through the Exodus, that He shows love and mercy. And then you want to say, out of gratitude, I want to follow your rules. I want to have daily and weekly gratitude. That's the first five commandments. I want to get most high, not just high. I want to recover.
01:10:08
Speaker
Also a summary of night one, second lecture. And if you weren't there, go back and watch it. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The voice of your thunder was in the world when the lightning lit up the world, the earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea, your path in the great waters, your footsteps weren't out. God carried me during the years at Adelphian.
01:10:35
Speaker
He carried me during the years where I was going to do myself in. He carried me through the prayers of my mother. And he's carrying you today. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Was Moses a great guy? He was a murderer. Was Aaron a great guy?
01:11:06
Speaker
He had the golden cafe church, immorality, saying God made the idol. But here's the amazing thing. All these people were totally, they messed up, but God didn't give up on them. 1.5 million people saved in the sanctuary. Jacob the cheater changed into a prince with God.
01:11:38
Speaker
Moses the murderer changed. Aaron, no matter what you've done, no matter where you are, no matter where I am, God cannot only help you get over your own negative thoughts. He can turn your life completely negative while he's doing the positive. I was troubled. I refused comfort. I complained. I questioned God. I was overwhelmed. I was alone. And I said, this is my anguish. But then notice what happened.
01:12:06
Speaker
But I'll remember the years of the right hand. I'll remember your work, your ways, your wonders, your ways in the sanctuary. I'll talk of your doings. The I will focus. I'll see how you delivered. And then I'll become a humble leader for you. That's recovery. I can't believe what I've been able to do in my life. It's amazing. It's not me. It's God.
01:12:39
Speaker
And a couple years ago, I was thinking about all the stuff that I did wrong and how I let people talk me into the fact that because I was born an Adventist, I was okay. I said, you know, that's just not true. And this particular quote is what changed my mind on that. I'll read it to you.
01:13:11
Speaker
I speak to our leading brethren, to our ministers. I was a minister at the time I read this, especially our physicians. As long as you allow pride and will in your heart, you will lack power in your work. For years our wrong spirit has been cherished, the spirit of pride and desire for preeminence. And this Satan has served and God is dishonored. God calls for a decided reformation. And when a soul is truly reconverted, let him be rebaptized.
01:13:40
Speaker
So I told my wife, I want to get rebaptized. She goes, why? And then I told her, she says, yeah, you probably should. Didn't take long to convince my wife. And it probably wouldn't take long to convince yours either. Let her renew his covenant with God. God will renew his covenant with him. How many think that's good news? My brethren showed true repentance. True what?
01:14:09
Speaker
That's change of the mind, departure from God. Let angels and men see that there is forgiveness of sin with God. Extraordinator power from God must take hold of Seventh-day Adventist churches. Reconversion must take place among the members. First of all, it was first of all who? The brethren and the thought leaders of the church. I think the next general conference, what we need to pray for is that they all get rebaptized. How many think that might be good?
01:14:39
Speaker
Renewed, purified, sanctified, the church must be. The wrath of God will fall on them with much greater power than upon those who never profess to be saints. How many think we need this message that I shared with you today? It's a message for me. You know, here's some of the stuff I just put together, some of the stuff. I would have been dead without my mother's prayers, without things that happened here at the Delphian and people through the years. What can I get to do now?
01:15:07
Speaker
I get to lead tours to Israel and Egypt and Turkey and the Reformation sites. Who would have thought that? I get to baptize people that have made the decision I'm asking you to make today. Some of you need to be re-baptized.
01:15:32
Speaker
I get to, last week I was in England talking to ministers and churches. I get to perform marriages. Wow. I get to have people over to my house every week. Students with my wife. Man, what a rich life it is. I got a great family.
01:16:02
Speaker
I'm so glad I didn't marry anyone from a Delphian. Because God had something better for me. I got so hurt by some girls from the Academy. I look at their Facebook sites now and I go, praise Jesus. God has something better. God has something better for you too. Let me think He has something better.
01:16:37
Speaker
You like this picture? You know who this is? And I get to work with one of my friends, an Adelphian graduate. This, by the way, was voted one of the most favorite pictures by the students at our university. Because there's joy in serving Jesus. And your life can change.
01:17:06
Speaker
if you allow God to change it. How many of you want to let God change your life one day at a time? I still need work as my wife is saying amen in the back. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your powerful word. Thank you for your gospel.
01:17:34
Speaker
your spell, God's spell. Take us out of the sway of the evil one and put us under your spell. Change our hearts, change our minds, change our lives, and change this world through these, your people, as the negative is overcome by the positive. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
01:18:05
Speaker
I guess we take a break and come back. How many minutes, pastor? Seven minutes. Wow, look at this guy. Seven minutes. The seventh Adventist pastor. Go ahead, take seven minutes. Move about the cabin. Hopefully the overhead bins have shifted.
01:26:29
Speaker
Go ahead and get started with our song service. I think our seven minutes is up. I think you're right. Let's go ahead and turn in our hymnals to 487, 487 in the garden.
01:27:08
Speaker
We'll just stand closer.
01:27:13
Speaker
I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear, holding on my ear, the song of God discloses.
01:27:39
Speaker
And he walks with me and he talks with me And he tells me I am his own And the joy we share as we tarry there
01:28:02
Speaker
None other has ever known.
01:28:10
Speaker
He speaks and the sound of his voice is so sweet the birds hush, they're singing. And the melody that he gave to me within my heart is singing.
01:28:38
Speaker
and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known
01:29:09
Speaker
I'd stay in the garden with him. Now the night around me be falling. But he bids me go through the voice of hope. His voice to me is calling.
01:29:36
Speaker
And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.
01:30:09
Speaker
Amen. We want to walk with God in the garden. Let's go ahead and turn back to page 88. 88. I sing the mighty power of God.
01:30:40
Speaker
I sing the mighty power of God, then make the mountains rise.
01:30:48
Speaker
that spread the flowing streets abroad and built the lofty skies. I sing the wisdom that ordain the sun to rule the day. The moon shines full and is command, and all the stars obey.
01:31:18
Speaker
I sing the goodness of the Lord that filled the earth with food. He formed the creatures with his word and then pronounced them good.
01:31:36
Speaker
Lord, have I wonders I display, Where I have turned my eye? If I survey the ground I tread, Or gaze upon the sky,
01:31:59
Speaker
There's not a plant or flower below, but what makes thy glory snow? Then clouds arise and tassels blow by order from thy throne. Creatures of borrowed life from thee are subject to thy care.
01:32:29
Speaker
There's not a place where we can flee that God is present there. Thank you.
01:32:48
Speaker
What a beautiful hymn. It's good to see you all. Welcome and happy Sabbath. We're going to have a treat today, as usual. And I'm just here to welcome you, especially if you've come for the Adelphin alumni. I just want to let you know that there is a Bell Echoes yearbook out on the back table. If you'd like to take a look at it, you're welcome to and reminisce. I think it's from...
01:33:18
Speaker
1997. Oh, sorry, 79. There you go. It goes back a long way. Just don't take it away. Please leave it there. We will be having a potluck lunch afterwards in the gym, in the gymnasium there, AJA. Remember that. And we'll be having a good time there together as well.
01:33:43
Speaker
I hope you heard, I've been hearing the messages, they have been a powerful blessing. And I just pray for God to continue to be with us. You know, He's always with us, doesn't matter where we are, and I am grateful to God for that.
01:34:03
Speaker
For those of you that are here for the alumni gathering, after the potluck at the gym, we're going to be taking a walk on the old Adelphian grounds, school grounds. So we want to invite you, Adelphian alumni, to come. What we'll do is we'll start from my house, which is
01:34:23
Speaker
Very close by you know the pastor's house if you're not sure ask somebody hey, where's the pastor's house? He's very close by so you can actually walk from here there, but we'd like to start after Potluck so that would probably be I don't know around 3 p.m.. Or something like that would you say? So after lunch, we'll kind of coordinate that a little Afterwards you know I am very touched by these men and their testimony
01:34:55
Speaker
giving glory to God and showing what God can do with a willing, surrendered heart. And I know that
01:35:05
Speaker
Having a new start at a time like this in Earth's history is very important and very vital for every one of us. And I just want to encourage you in that. And if there is anybody that would like to recommit their lives to the Lord, I think this time is the best time to do it. And I want to encourage you and let you know that we'll be planning for baptism soon in the next couple of weeks. So if you'd like to take part in that, just please let me know.
01:35:33
Speaker
I'd like to invite you now to turn your hearts to the Lord as I share with you just a couple of verses from Psalm 107. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
01:35:56
Speaker
whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we want to give this time over to you. And we pray that the things that we do, the things that we say and hear will be for the furtherance of your kingdom and uplifting of our hearts to you. And we thank you for hearing us in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're gonna sing our opening song now.
01:36:28
Speaker
Shall we stand and turn in our hymnals to 213? Jesus is coming again. Praise the Lord.
01:36:47
Speaker
Lift up the trumpet, loud let it ring. Jesus is coming again. Cheer up the pilgrims, be joyful and sing. Jesus is coming again. Coming again.
01:37:13
Speaker
Coming again, Jesus is coming again. And the whittle tops proclaim in cheap ways, Jesus is coming again. Coming in glory, the man that was slain.
01:37:39
Speaker
Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again.
01:37:58
Speaker
The heavens is burned down, the earth is floating through. Jesus is coming again. Tempers shall grow with the anthem's prolong. Jesus is coming again.
01:38:26
Speaker
Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again.
01:38:37
Speaker
Nations are angry by this we do know. Jesus is coming again. Knowledge increases then run to and fro. Jesus is coming again.
01:39:19
Speaker
The offering for today is for Michigan Advanced Partners that helps
01:39:28
Speaker
renovations, constructions, parking lot, buildings, roofs, all those kinds of things. And we are so glad to be a part of Michigan Advanced Partners. And I'll just have a word of prayer before the offering is collected. Father in heaven, we're grateful to you.
01:39:46
Speaker
For all the good things that you give us, help us have joy in giving back to you and to your cause so that we can be blessed and your work can be furthered and the coming of Jesus be hastening. We thank you for hearing our prayer and blessing us in Jesus' name. Amen.
01:40:17
Speaker
Come on, come on.
01:40:44
Speaker
ś ś
01:41:36
Speaker
Young children, I'm going to need your help here. So little ones are going to come forward. And we have Pam that's going to share the story.
01:41:46
Speaker
So you come and collect the basket.
01:42:27
Speaker
Thank you.
01:42:57
Speaker
Yes. Yes.
01:43:26
Speaker
I'm sorry.
01:44:20
Speaker
Does everybody have other places to sit down? Well, I'm going to tell you guys a story about when I was probably your age. I grew up with two brothers
01:44:39
Speaker
And they were older than me. And whenever they did anything, my mother would tell them, take your sister. Take your sister. And I think she probably thought that by doing that, she would keep them out of trouble. That maybe they wouldn't get into mischief if they had their little sister with them. But what do you think?
01:45:11
Speaker
Yeah, they just took me along and got into mischief anyway. So one time, it was in the springtime and we lived near a little creek. And in the springtime, the snow would melt and it would make that thing like a big river, just raging water going down.
01:45:38
Speaker
And my brothers decided that they had this great idea. Let's make a raft. What could be cooler than putting a raft in all that water that's raging down because that raft is going to go really fast? So how many of you believe that angels watch over us?
01:46:07
Speaker
Okay, so they had to take their little sister with them and I probably was a willing subject because they told me that if I didn't go along with them, they would leave me behind and nobody wants to be left behind. So they started way upstream with this raft that they made.
01:46:34
Speaker
I don't even know where they got the stuff that they made it out of. We all got in it and it was wobbling like this and we're going down this raging river because when I'm your size, everything's big. We came down to this place and all of a sudden the raft started doing this and this.
01:47:02
Speaker
And I was afraid I was going to fall off. And we went underneath a branch. And I reached up and grabbed the branch. And guess what happened? The raft kept going. So here I am, hanging onto this branch. And there go my brothers down the river.
01:47:30
Speaker
Well, they quickly got that raft over to the bank, and they pulled me in. I don't know how they did it, but they got me in because I was dangling with my feet in the water. Do you think that my guardian angel was there to protect me?
Jesus' Plans and Scriptural Reflections
01:47:54
Speaker
I think so too, because Jesus always has plans for us.
01:48:01
Speaker
and he sends his angels to protect us. And there's a place in Psalms 91, 11 and 12, and it says, for he shall give his angels charge over you. In their hands, and keep you in all your ways, in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
01:48:28
Speaker
So he has every one of us watched by guardian angels so that we can do all kinds of really good things for him. Does somebody want to pray? OK. Does this come out? Thank you, Jesus, for our blessings. Help us to all be safe and that the angels protect us in Jesus' name, amen.
01:48:59
Speaker
Thank you, David, for blessing Jenga that you made us Jenga that you love us. Hope it's the job of the day in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You can go back to your seats now. Quietly.
01:49:36
Speaker
Amen. Thank you, Pam. I'd like to remind you of the Sermon of the Mount. And our scripture reading is taken from Matthew, chapter 7, verses that we know but are good. It's good for us to be reminded that the way to heaven is narrow. Chapter 7, verse 13 and 14.
01:49:59
Speaker
Matthew chapter 7 verse 13 and 14, and that will be the basis of our presentation tonight this morning by Dr. Neil Nedley. Enter yin at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there at.
01:50:22
Speaker
Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto eternal life, and few there be that find it. May we be blessed as we hear the message today.
01:51:01
Speaker
We just want to have a special time of prayer just now. Let us kneel wherever possible. Father in heaven, we thank you for being the great and good and merciful God that you are to each one of us. Lord, we thank you for this gathering here today.
01:51:27
Speaker
Many have come from far away. Many are here, Lord, remembering good times, remembering bad times, but Lord, we're here to remember you and Lord, you're calling to us to eternal life. Father, I pray that you send your spirit upon your people, not just here in this place, in this town of Holly or this country, but around the world that you may send the spirit of Jesus
01:51:57
Speaker
to strengthen your people, to help us, Lord, so we can be ready for Jesus to come. Lord, we thank you for this special gathering that we can share today.
01:52:09
Speaker
And Father, we pray that your spirit would move in our hearts and that we would recommit our lives to you and that you would lead us in the narrow way so that Jesus can be our guide into heaven. Father, please bless Dr. Nedley as he presents. May our hearts and minds be touched by the power of your word. And we pray these things for your honor and glory in Jesus' name. Amen.
01:53:29
Speaker
I pray you'll be alright And watch us where we go And help us to be wise In times when we don't know
01:53:58
Speaker
We lose our way Lean us to a place Guide us with your grace To a place where we'll be safe I pray we'll find your light I pray we'll find your light And hold it in our hearts And hold it in our hearts
01:54:29
Speaker
Stars go out each night When stars go out each night Remind us where you are Remind us where you are Let this be our prayer Let this be our prayer Shadows fill our day Shadows fill our days Lead us to a place
01:54:55
Speaker
Guide us with your grace Give us faith so we'll be safe Our world, we're pain and sorrow we'll be glinting And every heart that's broken will be maintained
01:55:18
Speaker
Remember we are all God's children Reaching out to touch you Reaching to the sky We ask that life be kind We ask that life be kind And watch us from above And watch us from above We hope each soul will find
01:55:45
Speaker
Each soul will find another soul to love. Let this be our prayer, just like every child. Just like every child needs to find a place. Guide us with your grace. Give us faith so we'll be saved.
01:56:15
Speaker
Keeps to find a place, guide us with your grace. Live with space, oh, it appears.
Introduction of Dr. Neil Nedley
01:56:40
Speaker
Man, wasn't that powerful? You know, we are so blessed to be here, to have the people we have around us. I'm so glad to have Dr. Nedley here and his wife, Erica. It's great to have Don McIntosh and his wife and son here with us. I remember the first time I think I really got to know Dr. Neil Nedley was when he came to Switzerland.
01:57:08
Speaker
And our little girls were just, I don't know, six and eight. And I could see then that this was a man that has a special mission to help people be well physically, emotionally and spiritually. And it's been a great
01:57:29
Speaker
joy to listen to some of these amazing messages and I just want to let you know that he is a practicing physician in internal medicine with an emphasis in gastroenterology, mental health,
01:57:44
Speaker
lifestyle medicine, and a difficult to diagnose patient, he developed a highly successful 10-day residential depression recovery program for treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. And we know that those things are on the rise.
01:58:01
Speaker
And we know that people need help. We all need help. And we're grateful that he's going to be our speaker for this morning. He is president of Weimar University and an author and a popular international speaker. Thanks for being here and taking the time. We know that the Lord is going to bless us as we hear the message today.
01:59:23
Speaker
The computer is giving me a message in unrecoverable error. And it obviously doesn't believe in neuroplasticity. If the brain can change, I think computer can change as well. Yeah, thank you. That might be helpful as well.
01:59:53
Speaker
But let me see if I can get this to recover from the unrecoverable error. Yeah, that'll work. Thank you very much. We'll try it now.
02:00:22
Speaker
Yeah, it looks like it recovered, maybe. It keeps blinking off and on is what it's doing right now, but it seemed to work for a second or so. Might be unrecoverable, we might have to reboot.
02:00:47
Speaker
Well, certainly good to be with you here in the Holly Church. My wife wanted to mention a special thank you to this church for what they did for her and her brother when they immigrated together from Romania. They were refugees under communist Romania.
02:01:16
Speaker
and their entire family was actually let out of Romania. I've never heard a story like that. There's a backstory about it on my side of things that may be an explanation. But after a Delphian Academy here and a relationship that broke up,
02:01:43
Speaker
Remember praying to God that he knows the women all over the world. And I know I would be a tough one to match, but I wanted to leave it in his hands. And I had no idea he would take a blue eyed Romanian girl and their entire family and bring her to my home church in Troy, Michigan, where we met a few days after she had arrived and she did not know a word of English.
02:02:14
Speaker
In fact, we were trying to figure out where she was from because she couldn't speak and we couldn't speak her language. And I know there was a number of that church who I think also went to a Delphian Academy. His name was Alberto. And I said, Alberto, try Spanish on her. So he was from Mexico and he tried Spanish and and she could actually understand a little bit of that because Romanian is a romance language.
02:02:43
Speaker
And so that's how we figured out she was from Romania that day. And they ended up a few weeks later sending her to a Delphian Academy to learn English.
02:02:54
Speaker
And
Addiction Stories and Recovery
02:02:55
Speaker
we were walking around the grounds, you know, we're staying at the pastor's place. He has a nice basement apartment there for us and a beautiful home that your pastor has. And it's right in the backyard is basically the Adelphian Academy. There's a gas line goes there, there's miles there. And then if you just walk a little bit further, you're on the old Adelphian Academy grounds. And so we were walking that this morning.
02:03:23
Speaker
And as we were walking around the gym, she said, yep, every day the guys would come here and play basketball. I said, I remember basketball was big here and I think football was big. I said, I don't remember softball or baseball being big here. I was more into that sport. And she says, yeah, basketball was big. She said the guys would come here every night.
02:03:46
Speaker
and the girls would be around the perimeter of the basketball court hoping that some guy might say something to them or notice them and I thought it was a tremendous waste of time and so I totally left that area and I would practice the organ.
02:04:03
Speaker
And I said, is this where you learned how to play organ? She says, yeah, this is my first organ lesson was the Delphian Academy. She ended up majoring in organ at Andrews University and has played church organ for many, many years.
02:04:19
Speaker
She didn't finish that major though, she went into physical therapy and came out to Loma Linda to be with me where we ended up establishing more of a relationship and now she is, believe it or not, she is editing
02:04:36
Speaker
public school curriculum for emotional intelligence in English. And she was 18 and did not know a single word of English, but she's in charge of the editing group and it's pretty amazing her abilities and how that has changed. But where the Holly Church came in is that since she was up here, they got to know her and her brother
02:05:05
Speaker
And they had no money, their parents were working in a factory for minimum wage when they came over here. And so the Holly Church ended up supporting both her and her brother to go through Adelphian Academy. And she wanted to say a special thank you to this church.
02:05:22
Speaker
And she also wanted to say a special thank you. She got quite close to the Pastor Zogger, for those of you who have been here many years. And Pastor Zogger actually baptized both her and her brother. She was 19. He was 17 in a baptistery. I think it's right there that that took place. So this has had a special place in Erica's life, and I know mine as well.
02:05:53
Speaker
Well, I think it has recovered. So we're gonna be talking about the two roads. In Matthew chapter seven that the pastor just read, enter ye at the strait gate. Why does the gate broad as the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at? But the strait,
02:06:21
Speaker
but because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. Why is the Broadway so broad and spacious but it leads to destruction and there's many that are entering in? This is the easy route. This is the no-brainer route.
02:06:47
Speaker
If you just follow your human nature, you'll go the broad way because you can take a whole truckload of sin with you. It's so broad, you can take the entire truckload down the road with you. Narrow is the gate, and narrow, actually, the Greek word behind it means contracted by pressure. And the way is straightened and compressed that leads to life, and few there be that find it.
02:07:15
Speaker
One of the reasons why it's narrow is because you can't take a whole truckload of sin down this road. And it's clear that this is the road that leads to eternal death. The vast majority of humanity will choose it according to Christ. This was from the sermon, the best sermon ever preached and recorded by Matthew. It looks attractive on the surface and it actually seems right.
02:07:46
Speaker
but it leads to consequences that are not well visualized as you start this broad path. It leads you to kick against pricks. What does this mean? This means you're actually damaging yourself. You're kicking against pricks and you're inflicting your life with pain. And it's not others that are doing it,
02:08:16
Speaker
You actually have done it to yourself. You'll come into relationships that bring significant pain in your life. And also you will be prone and chances are you will pick up some sort of addiction. That addiction you do in order to try to get high
02:08:42
Speaker
but then it lowers your dopamine set point and pretty soon you're not doing it to get high, you're just doing it to get neutral. Now, let me explain a little bit about how this happens in the brain. This is the neutral mood here.
02:09:08
Speaker
Often these are dopamine levels. It tracks with dopamine. And up here is the euphoria. People that are trying to live the great life are trying to get up here to euphoria. And then down here is dysphoria.
02:09:31
Speaker
And so we can all identify with this. I'm just going to choose something that I think we have all participated in that can have an addictive relationship. In fact, studies show that this is actually the American Addiction Association. When you look at the definition of addiction, 40% of the female population are addicted to this, and 10% of the male population are addicted to this.
02:10:01
Speaker
Anyone want to guess what it is? Yeah. So the first time, say you're three years old, you're over at Graham and it's Christmas time and the Hershey chocolate candy, specially made for Christmas comes out and grandma offers it to you. What happens to your dopamine level? Does it go up or down?
02:10:30
Speaker
Does it go up just a little bit or gradually or does it go up very steep curve? It's a steep curve. Wow, that chocolate is good. Whoa, it's up here. Not only does it taste good, I just feel good. This is great stuff. How long does it stay there? Does it stay there for hours or does it stay there for just a few minutes?
02:11:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's just a few minutes, it's not ours. It's a few minutes and pretty soon it comes down just as steeply as it rose. But this time when it goes down, it actually doesn't go down to neutral, it goes to a little bit less than neutral. And now your dopamine set point is there. The reason why is that it filled so many of those dopamine receptors that it started picking off some of those receptors. And so now you have less dopamine receptors, but you know
02:11:31
Speaker
that grandma has more of that. And so you ask grandma for more. And she says, of course, of course you can have some more. And so when you take it this time, what happens to your dopamine level? It shoots up again. Does it shoot up as high? Not quite as high. It doesn't stay up there even quite as long. And now it's down here.
02:11:58
Speaker
And now if we repeat this pattern a thousand times, it turns out with these swings in dopamine, our dopamine level is down here. This is our neutral set point. So we're feeling pretty dysphoric. We don't feel that great. And we're thinking something's wrong with the world, but yet,
02:12:28
Speaker
Russia hasn't invaded us. You still have a home. You still have food that's around. But you realize, you know, for me to feel somewhat good here, I think I need this chocolate. And so the chocolate is eaten and it comes up to neutral and then it comes back down again. Now,
02:12:55
Speaker
If chocolate can do this, you can imagine other things that can even do it more profoundly. The addictions that have become far more common in today's society have that effect. Now, if you're able to recover from an addiction, let me just tell you when I was 13 years old,
02:13:20
Speaker
This was a prominent example in my life because my father was addicted to sugar. Chocolate was part of his addiction as well. Reese's peanut butter cups, chocolate covered cherries, root beer floats. This man was addicted to sugar and he was overweight. He was shorter than I was and he was over 200 pounds.
02:13:49
Speaker
Fortunately, I've never reached that weight in my life, but he had because of this addiction, and he was an engineer that didn't have an active job. It was primarily, he was an engineer for General Motors. That's why we lived in the Detroit area in Troy, Michigan, and so he was spending a lot of time at a desk. Occasionally, he would come out here. I actually walked,
02:14:16
Speaker
drove past from the Detroit airport to where he used to go periodically, the Milford Proving Ground and the General Motors Proving Ground. He spent a lot of time out there testing automobiles and things after he had designed them and tweaking them and those sorts of things. So a lot of memories of him came up in stories of that Milford Proving Ground.
02:14:40
Speaker
But he had had two of his friends die of heart attacks in their late forties and he was in the late forties and his, my grandparents on his side, I had never met because by the time I was born, they had died of heart attacks and strokes. Did not have longevity in his genes.
02:15:03
Speaker
And as an engineer, he didn't necessarily know all the things that were causing his overweight, but he did come across a book called Sugar Blues. And he realized he had a problem. He was addicted to sugar. So he came home and he told my mother, no more sugar. No more Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. No more ice cream. No more strawberry rhubarb pie.
02:15:34
Speaker
No more, no more. And my mother smiled real big, thought, there's no way he's going to stick with this. No way he's going to stick with this. And the next night she had even forgot about it because she was baking chocolate chip toll house cookies for the family as he walked in.
02:15:57
Speaker
Have you smelt that batter as it's getting ready to be prepared? Very appetizing for a sugar or a chocolaholic. And so he said, I can't stay here. He went out in the garden and he began to work, but he had no Toll House cookies that night. And the next day, no sugar. A week later, no sugar. Two weeks later, no sugar. Now he had prayed a prayer.
02:16:26
Speaker
that God would help him with this decision. He wanted to be able to see his grandkids. He wanted to be able to be healthy. And he knew he was unhealthy at this point. He
Faith and Addiction Recovery
02:16:38
Speaker
also started an exercise program at that time. He started brisk walking, walking at least a mile and a half every day. Sometimes I would have a chance to go with him. And then my mother felt sorry for him enough
02:16:55
Speaker
that she said, okay, I'm making blueberry pie for the family. We're gonna have a regular blueberry pie, but I'll make a special blueberry pie for you with no sugar. And he appreciated that. He said, well, that's very kind of you. And so he ate the blueberry pie with no sugar. But there's something that happened four months into it. It takes some time for this dopamine set point when you're in the cycle of addiction.
02:17:23
Speaker
to actually begin to rise up again. But the good news is, a lot of people that are in this addiction condition think, we know this addiction is bad for most people, but for me, I've got to have it. They don't understand me. This is necessary for me. This is where the marijuana users, why marijuana has become so big in Michigan.
02:17:49
Speaker
We know marijuana can cause psychosis, it can lower IQ, it can lower your motivation for everything, but for me, I need it. I need the marijuana. And so they're thinking they're needing it because they feel like they have to be here at least some of the day, and they can't be down here forever.
02:18:11
Speaker
But they don't realize if they were to get rid of it, and for every addiction it takes a different period of time, but it turns out for the sugar addiction, it's now been shown that it was interesting that this occurred at the four month of no sugar standpoint. And by the way, my father did not use sugar substitutes. He didn't use any of that because he wanted to get rid of that sweet addiction taste aspect. And the pies were switched.
02:18:40
Speaker
My mom said, this is your blueberry pie. He digs into the blueberry pie and he says, I can't eat this. It's a sickening sweet.
02:18:50
Speaker
I can't believe I used to like pies like this. I can't eat this. It is so sick. And she says, I don't know what's wrong with you. That is your pie. It has no sugar. He says, it can't be my pie. She says, it is your pie. I'll show you. So she goes into the other pie and her mouth puckers up and she says, this is terrible. I can't believe that you eat this blueberry pie without any sugar. Yeah, you're right. It was switched. And at that point,
02:19:20
Speaker
My father began to enjoy food in its natural state like he had never enjoyed it before.
02:19:28
Speaker
I think he was three years old when this cycle started. And he didn't realize how great the food was going to be. My uncle would come from Texas and say, it was worth it just being here to see how much fun your dad has eating food out of the garden. He would eat corn on the cob. He said, this is like dessert. It is so great. He would have a smile on his face. And you know what would happen then when he'd eat corn on the cup like this?
02:19:57
Speaker
it would actually come up gradually and as he continued to eat these natural foods and experience the natural sweetening, the dopamine levels were up high, maybe not quite as high as the chocolate, but if he had like an apple or a peach, it could get really equivalent to that.
02:20:21
Speaker
And instead of it plummeting back down, when your dopamine set points are normalized, it actually just gradually starts to come down over the course of the day.
02:20:32
Speaker
Now what's the advantage here? If something bad happens to you, someone gets mad at you of traffic or something. I don't know, does Detroit still have the traffic it used to have? And they're exhibiting a little bit of road rage and trying to cut you off or whatever. When your dopamine level is like that, you don't get upset over it.
02:20:55
Speaker
You feel
Spiritual Well-being and Mental Health
02:20:56
Speaker
bad for them and think, I wish they could come to our church's depression and anxiety recovery program. But you don't get down in the dumps over that. And so the usual nuisances of life do not bother you. So if we take a look at the curves, this is where the narrow way people are on the top,
02:21:25
Speaker
This is the Broadway on the bottom. Now we'll get back to this. So eventually when you're walking the Broadway, you're not going to have enjoyment to the usual activities of life. You'll get up out of a sense of duty and responsibility, but not because you're really interested in the day. And then disease is coming your way in some way, shape, or form.
02:21:54
Speaker
usually prematurely. Divorce is commonplace. Broken relationships, worry and fear. And sometimes the worry and fear is not excessive, but it's certainly not peaceful. And so one of the questions that's worth asking yourself is, are you following your own rules? That's the Broadway.
02:22:24
Speaker
Or are you following God's rules? To follow God's rules, you have to trust that God knows better than you do what is best for your life. And interestingly now, there are a number of studies, we could go through them, but there are a number of studies showing that if you follow the commandments of God, you are going to have a far more full, satisfied, and happy life.
02:22:54
Speaker
than if you don't. And you know, the interesting thing is, there's only 10s God put on us. Only 10. And if we follow those 10 executive limitations, it's kind of interesting how the world tries to fight with them. You know, let me give you an example. For instance, the Sabbath. We didn't know this till 2013. There was a study done on those that keep the Sabbath versus those who don't.
02:23:21
Speaker
There's an executive limitation on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is you won't do any work. You're not going to do things just for the fun of it. In other words, you're not going to be going to sporting events. You're not going to be doing your own delight. You're going to be seeking to delight yourself in the Lord. You're going to be setting aside for worship and spiritual activities.
02:23:44
Speaker
And the studies have significantly far better mental health than those who don't keep the Sabbath. But why do people not keep the Sabbath that are Christians? They're thinking God wants me to be happy. And so he ought to be okay with me doing whatever I want to do to make, so they break the Sabbath thinking it's got to be okay because I'm going to be happier this way. But the studies show they're not happier.
02:24:12
Speaker
They actually get more ticked off. They have issues. They have dopamine set points that start to go down over time. Now bad things happen, but it doesn't get them down in the dumps. That was a 2013 study from Loma Linda University. And if you want to see the reference, I can show that to you later. But in every one of these commandments, these executive limitations, it actually leads to a healthier existence.
02:24:41
Speaker
But as fallen natures and having fallen natures, we can run into issues. The book Ministry of Healing says temptations from without find an answering cord within the heart and the feet turn imperceptibly toward evil. The problem is when we do this, we damage ourself. Through sin, the whole human organism is deranged, the mind,
02:25:11
Speaker
is what perverted the imagination corrupted. And when that happens, near as much. You know, we've had individuals that come to our program. We have a hike up at Weimar where you look at the tallest mountain range in America, the Sierra Mountains.
02:25:33
Speaker
You might think the Rockies are taller, but their floor is 5,000, but we actually do have the tallest mountain in the Sierras, taller than any of the Rockies in Colorado. But the difference is you've got sea level that you're comparing to instead of the 5,000 feet of Denver that you're comparing to. We'll take them on this hike.
02:25:55
Speaker
And we will be able to tell where people's dopamine levels are on that hike, because the ones that are just in awe, look at those snow-capped Sierras, look at the beauty. We know that they've got dopamine set points that are not way down to here. And then there'll be others, they'll look at it, and they're saying, this is doing nothing for me. Except these people are making me do this. And it's a,
02:26:25
Speaker
Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. We're also told in the same paragraph, the infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. We don't recognize
The Narrow Path and Eternal Rewards
02:26:45
Speaker
how bad it is often until we actually start doing comparison studies.
02:26:54
Speaker
And you know, good people can get involved in this. Solomon started out a committed young man, 25 years old, totally committed to the Lord. And he did a lot of good things, a lot of wise things, but then he started to get involved in false ways of altering the way he felt. First it was alcohol, then it was opium, the drugs of the day.
02:27:24
Speaker
And then finally, women. Many envied the popularity and abundant glory of Solomon, thinking that of all men, he must be the what? The most happy, but amid all that glory of artificial display, the man envied is the one to be most pitied. His countenance is dark with despair. All the splendor about him is,
02:27:48
Speaker
is but to him a mockery of the distress and anguish of his thoughts as he reviews his misspent life in seeking for happiness through indulgence and selfish gratification of every desire. By his own bitter experience, Solomon learned the emptiness of a life that seeks in earthly things its highest good.
02:28:10
Speaker
This is where humanity thinks the good life is going to be. Let's just seek to get more earthly things. Let's get more money. Let's get more of this. If I get enough earthly things, I'll finally have enough. Rockefeller was asked when he was building his massive estate, how much more until you're satisfied, Nelson? Do you know what he answered? Just a little bit more.
02:28:40
Speaker
And was he satisfied when he got a little bit more? Back to Solomon, gloomy and soul harassing thoughts troubled him night and day. For him, there was no longer any joy of life. If you don't have any joy of life, what condition do you have? That's called major depression. Nor did he have any peace of mind. If you don't have peace of mind, what do you have? Anxiety.
02:29:10
Speaker
And the future was dark with despair. There's a lot of false ways of altering the way you feel. And the more money you make, the more false ways you can come up with to alter the way you feel. But the problem is you can never get enough of what you don't need. You don't need chocolate. You don't need sugar. You don't need marijuana.
02:29:39
Speaker
You don't need alcohol. You don't need pornography. You don't need to watch NFL football or Major League Baseball because what you don't need will what? Will never satisfy you. By the way, we can get enough of what we do need. That's why you've never found a person addicted to broccoli.
02:30:10
Speaker
You can get enough broccoli and you'll be fine. But there's not this pull to go back to it and this cycle that goes back to it. Broccoli has some necessary ingredients and it's healthy for us. So the results of the broad road, what are the results? You actually not only kick against the pricks and start damaging yourself, you actually become an enemy of God. That's pretty sobering.
02:30:40
Speaker
And then you find it impossible to do what's right on your own accord. And then you'll get yourself involved in all kinds of trouble. And you won't be able to experience true love. Yes, you'll have a self-centered love. You know, I'll love you if you love me back, those sorts of things. But you won't have love for your enemies. You won't have any real joy
02:31:12
Speaker
and you won't have any real peace. And then you'll be suffering the consequences of guilt and recognize there's even more bad coming your way. Well, you might say, aren't there painful aspects of the narrow way? Yes, there are some painful aspects. This is why some people decide not to choose it. Paul talked about that narrow aspect, I die daily.
02:31:42
Speaker
He said, I am crucified with Christ. They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. This means we're willing to put our all on the altar for the Lord Jesus. And the summary is walking the narrow way involves crucifying sinful desires. But yet, we want to go after something just for the feeling.
02:32:10
Speaker
but we don't recognize where that ends up. Yes, it's hard on the front end. This is why it's a hard decision to crucify the sinful desires, but it's so much better as we go start walking that narrow way. The road also will lead to humility. It will lead to transparency, but it also leads to love for the Lord that is worth everything.
02:32:40
Speaker
it'll result in a merciful, loving character, even towards our enemies. And it will bring a worship experience that brings peace and joy. A worship experience will produce euphoric levels off the chart that won't go down as soon as that worship experience is over with, but can last you through the entire week in dopamine levels above neutral.
02:33:05
Speaker
You know, the interesting thing is both groups get their dopamine. Often we just talk about the dopamine level of the rebellious addict, but this group is getting their dopamine as well. They're just getting it far differently and in a far more healthy and better way. The narrow way results in great, helpful, and loving relationships. Marriages that are a heaven on earth. We're told only one in a hundred marriages are a heaven on earth.
02:33:34
Speaker
the way God designed marriage to be. But when you are truly self-sacrificing and you have that heavenly love as part of your marriage, you are going to have a wonderful marriage. It'll result in generosity, a character of generosity and honesty. You won't have to worry about your partner pulling the wool over your eyes.
02:34:03
Speaker
and it's gonna result in ultimate satisfaction. That's why God, in fact, if you go, you might go to the pastor's house, for those of you that are former Adelphianites this afternoon, and begin to be envious about his beautiful home and beautiful nature surroundings. But when you have, as part of your character, thou shalt not covet,
02:34:33
Speaker
When you look at things like that, you'll look at it and say, I don't need that in order to be satisfied. When you go shopping and you see the Corvette, you say, I don't need that. In fact, you go around and just point out all the things you don't need because you have satisfaction far greater in not coveting
02:34:59
Speaker
and being and enjoying the fruits of following the Lord. Where does this path end up? Thou will show me the path of life. In thy presence is what? Fullness of joy. This is something we need to seek for every day in our life, is to be in the presence of the Lord. It brings fullness of joy. At thy right hand, there are what? Pleasures forevermore. And then the peace that comes from this lifestyle.
02:35:29
Speaker
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, says Jesus, not as the world giveth. What's worldly peace? Worldly peace is just the absence of war. And you might think, well, that's important. We would like to see the absence of war throughout the world, and that's what the world considers peace. But this is not the peace that Christ gives.
02:35:52
Speaker
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. That's the type of peace that Christ gives. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So even under a tremendous abuse and discord, you will still have a peace that passes understanding. There are additional benefits.
02:36:18
Speaker
Christ said, I came to not only give you life, to give it more abundantly, but I came to bring you joy that might remain in you. This lifestyle, the joys don't remain. They're very transient and we have to keep seeking more. But he wants the joy that we have to remain in you and that our joy might be full.
02:36:41
Speaker
And one of the ways that joy comes about is the joy that was set before him. Does anyone know the rest of that text? For the joy that was set before him, he what? Endured the cross, despising the shame. In other words, when you have Christ's love and joy in your heart, you are going to be willing to have yourself be sacrificed for the good of others.
02:37:12
Speaker
And when you see others turn around, it brings you a joy that's far above that chart. It's up there to the ceiling. I can tell you, Don kinda mentioned it earlier today, but when you see people that have been stuck in the broad way of sin, suffering all these complications, and then come to the program, and then begin to realize the secret
02:37:39
Speaker
and turn around and want to give their life, entire life to the Lord. And particularly when you see them again, that happened to me on Thursday. I was in Boston, Massachusetts, and I was touring an academy over there.
02:37:56
Speaker
And I wanted to see the academy at Weimar. We have Weimar Academy as well. So I'm actually, who knew that I would be in charge of an academy here at Adolphian someday and also in charge of a college. But I wanted to see the academy, had a good reputation in the area and just, you know, there's always things to learn. And the person when I came in said, I know you, do you know me?
02:38:24
Speaker
And I said, I have to tell me, I know, I know, I know you. I know I've seen you. He said, I went through depression recovery in 2014. It was the best 10 days of my life and it totally turned me around. And this Academy has the reputation it has because I went to Weimar and it changed my life.
02:38:47
Speaker
tell you how gratifying that is, to hear that, that's all the reward that we need, is to see lives change. And to see this on a regular basis, every time we do programs and the scores of individuals, what a way, so much than any other way. And then you'll also have the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness,
02:39:16
Speaker
So there's a lot of bonuses, too many to mention on this earth that you'll get following the narrow way. Many people think they have to wait until heaven to get these joys. No, God has those joys prepared for us now. So the question is, which prince are you going to follow? The prince of this world, which is Satan, or the prince of peace, which is Christ?
02:39:45
Speaker
If you follow the Prince of Peace, he tells us very clearly we must be willing to face opposition. Why are we going to face opposition? Because the Prince of this world is still in charge, largely, of the broad way and all these people walking it.
02:40:01
Speaker
As you get more success, they're going to attack, just like they attacked the Savior. But yet when that happens, it will draw us closer to the Savior and give us more of the godly hatred towards sin. And that is something that's a beautiful aspect of following the narrow way, even in facing that opposition. And some of that opposition might come from your own household.
02:40:28
Speaker
As Christ predicted in Matthew 10.34, it hurts worse when it comes from those you love the most. Man's enemies will be those of his own household. But yet, the contrast of the Broadway when we take a look at what happens there is well worth it. I'd like you to open your Bibles to Mark chapter 10. And Christ actually talked about this pathway that we demonstrated
02:41:00
Speaker
Many people don't realize that Christ mentioned this. He actually mentioned it in the context. If we go back to verse 17, we see the rich young ruler coming to Christ. And Christ said, you need to put your all on the altar.
02:41:28
Speaker
He tells us in different ways how we need to do this, but he told him in one particular way because of his wealth, he needed to sell what he had and become a full-time follower of him. And the man went away sorrowful. And he mentioned it's hard for those that have riches to enter the kingdom of God.
02:41:53
Speaker
And verse 26, disciples were greatly astonished saying, who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, with men it is impossible, but with God, for with God, all things are possible. Then Peter said, well, we've left all. We left all to follow you. What's gonna be our outcome?
02:42:22
Speaker
Jesus answered and said, assuredly I say to you, there is no one which has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or what else? Lands, that means property, assets, for my sake and the Gospels. Who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time?
02:42:48
Speaker
Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with what else? Persecution so he's even factoring in the persecutions and the negative things that will come our way from knocking from going through the narrow way But not only will they have a hundredfold more now in this life But in what will they have? eternal life
02:43:18
Speaker
And so he said more than 100. If you take a look at this curve down here, which is where the Broadway leads, and you take a look at this curve up here, because this is below neutral and this is above neutral, that is far more than 100-fold difference in dopamine levels, just in living your life in this world. And that's before you get to eternal life.
02:43:47
Speaker
But in order to walk this way, Christ says, what does Matthew 6.33 say? Seek ye first, that's what commandment number one is about. Get our priorities straight. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto you. That ultimate love, and yes the world is not able to generate in and of yourself. It has to come from outside of us.
02:44:16
Speaker
But with Christ and the Holy Spirit, you will have the real thing, what everyone else is looking for. And this is the love of God, that you keep my commandments. But the commandments are what? They're not burdensome, they're actually for us. And then this promise that comes with it, when we are totally in his presence, following his way, this promise comes about that he will never leave us or forsake us.
02:44:46
Speaker
No matter what we're going through, He will be by our side. He will allow His presence to be with us. Such love is restrictive. You can't take a truckload of sin down the road with you. It's restrictive in those areas, but it is well worth it. And where does the narrow way end up? You'll receive the seal of God.
02:45:15
Speaker
You will come to a point where there will be no more tears. You'll be led by rivers of water.
02:45:23
Speaker
You'll build wonderful homes far better than anything Solomon had here or far better than Bill Gates or whatever. You'll plant vineyards and you'll be able to harvest those vineyards and you will be living a life that is way off the charts in regards to satisfaction and success. And you'll also in the life to come be part of the majority ruling party.
02:45:52
Speaker
A lot of people don't like to be part of the minority. The remnant's just going to be a small group, but you'll be a part of the majority ruling party someday, and you'll attend the wedding supper of the Lamb. But best of all, Jesus will be there. We will not only feel His presence, we'll be able to see His presence and converse face to face. And from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. These are promises
02:46:22
Speaker
that are sure. And even that hundred-fold promise is sure. I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. Out of me, with their band and choir and those sorts of things, and at Weimar College, they've even cranked it up a notch from there. It's just wonderful
The Promise of Eternal Life
02:46:45
Speaker
music. But can you imagine the music of heaven?
02:46:50
Speaker
it's gonna be far above what we've ever heard. That's nor ear heard. By the way, if there was music like that available, in this world, you'd have to pay at least a million dollars a ticket to hear it. And there'd be all sorts of people fighting for those seats, paying the million dollars. But in heaven, it will be free. Everyone that worships the Lord. And then the eye of the new creation
02:47:19
Speaker
Well, I would love to see God actually create the world. None of us were there for the original creation, but we'll see it the next time. And you know, even the resurrection is going to be amazing, you know, because this resurrection thing, you know, one of the reasons why we have this theory of evolution that has come in
02:47:42
Speaker
is because this creation was different. Everything was based on reproduction, so plants could reproduce, animals could reproduce, humans could reproduce. And it's just incredible that you can believe in evolution
02:47:57
Speaker
but yet see what's happening with the embryo and the brain forming and all of those things and no one intervening at all and a perfect baby comes out that's far more complex than a 747, than an Airbus 380, than the most complex structure known to humanity and no one has had to do anything to produce that perfection.
02:48:22
Speaker
It is, no one can explain why it happens. They can explain that it does happen, but they can't understand that. And so it seems like, well, God doesn't seem to be involved in this. Of course, he was involved in everything in regards to this whole creation element. But on the resurrection, he will actually individually recreate all of our relatives. But they will still have the same personality,
02:48:48
Speaker
They'll still have the same character that they went down in the grave with and individually that will happen. That's an amazing, just the power and creativity of the Lord is perfectly, is really amazing. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates.
02:49:13
Speaker
into the city, one of the last verses in all of the Bible. We're told in comparison with the millions of the world, God's people will be as they have ever been a little flock. So we will be a minority in this world. But if they stand for the truth as revealed in his word, God will be their refuge. They stand under the broad shield of omnipotence. God is always a majority.
02:49:44
Speaker
When the sound of the last, Trump shall penetrate the prison house of the dead, and the righteous shall come forth with triumph, exclaiming, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Standing then with God, with Christ, with the angels, and with the loyal and true of all ages, the children of God will be far in the majority.
02:50:07
Speaker
Christ's true disciples follow him through sore conflicts, enduring self-denial, experiencing bitter disappointment, but this teaches them the guilt and woe of sin, and they are led to look upon it with abhorrence. Partakers of Christ's sufferings, they are destined to be partakers of his glory. Where does the Broadway end up? We really need to compare that as well. When you walk the Broadway, you'll receive the mark of the beast. You'll drink of the wrath of God.
02:50:37
Speaker
you'll receive the seven last plagues and you will not have control over your emotions or over your self. And you'll ultimately die the most painful death ever imaginable that no human being has ever died yet except for Christ.
02:51:01
Speaker
the second death. By the way, he came not to take away the first death. He didn't die the first death, he died the second death. And that second death, it'll be like brilliant impressions for those that die that second death of the way in which they turned away from trusting God and followed their own rules and how they could have taken a different pathway. That's going to be
02:51:31
Speaker
a painful death, and it's clear, everyone who walks the broad road will end up in that category. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. A lot of people come to church, however, and they say, can't I just sit on the fence? Christ says, no one can serve two masters. He who is not with me is against me. So if you're thinking you're not making any decision in this decision today of which road, you are making a decision.
02:52:01
Speaker
He who is not born of water and the spirit cannot enter the kingdom of God. One last story. This was Brother Fitch and Stockman. They had died in their younger years and they had been following the Lord. And now it's eternity.
02:52:27
Speaker
They have been resurrected from the dead and they realize Ellen White and all those that they knew had lived a long life and had gone through a lot of trials after they died. And so we all went under a tree. They're having a little family reunion, the family of God reunion. And by the way, when you replace your own family who has rejected Christ with family members who are accepting Christ, it becomes even a closer family.
02:52:56
Speaker
So we all went under the tree and sat down to look at the glory of the place when Brother and Fritch and Stockman who had preached the gospel of the kingdom and who God had laid in the graves to save them came up to us and asked us what we had passed through while they were sleeping. We tried to call up our greatest trials, but they looked so small compared with the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that surrounded us that we could not speak them out.
02:53:25
Speaker
And we all cried, hallelujah, heaven is cheap enough, and we touched our glorious harps and made heaven's arches ring. They thought about their worst trials, but they realized it seems so silly now that we would even mention it. It's just no comparison whatsoever. And so what does this mean? This means the no-brainer decision is to follow God's way.
02:53:51
Speaker
to make the decision to go the narrow way. I don't see any reason why anyone would be compelled to sit on the fence today. Yes, it is hard, because when you've walked the narrow way, there are things you're gonna have to give up. Some of you know what things you might need to give up, and it's like, well, wait a minute, I still wanna have that. I'm still looking for this. Don't be so short-sighted.
02:54:21
Speaker
This is coming. It may be months. It's worth the process. But I would encourage you, decide today to walk the narrow way. And whatever it is that you need to give up, it'll be well worth it. And in heaven,
02:54:41
Speaker
When you are ultimately successful and people are asking you how hard was that to give up, it'll seem so easy in comparison with the eternal weight of glory that you won't even mention. It's
Commitment to Faith and Closing Prayer
02:54:53
Speaker
not even worth mentioning in regards to what you had to go through. Our closing song is in the hymnal. And by the way, I enjoy that organ. A lot of churches don't have organs these days.
02:55:11
Speaker
But thank you for the organ and the closing hymn. Hopefully you'll have it in your hymnal because I don't have it up here. Let's go ahead and stand and turn in our hymnals to 296. 296. Lord, I'm coming home.
02:55:46
Speaker
Far away from God, now I'm coming home. The west of sin to all has come, Lord, I'm coming home.
02:56:10
Speaker
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Wherefore do you go? Open wide the lost and gone, Lord, I'm coming home.
02:56:38
Speaker
wasted many precious years. Now I'm coming home. I now repent with bitter tears. Lord, I'm coming home.
02:57:04
Speaker
coming home, coming home, never more to go. Open wide my last support, Lord, I'm coming home.
02:57:32
Speaker
I'm tired of sin and straying alone. Now I'm coming home. I'll trust my love beneath my work. Lord, I'm coming home.
02:58:00
Speaker
Come ye home, come ye home, yet more to come. Open wide thy lives of love.
02:58:21
Speaker
Lord, I'm coming home. You know, friends, I'd just like to give anybody who would like to, as we're singing the last few verses of this song, if you'd like to come forward and say to the Lord, I'm coming home. I'm tired of roaming. I want to have my life fully in your control. I invite you to come forward. I'm here because I want to renew my commitment to the Lord.
02:58:46
Speaker
And I just ask for the Holy Spirit to be poured out in your heart. And our hearts as we see the Lord soon return to you. So as you feel that you want to commit your life to the Lord, recommit your life to Him, you need to be rebaptized, you want to be baptized. Just come, this is an important opportunity that you have. Let's take it, friends. Come home to Jesus.
02:59:12
Speaker
only hope, my only plea. Now I'm coming home. Let Jesus die and die for me. Now I'm coming home.
02:59:38
Speaker
How we go, how we go, never more to go. Open wide thy eyes your sorrow, more than coming home.
03:00:05
Speaker
I need his cleansing, Lord, I know. Now I'm coming home. Oh, wash me wide with the hands of snow. Lord, I'm coming home.
03:00:59
Speaker
Is anybody coming home to Jesus?
03:01:05
Speaker
Amen. Amen, we thank you that you have outlined for us on the greatest sermon that was ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, the two roads. Lord, I pray that we would learn to trust you fully and that we would learn to not delay.
03:01:34
Speaker
As my father's life was turned completely around in a very positive way and I saw a new father emerge, I know you have plans for each one here to live a far more abundant life full of a transformative influence in their families and communities. And I pray, Lord, that each one would make that decision
03:02:02
Speaker
to get rid of the things, impairing them from walking the narrow way, and change, for those that are walking the broad way, to change to the narrow way, fully embracing your love, your rules, your love, and your peace in their life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
03:02:29
Speaker
Thank you
03:03:50
Speaker
you