Sermon Notes - Feb 20, 2005
"Thinking Clearly About Your
Problems"
Clear Thinking, part 1
2 Corinthians 4:7-12
I.
Introduction: your mind is an amazing creation of God
A.
It handles billions and billions of pieces of information.
Everything you’ve ever experienced is stored somewhere in that
wet-wear.
1)
It can process 800 memories a second for your entire
lifetime and never get tired.
2)
No computer will ever compare with the amazing capacity of
the human brain and you will only use a small fraction of your intellect
in your lifetime.
B.
In spite of the amazing capacity of the human brain, we find
ourselves in all kinds of situations and problems that defy our ability to
overcome.
1)
We become captive to habits and ways of thinking that escape
our best efforts at reform.
2)
We exert all of our will and intellect and still we make bad
choices, questionable friendships, and outright wrong decisions.
3)
Why can’t we change?
C.
The Bible tells us in Romans 12: , “As a man thinks in his
heart, so he is.”
1)
You aren’t what you eat!
You are what you think more than anything else.
2)
What determines your choices and your destination are your
thoughts: not your background, not your genes, not the way you were
raised.
3)
What you choose to think about has greater influence on your
life than anything else you can imagine.
D.
Therefore, if you’re serious about changing something in
your life, you have to begin by changing the way you think and what you
think about.
1)
It’s like me asking you not to think about pink elephants.
2)
Again, Romans 12 tells us, “be transformed by the renewing
of your mind.”
3)
The way to change your life and become what you want to
become is to change the way you think.
E.
Lent is a good time to talk about what you’d change in
your life. 40 days to examine
you life and ask “How will I be different spiritually at the end of this
time? Physically?
Financially? Socially?
1)
If you ever hope to meet the challenge of making those
changes you’ve got to start by changing the way you think.
2)
We’re beginning a new series of sermons this morning
called “Clear Thinking.”
3)
We’ll look at thinking clearly about your future, your
family, your work and others. Today,
I want you to think clearly about your problems.
F.
All of us go through some dark days and some troubled times.
All of us struggle through some days wondering where we’re headed
and have no sense of direction.
1)
All of us have those times when we feel like we’re in a
fog and we don’t know what to do next.
2)
What do you do?
II.
The Bible says you begin by changing the way you think.
A.
You’re biggest problem is not your problems it is your
perspective.
1)
How you look at your problems is far important than the
problems you actually have.
2)
With the right perspective you can handle almost anything.
With the wrong perspective you can handle almost nothing.
3)
And it’s all in the way you look at it.
B.
Someone who had his fair share of problems was the Apostle
Paul: let’s look at 2
Corinthians 4: 7-12 together.
1)
This is our dilemma, as it was Paul’s – we’re taking
it on the chin.
2)
Paul was a man of incredible fortitude.
He was also a man who went through difficult suffering and trials.
I wish I could accomplish a small piece of what he did for God.
C.
Look again at what he said:
1)
Hard pressed but not hemmed in.
Not surrounded. Not
without hope. God doesn’t do
dead ends!
2)
Perplexed but not without hope.
You aren’t completely cut off and in a corner.
When you perplexed you only have two options despair or hope.
3)
Persecuted but not abandoned.
We’re hounded, but we’re not forsaken.
a)
In prison, the writer Dostoevski was giving up hope after
years of confinement until every day around dinner time some unknown soul
would come to the small window of his cell and whisper, “Courage
brother, we also suffer.”
b)
We may feel singled out, but we are never forsaken.
4)
Struck down but not depressed.
Rather than a physical attack, Paul is referring to a blow to the
heart. His hasn’t lost
faith, he hasn’t given up – he’s still in there swinging.
D.
Paul acknowledges his struggles and even paints a pretty
bleak picture of the life of a disciple.
1)
As a job description that leaves a lot to be desired.
Who’d sign up for being frustrated, hard pressed, perplexed,
persecuted, and struck down?
2)
And then in verse 11 he says that, “we are always given
over to death.” Great it
just keeps getting better.
3)
Paul is trying to make the point that following God is
costly! It involves laying
down our lives.
4)
And the struggles we face are not fate or misfortune, it is
all the law of sacrifice at work. Death
is at work in us Paul says.
5)
But life also. Paul
believes that burdens become inspiration.
That struggles give birth to holiness.
E.
So, if this is our dilemma where can we find a solution?
1)
Look later in 2 Corinthians 4, at verse 18.
2)
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on
what is unseen. For
what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
3)
It’s another way for Paul to tell us that we have to
change the way we think.
III.
How do we do that? It
sounds great to talk about it, but like most things it’s easier to talk
about than do.
A.
Let’s look at some Psalms that can give us a pretty good
grasp of how to change our perspective.
1)
The Psalms are great because they contain the entire breadth
and depth of human emotion.
2)
In many of the Psalms, David starts out a little fuzzy and
confused. But by the end he
usually is able to sharpen his focus and he comes to a good conclusion
with the Lord’s help.
B.
When your situation looks depressing, you need to think
about the goodness of God.
1)
If I went home today after church and turned on the faucet
in my kitchen and no water came out, it would be kind of crazy for me to
fun into the street yelling, “The world is out of water!”
a)
The world isn’t out of water; it’s just that my faucet
isn’t working.
b)
Yet we do that all the time with our problems and it leads
to depressed thinking. All or
nothing thinking. We forget
the good things in our lives.
2)
There’s an easy solution – count your blessings.
“Count your blessings name them one by one.”
They are evidence of the goodness of God in your life.
3)
And then take a step beyond that.
Once you focus on how good your blessings are begin to think
seriously about how good a God, God really is.
a)
God really does have your best interest at heart.
b)
He knows what he’s doing and he wants good for you even
when you don’t understand it.
4)
God is a good God. He’s
bigger than whatever you’re going through.
a)
If you can stop focusing on how people have hurt you and how
you’ve been wronged and begin focusing on how good God has been –
you’ll start to get your joy back.
b)
You can’t control your experiences, but you can control
how you choose to think about them.
5)
Face it, life doesn’t always go as planned.
There are disappointments – big and little.
But focus on the goodness of God.
6)
In Psalm 31:19, David says, “How great is your goodness
which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the
sight of men on those who take refuge in you.”
a)
If anyone knew disappointment struggle and trial, it was
David.
b)
But when you commit your life to God; nothing goes to waste.
Even the bad things that other people cause, God uses them for good
in your life.
7)
One more step: Anytime you don’t follow what God says to
do in his word, your doubting God’s goodness.
a)
“Sex is only for marriage.” – Because he’s a good
God.
b)
When you say, forget what god says.
I’ll do what I want.” You
are saying: God is not a good God. I
know better than God.
c)
“Tithing.” --
I can’t do that. I can’t
live on 90%. You doubt God’s
goodness. You think you know
best.
8)
Whenever you doubt God’s love and goodness you always get
into trouble.
C.
When your situation looks defeating, you think about the
greatness of God.
1)
The fact is, you will fail at many things in life.
You failed in the past, you’ll fail again.
a)
Things don’t always go the way we expect.
And sometimes we want to give up.
b)
We think its hopeless and not worth the time trying.
a.
Maybe you’re tried to change your marriage.
Your relationship with your kids.
And nothing seems to work.
b.
Maybe you’ve prayed about a health problem and you’re
still facing it.
c.
Maybe you’ve tried to change yourself and you know
you’re still the same old, same old.
c)
STOP! Psalm
147:5 says, “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding
has no limit.”
a.
Stop focusing on your problem and start focusing on God’s
power.
b.
Stop focusing on what you can’t do and start focusing on
what God can do.
d)
If you need more assurance and more proof look at Psalm
69:13-14 “O God; answer me with your sure salvation.
Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those
who hate me, from the deep waters.”
a.
There are plenty of times where we feel like failure is a
constant companion. Or you
feel like your in quicksand – the more you try to change the more stuck
you become.
b.
What you need is help from the outside.
God’s mighty hand to lift you out of a problem.
There are just some things that you can’t overcome by yourself.
e)
Pray this prayer: “Lord, instead of focusing on this
problem, I’m going to look a t the problem and see the greatness of who
You are. I will focus on the
power of an Almighty God.
D.
When your situation looks like darkness, you need to think
about the closeness of God.
1)
Some you are living in the dark right now.
a)
The key is “what do you do when you face dark days?”
b)
Psalm 112: 1,3-4,6-7 says, “Praise the Lord.
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in
his commands. Wealth and
riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.
Even in darkness light dawns for the upright.
Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous man will be remembered
forever. He will have no fear
of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord..”
2)
There is the antidote to dark days: Settle in your mind that
God is going to take care of you. You
don’t need to have all the answers when you know that God does.
a)
Focus on the closeness of God and keep on trusting.
b)
No cheap answers: there may truly be some lessons for you to
learn as you go through dark times.
a.
God is more interested in your character than he is your
comfort.
b.
God’s goal is not to make life easier for you – it’s
to make you more like Jesus Christ.
3)
Don’t ask why is this happening?
Ask, God what do you want me to learn from this dark day?
4)
Be confident of his presence with you at every step.