035. Brothers Changed and Life Is Good

Do you make New Year’s resolutions?  -------------

Unfortunately, there’s a bad saying that’s developed.  Do you know what it is?     ....  

PP          “Resolutions are only made to be broken.”

That saying destroys people.  ---------

------  Hulda Crooks celebrated her 100th birthday.  Soon after, she published her book, ‘Conquering Life’s Mountains’.  This incredible little Christian woman, barely 150cms tall, at age 65 had lost both her husband and only child.  In her loneliness she longed for a challenge. 

At a time when most people are relaxing into comfortable retirement, Hulda began conquering mountains.  She has since climbed the 3,800 metre Mt Whitney in the United States, 25 times, earning the title ‘Grandma Whitney’.  At age 91 she also climbed Japan’s Mt Fuji, conquering it in pitch dark and freezing conditions.  When she arrived at the summit, she said, …

PP     “This is like life – we take a few steps forward, and then are blown back a few.  The important thing is to keep your eye on the goal and move toward it – step by step.”

PP   “Are you ever going to slow down?” someone asked.  “Why?” she said, “so old age can catch me?”

-----   Now, it is the New Year.  To help us move positively into this new year, I’ve titled my message ....

PP1      The Power of Faith   

or in our modern language, 

PP2      The Power of Positive Thinking

-----   When sick people came to Jesus and asked Him to heal them, what did He ask them? ....  “Do you believe I can heal you?”   If the answer was ‘Yes’, they were healed.  In Matthew 9:29 Jesus said, 

PP1      Matthew 9:29   “According to your faith let it be to you.”

I looked up ‘believe’ in the dictionary.  It said … 

PP2   ‘Believe – have faith or confidence in’.   They had faith that Jesus could heal them.  They believed positively that Jesus could heal them.  They were positive thinkers! 

-----   The great old-time preacher Dr Norman Vincent Peale wrote a book called ‘The Power of Faith’.  It sold well.

The publisher said, “Dr Peale, we believe we should change the word ‘Faith’ to its more modern meaning ‘Positive Thinking’”.    So the book ‘The Power of Faith’ became ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ and has so far sold well over 20 million copies.  That one book has helped millions of people around the world to believe in themselves and be successful. 

PP   Norman Vincent Peale and the Bible both say, “You can not improve your lot in life if you don’t believe you can”.    

I expect some of you here might feel that life has dealt you a lemon and you can’t change it.  You might think you can’t change it, but that is definitely a bad way to think – because almost always, what you think, is what will happen. ---

Friends, please write this verse down and read it regularly.

PP1    Proverbs 23:7   “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

You cannot improve your lot in life  -  if you think you can’t.

Remember the old saying....

 PP2    “He who thinks he can and he who thinks he can’t, are both right!”   

------   What is positive thinking?  It’s the opposite of negative thinking. The people who’ve done extraordinary things in this world, have always been positive thinkers.  None of them ever believed they could fail.  They always knew, with the help of God, that they could, if they thought they could.

-------   Look at this T shirt …

PP    (Frog T Shirt)

It’s got a picture of a bird trying to swallow a frog.  And the frog has got it’s hands out and it’s locked them around the throat of the bird, nearly choking it.  It is not going to give up.  And the caption down at the bottom of the T shirt is, “Never, ever give up.”  And that frog’s not going to give up.  -----

-----   Now Winston Churchill’s example:  He made that statement in one of his famous speeches ---  “NEVER GIVE UP!  NEVER GIVE UP!”   

Churchill was always known for his wonderful and very positive speeches, and his speeches were very important around war time when England was in a lot of trouble.  The people would come to hear him speak.

This time he was invited to speak to hundreds and hundreds of young students who were about to enter university and work and so forth.  They were about to move on into the future and he came to encourage them.

When Churchill stood up to speak, he walked to the right hand end of the stage, looked out on the throng of people on that side, and he said to them, “Never give up!”

And then he walked down to the other end of the stage and looked at the people in that area and he said to them, “Never give up!”

Then he walked back to the rostrum in the centre, and he stood there, and said, “Never, ever give up!”   And he sat down.  His speech was finished.

Some people were probably unhappy that he had said so little, but you and I friends know that they were probably the most important words he could have ever spoken.  “Never, ever, give up!”  -------

And Abraham Lincoln, who overcame set-back after set-back before winning the Presidency of the United States. ---  What about Mother Theresa? –-- And so the list goes on. –-- Great Positive thinkers and great achievers!   -----

Friends, our Lord, Jesus Christ also was a great positive thinker and achiever – encouraging us to follow His example and make incredible changes in our lives, with His help.

Please come with me to the Bible.  It is still OK this year to believe the Bible.  It is still OK to believe Philippians 4:13 that says, ....

PP    Philippians 4:13   “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” ---- 

----   Do you have concerns in your life?  Concerns that centre around health, finances, relationships, overcoming fears?  Have you chosen to take them into this wonderful New Year and spoil it for yourself?  Or are you going to address your concerns and overcome them?  What will you choose to do?  Have you moved into this New Year happy – or unhappy?  ----------

--------- If you are standing on a certain spot in the deep snow on a particular mountain in Switzerland, the snow all looks the same.  But when the snow on that spot melts, some of the water runs down one side of the mountain into the Rhone River and finally flows into the inviting Mediterranean Sea.  The rest of the water runs down the other side into the Rhine River and finally finishes up in the cold Atlantic Ocean.

You and I friends are standing today on that spot.  Today, and every day, you and I are going to make a choice.  By our attitude and actions, we will choose to finish up as it were, in the beautiful Mediterranean, or the cold Atlantic. ---------

---------  Jesus has always wanted the very best for us – spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, the lot.  In John 10:10 He said ....

PP    John 10:10     “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” 

--------   I’ve got a question for you. ---  

PP1   

Question:       In the coming months, would you like to have the best in this world, or are you willing to settle for the worst?   

----  Which is it?  

----  Of course you would rather have the best!  And how are you going to get the best?   

The answer  …

PP2   

Answer:    Think the best, not the worst, because in the long run, 

you get what you think.  

If you are a negative thinker and you’d like to know what you’re going to be five years from now, I can tell you.  You don’t have to get your tea leaves or your palm read.  You can do it yourself - free.  -------   All you need to do is to read the thoughts that are activating your mind now because in five years time these ongoing thoughts will produce actions that flow from a negative mental state.  Very dangerous!

These fleety, filmy little things called thoughts can be powerfully good or powerfully evil in your life.  Add all those thoughts up, and in five years time, you and I are, what we thought about.  ------

-----  The Bible says in the book of ….

PP      Proverbs 23:7

‘As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.’    So think BIG!

-------   I’m going to give you four steps to achieve a more enthusiastic existence so that people won’t mind being around you.  

If you want to increase your level of enthusiasm, the first step is to 

….

PP1

Step 1.     Look for the good in yourself.

Wipe away thoughts of failure and memories of past mistakes.  Get rid of the rubbish baggage and move on.  See yourself as the competent and worthwhile person you really are.  When you feel good about yourself, you’ll begin to feel good about everything else.

First up tomorrow morning, get into the bathroom and get some toothpaste or shaving cream on your finger and draw one of those ‘smiley faces’ on the mirror and write under it, 

PP                        

‘Today is the first day 

of the rest of my life.  

            LIVE LIFE TODAY!’  

And if you’ve got to leave it on for six months to get the message, then leave it on for six months.  It’s better to have a messed up mirror than a messed up life.  --------

PP2

Step 2.      Throw away all thoughts of self-pity.  

                   A person who is full of self pity, is piti-ful.  

Start thinking of the good things you’ve got, instead of what you’ve lost.  Sit down and list all your assets in terms of personality, talent, friends, family, health;  all the tangibles that make up your real wealth.  …

PP    A sunny day in the backyard can be just as great a treasure as a fancy holiday.  It all depends on what kind of attitude and enthusiasm you bring to it.

The third step toward a more enthusiastic life, is to....

PP3

Step 3.     Stop thinking of yourself and look for someone else who needs your help.  

PP    Step outside yourself.  Start thinking what positive things you can do for others.  Be constructive toward others instead of destructive.   ---------

PP4

Step 4.      Look at every problem as a challenge that can be turned into a treasure if you approach it with enthusiasm.  Problems are great things, challenging each one of us to find a great solution.  

Enthusiasm is contagious;  learn it, live it and pass it on.  ----

------   Now Jesus wanted the people He healed to believe big.  He wants us to believe big.  He wants us to be positive thinkers.  And as we head into this great new year, He wants us to do some other things big.  In fact there are at least eleven things He wants us to do big from now on.  You might like to write them down.  Or Kathy will give you a card later with them all written down.   -----   

----  Just like ourselves, a man had messed up some parts of his life and felt he was a failure.  His enthusiasm had gone and he hardly felt like getting out of bed in the mornings.  This man finally got sick of scratching around in the dirty, dusty chicken yard of life and decided it was time to fly with the eagles where the air is cleaner, the health is better, and the view is better and it’s not so crowded. 

This man wrote down these eleven things, and he started saying them and doing them every morning and every night and it changed his life.   Here they are.  They form what I call ....

PP  The Eleven Big Plan

1.   Pray Big

2.   Think Big

3.   Believe Big

4.   Act Big

5.   Dream Big

6.   Work Big

7.   Give Big

8.   Forgive Big

9.   Love Big

10.  Be Big

11.  Laugh Big

So that’s it, ‘The Eleven Big Plan’.

PP1    1.   PRAY BIG!    

That means more time with Jesus and our heavenly Father during this year.  PRAY BIG.

A negro cook lady was asked how she so completely mastered her troubles.  This is what she said.  …

PP2      “Ordinary problems can be fixed by ordinary prayers, but when a big problem comes along, you have to have big prayers.”

------   If we’ve got problems in our relationships or in our business or in our health, then we’ve got to get on our knees and pray big, not small.  Pray big and God will give us the answers.  I often pray and while I’m on my knees, the answer comes into my mind.  So I stop in the middle of my prayer, write down the answer before I forget, then close my eyes again and thank God for the answer.

PP    Sometimes God gives us the answer and we insult Him by not doing what He tells us to do, because we don’t like His answer.  

If we don’t want to do what He asks, then let’s quit asking for His advice and go on to failure in our relationships, business and health.  -----

Pray – listen and think;  pray – listen and think!  Pray about the problem then listen and think, and God will give the answer – then do it.    Praying, listening and thinking are useless without action.

So pray big.  Big ideas will come, then put them into practice. -----

PP1    2.   THINK BIG     

PP2    What are your goals for this great new year?  With God’s help, think big goals and achieve big results. 

-----    Some of you will know the Ben Carson story- he is the author of the book ‘Think Big’.  Dr Carson is a world-famous neurosurgeon whose life began in a dysfunctional, very poor negro family.  His widowed mother was a Christian lady, doing housecleaning work to make ends meet, and struggling to educate her sons, – her main motto being ‘read, read, read!’  In just twelve months, Ben went from being the dunce of his class to the dux of his class, simply by reading and reaching the goals his mother set for him.  During the turbulent teenage years he eventually learnt to set his own goals, big ones, and he achieved big results.  Yesterday a failure --- today a world famous neurosurgeon. 

PP1    Some people have no goals at all and probably don’t even realise why they are miserable failures in life!

On the other hand there are people who set their goals as high as the trees and they may not even fully reach their goals. ---  

Friends, … 

PP2    I’d rather set my goals as high as the tops of the trees and only get halfway up, than to have no goals at all and grovel around in the mud at the base of the tree.

As long as you and I don’t set goals, and say that New Year’s resolutions are only made to be broken, then we will be grovelling in the mud at the base of the tree.

PP3    Set goals, tenaciously hang on, until we can say, with God’s help, “We did it!”  --------

PP1   3.  (With God’s help friends, we need to …)   BELIEVE BIG 

Wilma Rudolf was born prematurely to very poor parents in a shack in the backwoods of Tennessee.  She was very frail and it was doubtful that she would live long.  She battled her way through to age four and contracted double pneumonia and scarlet fever – a deadly combination that left her with a paralysed and useless left leg.  She had to wear an iron brace.

Wilma had a wonderful Christian mother who told this bright little girl that despite this brace and this leg, she could do whatever she wanted to do with her life.  She told little Wilma that all she needed to do was to have faith, and persistence, and courage, and an incredible spirit.

So at nine years of age, Wilma did away with the brace and she took a step that the doctor told her she would never take.  He had told her she would never walk normally. --- In four more years time, she had developed a rhythmic stride which was a medical wonder.  Then …

PP2   Wilma got the notion, the incredible notion, that she would like to be the world’s greatest woman runner.  How absurd to be a runner with a leg like that.  

So at age thirteen at high school she entered a race.  She came in last – way, way last.  -----    Wilma entered every race they had and in every race she came in last and they begged her in the name of pity to quit it, but one day she came in second last.  Then there came a day when she won her race, and from then on Wilma won every race that she ran at school.

Then she went to the University of Tennessee where she met a coach named Ed Temple and he saw the incredible spirit of this girl.  She was a Christian and she had great natural talent.

Ed Temple trained her so well that she qualified for the Olympics.  There she was pitted against the greatest woman runner of those times - a German girl named Yetta Heine.  Nobody had ever beaten Yetta Heine but in the 100 metres, little Wilma beat her.  Wilma beat her again in the 200 metres and now had two gold medals.

Now came the 440 metre relay.  The earlier runners had handed the batons over perfectly and now it was down to Wilma against Yetta.  When the baton was handed to Wilma, in her excitement she dropped it, to see Yetta, taking off down the track.

It was impossible that anybody could catch this fleet-footed girl, but Wilma did.  Three gold medals.  How did she do it?   -----

PP1     First, she wanted to win.

  Second, she trained to win.

  Third, she was a reader of the Bible and she read in 

            Matthew 17:20 that “Nothing shall be impossible unto you, 

            if-you-have-faith.”  She had the faith – she believed – and she

          did it.   -------

PP2    The famous psychiatrist Dr Karl Menninger said, 

             “Attitudes are more important than facts.”

Right from birth the facts were against Wilma Rudolf and the facts might be against you too.  But, your attitude is far more powerful than the facts.  -------

I read a book called...

PP1      ‘Dare To Be 100’  

The author said that if we want to make it through to 100 years of age there are four points we’ve got to follow.  These points are represented by that word DARE in the title.  D-A-R-E.  He said that the ....   

PP    (D is for Diet…)

D   -  Diet

A   -  Attitude

R   -  Rest and Recuperation

E   -  Exercise

-----   Here’s a question for you.

Which of those four points do think is the most important?

What’s your answer?  ------

------   Do you know what the author said?  He said that if you want to make it alive and well through to 100, one of those points is more important than all the others put together.   And it’s???  ----  

‘A’ for Attitude!

------   Friends, the mind is extremely powerful, and what you believe strongly enough in your mind will happen, almost always does happen.

Jesus said, if you have enough faith, you can move mountains.  Friends, your faith and my faith may not be big enough to move mountains out there.  Why not?  Maybe it’s because Jesus can’t trust us with big faith, because we’ve proved we can’t even use the bit of faith we’ve got to move the little mountains in our minds and in our lives.  -------

------   Now, let’s quickly go back to … 

PP      The Eleven Big Plan

We’ll take a look now at another thing that God wants for us.  It’s number …

PP1    4.      ACT BIG

PP2    If I won’t act big, then I won’t achieve big.    

----    Is God a success?  He acts big, and the Bible says that He made us in His image.  God did not make us to fail.  He made us to win.  He made us in His image.  So act big, and rightly represent our Creator and bring glory to Him.

PP1   5.    (God wants us to …)   DREAM BIG    

PP2    But don’t just dream.  We must put our dreams into practice otherwise we will go through life as frustrated failures, always dreaming about what we’d like to do, but never getting off our backsides to do it.

------    I meet many people, and so do you, who say, “I wish I had done this or that in life, but now I’m too old,” or some other excuse.  Sometimes I feel like kicking their backsides and saying, “Get up and do what you wanted to do.  You’re not too old.  That’s only a weak excuse.  You can do it!”  -----

------   For 25 years I’d been telling myself that I’d like to fly in a glider.  I finally got up one morning and realised how much time I’d wasted talking about it and thinking about it. -- 25 years! 

I got up that morning, went out to an airfield, got in a glider, and off I went. 

Now I will not go to my death-bed saying, “I wish I’d done that.”  ---

What is it that you are putting off doing?  

PP   Procrastination, or putting off, is a thief.  Procrastination will steal our life away from us, unfulfilled.  

Friends, don’t let it!  Decide today, with God’s help, which of your unfulfilled dreams will soon become a reality.  -----

PP1    6.  (God wants us to represent Him properly and …) WORK BIG     

PP2    Many people go through their so called ‘working life’ practicing what could be called, ‘on the job retirement’. 

They work so slackly that they are leeching off the companies who employ them.  Or they deliberately get a job with the government because they believe it’s going to be an easy life, or if they choose to stay on the dole in preference to looking for work, then they are dishonestly bleeding off taxpayers’ money.  The eighth commandment says, “Thou shalt not steal.”  If I am taking money from my boss or from the taxpayers dishonestly, then I am a thief.

So let’s work big and walk proud as a child of the King, knowing that we have put even more into our work than we have been paid for so that no-one, at any time, will be able to say, ‘that person is lazy’.

   Yes, …

PP    WORK BIG and be an asset to our God, to our community and to ourselves.  

PP1    7.  GIVE BIG      

PP2    We shouldn’t selfishly keep everything for ourselves.  

So if we’re going to give big, then who do we give to?  Well if I’m not to be selfish, could I give to my family?  Well maybe, or could that be selfishness just once removed?  That might be giving small instead of giving big.

Sure we need to give to our family but we need to expand our horizons and also give big to people outside our family.  You may choose a charity where you know that every cent gets to where it’s supposed to be used and is not eaten up by fat pockets in administration and advertising.

You may give to less fortunate people in the community but be thoughtful and prayerful about it and don’t just dump your hard earned money into a bottomless pit where it is used inefficiently.  Remember, that when giving money to someone, ....

PP1   If you give a man a fish, you’ll feed him for a day.  But if you teach a man how to fish, you’ll feed him for a lifetime.

There’s another saying about how the microfinance programmes that we work with help especially women to start little businesses of their own so the children will get more than one meal a day and be educated.  Here’s the saying  ...

PP2     Give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day.  Give a woman a microloan and you’ll feed her and her family and her extended family for a lifetime.

As we begin to give more, we begin to find that the hard-to-believe verse in Acts 20:35 that says ....

PP    Acts 20:35     “It is more blessed to give than to receive”

....  is not so hard to believe after-all.

------    Accountants generally can’t understand that verse very well.  They deal in hard, cold figures, and they’ll tell you, you’re not better off if you give to charities to help less fortunate people.  But God knows better and He wrote it in His word.  “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

-----  Let’s look at our Eleven Big Plan again.

PP    The Eleven Big Plan

Now we’re moving on to Number 8 …

PP1    8.   (God asks us to…)    FORGIVE  BIG     

PP2    Sometimes it seems hard to forgive people.  They do some rotten things to us.  

But we’ve probably done some rotten things to other people too.  (not that we like to own up to it).  And we’ve done some rotten things to Jesus too – our sins nailed Him to a cross but He forgave us.

Then Jesus said to all people everywhere in the Lord’s Prayer, that God would forgive us for our sins that we’ve done against Him

 as-long-as we forgive people who sin against us.  Tough stuff, but that’s what the Bible says.  So Jesus teaches us to forgive big. -----

PP1     9.    LOVE BIG      

The Bible says in …

PP2     Romans 8:38,39   (that)

“Nothing and no-one will ever stop God from loving me.”

That’s called unconditional love – love that has no conditions attached to it.  

God gives me His example of unconditional love towards me, and He wants me to show it to the people who I think are not so loveable.  He also wants me to love bigger those who are close to me so that an average relationship can become a fabulous relationship. ------

PP1   10.    BE BIG      

PP2    Many of us have an inferiority complex.  We don’t think we’re big, but small.   

I’m not good enough.  I’m not talented enough. ----    Friends,…

PP3    I’ve got to remember that God did not make junk when he made me.  

Society might say that I’m no good.  My family might say that I’m no good.  I might even start to believe that rubbish and think I’m no good.  But God didn’t make junk.  Be big – as big as God wants you to be.

PP1    11.    LAUGH BIG      

PP2    Well that’s one that I sure need.  

I see myself as a fairly serious person.   The people round about are laughing raucously and I’ve got on a carefully controlled smile.  I laugh so rarely that when I do, I hurt my face and my belly.

Life is serious but probably not half as serious as I think it is.  There’s a book … 

PP3    ‘Laughter is the Best Medicine’.  

It’s a proven fact that sick people get well faster if they watch humorous movies and read humorous books.  

PP    Some of us sober-sided, horse-faced Christians can’t imagine Jesus laughing.  

When I saw the video on Jesus, there He was laughing and smiling.  It gave me a new perspective.

PP    Ecclesiastes 3:4   (says,)   “ There’s a  time to weep, and a time to laugh.”   

So it’s OK to laugh.  I need to laugh big – and some of you probably need to too.

So that’s it, …

PP   The Eleven Big Plan 

When we go out of here today, remember those eleven things – With God’s help, work on them better than we’ve ever done them before.  We’ll find that God will fill our minds with good things that will help us to get out of the dusty chook yard and to be young and strong like eagles, having an enthusiasm that grows and grows as long as we live.

PP    The Power of Faith   -   The Power of Positive Thinking.

Jesus said it!  Let’s do it, and live the best life from now on.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friends, if any of you want a copy of The Eleven Big Plan to put in your Bible at home or stick on the fridge, Kathy has a copy for you down at the door.

There’s also a little booklet I wrote many years ago called

 ‘12 Fundamentals for a Successful Life’.  You can see it on the website under the ‘GEMS’ heading.

PP    

Friends, if you have been blessed and challenged by this message, 

        then please take time now to send it on to your friends.

                                        To God be the Glory!

The Eleven Big Plan

1.   Pray Big

2.   Think Big

3.   Believe Big

4.   Act Big

5.   Dream Big

6.   Work Big

7.   Give Big

8.   Forgive Big

9.   Love Big

10. Be Big

11. Laugh Big

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