Ep 266 ｜ Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 19 minutes
Words per Minute
154.19023
Summary
Max Lucado, bestselling author, pastor, and good dear friend of Allie Beth Stuckey, joins the Glenn Beck Podcast to talk about his new book, "Choose Your Thinking" and why it's so important to reset our minds to factory settings.
Transcript
00:00:04.140
Coming to a conference today was really eye-opening to see that there's more people like Allie.
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Being surrounded by women like this, it's an encouragement because I know that I'm not the only one.
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We are women who need to be challenged in the Word of God, who are willing to swim upstream.
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Join Allie Beth Stuckey for Share the Arrows in Dallas, Texas.
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We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you.
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Wars, rumors of wars, political divides, hatred over this, hatred over that.
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The way we think about our world, the way we think about ourselves, our lives, sometimes isn't much better than that.
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All of these things is common for all of us to think.
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This week, our guest has discovered how to reset our minds to factory settings, and it makes all of the difference in the world.
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Please welcome, for his third time on the Glenn Beck Podcast, bestselling author, pastor, and good dear friend, Max Lucado.
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I was so excited to just hear all of the women that have been on Allie's podcast.
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What they're doing, what Allie Beth is doing, huge fan.
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I knew that there are women, women in my audience, who are hungry for the truth.
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Before the foundations of the world, God prepared you to be a woman.
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Join Allie Beth Stuckey for Share the Arrows in Dallas, Texas.
00:02:53.700
Nothing I tell you today will impact you more than the things that I tell my children every day.
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We are women who need to be challenged, who are willing to swim upstream.
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Christianity means nothing if truth is not real.
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Max, you are, I mean, you're called America's pastor for a reason.
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I mean, you are right on the pulse, I think, of what is happening in the world.
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Last time, I think you were on, were we not talking about end of days kind of stuff?
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Yeah, we were talking about, you know, what the future holds according to a Bible, biblical worldview.
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And I think a lot of people are going through, is this, where are we in time?
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And I found it really reassuring coming from you and that you could take us through as not somebody who is always saying,
00:04:05.400
oh, the end of the world is here, because that's not really what it's about.
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And now, at least in my life, this book comes out and, you know, it's so funny because just two weeks ago,
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I said to a friend, I've been wrestling with some things, and I thought, you know, I wrote this down.
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It's choose your thinking and change your life.
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And now, your book, and it is exactly the same thing.
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Let's get into this, because I think this book is so important.
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By the way, thank you so much for the opportunity.
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But, yeah, I really believe that we can determine our life by choosing our thoughts.
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And we do have the free will to select the thoughts that we have.
00:05:04.780
Just because we have a thought, we don't have to think it.
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And so much of life just comes down to managing the thoughts, what we ponder, what we contemplate, what voice we allow to go around and around inside our heads.
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I do believe that behavior is preceded by belief.
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And so if you want to change your behavior, go upstream a bit and deal with your beliefs.
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Yeah, I think it's a way to reset to factory settings in a way.
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I've been struggling to try to figure out, because, boy, Max, my life is, I'm making massive changes in my life.
00:06:04.640
My wife and I just moved out of the house that was the kids' childhood home.
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And, boy, my mind is playing all kinds of games with me right now.
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And I'm thinking of things that I know are destructive.
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I'm thinking about the mistakes that I made with my children and everything else.
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And I'm trying to figure out, why does that happen?
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Why are we like, is that because it's a safety mechanism that we're always trying to look for the thing that might hurt us?
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Why do we always choose the negative over the positive about ourselves?
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I preach, you know, a fraction of the number of times that I used to.
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It was right, you know, to turn the leadership of the church.
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But Sunday morning, just a couple of days ago, I was sitting in the sanctuary.
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You know, the Bible talks a lot about thoughts.
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And there's a little phrase tucked in John 13 and verse two about the story of Judas that is often overlooked.
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Uh, Satan placed the idea in the mind of Judas to betray Jesus.
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And so I do believe there is a great God, a loving God who cares for us, who loves us.
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But I believe there's a malevolent force, the devil, who means us evil.
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And that leads into a little more of a secular answer.
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And that is, we all have proclivities to certain negative thought patterns.
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Uh, I'm, I'm a bit insecure and, and, and I'm not surprised that Satan knows this and that he comes in a beautiful worship service in which I should be thrilled.
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And yet I allow myself to feel forgotten, neglected, because he loves to take our joy.
00:09:05.760
I, I agree with everything that you, you just said.
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I, um, I know, I mean, I gauge what I'm doing sometimes on the amount of level of attack I'm under.
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Uh, you know, you know, you're over the target when you're getting the most flack.
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Um, I think Satan puts up his, his, his best spiritual punches at you when you are doing or about to do something important.
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But I also, I also think there are these tapes that we grew up with tapes that, you know, we heard from a childhood.
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Uh, you know, if I, I moved away from my home at 18 and I moved across the country in a time when long distance phone calls were expensive and I was poor.
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And I found in retrospect, I find that time of my life so important because I didn't have the voice of others.
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I was never, you know, I was allowed to be me and discover me.
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But at the same time, you know, we tell ourselves these lies over and over again, I'm fat, I'm ugly, I'm, I'm not smart.
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Um, and, and I can't figure out why that happens naturally to us, why we're attracted to the negative.
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Other than it seems to be the way of the world with the Lord, the way he created us service to get me to do service is like pulling teeth until I'm there.
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And then I'm driving home and I'm like, why don't I do this every day?
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I think you're hitting so many truths square on.
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Maybe I'll start with what you said about our upbringing.
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We cannot overestimate the importance that voices of authority have in our lives.
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Um, I mean, if it's a high school football coach, if it's a father, if it's a girl scout master, if it's an older sibling.
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But when you're young and you're so, uh, impressionable and somebody that is physically larger than you, uh, older than you perhaps has a position over you like a teacher or a principal.
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And when they say things to you that hurt, uh, those go deep, uh, they embed themselves in our psyche.
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And, uh, it's, it's a, it's a challenge in some ways we spend all of our lives responding to the negative and positive voices that we hear in our youth.
00:12:18.420
And that's why, uh, we have to understand that, uh, ultimately God is the only authority and people that we might have respected.
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And we even have to take their criticisms sometimes, especially take their criticisms with a grain of salt.
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You know, I, a friend of mine said, when you want to understand how to be a parent, imagine God as your literal perfect father.
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Um, because you will see the pain that you have to go through for the best in the child.
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You'll see why they don't, he doesn't give you everything you think you want.
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He, you, you, you'll know how to discipline with true love, um, and restraint.
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And, and, uh, and I, I think that is, I think that's true, but we look at our parents, uh, who are so flawed and at least for, at least until I started, you know, getting gray hair, you don't, you look at your parents in particular as people who, you know, they're your parents.
00:13:36.860
They're supposed to know better and we're all bluffing, we're all bluffing, yeah, all bluffing, you know, um, and if we would just look for a higher, instead of going to the experts, so-called go to the eternal pattern set by God, I think we're so much better off.
00:14:01.760
And, uh, you're going through a lot of change right now in your life.
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It sounds like, and these times of change relocating from one house to another, uh, saying goodbye to our kids, wondering if we raised our kids, if we equipped our kids well, uh, we tend to be our own worst enemy during times like that.
00:14:27.980
Well, uh, Cleveland Clinic tells us number one, that, that we have 70,000 thoughts a day.
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You know, oh, I think I need to go to the restroom.
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Most of them are neutral, but of those who have an emotional impact upon us, the Cleveland Clinic says, hang on to your hat.
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I mean, let me, let me go back to something and ask you this question.
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So, uh, I'm asking for a more of a surface answer, but in the beginning there was the word and the word was God to me.
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And especially if you understand logos, the living word that has power, all of our words, if we are, if we are truly sons or daughters of a heavenly father, we have some, some of his power within us.
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And his power comes from speaking it and it becomes, and it's the one thing that we don't ever seem to concentrate on.
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We don't, even pastors don't really connect that.
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God creates through thought and word, not hammers and nails, thoughts and words.
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Uh, the 20, I was ordained in 1978 and like many pastors, I thought it was my job to tell people how to behave.
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I was always focused on behavior, uh, about halfway into my ministry of over all these years.
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It, it, it dawned on me that really the scripture always deals with belief before it deals with behavior.
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Uh, someone pointed this out to me in the writings of the apostle Paul, that all of his epistles are dominated by, uh, at least 50, I'm sorry, 30% belief.
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And then the rest of the epistle will be behavior, belief that God loves you.
00:17:11.320
He, he introduces his epistles by, uh, talking to our belief system, our thought system.
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And then he begins talking to us about, you know, not getting drunk, uh, about respecting one another, about telling the truth and all that's important.
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But, but it's easy when you know who you are, you know, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
00:17:37.420
Once you, once you have that belief system, once your worldview is healthy, one of the statistics I came across really stunned me.
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And that is people who battled the HIV virus were asked, do you believe in the presence of a living and loving God?
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Those who said yes, those who said yes, had a 300,000 times percentage, greater odds of healing than those who said no.
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It's like the belief in a living and loving God activates something in our physical bodies, in our bodies that, that creates health.
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And conversely, the idea that there is no God, or if there is a God, he's ticked off at me, perpetually angry at me.
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That creates a, even saying those words can create a sense of heaviness in our lives.
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And so that's why I think if we're going to really tame our thoughts, we've got to begin to understand what thoughts it is are best for us to think.
00:19:01.340
He called God mind, because he said, if I say the word God, that is defined by each individual in their own upbringing and everything else, and it carries so much baggage.
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He said, so let's just call it mind, or universal spirit.
00:19:19.960
Um, and he said, let's look at it as an engine and it works the same everywhere all the time.
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And when I was really struggling in my thirties and I was sobering up, he said, uh, I want you to keep a record of your thoughts.
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Keep a record of your thoughts just for one day.
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Take a notepad, put P positive on one side and on the other, put a line down the middle and just don't judge the thoughts.
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Don't think of the thoughts, just notice the thoughts and just count positive, negative, positive, negative.
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And I was overwhelmed with the negative and he told me I would be.
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And, uh, he said, uh, your problem is you are, you are building yourself, your life into what you don't, you say you don't want, but because you're thinking about that, that's the way you're perceiving everything.
00:20:15.420
Um, and, uh, it's, it's, he said, you have to start thinking the other to believe the other.
00:20:24.920
And I said, but dad, I don't believe, I don't believe any of those things.
00:20:33.820
He said, you want to change, then you have to say over and over, you got to say it five to one, you have a stupid thought, you, you empower it on the other side, five to one.
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And I really didn't think that was going to work because I, because I was saying things I didn't believe, you know what I mean?
00:21:02.300
It's, I mean, I believe it is the power of God within us that is creating, and this is the map of the, that engine he talked about.
00:21:09.000
So I believe it is not secular, but you can understand it in a secular way.
00:21:15.980
And what is happening, Glenn, I believe, is that as you are speaking positive words to yourself, you are agreeing with that logos that you mentioned earlier.
00:21:28.580
You're agreeing with the authoritative word that is spoken over the universe.
00:21:36.280
Now, I, a person can be absolutely secular, totally atheist, atheistic, and say things that God would say according to scripture and still benefit from them.
00:21:50.680
You know, and instead of assuming this is going to be a terrible day, what if I get up and say, okay, I'm going to have a good day.
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Well, that is God's will for you and for me and for every person.
00:22:07.900
And so when I say that, even if I'm a secular thinker, I'm agreeing with that supernatural presence of God that's in the world, and I am receiving his will in my life.
00:22:21.260
Now, of course, as a pastor, that would encourage somebody.
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Jesus Christ is the only picture of God ever taken.
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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.
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And you were intended to lead a life in which you have harmony with him, harmony with others.
00:22:56.280
When Satan tempted Eve, he just simply placed a thought in her mind.
00:23:10.700
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00:24:35.120
So, let's go through some of the things you talk about.
00:24:44.000
I have noticed, and I've really, I've really, uh, I'm, I'm getting better every day at figuring this out.
00:25:02.980
So, I don't know, when I'm in my 30s, and it's just gotten to the point, Max, to where it's just, I can't take, I've gone to a doctor and the whole time, and he said, I won't cut into you until you beg me.
00:25:14.700
And I have found, I have come to this place to where I thought I was a good, I was, I had solved the things that would lead me to be a man of good character.
00:25:35.240
And I'm trying to get a handle on how to deal with that, and how to choose my thinking on that, that will strengthen my character.
00:25:54.680
I would imagine that nine out of ten of people listening to this podcast could tell a similar story using a different part of their body.
00:26:08.120
I just have a feeling that, in my case, it's a shoulder.
00:26:12.260
I had a shoulder replacement surgery three months ago, and it still hurts.
00:26:20.440
But there were days the pain was so severe that I found my thinking foggy and unclear.
00:26:30.600
But I think it's the same, isn't it, though, with any kind of pain, mental pain, mental anguish.
00:26:40.180
You're questioning, did I do enough for my kids?
00:26:51.960
In this book, I unpack a couple of tools, three tools, actually, that I really think are helpful.
00:27:03.000
The scripture verse in the book of 2 Corinthians says, take every thought captive, every thought captive.
00:27:09.660
So, really, the idea of standing at the entryway to the thoughts that come my way and determining, filtering out those which are unhealthy and receiving those which are true is really essential.
00:27:28.300
In this case, let's say, you know, that your back is really hurting.
00:27:34.940
It's a true thought to say, my back is hurting.
00:27:38.300
Would it be a true thought to say, the second verse of that, I'm never going to get better?
00:28:01.800
And I have to say, okay, I'm going to tell myself the truth.
00:28:08.460
And the rest of that verse says, make it submit to the authority of Christ.
00:28:13.740
And the idea is to take a thought into the presence of God and say, God, I'm thinking that I really hurt.
00:28:22.460
But I find myself spiraling or catastrophizing or assuming the worst.
00:28:34.880
And that's where I'm trying to practice that discipline, Glenn, of interrupting that thought before it takes over an unfair advantage in my mind.
00:28:51.100
I look at it like I was very careful on saying how I was struggling with some of my thinking.
00:28:57.760
And to rephrase it in, I'm really, I'm getting better every day at understanding some things that are troubling me.
00:29:08.440
You know, being able to say things like that, you know, to say, I am really having a bad pain day, but I know something glorious is going to happen to me.
00:29:22.840
The Lord is not just saying, live with this pain.
00:29:31.220
But we have to, yeah, we just have to find, because he has a purpose for everything.
00:29:42.740
But sometimes he chooses not to heal our body for some reason.
00:29:46.340
And then we have to find, you know, I find myself really having a hard time complaining about pain when you just think of the nails being put into the Lord's hands.
00:29:58.460
You know, my gosh, the pain that he went through.
00:30:02.680
But he knew the good that would come out of it.
00:30:10.480
For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.
00:30:13.620
And Glenn, I think what you're saying is so spot on.
00:30:16.900
I hope that we can transcribe this and make it required reading.
00:30:21.480
Because what you're saying is this pain has a purpose.
00:30:26.260
It's when we think our pain is random and meaningless that we begin to descend into a pit of despair.
00:30:37.440
But if I can believe that, yes, I'm not pretending I don't hurt.
00:30:55.900
Maybe he'll use this to help me be more dependent upon him.
00:31:00.200
Maybe I needed a reminder that I live in a mortal body and he's preparing me for something eternal.
00:31:06.460
Maybe I needed a lesson on pain so that I can be more compassionate toward others.
00:31:12.860
And see, that kind of thinking causes me to say, okay, it really hurts.
00:31:22.380
But, Lord, I'm going to believe that you're going to use this either to shape my character for my good or so that I can be more compassionate toward someone else.
00:31:33.280
And I trust that you hear me just like you said, Glenn, since Christ lived in a mortal body and experienced physical pain, then I can say, Lord, I know you know how I feel.
00:31:47.060
That's a far healthier thought process than one that would lead down into this quicksand of sadness and despair.
00:31:55.040
And I think that's, Max, how you know it's true.
00:32:02.460
And I'm refiguring everything that has been going on in my life.
00:32:17.760
And I think you know it's true when, because it's true that the truth will set you free.
00:32:26.440
And that doesn't mean you're not going to have pain.
00:32:29.560
That doesn't mean you're not going to have troubles.
00:32:30.980
It's not going to, it doesn't mean you're not going to have regrets or whatever.
00:32:35.100
But when you look at it that way and you, when you were saying to me, because it will shape my character, it'll make me better.
00:32:42.240
It's going to, something good is going to come.
00:32:47.360
But when you just said it again, authority figures, when you just said it to me, and I heard it from you, everything in me changed.
00:33:02.640
And I just know that it is true, that the truth setting you free, I'm no longer, I don't have to be burdened by the crap that's in my head.
00:33:15.040
The Lord is doing something with me that will make me freer and, and more like him.
00:33:26.660
I think understanding the sequence of these thoughts is really, is really helpful.
00:33:33.180
A tool that I use in my life and with others, I call UFO, UFO.
00:33:40.680
And I'm not talking about aliens over Roswell, New Mexico.
00:33:43.980
But I'm talking about how an untruth leads to a false narrative that leads to an overreaction.
00:33:55.520
The untruth would be, God is, this pain is a result of God's punishment to me.
00:34:17.420
And that false narrative would be, God is against me.
00:34:28.740
Glenn, a lot of people you see walking down the street, they have that kind of spiral going on in their head.
00:34:48.540
So starting with that untruth and treating it with truth is really how we interrupt that cycle.
00:34:55.720
And that's why understanding the truth that sets you free is so important.
00:35:10.920
And a narrative is what we say to ourselves and the way we see ourselves.
00:35:15.380
And that leads to an overreaction, an overreaction.
00:35:20.900
And usually that's some type of outlandish reaction, a temper tantrums, over unhealthy, unbudgeted spending.
00:35:29.640
You know, anything trying to treat the pain that only makes the pain worse.
00:35:38.380
You're somebody who really believes in God, but you've dropped the ball on something.
00:35:42.860
This is something that I think every parent goes through.
00:35:46.960
But as my kids, you know, I've been thinking we didn't read the scriptures every night.
00:35:55.140
And there were times that I cut the corners and there were times that I did this and I was tired.
00:35:59.380
And so you don't necessarily think God is mad at you, but you have this thought that I'm not worthy.
00:36:27.320
And then your false narrative is I'm not worthy.
00:36:31.300
And then your outrageous action is deep depression, suicide, all of those destructive thoughts.
00:36:42.780
And so to treat that, the minute that untruth surfaces and you say I was a rotten parent, which I have a strong feeling you were not.
00:36:51.940
But let's just say, but I think everybody kind of goes through that.
00:37:09.780
I was a cruddy father, but rather than giving in to where the devil wants that thought to
00:37:16.560
take me, what if I take that untruth and say, you know what, Lord, I fell short as a father,
00:37:24.740
but I trust that you're a perfect heavenly father.
00:37:29.840
And that is that all things work for good for those who love you and are called according to your purpose.
00:37:35.980
And so I take that untruth and I turn it into a truth and I say, Lord, could you make up?
00:37:45.220
You can even minister in the past as well as the future.
00:37:51.460
And that leads to a true narrative that says, all right, the story's not over yet.
00:37:57.060
My kids, they're still, you know, they're still learning.
00:38:02.360
And I did some things that were pretty good, dadgummit.
00:38:11.180
And that reaction might say, we're all still being created.
00:38:20.940
And so instead of freaking out, I trust, I release and I trust.
00:38:30.440
Let me take something else that I think a lot of younger people might be going through.
00:38:34.440
I talked to a young woman last week and she was telling me that, you know, she came from a rough childhood.
00:38:46.880
And she worked so hard to get out and she went to school and she did everything that she was supposed to do.
00:38:56.080
And then she got married to a guy she loved and they've had children.
00:39:01.040
And she's like, now I've done everything right.
00:39:06.200
I can't get a job because that was the whole college thing seems to her to be a lie.
00:39:13.600
You know, I'm trying to do the right thing, but we can't make ends meet.
00:39:27.120
It's so easy to see how these so easy to see how.
00:39:30.020
I mean, I would not want to be 30 again in this environment.
00:39:50.340
And that this that everything is against me and everything is wrong.
00:39:55.100
And it leads to, you know, the first rebel was Satan.
00:40:00.520
Forty two percent of young people, high school age people today experience persistent thoughts
00:40:10.820
And twenty two percent have seriously contemplated suicide in six months prior to that particular
00:40:18.080
Now, you're talking about somebody who's not a teenager, but that those statistics reflected
00:40:26.720
And because we feel overwhelmed, we feel like we're facing overwhelming challenges.
00:40:33.460
One of my favorite stories, I think one of the most popular stories in the whole Bible
00:40:41.400
Remember the shepherd boy who went up against the Philistine giant?
00:40:44.960
And when you read that story, you might know that David only one time speaks about Goliath, but
00:40:58.900
One time he speaks about Goliath and he calls him an uncircumcised Philistine.
00:41:07.440
But then nine times he talks about the armies of the living God.
00:41:11.780
And who are you to come against the armies of the living God?
00:41:14.980
And that phrase is repeated over and over and over.
00:41:18.420
I think what David did there is an example for us.
00:41:22.940
What we can do when we face these overwhelming challenges, our own Goliaths, and that is we
00:41:29.340
can be careful and say, okay, we are facing a giant, but my God created the heavens and
00:41:36.100
He has solutions I know nothing of, but he does love me.
00:41:41.800
And I begin to outweigh the thoughts of Goliath with many, many more thoughts of the goodness
00:41:50.060
That's why this whole idea of understanding that we do serve a living and loving God is
00:42:00.960
I mean, the overwhelming challenges that she faces must feel like they're going to toss
00:42:06.260
her over the cliff, but it does no good for us to meditate on our misery.
00:42:13.740
It does us great good to meditate on the majesty of God because we contemplate him.
00:42:21.880
Remember when he got out of the boat on the stormy sea and Jesus had walked on the water
00:42:27.200
and Peter said, Lord, if it's you, tell me and I'll come and walk.
00:42:30.660
And Jesus said, come, Peter got out of the boat and he took a few steps, but then the
00:42:37.080
scripture says he saw the wind and the waves and he began to sink.
00:42:41.700
But as long as our eyes are set upon him, and I know not all of our listeners today believe
00:42:57.880
And I'm not trying to do any side door evangelism here, but I am saying, try, try to set your
00:43:07.260
mind on the idea of a God who loves you and knows you.
00:43:14.060
Allow yourself to entertain the possibility that there's a good God.
00:43:18.700
Maybe you don't buy everything that preachers like me are always saying, I get it.
00:43:23.460
But would you please at least consider the possibility that there's a living and loving
00:43:28.300
God who has a great dream for your future and meditate on that possibility?
00:43:36.500
If you stare at the wind and the waves, if you stare at the mortgage and the misery, that's
00:43:43.320
But if you'll open yourself up to the idea that there is a God who means you well and
00:43:49.320
that you will never outrun his, out send his grace or outlive his love, I think you'll
00:43:55.020
find that your heart and your mind begin to change.
00:44:04.740
It's hard, especially if you have, especially if you've been raised one way or another.
00:44:13.320
You know, I was raised Catholic and I didn't really believe in God.
00:44:20.740
And I realized everything that I believed in God, I thought I had believed in God, but
00:44:25.140
everything that I believed God was, I had just taken from somebody else.
00:44:35.340
And, uh, and I, I realized if God exists, he wants me to find him.
00:44:42.300
In fact, everything in the universe would be pointing to him.
00:44:46.300
You know, I thought of a, I thought as a dad, if I had my children and I, for some reason,
00:44:52.380
needed them to be separate from me, but I wanted them to find me.
00:44:56.420
I wanted them to know that I would exist, but I needed them to be on their own.
00:45:01.180
I could make a round room that they were in where they didn't look like there were any
00:45:06.480
doors or windows or anything, but I would be on the other side and I would be wanting
00:45:13.540
And so everything in that room would point to me, everything would point to, yeah, there
00:45:20.980
All you have to do is X, Y, and Z and, and you can find him.
00:45:24.720
And so I, I took that and I dismissed coincidence.
00:45:29.160
And then you find yourself max in a place to where you will pile up all of these things,
00:45:39.680
I don't want to believe necessarily that's true.
00:45:41.840
Cause it will change the way it'll change my friends.
00:45:49.620
You'll come up with all these kinds of really stupid reasons, but it again comes down to
00:45:58.180
You can investigate and investigate and investigate and do nothing, or you can investigate and really
00:46:05.000
then make a pact with yourself before, no matter what I find.
00:46:20.960
I got to do everything, but I am designed to find that truth.
00:46:25.340
But will you accept it in the end when you find it?
00:46:29.180
And I think that's another hard place for people to get by.
00:46:34.020
We call that faith, you know, trusting that, that there is a father on the other side of
00:46:40.880
And he has planted these signs in the universe calling upon us to look to him, that he is
00:46:53.000
This is why the big question of life is, who is my authority?
00:47:00.820
You know, when I was a kid and then in middle school and then in high school and even in
00:47:06.500
college, I played catcher on the baseball team.
00:47:13.200
But the point is, I spent a lot of time squatting behind home plate.
00:47:18.920
And whether I was on the little league, pony league, high school team, or the college softball
00:47:24.020
intramural team, the width of the plate never changed.
00:47:33.940
But the 17 inch width of home plate never changed.
00:47:41.520
I believe the reason that many people struggle to maintain their thoughts is because they don't
00:47:49.060
They don't have an unchangeable standard in their life.
00:47:55.160
Through scripture, God reveals himself as that authoritative voice.
00:48:07.240
I'm going to allow you to experience the consequences of your bad choices.
00:48:14.600
And if you don't have that, if you feel that your truth is your truth, my truth is my truth,
00:48:19.820
nobody knows any truth, well, then you're left, you're like a weather vane whipped about
00:48:28.880
You're subject to the economy or to the most recent election or to your emotions or to your
00:48:41.700
That's why I really believe that the secret sauce for managing our thoughts is a deep
00:48:48.160
faith in the God of the Bible, because whether I like the things he does or whether I don't
00:48:55.600
like the things he does, I must submit to him because he's in charge.
00:49:00.780
And the truth is his authority says he's going to make everything work out in the right time
00:49:07.220
Why, Max, is it we know, I think we probably know less about space than we do know about
00:49:19.600
Most of the universe is made up of dark matter.
00:49:31.880
We'll do all of these different things that we've done in space.
00:49:34.280
And it's easy for us to, even though we know to a fraction of a percentage of what we need
00:49:42.760
to know about space, we go there and we can accept that, but we can't seem to open that
00:49:59.380
One, I think for me to acknowledge that God exists as the center of the universe is for me to confess
00:50:11.980
If I will refuse to bow before God, then truly that's an issue of arrogance.
00:50:19.140
And, uh, what's another word, uh, self-sufficiency, uh, that the person who says, I don't need God
00:50:32.040
But for me to acknowledge that there is a God and it's not about me, but it's all about him.
00:50:38.420
And he is creating for himself a people with whom he'll live forever.
00:50:43.000
And, and, and if I am willing to humble myself before him, literally to get on my knees, to bow
00:50:51.400
my head, to open my hands, all these physical things we do as we worship, then that's the
00:51:00.960
The most unhealthy thing is for me to live the Frank Sinatra song and says, I did it my way.
00:51:07.180
You know, I may have screwed everything up, but I did it my way.
00:51:10.220
That, that, that's, that takes us down a path of destruction, but the path that takes,
00:51:15.980
takes us to health is that humility based worship.
00:51:21.720
I, I don't think there's any, well, there probably is, but just off the top of my head,
00:51:30.140
I don't think there's any other trait that is more important to man and his survival mentally
00:51:56.280
Not, not because we don't have a right to feel proud about winning a football game or,
00:52:06.560
But it's that arrogance that says, I don't need God.
00:52:10.080
God hates that because that's what keeps us from him.
00:52:14.720
Whenever we have this sense that people exist to serve me rather than I exist to serve God,
00:52:22.460
It's also, it's, it's, uh, it's not just that I don't need God.
00:52:35.480
And so you're cutting every other possibility out.
00:52:39.720
You're, you are the source of all that's right.
00:52:44.680
I think that's one of the problems that we have with our political system right now on both sides
00:52:56.880
And if you don't agree with my guy, 100% of the time, then you are 100% wrong.
00:53:09.940
You know, the, the one thing that is so obvious to me on what's happening in our world is look
00:53:18.060
how different the Lord made all of us and how could somebody expect that we all would
00:53:30.240
On really, you know, you, you can have great dreams on how to build whatever a widget, but
00:53:36.360
when you get somebody else that is thinking along the same lines, has the same goal of
00:53:45.360
You put people like-minded together like that, that have wildly different concepts of how
00:53:53.200
And then all of a sudden it locks in and, and you do something far greater than any of
00:54:01.440
And, and that's what, that's what arrogance stops.
00:54:05.620
Arrogance stops the, he put us together for a reason.
00:54:12.440
My wife is very different than me, but she has made me a better man.
00:54:19.480
You're far more politically savvy than I am, Glenn.
00:54:22.900
So I'm going to be careful and not step out of my lane.
00:54:29.740
It may be nostalgic as we always get, but of how Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill would
00:54:36.520
meet and they would literally share and swap ideas.
00:54:41.000
And they both became better political leaders as a result of that.
00:54:53.860
And, you know, at that time we agreed on universal principles.
00:55:01.960
And so I have, we didn't agree on policies, but we agreed on the big things.
00:55:07.900
All men are created equal and doubt by their creative with a certain inalienable rights,
00:55:15.520
And so we could make policies and disagree on policies, but we knew in the end, we both
00:55:25.680
And so there are times when I know I can sit with anyone on a different political view.
00:55:31.600
If they agree with the bill of rights, do you agree that all men are created equal?
00:55:37.380
That there isn't a Lord that just should Lord their viewpoints and tell us exactly what to
00:55:46.740
If, if you believe in the bill of rights, we can come there.
00:55:50.560
But if, you know, it's, can a pastor of a Christian church, uh, and a, uh, and a, and a Jewish
00:56:05.560
Can I do that with an atheist or worse yet, a guy who is, uh, uh, you know, believes that
00:56:16.780
I can't, I can't come, I can't sit in a room and work together on anything because we're
00:56:30.480
So how do we get diametrically opposed that they can't come together?
00:56:35.160
And it's not that our, our policies, but it is our principles, the things that actually
00:56:45.500
They're talking about whatever they're talking about.
00:56:50.240
Well, I can't, I can't, because if you don't agree on scientific proof, if you don't believe,
00:56:58.360
uh, that there is an eternal system, I don't know what it is.
00:57:05.600
I can't tell you what faith he's telling us all to go into, but I can, I can show you evidence
00:57:10.820
that it looks like at this point, it's this direction.
00:57:14.140
Now I can get onto the other side and he could, you know, he could surprise all of us and go,
00:57:18.360
yeah, that's not me, but it made us a better person.
00:57:22.200
And we were headed toward, we were on the road of right.
00:57:26.580
Just, I don't know how far down that road we are.
00:57:30.660
But how do we, how do we have these conversations?
00:57:34.680
How do we get back to that Tip O'Neill with people who don't believe in those, in those
00:57:43.560
How could a political activists, in other words, glean from someone who has a different
00:57:57.020
policy than they do, uh, so that together they are better.
00:58:08.620
I think it happens when it matters more that the country is strengthened than my party is
00:58:20.820
I, and that's, that's a lost art, but the question is those who do not believe that America
00:58:28.940
But to restart, how do you, how do you find yourself?
00:58:35.220
I'd like to go back to God, but how do you, how do you get back to that?
00:58:44.120
If I said to you, Hey, there's this guy over here, uh, who believes Satan is the answer.
00:58:50.820
You would most likely say, I'll pray for him, but I, I, I'm not going to spend any time
00:58:57.600
Uh, I would like to think Glenn that I would say.
00:59:06.100
And, and during that conversation, I would, I would do my best to listen to him asking
00:59:17.580
How did you come to believe the way you believe?
00:59:24.380
And, and I would respect, I would at least try, Glenn, I'm not saying I would do it, but
00:59:28.880
at least in this conversation, you and I, as I'm envisioning my ideal response, I think
00:59:34.920
I would say, how, how did you come to believe what you believe and, and honestly listen to
00:59:46.460
If there's any chance of dialogue, it has to, it has to have one person saying, tell me why
00:59:57.240
you think the way you think I had that's, that's humility, isn't it?
01:00:09.380
He's, he's, he's passed on into heaven now, an African-American pastor.
01:00:14.580
And, and he said, Max, the best way that racial division can be overcome is with this question.
01:00:24.340
And that question is help me understand, help me understand what it's like to be you help
01:00:34.020
And he said, Max, if, if you would ask me an African-American, help me understand what
01:00:40.600
it's like to be African-American in this day and age.
01:00:44.040
And if I would ask you, Max, help me understand what it's like to, you know, be a white guy
01:00:53.500
I think we could have a dialogue upon which we could build a good friendship.
01:00:59.120
That may be oversimplifying things, but I think it's, it would go a long way toward helping
01:01:09.040
Let me go back to the idea of the book and our words and the power of our own words and
01:01:15.860
I know a lot of, I know a lot of preachers really don't like the, I think they're called
01:01:21.400
prosperity preachers, you know, where they're, yeah.
01:01:25.100
And, uh, I look at those guys kind of as a gateway drug in a way that they stop just
01:01:36.940
Aren't they applying the same rules that you're talking about?
01:01:43.760
I mean, prosperity gospel or prosperity preachers is kind of a big term that refers to a person,
01:01:51.100
uh, uh, allegedly who says God exists to give you whatever you want.
01:02:10.560
It's just that sometimes prosper could be in terms of a paycheck.
01:02:17.600
It could be in terms of a better living situation could be in terms of a better relationship with
01:02:27.540
And it's okay for me to say, Lord, I'm, I'm financially stuck.
01:02:32.700
Because he does love us, but his blessings may come in another way.
01:02:37.940
Um, so it's really, uh, the problem is, is expecting the outcome you desire.
01:02:49.000
Which gets us back to that question of, are we here to make a big deal out of God or does
01:02:57.520
And if I think God exists to make a big deal out of me, then I'm going to be off balance.
01:03:04.120
You know, we don't have the, well, the phonograph records are coming back, aren't they?
01:03:09.120
I, I, I see them every so often, but I grew up, you know, in the sixties and seventies.
01:03:16.420
One time I bought a big album and a record and they've somehow the hole didn't get punched.
01:03:22.560
So I went and got my dad's drill and I tried to think where the hole would be.
01:03:30.040
And I put the album, I put the record on the turntable and it was, wow, it didn't work
01:03:39.920
And, and the reason we make, we have to continually say, I'm here to make a big deal out of God
01:03:49.280
If I think God exists to make a big deal out of me, things are going to get all belong and
01:03:55.820
And so that's why we have to keep coming back to that big idea that God has created a people
01:04:03.140
He's giving us a choice and I exist to, uh, billboard, to advertise, to reflect his goodness.
01:04:11.520
One final segment with Max coming up, uh, first when Moxie pest control started, it was 25 years
01:04:16.940
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01:05:29.820
I remember one time Tanya and I, my wife, we prayed and prayed and prayed about some business
01:05:39.860
And, uh, and we get into it and it's not working, not working.
01:05:46.060
And just, you know, and, uh, I said to her at one point, I said, maybe, maybe we were wrong.
01:05:53.300
And she's like, do not doubt what you know to be true.
01:06:00.220
Maybe we should begin to wonder, does he really, was that the outcome?
01:06:06.100
Was our image of, Hey, it's going to be a success.
01:06:11.500
Or was he just saying, it's going to get you right to the place where you're supposed to
01:06:16.840
He doesn't care about our success or failure in that way because he knows he's built us
01:06:30.480
Don't you hate it when your wife does that kind of stuff?
01:06:35.960
I was belly aching one time about deadlines and people who didn't believe, who didn't
01:06:46.980
And, and finally, my wife said, Max, is God in the middle of this anywhere?
01:07:00.000
Um, you know, you were saying something earlier about how our, our thoughts, we have to control
01:07:07.220
And the first thing that came to mind was I get up in the morning and I get up very early
01:07:15.960
My producers have worked all overnight and they send me all these stories.
01:07:20.220
And the first thing I do is I go online and I'm reading those stories.
01:07:24.560
And I know at times, if I'm not reading those stories, I get up and the first thing I do
01:07:33.720
Somebody said to me recently, Glenn, you are, before you even allow you to have your own
01:07:45.220
thought on what today is, what's your, you have in front of you, decide who you are, decide
01:07:50.420
how you feel, you are putting all of these thoughts into your head.
01:08:01.660
I mean, I think we're living in a time now more than ever.
01:08:05.480
That first thought has to be scripture and prayer is more important than I think ever before.
01:08:16.220
Imagine just scrolling how many more we're having than we've ever had as a people.
01:08:27.180
I know a fellow who went through a terrible tragedy.
01:08:37.280
And this son had, I can't remember, three or four siblings.
01:08:41.940
And the father had to call them one by one and tell them that their sibling had died.
01:08:48.900
And he said, when they answered the phone, I said, I'm about to give you some of the worst
01:08:57.900
But before I share it, would you think of five things you know about God to be true?
01:09:07.060
He said, before I share it, would you think about five things you know of God to be true?
01:09:28.460
And then he said, once they had, what's a good word, kind of marinated their mind in
01:09:34.880
those truths, he said, now let me tell you some really horrible news.
01:09:40.820
I've never forgotten that because we tend to do the same.
01:09:44.500
Maybe the best thing we could do when we wake up in the morning, even if we only have three
01:09:50.440
minutes, right, before we have to jump into the assignment of the day, maybe the best thing
01:09:55.600
we could do is say, okay, here's what I know to be true about God and just reflect, meditate
01:10:07.220
It's what he's done is he's, he's put a frame around the picture he's going to show you.
01:10:28.800
So you're not hearing it and spiraling out because what he just asked you to do was build
01:10:34.940
that frame around it to hold all of those thoughts that could go way off the road, hold it into
01:10:46.900
You know, this, this, uh, this idea of choosing what our authority is in life, that's just so
01:10:56.200
And again, if I, if I am subjecting myself to an authority, that's my drinking buddy or my
01:11:02.640
football buddy or the lady, uh, I play bridge with, they don't know any more than I do.
01:11:08.000
I need an authority who, who is high above who, who has been here.
01:11:14.360
Again, this is why we treasure the teachings of Jesus because by faith, I believe he is,
01:11:21.660
he was God on earth and that he came with absolute authority to speak into my life.
01:11:28.500
He is that home plate that allows me to make decisions, even when the circumstances of life,
01:11:35.760
or especially when the circumstances of life are so difficult, I have to choose to believe,
01:11:47.280
It takes me back to the beginning and Max, it takes me back to a horrible thought about
01:11:51.640
Boy, I am just a dim bulb, uh, because it's taken an hour for me to realize when you first
01:11:58.020
said, you know, we look for a voice of authority, um, and authority can change us good or ill.
01:12:05.740
Now, as you're saying that, I realize the only authority that we should be looking for is God.
01:12:14.400
The only authority that can, that truly can change us should be that voice.
01:12:24.580
But, you know, people, people turn away from God because pastors get immoral or involved in
01:12:34.060
I see that quite often and I have to, I try to remind them.
01:12:38.720
I don't know if I succeed, but I try to remind them that the only authority is the pastor of that
01:12:45.420
pastor, the good shepherd, our almighty God, our loving savior, Jesus.
01:12:53.440
And I know you're brokenhearted and disappointed, but don't let the misdeeds of that person turn
01:13:01.160
you away from the great deed of our God who came and lived on the earth and died for our
01:13:10.660
So we do have to be careful what authorities we choose to speak into our lives.
01:13:16.200
And can, can, can I ask you to expand on that just a little bit?
01:13:21.200
Um, because I have found God uses really flawed men, um, sometimes for his toughest assignments.
01:13:30.680
And, and I think that's because the really good men have too much to lose.
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Uh, you know, they're worried about, well, I'm at my church and I got this, or I've got
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my business that I have to worry, whatever it is.
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And so they come up with an excuse of, well, I can't do that because I can't risk it.
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And so God just goes down a list of, okay, well, he won't.
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I asked him, I asked him, I asked him, okay, I guess it's your turn.
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And so you get these really flawed men and, um, we begin to, we, we can tell, I think when
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For instance, let me say something controversial to the world, but not necessarily to conservatives.
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Donald Trump, I absolutely believe is being used by God, but that doesn't make him the
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It makes, he is still the man and can make gross, horrible mistakes, but he, he will have flashes
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and he could have the whole thing could be great, but yeah, he's not God.
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He's, he is the first guy that God asked that stepped to the plate that could actually do
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it and would do it, would get back up after he was shot in the head.
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The story that comes to my mind is the story of King David.
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He was out in the field when, uh, Samuel came to anoint the next King, uh, Jesse didn't
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And then when it came time for, uh, David to carry food to his brothers in the Valley
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Nobody else would go up against Elijah, uh, Goliath.
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And so David was that guy who was the last one you would expect.
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And as long as he kept that mindset, Glenn, he did great.
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I'm not the temple hadn't been constructed, but the, but the, the faith of the people was
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blessed and their coffers, uh, became full of gold.
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But remember the sin with Bathsheba when he was up on the balcony, looking out over the
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city and he should have been out to battle with his soldiers, but he wasn't.
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And it seems to me that that David was pretty proud of himself.
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And when he was proud of himself, uh, he fell into temptation.
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When he was humble before God, he could fight Goliath.
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And so the anointing was on, on David to do great things.
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But when David was more impressed with himself than he was with God, then he did very few
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I just, you're such a blessing to me, my family and, uh, and to everyone who has ever
01:16:47.400
Well, I am, I am super honored to have a conversation with you, Glenn.
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Uh, I, I always want to remind everybody I'm a converted drunk.
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Uh, the Lord had mercy on me and, uh, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said,
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I celebrated, uh, leaving alcohol behind and pursuing Christ this last spring, Glenn, by
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No, it says to tell us die, which is the Greek word for it is finished.
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What Christ said, uh, before he gave up his spirit, when he hung on the cross, it literally
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And when I was 20 years old, I was such a mess.
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And I heard a sermon on grace that Christ paid for my sins and that changed my life.
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And so I commemorated the 50 year, the golden anniversary of grace by getting a tattoo.
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The tattoo artist said, you're the first 70 year old pastor I've ever tattooed.
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Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend
01:18:38.180
So many conferences focus on women's emotions and focus on our self-esteem.