We'll serve for just a few minutes. You and I
are going to have one of those good old heart
-to -heart talks again, and it's going to be
about something that is very practical. And I'll
be talking to myself just as much as I'll be
talking to you. We'll be talking this thing over
together. I'm going to give you some good sound
advice. Do not fight your rheumatism. Do not
fight your enemies. Do not fight your dislikes
or your debt or your uncongenial job. Don't fight
your problems. Do not fight your uncontrollable...
teenagers in your home. Don't fight your wife.
Don't fight that which you dislike in your husband.
When you fight a thing, you antagonize it and
it hits back. When you fight your enemies, it
antagonizes them and they'll fight back. When
you fight your teenagers in your home, it antagonizes
them and they fight back. When you fight your
uncongenial job, it antagonizes the situation
that much more and it fights back at you. The
harder you fight it, the harder it hits. What
you neglect? or still better, ignore, begins
to fade away or just die by starvation. If you
don't fight back at your enemies, sooner or later
they get tired of fighting you and it takes two
people to fight, you know. And it won't be long
before the thing will just fade away or just
automatically die. By starvation. When you give
your attention to anything, you're building that
thing into your own consciousness. For good or
for evil. When you're faced with some negative
condition in your own life, the scientific way
to handle it is to withdraw your attention from
it by building the opposite into your subconscious.
And when you've done this, the undesirable thing
just falls away like an overripe fruit. There's
something that's very marvelous. And let me give
you the illustration from the Word of God. And
it'll prove to you that you're not to look too
long at this self in God, but look at... A great
many cults center upon self -cultivation and
leave behind a multitude of wistful but frustrated
people. Lifted for just a moment and then limping
for a lifetime. Why? Just why? Because you dare
not center on yourself. for if you do as sure
as fate you will lose yourself whosoever will
lose his life centring on himself centring on
his life loving it even for purposes of cultivating
it will lose it as long as peter looked at himself
or at the waves around him or its circumstances,
he started sinking. It was only as he looked
at Jesus, as long as he centered his thoughts
on Jesus, his mind on Jesus, as long as he saw
Jesus, he walked firmly on the waters. Beloved,
look at yourself. Look at others and you'll see
just as surely as there's a God on his throne.
Look at Christ. Your eyes fastened on him and
you can walk on anything. Now this marvelous
law of losing one's life to find it runs through...
Everything, Jesus said. Consider the lilies.
How they grow. How do they grow? By being self
-conscious? By fussily trying to grow and to
look beautiful? No, a thousand times no. How
do they grow? They look at the sun. And in their
sun -centeredness, They themselves grow beautiful.
Oh, to me, that's marvelous. Watch something
else. Something that's very, very practical.
Turn to the life of Paul in the fourth chapter
of Galatians. He says, I'm afraid of you. Speaking
to those precious early Christians. So many of
them, his own converts. He had taught them the
word. He had literally given to them the deep
spiritual revelations that God himself had given
to him. And now came the time when they were
losing some of their spirituality. And the minute
that you lose sight of Jesus, the minute that
you stop focusing your attention on the Christ,
the very Son of the living God, you're going
to become critical, self -centered. Watch it.
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon
you labor in vain. Brethren, I beseech you. Be
as I am, for I am as you are. Ye have not injured
me at all. In other words, you haven't injured
me by your criticism. Ye know how through infirmity
of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at
the first, and my temptation which was in my
flesh ye described. Revised not nor rejected.
Why? I'll tell you why. They didn't see Paul's
shortcomings. They didn't see his infirmities
of the flesh. They didn't see his failures. Because
their eyes were upon Jesus. Their eyes were not
on the person of Paul. That's the reason they
didn't see his infirmities the flesh. They were
looking beyond Paul to Jesus Christ, the very
Son of the living God. Ye know how through infirmities
the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the
first, and my temptations which was in my flesh
ye despised not, nor rejected. but received me
as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where
is then the blessedness ye spake of? For I bear
you record that, if it had been possible, ye
would have plucked out your own eyes and have
given them to me. Think of it. They so loved
him in the spirit because they loved Jesus. So
great was their love for Jesus. So marvelous
was their consecration to him that even as Paul,
as the servant of God, brought them the gospel,
they didn't even see Paul's temptations in the
flesh. Great was their appreciation for the gospel
that Paul said they would have gladly have plucked
out their own eyes and given them to him. They
so loved him. Why? Because they loved him in
the Lord. They loved him in the Spirit. And as
long as you and I are in the Spirit, we will
so be filled with the love of Christ that we
won't see the shortcomings in our brethren. Oh,
beloved, to me that's glorious. He continues
in Philippians, the fourth chapter. Finally,
brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are false, Honest. Whatsoever things are
just. Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever
things are lovely. Whatsoever things are of good
report. If there be any virtue and if there be
any praise, think on these things. Think good
thoughts. fighting your enemies. Stop fighting
your dislikes. Stop fighting the job that you
hate so much. Stop seeing the bad in others.
See their good always. Amen.