I Need A Change (Part 3) | Ron Carpenter

Sam.

Well, I'm ready to get in this Bible and break it open. Hallelujah. Proverbs 23 and verse 7, very short scripture. I quote it a lot. It probably is one of the threads that run through all of my teaching and all of my messages along the same line, probably even in a lot of ways, of Hope's messages. So much of your. The quality of your Christian walk determines on your thinking. The reason Jesus left us a book called the Word of God is because these words are supposed to modify, renew, and transform. You're thinking, those of you that just asked Jesus into your heart, welcome to the family. But Jesus just changed your spirit, man, your heart. Nothing happened to your mind, nothing. So you can leave here with the right heart and the wrong head. And so God gave us his word for the renewing of the mind. We have, as preachers, we have pretty much ignored what I call mind management. We have more people committing suicide, more people in fear, more people in anxiety, more people that can't get through trauma and hurt and life circumstances. Because to make it through these things, you are going to have to manage your thought life. A lot of people say my life is stuck. Your life is not stuck. Your mind is stuck. Your life follows your mind. And whenever life stops, your life has not stopped. Your mind has been stuck in one place. And therefore it don't matter how many days on the calendar you turn, your life does not advance because your mind is not advancing. Let me give you this one scripture that bears this out. I've preached this message two times. I've already showed it at the Friday night service and this morning. Not happy with the way it came out either time. So I'm going to mix it up a little bit differently. Guys in the back, just roll with me, okay? Just roll with me. Proverbs 23:7. For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Now, of course, there's information before this and after this, but I'm reaching in the middle and pulling out that truth. For as the King James says, for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is think becomes is, think becomes is. Thoughts define realities, thoughts define experiences. I don't like my experience, so I'm trying to change my experience. You can't change your experience till you change your thoughts because your experience is a derivative of your thought. So if I can't change the way I'm thinking about a thing, I don't have the ability to change the thing. If you don't change the way you think about marriage, you'll Go into your eighth marriage with the same scenery as the first one. Because it's not about getting a better person, it's about changing your thoughts. Because in most cases, we make the next pay for what the last did because our mind has not moved past our last experience. So I'm in a new relationship with an old mind. Therefore I'm going to see the same reality. So you're in a new business, but you got an old business mindset. The last one went bankrupt.

So now I'm in a new career.

Opportunity, but I've got the same same mindset. You carry the same mind into the new opportunity. You repeat the same experience. Because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So I want this right here. This was really supposed to just be a kind of in between message between two series, but the response has been so unbelievable. I went back to my staff this week and I said, I think I need to camp out here a little while today. The number of comments which on Facebook, that's the deepest level of engagement you can have doubled about this message. Something's going on right here. Look at your neighbor and say, God wants to heal your head, too. Tell him God wants to heal your head. So Lord, bless the reading of your word in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen. Might be a little less shouty today and a little more teaching. I may carry this on up to my holiday messages. I've got a lot of teaching on this. I'm learning more. I learned some new things of what I read this week. Even that I incorporated into the message today. I didn't anticipate this level of impact. Underestimated it. I was walking back out last week, back out of the door, and I saw members of the praise team back here in the hallway and one woman just tears running down her face. I stopped, I said, are you okay? And she looked at me, she said, you have no idea what that message just did for my life. And so I'm putting all this together and I'm saying, I must be scratching an itch. Something must be happening right here. So permission to stay in here a little while longer and let's just talk about our head a little bit. I told you in previous messages that your mind has two basic functions. It remembers. And the other one starts with an I. What is imagines? Thank you. It remembers. It imagines. Your memory is about the size of a closet. Your imagination is the size of the universe. Yet most of us spend our time in the mind of our closet. In the smallest part the part of our experiences when you do not imagine a future to pursue. Your mind is programmed to go back and pull out the computer chips and the files of the past. So if you do not have faith for next, it retreats to last. Your mind is programmed to do that. When you have a thought run through your head. This is scientific proof. This is not Bible. This is science scientific proof. Once you have a thought, you have 30 seconds to decide whether to delete that file or save. Because after 30 seconds, then the thought is accompanied by feeling. And now if it's a negative thought, you not only have the negative thought to fight, you've got a negative thought and a negative feeling. And feelings are a whole lot worse to overcome. These are all things that are happening in your head. Yet the Bible says, I told you last week. The Bible says the implanted word is able to save your soul. That's your mind. So in other words, God says the implanted word. He didn't just say general. The word of God is able to save your soul. He says certain kind of word, the implanted word. In other words, it's the word that sticks. I'm going to stand up here and talk. My goal is usually for 35 to 40 minutes. That's usually my goal. The part you take home is able to save you. The part that stuck, the part that you retrieved, the part that you downloaded.

That is able to do something in.

Your life to liberate you and save you.

But the information that just runs through.

Your head and is easily forgotten, that's not an implanted word. It's just a word.

But the word that gets in you and ties up into your system and.

Sticks and becomes a part of your being. That word has the ability to change your life. So now that we've talked about, I need you to really stay with me. My mind has the ability to remember. My mind has the ability to imagine. Two functions.

Now.

You have two hearts. You have two minds. You have the mind that science would call the conscious mind. But the Bible says whatever a man thinketh in his heart, there's a head think and there's a heart think. A lot of people misquote it. I probably have before and said, just as a man thinketh. That's not what it says. As a man thinketh in his heart. What does that mean? In the Hebrew, the word heart means sub. Science would call this subconscious. As a man, what he allows into his subconscious, that defines who he really is. That defines who he is. So I've got a head think A.

Head think is all the thoughts that.

Just run through my head.

And head think is easily forgotten.

That's the blessing of head think think. What did you wear three Tuesdays ago? You don't know that's in your head think. It's easily forgotten. Okay, what did you eat for lunch two Thursdays ago? Unless you're really, really, really in touch with your nutritional needs and fitness, you don't know because it came and it went. It's easily forgotten. I don't remember what I ate for lunch yesterday. It just comes and it goes. That's in your conscious mind.

But whatever a man thinks in his.

Heart, the heart, the submind, is the.

Mind where you take thoughts and you rest on them and you repeat them over and over and over and over and over again until literally, like a computer system, you. You don't know it, but you are.

Downloading something into a permanent status.

Usually we don't do that with what we wore.

Usually we don't do that with what we've eaten.

Usually we do that with hurt. Usually we do that with anger. Usually we do that with betrayal. Usually we do that with disappointment. Usually we do that with abuse. Usually we do that with some type.

Of trauma that has come to our life.

Usually we do that with loss. Usually we do that with injustice. Usually we do that with unforgiveness. Usually we do that with hatred. Usually we do that where life has been unfair. Usually we do that with a failure. And we take it and we download.

It and we download it. And they should have not. And they shouldn't have said this. And when this happened, this is what they should have done, but they didn't.

And then they walked out.

And then I can't believe they're now running with them.

And this hurt me so bad.

And this was such a disappointment.

And you're downloading it, and you're downloading it, and you're downloading it and you're. And that's what defines you.

That's what defines you.

So you feel like you have no.

Value, and you feel like nobody places any value on you. And you download that thought and you.

Think on that thought and you're by yourself.

And when you drink your coffee and nobody loves me and. And then nobody likes me, and then, no, no, I don't really mean anything, and I'm not significant.

And then do you know what's happening? You. You are slowly becoming the person that.

People dread seeing walk in the room.

Because everything you are downloading into your heart is defining you. And you Walk in a room and you need a hug worse than anybody in the room. But nobody can give you one because everything in you is screaming, don't love me, don't love me, reject me, reject me, hurt me, hurt me. And you don't even know it. But what's in you is defiling everybody in the whole room. And you need a hug so bad. You ever went up to those persons, you just grab them and hug them and then you go up to the next person and you hug them. And you can feel that hug pulling.

You can feel it, it's pulling on you, it's pulling something because they're coming.

To you not to hug you.

They're coming to you to meet their need.

Do you think that's the person? Where did that come from? Where did that deficiency develop? It developed in where you allowed your mind to rest and meditate. And we usually have a much easier time meditating over and over, downplaying and replaying over and over everything about our.

Life that we do not like.

And then all of a sudden it defines us and we find ourselves being what we call stuck. Well, my life is stuck. Your life is not stuck.

Your mind is stuck because you're not where your body is. You are where your mind is. And it may have happened when you were 11 and now you're 51, but if you're reloading every night and downloading what happened when you were 11, guess what? You are a 51 year old, 11 year old, and all that's happening is more gray hairs popping out and you see another wrinkle. But you are that same old abused kid because that's what you've allowed your subconscious to embrace as who you are. And Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, wrote the book of Proverbs. And he says what you have downloaded over and over again into your subconscious defines who you are as a person. It creates your realities.

So here we are.

We don't like our marriage, so I need another one. Okay, but if you carry the same mind into the next one, you're going to create the same scenery. Well, I don't like this job. I need another one. I don't like this place. I need another one. I don't like this career. I need another.

And we always want to fix the thing without fixing the thing that created the thing. There's something that is creating that negative experience. I have gotten no amens.

I don't think since I started this message, I've gotten moans and groans.

This isn't punishment. This is Liberation. We're going to set our mind free. Get your mind on things above where Christ is. If you believe, you got a future. Somebody shout hallelujah. I'm not living there anymore. Turn around to three people. I'm not living back there anymore.

Blessed be his holy name. Now, I want to break this next verse down, way down. I just want to break it down, and I want to read it in two translations, okay? First of all, guys, throw Philippians 4 up there, if you would. They did it this way. I'm going to go back to verse five, but I want to read the end first. This is the Apostle Paul teaching and training by this letter, the Church in Philippi. Thus we have the Philippians Chapter four. He's, I'm going to the end. I'm going to the common denominator here. This is where we want to go. These things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me. He said, I've been teaching you. He said, you've heard me. You've embraced what I had to say. You've saw me live it in front of you. He said, now do it, okay? And the God of peace will be with you. Same verse in the Message Bible. Throw it up there. Verse 9, Philippians 4. Verse 9 will work you into his most excellent harmonies, harmony. Now, I don't care how good you got it. How many of you. Peace and harmony really is attractive right now to you. How many of you. That's okay. Give me. Give me just a beautiful chord, a harmonious chord. It just sustained that a minute. That's pleasant, isn't it? I don't mind listening to that. Okay? That is every key, every note that he's hitting is in harmony, and it created that sound. And that sound is pleasant. Hit discord. Okay? That's the way most people's lives sound.

He said, I will give you harmonious living.

That's God.

I will give you harmonious. In other words, every note in your.

Life will strike a chord.

So, in other words, I can make.

The kids be blessed and act like.

They'Ve actually got some sense. I can bring harmony to the home.

I can bring peace in the atmosphere.

Everybody quits walking on eggshells. I can bring great temperament and great attitude. I can make your economy and your finances. I can make you abound in every good work. I can make your relationships be fruitful. Come on. I can make the activities you give yourself to flourish. I can make you prosper in whatever you put your hand to do. I will make your life from one side all the way to the other. Strike a harmonious note, nothing missing, nothing broken. Now, God said it, I didn't say it. But I read you the last verse.

He'll give you peaceful living. He'll give you harmonious living. He'll make your life pleasant to listen to instead of painful to listen to. But let's go back to the other verses. Guys, if you would take me back to verse four. Are you ready for these keys? This is worthy of note. Taking this in deep.

Rejoice in the Lord always. When church days. Be a grateful person. What an idea. Can I tell you something?

That's tough for me is ingratitude.

I'll do anything, just be grateful.

I mean, I'm just that kind of person.

But at least let me know you appreciate it. If you complaining the whole time I'm.

Doing it, I lose my motivation quickly.

Grateful. He said, rejoice in the Lord always. Can I tell you something? You have to be the kind of person sometimes, even in the storms of life, you have to find the things to praise God about. This ain't hard. He said, rejoice in the Lord and do it always. Not when it's good. Do it always. Not on church time. Do it always. Not when there's praise and worship. Do it always. So when it's a sunny day outside. Lord, I thank you today that you've given us this beautiful day. But when you get up and it's raining, I thank you that you're watering all of these vineyards. And I thank you that you're watering all of these crops and we needed the water so bad. Thank you that you're quenching these forest fires. God, I thank you for the sunny day. God Almighty, I thank you for the rainy day. Thank you, Lord that even though my kid failed science, he's blowing art up. Hallelujah. He may have made a D in science, but he got A A and P E. Lord, I thank you. I know my wife's breast bad, but she got pretty hair. Thank you, Lord. God, I find something to rejoice in. I just thank you. Thank you, Lord. I know my wife. I know my husband's a jerk, but he sure is good looking. Thank you so much. There's always something to rejoice. And it's rejoice. The word re means again. That means life is going to take your joy away, so you got to go back and find it. So he says, when you get your joy taken, go back and rejoice. And when something takes it, go back and rejoice. Go back and read Rejoice in the Lord church. And again I say, rejoice. Take 10 seconds and find something to praise him about. Tell your neighbor say, get happy about it. Get happy about it.

Now remember, where am I trying to get? Harmonious living. Be a grateful person. Number two. Let your gentleness be known to all men. This is deep. Be kind. That's so deep. Do right by people. Keep your promises. Don't cut me off and when I blow the horn, flip me off. Smile.

Prefer your brother above yourself.

Let everybody at the four way stop, go and you're the last one. Instead of causing a four way accident, let her go in the door first and go to the cashier. Why? Because they got a thing of bread and you've got four buggies. You gonna make them wait? I had to wait. You gonna wait too. God doesn't just watch for kindness at church. It's easy to be kind here. Even if people aren't really kind here. At least they fake it for 90 minutes. Harmonious living. That God will make his peaceful living come to you. That's my result. Be a grateful person. Number two. Do right by folk, do right by people. It's deep in it. It's really deep. Number three.

Be anxious for nothing.

I'm trying to get to this life that strikes a chord.

Be grateful.

Do right by people.

Be anxious for nothing.

But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God.

Turn over to God.

Things you cannot control. Can I tell you something?

Happy people, joyful people have learned to.

Take things they cannot control and give it to God. Give it to God.

I can't control the way everybody treats me. I can't control whether or not everybody likes me. He just give. We just give it over to God.

I don't know if y' all were here the night Joel Osteen was here during 212 Conference. And one of the questions when I was interviewing, I was like, how do you take the criticism, man? People just kill this guy. I mean, I'm amazed at the venom. And all he does is, God loves you. And people just.

People just hate this guy.

I'm like, he might be the nicest person I've ever met in my life. And I said, how do you deal with that?

He said, I just pretend everybody likes me. I'm like, that's. I can't do nothing about it. Just give it to God and pretend everybody likes you. I can't. I can't make them come back and apologize. The Devil is a lie. I'm gonna sit here and wait 22 years for you to come back and tell me you're sorry. I'm gonna forgive you right now. I'm not gonna be stuck right here waiting on you to come back and tell me you shouldn't have done that. I'm walking on and leaving that behind. I'm not gonna get stuck downloading that mess in my mind.

I'm going to keep reviewing it because I want you to be able to say it. I want the harmony. God told me it's possible. Be grateful. I even think God struggles with complainers as much as it's up to you. Do people right. Thirdly, give everything you can't control to God. I'm not going to sit here and worry about what I cannot change. And then he goes on next verse and says, in the peace of God, I broke this down. In Influencers in depth which surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ. Next verse. Finally, last part of the equation again. What are we after? Peaceful, harmonious living. Be a grateful person, do right by people and give to God what you can't control. And finally, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report. If there's any virtue, if there's anything, anything praiseworthy.

Meditate, heart, think, download.

Let me be a scientist into your subconscious. These things. The key to harmonious living is that you got a right attitude toward God. You've got a right attitude toward people. Be kind, be gentle. You give to God what you can't control. And you've learned where to put your mind. You've learned what to repeat. You've learned what to repeat. Had a very hard time three nights ago going to sleep. Usually my wife is sensitive to that and sometimes it alarms her if she feels like I'm getting too much on my mind or I'm getting stressed. A lot of times the first thing it affects is my sleep. My dad, who was just the greatest man you could ever meet, just man, I wish he was here and you could meet him because he would have moved here with us. Just the most amazing, most holy man. I mean, he like glowed in the dark. And I was laying in the bed and I had a thought, a childhood thought, Christmas. Thought about my daddy. My Daddy was just Mr. Christmas. That was because we couldn't afford nothing the rest of the year. So they max out all the credit cards at Christmas and get you everything, then spend the rest of the year paying off the credit cards. And I just had a thought. And that thought led to another thought, and that thought led to another. And I laid there on my pillow and I lived in those thoughts. And I had the warmest, most amazing. I wasn't sleeping, but there was peace, those thoughts. Why? Because of what I allowed myself for a couple of hours to meditate on. I did not meditate on the fact he's no longer with me, because I would have had an entirely different experience. Do you see what I'm saying? But I meditated on the 62 years of what he left in the earth and how it affected me. And immediately when I feel grieving begin, I know that I switch my mind to a different download. Because he would not want me here crying. He would want me here remembering every wonderful thing that he deposited into my life. And he would want me to think about it over and over and over and over and over again. And I don't mind staying awake for those kind of thoughts. Play something, if you would, sir. I got more I could say, but I feel like actually if I cut this a little short than I normally preach, you might retain more. And today I want you to carry this. I want you to literally be able. When your life is in conflict, you'll be able to go back and quote these things and say, okay, wait a minute now. God promised me peaceful, harmonious living. Let me go back through this thing. Let me go back through it. I told you last week or a couple of weeks ago, no one let me back up. One of the first things that God gave Adam in the earth authority to do is he told him this. He said, adam, whatever you call it, that's what it is. Now, we think that means favor, money cometh. In other words, Adam, you have the power to define every experience. Nobody else can define it but you. So I hear things like this. Yeah, that was when my life just ended. Yeah. Nothing was ever the same after that. Yeah, that right there was just the final blow. Okay. I had a mentor of mine one time, say if I could teach people anything, he said, I would teach them how to think, not what to think. How can I tell you something about successful people? Successful people don't have a problem. They have opportunities. I'm not talking about just Christians. If you get around a successful person and hear them talk, they've never had a problem. They see everything that we would call a problem. They see an opportunity. That's the way they look at it. They listen to complainers as a chance to get rich. Because people complain out of a deficiency. How did this get created? Because people complained that they couldn't communicate. So somebody sat back and said.

And.

That'S the first trillion dollar company in America because they heard a complaint. I listened to complaints. When I go into a city, I listen to complaints. You know what a lot of. You know what I hear a lot of people say in this area say there's very little community. Everybody comes here from all over the place, many times travel with no family, come move here for jobs, and there's no sense of community. We have a tremendous opportunity. We have a tremendous opportunity. That's why I'm pushing life groups. That's why we're building the lounge. That's why we're telling people, hang out and have a good time. Why don't just show up and leave? Connect. We have a tremendous opportunity. Out of the complaints that I've heard, successful people, they know how to think. So how do you define it? I'm looking you right in there. How are you? How was that your worst day? Or could it be your greatest day if you just define it differently? Mine and my wife's worst day turned into our greatest platform for them. My wife's story of her life hitting rock bottom and me watching her just fall apart right in front of me emotionally in every way, and felt helpless to do anything about it. Now, almost a decade later, she's got two book companies in bidding wars trying to get her story. All of a sudden, we pulled out of the door doldrums and did things with the marriage conference. And then the marriage conferences start packing out all of a sudden, was it our worst day or was it God making my enemy my footstool? And we got that thing under our.

Feet and it took us to a new level that we'd have never gone to without it. See, it's how you define it. Whatever you call it, that's what it is.

I say again, two people looking at the roller coaster. One's feeling nauseous, getting anxiety, heart beating fast and palms are sweaty, person right.

Next to them slamming popcorn, doing like this. I've been waiting for this ride all day. Same roller coaster, same speed, same seat, same experience.

Two definitions. Somebody's gone through what you're going through right now and defined it totally different than you're defining it. It's not what everybody else calls it, it's what you call it. Whatever you call. So those of you who say my life feels over, could it be that God has closed out a season and there's Another season about to dawn on your life. Could it be God has just finished a chapter, but there's a whole rest of the book?

Could it be that your latter days are going to be greater than your former day? Oh, it's how you define it.

Can I get you to stand up on your feet all over the building with me? Is this helping you? Is this helping anybody today? How many of you want peace and harmony?

I do.

Be grateful. Get your attitude right toward God. Do right by people. Get your attitude right with people. Turn over to God everything that you care about but you have no power over. Put your mind in the right place and God will give you peaceful harmonies in your life. That's worth a clap all by itself right there. I love you. Today I believe you're going to have the most peaceful, harmonious thanksgiving you've ever had. And lose £5 in the process. God does not promise that anywhere in the Bible. That was Ron. Hallelujah. Can I bless you before. Before you go. May the Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face shine upon you. May God himself establish you and give you peace in Jesus name. And everybody said amen. You're interested in being a sponsor? I'll be over here in about 10 minutes.

God bless you. Have a great day.

You're dismissed.

It.