 How many of you guys excited to be in the house of God tonight? So I'm very excited. Eric crumpled my paper. Thank you very much. Anyways, how many of you guys excited to be in the house of God tonight? Amen? I'm very excited and I'm excited not just about tonight, but I'm excited about the vision of our youth. Just seeing how, no, we have Pablo here. He went from that bad lifestyle, smoking, being with bad friends, to all the setting, playing from that shy person. I remember he hid behind his sister all the time. And from going from there to playing in front of 3,000 people, in front of crowds, and playing, doing backflips in front of people, preaching in front of youth, leading people to Christ. That is our vision. That is what we live for. Amen? Amen. And honestly, we came such a far way. I have a picture, so there's a way we can turn that off. We came such a far way from where we used to be with our church, our youth. No picture? Alright. Anyways, this very funny picture of Pastor Martin from his back. Back in the days, he's putting, he has a very Gucci, very big jacket. He has a very, he looks like a fob, fresh off the boat, kind of person. He's putting a piece of paper evangelizing onto a car. And back in those days, knowing our pastors back in the days, you didn't know if they were stealing the windshield wiper or evangelizing or something. So, we've come a long way here from the lights, from the church, we're modeling anything. And this is all for the vision. Now, it's like a funnel. The funnel, the top of the funnel is big. It's for a coffee shop, for the gym, for all that. But the bottom of the funnel is very narrow, and it's very, for little things go through, because at the bottom is all about, it's very narrow, because it's all about the vision. Everything that we do revolves around the vision and goes through the vision. That is why we're here. That is why we're here as believers. Amen. Amen. So, the title of my message is going to be As A Man Thinketh. Yeah, I know, very Shakespeare. I told my sister, I'm like, let me just do it as a man thing. She's like, no, that's going to sound smarter if you do it that way. So, basically, I believe every single person here, you are what you think. So, basically, my title in a non-Shake-Spirish way. You are what you think. You are the person, you are now, or you will become the person that you think and the thoughts that you think. So, you know a lot of people. You guys seem people that are very negative. And very, you're just like, man, I don't like being around you. And the thing is, how many of you guys, yeah, there you go. And there's not time to look at your neighbor like, yeah, that's you. But, and then you sit down with them and you listen to how they talk. You listen to how they think. And they're just very negative people the way they think. And the thing is, what you think will reflect your life, will reflect on your life. And I just want to go from a short verses, Proverbs 23-7. It says, where my mind goes, man follows. That's my design. So, where my mind goes, man follows. Proverbs 23-7. And I'm going to be speaking kind of from the story of Job. And many of you guys know the story of Job. He had everything you could want. He had the sheep, the cattle, the wife, the kids. He had everything. And then in a split moment, everything gets taken away from him. But what I love about Job, the story of Job, is he always remained positive, even when everything was taken away from him. And so that is my first point, is be positive. Job never let the level of his life, never let the level of his thinking reach the level of his life. And you guys got to realize that your life will always follow your thinking. We think about 30,000 thoughts a day, and a lot of them are repetitive. So what you, and it's not just biblical, but it's scientific. That when you think positive, your life will be positive. And we see it all around us. When people are always negative, you don't like to be around them because they're negative people. When people are positive, they think positive. Even in the midst of a situation, they're still positive. Those are the people because when in their mind, they're positive. And what happens is, just like in the story of Job, everything was taken away from him. And even his wife said, curse God and die. And he said, well, you're only supposed to worship God in your good times. I'm paraphrasing you. You're only supposed to worship God in your good times and not in your bad. And the thing is I love about Job is in the midst of everything being taken away from him. He never let the level of his mind reach the level of his circumstances. And you guys got to realize that when the most dangerous, the biggest loss, see even in Job's life, the biggest loss was his life was all the way down here. That is, that's a big loss and it sucks. Everything was taking him. But the biggest loss is when, not when you're alive down here, but when the level of your thinking reaches the level of your circumstances. Because when you think on God's word, when you dwell on God's word, there after that, the level of your life, the level of your circumstances will reach the level of your thinking. And there's a story that Pastor Vlad would always share of this barracuda fish. A long time ago, they put two fish into a fish tank, a big fish tank, one regular fish and one barracuda fish. And obviously the barracuda fish wanted to eat the little fish. But what they did is this was a scientific project. They put a piece of glass in between the barracuda fish and the regular fish. And so, and then they let them loose and right away the barracuda fish swam, I was about to say ran, swam to the other side of the glass to eat the fish. But what happened is, boom, he hit the, he hit the glass and he was like, no, what the heck? What was that? And so he goes back and then again he tries and then again he tries and again he tries and then he got it into his mind that there I cannot reach that because of the countless times that I keep on running into the glass. And so what they did after that is the barracuda, what they, they removed the glass. But the interesting thing was the barracuda fish never again went across to the other side because the glass wasn't there but the repeated failures, the repeated things in the life began to make them think that I can no longer do that, I can no longer get over there. And see the thing is a lot of times in your life, your life every Christian could attest just because you're a Christian, life is not going to be a better rose. I can attest everybody can attest that life as a Christian is not a better rose. But what happens is you have God on your side. So now you're not doing this alone, you have God on your side. So the thing is devil will try to, the moment life, life happens, just plain life happens. Devil will try, devil is like that stalker, stalker girlfriend or boyfriend. You're dating someone and they like you and the moment you post that or you delete all your photos that's the person that likes you, you know, sliding into the DMs. Devil is exactly like that. Once devil realizes that your life hit a breaking point or a breakout point, devil will try to slide into DMs and try to feed you bad thoughts. He will try to feed you bad things but the thing is he can only try to feed you bad thoughts. He can only try to feed you bad thoughts and some of you guys might think, oh I can't think, I can't control my thoughts. The Bible says think on these things. So it's either you're right, you're wrong or the Bible is wrong. You're wrong or the Bible is wrong because the Bible says think on these things. So the Bible is telling us that we have the ability to think our thoughts and yes there will be times where bad thoughts come in, thoughts you don't want to think, images, those things but you have the control and when your life goes down what do you gotta be like? You gotta be like Job, you gotta stand your ground and be like the three Hebrew boys that stood in front of the fire and said whether God frees us or delivers us or not he is my deliverer and you gotta keep the level of your thinking up there even though the level of your life is down here. The biggest loss, the biggest loss now when your life is down here is when the level of your thinking, you let that, you let the level of your life and the circumstance affect and influence the level of your thinking. Amen? And so some practical steps just to be positive, to keep a positive mind said even in the midst of a situation, even in the midst of things going wrong is read your Bible. The Bible is the truth. The Bible will set you free from every single lie, every single thing. So read the Bible, pray, spend time in prayer, listen to podcasts, listen to a lot of sermons, that's what I love to do. Even if you don't have time to read the Bible, which I'm sure we all have time but even if you don't like reading the Bible, you can listen to the Bible and something I started doing is because during work you could start to listen to the Bible so you can multitask and you get through a lot done and it's just amazing and so listen to sermons, listen to podcasts, encouraging words and also surround yourself with positive people and the way I love this because that's how I was fortunate to grow up with people that are very positive and not saying they were wealthy, they were rich they were doing good in life but they were positive and every single situation that they went through, they were positive people they always had a positive attitude when you say, man, I can't do this they say don't think like that, they say you can do this and I love our churches because we're a church that thinks positive we don't think that we're fighting from defeat we're a church that says we're fighting defeat from a standpoint of victory we're not fighting defeat from a standpoint of defeat and that's why I love, surround yourself by mentors, by pastors those friends that will encourage you, not just have sympathy for you because you can have those friends that are, oh man, that sucks but you have those friends that say, no, chin up, let's do this you're gonna get through it and they'll push you through, amen and my second point is thinking creates your destiny thinking creates your destiny so one question I have for you today is how does your destiny look how does your thoughts, the thoughts that you think what kind of destiny are you building see a lot of people think, a lot of people think is I want my life to get better and then I'll be happy I want this and then I'll be happier, I'll have a joy, I'll have that but that's not how it works and the thing is what you have to do is your life will catch up to the level of your thinking your life will catch up and the thing is the Bible the Bible demonstrates this from the very, very beginning of the Bible Genesis 1, it says on the first day God created the light so it created the light and see every human thinks if there's light there has to be sun, moon and stars, you get that but on day four God says I created the sun, the moon and the stars so you get a little confused, wait so so first I have to have happiness and then I get a boyfriend but a lot of us like to tell God first I want a boyfriend that will make me happy and God's saying no, no, no you have to have day one first then you get day four first you get the light, then you get the boyfriend then you get the girlfriend, then you get the money, the job, the family you get all that and many of you guys might say well how do I get the light if I don't have the sun, the moon and the stars how do I get the happiness if I don't have the money, the girl, the boy the curves, the looks, the six pack how do I get that and it's simple he says he spoke, he said let there be light anyway the bible says we have the power of life and death at the tip of our tongue so how do you get happiness you speak it, you think it, the thoughts that you think you get day one, then you get day four see God wants you to think good thoughts God says in the word I think good thoughts towards you I know that plans for you, they're for good they're not for you, they're to prosper you give you health, wealth and so God wants you to think positive about your life but I believe there's people in this room that you're like that barracuda fish you hit so many failures in life that your thinking has gone to the level of your life you're thinking now you think you're a failure now you think you're ugly now you think you hit so many failures that you'll never make it in life you'll never graduate, you'll never do good in education you'll never have the good looks and for a lot of teenagers youth because they go through high school a lot of teenagers get their heart broken and maybe you get that lie maybe you start thinking in your mind because of my boyfriend, because of my girlfriend broke up to me now you start thinking I'm not worthy enough I'm not good looking, I'm not going to be able to have a good husband I'm not going to be a have a good wife, a family a good education and you begin to think bad thoughts it's because Satan knows your future Satan knows that you have a bright future every single one of you because we are created in the likeness of God and so when we are created in the likeness of God we walk in authority, we trample for snakes and scorpions and Satan knows that and like I said earlier Satan's going to try to come in he's going to try to offer you once you mess up once your life comes down he's going to try to make the level of your thinking calm down to the level of your life and the thing is if we keep a positive mindset if we keep our word, our life keep the word of God a standard for our life sooner or later like I said our life will come to our thinking sooner or later our situation will come up and follow up to our proclamation to what we believe to what we stand for and that is the promise that we are sons and daughters of the most high God that we are royal priests that we are made in the likeness of God we are the sons and daughters of the most high king and that's what every single person here has to stand on and you have to have a positive thinking you can't think what Satan wants you to think he's going to feed you those things but you have to say no Satan I know God has good thoughts for me and I will have good thoughts about my future and the thing what Holy Spirit does Holy Spirit works through pictures and images what you think in your mind what you say to yourself so when you look that's why a lot of people when they wake up in the morning they don't feel like they're beautiful they go in front of the mirror and they say you're beautiful you're loyal you're important because what we think will reflect our life our situation has to come up and follow our proclamation that is we are sons and daughters of the most high God that is the promises God has for our life and they are for good and not for evil Thank you for watching this content I hope this was a blessing to you if you're like me and you like to click on things click on this subscribe to our channel and the content will come to you every time we post it and remember the best is yet to come