 Amen, Proverbs chapter 4, so we're going to be all over the book of Proverbs this evening. So we're continuing the science in the Bible sermon series. So last week we looked at a scientific experiment in the Bibles. We looked at the experiment of Job with Satan talking with God. We looked at that experiment and how it's really an experiment that we're all going through in our lives and that's why God put it in the Bible. From here on out we're going to be looking at some scientific things in the Bible and tonight we're going to look at some scientific things in the Bible concerning your spirit. So tonight's sermon, the title of tonight's sermon is the science of your spirit. Your spirit meaning lower case S, your spirit meaning your thoughts, your moods, all these types of things. The Bible is very clear on this subject and has a lot of things to say about it. Things that have just been discovered in the last few decades in modern science and modern science today that will say, oh we just found these things out. The Bible has been saying these things ever since it was given to us. Look down at Proverbs chapter 4 and let's look at what I'm talking about this evening. The title of the sermon again is the science of your spirit. The science of your spirit. Let's see what the Bible has to say here. We'll compare. We'll compare what the Bible has to say then we'll compare with what the world has to say about it, the secular ideas about this and then we'll look at the solutions that the world has and the solutions that the Bible has. So look at Proverbs chapter 4 in verse number 20. There's a common theme in Proverbs chapter 4 and it's this idea of life and health and what's in your heart in Proverbs chapter 4. Look at verse 20. He says in verse 20, my son, attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes, keep them in the midst of thine heart, meaning you keep the words that he's telling his son. He wants his son to keep them in his heart. What does he mean by that? If you look at the end of the book of Proverbs, he says a word in verse 26. He says ponder. He says ponder in verse 26. So to keep someone's words in your heart means you are thinking about those words. You're pondering those words and look at the importance of it. He says for they are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh. If you look back at verse number 5, I'm sorry, verse number 4. He taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words, keeping those words in his heart, keep my commandments and what, and live. So we see this connection already in Proverbs chapter 4, especially in verse 22, where you can't, you cannot miss this. There's definitely a connection to what you are pondering, what is in your mind, what is in your heart, and look what it says at the end of Proverbs 4, 22. It says, and health to all their flesh. So I'm trying to get you to understand is the Bible has a lot, I'm going to prove it verse after verse after verse in the Bible at the beginning of the sermon tonight, but there is a definite connection between your spirit and your flesh. I'm not talking about the Holy Spirit that's in you, if you're saved. I'm not talking about the earnest of the spirit in you, the Holy Spirit. I'm talking about your mood, your mind, what's in your heart, what you're thinking about, what you're dwelling on. There is a definite connection between that spirit in you, what your, what your spirit, the things that you can't see inside yourself, what you're thinking, you know, how you're feeling, and your physical health is what I'm trying to get you to understand this evening. The spirit connects to the flesh. Your spirit connects to the flesh. In verse 26 it says, ponder the path of thy feet and let thy ways be established. Meaning, there's a connection. There's a connection between the things that you're pondering will establish your ways. What does that mean? That means the things that you think about, the things that you ponder, the things that, that are dwelling in your heart will be the things that you actually do. Good or bad, by the way. And the Bible is calling this out. So it's a connection from the mind to action. In verse number 26 of Proverbs chapter 4, your health. Turn to Proverbs 17. Turn to Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17, look at verse number 22. We're going to go to Proverbs 17 and then we're just going to go backwards in the book of Proverbs and look at several examples. We can actually go to all the examples of this in the Bible. So we'll just stick to the book of Proverbs and you'll definitely get the idea that the Bible is, look, Proverbs, let me tell you something. You're going to ponder something in the Bible. You need to ponder Proverbs. You need to just not, like, if you're doing your Bible reading and, you know, you maybe, you just kind of do that, that thing where you just kind of blast through, you know, a book in the Bible, don't do that with Proverbs. Okay, because look, every single verse in Proverbs deserves to be pondered. Especially young people. I wish I would have pondered Proverbs when I was 14 years old, when I was 15 years old. Young people just ponder these words because as you get older and you look back and you ponder Proverbs, you're like, yeah, wish I would have pondered that when I was 12 or 13 or whatever. Because Proverbs has the answers for all relationships, all worldly situations, all things that you'll run into in your life. And here the Bible is talking about the things in our spirit, the things in our moods, in our minds, in our hearts, that actually how it will affect our flesh and our bodies. All right, look at verse 22, Proverbs 17. The Bible says a merry heart. You know what that means? It means a good mood. Somebody has said a good mood. Do with good like a medicine. But a broken, so when he's saying a merry heart, he uses a synonym in the next part of the verse. So remember, Proverbs many times is like a coin. You know, two sides of the coin in the same verse. So that's what we see here. A merry heart, he's saying a good mood, a good spirit. He uses that word spirit as a synonym in the latter part of the verse. He says, a merry heart, do with good like a medicine. But a broken spirit, dryeth the bones. It's saying like it's going to medicine, dry bones. It's saying it's going to hurt you physically. It's going to help you physically or it's going to hurt you physically. Look, modern science has just figured this out, folks, but the Bible has been saying it ever since we've had the Bible. Look, depression, negativity, sadness, it hurts you physically. But the Bible is saying a good mood, a merry heart. It's like medicine to you. It doesn't say it is medicine. We're going to get into that. It doesn't say it is medicine. It's like medicine to you. OK, go to Proverbs 16. Just go one chapter back. Proverbs 16, verse number 24. Proverbs 16 and verse number 24. So you see a good mood, a good mood or a bad mood, it makes a difference with your physical well-being. All right, the Bible is calling this out. Proverbs 16, look at verse number 24. The Bible says, pleasant words or as in honeycomb, sweet to the soul and what? Health to the bones. Well, wasn't there a saying? Wasn't there a saying when we were all little kids? Remember these sayings, like in first grade and second grade, sayings like, my favorite saying, don't judge me on this, but my favorite saying was, boys go to Mars to get more candy bars and girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider. These silly little sayings that we said as kids. Well, here was another saying like that. Kids don't say that. But here's another saying that we said when we were kids. Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Okay, well, that's not what the Bible is saying is true here. You're like, what, all these sayings that I had when I was in kindergarten aren't true? Well, that one's not true. I don't know about the candy bars one. I never really understood that one, but it was funny, you know, it was, yeah, we're going to get candy bars. You're going to get more stupider. Anyway, all right. So sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me, but that's not what Proverbs 16 is saying here. The Bible here is saying that pleasant words are as in honeycomb and sweet to the soul and health to the bones, meaning, you know, words can affect you. Turn to James chapter three. So the question is, can words hurt you? Can words hurt your spirit? Because the Bible says that pleasant words are good for your health, their health to your bones. But look at James chapter three. The Bible actually doesn't teach at all. It teaches the opposite that words are harmless. The Bible actually teaches quite the opposite. Look at James chapter three in verse number six. The Bible says in James three, six, it says, and the tongue is a fire. That's pretty serious language right there. The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, meaning a world of sin, a world of trouble, just from what? From the tongue, from the things that are said. So is the tongue among our members that defileeth the whole body. Your tongue can defile your whole body by the things that you say. Instead of on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell. Look, that's pretty serious language right there saying that words, the words that we say are very serious. Look, I mean, there's plenty of stories. You know, I don't have to convince you of this. There's plenty of stories that you see in the news today or whatever, especially with social media today, just on people just saying, typing even. They're saying nasty words, bullying people, people just getting super nasty online. There's been cases of people just like committing suicide because of being bullied through the words that people say about them. That's a sad situation, but words do affect people's health. You know, the words that people say to you can hurt you. By the way, another thing that, you know, there's this side note, just a rule for life, you know, in this modern age, you know, when we're raising up kids here, you have to teach your kids that everything that is typed not only is James 3-6 correct, but everything that is put on the internet, everything that is typed, just consider it public. Just consider that it's public. So, you know, kids need to grow up, I mean, and realize that that is the case because, you know, just be appropriate all the time. I mean, that's the, I can't tell you how many times I've sent the text message to the wrong person. I mean, be appropriate all the time. You know, always be appropriate because, and kids beware, and parents beware of what your kids are doing online. There's a reason that we don't allow YouTube comments, by the way. You know, YouTube comments are kind of nice, you know, to have comments and have people encourage and things like that, but one out of 50 YouTube comments are completely inappropriate. They're nasty, they're trolls or whatever they call them, and I just don't want my kids seeing that. So, we just, whatever, we're not dealing with it. So, that's why, you know, we don't have that. But look, words matter. Words matter. Words can affect the physical, all right? Turn now, turn back to Proverbs chapter 12. Proverbs chapter 12. Proverbs chapter 12. So, words can hurt, and it, you know, it hurts your spirit, which transfers to the physical as well. Look at Proverbs chapter 12. Look at verse number 25. Proverbs 12, 25. The Bible says, heaviness in the heart of man. Make it stoop, meaning heaviness, meaning, like, you know, just think of it this way. What does heaviness do? Heaviness pushes down, right? Heaviness, it depresses, right? So, it's talking about being depressed. You know, being down. It's talking about being in a depressed mood. You know, depression. Heaviness in the heart of man, maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad. So, this idea that words can't hurt you or words can't help you. Look, it's ridiculous, first of all, because everybody knows that words matter. I mean, especially, you know, in leadership positions, words matter. I'm telling you, I could come in here on Sunday morning and I could put you all in a depressed mood. All I would have to do is come up here to the podium. Where's my bulletin? I don't have it. I could come up here with the bulletin. I could walk up here and I could just be like, this is it. There's all the people that came today. Okay, let's just get through this. All right? Let's just grind it out. And let's just get through this, all right? I mean, I got a pretty quick sermon. I mean, I'll try to make it like 39 minutes, all right? Let's all get through this together and let's just go home. How would you all feel? I'm depressed just saying that. Well, I could come up here and look, I can honestly tell you this. Like, it's hard for me to even do stuff like that. Like, I have tingles right now. I'm like, ooh. But let me tell you something in the hardest times that this church has ever gone through. I mean, maybe a year ago, when we were going through tough things and tough things were happening and some church members and things like that, I always loved coming to church. So you're never gonna have me come up here and stoop and depress you all. But the point is, I could depress you. I could depress you. Oh, I have that, I have that power, right? I mean, you and your family, as a dad, as a wife, you have the ability to depress people. Why? The things that you say, you're just constantly negative and just constantly talking down about people all the time. Like, you're just gonna, like, husbands and wives can feed off of each other and depress each other. A wife can be like, oh yeah, this is terrible. And the husband's like, oh yeah, this is worse. Pretty soon, you're all depressed. You don't know why. You hate everybody. You're just like, ugh. Words matter. Words matter and it affects you physically. It affects your moods. Turn to Proverbs 14. But guess what? A good word, make a fit glad. So it works the same way. That's the good news. The Bible's telling us bad words and depressed things can make things bad, but a good word can make things better. Look at Proverbs 14. Proverbs 14, the Bible says a sound heart. Oh, verse 30, sorry. Proverbs 14, verse 30. The Bible says a sound heart. So what am I trying to do? I'm trying to make a connection between your spirit, your moods, your thoughts, and your physical self is what I'm trying to show you from the Bible. The Bible says a sound heart is, I mean, can you miss this connection? A sound heart is the life of the flesh. Hello? The Bible is saying, it says, but envy, envy the rottenness of the bones. The Bible is saying a sound heart, what does that mean? To be content, to have a pure heart, to be in a good mood, to be someone that's speaking good things. That's thinking good things. Pondering good things. What do you ponder that's good? How about this? How about the Bible? Read the Bible, ponder the Bible. A sound heart that's doing those things is the life of the flesh. The Bible says you're gonna be healthier if you do that. But envy is the rottenness of the bones. If you're just nasty and envious, remember, envy's bad, okay? Envy, jealousy in the Bible is always good. All right, you know, I usually just use jealousy all the time as a bad thing. Like, oh, he's a jealous husband. You bet I'm a jealous husband. Jealousy is something that God, jealousy is something that you have over something that is yours. Yes, I'm a jealous husband. Why, because she's mine, that's why. Yes, my wife is a jealous wife. Why, because I'm hers. Envious is when you want something that's not yours. God is jealous of us. Jealousy is a good thing in the Bible. One of God's names is jealous in the Bible. So people misuse that word all the time, just a little rabbit trail there, but the point I'm trying to get you to understand is that a sound heart, a solid heart, a good heart is healthy for you is what the Bible is saying. It's good for your flesh, your body. All right, look at Proverbs 13. Go back one more chapter. I could keep going, but we'll just go to one more. We'll just go to one more. I think I'm making my point. Verse 12, Proverbs 13, verse 12, or it's the verse of the week. It's the verse of the week, because this is kind of the coup de gras of the point I'm trying to make. Proverbs 13 and verse number 12, and we're gonna come back to this verse at the end of the sermon. The Bible says, hope deferred, makeeth the heart sick. But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of what? There we see that word again, a tree of life. The Bible is saying hope is a good thing. The Bible here is saying hope gives life. Again, we see the same two sides of the coin on this one verse, hope is a good thing, but hope deferred, meaning hope put off, meaning somebody that doesn't want hope or doesn't have hope, hopelessness is bad. It makes you sick. Hopelessness is a bad thing. So look, this is something that I'm trying to get you to understand. This is something the Bible has identified thousands of years before any modern scientist discovered anything. And look, science today literally teaches the same things that I just told you. So the first point is this. There is physical power of a positive spirit. I mean lowercase s, positive thoughts, moods, you know, the things that you think about, the things that you dwell on, it has physical power. That's what the Bible is saying. That's the first point. It has physical effects on you. It's the same thing with secular studies. There has been so many books written on this, it's ridiculous. The most popular one was written, I don't know, 50 years ago maybe, called The Power of Positive Thinking. Have you ever heard of that book? I've never read it, but it's basically, it's like positive thinking or having a positive spirit, just like I read you in the Bible, will actually affect your physical real life, is what it's saying. I mean you just think about physical situations that you've read about or heard about in your life. You think about situations of like extreme survival situations. Think about situations where somebody just, they survive something just unbelievably unbearable. Like the POWs in Vietnam, they were literally locked up by the North Vietnamese for like years. Some of them, five, six, seven, eight years. They were locked up in solitary confinement. And how did they make it through that? They made it through that through a positive spirit. That's how they did it. Their spirit literally, I mean if you talk to them, many of them have written books and articles on how they did it, one guy, I think a couple guys actually, who were locked up for years and years and years on end, they built houses brick by brick in their brains, in their minds. They just like, one of them was an architect and he just, he built houses and then he just, he would build a house for everybody that they were tapping through Morris Code and he would just build all these houses. He would just have, he had this positive attitude of just building, they weren't real. He was just building these houses in his mind to keep, like his body was broken. His body was broken, but his mind literally kept him alive. I mean, it's a real thing. These extreme situations, people's positive spirit literally makes it to where they survive it. It's a real thing. Extreme athletes, same thing. He say, what's it, you know, extreme athletes or a friend of mine that I knew many, many years ago, when he was in the army, he went to ranger school and I was asking him about it one night and he's like, you know, he's like the guys that made it through ranger school, he said, because it was just nonstop running and nonstop hiking, like constantly, with no sleep and no food. And he's like, basically, he's like, I'm not the biggest, he said, I'm not the, he's like, I'm not the best athlete, I never was. You know, he said, I was not, you know, the fastest guy, I was not the person that could do the longest endurance running. He's like, but basically he said, the guys that made it through and the guys that didn't, the difference was, he's like, you basically just had to shut off the pain in your brain. As you're running and hiking, all the mile after mile after mile and climbing hills and doing all these things, he's like, you were just in horribly, horrible physical pain. And he's like, the guys that made it were the ones that just kept running and just said, it doesn't hurt. And literally, their mind had that power over their body. And like the people that stop in these situations, it's not because their legs were breaking. It's not because their arms were failing. I mean, maybe in some cases, but the vast majority of the time, it was people who just did not have that power of their spirit to affect their body. It was the ones that could make their spirit affect their physical body that made it. But look, the Bible has identified this already. I mean, basically one person's mind was stronger is what it comes down to because the physical is connected directly to the spirit. That's what the Bible is trying to tell us here. Look, any hard thing, folks, any hard thing that you do, here's the way it works. And the Bible calls this out, too. I'm gonna show you in just a minute. The harder something is, the harder something is physically or mentally to do, the better it feels when you complete it. As you know that, now, science has discovered this. You know, science has discovered all sorts of hormones in your body. They're like, yeah, we have an explanation for this. Things like dopamine. They'll say, well, dopamine is something that gets released. When you have, I'll read you a definition of dopamine from modern day science. Dopamine acts as a neurotransmitter sending signals to other neurons that serve as pleasurable reward. These neurons that fire together now start getting wired together in your brain. Another one is endorphins. Like if you've ever run a long way and then by the time you get done running that long distance or that 5K or that marathon or whatever it is that you ran, you feel really good afterwards. And they're like, we've identified it. It's endorphins. And I'm not saying it's not real. It's the thrill and excitement of playing a game and it's the result of endorphins being released. So when you win something or you complete something hard, the reason you feel good, science tells us, is because these endorphins are released. I'm sure that's true. Turn to Romans chapter five. The Bible already defined this one too though. So it's just an idea that science is catching up again, catching up to the Bible. By the way, as you're turning to Romans chapter five, this is what drugs and alcohol is. So drugs and alcohol is basically trying to mimic, it's trying to mimic these chemical releases, these chemical feelings without doing anything. So this is why, so you think about it, you go and you play a football game and you win the football game and you're like, yes, I win it and you get these endorphins and it feels really good. Or you could just sit on your couch and drink a bunch of alcohol and you're not in the shape where you couldn't even get up and walk quickly to your front door without having a heart attack or getting tired. But you still feel good. You feel like you're in the game and you feel like you're winning, you know? That's what drugs and alcohol are. That's why they're so marketable. It's because they fire these, they're trying to mimic these same centers in the brain. Except what they do is they just give you that temporary reward and then everything else gets worse. And then what happens with drugs and alcohol, you just need more and more and more and more in order to even get a temporary reward like you did the first time. All right, and many of these drugs, I mean, I, you know, many of these drugs like you do with just one time and just like you're addicted to these things. Or I don't really believe in addiction but your body just gets such a need or a desire for these things. You literally train your body to need this foreign substance. Look at Romans chapter five and verse number three. Romans chapter five and verse number three. So the Bible has already, has already identified this reward system as well. Look what the Bible says in verse number three. It says, not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. So he says, we glory in the bad times and we glory in people doing bad things to us, going through hard times, you know, having tough times in our life, knowing that tribulation, so it's saying, it's saying tough times, hard things in your life are gonna bring you these things. All right, tribulation, work with patience and patience, experience. You know what those two things mean? That means when you go through hard things and you endure through those hard things, the Bible tells you that you become a more patient person, meaning the next time you face a hard thing like that, you will be more likely or you will succeed in going through that to the end again and getting through it. You'll get patience and you'll be patient enough to stick with it, which gains you what? Experience. And the experience is the knowledge to know that you can do it. This is what the Bible is telling us. The Bible is explaining endorphins. The Bible is explaining like the harder things are once you get through, you will feel good about it and the one of the reasons you'll feel good about it is because you know you can do it again. You look back on hard things that you've done in your life. Think about a hard thing you've done in your life. You've all done some hard thing. Think about a hard thing that you've done and you look back on it and you're like, wow, I can do hard things. It makes you feel good, because why? Because now you've got that patience to get through it and you have the experience to know you can do it. That's what the Bible is saying. Now look at verse number four. Patience, experience and experience. Well, here it is, an experience, hope. And hope is good for our mood. Hope is good for our heart. You do a hard thing, it feels good and you know you can do that, meaning you know you can get through anything. You have that hope that maybe you can be successful in this thing. Look folks, here's what you need to understand. Successful people are positive people. And this is why, because the spirit is connected to the physical. I mean, the spirit, the spirit affects the body. Now let's look at the flip side of the coin. Let's look at the flip side of the coin. Let's look at the power of a negative spirit. Here's some health effects and I'm not even gonna quote a source, because this is all over. It doesn't matter where you look for these sources. Everywhere will tell you the same things. The health effects of stress, the health effects of anxiety, of what? Of a depressed spirit, of a heavy heart is what the Bible said. This is what science has figured out in the last 50 years. Look, stress, anxiety, all these things. Look, it can cause physical stress on your body to your nervous, cardiovascular, digestive, immune and respiratory systems. That's pretty much everything. So stress can literally, and look, many times you can literally take away your life. People get stressed, they get anxious, they get depressed. I mean, that's where suicide comes from. You're not gonna have a positive, spirited person take their own life. But just like endorphins and dopamine and all these other positive chemicals that they have identified, the chemical that they identified in 1946 in secular science was this, they call it the stress hormone. It's called cortisol. It's the, when you get stressed out, it's the hormone that your body releases. And you know, they say with men, it causes all kinds of health problems. You know, weight gain, same thing with women. So like, it's best physically and to be healthy to not be stressed out and not have anxiety in your life. But here's the nice thing about the Bible that I wanna show you tonight. It doesn't just tell you what it is. It doesn't just tell you the connection or what it is. It tells you why and it tells you how to fix it. That's the nice thing about the Bible. So you say, what's the answer? What's the answer? So the Bible has identified this first and then secular science has also identified the power of a positive spirit and the power of a negative spirit. What's the answer? Modern science is a little bit behind the Bible, as always, but what's the answer? Now, if you talk to secular scientists, the answer is this. I mean, medicine. Enter the pharmaceutical industry, the most trustworthy and ethical industry in America. Take a pill, they'll tell you. I mean, the whole health industry, this is my personal opinion, the whole health industry in the last five years has become a literal joke. I literally self-diagnosed myself at this point. I mean, obviously I don't wanna go to the doctor if I don't have to, but I mean, the last two times I went to the doctor, I basically told them the pill that I needed. I got poison oak and I'm like, hey, I need some steroids right now. And the guy's like, okay. And then I had an ear infection. I'm like, the guy wasn't even on the phone, he didn't even look at me. I'm like, I have an ear infection and I need some antibiotics to take care of my ear infection. Okay, that was it. I mean, it's crazy. So look, the Bible has actual answers for us, not just, you know, take a pill. All right, because we wanna sell pills. Look at Philippians chapter four. Look at Philippians chapter four. So how do we, how do we, you say, okay, pastor, I understand that a positive spirit's important and that a negative spirit is bad and look, here's the thing, here's another thing. And I wanna bring this up. Anxiety and depression are things that some people really struggle with. And some people struggle more than other things. But we are not all the same and we will not all struggle with the same weaknesses of the flesh. So I am vastly aware of that, all right? So I'm gonna give you the Bible answer and it's really up to you to implement this answer. All right, no one can really do that for you but the Bible does have an answer for it. Look at Philippians chapter four. Look at Philippians chapter four. The Bible gives us several steps here to make sure that we don't have a heavy heart, to make sure that we are staying positive. Why? Because it's good for us to be positive, all right? The Bible says in verse four, of Philippians four, it says, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Now a lot of times you just read over that verse and you won't even think twice about it. But you know what the Bible is saying in that one verse? It's saying, don't take the Lord for granted. Don't take God who gave you eternal life for granted. And you know you do that every day and you know I do that every day. We take the Lord for granted. The Bible is saying, never stop rejoicing over the Lord. Always and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Look at verse six. This is really the key right here. He says, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. Now that doesn't mean like, be careful like how you walk. What that means is don't worry. That's what that means. It's like you, you know, it's saying put your cares on the Lord. That says don't worry about things but instead pray. Pray, he says, prayer and supplication. You know what supplication means? Pray, talk to God but supplication means he gives us a little bit more direction there. It means humble asking. It means to ask in a humble way. It means don't worry about things. That's what God is saying here. I mean, this is, you know, just do what you're supposed to do. You know, this is what I do when I'm, like we all get stressed out. If you're not stressed out from time to time, you're not doing anything. So we all get stressed out. But what I do when I get stressed out is I just say, am I doing everything I can here? I ask myself that question. Yep, I got this problem and my heart is heavy over this problem. Am I doing everything that I can do? That's an easy question to answer. First of all, identify why you're stressed out because the Bible says you really shouldn't be just worrying and being careful about these things. You should just make sure you're not, it's not something that you're doing that's causing it. Fix that. Am I doing everything that I can to help remedy this situation? And then guess what? Pray about it. Ask God to help you with it. That's all you can do when it comes to things that you're stressed out about in your life. Look, and here's the thing. Remain in your wheelhouse. What do I mean by that? Don't go and try to control things. This is what stresses people out even more. This is why this doesn't work. This is what it's saying. Be careful for nothing. It's saying people that think that they can, okay, there's a bad situation and I can fix every situation. No, you must always remain in your wheelhouse. Meaning, what's my wheelhouse as the pastor of this church? My wheelhouse is to administer this church and make sure things are done by the Bible, make sure the full counsel of God is preached to you, make sure that everything, when it comes to how things operate in this church, look, this is not a democracy. I am responsible for the operation of this church and things will be done here decently and in order as the Bible says. And if it goes wrong here, it's my fault, not yours. That's my responsibility as a pastor. But guess what? It is not my wheelhouse to come to your house and do a home inspection on your house. That is not my wheelhouse. And I would never, you know, I would never want that to be my wheelhouse. I mean, I think maybe there's some pastors, this is where things get in. Like, this is like cult leaders. My wife was telling me about this cult story in the news. Like, it was just crazy. But there's this idea, like these people just want to control everything. Look, I want to preach the word of God. I want you to have it in your heart and I want you to do those things. But I'm not gonna, I mean, I'll help you in any way you can and I can if you need help. But I'm not gonna be, you know, coming over and micromanaging your life. That's not my job, that's not my wheelhouse. That's your, the husband's wheelhouse to lead his family, to lead his household. That's the husband's wheelhouse. But look, people that think that they can control everything or that they have to control everything, these are very stressed out people. These are people that are just anxious and stressed out all the time. An example is this. An example is this. Let's say you have a wife who's married to a husband who's a weak leader. And he's just, he's not doing things right. He's not doing things right. He's letting things go. He's not protecting the, you know, that he's not being a spiritual leader as he should. And then look, that will be a wife that's stressed out right there. Especially she tries to get outside of her wheelhouse and start being the husband and start controlling. But this is what happens and that's why you see these stressful, stressed out, anxious, angry wives because they're trying to step into that role and they're getting outside their wheelhouse. Look, here's the thing, it's a tough answer for a wife, especially a Christian wife who's married to a husband who's not leading spiritually, not leading the family property properly. That's a tough answer, but the answer is is that it still doesn't mean she has to take on his role. She has to just do what she is supposed to do. What is my role in this situation? Am I doing everything that I can and should be doing inside my wheelhouse? That's all. And then pray, pray about it. Pray that God would, you know, take control of that situation and move the heart of that husband or whatever. But look, so that's a bad situation. But the point is, the reason that the wife submitting to the husband and the husband being the family's leader and the spiritual leader of the family, especially, is so important that it is preached and it is taught and it is believed is because, let me tell you something, the young lady that believes it, the young lady that believes it the most perfectly will make the wisest decision in who she marries because she will understand. She will understand that hey, when I marry this young man, he is going to be my leader. I am going to be, I am called to be a submissive, help me to him and he's going to be my leader. And look, she will choose much more wisely than some young lady that's just like, yeah, you know, I'm going to change him. I know, he's a mess. This guy's a train wreck, but I think I can change him. And if he doesn't change, I can jump in and kind of fill the gaps. No, no, no. That's a recipe for disaster. That's why these things need to be preached just as the Bible says. It's, look, it's for the next generation. It's for these kids so they can go and they can make wise, godly decisions. All right, but look, if you try to control things, people that are controlling and have to control everything are just going to be stressed out people. You don't have to control everything that's not your responsibility to control. Look at Philippians chapter four again. Philippians chapter four. So it's like, hey, just make sure that you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. Make sure that it's not because of some sin that you're doing, stay in your wheelhouse and pray about it. That's pretty simple. It may not be the easiest thing to do, but it's pretty simple. Look at verse number seven. It says, end the peace of God, which passes all understanding. Look at this. Keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So as we see that your heart and your mind directly affects your physical self, the Bible says that the peace of God will keep your hearts and your minds if you follow this advice. You say, what's the peace of God? We'll turn to John 3.36. You say, what in the world is the peace of God? In John 3.36, go ahead and turn there. Go ahead and turn there. We see the opposite. In John 3.36, we see the opposite of the peace of God. So we'll get an idea of what the peace of God is. Look at John 3.36. The Bible says, I don't know, this may just be my favorite verse in the entire Bible. May just declare that right now because I love this verse. This is definitely my favorite verse of soul winning. 100%, this verse right here. John 3.36, he that believeth on the sun, hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the sun, shall not see life, but what? But the wrath of God abideth on him. You say, what's the peace of God? The peace of God is the opposite of the wrath of God. The peace of God is what you have as a saved believer. You have the peace of God, right? You have the peace of God. That's the opposite of his wrath. There's your mental health answer right there. You should never not have hope. Someone's, look, so someone depressed that you know? Someone struggling with depression that you know? The very first step is that they need to get saved. That's the first thing. They need to get saved. Why? So they can have that peace of God. Because everything else builds from there. I mean, the wrath of God abides on them. I'm depressed. I'm really depressed, too. I mean, that's depressing. I mean, that's depressing. The wrath of God is upon somebody. Look, there's many people that we all know and that we all love, who the wrath of God is abideth abiding on them. And look, we're sad for them. Maybe they don't care. Maybe their hearts, you know, not in a place where they're worried about that or they're upset about that, but like we're upset for them. But the first thing someone that's depressed needs is they need to get saved. That's the first thing. The second is they need to get right. Because sin, sin will depress you. You know, sin will depress you. We'll look at that a little bit later. Go back to Philippians chapter four. And here's really the third one in Philippians chapter four that we need to look at as far as how to just have a positive spirit. Look at Philippians chapter four. So just, you know, the first one is like, hey, just don't, what were the three things? The first one is, you know, don't worry about everything. You can't, you can't, you know, be careful for nothing, meaning you can't control everything. Yeah, you know, don't be like that with your kids, okay? No, you're supposed to control that situation. Things outside of your wheelhouse, you, that's not for you to control. Like I have an uncle who's not saved and you know, you say, I want him to be saved. But look, it's not your wheelhouse to force someone to believe. You can't force anybody to believe. So what do you do? Pray about it, that's what you do. That's the first one, right? Don't worry about things. Make sure you're doing everything that you can. You know, personally, don't worry about things. The second one is, you know, if you're not saved, you need to get saved. That's the second one. You know, God's telling you, look, if you don't have, you need the peace of God. You need the peace of God. And the third one's this, look at Philippians chapter four, verse eight. It says, finally, brethren. This is for the saved people. Look, brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, he's saying, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are a good report. If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Say, I'm saved, I have the peace of God. I don't try to operate outside of my wheelhouse, but I'm depressed, I'm vexed. What are you thinking about? What are you doing? What are you watching? What are you listening to? You know what? You know what one of the most powerful tools of Satan is? Music. You'll never forget a song that you heard. We heard some stupid song at home the other day and the kids, I'm so happy that my kids do not have this garbage tattooed in their brain. We're at at home and they had this song on the radio. It's just the dumbest thing in the world. There's this song called Walk Like an Egyptian. And I said to Jacob, I was like, you know what they're saying in this song? They're saying, Walk Like an Egyptian. And then the people that sing the song and in the 80s, all the kids at school, they go, Walk Like an Egyptian and they go around like this. And Jacob's like, I don't believe you, Dad, quit it. I'm like, no, I'm serious, this is what people would do. He's like, Dad, stop it. He's like, Mom, Dad's lying again. Dad's telling stories again. Like, no, it's just the dumbest thing in the world. And there's part of my brain and I'm upset that there's part of my brain where that tune, I can't get it out of there. My kids don't have that problem. But the Bible here is saying don't fill your life with that garbage. Don't fill your, because that stuff's not pure. That stuff's not, there's no virtue in that at all. None of that stuff, none of that, the garbage and smut and trash on the internet, all the stuff that's on TV, Hollywood, it's the opposite of Philippians 4-8. Why are you depressed? I don't know, because you're filling your life with trash. That's why. He's like, hey, think on these things. Say, start getting the trash out of your life. I remember the first time that I saw a billboard of some country music star and I didn't know who it was and I was like, yes, I'm finally rounding the corner on this thing. I'm finally like, who's that guy? I don't know. But the thing is, don't fill your life with trash or this, you can't do this. You can't do what Philippians 4-8 is talking about. And also notice, it doesn't say, look, here's another point. Philippians 4-8 is like, think on good things. Think on pure things. You know what you'll think about? You'll think about, it's much easier to think about the things that you're in, the things that you're involved in. Will you read the Bible a lot? You know what you do? You ponder the Bible. You just like, read the Bible an hour every single day. You just, you think on those things. You ponder on those things. And every single time, by the way, you read the same chapter every single day for a week, you will ponder different things on that one chapter every time. Because the Bible's an infinite book. You're like, I've already read that chapter. Go read it a hundred times. You'll find new things in it every single time. Find me another book like that. There isn't one. Because no other book was written by God. But look, notice how, again, in Philippians 4-8, when it's talking about all these positive things to think about, notice how it doesn't say, as long as everything's going great for you. It says, look, there's, oh look, because here's the thing, folks, I don't care if things are good or bad for you right now. That's all relative, first of all. But whether things are good or bad, there's always negative things to think about, and there's always positive things to think about. And look, there's some people out there, they just always focus on the negative. There's some people out there that always focus on the positive. But the Bible is saying in Philippians 4-8, you can control what you think on. I mean, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. And if you just can't, and all you're thinking about is garbage and trash, that's an indication that you need to get some garbage and trash out of your life. But some people, look, some people, some people will find the negative in anything. They will snatch, they will snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. They will always find something negative. But the Bible is telling us tonight that the negative will kill you. The negative will hurt you physically. And you know what another negative thing did, and I kind of demonstrated that when I tried to mock, be negative from the pulpit, but negativity spreads to others big time. It is really easy, especially for people in leadership positions, to get other people down. That's why sometimes men leading your families, sometimes maybe you don't have to spill every single feeling of stress and worry to your wife. You're like, man, I don't know how this thing broke and I'm not sure how we're gonna afford this and all this, maybe you don't have to go and just dump that on your wife. Because negativity, I mean it's kind of like the captain of the ship, standing up there, this guy right here, standing up there and everybody, I mean, first of all, somebody must be chasing them because you do not have full sail like this in that kind of seas, that's crazy, right? But the point is, you don't stand up in seas like that as the captain and just be like, we're not gonna make it, it's looking bad. Everybody's like, how's it going? You're like, I don't know. You don't have to just point out every single worry and stress in your life in a leadership position because look, you can spread that negativity to other people and look at your wife, you're in charge, man, for a reason, you're stronger, you're supposed to be able to take it, you're supposed to be able to handle it. What's wrong, honey, what happened with the plumbing? What happened with the car, what that? I got it under control. You're like, I don't have anything under control but I got it under control, don't worry, it's going to be okay, all right? Because look, you can drag other people down as well. People that accomplish great things have figured this out. They've figured out how to control what they think on and what they focus on, folks. And you can do it too, we can do it too. Just look around, I mean, look around at some successful people that you know and you know that's true. I mean, even Bible preachers, even Bible preachers. I mean, I asked Pastor Anderson this one time. It was the first time I visited his church, I wasn't even saved. I went to his church and I asked him because I was like, I had just found him just a few weeks earlier and was listening to, I was binge watching his sermons after I first found the guy on the internet and we happened to be in Arizona and I visited Faithful Word Baptist Church. And the only question I can remember asking him was, I asked him like, because he's just hard preaching on all the problems of society and all the things and how different this world is than the Bible. And I was just like, man, like how, how do you think all this is going to work out? This is bad. And he's just kind of like, well, you know, he didn't really answer, you know, he just kind of like, yeah, you know, because look, it is what it is. You know, I mean, that doesn't mean we're still supposed to think on good things. Yeah, this world is a mess, but I'm not a mess. This world is a mess, but my family's not a mess. This world is a mess, but you know what? I'm in a Bible preaching church. My children are in a Bible preaching church. We go out soul winning, we're preaching the gospel. There's a lot of good and pure and virtuous things to think on here. We can just focus on how terrible and horrible things are constantly. And look, those things are gonna be pointed out, but the people that are successful in this life have just learned to train and control their mind more than anything. And look, from there, the body gets patience and experience and hope. And it just gets stronger. You just get stronger. But the point of the sermon is this, the Bible knew this. The Bible knew this before all science knew this. And the Christians should always have a good spirit about them. Why? Because look at the front of your bulletin because we don't have hope deferred. We have hope. Turn to Titus 1 too. If you're a soul winner, you know this well. We don't have hope deferred as Proverbs 13 says on the front of your bulletin. Like, if you are saved tonight, you will never have hope deferred. You will never be the last part of, you know, you will never be the first part of that proverb. In Titus chapter 1 and verse number 2, this is why when I read this to people, when I read this to people, the Bible says, in a hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. That's such a cool statement right there because basically to all people, even before Christ, to all people. So to the people that were before Christ and the people that were after Christ, God has given this hope to. Meaning this was always God's plan. When? Before the world began. It was always God's plan to send Jesus Christ to be the savior of the world and give us that hope of eternal life. You say, that's how we can know that we have eternal life because God promised it to us so I have that hope and it's impossible for God to lie. That's some pretty good hope right there. It's the world that has nothing to offer though. They may have found out these things, these chemicals and the way these chemicals hurt your body and hurt your bones and hurt your heart and all these different things but they have nothing to offer. They're like, hey, here's some pills. You know, here's some wrong advice. Here's some no advice. I mean, they're literally teaching the kids, actually go back to Romans chapter five real quick. I just thought of this, but in Romans chapter five, in Romans chapter five, they're literally teaching the world even though they've made this connection, they come to the wrong conclusions on everything all the time, which is why you need Bible. Look at Romans chapter five and look at, we read verse number three and verse number four. So what are we after? We're after hope, right? And what is the world teaching? The world is teaching that there should be nothing that is shameful, that there should be nothing that you should be ashamed of. They're teaching in schools now, they're teaching all this perversion and all this twisted, you know, stuff that is just shameful. It's just abominations, the Bible says. But look what the Bible says. The opposite of this is that hope makeeth what? It makeeth not ashamed. So shame is the people that are gonna be depressed. The people that are gonna have heavy hearts. The people, but hope is the opposite of that spectrum. That hope that we have, that hope that is not deferred, it makeeth, it's the opposite of shame, which means we will be lifted up, right? The Bible has all the answers before any of this stuff. Anybody scratches the surface on this stuff. So it's just, from the world, they may make the connections, be like, we've really discovered something in 1946. The Bible already had it. The Bible explained why it was there, why it's like that, and it gives you the answer to fix it. The real answer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.