The Teaching - Dr. James F. Hoffman, Jr., Pastor
May 16, 2010
I think one of the worst things in the world to experience is confusion. The older I get, the more powerful confusion is and the more difficult it is to get out of the confusion. This morning in bible study we were looking at 1Peter 3: 13-46. When we opened the bible and I told them to open to it, I was looking at verse 13 and I started to read it and I said it doesn’t sound right. They said no it’s not right. I was looking at my bible and, and you know how you get when you get to be my age. I’m looking at it and I’m kind of panicking. Because I’m thinking, no it’s verse 13. This is 1Peter. And I’m almost at a place of not knowing what to do. And then finally I look and there’s a 3 over here and I’m in chapter 2. So I turn the page, and I’m there at 3:13. But confusion causes panic within us. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know which way to go. I was just staring at the page; I didn’t know exactly what to do. Sometimes we’ll get lost in the city, and we’re the same way. Sometimes you walk into the kitchen and you can’t remember why you’re there. I don’t know what your practice is, but I just go ahead and get something out of the refrigerator and act like I came in there for it. It makes me feel a whole lot better.
But confusion is an awful thing. I’ve been talking about a clear mind for a
couple of weeks. Now I want to talk
about a clear mind again today. I am
going to try to help me and help you know some ways to develop a clear
mind. First of all, I’d like for you to
turn to your bibles to Philippians 2.
I’m going to begin reading at verse 5.
We have an example for a clear mind.
And the example of a clear mind, as you know, is our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. His mind was always clear.
His mind was always on target. He
didn’t miss an opportunity. He could
tell what people were thinking by the way they acted. Sometimes you can do that. Sometimes I can do that. We’re best with it with our children, and our
grandchildren, and maybe even our great grandchildren. And we’re pretty good with others. We kind of get a read on people, and we know
what’s going on. Well Jesus’ mind was
totally clear all the time. I believe that with all my heart. And let’s read how he got that clear
mind.
Have this attitude in
yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who, although he existed in the form
of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped for. But emptied himself, taking the form of a
bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men, and being found in the
appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death. Even on the cross. Therefore, also God highly exalted him, and
bestowed on him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should
bow. Of those who are in heaven, on
earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
In our world today, our world lives in a very antithetical
way to scripture. And I don’t mean just
the obvious sins. I mean in our thinking
about what success is. We believe
success is moving up the ladder. Moving
up. Graduating. Masters degrees. Doctors degrees. CEO’s.
Head of the department. You name
it. That’s what we think. I watched a movie last night. It’s called Everybody’s Fine. The movie stars Robert DeNiro. He has sons and he has daughters. His wife has died, and he is now alone. It starts off showing him cutting the grass,
getting the grill out, setting up chairs around the table, and then going in
the house. He doesn’t cook. There’s nobody to sit down at the table like
they did when they were a family. And so
he decides, he’s going to do something.
He’s going to invite all his kids over, and he did. But, as he went in the house, the children
started calling and they said, “Well, Johnny’s got the flu.” And, one of his sons who lives elsewhere
said, “Well, I’ve got this gig I got to do, and I can’t come.” So nobody shows up. So he decides he’s going to go visit
everybody. And surprise them. So he goes
to
I want to give you several points, and I’ll give them to you rather quickly.
The first one is, determine in advance, that you will obey. I am a big believer in the fact that if you have not determined what you’re going to do when you get into a situation, you won’t know what to do, and you will probably do the wrong thing. In working with young people, many years ago back in the 70’s, I would tell them, “You have got to make up your mind, what you’re going to do in the backseat of a car when you’re out parking, before you get there. Because there’s no time to make a decision when you’re there. You need to know what you’re going to do. You need to know what your standards are and who you are.” It’s true for all of us. When we get a sense of what God wants us to do, that is our determination to obey it. We’ve got to determine, “Father, if you show me a way, I’m going to follow it. If you’re going to let me know how to live my life, I am going to follow you wherever that is”. I love the hymn, “Wherever He Leads, I’ll Go”. Wherever He leads, I’ll go. I’ll follow my Christ who loves me so. Wherever he leads, I’ll go. I have never been confused when following the will of God. Never. I have been anxious. I have been scared. I’ve been hurt at times. But, I have never been confused. I believe, following the will of God gives us a clear mind. And, I believe when we turn away from the will of God, we get confused. I think it’s a sign of confusion. If you’re confused today, I will lay it down at the feet of the fact that you’re a little off track. I was watching a simulation of a man flying a helicopter. I didn’t realize it was a simulation at first, but the guy who was instructing him said, “Okay, keep your height. Keep your height. As you come over the mountain I’ll tell you what to do. Okay, now, be careful of your height because it can only go up so far.” If that person doesn’t follow the instructor when he flies that helicopter, and if he hasn’t determined already that he knows how high he can fly and he knows exactly what he needs to do to go over a mountain, and deal with thermals and all of that, he will be totally confused. I believe that’s true in my life and your life. Opening the word of God, seeing what it says, having it be part of my life and then embodying that where it’s living out of me, that I have determined to obey it already.
The second thing I believe we need to do is let God’s word program and reprogram our mind. There’s been some things you’ve put in your mind and I’ve put in my mind that do not help me, that hurt me. You see, God has some wonderful words. That’s one of the reasons I like meditating on Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord Is My Shepherd. What are you going to do, what am I going to do, when I’m in a place where I can’t handle it? Maybe its death; someone’s death. Maybe it’s the loss of a job. Maybe it’s the fact that I found out I have a disease. Maybe the bank’s done something with my money, and it’s all gone. Whatever it might be, where am I going to turn? Well if I know the Lord is my Shepherd….. The Psalmist asks this question in 121, and I think when people read this psalm, I think they read it incorrectly; I look into the hills from whence cometh my help. My help doesn’t come from the hills. But when we read it, we read it like that sometimes. Like God is dwelling in the hills. Well God’s not dwelling in the hills. The idols are. The false teachings are. I look into the hills, and where does my help come from? The Psalmist says: My help comes from God. I’ve got to reprogram my mind. It’s not about my health, it’s not about my bank account, it’s not about what my children are or what they’re doing, it’s about my relationship with God. I can’t depend on somebody else to make me happy.
I learned a long time ago that I’m responsible for my birthday. What I mean by that is this. If I sit back and just wait for somebody to celebrate my birthday, I may be sitting back and not have my birthday celebrated. And it’s happened before. So when that happened, I decided that day I was going to take control of my birthday. And every birthday I had was going to be a great birthday. I believe with all my heart, I need to see God’s word and let it program me. No matter what happens to me, God can turn it for good. He restores my soul. In the dark of the night, what are going to think about? For God so loved the World He gave His only begotten son. Program and reprogram.
The next one is this; I’m going to seek truth for myself. I don’t know about you, but I grew up with people telling me a lot of different things. Some of them were good. Some of them weren’t good. I heard messages, I don’t know about you. Some of the messages were: “You can’t do that.” “You’re not good at that, you need to do something else.” Did you ever hear that? My mom was told once that she thought too much and she needed to stop thinking. What a crazy thing to tell somebody. The truth is that if we seek God’s will, we begin to know who we are in Jesus Christ. Let me tell you some things, because we’ve all heard this. I know that I’m a child of God. You’ve gone to school and I’ve gone to school and perhaps we’ve been ashamed of our clothing. I’ve actually gone to school with cardboard in my tennis shoes, because I had holes in my tennis shoes, and we couldn’t afford more. Well, if you go to school with cardboard in your tennis shoes, you’ve got to have a certain attitude about your life in order to get through that. Because, otherwise, when you see a kid running down the hall with Keds on with a thick sole, you’re not going to feel real good about yourself. And so we need to know some things so that when we get older those things carry through and stay with us. And we need to know today with a clear mind that I am a child of God. I have been forgiven of my sins. Sometime, somebody, some place, some way has told you, perhaps, that you will never amount to much. Or, that you’ll never get rid of that problem. Or, that’s just who you are. Well I’m here today to tell you this; God has and will forgive your sins. I’ve been redeemed from the bondage of sin. People say to you, “Well you’ll never shake that off.” “Yes I can. I can shake this off.” “I can stop this, or I can begin this.” I can live my life in accordance with God’s will. That flaw in me is not who I am, it’s a flaw and God can overcome that flaw. I have been declared free of guilt. You and I are free of guilt. Don’t be confused about; don’t let it get in your mind. You have been freed from guilt by Jesus Christ. He has forgiven you. You need no longer carry that. You can just let it go. You put it off your back. You can put it off your shoulders. You are no longer guilty. I’ve been in plenty of courtrooms with people. I’ve listened to judges pass sentences. There’s nothing like hearing, “Charges dismissed.” You need to hear that from God today.
I have been reconciled to God. God loves you. Do not have any other idea in your head. Your mind needs to be clear that you and God are one through Jesus Christ. That’s what Jesus tells us. In John 15, that’s what Jesus tells us throughout his gospels, he says to us, “I and the father are one and we are one and you are one with the Father.” I am fully a part of God’s family and an heir to all things that are for my eternal good. I’m an heir. I have something in glory that awaits me. I have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and he has sealed me to God the Father, until the day I die. No one can take you from God. I don’t care what they say. I don’t care how they say it. You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and you are God’s he will never let you go. When you breathe your last breath, the Lord Jesus Christ will come and take your hand, and take you to where he is. I believe that with all my heart.
My name has been written in the Lamb’s book of life, and my ultimate home is heaven. I’ve got house plans in my office for a little house I’d like to build. It’s not a big house, but it’s just cool. I like it. Every once in while I’ll pull those plans out and look at them. Just look at them, think about an acre or two somewhere, with my little place in the middle. And it feels like, boy , this could be home. You get that feeling when you think about it; you can hear the bird singing and the raccoons racooning and all that. You feel the peace of it. You feel like walking around in that place. My home is not here. The reason I want to build a home is because I have a wholly dissatisfaction with what’s here. I want more. That’s the reason people take vacations. Did you know that? The reason people take vacations is they want to go to heaven. They want to go heaven, and they can’t get there yet, so they go on vacation. When they go on vacation, they’re in a different place, and they have these places they like to go to, because when they go there, it makes them feel like they’re special. Our home is in heaven. Take all the vacations you can, though. They make you feel good.
Until that day come, I walk as a testimony to the grace and goodness of God. When people see you, you are a testimony to the grace and goodness of God. Every time I go home and I see my father, I look at him and think, WOW. God has been gracious to give him his life. And to give him a long life. And for him to have his mind, be able to get around and do as well as he does. For me he’s a testimony. Well you are. You are a testimony, because you have been through things. You have lived your life. As you walk around and as people see you, you are a testimony. And you are a testimony to me.
I am a member of the body of Christ. I live to magnify Jesus Christ. Are you looking for a purpose in your life? I am. I’m looking for a purpose in my life every day. I want a purpose to get up for. When I go to bed at night, I want to go to sleep with my mind clear that I want to glorify Jesus Christ with my life. I want that to be uppermost in my life. And when I wake up and I almost get up I say, “Get back in bed.” And then I get in my prayer position, and I pray. Why? Because I’m a righteous wonderful holy person? No! Not outside of Jesus Christ. I want to know how I can glorify God. What can I do with my life today? How is my life going to be played out today so that God gets glory?
I relate to all other people and in all of my work in a way that seeks to bring glory to the Father. You say, “Well, Jim, I don’t pastor a church.” Or, “I don’t do much.” You might be like my mom and dad. Here’s their life: they go to the grocery store, they go to the dollar store, and they may go to Home Depot or Lowes, Target and the doctor. They just kind of move around this little area, and that’s what they do. And on Saturday, my mother gets all the pills out and puts them in the little boxes, and so Monday they have their pills and so on. But you can move about in that way to glorify God. You can move about in that way so that Jesus Christ lives through you and touches other people’s lives. I was talking to my mother the other day and she said, “When I go to the store now I can’t bend over because when I bend over I get dizzy”. “I’ll pick up something like paper towels and I’ll drop them and I can’t pick them up. But people come along they’ll pick them up and they’ll give them to me.” I said, “Mother, you’re being a blessing to people. Do you know that?” “When that young woman bent down, picked up those paper towels and handed them to you, she ministered to you. And in doing that, she felt it. You gave her an opportunity to serve you, and to serve the God who created you.” I don’t care who you are. You can be of use to God. Even in your infirmities.
I am a person on a mission to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, as clearly as possible, as irresistibly as possible through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God. We are salt of the earth. Salt is flavor. I desire, I want you to desire, and I believe God wants us to desire to be that salt and that flavor so that when we say what we say and we live what we live, and we do what we do, people are attracted to Jesus Christ. People are drawn to God. The way you talk to them. The spirit you have. The way in which you walk around. The way you live your life. You live it with joy. You’ve got a smile on your face. Your eyes are sparkling. You’re positive, you’re not negative. You believe that good can come. You believe God can work something out. You believe that there is a purpose for life and a purpose when things happen, and you live that way and you don’t doubt it. When others are anxious, you’re not. You’re at peace. You can live it. I’ve seen people live it. I’ve been with them and watched them. And they’ve helped me. Because if you see one person do it, you say, “I can do that.” “I can be at peace. I can smile. I can be positive. I don’t have to tell something bad about somebody else. I can tell something good. I can think up something good to say.”