BIG SUNDAY Trails of Thought

Welcome to Go Church Beirut, your place to love, grow and go.

Get ready to hear an inspiring message recorded during a Go Church Beirut gathering.

Good morning church.

It's an honor to be with you this morning.

My name is Gilbert.

I'm really excited to share this message with you today called Trails of Thought because

today we're going to make you think a little bit.

That's the goal.

You see, I can't give you every single thing that the Lord wants you to have in 30, 40

minutes, maybe 50 minutes.

I don't know.

Not sure.

Let me put my timer on since we're talking about time.

But my job is to make you think.

My job is to open up scriptures to you and to help you receive something new.

You see, Jesus says that His words contain spirit.

His words are spirit and life.

They contain the life of God's spirit.

These words are more than just words.

These words are things that you can open up like containers and receive from.

So my job is to help unpack that and to help you see that.

But you also have a part to play this morning.

Your job is to come here expecting to receive something new from the Word of God.

And your job is to leave here and change something because of what you've seen today.

If this doesn't impact you in any way and there are no changes that you can apply in

your life, this might as well be Netflix, right?

Just entertainment.

But that's not the case.

The Word of God is a lot more than that.

The Word of God is precious and there's something in it for you today.

Amen.

So with that, I also want to say that each and every single person here is a precious

gift from God.

So how about you turn around and say welcome to someone you haven't seen before.

Shake hands.

I'm only doing this because I'm not sitting there and I'm usually an introvert.

So the reason I'm making you do this today as well is because during worship, the Lord

really put in my heart how much He loves each and every single one of you and how precious

you are to Him and how much of a treasure you are to Him.

And the relationships with the people that you could have in this room would be some

of the most powerful relationships that you would ever have.

And these relationships would go beyond this world into eternity.

So they're so precious.

So let's get to the message today.

The message is called Trails of Thought.

Like we said, this message is designed to make you think.

Think about your thoughts.

Think about what's going on in your mind and how we can use that to our advantage rather

than our disadvantage.

So I have a question I want to ask.

This question.

What does it look like to live a spiritual life?

And you guys are going to help me answer.

No answer?

It's quiet.

I need help with that.

That's good that we're led so we live a life led by the Holy Spirit.

The truth of the Word is manifest in our lives.

That's really good.

That's really good.

The Surinam thoughts.

Thank you for sharing my message today.

I appreciate it.

Be a doer of the Word.

I like that.

You guys are literally preaching my message today.

I appreciate it.

Well, let's take a look at what Paul says.

Like we learned to Rhema today.

It doesn't matter what I say.

It doesn't matter what anyone says.

What does the Bible say?

And we're going to look at what Paul says.

And Paul in his letter to the Colossian Church in the first chapter and a half is talking

about who Jesus is, the truth about God, the truth about what he's done for us and what

that makes us.

And there are some powerful, powerful, powerful truths in there.

And then he goes on to talk about this.

I'm going to read a few scriptures here.

This is in Colossians two.

Just listen in.

You don't have to turn there right now.

But he says, because God did all of this for you through Jesus, therefore let no one sit

in judgment on you in matters of food and drink or with regards to a feast day or a

new moon or a Sabbath.

He goes on to say, let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy

and disqualifying you for the prize.

He goes on to say, why do you live as if you still belong to the world?

Why do you submit to rules and regulations such as do not handle, do not touch, do not

taste?

And then he goes on to say this, this key scripture I want us all to look at and read

together.

Colossians chapter two, verse 22 in the truth, New Testament, these, these religious regulations

contain no life because they are really human commands and teachings.

So Paul is saying a contrasting thing.

First of all, he says what living a spiritual life is not and what it doesn't look like.

And the fact is living a religious life with regulations, just with manmade rules and what

I should do and what I shouldn't do and, oh, someone else did this and they saw me do this.

This is not a spiritual life.

In fact, he says that it contains no life.

In contrast, he goes on to say this in chapter three, he says, you have been raised with

Christ to share in his risen life.

So on one hand, rules and regulations that we follow contain no life.

On the other hand, we have been raised to share in his risen life.

You see, when we all received Jesus, we were all born again.

We became new creatures in Christ.

Old things have passed away.

All things have become new.

What does that mean?

That means that I can share in his risen life.

Now, I'm going to pause here for a second and say that if you never had the chance to

receive Jesus in your life, we'll have a chance by the end of the service.

So stick around.

This is something you do not want to miss and you do not want to leave without doing

today.

So on one hand, Paul's saying religious regulations and a life void of life, for better words,

I don't really have better words, but a life under religious tradition contains no life.

They're just rules.

But on the other hand, that we are to share in the risen life of Christ, we were designed

to live and walk on this earth just as he lived and walked on this earth with his life.

That's right.

Okay.

You know, John G.

Lake said something amazing.

He said Christianity is not a religion.

Christianity is the life of God coming into man.

Again?

Yeah.

Christianity is not a religion.

Christianity is the life of God coming into man.

So because I'm a Christian, I live in the life of God with the life of God, with the

power of God in me.

So then Paul goes on to say this, and this is where we're now taking a turn in our message.

He says, so set your hearts on heavenly things for that is where Christ is now seated at

God's right hand.

You need to have heavenly thinking and not be restricted by mere worldly thoughts.

So here's the thing.

If you want to enjoy this risen life, if you want to enjoy participating in the life of

God, there are two things that Paul's telling you to do.

Set your hearts on things above, set your hearts on God's things.

And the second thing is you need to have heavenly thinking.

So let me, let me make this statement right here that a spiritual life cannot be measured

against the rules we keep, but a spiritual life is determined by our focus.

What we focus on in our hearts and what we focus on with our minds.

And that's what we're going to be talking about today.

What we do with our minds.

So in the next slide, there is another question, which is why trails of thought.

So we named this message trails of thought.

Why is that?

It's because thoughts are real.

You know, I was researching statistics, pastor Matt shared some statistics with me, and then

I went on to research this a little bit.

And I saw that on average per day, human beings have 6,000 up to 60,000 thoughts a day.

Now there are different kinds of studies, but what that basically means is that we have

four up to 45 thoughts per minute.

Now whichever study you decide to believe, frankly, I believe both because there's days

where I just have maybe zero thoughts a minute.

I'm just staring at the wall.

My wife's probably wondering, what are you doing?

You know, but there are other days where my mind's running and my mind's racing and I'm

having maybe more than 45 thoughts a day.

And another fact, another statistic is that 80% of those thoughts are negative thoughts.

If you don't believe me, try this out.

Would you speak to your friends the same way you speak to yourself in the mirror?

The things I say to myself sometimes, if I said it to my friends, I wouldn't have friends.

It's a reality.

It's a truth.

But we're changing that this morning.

We're going a little further this morning and we're taking a look at what's going on

in our minds.

Another thing about thoughts is that they take you places.

You see, thoughts influence your actions.

Actions influence your position.

And your position determines what you're going to experience in your life.

Can we go on to the next slide?

There's an extra slide in there.

Can we skip over two slides, please, to the image?

Thank you.

Can anyone guess where this is?

Does anyone recognize this place except for my wife?

Exactly.

That's right.

This is a place I love going and it's a place that I love to jog at over the weekends.

You guys stay same.

I never see you jogging up there, by the way.

I'm just saying.

But me, on the other hand, every weekend I go there like a champ.

I start jogging.

I'm talking a little bit about myself, getting some energy.

It's really a time where I'm so exhausted that there again I'm not letting my thoughts

take over me.

The Lord gets to share a lot with me while I'm running and that's a whole other message.

But what I did want to share is this illustration, which actually led to this theme, led to this

message.

There was one day when I was just jogging down the pavement.

This is kind of the beginning of the road and then you keep going.

It's like around a kilometer long and then you come back.

It's one of the few places that is relatively flat in Lebanon and has a sidewalk, so I just

really enjoy it.

I was there jogging, jogging, listening to music, feeling good about myself.

All of a sudden I see a guy right in front of me, maybe 20 meters down and he's walking

his dog.

I really like dogs.

I have a dog.

I just have a criticism in Lebanon about how some people walk their dogs.

Because sometimes they don't walk their dogs, the dogs walk them.

It's kind of like this, this thing happening and that dog looked a little rough.

So I'm like, okay.

I start looking at the dog, I get closer and I start getting off the pavement and I start

running there.

So if this is the pavement, I'm running right here and I start running and running and running.

Then I get next to the dog and the Lord prompts me in my heart, so it's not like an audible

voice, but he prompts me in my heart, look where you're standing.

So I kind of stopped jogging for a second and I started looking around me and sure enough,

that's the pavement and I'm standing in the middle of the road.

I have my earphones in, I'm not hearing what's going on.

I'm not focused on my surroundings, I'm focused on the dog.

So in that very moment, when I realized where I was standing, the Lord prompted me again

and he said this, he said, this is what fear does to my people.

All right, think about it.

This is what fear does to my people.

So if I'm walking on the pavement or I'm running on the pavement, I'm in the right place.

I'm where I'm supposed to be running and walking.

This is my safe place.

Happy day, sun shining.

I'm doing exactly what I should be doing.

But then I start focusing.

My focus goes to the dog, my attention goes to the dog rather than the fact that I'm supposed

to be on this path.

And I start getting off the road and off the road.

And where am I now?

I'm in the danger zone.

I'm exactly where I shouldn't be.

And if there was a car in that moment, I would have been in serious trouble.

So fear took me out of the place I was supposed to be in, into the wrong place.

And that's why we're talking about trails of thought.

Okay, we're talking about trails of thought because our thoughts take us places.

You see our thoughts lead to actions.

Our actions put us in a certain position.

And that position will determine what we're going to experience.

Can we go back to the last slide, please?

Before that.

Thank you.

Maybe I should have been more organized with my slides.

This is basically our key scripture for the month, which we're going to be talking about

and digging deeper on in our grow groups.

But I wanted to just put this back up and show you now that we've talked about this,

that our thoughts take us places.

And it says this, it says, for to be carnally minded is death.

But to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

And this is why there are two arrows on the floor right now, just to give you a visual.

Because if we are carnally minded, we start going places that lead us to death.

And if we are spiritually minded, it starts leading us into places of life and peace.

Amen.

All right.

So in preparation for this message, if there's anything that I received from the Lord to

prompt you about, it's these three questions.

And I always think that during messages, questions are very powerful because it gets us thinking.

So when we start opening our Bibles and we start living our lives, we reflect on these

questions.

You see, during our series and grow groups, we put up three key subjects and we start

digging deeper on Bible subjects and how these apply to our lives.

And I really want to ask these questions and I want to base this message around these three

questions.

And these are the three questions.

What are you looking at?

What are you acting on?

And what are you experiencing?

All right.

So the first part is what are you looking at?

You see, before I get to, you know what?

I really enjoy this, this artwork.

Are you guys seeing the artwork in the back?

Are you noticing what it is?

It's a crossroad, right?

And we're going either left or we're going right.

So there's a point where when we go hiking, if you enjoy hiking, you can take different

trails.

And we're talking about the crossroads of these trails going one direction or going

the other direction.

All right.

So let's, the first step to going in the wrong direction or the right direction is looking

in a certain direction, right?

The next step is walking.

Who here has ridden a bicycle before?

Okay.

So you all know how it works.

You don't actually turn.

You kind of just look in a certain direction.

You go there.

Who here has fallen off a bicycle because they were trying to turn one direction, but

looking the other direction.

It really hurt by the way, not pleasant, but this is the point.

The point is in order to go in a certain direction, we have to start looking in a certain direction.

Can we go to the next slide, please?

So let's start building up this picture of what the trail of fear and what the trail

of faith looks like.

So the first scripture I want us to look at is an answer to what are you looking at?

And this is in second Corinthians chapter four, verse 18.

And it says this, we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not

seen for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

So this is the answer from the end to the beginning.

What is the Bible telling us to look at?

Not look, first of all, don't look at the things which are seen, but look at the things

which are not seen.

Because the things which are seen are temporary and they're up and down, like the economy,

like our grades, like job opportunities, like visa regulations, up and down, up and down,

up and down, up and down, up and down, temporary.

Very, very, very temporary.

But if you look at the things which are not seen, the eternal things, those things don't

change.

The Bible says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

So if I look at Jesus, he doesn't change.

It's just the steadiest thing to look at in my life is what God did for me and the eternal

plan of redemption for me.

So if I'm always focused on this and I start looking at this, this is what it looks like.

Oh, my passport doesn't take me many places, but maybe I should go to the places where

it takes me.

Oh, the news just says that there was an explosion.

So maybe I should leave.

Oh, my grades are bad.

What are my parents going to say?

I need money.

I need a house.

Everyone tells me that I should be an engineer or I should be or I should be or I should

be.

And you start looking and looking and looking and looking at things that are temporary and

things that start taking you places.

But do you want to be led by needs, pressures, other people, or do you want to be led by

the plan of God for your life?

Do you want to be led by the will of God, by what he tells you, by his word, by his

spirit?

You guys just answered it right before we started.

So this is what it looks like to live a spiritual life.

But the fact is, it starts with very natural things that you think about what you switch

on and what you switch off.

That is the first line.

So what you look at determines where you're going.

See people in the world have worldly hope.

So they put their hope in things that are up and down.

What does the Bible mean by hope?

Hope is not that word that we use in English.

Hope is a confident expectation of a good end.

So if I'm looking in this direction, that's my hope.

So now I have a confident expectation of a good end.

So now I'm looking in the right direction and I know that I'm going to start walking

in something good.

Something good.

Something, that's my hope.

And a lot of people in the world have worldly hope, which they put in their CV, their passport,

their reputation, what their family says about them.

That's worldly hope.

And one day that can change.

So James says in chapter one, verse 15, that the first step towards death is our desire.

He says desire, when it is conceived, brings forth sin.

Sin when it is fully formed brings forth death.

Now, if I say sin, a lot of people's minds might block.

And the fact is I'm not talking about, oh, you did this wrong and you did that wrong.

That's not what I mean by sin.

What I mean by sin is missing the mark of what God has expected for you.

That's what sin means.

Sin means I'm falling short of who God is and who he's made me to be.

So the first step towards death or alternatively towards life is what you look at.

The Bible tells you to resist the devil, but it doesn't tell you to resist sin.

He tells you, flee from idolatry, flee from adultery, put away deceitful lusts, cast your

cares.

Why?

Because he's telling you to walk away from them.

See, I'm not here judging you.

What I'm here is to tell you that the focus will determine where you're going.

So maybe it's not adultery, you know, maybe it's not idolatry, maybe it's anger, maybe

it's fear.

And the fact is there's a solution.

It's the same solution.

Turn away from it.

Look away from it.

Stop focusing on it.

Because if you keep focusing on this, eventually you're going to take a step in this direction.

Eventually you're going to take another step in this direction.

So the first step is put away.

This is how you also deal with, this is how you also deal with addictions in your life.

Stop looking at them.

Stop glorifying them.

Stop making them so big and you keep looking at them.

One day, one day I'm going to quit this.

One day I'm going to stop this.

One day I'm going to, okay, the first step is just do this and I start walking in the

right direction.

I don't mean to cheapen what you might be feeling, but I'm trying to give you the solution

to where you should be going.

The next step you take is determined on your focus.

It's not determined on what you say and the rules you keep and the governance that you

try to put about this.

What you're looking at is where you're going to go.

For each one of these questions, I want to share a quick Bible illustration.

In Mark chapter five, there is a man who comes to Jesus and he's the leader of a synagogue.

He's called Jairus and Jesus is off across the sea of Galilee.

He returns to Capernaum.

As soon as he returns, this man is waiting for Jesus and saying, Jesus, please come to

my house.

My daughter is terribly sick and I need you to heal her.

Jesus says yes.

He always says yes to healing.

He never says no to it.

So he starts walking with her, walking with him, walking with him, walking with him.

So this is the path they're walking down.

And at some point, the servants of Jairus come up to him and say, you don't need to

trouble the master anymore, your daughter's dead.

That's bad news.

And at this point, Jesus says this to him, do not be afraid, only believe.

So now he's reached a crossroads.

Jairus has reached this point where, where he's going to focus on is that going to determine

where he's going to go.

And Jesus showed him that and told him where to go.

Do not be afraid and only believe.

That was the next step that was going to determine what was going to happen.

Thankfully, the next step that Jairus took was with Jesus.

I believe let's go to my house.

I believe let's walk into the door.

I believe yes, Jesus, you can throw out all these people who are wailing and mocking you,

throw them out.

There's no problem.

I believe let's go upstairs.

I believe Jesus have your way.

What happens?

The girl is raised back to life, but it started at that crossroad.

It started at that crossroad.

He could have gone in this direction.

Oh, you know, Jesus, forget it.

It's not going to work.

You know what?

It's too late now.

They already gave me that report.

She's already gone.

There's nothing we can do.

Forget it.

It's the funeral arrangements.

That crossroad was the first step towards life.

Are you going to choose death or are you going to choose life?

To be carnally minded as death, but to be spiritually minded as life and peace.

There's another illustration that I want to share and it's a little lighter, but I just

thought it's really funny and there's something I just really, really wanted to share.

Back in summer, I was traveling and I had tons of work stuff and I had just meetings

with clients across Europe.

I kind of took like nine flights over three weeks to meet clients.

It was exhausting, but I would keep flying in and out of like different places back to

Ciela and I would be staying with Ciela, my wife and my mother-in-law.

There was one point where I was leaving Ireland and a storm was coming in.

I'm in the plane just waiting to take off and sure enough, we take off.

It's very, very dark outside.

There's this storm that's coming in.

It's very windy, a little bumpy.

I'm sitting in my window seat, just minding my own business, listening to a message, whatever

it is.

Sure enough, it's like, I can't even simulate turbulence that well.

It was turbulent.

It started getting turbulent and Mr. Spiritual Me pulled out my Bible.

Psalm 91, he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow

of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress.

My God and in him will I trust.

Surely he delivers me from the snare of the fowler.

Three rows behind me, there are these little kids sitting down.

Every time the plane goes, they're like, yay.

Guess who's being more spiritual in that moment?

I'm looking at, oh, turbulence, what's going to happen?

Am I going to make it?

Am I going to make it?

These kids are just like, yay.

We can make light of this.

Here's another picture I want to show you, another illustration on this subject.

You recognize me?

You recognize my wife, Ciela?

So on the same trip for my birthday, Ciela took me to an amusement park.

I really enjoy amusement parks.

I enjoy roller coasters.

I feel like a child, you know?

But right here, Ciela and I are on the same roller coaster.

We're experiencing the same dip.

We're going through the same G force, but here I am smiling.

And here's Ciela reciting Psalm 91.

The reality is a lot of the time, it's still the same experience.

It's the same scenery, but we're just looking at things different.

Coming back to the plain illustration, besides the joke, if I let fear dictate my decisions,

the next time I might not take a flight for work.

The next time I might be too afraid to get in a car.

The next time I might not go where God's asking me to go or take the next step that God's

asking me to take.

And if I just let fear govern my life, I will go in the wrong direction.

Right?

But if I don't let fear intimidate me and I will not take decisions based on fear, I

will take decisions based on what God told me.

And God told me to keep going with this business, to keep going with this job.

So is he not going to get me from Ireland to the Netherlands?

Come on.

The reality is fear will determine your next action.

The next action will determine the position you're in.

That position will determine life or death.

It's that serious.

So I want to go to the second question.

The second question is, what are you acting on?

This is the Bible's answer for you.

We walk by faith and not by sight.

So now that we started focusing in a certain direction, now we're going to start walking

in that direction.

And the Bible tells us, don't walk by sight.

Walk by faith.

Don't walk because of what you see.

Oh, I need this job, so I'm going to do this.

Oh, I need to travel to this country because I'm worried about my income.

I need to run here because my family is shouting at me.

You know, I need to get this job or get, you know, going to this university just because

people are telling me to do this because of fear that, you know, they might not welcome

me in their home anymore.

They might not support me.

Okay, so that also means that every step that I take in this direction, I'm taking away

from that.

So if God's trying to get me to go there and I keep taking steps in this direction, I'm

further away from his plan than I'm ever going to be.

So we need to be mindful every single day to walk by faith.

This is what God said about my life.

He wants me to do this job, so I will take that plane from Ireland to the Netherlands.

Not going to be afraid.

He told me that I need to go further, so he's going to provide the needs for me to go further.

Right?

That's what it looks like to act on it because what you act on will determine where you go.

And what you act on will take you a place and you're going to start experiencing things

across this path.

The Bible illustration that I want to share here is about Job and the story of Job.

I like to bring up Job and if you've noticed, I probably brought him up every single time

I've done a message is because I do feel like a lot of people extrapolate things and make

certain assumptions.

And this is a book of false assumptions.

This is what Job is.

His friends had false assumptions.

Job had false assumptions.

His wife had false assumptions.

You know, in chapter one, you see that Job was the richest man in all the land.

God blessed him beyond blessing.

This is what the Bible says, that he had business.

He had a family.

He had everything going for him and the devil hated that.

The devil hated the fact that God gave him what he gave him.

And the devil was desperately trying to get access to Job, kind of just doing this to

his life.

And the devil then goes to the Lord and says that you've put a hedge of protection around

him.

I can't get there.

I can't go there.

And then things start happening in Job's life.

Why did this happen to Job?

Why did the devil get access to Job?

What happened?

Why?

Well, actually the answer is right here.

Job chapter three, verse 25.

I really love this in the young's literal translation because it is literally what Job

says.

For a fear, I feared and it met me.

And what I was afraid of came to me because I'm on this path of death.

I've opened the door to the enemy.

So you see this now clearly because we've been talking about all of this context.

A fear I feared and it met me.

I'm going to go in this direction.

Excellent.

The devil is saying, keep going.

I'm going to go in this direction.

Keep going.

You know what the devil does?

He creates a suggestion for you.

So you go in the wrong direction.

When you go in the wrong direction, he sticks his leg out.

You trip over and then he accuses you, why are you on the ground?

I thought God wanted to do these things for you.

I thought God blessed you.

I thought God was your healer.

What happened?

You're in the wrong place.

You were looking at the wrong thing.

You opened yourself up to the devil.

So this brings me to point number three, which is what are you experiencing?

Can we go to the next slide, please?

So we go back to our key scripture for to be carnally minded as death, but to be spiritually

minded is life and peace.

And this, I want to make this point as clear as possible.

If you have questions about the next verse that I'm about to share, please see Richard

John 10 10, right?

The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy.

But Jesus says, I have come so that you would have life and you would experience it in abundance.

Abundant life.

And this is the point.

Not every single thing that you see happening around you in this world is God.

Killing is not God.

Fighting is not God.

Stealing is not God.

War is not God.

Lying is not God.

Actually, the Bible tells you it is impossible for God to lie.

If you ever wondered, nothing is impossible.

It says it is impossible for him to lie.

So there are certain things that are not God that are happening around you.

Remember I said thoughts lead to actions, actions lead to position, position leads to

result.

I didn't say actions lead to location because it's not limited to where you physically are.

It's limited to where you place yourself.

You see, love is a spiritual location.

Peace is a spiritual location.

Joy is a spiritual location.

You can place yourselves in these spiritual locations and have this hedge of protection

around you where the devil is like trying to get in and I can't get in.

But if you start yielding yourself to anger, yielding yourself to worries, you don't believe

me, it's right there in the Bible.

The Bible tells you cast your cares on God because God cares for you and then Peter goes

on to say in 1 Peter 5, 8, be sober, be vigilant because the enemy is prowling around like

a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

So the first step is getting yourself out of place into a place of worry and now he

has access to you.

Ephesians tells you that do not be angry and do not sin and do not let the sun go down

on your wrath, neither give place to the devil.

So if you get angry and you stay in that place, you've given him access.

You see the biggest fight with the enemy, the personal fight is not what we tell him

and what we do, it's where we put ourselves.

Everywhere in the Psalms, across the Psalms, the Psalmist tell you that the Lord delivered

me out of this low place and he put me somewhere up.

You know Psalm 91, I was just reciting it, but the protection in there, the life in there

is in the first three words, he who dwells, he who dwells.

So if I dwell on this path of life, I experience life.

The devil can do nothing to me.

He can try, he can bring suggestions to me that start bringing me in this direction,

bring me in this direction.

But if I dwell in this place, he has no access to me.

That's right.

So 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses four and five tell you that the weapons of our warfare

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

are not physical weapons.

I'm paraphrasing this.

You can research this, but they are in our minds.

So the first line of defense against the enemy is what we think on.

The first line of defense against the enemy is where we let our thoughts take us.

So to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

So I'm literally walking in life and peace based on what I think on.

So in closing this message, I want to share a personal story, personal illustration.

If you guys are listening to the podcast, maybe you've heard bits and pieces of this

and maybe I've shared this, but I will share it again.

You can listen.

It's fine.

Back in October, 2018, I met everyone at Go Church.

I became part of this family and I had it on my heart.

I was looking for a church.

Roy and I were actually looking for a church and we started going around.

When I met the team and it was still very, very early days in my heart, I felt this like

the sense of you were looking for a church.

Now you're going to help build one.

That was the sense I had in my heart.

So life went and life kept going and life kept going.

And by April 2019, I found myself in this very, very tight spot in my life and I was

kind of doing this.

I was just here.

Work is really bad.

Things are not great at home.

Relationship with family at this point is not really good.

My wife who was not my wife was abroad and we were not together in this country and I

didn't know the next steps.

So I'm staring this way and I come to Pastor Matt Hattable.

I'm always going to say this part of the story, but I said, what do I do?

What do I do?

He tells me first Peter five seven and pray in other tongues.

I'm like, that's cute, but I need advice.

I need real advice, right?

But you know what?

Fine.

I'll do that.

I cast my cares on you.

I'm not worried about the business.

I'm not worried about what's going to happen with my relationship.

I'm not worried about the problems I'm facing at home.

I'm not worried about the next moves in my life.

But you know what, Lord?

Now I put myself in this position.

Whatever you want me to do, if you make it clear to me what you want me to do, I will

do it.

So I took myself out of this place and I put myself here.

What do you want me to do?

I started praying in tongues.

Six minutes in, I'm just praying in tongues, praying in tongues, praying in tongues.

And then this word comes out of my mouth.

Stay, stay, stay, stay, stay.

It took me about six days until I realized it was English.

What you call this in the Bible is tongues and an interpretation of tongues.

Stay, stay.

I'm like, okay, that's odd.

I stopped for a few seconds.

I'm like, I'm going to keep praying in tongues.

I could not say any other word except for stay, stay, stay, stay.

If that's not an answer, I don't know what is right.

But I made a commitment to him.

I'm staying.

It doesn't matter what happens.

It doesn't matter what people say.

It doesn't matter the limitations.

It doesn't matter what I have or don't have.

You told me to stay, so I'm staying.

I know that to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

So now I'm going to set my mind on this.

And to be honest, the first step I took, joy, peace, strength, everything I needed.

Another step, purpose.

My place.

My growth.

Another step.

Great things happening in my life.

I'm married.

The business I was worried about, at this point I had signed a personal guarantee, a

bank guarantee, in my own name, against loans that were north of seven million, eight million

dollars.

It was two weeks away from default.

But one step after another after another, those loans are paid off.

Now that company is profitable.

I'm married.

My whole family is saved.

Life and peace.

Goodness and mercy.

The Bible tells you in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 19, there is said before you, life

Deuteronomy 30:19

and death, blessing and cursing.

And the Lord Himself tells you, choose life.

Choose life.

The first step to choosing life is what you think on.

So I'm going to ask those questions again.

What are you looking at?

What are you acting on?

And what are you experiencing in your lives?

Amen.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for joining us at Go Church Beirut.

Go Church Beirut exists so that everyone can experience the unconditional love of God,

grow in His love and go with His love to their world.

To stay connected with all that is happening at Go Church, follow us on social media at

Go Church Beirut.

And if no one told you yet today, we love you and expect God's best for you.