Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Got Thinking Problems?

Laurie Snyman

Coping with Our Problems -  Part 1

Lord, we thank You for this camp meeting.

We thank You for the Holy Spirit that has promised to attend us.

We pray that You will be with this class, that the people who hear will have a new vision of where they can go with You and help our minds not to keep us from that walk that we want with God.

And today is called coping with our problems.

That would be a negative part of coping, huh?

But we want to be able to cope with problems.

Didn't the Bible say that people who gave their hearts to God would never have problems?

You will have troubles in this life, doesn't it?

And it doesn't say, and Adventists are excluded, right?

So, now, I know that there's a lot of ideas and things that we'll be talking about today, and I want to make sure that we bring it together.

And I'm hoping that if you can just jot down a note here or there, that would be wonderful, because at the end, I would love to ask if there is something specific that was helpful to you, because there's something about...

They've learned that when people talk to another person, that you will probably forget 95% of what you learn.

If you write it down, you will forget about 75% of what you learn.

But if you turn and you say to someone, when I heard that, this is what it means to me, and this is what I want to do, all of a sudden, that hits home and you will remember about 75% of it.

So, unless you have a real problem with dementia, right?

So I want to give you every chance to help put it into your brain.

So please, if it's something significant to you and you are able to write it down, I have extra pens.

If you're able to write it down, please do.

Have you ever heard people say some really negative statements that show they're not coping well, like, I don't know how much more of this I can take.

How about, I wonder what's going to happen?

Well the worst case scenario could be, You ever heard any of this?

How about, I'm done, I'm done, I'm really done, I'm done.

And then you're done a few minutes later.

That's like when a parent says, I'm going to spank you, and they just let the junior go.

And then say, I told you I'm going to spank you.

So when you think that way, what happens to the peace and joy that you're supposed to be feeling from God?

Do people have peace and joy when they're thinking that way?

And so what we say and comes out of our mouth will impact our brain, and our brain will impact our body.

And so actually, there's a big connection between what we say and how we feel.

Who is the person who would want us to speak in a very disparaging and discouraging way?

We don't want to give him any glory but he is you know if you remember watching the Wizard of Oz and you remember the Remember the wizard behind the curtain and he was pushing the buttons like he was controlling people and things Don't you think the devil has a control room where He likes to push buttons and really get people stirring.

And he knows, he knows what my problem is, he knows what your problem is.

He chooses, he hand chooses your problem because he knows what's gonna get you, right?

Sometimes, it's because of something that's happened in our past.

There, now, that sounds like a therapist thing.

I am a social worker and I do have a therapy practice, but it is very true that if you're going to be upset, thank you.

If you're going to be upset at something, watch out because there are triggers from your past.

When my husband and I were married for 2 weeks, we were still in that sweet honey baby type of comments.

We just came home from our Hawaiian honeymoon and everything was sweet.

And it was his first Sabbath at the church.

And we were at Waterford which was Pontiac at that time.

And he went downstairs, and I was getting the potluck dishes.

I have to tell you, I was a little bit of a spoiled brat when he married me.

I mean, I'm still a spoiled brat, but I'm just saying, I really didn't know how to get a potluck dish ready.

Don't you think pastors' wives need to know how to do potluck dishes?

Yeah, I'm like, I think that when I go to heaven they're going to put a potluck dish on my head or something.

Because I think we do a lot of potluck dishes.

But anyway, I was getting that potluck dish ready and it just wasn't going right.

And it was my first Sabbath at his church.

And you know what, does it reflect on the wife when the husband's not dressed properly?

That day he was picking out, he evidently can't see greens and grays.

I didn't realize he had some color blindness until after a few more years.

But he picked out something that looks so bad, and women think that it reflects on them when the husband looks really bad, right?

And yeah, a happy husband does what his wife says, right?

And he was going to wear his tie the way he wanted to wear his tie.

And so, it had not been a good morning, and I was trying to get ready, and we were in an apartment on the third floor, and he went down to the car, and he was waiting impatiently, and he just happened to beep the horn.

Oh, I did not know how red my face could get.

Women, what does it mean when a man beeps the horn at you?

You need to do this and get it done, right?

And I don't know, it sounds like disrespect all over, right?

So, despite what the men might say, I ran down to that car, remember my sweetheart?

And he rolled down the window, and I didn't have a potluck dish, I didn't have my purse, I didn't have my jacket.

And he opened the window and He looked at me, his eyes were as big as pancakes, and I said, if you ever ring, I mean, buzz that horn again, you know what you can do.

You can go to your church all by yourself, and I'm going to see what they think about you with your new bride on your first Sabbath.

I mean, he'd never heard a tone like that before.

Man, I never got up the flight of stairs faster than I did that day and I got my potluck dishes and it was quiet all the way to church.

I didn't feel like talking and he was afraid to talk.

Are You Uptight Instead of Alright? - Part 3

Is your prayer to think the way God wants you to think?

And to act the way God would have you act?

Romans 12, 2 is a verse that I think every believer needs to know.

And it says, Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed.

And so it would be a lie if we couldn't be completely changed, correct?

So evidently God has a plan for us and He wants to completely change us.

Remember the children of Israel, they were in the wilderness for 40 years.

And despite the fact that God had a promise for them and a promised land, they wandered for a long time.

And I think it's really sad that a lot of us Christians are wandering.

We can go to all the seminars, we can read all the books, we can read all of our pamphlets, we can go to camp meeting, we can go to retreats, we can go to all kinds of things and we can actually not be changed.

And I think that I believe, oh and you can listen to audio verse and podcasts and all that.

I believe that that's because they were focusing on the wrong thing.

If it wasn't for the fact that we're not eating more than manna.

They were always focusing on the wrong thing.

I mean, maybe today we could say, if I was married, or if I wasn't married to the person that I am married to, or if my kids weren't a problem, or whatever.

We always have these ifs, but I really believe that our attitude impacts our life and I'm going to pick these up.

Have you ever had a mother who says, what were you thinking?

Well, the truth is, they don't know what they're thinking because they're not aware.

We need to be more aware of what we're thinking.

Because when we think a certain thing, what?

It impacts our feelings, it comes out in our behavior, and it impacts our spiritual life.

When our spiritual life is not going well, think about what you're thinking.

But we need to think about what we're thinking, and we need to exercise what we're thinking.

And when we're that way is when the devil will come in with a force.

Now I'm going to go over a few of the things that we've already gone over this week, but I also want to bring in some other things that we just didn't get to.

That's what I said, We really needed a few more hours of this.

Could God have given us a personality to be critical?

Wouldn't that be nice to have a critical eye for that?

What if I'm a really good organizer and I think, you know, we need to organize this, this, and this, we need to get this all in the row, and then there's all these other people going, cool, I think that's a great idea.

It does seem negative, but it could be constructive, couldn't it?

I remember in 1 of my churches, somebody said, I don't know why people don't act like me.

How about, you know, why is it that they always do this and do that and I don't really like the way the past he's not feeding Me blah blah blah blah like we can get really critical You know I you know isn't it okay to observe people and notice things Man I can't I'm not really looking at anyone okay, I can't believe he's wearing a toupee.

They don't look like they really match up, do they?

Wow, she's got a lot of wrinkles now, doesn't she?

Isn't that that other woman that was obnoxious in our neighborhood the other day?

I think I heard her yelling at the kids over by the trailers.

And when we're critical and it's not submitted to Christ, we are out there for ourselves, aren't we?

You didn't do it my way, so therefore you're not very good at it.

There was a woman that was at a church that I went to.

It was a new church that we had just come to and I was really excited to see her because you know how you walk into a new church and you don't really know anybody?

And this woman, this girl, was the daughter of a woman that I knew really well, who had been very critical at our other church, but anyway, I was so happy to see her because she was a faith.

And so then this person came up to me and I said, how are you doing?

She said, well, you know, I said, I didn't know you went to this church.

When Life Is so Unfair - Part 2

Father, we thank you for each person here.

Lord, you know in their hearts what they're struggling with.

And Lord, we just thank you that you care about us and that you want us to live a healthy Christian life.

And I pray, Lord, that what we do here will be all to Your honor and glory, and that because people came here today, they will have benefited and have something to think about when it's time to pray and to think about where they can be with you because of something they learned.

Have you ever learned a new word and then all of a sudden you heard it all the time.

And sometimes you don't know what direction you're going, but if you actually hear the information, then it makes more sense when you're working on something.

Well, the longer I live, and I've been living a long time, the more I realize that there is a connection between our thinking life and our mental health.

And our thoughts and our words really impact our lives in many ways.

So many people's problems are rooted in the way they're thinking.

And it actually can produce more problems than if they weren't thinking that way.

A negative mind produces negative behaviors.

Our words can actually be a trap that we can get stuck in if We don't get control of them, and the only way we can get control of them is with who?

It says, "...thoughts are powerful, and they have creative ability.

For he who thinks in his heart, so is he.

So if I think I'm fat and ugly, then I am.

Because of the way I'm thinking, I actually take that on.

If I think that I am lost, I actually take that on.

So the way that I think actually impacts who I am.

As he who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink.

Yet his heart is not with you, but is grudging the cost.

Now think about this, this is a big question, and I want to hear a firm yes or no.

Can you have a positive, healthy, exciting Christian life with a negative mind?

Then you have a responsibility, don't you?

How many of you want a stable, healthy life?

How many of you want a Christian life that is to the fullest?

How many of you want to represent God 100% as much as possible to the best of your ability with him involved in your life.

So if you struggle with negative feelings, you really have to come to grips with why you're allowing yourself to go down that path.

Now by the way, Did we all get perfect in a day?

Wouldn't that be nice if after Monday, are you having a hard time hearing me?

They're singing, okay, then we should tell them that they shouldn't sing, right?

We're going to sing at the end, by the way.

Those of you who struggle with depression, or those of you who have personalities of melancholy, does anybody know about the 4 temperaments?

Okay, sanguine is the outgoing, happy person.

The phlegmatic is the laid-back person, the choleric is the very driven type A person, this is in a nutshell.

And then the melancholy, they're perfectionists but they are having more moods.

I want you to know that if you have melancholy in your personality naturally, you have more struggles than the average person when it comes to your thinking.

That does not mean that you cannot overcome, but just like somebody who has to get used to a disability, they have to struggle with it more.

And God will give them the grace and help them, but it's not fun that we live in a world where it's unfair and you have to struggle with something more, but that's what happens.

There are people who are more obsessive than others.

And so they, all of these people may need a little more help than just coming to a seminar.

So I want to say that the way that we think will impact us and please don't let it go.

Work on it progressively because when we have negative thinking it will hurt our relationships with people in our lives, and that will be miserable.

And so today it's called uptight but not all right, instead of all right.

And with God's help, I'm continually reminded about how I get uptight about things.

Even today I was very uptight over something that somebody told me they were going to do and I was like very upset.

Somebody I walked around to see all of the classes because my husband and I work on classes, the groups that you are attending, that's what our responsibility is in the conference is to work on classes.

And as I did, people kept stopping me wherever I went and they would tell me about an issue that they were having.

We are getting close to the end of time and people are suffering everywhere.

And some of the things we've never even heard of, I mean, things that you never had to deal with before.

But we are all struggling, and when We are getting towards the last days.

I really believe the Lord is withdrawing some of His power from the earth.

He's withdrawing from the earth and you're seeing a lot more problems.

And aren't you almost seeing that it's almost popular to have problems?

Like, you tell, like somebody comes into my office for counseling and they're having an affair and I say, wow, it must be feeling bad that you're doing that to your spouse.

And they go, oh no, not really, they deserve it.

Well, yeah, I was embezzling from Target, and I go, wow, you must have been fearful that people would notice that you're going to be found out or that you're going to have to go and apologize, and they go, no, I don't plan to do that.

You just have to figure out because there's no foundation unless God has convicted you that there's sin, right?

And I understand 60% of Christians don't even believe that there's a hell out there or a devil.

So I wanted to also say when you were a child how many times did you fall down as you were learning to walk?

What if the first time you fell down you said, I'm not doing this anymore.

And I just want you to know that every day we're going to fall down, and the Lord knows how to pick us up.

And He's really happy when we are willing to reach out our hand to Him, because he really does want to help us.

So we learned a lot about feelings in our last session.

And I just wanted to ask you if you think feelings are hard to change.

Series

Got Thinking Problems?

Are You Uptight Instead of Alright? - Part 3

Transcript

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