#10 3-D Faith (02/02/02)

The Message

By Dr. Robert H. Schuller

I want to give you a "3-D Faith" today that's going to really make all the difference in your life. This church believes in a God who wants to love you. That means He wants to bless you. And it means He has a dream for your life. But you've got to make it happen by embracing a positive faith. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

That Bible verse is engraved in my life, in my books, in this ministry. Let me just ask you a question - what makes the difference, why does Jesus Christ do something in you that will make you a winner instead of a loser?

Well, to summarize it, He's your friend. You know you can have great expectations. Your view of tomorrow changes from an anxiety to an expectation of goodness. Expectations. Powerful. It's where life really is at. I read an interesting story the other day, illustrate what expectations will do.

There was this young man hired to read the gas meters so they sent him out with a supervisor who would teach him how to do it. They parked their truck at the end of an alley, they walked all the way to the end and checked all the gas meters. When they got to the last one the woman of that house happened to be looking out and she saw them. She could hear them mumbling a little bit. And what she didn't hear was what the old man said to the young guy. He said, "I'll race to you to the truck. I'll bet I can beat you even though I'm older." In Matthew 10, verse 8, Jesus issued a profound sentence that I've never preached on before. "Freely," he said, "you have received."

So they ran lickety-split down the alley as fast as you ever saw two gas meter men ever run. And they about got to the truck and they heard somebody running behind them. And they looked and there was the woman and they said, "What are you running for?" She said, "If I see two gas people running, I think I better run!" That's what you call expectations okay?

Wow. Expectations have an enormous way of fulfilling themselves. Negative expectations or positive expectations. You know I think it was Norman Peale who told me and it may have been in his church where this happened. At the end of one year they were going to test the power of expectations, so three of the members along with the pastor, all wrote their expectations out. The one man said, "Well I expect that next year is going to be a year just like every other year. And I have problems, and problems in the business and problems with people and problems in my marriage and I don't think it's going to be any different."

And the next man said, "You know I'll tell you I hate to even deal with this because in our family everybody died before they reached the age of 61 and I'm going to be 61 this year. I expect I may die."

And the third one, the woman said, "I've got ten goals. I expect they're going to happen." She wrote all ten down.

They put them in envelopes, sealed the envelopes and a year later they would gather and read them. And they gathered except for the man who expected to die before 61. He was not there. He died.

The man who expected the typical negative year, what do you think he got? Exactly what he expected. The woman that had ten goals expected all ten to achieve .. be achieved, succeeded in nine of them, missed one.

There is almost a supernatural force and energy and power in the mental activity that's called expecting. When your thought patterns are on this level, something happens to the subconscious and the subconscious is the head of the conscious. Probably it's goal setting. Probably it's like the lady who had nine of the ten goals came true, she said, "I must admit that I sure worked hard on them." Of course. Expectations will either stimulate you with a motivation or they can depress you. But expectations are everything. It's amazing.

So what can I do this morning, to raise your level of expectations? You have to raise your level of expectations. What can I do to make you do that?

All I can do is give you what my son has, what I have, what most of the people here have. Give you a connection with God because you are a creature designed by God, to have an imagination that can project positive expectations into your tomorrows. And that's what's going to shape your tomorrows more than anything else.

I give you the Bible verse, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Why is it that people say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me?" Is that a scientifically provable statement? And my answer is absolutely. Here's what happens. When Christ becomes your Lord and you try to follow Him, three things are going to change in your life. First your direction. Then your definition, of yourself. And then your drive and your passion.

The people who succeed have a sense of direction. They know where they're going. They have a sense of definition. They begin to know who they are, their self-esteem rises. Then they have a passion and a drive and they pay the price and they put in the time. You want to succeed, you want to be a winner? You want to fulfill your expectation level? Make sure you've got a good direction, a strong definition and a powerful drive and that's what happens if you become a committed follower of Jesus Christ. And whatever your profession or your career is, if you get that sense of direction, guess what's going to happen?

If you're a salesman you're going to increase your sales because people are going to sense that you're not selfish and you're generous. That's going to be good for business believe me. Now he didn't do it for that reason, but I am looking down at a friend of mine, Bruce Fitzgerald. He operates a very, very fashionable men's clothing store in Beverly Hills and a couple of others. And a customer of his didn't look too good and he said, "You don't look too good." And it turns out this fellow is dying, can't live unless he gets a kidney transplant. And Bruce says, "Well if you can't find a kidney to match, maybe mine would." The guy couldn't believe it. They checked it out, it would. And you gave him your kidney. Now this customer of his said, "Bruce, you'd give me a kidney? Why would you do that?"That's what drove her. Jesus Christ. Oh and the surgery was finished, the media was there, everybody was there and she came out and she met the young boy. And she had tears in her eyes as he smiled at her and gave her a special gift. It said, "To my other mom."

Bruce said, "Well, because the church I go to." (He's here every Sunday.)

"What church do you go to?" "Crystal Cathedral"

Bruce is a sterling gold medal winner, of what a member of this church should be and is. He wins the gold medal. Absolutely.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me..." It changes your direction in life. You're not primarily always selfish, you have an enlightened self-interest, but you have a direction. How can I help people? How can I do what Jesus would do if He was here? That's direction. Boy, it changes a lot.

That's why kids that are onto drugs if they find Jesus Christ and embrace Him as Savior, their direction changes from sensual pleasure to spiritual encouragement. And once you have the experience of being the face of Jesus Christ and the tongue of Jesus Christ and the heart of Jesus Christ and the hands of Jesus Christ, that makes you feel so good, so high and so humble.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Direction, definition. I define myself as someone who is going to be the body of Jesus Christ, wherever I am. At work, at play, at home and on my job. Once you get a direction you're going to get a new definition. You'll discover gifts you didn't know you had. You say I never thought I could be a minister, but boy I can encourage people and I can smile and I can hug them. And a lot of people need that. They don't get it from their dad or their mother. They don't get it from their business or their profession. It's a lonely world out there and people are just waiting, is there somebody that really cares about me? You can be the answer to their prayer.

3D faith leads to winners. 3D faith wins gold medals. 3D faith: direction, definition and drive.

Well Brother Lawrence, is one of the greatest Christian men of the centuries. His book, "Practice the Presence of God," is classic. It has been for hundreds of years. When he was 18 years old, he was a cynic. He was not a believer in God. Amazing thing how he got converted. It was at wintertime and he leaned back against this tree and there was a snap, a twig broke off. He looked down. He picked it up. Cracked it. Snap! And then this thought came into his brain. The tree looks dead, acts dead, but it's not dead. In the spring there will be new energy, new buds, new leaf. There is a life force built into this universe. It's built in the tree. It's built into me. I sense it now. I feel it now. It is what the Bible calls God. And he became a believer in God when a frozen twig broke in his hand. People get converted in strange ways, but there is a God.

I invite you this morning, if you haven't been a believer, it's a decision. Take Jesus Christ in your life. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." You bet you can do all good things through Christ. He will give you direction! And if you've got direction you're on your way to success. Then He'll give you definition. It'll be the defining moment of your life and you'll say, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. And then you're going to discover new ambitions, desires and He will give you drive. Yes. With direction, definition and drive.

Last night with all these kids from school, fabulous children, from 1st grade through 8. Well anyway, last night they had their annual year end program and it was fantastic. I'm holding in my hand the closing announcement of last nights program. Missy Walker had to do the wrap-up. And she was told, write it out, because this is a very tightly timed show. So she wrote this out herself. All alone. It was so impressive that I asked her for it. And she gave it to me. How did she close the show last night? I will read what she wrote:

"Thank you for sharing an evening with us and the power of our dreams. To borrow Schuller's system for remembering, here's how to power your dreams. P is for prayer. O is for opportunity. W is for work. E is for enthusiasm. R is for reward. Your reward can be whatever you set your mind to. We can make our dreams come true."

Let's pray: Dear God, You're working us. Dear God thank You. Thank You for giving us a sense of direction to follow Jesus Christ live His kind of a life. Thank You for giving us a faith that gives a new definition to who I am and what I can be and what I can accomplish. But thank You O God for giving us the drive, the passion to make a difference. Just use me. Amen.