#72 The Be Happy Attitudes #4: Eight Principles for Successful Living (13/04/03)

The Message

By Robert A. Schuller

Well if one is offered and showed diamonds, gold and money, mansions and Mercedes, furs and Rolexes, it means absolutely nothing to them if they're starving and cannot trade it in for food. Money means nothing; possessions mean nothing when we're starving. And today our Bible verse, Be Happy Attitude number 4 is

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied."

And today my message is to share with you how you can find the satisfaction physically, emotionally and spiritually, so that when you hunger and thirst for righteousness you will be satisfied.
Jesus, after He had died and was resurrected again, came and actually spoke and taught with the apostles. And one of the last teachings He had was with Peter. And He came to Peter and He said, "Peter do you love Me? " And Peter said, "of course I do Lord." And Jesus said, "then feed My sheep." And a while later He said it again, "Peter to you love Me?" And he said, "of course I do Lord. I love you." And Jesus' response was "then feed My sheep." And a third time Jesus said to Peter, "Peter do you love Me?" And with this Peter was kind of put out. And he says, "Yes Lord I love You." And Jesus once again, three times, said, "feed My sheep."

And today I want us to realize that we are in a spiritually hungry starving nation today. We are in a spiritually starving world today, and we're hungry and were thirsty. And if we will seek the righteousness of God we will be satisfied. That is the promises.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.

God is in process right now of creating within our nation a satisfaction and a spiritual awakening and a renewal. He's going to do that because we are going to fulfill the words that God gave to Peter and is been passed to us today. And He is saying to us, do you love Me? We're saying, of course we do. So today I want to give you four words for feeding sheep. Here's how you feed God's sheep: it begins with fasting and prayer. It continues with the understanding of eternal satisfaction. And then it moves into energy actions, and concludes with deeds of good. And if you notice, that's an acronym for FEED; fasting and prayer, eternal satisfaction, eternal actions, and deeds of good.

And it starts with fasting and prayer. Because everything we do in life is interrelated. If we do something spiritually it's going to affect us physically. What did Harold tell us today? You come to church and it adds seven years to your life. You can't do something spiritually without it affecting you physically. And you can't do something physical without it affecting you spiritually.

Golly I think it was 15 years ago, maybe more, I think it was close to 20 years ago, I was told I had high cholesterol. And I thought golly this is isn't any good. This is the first sign of a heart attack. Oh my goodness, I'm going to get a heart attack next week. This is not going to work.

So I picked up Kenneth Cooper's book on controlling your cholesterol. And I read that with it like a textbook. I underlined every single thing, and I discovered a few things about cholesterol. You can control your cholesterol. You can lower your cholesterol naturally. I also discovered that 75 percent of your cholesterol count is due to your liver and not the foods you eat. Only 25% are affected by the foods you eat, supposedly. Seventy-five percent by your liver.

Since then I have discovered that when I fast certain things start to take place. And so I started fasting several years ago, and now I fast probably once a year. When I fast I drink nothing but water and apple juice. And I want to encourage you to think about fasting and prayer. Because what happens when you fast and when you pray, something spiritual takes place at the same time something physical takes place and at the same time something emotional takes place. And if you've never fasted before, I would start with a one day fast. That is the toughest part of the entire fast, is that one day fast. That first day is nauseating, literally.

Because as soon as you stop eating, if you don't, if you're a caffeine addict, for instance, you start getting that caffeine headache. Oh man. And there's no caffeine addict's in the United States. I haven't seen a Starbucks in 20 feet. And all of a sudden, that first day all these other toxins start to be dumped into your bloods!
And its headaches and its nausea and its the hunger pains and
it's a miserable day. But if that's what you want to do, then just one day. The second day isn't so bad. You actually have a burst of energy and you start to feel good. The third day you feel so good you feel like you could go forever. But I would recommend you start thinking at that point, about ending your fast. Especially if you've never done it before.

What happens in a three-day fast is you dump the toxins in your body. Your body then the second day is no longer concerned with the toxins but it starts doing the repair. And it starts healing your liver. And it starts healing your colon. It starts healing your pancreas and all the other internal organs. It does what its supposed to do because it's no longer in the business of taking food and manufacturing energy for the body. Instead it goes into the cleaning mode. It's like putting a backwash system in your filtration of your waters or whatever. And it starts automatically cleaning the internal organs. What happens spiritually is the same thing, as we fast suddenly we see this cleansing that takes place spiritually. And emotionally we discover things emotionally about our lives that we never knew before.

From the time I was an infant I knew I was going to be a preacher when I grew up. But there was a problem; preachers have to get up in front of people and preach. And the problem with that was I was so afraid about getting up in front of people, that I had a very difficult time in school because I was so afraid I was going to be called on by the teachers that I would go and hide in the back of the classroom and I would pretend I was studying very diligently and prayed that the teacher would never call on me. Because then I would have to say something in front of my peers and that was devastating.

And so, I'll never forget the time I finally came to a point where I was making a presentation here in the Cathedral, I was in seminary, still scared to death to get in front of people. And I was here in front of a group of ladies in the church, and all of a sudden I felt this peace come over me. And it was the most incredible peace that I had ever experienced in my life. It was a gift from God. Emotionally, dealing with fear. Physically, dealing with ailments. We tackle these things first in a point of repentance, where we come and we say, I need to change something in my life, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And the way I find healing emotionally, physically and spiritually is all the same. We began with fasting and with prayer. And through that fasting and prayer, we discover incredible satisfaction as God comes, and from the repentance moves us then into salvation.

You know salvation is a beautiful gift from God. In fact, I want to encourage you to write to me and I will send you a ticket to heaven. Do you like that idea? I think everybody should have a ticket to heaven. They can stick it in their billfold or in their purse and you can keep it with you. Now the ticket to heaven is very simple. It simply says across the top of this little card, My ticket to heaven. Quotation marks, "anyone who comes to me I will in no way cast out." End of quotation marks, Jesus Christ. John 6:37. Then underneath that are two more sentences: Jesus said it. I accept it. And then a place for you to sign your name. That's the ticket. You can't earn it. You can't buy it. All you can do is accept it, and say, thank You Jesus for saving me, for giving me eternal satisfaction because today I hunger and thirst for righteousness. And righteousness is that understanding of sanctification; it is that energy actions.

Point number three. Energy actions. Jesus said it basically later in the sermon; He says, "Don't worry. Don't worry about what you put on; don't worry about what you eat. Don't worry, be happy." And so often what we do is we do actions that don't produce energy but instead sap our energy. What we do is we get involved with things that are negative actions. Negative actions are those things, which are shared with us in this Bible where God tells us don't do these things. There are many things in here where God says don't do this and don't do that. And many people look at those as restrictions from them being able to enjoy life and have fun. In fact there is more people I have seen who have refused to sign that card, and the main reason is, I'm having too much fun. And they're talking about things that are not healthy and good.

And the reason God gives us the laws in our Bible isn't to restrict us and keep us from having fun, just the opposite. To let us know where we can have fun without getting hurt. To give us boundaries where we can go and we can say boy I can enjoy this, and this is where I stop. This is where I cross the line in the sand. And in so doing we have the ability to say no when we need to say no. And we have the freedom to explore the fullness of God's creation and God's love.

But it's one thing to not do bad things. It's another thing to do good things. And so the final step is discipleship where we learn the principles of giving.
Many of you will remember Kenneth Behring who was a guest here in the church a few weeks ago. He used to be the owner of the Seattle Seahawks. He sold them and now he is started his wheelchair foundation where he has a goal of giving 200,000 wheelchairs away. There are millions, I believe he said there was 32 million people worldwide who need a wheelchair and cannot afford one. And as a result they're living their lives on their belly. And they're stuck away in a hut someplace, and they have no dignity and no self-respect.
So now he is giving wheelchairs away. And if you want to participate in giving a wheelchair away, for $75 he'll give a $750 wheelchair to somebody for you. And at the same time he'll send you a picture. And I got so excited about that, I gave him a $100 bill, and he gave me my change back. And then he sent me this picture, I just received it this week, just as he said he would. "It's the Wheelchair Foundation wishes to thank Robert Schuller. Because of your most generous gift, hope, mobility and freedom was given to Esk. She is an Armenian, 14 years of age." This is the wheelchair number, and there is her picture, sitting in her wheelchair. Isn't that beautiful? His plan is to give 200,000 wheelchairs away this year. And he's going to do it. And he's going to do it because people believe that its more blessed to give than it is to receive.

And that when we hunger and thirst for righteousness that's when we find satisfaction. We don't find it when we simply go for a bigger house, or a fancier car, or more diamonds and gold, or a larger number in our bank account. But we do find it when we become disciples.

And today, if you wish to write to me, I'll send you one of those tickets to heaven. And at the same time if you want to learn to become a disciple, ask for two or three of them. And do you know what you can do with those? You can give those tickets to heaven to your friends, and your children, and your grandchildren, and your parents, and your aunts, and your uncles, your nephews, your nieces, and you can participate in this incredible transformation that's taking place in America today, because America is hungry and thirsty for God.

Dear heavenly Father, we thank You that You are a God of peace and love and Joy and hope. So continue to give us the fullness of Your presence, Your Holy Spirit, create healing and health and create a spirit of unity and Joy. So go with us and be with us we pray in Your son's name, Amen.