Exploding The Myths That Make Us Miserable - Part 1 THE TRUTH ABOUT HAPPINESS

INTRODUCTION Exploding The Myths That Make Us Miserable - Part 1 THE TRUTH ABOUT HAPPINESS How many of you growing up were taught about the tooth fairy? Can I see your hands. o How many of you heard about Santa Claus? o How about the Easter Bunny? o All right, is there anybody here who was taught about the Great Pumpkin? o How many of you were taught that you should always wear clean underwear in case you were in an accident? Yeah, you see there are certain American myths that are out there that you just have to believe. Now, as you grew up, you were taught many myths o And as you became a teenager, you learned other ones o And as you became an adult, you ve learned even other myths from the world. Most of them are purely harmless, but there have been some myths that just aren t true o In fact, they are really very harmful to you They may have robbed you of happiness They may have lead you into guilt and shame. o Some of the myths you ve learned from the world have caused worry, and stress, and fear in your life. Some of them have created nagging depression. So, this evening we are going to begin a new series I m calling Exploding The Myths That Make Us Miserable. And, we re going to look in the next several weeks at myths that the world has taught us that just aren t true: o Things about yourself o Myths about God o Myths about life o Myths about the future o Myths about your past o Myths about money

o We re going to look at myths about sex o And myths about relationships and marriage o Myths about heaven and hell and things in the afterlife. Because, if you don t have the right truth in your life, you get way off base. Now, in America, one of the most common myths goes like this, tell me if you ve ever heard it: You now, it doesn t matter what you believe, as long as you re sincere. o Have you ever heard that myth? Myth #1: It doesn t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere. o Now, that sounds so good It sounds so broadminded, so tolerant, so unprejudicial, unbiased, it s politically correct. You know, different strokes for different folks You believe that, I ll believe this Fine, that s cool, we re both cool. The only problem with it is it s absurd to hold that belief, it s irrational. o There are some beliefs that are exact opposites of each other and it s not only absurd and naive, but it is also self-destructive to your life, as we ll see in the weeks ahead. There are times I have traveled the wrong road and arrived late. o I thought I was on the right road but I was not. o Now, you can be sincere, but you can be sincerely wrong. The fact is that it takes more than sincerity to make it in life. o It takes truth. There are some beliefs in your life that if you don t correct, you re going to crash and burn and I see it happening all of the time in people. This evening, quickly, I want to give you six facts about what you believe because what you believe is extremely important. 1. My Beliefs Are My Choice Nobody forces you to believe anything.

o I mean, if I don t want to believe something, I don t have to. o If I want to believe in something, I can; nobody stops me, nobody forces me. If I want to believe Elvis is alive, I can believe it. If I want to believe in the Bigfoot monster, I can believe it. If I want to believe the moon is made of cheese, or the world is flat, I can believe it. o Here s the point: You can t blame anybody else for your beliefs. You can t blame your parents or your teachers because they re not holding on to you, you re holding on and you can drop those beliefs any time you wish. And, hopefully in this series, we ll do a little replacement ministry to replace some of the lies that you ve been taught about yourself and about life and begin to accept other beliefs. It is a choice. o God even gives you a choice as to what to believe. Notice this example: Romans 1:25 says: Who changed the truth of God into a lie another version says, Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies My beliefs are a choice and some of them need to be replaced. 2. My Beliefs Determine My Behavior. In other words, they determine how I act. o Proverbs 4:23: Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. That basically means Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts. Your life is shaped by your thoughts. Now, there is a belief behind every single action you take in life. Everything you do has an unconscious or conscious belief behind it. o For instance, when you came in today and you sat down in that chair, you unconsciously believed it would hold you up. Now, for some of us, that s an act of faith.

But, you believed it. o When you get in your car after this service, you are believing you re getting out of the parking lot. Fat chance. o If you happen to go to dinner after the service, you pick up a menu, you re going to choose something because you believe it s going to taste good. It may not, but you make a choice. Everything you do has a belief behind it. Does that make sense? Now, the problem is this: My beliefs determine the act even when they re wrong, even were they re false. o For instance, if you believe you re clumsy, how are you going to act? Clumsy. o If you believe you re unlovable, you will act unlovable. o If you believe you re a risk taker, you ll find yourself taking risks all of the time. o If you believe other people cannot be trusted, you ll tend to treat them with suspicion, put up a barrier and wear a mask, and you ll receive that kind of response. o If you believe that God is unconcerned about you, you ll never pray. o If you believe that God is out to get you, like many people do, you ll try to avoid God. The point is, even if your beliefs are wrong, they affect your behavior, so you need to examine them. 3. The World Has Taught Me Many False Beliefs. And, they re all over. I love to watch National Inquirer headlines as I m going through the grocery store. o They had one a while back that said: New Discovery: Fat Burning Prayers. o I thought, This is great; pray these prayers, and the pounds melt away. o Now you know, in those magazines they ve got a cure for cancer every week: Eat mangos this week and you ll never have cancer,

o We laugh at that and it s funny, but there are a lot of things that just aren t funny: Myths that really do mess up our lives. You know, it used to be people would say: You know, I ll believe it when I see it. o You can t even believe what you see anymore. Did you know that? o Because technology has now created a thing called virtual reality and they have been able to blend fact and fiction. So, even if you see it, it doesn t mean it s true. Did you see Forest Gump? o Television and technology has blended fact and fiction as do docudramas and reality-based programming, in which everything on the reality-based programming is staged. So, just because you see something, you can t believe it s true. And the world teaches us all kinds of myths. Now, the number one source of cultural myths today are T.V. talk shows and there are about 2,000 of them on. o Have you ever gotten sick and stayed home in bed for a day and watched a day s worth of talk shows? That ll make you sick. o Now, these aren t funny; these are just what they re purporting to say is the truth. And so, I m going to save you some time and you don t have to watch them anymore. o Here are the ten myths: All of your problems are somebody else s fault. You can hear that on any talk show. This world owes you happiness. It doesn t. You ll be happy if you get whatever you want. Well, that s not true. I know a lot of people who have whatever they want and they re not happy. There is never any reason to feel guilty. Man is basically good and unselfish. What planet are they on? All beliefs are equally valid. Pornography and perversion are innocent.

You can have it all. You shouldn t have to wait for anything. The answer lies within you. Well, if it lay within me, I would have figured it out a long time ago. But, because you re God, the answer lies within you. Now, the Bible gives us some very blunt advise about this. 1 John 4:1: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. o Don t always believe everything you hear for there are many false teachers around. Would you agree with that? o And, the Bible tells us in another place that the reason there are so many is because they re making dough off of it. They re making money on those infomercials and psychic hotlines, and all kinds of stuff. 4. Untrue Beliefs Are The Cause Of Most Of My Emotional Problems And Unhappiness. A belief does not have to be true in order for it to affect you emotionally or cause emotional turmoil. For instance, let s say this next weekend you re going to go camping in the UP. o And so you go up to the UP, you set up your tent, you get in your tent at night, you close it all up, you can t see outside, you re lying on your sleeping bag, and you hear what you believe to be a bear pawing around outside your tent. o Now, if you believe that s a bear, you can t see it but you believe it, your heart will start racing, your pulse will go up, adrenaline will shoot into your system, your muscles will tense up, and you will get emotional turmoil over something that isn t true. Now, that happens all of the time but you don t realize it. You worry about things that aren t true. You re afraid of things that aren t true.

You often feel shame about things maybe you shouldn t feel shame about. o So, even when a belief is not true, it still causes emotional turmoil in your life. And, if you want to overcome stress, anger, or guilt, or depression, or worry, or perfectionism, or any emotional problem, you must listen. You must clarify and correct the misbeliefs behind those feelings. And, that s what we re going to do in the next few weeks as we look at God s Word and the truth of it. Dr. Chris Thurmon is one of the best known psychologists in America and he has written this: Truth is the road map for negotiating the difficult challenges of life. Without it we get lost and we develop emotional problems that tell us we are lost. We often settle for half truth or no truth at all because they are usually easier. But, truth is the only road to emotional help. There is no other path. Now, the good news is that truth is available to anyone who wants it, which also means that emotional help is possible for anyone. The real question is: Am I willing to pay the price? Jesus said the same thing about 2,000 years earlier. In John 8:32, He said: When you know the truth, the truth will set you free. o My goal is that as we expose the lies that you have been taught by our culture and apply the truth to those lies o You ll have a change of mind and, when you know the truth, the truth will set you free. o And, you ll experience new freedom, maybe from some hangups, some habits, some hurts that have messed up your life for 20 or 30 years, or more. It is the truth that sets us free. Now, that brings us to the next point: 5. The Only Source Of Absolute Truth Is God. Romans 3:4, God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar God will continue to be true even when every person is false.

That is a fundamental question you need to ask yourself. I don t care whether you re a Christian or non-christian, every person eventually has to ask this question in life, either consciously or unconsciously and that is this: What is going to be the authority for my life? o What s going to be the basis for my beliefs and my behavior? o What s going to be the guidebook that I rely on? o What s my north star? o What s my compass? o What s going to be the standard by which I evaluate my life? o What am I going to base my life on? o What is my authority; the final authority in my life? Now, when it comes down to it, you only have two options: You either have the world or the Word, the Word of God. o You either have what man says, and there are a million contradictory things that man says, or what God says. o You will either build your life on what culture says, or on what Christ says. The world or the Word. o What man says or what God says. Now, let s examine these two. Which of them do you think is more reliable? o The problem with what culture says, what society says, what s conventional wisdom, is that it just keeps changing. It s shifting every day and what s popular one day, isn t popular the next day. And, the therapy that works today, isn t the therapy that was so popular five years ago, and what s working now, five years from today, we ll say that we ve got something else. And, five years from then, we ve got something else. And it keeps changing. Why? Because man s knowledge is increasing and they find things that work. o God s knowledge is ultimate and it s always true. Do you ever get Newsweek magazine?

There s a little box in there called Conventional Wisdom, and every week they give thumbs up or thumbs down, and one week they say: Oh, Obama s doing great, and the next week: Obama stinks, and the next week: Obama s doing good; he s getting better, and on and on. And all of these different issues are up and down, up and down. Seventy-three million of us in America are baby boomers. o That s one out of every three people in America. o That means you were born between 1948 and 1964. o That entire generation was brought up on the best selling book of all time, next to the Bible, Dr. Spock s Baby Book. And in Dr. Spock s Baby Book, Dr. Spock expressed his opinions about what he thought was the proper way to raise children. And, an entire generation of Americans was brought up on that book. The only problem is, a few years ago, Dr. Spock, in his 70s, publicly held a press conference and said: Oops. I was wrong. That s not the way to do it. I m sorry. Never mind. I m going: Well, thanks a lot. It s a little late; I m already dysfunctional. o The point is, an entire generation was raised on one way of parenting that studies later confirmed didn t work. It didn t work. Do you know the average lifetime of a science textbook? o Eighteen months, and it s out of date because knowledge is increasing so rapidly. o So, in a situation where something is changing every day, you don t want to put your faith in something you can t depend on tomorrow because you might go down the wrong path, and then they go: Well, I climbed the ladder of success, got to the top and found it s leaning against the wrong wall. Look at this verse: Luke 21:33: Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

o The law of heaven and earth shall pass away yet my word shall remain forever. God s Word has stood the test of time. o You can trust it as your guidebook, as your authority, as your basis. o Why? Because it is based on God s character. o That s why you can trust it. o And look Hebrews 6:18, It is impossible for God to lie. o What s God s character? God cannot lie. In fact, God cannot even tell a half-truth because a halftruth is a whole lie. o And, so, if you want something to build your life on that is solid, you better build it on God s truth. And that brings us to the sixth point: 6. Building My Life On The Foundation Of God s Truth Is The Key To Emotional Health And Stability. In the next few weeks, we re going to look at the actual words of Jesus and what He has to say. I discovered some interesting discoveries in reading the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. o Number one: 80 times in the Bible, Jesus says this: I tell you the truth. 80 times. I tell you the truth. o Number two: 20 times in scripture, Jesus says this: Now you have heard it said, but I say to you. What s He doing? o He s exploding the myths that make us miserable. You ve heard it said, this is conventional wisdom, this is what everybody thinks, this is what s on the talk show, You have heard it said, but I say to you, and... the truth sets you free. In Matthew 7, Jesus says building your life is like building a house; you have to have the right foundation. o And He says you can have one of two foundations:

You can build your house on the solid rock, which is God s unchanging truth Or you can build your house on shifting sand, which is the constantly changing opinions of the world. And He says if you build your life on shifting sand, you re a fool. He s very blunt about it. He says it s foolish; it s stupid to build your life on things that are changing every day. But He says build your house on the rock of God s Word, unchanging truth. Story of the man in the sinkhole this week in Tampa. I was raised in California. o They have earthquakes there. o When you have the storms of life and you re battered around, and you re knocked up against the wall, and you re running flat silly, and the emotional earthquakes come in your life, if you re not built on the foundation of truth, you re going to crumble. o And I see people everyday who are crumbling because they haven t built on the foundation of truth that keeps them solid in the time of trouble and in the time of problems. Now, in Matthew 7, notice there, verse 24, let s read it together: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: Now, I want you to circle the two keys to stability. o You want to be emotionally stable, you want to get it together, you need to hear and you need to practice the truth. THE FIRST STEP TO FREEDOM: A COMMITMENT Now, hearing the truth is not enough, you need to practice it. o Now, what does it mean to practice? o What does it take to practice? Have you ever practiced the piano? If you re going to practice typing If you re going to practice working out

If you re going to practice learning shorthand It takes one thing; it takes commitment. And so, the first step to freedom o The first step to being released from hurts, habits, and hang-ups in your life that are messing you up, is you must make a personal commitment to truth, to become a person of truth. Romans 12:2, read it with me: And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. o Another version says it like this: Do not conform to the standards or beliefs of this world but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Now, notice here, He says: You can be transformed. o Let me ask you a question: Would you like to experience the kind of life God has always meant for you to live? o Would you like to be freed from emotional hang-ups that keep you from being happy? It is possible; God can transform your mind. o What does that mean? Replace the old myth with the new system of belief based on the truth. But, there s one key to having that transformation happen in your life. LET God transform... your mind. o That involves a choice, that involves a commitment. I want to challenge you I encourage you to make three commitments regarding truth in your life. And, if you do, you re well on your way to emotional healing and health. Here they are: 1. I Commit Myself To Seeking The Truth. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (LB) says this: There is going to come a time when people won t listen to the truth but will go around looking for teachers who tell them just what they want to hear.

o It sounds like astrologers to me, or at least psychic hotlines; they just tell you what you want to hear. o They won t listen to what the Bible says but will blithely follow their own misguided ideas. Why? o Because it s easier. o You see, if you make a commitment to seek the truth the rest of your life, it s not always easy to seek the truth. It s not always popular to seek the truth because often the truth contradicts popular opinion. It contradicts conventional wisdom while the world is saying: Well, it s okay because everybody s doing it. The truth is, it s not okay. o So, it s not always popular to be honest and to seek the truth. o I need to warn you that sometimes the truth is painful. Would you agree with that? Sometimes the truth is painful. Sometimes the truth is scary. o Would you agree with that? Sometimes the truth is disturbing, it makes us all upset. Sometimes the truth is dangerous. Sometimes the truth is unpleasant because sometimes we don t want to face the truth about our past. Or, we don t want to face the truth about ourselves. Or, we don t want to face the truth about our failures. Or, we don t want to face the truth about our fears. And it s painful, and it s unpleasant, and it s scary, but it is the only way to emotional health and stability -- to face it, to seek it, and know the truth; to admit it. Look at this verse: Don t follow foolish stories that disagree with God s truth... o What that s saying is, if you ve got an experience that contradicts the Bible, it s a false experience. For instance, let s say that I ve had an experience over here and By the way, a lot of the best-selling books on the bestselling list right now are about angels or the after-life, or

channeling, and they re filled with myths and lies and they re based on my experience as if that s ultimate truth. o If I have an experience and it contradicts what God says in His Word, do you know what I m going to choose? No doubt about it, I m going to choose God s Word. Why? Because experiences can be false; they can be phony. If technology can create a virtual reality experience that s false, don t you think the devil can? o Just because you ve had an experience, doesn t mean it s right, or true, or correct. o If I had the proper equipment, I could set up a virtual reality experience that you would be confident that you were on Mars right now. You d believe it, but it wouldn t be true. And so, just because you ve had an experience, it doesn t mean it s true. It says: Don t follow stories that disagree with God s truth And so we use the Bible as a standard. I saw a bumper sticker a while back -- maybe you ve seen these before -- it says: God said it, I believe it, that settles it. o Have you ever seen that? o There s only one problem with that. o It ought to say: God said it, that settles it, whether I believe it or not. It doesn t matter whether you believe it or not, it s still true. o I mean, you could say the world is flat, and I could say the world s round. You say: Well, I believe it, you believe it, but that doesn t make it true. People say: Well, my idea of God is o Well, who set you up as the authority? o You re just making that up. My idea of God is o Why don t you look at what Jesus said God is like.

He probably knows a little better than you do. So, you don t follow foolish stories. So, where is the best place to seek the truth? o Cosmopolitan magazine? o Look at what this verse says: the church of the living God contains and holds high the truth of God. You re in the right place. You re with God s people looking at God s Word. That s the best place to seek the truth. So, I commit myself to seeking the truth. 2. I Commit Myself To Living The Truth And this is a little bit harder. Ephesians 4 (LB), says this: We will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because somebody has told us something different or cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. Instead, we will lovingly follow the truth at all times -- speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly -- and so become more and more in every way like Christ o Truth is not just something you know, it s what you do It s something you practice It s something you apply It s something you obey It s something you follow o It s not just some intellectual trip: Well, I know the truth, I ve got these doctrines down. It s something you put in your life; you ought to be a living Bible. Now that s harder. 2 Corinthians 4:2 (GN) says: In the full light of truth we live... 3. I Commit Myself To Believing In The Truth Now, the wonderful thing about God is that He wants us to know the truth because it does set us free. o And so, He has given us the Bible, His Word.

But, not only has He given us the Bible to have the truth, He personally came to earth 2,000 years ago, took the form of a man, called himself Jesus Christ so we would have a living model of the truth as our example. o He modeled the truth o He incarnated the truth o He embodied the truth He said: You don t have to just read this, you can look at Jesus; look at me; here s how it means to live a truly true life. Living truly, acting truly, talking truly, thinking truly, responding truly; look at Jesus. And so, we have not only a book, but truth is the person; God became a man. o Notice in John 14: Jesus said I AM THE TRUTH. Now, listen to this, I mean it s pretty all-inclusive. o First, He says: I, not religion, is truth; not a denomination is the truth, but I. Truth is a person and his name is Jesus. o He says: I am the truth, not I might be, not I hope to be the truth, not I could be. He doesn t say, I point to the truth. He doesn t say, I teach the truth. He says, I am the truth. You want to know the truth, look at me, He says: I am the truth. Then He says, I am the truth. He didn t say, I m part of it. He didn t say, I m some of it. He didn t say, I m the religious section of it. He says: I am the truth. I don t know a more all-inclusive statement than that. o And, I just don t understand it when somebody says, Well, I don t believe Jesus was God, but I do believe He was a good person. He couldn t be a good person. He s either who He says He was, or He s the biggest conman who ever lived. There is no gray area; it s either black or white.

I mean, for instance, if I came up here and I said, I m a good man, a lot of you would say, Yeah, Mark, you re a pretty guy, you re a good man. But, if I stood up here and said, I am the truth. No one cometh to the Father but by me, that s a whole different issue. o Wouldn t you agree? That kind of forces a decision. It either means I m telling the truth or I m flat out conning you. o So, Jesus was not a good man. He was either who He claimed to be -- God came to earth to show us the truth -- or, He s a phony, He s a fake. And, you bet your life on what you believe about it. You bet your life. He says: I am the truth. Now, remember God has given you the freedom to choose what you believe. o He doesn t force any belief on you. God gives you the freedom to choose whatever you believe, but once you make that choice, you do not have the freedom to choose the consequences of that belief. o And, if you say: I don t intend to accept Jesus for who He says He was. Oh, I think He s a good guy. I don t believe He was really God, though. I don t intend to accept Christ as the truth and so I want to be separate from Him in my life. o God will let you do that; He ll let you walk away, but if you choose to be separate from God now, you will choose to be separated from God for eternity and that is called Hell. o You say, Pastor, is there a real hell? Is hell a real place? Well, of course there is. Jesus talked about it. Some people say: Well, I don t believe in hell. Well, that doesn t make it not real. I mean, I say I don t believe in Kansas but it s still there. Who made you the authority? Just because you say, Well, I don t want to believe it. That s not called belief; that s called denial.

o Just because it s unpleasant doesn t mean it s not true. Hell was made for the devil and his angels, not for people. But, when you choose to reject God, He says: Okay, be separated from me. o Look at this verse: they are on their way to hell because they have said no to the Truth; they have refused to believe it and love it and let it save them, so God will allow them to believe lies with all their hearts. Now, if you don t get anything else, get this: o How do you go to hell? o There is only one way to go to hell. Are you listening? o Do I have everybody s attention? o There is only one way to go to hell. A guy asked me one time, Pastor, will smoking send you to hell? o I said, No, it will make you smell like you ve been there, but it won t send you there. There is only one way to go to hell. o You ready? o Here it is; listen: To refuse to accept and follow and love the truth. That s the only way you can go to hell -- by rejecting the truth, by refusing the truth. o Jesus said, I am the truth. How do you go to heaven? o There s only one way. o There s only one way to heaven; there s only one way to hell. o How do you get to heaven? o It s not by being good, not by taking communion, not by giving to the United Way. There s only one way to heaven. o It is: Accept and love and follow the truth. We know what truth says Repent, be baptized, and be filled with the Holy Ghost But that s another whole sermon. o Jesus said, I am the truth. Now you know.

You can t get before God one day at the judgment and He says, What are you going to do? o And you say, Well, I don t know. o He ll say, What about March 6, 2013, when Pastor Hopper said, here s how you get to heaven, and here s how you get to hell. So, what s your decision? Today is your day of decision. o Now, you know how to get to heaven; you know how to go to hell. o Accept or reject the fact that Jesus said, I m the truth, follow me. If today you say, I want to step across that line I want to build my life on the truth o I want to live it, believe it, love it, follow it, learn it, speak it, teach it, listen to it, defend it I want to be a person of truth. If you ve never committed your life to Christ, do it today.