Date: October 5, 1997-P.M.
Speaker: John Phillis
Main Scripture References: Proverbs 23:7, Galatians 6:7-8

I announced this morning that the subject tonight would be “The Joy of Positive Living.” And I got to thinking about making that announcement as the title, wondering if you might think that this would sound something like that “last seminar” that you went to. You know, one of those things where the company sends you for personal enrichment, and so on, and so forth. And, of course, the only difference is that they probably paid about $200.00 for you to go to that, and this lesson tonight won’t cost you anything at all. But, no, it isn’t something that’s out of the Covey Institute (a group that goes around the country conducting personal enrichment seminars), doesn’t have anything to do with the “touchy, feely” kinds of things that we get involved with in our place of work, and so on. It has to do with, once again, an attitude that we need to have as God’s children as we live this life. Every person—every one of us—is a POW. Now, that may shock you—that may concern you. You may wonder what I’m talking about, and what I refer to there, the acronym—the initials— “POW”, mean(s) that we are a “Product of Our World”…a Product of Our World. And this has to do with our mental outlook, the mental set that we have.

The writer of Proverbs tells us that “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he,” [Proverbs 23:7, King James Version of the Bible]. In other words, we are what we think. We behave after the pattern that we think, and we live after the pattern that we think. And, in the same way, not only are we products of our world, but in a sense, we are prisoners of our world, because we set the bounds—the parameters, if you will—for the way we live, for what we do, for how far we might reach, or whether we reach at all.

Have you ever heard this phrase: “Things are the way they are without, because things are the way they are within.” Let me say that again: “Things are the way they are without, because things are the way they are within.”

And let me ask us this evening, How is our living? How is your living? How would you describe your living? How would you characterize it? Is your life full of joy? Or is your life better characterized by sadness, rather than gladness? Do you walk with “pep in your step?” Or do you walk with a stoop? Is this just about as happy and joyful as you plan to be? Well, I trust it isn’t.

In this lesson, I want to share some thoughts on positive living, which is the alternative to negative living. And I believe that positive living comes from Biblical thinking. And this is God’s Will—this is God’s wish for us in our lives.

Negative thinking comes from our thoughts, and negative thinking produces negative living. First let me point out and clarify some things that positive and joyful living is not.

First, joyful, positive living is not positive thinking. A number of years ago, a very popular book that resulted in seminars being held, and the like, was “The Power of Positive Thinking.” And that’s great. We need to think positively. But we can think and not necessarily do. So positive living is not just positive thinking.

Positive living is not freedom from our problems. That can just never be in this existence. We know that. Intuitively, we know that this life that we live in the world as human beings is going to be fraught with problems and difficulties. Job 14:1 says, “Man that is born of woman is of a few days, and full of trouble.”

Positive living is not some financial reward. Positive living is not some blind pseudo optimism, and positive living is not ignoring the challenges of life—sort of “dropping out”, which became popular back in the ‘60’s.

And I believe that there are at least two keys to producing positive living. First, positive living is a decision that we make to put Christ first in our lives, to put Christ and His kingdom, and the things which are associated with His kingdom, of first order—of first priority—in our life.

And secondly, positive living is a stance, or a position of mind, that we take. It begins here [John points to his head] in our minds.

Let’s look at some basic facts about positive living. And again, think about positive living as being just one step beyond positive thinking.

First, positive living comes from positive programming. And what I mean by that is, it has to do with God’s divine law of “sowing and reaping.” You always get back what you sow. This is God’s law. This is something that irrefutable, and it’s something that we shouldn’t try to kid ourselves about.

Paul writes in Galatians 6, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life,” Galatians 6, verses 7 and 8.

And our mind is the soil in which we sow. That’s what we plant the seed in. In the well-known parable of “The Sower” that’s found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus indicates that the soil that He uses in that parable represents our hearts, or represents our minds. And it’s upon that surface, or it’s within that element, that the seed is planted. And so, once again, you reap what you sow. What is put into the mind is what comes out of the mind.