Bobby Schuller - Power In, Power Out
Bobby Schuller: This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. Good morning.
Hannah Schuller: And hello visitors and church family. You know, no one ever has or ever could love you the way the living God loves you, Thank you so much for being here. You are loved with an everlasting love.
Bobby Schuller: I know what you're all thinking, where's Cohen? And the answer is, I don't know.
Hannah Schuller: Your mom had a work thing come up, and so she couldn't take him.
Bobby Schuller: Got it. Well, Cohen, we miss you. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, we love you and we thank you for calling us here into your house, and we pray today that you give us the exact word that we need to hear in this exact moment. We thank you that you care about us and our lives. We thank you that the things that bother us are also in your mind. We thank you that we can pray about the little things and the big things. And we thank you that you hear us, and we love you. It's in Jesus's name we pray. All God's people said, amen.
Haven Schuller: Turn to the person next to you and say God loves you, and so do I.
Bobby Schuller: Thank you for being a part of our "Hour of Power" family. We're so glad you're worshiping with us today. For over five decades you have enabled us to reach millions of people around the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Eagle Partnership has been our backbone through it all.
Hannah Schuller: Isaiah 40:31 says, "For those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint". This verse reminds us that God empowers us to lead impactful lives regardless of our circumstances. He constantly lifts us up, sustains us, and faithfully provides for us.
Bobby Schuller: Aaron, hi, welcome.
Aaron Tredway: Bobby, good to be with you guys.
Bobby Schuller: We're really excited about your book and grateful for your story. Soccer is on the mind of a lot of people right now after, you know, the World Cup and all of that was going down. Probably was cool for you as an American soccer player to kind of, you know, get your sport elevated a little bit. But tell us a little bit about your career. And how did you go from soccer into where you are now as a pastor?
Aaron Tredway: Five years old, my dad comes home from work one day, he played a bit of professional baseball, his dream is that I'd be a professional baseball player. And I always tell people, I never played a day of baseball in my life, because I got out there, I saw kids running, screaming, kicking each other, I said, "Dad, this is what I want to do with my life. I want to be a soccer player". And God was gracious to allow me to fulfill that lifelong childhood dream, but he had other plans, you know, for my life as well. He called me to live for his glory, and so long after that, called me into the pastorhood.
Bobby Schuller: So, how did that happen? Did you come to faith through sports? Was it, like, a team member? What happened where you made that big decision in your life?
Aaron Tredway: Yeah, I think that growing up I went to church, but maybe like some people, I kind of just ticked the box, and, you know, when it came to my actual faith, I really didn't come to have faith in Christ until I was 20 years old. I read a book by C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity," gave my life to Jesus. And I'm kind of an all or nothing person, so I was all in from there.
Bobby Schuller: So, you've been a professional athlete, you know what it's like to be in the spotlight, to have the glory, to have, you know, all those great experiences. But we live here in Irvine, the greater Los Angeles area, you run into a lot of people who want to be successful, and they feel like their life won't be great until they are. And then you have people who actually get the success, and then they just look at empty hands and go, now what? I mean, we have, down the street here we have a number of software companies kind of almost like a little Palo Alto where you've got people making tons of money, but they're looking inwards and just saying, I'm not happy, my family life isn't going well, or maybe it is well, I just, something's wrong, and you want to get at that, right? You want to get the heart of that. Tell us more about that.
Aaron Tredway: Yeah, I want all of what Jesus talks about in John 10:10. He says, "I came that you might have life, and life in abundance," and there's nothing wrong with having lots of money or lots of success as long as those things don't have a hold of you, as long as those things haven't become your ultimate prize, your ultimate target. Because what I found, at least, as I've accumulated a few of the things in the world and experienced some of the those things is you can get lots of them, but ultimately success isn't gonna satisfy these deep longings of our soul.
Bobby Schuller: I heard a businessman recently talked about, he said, "I think," and this is, I think had to do with his religion, but he was talking about how really in business, and you could probably say this with any field of achievement, you sit around a poker table, and you're all playing poker, and then the grim reaper comes, and he taps you on the shoulder, he says, "Game's over, push your chips back in," and somebody comes out, comes in, and they all play for those chips. And he was saying basically everything in life is rented. And I think that's kind of what you're getting at, right? Like this, it's, I think we all know that, don't we? That's part of what's gnawing at so many of us, is these achievements, whether it's glory, whether it's fame, whether it's money, it's all temporary. But there's some things that are not temporary, and that's what you're going after.
Aaron Tredway: Yeah, the Word says that the things of this world are passing away. And, you know, if we are pursuing ultimately the things that are passing away, you know, those temporary things aren't really gonna satisfy, they aren't going to satiate these longings of our souls. So, I think that significance is a lot better goal target for our life than success.
Bobby Schuller: Talk more about that. I think you're exactly right. So, imagine a 25 year old kid, maybe he's just finished college, kind of trying to figure out what to do in life, and a lot of people on YouTube are this way, and he says, "Pastor, what do I do? What should I do with my life? What do I do next"? What would you say?
Aaron Tredway: Yeah, it took me a lot of years to figure this out, and I'm still in a journey, a process of learning. But, you know, I really believe in 1 Corinthians 10:31, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God. It's the weight and significance of who God is. That's why we exist. You know, so many of us, we're wrestling, like, why am I here? And for the longest time I thought I had to change my profession to pursue my purpose. You know, God's called me to pursue his glory. I thought I had to be a pastor or a missionary, not a professional athlete. And I think what I've learned is, you know, God's created us to occupy all these different spheres of influence, and usually it's that God has you right where you're at for his purposes.
Bobby Schuller: It's interesting you say that. There's an artist named Cliff Richard who is not as super famous here, but in England is, you know, hugely like Elton John or Elvis or something, massive, and he came to faith and told Billy Graham he wanted to stop singing and wanted to go into ministry, and Billy Graham said, no, keep singing, that's where you're gonna have the biggest impact. So, it really is true how God doesn't want us all to be pastors and missionaries, he wants us all to have a big impact right where we are, doing what we do, right?
Aaron Tredway: Exactly, that's exactly what happened to me when I came to Christ when I was 20 years old. I was an All-American that year, and I was on fire, and I went to my pastor and said, "I'm ready, sign me up, I'll be, you know, deepest darkest Africa," and my pastor said, "You are on the journey to become a professional athlete. Do that for the glory of God. You know, be a software developer for the glory of God. Be a teacher for the glory of God". You kind of insert yourself into that phrase.
Bobby Schuller: What an awesome idea, that all that I do, when you say I'm doing this for the glory of God, whether it's cleaning floors or teaching kids or making food, I'm doing it for him. It changes everything. The book is called "Don't Miss Your Life: The Secret to Significance" by Aaron Tredway. Pastor Aaron, thank you so much for being with us, especially on a Sunday morning. I know it's hard, we appreciate you being here with us, get the book, you'll love it, it's great.
Aaron Tredway: Thanks, Bobby.
Bobby Schuller: God bless you.
Bobby Schuller: Thank you for being a part of our "Hour of Power" family. We're so glad you're worshiping with us today. For over five decades you have enabled us to reach millions of people around the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Eagle Partnership has been our backbone through it all.
Hannah Schuller: Isaiah 40:31 says, "For those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint". This verse reminds us that God empowers us to lead impactful lives regardless of our circumstances. He constantly lifts us up, sustains us, and faithfully provides for us.
Hannah Schuller: In preparation for the message, 1 Samuel 3. "A third time the Lord called, 'Samuel,' and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am. You called me.' Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, 'Go and lie down. If he calls you, say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening".' So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, 'Samuel, Samuel.' Then Samuel said, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.' And the Lord said to Samuel, 'See, I'm about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle.' The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord". Amen.
Bobby Schuller: Life is full of moments and key decisions that make all the difference in the world. It's been said that probably 99% of the decisions you make in life have almost nothing to do with the change, but 1% of them do. The tough thing is knowing when that 1% is. This is one of those moments for you. If you're at church or you're watching on television or online and you have fallen away from the faith, maybe you grew up trusting in God, but you've just lost your way, or maybe you think of yourself as a Christian or some kind of a religious person, but you know in your heart you haven't committed your life to Christ, I wanna encourage you right now to make a decision to follow Christ.
Never in my life have I heard of someone who chose to follow Christ and looked back and regretted it. Even those who lost their faith, when they look at their time as a Christian, they look at it usually fondly, and there's a reason for that. There's a reason for that. Life with God is good. It's good, and so I wanna encourage you to make a decision to follow Christ today. It's something we've all done, and we want you to join our spiritual family and be a part of this house. All you have to do is pray and invite Christ into your heart to understand that Christ was crucified for you, and then all that you've done is forgiven, that you're a new creation in him, and commit your life to studying his ways. You'll never be the same.
I would encourage you to do that. If you do that today, text the word "HOPE" to the number on the screen, and your life will be changed. Your life can be better than it is now. Doesn't matter how sick you are, how old or young you are, doesn't matter where you're from, doesn't matter what family you came from, it doesn't matter what your bank account balance is, your life can be better than it is now. But here's the problem. We think my life will get better when I get the right, I don't know, politician. I've gotten the right politician before, and guess what? My life didn't get any better. Politicians don't make your life better, although they can often make it worse. Can we all agree on that? Let's get an amen from all the Democrats and Republicans in the house.
Across the board, that's something we can all agree on. Politician will not make your life better. And we ask questions like, man, if only I had a better boss. If only I had a better job. If only I had a better school. If only I lived in Texas instead of California where everything is so expensive. Life will not get better for you when you move to Texas. Life will not get better for you when you get a better boss. Life will not get better for you when you get a better school, when you get a better teacher, a better mayor, a better city council member, a better spouse, better kids, better parents. Life will not get better for you when you get those things.
Here's when your life gets better. Your life gets better when you get better. Things change in life. They always will. Things get better, things get worse, and you can't control those things. Don't try and change the universe. That's just how it is. When you get your own universe, you can change it, but this is how things are. Here's how life gets better for you, it gets better when you get better. And the choice is always up to you, by committing your life to becoming the person you were born to be, and you can make that decision today too. The only thing that stands in the way of you, and that is you. And here's one of the best ways to become the kind of person you want to be. You get the kind of words, I know it's a weird response.
The kind of words that you want your life to be made up of. Words are a big deal, aren't they? There's certain words that I could say from this pulpit right now that if I said it, I would lose my job and get defrocked. Don't try and imagine the words, they're just, we know they're there, and that's a good thing. There are certain words that I'm gonna say today that will change some of your lives, I believe, and that's also a good thing, because words are powerful. A word is the way we take knowledge, a big idea, and put it in a little jar, and set it on the shelf. A word is a way that we can take and understand something and explain it and communicate it to others, and wars have been fought over words. Did you know that?
I wonder how many gallons of blood have been shed over trying to define the one word, Rome. If you're a fan of history, you might know that. What is Rome? Rome is a city. Rome is a person. Rome is a Republic. Rome is a despotism. Rome is North Africa. Carthage has entered the chat and says Rome is not North Africa. Rome is Caesar. Rome is no longer. So, you see, when you say Rome, what does it mean? Here's another one. What does it mean? Volumes and volumes of books have been written on this, 2,000 years people have been trying to define this. What does it mean to be a Christian? That's a big word. That's a big jar, isn't it? That's a big jar for one word, and too many people make it too difficult. Being a Christian means you're a friend of God through Jesus Christ.
Here's another way of seeing it. Being a Christian is someone who trusts in the death and resurrection of Christ and decides to follow Jesus. A disciple of Jesus is a Christian. But here's the biggest question of all that you can ask today. What am I? If I put my name, Bobby Schuller, in a jar and put it on a shelf, what comes out when I open that jar? That will always be changing my whole life. So, these words are words that matter to us, and especially defining who you wanna be and clearly designing your life, designing what your name is, is one of the most important things you can do. There's only one more name that's more important than your own name, you know what that name is? It's two words, actually, I got it wrong in the first service.
Jesus Christ, that is the name that matters the most, and the more your name looks like that name, the better your life gets. That's a promise. That is a promise. To become like Christ is one of the happiest, smartest, best decisions you can make in your life. So, our life is made up of words. Can we agree on this? That in some part that's true, that our life is surrounded by words. We have words coming at us all the time. Good words, bad words, words we hold deep in our bodies from when we were children that were told to us by teachers. Some of you hold loving words from your mother or father who are not here anymore, but their love abides in you.
Some of you have hurtful words from a minister or a neighbor or a mean aunt or uncle, and those live in you, and you have this whole experience of life and experience of words that make up who this person is when your word is in a jar. Very often, what we do is we are not careful about the words that we continue to consume. And some of those words are, can we say, junk. If we think of words the way we think of food, can we say that a lot of the food, a lot of the words we're eating are junk food? There's bad junk food, and then there's really bad junk food. You know, bad junk food is Carl's Jr. Really bad junk food is Taco Bell. And what I mean by really bad is it's really good. We can have fast food sometimes, right?
That's okay every once in a while. Every once in a while. Every once in a while for me is once a week. I have Taco Bell once a week, which I don't think is that bad. It's every Saturday night, actually. I have, and you can write this down, try it sometime, you'll enjoy it, it's called the brick. It is a cheesy gordita crunch, a chicken quesadilla, a nacho cheese Dorito loco taco. Now, there was somebody who looked at a taco and said, "That's good, but what if"? A real dreamer, a real dreamer. "What if we turned that taco shell into a giant Dorito"? And, you know, there are times where you wonder if the Lord speaks, and then there are times when you know the Lord speaks, and this was one of them.
And so, that's one of the things I get, it's a Dorito taco. Amazing. Yes, they have cool ranch. They do. Anyway, and I don't want it to be too bad, so for my drink I get a Diet Pepsi. Keep it a little healthy. That meal is 1,500 calories. It's good. It has cheese in it that is made not from milk, and I don't know how they do that. It's made from canola oil, actually. Do you know what canola oil is? What kind of plant does canola oil come from? Do you know? Is it a canola seed, a canola bean? There's no such thing. Canola is short for Canada oil. So, that's how bad it is. The cheese comes from an oil that we also don't know where the oil comes from. We get it, don't we?
Taco Bell every night is not a good thing. Taco Bell once a night is an okay thing. But imagine instead of just Saturday night I ate this brick for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'd begin to look different, wouldn't I? Not only that, and actually more important than how I look, what would change would be on the inside before the outside. I wouldn't think as well, I wouldn't feel very good, I wouldn't smile as much, I'd get dark circles under my eyes, which I already have anyway. I would just feel rotten, and I would blame the world around me. I would blame my boss, and I would blame this and that, but really at the end of the day maybe I should just eat Taco Bell once a week instead of every day.
Today I want you to think about the world we live in and how immersed in chaotic, harmful words it is. When you are driving on the way home or when you're watching television, all those advertisements that you're seeing that are saying buy me, make love to me, visit me, eat me, right, vote for me, all in one string, and almost all of them are making the same false promise. If you do this, your life will be better. And it's all a lie. And all of that goes in our ears and in our body, and we just let it go. That's not good. It's not good. It's better to shut a lot of that stuff off and get a good word, a good word, and a lot of good words, so that we can change. I said your life will be better, here's how it gets better. It gets better when you start paying attention to the kind of words that are going into your body.
What kind of words is your life made of? Is eating fast food a sin? No, of course not. I mean, maybe it is, but I don't think it is. Are letting some of these things in sometimes a sin? No, it's fine, but when it's all the time, it starts to mess with you. That brings us to our scripture today for the day, 1 Samuel chapter 3, it was read by Hannah this morning, wonderful story. It begins with this profound statement. The author says, in those days, says, "And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision". What does that mean? It means that everyone, everyone wanted to hear from God. They wanted a word from God. They wanted to see what God was doing. They wanted to experience something, but no one could hear, and no one could see, and no one could feel it, no one could taste it, and there's this boy, Samuel, who was, he was committed to the Lord. He was committed to the Lord by his mother, who had one of the best names in the world.
It's a palindrome. Her name was Hannah. Hannah couldn't have children, and she was being teased by another woman who had all sorts of children, and she just was heartbroken. She wanted to bear her husband a son or a daughter, and when she became pregnant for a miracle from God, she went to Eli, who was the high priest, and said, "I commit my son to you". And when that boy grew to be old enough to eat and drink and stand on his own, he came under the care of Eli at Shiloh where the tabernacle was. Now, picture this, it looks like, it's where the Ark of the Covenant was being held, kind of a rectangular shaped thing made out of sheets, and in the middle a sort of tent type structure, and it was in there where the Ark of the Covenant was.
Have you seen "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? Indiana Jones? That's pretty right on. And that was understood as the real presence of God. The Ark of the Covenant was the throne of God, and it was meant to be feared, kept sacred. If you touched it instead of carrying it, you would die. But, and then there was, like, the Spirit of God was just hovering over it in power, and so it was held on with kid gloves and treated very, you know, sacred. It's God's real presence, and what was strange is both Eli and his devote, now a 12 year old Samuel, the boy, would sleep next to the Ark of the Covenant. Don't roll over and touch it. And they would sleep there, and one night in the middle of the night, young Samuel is 12 years old, hears, "Samuel, Samuel".
So, he gets up and he goes over to Eli, who he thinks is calling his name. He says, "What is it, master"? And he says, and you know, Eli, who's an old man just trying to get some sleep, he says, "I didn't call you, go back to bed". Second time it happens, "Samuel, Samuel," he gets up, he said, "What? What do you want"? And Eli looks at him and goes, "I didn't call you, go back to bed". Third time, "Samuel, Samuel". "What Eli, what is this"? "Ah, okay, I get it. It's not me. It's the Ark". He says, "It's the Lord speaking to you. Go lay back down, and then," this is what Eli tells young Samuel, "Go lay down. When you hear it again, say, 'Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.'"
Samuel is laying there. "Samuel, Samuel". Sits up, "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening". And here's what the Lord says. People who want to hear God's voice, he says, "I'm about to do something in Israel that will make both of their ears," I love that, "Both the ears of everyone who hears tingle". Hope that word is true for us today. God's about to say something over your life that will make your ears tingle. Hopefully it's a good thing. I imagine it will be. He loves you, he's for you, he's not against you, he forgives you, he's on your side. So, what he's gonna say to you is gonna help you. I think that in all of us we have a sort of, can we call it a spiritual antenna?
A few days ago, often on Fridays, I will walk this 1 mile circle. It's a path that goes around, and it goes from an okay neighborhood into a decent neighborhood into a nice neighborhood. Starts in a place called Costa Mesa, and at the other end it's in a place called Newport Beach. It's very nice. Newport, there's beautiful homes in around five million or so dollars, and right in the middle of this neighborhood, this guy's house with this antenna. I don't know the story, but I think to myself all the time, like, his neighbors, who are CEOs, and, you know, whatever, are not stoked about that antenna. But what is going on with this antenna? What is this guy doing?
First of all, we all know he's got to be a psychopath, right? He's a foil hat, crazy person. But maybe not, maybe he's sane. But he knows that there is something in the air that he can tap into with an antenna like that. Now, think about this just for a minute. Right now where you're sitting there are hundreds, I don't know if there's any engineers, there may be thousands of radio waves passing through this space right now. Isn't that strange? Right now. And in those radio waves are sounds and images in high definition, and if you have the right radio and the right thing, you can catch it and hear what it's saying. Isn't that bizarre right now?
And you can't see them, you can't hear them, you can't see them, already said that, can't taste them, they can't feel them, unless you, maybe you have, like, some of you have, like, a filling in your mouth, and if you just open your jaw correctly, you get the right frequency if you get it. The kingdom of God is not far off from that. Most people don't believe it, but the Spirit of God is always speaking. He's speaking right now. And you can catch it. You really can. You know, I know that, it's because Jesus tells us that there's a sower, and the sower is God, and he has a bag of seeds, and almost carelessly he's just throwing them everywhere like this, almost inadvertently. And he says some of those seeds are gonna fall on the road, and the birds are gonna get it.
Some are gonna fall in the rock, and those are gonna get excited, they're gonna hear it, but then they're gonna die out, Others are gonna land, but there's gonna be thorns there, and the money that they make is gonna choke it out. And then there's another group that it's gonna learn on good soil, and what I say to them is going to 100x in their life. And guess what he says those seeds are? Those seeds are words, words. I pray that this seed falls on good soil today. But it's just the way the world is. Some get stolen by birds, and that's okay. Some dies in the rock, and that's okay. And some are choked out by thorns, but some of you will hear what I'm saying today, and you'll never be the same.
Let me say it again. Your life gets better when you get better. If you commit your life to personal development, everything in your life changes, especially when at the heart of that personal development is the Word of God, which is both a person and a message. The person is Jesus Christ, and the message is salvation. So, the Holy Spirit is going all through here, and we can hear it if we want. Or maybe another way of thinking of it is like a muscle. Maybe say, I can't hear anything. You know, there's some people like Samuel, they're just born hearing it. There's other people that have to develop it a little bit, and you want to develop that muscle, honestly, you have to do the work, the one thing nobody ever wants to do.
"Work? I got plenty of work already". You gotta do the work. Here's what the work is. The work is memorizing scripture. That's it. If you begin to memorize scripture, and then when your Bible is at home and you begin to say it out loud, especially something, Psalm 23, the Lord's prayer, things like, and you say it out loud when you're waiting for your bus or you're waiting for your coffee or you're at the DMV, and you say the scriptures aloud, the scripture will actually begin to get baked into your body, and you'll get what I call a biblical mind, that you just begin to think biblically. And then when you quiet your heart and you say, "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening," I mean, that's a great, that's an ancient prayer, actually, from what Samuel said. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. You will hear from the Lord, and when God speaks, he doesn't speak in English.
Did you know that? God has a language. It's not English, it's not Hebrew, it's not any of the many languages we think of. God's language is knowledge, so when he speaks to you, it comes as epiphany, and it is just clearly stamped on you, and you get it. And you will get it if you do the work. All right, I'll finish with this last idea. We're two thirds of the way there. You got six minutes and thirty seconds left, are you okay with that? We're almost there. Men particularly like to know how much longer is this gonna go. It's gonna go six minutes and twenty seconds. Universe is made up of words. Did you catch that? The universe is actually made up of words.
John knew this when he said that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and he's echoing the first chapter of the Old Testament, which says God spoke, and everything came into being. That seems crazy to us that God would speak and everything just exists, but it's true. It used to be really, really hard for philosophers and theologians to wrap their head around, but in our modern computing era, it's actually easy to understand that, isn't that funny? We can actually see it when you look at DNA, when you look at how the whole world breaks down into these little atoms that have little words on them that we put on them, that you can see how words make up everything that exists.
And to give it even clear image, when a movie like "Tron" comes out or a movie like "The Matrix" comes out and you've got all these codes that are making up the world that these people are living in, you can see it. Or even now when, the way video games are, when I was a kid, my first video game I ever played was called Frogger. Anybody remember that one? Try not to get run over, it's just a little frog, it's terrible. It's a horrible game. TV was way better at the time. But now you play a game that have budgets of $300 million to $500 million for one video game. And they're immersive, and they look real, and characters interact, and now they have AI and all this stuff. Under all of that are words, we call it coding. Coding, and it's the coding that makes up those things, and it's a sort of spiritual coding that makes up the world we're living in right now.
This is important, okay? I know this is very philosophical, but it's important. Here's why it's important. In the computing world there used to be a saying, I think they still use it, GIGO. Now, if you're in computer engineering, you know what this means. GIGO, stands for G-I-G-O, GIGO. Not Geico the insurance company with the gecko, GIGO. I even said it like the guy's voice, GIGO. GIGO stands for garbage in, garbage out. Garbage in, garbage out. And what it means is, if you're not careful about the code that you're putting into the program, everything that comes out is gonna stink. It's not gonna work, it's gonna crash, it's gonna be messed up.
Okay, now imagine your life, your heart, your health, the way you feel, maybe you struggle with anxiety, depression, maybe you're stoked all the time, this might be true for you. The garbage in, garbage out, in terms of the words that you're taking in. Think about how many words, right now you're receiving good words. You're receiving the Word of God, and it will, if you hear it, it will build you up, and it will bring you closer to where you want to be. It is immensely valuable, it is worth the time of sitting through this. But when you leave here, there will be new words. Do your best. They're all, so many of them are Taco Bell.
You know, they're not a sin. They're not a sin, but they're Taco Bell, and they're fun. But you do it too much, it starts to have an impact on your life. It's garbage, and I'm telling you this because I'm your friend, I'm on your side. Here's garbage. Following celebrities. That's garbage. It's fun. It's a lot of fun. I get it. What dress was she wearing? I think there's something with the prints going on right now. Who cares? Stop, turn it all off. It's garbage. It's Taco Bell. Okay, here's a better thing. Read about real heroes. Read biographies about people you really want to be like. Read the Word. Here's garbage. And I always get in trouble for this, but it's true. This is garbage, okay?
Please forgive me. Television news is garbage. Okay, it's all garbage. Okay, all right, okay. Now, I'm not just talking about the other one, I'm talking about your one too, all right? They're all garbage, all of them, they're all garbage. They're incoherent. This is what Neil Postman said, "Incoherent, impotent, and irrelevant". Today Ukraine was bombed, but first a squirrel skiing in some water. Turn it off, okay? If you need to know the news, you read it, especially if you struggle, if you get anxious, you get nervous, turn it off. Read it. Here's other garbage. This is Taco Bell again, it's not a sin, but it's garbage. Social media. Let's start calling it anti-social media, because that's what it does. It doesn't draw us closer to people, it draws us from people. Sometimes it's fine, right?
Social media, I'm on social media. You follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. There it is, there it is. Little bit is okay, but it's Taco Bell. So much better to call your mother. So much better to get together with a friend and have a cup of coffee. So much better to put a fire on, have a cup of tea, read a book. That is not garbage. That's the stuff that life is made from. But I'm a, you know, Schuller, I'm not a negative person. I don't want to finish on a negative note with 49 seconds left, so here's a better way to think of it. Power in, power out. The more good words you get in, the more power you get in, the more power that goes out.
When you're training for a sport, working hard, if you don't get the protein, you don't get the vitamins, you don't get the stuff you need, you're not gonna see growth. Power in, power out. Your life can be better, my friend. It can be better today. It gets better when you stop blaming that person, that thing, that policy, that boss, that colleague, that person that betrayed you, that old thing that happened to you, stop labeling all that stuff. Your life gets better when you get better, and you get better when you immerse your life in the kinds of words that make you into the person you were called to be.
Lord, make it so. We pray in Jesus's name that you transform our lives into the image of Jesus Christ that we could become not less than we were made to be, but all that we were made to be. Help us be that way today, Lord. We ask you, and it's in Jesus's name we pray, all God's people said amen.
And now the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you his peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
And now the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you his peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.