Quote from Forum Archives on May 7, 2001, 9:35 am

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

I don't know how many of you are able to listen to Joe Stowell's
"Proclaim" radio program. I get to listen to it if I get up and
out in the morning before 7:45 AM.

Those of you who have read these messages for very long know that
I like to remember "The Great Commandment" (or, as some of my
friends from work might remember --- M.I.T. --- what I call the
"Most Important Thing). On today's program, Wayne Shepard and Joe
Stowell talk about this very topic, so I obtained a transcript of
the program to share with you. I ordered it from
proclaim.mbn.org - the program from May 7, 2001. I hope
you find it useful.

Brother Brian

Dr. Joseph Stowell President of the Moody Bible Institute.

Wayne Shepherd Program Host

Proclaim Transcripts

#1331 05/07/01 Putting People In Their Place - 1

#1331-May 7, 2001-"Putting People in their Place"-1

[Shepherd:] Joe, today on Proclaim! we're going to continue our
series on "Biblical Thinking," and we turn our attention to
people.

[Stowell:] Thinking Christianly about people, Wayne.

[Shepherd:] This may be the toughest of all.

[Stowell:] Let's just skip these couple of Proclaim!s here and go
onto the next point in our agenda. We've talked about thinking
biblically about purpose. We've thought about thinking
biblically about pleasure. The important thing here is, Wayne,
that we live by our definitions. As God says, how we think, we
are. When we define things a certain way in our mind, then
that's how we end up living them out. So if we think as
worldlings, we will live out Satan's agenda. But if we think as
kingdom people . And isn't that why, as we're going to mention
in the message today, Paul said, "Transform your life by
transforming your mind"?

[Shepherd:] We will get to that message here in just a few
minutes, but as we think about people, there are some people
we're pretty grateful for.

[Stowell:] That's an important point, Wayne, because we do this
in the studio, and it goes out across America-actually around the
world-through the Internet. What a joy to get e-mails from Hong
Kong and Beijing.

[Shepherd:] I got one from Guam the other day from a listener.

[Stowell:] Right. But Wayne, you and I never want to forget the
importance of all of our listeners, because they have been so
faithful to encourage us.

[Shepherd:] Right. Well, the notes that we get-I mean, they just
carry us through the day, don't they?

[Stowell:] They really do. We walk into the studio and sit at
these mikes, and if it weren't for the fact that people
encouraged us in this work, it would be a lonely task. You'd
wonder, Does God do anything with this at all? We've gotten some
wonderful notes of encouragement from people who obviously are
thinking Christianly about people, because they're encouraging
us.

[Shepherd:] Yeah, thank you for your notes.

[Stowell:] Which is one of the Bible ways to think, encouraging
one another. A lady wrote to us recently and said, "The messages
really have a way of challenging us to go deeper in the faith, to
know God more, and to live for Him. The Holy Spirit uses
Proclaim! to impress upon me to let God search my heart and
change the things in me He wants to change."

[Shepherd:] Isn't it great to hear our mission expressed back to
us from our listeners?

[Stowell:] Yeah, it's so wonderful. And I guess in all of this,
every time I read an e-mail or a note like that, I'm always
mindful that it's really not us; it's God's Word, isn't it? And
it's God working through His Word. We get the joy of being
middlemen in this people process.

[Shepherd:] Right. We get a lot of great comments, and thank you
for them. Here's one who simply says this in an e-mail. He
says, "Excellent, excellent, excellent. Real world ministry,
real world preacher. As they say here and there, `You da man,
Joe.'"

(laughter)

[Stowell:] God's the man, really.

[Shepherd:] That's one of my favorites.

[Stowell:] Yeah, that is encouraging. I always like the notes
that people send to us about how God has specifically moved in
their lives. This e-mail we just got a couple of weeks ago:
"Your messages this week on Proclaim! have meant so much to me
and my wife. We both listen to you on our way to work in
separate vehicles and have both come home talking about your
program and what is going on in our lives." Now listen to this,
Wayne: "We both never realized how ritualistic we were, both in
our faith as well as our marriage."

[Shepherd:] Wow.

[Stowell:] "Your message has opened our eyes. Thank you. It has
spoken to our hearts and changed us forever." Amen.

[Shepherd:] Thank you for all those notes. Now let's get to
today's message. We're going to Matthew 22 today, as we think
about people. Here's Joe Stowell.

[Stowell:] One of my favorite pastimes, particularly when I'm
stuck in public places waiting, is people-watching. It's free,
and it's interesting. You just kind of sit back and look. I ask
myself questions like Where did they come from? Where are they
going? Whom do they work for? I realize that almost all of them
have family, a network of people around them. I realize that
most of them carry a little bag of burdens with them-anxieties,
guilts, and fears. It seems almost incredulous that so many
people can be real and there.

And then sometimes when I don't get quite that deep . I
recognize that's not very deep, but when I just kind of sit there
and look at the surface, I just watch them, and I think, That
one's large. That one's small. Look how quick that one is!
Look how slow that one is. She's pretty. Kind of average.
Fancy. Plain. That's a guy in cowboy boots and cowboy hat, and
He's country. Some people are city. We have all kinds of ways
of thinking about people, don't we?

I want you to know with me this morning that one of the most
vital aspects of Christian success is how you and how I think
about people. There is no success in store for you or for me if
we do not start thinking Christianly. "For as a man thinketh in
his heart, so is he." And what God wants to transform in your
being is your mind. "Be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind." So we've thought about
thinking Christianly about purpose out of Genesis 1-2; thinking
Christianly about pleasure from Psalm 1; and this morning I want
us to rivet our hearts to be willing to be transformed and think
Christianly about people.

Please know this: It does not come naturally. The most natural
impulse of my heart is to think selfishly about people. Be
careful. You might think materialistically about people. It is
possible for you to think sensually about people. And the whole
pagan mind-set that will be implanted in your being if you do not
wash it with the Word of God will simply be this: When you think
of people, ask, What can they do for me? Or, What have they done
for me? Or, What did they do to me? Any thinking that is born
out of those kinds of thoughts will ultimately lead to disaster.

You go into marriage, and you think, Hmm. I wonder what he'll do
for me. Or, What will she do for me? If you do not adjust that
in the first few months, you're in for some real big trouble.
You walk into parenting, and if our focus in parenting is, What
do these children do for me? Do they live out my dreams? Do
they make me look like a good father or a good mother? Do they
not embarrass me in public? You walk into parenting with that
kind of mind-set, and you just need to know that the time will
come when we will disenfranchise our children from us with that
kind of mind-set.

Some of us may be led into pastoral ministries. Beware. You go
into the church, and if you're not careful, you'll see it as an
extension of your ego. You say, "I wonder what this church will
do for me. What will these people do for me? Will they like my
preaching? Will they like my pastoring? Will they help make me
famous and wealthy?" I must say that those of us who think about
people in terms of what will people do for me and/or what have
people done to me become the bulls in the china shop of the
kingdom. For it is these kinds of people that wrack the kingdom
with disunity and disharmony and division. So all of that to
say, what you think about people is going to be determinative in
life and in your Christian walk.

Well, what does it mean to think Christianly about people? The
first thing it means is you've got to learn how to put people in
their place. You say, "I got a lot of people around me I'd love
to put in their place." Well, listen carefully, because number
one, you've got to put people in their place. The Bible is real
clear about that. Open your Bibles with me, if you would,
please, so that somehow we can get brain-washed by the Bible
today, to Matthew 22:39-40.

Now, if any of you are really perceptive, you'll say, "Wait a
minute. I think I've been to this passage before in the
president's chapel." That's true. Not only that, but we're
probably going to be here again. I just want you to know that
this is really a tough lesson to learn. This is the kind of
thing you ought to read once a day just to stay in shape.
Because I do not know of any more seductive track in carnality
than the seductive track of getting people out of focus
biblically.

I find it interesting in Matthew 22 that Jesus Christ puts people
in their place for us. They ask, "What are the two great
commandments?" and in verse 37 Christ said commandment number
one, that's the greatest commandment, is to "`love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. They
didn't ask for the second one, but look how important it is. He
said, "The second is like it, `You shall'"-and you know this by
heart-"`love your neighbor as yourself.'" I want us to understand
that first and foremost with God people are a priority.

And the competition is going to be stiff. Watch out for the
invasion of self-me first. I notice in these two commandments
that self is something that I give away. I will love the Lord
thy God with all of myself. Self is not bad, unless I spend it
on myself. It is the most valued gift I give to God. He says
give self away to God, and then if you do that, you've got to
give self away to people. So watch out for the invasion and the
competition of self, me first.

Watch out for the competition of things, as you will put the
material treasures of this earth far and beyond the priority of
people. Watch out for treasure in gold and dreams and plans. I
find it very significant that Jesus Christ said number one is
God; number two is people. People are a priority with God. And
He calls on us to make them a priority.

So you put people in their place. The ultimate priority of your
life must be people. I think about Jesus Christ, thirty-three
years, three years of recorded history, and guess what Christ was
into all the time. People!

[Shepherd:] Dr. Joe Stowell with our study in the Word today
here on Proclaim! Thanks for listening. This series of messages
on "Biblical Thinking" is also available as cassette tapes, and
if you'd like more information about ordering the tapes, please
either call 1-888-PROCLAIM or order directly from our website:
www.proclaim.mbn.org. You know, every time we're on the air with
this ministry there are costs involved. That's why we're so
grateful for listeners who understand that and give generously
that Proclaim! might continue our goal of teaching the Word of
God. So if you've benefited from what you've heard, I hope
you'll say thank you with a gift today. You can easily give that
gift by calling our toll-free number: 1-888-PROCLAIM;
1-888-776-2524. And you'll be talking with a staff member right
here at the Moody Bible Institute. As we said earlier today in
the opening of our program, we're so grateful for all the
response that we do get to this ministry. To reach us, our
address is 820 N LaSalle Blvd., Chicago, IL 60610. And now for
all of us on the team, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Thanks for listening!
We'll see you tomorrow for Proclaim!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Proclaim! 820 N. LaSalle Blvd, Chicago, IL 60610 1-888-PROCLAIM

Copyright 1999, Moody Bible Institute

Serving Christ to advance His cause

=====
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Brian Masinick, "The Mas", mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/
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