Participants: David Sedlacek, Kathy Matthews
Series Code: TAH
Program Code: TAH000130
|
00:30 Hello, I'm Kathy Matthews.
00:32 And I'm glad you are back with us 00:33 on Thinking About Home. 00:35 We've been discussing the subject now 00:38 on the decision making process. 00:40 Well that's what we are gonna discuss today. 00:42 We've been discussing the right use of the will. 00:45 And this is one the most interesting subjects to me. 00:49 It was something that I learned about 00:52 several years ago as I became a Christian 00:54 and I started trying to teach that to our children 00:57 in the family and my husband and I 01:00 were very, very excited about this subject 01:03 and I think you will be too. 01:05 We have with us today Dr. David Sedlacek 01:08 from Walmart Institute. 01:09 Thanks for being with us again. 01:11 Well thank you for having me. 01:12 You know, this particular program on the 01:15 decision making process is just gonna be 01:19 fascinating I think for people to see, 01:21 and don't you think it will be really 01:23 useful for them and their family with their children? 01:26 I surely do, and know it has been in mind. 01:27 And not just for their children 01:28 but for themselves. That's right. 01:30 But I would like for you to go back over a little bit 01:33 about Jesus plan for restoring the human mind. 01:37 I would to start there before we go back 01:39 into or rather we going into the decision making process. 01:44 Well, God's plan for restoring the human mind 01:49 basically is the experience of the Christian 01:51 where our lives, our whole lives, 01:55 including our mind which is where the 01:56 battle of the great controversies 01:58 really being played out. Right. 02:01 It's our mind being submerged 02:03 or being hidden in Christ. 02:07 And when that happens our experience is going to be 02:10 the same as Jesus experience. 02:12 And in John chapter 8, "I seek not to do 02:15 My own will but the will of my Father who sent Me." 02:20 And he also said in John 8:28 He said, 02:24 "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, 02:26 then you will know that I am he, 02:28 and that I do nothing of myself, 02:31 but as my Father hath taught me, 02:34 I speak these things." 02:36 That will be literally the experience 02:40 of the restored Christian mind, 02:42 speaking not of our own selves, 02:44 doing not our own will, but having our whole lives, 02:48 our mind, our heart hidden with Christ in God. 02:51 Yeah, I know that I've experienced those times, 02:55 many times, really where you wonder where that came from. 03:00 You knew that it didn't really 03:02 wasn't your thought processes, 03:05 or something that was significant to me 03:09 and I realized that the Lord was 03:11 guarding me at the moment. 03:12 I was always in His will and spoke 03:14 in such a way that it proved it to me. 03:17 And, hiding, isn't it kind of allusive though 03:22 to understand how to hide 03:24 your will and the Father's will? 03:26 Is that difficult for people to grasp? 03:29 Well it is difficult for many people to grasp 03:34 because self gets so much in the way. 03:37 Questioning is that me, is that the Father, 03:40 who do I discern? Okay. Yes, yes it is. 03:45 The decision making process, do you want to 03:47 go into that now or you have a lot to say in that area? 03:50 I just can't wait. Really, I like the subject. 03:53 Sure. Well again instead 03:55 we talked about the king of the faculties 03:58 of the mind being the will and that originally 04:02 every other faculty of the mind 04:04 was in perfect harmony with the will, 04:06 which was in perfect harmony with God. 04:08 Sin is what destroyed that 04:11 and Satan then became our master, if you will. 04:15 And he perverted the faculties of the mind 04:19 so that they took ascendancy over the will. 04:22 And so the will was almost held in 04:24 captivity or in bondage to him. 04:27 And in God's plan of restoration there are some 04:30 very interesting things that have happened. 04:33 And so we want to take a look at three 04:34 other faculties of the mind in particular, right now. 04:39 And want to take a look at the Conscience 04:43 and we want to take a look at 04:44 Reason or Common Sense, 04:46 and we want to take a look at Heart's Desire. 04:49 It's interesting that when we take 04:51 a look at Conscience for example, 04:55 originally man was not aware 04:58 of the need for right and wrong. 05:00 Remember God told Adam in the garden 05:05 that he should not eat of a particular tree, 05:09 ant that particular tree was the tree 05:10 of the knowledge of good and evil. 05:14 Before man ate of that tree, 05:17 he had no awareness of conscience, 05:19 no awareness of the need for right and wrong. 05:21 He just naturally did that which was right. 05:23 Yes, wouldn't that be wonderful 05:25 if that was our experience today? 05:27 It surely would be. It surely would be. 05:29 But now as a part of the plan of restoration 05:33 since we live in a falling world, yes, 05:36 the idea is that we need to live in the falling world 05:40 with the knowledge of good and evil in consciences, 05:44 the faculty of the mind which God has given us 05:48 to be His voice to our soul. 05:52 So it's like the voice of the Holy Spirit 05:54 like God told Elijah, that's still small voice. 05:57 And, and it is conscience that tells us this is 06:03 what's right and this is what's wrong. 06:08 And it's very fascinating. We need that today. 06:11 We need God speaking to us in a holy way 06:14 than perhaps He spoke to Adam or related to Adam. 06:18 Right. You know, I think of this is 06:20 what's right and this is what's wrong 06:21 and may be, you don't want to talk about this just yet, 06:24 but there is a lot of people can understand 06:26 what's right and what's wrong 06:28 but their heart is not in it. 06:30 And then I think we will talk about 06:32 the heart in a little bit, but that's what I want 06:38 to get into my daughters and that's what 06:41 I had always wanted. They are little older now. 06:43 That's what I had always wanted 06:44 to get into my daughters is that 06:45 heart's desire and with the will, 06:48 or rather with right and wrong 06:51 and conscience and common sense. 06:52 That's right. They all have to 06:53 work together. Together, yes. 06:55 But you know there have been some things 06:57 that have happened with the conscience 06:59 that have created some difficulties for people. 07:02 There are some people who have what we call an 07:05 overactive conscience or oversensitive, 07:09 overly conscientious, and overly rigid 07:12 who almost scrupulous and so for them 07:18 it's almost like they have difficulty being human. 07:21 They have difficulty being spontaneous. 07:24 They have difficulty making mistakes. 07:27 It's what we would call almost perfectionism, 07:30 where they, if they do, 07:32 it's the typical of people who are, 07:34 who have black and white thinking 07:36 and it all has to be white. 07:38 If they do anything wrong 07:39 then they are totally... Devastated! 07:42 Devastated and lost or whatever. 07:44 There is no capacity to look at the 07:46 normal human growth and development processes, 07:48 the process of making mistakes 07:50 and learning from them. Right. 07:52 So you have people of that extreme 07:54 that are scrupulous and rigid and that's 07:57 totally distractive of intimacy of Jesus. 08:01 And then you have people who are 08:02 on way in the other extreme too. 08:04 Wait a minute. Wait a minute. 08:06 It's totally distractive of intimacy-- 08:08 That's right. --with Jesus? 08:10 That's right it is. Not without 08:12 obedience to Jesus, but intimacy. 08:17 Intimacy with Jesus. That's right. 08:20 And the reason I say that is if my whole focus is on, 08:26 boy I have to do it right or else I'm lost, 08:29 then what happens is my focus 08:31 is very much on myself. 08:33 Now I want to pick out another thing you just said, 08:35 if my whole focus is on that. 08:38 That's right. Okay, all right. 08:40 And so we need to be careful that our primary, 08:44 the primary goal the Christian life 08:46 is a process of learning to love Jesus 08:50 with all of our hearts, and of relating to Him 08:53 and of trusting Him that He is going to 08:55 tell us if we are getting a little off base. Yes. 09:00 You know that voice of the sprit 09:01 in conscience, you know, if we trust that He loves us 09:04 He is not, you know, we are His children. 09:06 He is not gonna just let us go off 09:09 without letting us know that. 09:10 By that still small voice. By the voice of conscience. 09:14 Yes, okay. That's right. 09:16 And then of course we have people 09:18 who are at the other extreme, 09:19 who have no conscience at all. 09:22 These are people that we might 09:23 diagnose as being sociopathic. 09:26 I remember hearing about that in classes, yes. 09:28 Yeah. They think nothing 09:31 of killing people or hurting people, 09:35 but these are the kind of people who make 09:36 good hit man or, you know, 09:38 or who almost or, you know, 09:41 I can sell drugs it doesn't matter to me 09:44 how many people lives are destroyed. 09:46 Well I have question there and it might not be 09:49 as relevant, I just want a quick answers. 09:51 Is that something cultivated? 09:54 Well, yes it is. 09:56 It is cultivated you think, not necessarily inherited? 09:59 Well, I think their elements have both 10:01 there can be elements of both 10:03 because we know that we inherit 10:04 the predispositions of our parents. 10:06 Right, okay. And so a part of it 10:08 maybe generationally cultivated. 10:11 But more often than not I don't know 10:14 if it's only cultivated by the 10:16 individual who's a sociopath. 10:19 But very often what happens is when young people 10:23 who've been so destroyed through 10:26 the experiences of their younger years. 10:30 And have been exposed to things that have 10:32 dent their conscience totally, 10:35 they are the ones like a lot of the young people today 10:39 who are killing people in high schools and so forth, 10:42 for them their ability to know right and wrong 10:45 has been so deadened either through 10:48 the kinds of things they listen to 10:50 and music or the things that they have been 10:52 exposed to on television, violence or perhaps 10:56 even violence in their family 10:57 or whatever it maybe, all of these factors 10:59 have resulted in them basically having 11:02 no capacity to hear the voice of God 11:05 at all saying don't do that. 11:07 And instead that have been opened to hearing 11:10 the voice of the enemy, who was happy 11:13 to come in and say well, yeah, and their selfishness. 11:17 I could see this is the heartening of the heart. 11:22 No ability to hear that voice anymore. 11:24 It's been completely pushed out. 11:26 That's right. Okay. 11:28 I didn't want to go too far into that 11:30 if you don't unless that's... 11:31 Oh, but that's very relative that we're really 11:33 talking about today because so many of our 11:35 young people are in that kind of situation. 11:39 But there is hope for them. 11:40 That can be brought back alive, can't it? 11:42 Yes it can. Yes it can. 11:44 Through Christ everything can be restored. Amen. 11:47 But there has to be a willingness 11:50 and a desire and a seeing and so many times 11:55 that's the problem is that they are in a situation 11:58 where they don't even see or even want to see. 12:01 They are just dead and the Lord can't do anything them. 12:08 Okay, now, what's the next mental faculty? 12:12 Are you ready to talk about the next mental faculty? 12:15 Yes I sure. That is, 12:17 wasn't it three that works with the will? 12:21 That's right. Well you know... 12:22 Three nine ones. Right, and each of them 12:24 have a vote, you know in the decision 12:27 that's made and the choice that will make, 12:29 so conscience makes the question, 12:33 conscience asks us is this writer who is wrong. 12:36 When we get over into a reason, 12:39 the next faculty we are gonna be talking about, 12:42 it asked the question does this make sense to do? 12:47 Or is it best? Is it best to do? 12:50 And so reason or another way of saying 12:52 reason is common sense asks, you know, 12:56 in evaluating a decision or a potential decision. 13:00 Does this make sense or is this the 13:02 best thing for me to do? Yeah, right. 13:04 And again Satan always has a perversion 13:07 for all of the mind faculties 13:09 and he is perversion for reason. 13:13 It goes something like this. 13:16 It doesn't matter whether something is moral 13:20 what matter is whether it suits me, 13:23 whether it's good for me. 13:24 So it doest matter if it's right or wrong. 13:28 It's what can I get out of it. 13:30 Well, it's almost like when you take 13:32 a look at the scientific method 13:35 apart from the scriptures, you remember back 13:38 in the French Revolution they had a goddess 13:40 they named the Goddess of Reason, yes okay. 13:43 And so it was man and man's reason being 13:46 exalted into the position of God only 13:50 without consulting any higher being or God at all. 13:56 And so whatever makes sense to me, 13:58 whatever I can reason out scientifically, 14:00 whatever I can see, whatever makes 14:02 sense to me that's what I'm gonna do alone. 14:05 That's my only and so we can 14:08 even make that same mistake today. 14:10 Many people for example people 14:12 who are into creationist, who are revolutionists 14:16 or other people who only dig into science 14:19 using scientific method apart from the scriptures, 14:22 now I'm not saying scientific method is bad 14:24 in and of itself, right, but it's bad when 14:27 it's done apart from God. 14:28 God's word. Exactly. 14:30 And so we can always get into that trap of 14:32 exalting reason as a mind faculty 14:36 above it's proper position as well. 14:39 And so it says, you know, does this makes sense to me. 14:42 We are gonna be getting some 14:43 illustrations of that in a little while, 14:45 but that's the second mind faculty. 14:48 And it makes sense that things 14:50 have to be reasonable to us. 14:52 I'm not gonna be make a decision to do something 14:54 that doesn't make sense and God doesn't except me 14:57 to make a decision, typically about 15:00 something that doesn't make sense. 15:02 Because God is reasonable. Exactly. 15:05 And sensible, and logical. 15:08 And logical. He is all of these things. 15:11 Now is that all for common sense, 15:13 do we want to move into the next one or is there 15:15 more on common sense. Yes, lets go ahead 15:16 and move into the next one to start with it. 15:19 And one is called Heart's Desire. 15:23 Now Heart's Desire is a beautiful thing 15:27 because in its natural God given state, 15:31 heart's desire, gives us, 15:34 the capacity to be connected with God's heart. 15:38 And this is the feeling part of man. 15:40 It's the effective part of us 15:43 that gives us a longing for God. 15:47 To me the heart's desire of everyman 15:51 is for a connection with the heart of God. 15:56 There is the part of us that only God can fill 15:59 and heart's desires that 16:01 part of us that gets us there. 16:04 But you know a lot of people Kathy, 16:05 are afraid of this thing called heart's desire. 16:09 They are much more comfortable, 16:10 with conscience, well conscience 16:12 or reasoning because those are ones that 16:15 mainly are intellectual faculties, 16:18 you know lot of us, you know, 16:19 in the Christian world are much more 16:21 comfortable living in the world of 16:22 the intellect than we are in the 16:24 world of feelings and emotions, right. 16:28 But, you know, 16:29 a true character being well rounded. 16:32 That's just what I was gonna say a while ago. 16:34 These have to be that way, right? 16:35 They had to be all in harmony. 16:39 They had to be well rounded 16:40 not one more developed than the other. 16:42 Too much more developed I guess. 16:46 Or you've got that off balance ability 16:48 to make a decision, that's right, okay. 16:51 That's right, you know, true characters 16:52 compose the both thoughts and feelings. 16:54 Both are intellectual world as well as are, 16:56 emotional, effective and emotional feeling. 16:59 And when we don't acknowledge 17:01 the need for both, both, 17:03 then we are going to be skewed, 17:05 we are gonna either be over-intellectual 17:08 or if we are skewed toward emotions to much 17:10 which some people are, they are gonna be 17:12 carried away by feelings and not grounded. 17:15 It's gonna be like a ship being battered by 17:17 a storm with no rudder to guide the ship and so... 17:22 Can't ignore either one of them. 17:23 Either one of them. 17:24 And the most beautiful thing is that 17:26 as I look at Jesus life, He was perfectly balanced. 17:31 You know, He was always intellectually in-charge. 17:36 He knew what He was doing. 17:37 He did everything with intent 17:39 but He also felt deeply and you know, 17:42 He didn't put up walls against feeling. 17:46 He kept himself open to feeling, 17:49 all the pain of His life all the way 17:51 from childhood on through... 17:54 He didn't just shut that out. 17:55 He didn't shut it out and I think that's 17:57 a part of His call to us today is, 18:00 is a call to not shutting it out anymore 18:02 and not to defending against but being open to it. 18:05 And balanced with it. And allowing Him 18:07 to be with us through the pain of our experience. 18:11 Right, our experience really does have 18:13 quite a bit of pain in Christ I think. 18:17 And with Him though we learn to cope with it, 18:20 learn to handle it, well, learn to let that happen. 18:23 Well, that's true and the reason 18:25 that we can is that He promised 18:28 that He would never leave us nor forsake us. 18:31 That He would always be with us in trouble, 18:34 and that is a beautiful aspect of Jesus 18:40 to experience Him not only as a savior, 18:44 and but also as a comforter, that's one of the 18:48 greatest needs of human beings today 18:51 is to connect with Jesus 18:52 I think in new and fresh ways, 18:55 ways that really related to the 18:57 human experience in a fallen world. 19:01 But Jesus is not gonna leave us comfortless, 19:03 that's the part of the reason 19:04 why He sent the Holy Spirit. 19:06 And this will carry us through 19:07 our harder times right? Exactly. 19:09 Part of that, and when you talk about heart's desire, 19:12 I think of something that I've read in the past 19:14 out of one of my favorite author's books, 19:19 it has to do with, it might have been education 19:22 or mind charactering personality I'm not sure. 19:24 But it had to do with if our affections 19:29 are not wrapped up with the truth, 19:31 then truth alone will not carry us through. 19:34 That's exactly right. 19:35 You know, we have to have a love of the truth. 19:40 And that love of course is the heart's desire. 19:43 It's wrapped up with it. 19:44 It's not just because it's right, 19:46 not just because it's best, but because I love it 19:49 and that's what you will die 19:51 for truth when it's like that. 19:54 And not only die for the truth 19:55 but for a love of the giver of the truth, 19:59 that Jesus said He is the truth, right. 20:01 And so we love Jesus and He leads us into all truth. 20:06 Okay, now, are you wanting to start 20:10 with how you taught your son? 20:13 Or you finished with that? 20:14 Well, I want to say a little bit more about 20:17 the perversion of heart's desire. 20:19 Yes, we are going to, well I'm anxious 20:22 to hear how you taught it. 20:24 But I'll let you start with heart's desire. 20:26 Well, the vote of heart's desire is do I want it, 20:32 and very often today that do I want it 20:36 is what Satan uses to draw us away 20:41 from wanting what God's wants for me. 20:45 See again ideally my heart's desire 20:47 is in perfect oneness with God's heart's desire for me. 20:51 That's ideally. And so the question is, 20:54 does God want this for me 20:55 not only do I want this alone? 20:57 Can heart's desire be mixed up with just selfishness? 21:00 It sure can, okay. It sure can. 21:02 And that's one of the avenues through which 21:04 heart's desire does get perverted, 21:06 you know, the Madison Avenue hype of, 21:09 boy I have to have the most wonderful car 21:12 or all the, for example designer clothes, 21:16 commercials today too leads us 21:18 into the perversion of passion. 21:23 And so those are ways that Satan uses a lot. 21:26 We could talk a lot about that, 21:27 but I know we wanna get into how. 21:30 Well, we'll be talking about sometime 21:31 how Satan destroys our capacity 21:33 in the next program, right. 21:35 That's right, okay, that's right. 21:37 Okay, now were you finished with heart's desire? 21:39 Yes. Okay. 21:40 I want to hear how you talked through your son? 21:43 Well, you know, we, I tried to involve 21:46 Michael even in decisions that I make. 21:50 And let me give you an example 21:52 that recently was an example for us in our family. 21:58 For a while I've been wanting a truck. 22:02 You too? Yes. 22:04 I have been wanting a truck and so... 22:07 Well, you have to crucify heart's desire now. No, yes? 22:11 No, no. Okay. 22:13 Not necessarily. Okay. 22:14 Because, you know, as I began sharing, 22:17 you know, with Michael, my son about 22:21 wanting a truck but every morning 22:23 Michael in his prayers would pray, 22:25 well daddy please give my, 22:28 Father please give my daddy a truck, okay. 22:32 That would be a part of his prayer 22:33 and became quite important to Michael, 22:36 probably more important to him than it was to me 22:38 even though I certainly wanted a truck too. 22:42 And so if we wanted to take a look 22:43 at our mind faculties, you know, 22:45 a decision should I buy a truck 22:47 or shouldn't I buy a truck, you know, the first one is, 22:50 you know, we would want to take 22:51 a look at heart's desire. Right. 22:54 You know, this is something that he wanted and I wanted. 23:01 We wanted to do some off-roading. 23:03 We wanted to be able to do a little of hauling 23:06 of this or that and we couldn't do it 23:09 with just a little car that we had and so, 23:12 we had a desire for a truck and we do some camping 23:16 and we would like to be able 23:17 to throw this stuff in the back, right, 23:18 of the truck and some... 23:20 Reasonable, a reasonable thought. 23:22 Exactly. So we had a desire 23:24 for a truck and the question in our prayer 23:27 first of all was, well Lord, 23:28 you know, is my desire valid. 23:32 You know, a lot of a struggle with that. 23:33 You know, I struggle with that sometimes too. 23:37 Is it okay for me to have desires, Lord? 23:39 Is it okay for me to want things? 23:42 And sometimes, you know, I think that we almost 23:47 in the name of Christianity deny simple desires 23:52 and pleasures that God has for us. 23:56 Right, well I can relate to that. 23:58 And sometime back we gave up our home, 24:01 and well the home that the girls liked so much. 24:04 It wasn't our home, but it was the home 24:05 that they liked so much and have never 24:10 we gained that in the past four years. 24:12 So the thought has always been it's surely is okay 24:18 that I want a home in this world today. 24:21 Well, it certainly is okay that you wanna home. 24:23 You know, God told us that 24:25 we need to have a home of our own 24:27 and preferably in the country 24:28 and for our families and so those kinds of desires 24:31 that are in harmony with God's will, 24:34 are perfectly legitimate. 24:36 But I want to talk a little bit about reason too now 24:38 and how, how we taught Michael about reasoning 24:42 and so I began asking him 24:45 about this truck again, well, 24:48 what would be reasonable in terms of a truck? 24:52 And so began talking about things like, 24:55 things like, what kind of truck 24:58 would best suit our situation? 25:02 You know, should we get a four-wheel drive truck, 25:04 should we get a two wheel drive truck, 25:06 should we, you know, we need to take 25:09 a look at it mechanically, you know, 25:10 if we are gonna buy used truck 25:11 which is all we could afford. 25:14 How can we do that and we need, 25:18 I saw, I used it as an object lesson 25:20 to teach him about how to evaluate whether a truck, 25:24 any purchase of the truck was good. 25:26 In other words you look at the mechanics of it. 25:28 You check it all out and we look at 25:30 a couple of trucks and I used it as a way 25:33 of teaching him about where to look, 25:35 and how to look, and how to 25:36 evaluate mechanically a truck 25:37 and maybe take it to a mechanic 25:39 and all those kinds of things, the reasonable 25:43 aspects of a truck. The common sense? 25:46 Yeah, the common sense almost. 25:47 You're not gonna buy something 25:48 that's gonna fall apart. Right, okay. 25:51 You know, especially if you gonna invest 25:52 a little bit of money into it. 25:53 You don't want to do that. 25:55 And so we started taking a look at that 25:57 and we take a look at that things like well, 26:01 about financing a truck. 26:02 Are we gonna finance or not finance it? 26:05 And we don't want to go into depth that's 26:06 a big value of ours to try not to go into depth 26:09 and so to try and find 26:11 something nice that is affordable. 26:13 That all goes into the element of reason. 26:16 And then the next one is conscience, 26:20 which is, is it right or is it wrong 26:23 and the kinds of question that we talked about 26:27 in the area of conscience was, 26:30 well if I do, if I do this is this 26:34 something that is really pleasing to good. 26:37 Am I gonna be putting a big weight on my family 26:42 by purchasing this truck? Am I gonna be sacrificing, 26:46 you know, other needs of for the family, 26:49 other things that we need more than this? 26:51 Or the cause of God. 26:52 Or the cause of God, you know. 26:53 I want to, you know, if I purchase this 26:56 that the money that I have, you know, 26:59 is this what God wants me to do it, with this money. 27:01 Need good store. Exactly. 27:03 So we begin talking in those areas 27:05 about conscience and so we went 27:08 through that whole process 27:09 and I taught him that every single decision 27:12 he makes whether it's at school 27:13 or whether it's at home, 27:14 whether it's at a present or the future, 27:16 he goes through either consciously 27:19 or unconsciously this three step process 27:22 of evaluating conscience, reason 27:24 and heart's desire before any decision is made. 27:29 Well, now we want to talk a little bit more this. 27:33 I hope we can do more on the next program. 27:36 I'd like to continue that. 27:37 But we are also gonna be talking about, 27:40 how Satan seeks to destroy our capacity to choose? 27:43 We want you to understand 27:45 this process of decision making. 27:47 We want you to be able to choose, and we will be 27:50 back again, right? Yes we will. 27:52 And if you want more information, 27:53 you can call or write @3ABN and I want to 27:56 invite you again on Thinking About Home. |
Revised 2014-12-17