David Wright

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Navigating the Mind Field

Well, you don't have to leave your home to see that today God's law is under attack.

It used to be there was a lot of counsel that we needed to leave the cities, get out of the cities for the influence that was in the cities.

Now I understand somebody has to minister to the cities, but that's not my point this morning.

My point this morning is that the cities have a direct feed into your home and into my home.

Flip through any TV for 3 minutes and it becomes very apparent.

Lying, cheating, violence, murder, illicit sex, homosexuality, reality shows.

They're all full of people being deceitful and selfish and manipulative.

The modern family, a show I'm not even familiar with, but it's called Scandal.

Shows like The Good Witch, The Walking dead, the voice, criminal minds, resurrection.

I ask you, how many of these are promoting our Christian values as a Seventh-day Adventist?

Friends call me crazy, but I believe that TV and movies and the internet are trying to undo everything that the Holy Spirit is trying to do in your and my life.

Oh, but there's good stuff on there too, Pastor.

And by good stuff you simply mean, well, it's just not as bad.

Or maybe you could even make a case where it's not bad at all.

And the overstimulation with all the rapid scene changes, that when you pull out your Bible All of a sudden it seems dull and boring.

There's not something new and fresh hitting you at every moment.

Scott Ritzma was here a few weekends ago and he tells the average American watches 4.7 hours of TV a day.

Now pastor, I don't have time for a devotional life.

A thoughtful hour, who has time for a thoughtful hour?

Apparently the average American has time for a thoughtful 4.7 hours of TV a day.

The average American is on the internet an average of 2 hours a day and plays video games an average of 1 hour a day.

I bet you a bunch of you in here never even touched a video game.

So that means somebody is working around the clock to make up for you.

Let's suppose we should get 8 hours of sleep a night.

Let's suppose you work for about 8 hours in a typical day or go to school for about 8 hours in a typical day.

Then you add your 4.7 hours of TV watching, your 2 hours on the internet, and your 1 hour playing video games, that leaves you about 20 minutes to do everything else.

So I'm brushing my teeth, I'm reading 1 verse and I'm out the door.

But what's it keeping you from doing that's maybe better stuff?

In a time in earth's history of supreme importance, during the judgment hour, right before the return of Christ, we are being lulled asleep, friends.

And by beholding, we are becoming changed.

Studies show that cigarettes will take 11 minutes, 1 cigarette, 11 minutes off your life.

But you do not hear that 1 hour of TV takes 22 minutes off your life.

You thought you were just wasting an hour, you were wasting an hour and 22 minutes of your life.

The average adolescent is watching 14, 000 scenes of a sexual nature every year.

Well, research has also showed that all these images are coming so fast, so fast, so fast.

And we're, as human beings, supposed to digest what we're seeing, to mourn for it, to feel bad for it and all these things.

But we're not doing any of that because it's the next thing and it's the next thing and it's the next thing.

And before we know it, even the news can desensitize us.

But I've been in homes where news is on 24-7.

Oh well, you're talking to the wrong guy.

But you know you can watch anything on demand on the computer.

Well, I don't watch bad adult movies, I just watch the kids' movies, the cute, innocent, cartoony ones.

Friends, God's law is under attack even in children's movies, which seems odd to say because children's movies today have very adult content.

This idea that we should only follow our hearts instead of the law.

And in children's movies, lying, manipulation, stealing, and mystical practices are rampant.

Have you been through the Walmart checkout line?

Highest grossing animated film of all time, Frozen, brought in over $1.3 billion by January of this year.

It was the best-selling Blu-ray DVD sold in the United States.

Parents are buying this DVD, they're placing it in front of their kids, and they're watching it over and over and over and over.

Let me tell you the lyrics of 1 of the songs that maybe you've heard kids humming at Walmart.

It says, don't let them in, don't let them see.

Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know.

And she starts doing all this sorcery stuff and stuff's coming out of her hands and things are whirling around.

It's time to see what I can do to test the limits and break through.

Does that sound like it comes out of God's word or straight from the pit?

God’s Will My Way

General Stanley McChrystal, you may remember that name, the top U.S.

Commander in Afghanistan, decided he'd had enough.

He was going to take matters into his own hands.

So he made it quite evident in a Rolling Stones article published this, well, several, I guess it was the summer of 2010.

It was entitled The Runaway General, underscored by this tag.

Stanley McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy, the wimps in the White House.

In the article, he said President Obama was uncomfortable, intimidated, and in top-level Pentagon meetings.

He called meeting with Obama as impersonal, photo-ops, in which the President didn't know who he was.

He mocked Vice President Joe Biden as well.

He called the US National Security Advisor, Jim Jones, a clown.

He belittled US Special Representative to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrook, as well as a few members of Congress.

In the uproar that followed in the news, the retired Medal of Honor, Colonel Jack Jacobs, went on record saying, the substance of McChrystal's interview is seen by most in the military as right, but agree that he was out of line.

And the crystal decided to take the situation in his own hands, to become impatient.

He felt like he knew what needed to happen and he ignored proper protocol or process and he decided to just let it all go in this Rolling Stones magazine.

Now you recall what happened, he was let go.

But it's so easy to be critical, isn't it?

You see something that's not being done right and you're gonna fix it.

You know how it needs to be done, the Bible's clear.

And you are confident because everyone around you that you've talked to agrees.

And you're convicted and convinced it will honor God and you know the final outcome is in alignment with God's will, but the question this morning I want to ask is, is it according to God's timing?

Because if we're not careful we can be found doing God's will my way on my timetable, which is where I bend and push and pull strings I connive and manipulate to accomplish God's purposes.

God has led in so many ways to give it to you, yet it's not happening and you get impatient.

So you begin to take matters into your own hands.

You know you're not called to live a life of celibacy, and you know that the time is passing and prospects are narrowing, and you're getting lonely.

So, you begin to take matters into your own hands.

You feel your entire life has gifted you for it.

You know God wants you to serve Him in some way, but God has not opened the door yet.

You begin to take matters into your own hands.

Whatever it is, you're impatient, you know This is what God wants for you, but you're tired of waiting.

So you start manipulating, pulling strings.

You begin to push, to compromise, to match-make, and finally you get what you've wanted.

And then you suddenly rediscover God and pray, oh Lord, please bless in this job, bless this marriage, bless this ministry, bless my decision.

Make it strong and great because as you have led me, I'm moving forward today." Do we ever pray those prayers?

As I'm moving forward today, you've led me.

I know you've led me to push and connive.

God's will my way, that's how we like it.

Abraham was promised a son, But he grew impatient, didn't he?

So he took a servant, Hagar, and they had a son, Ishmael.

But he too grew impatient and took matters into his own hands and he tricked his brother Esau.

He manipulated, he pulled strings, he compromised God's will my way.

And today I wanna look at a story in Exodus chapter 2 of Moses.

You may remember Moses was born under persecution and after 3 months, they say, we just can't take it anymore.

You study the word for this little thing that they created, it's ark, provided.

And God miraculously moves and his mother is paid, you remember he's found and now not only is he delivered, but The mother is paid, the family is paid to raise Moses.

And spirit of prophecy tells us, until he was about 12 years old, he was raised by his mother.

Now don't get me wrong, all mothers have an incredible responsibility, but how would you like the pressure that at 12 years of age your child will be taken from you and thrust into a very worldly situation, a very royal situation?

Incredible responsibility of this mother.

The young mother, this young mother holds the destiny of this child in her hands.

She is sowing seeds, making impressions on his developing mind that will remain with him for life.

Let me read a quote to you from Adventist home, 231, in reference to mothers.

The king upon his throne has no higher work than has the mother.

She has in her power the molding of her children's characters that they may be fitted for the higher immortal life.

An angel could not ask for a higher mission, for in doing this work, she is doing service for God.

Let her only realize the high character of her task, and it will inspire with her courage.

Let her realize the worth of her work, and put on the whole armor of God that she may resist the temptation to conform to the world's standard.

We might have some stay-at-home mothers here.

I've been entrusted with this little life, this little character.

And Some of you can't be a stay-at-home mom.

But you still have a tremendous role to play.

So spirit Prophecy also tells us that an angel instructed Moses that God had chosen him to break the bondage of his people.

As a young man, I don't know what age, 08:10, 12 maybe, you're the 1 Moses.

But I imagine Moses has his own assumptions of what that may look like.

So at the age of 12 his world drastically changes and in fact the historian Josephus tells us because Pharaoh had no son or heir Moses is being groomed for the throne.

Love Is...

Well, it wasn't February 14, it was September 14, 12 years and 5 months ago today, but who's counting?

It was the time that I thought it was the right time to ask Elizabeth to marry me.

I'd thought about it for a long time, I'd prayed about it for a long time, this is a big decision, I talked to my parents about it, and my mom's response is, what's taking you so long?

But there was a piece I had to get out of the way first, which to me was the scariest piece of all, and that was to call her father.

And He was a long ways away and so I really couldn't drive up there.

And so I decided to just call him on the phone.

So being rather nervous, I wrote out the whole part about actually asking for her hand.

And so we got on the phone and how are you doing, you know, the typical stuff, because I never called him to talk about the weather.

And so After we kind of got through that awkward part, I said, well, I'm thinking you're probably wondering why I'm calling, and that's when I started into my paragraph.

You know, Elizabeth and I have been seeing each other for some time, and I love your daughter very, very much.

And I don't know, I looked for it on the computer to see if I could find it to read it to you and I couldn't.

But I remember getting to the bottom part, I'd like to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage.

After about what seemed to be 15 minutes, He said, oh, well, when do you plan on doing this?

Well, I was thinking sometime in the summer.

And Elizabeth and I hadn't talked about it even though I knew, we've talked about it now, I knew she was the 1.

And so I thought she knew for sure it was going to be Thanksgiving or Christmas.

I had to do it in September to surprise her.

I know this is a big thing, and if you don't feel comfortable, that's fine.

Wilson so that Elizabeth could surprise her, because I know she'd love to be able to surprise her.

And she's going to be down in, what is it, next week or sometime on the 14th of September in Andrews, North Carolina.

Every time they were in Africa, they'd come home and furlough.

They were in Andrews, North Carolina, and then Russia this day.

And her mom was going to be there visiting her mother and her brother and all the rest.

And so that was the weekend I had chosen.

And if it's okay, maybe Elizabeth could be the 1 to surprise her.

Well, I understand, you know, you think about it, and if you don't feel comfortable with that, even though I knew I had Nancy in the bag.

But anyway, if you don't feel comfortable, that's okay.

Well, as we talked, the more I think about it, I think that'll be okay.

My plan, I don't know if it was a good plan, but this was the plan.

The plan was that we're going to go up to Andrews, North Carolina.

I thought, Saturday afternoon will probably be the best time.

We're not having to get somewhere or get there or anything else.

I went to all these different antique stores and just found a shoebox type wooden box and had to do a little critiquing, put a top on and different things.

And I filled it with all kinds of old coins that Dad had from traveling the world.

I put a little Bible in there in a Ziploc bag and I got her a watch that was engraved with a Ziploc bag, but I figured the watch would die, which it has.

And so I also, I wanted to get her something she'd have for more forever, so I got her a rocking chair.

I don't know, call me crazy, but I had a picture of the rocking chair and I put that in there.

You can see it is a plaque on the back to prove that I'm a nerd and so I had all this in the box, covered it up with coins, then I tied a rope around it and I kind of buried it behind some rocks.

They live right there on the edge of the preserved land there in Andrews, North Carolina.

And so Saturday morning I sneak out with this box, you know, with the rope and the whole thing, trying to hide it actually.

And I'm going down the hill and I tuck it under there.

We go to church and I'm sitting watching the weather and it's starting to drizzle outside.

And this box is actually submerged in the creek.

Put a couple of rocks around it, but it's starting to rain harder.

I could not tell you at all what the preacher spoke about.

We, of course, have to change and do the lunch thing and then everybody just kind of was lounging.

I didn't want to try and seem over anxious but at the appropriate time I thought, okay Elizabeth why don't we go fishing?

I borrowed my brother's fly pole and let's just see if we can catch anything just for fun.

Well, you're not going to catch anything unless you have some bait on the hook.

And so her uncle has to take me out and dig up worms.

We're going to work our way up to this little hole and it's just a disaster.

I mean, fly fishing in a creek with rhododendron and all the rest, it doesn't work.

Well, I just want to try a little bit longer.

So we get to the hole, and my plan was this rope was going up a big rock, and it had some leaves and sticks, and if I could just snag that rope, You know, just put it over the rock and pull it back and just, you know, what's this kind of a thing.

And I'm trying and I'm trying and I can't get the thing to hook.

By this time we've caught a couple of crawdads and I don't know what I'll...

Self-Centered Christianity

This past fall, I started my doctoral studies at Andrews University and my cohort emphasis is on family ministry.

And my project is focusing on mobile technology, which is primarily smartphones.

And it might morph into just only smartphones, but I'm also thinking laptops and tablets.

Mobile technology and how they are affecting family relationships and relational intimacy.

Oh, it's going to get up to a nice warm temperature today, that's wonderful.

Just to give you an idea, last year, 2014, 70% of all cell phone users were on a smartphone.

Also, in 2014, a huge shift occurred in internet usage.

Up until last year, everybody was using the internet on their PCs at home or their laptops or what have you.

Starting in 2014, the smartphone took the lead in internet usage across the board.

They said this is a mammoth shift in the world today.

85% of humans on the planet are in range of a cell phone tower.

This year, 2015, they expect that 2 billion people on the planet will be using a smartphone.

Facebook gets an average of 6000000000 like posts every day.

And with the smartphone comes constant alerts and pings and notices, and there's even some chemical processes in the brain, almost like a drug addiction.

When you get that ping, you get that high and you have to check it out and, oh.

As 1 book stated, we've never had a lifestyle that made screen communication the priority and made it acceptable behavior to ignore others.

Another book, Chapman and Pelican in their book, Growing Up Social, raising relational kids in a screen-driven world, they say this, in 2000, before the smartphone existence, the average person's attention span?

By 2014, our attention span has dropped by 40%, and now it's only 7 seconds.

Currently, our society is facing an extinction of monotasking.

The idea that as a parent I can be at the playground, but I can be plugged into work too.

Doing 1 thing at a time versus everything.

Back to Menu

Presenter

David Wright

All Recordings

Navigating the Mind Field

50m

God’s Will My Way

37m

Love Is...

44m

Self-Centered Christianity

33m

An Indescribable Gift

35m

Freely You Have Received

37m

The Issachar Factor

1h

What Giants Are You Facing

46m

A True Witness

50m

Pure Gold

38m

18. Revelations Spiritual Revolution for a New Millennium

57m

17. Prophetic Movement at End Time

1h 3m

Sound Doctrine