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#101 Mountain Moving Faith - Part 4 (02/110/03) By: Robert H. Schuller These past few months
I have been visiting places overseas to see our ministry at work.
The Hour of Power is now being televised in over 200 countries.
Our ministries in Australia and in Canada have already celebrated
their 25th anniversaries. And, with the blessing of the Russian
Orthodox Church, we are the only televised church service in Russia
since 1991. At the same time I
was also working on my next book due in March of 2004, entitled,
"Life's Rules of Engagement." And I learned in all my
travels, speaking and writing, new insights about faith that I
never read ... never heard ... never understood ... never perceived
before. This is my 77th year and I want to share some of these
new insights with you this morning. I have four faith points
that hopefully you will not forget. If you have read some
of my 36 books, you know that I keep coming back to the subject
of leadership again, and again, and
again. I am a strong believer that we each need to use leadership
to meet the challenges that life throws at us. But most of us
are not educated, trained, or motivated to be leaders. That's
because the people who influenced us want us to be their followers.
So our peers are tempted more often than not to see us as their
followers more than as their leader. Leaders are not what
most of us are called to be; yet in the final analysis nobody
else will set your dreams for you. Nobody else can kill your dream.
One of my books is entitled, "If It's
Going To Be, It's Up To Me." That's being a leader
and we desperately need that in our private, personal lives and
in all of the institutions in our countries. The quality of leadership
... but what is leadership? Leadership
is the force that St. Paul, the author
of the Hebrews, introduces the subject of faith in Chapter 11
this way: "Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for ... the evidence of
things not seen ..." Then in verse 6 he
writes: That text was assigned
to me by my professor when I was a student in theological school.
Each of us had to prepare a sermon, which had to be delivered
to the entire student body and faculty for their review and critique.
Those words from St. Paul still impact me today with faith power,
along with the mountain moving the words of Jesus Christ from
Matthew 17:20, "If
you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can say to your
mountain 'move,' and nothing will be impossible to you."
Last Saturday I was
supposed to be in Madrid Spain. Our ambassador there, a very dear
friend, George Argyros, invited the board of Horatio Alger Association,
to Madrid for our annual meeting. Another board member, one of
my friends, had a new plane and invited me to fly with him, free.
So I said yes and I flew to Vancouver where we were to board his
plane. It was a brand new Global Express plane. It was fabulous.
We were to leave at 5:00 in the morning, but the call came to
my hotel room that there was a little problem with the plane so
we would be leaving at 8:00 AM instead. Well, at 2:30 in the
afternoon the problem still wasn't fixed, and we were told, "It's
just a little computer chip." A tiny little computer chip
and the plane couldn't fly! What do you make of that? It's probably
a 30 to 40 million-dollar plane. Brand new, but one little computer
chip stopped it. One little absence of faith, or one little presence
of faith, very small, like a mustard seed can change your whole
life. Who would have thought
that if you see a man dying and you would pick him up to care
for him that you'd end up being declared a saint? Of all the invitations
I receive, the one that pleases me so much is one I hope I can
accept. It is to Mother Teresa's Beatification in St. Peters in
Rome. I have a very coveted invitation. Mother Teresa and I respected
and loved each other. Our spirits connected each time we visited.
As you knew, one of
my most prized processions is not her autograph, but a sentence
she wrote out that I have framed with her picture in my study.
"To Dr. Schuller, be all and only for Jesus. Let Him use
you without consulting you first." Mother Teresa left her
post with the approval of the Pope, just to go out and take care
of dying persons in Calcutta, India, and the end of that path
will be a special Mass in St. Peters Square, beatifying her as
an authentic saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Just
a little bit of faith,
but where does it lead? An idea goes through your head and you
grab hold of it carefully, prayerfully, and you listen to that
idea. When you do that, you become not just a follower, but a
leader. I hear again and again in life that leaders are those
who have the right degrees, the right credentials, the right resume,
the right experience, but often they become trapped in professionalism.
Then they are not leaders. Leaders haven't been brainwashed -
"this will work" ... "that won't work." In
that kind of thinking, they become followers because they are
basically impossibility thinkers. Leaders are possibility thinkers. They say, "What's the problem? How can it be solved?" They don't say it can't
be solved. No, their attitude is ... Anything is possible. They
may not have the answers, but they find answers. They go for the
answers and make it happen, because they've got drive, passion,
practically and positive thinking! That's leadership! You can be a leader
and that's what our world needs. Think ... think ... think. But
start with faith. Faith makes leaders. (1)
Faith is a fact, not a fantasy. I learned that this
summer very strongly when I was writing a chapter in my book called,
"Managing Your Assumptions." By the time I finished
writing that chapter I became convinced that we are all assumption-driven
human beings, more than we know. Early in my life in
ministry when I met with important people who didn't believe in
God or religion, they would always put me down very swiftly. Now
I was not an honor student, but I was a national debate student,
an elected member of the Phi Kappa Delta, the National Honoree
Forensic Society. I thought I was good at debate, but when unbelievers
would debate me with an argument on faith, I backed away. I thought
I'd lose the debate so I wouldn't go there. I'd hear their argument
against faith, "Schuller, you say you believe in God and
all that stuff. It's all based
on assumptions." And I remained
quiet because I didn't want to say 'yes' and I was thinking, "Maybe
my faith is based on assumptions." Finally, in my new
book, I agree with them. My faith is all
based on assumptions ... but I say to the unbeliever, "Your
unbelief is all based on assumptions also!" Here are two great
lines in that book. "Atheism
is a negative assumption I don't think any of
us ever make a single decision without basing it on assumptions
that we don't even understand are a part of the process. You assume
the chair will hold you. If you are a scientist, and many of my
friends are, you assume that the
research is accurate. Maybe it is, but you assume
that the sources were reliable. And you're assuming
that the newest discoveries haven't invalidated what was
published to be fact. The truth is the human
being is an assumption-managed person, positive or negative! That's
reality. That means assumption
is nothing more than faith. Faith is accepting as truth something
that you cannot prove and you've got to make a decision
one way or another. And that means all human
beings are assumption managed so we are really living in the realm
of faith all the time, believers and unbelievers alike.
So faith becomes a scientific reality in the mental processing.
(1) Faith
is not fantasy ... it's a fact of managing human living. (2)
Faith is a force, not a value. Faith in itself has
no value. It's neither good nor evil, but it is powerful for good
or evil! The terrorists who flew those planes at the twin towers
had faith. They believed in terror. They were driven by assumptions
of the power of evil to serve their cause. Faith in itself has
no value. The value comes in what you choose
to place your faith in. If you place your faith
in goodness, God, Jesus Christ, you have the power to change the
world and become a saint. Then since we're all naturally faith
creatures (and God planned it that way) we are to relate to God
and the only way you could possibility relate to God if God remains
invisible. My friend, Arnold Schwarznegger, is worshiping with
us again. He is a celebrity. He can't go anywhere without everybody
around him grabbing at him, surrounding him and he is only Arnold
Schwartznegger. But can you imagine what would happen if God Almighty
or Jesus Christ, were here in flesh and bones? The ultimate reality
is that God in Jesus Christ has to remain invisible so we can
each relate to Him in our own way. (3)
Faith is a decision, not a debate. Don't debate me about
I believe about God, Jesus Christ, the Bible, holiness, courage
and leadership principles. I won't debate my belief because I
can't prove to you that I'm absolutely right. I simply made a
decision. I have studied the
Bible. I have studied the Ten Commandments and I believe they
are given to us to keep us from getting into trouble so they're
a blessing. I've studied Jesus Christ. I've studied what I believe
about the Christian church. There is no other institution on planet
earth in the year 2003 that specializes in encouraging people
to be emotionally healthy, hopeful, optimistic, courageous, brave,
cheerful, generous and kind! So Christianity will never go out
of style! I've chosen to believe
in God and I've often said, "If moments before I pass away,
someone would say to me, 'there's strong new evidence that there
is no God. What do you say to that, Schuller?'" I would reply,
"I'd believe in Him even if you could almost prove to me
that He didn't exist. I want God. I need God. I look at the good
life God has given me. I wouldn't never
not believe. It's a decision! I'll live and die on that." (4)
Faith is a commitment ... not an argument. So finally, faith is
a commitment ... not an argument. I made my commitment to Jesus
Christ. Leadership: (1)
Faith is a fact, not a fantasy! Faith is driving you, for good
or ill. You need to make a
decision. Make a commitment. Forget the argument. Focus on your
natural instincts to live on assumptions
and focus your assumptions on Jesus Christ. Where are you at?
God has a plan for your life, absolutely. Have faith ... for
without faith, life is impossible Prayer: O God, thank
You for the Bible, this book filled with wisdom. Thank You for
coming to this earth in Jesus Christ, to show us that You are
a Living God. Thank You, that You've given us the capacity to
be faith creatures ... assumption managing human beings. You have
promised that You will guide, direct, and lead us. Amen.
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