Description
DOORS
Positivity
Ed Young
April 22, 2007
I feel great today. But I always feel the worst when I feel great because I know how bad I’m going to feel once I start feeling bad again.
Do you know people like that, people who are caught in negativity, the nay‑sayers, the people who see the glass as half empty? It is amazing how negative we are. Left to our own, we will always go negative. Have you noticed that? If you’re a part of a homeowner’s association, a team, a class, a business, even a church, people left to their own devices will always go negative.
There are basically two doors that we always face—the door of positivity or the door of negativity. And I have an easy time walking through the door of negativity. I don’t know about you, but I do. It is something that I do. I am just hard‑wired for negativity. Am I the only one? I seriously doubt it.
Everywhere we turn we’re bombarded with negativity. How about the press? For the most part, the media has gone from talking about facts to fiction.
How about comedy? Have you ever looked at the evolution of comedy? Three or four decades ago comedy was more slapstick, it was more positive. Today, it is all about negativity and being slanderous. It has a real edge to it.
Music is the same way. We love negativity; we love dirty laundry; we love to just rip things apart. Slander, gossip, secrets. When I said those words I made that hissing sound, like a snake.
I used to drive a Cherokee Chief when I was a teenager. And Cherokee Chiefs at the time they were pretty challenging, because this car broke down all the time. In fact, it broke down so much I carried jumper cables in the back seat and I would just jump the car several times a week. One day it died in my parents’ driveway. My dad had just bought a brand new, midnight blue Lincoln Continental. So I thought I would just use his car to jump start the Cherokee Chief. No problem. I hooked the cables up to both vehicles, turned his car on, and it started perfectly. Then I turned the Cherokee Chief on, and when I revved it up, I watched in horror as those jumper cables caught on fire and melted into my father’s hood. It was a very negative situation. It was not pretty.
What happened? I got the positive on the negative and the negative and positive. And when that happens you’re going to have a melt down.
Maybe you’re here today and you’re thinking, “Okay Ed, that is me, man. I have the negative on the positive and the positive on the negative in my marriage, in my career, in my family, in this friendship. I even have it financially, and I am experiencing a meltdown. I understand. Negativity is something that we are.”
Have you seen this new book called “The Secret”? Oprah has really been promoting it. Have you seen that book? Lift your hand up. It is just another bunch of new age mumbo jumbo. It basically says if you look inside of yourself you’ll find the answers. You look inside of yourself and you think positive thoughts and then you will reach nirvana and achieve all of this stuff.
That is totally whack! I don’t know about you, but when I look inside of myself I see sin, I see anger, I see lust, I see greed, I see chicanery. I see all types of depravity, because I am a sinner and you are, too. So when I look inside of myself, I’m all jacked up. That has got to be one of the most ludicrous things out there. Look inside yourself?
See, the gospel of Jesus Christ is outside of me. Jesus said, “I am the door.” Not a door. He said I am the door. So, I’ve got to make a decision to allow Jesus Christ to infiltrate my life. I take his nail‑pierced hand, I walk through the door, he takes control of me. Now I am positioned to look inside of myself and who do I see now? I see, of course, Jesus. And really, the only way to live a positive life is to follow Jesus through the door.
Jesus said in John 10:9 (NKJV), “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”
You can say, “They will be saved, they will be safe, and they will satisfied.”
Then he says in John 10:10 (NKJV), “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…”
He was calling Satan out. What is Satan’s agenda? It is to steal from you and me, to kill you and me, and to destroy you and me. And one of the best ways he does it is through today’s subject matter, negativity.
Then Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.”
Well, an abundant life is all about positivity. What is positivity? I have talked about it several times. Positivity—you might want to write this down—is a God-driven outlook that gives us a God-ordained outcome. It’s a God-driven outlook that gives us a God-ordained outcome.
My outlook determines my outcome. There are two doors in every situation—the door of positivity and the door of negativity. And I amaze myself at how quickly I will go through the door of negativity.
You could say there are two doors—the door of destiny and the door of the desert. Two doors. You maybe saying, “The desert? What do you mean the desert?”
Well, if you have your Bible, turn to the Numbers 13, because we are going to see how to live a positive life. How do I have this outlook that will give me this God-ordained outcome? When I talk about positivity, I am not talking about this phony‑baloney, contrived; everything is great 24/7 mentality.
I know a lot of people who are into the positive thinking movement have their heads buried in the sands of denial and they’re totally dysfunctional.
“Hey dude, your marriage is in the deep weeds.”
“Yeah, but I’m just positive.”
“Hey man, your finances are all messed up.”
“I know! Isn’t it great?”
What are you smoking? That is not positivity; it is stupidity. People always say, “Man, I just want to keep it real.” The Bible keeps it real. That’s what I love about the Bible. The Bible doesn’t just show the positive qualities of people; it also shows the negative qualities. And I can identify with that. Some people say the Bible is a book of fairy tales and a book of people that just make stuff up about God. Wait a minute. If it’s a fairy tale, and if you’re making up all these stories, then why does it talk about all of the negative stuff and the bad stuff and the anger and the lust and the depression and the greed of people’s lives? Some of the best characters in the Bible struggled with all of this stuff. Some of the best characters of the Bible struggled with negativity.
Numbers 13 tell us how to deal with negativity. How do we negotiate negativity? How do we walk through the door of destiny and turn our backs on the door of the desert? Well, let me set the stage right quick.
The children of Israel, God’s chosen people, had miraculously been taken from slavery. God parted an ocean for them. He gave them a GPS system to guide them. He fed them manna fajitas from heaven. He gave them this incredible tract of land called the Promise Land. We’re going to drill down and look at twelve leaders of God’s people. They are called the twelve spies, because God told Moses to tell the people to pick twelve leaders to go out and do a reconnaissance mission on the Promise Land. And God said, “The land is yours. Just claim the land. But first, go out and check it out.”
So that is where we have this whole thing with negativity and positivity. Because these people, ten of the twelve spies, ten of the twelve leaders have the positive on the negative and the negative on the positive. And they experienced a meltdown. We’re going to find out that two people, two out of twelve people put the positive on the positive and the negative on the negative. And they hit the door of destiny. And that is in the cards for you and for me, because that’s the kind of life that Jesus wants.
Let’s dive in. Numbers 13:27‑28. In verse 27 the spies say, “Okay Moses, here is the deal. The land is awesome! All this fruit; it’s a bumper crop. It’s gorgeous.”
But look at verse 28, “…but…”
You show me somebody who is negative and I will show you somebody who has a big “but.”
“Yeah, but… I know, but… We can try now, but…”
[the verse continues] “…but the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”
Now look at verse 30. You see, Caleb and Joshua were the two out of the twelve. “Then Caleb silenced the people.”
He was saying, “You guys shut up.”
He said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
Verses 31-32, “But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.’ And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.”
And then verse 33. Before we read verse 33, I want you to take your keys out of your pocket for a second and jingle the keys. Because 33 is a key verse. Let’s just jingle the keys, because we cannot miss verse 33. Okay good, thank you. Doesn’t that sound good? I like that sound.
Are you ready for verse 33? Again the negative people, the people who got the positive on the negative and the negative on the positive. Here’s what the ten negative people said, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
Negative people will go grasshopper on you, won’t they? You know what I’m saying, don’t you? You show me someone who exaggerates, and I will show you somebody who is negative. You show me someone who is a liar, and I will show you someone who is negative. You show me someone who is riddled with fear, and I will show you somebody who is negative. You show me somebody who is lazy, and I will show you somebody who is negative. You show me someone who lives in the past, and I will show you someone who is negative.
“Oh, they’re big! We can’t take them; they’re too strong. We’re like grasshoppers compared to them. I just want to sit here in complacency doing nothing.”
In fact, as we keep reading, the Israelites said, “Let’s just go back to Egypt. Let’s just walk through the door of the desert, through the door of negativity. Let’s just go back to Egypt, back to the whips and chains, back to being incarcerated. Let’s just go back.”
Wow, negativity is a highly contagious disease. People are always worried about diseases and germs these days. “Oh man, hand sanitation! We teach our kids to wash their hands long enough to say the ABCs. Wash the germs on the shopping carts; you might get sick.”
People are germ freaks. Have you seen all these documentaries on the germs? Have you seen the germs at health clubs, and in hotel rooms? They’re evil looking things, germs.
Well, I tell you the worst germ is the germ of negativity. The other germs and diseases are nothing compared to negativity. The children of Israel just bolted right through the door of negativity.
Look at Numbers 14:2, “All the Israelites grumbled…”
See, it started with a small thing. Ten people were negative. Then it began to get multiplied exponentially.
“…against Moses and Aaron.”
Who are Moses and Aaron? They leaders. If you’re a leader in any position—a manager, a coach, a CEO, a president, a parent, a pastor—you’re going to deal with negativity. People grumble. And that’s okay; that’s just what we do. After sin entered the equation, everybody went negative. We are hard‑wired for negativity. That is our natural nature. That’s okay.
We, though, have to hang out with the Joshua and the Caleb people. We have to hook our cables up to them. We have to hook our wires up to Scripture and put the positive on the positive and the negative on the negative.
Look at Numbers 14:3. This is hilarious. “Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?”
Why? You show me a negative person, and I will show you someone who says “why” all the time. Why, why, why? “Hey mom, why? Hey, I’ve just got to ask you, why? Dad, why? Honey, why? Why, why, why?” Like everybody owes them an explanation? That’s funny.
Put a “not” after the “why.” That will change your life. Why not take the risk? Why not step out? Why not try that? Why not invest over there? Why not, why not, why not, why not?
What if God sat down and explained all the whys behind everything he’s done in your life and mine? We would die with God still explaining himself to us. We don’t have that much time.
Think about the negative sign. The negative sign is a horizontal sign, and it is the sign of death. People say, “He flat-lined.” That means you’re dead.
The positive sign is a vertical sign right through the negative, the horizontal. And that is the shape of the cross. That’s the shape of the cross; the vertical right through the horizontal. When we follow Jesus; when we have our eyes on him; when we walk through the door, our God-given outlook can determine a God-ordained outcome because we have gone vertical. Isn’t that incredible?
This week I was thinking about positivity, and I read the last page of the Bible. And do you know what it says? We win! Isn’t that great? I’ve already read the last page, so I should be the most positive person around. And so should you if you’re a Christ follower. We’re not fighting for victory; we’re fighting from it. We’ve already won. We win. That’s what the Bible says, basically. We win. Just read it. That’s good.
The last part of Numbers 14:3 says, “Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
Is this pitiful? “Back in the day.” You show me someone who is “back in the day”, and I will show you somebody who is negative.
Verse 4. This is classic. “And they said to each other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.’”
Now, where is God in there? They’ve totally done the Heisman on God. “God, I know you have miraculously delivered us and parted the Red Sea and you put the GPS system in the sky and fed us manna from heaven. We know. But forget you. We’re going to choose a leader. We’re going to vote.”
And every time the children of Israel voted in Scripture, they voted outside the will of God. Every single time. How about saying, “God, what do you say? God, what do you think? God, what man or woman do you want?” But no. They said, “Let us choose. We are going to choose a leader.”
But look at Numbers 14:7-9, because now you’re going to get Joshua and Caleb, those positive people, walking through the door of destiny. “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord.”
So whenever I go negative; whenever I walk through the door of negativity; whenever I walk through the door of the desert, I am rebelling against God. I am talking to students here and children. If you are negative towards your parents, you are rebelling against God. If you’re negative to your boss, you’re rebelling against God. If you’re negative towards your spouse, you’re rebelling against God. If you’re negative to the police force, you’re rebelling against God. If you’re negative towards our government, you’re rebelling against God.
“Well man, what do you mean?”
I’m talking about authority issues. We need to get under the stuff God has put over us so we can get over the stuff God has put under us. Don’t walk through the door of negativity.
Do you know what happened to the children of Israel? Only two of them made it into the Promise Land. Take a wild stab at who the two were, Joshua and Caleb. Two million people spent 40 years in the desert, and they all flat lined.
You don’t think God is concerned about positivity and negativity? You see, we have Jesus and our outlook can determine our outcome. So don’t rebel against the Lord.
Then in Numbers 14:9 Joshua and Caleb say, “Do not be afraid of the people…”
What is fear? It is False Evidence Appearing Real.
Then the last part of verse 9 says, “Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us.”
That should give us just an infusion of positivity. The door of positivity and the door of negativity. It’s time to close the door of negativity. It’s time to put the vertical line on the horizontal line and go positive.
The cross is a negative symbol in one aspect. The gospel has a negative aspect to it. Sin, repentance, confession—that is negative. But the positive totally dominates and destroys the negativity, because Jesus died on the cross for your sins; he rose again; and now he’s standing and he’s saying, “I am the door.” And he is extending his nail‑pierced hand to you and saying, “Come on.”
And if anyone comes through the door, they’ll have life. And they can claim the kind of land, the kind of Promise Land, in their relationships, in their finances, in their calling, in their purpose, with their family and friends, like they have never seen. “I have given them the land,” Christ is saying, “now you have to claim it.”
What are you doing with the door in the desert, the door of negativity? We only have about four decades to make a difference. Even if you live to be 80, you have about four decades to really hit on all cylinders. Don’t allow the evil one to kill, steal and destroy your positivity with negativity. Don’t allow it. Follow the Lord. Follow him tenaciously. Follow him through the door.
Bad things happen, friends. This week in America we have experienced a horrible tragedy. There are things that happen all the time that I can’t explain, that you can’t explain. But the Bible says we live in a fallen world. There will be things that are horrible, things that cause us to scratch our head, things that cause us to as why, things that cause us to doubt. The Bible talks about that.
On the other hand, the Bible says there are some awesome things, some supernatural things, some life‑changing things, things that are so positive it freaks us out.
Well, Scripture says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
It doesn’t say that all things are good. It says all things—horrible things, tragic things, things that make you doubt and question—those and the great things—off the chain things, wonderful things, supernatural things; God will use all those things, good and bad, negative and positive, for the good for those who are called according to his purpose, for those who have walked through the door of destiny.
So when you talk about positivity, you’re talking about your outlook determining your outcome. It’s all about Jesus; it’s all about the cross.
Develop the Art of Appreciation
Something else that we can do to give us positivity is developing the art of appreciation. The children of Israel weren’t appreciative. You show me someone who is ungrateful, and I will show you someone who is in the desert. We have to be appreciative. God, thank you. We’re so negative and we’re so selfish and we’re so freaked out about others ripping others apart that we forget about what God is doing in our lives.
10:1 RATIO
It takes ten positive statements to erase one negative statement. I sincerely believe that. I look back on my life and I can remember the negative. Those negative statements stick to me like lint on a black jacket. They are hard to get off. What that coach said, what that teacher said, what my Uncle said, what that boss said; it’s tough. Hey husbands and wives, ten positive erase one negative. Hey teachers, ten positive erase one negative. Hey coaches, ten positive erase one negative. Man that is huge.
The number one weapon the evil one uses to mess us up is this 2‑ounce slab of mucus membrane. The tongue. The Scriptures say we can tame Flipper and Mr. Ed, but we cannot tame that 2‑ounce slab of mucus membrane. With our tongue we curse and we bless, we encourage and discourage, we build up and we tear down.
Look for Joshua and Caleb People
Something else I would challenge you to do is look for the Joshua’s and Caleb’s in your life. Too often you may be just the two out of the twelve. You look at your Joshua and you look at your Caleb and that’s it. A real Joshua and a real Caleb are worth it; they’re that strong. They’re that great. We need people to infuse us with positivity. We need people to bless us because life is too short to hang around with bottom feeders. It is too short to swim around with the catfish and carp and gar. We have to swim with the swimmers.
Some of you right now are hooked up with people and you have your cables all messed up; the positive on the negative and the negative on the positive. And you’re wondering why your life is all screwed up. You’re hanging around with the wrong people. Who are you hooked up to?
Think about a car battery. I’ve told you this before, but there are basically three types of relationships. You’ve got some relationships will just drain you dry. I mean, once you hook up to them it’s like the car won’t even turn over. You just see them and you’re like, “Oh man, he’s walking up to me again! I have to talk to her again! I feel totally drained. Talking to him for ten minutes seems like ten days.” Another type of relationship we have is the neutral relationship. We give them some juice; they give us some juice. Things are okay. It’s an even kind of an exchange. It’s okay.
But another type of relationship is the replenishing relationship, the one that charges our batteries. And it’s like, “What?! It’s already midnight?”
So often, we don’t have enough of those relationships. Those are the Joshua and Caleb people. We are going to have neutral and some people that drain us. That’s cool. Jesus did. Our best friends, though, have to be Joshua and Caleb people.
Control What You See and Hear
Here is something else. Control what you see and hear. We recently went on a fast here at Fellowship Church for 21 days. Are you ready for that again? It was awesome. Well, some of us need to go on media fast. The media is fine and dandy in some realms, but in many realms it is all about dirty laundry.
“Kick them when they’re up, kick them when they’re down.” Remember that? “That bubble‑headed bleach blonde comes on at five, she’ll tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye. It’s interesting when people die; give us dirty laundry. Have them film the operation, is the head dead yet? The boys in the newsroom got a running bet, get the widow on the set, give us dirty laundry.”
Man, Don Henley had it down cold, didn’t he?
But, seriously, I would challenge you to go on a media fast. I really would, because so often we are hooked up to the media and it’s just negative and everything is nay‑saying. They have gone from reporting facts to fiction, and that is the problem. We are too wired into it.
We have got to get away from that and we have to hook our cables up to the Book. We have to hook our cables up to Joshua and Caleb people. We have to hook our cables up ultimately to the Door.
Now, what if we could take every word that you have said this week and put it in our sound system right now? And what if we had this technology to separate the positive words that you have spoken over the last seven days versus the negative words? Which side would win? That’s something interesting to think about.
Our outlook determines our outcome. And it’s all about the cross. So when the world gives us the horizontal, let’s just allow God to put that vertical and remember what he’s done for us, what he is doing for us, and what he will do as we hook up with him.