Many atheists hate God so much that they won’t even say “Bless you” when someone sneezes because it’s too close to or a shortened version of “God bless you.” So instead of saying this; many atheists say “Gesundheit!” which is German for “[to your] health.” Along these lines, what do atheists say when a loved one is really sick or has a serious ailment? They obviously can’t say “I’ll pray for you” so instead a lot of times they’ll say they are sending “Positive thoughts.”
I think I’ll try this tonight. Give me a few seconds here. Ok. I just sent out a positive thought to a specific person. Did you receive my positive thought? No? Ok, I’ll make this a little easier for you. Aaron. I sent you a positive thought, but since you didn’t know it, I will try it again. Here we go. Look at me. Concentrate hard Aaron. Did you get it? Did you receive my positive thought? No? Ok, I’ll make this even easier for you. My positive thought was that you would receive $1,000 dollars. Now, I’ve told you that you were the person I was sending my positive thought to and I’ve told you what the thought was. So I ask you Aaron, could you check your pockets for me please and see if my positive thought of you receiving $1,000 actually materialized? No, it didn’t? I’m so disappointed.
Positive Thoughts – I’ve heard this saying more and more recently. Non-believers can’t pray to the God they deny, so they have to say they are sending positive thoughts. Do they really think that they have telepathy? Do they really think they have E.S.P. (Extrasensory perception)? Even if they really have E.S.P. it wouldn’t do them any good to send these positive thoughts to say a sick friend who is in the hospital. If they really could mentally send some message out there, their friend couldn’t receive it.
First of all atheists, you can’t send any thoughts anywhere. You can think them. Just like you pretend that God isn’t real, I guess you can pretend that you can send your positive thoughts through telepathy, but you’re just kidding yourself. You can’t send your thoughts anywhere. All your positive mojo doesn’t do any good. All your wishful thinking does you no good – whatsoever. It doesn’t help the person you are directing your positive thoughts toward.
Let’s say you have a friend in the hospital dying of cancer. You’ve sent all the positive thoughts that you could to your dear friend. Unfortunately your friend dies. What comfort do you give yourself? How do you comfort your dead friend’s family members and friends? Are you really going to keep sending “positive thoughts”’ to your dead friend? Don’t you see that your friend (let’s say they were an atheist too) has no hope? Can’t you see that atheists have no hope? Your worldview is hopeless and all of your “positive thoughts” can’t change that. What a horribly sad worldview you have. It’s utterly hopeless. You are hopeless tonight.
Even if 7 Billion people all sent you positive thoughts right now- this exact moment, all those thoughts would do you no good. All the positive thoughts that have ever been thought of since Adam walked this earth cannot help you. No positive thought, no matter how hard it’s concentrated on nor how many people are sending that exact same thought at the exact same moment can change the fact that you are a sinner. All the positive thoughts that men and women have ever come up with cannot wipe away a single little white lie that you have told. Let alone, wipe away every sinful desire or deed that you have done. All the positive thinking in the world can’t change that. Positive thoughts cannot cleanse your hands or clear your guilty conscience.
Don’t get me wrong, people desperately try to clear their guilty consciences. Why do you think drug and alcohol use are so prevalent? Even in this wicked generation, people still have a God-given conscience, but they want to soothe that guilty conscience. So they try to drink away their problems. They look for relief in the bottle or they look for an escape through drugs or sexual immorality. But all of these actions just lead to more and more guilt and all the positive thoughts you can muster can’t lessen that guilt one iota.
It’s time for people to get real. It’s time to call sin – SIN! It’s time to man up and admit that we are guilty, vile sinners and that we need to be cleaned up. There is only one way to be cleansed and it isn’t through positive thinking. The one way is literally the One Way through Jesus Christ our Lord. Only Jesus can make you whole.
Jesus Christ is the only Savior. The risen Lord is the only One who can offer hope; because hope, lasting eternal hope is only found in Him. Isaiah 42:1-7 states: Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. 5 Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: 6 I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; 7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
What you need my sinner friend is the opposite of positive thoughts. You need to come to terms with your sinfulness. You need to recognize that you are a wicked sinner. People always say that “it’s the heart that matters.” Well, I’m asking you to look at your heart tonight. Jeremiah 17:9-10 says: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Please don’t miss this: God says your heart is wicked, that it is deceitful and that He searches all of our hearts. Since your heart is desperately wicked, don’t you see that the best thing you could do is admit it? Admit it to yourself and more importantly, admit it to God! I have four kids and I always told them when they were growing up that if you lie to me after you’ve done something wrong you will be in worse trouble than if you admitted it to begin with.
Oh, please don’t continue going through life constantly reassuring yourself through positive thoughts. You need to get real with yourself and get real with God. Come clean tonight. Cry out to God that you are a sinner and beg Him for mercy. Beg Him to forgive you. Beg Him to cleanse your dirty, rotten heart. Beg Him to do this tonight.
Turn away from your sins and turn to Jesus. In Isaiah it says that Jesus is the light and He is the light to the Gentiles. He isn’t just a Messiah for the Jews, He is the only Savior for mankind. Only Jesus can open your spiritually blind eyes tonight. Only Jesus can shine the Light into your dark prison house that’s full of sin and rebellion against Almighty God. Only Jesus saves and He still saves today. You can be saved. Won’t you come to Jesus tonight? Won’t you positively get right with God? Won’t you quit playing games and stop pretending that your positive thoughts really make a difference?
The Bible says that we are not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to (Romans 12:3). Well, I’m here to tell you that most of us think too highly of ourselves. We are self absorbed. We are selfish, self-centered creatures and the only way to be saved is to die to yourself and live in Christ and He in you. Fully and utterly surrender your life to Jesus. You can only be saved by surrendering your life to the One who gave His life as a ransom for many. Don’t continue being a proud person. Don’t continue running your life and ruining your life by thinking you are in charge. Give your life fully and whole-heartedly to the Son of the Living God. Do this tonight and be saved.
(This message was proclaimed in the square in downtown Springfield, MO on June 19, 2015)