Kerry Shook - Don't Feed The Sharks
Several years ago, Chris and I were on an anniversary vacation and we signed up for one of those shark dives. Now we like to scuba dive, but I have to say Chris is the really adventurous one in the family, especially between us two. She likes to go on dives to shipwrecks and go on these night dives where all the predators are out, feeding and she'll do deep dives and she's pretty much up for anything when it comes to scuba diving. Now I like to scuba but I'd be content with scuba diving in the hotel pool. That's about my speed. You know, I like to play it safe. I like to be comfortable. But she always drags me on her adventures.
You know, if I hadn't married Chris my life would be so pathetic and boring, but she makes everything an adventure. She talked me into diving with sharks, so we get on the dive boat and there's no turning back. And once the boat reached the dive site, our instructor told us, "Now, you'll dive down to about 40 feet and then just kneel on the ocean floor and keep your arms behind your back so that a shark doesn't mistakenly bite your arms off". He was getting real. And so we did just that. You know, we dove down, kneeled down on the ocean floor. As soon as we dove in, these sharks started swimming around us. Several sharks showed up because they knew what was coming. They started circling us.
And then the dive instructor gets out this big bag of chum and then all these sharks just come from out of nowhere, all these black-tipped reef sharks and lemon sharks. I'm talking 7 and 8 foot sharks. And they were swimming all around us and between us and bumping into us. And then he started feeding them, and they went into a feeding frenzy where they're all fighting for food. It looked kind of like our house on Taco Tuesday. Everybody's fighting, trying to get their share. When we got back on the dive boat with all our limbs intact, Chris and I just looked at each other and she said, "That probably wasn't one of the smartest things we've ever done".
You know, the dive master told us years ago the commercial fishing boats would come to this site and they would clean the fish on their boats and then they'd dump all the fish pieces and guts into the water. So sharks started showing up every day at the end of the day because they knew the fishermen were gonna throw food in. And now, dive boats take tourists every day to scuba dive and lots of sharks know they're coming and they show up ready to eat. When you think about it, that's pretty much the way it works when we feed our destructive thoughts. We all have what I call shark thoughts that swim into our minds every day. Those negative thoughts that start to circle in our brain.
The shark of anxiety attacks and worry thoughts multiply and eat away at our peace of mind. The shark of fear comes out of nowhere and it consumes all our thoughts. The shark of shame, it hits in waves and we get stuck in that self-destructive self-talk that sinks us. The shark of negativity swims into our thoughts and begins to drag us down to the place where our problems just overwhelm us. And I want you to know you can't keep the shark thoughts out of your mind. There are all kinds of sharks that swim into your thoughts every day, anxious thoughts, worry thoughts, negative thoughts, selfish thoughts, prideful thoughts, insecure thoughts, fearful thoughts. Those shark thoughts are just part of life.
But here's the point. You don't have to feed the sharks. If you feed the sharks, then more sharks show up. The shark thoughts just multiply and take over your thoughts and you experience a feeding frenzy that becomes shark-infested thinking. Those destructive thoughts become destructive thought patterns that affect every area of your life. If you feed the sharks, you starve your soul. You can't keep the shark thoughts from swimming into your head, but you don't have to feed them. So we're starting a new series this weekend I'm calling "Shark-Infested Thinking" because we're gonna learn how to repel those destructive thought patterns and renew our minds, and it's based on Romans 12:2.
So open your Bibles to Romans 12:2 and would you stand in honor of God's Word and just follow along with me here. "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect". You can be seated. This passage tells us if you wanna make big changes that make all the difference in your life, you have to change the way you think because transformation always starts in the mind.
If you change the way you think, you change the way you act. If you change the way you act, then you change your whole life. Our thinking, what we focus on and feed, creates habit patterns in the brain. Think of them like ruts in your brain. These thoughts we focus on as we think them over and over again throughout the years, create these deep ruts in the brain. They get deeper and deeper and then they create habits in our actions. If you focus on shark thoughts, it creates a destructive thought pattern in your brain, which comes out in destructive habits that keep us stuck. Destructive thought patterns can keep you stuck in your pain. Destructive thought patterns can keep you from God's purpose for your life. Destructive thought patterns can keep you from seeing and seizing divine opportunities, and it all comes down to what you feed.
If you feed your shark thoughts, your thinking becomes shark infested. In 1 Samuel 17, we see a young man who repelled his sharks and he seized his divine moment. It's the story of David and Goliath. And some of you are so familiar with the story, you miss the whole point of David and Goliath. You think it's about an underdog facing and defeating an overwhelming favorite, but that's not what it's about. You think it's about this little guy beating the big guy. That's not what it's about. It's all about someone who refused to feed the shark of fear and fed the shark of faith for years. And if you feed your fears, you'll starve your faith. If you feed your faith, you'll starve your fears.
David was someone who had a renewed mind and divine thinking so he could see and seize his divine opportunity. It was a giant opportunity. You see, Goliath was 9 feet 6 inches tall. His armor weighed 200 pounds. David came face to face with this giant problem. Now, this week I thought about another freak of nature: Megalodon. How many of you guys have heard of Megalodon, the largest shark to ever live. This prehistoric shark was 50 feet long. Just look at the fossil of a jawbone of Megalodon. It is unbelievable how humongous Megalodon was. And this week, a boy in South Carolina found a fossil of a Megalodon tooth. Here's a couple of Megalodon teeth.
Isn't that amazing? I mean, this thing was huge. And some of the sharks that we face in life feel like Megalodons. They're problems that look too big to us. They completely overwhelm us. They overwhelm our minds and hearts with fear and, when you're face to face with a Megalodon, it's really hard to see anything else. You can't see over them, you can't see around them. You certainly can't see through them. You know, they just take up all your vision. They consume all your thoughts and we quickly fall into what I call a Megalodon mindset where we feed the shark of fear and we forget about our faith. David's Megalodon stood right in front of him, but he didn't fall into a Megalodon mindset. David had this opportunity mindset that just amazes me.
Well, let's go back 3,000 years to the Elah Valley and we had the Israelite army facing the Philistine army, and from the Philistine ranks, Goliath. This giant of a man, he steps forward. And Goliath says, "I challenge you, Israel, to bring forth your greatest warrior and I will step out and we will fight in man-to-man, hand-to-hand combat to the death. And if your warrior defeats me, then we will surrender. But if I defeat your warrior, then your army surrenders to me".
So, Goliath makes this challenge but in the Israelite lines no one moves, no one says anything. Everyone falls into that mindset of fear, and then it becomes a feeding frenzy of fear. And that's what happened to the Israelite army. It started with their leader and then it spread down rapidly and soon the sharks of fear in a feeding frenzy and the army of Israel is running away in retreat. And right in the middle of that retreat, we see David arrive on the scene. Here's David, he's bringing supplies to his older brothers who are in the army. He wasn't even supposed to fight in this battle. He didn't even know the battle was getting ready to start, and the battle found him.
You see, the fight found him and that's the way it is with divine opportunities, you don't get to choose when they come, but you better be prepared for them. You gotta be ready for them before they come your way because you don't get to choose, "Hey, I want a divine opportunity tomorrow because I'm really ready this time". No, they're there, you're there, and you better be prepared for the fight. The fight came to him. He was ready for the fight. But you see, David saw something that the thousands of others there that day just couldn't see. He saw things completely opposite from everyone else. He didn't see a giant problem; he saw a giant opportunity, and he seized his divine opportunity and it totally changed the trajectory of his life.
I think the reason why David saw everything so differently is because, for years, he'd refused to feed the shark of fear and he'd been feeding his faith for years. He had forever, well, really, for a long time, been up there on the hillside in the middle of the night, focusing on God, feeding his faith, and when those fears would come in the darkness of the night, he would choose to starve those fears by feeding his faith. And so I want us to look at how do we feed our faith, rather than feed those shark thoughts, so that we can starve out our fears. Well, there are several things we need to look at from this passage. First, we need to change our focus. Change your focus from your overwhelming problem to your all-powerful God. When you fixate on the problem, you feed the shark of fear. When you focus on God, you feed your faith.
Look in 1 Samuel chapter 17, verse 45, as David is getting ready to face Goliath, he goes out to meet the giant and here's what he says to the giant. "David replied to the Philistine, 'You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven's Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord's battle, and he will give you to us!'"
How can a teenager be so bold in the face of his Megalodon? How does that happen? But David says, "Hey, I just want you to know that I'm gonna kill you and cut off your head and then we're gonna win the victory and we're gonna feed the dead bodies of all your warriors to the animals. That's what's gonna happen". Talk about smack talk. I mean, that was a smackdown right there. But you know, it's not trash talk if it's true. And he was talking about God's power, for you see, six times in what David said here he mentions God. God, the Lord Almighty, God Almighty, the Lord of heaven's armies. This is a man more focused on God than on the giant in front of him. And that's really the secret: having a new focus. David had this God-level thinking when most of us have a human-level thinking.
So many times I have this human-level thinking and I see my problem and it just seems so big, I can't see over it and around it. I can't get through it. It feels like it's impossible. And then I'll let the sharks of fear start swirling around in my head, and I feed the shark of fear. And it starves out my faith. But David, on the other hand, had this God-level perspective. He saw things from God's perspective. When you have a God-level thinking, you get God-level perspective, and those giants get really small compared to Almighty, All-powerful God, the creator of the universe.
You see, David so many times, I know, out on those hillsides at night, looked up at the night stars and he thanked the God who created them, and he realized how powerful God is, and he focused on the maker of heaven and earth. And to God, Goliath seemed like a little ant. David had this God-level perspective when everyone else had this human-level perspective. But then secondly, I've got to choose to believe the truth even when I can't see it. Choose to believe the truth even when you can't see it. Don't believe everything you think and feel. Don't believe every thought that comes into your mind.
And you see, shark thoughts come into your mind all day long and some of those shark thoughts are placed there by the original shark, Satan. The enemy will put thoughts in your mind and you'll think it's you thinking them, and then you'll start to believe your thoughts. You see, the enemy puts thoughts into my mind like, "Man, I'm worthless. I can't get my act together. Someone else could do this a lot better than me. God must be so disappointed in me. I missed that opportunity. I mean, I don't know, I wonder if God even loves me. I wonder if he's around? I wonder if he cares about this"?
And so these shark thoughts, a fear will come into your mind but then what you have to, and you think it's you and you think it's true. But it's not. And so you have to go to the truth of God's Word. When those shark thoughts come into my mind and I feel worthless, "I'm worthless, I'm not valuable, can't do anything right". You know those thoughts, don't you? They come from the enemy. Don't believe them. They're not your thoughts, even. And some of them, you hold onto and they become your thoughts, but they're not true.
And so then I compare 'em to God's Word and I say, "I'm not worthless. God says I'm so valuable that I'm worth dying for. He bought me with the price of his own blood. I'm so valuable it can't even be measured. I'm of infinite worth because of what he's done for me. He's made me worthy, and God loves me and God is for me and he's not looking down and frowning on me. It hurts him when I sin and when I go the wrong direction because he knows how much it hurts me, it hurts others, but he loves me just the same because he loves me perfectly". So I go to God's truth. Don't believe everything you think. It's why Jesus said in John 8:32, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free".
Believing the truth instead of everything you think sets you free from destructive thought patterns, but you gotta keep going to the truth, and you need to know the truth. The truth, Jesus Christ and his Word, so that you can compare your thoughts with the truth. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 it says that: "We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ".
You see, and when a shark thought swims into your mind, you capture it. You capture it and then you compare it to God's truth. And if it doesn't line up with God's truth, then you turn to the truth and you don't believe everything you think. And then don't believe everything you feel. This is the hardest one because our feelings feel so true and they are your true feelings, but they're not necessarily true.
You need to feel your feelings. Feelings are not a bad thing. God gives you those feelings. God created you with emotions and those feelings are really part of healing. You have to feel your feelings. They were meant to be felt, and revealing your feeling is part of healing. And God gave them to you so they're not bad. They're your true feelings and you have to feel them. But don't believe everything you feel. They're your true feelings but they may not be true. Don't believe everything you feel.
Now, there are some Christ followers who suppress their feelings. They don't feel their feelings, they don't admit their feelings because they think, "Eh, that's wrong, that's not true, so I just need to praise God. God, I praise you in this problem. Thank you for sending this amazing problem in my life. My car has broke down, I'm in the middle of nowhere. This is the most awesome fun thing I've ever experienced". You know, and they just like, they just skip over the feeling and go right to, "Man, how amazing. Praise God, hallelujah". And it's like, that's kind of fake, isn't it?
Yeah, so what you do is you bring your feelings to God. Don't suppress them, express them, or it'll come out in all kinds of crazy ways. You express them to God. You go, "God, I feel worthless right now. I feel totally worthless. God, I feel so discouraged. God, I'm so mad at you. I don't know why you allowed this into my life. I see nothing good in this". And you pour out your feelings on God. But then, you don't believe your feelings. The third thing is don't let discouragers live rent-free in your head. This is a big one. You know, we're just full of positive faith and God's opened up all these doors, doing amazing things for us, and we're just walking on a cloud and then one person says one discouraging thing and it just puts us in the dumps, you know?
I mean, one discouraging thing and the sharks of discouragement go into a feeding frenzy. We get focused on that one thing, and it brings us down. We feed the negative shark thoughts and we get so discouraged. Don't let the negative voices steal your positive faith. David's discourager was his older brother. It says in 1 Samuel 17, verse 28, "But when David's oldest brother, Eliab, heard David talking like that, he was angry. 'What are you doing around here anyway?' he demanded. 'What about the sheep you're supposed to be taking care of? I know what a cocky brat you are. You just want to see the battle!'"
So David's older brother says, "You're just arrogant. I mean, who do you think you are? Why are you here anyway and talking about fighting the giant"? He says, "You're just here to see the blood and the gore". And so he criticizes David's motives. Have you ever had your motives criticized? That's the worst, you know. Whenever someone criticizes my motives, I just wanna say, "What? You don't know me. I'm such a wonderful person. I'm such a nice guy. All my motives are pure, don't you know? What"?
Don't you... I mean, there's something about it when someone questions your motives. Boy, that's the toughest one, when someone criticizes you just a little bit. I remember early on in my ministry, after I would preach a message, there'd be, you know, a lot of folks come up and go, "Hey, that message really spoke to me, Pastor Kerry. That message was just what I needed, Pastor Kerry. Man, that message was really powerful. God really spoke for you today, Pastor Kerry".
And then maybe one person would say something that I could construe as slightly negative, and that's all I would think about all week, the shark thoughts of negativity would swirl in my head. They would consume my thoughts. And I wouldn't think about all the positive things, all the things to be grateful for, that God was doing. Have you ever had that happen, just one negative word, it just brings you down. Because you focus in on that. Don't let the negative voices steal your positive faith. I want you to see a fourth thing. Don't conform to the mindset of the culture. We live in a shark-infested culture.
Folks, we live in a messed-up culture. That's why I want us to look back at Romans 12:2 one more time. "Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God". Our shark-infested do-whatever-you-feel culture starts to seep into our mindset and, without even thinking about it, we start to conform to the culture rather than to Christ. David, he didn't let King Saul conform him into King Saul's thinking and King Saul's culture. For King Saul calls him in and says, "I hear you wanna fight the giant," and he says, "I think it's ridiculous. I think you're crazy. What are you thinking"?
But then when he sees that David's gonna do it anyway, Saul offers him his armor. I think Saul was thinking, "Even though I'm a coward and don't wanna go out and fight him, maybe if my armor's out there it'll count for something". I don't know, but here's what happens, in 1 Samuel 17:38: "He gave his own armor to David for him to wear: a bronze helmet, which he put on David's head, and a coat of armor. And David strapped Saul's sword over the armor and tried to walk, but he couldn't, because he wasn't used to wearing them. 'I can't fight with all this,' he said to Saul. 'I'm not used to it.' So he took it all off".
David refuses King Saul's armor. Can you imagine the guts it took for that young shepherd boy to stand face to face with the king of Israel and say, "Nope, not gonna wear it. Not gonna wear your armor. King Saul, it may fit you, but it doesn't fit me. It just weighs me down. I am not gonna wear your armor. Maybe you should be wearing it. But I'm not gonna wear your armor. You're not gonna put your armor on me because that fits me into a mold that doesn't let me be who God has called me to be".
He made you some personal armor and he has a personal and purposeful plan for your life that will follow God's Word and be a unique purpose for you. Don't let anyone steal your purpose by putting on their armor. A lot of us spend our life trying to please people who don't even care about us, trying to wear everyone else's armor and it's so uncomfortable, and it weighs us down and we never put on the armor of the divine opportunities that God wants us to have.
What God keeps bringing me back to in this whole passage is the battle is the Lord's. And some of you have been trying to fight the battle for your mind, you've been trying to fight the Megalodon in front of you on your own. It's wearing you out. And you're looking at it from a Megalodon mindset from a human-level perspective. You just need to get a little God-level perspective today.