Today I want to say thank you to my friends and fellow members because you made this past week one of the greatest weeks of my life. I celebrated my birthday and the cards, the telephone calls and the good wishes came from so many of you and I'm very grateful for that. I thought I'd show you one of the cards that dominated everything that came. It's this card right here: "Happy birthday! Age is only a number.. and in your case, a very large number!" This is from my grandson Scott. Thank you, Scott. It's been fun.

I'm 83 years old now and I look back and realize that I was born in a very historic transitional century. The 20th century is a century where thoughts like positive thinking, possibility thinking and positive mental attitude came into the forefront and became part of culture. It had never been done because in the history of western education at least, there was never a course in the difference between positive and negative thinking, whereas in the Eastern culture this was something that was noticed and popularized.

I have one verse that I want you to remember today. It's the verse that I've been living with the past week. It's from the words of Jesus, John chapter 10, verse 10. He said:

"I am come that you might have life and

have it abundantly."

John 10:10

What does that mean? Jesus came to teach us to think possibilities. I ran into this through Norman Vincent Peale 50 years ago. If you were here last week, I mentioned that when I saw the numbers 1-9-2-6 behind my name that some publicist put there to mark my age, it looked like a Bible verse and I wondered if there was a Bible verse 19:26. So I looked it up, and here is what I found:

"And Jesus said with men it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible."

Matthew 19:26

That's been my life! That's been my ministry! I'm destined. I didn't choose it. I was created, designed and put onto planet earth in the 20th century by God. I'm destined and so are you.

I was born in a century where impossible was a very strong word. And now at this time in human history, I'm telling people to cut the word out of your dictionary. When I was child, it was impossible for a man to ever walk on the moon, impossible to cut out a human heart and put it in another man's chest. I was born at a time when there were strong impossibilities that have been proven through the passing of the decades. Today they're not impossibilities.

Cut the word impossible out of your life. Learn how to qualify it: impossible unless, impossible until, impossible but not with impossible becomes possible. That's what life is all about: turning great impossibilities into possibilities in education, in science, in philosophy and in religion. It's such an important part of this transition.

I was looking at all the experiences in my life this week and the one that keeps coming back to me is the little part you had to play in putting a man on the moon. The telephone rang one day and it was Walter Burke, a member of this church and the head of McDonnell Douglas. He called and said "Bob, you wrote this thing called Possibility Thinkers Creed." I said "yes." He said "I've got it in front of me." It says:

When faced with a mountain, I will not quit. I will keep on striving until I climb over, find a pass through, tunnel underneath or simply stay and turn the mountain

into a gold mine."

Possibility Thinkers Creed

He said "that's great!" I said "I think so, too."

He said "you had it in a big poster. Do you have any of those posters left?" I said "yes I do." He said "I'm going to come over and get another one. I want to put it right behind my desk so that everyone who comes into my office will see it and read it while they look at me." He said, "I just hung up the phone with President Kennedy. He called me and said 'Walter I made a decision to put a man on the moon.' He said 'we all know that's impossible. But I'm calling you to help make it possible. Walter, help us get rid of the pull of gravity so a vehicle can get out into outer space and bring a man to the moon. Walter, turn the impossibility into a possibility.'"

So he came over and I gave him the poster and he put it behind his desk. And all of the powerful people in that whole race to the moon project saw it and read it. For more than one person, it kept their faith alive and they didn't quit. And they didn't give up.

I will not quit!

When I was a child, it was impossible for the human heart to come out of this chest and into somebody else'. I also grew up, as many young people did, fearing the disease called polio. The amazing thing is there are young people today who don't even know what polio is. How many here remember what that disease was? Raise your hand. Wow, that's very impressive. It was considered the incurable disease. But there was one man who was convinced that maybe there could be a cure and he worked and worked and worked and refused to be negative. Jonas Salk was his name.

I remember the time Mrs. Schuller and I were having lunch with him and we talked about the fact that he succeeded when everybody said it was impossible. I said "did they ever encourage you?" He replied, "No." "Well what did they say when you finally discovered the cure for polio?" He said "they didn't say anything." I said "didn't they congratulate you?" He said "not one person." "Didn't they thank you?" He said "No." "Well the press treated you well." "Yes but my profession didn't."

There's a world we all live in, this planet earth, and there is a negative thinking that permeates the social climate and is driven by factors like jealousy, fear and envy. In this universe, there are powerful people dreaming, planning, struggling and striving to make great achievements that are impossible and they're going to win. It may take years, it may take decades, it may not even be in their lifetime but it may be in the next generation where they build on what was done by you in your lifetime.

I had a family that came to this church. They heard the sermons on self esteem, they heard the sermons on think positive about yourself, they heard the sermons when I said psychologically proves that if you declare something to be a reality you can make an impossible thing happen. Well sitting right down there were Floyd and Rae Baker. Floyd Baker was head of the physics department at one of our preeminent universities here in the south and he heard me say this stuff. And he shook his head and he said "I don't buy it; if you think it and believe it and teach it and practice it that it can happen." Well that was in the summer when he heard that last sermon and he said "I'll try it in my physics class." And he laughed and so did Rae.

Later on, he wrote me a letter about it and he said "I went to my introduction to physics class and I practiced the Schuller thing. Every year more failures happen in the introduction to physics than in any other class at the university. And every year I said to the students, 'I have to warn you, many of you are going to fail. This is class that most people fail. It's the toughest in the school.' He said I did a very brave thing. I applied the Schuller principle and the next September, in the opening class I said 'you are a remarkable class of people. I've checked you out. I've never had a class like you.' He said the truth is every year I teach this course, I have so many failures. It always happens. I always warn them in advance. So he said but 'this year I've done a study and I'm making a prediction. This class is so bright, so intelligent and so capable that we will not have one person fail it.'"

And he wrote in his letter, "Dr. Schuller, I didn't change my grading procedures one bit and that year every student passed!" Plant a positive idea into a mind and impossibilities suddenly become possibilities because it's changing inside of you. And that's where change always has to happen.

Become possibility thinkers

When you practice positive thinking and teach it and preach it even before you know it can happen, it releases incredible creative powers in the subconscious and ideas are forthcoming that you never even thought of. And the result is it leads to what I call the really FULL filled life. Jesus said it, "I am come." Listen: a 33 year old man in Galilee 2000 years ago said:

"I am come that you might have life and have it abundantly."

John 10:10

Well I've lived Him all of my life. What a FULL life. Look around you. There are people who live empty lives. They really have no purpose, no plans, no commitments and no sacrifices. They are empty. And then there are people like you, Christians, and you take Christ into your life and that motivates you and you begin to see needs and you set goals and you make plans. And you live a FULL life.

Let me illustrate:

First, you begin to live a prayer FULL life. You may not get on your knees and be in heavy prayer groups but in your head you begin to pray. You begin to open up. You begin to live a prayer FULL life.

Then you begin to live a hope FULL life and instead of despair, depression and discouragement you get ideas that give you optimism. Prayer FULL, hope FULL, meaning FULL. Now life has purpose. Purpose FULL. Faith FULL to ideas that come in.

And then you begin to live a fruit FULL life. You're making a difference. And you're getting along with people. You begin to live a mercy FULL life. There are still conflicts and frustrations, but mercy overrides judgment. Faith FULL, fruit FULL, mercy FULL, peace FULL. Deep down in your heart you see a meaning to life and you have peace.

And then thank FULL. You are dominated by gratitude thoughts and that all adds up to a wonder FULL life.

Take Christ as your Savior.

If you're not a Christian, become a Christian today and Christ in your life will change your thoughts. You'll become prayer FULL, faith FULL, thank FULL, purpose FULL, mercy FULL, thought FULL, fruit FULL, peace FULL, wonder FULL, hope FULL. And at the end of your life, hope FULL! That's a FULL life. I invite you now to accept Jesus and become a Christian. I've given my witness, check me out. What a FULL life.

"I am come that you might have life and

have it abundantly."

John 10:10

Become a Christian today, it's up to you, Amen.

© Copyright Hour of Power 2009. This message was delivered by Robert H. Schuller from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and aired on the Hour of Power October 4, 2009.