WEBVTT 00:16.300 --> 00:20.700 Let's do 323, more about Jesus. 00:30.600 --> 00:31.100 What? 00:31.800 --> 00:32.300 323. 00:35.000 --> 00:37.000 We don't stand, no no, sorry. 00:37.000 --> 00:50.000 More about Jesus what I know, more of his grace to others show, more of his saving fullness 00:50.000 --> 00:52.000 see, more of his- 01:27.600 --> 01:28.400 Show me 01:52.700 --> 02:03.780 in his word holy communion with my Lord hearing his voice in every line making 02:03.780 --> 02:05.900 each faithful say 02:08.100 --> 02:12.900 More, more about Jesus, more... 02:27.700 --> 02:29.700 on his throne, 02:29.700 --> 02:33.700 Riches and glory all his own, 02:33.700 --> 02:37.700 More of his kingdom sure increase, 02:37.700 --> 02:39.700 More of his come... 02:45.600 --> 02:47.600 Jesus 03:02.400 --> 03:05.040 Alright, if you do not have a bulletin, raise your hand. 03:05.040 --> 03:06.840 Brother Eli will pass them out. 03:07.800 --> 03:09.640 Welcome to Spring Crest Baptist. 03:09.640 --> 03:13.560 Today is June 20th. 03:13.560 --> 03:16.320 Our Sunday morning services are 10.30 a.m. 03:16.320 --> 03:18.040 Sunday evening 4.30 p.m. 03:18.040 --> 03:20.120 Wednesday service 5.30. 03:20.120 --> 03:23.480 And then our Sunday sole winning time is 2 p.m. 03:23.480 --> 03:23.500 you 03:23.900 --> 03:29.300 And then the memory verse of the week, we are in the last verse of the chapter. 03:29.300 --> 03:36.500 So if you can quote the entire chapter to someone who's not a family member, 03:36.500 --> 03:42.500 and we can get two witnesses, then you'll get a special prize. 03:42.500 --> 03:46.740 And the verse of the week is, having the same conflict which you saw in me, 03:46.740 --> 03:48.820 and now here to be in me. 03:48.820 --> 03:49.100 Thank you. 03:49.600 --> 03:52.240 And just as a reminder, we are a family integrated church. 03:52.240 --> 03:54.160 We have a mother baby room in the back. 03:54.160 --> 03:57.920 That's exactly what it is, a mother baby room, not teenagers, 03:57.920 --> 04:00.760 not men, just the mothers and the babies. 04:00.760 --> 04:03.800 And we do stream the services back there. 04:03.800 --> 04:07.640 And then year to date, we are at 700, souls one. 04:07.640 --> 04:12.320 So we're on track to do over 1,000. 04:12.320 --> 04:14.280 I think we could shatter that, honestly. 04:14.280 --> 04:15.520 And I'm really excited about it. 04:15.520 --> 04:15.800 Thanks for watching. 04:15.900 --> 04:18.900 We added to that yesterday. 04:18.900 --> 04:20.900 So I'll talk about that here in a second. 04:20.900 --> 04:22.900 Baptisms for the year, we have one baptism. 04:22.900 --> 04:25.900 And as you can see right there on the right hand side, 04:25.900 --> 04:30.900 we have an inordinate amount of birthdays. 04:30.900 --> 04:34.900 I think it's over 25% of the church membership is in the month of July. 04:34.900 --> 04:36.900 It's kind of insane. 04:36.900 --> 04:39.900 So today is Christian Roger's birthday. 04:39.900 --> 04:41.900 But then if you look in July 04:42.200 --> 04:48.440 We have Boaz on the second, Trey on the third, Jean on the fourth, Daniel on the ninth, 04:49.240 --> 04:56.520 Gentry on the 16th, Aubrey on the 27th, Lucy on the 27th, let me sorry, Aubrey on the 22nd, 04:56.520 --> 05:02.520 my eyes are going mad on me, that's on the 7th, Lucy on the 27th, Kevin Rogers on the 28th, 05:03.240 --> 05:04.440 Jerry on the 29th. 05:05.200 --> 05:11.040 Then the anniversary for the Rogers is on 24th if I miss anybody because it is so many 05:11.300 --> 05:15.660 Let me know because that's kind of a I actually thought my wife was giving me a hard time 05:16.180 --> 05:19.960 She said there's a lot of birthdays coming up in July, but it's a lot 05:19.960 --> 05:24.280 So just make sure do that a couple of things number one. I 05:24.920 --> 05:30.160 Was thinking of doing something because the fourth of July falls on Saturday, so 05:30.900 --> 05:35.660 Would you guys be open or want to do something on the fourth year at the church? 05:35.660 --> 05:41.000 Like I was thinking maybe a half marathon or and then some fellowship or maybe just I haven't really thought it through 05:41.220 --> 05:44.900 You know, I've been traveling and I didn't even I don't even know what day I'm at 05:45.140 --> 05:47.320 Honestly, it wasn't till my wife brought it up 05:47.320 --> 05:53.860 But just raise your hands if you're interested and then I'll work it out. But okay, we got one one taker. Awesome 05:53.860 --> 05:58.900 That's great. No, I think I saw a couple hands but what I'll do is we'll just put something like together and I 05:58.900 --> 06:02.400 I know people spend time with their families and everybody's coming from far, but we might 06:02.400 --> 06:04.500 just do something here like for whoever wants to join. 06:04.500 --> 06:10.100 I mean, when I mean like, I mean literally traditional July 4th, like burgers and hot 06:10.100 --> 06:11.100 dogs. 06:11.100 --> 06:16.900 Maybe we'll get a couple of coverings and hang out there towards the evening and wait 06:16.900 --> 06:20.420 for the, you know, we're in the city limits, so we'll probably see a ton of fireworks. 06:20.420 --> 06:23.380 We can't shoot them here, apparently, shoot them off. 06:23.700 --> 06:26.040 But there will be plenty to go around. 06:26.040 --> 06:28.320 So if you guys want to hang out, great. 06:28.320 --> 06:32.960 If you didn't feel like raising your hand, you just want to text me, that's fine as well. 06:32.960 --> 06:36.640 Otherwise, it's not anything superficial. 06:36.640 --> 06:38.240 We'll just be relaxed about it. 06:38.240 --> 06:44.760 And then the Solwini Marathon yesterday was great, other than it was actually really hot. 06:45.100 --> 06:47.300 Some people actually got overheated so 06:48.240 --> 06:51.620 Thank God we had the cooler and everybody drank water and all that good stuff 06:51.620 --> 06:57.700 But we did have ten soul winners, so I want to thank the Rogers Kevin and his son came out the Capri Auties 06:58.020 --> 07:02.820 Came out my kids and myself and then the new member 07:03.840 --> 07:05.840 Megan I always want to call her Wendy 07:06.400 --> 07:09.240 Megan came out, we had 16 souls, one. 07:09.240 --> 07:11.180 I think we would have had more, but we ended up, 07:11.180 --> 07:13.240 it was weird, we ended up in an apartment complex. 07:13.240 --> 07:15.520 We finished one and we went to another one, 07:15.520 --> 07:19.640 and like three fourths of the complex was just abandoned. 07:19.640 --> 07:22.520 Like there was like no, and it wasn't just like empty, 07:22.520 --> 07:24.200 like it looked like people just fled. 07:24.200 --> 07:25.080 I don't know what happened. 07:25.080 --> 07:27.040 I was kind of a little, like man, 07:27.040 --> 07:29.360 maybe we're in the zombie line or something. 07:29.360 --> 07:32.100 Cause you would look inside the windows and there was like. 07:32.200 --> 07:36.120 Trash and furniture, but there's nobody living there. So it was kind of a wild thing 07:37.120 --> 07:41.200 And then just as a reminder in July we have pastor Shelley 07:41.720 --> 07:43.720 guest preaching for us 07:44.320 --> 07:48.720 July 19th both services July 19th 07:48.720 --> 07:53.160 And then just keep praying for the expecting mothers Christian Rogers and Marcel 07:54.000 --> 07:57.920 Wycliffe and then we have some other announcements. I don't see Christian 07:58.600 --> 08:00.600 It is her birthday, so just say happy birthday. 08:00.600 --> 08:03.480 We would sing for her, but I think she's tending to one of her children. 08:03.480 --> 08:06.520 So if she makes it back in, we'll catch her. 08:07.080 --> 08:09.480 Other than that, the prayer list got updated. 08:09.480 --> 08:12.200 If there's any updates that I need, just let me know. 08:13.320 --> 08:14.520 I'm glad you sent me the text. 08:14.520 --> 08:15.240 It's a good reminder. 08:15.240 --> 08:18.280 If I forget stuff sometimes from up here, because I'll write it down 08:18.280 --> 08:21.160 and then I'll leave the bulletin until I come update. 08:21.160 --> 08:25.160 But if you'll text me, I do see those and then I will update that. 08:25.900 --> 08:31.900 Other than that, I appreciate, I think I heard good reports about Brother Ben coming out and preaching for us. 08:31.900 --> 08:39.900 He's always a fun guy to listen to. We had a good time in Oklahoma and God willing, you know, it'll slow down for a little bit. 08:39.900 --> 08:42.900 But let's turn our hymnals over to page 228. 08:42.900 --> 08:44.900 228. 08:48.200 --> 08:51.560 I love to tell the story. I love to tell the story. 08:55.600 --> 08:56.600 On the first. 12:51.900 --> 12:54.400 So Christian can stand, we'll sing happy birthday to her. 13:23.500 --> 13:27.660 Let's go to 196, I will sing the wondrous story. 13:27.660 --> 13:30.140 And then we'll be in the book of 2 Corinthians, 13:30.140 --> 13:32.060 chapter one for the reading. 13:32.060 --> 13:34.420 2 Corinthians chapter one. 13:36.180 --> 13:37.020 196. 14:35.300 --> 14:38.100 I'll sing a wondrous story. 14:53.600 --> 14:54.600 I was bruised 16:09.600 --> 16:10.440 I shall be. 16:13.700 --> 16:14.400 Crystal 16:32.700 --> 16:34.700 First, Second Corinthians 1. 16:34.700 --> 16:36.200 We'll have Brother Matt Reed. 16:36.200 --> 16:37.200 Brother Jake Tate. 16:50.000 --> 16:56.200 Second Corinthians chapter one, second Corinthians chapter one. 17:04.500 --> 17:06.500 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 17:15.800 --> 17:18.920 2 Corinthians 1 verse 1, the Bible reads, 17:18.920 --> 17:22.240 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, 17:22.240 --> 17:25.400 and Timothy, our brother unto the church of God, 17:25.400 --> 17:27.960 which is at Corinth, with all the saints 17:27.960 --> 17:30.360 which are in all Achaia. 17:30.360 --> 17:34.200 Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father, 17:34.200 --> 17:36.120 and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 17:36.300 --> 17:43.300 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, 17:43.300 --> 17:50.300 who comfortheth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, 17:50.300 --> 17:54.300 by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 17:54.300 --> 18:01.300 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. 18:02.200 --> 18:18.200 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer, or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 18:18.200 --> 18:28.200 And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. 18:28.400 --> 18:35.120 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that 18:35.120 --> 18:42.240 we were pressed out of measure above strength, in so much that we despaired even of life. 18:42.240 --> 18:48.360 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but 18:48.360 --> 18:50.360 in God which raiseth the dead. 18:50.800 --> 18:57.520 who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. 18:58.720 --> 19:04.480 Ye also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of 19:04.480 --> 19:08.900 many persons thanks be given by many on our behalf. 19:09.100 --> 19:15.240 For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly 19:15.240 --> 19:22.220 sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation 19:22.220 --> 19:25.700 in the world and more abundantly to you were. 19:25.700 --> 19:32.180 We write none other things unto you that what ye read or acknowledge, and I trust ye shall 19:32.180 --> 19:33.620 acknowledge even to the end. 19:34.200 --> 19:43.080 as also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in 19:43.080 --> 19:50.760 the day of the Lord Jesus. And in this confidence, I was minded to come unto you before that ye might 19:50.760 --> 19:58.360 have a second benefit, and to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you. 19:58.600 --> 20:03.200 and of you to be brought on my way toward Judea. 20:03.200 --> 20:05.560 When I therefore was thus minded, 20:05.560 --> 20:08.760 did I use lightness or the things that I purpose? 20:08.760 --> 20:10.520 Do I purpose according to the flesh 20:10.520 --> 20:14.440 that with me there should be yay, yay and nay, nay? 20:14.700 --> 20:19.340 But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. 20:19.340 --> 20:23.580 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is preached among you by us, 20:23.580 --> 20:30.540 even by me and Sylvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. 20:30.540 --> 20:34.220 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him 20:34.220 --> 20:38.860 amen unto the glory of God by us. Now he which established us 20:38.860 --> 20:42.400 with you in Christ, and have anointed us, is God. 20:42.500 --> 20:47.220 who have also sealed us and given the earnest of the spirit of our hearts. 20:47.220 --> 20:50.740 Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul 20:50.740 --> 20:54.500 that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. 20:54.500 --> 20:57.780 Not for that we have dominion over your faith 20:57.780 --> 21:02.420 but our helpers of your joy by faith ye stand. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. 21:02.420 --> 21:05.300 Father, thank you for gathering us here this morning. Thank you for your church 21:05.300 --> 21:06.800 and thank you for your word. 21:06.900 --> 21:14.700 Lord, please soften our hearts and give us ears to hear so that we can hear your message 21:14.700 --> 21:16.020 and become better Christians. 21:16.020 --> 21:20.780 Lord, also please fill Pastor Reyes with your Holy Spirit and allow him to preach the message 21:20.780 --> 21:22.340 with boldness and clarity from your pulpit. 21:22.340 --> 21:24.140 And it's in Jesus' name we pray. 21:24.140 --> 21:24.640 Amen. 21:29.900 --> 21:30.740 All right. 21:33.660 --> 21:37.560 We are there in second Corinthians, second Corinthians one. 21:39.380 --> 21:41.220 Just get this thing going here. 21:49.400 --> 21:55.180 Perfect we're there in 2nd Corinthians 1 and the title of the sermon this this morning is 21:56.160 --> 22:03.800 Your pain has a purpose your pain has a purpose and I preached up a science 22:04.120 --> 22:06.280 semi similar sermon back in like 22:07.440 --> 22:12.300 2024 in May of 2024 and it was titled been there done that but this is one of those 22:12.800 --> 22:15.800 Chapters that really just hits home in the Christian walk 22:16.400 --> 22:20.860 Back then a couple years ago, I focused more on just the fact that God comforts us, right? 22:20.860 --> 22:26.240 And that we should be not spectators in the Christian walk, that we should allow suffering. 22:26.240 --> 22:30.500 Because suffering, that's what it means, is that you're allowing this thing to happen. 22:30.500 --> 22:35.500 I know in modern day we also have the belief suffering is like something bad, but remember 22:35.500 --> 22:38.740 Jesus said suffer the little children, come to me, allow them. 22:38.740 --> 22:41.660 And then sucker, he's just there for you. 22:41.660 --> 22:44.340 But today I want to focus more on what does it really mean? 22:44.400 --> 22:49.300 What is this thing of pain and why does that purpose and I'm not talking about just physical pain 22:49.300 --> 22:52.840 I'm talking really of the spiritual pain. So over the last couple 22:53.500 --> 22:58.140 years as the church has increased, you know, the other thing that increases is the fact that I just 22:58.400 --> 23:04.660 You know get phone calls about different things that are going on not just actually in the church. It's interesting as the church grew 23:04.660 --> 23:09.020 I also get just phone calls from like people that are not necessarily in our church 23:09.160 --> 23:13.940 But maybe they know me or they're in the movement and then they just kind of let you know things that they're going through 23:14.220 --> 23:18.980 They'll ask you to pray for them or just you know, ask for some guidance or advice 23:19.860 --> 23:21.500 Oftentimes I try not to interject 23:21.500 --> 23:27.940 my opinion too often and if I do I'm very clear that I'm giving my opinion or personal 23:27.940 --> 23:29.300 advice. 23:29.300 --> 23:33.440 Most of the time whenever I'm dealing with things, especially with people that are dealing 23:33.440 --> 23:36.260 with issues, I try to empathize. 23:36.260 --> 23:39.940 You want to empathize, you want to feel, you want to put yourself in their shoes. 23:39.940 --> 23:44.260 But there are times where there's just things that have happened in my life that I can't 23:44.260 --> 23:45.500 relate. 23:45.500 --> 23:46.740 But that's what the church is for. 23:47.300 --> 23:51.300 Because in a church that's growing, there's obviously somebody's going to have to have. 23:51.500 --> 23:55.120 gone through something similar than those individuals 23:55.120 --> 23:59.280 and God actually sets that up in life so that we can comfort others 23:59.280 --> 24:02.520 but also so we can learn to be comforted by God. 24:02.520 --> 24:06.460 So today, tonight I'll bring the final closing sermon 24:06.460 --> 24:11.400 on the queers and the fags and the sodomites. So I have a sermon prepared for that. 24:11.400 --> 24:14.440 I kept true to my word. Every weekend 24:14.440 --> 24:17.600 we will touch on that during Pride Month. But this is just, 24:17.600 --> 24:19.440 You know, I also have to preach. 24:19.500 --> 24:23.660 on stuff that's just apparent to me or that I'm dealing with on a regular basis. 24:23.660 --> 24:28.100 But let's go there to 2 Corinthians 1, right there in verse 1, it says, 24:28.100 --> 24:32.500 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy our brother, 24:32.500 --> 24:38.300 unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, with all the saints, which are all in Achaia. 24:38.300 --> 24:43.100 Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. 24:43.100 --> 24:43.900 Notice Paul's. 24:44.000 --> 24:47.840 focusing on who? God. And I want to make sure that you guys get that theme because this is going to be an 24:48.640 --> 24:56.640 overpowering theme in this sermon today. It says, blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. 24:56.800 --> 25:02.120 He is the God of all comfort. It says, who? This is the verse that I really want to focus on, who comforteth us 25:02.400 --> 25:09.840 in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. 25:10.600 --> 25:17.360 By the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God for as the suffering of Christ abound in us 25:17.640 --> 25:23.660 So our consolation also abounded by Christ. So if you notice says hey 25:24.300 --> 25:30.380 Who comforted us? God did. And why did he do that? So that in any trouble we can comfort those 25:30.380 --> 25:35.180 that are also dealing with us just like God comforted us. Which is, you know, if we just 25:35.180 --> 25:41.100 decipher this one verse, first of all, like the top level Christian gets comforted by who? 25:41.300 --> 25:44.540 God right we're going through these things because we're in the battle 25:44.540 --> 25:47.260 We're spiritually dealing with it and God's our comfort 25:47.260 --> 25:52.100 But there's other people that might not be at the same level and they're going through it and we're the 25:52.540 --> 26:00.260 Intessori like conduit to God where we help them get comfort before they can just take the next level which is ultimately God 26:00.540 --> 26:02.940 You say are you saying that you you play important? 26:03.060 --> 26:09.160 Absolutely, we play an important role in comforting others and we play an important role in dealing with the things in our life you look at 26:09.300 --> 26:15.240 Moses interceded for the people of Israel constantly because they didn't even want to deal with God. He was too frightening 26:15.960 --> 26:17.960 Moses was like the top-notch 26:18.000 --> 26:20.780 You know Christian he was the meekest man 26:21.260 --> 26:25.900 The Bible says you know if you read it we could make the case that he the meekest man to ever live 26:25.980 --> 26:33.220 But for sure at that time he was the meekest guy and he's the one that dealt with God directly and he helped comfort the people 26:33.700 --> 26:36.080 Through you know his comforting God 26:37.000 --> 26:40.760 And that's a really important point because as we grow as a church, you know, hopefully 26:40.760 --> 26:42.920 you're growing as a church, right? 26:42.920 --> 26:46.120 We're not just growing in numbers, but we're growing spiritually. 26:46.120 --> 26:48.440 I mean, ultimately that's the goal, right? 26:48.440 --> 26:52.600 I'd rather have a smaller church if the church members weren't serving. 26:52.600 --> 26:54.440 I mean, I believe that the church members here committed. 26:54.440 --> 26:57.640 You know, we just had a soul winning marathon yesterday. 26:57.640 --> 26:58.960 We had a great time. 26:58.960 --> 27:02.760 This year we're on a record breaking pace for, you know, the number of people we've 27:02.760 --> 27:04.120 pulled out of hell. 27:04.120 --> 27:05.000 but I think that's a reflection. 27:05.000 --> 27:10.200 of the fact that people are actually making an effort to grow in their Christian walk. 27:10.200 --> 27:14.760 I mean you don't just get up and go soul winning when you just first get saved because it's a foreign 27:15.480 --> 27:20.120 kind of concept especially even in America where probably the most soul winning is done 27:20.120 --> 27:23.880 on a regular basis sometimes you'll talk to people and be like hey yeah we go soul 27:23.880 --> 27:25.560 winning every week and just look at you like 27:26.200 --> 27:28.200 Like soul winning, what's that? 27:28.200 --> 27:30.200 I don't know if you ever had to explain to someone, 27:30.200 --> 27:31.700 oh yeah, we go door to door. 27:31.700 --> 27:33.700 They're like, oh like Mormons, Joes, Whizzes, 27:33.700 --> 27:35.200 like no, like Christians. 27:35.200 --> 27:36.700 We actually preach the word. 27:36.700 --> 27:38.700 We preach God's word completely. 27:38.700 --> 27:40.700 So just as a ways of introduction, 27:40.700 --> 27:43.700 you know, we're all going to face battles. 27:43.700 --> 27:45.200 You know, I've heard it said before 27:45.200 --> 27:48.200 that we're either coming into a battle, 27:48.200 --> 27:50.700 we're in a battle, or we're coming out of a battle. 27:50.700 --> 27:52.600 You know, it's just like this vicious loop. 27:52.700 --> 27:59.300 Right and oftentimes we can question why these things are even happening to us and and we'll go through I mean 27:59.300 --> 28:03.780 And if you don't I've gone through this so hopefully maybe I comfort you with the way that I've gone through it 28:03.780 --> 28:05.780 But oftentimes I'm like what did I do to mess up? 28:06.060 --> 28:11.860 Like am I getting chastised or am I getting punished or is this a good trial like job? 28:11.860 --> 28:17.620 Or am I just like stepping up my spiritual game and now Jesus said to Satan, you know 28:17.620 --> 28:20.420 Have you considered my my servant and rica? I don't know 28:20.700 --> 28:22.060 And so you just got to go through it. 28:22.060 --> 28:26.020 I finally came to a conclusion one time that it doesn't really matter which one of those 28:26.020 --> 28:28.740 scenarios happens if I'm a child of God. 28:28.740 --> 28:31.860 Each one of those will serve a purpose that will make you better in the end, right? 28:31.860 --> 28:33.780 If God's chastising you, then He's correcting you. 28:33.780 --> 28:34.780 He wants you to be better. 28:34.780 --> 28:38.380 If He's trying you, it's because He sees something in you to make you better. 28:38.380 --> 28:41.340 So it doesn't really matter which one of those you choose, right? 28:41.340 --> 28:41.700 The end. 28:42.000 --> 28:46.700 And oftentimes the way that it's manifest in our lives, 28:46.700 --> 28:49.100 it's not always a spiritual battle, right? 28:49.100 --> 28:51.940 Sometimes it can feel like it's a financial woe 28:51.940 --> 28:53.020 or a physical woe. 28:53.020 --> 28:55.300 I mean, last year when I broke my collarbone, 28:55.300 --> 28:56.460 you know, I went through the same process, 28:56.460 --> 28:58.160 like why did this happen? 28:58.160 --> 29:00.340 And even to this day, I'm still in pain. 29:00.340 --> 29:02.820 There's certain movements that just trigger a lot of pain. 29:02.820 --> 29:04.020 And I'm just like, at this point, 29:04.020 --> 29:05.300 I've just come and accepted that, you know, 29:05.300 --> 29:06.980 it might be the thorn in my side. 29:06.980 --> 29:08.180 And I've just learned to be content 29:08.180 --> 29:10.000 in whatsoever state I am in, right? 29:10.000 --> 29:11.520 This is the things that we need to do. 29:11.520 --> 29:14.040 It could be that you're dealing with family, right? 29:14.040 --> 29:18.360 The minute you start actually drawing the line to certain things, family will leave 29:18.360 --> 29:19.360 you, right? 29:19.360 --> 29:22.520 I haven't talked to my dad's side of the family in years. 29:22.520 --> 29:27.660 It's probably been a decade now, and I probably won't ever talk to him ever again. 29:27.660 --> 29:29.840 Hopefully some of them get saved and I'll see them in heaven. 29:29.840 --> 29:34.680 Otherwise they're all just going to burn in hell, and then every few months or so when 29:34.680 --> 29:37.560 celebrating the feasts and the moons and the Sabbaths. 29:37.560 --> 29:38.000 We'll get to... 29:38.000 --> 29:41.120 together and we'll just look at them and make fun of them. 29:41.120 --> 29:42.680 And if you don't know what I'm talking about, 29:42.680 --> 29:43.880 just go to the end of Isaiah, 29:43.880 --> 29:46.080 the last two verses of Isaiah 66, 29:46.080 --> 29:48.240 and you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about. 29:48.240 --> 29:50.320 I love those verses because it's pretty cool. 29:50.320 --> 29:53.020 That, you know, because the Bible says also 29:53.020 --> 29:56.900 that they'll be burning in hell in the presence of the lamb. 29:57.000 --> 29:59.080 And you say, what does this have to do with being comforted? 29:59.080 --> 30:01.840 Hey, I'm comforted in the fact that God says, 30:01.840 --> 30:04.600 don't take vengeance because vengeance is my say of the Lord. 30:04.600 --> 30:07.000 There's often times where you just want to just kind of like, 30:07.000 --> 30:13.840 you know, I'm glad that people still have some morality in this country. 30:13.840 --> 30:14.500 But 30:14.600 --> 30:21.280 Biblically the way that it was executed wasn't correct. You know, I'm pretty sure who saw this video of this this pastor 30:21.280 --> 30:23.600 You probably even felt a little like good for him 30:23.600 --> 30:29.460 This one is Pentecostal pastor who crossed the street and beat up this this guy for threatening his family, right? 30:29.760 --> 30:33.460 Hey, I'm I think it's great that he wanted to defend his family 30:33.460 --> 30:37.500 He's like I'm not gonna let anybody rape my wife and rape my children and threaten to murder him 30:37.500 --> 30:40.760 So that's why he stepped in but the Bible says that vengeance is mine 30:41.200 --> 30:45.760 Better punishment is the punishment that the Lord's going to bestow on those people, right? 30:45.760 --> 30:53.040 The punishment that God's going to bring down on those that hate God and that hate God's people, right? 30:53.040 --> 30:58.120 And the other thing I want to just as a way of introduction is that, look, if you're living a Christian life, 30:58.120 --> 31:02.160 you're going to have trials, you're going to have tribulation. 31:02.160 --> 31:06.480 If you don't have any of this, then you're probably not living the Christian life. 31:06.700 --> 31:12.780 You might be in church, you might be thinking that you're checking off the boxes, but if you're not having issues... 31:13.000 --> 31:15.240 then I don't know what you're doing. 31:15.240 --> 31:16.780 You better have some. 31:16.780 --> 31:17.920 Just because we don't talk about it 31:17.920 --> 31:19.640 doesn't mean they don't exist, right? 31:19.640 --> 31:22.440 Like I'm constantly dealing with things in my life. 31:22.440 --> 31:24.380 You're probably dealing with things. 31:24.380 --> 31:26.560 But if you're not, you know, 31:26.560 --> 31:29.160 if you're just not doing anything for the Lord 31:29.160 --> 31:30.620 and nothing's happening, 31:30.620 --> 31:33.300 that's a very, very serious sign, right? 31:33.300 --> 31:35.100 Like you look at all these big mega churches, 31:35.100 --> 31:37.860 what was the last major battle they had? 31:37.860 --> 31:38.500 None. 31:38.700 --> 31:40.460 That means that they're not doing anything for the Lord. 31:40.460 --> 31:42.100 He just kind of shut his mouth. 31:42.100 --> 31:44.260 He's turned off the faucet. 31:44.260 --> 31:45.580 He's turned off the radio waves. 31:45.580 --> 31:47.340 There is no more communication. 31:47.340 --> 31:50.220 I'd rather be tried by the Lord than just have 31:50.220 --> 31:51.780 silence from the Lord. 31:51.780 --> 31:54.940 In sports, we learned that the coach was hardest on who? 31:54.940 --> 31:56.060 The best player. 31:56.060 --> 31:58.340 If the coach wasn't hard on you, he probably didn't think 31:58.340 --> 32:00.300 you were worth anything. 32:00.300 --> 32:03.060 He wasn't going to waste your breath on somebody who's just 32:03.060 --> 32:05.260 not going to bring any value to the team. 32:07.400 --> 32:10.880 And who's writing this by the way in 2 Corinthians? 32:10.880 --> 32:11.880 Paul is. 32:11.880 --> 32:15.640 And if you don't know anything about Paul, hopefully you do, you've read your Bible 32:15.640 --> 32:20.480 enough to know that Paul was probably of all the apostles the one that just had it the 32:21.300 --> 32:28.620 Mean he went through it all right. He had stripes. He got bit by a poisonous snake. He got stranded in the ocean 32:28.620 --> 32:34.560 I mean he was stoned and left for dead. He was constantly persecuted. He was thrown in jail 32:34.560 --> 32:39.380 I mean if anybody has reason to complain in the Bible 32:39.380 --> 32:43.980 It probably would be Paul you could make the case that Paul could have complained but he starts out 32:44.140 --> 32:48.780 you know, we're there in first Corinthians he says Paul and apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and 32:49.300 --> 32:52.540 Timothy our brother unto the church of God which is in Corinth, right? 32:52.540 --> 32:57.240 And then he says there in verse two, he says grace be unto you and peace from God our Father 32:57.240 --> 32:58.540 and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 32:58.540 --> 33:01.820 Then he says blessed be God. 33:01.820 --> 33:06.780 Even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. 33:06.780 --> 33:11.700 You know, if you notice the pattern of the great men in the Bible, anytime they're going 33:11.700 --> 33:16.060 through anything in their life, instead of making it about themselves, they just thank 33:16.060 --> 33:16.580 the Lord. 33:17.000 --> 33:22.800 You know, Joe, you know, got down, he put ashes on himself, sackcloth, and he said, 33:22.800 --> 33:27.160 you know, he praised the Lord, he worshipped the Lord after losing everything. 33:27.160 --> 33:31.560 It's counterintuitive, it's actually a paradox of life, because most people would be like, 33:31.560 --> 33:34.200 you know, just complain, you have every right, right? 33:34.200 --> 33:35.440 In the carnal flesh we would think that. 33:35.440 --> 33:39.920 Now go 2 Corinthians right there in verse 8, before we start going into other verses, 33:39.920 --> 33:43.500 verse 8 says, it says, for we would not brethren... 33:43.500 --> 33:47.180 Have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia? 33:47.180 --> 33:50.540 Now he's saying, hey, I'm not also, it's okay. 33:50.540 --> 33:52.940 Don't complain about it, but we're not hiding it. 33:52.940 --> 33:54.460 Like I'm going through stuff, right? 33:55.100 --> 33:56.140 Let's be transparent. 33:56.140 --> 33:58.780 And by the way, we should be transparent about things. 33:58.780 --> 34:01.020 Now, I don't want your seedy details. 34:01.020 --> 34:02.380 I don't want to know everything about your life, 34:02.380 --> 34:03.820 but if you're going through something, 34:03.820 --> 34:05.660 you need to talk to someone, do it. 34:05.660 --> 34:06.860 You can bring it up to the Lord. 34:07.660 --> 34:10.940 It says that we were pressed out of measure. 34:11.800 --> 34:18.980 Above strength is so much that we despaired even of life. He's like I thought we were gonna die 34:19.720 --> 34:23.480 It's pretty serious this persecution. We're going through and verse 9 34:23.480 --> 34:27.880 He says but we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves 34:28.520 --> 34:33.440 But in God which raises the dead and really the only way to get through a trial 34:33.440 --> 34:38.320 I mean, I don't even know if it's in my points, but if you think about it is through God Almighty 34:39.000 --> 34:45.240 Like our focus always needs to be on God, because otherwise we're going to fail, right? 34:45.240 --> 34:47.260 Because our flesh is weak. 34:47.260 --> 34:51.820 You know, the Bible says the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, right? 34:51.820 --> 34:55.120 We go through these things and it's really hard. 34:55.120 --> 35:01.080 So the question isn't will we face trials in life, you know, it's what is God accomplishing 35:01.080 --> 35:01.960 with these trials? 35:02.300 --> 35:06.940 And that's really what we ought to look at is when you make it, when you're introspective, 35:06.940 --> 35:11.260 when you're examining yourself and you're frustrated about why God's doing these things 35:11.260 --> 35:14.340 in your life, why things are happening in your life. 35:14.340 --> 35:17.540 And I'm guaranteeing you that with this sermon, I'm resonating right now. 35:17.540 --> 35:21.340 You're going through something and if you're not, you just came out of something or you 35:21.340 --> 35:25.180 feel like this anxiety that around the corner something bad's going to happen. 35:25.500 --> 35:29.960 No, you guess what it is. Just don't be anxious about it because it's gonna happen right this is life 35:30.280 --> 35:34.840 But what we should be looking at is what is God trying to teach us what is God trying to mold us to? 35:35.160 --> 35:39.120 What is he trying to improve in our lives, and then we make the folks all about him? 35:39.920 --> 35:46.100 Right I mean, I mean you know some of you know me longer. I'm looking at you know one of my best friends 35:46.100 --> 35:49.560 I've known for over 20 years. He he know I know some of the trials. He's gone through on it 35:49.560 --> 35:52.560 He knows some of the trials. I've gone through you know just life is like that 35:52.900 --> 35:58.060 So maybe you don't know but get let me tell you what that's why people say oh, you don't know me 35:58.060 --> 36:02.980 Yeah, I don't but you also don't know me like everybody's going through something at some point in life 36:02.980 --> 36:05.700 Like it's just part of it's par for the course, right? 36:06.100 --> 36:11.100 But where do we find the comfort? Well, we find it in God and we find it in God's people 36:11.100 --> 36:17.500 Like that's really the goal of it in right to realize that the comfort in life comes from God and God's people 36:18.000 --> 36:22.560 God willing, your family is a Christian family because then you can rely on your family, 36:22.560 --> 36:24.560 but sometimes family sucks. 36:24.560 --> 36:28.920 You know, you can't call your family because they just hate God or they're just not well 36:28.920 --> 36:30.000 suited to deal with this. 36:30.000 --> 36:34.120 So you know, we're brothers and sisters in Christ, which is an even stronger form of 36:34.120 --> 36:35.120 family. 36:35.120 --> 36:36.720 They say blood is thicker than water. 36:36.720 --> 36:38.720 There's nothing thicker than the blood of Christ. 36:39.200 --> 36:41.600 It's the one that cleanses us from all sin. 36:41.600 --> 36:46.000 That's why we have remission of sins, because there's power in the blood of Jesus Christ. 36:46.000 --> 36:47.000 Right? 36:47.000 --> 36:48.320 And so these are the things that we want to do. 36:48.320 --> 36:53.480 And one of the things that I just wanted to focus on is oftentimes people make something 36:53.480 --> 36:55.040 like, you know, uh, 36:55.800 --> 37:01.220 The the fact that people make statements like, you know, God never lets a trial go to waste or something like that 37:01.220 --> 37:03.140 I don't know if you've heard these little weird platitudes 37:03.140 --> 37:09.060 But sometimes I'm not a fan of just like these general platitudes about explanation. What I really believe is that 37:09.760 --> 37:13.620 God is not capable of waste which is different right in other words 37:14.300 --> 37:20.920 God is putting you through something because obviously God is the most effective most efficient most 37:21.960 --> 37:23.000 organized 37:23.100 --> 37:26.300 perfectly engineered, you know, mind, right? 37:26.300 --> 37:27.260 He's God Almighty. 37:27.260 --> 37:29.540 So if something's going on in your life, 37:29.540 --> 37:31.580 there is a perfect purpose for it. 37:32.000 --> 37:36.560 What happens is, if we feel like there was a wasted opportunity there, it's not God's 37:36.560 --> 37:38.840 fault, it's our fault, right? 37:38.840 --> 37:43.560 Everything in life really truly does have a purpose, but the only waste that would happen 37:43.560 --> 37:45.960 is not from God Almighty, it's from us. 37:45.960 --> 37:49.920 So this is why our focus needs to be done properly, right? 37:49.920 --> 37:57.960 In every trial, in every tribulation, in every pain, in every challenge, there is an opportunity 37:57.960 --> 38:00.000 to get better in your Christian walk. 38:00.000 --> 38:04.280 But the problem is that we need to focus on the right things 38:04.900 --> 38:09.960 Otherwise, we're just gonna drop the ball. You know, it's not like guys who's gonna give up, you know the Bible's 38:09.960 --> 38:16.420 I've added this to my soul any after people get saved. I'm like look now you have two options number one 38:16.980 --> 38:24.720 You you're now saved and you can continue living the life that you're living now and God's just gonna spank you the rest of your life 38:25.600 --> 38:32.400 right until you die and go to heaven. Or you can start living a holy, sanctified life, right? 38:32.400 --> 38:38.000 Go to church, get baptized, read your Bible, start soul winning, and God will bless you here on this 38:38.000 --> 38:43.840 earth. Both of those are available to you. You're still saved, but one is definitely way better than 38:43.840 --> 38:48.640 the other. Like it's just a much better overall experience. But let's go to the first point. 38:48.640 --> 38:52.080 You're still there in 2 Corinthians. Let's focus there on verse 8. But 38:53.300 --> 38:59.660 God allows tribulation, God allows trials, God allows challenges in our life, what? 38:59.660 --> 39:01.300 To teach us to what? 39:01.300 --> 39:04.700 Really ultimately to teach us stuff, but really to trust Him. 39:04.700 --> 39:05.700 Right? 39:05.700 --> 39:11.020 I'm not talking trust unto salvation, but trust Him in our just daily walk. 39:11.020 --> 39:12.900 And by the way, I'm looking out. 39:12.900 --> 39:14.900 If you said that you never feel anything, you're just lying. 39:15.400 --> 39:24.400 Everybody here at some point at some juncture in their life has felt anxiety or fear or just insecurity about different things. 39:24.400 --> 39:27.400 And ultimately, it's because we just lack the trust. 39:27.400 --> 39:30.400 It got to follow through in the things that he's going to do for us. 39:30.400 --> 39:40.400 Right. We would say we see that there says for we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of the trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength and so much that we disparate even of life. 39:40.700 --> 39:45.020 But we have the senses of death in ourselves that we should trust not in ourselves 39:45.820 --> 39:48.860 But in god which raised the dead 39:49.820 --> 39:52.140 You know, I love paul paul went through it and he's like hey 39:53.500 --> 39:56.700 Don't don't trust in yourselves. Don't trust in man trust in god 39:58.140 --> 40:00.220 Right get it get this thing right 40:00.860 --> 40:05.740 Like the only way that he he stays above the strength is god almighty, right? 40:06.200 --> 40:08.760 And this is going to be a big theme that we're going to focus on. 40:08.760 --> 40:13.400 But go over to Psalm 34, and I'll read for you really quick in the book of James, Psalm 40:13.400 --> 40:14.400 34. 40:14.400 --> 40:18.280 In the book of James 1 verse 2, the Bible says, 40:18.280 --> 40:24.360 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations, 40:24.360 --> 40:28.440 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 40:28.800 --> 40:35.680 But let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect an entire wanting nothing. 40:35.680 --> 40:39.200 You know and I've preached a sermon on that where I just want to get to the point where I want 40:39.200 --> 40:43.840 nothing and what you know if you really focus on this is that we don't need anything but God, 40:43.840 --> 40:49.440 right? That whether I'm you know I have food on my table and I have overabundance or I just have 40:49.440 --> 40:54.880 just enough to get through the day I don't need more than I don't need either one I just need God Almighty. 40:55.300 --> 41:01.260 I know that He's going to provide what I need in my time of need. 41:01.260 --> 41:04.460 The other thing that I always like about this verse is, look, we've got to do what the Bible 41:04.460 --> 41:05.460 tells us. 41:05.460 --> 41:08.020 This is more of a personal thing, but I've always said that I'm just someone who has 41:08.020 --> 41:09.980 very little patience. 41:09.980 --> 41:15.220 But I've stopped saying that in my later years because if I don't have patience, then that 41:15.220 --> 41:17.140 means God's not doing a perfect work in me. 41:17.600 --> 41:22.800 I've got to let God work a perfect work in me and that requires patience, right? 41:22.800 --> 41:27.600 Faith worketh patience that you may be perfect. And I skipped this, right? But let patience have 41:27.600 --> 41:34.480 a perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. Go to Psalm 34 right there, 41:34.480 --> 41:39.840 verse 11. Bible says, come you children, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 41:41.200 --> 41:46.160 What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see the good? 41:46.720 --> 41:51.040 Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. 41:51.600 --> 41:56.480 Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. 41:56.480 --> 42:00.800 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry. 42:01.700 --> 42:09.700 If you're righteous, if you're doing what God's asked you to do, He's listening also to your angst and your pain and your tribulations and all the things that you're doing. 42:09.700 --> 42:16.700 It says, The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 42:16.700 --> 42:23.700 The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. 42:24.000 --> 42:30.640 The Lord is an eye unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveeth such as be of a contrite spirit." 42:30.640 --> 42:33.440 And then, but notice what it says in verse 19, it says, 42:33.440 --> 42:41.680 many, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. 42:42.560 --> 42:46.800 Hey, many are the afflictions of the righteous. If you don't have many afflictions, 42:47.300 --> 42:49.300 You need to work on your righteousness, right? 42:49.300 --> 42:50.820 And I'm not talking about salvation. 42:50.820 --> 42:53.140 You're already righteous unto eternal life. 42:53.140 --> 42:55.060 But I'm talking about your walk here on this earth. 42:56.020 --> 42:57.140 Notice who it's for. 42:57.140 --> 42:59.060 It's for those that are living a godly life. 42:59.060 --> 43:00.820 He says, hey, my ear is open. 43:01.700 --> 43:06.180 And I love this because oftentimes, sometimes the trials that come are an attack from other 43:06.180 --> 43:07.180 people, right? 43:07.180 --> 43:11.900 I mean, I've had a lot of attacks that aren't very public, but in my business, and all the 43:11.900 --> 43:16.020 attacks that I've had in my business, every business has been destroyed by somebody else, 43:16.020 --> 43:18.940 has been because eventually they found out I believed on the Lord. 43:18.940 --> 43:23.260 I probably tried to give them the gospel, and then it just turned antagonistic, right? 43:23.260 --> 43:25.860 And you know who delivered me out of all of them? 43:25.860 --> 43:26.660 The Lord Jesus Christ. 43:27.200 --> 43:33.040 I mean, it's just that is the reason as a matter of fact, back in 2020 when I lost a big chunk of my business 43:33.900 --> 43:39.100 Would get these reports from the people that I had worked with and one of the things was like the guy that all of 43:39.100 --> 43:44.880 A sudden I had turned his business around and took them from four million to sixteen million dollars in one year 43:45.220 --> 43:47.420 Was going around telling everybody that you know 43:47.420 --> 43:50.100 I was a devil and I was a cult leader and all that stuff 43:50.100 --> 43:55.420 It's interesting that I wasn't that before when he was not making any money and he needed help right? 43:55.420 --> 43:57.340 But that's just the way life is 43:57.340 --> 43:59.580 But who delivered me out of it all the Lord 44:00.300 --> 44:04.300 But many, I like that, many are the afflictions of the righteous. 44:04.300 --> 44:09.100 Hey, don't live under this delusion that you show up to church and everything's going to be great. 44:09.100 --> 44:14.300 Actually, live under the reality that you show up to church and it's probably not going to be great. 44:14.300 --> 44:18.380 And the only way that you're going to see greatness is when you see it through the eyes of God. 44:18.380 --> 44:21.660 Right? You just rely on the Lord Jesus Christ. 44:21.660 --> 44:23.980 Go to Romans 5. Go to Romans 5. 44:25.200 --> 44:29.040 Well, read that last verse for you just as a reminder. I'll make that point. I'm going to drive that home 44:29.520 --> 44:32.160 Many are the afflictions of the righteous 44:32.720 --> 44:37.600 But the lord delivered them out of them all in romans 5 right there in verse 1 44:38.000 --> 44:40.640 The bible says therefore being justified by faith 44:41.520 --> 44:48.320 We have peace with god through our lord jesus christ by whom also we have access by faith into his grace where we stand 44:48.720 --> 44:50.720 And rejoice in hope of the glory of god 44:51.000 --> 44:54.200 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. 44:54.200 --> 44:56.000 Hey, it's not just in God. 44:56.000 --> 44:59.040 He says we glory, we get excited, 44:59.040 --> 45:01.000 we rejoice in tribulations. 45:01.000 --> 45:02.320 Also knowing the tribulation, what? 45:02.320 --> 45:05.440 Worketh patience and patience experience 45:05.440 --> 45:07.400 and experience hope. 45:07.500 --> 45:14.540 Hope makeeth not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which giveth unto 45:14.540 --> 45:18.500 Us for when we were yet without strength in due time 45:19.020 --> 45:21.020 Christ died for the ungodly 45:21.700 --> 45:26.620 Hey when we were without strength, you know why we even have any strength is Christ died for all of us 45:27.620 --> 45:33.900 Not just for those that are saved. This says for the ungodly right for God so loved the world the entire world 45:36.400 --> 45:41.760 And honestly, if I look back at my life, you know, I have a note here that God really does 45:41.760 --> 45:46.880 His greatest work, it seems like, when we feel our weakest. If I look at my life, just when I just 45:46.880 --> 45:51.520 felt the most despair, that's when I felt like God just came through for me the most. You know, 45:51.520 --> 45:56.560 you look at Moses, he's going through, he's exiting Egypt and they get to the Red Sea. 45:57.200 --> 46:01.360 I mean, there's literally no way out. They're cornered and then God... 46:02.000 --> 46:06.800 parts the red sea. We love that story, but do we really apply the spiritual aspect of the fact that 46:06.800 --> 46:12.240 God is still partying the red sea to this day? It's just a spiritual thing. You know, and I know 46:12.240 --> 46:16.880 it's a in June I've been kind of like just ramming this stuff down people's throats, but I just wanted 46:16.880 --> 46:22.560 to you know, I don't know this has really stood out that you know oftentimes we also need the 46:22.560 --> 46:24.240 the comfort side of the Bible. 46:24.400 --> 46:27.600 I know two-thirds of the Bible is really negative and I'm all for it 46:27.680 --> 46:31.280 But it also is a reminder that there's a balance in God's justice 46:32.000 --> 46:36.120 In his love and his mercy and his truth in our lives, right point number two 46:36.960 --> 46:43.700 Go over to Jeremiah. Yeah, go over to Jeremiah, but I'll read for you really quickly in Isaiah, but go to Jeremiah 32 46:45.400 --> 46:51.420 But why does God comfort us well point number two is God comforts us because of who he is 46:52.700 --> 46:57.020 The reason that God takes care of us, the reason he helps us through that is just because 46:57.020 --> 46:58.020 he's God. 46:58.020 --> 47:01.700 This is probably the biggest point I want to just kind of drive home today. 47:01.700 --> 47:04.980 You know, if you were to go to the book of Isaiah, and I know I'm having you turn to 47:04.980 --> 47:08.660 Jeremiah because I'm only going to read a few verses, but in the book of Isaiah, it's 47:08.660 --> 47:11.420 like this great encouragement chapter, right? 47:11.420 --> 47:14.780 And we get some of the greatest verses that people love to quote. 47:14.780 --> 47:15.600 uh... 47:16.000 --> 47:22.320 But if you look at it, God's trying to comfort the people and the whole focus is on who? 47:22.320 --> 47:24.760 On God Almighty. 47:24.760 --> 47:27.840 It's like if we look within, we're going to fail. 47:27.840 --> 47:30.840 But if we look to God, we're not. 47:30.840 --> 47:31.840 Right? 47:31.840 --> 47:35.960 Because honestly, the only way to not faint in the Christian life is to realize that God 47:35.960 --> 47:37.200 is exactly that. 47:37.200 --> 47:38.200 He's God. 47:38.200 --> 47:40.160 You say, what do you mean by that? 47:40.160 --> 47:41.160 God is God. 47:41.160 --> 47:43.280 Well, we have nothing else to compare Him to. 47:43.800 --> 47:50.360 There is no, the only reason that we even have a false version of God is because there's a God 47:50.360 --> 47:54.920 and then they just can't replicate them, right? They can imitate but they can't replicate. 47:54.920 --> 48:00.600 We don't have any other like foundation, we don't have any other template, 48:00.600 --> 48:04.840 we don't have like a standard operating procedure of who God is, we just have God. 48:05.000 --> 48:09.800 Right? We have what we have in these 66 books, and then that's it. 48:09.800 --> 48:14.400 Above that is God. You know, God is just God. 48:14.400 --> 48:17.400 And people hate that because they're like, well, that's a cop-out. How can you? 48:17.400 --> 48:20.800 Well, you can't explain God. Nobody can explain God. 48:20.800 --> 48:23.200 So I'm not going to sit here and argue with some idiot, 48:23.200 --> 48:25.500 especially like atheists that love to do that stuff, 48:25.500 --> 48:28.800 when you can't explain like anything. 48:29.500 --> 48:32.700 Because, I mean, you're just only talking to, you know, most of the time when people 48:32.700 --> 48:36.580 want to argue this point about God, they're coming at you from like some scientific thing 48:36.580 --> 48:38.740 that they know really well. 48:38.740 --> 48:42.420 But I mean, you could easily just turn that around and just ask them something they don't 48:42.420 --> 48:48.460 know in science or in biology or in health because nobody knows all the answers to anything. 48:49.000 --> 48:53.800 We have ideas, we have some concept, but the Bible is so clear in the book of Psalms 48:53.800 --> 48:57.400 that says that, you know, even though we know that the bones grow in the womb, 48:57.400 --> 48:59.000 we don't really know how they grow in the womb. 48:59.600 --> 49:00.600 Right? 49:00.600 --> 49:04.280 You know, my dad's been a doctor for over 40 years, and the one theme that I've known 49:04.280 --> 49:08.540 for my dad in his later years as a doctor is my dad's one of the most brilliant doctors 49:08.540 --> 49:09.540 you'll ever meet. 49:09.540 --> 49:11.360 The guy's literally a genius scholar. 49:11.360 --> 49:15.480 This is not just his son saying it, like, he really is that smart, like, he's read. 49:15.480 --> 49:17.240 I've never not seen him read. 49:17.240 --> 49:22.120 I've known my dad for 46 years, and whatever little memory I have of, like, just walking 49:22.120 --> 49:25.160 in wherever he's at, he's read every day of his life. 49:25.700 --> 49:29.460 Like he's just spend his time and study and scholarship and all that stuff. 49:29.460 --> 49:33.540 And he'll tell you, you know, he's really hard on who he's actually hardest on 49:33.540 --> 49:37.340 other doctors and in medicine in general, because he's like, look, we're just, 49:37.340 --> 49:38.900 we're just playing this guessing game. 49:38.940 --> 49:40.260 We're just a little bit more educated. 49:40.740 --> 49:42.580 We don't really understand what's going on. 49:43.060 --> 49:45.020 He'll tell you that constantly. 49:45.260 --> 49:48.140 He's like half the time we don't even know how we're fixing stuff. 49:49.000 --> 49:56.000 You know why? Because the body is the one that's doing, he's like the body has an incredible way of just, if you just give it the tools, it'll figure out the rest. 49:56.000 --> 49:57.500 We don't know how that works. 49:57.500 --> 49:59.500 Because it's from God. 49:59.500 --> 50:01.500 Right? 50:01.500 --> 50:03.500 I mean he's the only one, 50:03.500 --> 50:05.000 he's the only God. 50:05.000 --> 50:07.000 All the other ones are false gods. 50:07.000 --> 50:09.000 He's all powerful. 50:09.000 --> 50:10.300 I mean what do we compare him to? 50:10.900 --> 50:15.700 He's the almighty, he's the supreme, he's the creator of everything. 50:15.700 --> 50:18.340 When you talk about supreme, what are you talking about? 50:18.340 --> 50:19.580 There's no comparison. 50:19.580 --> 50:22.700 That is the barometer. 50:22.700 --> 50:23.700 There is no barometer. 50:23.700 --> 50:26.600 It's just the top notch. 50:26.600 --> 50:29.500 Right now there's the World Cup going on and you got all these people in there. 50:29.500 --> 50:31.740 There's always the argument of who's better. 50:31.740 --> 50:37.020 The reason you have these arguments, whether it's any sport, is because you have comparisons. 50:37.020 --> 50:37.860 There's nothing better than God. 50:38.400 --> 50:40.400 What is the comparison? 50:40.400 --> 50:44.080 Nobody has the conversation in the Christian walk of like, 50:44.080 --> 50:45.760 who's the greatest of all time? 50:45.760 --> 50:47.120 Because there is no need. 50:47.120 --> 50:48.800 The greatest of all time is Jesus Christ. 50:50.160 --> 50:50.960 Right? 50:50.960 --> 50:52.400 There's no comparison. 50:52.400 --> 50:53.760 I mean, Paul wouldn't make it. 50:54.320 --> 50:55.680 Peter wouldn't make it. 50:55.680 --> 50:56.880 David wouldn't make it. 50:56.880 --> 50:57.840 Moses wouldn't make it. 50:57.840 --> 50:58.560 Elijah wouldn't make it. 50:58.560 --> 50:58.960 You know what? 50:58.960 --> 51:00.240 None of us would ever make it. 51:00.240 --> 51:01.200 The Bible is clear, 51:01.200 --> 51:04.560 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 51:05.500 --> 51:12.060 But you're there in Jeremiah, in Isaiah 40, you know, God's everlasting, Isaiah 40 verse 28, the Bible says, 51:12.060 --> 51:23.300 Has thou not known, has thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not? 51:23.300 --> 51:30.200 Neither is weary, there is no searching of his understanding. Like, you can't understand him. 51:30.200 --> 51:33.400 Now we do, Bible tells us we do have the mind of Jesus. 51:34.200 --> 51:36.920 what he's given us, but there's no understanding all of God. 51:38.840 --> 51:48.920 In Jeremiah 32, it says, Ah, Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy 51:48.920 --> 51:53.160 great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. 51:53.700 --> 51:59.060 Thou showest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers 51:59.060 --> 52:01.440 into the bosom of their children after them. 52:01.440 --> 52:08.320 The great, the mighty God, the Lord of Hosts is his name, great in counsel, and in mighty 52:08.320 --> 52:09.320 work. 52:09.320 --> 52:15.060 For thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according 52:15.060 --> 52:17.940 to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. 52:18.400 --> 52:24.080 which has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even unto this day and in Israel and among 52:24.080 --> 52:30.160 other men and has made thee a name as it is this day." You know whose strength never strength never 52:30.160 --> 52:39.440 runs out? God. Right? Our wisdom will fail. God doesn't. Our understanding is limited. God's isn't. 52:40.700 --> 52:45.940 You know, and we can kind of maybe take a step back, go to Psalm 147, go to Psalm 147, 52:45.940 --> 52:53.060 but we could semi, you know, that's the beauty of following God's plan for our life, right? 52:53.060 --> 52:58.300 Because we can then have some understanding of some things of God. 52:58.300 --> 52:59.300 And that's biblical. 52:59.300 --> 53:05.220 He's given us the ability to get some understanding, even to understand that we don't understand 53:05.220 --> 53:06.220 it all. 53:06.220 --> 53:06.700 Right? 53:06.900 --> 53:09.300 Why does the devil attack the family structure? 53:09.300 --> 53:12.100 Because the family structure teaches us so many things. 53:12.100 --> 53:13.900 It teaches us commitment. 53:13.900 --> 53:16.200 It teaches us unselfishness. 53:16.200 --> 53:17.300 There's other things. 53:17.300 --> 53:19.300 But one of the things that really stands out is, 53:19.300 --> 53:24.900 when you see a child, you see who you are in the eyes of God. 53:24.900 --> 53:29.500 Because oftentimes we're doing things for our children in their life 53:29.500 --> 53:34.400 that they have no inkling or earthly idea why we're doing it for them. 53:35.000 --> 53:39.000 And the question often comes up from your kids, why? 53:39.000 --> 53:43.400 Well, if I explained son or daughter why I'm doing this, 53:43.400 --> 53:49.480 it would take you another 25 years, you know, your own challenges, your own wife, 53:49.480 --> 53:55.000 your own kids, to even understand why I'm doing this right now, right? 53:55.200 --> 53:58.680 That's why I don't even answer, that's why God doesn't answer all the questions. 53:58.680 --> 53:59.680 Think about it. 53:59.680 --> 54:03.140 In order for me to understand God, why are you doing this, it would require me to be 54:03.140 --> 54:05.360 everlasting everlasting. 54:05.360 --> 54:11.000 Because I just don't understand all the inner workings, the inner weavings of God Almighty. 54:11.000 --> 54:13.840 Now I know there's some things that he's doing, the Bible tells me that, but I just 54:13.840 --> 54:14.520 don't have it all. 54:15.100 --> 54:20.100 Children will sit there and constantly, why, why, why? 54:20.100 --> 54:21.340 And I was like, I don't know. 54:21.340 --> 54:23.420 I mean, sometimes I'll just be, I mean, 54:23.420 --> 54:25.940 I'm just really honest with my kids, maybe to a fault. 54:25.940 --> 54:27.740 I'm just like, it's just too long 54:27.740 --> 54:29.700 and you're not gonna understand it anyway. 54:29.700 --> 54:31.860 So just cause daddy said so. 54:32.100 --> 54:36.740 I mean sometimes I'm not as nice about it other times I am more exasperated but it's just like 54:36.740 --> 54:41.460 they don't get it right like why do we you know put up these little guard rails when kids start 54:41.460 --> 54:45.860 walking they're annoyed but we know it's because they don't fall down the stairs and crack their 54:45.860 --> 54:50.980 head open or whatever or stick their their finger in an outlet and get electrocuted can you imagine 54:50.980 --> 54:55.700 trying to explain electricity to the three-year-old now I have my brother-in-law is here and he'll 54:55.700 --> 55:00.020 attest to this. I have a father-in-law who would attempt to explain, you know, 55:00.100 --> 55:03.780 electricity to a three-year-old, but you know my father-in-law would just fail miserably. 55:03.780 --> 55:07.340 You know I appreciate that he believes that everybody's intelligent, 55:07.580 --> 55:12.780 but there are times where we just not need to do that. And the reason I say this is one time we were actually here in church. 55:13.400 --> 55:18.840 Many years ago, and my kids were like three or four, maybe four or five, and Opa was here 55:18.840 --> 55:21.520 with them, and he's like, I'm going to teach you calculus. 55:21.520 --> 55:23.320 And I thought, oh, that's cool. 55:23.320 --> 55:26.640 He's going to maybe like, you know, you know how we do with kids. 55:26.640 --> 55:31.080 Maybe we use like a very funny example or, hey, you have three balloons here that are 55:31.080 --> 55:34.200 red, two balloons that are blue, you put them together, how many balloons? 55:34.200 --> 55:35.200 Something like that. 55:35.200 --> 55:40.280 No, he goes, he goes, now Lucy, Enrique, this is sine, cosine, and tangent. 55:41.400 --> 55:46.120 It's like they disappeared into the abyss. I mean it was just like it was it was one of the funniest things 55:46.120 --> 55:50.300 But that's exactly how sometimes we want to be with God. We want God to explain calculus 55:50.960 --> 55:54.720 When we're three and four year old, how about we just trust God, right? 55:55.240 --> 55:57.840 Go to Psalm 137 is that where I had you turn? Yeah, good 55:57.840 --> 56:03.460 I mean 147 go to Psalm 147 if you're not there, I'll give you a second to get there and verse 1 56:05.560 --> 56:07.900 The Bible says praise E the Lord 56:08.700 --> 56:15.580 For it is good to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant. 56:15.800 --> 56:21.560 and praise is commonly. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem. He gather together the outcast of 56:21.560 --> 56:29.640 Israel. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of stars. 56:29.640 --> 56:36.520 He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord and of great power. His understanding is 56:36.520 --> 56:41.480 infinite. The Lord lifted up the meek. He casteth the wicked down to the ground. 56:41.480 --> 56:43.800 sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving. 56:43.800 --> 56:47.800 I mean, just like He telleth the number of the stars, 56:47.800 --> 56:51.800 whoever tried that exercise, I think it's sad that kids don't do that today. 56:51.800 --> 56:55.800 I remember being a kid, who's ever counted stars as a kid or made an attempt? 56:55.800 --> 56:58.800 I mean, that was like one of the funnest things to do, right? 56:58.800 --> 57:02.800 And you gave up because it's just like this insane, you know, it's infinite number. 57:02.800 --> 57:04.800 But God knows. 57:10.800 --> 57:12.640 Genesis 18 57:12.640 --> 57:15.660 Right there in verse 14. It says is anything too hard for the Lord? 57:16.040 --> 57:19.860 And at the time appointed I will return unto thee according to the time of life 57:20.360 --> 57:24.080 And Sarah shall have a son, but I just like how Lord called out Sarah 57:24.200 --> 57:27.880 But she didn't believe that a hundred years old she could have or 90 years old 57:27.880 --> 57:29.880 I don't remember that she could have a child and 57:30.640 --> 57:34.480 God's like is anything too hard for me like who do you think you're talking to? 57:35.500 --> 57:39.300 Oftentimes, we think trials are just a bad thing. 57:39.300 --> 57:40.900 Is anything too hard for God? 57:40.900 --> 57:45.180 If he put you in a trial, he can't take you out. 57:45.180 --> 57:49.860 It's not like sometimes in life we actually have scenarios like that. 57:49.860 --> 57:53.700 There's a common term that we use, the point of no return. 57:53.700 --> 57:57.980 Sometimes you've gone too far one way that you can't take it back. 57:57.980 --> 57:58.980 Who's ever done that? 57:58.980 --> 58:00.820 I have foot and mouth disease. 58:01.600 --> 58:04.960 The other day apparently I said hand and foot and mouth disease, but it's foot and mouth 58:04.960 --> 58:05.960 disease. 58:05.960 --> 58:12.360 And hand and foot disease is something else. 58:12.360 --> 58:16.740 Who's ever done that visual where you're talking and you're saying something and you wish you 58:16.740 --> 58:20.280 could just see the words come out and you just catch them and put them back, right? 58:20.280 --> 58:21.280 Who's ever done that? 58:21.280 --> 58:22.280 Like I have. 58:22.280 --> 58:23.280 I do that all the time. 58:23.280 --> 58:23.300 you 58:23.400 --> 58:28.440 It's actually a bad thing. You know, it's one of my weaknesses, but we can't do that 58:28.440 --> 58:31.880 But with God it does that's not a reality, you know 58:31.880 --> 58:35.760 God is perfect God is working in us and he's doing a great work 58:35.840 --> 58:38.640 But we have to allow that work to come through for us 58:39.400 --> 58:46.600 Right and oftentimes I mean it might not make any sense, you know losing a loved one, you know being persecuted 58:47.700 --> 58:55.140 being attacked, being vilified, slandered, you know, just name-called or, you know, a 58:55.140 --> 58:57.820 disease or an imperfection. 58:57.820 --> 59:01.300 Whatever it is, you don't know what he's doing, but it's not for us to try to figure 59:01.300 --> 59:03.620 it out, it's for us to just praise the Lord, right? 59:03.620 --> 59:04.900 I mean, that's the ultimate. 59:05.200 --> 59:11.240 You know way to praise the Lord in Isaiah 40 verse 29 go to Psalm 46 because you're already there in Psalm go to 59:11.240 --> 59:15.080 Psalm 46 and I say 40 verse 29 we're to just continue down that path 59:15.080 --> 59:22.040 He said he giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increases in 59:23.320 --> 59:24.200 strength 59:25.300 --> 59:30.500 That's like I'm saying, you know, we have to trust God because it's just counter to what the world would say. 59:30.500 --> 59:33.460 The world would say, well, how is it that someone who doesn't have strength, we get strength? 59:33.460 --> 59:36.740 We get it from God. It's not from us. 59:39.100 --> 59:45.860 I'm going to say this a lot today probably, just enjoy it, but God is God. 59:45.860 --> 59:54.980 Really we need to learn to just oftentimes put the ball back in the enemy's court. 59:54.980 --> 59:56.700 They're always trying to get us to prove things. 59:56.700 --> 59:57.780 It's actually the other way around. 59:58.200 --> 01:00:01.800 They're always trying to get us to explain why things happen. 01:00:01.800 --> 01:00:03.440 It's actually the other way around. 01:00:03.440 --> 01:00:05.840 You know, oh, why do bad things happen to good people? 01:00:05.840 --> 01:00:07.280 Well, the Bible says not everybody's good. 01:00:07.280 --> 01:00:13.200 But number two is if something's happening to someone, God's working. 01:00:13.200 --> 01:00:14.480 I mean, that's it. 01:00:14.480 --> 01:00:15.480 Why? 01:00:15.480 --> 01:00:16.480 Well, he's God. 01:00:16.480 --> 01:00:18.640 That's a cop out, probably. 01:00:18.640 --> 01:00:21.320 Unless you can tell me who God is. 01:00:21.700 --> 01:00:27.140 other than what the 66 books in front of me say, you know, I don't know what to tell you. God is God. 01:00:28.820 --> 01:00:34.420 Right? I mean, there's a, I think he's a Calvinist, so I might not promote him that much, but 01:00:34.420 --> 01:00:38.660 when I was growing up, I would listen to the radio, the Christian radio, in my early 20s, 01:00:38.660 --> 01:00:43.540 and there was a, I think his name is Alistair, but I always liked him because he has that Scottish accent. 01:00:44.100 --> 01:00:47.540 He talks in a Scottish accent, he always said, the almighty God. 01:00:47.540 --> 01:00:48.540 You know, I always loved it. 01:00:48.540 --> 01:00:51.340 I can't even do a proper Scottish accent, but I like that. 01:00:51.340 --> 01:00:53.140 He's the almighty, right? 01:00:53.140 --> 01:00:55.300 He's the creator. 01:00:55.300 --> 01:00:56.300 Where do I have you turned? 01:00:56.300 --> 01:00:57.300 Psalm 46. 01:00:57.300 --> 01:01:00.700 You know, God's given us strength to the weak. 01:01:00.700 --> 01:01:04.540 As a matter of fact, it's in weakness where God thrives, right? 01:01:04.540 --> 01:01:09.460 He's not impressed with our prowess, with our power, with our intellect. 01:01:09.460 --> 01:01:10.980 You know what He's impressed with? 01:01:10.980 --> 01:01:11.980 Our submission. 01:01:11.980 --> 01:01:12.100 you 01:01:12.400 --> 01:01:17.240 The fact that we want to obey him even when it's not convenient to obey him in the flesh, right? 01:01:17.240 --> 01:01:23.520 Psalm 46 right there in verse 1 the Bible says God is our refuge and strength a very what? 01:01:24.200 --> 01:01:29.640 Present help and trouble not like in the future not like in the he's right there 01:01:30.360 --> 01:01:36.040 Says therefore will we not fear well will not we fear though the earth be removed? 01:01:36.040 --> 01:01:39.180 And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea 01:01:39.800 --> 01:01:45.080 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling 01:01:45.080 --> 01:01:46.080 thereof, sea-log. 01:01:46.080 --> 01:01:49.000 Man, it resonates in every aspect of life. 01:01:49.000 --> 01:01:51.000 What are people going through right now in Venezuela? 01:01:51.000 --> 01:01:53.520 I mean, that country got shattered. 01:01:53.520 --> 01:01:54.820 You know, it's interesting. 01:01:54.820 --> 01:01:59.660 They were actually having like this festival for a saint, right? 01:01:59.660 --> 01:02:03.280 They were worshipping a false god and then they all got crushed in the rubble. 01:02:04.200 --> 01:02:06.700 But those that rely on the Lord, he's there. 01:02:06.700 --> 01:02:10.880 He's a very present help in time of need, right? 01:02:10.880 --> 01:02:11.700 So... 01:02:14.600 --> 01:02:20.600 If you're self-sufficient, right, if you're proud, which is the theme of this month for the world, not for us, right, 01:02:20.600 --> 01:02:23.600 then you're going to faint, you're going to be weak. It's amazing. 01:02:23.600 --> 01:02:28.600 I always tell people, like, obviously the enemy is dangerous, but you know what the enemy is also? 01:02:28.600 --> 01:02:31.600 They're also in fear. They're cowards, right? 01:02:31.600 --> 01:02:37.600 What do they say about cats? And sorry, my wife and kids, but cats are most dangerous when they're cornered, right? 01:02:37.600 --> 01:02:40.600 A scared cat is the most dangerous cat, but it's also a scared cat. 01:02:40.800 --> 01:02:45.680 Right and we need to learn not to fear the enemy and we need to learn not to fear trials 01:02:46.640 --> 01:02:52.480 Nothing, nothing can overcome the lord. Jesus christ go to go to hebra's four go to hebra's four 01:02:52.720 --> 01:02:55.120 But in philippians four the bible says there in verse 11 01:02:55.520 --> 01:02:59.520 Now that I not that I speak in respect of want for I have learned in whatsoever state 01:02:59.520 --> 01:03:01.520 I am there with to be content 01:03:01.920 --> 01:03:04.980 I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound 01:03:05.500 --> 01:03:12.060 Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and 01:03:12.540 --> 01:03:14.540 to suffer need I 01:03:15.260 --> 01:03:18.060 Can do all things through Christ with strength in me 01:03:18.060 --> 01:03:20.460 You know and I hate that people only quote that verse 01:03:20.460 --> 01:03:24.220 But they don't give you the top part because the top part says hey, I've learned to be humble 01:03:25.420 --> 01:03:31.220 And I've learned to be exalted meaning because I'm humble the Lord's lifted me up and I've learned to both be hungry 01:03:31.800 --> 01:03:36.440 I'm hungry to go out there and win more souls and I'm never satisfied with the work we're doing 01:03:36.440 --> 01:03:40.280 but I've also learned to be just full. Thank you Lord for what we have right now. 01:03:41.480 --> 01:03:44.840 You say that doesn't make sense. Well I'm not here to make sense. I'm telling you what the 01:03:44.840 --> 01:03:51.080 Bible says. By the way it makes more sense than if I made sense myself right because God makes the 01:03:51.080 --> 01:03:56.040 most sense but in Hebrews 4 15 the Bible says for we have not a high priest 01:03:57.200 --> 01:04:01.280 which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like 01:04:01.280 --> 01:04:06.800 as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain 01:04:06.800 --> 01:04:12.080 mercy and find grace to help in time of need." And I like that right there in verse 15 says, 01:04:12.080 --> 01:04:16.400 which cannot be touched. You know, we don't have a God that's inaccessible. 01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:22.680 Right? If the president of the United States walked in here right now, he wouldn't be accessible. 01:04:22.680 --> 01:04:27.560 Right? He'd be surrounded by bodyguards. Before he even came into the church, everybody would have 01:04:27.560 --> 01:04:32.680 gotten a clearance check. Like you would have to set up a special time, have some kind of clout 01:04:32.680 --> 01:04:37.160 to even sit with Donald Trump. And it's not, I mean, Trump's the current president, but it would 01:04:37.160 --> 01:04:42.120 be the same for Biden. It would be the same for Obama. But with God, the Bible says we can come 01:04:42.120 --> 01:04:44.840 boldly onto the throne of grace. We don't even have to knock. 01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:47.400 We can just barge in and be like, Lord, I need you. 01:04:48.760 --> 01:04:51.040 You know, he can't be touched. 01:04:51.040 --> 01:04:54.300 No, I can come and say, Lord, here's my problem. 01:04:54.300 --> 01:04:55.600 Here's what's going on. 01:04:55.600 --> 01:04:57.280 You're not too busy for me. 01:04:57.280 --> 01:04:58.600 You know, remember as a kid, 01:04:58.600 --> 01:05:00.520 sometimes you wanted to ask your parents something, 01:05:00.520 --> 01:05:03.160 or my dad was kind of a very intimidating individual, 01:05:03.160 --> 01:05:05.000 and whoever, you know, like we would knock. 01:05:05.200 --> 01:05:08.380 And you know, you talk in like a little mouse voice, 01:05:08.380 --> 01:05:11.440 dad, you have a little bit of time, you know? 01:05:11.440 --> 01:05:13.080 And then obviously my dad was always broke, 01:05:13.080 --> 01:05:15.880 so that's a little bit, you know, you just know he's busy. 01:05:15.880 --> 01:05:17.420 That's not how it is with God. 01:05:17.420 --> 01:05:18.420 With God we could just show up and be like, 01:05:18.420 --> 01:05:21.220 hey, God, here's what's going on. 01:05:22.120 --> 01:05:23.460 This, this, this, this, this, and that. 01:05:23.460 --> 01:05:24.520 I need you to help me solve it. 01:05:24.520 --> 01:05:25.500 I don't know what to do. 01:05:26.300 --> 01:05:33.420 Right, but we often think of God's like as it's an excess inaccessible like we don't want to bother him with our problems and our 01:05:33.740 --> 01:05:35.740 He's not he knows everything 01:05:36.220 --> 01:05:38.700 You know, we need to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ 01:05:39.820 --> 01:05:43.420 Go to Psalm 27 go to Psalm 27 point number three is 01:05:44.380 --> 01:05:45.860 God 01:05:45.860 --> 01:05:48.040 Renews those who wait upon him 01:05:49.460 --> 01:05:53.460 The Bible says though the outward man perish the inward man is renewed day by day 01:05:54.600 --> 01:06:00.980 You know, there's nothing more, there's a verse that doesn't resonate, there's a verse, 01:06:00.980 --> 01:06:05.000 this verse specifically that resonates more with me every day that I get older, because 01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.040 though the out room and parish, you know, there's just things that I've just lost. 01:06:09.040 --> 01:06:12.800 I'm no longer a 20 year old that can just do the things that I did when I was 20. 01:06:12.800 --> 01:06:14.520 The inward man is renewed. 01:06:14.520 --> 01:06:17.480 The only reason we made it through the soul wedding yesterday was the spirit, because 01:06:17.480 --> 01:06:18.480 I'm telling you, it was hot. 01:06:19.000 --> 01:06:24.000 I got home and the 27 year old me would have just gone and done whatever. 01:06:24.000 --> 01:06:28.500 The 47 year old me or 46 year old, whatever I have now, was like, 01:06:28.500 --> 01:06:34.000 hey honey, can you bring me some ibuprofen and I need some eggs and I need some water. 01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:37.000 Can you bring me some salt water? I was like, it was, it was hot yesterday. 01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:42.500 We struggled, but you know what? We got 16 souls won. God saw us through it. 01:06:43.900 --> 01:06:48.060 You're there in Psalm 27, but in Isaiah 40, when it closes out, it says, 01:06:55.600 --> 01:07:02.680 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall wait. They shall mount up with wings as eagles 01:07:02.680 --> 01:07:08.360 They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint, you know, honestly 01:07:08.360 --> 01:07:11.520 It's not even a bragging thing. I don't know how I do it other than it's God 01:07:12.360 --> 01:07:13.300 right 01:07:13.400 --> 01:07:19.740 Sometimes it's like seven days a week and it's work and it's family and it's three sermons a week and it's Bible reading as 01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:26.320 memorization and all this stuff and it has nothing I'm not writing because believe me if anybody has like a tendency to want to 01:07:26.320 --> 01:07:29.920 Fail and fails and has to get back up again a lot in life is me 01:07:30.400 --> 01:07:35.040 I'm just gonna tell myself, I'm not, like if you give me the option, you know, chocolate 01:07:35.040 --> 01:07:37.440 cake or broccoli, I'm taking chocolate cake every time. 01:07:37.440 --> 01:07:42.240 Especially if it's a tres leches or a flan, man, that's a whole other game, right? 01:07:42.240 --> 01:07:46.120 But the only reason I don't eat the tres leches in the flan and I'll take some broccoli is 01:07:46.120 --> 01:07:47.000 because of the Lord. 01:07:47.300 --> 01:07:51.540 It's not because of me. I'm not that good. I'm just giving you and that's a better example 01:07:51.540 --> 01:07:54.380 So I don't have to you know, that's a great example because they're all of you relate 01:07:54.600 --> 01:07:58.600 You all have a dessert you love and you would give up for broccoli, right? 01:07:58.820 --> 01:08:05.300 Go to Psalm 27 right there in verse 7 the Bible says here. Oh Lord when I cry with my voice 01:08:05.640 --> 01:08:10.300 Have mercy also upon me and answer me when thou say is seek ye my face 01:08:10.980 --> 01:08:14.380 My heart said unto thee thy face Lord. Will I seek? 01:08:14.800 --> 01:08:19.920 Hie not thy face from me, put not thy servant away in anger. 01:08:19.920 --> 01:08:25.940 Thou hast been my help, leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. 01:08:25.940 --> 01:08:30.860 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. 01:08:30.860 --> 01:08:36.300 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. 01:08:36.300 --> 01:08:42.260 Deliver me not over unto all of my enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, 01:08:42.260 --> 01:08:42.800 such as 01:08:42.800 --> 01:08:44.240 Breathe out cruelty. 01:08:44.240 --> 01:08:50.000 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the 01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:51.000 living. 01:08:51.000 --> 01:08:52.360 Wait on the Lord. 01:08:52.360 --> 01:08:55.240 Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. 01:08:55.240 --> 01:08:59.680 Wait, I say, on the Lord." 01:08:59.680 --> 01:09:05.360 You notice in Isaiah 40, and even in this theme, right, we wait, right, and then we 01:09:05.360 --> 01:09:07.800 can run or walk. 01:09:07.800 --> 01:09:10.120 It's a progression, but the waiting is the hard part. 01:09:10.400 --> 01:09:13.600 Because we often the time, especially with the American mindset, which you know, it's 01:09:13.600 --> 01:09:14.880 a good mindset. 01:09:14.880 --> 01:09:16.420 We just want to get stuff done. 01:09:16.420 --> 01:09:20.800 But sometimes this getting done, the part of getting things done in life is just waiting 01:09:20.800 --> 01:09:22.000 on the Lord. 01:09:22.000 --> 01:09:23.000 That's your job. 01:09:23.000 --> 01:09:25.400 You just let the Lord handle the rest. 01:09:25.400 --> 01:09:29.280 But because we have such an American mindset, when we have a problem, we just want to solve 01:09:29.280 --> 01:09:29.520 it. 01:09:30.400 --> 01:09:31.800 especially as men. 01:09:31.800 --> 01:09:33.800 But sometimes we need to take a page for women 01:09:33.800 --> 01:09:34.700 where they're just like, 01:09:34.700 --> 01:09:35.900 I don't want you to solve my problem, 01:09:35.900 --> 01:09:37.100 I just want you to listen. 01:09:37.100 --> 01:09:38.300 We just need to listen to the Lord 01:09:38.300 --> 01:09:40.700 and let him solve the problem, right? 01:09:40.700 --> 01:09:41.800 Go to Lamentations, 01:09:41.800 --> 01:09:42.800 and I'll read for you really quick. 01:09:42.800 --> 01:09:43.900 Lamentations 3, 01:09:43.900 --> 01:09:45.700 I'll read for you really quick in Galatians. 01:09:48.200 --> 01:09:51.640 And verse 9 of Galatians says, And let us not be weary in well-doing, 01:09:52.280 --> 01:09:57.000 for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. 01:09:59.700 --> 01:10:02.660 Notice that it's kind of on both right God says hey don't faint 01:10:03.220 --> 01:10:07.940 But he also understands that we are you know capable of fainting 01:10:07.940 --> 01:10:11.120 So he says I'm there to pick you up when you're when you're gonna faint 01:10:11.500 --> 01:10:15.340 But we need to have the attitude that we're not gonna faint because of God not because of ourselves 01:10:16.260 --> 01:10:19.700 That's why I'm not a fan of self-help because self-help 01:10:20.340 --> 01:10:25.980 Drops the ball because anytime that you think you can help yourself. You're just being a stumbling block to yourself 01:10:26.400 --> 01:10:28.900 But in Alimentations 3 right there, verse 22, the Bible says, 01:10:28.900 --> 01:10:33.140 it is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed 01:10:33.140 --> 01:10:35.260 because His passions fail not. 01:10:35.260 --> 01:10:36.940 They are new every morning. 01:10:36.940 --> 01:10:38.300 Great is thy faithfulness. 01:10:38.300 --> 01:10:40.540 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. 01:10:40.540 --> 01:10:42.100 Therefore will I hope in Him. 01:10:42.100 --> 01:10:44.740 The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, 01:10:44.740 --> 01:10:46.540 to the soul that seeketh Him. 01:10:46.540 --> 01:10:49.620 It is good that a man should both hope 01:10:49.620 --> 01:10:52.620 and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. 01:10:54.300 --> 01:10:55.300 Right? 01:10:55.300 --> 01:10:58.140 So, you know, God never promised that we wouldn't grow weary. 01:10:58.140 --> 01:11:01.380 As a matter of fact, this morning I woke up, I was like, man, I just got to get up. 01:11:01.380 --> 01:11:03.380 I had a hard time getting up. 01:11:03.380 --> 01:11:04.380 Right? 01:11:04.380 --> 01:11:08.820 But, you know, the reason that I get it, every time I get up here and preach, I just ask 01:11:08.820 --> 01:11:12.660 the Lord, fill me with your spirit so that I can actually preach boldly. 01:11:12.660 --> 01:11:15.420 It has nothing to do with me. 01:11:15.420 --> 01:11:17.020 And by the way, why am I preaching this? 01:11:17.020 --> 01:11:21.340 Well, number one, I mean, I know I'm giving you plathons, but there's real problems in 01:11:21.340 --> 01:11:22.200 real life. 01:11:22.700 --> 01:11:28.000 I hate this version of Christianity that kind of dabbles in the problems, but then they 01:11:28.000 --> 01:11:33.920 won't address the fact that there's real, there's families today where the wife, forget 01:11:33.920 --> 01:11:37.800 being a nag, she's just like the worst thing that ever happened to that person. 01:11:38.300 --> 01:11:42.460 And your husband is committed to just being faithful to the Lord. 01:11:42.460 --> 01:11:43.820 Now you got to deal with this. 01:11:44.780 --> 01:11:47.100 The world's telling you, hey, you can get out. 01:11:47.100 --> 01:11:48.220 You can quit. 01:11:48.220 --> 01:11:49.820 You don't have to put up with that crap. 01:11:51.340 --> 01:11:54.140 There's people that have truly been abused. 01:11:55.260 --> 01:11:59.740 Real abuse, mental and all other kinds that I just want to follow the mind. 01:11:59.740 --> 01:12:02.060 And people would be like, well, you know. 01:12:02.400 --> 01:12:07.340 You get all kinds of stupid stuff, you know, I've heard the stories especially like when churches try to throw stuff under the rug 01:12:07.440 --> 01:12:12.520 You know some young lady will get abused by someone that took advantage of them. They're like, well, what did you do to cause that? 01:12:12.920 --> 01:12:14.400 Wait a minute 01:12:14.400 --> 01:12:16.320 the abuser 01:12:16.320 --> 01:12:19.340 Is the one at fault not the abused right? 01:12:19.800 --> 01:12:22.680 And these things happen. People are getting murdered. 01:12:22.680 --> 01:12:26.520 I mean, literally, isn't our country kind of up in odds? 01:12:26.520 --> 01:12:29.080 Like, I saw the knife. I saw the situation. 01:12:29.080 --> 01:12:31.560 This Carmella Anthony kid just stabbed that other kid. 01:12:31.560 --> 01:12:35.800 Someone lost a son and a brother and a friend. 01:12:35.800 --> 01:12:38.600 Like, these things happen. This is real life, right? 01:12:38.600 --> 01:12:41.160 Like, we're not just playing church here. 01:12:41.160 --> 01:12:44.760 I'd rather address the reality of life than this fake stuff that everybody, 01:12:44.760 --> 01:12:46.280 everybody just wants to talk platitudes. 01:12:47.300 --> 01:12:52.620 Everybody's excited. You know, I don't even know where I had in my nose, but I was actually pissed off yesterday 01:12:52.620 --> 01:12:55.780 I'm going to knock in the doors and I get to this lady 01:12:55.980 --> 01:13:00.980 Her name is a man and actually she got saved thank the Lord, but she's like, oh you've already been at our door 01:13:00.980 --> 01:13:02.300 You know, I was like 01:13:02.300 --> 01:13:03.340 It kind of threw me off 01:13:03.340 --> 01:13:08.460 Usually I know when that we've been at the doors because we've been in a complex and we can see like the cards and stuff 01:13:08.740 --> 01:13:13.980 But we had just gotten there. So I knew that none of our guys had hit that door because I knew exactly where we're at 01:13:14.500 --> 01:13:20.820 Well, it turns out that she had gotten this other Baptist church, and I've been to this Baptist church. 01:13:20.820 --> 01:13:27.460 The pastor's a great guy. I'm not going to call him out. It's a Spanish church, but it's a Spanish church in the Antoine area. 01:13:27.460 --> 01:13:31.380 And they had knocked the door, apparently, because she said they had knocked the door. 01:13:31.380 --> 01:13:33.380 So this is her retelling of me. 01:13:33.800 --> 01:13:39.400 And I said, oh, and I knew exactly what she was talking about because I had just picked this pamphlet up from the other door. 01:13:39.400 --> 01:13:49.000 And it's a Baptist church and they left this little crap ass tract, this piece of crap here that says, 01:13:49.000 --> 01:13:53.300 you know, the greatest victories in Christ Jesus offers us eternal life. 01:13:53.300 --> 01:13:54.900 It's in Spanish, though. 01:13:54.900 --> 01:14:00.800 It has a QR code, it has all their time, the name of the church, and then it has a soccer field and a soccer ball. 01:14:01.500 --> 01:14:07.100 And then when you open it up, it has the World Cup soccer schedule. 01:14:07.980 --> 01:14:11.660 Because we live in an age where there's no technology, so nobody can get the schedule. 01:14:12.300 --> 01:14:13.900 Apparently, Hispanics are idiots. 01:14:14.700 --> 01:14:17.340 And why would you want to miss the World Cup? 01:14:18.380 --> 01:14:19.100 Forget church. 01:14:20.400 --> 01:14:24.240 Like their church times are rarely visible, especially when your eyes are going bad like mine. 01:14:24.240 --> 01:14:26.480 But you know, and then this thing's just horrendous. 01:14:26.480 --> 01:14:28.560 Like I'm gonna hand it to you guys later. 01:14:28.560 --> 01:14:32.240 Like it's so faint that it doesn't even like serve its purpose, right? 01:14:32.240 --> 01:14:37.040 Like I couldn't really tell you when the games are or the times because it's just like really bad. 01:14:37.300 --> 01:14:43.220 Here but this was the it says calendar of the group's face. So it's not even all the games 01:14:43.220 --> 01:14:49.300 It's only the first and it the group's face in case you're following the World Cup was over last night 01:14:49.660 --> 01:14:55.260 So they're passing this out, you know only like three weeks too late, you know a dollar day 01:14:55.260 --> 01:14:59.300 I mean a dollar late a dollar a day late a dollar short you've never heard of that 01:14:59.300 --> 01:15:04.720 That's exactly what they've done here then in the back. It does give a proper salvation message 01:15:05.200 --> 01:15:10.320 And that was it. But I called them out. I said, well, well, I'm not this Baptist church. 01:15:10.960 --> 01:15:14.400 I said, I guarantee you this is what you got. She's like, yeah. I said, 01:15:14.400 --> 01:15:18.480 I'm here to do what they don't do because they didn't teach you how to not go to hell. 01:15:18.900 --> 01:15:24.200 If she didn't answer but I saw her face, I know Hispanics well enough, I know I was right. 01:15:24.200 --> 01:15:26.020 She was uncomfortable because I called them out. 01:15:26.020 --> 01:15:28.420 You know, because Hispanics don't like offending other Hispanics. 01:15:28.420 --> 01:15:32.260 You know, everybody is very like respectful. 01:15:32.260 --> 01:15:34.100 So she's not going to call them out. 01:15:34.100 --> 01:15:35.580 But they didn't give her the gospel. 01:15:35.580 --> 01:15:39.620 I spent 20 minutes with her because she was confused on works. 01:15:39.620 --> 01:15:44.340 And when we finally left that door, we pulled her out of hell. 01:15:44.340 --> 01:15:46.540 These guys is crap. 01:15:47.800 --> 01:15:51.640 You know, they didn't come for anybody. You know why? Because they don't think that there's a real hell. 01:15:51.640 --> 01:15:58.200 They don't think there's a reality that people are lost. They think that this is enough for people to just figure this crap out, right? 01:15:58.200 --> 01:16:01.480 Be like, oh yeah, I mean, God loves me. 01:16:01.480 --> 01:16:04.280 People say that all the time. 01:16:04.280 --> 01:16:06.600 Catholics say that God loves you. 01:16:06.600 --> 01:16:11.680 And then they're like, well, sin separates us. Oh yeah, well sin, but I'm not that bad. 01:16:11.680 --> 01:16:15.720 I mean, I do good things. I'm not a sinner like you. You know, Jesus paid it all. 01:16:17.000 --> 01:16:21.160 Thank you for not explaining all the details and then all you got to do is receive Christ. 01:16:21.160 --> 01:16:25.800 And then they have a prayer and people think they got it done with no explanation of the reality of 01:16:25.800 --> 01:16:31.480 life. You know, Hispanics will do this where they'll just finish verses. They'll quote the 01:16:31.480 --> 01:16:38.040 verses with you. She knew John 3, 16. She knew John 1, 12. She's going through them with me, 01:16:38.040 --> 01:16:40.120 but she didn't know salvation until I cleared it up. 01:16:41.100 --> 01:16:43.500 And it's funny because she kept fighting me on works. 01:16:43.500 --> 01:16:46.420 She kept saying like, well, I think, and my pastor says, 01:16:46.420 --> 01:16:48.660 and I think, and I finally cleared it up for her. 01:16:48.660 --> 01:16:51.260 And then I was like, well, I want to make this thing sure. 01:16:51.260 --> 01:16:52.780 So then I was like, you know what? 01:16:52.780 --> 01:16:55.180 Now you believe on Christ, you have eternal life. 01:16:55.180 --> 01:16:56.900 What if you killed yourself? 01:16:56.900 --> 01:16:59.740 And so she's been on like this works kick the whole time. 01:16:59.740 --> 01:17:01.660 So I'm sure she's going to answer wrong. 01:17:01.660 --> 01:17:02.660 And you know what? 01:17:02.660 --> 01:17:04.780 She's like, well, I'm going to go to heaven. 01:17:04.780 --> 01:17:06.340 I was like, you got it. 01:17:06.340 --> 01:17:07.420 And I said, why? 01:17:07.420 --> 01:17:08.900 She's like, well, because I believe. 01:17:09.700 --> 01:17:15.480 I was like finally she got it and we prayed she got saved but you know this is a big church 01:17:15.640 --> 01:17:21.280 They preach the right gospel, but they just drop in the ball because they don't believe that it's that bad 01:17:21.440 --> 01:17:23.440 They just think that life is not that bad 01:17:24.880 --> 01:17:27.600 I've got a couple points. I think I got one more point for you 01:17:28.400 --> 01:17:31.720 I got two more and we're done, but I'll give them to you really quick because I went over 01:17:31.720 --> 01:17:32.720 time with that example. 01:17:32.720 --> 01:17:37.040 But I think that actually resonates more because why are we doing this thing? 01:17:37.040 --> 01:17:39.320 Because we want to comfort people in the love of God. 01:17:39.800 --> 01:17:43.800 I can't help her with her personal problems if she's not saved first. 01:17:43.800 --> 01:17:47.800 You know, just like a couple weeks ago when some guy asked me to pray for him 01:17:47.800 --> 01:17:52.800 so he could be delivered from the witchcraft, the spell that had been cast on him, 01:17:52.800 --> 01:17:56.800 I said, the only way I can deliver you is by you believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. 01:17:56.800 --> 01:17:59.800 I'm not a witch doctor. I don't have that kind of power. 01:17:59.800 --> 01:18:02.800 You know, the only one that delivers us from anything is Jesus Christ. 01:18:02.800 --> 01:18:05.800 Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. 01:18:05.800 --> 01:18:07.800 You know, I'm not, you know. 01:18:07.800 --> 01:18:13.200 I don't work miracles. I'm not Benny Hinn here, you know, and he doesn't work miracles either, but that's what he thinks he does, right? 01:18:14.440 --> 01:18:16.800 But point number four or five 01:18:16.800 --> 01:18:22.260 I don't remember anymore God comforts us so we can comfort others and I think I've driven this point home 01:18:22.260 --> 01:18:24.280 That's why I said we'll go through quickly through these right 01:18:24.280 --> 01:18:30.880 This is the heart of the sermon is that most people aren't living their lives so godly that they can just rely on God 01:18:31.080 --> 01:18:32.200 100% of the time 01:18:32.500 --> 01:18:37.460 And even if you're relying on God more than most people, we're still human. 01:18:37.460 --> 01:18:40.980 That's why we have a church. That's why we have fellowship. 01:18:40.980 --> 01:18:43.620 That's why we have friendships, because we can rely on others. 01:18:44.340 --> 01:18:47.380 It's not just my responsibility, it's your responsibility. 01:18:48.180 --> 01:18:51.220 That's a biblical responsibility. 2 Corinthians 1 and 4 says, 01:18:51.500 --> 01:18:58.940 who comforteth us all in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble 01:18:58.940 --> 01:19:03.820 by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 01:19:05.020 --> 01:19:09.900 You know, tribulation, comfort, and then some ministry. People are going through stuff. 01:19:09.900 --> 01:19:13.900 I've gone through stuff I can relate to a lot. You know, obviously in the ministry you deal with a 01:19:13.900 --> 01:19:15.980 lot. There's just things that I don't understand. 01:19:16.500 --> 01:19:20.500 that others in here have dealt with and you can help better. 01:19:20.500 --> 01:19:26.000 You know, we used to have Brother Bobby who dealt with all the AA people and all the drug addicts. 01:19:26.000 --> 01:19:32.000 I've never, you know, other than alcohol, I've never, you know, been high on any drugs 01:19:32.000 --> 01:19:34.000 other than prescribed stuff, but under... 01:19:34.000 --> 01:19:39.000 I don't know what it is like to be on meth or crack or cocaine. I don't know. 01:19:39.500 --> 01:19:42.220 So I can kind of tell you what the Bible says, but I just don't relate. 01:19:42.220 --> 01:19:45.180 By the way, don't ever do crack meth or cocaine so you can deal with it, 01:19:45.180 --> 01:19:48.460 but if you've dealt with it and you've cleared it up, you can help somebody, right? 01:19:49.980 --> 01:19:52.460 Now that doesn't mean I can't help you with the word of God, 01:19:52.460 --> 01:19:56.780 but man, those are some hard drugs that are hard to deal with unless someone understands it. 01:19:59.600 --> 01:20:03.100 Where am I going to have you turn? 01:20:03.100 --> 01:20:04.480 Go to 2 Corinthians 12. 01:20:04.480 --> 01:20:07.640 We'll close out with that. 01:20:07.640 --> 01:20:11.500 But we do want to have a testimony. 01:20:11.600 --> 01:20:15.200 and how we deal with the trials, that really should be our testimony, right? 01:20:15.200 --> 01:20:18.240 How we show up to church when we don't feel like showing up to church, 01:20:18.240 --> 01:20:22.640 how we show up to soul winning, how we memorize scripture, how we lead our families, 01:20:22.640 --> 01:20:26.880 how we just separate with people once they get something wrong and it's just like 01:20:26.880 --> 01:20:31.120 nobody else would understand but you and God, that is our testimony. 01:20:33.800 --> 01:20:35.800 Where did I have you turn? Oh, 2nd Corinthians. 01:20:37.600 --> 01:20:41.800 And we're not to be selfish. God puts us through trials, it gets us out of trials. 01:20:42.100 --> 01:20:47.500 But don't be shy about it. I mean obviously there's some details that aren't supposed to be explained 01:20:47.500 --> 01:20:52.340 Don't you have to go and everything but you're there to help other people stop being so damn selfish 01:20:52.340 --> 01:20:58.300 And I'm not talking just in general the world so selfish all the time. It's all about me me me me me me 01:20:58.300 --> 01:21:01.260 That's why these stupid. You know YouTube channels 01:21:01.780 --> 01:21:07.700 Resonate which they're not doing anything about like these guys that go around and they just like randomly give a waitress a thousand dollars 01:21:07.700 --> 01:21:09.980 And she cries and everybody's hot pull hard 01:21:10.100 --> 01:21:14.340 pull like their heartstrings are pulled. It's like, oh, you know, look, what a nice guy. 01:21:14.340 --> 01:21:18.280 You know, the reason it does is because they deep down they're, they're selfish. They 01:21:18.280 --> 01:21:22.260 wouldn't do that. But the most loving thing we can do is just tell people the truth. 01:21:24.600 --> 01:21:29.000 I've got two minutes. Last point and I'm there in second Corinthians. 01:21:29.640 --> 01:21:33.960 Our greatest example of comfort is Jesus Christ. 01:21:37.400 --> 01:21:41.200 I mean he understands all of it. 01:21:41.200 --> 01:21:47.920 Our weaknesses, our infirmities, like our anxieties, all our challenges. 01:21:47.920 --> 01:21:49.200 He understands it all. 01:21:49.200 --> 01:21:50.320 I don't even understand it. 01:21:50.800 --> 01:21:53.800 You know, 46 years I've been trying to kick a bad habit. 01:21:53.800 --> 01:21:55.280 It is a bad habit. 01:21:55.280 --> 01:21:57.700 I'm gonna just tell you, you guys have seen it. 01:21:57.700 --> 01:21:58.640 I hate it. 01:21:58.640 --> 01:21:59.720 I hate it with a passion. 01:21:59.720 --> 01:22:01.960 I hate biting my fingers and my fingernails. 01:22:01.960 --> 01:22:03.900 I've reduced it significantly, 01:22:03.900 --> 01:22:06.440 but because it's my mom, so my daughter's like, 01:22:06.440 --> 01:22:07.840 daddy, why do you bite your nails? 01:22:07.840 --> 01:22:08.800 It's like, I don't know, honey. 01:22:08.800 --> 01:22:09.760 I guess I've watched. 01:22:09.760 --> 01:22:11.480 I think my mom did it. 01:22:11.480 --> 01:22:13.560 And then you just mimic your parents. 01:22:13.560 --> 01:22:14.520 And then I just did it. 01:22:14.520 --> 01:22:16.700 And then it became part of my like bad habit. 01:22:17.400 --> 01:22:21.200 And the only one who ever like free me from that is the Lord Jesus Christ. 01:22:21.200 --> 01:22:26.300 Honestly, it's way reduced ever since I got saved and plug in, but you know, it's just one of those things. 01:22:26.300 --> 01:22:29.000 He understands those kind of things. 01:22:29.000 --> 01:22:31.300 You say that's a silly example. It's really not. 01:22:31.300 --> 01:22:34.400 Because it's a reflection of probably some other issue. 01:22:34.400 --> 01:22:37.400 Usually you end up doing stuff like that. You get a tick. 01:22:37.600 --> 01:22:40.800 when you have like anxiety or stress or something like that. 01:22:40.800 --> 01:22:44.240 You want to look at someone who's just like calm and even and just 01:22:44.240 --> 01:22:47.600 everything's going crazy around him. You're like that guy, you know, he's 01:22:47.600 --> 01:22:51.120 living for the Lord. Right? Like everything's burning down, 01:22:51.120 --> 01:22:53.920 everything's on fire and he's like it's all right, it's okay. 01:22:53.920 --> 01:22:57.440 What if you die? It's all right. We're going to heaven. 01:22:57.440 --> 01:23:00.960 You know, wasn't that Jesus? The apostles, I mean the apostles, they're 01:23:00.960 --> 01:23:05.300 with God Almighty and they're like, yo, the ship's going down and he's like 01:23:06.400 --> 01:23:11.860 You have little faith, you know, just like you still don't get it. We'll go to 2nd Corinthians right there verse 7 01:23:12.640 --> 01:23:15.020 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 7 01:23:15.880 --> 01:23:17.280 It says 01:23:17.280 --> 01:23:19.280 Unless I should be exalted above measure 01:23:20.160 --> 01:23:22.160 Through the abundance of the revelations 01:23:22.280 --> 01:23:26.220 There was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me 01:23:26.320 --> 01:23:29.960 Let's I should be exalted above measure for this thing. I besought the Lord thrice 01:23:30.600 --> 01:23:35.640 that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, 01:23:35.640 --> 01:23:40.760 for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my 01:23:40.760 --> 01:23:47.560 infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasures in infirmities, 01:23:47.560 --> 01:23:54.680 in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, 01:23:54.680 --> 01:23:58.600 Then I am strong. And why do I end with this verse? Because Paul 01:23:58.600 --> 01:24:03.960 understood who was the one that suffered the most and was the strongest, Jesus Christ. 01:24:03.960 --> 01:24:07.760 He's following the example that he was given. 01:24:07.760 --> 01:24:12.680 So in conclusion, I have had interesting calls in the last couple of months. 01:24:13.100 --> 01:24:16.260 that could trigger this, but also I figured 01:24:16.260 --> 01:24:19.700 even without the calls, I could have just preached this if nothing was happening 01:24:19.700 --> 01:24:20.020 because 01:24:20.020 --> 01:24:23.060 something's happening to someone somewhere, right? You guys are dealing with it. 01:24:23.060 --> 01:24:26.900 And we need a reminder, everywhere you go somebody's attacking something. 01:24:26.900 --> 01:24:30.380 And it's not just the politics and it's not just the culture. 01:24:30.380 --> 01:24:33.740 It's personal, right? Somebody's mad because 01:24:33.740 --> 01:24:37.540 you no longer talk to your queer uncle. Well, it's gross. 01:24:37.540 --> 01:24:39.540 He's a pedophile and he's going to hell. 01:24:39.800 --> 01:24:42.880 Stop being mad at me. How about you start being mad at him? 01:24:44.120 --> 01:24:45.320 Right 01:24:45.320 --> 01:24:50.360 Somebody's mad because you know you said hey, please don't use God's name and vain around me 01:24:50.360 --> 01:24:55.760 Oh, you're such a goody tissue. And you say that you're exactly no I'm not people fight for the dumbest things 01:24:56.700 --> 01:24:59.580 Mean just look at those videos from Carnival Cruise 01:24:59.820 --> 01:25:04.220 You know as people are waiting to get on the cruises like they're fighting over like somebody 01:25:04.220 --> 01:25:07.900 You know cut in front of them in line or took the last piece of pizza 01:25:07.900 --> 01:25:13.220 It's a buffet just wait for the next piece right like we were fighting over these things. I'm like just calm down 01:25:13.220 --> 01:25:19.220 There's another piece coming. It's actually better because it's warm. It's just comes out anyways. I don't want to get off on attention 01:25:19.220 --> 01:25:21.620 Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer heavenly follow Lord 01:25:22.500 --> 01:25:28.020 Thank you so much for today. Thank you for your blessings, Lord. Thank you that you are God. 01:25:28.700 --> 01:25:35.260 Thank you that you have infinite wisdom. Thank you that you will avenge us. Thank you that you will 01:25:35.260 --> 01:25:42.540 not allow us to faint. Thank you that you will mount us up as on wings as eagles. Thank you Lord 01:25:42.540 --> 01:25:48.060 that you know what we're going through and that you're trying us. Thank you that you're putting 01:25:48.060 --> 01:25:53.580 us through the wringer. Thank you that you're refining us. And Lord just thank you that you're God. 01:25:54.000 --> 01:25:58.560 that we serve a living God who is able to do great things. 01:25:58.560 --> 01:26:01.480 And Lord, just help us to be reminded of that 01:26:01.480 --> 01:26:05.280 and to continue to just fight the spiritual battle, 01:26:05.280 --> 01:26:07.720 to pull people out of the fire 01:26:07.720 --> 01:26:10.880 and to continue to just edify and admonish 01:26:10.880 --> 01:26:13.120 and esteem others better than ourselves. 01:26:13.120 --> 01:26:15.400 And it's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. 01:26:15.400 --> 01:26:17.640 Let's turn our hymnals over to page 374. 01:26:18.840 --> 01:26:20.440 374. 01:26:26.500 --> 01:26:29.000 374. Send the light. 01:26:43.400 --> 01:26:53.000 There's a call comes ringing on the restless waves Send the light, send the light 01:26:53.000 --> 01:27:01.560 There are souls to rescue, there are souls to save Send the light, send the light 01:27:09.700 --> 01:27:11.200 I'm sure it's sure 01:27:14.300 --> 01:27:21.940 The blessed gospel light, let it shine forevermore. 01:27:21.940 --> 01:27:30.180 We have heard the Macedonian call today, save the light, save the light. 01:27:33.500 --> 01:27:36.060 Green at the cross, we light. 01:27:36.060 --> 01:27:38.420 Send the light. 01:27:38.420 --> 01:27:40.780 Send the light. 01:27:40.780 --> 01:27:42.000 Send the light. 01:27:45.400 --> 01:27:54.760 Let it shine from shore to shore. Send the light, the blessed gospel light. 01:27:54.760 --> 01:28:04.280 Let it shine forevermore. Let us pray that grace may everywhere above 01:28:09.800 --> 01:28:14.400 Ice like spirit everywhere we bounce and the light 01:28:25.200 --> 01:28:27.100 From shore to shore 01:28:29.700 --> 01:28:34.660 The blessed gospel light, let it shine 01:28:37.200 --> 01:28:43.040 Let us not grow weary in the work of one's heavenly love. 01:28:55.600 --> 01:28:56.900 Send the love 01:29:04.700 --> 01:29:11.100 Send the love, the blessed gospel, I let it shine 01:29:14.600 --> 01:29:16.040 Alright, you are dismissed.