You guys can't go anywhere. You're trapped.
Wanna just wanted to thank you. Thank you again for the opportunity to share the Lord's word with you as kind of a surprise for me being able to do that again, since I did preach last week.
So anyway. Thank you. One good thing is that tomorrow we are leaving Wisconsin.
That means we'll take all of this with us. The snow came when we came, and after we leave I I guess your weather's like in the forties, or something like I mean, that's like when I was growing up in Milwaukee.
It was sort of like, you know. That's where you're out on your front lawn with the beach balling.
Your swimming trunks and all that, I mean.
That's warm. Alright. I grew up in Milwaukee in the light of what you guys don't know anymore.
The Polish moon. Basically, that's the south side of Milwaukee, 11 Street, between National and Mitchell Street.
I guess I was talking. I heard somebody talk yesterday, and they said, No, I see Inner City.
Well, when I was growing up, that was the south side
What I want. You know, this is actually gonna tie into the message.
Let me, and I'm not saying this to correct Fred, or anything but just to put things in perspective cause this will tie into the message.
Well, I went. After I became a believer, or after I started following the Lord, I started attending here because my uncle was here, and he just happened to be on furlough that year.
Well, the thing was is that eventually I got the idea that I wanted to go to Moody and so I applied to Moody Bible Institute as applied to Trinity College, not Seminary College, and I was turned down at Moody.
I was turned down at Mooney, and I didn't know why, but I was really pretty, you know, not feeling good about myself.
I was working for a guy long story here, and I won't go into it.
But he was actually in the board of Movie and he said to me one day, Why didn't they accept you?
And I said, I have no clue, and he said, tomorrow, when you come here, we're some good clothes, and we got in this Mercedes, we drove down to Moody, walked right up in the brank Gusterson's office and they were in there shooting the breeze for a few minutes and came
Out and he says, Okay, let's go. We're in the and 2, 94 coming back.
And he says, says the reason they didn't accept you is because you became you gave your life to Christ you were using drugs and they've got one year peration for marijuana 2 years for Lsd, well, Lsd, was the one that caught me.
There, I mean so at any rate, we're driving up there, and he looks over at Trinity College, and he says, Have you applied there?
And I said, Yeah, but I really had my heart, said I.
Moody says, well, I'm on the board here, too.
That's how I got in
My first new classes at Trinity College were remedial.
English and remedial mathematics. Now the remedial English.
There's a funny story involved there, but mentioned that maybe later.
So I went to Dallas Seminary, I eventually got to Dallas Seminary, and I actually, I ran almost ran out, my gi bill going to Trinity cause it costs so much.
So when, Beth you dare, and I got married, I mean the Lord took us together in the pews right here in this very assembly, when we were married, we lived in Wukegan, and I went and finished at Uw Parkside in Kenosha and after that I I
Had my site set on going to Dallas Seminar, and the Lord was gracious, and leading this there glorious career at Dallas Seminary.
Glorious career for Milwaukee. Boyatell Seminary.
I'm the only person I know of who took 2 classes with one semester and got flamingos in both.
Now you can figure that out later. We stretched the 4 year program into 6, and toward the end I had to cram everything into a summer, and there was a contract rating system at the one of the professors thought up in historical theology.
And so we had to tell him at the end of the class what we wanted.
Now we had already gone to Greater Europe Mission and gone through their candidate school, and we were getting ready to go to Pre.
Field, and I asked before I left for Pre. Feel that summer.
Prefield at that time was that Wheaton College, and I see well, you know, like, what's the book?
And he told me what the book was, so I sat down there.
It, knowing I was gonna have to Greek during the summer, and a whole bunch of other stuff, and I had his class, and he said, Well, here's how we're gonna do it.
If you write these papers and read these. But do these projects and read the book, you'll get An and for a B.
If you do, you know only one of the projects, and you do this and this, and this, and read the book.
You're good to be anyone all the way down A. D.
Was read, the book
And so I walked up to him at ease. So you can't leave here until you tell me what grade you want.
I walked up there, and you had Dal side glass place, you know.
Go for the best, and everything I went up to him, and I said I'd like to d anyone who what I said.
I'll take the D. And I got in, but I got me and family right, and so when I, when we came back from Europe and Beth was being led the way, she was being led by the Lord with her cancer and everything one of the things she asked me to do was go into the doctorate
Program, doctor ministry, which is basically continuing education for people involved in full-time ministry.
What was interesting is that I got there? Yeah, I I signed up after she died, and they they brought me up there for an interview.
And here's what he told me, he said. If it hadn't been for your missionary experience we wouldn't have accepted you, because we've never accepted a candidate before that had 2 Fs. In a d.
Yeah, so glorious, or whatever the Lord has his way of leaving us.
And that's what I'm gonna draw your attention to today.
Yeah, last week, I was. I was kind of speaking for my heart, and that was very easy, because these passages of Scripture is referring to are very important to me.
They're very important to me, because reaching lost people in making disciples as far as I'm concerned.
At this point in my life I can speak like an old person, is all we're here to do.
I think I mean, if God wanted us perfect and holy, and all of that kind of stuff, you know what we call progressive sanctification, he could have just nipped it in the bud the minute that we trusted Christ.
Boom! Take us to heaven, and all is good. Now we understand the Scripture.
Now we can sing in tune. Now we can do all of that wonderful stuff we'll see him face to face.
The only thing we cannot do. Real people. And it isn't just the great commission that I'm referring to here.
When you get into revelation. The first time that John falls at the Angels feet, he says, no, you can't do that, I'm a fellow servant with you in your your brothers, who carry the testimony of Jesus, he says, worship God this testimony of Jesus is the spirit of
Prophecy, the testimony of Jesus runs right from Genesis all the way to the end of revelation.
What we are here to do, what God is doing. 24, 7 is trying to reach lost people, and he's using us.
He's using us in all of our brokenness. He's using us with all of our bad grades.
He's using us with all of our deficiencies.
In fact, Paul says, in First Corinthians, he does it on purpose.
He chooses the foolish, he chooses the weak
Because the people that were ministering to the people that were trying to reach for Jesus, that people that God brings us into relationship are exactly those same people.
And they don't need to see Superman. They need to see a woman who has struggled through life.
But Jesus Christ has been that if I, deciding factor right, that's what makes the difference.
And a man who has gone through all sorts of stuff, crazy stuff in life
But he's holding on the Jesus Christ, and that gives this other person hope.
What during during the whole covid thing, which is basically a walk in the park compared to revelation, right?
All of that kind of stuff. Why do you have hope?
Why do you keep on doing this? Why does your family thing together?
Why do you have a smile on your face? Whatever the case may be, it's because God has kept us here, but He hasn't just kept us here.
He's engineered us in a certain way.
They verse that I was referring to last week. That was kind of the springboard verse was, were, Paul is saying, you need to be filled with the spirit.
What does that look like? Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart always, and for everything you mean, thanks to the name of Lord Jesus Christ, the God, the Father, I mean?
What do you say about a person like that they're full of?
Joy. They're they're full of the love of Christ, I mean, there's probably 10 or 15 different ways. We could do that.
But the point is, you got to get there? One of the reasons, I think, that witnessing is so hard for us.
Besides the spiritual resistance, why is becoming a disciple or being a disciple, or doing discipleship in churches?
Such a hard thing because of our spiritual resistance. It's the same coin one side, right?
It's all making disciples. But you gotta reach the loss, and then you gotta get involved in their lives right and bring him to a certain place in their walk with Jesus Christ.
We have a great spiritual resistance to it. What breaks down the spiritual resistance, the love of Jesus?
If you are so full right now of the love of Jesus Christ, you have a hard time not addressing one another.
And you know, encouraging other people. You have a hard time.
Not singing to make humility with all your heart. You have a hard time not being able to process in love all of the things that God the Father does, and if you can do that, it is a piece of cake to walk out the door and declare the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and that's
That's witnessing, declaring the excellencies of Jesus, and here's the thing.
It's not easy, right, you know, because again, revelation, we learn the first love at the beginning, I mean people who become believers I mean, if if you' them out of the right background, they go nuts, they're telling everybody about Jesus, they're telling their relatives, about Jesus until they learn that you
Have to moderate that a little bit now you can't just be too excited.
You might be charismatic, or something like that, he can take some breaths, take some breaths.
There's a long road. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Pretty soon they wind up like the church and Ephesus.
Oddly enough, that's what we're gonna be looking at today.
The truth in Ephesus, right, grateful fighters.
They didn't get tired. They were there beaten down all the the heritage and all that kind of stuff.
And and what's Jesus? First word I'm about to remove your candlestick because you gave up your first love.
Cool. Go back. Remember what you've forgotten, and do the things you did at first.
What did you do at first? You were witnessed to everybody.
You were excited about the whole thing. This was the greatest thing on the planet
Get excited, and no matter where you are, in your Christian life, it all comes back down to the love of Jesus Christ, and understanding that God is in the process of making you and bringing you and molding you, that is an amazing thing, and I think I mentioned this one time in the message I I gave here, when this
Hit deal. Moody he became. I mean he was already a lunatic, in Chicago, right?
He had this reputation, crazy, moody, but when he learned about the love of Jesus, when Harry Morehouse, the brother and evangelist, got a hold of him, not only did he learn how to look into the Word of God, but it just overwhelmed him how generous God's
love was, and that is the mark of Do Moody.
All the way to the end. The love of Jesus Christ, so that's good for us, too, I think.
Now, you guys know that I I talk a lot about the cyclistship. I think it's the thing that we are always to be pursuing.
It was growing in our left for Jesus Christ, and always remembering.
Now, yeah, I'll just say this about the the word real quick.
I mentioned last week that I think it's a great idea to memorize the Book of Occasions.
I know that just seems like another assignment, but the thing is, what's genius about it is, if you've got a bad memory, it works perfect because you keep memorizing and keep forgetting and keep memorizing and keep forgetting to keep memorizing and it becomes like medica meditation and you start
Seeing stuff in passages that it's like you. You read over them so fast.
Now there was a movie and I'm getting more toward where I'm going. Here.
There's a movie called Memento, and it's not really that great, a movie.
But it's a very interesting concept there's a guy because of a break in his house.
He goes to try to fight with the guy who's breaking in, and he winds up, hitting the bathroom floor with the head.
He has short-term memory loss every day. That means when he wakes up, basically every morning. The only thing he can remember is his name.
And he's got a mission, and it's kind of a dumb mission he kind of gets used to abused in this, but what he has to do then is he has to every time he he remember or finds out something significant about his life.
He writes it on him, on his arms, and so what he has to do every morning when he gets up, is he has to look down, and he has to see what these notes were to remember what he's supposed to be doing in life okay, it's kind of a a short thing there.
Folks. We have a spiritual disease roaring through our teams called Sin.
We still got the old man, and we wake up every morning with the tendency to forget why we're here
I mean I I take this actively in hand with some of these things, and I'm just saying the Word of God.
Early in the morning, you know, and I know I'm talking like an old man now. Who?
What right does he have? He doesn't know how he learned.
I learned best, you know, like when I'm falling asleep at night.
That's when I learn. Yeah, forget it. I'm reading.
I just had to chuckle at this. I'm reading George Muller's narrative of How blessed him and he gets in this one section, and he says, I beseech the brethren and cistern when you wake up in the morning the first thing you need to do I
Can almost see him jumping up and down as the Germans do.
The first thing you need to do is get into the Word of God.
I think it's brilliant. I mean, yeah, people.
So I'm not gonna do that, you don't have right there.
Yeah, whatever. But the point is, we need to remember why we're here.
And these points about being filled with the spirit are really important.
We need to understand that Jesus loves us like no other.
We need to understand that God is fully, in completely in control of everything.
I mean he has. He's seen the evil, he has seen everything, and he weaves our lives through it in such a way that we should be able to rejoice
So on that note. Open up the book of effusions.
I am going to kind of just take a walk. We're gonna take a walk through the Book of Theesions.
Starting in chapter one.
For me. This has been a great book, and if you are really interested in rubbing up your spiritual life, going deeper and and being filled with his joy and filled with his love.
This is a great book to start with. I mean, it's all through the Bible. Obviously.
So as Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints, who are also faithful in Christ Jesus, and some of your Bible say in Ephesus, it's probably a circular letter.
The thing is, Paul spent about 3 years in Ephesus, so these people would have known him well.
But the churches around Ephesus. Ephesus was about 300,000 people, and he'd been under.
He'd been in jail now by the time he wrote this from Rome he had been in jail maybe 3 or 4 years.
At that point through Me have been a lot of other people, and especially if this letter even circulated around the city man.
I don't know how many people are. Milwaukee, but either would have been more than one assembly by this time, so, at any rate, Grace to you in peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.
And here you start. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Stop
He has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
That means there are no spiritual blessings, and they have only places that do not belong to us because we belong to Jesus Christ.
That means that everyone I'm looking at right now. Who knows?
Jesus Christ is basically a millionaire. You are a special
Person in love and interest of Jesus Christ. Now the trick is not allowing yourself to forget that the trick, and so much of what you read in the Bible is understanding that from an emotional perspective, if you are safe and secure in Jesus Christ there is never a time that you are not safe and secure in Jesus Christ
And it goes on
Even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him now, without going into a lot of theology here there's a lot of theology here.
It says, for example, that at the end of this, when we are in his presence, when the old body and the old man is put away, we will be holy and blameless before Him.
We are already that because of Jesus, sacrifice for us.
And so you you have to start asking yourself the questions, what can I not do?
Then in faith in Jesus, if he loves me this much, and he's already done all of that.
Now the one place where we get hung up, and I think that's what's important.
Here, where Paul is getting at the end of chapter 3 is a lot of us spend a lot of time trying to understand our background.
The the hurts that we have. I mean, obviously, some of us are gonna have wounds right up to the grave and that's why it's in revelation.
You will wipe away every tier that's a promise and a guarantee
Why do we endure? Well, one of the things that says here is, it?
Says, even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be wholly, blameless before him.
Well, I don't know what that says to you, but it says to me he already knew my name, and I might take issue with that.
Why did you give me the name? Cacheus? I mean seriously right.
I don't go to any place I mean Duck Horn, I mean.
That's bad, too. But you go out to California and find duck horns.
Coachicus, there is not a Cacheus street in the entire world.
Not only that I mean in the Sixtys when they came out with Chikita bananas, boy, that was a hit with a last name like that, hey, Chikita banana! Come over here.
I was like oh, no, not another one
He knew you before the foundation of the world. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.
Jesus is the beginning of God's creation. Before to Adam, before 2 atoms were created, he knew your name
If you know Jesus Christ, you can be assured of this.
He knew your name, but before he knew your name he had already designated the Savior
And you know what's kinda interesting in this. When you I, you know, like, I remember being at the chaplain and not knowing anything, I mean, really, you know, I remember one time referring to the book of Job. And everybody turned around and looked at me whose job you know oh, job okay, I'm sorry
You know, and trying to figure this stuff out about election. But you would the Holy Spirit did, which is just such a neat thing in Romans.
It says, those who he for new, he also predestined so foreknowledge came before any of his acts of election.
So what that means is this, and it, you know, I and I'll just be real personal with you for a minute.
Okay, the the home that I grew up with my mom and dad.
Never loved each other. I mean I was what they called back in those days a Polish wedding proposal you're gonna have a what?
And there we were. The marriage was off and fighting. I saw my mom, my dad beat my mom.
Wonderful thing. I had a sister who was born mentally retarded, for whatever reason, and died when I was 8, when she was 8.
I was 9, all of us, and you know it, and I've been overseas.
I've listened to people whose families have gone through East Germany, and all of the atrocities of the the Second World War, and that kind of stuff makes my background look like a a fairy tale.
You know, like a like a good story. But here's what I'm saying.
God knew, what he did in his love. And this is you get this out of Romans.
Romans, twelfth, no Romans. 9.
God knew it! What he did then was, he knew the evil.
He knew the good, and he then started designing all of our backgrounds.
He knew which ones of us were going to be able to play soccer well, and which ones weren't, which ones of us wish we would have grown up playing soccer.
Well, that would have been me. He knew how to bring you through all of that to where you are now.
There was a and and if you get a grasp of that, see, you're re.
If you're well, I say, if you're reading with Bible, I heard some portions referred to this morning.
What about Joseph? What happened to Joseph? We all love the story of Joseph, except we don't realize that he was.
It hurt him to be sold by his brothers when he names his 2 sons.
What does he name them? He names them. This is like, 13 years later.
He's giving them names that talk about his loss. He still felt his loss.
Why did God do that to Joseph? Well, we know that that's a happy ending right there, right?
But Joseph didn't know it was a happy ending.
Joseph didn't know that after he talked to the the cook or the baker, or you know the the what do you call it?
The copier of the pharaoh that the guy was going to forget.
For 2 years. Joseph didn't know he was going to remember.
He was having to go through real-time trauma as he was living, but he held on in faith to God in the same is true for Moses.
All these stories that we're reading, and you see how God weaves all the wreckage together.
Jacob is a wreck every year when you read that, you need to understand the grace that is being shown here by God to keep the planets salvation going, because Jacob was a terrible father.
He had a terrible family.
And out of that God works, giving us our free choice, so that at the end of the day he will always be held up completely righteous it's an amazing thing.
And what I'm what I'm trying to say right here is as you read these things, to understand.
God has been working Emu
And he's been doing it well, I'm at the point in my life where I can look back at all of that and say, Got, I praise your name
Oh, would like to have gotten better grades, but I didn't.
Anyway, he's working and see. That's what you get from reading these these portions, so that we would be holy and blameless before him and look at verse 5.
He destined us, and loved to be his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Now I know you're gonna you look at this he does in love, and you know with God his love isn't like our love right because he's he's perfect to be motionless.
So he's like one of these big headed alien things that you see kind of like on the green lantern.
One of the watchers love. I love you. It's like what love.
Take what you know about love, cause you're created in the image of God.
Take what you know about love. Take out all the bad stuff.
Stuff you see on TV and all that. But imagine what love is if you love someone, you want to be with them.
You want to be with them. It's joyful to be with them.
If you love some, you you want to buy them stuff. I do.
If you love someone, there's a sense of joy, there's a sense of expectation.
There's a sense of of almost wonder. You know, it's just like and you don't tell me.
Guy can't feel that cause he can't. It says that Jesus cherishes the Church.
Husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the Church, and he cherishes the Church, cherish being one of those gushy Jesus looks upon you a great joy.
The father looked upon you with great joy, and he in that love.
And in that yearning to see you where you are right now he moved heaven and earth in all the yucky parts, and all the good parts, and he brought you where you are right now to be able to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light
Wow! That's all tucked in like what 5 verses imagine trying to memorize this stuff right?
You got a memory like mine I can't do it, but I keep going over.
And actually, after a while, it starts making sense
According to the purpose of his will. You know there's a verse in Romans that all of you know, and probably no wrong.
Isn isn't that funny? No, you you know it right.
It's just the translation. So
I came up with the Rsv. The reason I went to the Rspe was because I'm in.
I'm in the chapel here, and everybody has split columns in their Bible.
I could hardly read. Remember, I had to go to do remedial English, and it's not you're gonna split my my problems in half or double them, or whatever it is.
2 comes. So I went out and got the first 5 I could find.
That was a real Bible that had one column, and it was the Harper Study Bible, and it was in the Rsv.
From 1,952. And here's what Romans a 28 says
And if I remember rooms a 28 God uses all things for good with those who love him.
God works all things for good with those who love him. You know.
I think the other version say, God works all things for the good of those he loves.
I don't know, you know, if I'm reading a little bit later in Romans, chapter 8, it says that we're like sheep designed for the slaughter we're we die.
We're, you know. We're dying every day, and we're being led a sheep that doesn't sound like that's good for me right
But God works all things for good, and you see that right here in this verse, in chapter 5, in verse 5, he says, he disconnected love to be essential.
Christ uses a recording to the purpose of His will. What is the purpose of His will to save people on this planet?
And he will use your life for good, you know one of the problems that the Apostle Paul had standing at the end of his life.
He still said he was the chief of all sinners. So when you read him, say that.
And first Timothy, or in second Timothy, where he says that you realize that's beyond the Book of Acts. Right.
This is Paul was something terrible that's happened in Ephesus.
The Romans are probably Nero is starting to bear down, and he and Timothy are doing damage control.
And see. Paul says I am still the chief of all sinners.
Well, why could Paul say that? It's because of his memories
Paul was used like poly, not used. But Paul boarded for Christians.
He uses the plural to be killed. We only know about Steven.
There must be other people. Paul went to cities, plural, not just the Damascus, and he yanked mothers and fathers out of their house.
Men and women, he makes a point of saying, and the women and locked them up, and he tortured men, maybe women, too, who knows? To try to get them to blaspheme the name of Jesus
And that's why Jesus can come to Paul and say, Paul, isn't it hard for you to kick against the goats?
Aren't you? Seeing that you're meeting people that have a zeal and a love that matches your own?
You cannot get them to deny Jesus Christ, and that's making you making you worry
And you know you ask yourself the question, why didn't God, Paul?
God take Paul out of that? Why didn't Jesus appear to Paul later before he tortured those people
According to the purpose of his well
There was something about Paul afterward where he says in First Corinthians, I worked harder than all of them, but it was not I, but the grace of God.
That is me. Paul was already a driven man. You see that.
But there was something that drove Paul even more and I don't think it was as guilt, but it was the wonder that God would even use him, that God would even save him because of what he had done, and I think that just exploded so much in Paul's heart like he was going to work until
Death he was gonna pursue Jesus Christ until death, and when you see Philippians, chapter 3, that's part of that in there is that he is pursuing Christ because I not that I've already making my own.
But I pre I
Because Jesus had made him his own that's what he says.
There's somewhere. So the point being is that God uses all those things.
But how would you like to have been the person that shows up in heaven and say, Yeah, they said, what great thing did you do in your life as a Christian?
He says what you know, what Paul killed, and he made him guilty.
Talk about heaping calls. Yeah, God used me as a dent on the bumper
For His glory. It's still His glory.
God's plan is speech, you know, is like working. You find the gospel here. It's right here
According to the purpose of his will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He freely bestowed on us, and be 11.
That's Paul all over the place right there. When Paul wrote those words.
I mean, this was like flowing from his heart. Why, in the world did he save me?
Why did he wait? I don't know why he waited.
You know, I mean, sometimes we can't work that stuff out.
But here's the deal he took me, and he's using me
And that is a reason for me to praise him and give him glory
In him we have redemption. This verse 7. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trust passes according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us well lavish probably doesn't mean lavished right.
I mean it probably just like a squirt, I mean, you're you're a it isn't like taking the whole ocean important it's it's just sort of like you give them a we're gonna we're gonna lavish.
Then we'll give them. No, I think lavish means lavished.
See, this is the thing that really that really caught Moody's attention.
You know, it's like, How much are you gonna believe what God says?
See, that's in your hands. Right? Because this is labish upon us.
So is is that lavished, or is
Is the entire spiritual world open to us in Christ's name, because of what Jesus did.
And people guys would come up to Moody, and they would say, You know, I've got, you know, I got this problem and everything he says, who are you not trusting?
What do you mean? I'm not sure. What did God say?
All things are ours. Whether Paulos, Paul, or Palace, or Cephus of the world, or life or death of President Future, all are yours, and you were Christ in crisis gods, and you know it.
It gets you when you read those weird sections of the Gospels where Jesus says, if you had faith, you could just say, I mean, I I cringe when I read that stuff I mean, my faith must be yeah, I can't even get my fingers, close enough together.
To show you how small my faith must be. But Jesus is saying, basically, if you're working for me in the harvest, you can ask me anything
And moody in the evangelist of that day.
Ask God for great things, and they saw great things, and I think we just get, you know, this is why discipleship is the cyclistship.
You're in groups, you're encouraging one another.
You're doing that all the time, and I think we need that.
I think we need to have the evangelist in the Assembly, and all that you know.
That's my my whole thing on Ephesians for.
But the the point being is really to believe that we've been given, that all things are yours.
Whether Paul, or a palace, or Cephus of the world, or life, or death, or the President, or the future, and he says, See if first of the world do you mean the world is ours?
Can we really pray? Big purse like that? You know, guys like, you know, who's that Ohm Guy, George Werner? What an egg head!
Right to believe that God was gonna do all that stuff. The thing is, he did
All of a sudden they had 2 ships sailing the ocean, and those ships!
Those ships got retired. They have just. They're fitting up the second new ship right now within a few months.
It's going to be ready to go again. What Egg had had that kind of an idea that God could use that ministry, and I follow their ministry every day because I get their prayer.
Things. And they're doing amazing things, and we don't trust God to do amazing things because Satan keeps us admit in in maintenance mode.
And he tells us we're just little worms, let's say someplace in the Bible.
You're a word. Yes, it does, but that's at the point, because God uses worms to catch fish
Right. You can't cash fishing unless you're a worm, anyway, we got to be a fisherman well, forget it.
Forget that whole thing. Bad illustration. But the point is, he still does it and we won't believe it.
The power of the Word of God in us is just amazing.
The Holy Spirit will take that faith, and if you go, I mean, that's so.
George Miller's whole thing. I I mentioned it last week, and you guys weren't here.
So I gotta tell you the reason that Muller did all of that stuff.
The number. One reason that he mentions it over and over and over again was to give you the confidence of trusting God in all circumstances, the number one reason they put all these orphan houses together was to show Christians they can trust God's word in his word just do it if he moves you
To do it. Then you've got all the resources you need.
Just wait on him and go
Now, you know, this is the different breed of people right here, right?
But what about us normal people? Does he do that, too? Of course he does.
And we need to have that stimulated in their heart, and the only way they get stimulated in your heart is through the Word of God.
Reading the stories of Abraham and Moses, and all of these guys.
That's why they're there. And you see, God breakthrough in such a big way.
And you realize, you know, that that kind of faith, that kind of display of power, is not for just getting you through the day, and because the wash machine broken, that it's you reaching your neighbor and saying, Lord, give me an opportunity with this person give me something open this store and you know where you see that most is on
the mission field. So you listen to me and you listen to Micah.
In all these guys, you know, it's so wonderful what they do.
They can do the very same thing for you to write here right now.
If you have that faith and reading the Word of God every day, is the only thing that overcomes the spiritual disease.
We have this lack of faith that we have, because you're reading that
I will be kind to you. So turn to chapter 3,
Verse 140, actually, you know, just just to show you all all 3 of these chapters are talking about God's working.
Chapter 2. He well, chapter 2. Obviously he talks into the mechanics of Jesus, saving us. You.
He made alive, and then he gets into talking about Israel in the church.
You know God brings can bring record reconciliation between those things that's basically in that little portion.
There is Romans 9 through 11. But when he gets into Chapter 3, Paul stops, and he says, Well, wait a minute, you know, he says, therefore I, Paul, a prisoner of the Lord on behalf of you Gentiles, well, assuming you've heard of gift to God's grace I was given
Me for you how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I've written.
Briefly as you're reading this, you can see that the Lord has kind of laid a lot of stuff on me, but I didn't deserve any of it.
And again, he's the worst of the disciples, but because of God's great power
He has made Paul the man that he is. That's why, when he gets to verse, and and you look at verse 16
Where am I? Here? Verse 13. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you.
Which is your glory. God is doing this to me, for you, so don't be down hard, and I'll poor Paul!
He's doing this for you to lift up your fame to show you how special you are.
And right here you can see the mechanics over how of how he's using my life for you, and therefore in verse 4 team, he says, for this reason I bow my knees before the father, from whom every family in heaven on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory the riches of
His glory, how he moves heaven and earth to make sure that His people are able
To proclaim Jesus Christ, how He fits us, how He prepares us the riches of His glory!
He may grant you to be strengthened with might through your spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts or faith, so that you, being rooted and grounded in love
If we understand what Jesus is showing us, what the Holy Spirit is showing us, that we are completely
Loved, that we are completely known that God, before the foundation of the world, knew this very moment where you would be sitting right now, and who you would be with, and the things that you have going on tomorrow, that God knew that it gives you a great security
And he's able. Then, through his spirit, to strengthen you with might in your inner person, in order that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that you will abide in Jesus Christ Jesus, said He who abides in me, and I am him he is who bears much fruit for without me you can
do nothing without me abiding in your heart. You cannot lead people to Christ.
You cannot be dynamic in this world, you cannot proclaim my excellencies in the midst of a lost and darkened generation.
But knowing all of that through your spirit, through spirit, you're strengthened in your inner person, so that Christ can dwell in your hearts through faith, in order that in order that you, being rooted in, grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the scenes what is the breath in length and
height and depth into no, the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge.
You've got one goal right there to know the love of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge.
You won't be able to get to the end of it, but as you pursue it, it will make you a fairly unstoppable person on this planet for the glory of Christ.
And I'll just finish it out here so that you, being written, grounded, and love me a part of comprehend with all the saints, was the breath in length and height and depth, and know the love of Christ that surpasses all loud so that you may be filled with all the
Fullness of God. There you go now to Him who, by the power being clothed with power from on high, who, by the power at work within us, is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think to Him be glory in the Church, and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen
Let's presume, Heavenly Father, we thank you. We don't have any right to
Be here. The we didn't do anything to deserve our salvation.
Everything around it worth breadcrumbs that you threw out, and and people who you brought into our lives, and somehow we're here, and somehow we know, our Lord Jesus Christ, and we know that there's something going on in this planet that deeply moves you you have a love for all men women and
Children on this planet, our love for them could never surpass your love for them, our care for them could never surpass your care for them.
You have genuine affection, you have genuine love for every person.
And your love is meant to fill us, so that we can allow that living water not only to flow over us, but through us, into the lines of other people.
And I hope there are men and women in this room right now who just want to say, that's all I want to do
There's so many things that can take our attention. They can give us a different view of church, a different view of life, a different view of ourselves.
We've become afraid we're worried about this. We're worried about that
That's kind of what you say. Perfect love cast out all fear to live in your love and realize that we are living a life we did not we that we owe to you, and that the more we pursue you, the more we pursue your son, the deeper that goes in the more possibilities, open as we reach
out to neighbors, and we reach out to people at work.
I mean, how dare we tell you you cannot do! How dare we tell you?
You cannot open
Windows in heaven.
So we pray that you would
Give us heart to love, for Lord Jesus Christ, that he would become our one passion, that one thing that we pursue and have love for no one else, I mean no greater love than Him, and so we just thank you.
We thank you that we can be right here, that we can be struggling with these things, that we have your word and our lapse on our hands, and we can praise the name of Jesus Christ.
Help us. We pray to use our lives so that His name can go on, and so that others can know him in prison.
Too, and we asked this in his name. Amen.
You are.