WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:24.640 Weak from this little church and I wasn't be able to be with you ladies. 00:24.640 --> 00:28.580 Probably Larry read a bunch of mushy poems and you're sick of it. 00:28.580 --> 00:33.140 But I want to read a couple of mushy poems because I didn't get to read them to you see. 00:33.140 --> 00:36.620 I did share with Evansville last week. 00:36.620 --> 00:42.180 But you're the great granddaughters of Eve and you stick your chin out and be proud. 00:42.180 --> 00:47.060 I'm going to conclude with what's special about a woman here as we talk about an entirely 00:47.060 --> 00:49.220 different subject but it's going to come back to this. 00:49.220 --> 00:55.020 A long time ago Pat and I saw three women in the church that were particularly noble 00:55.020 --> 00:58.180 and we made a poem about it and I want to share that with you. 00:58.180 --> 01:02.220 One's a young maiden lady who was one of our best teachers in our school and a school 01:02.220 --> 01:04.940 that's got the best teachers in the world. 01:04.940 --> 01:07.500 And I want you to know I'm so proud of that woman. 01:07.500 --> 01:09.860 She's not a mother or anything else. 01:09.860 --> 01:17.140 She's just a good dedicated professional woman to the Lord Jesus Christ in the kingdom. 01:17.140 --> 01:22.060 And another who was a young woman with lots of kids and everywhere you saw her she had 01:22.060 --> 01:28.340 a handful of kids and yet she was a surrogate mother to the children of the church and to 01:28.340 --> 01:31.380 the children of the neighborhood and those who were lost. 01:31.380 --> 01:35.460 And then an older woman who had raised, she was a grandmama and that's a special kind 01:35.460 --> 01:41.340 of woman and she'd raised her kids and had raised them so beautifully in the power and 01:41.340 --> 01:48.380 in the authority of the kingdom of God and I just wanted to thank them all in these poems. 01:48.380 --> 01:54.180 Don't try to recognize anybody that you see here because I'm not aiming at that but listen, 01:54.180 --> 01:59.460 it's poor poetry but the thoughts are sublime. 01:59.460 --> 02:04.780 Her young girl's body was a beautiful thing but high carbon steel had removed one of her 02:04.780 --> 02:05.780 breasts. 02:05.780 --> 02:10.900 And a cancer's death in the needle sting now she's sweet sixteen with dreams to suppress 02:10.900 --> 02:15.540 and worried about dances and marriage and mate, little off balance she tried to stand 02:15.540 --> 02:21.980 straight and yet all the while she smiled a holy smile making it hard to determine the 02:21.980 --> 02:24.540 shape of her cross. 02:24.540 --> 02:29.820 You remember Matthew 25, in so much as you've done this and to the least of these my brethren 02:29.820 --> 02:32.820 you've done it unto me, Jesus speaking. 02:32.820 --> 02:36.420 Now a young mother of two with one on the way needed help with the kids and she was 02:36.420 --> 02:38.420 late for work too. 02:38.420 --> 02:42.540 Ask me to watch over the house for part of the day, could she pay me tomorrow? 02:42.540 --> 02:46.020 There were other bills due and with children and work there's not enough hours, little 02:46.020 --> 02:49.020 time for her husband, no candy, no flowers. 02:49.020 --> 02:56.820 She never quit nor she considered it fit and just like the master she hung into life until 02:56.820 --> 02:58.420 it was finished. 02:58.420 --> 03:03.300 Now a middle-aged woman with cobalt blue eyes with tear-missing rain-side, my children 03:03.300 --> 03:08.780 are grown, life is bleak in a house where love daily dies, she spent all of her life 03:08.780 --> 03:14.900 in a house not a home was faithful, enduring till the kids moved away, two were left at 03:14.900 --> 03:21.100 the table with nothing to say and as I started to turn did I faintly discern in her yet lovely 03:21.100 --> 03:24.780 face the marks of his scourge. 03:24.780 --> 03:29.020 You look around you and see some noble people who bear in their face, who bear in their 03:29.020 --> 03:34.240 lifestyle the marks of the suffering of Jesus. 03:34.240 --> 03:39.360 My subject today has a lot to do with failure, has a lot to do with despair and the agony 03:39.360 --> 03:42.600 of defeat and I see it in our lives, I see it around us. 03:42.600 --> 03:48.840 Man, I'll never forget that guy going off the end of the ski lift, a crumpled mass and 03:48.840 --> 03:51.820 you hear of the agony of defeat. 03:51.820 --> 03:56.600 Sometimes we find ourselves facing that in life and in our spiritual existence and I know 03:56.600 --> 04:01.120 that some of you have suffered some real agonies and some real heartaches. 04:01.120 --> 04:05.960 Now Adam failed, I want you to know, but he was the first man that God saved. 04:05.960 --> 04:14.800 Abraham, excuse me, sometimes lied was a sometime adulterin scoffed at God, but he was called 04:14.800 --> 04:17.360 God's faithful man. 04:17.360 --> 04:22.800 Moses, can you imagine this, never made it to Israel, but he's called the father of 04:22.800 --> 04:30.200 Israel, Samson who was so strong, so powerful had a problem named Delilah and she was something 04:30.200 --> 04:37.080 else and he became Israel's greatest warrior. 04:37.080 --> 04:44.120 Peter who denied Christ was just astounds me that anyone could do such a dastardly deed 04:44.120 --> 04:48.080 was the first and the greatest of God's preachers. 04:48.080 --> 04:52.760 Now first of all, every one of us must live in this world and if you live in this world, 04:52.760 --> 04:58.880 you must know that there is a reality to failure, that there is failure around us. 04:58.880 --> 05:00.560 God knows we fail. 05:00.560 --> 05:02.640 Are we trying to fake him for heaven's sakes? 05:02.640 --> 05:03.640 I hope not. 05:03.640 --> 05:08.800 Listen to Psalms 103 verse 14, for he knoweth our frame. 05:08.800 --> 05:11.680 He remembers that we are dust. 05:11.680 --> 05:16.280 I'm thankful to God for that since I never be divv- God, did you presume I was righteous? 05:16.280 --> 05:22.320 No, I never have to say that silly remark, do it, because he knew that our relationship 05:22.320 --> 05:27.560 to him was sometimes untrustworthy, sometimes not what it ought to be, for that's the very 05:27.560 --> 05:32.840 nature of our frame, framework, our bodily makeup is that we can't always be counted 05:32.840 --> 05:33.840 on. 05:33.840 --> 05:37.800 Someone says, I get so depressed when I look at the failures of people, I get more depressed 05:37.800 --> 05:40.280 when I look at my own failures, how about you? 05:40.280 --> 05:42.720 And we have to forgive them both. 05:42.720 --> 05:47.560 True success is not avoiding failure, because if you're doing something, you're going to 05:47.560 --> 05:48.560 fail. 05:48.560 --> 05:52.440 Have you ever just worked your heart out and said, well, you could have done that this 05:52.440 --> 05:53.440 way? 05:53.440 --> 05:54.600 Have you ever heard anybody say that? 05:54.600 --> 05:58.520 Well, sure enough, honey, I know that you could have done it a hundred different ways 05:58.520 --> 05:59.520 than I did it. 05:59.520 --> 06:01.240 I'm going to do it this plastic way. 06:01.240 --> 06:02.440 But how about you? 06:02.440 --> 06:05.400 Sometimes you don't do it the way of perfection either, see? 06:05.400 --> 06:11.200 It's learning what to do with failure that makes us successful Christians, that makes 06:11.200 --> 06:13.080 us successful in the house of God. 06:13.080 --> 06:18.680 Now, baby Ruth, and I wouldn't even watch a game, a full game of, as far as I know, I've 06:18.680 --> 06:24.480 never watched a full game of baseball, but because there's more wonderful sports than 06:25.240 --> 06:26.240 that. 06:26.240 --> 06:30.320 But you know, the guy who hit the most home runs was the guy the same season who took 06:30.320 --> 06:32.760 the most swings and struck out. 06:32.760 --> 06:36.600 And his name was baby Ruth, and he was somebody, wasn't it? 06:36.600 --> 06:41.880 And you know, when you're just going for the long run and the long bomb, man alive, you're 06:41.880 --> 06:44.080 liable to strike out too, aren't you? 06:44.080 --> 06:45.080 Who cares? 06:45.080 --> 06:48.800 Just remember how many times he struck out, can anybody probably, probably Brink can tell 06:48.800 --> 06:53.840 us how many times he struck out that season, but we all remember that he made more home 06:53.840 --> 06:56.800 runs than anybody else on the face of the earth. 06:56.800 --> 06:57.800 And that's tremendous. 06:57.800 --> 07:01.760 Edison, you know, is considered to be such a Jesus, he wasn't so bright. 07:01.760 --> 07:08.760 He tried over 5,000 light bulb filaments before he found the one, tungsten, that really worked. 07:09.320 --> 07:14.440 Now that's not just genius, that's sticktuitiveness, isn't it, and persistence. 07:14.440 --> 07:17.840 That's what it takes sometimes to make a success in life. 07:17.840 --> 07:21.680 And sometimes we are so afraid of failure that it's that fear that becomes worse than 07:21.680 --> 07:22.680 anything else. 07:22.680 --> 07:26.120 And I know many, many people say, oh, I just don't think I ought to try that. 07:26.120 --> 07:29.800 I just don't think I could be this or I don't think I could be that. 07:29.800 --> 07:36.640 And that fear we'll never know because if that scare, that fear, phobia, hydrophobia, 07:36.640 --> 07:43.640 claustrophobia, agoraphobia, fried chickenophobia, there's all kinds of fears of everything under 07:43.640 --> 07:44.600 the sun. 07:44.600 --> 07:50.680 In many psychological textbooks, there's almost 2,000 fears of things that have been categorized. 07:50.680 --> 07:55.400 I mentioned that the psychologists have now quantified 64 fears that they can treat you 07:55.400 --> 08:00.120 for all for 125 bucks an hour if he's a cheapy. 08:00.120 --> 08:04.160 I think I'd have a lot of fears you'd be scared of because I'd just be that much richer, wouldn't 08:04.160 --> 08:05.160 you? 08:05.160 --> 08:10.000 And people do have a tone of fear and there's a finality to fear because if the fear keeps 08:10.000 --> 08:13.760 you from trying, you'll never be what you want to be. 08:13.760 --> 08:20.560 God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 08:20.600 --> 08:22.280 Timothy 1.7. 08:22.280 --> 08:23.280 Of power. 08:23.280 --> 08:27.580 Boy, I love the little church, funny little church. 08:27.580 --> 08:32.520 Not that big is it, but it sent its people all over the face of the earth. 08:32.520 --> 08:39.720 Did you know the average church sends out or ordains one person in its lifetime? 08:39.720 --> 08:45.720 Now you know that in a very short period of time we set out 22 and that doesn't count 08:45.720 --> 08:53.280 the folks who are in full-time work like orphanage work or admissions work, that doesn't even 08:53.280 --> 08:54.280 account that. 08:54.280 --> 08:58.600 Those are just men who are ordained and many of those are preaching all over the face of 08:58.600 --> 08:59.600 the earth. 08:59.600 --> 09:04.480 So I'm glad for that power, not a fear because I know there's a power of fear. 09:04.480 --> 09:11.360 Boy, let me tell you, if you walk into the wrong kind of places acting fearful, you're 09:11.360 --> 09:13.960 going to get your lips mashed off. 09:13.960 --> 09:17.480 You better go in there swaggering like you're the cock of the walk and you might pull it 09:17.480 --> 09:18.480 off. 09:18.480 --> 09:25.800 But you approach a tough fight with fear and I'll tell you, you're whipped all ready 09:25.800 --> 09:27.960 as a man thinks in his heart. 09:27.960 --> 09:34.880 So is he and it's time to think that we are winners of power, of love and of a sound mind. 09:34.880 --> 09:42.960 What's the unconquerable grace of God is I think love, don't you, agapeo, selfless love. 09:42.960 --> 09:48.680 You can't put a man or a woman down who has selfless love in their heart because you can't 09:48.680 --> 09:50.000 hurt them. 09:50.000 --> 09:54.680 I thought about those mothers or that young lady who had the operation that changed her 09:54.680 --> 09:57.400 life forever but never changed her lifestyle. 09:57.400 --> 10:03.400 She still loves the Lord Jesus Christ and I think of those women as being a wonderful 10:03.400 --> 10:07.680 expression of incongruable love. 10:07.680 --> 10:12.880 You can't stop a mama and I don't care how messy the diapers get and you know I'll go 10:12.880 --> 10:15.840 only so far with a diaper. 10:15.840 --> 10:16.960 I've made that commitment. 10:16.960 --> 10:20.360 I will go a little ways when it comes to diapers. 10:20.360 --> 10:24.200 But mamas have to go all the way when it comes to diapers. 10:24.200 --> 10:29.760 You can believe that with all of your heart and a sound mind. 10:29.760 --> 10:35.240 We look out at the world which is schizophrenic, at a world which is split. 10:35.240 --> 10:38.440 It's going one way and slifting off another. 10:38.440 --> 10:44.080 Just talking about one thing and doing another and that leads to an inner fear and phobia 10:44.080 --> 10:46.800 which I think tends to conquer us. 10:46.800 --> 10:52.400 We have in general, even in the church, not been able to forgive ourselves. 10:52.400 --> 10:56.080 We trial real hard at forgiving others because we heard that was a commandment somewhere 10:56.080 --> 10:58.480 and don't forgive others, see. 10:58.480 --> 11:04.320 And we really try that at least to varying degrees but we find it so hard to forgive ourselves 11:04.320 --> 11:08.000 and I know men and women in the household of the faith who are such wonderful people 11:08.000 --> 11:13.640 are bearing a burden of guilt because they've not been able to forgive themselves. 11:13.640 --> 11:18.760 Others they did a good job on but they cannot seem to forgive themselves and yet I say that's 11:18.760 --> 11:22.220 not what God intended for His people. 11:22.220 --> 11:30.560 He said in Proverbs 28 verse 13, He that covers His sins shall never prosper, but whoso confesses 11:30.560 --> 11:33.160 and forsakes them shall have no mercy. 11:33.160 --> 11:36.320 To say that you sin, there's nothing wrong with that. 11:36.320 --> 11:41.280 How fearful we are that someone will hear that we've made a mistake yet we ought to 11:41.280 --> 11:45.600 with great pride be able to say I did sin, I did make a mistake, I want to share with 11:45.600 --> 11:50.680 you brother and sister and then because you have made that confession of faith it's much 11:50.680 --> 11:59.200 easier then to leave that, leave that sin, forget that sin, put it out of your life. 11:59.200 --> 12:06.460 If God has forgotten, He said remember I will remember their sins no more and that ought 12:06.460 --> 12:11.840 to go out in 3D with the multiple amps won't no more, more, more, more, more and we ought 12:11.840 --> 12:14.160 to hear it night and day. 12:14.160 --> 12:20.440 God said I do not even intend to remember your sins if you're born of the water and if you 12:20.440 --> 12:22.000 are born of the spirit. 12:22.000 --> 12:25.320 That's what the church is supposed to be preaching isn't it? 12:25.320 --> 12:29.840 Not to conform as so many scriptures have been read this morning it all gone together 12:29.840 --> 12:31.880 so beautifully hasn't it? 12:31.880 --> 12:35.160 It has all gone together well. 12:35.160 --> 12:41.040 Identify therefore the very things that you can do best and concentrate on that thing. 12:41.040 --> 12:46.320 You know that God gave us everyone to have different identities and different people 12:46.320 --> 12:51.440 were different shapes were different sexes were different intellects were different colors 12:51.440 --> 12:59.080 were different layers of obesity were just so uniquely different and why should we all 12:59.080 --> 13:04.680 be put into one little category see like a mold a mold hymns in doesn't it? 13:04.680 --> 13:11.640 A mold is binding a mold doesn't take us very far does it you just conform to the limits 13:11.640 --> 13:16.880 of the cavity into which you are poured and so we don't have to be poured into the cavity 13:16.880 --> 13:20.880 of anybody else except ourselves. 13:20.880 --> 13:24.460 And I don't know what God wants you to do to be victorious I don't know what God wants 13:24.460 --> 13:29.640 you to do to overcome your past and to forget those things which have gone by but I do want 13:29.640 --> 13:35.800 you to know that he wants you to be what you ought to be the latter that is on the way 13:35.800 --> 13:38.200 upward is climb step by step. 13:38.200 --> 13:42.080 A lot of people have failed I think in the kingdom of God because they set their mind 13:42.080 --> 13:48.920 to leap over mighty tall buildings and Superman does that but you and I aren't Superman but 13:48.920 --> 13:56.680 the key to success is one step upward at a time even if it's a timid little step step 13:56.680 --> 14:03.560 up start exercising yourself to forgetting the past and going on to those things which 14:03.560 --> 14:11.360 are to come to pass in Proverbs 24 16 listen to this it is worth remembering for a just 14:11.360 --> 14:19.680 man falls seven times and he rises up again for many people to just stumble publicly once 14:19.680 --> 14:26.240 that's the end of it that's it but you see a good man a just man God's man can stumble 14:26.240 --> 14:31.520 seven of course I think of seven times seventy don't you think that's probably the message 14:31.520 --> 14:37.360 the past is done hey God doesn't care about the past he forgot that how come you're remembering 14:37.360 --> 14:42.240 how come you're bothering with that baggage that you claim that you're dragging along 14:42.240 --> 14:48.920 see no he wants us to go on he wants us to be something better seven times is not too 14:48.920 --> 14:54.160 many times to fall if you lay there that's when the danger comes and that's when you're 14:54.160 --> 15:00.560 most vulnerable God wants us to go on to grow to take a step upward not to bother about 15:00.560 --> 15:07.120 leaping tall buildings but to methodically practice a successful life from day to day 15:07.120 --> 15:15.320 from hour to hour from evening on to evening secondly I think overcoming the guilt of the 15:15.320 --> 15:26.800 past is so much in rolled in the concept that God's grace is enough for us so be it let 15:26.880 --> 15:36.320 God's grace be enough for us and self condemnation is so often self indulgence see how many times 15:36.320 --> 15:41.760 you're using the word self there and self punishment you've heard of the flagelante 15:42.480 --> 15:49.120 those who just simply whip and lash themselves to bleeding ecstasy that isn't the kind of 15:49.120 --> 15:56.960 flagelante that God wants us to indulge in he wants us to not scourge ourselves for remember 15:56.960 --> 16:03.280 the scourge in the young woman's face there was a scourge she bore the marks of the whips of life 16:03.280 --> 16:10.320 didn't she as Jesus bore the scourge and oh how important that is I see in many lovely faces 16:10.320 --> 16:17.440 today of both male and female of granddaddies and mothers little children even little children 16:17.440 --> 16:23.120 have had to bear the marks of the scourge of life in their face and they bear it well and 16:23.120 --> 16:28.160 they bear it graciously they go on and they forget they're not condemning themselves and 16:28.160 --> 16:34.720 they're not indulging in that very thing that of course means to repent repent means to have a 16:34.720 --> 16:40.320 change in attitude or a change in behavior I think that's why acts 238 clearly proclaim 16:40.880 --> 16:47.520 repent and be baptized you see you have to have a change of mind and heart 16:48.160 --> 16:54.000 before baptism means anything before being born again you have to be born according to the seed 16:54.000 --> 17:01.040 the word of God and then of course confession was so important because I can't hide what I am and I 17:01.040 --> 17:07.600 have no need to at first John 1 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us 17:07.600 --> 17:14.640 of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness I know sincere godly people who are still 17:14.640 --> 17:22.080 looking for that cleansing which was accomplished so long ago but he says if we are faithful see 17:22.080 --> 17:29.920 and if we've confessed it and if we're going on he will forgive us our sins and the manifestation 17:29.920 --> 17:38.320 of that is that our conscience should be clear now our confession our way of life has cleared the 17:38.320 --> 17:45.440 way for us through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and he says he will cleanse us from all 17:45.440 --> 17:51.280 unrighteousness go to bed tonight I don't care what you've done in the past if you've cleared it 17:51.280 --> 17:57.760 with God it's not my business you can sleep well tonight if the past is behind you you see 17:58.640 --> 18:05.600 if you confess that sin and specifically to God and if you're moving on see to live the kind 18:05.600 --> 18:11.360 of walk that you ought to walk if you straighten it out with God you don't have to worry about 18:11.360 --> 18:16.720 anything else and sleep well me come by the way because it's my conviction that you go on the 18:16.720 --> 18:24.240 journey of life your conscience should be cleansed and that leads the life of power I think the joy 18:24.240 --> 18:31.840 of going to Russia is that here's the biggest country on the face of the earth who for 70 years 18:31.840 --> 18:37.040 have not had the word of God can you imagine the unclean's consciousness and such a vast 18:37.040 --> 18:43.920 mass of people of children who were raised of men and women who were raised who never knew the 18:43.920 --> 18:50.960 succor and the comfort and the joy of one who is called Lord Jesus Christ isn't that incredible 18:51.920 --> 18:58.080 I just the opportunity to do such a thing for people who've in many cases never heard of the 18:58.080 --> 19:04.800 Lord Jesus Christ indeed who have not read his word who wouldn't know what the advice you know 19:04.800 --> 19:09.120 there's a peace and a comfort in this word in there notice that little Gideon Bible 19:10.880 --> 19:17.120 and I thank God for the Bible for the word of God here's stability here's comfort here's peace of 19:17.200 --> 19:24.320 mind and here's a people who never had such a thing it was worth your life to possess such a 19:24.320 --> 19:32.160 thing and yet not to have it was to cost them their eternal life and listen forgiveness is a lot of 19:32.160 --> 19:38.480 things isn't it and it's easy you know to forgive I suppose it's not too easy to forget is it 19:39.280 --> 19:46.000 John 3 17 we've heard of 3 16 but he said for God did not send his son in the world to condemn the 19:46.000 --> 19:54.560 world but to save the world through his self I think that's neat don't you he didn't come to 19:54.560 --> 19:59.440 condemn us he didn't come to put us down sometimes we get defensive don't we like we're ready to be 19:59.440 --> 20:04.560 condemned like you often get that don't you you almost get conditioned to it but he didn't come 20:04.560 --> 20:10.880 to do that he came to save us I was thinking in all the ways that I've been a failure I found this 20:10.880 --> 20:16.640 in the psychology book so I just wrote it down academically I didn't make straight A's I don't 20:16.640 --> 20:22.400 know about you it's kind of hard to teach in a college which now offers master's degree level 20:22.400 --> 20:30.160 without a doctorate and I've managed to stumble all academic I failed economic you know why I'm so 20:30.160 --> 20:37.600 tight I've got to go to pond creek one time when I was a senior in high school I was the summer I 20:37.600 --> 20:44.000 got free I got we went 18 miles north of town to pond creek now that's a big deal if you leave 20:44.000 --> 20:50.880 an enid Oklahoma where the name dine see came that's where the word enid came from see dine the 20:50.880 --> 20:56.320 cowboys looked out the restaurant there where it said dine it spelled enid backwards and I see with 20:56.320 --> 21:02.640 that kind of thing and you know how much money I had I had two dollars to take my sweetheart 18 21:02.640 --> 21:10.240 miles I gave the guy that drove a dollar and so we went to the fair with me kind of desperate 21:10.240 --> 21:16.560 it was a dollar in my pocket when we went this woman had a voracious appetite 21:19.120 --> 21:22.400 I didn't really walk my hamburger for the time she had eaten mine 21:23.600 --> 21:30.720 I now had 60 cents left for a whole evening of three hours in pond creek Oklahoma during the county 21:30.720 --> 21:36.560 fair and that was a long night so if you think I'm tight sometimes because I acquired it naturally 21:36.560 --> 21:43.680 that's all I had believe you me and what a long night marital which one among us has done everything 21:43.680 --> 21:49.440 they should in their marriage which one among us I may stay with impunity have I done what I might 21:49.440 --> 21:53.600 have done for my children sometimes I lay awake and I don't think I should have done that for my 21:53.600 --> 21:58.640 salad I should have done that for my Debbie I should have done that for my pat see and sometimes 21:58.640 --> 22:05.760 we're all faced that and moral well someone said morality is what you do when nobody's watching 22:07.200 --> 22:12.640 and which among of us haven't done things when we didn't think someone was watching huh 22:13.680 --> 22:17.760 and the sad part of this whole world is people are do things even though I know you're watching 22:18.480 --> 22:25.840 it's changed hadn't it changed incredibly professional one time I made an outline for 22:25.920 --> 22:31.760 oil and gas play in the center of the powder river basin I tried to get it pedaled I tried to sell it 22:33.920 --> 22:39.840 we couldn't get anybody to buy it discouraged I quit that is three of the biggest oil fuels 22:41.680 --> 22:49.680 in the rocky mountains today you said just quit I just quit the eternal I'm I'm noted for running 22:49.680 --> 22:56.720 into windmills that's all I do in my life is run into windmills and yeah socially I went steady 22:56.720 --> 23:07.200 three years with a girl who didn't go steady with me I am such a social nullifidian that I can't find 23:07.200 --> 23:14.000 anybody up at the college to march down the aisle with I've been there 27 years so I know that we 23:14.000 --> 23:20.560 fail if I fail you can too what is grace or atonement for fission's one seven in whom we have 23:20.560 --> 23:25.120 redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the richness of his grace 23:25.760 --> 23:32.640 and so the three great big Rs restitution see if you've stolen something you can give it back 23:32.640 --> 23:37.120 the hard thing about gossip about somebody that's hard to give them back their character isn't 23:37.120 --> 23:44.000 so you be careful you at least try to to restitute see to right the wrong as best you can 23:44.000 --> 23:49.040 this will help you with your conscience so that you can be guiltless before God reconciliation 23:49.040 --> 23:54.880 means to bring things together and look at 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 18 and all things are of 23:54.880 --> 24:01.680 God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and have given us the ministry of reconciliation 24:01.680 --> 24:08.560 to it that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses 24:08.560 --> 24:13.440 unto them so you're not charging you with your sins he's not making account of it why do you 24:13.440 --> 24:20.720 and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though 24:20.720 --> 24:28.960 God did beseech you by us we pray you and God's dead be ye reconciled to God if you're reconciled 24:28.960 --> 24:38.000 to God nothing else really really matters and then restore restore restore such a one he says those 24:38.000 --> 24:43.120 who have slipped you are spiritual and that means to put them back into service again if you've 24:43.120 --> 24:49.520 made a mistake you need to be teaching again you need to be preaching again you need to be healing 24:49.520 --> 24:53.920 again you need to be doing those things which God gave you purpose to do now very lastly 24:54.720 --> 25:01.200 as I look at starting all over and assuming that the past is gone God has been looking to the future 25:01.200 --> 25:08.240 in 2nd Corinthians 4 890 says we are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed 25:08.240 --> 25:16.560 but not in despair we are persecuted but not forsaken we are cast down but not betrayed and 25:16.560 --> 25:23.040 I'd like to think of a paraphrase at this good morning Mr. Troubled because see we were troubled 25:24.000 --> 25:29.840 oh on every side but we weren't distressed we didn't quit did we good morning grandmother 25:29.840 --> 25:35.760 perplexed you ever feel I you ever have a morning you don't wake up perplexed 25:37.040 --> 25:45.440 what's the world come to and surely the end age of God is consummate and I need to have that 25:46.000 --> 25:51.280 perplexion not leading to despair for many of the world they're finding their healing in 25:51.280 --> 25:59.600 the bottle we're in drugs see we're an affair of some kind something to cancel the past but you see 26:00.160 --> 26:06.000 there's no despair in our perplexing good morning Mrs. Forsaken but not cast down that's a long name 26:06.000 --> 26:12.880 but that's a good name isn't it good morning well take stock of your gifts in Romans 12 and I'm 26:12.880 --> 26:18.400 going to take the time to read it but he lists about 10 things there that are gifts that he 26:18.400 --> 26:24.240 wants you to exercise the gift of preaching the gift of serving the gift of explaining the gift 26:24.240 --> 26:30.560 of encouraging the gift of giving the gift of administering and the gifts of being merciful 26:30.560 --> 26:37.920 you know this church would be 10,000 strong if it just exercise mercy to everyone that needed a 26:37.920 --> 26:48.240 mercy even little babies if we would just exercise mercy to those who have it coming and you know 26:48.800 --> 26:56.640 I was a sinner and yet Jesus was merciful you were a sinner and yet he had mercy on you too 26:57.280 --> 27:02.640 so therefore take stock and your gifts and exercise them that's the best way to forget the past 27:03.200 --> 27:08.480 that's the best way to have the guilt of the past be forgotten it's go and do something else see 27:08.480 --> 27:21.360 forgetting those things which are behind he said I what pass on I go on I surge ahead for getting 27:21.360 --> 27:28.080 those things which are behind that was the first step to healing and forgetting the past one for 27:28.080 --> 27:33.200 getting the past quit dwelling in the past quit thinking about the Christ quit talking of the 27:33.200 --> 27:40.720 past for it's now and forever more that's relevant in the sight of the Lord Almighty trust God if 27:40.720 --> 27:45.920 any one of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that give it to all men liberally and 27:45.920 --> 27:51.600 up braids not and it shall be given unto him he just didn't give us a gift and then nagged 27:51.600 --> 27:55.520 all the time we were enjoying the gift he said he doesn't upgrade us anymore you know what that 27:55.520 --> 28:02.880 means chew us out don't you don't need to be chewed out about anything it was done through 28:02.880 --> 28:10.560 satan and Christ conquered that upbraiding and is with us no more in Philippians 419 28:11.120 --> 28:18.800 my God so supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ who satisfies our need 28:18.800 --> 28:26.720 our husband is it our wife who satisfies our needs our children well to some degree that's true 28:26.720 --> 28:37.360 but I just read that it says my God shall supply all your needs and we need to look toward God 28:37.360 --> 28:43.200 and have God it's not my job that's going to satisfy me totally it's not my country that's 28:43.280 --> 28:50.160 going to satisfy me totally it's not my political stance it's not anything that I possess except 28:50.160 --> 29:13.040 it is my God and my God alone as we stand and offer the hymn and our hymn of invitation is number 342