Stand Your Post

Jerry Leachman recently wrote a blog entitled, “Do Not Leave Your Post,” an exhortation from Ecclesiastes 10:4: “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.” If we leave our post even for a little while, a lot of destruction can happen. In a little while, a little fly can putrefy the perfumer’s ointment. In leaving our post, our reputation can be sullied and many followers will fall. The Bible has many warnings about men who had stood for God and the integrity of His word. According to Romans, Do you who say, “dont commit adulatory, commit adulatory?” As men of God and servants of the most high God may our prayer be, Keep me in the hollow of thy holy hand… that I would be a witness unto you to your glory and honor.

In my own flesh dwelleth no good thing. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Our redemption is not through our own works. For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.

Therefore keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. Sin thrives in darkness and isolation. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We’re called to the body of Christ to build up one another and to encourage one another in love.

Pride blinds us from our weakness. Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. The love of Jesus keeps us pure in heart. In his presence we develop a “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” If we focus on sin, we’ll fall deeper into sin. Sin means to miss the mark. The emphasis on the Greek word for sin “hamartia” is not on the missing of the mark but on the mark itself. Therefore looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus….

Ecclesiastes 10:4 says, despite the battle raging around you, don’t leave your post: “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.”

When Pete first came to Christ he prayed, “Lord I know I’m not the man you intended me to be. Please, Lord make me that man.”

Jeremiah was known as the “weeping prophet.” He loved the children of Israel whom God had called him to minister. He delivered God’s message for the tribes of Judah to return their hearts to the Lord. Despite his repeated warnings that they would be carried away into captivity if they did not repent, Judah continued to forsake the Lord.

Despite God’s dire warnings about the consequences of Israel’s sin, there are also great and precious promises for God’s people. The choice is always truth or consequences. Jeremiah 24:7 is about repentance: “And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.”

After Israel had been taken captive by the Babylonian king because they had forsaken God and followed their own devices Jeremiah 24 says, “THE LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3 Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. 4 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 5 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. 6. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.”

Like God’s promise to Israel through his prophet Jeremiah, God will give us a heart to know Him when we return our hearts to the Lord. God has called us to the body of Christ so that together we can follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God wants to reproduce children “after his kind.” The character of our Heavenly Father is love, mercy, grace and faithfulness. These are the qualities that he will reveal in us when we return our hearts to him with a whole heart.

To forsake sin is to turn unto our Lord. To flirt on the edge of sin is to be consumed by the world, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. You’re most like the friends with whom you associate. This is why we’ve been called with a collective calling as the church of the living God, the body of Christ. When we together answer God’s divine appointment to assemble ourselves together, then we can have fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, and one with another in the household of faith.

Whom the lord loves, he chastises. The word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof and correction, for instruction in righteousness. To correct means to restore to an upright position. Even though it hurts to be straightened out, God restores us upright for our own good. The blessing is that we will be returned to a position where we can glorify God.

According to Jeremiah 29, God has a plan for you to restore you to fellowship with our Father, His son Jesus Christ and one another in the body of Christ. God is a God of reconciliation and restoration. The requirement is that we repent… that we turn from ourselves and unto the Lord. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

The consequences of sin and iniquity leave scars even though we have been reconciled and forgiven when we repent. God’s grace and mercy forgives us when we repent with a broken and contrite heart of humility and meekness.

God’s plans are for our welfare and not for calamity…. Therefore Paul said, not only in my presence but also in my absence, work out your own salvation, your own wholeness with awe, respect,and reverence. For it is God who worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.

When we delight ourselves also in the Lrod, he will give us the desires of our heart. When we deliberately, intentionally, and purposefully make our delight the Lord’s delight, then God will work within us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Therefore quit ye like men…. conduct yourselves like men who stand their post to which God has assigned you. Then we shall realize His plans for good and not for evil…. to prosper and be blessed. God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11-13 says: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

… That we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Simple Faith

Simple faith says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation.” This includes pandemonium, pandemic, and panic that we’re so familiar with. However, Jesus said, “I have overcome the world.” God wants to reproduce children “after His kind”. God allows tribulation because tribulation and the pressures of this world prove His character in us.

According to 2 Timothy 3, in the last days Christ-followers will suffer tribulation and persecution. God said through His prophet Isaiah, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” According to 1 John 4:4, “greater is he that is in you than he that is in this world.” God permits the trials of life to prove and to test his strength within us to bear up under the pressure…. to prove that he is Sovreign overall and that he has a plan and a purpose to will and to do of his good pleasure in us and through us.

According to Hebrews 11:1, Faith is the substance, the evidence, the proof of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Simple Faith is in the object of faith…. our Lord Jesus Christ. According to scripture, we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are unseen. The important things are the unseen things are the things of the spirit of God. What endures? The things of the world will soon be past, only that which is in Christ shall last.

Through the doors of heartbreak, God opens an intimate relationship with our Lord. For tribulation worketh patience and patience experience (proven character,) and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts which is given to us.

When our hearts are broken, Our Lord Jesus will come to us with the the grip of his nail pierced hands to rescue us. If pain and tribulation is the way to intimacy with him, then thank him for breaking our hearts.

The challenges of life, the watershed moments of life are the ways that God tests our faith to bring us closer to him. Pete recalls that when he was waiting for his son to be born, the doctors said, you’ll need to leave the delivery room. We’re losing the baby’s heartbeat. As he prayed in the Father’s waiting room for God to save his wife and baby, he heard God’s voice: “How much control do you have over this situation?” Pete answered, “none.” Then God asked, “No matter what happens will you still honor, love, and serve me?” Pete searched his heart. He answered, “You know all things. You know that regardless of the outcome of this situation, I’ll honor and serve you.” Then the doctor came into the father’s waiting room and said, “I’m sorry but we lost the baby.” God had prepared Pete’s heart for this crisis and he and his wife learned to trust in the Lord for comfort and strength.

This is deep water Christianity. As Cory Ten Boom said, “no pit is so deep but that our Lord isn’t deeper still.” As the Psalmist wrote, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

God gave us his Holy Spirit to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Therefore, “quit ye like men.” Our command is to conduct our lives “as it becometh the gospel of Christ.”

Even though we wrestle with the sin nature that we inherited from Adam, God by his grace has created within us a new nature in Christ. For he who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

When Pete was going through the ordeal with his wife’s terminal brain cancer, he made it a point to post journal entries on the Caring Bridge website. In order to approach life in a fallen world with its conundrums, crises and confusion, its important to have a simple faith. Simple means to focus on the main thing. When they received the news that Suzan’s cancer had returned with a vengeance, God directed Pete to Psalm 1: Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

When Suzan’s neuro-oncologist showed them images of the cancers that were spreading all over Suzan’s brain, she said you have two options. One option is to take immediate aggressive action. The other option is to do nothing and “let nature take its course.” Pete asked, “what do you mean by immediate action.” The doctor said, “we’ll perform surgery today to bore a hole through her skull, insert a port, and inject medicine directly into her brain.” They asked the doctor how much longer this would extend her life. She said that on rare occasions, patients have gained another year or two with this intervention. Or it may not make any difference at all. Without the surgery our prognosis is that she may live another month or two. The doctor said, I’ll give you and your family some time to make a decision but if you opt for the surgery, we’ll need to perform the surgery today.

Pete, Suzan, and their eldest son Chris discussed and prayed for God’s direction. A few days earlier, when Suzan woke up she had said to Pete, “I’m so disappointed this morning.” When Pete asked her why, she said, “Because I thought I’d wake up in Jesus’ arms this morning, but here I am with you.”

Suzan was eager to run to meet her Lord. When they decided not do proceed with the surgery, they felt the comfort of the holy spirit. Simple Faith means to let go and let God…. casting all your cares upon him for he careth for you.

Pete wrote on Caring Bridge, “Our shepherd doesn’t drive us, he leads us into the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. I’ve found that for whatever God has called me to in any given day, His grace and strength is always sufficient for the task. He’s my shepherd and he will never let me down.

One of Suzan’s favorite hymns is a hymn of simple faith that says it so well:

Have thine own way Lord, Have thine own way
Thou art the potter, I am the clay
Mold me and make me after Thy will
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have thine own way Lord, Have thine own way
Hold over my being absolute sway
Filled with Thy Spirit so all can see
Christ only always living in me…

… That in simple faith we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Pete McKenzie 0:00
Word for word getting out. We’re back. It’s good to see you here. It’s good to be here a man. Look the guy next to you and say, Listen up. He’s gonna be talking to you today.

You know, my good friend Jerry Leachman. Jerry helps me make sense out of a lot of things. But not all things. But he got he got a letter out last week, that was really a powerful letter. Some of you know, Ravi Zacharias, and you’ve heard of him, he’s a great apologist and great preacher and teacher. He’s from India, had a wonderful testimony and had a great ministry. But he didn’t finish strong. He passed away last year. And they found out afterwards that he had a secret life. And I think that’s what motivated Jerry to write this letter that he got out to his ministry. And I’m going to read you the letter and then we’ll make some comments not just about this letter, but about what’s going on today and nation’s facing judgment from Jeremiah, and what God’s doing in our country today. But he took this as It’s entitled Do not leave your post is taken from Ecclesiastes 10 four where it says if the temper of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post. Because composure and calmness prevent great offense. Do not leave your post. Do not leave your post is exploitation from both parties in the Bible, the teaching tells us that even in difficult situations, we must not leave our post. Never, never, never leave your post, even for a little while, because a lot can happen in a little while. There’s also a teaching in Ecclesiastes, that is true and it’s taken should be taken seriously. In the last verse of chapter nine, it says just one center destroys much spilling over into chapter 10 one it says dead flies putrefy that prefer perfumers on, and cause it to give off a foul odor. So does a little folly for one respected for wisdom and honor. And here’s the sobering lesson. Those who are respected for wisdom and honor can have even a brief sinful indiscretion. And their entire legacy can be ruined. They left their post. The reputation goes from respected and honored to a foul odor. The wise grieving are wounded by it. And fools have a heyday when the respected and honor leave their posts and become hypocrites. Paul says in Romans 222 through 24, you say you do do you say do not commit adultery? Do you committed adultery? you boast about the law? Do you honor dishonor God by breaking the law, for the name of God is blaspheming among the Gentiles because of you. Now when followers of Christ who really have a fear of the Lord, hear these teachings, it hits him like a brick. And they immediately break into prayer. Oh Lord, please fill me with the Holy Spirit, that I may never leave my post grant me that I will finish strong. And here you say well done. good and faithful servant. raavi did not finish strong. The teachings of the Lord are true. The whole thing has a foul odor. For whatever reason, he lost his fear of God and thought he could live a secret life. You know what? There’s no such thing as a secret life. The fear of God always reminds us that God is ever present, all knowing, all powerful. When I’m tempted to click something evil on my computer, the fear of the LORD is my friend. He reminds me that Jesus sees all that I say all that I do, and all that I think Don’t get me wrong. There may come a day when we’re faithful and refuse to leave our posts and we’re overrun and killed. I get it. But one of my core values and beliefs is that on my last day, when I’m drawing my last breath, I will be on my post for Jesus Christ. Boo yah. I’m grieved that Robbie left his post. This brings me to the next point. David left his post. He messed up his family for generations. But one of his best friend Jonathan, it’s still been alive. is Jonathan arrived on the battlefield he would have asked Where’s David? He’s back at the palace hanging out, then Jonathan would have shouted, that’s not his post at this moment. He needs to be right here with his men, God, that God called him to be a leader off, then Jonathan would have written, written his horse straight to the palace, walked in and yelled at David, get off your rear end and get back at your post

and lead our men and do what God has made you to do and do it now. David’s entire future and legacy would have been completely different. What a tragedy. So who was Robbie’s? Jonathan? I guess nobody, what a tragedy. I just read a study about 246 ministers here in the US, that all had moral failures and were disqualified all in the same year. The study interviewed all 246 of them. And here with a trend lines, none were involved in any kind of personal accountability. Guys, that’s why we have for him. That’s why you always have small groups. It’s not just to study the Bible, but get in each other’s lives to walk through life together, someone sees me slipping, I want them to come and grab me and say, Hey, bud, that’s the wrong direction to come when they were going in the right direction. They weren’t involved in any kind of personal accountability. Each had ceased from having any kind of personal prayer, Bible reading and worship. Guys, this is a hard enough life on our own. We can’t live it. We can’t be men of god apart from Christ. Jesus said, If you abide in Me and my word abides in you, you will bear much fruit. far apart from me you can do nothing, nothing lasting, nothing powerful, nothing fruitful, nothing multiplying. Nothing healthy. Nothing right. Nothing true. Nothing excellent. Nothing worthy of praise apart from me, nothing eternal. But somehow we think, I guess that we can do it on our own. And sometimes we go out on our own. More than 80% became sexually involved with women. Without exception, each of the 246 had become convinced that this sort of fall would never happen to them. Now, what are the principles we can learn from this? Well, Principle number one, sin thrives in isolation. Satan lives in the darkness. That’s why it calls us there. Stay in the light. Stay in community. You know, first Peter one sevens says, If you walk in the light as he is in the line, you’ll have fellowship with one another. And the love of Jesus Christ will keep you together. Stay in the light. Pray for two Jonathan in your life who will come running when they see you slipping. Principle number two. If you flirt with sin, you fall into sin. Sin is a slippery slope. The longer you walk on the edge of the abyss, it only takes one step to go over the edge. Pray Jesus would keep you on his path and he will stay on yours. Never leave your post. There’s a story told about a man back in the horse and coach days that needed a coach driver to drive his horses. And so he started interviewing him. He asked one guy took him up to the side of the mountain Cliff on the right there’s it went to the right side of the road. He said How close do you think you can get to that cliff? I think I can get within a foot or two. He interviewed the next guy. How close do you think you can get? Well, I can get it within six inches to a foot. Then he asked a third guy how close can you get? He says I don’t want to get close to the edge. I want to stay as far away from it as I can. He said your heart. That’s the principle guys. Sin is a slippery hope. Pride blinds us to our weakness. Pride comes before a fall. First Corinthians 1012 says anyone who thinks he stands Take heed lest he falls I think we could apply that to our nation. that anyone who thinks he stands Take heed lest he fall with the greatest nation in the world. We got the greatest military in the world. We got the greatest economy in the world. We got the greatest health care in the world. We got the greatest lifestyle in the world. We drive the greatest cars in the world. We live in the most beautiful houses in the world. We got it. We’re on top of the situation where America, America first I’m not to hearing that as much as I heard it before. There’s a lot of people that don’t think America’s first. America may be facing judgment guys, we’re going to talk about that in a few minutes out of the book of Jeremiah

pry blinds is from our weakness in the fourth principle. Purity is cultivated by loving Jesus. And loving Jesus is cultivated by spending time in his presence, to know Him is to love him. Do not allow your hearts to become cold towards the one who loves you so much, guard your heart. Don’t leave your post. I don’t care how tough it is, I don’t care what you’re going through. I don’t care what soup you’re in right now. Don’t leave your post. Hang in there. Trust God, find strength in him, find patience in him, and purpose in him. Don’t leave your post. Holly and I have given a solid pledge to one another to help each other with all we’ve gone through into finished strong and faithful, picking up speed as we cross the finish line for Christ, The Lord be with you. I needed to hear that you need to hear that. We need to be reinforced in our faith. One guy says I can resist anything but temptation. And we’re going to be tempted at every turn. Especially if you’re a man of God, you’re going to be asked to compromise don’t turn that wheel in. Don’t look the other way. The Holy Spirit saying don’t put click that button on your computer. I was reading in Jeremiah at the same time this week. And I was looking at the verse in Jeremiah 2911. For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, their plants are good and not for evil that you might have a future and a hope. And I thought, What’s the context of that? So I started going back a few chapters and saying Why did he say that? What did God say that. And if you go back to chapters 23 and 24. And I’m reading from a commentary by Warren Where’s B? In his insights, he realized the disgraceful conduct of the false prophets in Israel, what they were doing to the people and to the nation. And it made him sick. He looked at the leaders. The leaders of Israel were not kings at the time when they were kings, and they had a lot of bad kings. But they were also led by prophets. Jeremiah was a prophet, they called him the weeping prophet. He was grieved over what he was seeing other prophets, other spiritual leaders and how they were acting and what they were doing. They were false prophets, and they were committing adultery and throng into houses of prostitution. They thought they could be live a double life, they thought they could get away with it. And not only were they not unashamed, they started doing it in the broad daylight. They started doing it and everyone see it, and then they tried to make it good. And part of the faith in religion is they were doing it so they could keep a clean reputation. And then they would go to the temple and pretend to worship Jehovah. The word adultery also means the worship of idols turning from the true God, to Whom Israel was married. I think we made an idol in America out of our lifestyle. I think we’ve made it idols out of the freedom that we’ve enjoyed, not because we deserve freedom, because men fought and died for our freedom. But we’ve taken it for granted. We think it’s a right not a privilege. We think we stand and now we’re following. The false prophets offered people false hope by saying the Lord says you will have peace, no harm will come to you. Of course, this was a popular message. And the frightened people grabbed it and held on to it. But the false prophets hadn’t heard that message is God’s counsel. They made it up on their from their own hearts instead of peace. A storm was brewing from the Lord. I just couldn’t read this without going that’s what’s going on. That’s what’s happening to us. The false prophets also ministered under false authority. They hadn’t heard from God and yet they still prophesied. God hadn’t called them and yet they ran with the message. It was a popular message. People grabbed it, they were fearful. That remind you of anything. A lot of false prophets out there too. They saying this is what’s going to happen. And that’s what’s going to happen. And Trump’s going to be elected by a landslide. Maybe he should have been maybe he should. But he wasn’t.

And it’s happening in broad daylight. We’re living in a day where right is wrong and wrong is right, good is bad and evil is good, is turned upside down. We’re having a hard time adjusting to that we’re having a hard time getting our arms around that we’re having a hard time because we’re so used to justice and freedom, that the corruption that’s happening, the breakdown of our government, our courts, our judicial system, the media, we’re having a hard time getting a grip on that. But we better get a grip on it, we better be at our post, we better not let this go and just say there’s nothing we can do about there is something we can do about it. But it’s not strapping up, you know, maybe around our chest like Rambo putting on a headband, and going into battle, we’re going into battle. But that’s not the battle God called us to those aren’t the weapons that God’s given us to fight this war. But I’d say the average Christian guy thinks it is we’re going to be more activists and prayers.

Whenever a nation needs healing, it’s usually because God’s people aren’t obeying and serving Him as they should. We like to blame dishonest politicians and various purveyors, for a nation’s decline in morality. But God blames his own people. And Second Chronicles 714. We’ve been dragging that out a lot over the last year. So if my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways. There’ll never be a point in time where we can have God’s fullness, God’s blessing, God’s a revival, without turning from our wicked ways. The problem with turn from our wicked ways is we don’t see our wicked ways is wicked anymore. We don’t see him as wrong. We think we can hate people. We can complain and grumble. When the scripture says do all things without grumbling and complaining. And that’s what we’re doing. And you know, when we are grumbling, complaining, we should do all things without it because we’re grumbling at God. If God’s not in control, God’s not on his throne, God didn’t know what’s happening. God, what are you thinking? When’s the last time you thought that? Why are you letting this happen? This is wrong. This isn’t none unjust. And it just eats us up. And it’s natural. On one hand, on the other hand, we can’t let it make us leave our posts in the post is to be God’s man for such a time as is.

In chapter 24, God disposes of his rebellious people. What God was going to do is he was going to discipline and chastise Israel and Judah. And the way he is going to do it is he’s going to, and it was interesting to me that Nebuchadnezzar was a king of Babylon. And he was going to let the Babylonians come in and take over and defeat Israel. And he was going to for 70 years that we’re going to take exiles from Israel and take them back to Babylon. Then they would leave some people in Israel. So you got the survivors that are left in Israel and you got the exiles that are going back to Babylon. God gives Jeremiah vision in chapter 24. He said, very Jeremiah, what do you see? He says, I see two baskets full of figs. That’s pretty amazing. commercial break. He said, What do you see I see two baskets full of figs. One of them is full of good figs. The other is full of bad figs that are so rotten, no one will eat them. And God says those good figs are the exiles that are being carried off to Babylon. The bad pigs are the survivors and the king and all of his officials that are left in Israel and Judah.

And then I ran across in verse seven and 24. In this is right on point, but it was a powerful verse for me because it confirms something in my heart. I’ve shared with you untold number of times that I was sinners prayer when I came to know Christ, and I was reading the bobby Richardson story. And Bobby is a Christian and he met a Christian ballplayer and he became friends with that ball player. And he said, for the first time in my life, I began to realize I could be a professional baseball player and uncompromising Christian at the same time. And I thought, gosh, that’s me. I compromise everything. Things I know I should do, I don’t do the things I know I shouldn’t do. I love doing a start and stop, and I quit. And I start again. And I was sick and tired, full of guilt and shame. And this was my senators desperate prayer. God, I’m the terrible example of being a Christian, I can’t do it. I can’t keep the rules. I can’t be the good guy you want me to be. And I know I’m not the man you want me to be. But I want to be. Would you make me that man? You ever been that desperate? Here have been so desperate to live for God, to want to be right with Him, to want to be holy and clean and pure. to want to have the fruit of the Spirit in your life. I remember reading a book by Billy Graham. And the title skips slips me now. I’ll think of it in a minute. But I remember reading the fruit of the Spirit. I don’t ever remember reading that before. And I thought that’s the kind of guy love joy, peace, hope, goodness, gentleness, kindness, self control. That’s what I want to be. That’s the man I want to be. But then I started asking myself the question, not at that moment, but years later, and I go, why did I want to be? Why did I want to be that God’s man, what I want to stay at my post and not be wandering off all the time. And then verse 24, seven says this, I will give them a heart to know me, for I am the Lord. Pete, you will be my man. And I’ll be your guide. For you return to me, and seek me with all of your heart. I will put I will give you a heart to know me. Now, how did I get that heart? I worked real hard. I kept all the rules. I didn’t do bad things. I did good things. And I got a heart to know God. That is not the way it happened. I deserved it. That wasn’t true. I deserve to see opposite. But for some reason God looked at me and I hope he’s looked at you. And he says I’m giving you a heart to know me. And it comes from God. He puts it in my heart. I’ve known it I knew it since I was a child. And you were in high school and I was riding around with a bunch of guys. And gal was driving recklessly and foolishly. And I’m sitting in the back thinking and these guys are lucky they got me in the car, God’s got a plan for me. God’s got his hand on my life. And God let me know that as a young man, I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t understand it. And I still don’t quite honestly. But God put it in my heart, his he put it in your heart. Because if you’re going to stay on your post, if you’re not going to leave your post, if you’re in a marriage, if you’re in a job if you’re going to sickness and an illness, and that’s your post. That’s where you’re going to glorify Christ, that’s where you’re going to be a witness for him. That’s where you’re going to let your light shine. That’s your post. And if you’re not going to leave your posts, you got to have a heart to know God. And if you have a heart to know God, that means you want to know God’s word. You want Jesus to be the Lord. I’ll give you a heart to know me. You will know that I am your Lord. Jesus Christ is not just our Savior, he’s he’s your Lord. God’s word is not just God’s word. It’s our final authority in life.

And we put ourself in submission to it. We want to obey it. That’s where all truth is. That’s where we get the truth. That’s how we know the truth. Jesus says, I am the way I am the truth. And I’m going to put a heart for you to know me. But how do you get a love for the Bible? Do you wait to get a love and then read it? Or do you read it and find a love? tasting, see that I’m good. You don’t just have to know that God’s good or believe God’s good you taste and see you give him a chance. You ask him to come into your heart. You walk with him in the word in prayer and fellowship with godly men. And you taste and you find and you see that God is good. God’s merciful, God’s compassionate, God’s loving God’s kind. You find that by walking with Him, you find that by sinning and returning with a whole heart, and I’ve been returning with a whole heart for the last 55 years. When I sin, I get to turn and come with my whole heart and ask for forgiveness. And God forgives me and he keeps a heart in me to know him. But if I keep sinning and don’t repent, if I don’t even understand that what I’m doing insane and Spirit in my heart, my attitude is sin. It’s grumbling. It’s complaining, it’s hating. It’s being bitter. It’s being unforgiving. It’s being resentful. It’s being angry. And I think it’s right not wrong. Because I’m not in God’s presence. I’ve left my post. I’ve wandered off. I’ve been tempted and taken captive by the enemies call me into the darkness out of the light.

That’s the battle we’re facing. We’re not facing a battle in Washington, DC. You’re facing a battle inside and when God gets the inside, right, all the outside starts to make sense, then we start understanding. But you got to get the inside, right. And that starts with a personal revival. It starts with repentance if my man if Pete will humble himself. It starts with humility. I taught on that about three or four weeks ago. It starts with humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God realizing that apart from him, you can do nothing realizing it on your own, you’re lost. And you find out what you’re like, apart from him. And then you find out what you’re like with him and in him in because of him, in you. In times of national Excuse me, I feel a little airhead commercial break.

In times of national catastrophe, no matter how discouraging the circumstances may be God doesn’t deserve his faithful servants. Stay at your post. God won’t desert you. God will be there for you. He runs ahead of you he encloses you behind. Rebels are scattered and destroyed. But true believers find God to be faithful to meet their needs and accomplish his great plan in their life. The people that were exiled into Babylon would have 70 years to repent and seek the Lord. So what God was doing is he was disciplining a nation. And what he did is he took his chosen people, the one that he was going to bless the good figs in the vision. And he took them to Babylon, he will get them separated from that nation. He got them out of there. He took them captive. He had Nebuchadnezzar who’s a pagan king, and he said he called him twice, at least twice that I read in here. Nebuchadnezzar, my servant. He called David his servant, he called other godly men in the Bible, this servant. Why is he calling a pagan king, his servant, because he’s using him to discipline his people. He uses illness to discipline his men. He uses separation marriage problems, to discipline us. And the problem with discipline is it’s no fun. But what we see as a result, according to Hebrews 12, what we see as a result is a quiet growth in grace and character. You want grace and character you want wisdom and be respected? Then you’re gonna have to go through discipline and chastising. You’re gonna have to go and you’re gonna have to go through it with a good spirit and a good heart. Yeah, but Pete, you don’t know what I’m going through. You don’t know how hard it is. All I can do at that point is say, go to the cross. How hard can that be? How hard can what you go through be compared to what he’s been through? What he did on the cross, how he suffered, how he surrendered himself, he emptied Himself, and became a man and being finally found in the appearance of a man. He humbled Himself even to the point of death on a cross. Don’t tell me it’s hard. But you can tell me anything you want to I’ll probably believe you. But don’t tell him it’s hard. Don’t tell him it’s tough. Don’t tell him It just seems like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. There’s a light of the cross there’s a light of heaven there’s a light of well done good and faithful servant. That’s what’s it the light is in your darkness. And he’ll never leave or forsake you. The destruction of Jerusalem in the fall of Judah were not accidents. They were appointments for God was in control. So Jeremiah sent a letter to Babel and there was emissaries going back and forth between Babylon and and Judah. And Jeremiah sent a letter to tell them how they should behave in their new land. We got a new land guys. It’s not the same night and land we’ve ever had. I’m not sure we’ll ever get that back. How you gonna behave in this new land that we’ve got how Are you going to behave when you’re not the fair headed child and putting fish on your car so you can be identified with Christ? Because that’s a hate crime these days, and it’s going to get worse. How are you going to behave in this new land? He was a man with a heart of the true shepherd. He wanted to them to be good witnesses to the adulterous Babylonians. And to be good Jews, even though separated from their temple and their services. We’ve been separated from our temple and our services, we’re glad to be back. hope we’ll be here for weeks and months and years to come out. We’ll have the freedom together in prayer like we did upstairs today. But when’s the last prayer meeting you went to? When’s the last time you had the freedom to? Because it will be one day where we won’t have freedom to do that. If certain people have their way, it’ll be a hate crime. It’s not anything new. It’s happened to Christians for 2000 years, we lost more Christians to persecution and death. Because they were Christians in the 20th century than all the 19 centuries before. And we’ve gotten a pretty good start in this one. God’s bringing it to a close God’s saying this is good. I’m coming. Is this? That’s a big question. Is this the last times? Well, yes, the last times we’ve been the last time for 2000 years.

But now we’re seeing birth pangs. There’s volcanoes in Guatemala, there’s floods in Kentucky. There’s hurricanes and log in tornadoes and earthquakes. And not that we haven’t always had them. But the birth pains say they’re reset and world records. We’ve never had a tornado like that it was a mile wide and stayed in the ground for 20 minutes, that just didn’t happen. We’ve never had an earthquake like that. It registered on every seismograph on the planet. It caused a tsunami that killed 1000s of people. That was in 2001. We’re in the birth pains. Now we have to be on our posts, God’s looking for guys, and you take a group like this 50 or 60, guys, not every one of us is going to stay on our post is going to be getting too fearful. It’ll get too hard, it’ll cost too much. And the only thing we hope that I have, and you have a stand on our post as being in God’s presence, every day, all day, every day, all day, that’s one of your posts to be in God’s presence, to acknowledge his presence, to call on Him for strength and wisdom and discernment. To call on Him for strength to resist the temptation to call on Him wisdom to know what to do, to be growing in your faith, not being a man of fear, but a man of faith. And finally, I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, and this is the Lord’s heart. He wants to bring them back from exile in they’re coming back into a new healed land. So maybe God will do that. Maybe God will do that for us. We see where we’re headed. But maybe God’s got us headed there because he wants to cleanse this nation. He wants to purge the church. He wants to be find people that truly have a whole heart for him. Who will be faithful to him no matter what he will stand at their post. And you’re going to be surprised in those days, who leaves their posts and who stays. Who Manzer posts and who leaves. Some of the people you think for sure you’re gonna stay on their post won’t. And some you think they’re not that strong they will. So don’t try to guess who’s gonna stay on their posts and who’s not. You don’t know the whose inner strength of certain people just because they’re not up front and they’re not shooting their mouth off like I do. That doesn’t mean they’re not going to stay in their posts when I may be running for the hills. I pray that won’t happen. And it will happen if I’m not in his presence every day and I don’t take him for granted. And I don’t get prideful. And I stay humble and seek his face and turn from our wicked ways regularly every day. I got wicked ways going on every day. So do you. And we have to turn from our wicked ways we have to repent. We have to keep our slate clean between us and the Lord. We have to not let guilt and shame and the enemy come and debilitate us with guilt and shame. a guilty conscience and Heaven forbid we get a seared conscience. And we call good evil and evil good. That can happen if you’re not confessing sin on a regular basis. You can become lazy and loose with sin. What about guys like Ravi, let’s say Ravi didn’t die. What about Israel when it kept worshiping it? And stumbling and falling and disobeying God and he’d bring judgment and the book of Judges says 400 years of that same cycle going over and over, they repent. They have a revival they start walking with and being God, they tear down the idols and then they start intermarrying with pagans, they start out of worship again, God brings discipline war Babylonians, then they repent again and over and over again. What about when we stumble and fall? What about when we have moral failures? Charles Charles Spurgeon said, when when a pastor in the pulpit falls tomorrow, he ought to go and sit on the back row until his repentance becomes well known as a sin. There are some who God is going to restore that’s the exiles. They had 70 years to repent, to be delivered from idol worship, to turn to God and seek Him. In God’s heart is to restore is to redeem is to forgive, but he can only restore pastors in this case that we’ve been talking about when they’re broken and repentant. When they humble themselves, and pray and seek God’s face in turn from their wicked ways. God says, then I will hear their prayer, then I will hear their prayer.

We want him to Hear our prayer without turning from our wicked ways. God says, then I will hear their prayers, I’ll forgive their sin, and I’ll heal their land, I’ll heal their church, I’ll hear their family. But it all starts with humbling ourselves and repenting. And God calls us there all the time, because he wants to forgive, he wants to restore, but he can, and he won’t. If we’re not broken and repaired. I’ve seen pastors who want to dictate the terms of their own restoration. I’ve seen other pastors weeping and don’t deserve to be restored. I’ve seen them weeping and repenting, and feeling like they’ll never be any good anymore when the Lord comes along and lifts them up. And he makes him better than they ever were. They were gifted, they were growing, they were seeing fruit, but they were having a secret life and God called him he let him go so long and then he called him on it. And that in you find out who the men of God are, how they respond to that. Do they did God really put it in their heart to know him? Are they just trying to build their tabernacle on God’s foundation. And so guys, there’s no way around this. When David was running from God after committing adultery with Bathsheba and getting iraq killed in war. He ran from God for a year, Nathan found him told him a story about an injustice done to a young shepherd and David stood out of his throne and said that man should die. And Nathan pointed his finger right in his chest and said, Thou art demand. You either humble yourself before God or God will humble you. You either find Nathan or Nathan a fine you. This is serious business we can be playing around with is if we’re going to come back and meet here again, let’s meet with a new heart. Let’s start and we’ve got a new start here. Let’s start with a commitment to Jesus Christ, it will stay on our posts that we make a commitment to him that we’re going to be husbands that honor our wives. I don’t care how they’re acting, I don’t care what they’re doing. I don’t care how easy they are not to live with. This day on our post. Let’s come with purpose in our heart. Let’s come to encourage and build each other up. Let’s get into forum group, getting a group where you got some guys walking with you through life that can come after you if they need to. Or you can come after them. You can keep them on the straight and narrow. You can keep them following Christ. You can keep them in the Word of God, you can keep them in prayer, and they’re growing. And they’re dangerous to the darkness. You may end up in jail because of it. You may lose your job because of it. Praise God we got to suffer for Jesus Christ. Praise God that we were found worthy to suffer for him. You in or out? Don’t tell me tell him during the day. But I’d rather worship with about what 10 guys that are totally committed in seeking God with their whole heart than with 150 guys that are namby pamby that are like in the fellowship but not the Bible study. That enjoys singing in the choir but they don’t know wash boots or sweet aroma. Those are the kind of guys that’s going to be needed in the days ahead. And if you’re not that kind of guy, you’re going to leave your post. If you’re not that kind of guy, you’re going to walk away, you’re going to be fearful. You’re not going to be a man of the word and a man of prayer. You’re not going to honor I, I want to honor Christ. But I also want to honor Susan’s memory. As if she was still here. I don’t want her husband to be leaving this post. That motivates me. I don’t want Jesus Christ to kind of put it all he’s invested in me. And I would leave my post. This has been a wonderful time during the last year of lockdown for us to spend time in God’s presence. I hope you haven’t wasted it. Hope you’ve been listening to praise music and reading your Bible and journaling and hearing God’s voice. Instead of watching CNN and Fox News and whatever you’re watching Come on away blessed. So that’s that was a timely word from Jerry, for me, so I thought I’d pass it along to you today.

And I want to ask you a question. Will you make a commitment today to stay at your post? I don’t know what your post is. But will you commit to stay at your post and not just stay there gritting your teeth stay there with joy. find joy in it if you can’t find joy in it, you’re not really staying at your post you’re doing it begrudgingly you’re still having a pity party. Jesus never comes to a pity party let’s don’t have them let’s go out that door today saying I’ve got a new commitment to my wife to my family to my job to sharing the gospel. I’m going to humble myself and that make it right with people that I’m not right with I don’t want anyone when I die pointed at me and say he wronged me and never made it right you’re gonna have to turn that wheel in God’s saying go make it right with your wife go make it right where your children go make it right with your boss at work that person that wronged you or that person that you wronged you go to them and make it right best you can maybe they won’t receive it but you did the right thing you did what God told you to do. That’s all you can do. But those are the kind of guys who are going to be counted on and when the pressures on and I know you want to be that kind of guy I want to be that kind of guy so I want to hang out with you because I need to hang out with guys like that. I’m going to be I got a forum group you got one if you hadn’t got one and you don’t have some other kind of group get your rear end in a forum group there’s a man right there go talk to him right out to this thing and they ought to be aligned going around that net over there with guys who are going to say yeah, I will need to be with some guys. I might need to have my own group I know three guys right now. Guys are getting their sons they’re getting their friends they’re getting guys across the country and zoom for him groups links ministry starting for him groups for the saucers for crisis starting for him groups. We don’t know where this thing’s headed. But I tell you what, there’s nothing we need worse than that right now. If we’re going to hold the line and stay on our post a man stand up. Let’s make a commitment to Christ. Father, we just heard your word today. We heard it in worship. We had it heard it and now from Jerry, from Warren, where’s be from me, from you through me and all these servants of yours. And we’re making a new stand for Christ. New START staying in our post, we’re not going to forget that. We want to honor you we want to be counted on in these days. We want to be the light shining in darkness. We want to be blessings. We want to be able to take a punch we can be slapped on one cheek and turn the other we can go the second mile, bless those who persecute us. We can pray for our enemies. We’re not going to leave our post. That’s what you’ve posted us to do. That’s what you’ve called us to be. to crucify ourselves to honor Christ to empty ourselves. Help us do it in Jesus name And all God’s men said give them heaven guys

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Pete McKenzie 0:01
It’s really great to be together again, right? We’ve been, we’ve been looking forward to this for a long time, we’re gonna get to start meeting on Wednesday, this coming Wednesday, the next Wednesday. And we’re looking forward to that to up in Fullerton. And you know, I’m always asking God, what do you want me to share with the guys and message from your heart to my heart to their heart. And this week, and every week has its own news breaks and things that are happening around the world and you just wonder what next is coming out of the White House or Congress or what’s happening in every sphere of influence in power in the country. And, you know, one of the reasons that we need to talk about this subject today and I want to talk to you about faith, because we’ve been put in a place of being fearful, you know, man is basically fundamentally fearful. And Jesus says, In this world, you will have tribulation, trouble, heartache, disease, pandemics, hurricanes, floods, snowstorms, and Houston. And so, take heart though I’ve overcome the world. You know, our biggest challenge, through all of life in general and in through what we’re dealing with in America today, politically, and pandemic Lee and all the other ladies that we’re dealing with, is that you keep a perspective that you keep a godly perspective that you keep your eyes focused on the real deal. I was talking to a guy this week, I had a chance to play golf with Derek and Jeff over here, and they showed me how to hit a golf ball after all these 70 years of trying. And and I was talking to one of their guys, and he’s involved with links ministry, which is a wonderful ministry, it’s it’s with they’re under Derek’s leadership, there’s a lynx Bible study in every country club in Orange County. Guys, it’ll never go to church, but they’re coming to a Bible study at their country club. And one of the guys said, Man, now he was bemoaning the fact that, you know, I was a five handicap and now I’m 11 handicap and all this relational golf is killing my handicap. And I said, Well, here’s a little thought for you. The greatest danger in your life is not that you’re going to fail at something you think is important, but you’ll succeed at things that really don’t matter. He says that’s a good point. We got to keep our eyes on what really matters, don’t we? Because there’s a lot of things out there that they’re alarming. Maybe their fear fear mongers out there. But we don’t have to be fearful Isaiah 4110. Jesus says, Do not fear starts it out. You look, Jesus says you’re gonna have tribulation. Isaiah 4110 says, Do not fear. Jesus says you’re gonna have trouble in this world. Because it’s a fallen world, a sinful world. In the last days, men will be lovers of self and lovers of money and boastful, arrogant pride, for irreconcilable disobedient to their parents. Having a form of godliness but denying its power. It’s what you’re going to be living in. You’re going to be living around men like that. Make sure you’re not that kind of man. Stay away from those kind of man. So Matter of fact, he said, so do not fear. You know why? Cuz I am with you. Everywhere you go, Susan left, but Jesus is still here. And so he’s never gonna leave. Every every relationship, every loving relationship will end in pain except one. That’d be my relationship with Christ. So we have to keep those things in mind. Don’t anxiously look about you. Why? Because I’m your God, I am with you, and I am your God. Now, what’s your concept of God? That’s the important thing? Is God good? Is God sovereign? Is God with you all the time? Will he never leave you or forsake you? Says he won’t. says don’t anxiously look about you. That means you’re looking for answers in other places other than him. Don’t be looking for answers in politics. They got no answers, no answers to the human soul, no answer for peace, no answer for joy, no answer for all the things that matter in life that are good for health and happy happiness and

joy that we just heard him sing about. I will now here’s now when God says that you can take it to the bank, I will strengthen you. I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. So if God’s is promising, that’s a promise you can take it home. You can count on it. He never goes against his promise. He always keeps his word he’s got he always knows the future. Do you know the future? I heard a guy say, not long ago. He says if I want to plan out three weeks, he says that can be pretty firm. If I want to plan out three months, that’s a maybe if I want to plan out three years, that’s fiction. What we can count on is things being uncertain. What we can count on is not knowing the future, not knowing what’s going to happen next. I mean, the things that are happening right now we can’t believe are happening. So what do you think the future holds more stuff we can’t believe is happening. But it is. Now I’m glad I don’t know about your God. But my God’s not up there biting his fingernails going, I wonder what’s going to happen next. He knows what’s going to happen next. Matter of fact, he allows he may not have planned it, but he allows it. And he allows it for good reason. I’ll oppose you with my righteous right here in the hand that sturdy and strong and cannot can be shaken but not shaken out. The hand that can hold you can keep you can encourage you strengthen you help you no matter what you’re going through. Hebrews 1112, if we’re going to define faith, faith is the assurance now assurance means confirmation. Now we’re saved by grace through faith. Grace, unmerited favor. Faith has an object. And so face object can salvation is Jesus Christ. We’re saved by grace through faith. It’s not of ourselves. It’s a gift of God, not a result of work. So no man can brag about it. So we have to be rooted in faith. But it starts with grace it Oh, the doors open by grace. And then we walk through it by faith. And faith. Again, it has an object, the object of our faith is Christ. So we have assurance, confirmation, that means I’m sure I’m confident I’m certain of this. You know, one of the things that the devil wants you and me to do is a doubt. He wants us to doubt whether God’s really real or not, he wants us to doubt. And you know, when we doubt the most is when bad things hard things difficult things happen. When we have heartbreak and loss. Then we start wandering and doubting sometimes when when my when my granddaughter’s grandmother died, that would be Susan. She said 1000s of people were praying, and she still died. The devil wants to come along and say, See, God’s not real. God can’t be counted on his promises he can’t keep. Why did he tell us to pray and then he let her die? Well, you know, spend, spend a lot of time and mostly Assayas, and it’ll November the first Oswald’s chambers answered the question, the first thing God does is to get us grounded on strong reality and truth, strong reality and truth, what is really real? And what’s the truth? what’s real and what’s false. You have to be able to discern between the two. And you can only do that if you’re a man of the word. If you’ve been in God’s word and studied God’s word and heard God’s word, preached and meditated and memorized on God’s word, you can know the difference in truth and error. Light and Darkness right and wrong, strong reality and truth. He does this, until our cares for ourselves individually have been brought into submission with his way for the purpose of his redemption. So what God is trying to do in our lives as well saying is he’s trying to form and shape us into what he wants us to be and into his truth. We’re called into intimacy with the gospel. And things happen that appear to have nothing to do with us. In other words, we had no control over it. Things happen, the God puts things in and God takes out things out. But it’s his purpose of redemption that he’s after. Why shouldn’t we experience heartbreak? Now there’s a kind of trick Question.

You had your heart broken? Why shouldn’t you? You’re in a fallen world. You know, God didn’t say in Isaiah 41, we just looked at I will uphold you with your righteous right hand if he was going to take all the pain away and all the challenges away and all the difficulties away. He didn’t do that. He lets us go through and he lets us experience the heartbreak of the loss, the difficulties, the wounds. Why does he do that? To strengthen us, to build us to make us rock hard to establish our faith on the rock, to get us in touch with a real reality and truth. Why shouldn’t we go through heartbreak? through those doorways, God is opening up ways of fellowship with his son. Nobody prays more than when you’re in heartbreak, when you’re in difficulty in trouble when the hard things are happening. At least that’s been my experience. I pray more than those days guys open up doors of intimacy with himself through heartbreak and hurt pain. I wish it wasn’t true. But that’s the way it is. And if we accept that, and it’s important that we accept the things that God puts in and takes out of our lives. We’ll talk about accept more in a minute. Most of us collapse it the first grip of pain, we sit down at the door of God’s purpose, and enter a slow death through self pity. And all the so called Christian sympathy of others helps us to our deathbed, but God will not. He comes with a grip with a pierced hand. I love that phrase. Imagine it. He comes with a grip of the pierced hand. That means he comes with a hand it’s been suffered. It’s gone through heartbreak and separation from his father and pain, being accused falsely spit on mocked, laughed at, humiliated. He comes with a grip of that hand, this gone through all that. He can also the grip of the pierced hand of his son and says enter into fellowship with me. arise in shy if God can accomplish His purposes in the world through a broken heart. And thank him for breaking your heart. When’s the last time you thanked him for the thing he had to love that he took out thing you didn’t want that he put in? When’s the last time you said Thank You, Lord. See, only the guy that wants to be conformed and shaped into his image is going to do that. Only the guy that wants to become like Christ. And that’s the end game of everything we do. discipleship, we talk a lot about discipleship, what’s the point? Why study the Bible? Why make Jesus Lord of your life? Why spend time and having quiet times and having devotional life? Why memorize verses? Why fill in the blank in your Bible study? Why read the books? Why do you do all that? To build the inner man. Because the outer man is fast in a way but the inner man is eternal, to make you mature in Christ, so that when the heartbreak say Thank You, Lord, now you may have to work to get there I did. You may have to do a little porn out to God before you can say thank you God for taking my loved one away or whatever your experience is. But that’s where you want to end up. That’s the deep water stuff. That’s not the shallow water where you don’t need water wings. That’s a deep water maturity in Christ. And that’s what God has called us to thank him for breaking your heart. And that’s where faith is I talked to a young man whose wife is going through this challenge right now. In God has taught me things to challenge through childbirth, and they’re having some issues with that. And I had the opportunity to share with him. My experience that most of you if you’ve been around five minutes in this group, you’ve heard these stories, but I always come back to them because it was life changing new watershed moments in my life. Like you have when God teaches you the hard things, the difficult things that you have to go through to exercise faith, to trust him anyway. And so I’m in the father’s waiting room and you recall this. And my wife and my son’s life are hanging in Amman born son’s life and hanging in the balance. And I’m in there and I’m praying God I pray Susan to be okay and I pray the baby be okay. And I’m praying that about five or 10 minutes. Now said God, that’s all I got. I don’t know what else to pray. He said Well, let me ask you a question. How much control do you have over what’s going on in there?

Have you ever Mandela To be in, not in control. We like to be able to call the shots. We want to know what’s happening before we take a step. We want to be in control. But I realized I had no control, there are certain things you just don’t have control over. I didn’t, I had no control over what was going to happen with Susan and the baby. That’s why I was praying. And that’s what I told God. He said, Well, if that’s the case, and I’m in control, then would you purpose in your heart? to praise me no matter what happens to Susan in the baby? You mean, if they doubt I praise you? He didn’t answer that one. Because I knew the answer to that question. Would you purpose in your heart to praise me? No matter what you guys, that’s what we’re talking about. When we talk about faith. We’re talking about Yes, my god good and sovereign debts, he had my best interest in mind. Does he really truly love me. And his loving may mean, he’s gonna keep me from experiencing pain and difficulty and trouble. No. But he has a purpose in it. Just like he has a purpose in this pandemic. He has a purpose in everything that’s going on, we can grumble and complain. And we just become useful idiots with the devil. When we do that. Instead of trusting that God knows what’s going on, he’s in charge, I can trust him. There’ll be an endgame here, in the end game is going to be to deliver us from evil. And that’s what he does. And that’s what he wants to do. The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. So if you have weak faith, that’s normal. But if you want to have strong faith, take that next thing, that thing you’re going through right now. And thank God for work through it, fight through it. get to that place where you could say, God, you’re in control. God, you’re my god, god, you’re trying to shape and mold me after your image. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give to give his life a ransom for many. Christ makes us acceptable. Before God, faith makes us great. before God. I love that quote. Let me scroll it again. Christ makes us acceptable before God. Faith makes us great. before God. First Corinthians 1613 starts with Be on your guard. Are you on your guard? Are you alert? The first thing you think of when the traffic light stops you and you’re in a big hurry? Thank you, God for stopping me at this traffic by. I’m sure that’s the last time you did that. That’s what you did. Be on your guard stand? Are you standing or falling? Stand firm in the faith. See what we need today as men that are standing firm in the faith. I can’t we got no time today for lollygag for want to be Christians for guys that as long as the seed that fell among this shallow soil, and has sprung up quickly, but when the persecution, the hardship, the difficulty came and died away. And what we’re going to see in the last days, and everybody keeps talking about last days, because all that’s going on, and I believe we are in the last days have been for the last 2000 years. But what people talk about what the scripture talks about it in the last days, people will fall away from the faith. There’ll be a mass exodus out. And one of the reasons is because we’re going to have to pay a price for our faith. It’s going to cost us It has Christians for the last 2000 years. There’s been persecution and they’ve had their heads cut off. They’ve had been their arms and legs tied to horses and torn apart. They’ve had their children fed to wild animals. There’s been persecution in every Christian generation. More people died because of communism and because they were Christians and not friends of communism in the 20th century than any other than all the other centuries combined. And we gotten a pretty good start in the 21st and set new records. Why shouldn’t God let us be persecuted? Why shouldn’t we go through that hardship?

Are you prepared? Are you ready? Is your faith on solid ground? Are you standing firm In the FE act like men. Now that’s a controversial question today. What is what is a man? But it wasn’t controversial when he wrote this. And I’m not confused about it, I hope you’re not. Act like men be strong, do everything and love. See, we’re so over challenged in this Christian life that it just makes you want to laugh sometimes. See, you know, that guy that just slapped your cheek, he just humiliated you what he said, turn the other cheek. Well, that’s a high standard. Bless those who persecute you. That’s a high standard. Love those who don’t love you and don’t wish you will. That’s a pretty high standard. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I can do it. But I’m crucified with Christ. So I no longer live Christ lives in me. thing that brought me to Christ is not being able to be Christian. When I thought I was, I couldn’t keep the rules, couldn’t do it. Didn’t want to do it. And finally I got became this desperate man and Christianity is a rescue effort for desperate man. Family, I got to the point where I just thought, I’m giving up on this stuff. I’m frustrated, I read Bobby Richardson store a Christian ballplayer. He said, for the first time in my life, I began to realize I could be a professional baseball player and an uncompromising Christian at the same time. And I said, that’s my problem. I compromise. Things I know I should do. I don’t do things I know I shouldn’t do I really love doing, Richard man that I am who saved me from the body of this death. God, I know, I’m not the person who created me to be I’m not the man. But I want to be would you make me that man. I’ve been spending the last 55 years trying to learn to be crucified with Christ, trying to live up to this high standard that he has that I cannot live up to its Christ in you the hope of glory. You can’t love your wife the way she deserves to be loved and needs to be loved. You can’t do it. Christ in you has to do it. Christ can love her. And that’s the deal I made with God. One time I said, God, I can’t love Susan the way she deserves to be loved. He’s a wonderful person and wonderful wife. I’m shooting my mouth off in all these marriage classes, and I can’t even back it up. But if she was married to you, she’d be married to the perfect husband, who understood her who took her seriously. who cared about her is a person and a woman. So here’s the deal. I made a deal with God. I’m making myself available for you to love my wife through me. The way you love me. You love me no matter what. You love me in all circumstances, you never stop loving me. You never stop serving me. I can quench your spirit but you never leave. And I’m going to close this. These few thoughts with when we were going through the deal with Susan with a brain tumor and all that. I was writing caringbridge any you guys follow that caringbridge during those days, and I would make a post every day or three or four. And just to let people know it’s a website that you can get on and you can if you want to keep up with someone who’s going through a extended illness. Then you can read how they’re doing on the website. Just plug in and it alerts you every time a new post comes. Anyway, they tell me that’s how it worked. I was oblivious to at that time. Anyway, this is my journal entry on July the 20th. This was 14 days before she died. I wanted to get this journal entry out last Friday, but things have been a little hectic around here the last few days Please forgive me. We have found that to approach life in a fallen world with all its complexities, mysteries conundrums, paradoxes, bruises, heartbreaks crisis in pain, it’s imperative to have a simple faith and a shepherd that is absolutely trustworthy. The word simple means not hard to understand or do not complex or fancy.

When we got the news that cancer had spread all over Susan’s brain a couple of weeks ago, I asked God for passage to prepare us before we heard it. He directed me to Psalm 131, one and two which says, oh, Lord, our hearts are not proud. Nor are I Saudi. Nor do we involve ourselves in great matters. Are things too difficult for us? Surely we have composed and quieted ourselves. Well, what I’m about to share comes from the place God has kept us throughout this whole ordeal, place of simple faith that here’s God saying Oswald Chambers devotional, as we regard his mastery and lordship over our lives are require extreme service from you. With no complaining on your part, and no explanation. Oh, my. This is how we understand simple faith and lordship that is God that has a God who knows us. Who cares about us, who’s intimately involved in all that happens to us, and who has Almighty God who can do anything to us through us and for us? The question we faced after finding that cancer was all over Susan’s brain was where do we go from here? We were referred to an excellent neuro oncologist at UCI Cancer Center to discuss your options. So last Thursday, the 13th Susan, our oldest son Chris and I met with Dr. Botha. After showing us the MRI that pictured how extensive the cancer was in her brain, she asked how aggressively we wanted to treat this cancer. And I asked her Was it me and she said aggressively, to aggressively attack the cancer, we’d have to do surgery on Susan and that would be putting a port in the top of her skull, where chemo would be inserted into her brain five times every other week. The prognosis would not be clear at that start. On rare occasions when it worked, it could give a patient a year or two. At the same time, it may not have any effect at all on the cancer in which case that stopped their procedure. Keeping in mind that from this medical perspective, the effort would not be to cure the problem. Only God can do that. But to extend her life as long as possible, while giving her the best quality of life is we can. The second option is to do nothing. As far as medical treatment goes and allow the disease to take its course in her body. I asked her to give us a prognosis as to how long Susan might last if we did nothing. She said, Well, I’m not God, and I’m not certain. But I’d say a month or two. She went on to say that she also needed an answer that day as to which way we wanted to go. Because we decided to attack the key. If we decide to attack the cancer aggressively show it put Susan in the hospital that day, and do surgery to install the port the next morning. We had no time to lose because she said the spirit of cancer was spreading like mold on bread in her brain. While she left us alone to discuss these options, I prayed before we talk that God would lead us in this surreal decision that we were about to make and give us unity and making it we discuss this for about 15 or 20 minutes each of us sharing our thoughts as it should be. After Susan shared her thoughts and feelings a decision was made. In considering this scenario over the years as Susan and I’ve seen others go through this. She has emphatically stated that she never wanted to use her art method methods and measures to save her life, especially when the verdict was already in as far as modern medical science can determine. So our decision was to do nothing and leave the final result to God in His good plan for Susan’s life. Simple faith. As soon as we made this decision, we all had supernatural peace that this was a path God designed for us to travel. There was even a joy and relief that accompanied the peace that is unexplainable apart from the presence of our comforting Holy Spirit. One of the special blessings in this is we all that all of our children and grandchildren around here to word is able to be with Susan to help encourage and to be encouraged which are what they are when they see her sweet spirit and attractive, joyful attitude and possible, positive attitude.

In the middle of one of the worst scenarios a family could go through God’s grace surrounds us and we’re resting in his strength and shepherds care. Our oldest son Chris and his beautiful family of five from Scotland are here until August 5. Our youngest son Patrick and his three year old are here a lot and our daughter Jenny lives 10 minutes away with her family. Last weekend, we were all on the back patio. Enjoying a time that is all too rare just being together in one place has been glorious in such a blessing to Susan in May. So we might say that in a way, it’s the best of times, in the worst of times. I’m not trying to think too much about the future and how it will unfold. Our wonderful are the wonderful past with Susan, which has been glorious for over 50 years of marriage and full of such different emotions. So I’m just focusing on the matter at hand, being the her MVP caregiver sticking with simple Fe. She is also under hospice care, who do an amazing and wonderful service to help and support pantsuits and families in our situation. In my Bs, where’s God, and Shepherd in all this, he’s right here with us and around us with attending angels, both human and otherwise. And he is great, the great Shepherd Shepherd in our hearts giving grace for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Shepherd doesn’t drive us, he leads us. He knows we are helpless with no power or plan. So he comes to us in our great hour of need in so many ways. Susan is so looking forward to seeing Jesus face to face and has a joy in her eyes when we talk about that. So Matter of fact, we were sitting out on the patio a few days before she died, and we were just having a quiet breakfast together. It was a magic moment. And I just said, No, she said, I am so disappointed. And I said Why? She says because I thought I’d wake up with Jesus today and here I am with you. I said I’m not gonna take that like it sounds. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever faced watching her slowly slip away. But I’ve always found that whatever God has called me to in any given day, His grace and strength is always sufficient for the task. He’s my shepherd. He’ll never let me down. He says that in Psalm 23. The Lord is our Shepherd, we shall not know. He makes us slide down in green pastures. He leads us beside quiet, peaceful streams. He renews and restores ourselves. He guides us in paths of righteousness for his namesake. So even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we can fear no evil. For God, our Shepherd is with us, his rod of correction, rescuing and comforting us. He prepares the table before us in the presence of our enemies. He has anointed our heads with a wall and our cup overflows. Surely his great goodness in tender mercies in loving kindness will follow us all the days of our lives. And our great hope and joy is that we know that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. One of Susan’s favorite hymns was of simple faith, have that own way Lord, have their own way. Though out there, Potter, I am the clay, Mo me and make me after your will, while I am waiting, yielded and still have that own way, Lord, have that own way. Hold over my being absolute sway field with the spirit. So all can see Christ always only living in me. Thanks for your care and concern and prayers. Guys, what we’ve learned is you’re going to have faith, you gotta let go. Who you praise me, no matter what that’s saying, you have to just let go of it. And God comes in comforts and gives strength and faith. But as long as you’re holding on and you’re anxiously looking about you, you cannot have peace. You won’t have freedom. You cannot find joy. But when you let go, that’s saying, God, I’m trusting you. I’m giving it to you. Then God comes and all the power that he comes through the Holy Spirit. And he makes men of God for such a time as this. And that’s what we need. We don’t need namby pamby guys at wonder and hope and doubt. We need men who are standing firm in the faith. They’re acting like men. They’re standing strong.

And they’re not confused about who they are, why they’re here, where they’re going or how they’re going to get there. They’re men of faith, simple faith. So I want to challenge you this morning. I don’t know what it is you’re going through. Some of you I know what you’re going through. But I don’t know what you’re going through. But God does. I don’t know what you need, but God does. If you want at you can have it but you’re going to have to get it through faith, trusting him believing in him. Your whole concept of God is the foundation of everything worth living for, in faith in him. So I’m going to pray for you and me this morning. Let’s go to prayer. Father, thank you for the time that we’re spending together today. Thank you for giving us faith. It’s a gift. Help us to let go of that thing that’s causing us to be fearful and anxious, and to praise you and to give you glory through the way that we live and how we respond to all lives. heartbreaks. Lord, we don’t ask for heartbreaks but when they come, you’ll be you uphold us with your righteous right hand and they will come help us to glorify you and I’m in Jesus name And all God’s men said amen, give’m heaven guys

Transcribed by https://otter.ai