The Beatitude of Humility

Ephesians says that we are in the middle of a spiritual battle. We have been equipped with the armor of God to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from on high. Despite the darkness of this fallen world, God has a plan and a purpose.

In order to turn to the Lord, a man of God must humble himself. We are powerless against the powers of darkness unless our power is in the Lord. God’s battle plan is different from the world’s. Jesus said, “love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Pray for them who persecute you and despitefully use you.” Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good.

When Jesus and the disciples spoke the good news of the gospel in Luke 9, the people rejected the message. The disciples asked Jesus, “Shall we call down fire from heaven to consume them like Elijah did?” Jesus said, “you dont know what you’re asking. I came not to condemn the world, but to save it.”

The first of the beatitudes in Matthew 5 says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” This is counter-intuitive to the world’s logic. The world values riches acquired through self sufficiency and self reliance. However, humility is the first of the beatitudes… the Lord’s blessed beautiful attitudes. In order to approach a holy God, we must first forsake our sinful pride. We must approach his throne of grace with empty hands. Only when we’re poor in spirit can he fill us with the power of His Holy Spirit.

The second beatitude says, “blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” God gave us his word and his spirit to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted. The apostle Paul said, “in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” When we ask him to open the eyes or our spiritual understanding, he will show us that despite the afflictions and storms of life, our prayer is not “deliver me from the storm,” but rather, “deliver me through the storm.”

Despite the sin, deception, panic, pandemic and pandemonium in the world around us, Jesus said, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Our comfort is not of this world but in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew 7, Jesus said, “come unto me all ye who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Without him, we will be crushed under the weight of the world. However in His strength we can bear up under the pressure. The Lord is our fortress and our strong tower. In the shadow of the Almighty there is refuge from the storm.

The devil picks off sheep who stray far from the shepherd. There is safety and protection in the presence of the good shepherd. 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.

Pete’s life was changed when he read the biography of Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson, a great baseball player and also a devout Christian. Bobby wrote a poem about a life lived in service to his Lord. Pete often used Richardson’s poem in sermons and the congregation was always impressed. At a speaking engagement, he was about to recite this poem but he couldn’t remember the words. Pete’s wife Suzan was embarrassed for her husband. She had heard this poem so often that she mouthed the words to prompt him with the starting line. Then Pete heard God’s still small voice saying, “If you use this poem to call attention to yourself instead of glorifying me, then you’re using it for the wrong purpose.”

Although Bobby was a celebrated second baseman and an all star inducted into the baseball hall of fame, God inspired him to write, “Man’s hall of fame lasts but for a moment, but God’s hall of fame is for eternity. I’d rather have my name unknown down here to have my name up there.”

The third beatitude says, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” The prerequisites for hungering and thirsting after righteousness are the first two beatitudes: humility and mourning for the sins we have committed against the Lord. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is “an acquired taste.” When we approach our Lord with a broken heart of humility and mourning, He by his mercy and grace will give us a hunger and thirst for His righteousness.

Jesus said, “apart from me you can do nothing.” The love of God keeps us humble. Love seeks not her own, is not boastful or proud, is not puffed up, keeps no record of wrongs done.

At our Men’s retreats in order to keep our hearts right before the Lord, we’re encouraged to write two letters. The first is our letter to God pouring out our heart to him. The second letter is God’s letter back to us. God’s letter always says, “son I love you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Although I see your broken heart, I will pick up the threads of your broken heart and weave them together again.” God’s love is beyond our own comprehension, for love, mercy, and grace are the nature of God himself.

In Philippians 2, Paul said by revelation, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ.” The attitude of Christ was not to be served, but to serve. He humbled himself and took upon himself the form of a servant and became obedient to his Father, even unto the death on the cross. He was shamefully humiliated and he suffered and died, taking upon himself the shameful punishment that we deserved. This is amazing grace… in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. For Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect innocent sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

Desperation and destitution are often blessings. They humble us to the place that we come to realize, “all I need is thee.” God has called us together as a band of brothers so that we can “choke in the dust” of other men who are pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ. As members of the body of Christ, we’ve been called to liberty in Him. The liberty is not an occasion to sin, but to serve God by following Christ’s example… to humbly serve one another in Love..

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

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

Bill Kauble 0:09
Thank you, Billy, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob Bob and law we wish warm welcome to you guys. And influencers Orange County. We are social distancing, and we have a mass on. And we want to invite you to come back because we are open for business. One of the things that we are blessed by

is Pete’s book about Susan the tug of heaven. And they’re available here. Just give me a call 714296685 and we’ll get you some and Bob boxer. What a great title. This is our own Bob boxer right here having hoping crisis.

And when the crisis comes, encouraged us to Kyra, God expects his men to have such confidence in him, that we are the reliable, dependable ones. And that is only because of the confidence that we have in him. We are faith based, Christ centered, Grace driven. And we believe in five things. One, Jesus is not only Savior, but he’s Lord over our lives. Number two, the Bible is the final authority. Three we are men of prayer, for we link with like minded men, and five, we give it away. And fundamentally, one of the things that we focus on is men, marriages and missions, and one of the men that embodies humility, which Pete is going to talk about this morning is a guy named Glenn Smith. And I wanted to ask Dennis or Julio to come up and interview. Dennis do it. Thank you. That’s an ad for your rock of hammer. Thanks, Bill. Thanks for butchering my name.

Dennis Ruvilo 1:57
Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 2:51
Phil Hanlen going to Israel with tick that, or Jasper’s Jasper VidCon ucwa from Africa who was here and he was part of the rock of Africa ministry with Glen.

Glynn Smith 4:31
Well, it used to be really easy to talk about beacon of hope because we only did one thing and that was doing aids education, training kids about what AIDS is all about. We’ve been doing this now for 17 years and and things have multiplied we into all sorts of different ministries now. So our original thing was aids education.

These are the areas that we work in Africa. We started in South Africa and we’ve expanded to Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Uganda.

is the AIDS education AIDS prevention ministry. We’ve developed this discipleship program also, where we go back into the schools, where we’ve trained the kids for HIV and AIDS and do discipleship with them. We’ve grown into sponsoring children. And we partner with an organization called horizon International, to sponsor orphan children.

Or per kid per month. This is one of the new projects signing up in Uganda, we’ve got a young lady this, Nora, Doreen, she was one of the very first people that participated. We trained six people, the first year that we were in Uganda, she was one of them. She has since gone on to do other things. And she’s found these a bunch of orphan kids living in the streets. And she’s taking control of about 37 to 40 of them, that she is providing accommodation for feeding them trying to make sure that they have clothes to wear and get to school. And so we’re trying to raise funds right now, she’s needing about $500 a month to be able to take care of those kids. Besides the 37 or 40, that she’s taken care of. There’s about another 150 that she cares for that are undernourished, still living with their families, but they need additional food. And a lot of them have got

medical conditions. This is not a very good picture. But this little girl down here has got hydro encephalitis, you can see the size of her head. A lot of these little kids just need a $350 surgery to put a shunt in their brain to drain off the fluid so that that doesn’t happen to them. Incidentally, this little girl just passed away in the last four months, because she didn’t get the care that she needed. And this is a bunch of the kids of the 37 or 40 that are living with her at the moment. This is a farming project we’ve been trying to encourage a lot of our teams we’ve got I didn’t mention we got 16 teams spread across those four countries that are doing all of these different ministries, and we’re trying to get them more autonomous. So they don’t depend so heavily on us for funding. One of the projects is Abraham from Bulawayo Zimbabwe, started a farming project. And so this is what he This was his cabbage crop that he grew last year, he is being given an opportunity this year to buy a plot of land, which is this one right here, which is seven acres, number seven is seven acres. And we were able to raise the funds for him to buy that property for 19 $100, it would typically cost you probably $20,000 to buy a property like that he got it for 1900 through a special government project. Right now he’s got the foundation’s dug for a building. And we’ve right just this week raised the money for him to put down the foundations. And then he’ll be continuing on to build that building, which will consist of two rooms, one for a caretaker to live in, and the other one to be like a storeroom for all of his equipment.

Dennis Ruvilo 3:08
Glen McGill. And it got me out of the bleachers and into the onto the playing field. I I just was so impressed with these men and their testimonies that it got me active. I’ve been to Africa twice with the rock of Africa ministry. And with with Wayne and Tom, we go to Chino up until COVID stopped us we’ve been going to Chino prison every Sunday night, and for the last eight years sharing the journey in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So what I’m trying to say is that we have an opportunity to really get to know these men and these ministries that they’re in and know their hearts. And and in so doing that God will speak to your heart and draw you into helping and partnering with some of these ministries. So Glenn, is one of the guys it’s always in the back of kind of quiet, the helping out with the audio visual and the live streaming. But he’s not quiet when it comes to the the beacon of hope international ministry. So I got a little cheat sheet here about Beacon of Hope International, bringing hope and the love of Jesus to the African youth by educating discipling and assisting their communities and becoming self sustainable. So Glen, take it away.

Glynn Smith 5:29
About three years ago, one of our brothers from the central California District went over to Africa. And he started this program here for training pastors, along with Bruce Wilkinson. He’s got a program which they call Bible school on wheels. So you you buy a kit for $300. And you can train 10 pastors with their kit. There’s 10 manuals in it. And so we’ve got well over 300 pastors in Uganda now that have been through the first year of their program, and we tried to raise funds to get them through year two and year three. And I might add that that that came at exactly the right time, because while he was over there, starting this program up, the government in Uganda had started cracking down on pastors that didn’t have any qualifications. So if they didn’t have any theological training, they had to shut their churches down. And so this training came in exactly the right time. And then last year, because because COVID, kind of shut our whole ministry down, we couldn’t go into schools couldn’t do anything. So we just diverted all of the money that we were getting into a feeding program. And then I’m going to just talk very briefly about the last few items, which is a farming project, and then an opportunity to sponsor more kids. So just results, what have we accomplished over the 17 years that we’ve been doing this? So for our aids education and discipleship program, we’ve had over two 209,000 children that have been through the program, and approximately $3 per student is what it cost us. Every one of those students has sat through a six hour seminar, to teach them everything that they need to know about AIDS. They’ve heard the gospel, they’ve seen the Jesus form, they’ve been offered the opportunity of following Jesus 200,000 of them or more, about 4600 children have started going through a discipleship program kind of got shut down by COVID. We’ll be starting to pick that up again, this year, hopefully, sponsored children, we’ve had somewhere between 205 100 orphaned children that have been sponsored at a rate of $40 per child per month. I’ve lost track of that, because there were multiple people, I was just one of three people that were able to sign up 200 Kids initially in that program, but it’s grown from there, and I’m not sure how, how big it’s grown. So it’s probably probably exceeded 500 by now, the past the training, I’ve said 100 to 330. pastors, they’re the ones that are under our control, trained, trained and managed by our guy in Uganda. There’s about 130. But there were about 20 other kits that were given to other pastors around the country. And so I’m not sure exactly how many they had. That’s what I’ve got 130 to 300 330 results of the feeding program for about a six or seven month period last year. Our guys across those four countries, bought 22 tons of food and distributed it to two families, about 2000 people a month we’re getting food from the program, touching about 40 families a month. These are just pictures of some of the kids that have been through discipleship program. The This was one of the very first programs we did in 2004 Richards Bay. This is one that we did in Victoria Falls where Dennis goes often now, in Zimbabwe, the name of the school mercy or Tunisia, which means the smoke the thunders from the smoke that arises from Victoria Falls all the time.

These are some of the orphans that have been through the program. This little girl here, that one there. This little guy here are three of the kids that have been programmed been through the program. So this girl here is that girl now that she’s finished high school, she’s been through three years of college, and she’s working as a volunteer at the magistrate’s office in inner city. This little guy down here, that is him now. And this this was in about 2007. He’s now attending college doing electrical engineering. And then this little guy is he was also sponsored from about the age of three. He was the son of a 16 year old mom who was still going to school when he was born. And he’s now also just finishing school. This year and going into college next year. These are for children that we still have on our books that we need to find sponsors for at a rate of $40 per student per month.

This is the plants of the building that they’re planning to put up. And so one of the questions dennis is going to ask me is how how can you guys are big enough or influences help us? Those are all the ways in which you can help us financially. Ups $200 will will sponsor an entire team during our aids and discipleship program $1,000 a month would sponsor in an entire country, okay. sponsoring a kid if anybody would like to sponsor a kid $40 a month training a pastor $300 kit will try and 10 pastors for the next year farming project. Like I said, we’ve we’ve just raised the money for the foundation, we’re still going to be looking to raise about another two or $2,000 over the next couple of months to complete that building. And then he’ll get into buying animals and planting crops and and continuing on with that and that we’ve got at least two other teams that are wanting to do the same kind of farming project to raise funds for their ministries. So let me just get to the final slide. That’s my final slide. So turn it back to Dennis,

Dennis Ruvilo 13:53
we’ll say up here that I can testify to the fact that your your money goes a long way in Africa. We’ve had men who’ve contributed and helped us to do some mighty mighty work. If the money goes a long way, the sad thing about Africa is that there there are people there for lack of just some simple antibiotics will will wind up dying because of that. And and it’s it’s it’s just the money that we spend here goes so far over there. So on a monthly basis, the rock of Africa is helping prisons, schools, churches and other areas, other people in the area of Victoria Falls. So anyway, let’s all raise our hands to do a brother here. Glen Smith in the beacon of hope and just pray. Father, we thank you for this man. We thank you for his heart. We thank you for the ministry that you’ve put on his heart Lord, we ask you, Lord, that You would just touch the hearts of people here Lord and Lord Just minister through a lord coming alongside Glenn, whether it be funds or help or helping him raise money, Lord, we thank you for all that you’re doing through this Ministry. We thank you for the the people in Africa that are being blessed. The people that are learning, Lord, about age prevention and about Lord, staying, chat, chastised or chased Lord until their marriage. So Father, I thank you for all that you’re doing and blessing this man and bust this ministry, in Jesus name, amen.

Glynn Smith 15:35
good business cards on the back table. If you want my contact information or our website,

Bill Kauble 15:40
thank you very much. We’re gonna take an offering, guys, so get your big checkbooks out. I wanted to mention about Bob boxer. These books are available in the back if you want those. So again, I would encourage you for time such as this, there’s out there, oh my gosh, they’re free. This one’s not free. It’s a donation. So let us pray for the offering. Father, we have been amazed how much we’ve missed. Coming together. And you’re into Hebrews, you talk about us coming together. And and Don Rael mentioned it also, Lord that, that it’s a privilege to spur each other on to love and good deeds. And Father, you blessed us for so many years, so many years. And I pray Father, that the offering that we take right now will continue to be multiplied by you for your purposes, Lord, not our purposes but your purposes. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.

Pete McKenzie 16:59
Good grief, Is this good? Is this this we own on this one?

Testing 123. Okay, got it going. We’re trying to get our act together. Again, it’s gonna take a few weeks for us to get our time schedule and all our rhythm back in this thing, but it doesn’t matter does it? Doesn’t to me anyway. It’s good to be back. It’s good to have you back. It’s good to be abandoned brothers again. This keep clapping for voyagers shirt to allow us to come back in here. Let’s give them a big hand.

You know, we’re in a war. And we’re trying to make sure that we’re adequate and equipped for every good work in that wars we talked about last week. And one of the things that God put on my heart to do was to make sure that we have the inward adequacy and equipping that we need to face the kind of things that we face in life in general, and in this pandemic, and things that are going on in the country and politically and health wise and sports wise, and every otherwise, it doesn’t matter what direction you point in, we got uncertainty and challenge and things are all up in the air and chaos when the crisis comes in. It has come. And it’s a crisis. But you know, it depends on how you look at it. And last week, we talked about having a good perspective, it’s really important that you have a right perspective on this crisis. Because crisis is a good thing. If you allow God to use it the way God is planned to use it. God’s not sitting up there biting his fingernails going, gosh, I can’t believe they’re having to suffer through this pandemic. I can’t believe that they’re the shenanigans are going on. Right and left on broad daylight. He knows exactly what’s going on. He’s allowed every bit of it. And God is a God of planning purpose. He has a plan and he has a purpose. And for us to be able to work alongside God and work for God and let him work in us. We’re going to have to have one thing to start with. Everything begins with one thing, which is a characteristic of the site the lady and characteristic of a man of God is humility. It all starts there. When Jesus was explaining in Matthew five, six and seven, what the lifestyle in the kingdom of God was because he was introducing the kingdom of God he came to establish the kingdom Have God on earth. And he says there’s a different lifestyle than you’ve ever known. It’s going to be different than you want. It’s going to challenge everything in you. It’s going to make you wonder and scratch your head. You’re going to walk away going when I teach you what it means to be a Christian and what Christian living is all about, you’re going to walk away going nobody can do that. And who would want to do that? Because he was talking about turning the other cheek and someone slaps you on one cheek turn the other. Well, you grew up going someone slaps on one cheek I’m gonna feel Roomful uppercut, uppercuts. If someone forces me to go one mile, and I don’t want to and I shouldn’t have to, I’m not going to go two miles. Why would I do that? He’ll think I’m a wimp. You want me to pray for that person? You don’t know what they’ve done to me. Pray for your enemies, bless those who persecute you. They’re persecuting me. They don’t wish me Well, they’re trying to hurt me. They’re trying to shut me up and silence me. And you’re telling me to pray for them? Bless him. What’s that all about? He’s calling us up higher. He’s calling us to a standard that no man can live out. It’s Christian life is not hard. It’s impossible. Apart from Christ, and the Holy Spirit living in us, we need to be reminded on a regular basis is James and john were when they asked God if he wanted to call down fire on these guys over here because they weren’t lining up with what he wanted. And they rejected him. But I wouldn’t I didn’t want him to come into their village. And James, john says, You want us to call fire down on those guys. He says, guys, you don’t know what spirit you’re off. That’s not the kingdom living that I came to down the cross in came to rise from the dead and live today to give you power to live. And so when he started that whole sermon on five, six, and seven in Matthew, He started with what we call the Beatitudes. In the first beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit. And

that means blessing is a word that means happy, spiritually, spiritually prosperous, to be admired, forgiven, refreshed, by God’s grace, inwardly peaceful. If you want to be spiritually secure and worthy of respect, you need to be poor in spirit, you’re going to be blessed, you’re going to be spiritually prosperous. Now, who is blessed, the poor in spirit. That means those who are devoid of any spiritual arrogance, who don’t regard themselves as insignificant. Now, we live in a day when everybody says it’s all about you. It’s all about your plan, your your desire, your will your feelings, how people treat you, it’s all about you. Now, who do you think the author of that the one who came in said, I didn’t come to be served, but to serve and give my life a ransom for many are the one who says I want you to be depressed and discouraged, I want you to be the opposite of all this stuff. I just read spiritually bankrupt. If you look at yourself, you just get depressed, if you just keep focusing on all the

just somebody needs to know what they’re doing up here, thank you. And then trained in this equipment. Thanks, Dan. blesser, the poor and spirit those who are devoid of spiritual arrogance, who regard themselves as insignificant for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The Kingdom of heavens now Now, if you’re going to get into heaven, you’re going to get there because you were humble. And the reason is, because you had to surrender something, you had to give up something. You had to consider yourself insignificant. You had to say, I cannot do it. You had to confess and admit I can’t do this. I don’t know what your senators prayer was. But I’ve shared mine with you many times, God, I’m a total failure here. I can’t do this. I can’t live up to all the standards you’ve given me. I can’t obey all that stuff. I can’t handle my language. I can’t handle my lust. I can’t handle my thoughts. I can’t handle these habits, my drinking, whatever it is your can’t handle it. I couldn’t handle any of that. I could stop for a while. I stopped a lot. But I couldn’t keep stopped. And I’d go back to it. I’d rededicate my life in church on a regular basis. And it was a good 24 to 48 hours panacea for me. But I was right back to the old stuff again. I got really tired Prior to that, and miserable, I got tired of guilt and shame, I got tired of not being able to live the life that I wanted to live, but couldn’t live god, I’m a total failure. Well, that’s a big thing when a guy is I look back on it, that was a big thing, when a man can look at God, and say, I’m a total failure. Sometimes we need to look at our wives and say, I’m a total failure. Sometimes we think of our children, and I’m a total failure. Sometimes we even at work in the tasks that we have, I’m a total failure. And men have a hard time with that. It’s reminds me that fonts and happy days, saying I was wrong, I was, couldn’t get it out. He couldn’t say I was wrong. And that’s kind of where pride comes in. pride that says, If you admit that you’re wrong, they’re gonna take advantage of you, they’re gonna walk all over you, if you submit, they’re gonna take advantage of you, they’ll use you, they will consider you weak. And that’s what the enemy, the devil and the demons, when we give in, they see that we’re weak, and they have their way with us. And they’re just looking for us to do that. There’s is a kingdom of heaven. In the second thing, he said, and this is all and process, one comes after the other. You got to be poor in spirit. And when you get to that place where you’re poor in spirit, humble yourself so that you’re poor in spirit. And then he said, the second beatitude Blessed are those who mourn. who mourn over their sin and repent. God, I’m a total failure. I can’t live this life. I’m not the man You created me to be. That’s repentance. I repent for the man that I am. I’m sorry for the man that I am. I’d like to be a new man. I’d like to be a different man. But I can’t be that man. I know I’m not the man You created me to be. But I want to be. And then this was the great requests the best prayer ever prayed? Would you make me that man. And when I prayed that God made me began to make me that man, he started that night, he gave me the Holy Spirit, He forgave my sins. I knew that I was a different guy, I knew I was under new management, something dramatically happened. And that was 55 years ago, or more. And I’ve never been the same guy since. But it all started with humbling yourself and saying, I’m a total failure. I can’t do this. Left to myself, I’m set to self destruct. I can’t handle this life. And, you know, Ron shared with us last week at the peace officers for Christ meeting they attended. They shared the statistics 25 peace officers were killed on the line of duty last year. 230 committed suicide

can’t handle this life. PTSD from being married PTSD from being in Iraq and Afghanistan. PTSD from being in trauma traumatic situations in the body is not just built to handle that we’re not built to be able to stand under that kind of stress and that kind of Mayhem and that kind of war. And that kind of evil. Body Parts flying all over the place. Some of the veterans that this come back, and we had one here one time and he was sharing how many veterans coming back from Iraq in the Middle East are committing suicide, because they just can’t handle what they had to go through and what they saw happen. But it’s true that people have PTSD from their marriages. It’s been so difficult, so hard to handle so pressure, so ugly, that their nervous system couldn’t handle it. We feel stressed and our body was not built for that kind of stress. Bless those who mourn and repent, who admit that they can’t handle it who admit that they’re This is more than I can bear. Jesus hung on the cross. But it wasn’t more than he could bear because his father was with him. Do not fear for I am with you do not anxiously look about you for I am your God. I will help you surely I will strengthen you surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. So we have a God who says Look, I’m coming alongside. I know you’re going through a tough time. I know it’s going to be difficult. It may be a health issue a financial issue a marriage issue or children issue, a political issue or pandemic issue. The Issues never stop. They just keep coming. We live in a fallen world All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And there’s so much sin out there, there’s so much hurt, there’s so much hate. There’s so much lying and deception, authored by the devil, all authored by his demons. And they have total sway over the man who has no faith. Who doesn’t believe in God, who has no strength, who’s not been given the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, goodness, patience, kindness, gentleness, self control. Those are the things that keep us from being stressed out. Those are the things we have peace that surpasses comprehension, bless it are those who mourn, who repent, for they shall be comforted. And that’s what happened to me that night. God said, you use the word he set me free. Have you been set free lately? Have you been anxious and worried and stressed fearful? And you got on your knees and said, God, I can’t handle this in myself? This is bigger than me. I don’t have answers. I can’t fix it. But you know what’s going on? I’m going to put it in your hands. I’m going to give it to you. I’ve got faith in you. I’m going to humble myself and surrender my ability to handle this. I’m going to admit I can’t handle this. But you can. And so Lord, I’m going to give it to you. And that’s what Jesus meant in Matthew 11, when he said, Look, come to me, come to me. Now to come to him, you have to humble yourself, to come to him, you have to give up your right, your strength, your personal ability to handle it. Now there are some things you can handle to a point, you’ve handled it, you’ve handled it, you’ve handled it, you’re not handling it well anymore. It didn’t stop. You thought it would go away, you thought you could fix it, but that didn’t happen. And so you kept trying to handle it. And it started to crush you. And you had two options. There’s two ways to get humility. One is you can as Peter said, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper time. So you can Humble yourself, you can get on your knees before God. And you can say God, I can’t handle it is more than up to it’s hard for a man to say, See the old man code. We’ve talked about that through the years. The old man code says, You never say I can’t do it. You never say I need help. You never say I need a loan. You never say I’m sorry. You never say I love you. No hugging, no kissing. See that oh man code was authored by the devil. He wants to put man on an island.

He wants to put me out there all by themselves, because that’s the sheep that the devil always comes along and gets. It’s not the sheep that are in the flock. Close to the shepherd. It’s a sheep that wander away the sheep that get on their own. They get distressed and depressed and they lay down and roll over and they hadn’t been sheared lately, so they can’t roll back over again. And they just pray for every squirrel in the field. Because it doesn’t take much to take care of that sheep. The sheep is not fast. It doesn’t have sharp teeth. Doesn’t have claws. can’t defend itself. God compared us to sheep man don’t want to be sheep. We decided we’re going to be fighting sheet.

Let’s just put some words in front of sheep

blesser to those who mourn. And then after that, the third one was blessed are the meek. That means that blessing of the humble and the gentle in the kind hearted, the sweet spirited, the self controlled. Bless it are those who are humble. If you want to be blessed, that’s where you have to come you have to come to the place if you want to be spiritually prosperous. If you want to have that peace that surpasses all comprehension. You have to humble yourself so you can let God humble you or you can Humble yourself. That’s two ways to get it. Now God will humble you and and I’ll tell you one of my stories of God humbling me when I came to Christ, you know that you remember that? I was read the bobby Richardson story second baseman for the Yankees strong Christian in the back of his book was opponent I’m called the gods Hall of Fame. And about a year after I’d come to Christ, he came to Birmingham to speak to a baseball banquet now and I went to hear him speak. And at the end of his message, he quoted that poem and shared it with a group. And I was impressed. And I said, Boy, that is good stuff. I said, Well, I read his book, and I ought to be able to share that poem at the end of my testimony. So I memorized it. And at the end of my testimony, and I was getting opportunities as a ballplayer to speak at different groups, and I would share my testimony, and then I’d share the poem. And I’d always get a great response and people would be who, and on that one, can I get a copy of that? So I had copies made, so I could hand them out afterwards, when I was invited to speak to this church one time and they feel the chapel up. And I gave my testimony that night. And I got to the point. And I was feeling pretty good about myself. I mean, now I’m going to impress him again. And I said, and I introduced the poem, and I said, Well, this is a poem in the back of the bobby Richardson story I was telling you about. And it really helped me with understanding life and living this Christian life. And I’d like to share it with you and boom, God took it away. Man, I couldn’t remember the first word, I couldn’t remember anything. And they’re all sitting there like you are right now. And they’re going. And Susan sitting about where bill is, and she knew the point, she had heard it so many times, and she was trying to get me jumpstarted, your name, your name, your name. I couldn’t hear. But I could hear God. And God said, Look, that’s my point. If you’re going to use it for Your glory, I’m taking it away. Because I gave you that poem to give me glory, not you. I learned a great lesson that night, it humbled me. But believe me, I’m sitting there and people. Finally God gave it back to me. And I shared the point.

He just took it away. Your name may not appear down here and this world’s Hall of Fame. In fact, you may be so unknown that no one knows your name. The author, authors and the praise of men may never come your way. But don’t forget God has rewards that he’ll hand out someday. This Hall of Fame is only good as long as time shall be. But keep in mind, dad’s Hall of Fame is for eternity. To have your name inscribed up there is greater more by far than all the fame and all the praise of every man may star. This crowd on earth they’ll soon forget when you’re not at the top. They’ll cheer like mad until you fall, but then their praise will stop. not God. He never does forget and then his Hall of Fame. But just believe in own his son forever. There’s your name. I’ll tell you for it. And I wouldn’t trade my name, however small that’s written there beyond the stars in that celestial Hall. For all the famous names on earth, and glory that they share. I’d rather be an unknown here and have my name up there. Amen.

Take the opportunity to blow my nose on that one.

So we can humble ourselves or God will humble us Blessed are the meek, the kind hearted, the sweet spirited, bless it are the those who hunger and thirst now you’re never going to get to the point in your life where you can hunger and thirst for righteousness. Until you humble yourself. You’ll never get to the point where you’re hungry to be like Christ to be conformed to his image to be hungry for the word hunger to come on man a prayer hungry to give and serve. You’re never going to get there until you’ve been humble and make until you’ve been poor in spirit and mourn over your sin. Until that’s a condition of your heart. You can read your Bible all you want to but you’re not got a lot of people who read it just to say I read it. I got it done but you’re not going to hunger for it. You’re not going to the Holy Spirit is not going to shape your character bring you to repentance, raise you to the heavenlies in worship. It’s not going to happen unless you’ve come to him in a humble spirit realizing that he’s got and you’re not realizing that you’re his servant that apart from him. You can do that. Everything you’ve learned over your sin, you’ve repented, you do it on a regular basis, when the Holy Spirit holds up the sin in front of you, you shouldn’t have said that shouldn’t have thought that shouldn’t have done that. And then when you confess it, and you’re keeping your heart in a place submitted to him, you’re keeping your heart in a place where you want that righteousness. You want that clear conscience, you want to be God’s man. You want to have power and authority and confidence in the Christian life. You don’t want to be the guy walking around all the time going, I’m unworthy. I’m unworthy. That’s a slap in God’s face. That’s, you know, it’s the same as saying God can’t change me. God can’t fix me. I’m unworthy. I send too much. I don’t read enough study enough. do enough, serve enough given enough? No enough? I’m unworthy. You’re not unworthy. If he died on the cross for you and called you to himself. You’re worthy. You’re valuable. You’re precious to him. Don’t tell God you’re unworthy. And I don’t want to hear it either. We’re all unworthy. No one’s worthy. We talked about grace two weeks ago. Grace is unmerited favor given towards someone who doesn’t deserve it by someone who didn’t have to give it. We’re all unworthy. He’s given us something we didn’t deserve. You cannot work hard enough or be good enough for God to give you grace for God to bless you, for God to open doors for you for God to comfort you forgot to give to you with all that he does. I don’t care how good you are. I don’t care how many times you read the Bible, how much money you give, it doesn’t matter. You can’t impress God can’t get on his good side. They’re not they don’t have scales in heaven. Measure. Now your good works and your bad. It’s all of grace. Jesus said, and we needs to be our life verse. If you abide in Me and my word abides in you, you’ll bear much fruit. But keep this in mind. Apart from me, you can do nothing, nothing. Nothing, nothing good, nothing lasting. nothing that’s going to count for the kingdom of God. If you’re doing it in your own power, your own strength for your own glory, to make people think better of you. You know what the number one characteristic was when they took a poll? What’s the number one characteristic and a friend that that you admire and are drawn to? It was always humility, self effacing. And I don’t mean the kind of putting yourself down and beating yourself up kind of humility. God’s not impressed with that, and neither are people. That’s a pity party. That so I’m no good, I’m failed. I can’t make it. I’m going out in the backyard, neat worms kind of thing. Nobody’s impressed with that. But that true humility that puts others first. It wants to be significant. It doesn’t talk about itself all the time. It didn’t seek the limelight. It said that we’re talking about. And that’s a hard place to go, especially if you’re gifted, especially if you God has blessed you with some intelligence or some gifts and in the church for worship leaders, and we pastors we fight that all the time. putting ourselves first wanting to talk about ourselves, thinking more highly of ourselves, and we should measure ourselves by other pastors, other churches. Everybody struggles with that? one way or the other.

So if we want to get to the blessing, be blessed by being hunger and thirst for righteousness. blesses those who actively seek right standing with God. for they shall be completely satisfied. Oh, you’re hungry for God? Do you want to be like Christ? Do you feel a real love for the word today? If you’ve been in the word and been blessed lately, I don’t mean just have you been in the word but have you the Holy Spirit spoken to your heart? Is he convicted you of sin? Is he put you patted you on the back? I had to tell a guy the other day if you if you haven’t, and you want it. Do those exercises. We always do it retreats that I do in counseling all the time. Had to tell a guy the other day. I want you to write two letters. Write a letter to God Dear God, pour your heart out. Just be real honest. Tell him if you may had to tell him you’re mad if you’re hurt and wounded and discouraged. Tell him just lay it all out there for he’s not going to be surprised he’s heard it before. He’s heard worse in you guy. Write a letter to God in the second letter. Right. Let God write you a letter dear Pete. Dear bill. Iran, God knowing you as well, as he knows you right now, if he were to write you a letter today, what would he say? What would God say to you? Is he going to say, Boy, I knew you like he told Peter, remember when Peter denied him, you remember what Jesus said? He said, I knew you were no good. Remember Jesus saying that? I knew you wouldn’t make it. I knew you were all talk. You shoot your mouth off all the time and look at you. Little girl comes up and you curse and deny me. I knew you would. Is that what you think you’re going to hear from God? How many have ever written a letter from God to you? How many Keep your hands up? How many have heard God say I love you and then raise them higher. One of the first things God thank you one of the first thing God’s gonna say to you when you he writes a letter to his son, I love you. And when we’ve sinned, and we don’t deserve it, that’s a humbling thing. Son, I love you. I’m never going to leave you. I’ll never forsake you. I know you’re going through a hard time. But when you’re mourning in yours, you’re confessing your sin. That’s where the blessing comes. That’s where the forgiveness comes. We have to learn this. We have to live it every day. Because if we don’t live this and learn this, we’re going to be beaten down, we’re going to be pray for every animal in the field, the demons are gonna come after us. We have no confidence. If we don’t confess our sin, if we don’t mourn over us, and if we don’t hunger and thirst for righteousness, if we’re not abiding in Christ, if we have ulterior motives, if we want revenge, and we want to hurt people that hurt us, and we’re not willing to forgive, the unforgiving heart is an unforgiving heart. If you’ve been forgiven and God has touched you, and giving you the grace of forgiveness, he expects you. And he says it’s over in the Sermon on the Mount. I believe it’s in chapter six we share in the Lord’s Prayer, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And you know what? He said right after that, if you’ve been forgiven, and you won’t forgive, then I won’t forgive you. He didn’t say, I may not or I probably won’t. He said, I’m not gonna forgive you. If you’re unwilling to forgive others, you but you don’t know God, what they’ve done to me, look what they did to him. If you want to understand humility, look at the humiliation of Christ. Look at him who laid his life down who suffered it since second chapter Philippians. I’m sure Bob talks about it in his book. Do nothing from selfish ambition or anti conceit, but with humility of mine, think of others as more important than yourself. have this attitude in you with it also in Christ Jesus, who even though he had equality with God, he didn’t regard equality with God as something to be grasped or held on to but he emptied himself and became obedient, even to death on the cross, have this attitude in you. That was also in Christ Jesus, who came not to be served even though he was God, even he was a son of man, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Lord, the King of kings, he didn’t come to be served. He wasn’t born in a palace. He didn’t have a silver spoon is a child who was born in a manger he humbled himself, he condescended to become a man.

And then he submitted himself to those who killed him, beat him spit on him, mocked him, humiliated him in front of everybody stripped him naked, hung him on across you, you had a hard time being humble. Just go to the cross. Spend some time and in watching that suffering savior on the cross, who condescended who humble himself who became obedient in his humiliation, obedient to his father to bring glory to Him and you know what? To give us salvation to redeem us to forgive our to be able to share his blood that cleanses us from our sin, He was willing to suffer and die, be humiliated, consider himself nothing. Do nothing from selfishness, pride, empty conceit, you know, I said empty conceit because our conceit is empty. You didn’t accomplish it on your own. You stepped on a lot of people to get there are a lot of people picked you up to get you there. You didn’t you’re not a self made man. But you’d like to think of that. But God’s in control of all this. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. And then he goes on in the Sermon on the Mount to say, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Well, if you want to get there, if you want to be called a son of God, if you want to be a peacemaker, if you want to be pure in heart, and you want to see God, then it all starts with humility. Bless it to the poor in spirit, humble yourself, or you will be humbled about their stories all over this room of our God is broken and humbled you. God’s taken away what you had. God’s let you be destitute, desperate, not knowing where to turn and what to do. That’s why we have a band of brothers. That’s why he’s given us fellowship. That’s why we, every day are reminded, we need each other. We’re men of God. But as a man of God, I need to humble myself and say, I need you, Frank. Bill, I need you desperately. Ron, for him, man, I need you. Thanks for what you’re doing with that. Iris, thanks for what you’re doing in nursing home. So there, I need that model and example, thanks for all you’ve done throughout the years. Alien, giving God glory and all your contests, all the records you said, but you always give God glory. Thank you for that. That’s a great model. Chris, thanks, you had a brain bleed. And you’ve been through difficult times, it’s been a terrible hard year for you. But you’re sitting over there, you showing up. You’re giving glory to God. You keep your sense of humor. In your own the man in praise God, we need you. We need your example. We need what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Coach you coach guys for years, they rise up and call you bless it. You got a sweetest spirit of a coach I’ve ever seen. Thanks for the way you invested in the lives of all those young men. You didn’t just coach them in football, you help them become men. And you built into their character and you did it by your model and your example. Thanks back there in the back. I’m having a senior moment. Tom, my good friend.

One of my best. There was another man it was a man that he did on the brink of death. He’s had heart problems. He keeps showing up. He keeps getting the job done. And pulling all over the room. Two guys in here that are show given us examples of everything I’m talking about here. Starting with humility, putting others first being generous and giving this Don’t leave it in the bank, man, let’s put it in those orphanages in Africa. Let’s put it in those nursing homes. Let’s put it in all of these missions that we’re giving to this put it in Craig Herrmann is ministering to athletes all over all campuses all over the place, bringing them to Christ. Let’s invest, let’s sacrifice, let’s give sacrificially, let’s pour ourselves out. And see if God won’t open up the heavens and pour out a blessing until we have no mornay. You got to give yourself and give of yourself and what God has given you your to give away. That’s humility. God didn’t give you all that for you. He gave it to you. For others, he gave it to you so you could be a blessing. And it’s a test. You know, I never buy lottery tickets. Because I’m afraid I’d win. What would I do with all that stuff? What I’ll be faithful with all of it. I think I would. Maybe I should actually get a shot at it.

No, I’m not gonna ask that. But guys, I think you get it. I think you’ve heard it, but you need to be reminded and my job is to remind you and as God reminds me of what we need to be as men of god in days like this, let’s be men who are praising God bless don’t look at the circumstances and go woe is me. As humble ourselves before God and say how can I be a blessing now?

I was gonna read one more thing, but that’s enough. Guys, let’s let’s be God’s men and to be God’s man. We have to humble ourselves. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for being the God that humbled yourself. The guy that showed us what it looks like the God who hung on across And you’ve said we need to be crucified with Christ and Lord unless we’re crucified with you, there’s gonna be no humility in our lives no humbleness. No, no Lord victory in our lives, no confidence, no power, no authority. But we want all that for Your glory. We want to be able to speak, healing into people’s lives. We want to be able to forgive those who have heard us, we want to be able to go the second mile and turn the other cheek and bless those who persecute us. We want to live that kind of life. We want to empty ourselves out so you can fill us with your spirit. So we pray that you would do that in Jesus name And all God’s men said give them Heaven, guys.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Bullies Are Running Amok

In a world of darkness, it’s difficult to keep our bearings. We need to constantly refer to “true north” in order to align our hearts with God’s heart and our will with His will. The word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Jesus Christ himself is the meaning of the Word. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except by me.” He alone is our standard for truth.

There are many words that describe our country and our world. One word is “surreal.” We seem to be living in a surreal world too improbable to believe. Another word is “uncertain.” People are dubious and suspicious of favorable outcomes and of the opinions of others. There is much worldly confusion regarding the source of truth… a source that is worthy of confidence. Another pervasive word in these perilous times is “fearful.” The pandemic, pandemonium and panic all around us propagate a nation of fear. In fear, there is no peace. When fear prevails there is doubt, perplexity, anxiety, and confusion.

After the civil war, carpetbaggers and evil doers stormed through the south. They pillaged, plundered and destroyed the land and the people. Today we live in a day where men call good evil and evil good. The descriptive words in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 used to be called “sinful perversions”… deviations from a righteous standard. Today, they are called legally “protected classes.” Hitler said, if you tell a big lie long enough, the people will accept the lie as truth.

Jesus went out of his way to tell us how to act when facing dire consequences. Paul said in Philippians 2:5-11, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Because of the sacrifice Jesus Christ paid on our behalf, we can “rejoice in the Lord always.” Philippians 2:14 says, “Do all things without murmuring or disputing.” Our exhortation is not to grumble and complain. Our rejoicing is not in the he world, but in Him.

Hebrews 12 says, that which can be shaken will be shaken so that those things that cannot be shaken will remain. …. our God is a consuming fire. What will endure? The things of this world will soon be passed. Only that which is done in Christ shall last.

We’ve beven called to a higher power beyond the power of this world.

The bullies are running amok. Bullies prey on those who are weaker and smaller. They persecute those they perceive as less intelligent. They take advantage of the vulnerable and coerce them by force or “executive order” to do their bidding to humiliate and shame them. Amok means a sudden mass assault on others from a sociopathic heart of malice, vindictiveness, and revenge.

Peace officers have been shamed and humiliated in the press, in the public forum, and on line. Ron Tovar and Dennis Ruvolo were asked to share about 4M (Four Men) Christian groups in a meeting of policemen and first responders. In the law enforcement community, there is a significant rise in depression, drug abuse, overdose and suicide. In this meeting thirty eight police officers signed up for 4M groups to encourage one another in the Word of God, in prayer, and in fellowship.

According to 2 Timothy 3, Paul was passing the torch of apostleship to Timothy, his “son in the faith.” 2 Timothy 3:1-8 says, “THIS know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly (gullible) women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. 9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

Those who follow the doctrines of this world follow “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.” Like Jannes and Jambres, Pharaoh’s magicians who opposed Moses, those who contest the truth of the Word of God will reap dire consequences.

Paul taught Timothy, God wants to reproduce children “after his kind.” You teach what you know, but you reproduce who you are. We who are born again of God’s Holy Spirit have inherited our Heavenly Father’s nature. For Jesus Christ who was without sin became the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

How does God teach us the meaning of hope and love? Tribulation, hardship, challenges and trials are part of God’s training. According to Romans 5, tribulation produces patience, and patience experience (tested character), and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

Evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. According to Psalm 73, they appear to be able to take advantage of innocent men. The psalmist was distressed, discouraged, and depressed when he looked at the so-called advantage of evil men and the injustice of the world around him. However there is a turning point, an inflection point, a point of repentance. This is in verse 16…. when I entered the house of the Lord I understood their end. We have a different spirit than the spirit of this world. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness from on high.

As Christians having received the spirit of God in Christ in us, we’ve been called to perceive from our Father’s vantage point through Christ’s eyes behind our eyes. That which can be shaken will be shaken. Jesus said, The wise man built his house upon the rock… then when the storms raged and the floods beat upon it, the house stood fast because it was built upon the rock. The rock is Jesus Christ, our sure foundation.

What is it that cannot be shaken? If we abide in Christ and his word abides in us, then we shall bear much fruit. His fruit will last into eternity. For that which is seen (the physical things of this world) are temporal, but that which is unseen, the things of the spirit, are eternal.

The solution to the woes of 2 Timothy 3 is in verse 16-17: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

God’s heart is that men would be corrected. The Greek word for correction, “epanorthosis” means “to restore to an upright position.” Instruction in righteousness is our training and our example to restore us to upright vertical relationship with God. This is why we “choke in the dust” of our brothers who follow in the dust of the rabbi Jesus Christ.

The reason is that the man of God may be perfect, fully perfected unto all good works. God’s purpose is that his men would be furnished, equipped, perfectly outfitted for every good work. The phrase “man of God is only used twice in the New Testament. When you call a man “man of God,” most men will look down and look away. When you ask them why, they say, “because I feel unworthy.” Man of God means “God’s man.” This the genitive of possession. He made me worthy and now by his grace, his mercy has made me his own. The essence of Christianity is not who we are but “whose we are.”

God has given us every provision for life in this world of darkness, fully equipped for every good work. Good is the Greek word “agathos.” Good means “fit for the purpose for which we were designed.” The purpose is that we should love Him above all…

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