Do You Believe

every girl

there you go. He's ready. I don't know if anyone else is but he is.

Thank you, Sean.

You know Linda's passing. It's rarely rarely do I. Have the that when I have the privilege of being around somebody who is passing. It's always a little bit of envy. They're going home. Linda knew who Jesus was and maybe she didn't live it the way we lived it experienced it to the fullness that we did, but you know who Jesus was. And you just look at somebody going home like that and you go there it is. It's the great passing. You know you and I are going to be there we are. It's going to happen. I know sometimes we live is if it's not going to but it actually is going to happen and we have to make sure we're ready. We really have to make sure we're ready. It's just so important. The only thing that matters on that deathbed is is everything. Okay between you and God is everything okay between you and everybody else?

Those are the two things that are going to be so important on that day and let's not wait until that day because we may not have the opportunity 13 16 people got killed in that bus accident a West 16th horrible driving down the road. They got up that morning. They did not know that they were dressing for eternity Did You Know It? So we need to be careful with our lives. We really do. and be vigilant I said to someone today. I was talking to a lady who doesn't know Jesus the way we do and I said, you know what you got a face you're sitting on this side of the Grave. You don't want to face it on that side getafe sit on this side. So great message of the of the whole gospel is to face it here. This is where we deal with it and can't deal with it there. But anyway, that's not my message. Today. We're going to talk about do you believe there it is. Do you believe which is a valuable question God has a history of profound history of getting people to do what they say and everyone else thinks that they would never be able to do that. It's impossible. He has it's all through the Bible and he has a whole book full of people doing things beyond their natural abilities. So I would have to think that you and I would have the same expectation in our life that God would have the same expectation for you is he does for all these people in the Bible that we're being called to do in to think and behave and do expect beyond what is a natural ability to do so Moses only had a staff. That's all he had and he delivered a million people. That's all he had he didn't Courage he didn't have intelligent. He couldn't even speak. All he had was a staff and apparently that was enough. Because he gave it to God. Samson had the job of a of a donkey get the job a donkey and with that simple jaw. He killed a thousand people write with that simple Jawbone of a donkey because it's a god came on him and Pat and empowered him and gave him the strength to do it. David only had a few Stones. That's all we had. You only had a couple stones but and it was amazing as usual had thousands and thousands of men but David only had a few Stones beside Stone. That's a stone over there that was taken from the river that David took the stones from from Israel. He only had a few stones but that's all that God needed because he did it in the name of God in you did it with the expectancy of God going to do something. I know my God. I know what my God's capable of and I'm going to believe that he's going to do something with these stupid three stone that is going to be amazing and we have to have the same audaces faith if we're ever to do anything in our life that's going to be of significance. Joseph was a slave. That's all he was just absolutely abandoned by his family. He was kicked out much was parents didn't abandon him but his brothers and did just put him out and he was a slave had nothing at all to work with from social status from money from Power position nothing and he became a great ruler in Egypt Daniel again starting from nothing having nothing but trusting God that God could do something with him where he was and he of course became the ruler of Babylon. I really believe God put these people in the Bible not to other we could make movies about them. Not that we could have interesting Sunday school lessons, but that for us we could actually God mentors things for us. It's one thing to have knowledge. It's one thing we're learning this in my mentoring with the Southland church. You can have knowledge. But if you don't Mentor knowledge, it just sits on the page like you could say be a good father and love your kids. But what does that look like if we don't have parents who show us how to do that? We come into life with a pretty big deficit and we don't know how to really do that. And sometimes we make real mess of it because it's not being mentored. So God put these people in the Bible so that he could give us something that would show us how to do this. Hopefully we get it. Hopefully we don't think that it's just for somebody else but it's teaching as what can happen with God's possibilities when we think it's impossible amazing for turning things upside down. We need to stop judging. What is the capability and the outcome of our life based on our abilities instead of God's this is not a new message. This is something that just we need reminding of every once in awhile because you know what the challenges are new and the challenges are bigger in our life. If you're moving along and Christ. You should be bumping into bigger obstacles. Really you should be it shouldn't be getting easier. It should be getting harder. You should be facing bigger and bigger Giants in the land. So I just saw with gifting and talent but so many people never step into our true abilities. because we don't first of all believe we have any that's one of the great great misgivings of people is that they think they don't have any ability or talents or they know and they're afraid to step out because they might fail huge if the devil never did anything else to us in our life except make us be fearful of failing. He's done enough. I don't I'd I'd love to know what the actual statistics are for people who have not entered into the fullness of what life has for them simply because they're afraid to fail. Somewhere along the line of fear of failure has gotten in there and it has absolutely paralyzed people. I've walked it at you've all walked it. We're all walking it in some degree. I guarantee you. There's no one in this room that is living the full life. God intended. I guarantee you because it's a battle will get bits and pieces. We might have moments where we spark into it. but even in that You know Billy Graham said something very interesting. He said dumb in his book about his life, you know, you would think he lived it perfectly because look at what he did to knowing knowing spoke to people about Jesus more in history than Billy Graham. But yet he had regrets and if you read his book he had regrets because he did some of it wrong. He said I would have spent more time with my family. He said I spent too much time on the road too much time doing the church work instead of doing God's work, which is taking care of my family. You can do both you can so nobody's living at perfectly. We might as well understand that but we can listen and we can hear and say God can I do it better and I think that's what God is saying to us around this issue fear definition of fear. I just stressing emotion aroused by an impending pain danger evil. That's good. We got that but I love this or by the illusion of such that's where it gets us most often most of the time when you and I project we project negative we project that something bad is going to happen that the good isn't going to happen. Beer will always cause us to Stay in jobs that are below our ability and below our calling really there's so many people that are underemployed not because the job turn out there it's because the face and the courage isn't in here. That's what the problem is and you can live your whole life. That way you really can those people that have lived and I have and I'm sure we all have in some degree live something less than what we should have because we were afraid we stay in relationships that are abusive and destructive because the fear of leaving them. You know, what is it? They say the devil, you know? Is better than the devil you don't know that's a lie. That's a lie. And there's so many people staying in relationships. I'm not talking of you. No, let's not get into the whole divorce thing. But let me tell you. If you got somebody who is physically abusing you and abusing of psychologically and it's real or not. Just because you don't get your own way. That's not what I'm talking about. But someone is actually evil. Evil God doesn't call you to stay in that relationship. And why should you? Divorce is another thing we can talk about that later expressed any ideas or attempting new things fear always clamps things down. It always keeps it always says don't go any further. It's not going to get any better John said something really interesting about fear. 1st John 4:17 as we live in God then what does that mean? Is we live in God very kind of big statement there. We live in God what it means long with somebody long enough Bill walked with Linda for 51 years. I think they knew each other pretty well after 51 you finish each other's sentences, you know what they like for dinner, you know, they don't like the the dishes left in the sink. You just know all that stuff, right? But as we walk with God if we choose to because it's a choice doesn't happen. Naturally can't just go outside and say okay I'm walking with God there has to be a willing invite invitation to invite God into our life. So when you start walking with God to get to know you start getting to know him. And when we do that our love grows more perfect perfect being there complete mature. That's what that word means. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgement. The day of judgement is going to come it's going to come for you. It just came for Linda. It's coming for me. It's coming for everybody. That's why Jesus came, that's the whole reason because Jesus knew was so many people refuse to believe and that is there is going to be a day of judgment there is going to be a day where you and I are going to stand in front of God and we're going to have to give an account. We're going to have to say what did you do with the life I gave you. What did you do with the phase? I gave you. What did you do about Jesus now somebody absolutely knows nothing about Jesus then God has a way of dealing with that but for you and I we know if you lived in the West for the last eighteen hundred years, you know of Jesus and we are going to be asked very specifically. What did you do about Jesus was he just somebody that you had it on the head on Christmas and went to Easter Service not even knowing what it all means. Is that what Jesus was is he somebody that you just prayed to when things got rough and forgot about when everything got good. Is that what Jesus was the day of judgement is coming because God wants us to live with him says to live in God. That's what God wants you and I to do the live in him and I guarantee you also that everybody in this room is not living in God the way we should be There is more that God requires there is more that God desires and I think there's more that we desire. But we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Incredible statement such love has no fear.

Because perfect love expels all fear if we are afraid it is for fear of punishment.

and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love what that saying is that if you're frightened all the time, if you're scared all the time, if you're constantly thinking that He needs a sweater. Free cold down there is anybody. Eagle River

If we're walking around frightened all the time and scared that tells us something very specific about what we're living in and what are Faith actually looks like. The idea of punishment and there's two kinds of punishment that right here. What John's talking about? Is he talking about the punishment of judgment that when we die Oh my Heavens, what's going to happen? I'm scared to death. We should not live like that. We should not be living like that. So that's one thing but I want to take it another step specifically around the area of punishment. We as people are so used to getting punished for doing wrong. Some punishment was excessive and I'm wanted some people live lives of abuse like horrible aggressive beatings in an abuse. That leaves a mark it leaves an emotional mark on us. Having people not believe in us or encourage. It's a lot of us have grown up without any encouragement without anyone really believing in US. I'm reading a book now a gentleman wrote a book about his father years ago and it was his glowing wonderful incredible dad and he wrote the book about him. I think call Big R Us or something and it just took off. And it just spoke to so many people that they started sending letters to him about their dad and about how great their dad was. So we wrote a book full of those letters and I'm reading those letters. Oh my Heavens as I read these hundreds of different letters and see how important the Small Things Are how important the baseball game is how important laughing when they say a joke at the supper table how important it is to just be in their life in small ways and how these letters are writing back talking about their fathers doing these very very simple things. But a lot of us never grew up with that we grew up with absent fathers angry father's father's or just didn't care. For whatever reason or we dropping laughed at when we fail. I don't know what you went through in school and Junior High the main reason we homeschool it so that I could I could save my children from grade 7 8 9 that honestly that was my Sandra had other reasons, but that was my reason to save them from The Gauntlet the hellish Gauntlet. That is great 789 for children in school. Never mind what's going on everywhere else and being told that we're not valuable. This is a big one. This is big one because Being told that you're not valuable isn't done so much with words. It's done with no words.

It's being done through being ignored and dismissed and not being affirmed. When I look back at my life. The single most debilitating thing in my life is that I was never affirmed that is the single biggest thing after years and years and years of digging it around in that pit. I discovered. That's what it was. There was no affirmation and if you are not valued, You won't think you're valued and therefore when all of these things happened to you. How how on Earth are you going to expect a God to be like that when it's not been entered for you. This is where faith comes in. Believing that God is loving and helpful and hopeful for us a gentleman prayed over me in 1984. I think it was Ray Bloomfield and he said he said I still have it on tape wonderful thing and most of the prophecy has come true so far. He said there have been great things hoped for you great things planned for you by God, and he went on to explain them in a lot of them have come true. But do you know that God is hopeful for you he is hoping for you and I don't know how mediocre that may sound to you. I don't know how you may be daydreaming about something else right now, but the fact that God is hoping for you to win to succeed to overcome. This is a powerful thing. And of course, we may not enter into the fullness of that because we've never had it meant we never had that experience. So for some of us, it's a real reach to believe that God would actually want us to succeed and is hoping for us is standing on the sidelines of our life and going you can do it baby. You can do this. It's hard for us to grasp. And that's why it says in John that to live in God that we gradually learn this about him. It takes time. It takes time to believe that your ideas. They just might work and that they're worth taking a chance on and that it's okay to fail. It's okay to fail. I don't know. I've seen some people react to failure and it wasn't very privileged. Someone will leave a situation will completely leave the situation because they can face the fact that they failed and we got that sometimes it's in our genes but most of the time it's Mentor you are up bringing went through some kind of an authority figure with her be our parents or someone in your family or a teacher or somebody we respect who has caused us to believe that failing is a horrible thing. And if you do it you lose you are no longer held in high esteem. This can be hard. And it is into this maze that God tries to enter into your life in my life. It's through these filters that he's trying to get through doesn't matter how old you are doesn't matter. It's not for young people got their life ahead of them. That's not the way God works. I've said it a thousand times. You know that God is used at some of the greatest people in the Bible were over 60 or 70 over 80, so you're not off the hook. at all God says this and Isaiah 41:10 and I stay off the hook because God still has something for you to do. There's still work to be done and people who spend 40 years in Christ. Let me tell you they they know some shortcuts. They know some of the pitfalls they know you think God just sideline some people in today's world. We sideline anyone over 60. We just put them away somewhere so that we don't have to deal with it, but it's not that way God doesn't see his treasure. That way. He doesn't spend a whole lifetime Sean and Brass to put it under a bed somewhere and hide that's not the way God works, Isaiah 41 10, and this is God speaking.

But I want sinking. Don't be discouraged from your God. But if you don't know that God that means nothing to you means nothing to you. Always God. I don't know the only thing I know but God it said he's going to judge me at the end of the day. That's what I grew up in my faith learning is that God was just there the judges and that he's just taking count. Yep. Yep. And you spent your whole life dealing with your sin. You spent your whole religious life dealing with your sand going to confession and being concerned about your instead of realizing that God wants to forgive you and he's more concerned about a relationship then he is about whether or not you failed this week. Confession is good. As long as it's not the only relationship we have with God. I mean, we do have to confess absolutely because it it takes chunks of Pride office. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my Victorious right hand and that ladies and gentlemen is what the Bible calls a promise. That is a promise. What the enemy of our soul in there is an enemy of our soul people, you know, the devil is not what we see in the movies and that's a nice version of them.

When you see all those horror movies with the devil and people growing horns, and you know, that's the good version.

The real version is someone who comes and sneaks up to you in the middle of the night. And Whispers In Your Ear, it's all going to hell and you're going with it. It's somebody who comes up and says who Do You Think You Are? Or comes up to you and says you're getting just what you deserve. And God ain't going to help you because you deserve it and look what you did. He loves whipping you. As you stumble towards Glory he loves to do that. He spent your whole life time and he's still doing it because I still have people and I still walk in it where I see opportunities and challenges and I step away and I see other people step away for whatever reason fear, whatever it is. He spent your whole lifetime saying that you can't that you won't that you should not and that breakthroughs and successes or for somebody else. I guarantee you that most of us in this church today spend an awful lot of time thinking God's promises and his love and his gracious present is for somebody else because I'm too evil into simple because I have failed because I am because see you're the only one who knows you you and God are the only one who knows what's going on in here. We don't know what's going on with somebody else. So we always judge them on the Raider game. Yeah, we just ate all your God loves having their so good. We see them do nice things and we see them being rate happy and Huggy and stuff and we don't know that they may have the most bitter heart in the world. God knows that but we don't judge them. That way we go. Oh man like you, you know God's blessing them and God bless them because they love them but he doesn't love me. It is a very this most one of the most prevalent things. Trying to get people to come up into where God wants to have what Jesus said life to the fullest Jesus died so that we could be forgiven absolutely. But he also died so that we can have life to the fullest. I've seen people were Christians who who they know who Jesus is, but they ain't living life to the fullest. And living life to the fullest will require risk and faith and trust.

Our purpose in our greatest life that we can live is found in if your non-Christian it's called following your gut God speaks to the non-Christian. It says it rains on the just and the unjust the the person who doesn't know God that what they're missing. Most of all is they they miss who to call when things get in trouble and they miss you too. Thank when they're going great and they don't have that relationship. But none the less God will send out blessing into their life and if they have the faith and trust to believe whatever that is that they're hearing you and I know it's God they don't know, it's God. They just seen opportunity and they go we're going to go for it. And you see people who have no faith that all have tremendous success because I exercise faith and trust. They don't know what they have faith and trust in they just say I think this can work the world works on spiritual principles. I dropped a pan. It's going to fall to the ground. It doesn't matter if that pan is Christian or not. If I jump off here and go like that. I'm going to hit the ground and it's going to hurt doesn't matter if I'm a saint or sinner or you're not it's going to happen there a spiritual principles that the world Works under the beautiful thing for you and I is that we have been told about it. We have been told about it. We sing Oh, there's a God that's for soul that there is you take risk and faith and take steps of faith that you will step into greater things. Oh, okay. God is apparently he's with us. He says he will strengthen us and we're we're not supposed to be discouraged. Oh, okay. You see people in the world that don't know anything about God they do this automatically. It's an amazing thing to see it's an amazing step of faith and they got the reward for they really do in this life. Because this world works on those principles for you and I it's the voice of God, but in order for us to live our best life and to do what's impossible as we see it, it's going to take a risk and God is calling you and I today to risk he's asking us to step out of our Lives step out of our path and try something different do it differently try life differently. If you're not getting from Life what you feel you should be getting then get out of that life and step into another one. God is right there. He's saying I'm with you. I'm going to go with you going to something very important when we allow him into our life what he does. He introduces us to the fact that there's a possibility for the impossible. This is one of the huge differences once you come into a relationship with God you and I start understanding the God does miracles. God can do these Miracle things and then you read the Bible and you see all the Miracles that are happening there if we get to know God well enough that means walk with them. And and I mean learning about God is reading the Bible having conversation with him. What we call prayer coming to church is fundamental to it. As we start to learn from being in these environments, we start understanding that The Impossible Is Possible and if we step out and do things he asks us to do. We're going to discover that the impossible is possible. You all have testimonies of it. I mean When I left my job, and I've said it a thousand times, but when I left my job, I didn't have anything to go to all I know is I woke up on a Friday and God told me to leave my work like now it's crazy. I certainly my wife thought I was crazy. But but that's because she gave up on the voice of God. I heard the voice of God that said leave your job. And I did it into nothing. I have nothing to step into wasn't pretty and never did it valiantly. I was on the floor like a mess, but the fact of the matter is I did it and I'll pull leather life. 6 months later evolved with us coming here and having full-time and all that stuff, which was never part of the package when I left in April. God will ask us to make some steps out of our mediocrity. If we're okay with mediocrity and there's a lot of Christians who are then that's fine coming to church You're A good sermon like a few songs go home to your job. And then you come back to church if that's the life that people want to live then that's fine. But I would say that there's there's a silver lining to a life like that that can be had. There's something in it even that I believe God will ask us to make steps and it will take it'll take a risk. And to believe that the worst case scenario is not always going to be the scenario. How often we think that the worst is going to happen and we get that purely from the enemy of our souls if we give our natural talents. God will give us Supernatural results. It's it's just the way it works. What are some Supernatural results? Having faith to trust in step out. That's a supernatural result. Having God to come in David killed Goliath. With a very natural thing with a stone but from the time it left his hand to the time it hits Goliath's head. It turned into something Supernatural.

Like something happens Moses delivered Israel with that crazy staff and God said doing the famous words. What's that in your hand? One of the great sermons of all time. I don't know who originally spoke it, but you hear it all the time. What is it that you have? What is it that I have and which we give it to God God's going to turn it into something far more effective than we ever thought education we can go to it. We can go to school and we can get phds and we can get master degrees and we can get all kinds of knowledge and you know what? That's great. But some of the stupidest people I know and I'm saying this with respect, but honestly when I look at Summit what's going on in the world in the leaders of our world who have PhD and have all this and that and you see the way they're running the world It's stupid because it doesn't have God's wisdom attached to it. It doesn't have God's wisdom. What we have take her education and give it to God take her if you know Henry now in one of the greats the illogical minds of the last 100 years said to be one of the top 100 thinkers of theology in the last 100 years who profoundly changed my life a Catholic Jesuit priest who taught a jail and taught at Harvard and absolutely wrote some of the most profound books that Christianity has had you don't got had him do eventually with his great wisdom. He went and worked in the large communities, which was something that was at a Catholic place for people with mental health severe mental health issues. And people who need full care and he would go there and he lived with them took care of them and talk to them and that's what God had healing to do with this great wisdom that he had been given and I think was probably one of the highest callings he could have ever had and he died doing that. We'd be surprised what God will do with what we give them and how he want us to use it. When you think of Mother Teresa Mother Teresa was coming in to Calcutta on a train. And she saw the poverty was an angel didn't descend from the sky the train didn't float up into the air. She just had a thought. I need to help the poor. I need to do this. I want to do this and turned the Sisters of Charity into one of the largest places in the world for the poor in the destitute in the broken and knows that are on love to go. This is an amazing thing. This is what somebody what God can do when we give him just and look at Mother Teresa. She's only she was only that big I mean this wasn't a Dynamo of a person But it was a person who had given what she does have to God and it got turned it into a worldwide thing is God going to turn everything we do into a worldwide thing. No, not necessarily but he's going to do something with it. When I think of when I think of some of the things I see people do when they give their last 20 bucks to somebody and I've seen some of you do that many times when I know of somebody who would be driving down the road and they see somebody on the side of the road who obviously is having a hard day marginalize living on the street possibly who will then interrupt their day turn around go buy a pop go buy something to eat come back get out of their car give it to them and spend some time with them. That is spectacular. That is taking the natural and turning it into the supernatural when somebody is in a grocery line and the person in front of them doesn't have enough money to pay for their groceries and this person steps in. And pays it for them. And by the time this person leads his thank you. She gets in front of the cashier and the cashiers crying. It says why did you do that? Because that's what Jesus would do. That is Supernatural that person will never forget that. The whole world doesn't have to know we might be changing one person's world. As long as we're changing worlds God seems to enjoy choosing underdogs in life when you look into a Toronto me. It's interesting. God chose the Jews as his chosen people. I know there's a whole world out there that debates that it's caused Wars. It caused 6 million deaths. It caused a lot of problems. The Jews have paid a very very very heavy price for for being God's chosen people. I think they paid their debt. And so with that you think you know, why did God choose them? And it says in Deuteronomy the Lord did not set his heart on you meaning Israel. I choose you because you were more numerous in other nations. For you were the smallest of all Nations rather. It was simply that the lord loves you. And he was keeping me LT. It's warranty your ancestor saying he was going to give them the Promised Land. This is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery in from the oppressive hand of pharaoh king of Egypt. If you want to read something really graphic read Ezekiel 16 and God gives a very graphic image of what is real look like when he found them really interesting and you know, what the church is no different Corinthians. This is Paul talking about the church. Is this you and I take a good look friends. And this is the message. I love the message. Sometimes it's so clear take a good look friends at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of the brightest in the best.

Gee, thanks among you not many influential not many from high society families. Actually. If you do your history of the early writings about the Christian church. It was very beguiling to the Romans because if they were always with the poor people they were always with poor people. If you are not helping the poor you're not doing Christianity. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses choose these nobody's to expose the Halo pretensions of the somebody beautiful. God never told you and I because we are so gifted and talented he chose us because we were in desperate need and we had for some reason the miraculous ability to Hyrum. For some reason that 19 I was able to sit at Billy Graham and I was able to hear him say God loves you and I was able to believe it for some reason and to tell me I was a sinner and I was able to swallow that because I knew it was already true. One of the great ignorance is of humanity is that we don't understand our Brokenness. And we tried we tried to hide it we try to do we try to make noise around us through amusements and distractions and everything we can do to stop taking time to just look at ourselves in God's true mirror and see us for what we are. We are broken one of the things I colleges and psychiatrists always when you're dealing with people with mental health issues. I think mental health people don't like the most Wyatt. Being alone with their thoughts. That's where it gets tricky. So we're busy busy busy busy busy busy busy got a clean clean clean clean got to do do do do that is a it is a coping mechanism because we really don't want to face who and what we are and we do it as Christians. We can be very busy in the church very very very busy. The laodicean church was a classic example of that. If you read in the Book of Revelation are all doing all kinds of stuff, but he said you don't you're blind and you don't even know it you think your clothes in a beautiful white robe because you're doing all these things but you don't know that you are broken and naked. And God's trying to but we don't want to see that about ourselves who wants to see that about ourselves who really does it's not that that's a crazy thing. But it what it is is God is trying to get our attention because he wants to love us in that he wants to help us come out of that Brokenness. He wants to say no you can't come out of what you don't know. You will never come to what you need. If you won't allow yourself to see your needs and that's what God does to us all the time. Even as people walking in faith. He will break you down. He will put you on the absolute rocks of life. Because he wants you to see your need so that you can bring that need to him and he can heal it he can come into it where there is weakness. He can bring strength where there is Darkness. He can bring the light where there is hopelessness. He can bring hope this is what God wants to do with us. But somewhere along the line someone told us she can't do that because you got to be perfect. It's got to be good. You got to be right you got to be on.

And what it ends up it ends up looking really foolish and the world sees it the world can see him.

So we don't have to be somebody great to do something great and you don't have to have great courage to be courageous and you don't have to have all the answers to step out. You may seem weak. You may look like the odds are against you. You may even fear that everything's going to fall apart. I don't know anyone who hasn't at some point in their life. There's people here right now who are expecting their life to fall completely apart. Cuz I've spoken to you. And there's times where I have looked at my life recently and said it looks like it's all falling apart. But it's at those times that you have to sit in. You have to go now. I believe that God's here.

I believe he's here. There's something beautiful about giving the little that you have and what God can do with it. I'll close with this and read a little bit of scripture here. 1st Kings 17. This is a great little story for those who aren't familiar with this story in the Old Testament. This is a wonderful little picture lesson 4 But after a while the brook dried up the prophet was at a brook and got he was getting water from there in the brook dried up. There was no rainfall anywhere in the land and the Lord said to Elijah go and live in the village of Zahra path near the city of sidon. I've instructed a widow there to feed you. So we went to zaripov as he arrived at the gate to the Village. She saw Widow Gathering sticks in The Astor. Would you please bring me a little water in a cup? little water in a cup As she was going to get it. He called her bring me a bite of bread, too. God knows how to stretch a day. What she said I swear by the Lord your God that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house and I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just Gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal and then my son and I will die. What are you got now? We say how can that be? Because we live in a world of credit. We live in a world where most of us are living way past our capability to pay. In water the world. They don't have that if you don't have the money you don't have the food. No money. No food done deal. I was in Indy. I'm going to get in May. I see them living on the sidewalk with their three little bowls and their math shoes neat and are on the sidewalk. And there's people in Cuba who get up and if there's no food, there's no food. That's a reality even in Cuba. So here she was she was saying I know what's going to happen here. There's no social net. There's no relatives that we're going to come and help she was a widow her husband was gone. She had one son who was too young to work there. You have it. She was expecting death and a lot of us are expecting death in her life. A lot of us are a lot of us are thinking that it's not going to work out. It'll never become anything. I'm finished. It's over time to just lay down and die and we will see people that will do that for 20 years will lay down and die for 20 years the choice. I'd go ahead and do just what you said, but make a little bread for me first.

Then use what's left to prepare a meal for yourself in your son for that is what the Lord the god of Israel says. So here she is. She's got not enough for herself but is being asked to give to somebody else. I don't know how many of you been in that situation. But I think a few of us have there will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain in the crops grow again, so she did as Elijah said and she and Elijah and her family continue to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers just as the Lord has promised through Elijah. Whatever you have left in life. Whatever you got left. In Hope expectation, whatever you got left. It might only be a little bit and you may think it's not enough to survive on you may think your faith is absolutely at the end. You got nothing to go on. I'll give it to God and watch him do some work with it. Watch the flour and oil continue. This is a promise from God. This is what he saying you give your life to me and I'm going to do something with it. You give your little that you have my father said something. Before he died. I had the privilege of having a prayer with them about three months before he died where he you know, we talked about salvation we talked about seeing we talked about judgment. We talked about all those things and

I asked if you want to say the prayer and I'm by the prayer. I simply mean that you make some kind of a verbal invitation to come in to have God come into your life. I mean you get married by saying I do right can't just look at each other. I think we're married. Now you have to say something and and he said something very curious to me. He said there's an awful lot to forgive Keith. Ender and I said, well, you know what God's pretty big shoulders. He's got pretty big shoulders and I don't know what you're carrying today. I don't know what you have a lot of I don't know what you have a little of but God is saying come to me all ye that are heavy laden and burdened and I will make your load light and your yoke easy.