What Will You Let God Do Through You?

[0:00] See things not going the way that we'd like them to go. We still love our country. You know, I was a missionary for a while in the nation of Vietnam, a nation that is run by communists to this day and has been for the last.

[0:18] And, uh, I worked with Christians there and at the time they had, I worked with an underground church. They had to have church in secret because they weren't allowed to have church out in the open unless they registered and then they would be limited in the things that they could teach and the things that they could do.

[0:36] And so it was a persecuted church in that nation. But one of the things that I remember so distinctly was their love for their country, even though it was run by communists, even though there was all kinds of horrible things going on in their country.

[0:50] They love their nation. They love the people of Vietnam. And, you know, if you look back in the, in the book of Genesis, one of the things that God did early on in that, uh, when it came to the tower of Babel, right?

[1:04] That the people were split up into nations and God recognizes individual nations. And sometimes things can go well and sometimes things can go very poorly in a nation.

[1:19] But regardless, it's proper, I think appropriate to love our nation, to pray for our nation. The Bible speaks explicitly to that. And even I think about, you know, the Bible talks about us as sojourners, as foreigners. Where is our ultimate home and the nation that we, that we call home, right?

[1:38] The Bible calls that heaven, right? We have a heavenly home. But for this sojourn that we're on, we live in a nation and we want what's best for it. But in Jeremiah, I think it's chapter 29, um, Jeremiah writes actually a letter to the people in other nations scattered abroad.

[2:00] These, these were the Israelites that had been taken captive in other nations. And he told them, I want you, uh, in fact, is, I don't have a Bible on me. I guess I can pull it up on my phone.

[2:13] Jeremiah 29. I'm going to pull this up. Is that all right? Because otherwise I'll screw it up. Now let's see if I actually got the right chapter.

[2:25] Yes. All right. Jeremiah 29. Um, and he tells the people, Hey, you're in captivity, but I want you to live a thriving life.

[2:36] Get married, have children, build homes, have businesses. And then he said this in verse seven and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive and pray to the Lord for it.

[2:48] For in its peace, you will have peace. So pray for that nation, uh, pray for what's best for that nation. And then I think it's in Timothy, uh, Paul says the same thing.

[3:00] Pray for those who rule over you. Pray for those who are in authority that you might have peace and be able to basically live out the gospel, uh, in peace wherever, wherever it is that you live.

[3:11] And so we pray for that for, for our nation as well. We're going to do some announcements here just real quick. I'm going to try to make it super quick. And then we have a kind of a double header this morning. We're going to have Jim come up and he's going to share some things from his, what I consider ministry out there in Washington.

[3:28] And then we have a special guest, the Turner family. They're going to be sharing some music and Paul's going to be sharing a message from the scriptures. So let's see. We got a kind of a big weekend or into the week.

[3:38] So tonight we have a picnic, a cookout. We're going to be cooking hot dogs and hamburgers. Um, we've had lots of people sign up, but if that's not on your radar yet, come and join us. It's at five 30 here at the church.

[3:50] Um, bring a side or a dessert, um, or even if you can't do that last minute, but you still want to come, please join us. We'd love to see you here. We're just going to have fellowship games, um, things and food, food and fun.

[4:03] So we'd love to have you here as we celebrate. We'll use it as an opportunity to celebrate, uh, the, uh, the independence of our nation. Uh, on Monday night, we're going to have a family discipleship evening.

[4:16] And, uh, we're going to be looking at Paul Turner's going to be walking us through crafting a vision statement for your family. Um, and so, um, we'd love to see you here for that.

[4:27] It'll be a great opportunity to think about what is our family about? Where are we going as a family? Big picture, right? Where are we going so that we can establish that and make sure that as we do the day-to-day part of our lives, that we're keeping focused on where, where we want our family to go and what we want to accomplish as a family.

[4:46] And then the night after that on Tuesday night, it's going to be a night of praise. We're going to be doing singing here, uh, opportunities for testimonies, just about the goodness of the Lord in our lives.

[4:57] And, uh, so we'd love to see you there for that. Um, but, uh, all kinds of opportunities. Uh, we'd love to see you for all or just some of, of any of that.

[5:08] Um, I'm going to have Jonathan come up. Uh, we usually do a memory verse. And, uh, Jonathan has volunteered or at least been willing to, uh, come up and help out with that.

[5:19] So if you open up your bulletin to the first inside page, right at the top is our memory verse. And Jonathan's going to, uh, help lead us through that. Reciting that. Galatians 5.1 Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

[5:46] Galatians 5.1 Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

[6:02] Wonderful. Thank you, Jonathan. You know, it's, Jonathan makes it look easy. But it's not easy to get up here and do that in front of everybody. So I'm appreciative, uh, to him.

[6:14] Uh, as we were trying to figure out what, what, uh, Bible verse should we do? I thought we'd do something based on freedom. Our freedom in Christ. As we think this month about the freedoms, uh, that we enjoy here in the U.S.

[6:27] Um, we are not going to have a children's class today, um, just because of some of the special things that we're doing today.

[6:37] Uh, so just FYI, um, the nursery is available, of course, if you need to take the kids to the nursery. And I think it's staff today, uh, for the nursery. But the kids' class, uh, we will not be having today.

[6:50] Um, anything else that I'm forgetting before we, before we get started? I know we have some special music. Tell you what, let's, uh, let's plan to do that.

[7:02] So we'll have Jim come up. So Jim, why don't you come up? And, um, Jim's just going to share with us, uh, briefly about some things. I don't know, whatever's on your heart really, brother.

[7:12] Uh, you know, his ministry, what I consider a ministry out there in Washington, serving our nation. Um, and then, uh, we'll have some time for some Q&A as well. So keep that in mind as he's talking.

[7:24] We'll have a roaming mic for a bit, and then we'll have the turners come up and finish us off. So doubleheader. So get us started. Thanks, Jim. All right. Thank you, pastor. We appreciate, we appreciate pastor.

[7:34] We have a dad knows it. We have an expression in the wrestling world. You got the big magic. We tell him you got to bring the diesel. You got to bring it that you're wrestling. You're wrestling, uh, you're wrestling, uh, you're wrestling Iowa, Oklahoma state, Penn State.

[7:46] You're wrestling. You got to, you got to be ready to go. And pastor, uh, pastor brings the diesel every week. So we, we appreciate that. And we appreciate, uh, pastor Wiseman who I think it's his birthday.

[7:58] Mom, mom, dad were telling me his birthday is coming. When's his birthday today? 90 years old. He's not even here with us. Can you believe that? Yeah. He's been bringing the diesel for like 60 some years and that's amazing.

[8:10] Uh, well, it is, uh, it is good to be with you. So what a difference. I'll sound a little, and Nate said I can talk for like five minutes and then take questions. So I'll five, 10 minutes and then I'll take your questions.

[8:20] And I always tell you, you can ask anything you want because I might sound a little partisan, but I'm just going to start with what a difference an election can make. I mean, it's amazing. Where we were headed is pretty darn scary.

[8:34] I mean, if, and I know I sound partisan here, but where, where the left wanted to take this country and I, and I, I point to the first amendment probably more than anything. What they were doing to our basic liberties was really frightening.

[8:46] Remember they tried to set up the disinformation governance board, a bunch of bureaucrats tell you what you can say, what you can't say, what you can tweet, what you can post, what you can read. That's scary. I mean, it was, I got a letter, um, you may remember this last August, a few, I guess a few months in before the election and Mark Zuckerberg sent me a letter and in the letter he said, uh, uh, uh, the Biden administration, the reason he sent me a letter is because we had deposed 12 people from Meta and Mark Zuckerberg didn't want to be the 13th.

[9:16] Right. And so he says, I'm just going to come clean and tell them, you know, tell the Congress, tell the country what's going on. And in the letter he said, the Biden administration pressured us to censor. We did it. We're sorry. We're not going to do it anymore.

[9:28] And, uh, but if the, if the, if the other guy wins, they would have probably kept doing it and more and more of our liberties would have been infringed on it. And I, I probably tell her every group I get a chance to speak to, you think about the first amendment, we got five.

[9:40] And I know I've talked to the church here about this. We got five rights under the first amendment, our right to practice our faith, our right to assemble like we're doing right now. I'm doing both of those right now, our right to petition the government, free press, free speech, five fundamental liberties.

[9:55] The most important one of all of them though, in my judgment is the last one. Our right to talk. Cause if you can't speak, you can't practice your faith. You can't share your faith.

[10:06] You can't petition your government. You don't have a free press. And that's what they were going after. And again, if they win, it is, it is scary. But thank goodness they didn't win.

[10:17] And then you think about what's happened in seven months. I mean, it's been, it's been amazing. First, the border is now secure. We went from a completely open border to a secure border. President Trump was just in NATO a couple of weeks ago.

[10:30] We now have NATO ending up 5% of their GDP to help pay for, you know, something he thought no one else could accomplish that. He, he was able to get that done. The mission in Iran was a huge success.

[10:41] And of course, we just passed a piece of legislation last week that I think is really going to help the country. Wasn't perfect. I wish we would have cut more spending. We do have a debt, uh, run in huge deficits, have a big debt problem.

[10:53] But overall, um, I probably said this every interview I did in the last six weeks. I said, you know, it's a good bill because the left hates it. Right. Uh, and they hate it because it actually empowers families, empowers people, doesn't empower the government.

[11:10] There are four, in my mind, four fundamental takeaways from this legislation. Number one, let's you keep more of your money. Let's moms and dads keep more of your money. That's a good thing. Largest tax cut in American history. That's a good thing. We'd rather have parents keeping the money to spend on their goals and dreams than big government doing, you know, spending on stupid things.

[11:28] So it lets you keep more of your money. It allocates more resources to keep the border secure than any time in American history. That's the part that largely came from, uh, our committee, a judiciary committee.

[11:39] Money for ICE agents, money for detention space, detention beds, uh, uh, immigration judges, immigration officials that handle the court proceedings, uh, all kinds of resources, your money that, um, are going to make sure the border stays secure.

[11:53] And then maybe just almost as important as those two is this idea that if you're an able-bodied adult and you're getting Americans tax money, uh, you're in part of the social welfare system, well, guess what?

[12:06] From now on, you're going to have to work. There's going to be a work requirement if you're going to get a benefit from the taxpayers. And that just, I tell people all the time, that's, that's good for taxpayers. That's good for the economy.

[12:16] But most importantly, it's good for that person. It gets them on a, get some on the path. Work's important. Um, and then finally, I think something that we've never had in the federal tax code that I think is real important is this school choice component that's now built into the tax code, which, um, again, is, is pro-family.

[12:33] It says to moms and dads, we think you can figure out where your son or daughter is going to get the best education, not some bureaucrat in DC or in Columbus or what have you. So, um, for those four reasons, again, empowering people, empowering the, the first institution the good Lord put together, you know, it wasn't the church, wasn't the state.

[12:49] It was moms and dads and kids. It was a family. So empowering that organization, um, I think is, is, is really good. And because of all that, I don't know if you've seen it now.

[13:00] This is totally political, but, um, the president's approval ratings are hired. We don't have any Republican president in our lifetime amongst core Republican voters. And that's because he's doing what he said he was going to do.

[13:12] I always, I probably say this every interview I do too. We make the job way too complicated. It is pretty darn simple. What'd you tell the voters you were going to do when you ran for the job? When you put your name on the ballot, if you get elected, go do what you said.

[13:26] And I think president Trump has done that. And that's why his, his numbers are, uh, are so high. One issue I'll just talk about real briefly, then I'll get, get to your questions. Um, we had, Polly and I had the chance to go to, uh, Israel back in February.

[13:39] APAC, uh, asked, asked us to lead a group of, we took 10, 10 other members and I had a wonderful time. And when we, we went there, I'm sure many of you have been to Israel.

[13:50] If you haven't, I would encourage you all to, all to go. It's an amazing place. In fact, I got asked a question, uh, a couple of weeks ago, I was doing a radio interview. And, um, right after the successful mission by our, our military and, and taking out Iran's nuclear facilities.

[14:08] And I got asked a question by, uh, the host of the show. He said, was, he says, was this, was this a moral decision or a strategic decision? And, uh, and, uh, and I respond, I said, I think it's, I think it's all the above.

[14:22] I think it's a moral decision, strategic, cultural, religious, Judeo-Christian. There is just a special bond between our country and the state of Israel.

[14:34] And when you, when you go there, you can feel it, you can sense it. And, um, it's just an amazing place. I, I, I'd say the miracle that is the state of Israel.

[14:44] And I think, I think we all appreciate that. But you look at the history from 48, the first country to recognize them as a state was the United States of America when Truman recognized them and what that happened in 67, 73.

[14:56] And of course, when we were there, um, this was our first trip post October 7th. And they took us to the concert site where so many is Israelis lost their lives and were taken hostage.

[15:08] Others were taken hostage. And then it was just a fascinating trip, but that the whole place had changed. And frankly, I was, I was actually thinking that Israel was going to hit Iran much, much sooner than they did.

[15:21] I did. I was surprised they waited that long because we were over there. You get all the briefings, you meet with all the people in the government and you meet with the opposition leader and the IDF and everything else. I thought it would happen sooner.

[15:32] Um, cause you could just tell after what happened on October 7th, almost two years ago, um, Hezbollah has now in the North been pushed way back.

[15:42] Hamas is done and, and, and down in Gaza. Um, and of course Israel went in and took out all of Iran's, um, air defense systems. And then the other variable that was, I think, interesting is there's a new leader in Syria.

[15:55] You know, Assad's on Assad is, you know, he's up in Moscow or somewhere in Russia, but the new guy, this, this Gulani, Gulani guy, um, is the new leader in Syria. And he's, it's kind of funny.

[16:07] He's actually a terrorist. He's Al Qaeda, but he's a terrorist who is, who is Sunni and hates Iran, who is Shia. Um, they showed us that it was, it was funny that you get these briefings.

[16:18] They showed us the picture when he was full fledged Al Qaeda terrorists and he had the thing and he had the beard and he had this literally knife in his hand that was about yay big.

[16:29] And now they show him as, as the president of Syria. And oh my goodness, he is, he's total GQ. He's, he's got the tight beard, the new haircut, the fancy suit, but he's still a terrorist, right?

[16:40] He's still a bad guy, but he's a bad guy who doesn't like Iran. And so that, that whole corridor from Iran through Iraq, through Syria into Lebanon, to Hezbollah, where Iran was moving weapons to Hezbollah to attack Israel, that's, that's been, that's been shut down.

[16:54] So I thought this was going to happen sooner. Um, based on everything we learned over there, but, um, you know, it happened when it did and it looks like it's been a, been a huge success.

[17:04] And another, I think, um, another good thing that the president and of course our, our best ally of the state of Israel is able to accomplish. By the way, if you haven't, um, I don't know if you, have any of you watched the series House of David?

[17:17] Have any of you watched that on, on Prime? Yeah, somebody, yeah. If you haven't, I would encourage, and I think even most older, older kids can watch it too. It's pretty intense in some, but it's powerful.

[17:29] It is so good. Um, that's, I don't know why I thought of that, but it just came to my mind. Does that happen to you sometime faster when you're up here or something just come to you? The, uh, but you should watch it. It's great.

[17:40] Paulie and I, we watched the first in that, that last scene. The last scene, because it's, it's built up with Saul and, and, you know, all what's going with Saul and his, his, uh, you know, with him as king and the mental state of him and, and builds up to David taking on Goliath.

[17:55] Uh, but there's that scene at the end where David's in the, in the stream getting the smooth stones and Jonathan comes up to him. And this is in the way they portray it in the movies is, uh, or in the show, uh, John, this when Jonathan realizes that Samuel has anointed David and Jonathan loyalty to his dad and, and it's, it's, it's powerful.

[18:16] Uh, but anyways, if you haven't, if you haven't seen that, I wouldn't, I wouldn't encourage you, uh, to watch it. Um, finally, let me just say this and I will take your questions. Um, and I'm, I understand I may be jumping around a little bit, but, uh, God has shed his grace on America.

[18:30] It is a special country. And you think about, as the pastor said, 249 years, um, a special, special place. And the things that, um, you know, things this country's been through.

[18:43] And I, I, I dug through, I have an old speech file. Uh, I dug through, I was looking back through it and I had this article that I have kept now for 30, 31 years.

[18:54] We probably, probably, we were driving home from DC on Thursday. I use the term weed lightly. Polly was driving. I was on the phone and doing different things, but I was digging through some things and I found this, um, and I thought I would just read it and then, then we'll take your questions.

[19:08] But it's, uh, it was written in, uh, 94, July 1st, uh, 1994, actually written by Pat Buchanan. And, uh, 94 was the first, I was in the middle of a campaign here.

[19:22] First, first year I ran for office, state representative, and for some reason kept this. Um, and I just thought I'd read it and it says, contrast the self-indulgence and the self-pity of today with the spirit of the forgotten heroes of 1776.

[19:39] The men who pledged lives, fortune, and sacred honor to defend their declaration of independence. We talk about the declaration. I love the way Buchanan said their declaration. They declared to the world why it was appropriate to do what they did.

[19:52] Amazing. Disaster struck first, honest John Hart. Just, just months after he had signed, British and Hessian troops invaded New Jersey, forcing him and his family to flee.

[20:04] His wife did not survive. Broken in health from hiding in barns all winter, Hart went home to find his farm destroyed. Rebuilding proved too great a task. By the spring of 1779, John Hart was dead.

[20:19] New Jersey's Richard Stockton suffered a similar fate. After rescuing his wife and children from advancing British troops, he was betrayed by a loyalist, imprisoned, beaten, and nearly starved.

[20:31] He returned an invalid to find his home gutted, his library and papers burned. He too never recovered, dying in 1781, a broken man. Hart and Stockton lost everything, everything they had except their honor.

[20:47] I get half an emotion every time I'm reading this. Two of the soldier sons of New Jersey's Abraham Clark were captured by the British and so horribly treated, one was locked up in the dungeon of the notorious prison ship, Jersey, without food or light.

[21:03] Washington himself wrote in rage and disgust to General Howe about the situation. William Ellery of Rhode Island, who marveled that he had seen only undaunted resolution in the faces of the co-signers, had his home burned also.

[21:17] Francis Lewis, Long Island home too, was looted and gutted, his wife thrown into a damp, dark prison cell without a bed. Health ruined. Mrs. Lewis died in two years.

[21:29] Lewis's son would die in British captivity. Not until 1783 did William Floyd return to Long Island. By then his wife too was dead. His fields had been stripped, his machinery destroyed, his home plundered, used as a barracks.

[21:45] Only days after Lewis Morris of New York signed, British troops ravaged his 2,000 acre estate, butchered his cattle and drove his family off the land. Three of Morris's sons fought the British.

[21:57] The time is now at hand when we shall see whether America has virtue enough to be free, Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire had said at Philadelphia in that summer of 76. She surely did.

[22:10] When the British seized the New York houses of the wealthy Philip Livingston, he sold off everything else, gave the money to the Revolution, and died in 1778. Hearing that George Clammer had signed the British sent a detachment 20 miles west of Philadelphia to destroy his home, his wife and children fled into the woods.

[22:30] Clammer took his remaining fortune, invested it in continental dollars, urged fellow merchants to do the same, and enlisted to fight as a captain. Arthur Middleton, Edward Rutledge, and Thomas Hayward, Jr. went home to South Carolina to fight.

[22:46] In the British invasion of the South, Hayward was wounded and all three were captured. As he rotted on a prison ship in St. Augustine, Hayward's plantation was raided.

[22:57] Buildings burned and his wife, who witnessed it all, died. Other southern signers suffered the same fate. Among the first to sign had been John Hancock, who wrote in his big, bold script so George III could read my name without spectacles and could now double his reward for 500 pounds for my head.

[23:17] If the cause of the Revolution commands it, Hancock roared, burn Boston and make John Hancock a beggar. Here were men who believed in a cause far beyond themselves.

[23:29] Consider Caesar Rodney. Caked with mud after 80 miles of hard riding, Rodney arrived to vote Delaware support. Suffering from a face cancer so horrible it had to be hidden behind a scar, Rodney knew his signature would be his death sentence.

[23:44] His long planned trip to England for life-saving surgery could now never happen. The year peace came, the cancer killed Caesar Rodney. But perhaps the most inspiring example of that undaunted resolution was Thomas Nelson, Jr., returning from Philadelphia to become governor of Virginia.

[24:05] Nelson joined Washington's army just outside Yorktown. Observing during the battle that his artillerymen were directing fire all over the town but were being careful to avoid the area where his own beautiful home was located, Nelson asked why they were not firing in that direction.

[24:22] Out of respect to you, sir, came the reply. Nelson stepped forward to the nearest cannon, aimed it at his house, and fired.

[24:36] The other guns joined in. His home was destroyed. These stories of men who defied a king to give birth to a country were lovingly gathered by the great patriot, former governor Meldrum Thompson, Jr. of New Hampshire.

[24:52] Governor Thompson put them all in his Patriots book, 100 Famous Founders. As Governor Thompson relates, on his deathbed, John Adams, most famous of the signers, save only Thomas Jefferson, who had taken the presidency from him, was asked to make a toast.

[25:09] Independence forever, Adams cried. That was the spirit of the old man, as it had been of the young. He and Jefferson, most of you probably know this, he and Jefferson, with whom he had long since reconciled, died the same day, July 4, 1826.

[25:28] Fifty years to the day, they had together cast their votes for American independence. We shall never see their like again. In the, I thought it was interesting, in this song we sang that was in the bulletin, the verse, or the line that stuck out to me was, to this I hold, my sin has been defeated.

[25:49] It took, it took, you know, it took, it took work, it took effort, it took the ultimate sacrifice by Jesus to defeat that.

[26:00] And it took a lot of work for these guys to start this amazing place called America.

[26:14] I didn't expect to do that. Okay, let's ask some questions so I can stop being a big sissy up here. All right, who's got a question? Look at that, that's never happened in all the times I've done it.

[26:28] I guess I'm concerned about Medicaid for people.

[26:40] My mom had Parkinson's for over 20 years. And the last eight years of her life, my stepfather took care of her for five of those before he could not, was unable to do it anymore. How she managed to save on her salary three years and like three months of her care is beyond me.

[26:56] But the last three months, she went on Medicaid. She had run out before she died. What's going to happen to people like that who have saved? And yet, if you're cutting Medicaid, how is that going to work? Yeah.

[27:07] So the first thing is we're not, we're not in any way cutting Medicaid. Medicaid was designed for poor Americans, disabled Americans, single moms.

[27:19] It was designed for them. We want to make sure it's there for them and others. No one's getting kicked off. All this happened with Medicaid. This is, I mean, the Medicaid budget's going like this, right?

[27:30] All we're doing this bill is taking it from here to here. So it's a decrease in the increase. It's not cutting anyone off. And the way we're bending the curve a little bit is simply by saying to the able-bodied adults, 18 to 55, who are now in Medicaid as a result of the Obamacare expansion or Obamacare period, which resulted in the Medicaid expansion, we're saying to those people, you're going to have to work.

[27:57] And that's where you achieve that savings. People like your mom or your mother-in-law, I think you were talking about, they're going to be fine. Nothing's going to change there. And the other side, the left, is, in my judgment, simply just not stating the truth as a way to scare people.

[28:15] But what I think everyone's going to find out over time is this bill is now law. It's going to kick in. People are going to find, oh, shazam. Medicaid stayed the same for people who truly deserve it. And people who are supposed to be 18, some 35-year-old able-bodied adult male, sorry, you're going to have to work.

[28:32] That's the way life works. You've got to work. I've got to work. We've all got to work. And pastor's working two jobs, right? So, like, that's the way life is. And the idea that they're going to get your tax dollars and get medical benefits just wrong.

[28:49] So they'll be fine. That is just typical politics where one side says something that just is not accurate. Just is not accurate. All right. Oh, look at that.

[29:02] Maybe a couple more, and then we'll let Mr. Turner come up here. You spoke about the First Amendment when you started. Yeah. And recently, the European Union has said they're going to start fining U.S. companies to restrict our speech.

[29:15] Scary. What is the current administration going to do to protect that right that we have? Well, I think the administration is looking at it, but I know one thing we're going after.

[29:28] I've had members of the European Parliament in our office because we're doing everything we can to apply pressure to the European Union and then separately the United Kingdom.

[29:40] Because the European Union has a similar act that they put in place. And it's doing a couple things. One, it's resulting in sort of a censorship of Americans because there's sort of this spillover effect it has on these tech companies that are trying to rein in – not rein in, but they're trying to censor in Europe.

[29:59] So we're actually going to Europe in – we're leaving in three weeks from yesterday. We're going to Brussels, Dublin, and London for this very reason, the censorship that's taking place.

[30:13] And basically what they're telling American tech companies – we feel like we've got American tech companies pretty much in line over the last – in the last Congress going after all the censorship. I talked about the Zuckerberg letter.

[30:24] But now it's in Europe. So we're going over there, and we're going to visit with a number of people and tell them, look, you can't keep doing this.

[30:36] And we think we're already having an influence. I did one letter. The gentleman's name was Thierry Breton, a French guy who was in the European Union who ran the agency that was enforcing the censorship regime they have.

[30:51] And we did this letter to him, and some paper, the Brussels Gazette or something, picked it up and printed our letter. And a week later, he resigned.

[31:03] It's amazing what a letter can do. You know, one letter to – now, the new person they brought in, we don't think is a whole lot better. And I've actually met with her, and she was in my office a couple months ago. She's from one of the Scandinavian countries.

[31:14] So, yeah, we're working on this because it's – there's indirect impact it can have on our First Amendment liberties and the shakedown effect it has on these tech companies. They're telling the tech companies, you either, you know, do it our way and put in these – do what the fact checkers, the independent fact checkers and all these people say, and limit speech, or you're going to get fined.

[31:34] And so it's kind of a shakedown of the company. So we're working on that, and we're heading over there, like I said, in three weeks to try to get him to stop. Scott.

[31:45] My question goes back to when Trump was campaigning and nearly missed assassination. I think it was Pennsylvania. Yep. God truly had his hand on him at that point, in my opinion.

[31:59] Yep. And the young guy who took a shot at him, why don't we hear anything more about him, or can you give us any insight on that?

[32:12] I don't really know any more than you. I mean, when it happened last summer, I remember we had a hearing. I went after the then director of the Secret Service.

[32:25] Yeah, there's a number of things we don't have the answer to. Now, I will tell you this, working with Attorney General Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Blanche, and then Director Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino is so much better, literally night and day, compared to what it was like with Garland and Chris Ray.

[32:44] And our committee works with the Justice Department, as you would expect, a lot. So I'm very pleased with their work, and they're trying to get answers on a number of issues, because we – I sent Cash Patel seven subpoenas, I think, the second day on his job.

[33:03] And, I mean, they were friendly. He knew they were coming, and we did it as a way for him to be able to give us information, and the compliance has been so much better. But you're right, we still don't have answers to certain – I mean, I always use it sort of jokingly.

[33:16] You know, they can investigate moms and dads going – this is the old Biden DOJ. They can investigate moms and dads going to school board meetings.

[33:26] They can put out memos saying pro-life Catholics are extremists, but they can't tell us who planted the pipe bombs. They can't tell us who leaked the Dobbs' opinion. They can't tell us anything about the guy who tried to kill the President of the United States, and they can't tell us who put cocaine at the White House, right?

[33:40] I mean, it's like – it kind of drives you crazy. So we're still trying to get those answers. All right, this will be the last one, because we got – I know we got someone else. Yes, I personally, and I believe everyone in here would agree, that I'd like to thank you.

[33:53] Okay. I'm very grateful for that. Yeah. The – well, that's very kind. I don't – I don't pretend my job's any harder than any of your jobs.

[34:04] It's just the job I got. It's certainly not a harder than a pastor's job. The – but I appreciate you saying that. God bless you all. Have a wonderful holiday weekend. Well, thank you, Jim.

[34:22] Yeah, I appreciate kind of ending that out that way. We're going to have the Turner family come up. They're going to share some music to kick us off, and then Paul will share from the scriptures with us.

[34:37] So let's – is it these microphones here? Are they on? They are now. Oh. Oh. The one who made the heavens made my heart and soul.

[35:24] Before I drew a breath, I was loved and known. I am His creation, the Maker's masterpiece.

[35:40] And all that He designs will be done. I worship His love, and His blood has gone.

[36:04] As I bear His image, oh, that I'm not afraid. The holiness I hold in His love.

[36:16] I belong to the Lord, though I am not my own.

[36:27] I belong to the Lord, I am not the Savior. I live on Him, for this I know.

[36:41] I belong to the Lord, I am not my own. And if He has redeemed me, I am not my own.

[36:57] The measure of my work is His love alone. He declares my sinning, and He declares my state.

[37:11] So I will know myself by Thy name He pray. I belong to the Lord, though I am not my own.

[37:26] I belong to the Lord, I am not my own. I will honor Him, for this I know.

[37:39] I belong to the Lord, I am not my own. I am not my own.

[38:02] Now my heart is free. Oh Maker, come and make what you will have been.

[38:12] There is nothing broken that You cannot repair. So Lord, I leave my life in Your loving care.

[38:27] I belong to the Lord, though I am not my own. I belong to the Lord, I am not my own.

[38:41] I will honor Him, for this I know. I belong to the Lord, I am not my own.

[38:54] I am not my own. I am not my own. For this I know. I need love to the Lord, I am not my own.

[39:09] I am not my own.

[39:27] A little update on our ministry and what we've been up to and maybe some ways that you can pray for us. So we are about halfway through our summer travel schedule.

[39:40] We left June 1st and we will be officially home the second week of September. Yes, we live in a fifth wheel for months and months on end, which is actually the easy part because we know a lot of our family at home and our grandkids and everything.

[39:55] But we're just blessed to be able to do this and travel together as a family and go from church to church. And we do VBSs, we do conferences, we do a lot of different things. But our passion is to share the love of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

[40:11] And so out on our table, we have some prayer cards, a picture of our family so that you can get acquainted with us and maybe remember to pray for us. We also have out there some business cards, which we really encourage people to pick up.

[40:26] Because if you really want to know what we do and what our passion is, you'll pick up one of those cards and go to our website, which is allconsuminggraceministries.org.

[40:38] And there's just a lot of different things that we're working on. But we just have this passion for people to not only know what the grace of God is, but to live it out in their everyday lives. And so that's kind of what we do.

[40:50] There's also a QR code on the back of the business card. You can go to the website. We have a podcast that we started this last year. Just really trying to get the message out there about the fact that, one, God loves people and wants a relationship with them.

[41:07] Two, he wants their lives totally transformed by what he's done for them. And three, he wants our lives to bring honor and glory to him. And that's the thing that he cares about the most.

[41:18] So we try to share that message with as many people as we possibly can. So you can check out our table, grab a business card, and look that up. But we're with Bible Doctrines to Live By.

[41:30] I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with that ministry. Bible Doctrines to Live By is primarily a literature ministry. That was how it started. Evangelistic ministry, a preaching ministry, but mainly literature.

[41:43] We do have some books out there. You can take a look. We have some catalogs. But one thing I wanted to point out is probably one of our biggest sellers is our blood donor tract. People get these.

[41:54] They order these from all over the world. We have them in different languages. The blood donor tract. It's a very simple one. My life was saved by a blood donor. So we have brought lots of them with us this summer.

[42:07] And we're trying to kind of, we want this to catch on. Every church we've been at, we've encouraged people to maybe pick up some of these blood donor tracts. And we are getting pictures from people all over the world of them leaving these tracts in all different places.

[42:26] You know, we're excited about, you know, what's going on in our country and some of the things that we just heard about. The answer to everything ultimately is what? It's Jesus Christ.

[42:37] And so we encourage people to pick up some of these tracts. You don't have to send us pictures. But it's kind of fun. We try to share them with people. Look, someone left one at a Sheetz. Someone left one at a Culver's.

[42:47] Someone left one at the doctor's office. To get the word of God out. To share the love of Jesus Christ with as many people as we can this summer. And it's kind of fun to see some of the posts of pictures.

[43:00] But you don't have to do that. But if you want to, you can follow us on Instagram. Follow us on Facebook. Share those things and see what God is doing in so many different areas. If you have questions about our ministry, we are happy to talk, talk, talk about what God is, what opportunities he's giving us.

[43:18] But make sure you pick up a prayer card and a business card. That would be really helpful. Thanks. Take your Bibles and open them to Psalm 90.

[43:48] And let's close in prayer. No. I'll take at least 30 minutes. Okay. The question that I was going to ask was, what is it that turns your hair the grayest with your current position?

[44:10] In other words, how can we best pray for you specifically? And so maybe afterwards you can answer that question for me so I can know specifically how to pray for you, sir. So Psalm 90.

[44:24] And let's pray together. Could we do that? Father, thank you for this morning. And Lord, I thank you for, again, just giving us your body, the body of Christ.

[44:34] And Lord, thank you for each individual person and how you have brought us together. You have knit us together, as your word says, and literally sewn us into the fabric of this body of believers.

[44:47] And Lord, thank you that nothing can take us out of that. And Lord, thank you that we can open up the word of God together on a morning like this. And we can study together.

[44:58] We can learn together. We can be challenged together. And we can be equipped to go out and glorify you and to serve you wherever it is that this life takes us on a day-to-day basis.

[45:10] It's in your Son's name I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I had you open your Bibles to Psalm 90. And I'm going to begin with, though, Romans chapter 15, verse 4 says, Those things were written aforetime were written for our learning.

[45:31] There are so many truths contained in the pages of the Word of God that each of us has before us this morning. There are so many truths, so many lessons that we can learn, so many important things that we can apply, not only things that are foundational to guiding us and making decisions, day-to-day decisions, but things that we can draw on to see how other people did it, to see the mistakes.

[46:00] I love Romans 15, verse 4. It says those things are written aforetime, are written for our learning. And we can go into the Old Testament. We can go back into the Gospels. We can go back and look at the lives of those that have lived before us on this thing we call earth.

[46:15] And we can see the things that they did well and the things that they absolutely did not do well. And when we go back to Scripture and we look at those things, we can learn so much from them.

[46:31] Hopefully with the end result of not making the same foolish errors that were made in times past. And so I brought us to the 90th Psalm this morning, and I want to begin reading in Psalm 90, verse 9.

[46:48] It says, For all our days are passed away in thy wrath. And then he says this, We spend our years as a tale that is told.

[47:01] I want to ask you this morning, what is the tale that is going to be told about your life? When people reflect on your time on this earth, What is it that your loved ones will remember about you?

[47:17] What is it that your neighbors will remember about you? What is it that your co-workers will remember about you? What is it that the society will remember about you?

[47:33] What is the legacy that you will leave behind that people will say that describes filling your name?

[47:46] It's an interesting statement because it really makes you think about what are we doing here? What is it about my life? What is it about life on this earth that I should pursue that matters in eternity?

[48:03] And it's an interesting question because all of us come from different backgrounds. All of us have different stories. All of us have different places in our lives that we live. But when you boil it all down, when it all comes down to it, what is the tale that will be told about you?

[48:20] It says in verse 10, The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is there strength, labor, and sorrow, for it is soon cut off.

[48:33] And we fly away. Verse 12, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. In this life there are so many things that we become focused on, fixated on.

[48:47] Sometimes it's money. Sometimes it's making the money to pay the bills, to get to the next phase, to keep food on the table. Sometimes it's the economy.

[49:00] Sometimes it's politics. We get fixated on politics. Sometimes we get fixated on the end of life. Sometimes people retire and they spend the rest of their days running from one doctor's appointment to the next, right?

[49:18] And it's not that we don't have to go to those things. We don't have to do those things because, listen, making money is important. You've got to put food on the table. Doctor's visits and doctor's bills and all those things, hey, those are important.

[49:31] They're time consuming. And they are time consuming. But they don't have to be focus consuming, right? They're necessary parts of life.

[49:44] But those things should never be the things that take our attention from the story that will be told of us.

[49:57] Turn over with me to Judges chapter 6. And I want to spend some time looking at an event in Judges that I think in many ways mirrors our world today.

[50:10] And I think we can relate to a man named Gideon. And I think all of us can relate to the life of Gideon in one way or another. In Judges chapter 6, we are in a time in Israel's history where Israel's history was very much a roller coaster.

[50:31] Israel would disobey God. Things would get bad. There were consequences to their choices. Things would get so bad they would cry out to the Lord.

[50:44] And God would answer their prayer. He would give them a judge. He would give them a prophet. They would listen to the judge. They would obey the judge. Things would get better for a while. The judge would get old.

[50:55] The judge would die. And guess what Israel would do? They would disobey God. And things would get bad. And things would get so bad that they would cry out to the Lord. And in crying out to the Lord, God would give them another judge.

[51:08] And we have the history in the book of Judges of that roller coaster of ups and downs. As they would listen and obey and not listen and disobey. And we come to Judges chapter 6 and we are introduced to Gideon and we see the life of Gideon.

[51:26] We see a man who was typical. Right? I want to emphasize the fact that Gideon was typical.

[51:39] Gideon was no different than the men in the culture in which he was living. Judges chapter 6 verse 1 says, And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

[51:50] And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel because the Midianites, the children of Israel, made them... I'm sorry, let me read that again. And the hand of the Midianites prevailed against Israel.

[52:02] And because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them dens, which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. And so it was when Israel had sown that the Midianites came up and the Amalekites and the children of the east, even they came up against them.

[52:17] And they had encamped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth, till they'll come unto Gaza and left no sustenance. For Israel neither sheep nor ox nor ass.

[52:30] For they came up with their cattle and their tents. They came as grasshoppers from multitude. For both they and their camels were without number. And they entered into the land to destroy it.

[52:41] And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. And the children of Israel cried. Unto the Lord. You know, relatable. Jim, I almost hate to call you Jim.

[52:54] Representative Jordan spoke of the open borders. And all those people pouring across. And even if these are good and honorable people only pouring across that border, just the influx of all those people, there are only so many resources.

[53:12] Resources get devoured. And so here in Israel, we see them. And these were not good people pouring across the border. These were a warring people coming and stripping the land of all that it had to offer.

[53:27] And it says, where were the men? That's always my question. Where are the men? The men are hiding in dens and caves. You will hear me say this. If you ever spend any more than five minutes around me, you will hear me say this.

[53:41] Man's natural default position is passivity. Man's natural default position from the Garden of Eden is to stand by and do nothing when we have a responsibility to stand up and stand for whatever it is in that moment that we need to stand for.

[53:56] We like passivity. We like to let someone else stand in the gap and take that place. And these men in Israel were no different. Here they were and they are hiding in the caves and strongholds.

[54:09] And they probably had great excuses for that. I mean, the Midianites numbered as the grasshoppers and they were coming as locusts across the border. What can one man possibly do? And Gideon was, what was the word I used?

[54:24] Typical. Go down to verse 11. It says, And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak, which was an ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abba Israelite.

[54:38] And his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. What was Gideon doing?

[54:49] He's hiding. He's hiding. I mean, they were hiding in caves. He just happens to be hiding in a winepress. And he could probably justify his actions for what he was doing because he's there hiding with a purpose.

[55:03] He's threshing wheat to feed those around him. Do you ever feel like that in the world sometimes? You know, especially, you know, what he shared about what it was like under the last administration.

[55:14] Sometimes you think, I'm just going to keep my head down, my mouth shut, and I'm going to endure until things get better. What happens when nobody does anything?

[55:24] When everybody just decides, I'm just going to keep my head down and my mouth shut until things get better? Nothing gets better. It's just things continue to get worse. And for Israel, what happened?

[55:35] This was seven years running. Things just keep getting worse and worse. They are without food. They are without cattle. They are without sheep. They are without oxen. They're running out of resources.

[55:46] And the Lord finds Gideon, a typical man in Israel in that moment. Verse 12, And the angel of the Lord, pre-incarnate Christ, appears unto him, unto Gideon, in the winepress, and says unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.

[56:06] Now, everybody in this room should say, based on what? What made him a mighty man of valor in this moment? He had done nothing. But here's what I want you to hear in that moment.

[56:19] It wasn't based, God wasn't basing that statement to Gideon based on what Gideon had done. I think he's basing that statement to Gideon on the potential that is there, on the identity that is there.

[56:32] Because what does he say before he tells him he is a mighty man of valor? The Lord is with thee. It's really not about Gideon, is it?

[56:44] It's about him. And in our lives, isn't that true? No matter where we are, no matter what we're doing, it's really not about us.

[56:56] It's about him in us. Romans chapter 8 says, You and I today in the dispensation of the grace of God are more than conquerors. Even when we choose to not live, to live out that identity that we have in Christ, that does not change the fact that that is who we are.

[57:17] Far too often we just choose not to live in the identity that we have. Right? But that doesn't change the fact that Romans 8 says, We are more than conquerors through him.

[57:34] I have to add that. Through him. It's through him that we are more than conquerors. And so God tells Gideon, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.

[57:47] And you know, that just perked Gideon right up. And he said, Okay, Lord, what is it that you would have me to do? Anybody read the next verse? What did I tell you about Gideon?

[57:59] Gideon is typical. Verse 13, And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, I love this, If the Lord be with us, Why then is all this, Why is all this befallen us?

[58:14] Lord, if you're with me, Why is everything going wrong? Have you ever heard that in the context of, Of, you know, Maybe the last administration, People, Christians look around, And they start to question, How can all this be happening?

[58:38] Well, this is God's judgment on us. You know, It's almost this sense of blaming God. And Gideon, Just like Adam in the garden, The woman that you gave me, Lord, He's blaming the Lord.

[58:53] Lord, if you're with us, Why is all this, Why is everything going wrong if you're here? And verse continues, Verse 13 continues, And where be all his miracles, Which our fathers told us of, Saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?

[59:07] But now the Lord hath forsaken us, And delivered us into the hand of the Midianites. They had no hope. They felt forsaken by the Lord. It could not possibly have been a result of the choices they had made to disobey God.

[59:22] That couldn't possibly have been the problem. It was clearly God's fault in this. That's full on sarcasm right there. Okay? Just to be clear. Verse 14, And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, And thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.

[59:45] And then he asks him a question. Pay close attention to the tense. I hated English. But studying the Bible makes you pay attention to these things. He says, Have not I sent thee?

[59:58] Now is that present tense, future tense, or past tense? Past tense. What is the Lord telling Gideon in this moment?

[60:10] He's telling him, Gideon, This is not my fault. I sent you. Past tense. You're already here. The question that God is putting back on him is, Why haven't you done anything yet, Gideon?

[60:24] Why aren't you living in obedience to me? I've placed you here for this very reason. Listen, Every one of us are here To serve and glorify the Lord.

[60:43] Are we not? And when we're not serving, honoring, and glorifying him, When we make life about us, We are not serving him.

[60:57] We are not honoring him. We are not glorifying him. And that's the message that he gives to Gideon. Verse 15, And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel?

[61:10] Because now you think, Now Gideon's going to listen, right? Wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, And I am the least in my father's house. Gideon is starting, The excuses fly, Lord, what could I possibly do?

[61:26] My family is nobody. And I'm the least in my entire family. So my family is nobody. And I'm the least in my family. I mean, what could I possibly do? But it's really not about us, is it?

[61:40] It's about him. It's not about our strength. It's never been about our strength. It's about his strength. We are more than conquerors today in the dispensation of grace. Not because of us.

[61:51] Not because we are eloquent speakers. Not because of any of us. Of who we are. It's about what he is doing through us.

[62:03] What is it that we would be willing to let God do through us in this life? Do you ever ask yourself that question? What would I, fill in your name, be willing to surrender to him?

[62:19] He read that information about those signers. How many of us would be willing to pledge our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor for the glory of Lord, wherever that takes us?

[62:48] How many of us would be willing to sacrifice this body completely for him?

[63:01] If it meant death, would you be willing? I remember one time, I was a youth leader, and it was right after, what was the, the school shooting out in Colorado?

[63:20] This was many, many years ago. Columbine. And the one girl that died, they asked her something about God, and she answered in the affirmative, and they killed her.

[63:33] And we put that to our youth, kids in our youth group. And the one girl said, I just lie. Why does it matter? I would just lie. Why? And to me, that was a very telling moment.

[63:50] Because it went, to me, it went far beyond just a lie. What would we be willing to sacrifice? Gideon goes through all the excuses.

[64:04] Verse 16, the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee. What else, what other information do we need? Then surely I will be with thee.

[64:18] Sometimes I think we need to be reminded that he is with us. Actually, let me correct that. He is in us today.

[64:31] He's not just with me. He is in me. Me. And because of that identity, I am more than a conqueror through him that loved me and gave himself for me.

[64:45] And that is true of those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He is not with us. He is in us. If Christians today understood nothing else about God, nothing else about our identity than that, I believe it would transform the life of every believer who understood that, who lived their life in light of that truth.

[65:16] Gideon is told the Lord will be with him. And at that point, he does decide that he's not just going to be typical. He's going to listen to the Lord.

[65:26] He's going to obey the Lord. He's going to do what the Lord has called him to do. And Gideon goes forth and he smashes the idols. Even his father is a Baal worshiper.

[65:39] And listen, when you serve the Lord, listen to me very closely. When you surrender your life to him and you serve the Lord, you are going to spend time in this life smashing idols.

[65:53] And there are a lot of idols in this world that need smashing. But when you don't surrender your life to the Lord, you also must understand that the reason we don't surrender our life to the Lord is because a lot of times we have bigger idols than the world has in our life.

[66:20] And sometimes the biggest idol we have is the one we look in the mirror at every morning. We need to be willing to smash the idols in our life and serve the Lord completely surrendered to him.

[66:32] It's interesting, and this will speak to the more experienced people in the congregation this morning. Gideon serves faithfully the Lord until he gets to the end of his life.

[66:49] Sometimes we get to the end of our lives and we get tired. And we just want to retire. We just want to fade into the sunset. You go ahead and you read Judges 6, 7, and 8, and you realize in the end, after Gideon has done so much and has smashed so many idols and restored Israel to obedience to God, he comes to the end of his life and he gathers all the gold from all of the conquests.

[67:16] And he builds, I believe it's an ephod, of that gold. And it becomes the stumbling block to Gideon. It becomes the thing that he and his household worship.

[67:27] They worship this thing. And how often do believers, do brothers and sisters in Christ get to the later years of life? And when you have the most to offer, and listen, old people, you can self-identify as old or not.

[67:43] Old people, you have so much to offer the Lord. You have so much to offer the young people as an example, as a testimony. And yet you shirk your responsibilities for reasons which we don't have time to go into.

[68:02] All of us, all of you are important to this body of Christ. Don't, in your old age, become a Gideon who misses the opportunity that you have in this life to pour into the next generation, to be an example to them in that next generation.

[68:19] Turn with me to Philippians, and I will end with this. Philippians chapter, I'll tell you in a minute. Philippians 3. Israel went through all those ups and downs.

[68:39] Gideon himself went through the ups and downs. He heard and answered the call of God on his life. He was faithful in that. The battles grew bigger.

[68:52] He smashed the idols. He was obedient to God. And in the end, then, he shrank back into idolatry of his own, in a way.

[69:06] We have this man, Paul. And the apostle Paul was certainly human. You read Romans chapter 7, and you see a man who would say things through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, like, those things which I shouldn't do, I do.

[69:29] You know, he has those struggles. He was human. He was not God. He had the struggles of not doing what he should do, doing what he shouldn't do. He had those struggles as a man.

[69:42] But he says this in Philippians chapter 3, verse 12. He was not living his life like he had at all.

[70:06] He lived his life. And this is not a verse saying he's trying to earn his salvation.

[70:17] But he's living his life day by day, moment by moment, thought by thought, word by word, living in to the next moment with his focus on the Lord.

[70:31] He says, brethren, verse 13, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

[70:51] I am thankful that this is not a church that believes in public confession. But if we were, we could probably go around this room, and if we had no shame or no embarrassment, we could probably tell of things we've said, things we've done, that we absolutely regret, that we are ashamed of.

[71:16] And it doesn't matter of your age. Kids, let me tell you, your parents and your grandparents, as wonderful as they are, have said and done things in this life that they regret.

[71:37] None of us are perfect, are we? We have handled things inappropriately. Things that we wish we could undo, unsay.

[71:55] We have all lived lives on this earth. And it's not that you can't go back and try and make things right.

[72:11] But sometimes we can get so focused on what has happened, that we miss what is before us, that needs to happen. Gideon could have gone on looking back at his life, hiding in the wine press, and he did for a time.

[72:29] But God used Gideon in mighty ways, because Gideon stopped looking back, and he started looking up. He started listening to who the Lord was, and that the Lord was with him.

[72:47] For us today, in this dispensation of grace in which we live, there was a time that all of us were without Christ, unsaved, lost. And if you're here this morning and have never dealt with that, then we need to deal with that first.

[73:00] You need to believe in what Jesus Christ did, his death, burial, and resurrection for your sin on that cross. But for those of us who have made that decision in the past, we need to live our lives moving forward.

[73:14] Look what the Apostle Paul did. He said, He said, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before. What? I press.

[73:25] He didn't just saunter. That's my favorite word, saunter. He didn't just saunter forward. Did he? He says, I press toward the mark.

[73:36] I press. I press. I press into what it is that God has for me to do. And listen, God has something for us to do, whether we are 3, 5, 53, 153.

[73:50] It doesn't matter. God has something for each of us to do in this life. God has something for us to do. God has something for us to do. We all need to be pressing toward that mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

[74:06] That is why we are here. And listen, we can do that. We can press into that. Whether we are a child, whether we are a banker, or a mailman, or a military, or a pilot, or a politician, or whatever it is.

[74:22] Statesman. I will go with statesman. That sounds better. But all of us have a place in this life where God has placed us and we can press into the work that He has for us.

[74:34] True? Let me close by sharing a story of a man that was near and dear in my life growing up and into my early married years.

[74:48] His name was George Metzger. George was on Omaha Beach on D-Day many years ago.

[74:59] And George was without Christ on Omaha Beach. That is a terrifying place to be without Christ. And George was unsaved. He got saved years later.

[75:10] And here's a man who had no spiritual upbringing. And the first thing George did, he got saved at some kind of a crusade.

[75:21] I don't remember what it was. I can't remember now. But the next day, he was standing out on a street corner. Bible in one hand, cigarette in the other, trying to leaf through the Bible and find verses.

[75:34] He was so excited about what Christ had done for him. He knew nothing about the Word of God. My son Joseph, one of his middle names is George for our friend George Metzger.

[75:47] Growing up, George grew, obviously, by leaps and bounds. Growing up, we always called him the Candyman. He was the old guy at church that handed out sugar to all the kids. But as George got older, he developed Parkinson's disease.

[76:01] And if George was probably 6'3", 6'4", we used to go with George to the mission. And he would get these homeless people.

[76:13] It was a men's mission. These homeless guys. And he would share Christ with them. And George was... He did not mince words. These men needed to hear it raw, and he gave it to them.

[76:28] He had a man laugh at them one time. And he walked over, and he grabbed that man by the hand, drug him into the kitchen, turned the stove on. And he's holding... He's dragging this man's hand over the flame.

[76:40] And the guy starts, obviously, getting worked up. Tells George he's crazy. What are you doing? You're crazy. I mean, screaming at him. And, you know, You're crazy. You're nuts. What are you doing?

[76:50] And George turned around and looked at him. He said, I'm not the one that's crazy. He said, If you don't deal with Christ right now, that's where you're headed. I don't know the result of that, but in that moment, that was how he dealt with that man.

[77:04] But in the end of George's life, George was no Gideon. George developed Parkinson's disease, and it's one of those diseases that robs you of everything.

[77:16] You just shrivel. And George shrank and shrank and shrank until he couldn't even hold his head up anymore. By the end, he had the drool towel that they would put around because you can't control things.

[77:30] The drool would be running out. And he was in a veteran's home. And the nurses would come in, and, you know, you're, you're, I mean, this was a man who shared the gospel with everyone.

[77:43] Wherever he went, it was all about Christ, not about George. And you would think, you get to that point in your life, you might become cynical. Why has this happened to me?

[77:56] And George was in this veteran's home, all shriveled up. The drool, the nurses would come in to wipe the drool from his mouth, and he would mumble. And the nurses, you couldn't hear him, and they would have to get right down by his lips because they thought, well, maybe he needs a drink, or maybe he's hungry, or whatever it is.

[78:18] You know what George was doing? Tell them about Christ. Every nurse, every shift, every time his mouth needed white was to tell them about Jesus Christ.

[78:34] Every one of us in this life are surrounded by people who need to hear about what Christ did for us. And if my friend George could do that until God took his final breath and he went home to be with the Lord, I don't care what has happened.

[78:53] I don't want to say I don't care what has happened in your life. But all of us could make excuses for all the bad things that have happened in our life, all the hardships that we face, all the difficulties. But life is not about us, is it?

[79:08] It's about Him. It's about glorifying God with our lives. Let's pray. Father, thank You for this morning. Lord, thank You for the opportunity to stand in this pulpit this morning and to preach.

[79:22] Thank You for these brothers and sisters in Christ who are here. And Lord, we do pray for each one here. Lord, I pray that we see the mistakes of Gideon.

[79:37] But Lord, I also pray that we see what Gideon did well. That we see the struggles that he had, the struggles that Paul had. Lord, may we relate.

[79:51] But Lord, may we also see where they were faithful. May we see...