Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / October 1, 2017 | Judge Tommy Webb - To Value

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October 1, 2017 | Judge Tommy Webb - To Value · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, people of God.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to see each and every one of you this morning.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Tommy Webb.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was a district magistrate judge for 20 over 27 years and retired from that position.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: People ask if I'm retired.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I tell them no, I've redirected because I travel and speak quite a bit.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: This August I had the privilege of speaking at some teacher and services.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: One of the teacher and services that I spoke at was at Emporious called the North Lyon County School District.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I spoke for three hours that day.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Afterwards, the superintendent of schools came up and said, Would you come and speak to our high school and our middle school children?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I said, if we can coordinate the time, I'd love to do that.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they called and we looked at our calendars, and I was able to go and speak this past Monday.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Did an hour with the middle school and senior high, and then the middle school was dismissed, and then I spoke another hour with the high school students and then spent another hour with the football team from 3.15 to 415 that afternoon.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: But as the assembly was dismissed, the teachers had these wristbands that they were handing out to the students.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the teachers handed me one and said, Judge Webb, I think you'd be interested in this rest band.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I took it, I looked at it.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because when I spoke to them in August, my challenge to them was making a difference.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Making a difference in the lives that you touch.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And on the wristbands, it said, be the difference.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Be the difference.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and that is my challenge to you today that as we go to the journey of life, that we truly are not just making a difference, but we are the difference.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Be the difference, the person that you are in the journey of life because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: As a judge, there's many stories about judges and jokes, and I really don't listen to that many or TV shows about judges, but a story was handed to me a few years ago that I thought was really humorous.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the writer says, An 80-year-old woman was arrested for shoplifting.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: When she went before the judge, he asked her, What did you steal?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: She replied, A can of peaches.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: The judge then asked her why she had stolen the can of peaches, and she replied that she was hungry.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: The judge then asked her how many peaches were in the can.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: She replied, six.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the judge said, I'm gonna give you a day for every peach that was in that can.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you will serve six days in jail.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Her husband, who was sitting behind her, about 80 years of age, raised his hands.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the judge, thinking that the husband was going to ask for mercy from the judge for his wife, said, Yes, sir.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the gentleman stood up and said, Your Honor, she also stole a can of peas.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: This morning I would like to read from Luke chapter 10 a story that Jesus tells about a situation where three men and their responses to this situation.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Luke 10, chapter 25 through 37.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is entitled The Parable of the Good Samaritan.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere in the story that it mentions the Good Samaritan, but that's the title that is given to this story or to this parable.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Luke writes, on one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: What is written in the law, he replied, How do you read it?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: He answered, Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and with all of your soul, with all of your strength and with all of your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: If we can implement that verse of Scripture into our lives and apply it, things will be a lot greater in life.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: To love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And our neighbor as ourselves.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, that means that we are to value ourselves.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: We do not have the right to devalue ourselves.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that there's times that you talk to yourself between 10 and 20,000 words a day?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Men, 10,000, women, 20,000.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you dare leave here and say, Judge Webb made a sexist statement this morning.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you dare.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: But we are constantly talking to ourselves.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I truly believe that if we choose to talk to ourselves positively, we'll have a positive attitude, and our behavior is but a reflection of that attitude, a cycle of positivism.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: What is unfortunate, many of us here talk to ourselves in ways that we would never let other people talk to us.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we devalue ourselves, we wonder why we struggle in the journey of life.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that you have value.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: If there's one word that I wish I could place within the heart of every individual here, and that word is value.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: You have value, and we do not have the right to devalue others because they're not as big as we are, they're not as strong as we are, they're not as fast as we are, they're not as smart, whatever reason, they're not as pretty as we are.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: We do not have the right to devalue others just like we do not have the right to devalue ourselves.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, how I wish I was six foot ten, played basketball in the NBA, and made 10 million dollars a year.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I want you to know that I'm not 6'10 if you don't notice.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 5'8 and I weigh 200 pounds, and I'm a little squatty.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, when I wake up in the morning, I don't know why my wife does this, but she puts a big old mirror in our bedroom.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So every morning before I leave the bedroom, I have to go past that mirror and I have to look at myself.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: If my self-talk to myself is negative, I go past that mirror and I look at myself, and I am so upset because I'm not six foot ten and I'm not making ten million dollars in the MBA, and I kick the wall.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Or I can look in that mirror like I do, and I go, yeah.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because I understand how I choose to talk to myself determines my attitude, and my behavior is but a reflection of that attitude.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I might not be able to control the circumstances, situations around me, but the person that I choose to be, I can control that.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I must be responsible for that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was speaking to a high school in Jackson County a few years ago, and we had a question-answer session, and there was a little young lady sitting close to the front, or she was actually sitting on the front row, and her question was, Judge Webb, if I would give you a wand, and this was a magic wand, and you could just do this with that magic wand, and you could take away one thing that happened to you in your life that hurts you so much, what would that event be?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at her and I said, What a wonderful question.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: I said, in this short amount of time thinking about it, I said, I would probably hand that wand back to you because the person that I am, I am happy with the person that I am today.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the person that I am today is because of all the things that have happened to me in the journey of life.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: I truly believe that the will of God will never take you, or the grace of God cannot keep you.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And his grace is sufficient for all of us, no matter what struggles or we might be going through in our journey of life.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now understand there's times God has more confidence in me than I think I deserve.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be honest with you.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: But if we truly believe that the will of God will never take us, or the grace of God cannot keep us, then we can be victorious if we choose not to look at that event only, but look beyond that event to the hope of the future.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Luke writes to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And love your neighbor as yourself.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have answered correctly, Jesus replied.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Do this, and you will love or you will live.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do what?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: To love God, to love God, to love others, as you love yourself when we love God, we will want to know God.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we know God, we will want to serve God, and we will want to serve Him and be obedient unto Him.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not because we have to, not because it's a duty, but it's my heart's desire to please God, who is not only my Savior, but my Lord, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I truly believe in the journey of life.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: We make basically two choices.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: I live my life to please myself, the self-centered life.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And in the end of the day, how empty, with no hope, or I can live my life to please God, and I have peace, and I have joy.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: The choice is ours.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: To love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the expert in the law in verse 2029, he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: In reply, Jesus said, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So too a Levite when he came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: But a Samaritan, a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense that you may have.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: The expert in the law replied.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: The one who had mercy on him.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus told him, Go and do likewise.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Go and do likewise.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was speaking at a state conference in Oklahoma about 15 years ago.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was being held at Oklahoma University, there in Norman, Oklahoma, and I was speaking in an auditorium, it was packed out, the balcony was mostly full.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I spoke from 9 o'clock until noon to that group of people.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And after I finished speaking, the person in charge of that conference got up and said, Judge Webb, the lunch that we had planned for 12 is running a little late.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you mind to come up and just take some questions from our people?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't mind at all.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I went to the front and people started asking questions.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm responding.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a woman to my right that was on the balcony, and she was leaning over, waving her hand.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, don't fall over.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: But she's waving her hand, so I finished my answer, looked to her, said, Yes, ma'am.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she was still leaning over the rail, and she looked at me and she said, Judge Webb.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you had spoken to Columbine High School before, and as she was asking that question, I thought, oh no, don't ask me this question.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And my mind's going 90 miles an hour because I knew the question that she was going to ask, and I thought, how do I respond?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: I have a master's degree in clinical therapy, specializing in marriage and family, very systemic, and all these thoughts are going within my mind.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, she said, if you had been at Columbine High School before the shooting occurred, would the shooting have ever occurred?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at her and I said, Thank you for that question, trying to get more time to process the question within my mind.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Stretched as long as I could for that question.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then I said, let me give you a very simplistic answer to a very complex question.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the simple answer is this when we feel valued by our peers, we will do everything within our powers to help that person, not to hurt that person when we feel valued by those around us.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't know why, but those two young men were not, they did not feel valued by their peers.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And for whatever reason, they felt frustration, they felt hurt, they felt fear, a lot of emotions that came combined to this emotion called anger.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And they chose to exemplify that anger in a very destructive manner.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: As I left that conference that day, driving back to my home in Kansas, that question kept on going through my mind and it haunted me.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I said as I left that conference is whatever time, whenever I had the opportunity to speak at conferences I want to talk about, we should value those around us.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because we do not have the right to devalue others, because they're not as big as we are, they're not as strong as we are, they're not as pretty.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have that right.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Every person has value.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we as Christians, we understand our worth because Christ said, I love you this much.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: I love you this much.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he hung on that tree and he suffered and died because his love for each and every one of us.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere in the scriptures you'll find that if you're over six foot, he did it for you.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you weigh less than 200 pounds, he did it.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's not in there.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have a tough time.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: That he gave his one and only son.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: If that's the value that he places upon every person here, we as Christians do not have the right to value others in the journey of life.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: We need to understand we need to separate the act from the person, and that person has value.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Every person has value.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let me illustrate that by a personal story in 1971.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was in San Diego, California in the Marine Corps.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I had come, I was going through the process of being educated in communications, and first part of May, I received a letter from the Marine Corps, my orders stating that they were going to ship me to Camp LeJune, North Carolina in July of that year.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they were going to allow me 10 days to make that trip from San Diego, California to Camp LeJune, North Carolina.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: When I received my orders, I went outside, went to the payphone, and called Judy, who was living here in Topeka with her parents.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And when I got a hold of Judy, I said, Judy, I received my orders, and I'm going to go to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in July.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Well, that's wonderful.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you're turning 18 July 4th.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was wondering, when I come through there, why don't we get married?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you go with me to Camp Lejeune as my wife.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: She said, What a wonderful idea.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do that.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay, let's do it.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: But here I'm in California.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do you mind getting the place and setting up the date?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just let me know and I'll be there.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Okay, I would do that.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And she made all the arrangements.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I came to Teka, Kansas.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: We got married July 12th, and we put all of our possessions in the trunk in the backseat of the car, and we still had a little bit of space in the backseat.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's because she left most of her shoes with her mom and dad.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then we drove to Camp LeJune, North Carolina.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: When we got to Camp LeJune, North Carolina, I visited with the first sergeant, and I said, First sergeant, this is my wife, Judy.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Congratulations, Webb.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've got good news for you, and I've got bad news for you.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: I said, What's the good news?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: He said, The good news is now that you're married, your wife gets a separate check from the Marine Corps.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: She gets her own check.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I go, Yes.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I said, What's the bad news?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: He said, The bad news is they're gonna take some of the money out of your check and put it into her check.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, that's okay.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's our monies.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, Webb, the real bad thing is this.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna take the money out of your check immediately, but it's gonna take 90 days to process all the paperwork before she gets her first check.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when he told me that, my heart just dropped.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because I had worked out a budget.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean rent was like$65 a month, but I'm telling you, I had done the budget and I was still about two or three dollars short every month, and I couldn't figure out where I was gonna make the difference on those two or three dollars.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to him, Oh, first sergeant, if they take monies out of my check and I don't get to see that for 90 days, we're not gonna be able to make it.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: He smiled and he looked at me and Judy.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Welcome to the Marine Corps, Webb.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: That was his response.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you, we struggled.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: When we went to the commissary, I'd be pushing the card and Judy'd follow right behind me.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm there, there's times that we would have to put things back because we paid with cash and we didn't have enough cash to pay the things, the necessary things that we had put into that card for us for that week.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we're I'm pushing that card in the commissary, and in those days, I don't know if they still do it or not, but they used to have these displays of China, China in the commissaries.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd push the cart, and we come to one of those displays of China, and I'd go real fast past the China, and Judy just follow along.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: But one day, Judy's walking in front of me, and I'm pushing the cart.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: We come to one of those displays of China, and she stops right in the middle of that display of China.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was either run or over or stop.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was tempted, but I didn't stop.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't run her over, I stopped.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm saying to myself, Oh Judy, please don't ask.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have the monies.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: She looked at me and I thought, she's gonna ask.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then she looked at that display of China, and she turned to me and said, Tommy, one day I would love to have a set of China in our home.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at her and I said, Judy, one day we will have a set of China.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Can we go now?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, You promise.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Judy, I promise.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: About a year and a half later, I received orders from the Marine Corps stating that they were shipping me overseas.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so Judy and I, we packed up all of our possession.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: We had a U-Haul that we could hook up to the back of the car.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: We filled that up.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: We put our little six-week-old daughter in the backseat.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we drove here to Topeka, Kansas, because Judy was going to stay with her parents while I was overseas.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: While I was here in Topeka waiting for my flight to go overseas, I received a letter from the Marine Corps, and the letter said, now that you're going overseas, you get a check, an extra check every month, and the amount of that check is X amount of dollars.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: When I got that letter, I was so excited because ever since I was in junior high, my dream was to have a 750 Honda motorcycle.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I could not wait because I calculated, because I priced the motorcycle 750 Honda's in here in the United States, and I'd also priced them in Japan, a lot of less in Japan, and the Marine Corps would ship it free and put it in my front yard.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when I calculated that amount by 11 months, I would have exactly the right amount of money to buy that 750 Honda motorcycle.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: That night I sat down with Judy and I explained to her the economic advantages of me owning a 750 Honda.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: After we had that conversation, I spoke to her, she looked at me and said, Tommy, what a great idea.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can drive that back and forth to the university, and you know, if things don't work out, you can always sell it for more than what you bought for it, what you paid for it.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to myself, what a brilliant woman that I have married.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I went overseas, and every month when I got that check, I went to the credit union and I deposited into the credit union.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'd been there ten and a half months.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Two more weeks, and I would get that 11th check, and I'd be able to buy that motorcycle.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: I had already gone, sat on the motorcycle, picked out the color, picked out the model.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was going to be mine in two weeks.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Judy and I were visiting on the telephone that week.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we're just visiting along, and all of a sudden she said to me, Tommy, do you know what I found out this week?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why'd you find out, honey?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: I found out that China and Japan cost a lot less than China here in the United States.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, what's your point, honey?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know the money that I have here is for our education.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was just wondering, after you buy your motorcycle, would you see if you have enough money to buy a small set of china?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I remembered the promise that I made to her at Camp LeJou, North Carolina.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to her, honey, I'll check and see if I have enough money for both.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then we talked about other things and I hung up.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: And gentlemen, I knew I didn't have enough money for both.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: That weekend I went to Iwakuni, Japan, and walked into a China store.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And 21-year-old Marine, I'd never been to a China store.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought you walked in the China store and said, China, they wrapped it up and shipped it home.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I really thought.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I walked in there and I said, China.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: She looked at me, she started asking me all these questions, know her talking different names, uh, design, gold, silver, all, and I'm standing there going, I don't know.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, she just stopped asking questions because she knew what my answer is going to be.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking within my mind, I didn't realize there's so many choices.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, I realized, you know what?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Judy was born in Kansas.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: She's a Jayhawker.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: She would love to have a Jayhawker on her china.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't I think about this before?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I looked at the lady and I said, Do you have any China with a J-Hawker on it?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: She looked at me and she goes, No Jimica.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, no, no, no.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: J Hawker, no Jimaka.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, Do you have a piece of paper and a pencil?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And she gave me a piece of, and I drew a J Hawker, the best that I knew how to draw, and I showed it to her.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies, there's times that you don't have to say a word.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: We just know by the way you look at us, like you're stupid.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: But we we know, we understand that.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: We know that look.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so I took the piece of paper and I flipped it over real quick, and I'm thinking, what would she like to have on the you know what?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: The sunflower is the Kansas flower.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: She loved to have sunflowers.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: She was born in Kansas.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I drew a sunflower the best that I could, and I showed it to her.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, Oh, jump tomate, jump tomate.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: She went to the back of the China store, came back with this China, I looked at it, I said, yes, that's it, that's it.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I bought that set of China and had it shipped home.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I only didn't know about 65 years of age.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: I look at that China.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's the ugliest China you have ever laid your eyes on.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is ugly.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is ugly.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: You get the picture?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is ugly.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: When I got back home, and six months later, we were at Camp Le June, and I was being discharged out of the Marine Corps.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was of the rank that we didn't have to pack a thing.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Marine Corps brought in packers and they packed up everything.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember the morning the packers came and they bring their boxes in, and Judy's directing them different ways, different directions, and all of a sudden the men started bringing these boxes with the word China on it.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Judy said, Stop.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna touch my china.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Take those boxes and give me all the materials that I need to wrap them with.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Put them over in this corner.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: And when we put our daughter to bed tonight, I will package my china myself.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you can come and pick it up tomorrow morning.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Yes, ma'am.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: I remember that night watching my wife staying late into the night as she packed that ugly china.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the way she handled that china, you could tell that she valued that china as she wrapped it up and put it into a slot so delicately, so carefully, that she valued that china.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: When we came to Kansas, the packers started bringing everything in.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: She's directing where you're supposed to go, downstairs, upstairs, the bed.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, the boxes with china started coming in.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Stop.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Don't open one of those boxes.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: She said, You put those boxes right over here in this corner, and tonight, after we put our daughter to bed, I will unpack my china and I will put my china away.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if everything is okay, I will sign the inventory slip and I will get it to you tomorrow.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Yes, ma'am.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that night, after we put Brooke to bed, I watched my wife unpacking that ugly china.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you could tell that she valued that china by the way she handled that china.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we go on a picnic, we use paper plates, sometimes chinettes.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty expensive.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: But after we get done using paper plates or chinettes, we crumble them up and we discard them, we throw them away because they have no value.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, how I wish I could put within the heart of every individual here to value your neighbor as you value yourself.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who's my neighbor?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: My closest neighbor is my wife.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: A gentleman.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's times I have just stumbled and fallen.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't done a very good job of being a very good neighbor.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: But as a Christian, God is so gracious.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: He knows my name, but he goes, Stupid.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: You talking to me, Lord?
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Stupid.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: I blew it, didn't I?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you did.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: I need to apologize.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don't I?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: To love my neighbor as we love ourselves.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: One writer says, in the journey of life, there's basically two types of people.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's a balcony people, and there's the basement people.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Balcony people are the ones who stand on the balconies of life and they watch people as they journey through life.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when they see someone stumble and fall, they reach over, they lean over the railing, and they pick that person up, and they encourage that person in the journey of life.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's the balcony person.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Basement persons, people are the ones who live in the musty obasement of life, and there's just a little window.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they see the ankles of the people that are journeying in the journey of life.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And basement people are the ones who reach out and grab an ankle and they try to trip people as they travel in the journey of life.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the basement person will grab the ankle of that person and try to pull that person down to where they're at.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: And love your neighbor as yourself.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: When we apply that within our lives, we will find ourselves in the balcony of life, encouraging others in the journey of life and living our lives to please God, not just to please ourselves.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Dr.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Richard Seltzer wrote a book entitled Mortal Essence, and he describes a relationship that I would wish for every person here.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: He writes, I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face post-operative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: She will be thus from now on.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you that.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut that little nerve.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Her young husband is in the room.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: He stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Who are they?
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: I ask myself.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: He in this wry mouth that I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so tenderly.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: The young woman speaks.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: She asks.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I say it will.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is because the nerve was cut.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: She nods and is silent.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: But the young man smiles.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: I like it, he says.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of cute.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: All at once I know who he is.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: I understand.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I lower my gaze.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: One is not bold in an encounter with a god.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Unmindful.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: He bends to kiss her crooked mouth and eye so close, I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: I remember that the gods appeared in ancient Greece as mortals.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I hold my breath and I let the wonder in.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Moms and dads, let your children know whatever the pressures of your life, whatever the problems of your life, that your kiss still works.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's all part of being parents in love with God and in love with each other.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: To value.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: To value.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for you to value those around you?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: I would ask all of you just to look around, but you don't just look in the back of heads of people.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: But every person here has value.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that person that's sitting next to you, he has value.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: She has value.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't have the right to devalue when God has said they have value.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: James Kinney wrote a poem entitled The Cold Within.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Six humans trapped by happenstance in dark and bitter cold.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Each one possessed a stick of wood, or so the story's told, their dying fire in need of logs.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the first one held hers back.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: For of the faces round the fire, she noticed that one was black.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: The next one looked crossed away, saw one knot of his church, and could not bring himself to give the fire his stick a birch.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: The third one sat in tattered clothes.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: He gave his coat a hitch.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why should his log be put to use to warm the idle rich?
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: The rich man just sat back and thought of wealth he had in store and keeping all that he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: The black man's face bespoke revenge as the fire passed from his sight, for he saw in his stick of wood a chance to spite the white.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the last man of this forlorn group did not accept for gain.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: Giving just to those who gave was how he played the game.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: Their sticks held tight in death-stilled hands was proof enough of sin.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: They did not die from the cold without.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh ladies and gentlemen, let's keep the fire of compassion and caring burning within our hearts so that we can truly live a life that is pleasing unto him.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: And hear one day those words, well done, my good and faithful servant.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know the struggles that you're going through today, those situations in life, but I do know this.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: We serve a God that's big enough, that's great enough to see us through to the other side.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Victorious.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: For I truly believe the will of God will never take you, take you, where the grace of God cannot keep you.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like for you just to bow your heads this morning.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to think about the three men that Jesus talked about.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: One, the priest, his status, the Levite, his job.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the Samaritan saw a need and chose to serve.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Who was the neighbor?
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: The man who showed mercy.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus replied, Go and do likewise.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: What is it within your heart, your life that you just need to go and do likewise within relationships that God has blessed you with?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: As you have your have your heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to end this morning with a prayer of Saint Francis.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, make us instruments of your peace, where there is hatred, let us soul love.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Where there is injury, pardon, where there is discord, union, where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: For it is in giving that we receive, and it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful prayer.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: My prayer today is that we take the words of Saint Francis of Assisi and apply it within our lives so that we might be worthy walkers with you in this journey of life until you call us home.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: We pray this prayer in the precious name of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: And all the people said, Amen, amen.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Go and do likewise.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you.