Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / The life story of Jacob - Powerful Sermon- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:21Speaker 1: Well.
- 0:21Speaker 2: Fred Snodgrass led an extraordinary life. He played professional baseball
- 0:27Speaker 2: for eight and for nine years. He succeeded as a rancher.
- 0:31Speaker 2: He succeeded as a banker. He was an exemplary family man,
- 0:37Speaker 2: models citizen. He even served for a time as mayor
- 0:40Speaker 2: of Oxnard, California. Yet when he passed away in nineteen
- 0:47Speaker 2: seventy four, his obituary headline did not highlight his achievements.
- 0:55Speaker 2: Rather than New York Times heralded his most famous fail.
- 1:00Speaker 2: The headline said, Fred Snodgrass eighty six dead ballplayer who
- 1:07Speaker 2: dropped nineteen twelve fly. It's true he dropped a fly.
- 1:13Speaker 2: He dropped the ball short infield pop up in the
- 1:18Speaker 2: last game of the nineteen twelve World Series. Had he
- 1:21Speaker 2: caught the ball, the then called New York Giants would
- 1:26Speaker 2: have won the title. But Snodgrass took his eye off
- 1:29Speaker 2: the ball that fell to the grass. His error led
- 1:33Speaker 2: to two runs, a lost game, and a mistake that
- 1:37Speaker 2: would follow him the rest of his life.
- 1:41Speaker 1: We've done the same. Our errors have occurred not on
- 1:47Speaker 1: a baseball diamond, but in.
- 1:51Speaker 2: You want to fill in the blank, a marriage, a business,
- 1:58Speaker 2: in our youth, in our parenting. We didn't let a
- 2:02Speaker 2: ball fall, but we let a spouse down, We let
- 2:04Speaker 2: our guard down, we let our debt get out of control.
- 2:08Speaker 2: We live not with the memory of a lost baseball game,
- 2:12Speaker 2: but with the reality of an illegitimate child, or a
- 2:16Speaker 2: family that is divided, or a broken heart, or an
- 2:20Speaker 2: angry brother.
- 2:21Speaker 1: By the name of Esau.
- 2:26Speaker 2: If you're just tuning in or logging in to follow
- 2:30Speaker 2: the Jacob store, you need to know that Jacob was
- 2:33Speaker 2: one of two sons born to Isaac and Rebecca. They
- 2:36Speaker 2: were twin brothers. Jacob was born after Esau.
- 2:43Speaker 1: But only by a matter of seconds.
- 2:48Speaker 2: In fact, he came out on the heels of Esau,
- 2:52Speaker 2: and he came to have the name Jacob, which in
- 2:55Speaker 2: Hebrew literally means heel holder. He had his hand on
- 3:00Speaker 2: his brother's heel as if to say, oh, no, I
- 3:02Speaker 2: want to be in first. He resented the second place
- 3:09Speaker 2: that he served in the family. He considered himself the
- 3:13Speaker 2: brighter of the two. He was, in his mind, better
- 3:17Speaker 2: equipped to inherit his father's place, his patriarch of the family,
- 3:24Speaker 2: so he took matters into his own hands. Early in
- 3:28Speaker 2: the story of Jacob, he catches his brother Esau with
- 3:32Speaker 2: a hungry bellion in a flippant mood, and he convinced
- 3:36Speaker 2: Esau to sell him the birthrider first born status for
- 3:41Speaker 2: a bowl of stew. And then he hoodwinked his father
- 3:45Speaker 2: Isaac by dressing up and clothing his near blind dad
- 3:50Speaker 2: thought he was Esau, and he blessed Esau and gave
- 3:54Speaker 2: a blessing that could not be revoked. Jacob achieved what
- 3:58Speaker 2: he wanted, but boy did he burned bridges to get it.
- 4:03Speaker 1: When we last left.
- 4:04Speaker 2: Esau, the older brother, he was muttering about Jacob, not
- 4:09Speaker 2: for nothing that he was named Jacob the heel twice.
- 4:13Speaker 2: Now he's tricked me. First he took my birth right,
- 4:16Speaker 2: and now he's taken my blessing. Esau seetheding anger against
- 4:21Speaker 2: Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him.
- 4:25Speaker 2: He brooded the time for mourning my father's death is close,
- 4:29Speaker 2: and then I'll kill my brother Jacob sibling rivalry. Jacob
- 4:38Speaker 2: got wind of Esau's anger and he high tailed it
- 4:41Speaker 2: to the high country to hide out while Esau cooled down.
- 4:46Speaker 2: One side of a girl by the name of Rachel
- 4:49Speaker 2: turned that short term trip into a long term trip,
- 4:52Speaker 2: and by the time Jacob comes back home. Twenty years,
- 4:57Speaker 2: two decades have passed. What had happened to Esau's hatred
- 5:04Speaker 2: in the intervening time. Had it metastasized into hostility, or
- 5:09Speaker 2: maybe the years had cooled the fire. Jacob did not know.
- 5:14Speaker 2: What he did know is this. God told him to
- 5:19Speaker 2: return to the land of your father and grandfather and
- 5:22Speaker 2: to your relatives there, and I.
- 5:25Speaker 1: Will be with you.
- 5:27Speaker 2: So he returned to Canaan. But in order to return
- 5:32Speaker 2: to Canaan, he had to pass through the land of Esau.
- 5:36Speaker 2: There was no way he could return to Canaan and
- 5:39Speaker 2: not receive the forgiveness of the brother he had tricked.
- 5:44Speaker 1: In order to move forward.
- 5:46Speaker 2: Into God's promise, he had to come face to face
- 5:51Speaker 2: with his past.
- 5:54Speaker 1: No more hiding, no more running.
- 5:57Speaker 2: Jacob might have been happy to suppress the past to
- 6:00Speaker 2: sidestep the encounter, but not God. Meeting Esau was a
- 6:05Speaker 2: spiritual necessity. It was time for Jacob to make peace
- 6:10Speaker 2: with his past. Is it time for you to do
- 6:14Speaker 2: the same. Our past has a way of finding us,
- 6:20Speaker 2: doesn't it. I recall one evening that my past found me.
- 6:27Speaker 2: Delon and I were living in riodesian Aio, Brazil, when
- 6:31Speaker 2: I began writing books. A couple of books came out
- 6:33Speaker 2: while we were still in South America, and when I
- 6:36Speaker 2: was home on furlough, I received an invitation, I assume
- 6:40Speaker 2: because of the books, to speak at a very popular
- 6:43Speaker 2: Bible conference. I'd never spoken at an event like that.
- 6:48Speaker 2: I thought that was a pretty cool thing. So I
- 6:51Speaker 2: got this invitation. They paid my expenses. They flew me
- 6:54Speaker 2: to a large city in the mid West. I worked
- 7:00Speaker 2: on my sermon. I stayed up late the night before,
- 7:03Speaker 2: practicing it in the mirror, and the next day I
- 7:06Speaker 2: got up and if I tell you I was, I
- 7:09Speaker 2: just I was on fire. I was impressed with myself.
- 7:15Speaker 2: What a messenger of God I was. I wanted to
- 7:19Speaker 2: take notes on my own message. My arrogance was only
- 7:26Speaker 2: increased by the long line of people that wanted to
- 7:29Speaker 2: shake my hand after the message. They just wanted to
- 7:33Speaker 2: stand where I stood, to breathe in my spirituality, to
- 7:40Speaker 2: inhale my aura, to shake my hand, to kiss my ring.
- 7:48Speaker 2: After a few minutes of hearing everyone seeing my praises,
- 7:52Speaker 2: I was so confident that they were correct, and God
- 7:58Speaker 2: was so willing to take me down a peg or two.
- 8:05Speaker 2: One fellow in the line introduced himself as a friend
- 8:09Speaker 2: from my college days. He called it Max, I'm from
- 8:14Speaker 2: your BC days before christ. I couldn't place him. I said,
- 8:21Speaker 2: help me, I don't remember you. He said, yeah, because
- 8:24Speaker 2: you were drunk most of the time. I looked around
- 8:28Speaker 2: and all those people were listening to him. Well, had
- 8:32Speaker 2: our share of cors, didn't we, Max? I kind of
- 8:35Speaker 2: duck my head, and these people were gathering around to
- 8:38Speaker 2: hear this story. I wanted to hurry him along, but
- 8:43Speaker 2: he wasn't about to continue walking down the path until
- 8:49Speaker 2: he had told everybody what I did. I recall those
- 8:51Speaker 2: nights in West Texas. He said, we'd drink a little,
- 8:55Speaker 2: drink a lot, play some pool, pick a few fights,
- 8:59Speaker 2: flirt with the girls.
- 9:01Speaker 1: Speaking of girls, do you remember.
- 9:03Speaker 2: I said, stop it, stop it, stop it. I kept
- 9:10Speaker 2: trying to change the subject, and he kept bringing it
- 9:13Speaker 2: back up, reminding me and informing everyone around me that
- 9:17Speaker 2: this super saint who spoke was, in reality, just a
- 9:22Speaker 2: sinner saved by God's grace.
- 9:26Speaker 1: I needed and I received the reminder.
- 9:30Speaker 2: God will not move us into Tomorrow's blessing until he
- 9:34Speaker 2: has helped us deal with yesterday's failures.
- 9:40Speaker 1: God will not.
- 9:42Speaker 2: Lead us into tomorrow's blessings until he has helped us
- 9:46Speaker 2: deal with yesterday's failures. Now you might be happy to
- 9:52Speaker 2: never deal with yesterday. You might be content to leave
- 9:57Speaker 2: it buried under sentiments or denial. But God, He's going
- 10:02Speaker 2: to bring it up. He wants to bring it to
- 10:06Speaker 2: the surface. He wants to forgive it, he wants to
- 10:09Speaker 2: heal it. Does your autobiography contain a dark chapter? An
- 10:16Speaker 2: embarrassing choice? Assorted story? Did you know the story of Moses?
- 10:22Speaker 2: Did he had blood on his.
- 10:23Speaker 1: Hands from murdering an Egyptian? The story of Abraham?
- 10:27Speaker 2: Did did you know that he once lied about his wife,
- 10:32Speaker 2: passing her off as his sister in order to save
- 10:36Speaker 2: his own neck. What about the prophet Elijah? He had
- 10:41Speaker 2: enough faith to call down fire one day, but then
- 10:46Speaker 2: he was so afraid he hid out in a cave
- 10:49Speaker 2: the next Did you know the story of Queen Esther?
- 10:53Speaker 2: She took a courageous stand, but not before she didn't.
- 10:57Speaker 2: She kept her identity a seat secret from the king.
- 11:02Speaker 2: Am I talking to anyone who has stains on their past?
- 11:06Speaker 1: Peter did won.
- 11:08Speaker 2: Then, on the night Christ needed him the most, the
- 11:10Speaker 2: apostle cursed the name of Jesus. The apostle Paul had
- 11:16Speaker 2: skeletons in his closet. Yes, the apostle whose words we study,
- 11:21Speaker 2: cherish and memorize. He himself confessed, I persecuted the people
- 11:27Speaker 2: who followed the way of Jesus, and some of them
- 11:31Speaker 2: were even killed. I arrested men and women, and I
- 11:37Speaker 2: put them in jail.
- 11:41Speaker 1: So Paul was a murderer. Peter was a betrayer.
- 11:44Speaker 2: Elijah was a coward, esther kepper faith the secret. Moses
- 11:48Speaker 2: had blood on his hands. Abraham was a bald faced liar.
- 11:51Speaker 2: And you, well, if you have a checkered past, welcome
- 11:57Speaker 2: to the society of tilted halos. God's not put off
- 12:02Speaker 2: by your ugly chapter, my friend, He's not, And with
- 12:08Speaker 2: his help you can soon say what the apostle Paul said.
- 12:11Speaker 2: But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and
- 12:15Speaker 2: straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward
- 12:19Speaker 2: the goal for the prize of the upward call in
- 12:23Speaker 2: Christ Jesus. God will move us into our blessings by
- 12:29Speaker 2: releasing us from our past. He did this with Jacob.
- 12:35Speaker 2: Jacob pleaded with God. He said, please save me from
- 12:39Speaker 2: my brother Esau. Remember Jacob is now right across the
- 12:42Speaker 2: river into Jacob's territory. I am afraid he will come
- 12:47Speaker 2: and kill all of us, even the mothers, and even
- 12:52Speaker 2: the mothers with children. So Jacob's prayer was desperate, and
- 12:57Speaker 2: God responded with an immediate answer. He met Jacob in
- 13:02Speaker 2: the river Jabek. We talked about this last week, and
- 13:05Speaker 2: he wrestled with Jacob all night long, and toward the
- 13:11Speaker 2: end of the wrestling match, he touched Jacob on the
- 13:14Speaker 2: hip and left Jacob with a limp, put his hip
- 13:18Speaker 2: out of joint. I believe that a Jabbok is a
- 13:22Speaker 2: required stopover for anybody who would seek God. There are
- 13:28Speaker 2: those times in which we have to wrestle with God,
- 13:31Speaker 2: and we walk out of Jabbek not with our strut,
- 13:35Speaker 2: but with a limp. This happened to Moses. He spent
- 13:39Speaker 2: forty years tending sheep. This happened to Peter. His betrayal
- 13:42Speaker 2: left him with a beard full of tears and a
- 13:45Speaker 2: night full of remorse. Yes, God turned Saul into the
- 13:50Speaker 2: apostle Paul, but only after he had knocked Saul off
- 13:53Speaker 2: his high horse and left him sightless for three days.
- 13:57Speaker 2: Moses in the wilderness. Peter with his tears all sightless
- 14:00Speaker 2: and alone. Jacob exhausted after a night in Jabek, and you.
- 14:09Speaker 2: Maybe you're ready to move forward. Maybe you're ready to
- 14:14Speaker 2: invite God to help you deal with your past. If so,
- 14:17Speaker 2: just meeting tell him what you did, agree with him
- 14:21Speaker 2: that it's not right. If you're ashamed, confess your shame.
- 14:25Speaker 2: If you're sorry, tell him you're sorry. If you're angry,
- 14:28Speaker 2: tell him you're angry. Wrestle with him, talk to him,
- 14:33Speaker 2: meet him in Jabbek. It's time to let God move
- 14:36Speaker 2: you into your future, into your next chapter.
- 14:42Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know.
- 14:43Speaker 2: I'm talking to somebody who still defines their life by
- 14:47Speaker 2: some stupid choices. You'd do over in a different way
- 14:50Speaker 2: if you had the chance. Listen, here's the promise that
- 14:53Speaker 2: God wants to speak over your life. Anyone who belongs
- 14:57Speaker 2: to Christ has become a new person. The old life
- 15:01Speaker 2: is gone, a new life has begun. It's time for
- 15:05Speaker 2: you to walk into your new life and receive the
- 15:08Speaker 2: great grace that God speaks over your old life.
- 15:13Speaker 1: Now.
- 15:13Speaker 2: Jacob modeled this to a certain degree.
- 15:17Speaker 1: Old Jacob he could.
- 15:19Speaker 2: Be hot one day and cold the next. As he
- 15:22Speaker 2: came out of Jabbek, He's tottering on his good hip,
- 15:24Speaker 2: and he's limping from the wounded one. But he comes
- 15:29Speaker 2: out of Jabbek with a new name. He's no longer Jacob,
- 15:33Speaker 2: He's now Israel.
- 15:36Speaker 1: Israel.
- 15:37Speaker 2: Yeah, the old scoundrel gets the name. That's the most
- 15:41Speaker 2: commonly used name for the nation of Israel. And the
- 15:45Speaker 2: name Israel means God fights, God fights.
- 15:50Speaker 1: What a great name.
- 15:52Speaker 2: Every time he introduced himself, he bore witness to the
- 15:55Speaker 2: goodness of God.
- 15:56Speaker 1: Hi, there, my name is God Fights.
- 16:00Speaker 2: His email address was Godfights at Israel dot com. Whenever
- 16:06Speaker 2: he got called to dinner, Hey, God fights, come in
- 16:08Speaker 2: time to eat.
- 16:10Speaker 1: Even the name was.
- 16:11Speaker 2: A testimony not to the power or strength of Jacob,
- 16:15Speaker 2: but to the goodness of God. Don't we need this
- 16:18Speaker 2: remind Don't we need to know that God fights for us,
- 16:24Speaker 2: that he pulls for us. The servant of Elisha did,
- 16:29Speaker 2: Let me just lead us quickly down the timeline about
- 16:32Speaker 2: five and a half centuries hear the angst in the
- 16:35Speaker 2: voice of the servant of Elisha. When the servant of
- 16:38Speaker 2: the men of God got up and went out. Early
- 16:41Speaker 2: the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had
- 16:44Speaker 2: surrounded the city Oh no, my lord, what shall we do?
- 16:48Speaker 2: The servant asked. He was rightfully concerned because the prophet,
- 16:54Speaker 2: Elisha and his servant were number one on the most
- 16:58Speaker 2: wanted list of the King of Syria, and they had
- 17:02Speaker 2: come to kill Elisha and the servant. Their chance of
- 17:09Speaker 2: survival equated your chance of swimming the Atlantic. But when
- 17:13Speaker 2: Elisha responded, he was not afraid. The servant was a
- 17:19Speaker 2: servant was pale, but Elisha was pumped. You'd think the
- 17:22Speaker 2: calvary rode up. In a sense, it did. Don't be afraid,
- 17:27Speaker 2: the prophet answered. Those who are with us are more
- 17:31Speaker 2: than those who are with them. Now, now look at this.
- 17:34Speaker 2: There's two here, there's a whole circle of the infantry
- 17:38Speaker 2: surrounding them. And Elisha says, no, there's more with us
- 17:42Speaker 2: than with them. Don't be afraid. And Elisha prayed opened
- 17:48Speaker 2: his eyes Lord, so that he may see. Then the
- 17:51Speaker 2: Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked, and he
- 17:54Speaker 2: saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire
- 17:59Speaker 2: all around Elisha. The servant was enabled, empowered with the
- 18:06Speaker 2: ability to see the unseen. And when he saw the unseen,
- 18:10Speaker 2: he saw that there were far more angels and servants
- 18:14Speaker 2: of God protecting him than there were enemies who wanted
- 18:18Speaker 2: to kill him. Oh, that God would open your eyes
- 18:21Speaker 2: and mind today, and that we could see all the
- 18:26Speaker 2: forces that God has working for our good. When the
- 18:31Speaker 2: servant thought he was alone.
- 18:33Speaker 1: He was wrong.
- 18:35Speaker 2: When you think you are alone, you are wrong. Neemiah
- 18:44Speaker 2: discovered this. He said, our God will fight for us. Boy,
- 18:48Speaker 2: isn't it great to have a God who will fight
- 18:51Speaker 2: for you, not just keep you.
- 18:53Speaker 1: Company, but who will lead the way.
- 18:56Speaker 2: Lay claim to this great and powerful promise.
- 18:59Speaker 1: Today.
- 19:01Speaker 2: You aren't alone in your struggles. You aren't alone to
- 19:04Speaker 2: dealing with your past. You have a God who fights
- 19:07Speaker 2: for you. So Jacob had a new name. He also
- 19:11Speaker 2: had a new walk. He limped because of his bad hip.
- 19:16Speaker 2: He used to swagger, he used to strut, but now
- 19:21Speaker 2: he limped. The new Israel walked with a hitch. See
- 19:25Speaker 2: what God was doing. He was removing from Jacob any
- 19:30Speaker 2: dependence upon Jacob. The only possibility of deliverance now depended
- 19:38Speaker 2: upon God. And so the day came when Esau and
- 19:44Speaker 2: Jacob saw each other again the next day after the
- 19:48Speaker 2: Jabbek encounter, and the god struck patriarch lipped limped back
- 19:53Speaker 2: to his camp. He saw was coming and with him
- 19:58Speaker 2: how many four one hundred men A militia was thundering
- 20:03Speaker 2: across the prairie in the direction of Jacob. Now the
- 20:08Speaker 2: next few actions leave us wondering is this the old
- 20:12Speaker 2: Jacob or is this the new Israel. Here's the old Jacob.
- 20:17Speaker 2: He sent his family out first. Not only that, he
- 20:23Speaker 2: divided his children among their four mothers.
- 20:27Speaker 1: He had four.
- 20:28Speaker 2: Women with whom he had had children, and he placed
- 20:31Speaker 2: them in a sequence. First Bill Haw and Zill Paul,
- 20:34Speaker 2: those were the handmaidens. Next Leah, the wife he didn't want,
- 20:38Speaker 2: and finally Rachel with their son Joseph, the wife he
- 20:43Speaker 2: did want. That was a Jacob decision, But then there
- 20:47Speaker 2: was an Israel decision. He crossed over before them and
- 20:53Speaker 2: bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came
- 20:57Speaker 2: near to his brother.
- 20:59Speaker 1: He could see.
- 20:59Speaker 2: He saw in the distance, He saw still big, still brawny,
- 21:06Speaker 2: still with the red beard, a bow and a quiver
- 21:10Speaker 2: slung across his back, and the eyes of the two
- 21:14Speaker 2: brothers meet for the first time in twenty years. Now
- 21:20Speaker 2: Jacob would have rushed out to fight Esau. But now Israel,
- 21:26Speaker 2: who has a limp who can't fight, has no choice
- 21:30Speaker 2: but to trust. And he prostrated himself seven times as
- 21:36Speaker 2: he walked in the direction of his big brother, like
- 21:39Speaker 2: a vassal before a royal.
- 21:41Speaker 1: In an ancient court.
- 21:43Speaker 2: A few steps, and then head and nose to the
- 21:46Speaker 2: ground a few steps, and then face to the ground
- 21:49Speaker 2: a few more steps, and then face to the ground
- 21:51Speaker 2: seven times. And then all of a sudden, Esau ran
- 21:57Speaker 2: to meet him and embraced him and fell on his
- 22:01Speaker 2: neck and kissed him.
- 22:03Speaker 1: And they wept.
- 22:07Speaker 2: They wept with relief, They wept with forgiveness. They wept
- 22:13Speaker 2: at the possibility of a new start. He saw wet
- 22:17Speaker 2: because his brother was home Israel. Wet because he'd come
- 22:21Speaker 2: face to face with his past, only to find that
- 22:24Speaker 2: his past held no power over his life. God had
- 22:28Speaker 2: gone ahead of him, and God had kept the promise
- 22:32Speaker 2: he had made to Jacob twenty years earlier, back at Bethel.
- 22:36Speaker 2: He said, I am with you and will keep you
- 22:39Speaker 2: wherever you go, and I will bring you back to
- 22:43Speaker 2: this land. God had paved the path to Canaan. God
- 22:48Speaker 2: had paved the path to Canaan, and friend, God paves
- 22:53Speaker 2: the paths of his kids.
- 22:57Speaker 1: He goes ahead of us.
- 22:58Speaker 2: Remember the female disciple who went to the tomb of
- 23:01Speaker 2: Christ on Easter Sunday morning. They went wondering who's going
- 23:04Speaker 2: to roll the rock away? And they got there and
- 23:07Speaker 2: the rock was already gone. God had gone ahead of them.
- 23:11Speaker 2: Do you remember the story of Peter in the Jerusalem
- 23:14Speaker 2: prison When he was released from the jail, he reached
- 23:18Speaker 2: the outer gate, wondering how he was going to get out,
- 23:20Speaker 2: And when he reached that gate.
- 23:22Speaker 1: It opened by itself.
- 23:23Speaker 2: God had gone ahead of him. God is going ahead
- 23:29Speaker 2: of you. Someone hearing my voice is dreading tomorrow. Are
- 23:34Speaker 2: you're dreading next week? Are you're dreading next month? You
- 23:38Speaker 2: have a deadline, you have an angry boss, you have
- 23:40Speaker 2: an encounter with somebody that could turn ugly, and you're
- 23:44Speaker 2: worried about I mean, it's all you can do to
- 23:46Speaker 2: listen to this brilliant sermon because you're worried, You're anxious.
- 23:53Speaker 2: God's saying to you right now, I am as much
- 23:57Speaker 2: in tomorrow as I am in today. He is not
- 24:00Speaker 2: bound by what binds us. He is not restricted by time.
- 24:06Speaker 2: He is not governed by a calendar or a clock.
- 24:10Speaker 2: He can work in your future, he can work in
- 24:14Speaker 2: your past. So you can have peace in your present.
- 24:19Speaker 2: Would you please release that fear to him? And what
- 24:24Speaker 2: God said to the children of Israel under the leadership
- 24:28Speaker 2: of Moses. God says to you, be strong and courageous.
- 24:33Speaker 2: Do not be afraid. Do not be terrified. For the
- 24:38Speaker 2: Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you,
- 24:42Speaker 2: He will never forsake you. Your God can help you,
- 24:47Speaker 2: my friend, Your God will guide you. Lay claim to
- 24:52Speaker 2: these promises. One more before we wrap up from Isaiah
- 24:55Speaker 2: chapter forty three. Forget the former things. Forget the former things.
- 25:03Speaker 2: Do not dwell on the past. See I'm doing a
- 25:07Speaker 2: new thing now it springs up. Do you not perceive it?
- 25:13Speaker 2: I am making a way in the wilderness and streams
- 25:19Speaker 2: in the wasteland. Do not dwell in the past. You're
- 25:23Speaker 2: not a sum total of your mistakes. You're not defined
- 25:27Speaker 2: by the choices you made yesterday, a year ago, or
- 25:30Speaker 2: a decade ago. Your heavenly Father has washed you in
- 25:35Speaker 2: the blood of Christ. You're a brand new creature. I
- 25:40Speaker 2: love the story that James Cardinal sinned the Archbishop of
- 25:44Speaker 2: Manila told he described a woman who attended his services.
- 25:50Speaker 2: She regularly asked to speak with him, so she could
- 25:54Speaker 2: share a message she had for him from God, but
- 25:58Speaker 2: he resisted.
- 26:00Speaker 1: Well, she insisted.
- 26:01Speaker 2: Finally, he said, we Catholics have strict rules concerning visions
- 26:07Speaker 2: and messages from God. I need to test your authenticity.
- 26:12Speaker 2: I want you to go back and ask God about
- 26:14Speaker 2: a particular sin that I recently confessed to him in private.
- 26:20Speaker 2: If you ask God and he gives you the answer,
- 26:23Speaker 2: I'll know your vision is genuine.
- 26:27Speaker 1: The next week she returned.
- 26:30Speaker 2: The priest asked her, well, did you ask God about
- 26:34Speaker 2: my sin? She said I did, and God answered yes,
- 26:39Speaker 2: What did God tell you? And she said, God said,
- 26:44Speaker 2: I don't remember. The Bible says that God takes our
- 26:50Speaker 2: sins and he casts them as far as the east
- 26:52Speaker 2: is from the west. He doesn't keep a list of
- 26:56Speaker 2: our sins, and if he doesn't, we shouldn't either. Right
- 27:03Speaker 2: Heavenly Father, we pray that we can, like Jacob, trust
- 27:07Speaker 2: you to lead us into our canaan, That we can
- 27:12Speaker 2: trust you to help us face our esau, that we
- 27:17Speaker 2: can rely upon you to give us a new chapter,
- 27:20Speaker 2: and we will walk forward in faith and not be
- 27:23Speaker 2: controlled about fear.
- 27:26Speaker 1: Through Christ. We pray, and all the church said.
- 28:01Speaker 3: You don't have to stay close. As long as you're
- 28:09Speaker 3: somewhere out there, that's enough for me.
- 28:18Speaker 4: I don't need to hold you near me, don't need
- 28:22Speaker 4: promises to keep.
- 28:25Speaker 1: Just the thought that.
- 28:25Speaker 5: You are breathing somewhere in this world I see.
- 28:31Speaker 4: Even if I'm not beside you, even if you never know,
- 28:38Speaker 4: there's a quiet kind of comfort just.
- 28:41Speaker 5: In knowing you still glow. I don't need forever, I
- 28:52Speaker 5: just need you to exist. You don't have to stay
- 28:58Speaker 5: with me.
- 29:00Speaker 6: You don't have.
- 29:00Speaker 1: To feel the same.
- 29:03Speaker 7: Just as long as you're still out there.
- 29:07Speaker 4: Calling softly through my days.
- 29:10Speaker 8: You don't have to look my way.
- 29:13Speaker 6: You don't have to be my home.
- 29:17Speaker 7: It's enough to know where you're living in a world
- 29:21Speaker 7: I'm not alone.
- 29:27Speaker 4: I won't chase it through the distance, won't disturb your
- 29:31Speaker 4: chosen life.
- 29:33Speaker 7: I'll just keep you in my silence, like a star
- 29:37Speaker 7: that shines at night.
- 29:40Speaker 6: Through the darkened, through the blue, I still think of you.
- 29:52Speaker 5: You don't have.
- 29:52Speaker 7: To stay with me, You don't have to feel the same.
- 29:59Speaker 7: Just as long as you you're still out there, calling
- 30:03Speaker 7: softly through my days. You don't have to look my way.
- 30:09Speaker 7: You don't have to be in my home. It's enough
- 30:13Speaker 7: to know you're living in a world. I'm not alone.
- 30:34Speaker 5: I don't need to be your light. I don't need
- 30:38Speaker 5: to cross your mind. All I need is just the
- 30:41Speaker 5: truth that you're somewhere, still alive.
- 30:49Speaker 1: You don't have to.
- 30:51Speaker 8: Stay with me, you don't have to feel the same,
- 30:56Speaker 8: just as long as you're still out there, calling softly
- 31:01Speaker 8: through my days.
- 31:03Speaker 7: You don't have to look my way, you don't have
- 31:07Speaker 7: to be my home. It's enough to know you're living.
- 31:15Speaker 1: In the world. I'm not alone.