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Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – Meaningful Messages in M... · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Good morning. Things are often not as bad as we
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Speaker 1: think they are, but because we're shortsighted and tend to
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Speaker 1: be a little impatient with life, we jumped to the
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Speaker 1: wrong conclusion that it's terrible, rather than an opportunity for
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Speaker 1: us to learn and to grow as a result of it.
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Speaker 1: A co ed sent the following letter to her parents.
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Speaker 1: Dear Mom and Dad, just thought i'd drop you a
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Speaker 1: note to clue you in on my plans. I've fallen
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Speaker 1: in love with a guy named Jim. He quit school
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Speaker 1: after grade eleven to get married. About a year ago.
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Speaker 1: We got a divorce. We've been going together for two
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Speaker 1: months and planned to get married in the fall. Until then,
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Speaker 1: I've decided to move into his apartment. I think I'm
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Speaker 1: be pregnant at any rate. I dropped out of school
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Speaker 1: last week, although I like to finish college sometime in
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Speaker 1: the future. Next page of the letter, Mom and Dad,
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Speaker 1: I just want you to know that everything I've written
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Speaker 1: so far in the letter is false. None of this
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Speaker 1: is true. But it is true. I got a C
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Speaker 1: minus in French and I flunk math. And it is
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Speaker 1: true I'm gonna need some more money for my tuition payments.
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Speaker 1: Sign your beloved daughter. Don't ever do that to your parents. Ever.
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Speaker 1: How easy for us, and in a situation like this
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Speaker 1: it's resolved quickly, But how easy for us when life
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Speaker 1: doesn't resolve quickly, to think that some misfortune, some real,
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Speaker 1: real trial that we're going through marks virtually the end
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Speaker 1: of life as we've known it, when in reality, it
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Speaker 1: may very well be a whole new beginning. So today
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Speaker 1: I want to address the importance of learning meaningful lessons
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Speaker 1: from misfortunes that occur. I have no idea what you
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Speaker 1: are facing today, and even if I did, nothing I
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Speaker 1: prepared to say would change. I don't know what you're
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Speaker 1: going through, but God knows. In fact, the good thing
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Speaker 1: about God's knowledge age is that he not only knows
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Speaker 1: where you are, he knows where all of this is
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Speaker 1: leading You don't You don't. You know the past fairly
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Speaker 1: well depending on your memory. You know the present quite well,
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Speaker 1: but you know nothing beyond this second and moment in time.
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Speaker 1: And in light of that you are you are limited
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Speaker 1: in your understanding, and your perspective is skewed. None of
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Speaker 1: that affects God's will or God's plan. It's unfolding, it's
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Speaker 1: unrolling regardless of our partial knowledge or our limited understanding,
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Speaker 1: or our skewed perspective. His will is taking place your
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Speaker 1: personal trial right now, included if he wished for it
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Speaker 1: to be different, it would be different. He doesn't. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: what you were going through is exactly what He has
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Speaker 1: planned for you to go through right now. Much of
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Speaker 1: that is theological theory, except for you going through really
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Speaker 1: really tough times, and it's amazing what that does to theories.
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Speaker 1: They sort of blow out the window and you're left
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Speaker 1: having to come to terms with dealing with the ever present. Now.
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Speaker 1: Tozer wrote it, well, we think of ourselves as inhabiting
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Speaker 1: some parenthetic interval between the God who was and the
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Speaker 1: God who will be, And in this ever present now
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Speaker 1: we're lonely with that ancient cosmic loneliness. But we need
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Speaker 1: not be lonely. He was with us, then he will
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Speaker 1: be with us. Then he is with us. Now. Now,
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Speaker 1: with all of that as preparation, I want you to
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Speaker 1: look at a verse if you need to or would
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Speaker 1: like to, since you know it by heart, is found
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Speaker 1: right in the core of Romans, chapter eight. What verse
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Speaker 1: is it? Yeah, it's verse twenty eight. You know it.
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Speaker 1: We know that all things work together for good to
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Speaker 1: them who love God, to those who are the called
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Speaker 1: according to His purpose. YadA, YadA, YadA. Out it comes
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Speaker 1: you know the words you probably some of you wouldn't
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Speaker 1: be able to tell me, even in the Greek. What
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Speaker 1: it says, what you may have forgotten is the context.
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Speaker 1: Context helps set it all up. If you look closely
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Speaker 1: at verse twenty five. I'm reading from the New American
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Speaker 1: Standard version. If we hope for what we do not see,
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Speaker 1: I've got that circle in my Bible. We do not see.
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Speaker 1: God sees it. We don't. So we hope for what
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Speaker 1: we do not see. And so, with perseverance we eagerly
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Speaker 1: wait for it. But we do not see it. And
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Speaker 1: we love to see it. We love to know the
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Speaker 1: details of it. We love to know the why answer,
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Speaker 1: but we do not see. Look at verse twenty six.
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Speaker 1: In the same way, the spirit also helps us in
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Speaker 1: our weakness, for we do not know. I have that
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Speaker 1: circle we do not see, and we do not know.
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Speaker 1: I'll tell you something else. No one else does either.
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Speaker 1: As much as they may love you, and as close
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Speaker 1: as they may be to you, and as experienced as
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Speaker 1: they may be in spiritual things, none of us sees,
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Speaker 1: and none of us knows, though God does both. God
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Speaker 1: sees what we are hoping and waiting for, and God
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Speaker 1: knows what we pray and grown about. So that means
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Speaker 1: we're left with stuff that baffles us. I don't know
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Speaker 1: why some husbands die young and other husbands live on
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Speaker 1: with their wives to older age. I don't know why
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Speaker 1: some children are taken and others live a full life.
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Speaker 1: I know why my neighbor's child gets a dread disease
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Speaker 1: and my child never got that disease. I don't know that.
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Speaker 1: I don't know that that would bring much comfort to
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Speaker 1: the neighbor, But I know there's mystery in it all.
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Speaker 1: And in the midst of the difficulty of not knowing
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Speaker 1: and not seeing, this verse appears and it talks about
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Speaker 1: what we know look at It begins like that. I
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Speaker 1: want to do a little analysis of it, though I
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Speaker 1: don't want to pick it apart and thereby ruin the verse,
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Speaker 1: which I think can happen if you just analyze it
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Speaker 1: to death. It's to be applied even more than analyzed.
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Speaker 1: Let me go further in all of this. Our problem
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Speaker 1: is we focus being humans on the immediate. God focuses
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Speaker 1: on the ultimate second. Our knowledge is limited. God's knowledge
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Speaker 1: is limit less. You know by now in your studies.
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Speaker 1: It's the omniscience of God. He never learns anything, he's
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Speaker 1: never surprised by anything. It all unfolds exactly as He
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Speaker 1: has designed it. We need the reminder of that regularly.
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Speaker 1: No one ever wrote it better than Isaiah, as he
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Speaker 1: quotes from the Lord God, my thoughts are not your thoughts,
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Speaker 1: Saith the Lord. Neither are your ways my ways. As
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Speaker 1: the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
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Speaker 1: ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
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Speaker 1: So we're in two different realms, oh love song. Two
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Speaker 1: different worlds we live in with God, two different realms
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Speaker 1: we exist in. And in this limited, tight radius called now,
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Speaker 1: we are forced to come to terms with what we're
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Speaker 1: going to do with the stuff that doesn't make sense.
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Speaker 1: The struggles are there, A tough situation occurs, and if
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Speaker 1: you're like me, you want relief, and you want it
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Speaker 1: just as quickly as you can get it, because our
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Speaker 1: knowledge is only as big as our brain, which is
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Speaker 1: smaller than a bred box, tiny tiny organ, And we
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Speaker 1: wrestle with it there and we come to the Isaiah
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Speaker 1: fifty five passage, and we see our thoughts are way
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Speaker 1: way below his thoughts, and our ways are as well,
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Speaker 1: and all of his thoughts and ways are better, which
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Speaker 1: at the time these events occur doesn't make a lot
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Speaker 1: of sense. Let me add that, well, let's not get
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Speaker 1: so theoretical in our knowledge of theology that we forget
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Speaker 1: the senseless ness humanly speaking of events. Now, from your
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Speaker 1: studies at Dallas Seminary, you will gain a greater perspective,
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Speaker 1: a deeper knowledge, and it will help you in the
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Speaker 1: realm of the sense of it all. But you'll never
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Speaker 1: be able to unravel fully unravel the mystery, because you
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Speaker 1: can't see where it's all going. So Romans eight twenty
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Speaker 1: eight comes as a as an oasis. I like to
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Speaker 1: think of it. First of all, it's something we know.
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Speaker 1: This is a promise to be claimed, not ignored. I
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Speaker 1: don't care how well you can quote it, or how
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Speaker 1: often you have taught it or referred to it. It
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Speaker 1: is to be claimed. It is an unconditional promise. We know.
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Speaker 1: It's not something we simply hope for. We know it.
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Speaker 1: It's not guessing, it's knowing. We don't think it's going
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Speaker 1: to occur it will occur because God says, you can
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Speaker 1: know this. It's not depending on how we feel about it. Now,
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Speaker 1: this is what we know. We have absolute, unshakable confidence
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Speaker 1: in this truth. We know that God causes Stop right there.
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Speaker 1: The project is God's, not ours. Life isn't about us.
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Speaker 1: It is about God's working through us. Hard message for
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Speaker 1: the young to grasp. All of it is in his hands.
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Speaker 1: God is at work, carrying out his ways in his time.
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Speaker 1: He has the long view in mind, and in all
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Speaker 1: the mess of life, he is at work. In all
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Speaker 1: the pain, all the disappointment, all the misfortune, all the mess,
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Speaker 1: he stays at it. The old words he plugs away.
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Speaker 1: He's doing his plan. He's carrying out his will. It's
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Speaker 1: just one thing for one person, something altogether different for
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Speaker 1: someone else. It's one thing for me, it's another thing
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Speaker 1: for chaplain joke, it's one thing for her, it's another
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Speaker 1: thing for you. God is at work through it all.
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Speaker 1: His plan is relentlessly unfolding, though you cannot understand it
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Speaker 1: and you cannot explain it. And often in the really
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Speaker 1: toughest part of it, God shows himself the strongest. George
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Speaker 1: Herbert wrote it this way, storms are the triumph of
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Speaker 1: his art. Now we know God causes here. It is
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Speaker 1: all things to work together for good. His plan is
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Speaker 1: total and beneficial. It isn't partial and questionable. Our problem
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Speaker 1: is with the all part of the verse. Be a
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Speaker 1: lot easier if it were almost all. A lot of
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Speaker 1: it would make of life, would make better human sense.
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Speaker 1: Life is not about making good human sense. God is
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Speaker 1: not logical in our sense of logic. God's timing is
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Speaker 1: way off from our perspective, when in fact it's really on.
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Speaker 1: Remember the words of Romans eleven thirty three, or the
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Speaker 1: depth of the riches of the get these words both
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Speaker 1: of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable
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Speaker 1: are his judgments and unfathomable his ways, unsearchable, unfathomable. Sort
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Speaker 1: of a climax in Romans at the end of chapter eleven,
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Speaker 1: Paul just exults in the glory of God and the
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Speaker 1: greatness of God and comes to the words unsearchable and
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Speaker 1: un admirable. And it's all for His glory and our
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Speaker 1: good A L L. Every situation you encounter, every hardship
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Speaker 1: you endure, every disappointment you deal with, every loss, May
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Speaker 1: I add this every failure, all of it for your
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Speaker 1: good and for his glory, or it would not occur.
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Speaker 1: He directs it and or permits it, and it takes
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Speaker 1: place and it becomes a learning experience. Now, let's take
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Speaker 1: a deep breath and let me illustrate it in another way.
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Speaker 1: Back in December of twenty seventeen, a man named Bob
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Speaker 1: Green wrote an article the wash Rejournal. It centered on
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Speaker 1: a speech delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts. A Justice.
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Speaker 1: Roberts had been invited by his son's ninth grade graduating
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Speaker 1: class at school to deliver the commencement to the class.
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Speaker 1: The crowd was modest. As expected, there was a lot
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Speaker 1: of hooplop made over who was going to bring the speech.
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Speaker 1: It was probably best because the speech he brought was
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Speaker 1: a shocker. Let me read from some of the article itself.
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Speaker 1: The Chief Justice had been invited to present the commencement
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Speaker 1: address at his son's ninth grade graduation. He told his
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Speaker 1: audience that commencement speakers will typically wish you good luck
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Speaker 1: and extend good wishes to all of you. I will
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Speaker 1: not do that, and I will tell you why. From
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Speaker 1: time to time in the years to come, I hope
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Speaker 1: you will be treated unfairly. He began his speech so
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Speaker 1: that you will come to know the value of justice.
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Speaker 1: I hope that you will suffer betrayal, because that will
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Speaker 1: teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but
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Speaker 1: I hope you will be lonely from time to time
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Speaker 1: so that you don't take your friends for granted. And
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Speaker 1: when you lose, as you will, I hope every now
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Speaker 1: and then your opponent will gloat over your failures. It
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Speaker 1: is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship.
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Speaker 1: I hope you'll be ignored so that you know the
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Speaker 1: importance of listening to others. And I hope you will
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Speaker 1: have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish
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Speaker 1: these things or not, they're going to happen, and whether
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Speaker 1: you benefit from them or not will depend on your
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Speaker 1: ability to see the message in your misfortunes. Admittedly, that's
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Speaker 1: where I got the title for this talk, for you
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Speaker 1: to see the message in your misfortunes. Some of you
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Speaker 1: still struggle with and stumble over those messages because life
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Speaker 1: isn't what you expected. That never was God's plan. He
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Speaker 1: didn't bring you into the world to give you what
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Speaker 1: you expected. He brought you in this world to glorify
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Speaker 1: his name and to realize his greatness and his grace
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Speaker 1: and goodness. It occurred to me as I read those
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Speaker 1: insightful comments sort of out of left field for a
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Speaker 1: commencement speaker, gave me a good idea next time I
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Speaker 1: bring a commencement speech, I'm gonna take that. I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: take that tack, I think, but I'm not going to
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Speaker 1: wait till then. I'm gonna do it right now. I
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Speaker 1: decided to share with you some things I hope for you.
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Speaker 1: None of them were the things you would expect from
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Speaker 1: a chapel speaker. None of them are said to be
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Speaker 1: cruel or in any way to be offensive. They're meant
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Speaker 1: to be realistic. Here they are five, five of my
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Speaker 1: hopes for you, not only this new year, but in
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Speaker 1: the year, especially in the years of ministry to come.
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Speaker 1: Number one, I hope you will not know early success. Rather,
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Speaker 1: I hope you will encounter difficulties early on that will
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Speaker 1: shatter your self confidence and drive you to your knees.
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Speaker 1: That will teach you the value of vulnerability. It will
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Speaker 1: enable you to keep success from ever going to your head.
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Speaker 1: And even though you may think it never could, pride
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Speaker 1: still lurks in the backwash of our minds. We are
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Speaker 1: forever looking out for number one, forever defending ourselves, forever
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Speaker 1: trying to straighten out the record so that people understand,
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Speaker 1: most of whom don't and won't. That's number one. I
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Speaker 1: hope you do not experience early success. If you do,
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Speaker 1: I get concerned for you, which leads me to the second.
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Speaker 1: I hope you will experience obscurity and anonymity after you
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Speaker 1: leave these halls of learning, especially if you are greatly
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Speaker 1: gifted and very bright. I hope you will learn what
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Speaker 1: it is to be unknown, overlooked, and forgotten. The result
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Speaker 1: will be a true humility that will keep you surprised
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Speaker 1: when and if God should ever exalt you. One of
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Speaker 1: the very best things that ever happened to Moses happened
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Speaker 1: over a forty year period, right at middle age forty
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Speaker 1: to eighty, when he was the siliquinn of Egyptian popularity,
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Speaker 1: trained in the best schools, reared at the feet of
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Speaker 1: the daughter of the Pharaoh, handsome, tall, dark, looked like
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Speaker 1: Charlton Heston, you know. And here here, here is this. Here,
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Speaker 1: here is this forty year old man who failed terribly
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Speaker 1: and committed a murder and ran for his life and
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Speaker 1: sat down by a well, all of his medals dangling
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Speaker 1: from his chest. Over those first forty years in Egypt
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Speaker 1: where he set all those records, but now he will
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Speaker 1: become acquainted with obscurity and anonymity. Over a period of
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Speaker 1: forty years, he kept his father in law's sheep in
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Speaker 1: the most barren part of the wilderness. Easy to forget that.
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Speaker 1: We race to the last forty years of Moses' life
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Speaker 1: and our preaching is all about that, and we miss
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Speaker 1: what made it possible for him to handle incredible events
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Speaker 1: of those last forty years. Moses died the meekest man
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Speaker 1: on earth for a reason. I hope you do too.
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Speaker 1: I hope every award amazes you, and every time someone
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Speaker 1: notices something significant you're surprised. But that won't just happen
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Speaker 1: fresh out of school. Here's my third hope. I hope
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Speaker 1: you will fail because you relied on your own flesh
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Speaker 1: to reach certain goals. I'll tell you I have an
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Speaker 1: ache in my heart when I think back to early
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Speaker 1: years in my life when I did a lot of that.
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Speaker 1: Man I hit the floor running. I had I had
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Speaker 1: great dreams and ideas and I was gonna set the mark,
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Speaker 1: and then I was led to New England. That's about
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Speaker 1: all I need to say about that. I remember one
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Speaker 1: Sunday we had seven Three of them were swind Alls
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Speaker 1: in the worship service. Seven. Here I was the graduate
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Speaker 1: of this great school, and there I was unknown and
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Speaker 1: feeling like a real failure. I couldn't move those people
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Speaker 1: off a dime. And the problem wasn't then it was
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Speaker 1: me failure. You're scared to death of it. You're scared
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Speaker 1: to death of anything below a bee. I don't know
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Speaker 1: where you can learn that, but you'll be grateful in
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Speaker 1: life to get a be on something. I found this
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Speaker 1: following statement by a man who was arguably the best
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Speaker 1: professional basketball player ever to put on a pair of
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Speaker 1: sneakers and walk on the court, Michael Jordan, and I quote,
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Speaker 1: I've missed more than nine thousand shots in my career.
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Speaker 1: I've lost almost three hundred games twenty six times. I've
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Speaker 1: been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
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Speaker 1: I've failed over and over and over again in my life,
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Speaker 1: and that is why I now succeed. You would never
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Speaker 1: think that those words came from Michael Jordan. He's got
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Speaker 1: a statue in front of the arena at the Chicago
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Speaker 1: Court and for the Chicago Bullsy is everything. May you
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Speaker 1: know true failure. I spoke on this when I was
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Speaker 1: at Wheaton College several years ago. My granddaughter was in
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Speaker 1: her yes last year, and I had talked to Heather
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Speaker 1: about it. I said, I'm thinking about I was given
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Speaker 1: three opportunity to give three talks in their Spiritual Life Week,
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Speaker 1: and I chose for the third one failure. And I
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Speaker 1: run in by the chaplain and he smiled and said,
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Speaker 1: in all my years, I forget how many years had
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Speaker 1: been there on the campus, I've never once heard the
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Speaker 1: word used from this chapel pulpit. These kids have never
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Speaker 1: heard the word. They've been told over and over. You're
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Speaker 1: the Harvard of the Christian schools. What a crock. They're
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Speaker 1: just a Christian school made up of depraved Christian kids
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Speaker 1: who unfortunately can easily begin to think there's something on
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Speaker 1: a stick. But in fact they've not let yet learned
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Speaker 1: their best lessons, which will come when they get their
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Speaker 1: first F in life and then their second f. You
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Speaker 1: can knock them dead in academics and flunk in relationships.
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Speaker 1: You can blow it at home and look like a
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Speaker 1: hero at the church. I hope, I hope you will
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Speaker 1: know failure because there's so much to learn through those times.
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Speaker 1: And God doesn't leave you there, just as he didn't
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Speaker 1: leave Moses. But he'll leave you there long enough to
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Speaker 1: live your wounds until it's a terrible taste in your mouth.
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Speaker 1: Number four, I hope you will be forced to deal
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Speaker 1: with a difficult elder, and that you will have disagreements
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Speaker 1: from a fellow staff member with whom you realize you
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Speaker 1: cannot work. I hope that becomes a part of your experience.
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Speaker 1: You know why. I hope that because then you will
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Speaker 1: discover the importance of discernment when you select leaders. Some
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Speaker 1: of the worst mistakes I've made I made in selecting
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Speaker 1: wrong leaders to serve a church I was a part of,
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Speaker 1: and they will make life miserable. Paul had his Alexander
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Speaker 1: the copper Smith, you will have. Your elder often will
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Speaker 1: be the one who plays a most prominent role in
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Speaker 1: getting you to come to the church, and then he
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Speaker 1: will turn on you. I don't know why, but by
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Speaker 1: going through this, you will realize the armor flesh will
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Speaker 1: fail you. You cannot even trust your own and there
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Speaker 1: as a result, you will gain discernment when you look
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Speaker 1: for those who might be God's choices for those to
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Speaker 1: help lead the ministry. Number five, I hope you will
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Speaker 1: be hindered by experiencing obstacles. Obstacles they keep you from
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Speaker 1: reaching your goals in a ministry you had planned. This
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Speaker 1: is exactly what happened to Paul. I flip my Bible
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Speaker 1: over to Philippians one, and I come to the testimony
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Speaker 1: of a man in this Letter of Joy, which I've
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Speaker 1: always felt was wonderful. In a Letter of Joy, he
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Speaker 1: addresses again and again in the very first chapter his imprisonment,
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Speaker 1: what he calls his circumstances, my imprisonment, my imprisonment, verse seven,
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Speaker 1: verse twelve, Verse thirteen, verse fourteen. Look at it for yourself.
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Speaker 1: He longed to go to Rome. He longed to spread
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Speaker 1: the message of Christ at the place of power. But
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Speaker 1: his plan was set aside as God laid in front
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Speaker 1: of him an obstacle called being under arrest and of
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Speaker 1: all things, being chained to a member of the Praetorian
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Speaker 1: Guard Imperial Guard of Rome for two years. It'd been
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Speaker 1: laid aside for two years. Don't answer out aloud. Two
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Speaker 1: years There is not one complaint here. He is stopped
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Speaker 1: in his goal because of the imprisonment, and he's chained
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Speaker 1: to a Pagan soldier who lives in the barracks and
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Speaker 1: has the duty, rotating duty of guarding Paul under this
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Speaker 1: house arrest. And he says in verse twelve, beautiful writing,
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Speaker 1: Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances
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Speaker 1: have turned out for the greater progress of the Gospel.
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Speaker 1: WHOA I thought he was in prisoned. He is. I
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Speaker 1: thought he was chained. He was. His plan for spreading
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Speaker 1: the Gospel wasn't one on one. His hope was to
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Speaker 1: have a platform and to be able to do it
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Speaker 1: in a great public place. That God's plan. And so
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Speaker 1: he says, my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has
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Speaker 1: become well known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and everyone else.
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Speaker 1: So you know what I call that soldier a change
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Speaker 1: to him a captive audience. When you're in the public arena,
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Speaker 1: they can walk out on you. Soldiers got to stay.
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Speaker 1: Every one of those who sat beside the apostle Paul
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Speaker 1: heard the gospel one after another, some of them several times,
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Speaker 1: several times from the lips of the man who longed
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Speaker 1: to go to Rome under different circumstances, but his imprisonment
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Speaker 1: was the obstacle that made it happen. One insightful expositor
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Speaker 1: writes it this way, Paul was a prisoner, but so
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Speaker 1: far from his imprisonment ending his missionary activity, it actually
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Speaker 1: banded it. In fact, the bonds destroyed the barriers. I
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Speaker 1: love that. I want that for you. Now, if you
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Speaker 1: fight the bonds, you won't have that happen, because you
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Speaker 1: will be missing the message of misfortune. When there is
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Speaker 1: an obstacle that happens. Remember, there is no accident. It's
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Speaker 1: a surprise. Yes, it's unexpected, absolutely, but not by God.
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Speaker 1: I mean, he's not sitting on the edge of heaven
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Speaker 1: going what am I going to do now? It's exactly
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Speaker 1: what he is planned, your goals, notwithstanding you got it.
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Speaker 1: Every setback, every heartbreak, every loss, every mis fortune, even
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Speaker 1: every death, is a part of his plan. John Oxenham,
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Speaker 1: long long time ago, wrote words that still ring with relevance.
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Speaker 1: He writes, in characters too grand for my short sight
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Speaker 1: to understand, we catch but broken strokes and try to
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Speaker 1: have them all The mystery of withered hopes, of death,
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Speaker 1: of life the endless war, the useless strife. But there,
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Speaker 1: with larger, clearer sight, we shall see this. His way
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Speaker 1: was right, His way was right. Thank you, Father, Bow
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Speaker 1: with me, will you please. You've heard everything said. Now
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Speaker 1: you'll have a chance to live it. Some of you won't.
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Speaker 1: It'll take more and more and more. You'll struggle the
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Speaker 1: first several years of your ministry, and you'll keep struggling.
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Speaker 1: So you finally learn to surrender, finally learned to set
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Speaker 1: aside what you thought was the game plan, broken and bruised,
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Speaker 1: you'll finally get it. Whether it's peace like a river,
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Speaker 1: or whether it is the uh the seas as they
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Speaker 1: roll like great bellows roll. You have thought taught us
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Speaker 1: to say, it's well with my soul. So we're sitting
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Speaker 1: in silence before you, not knowing a thing about the
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Speaker 1: next few seconds, to say nothing of the next few days,
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Speaker 1: certainly of the next few years of our lives. Thank you, Father,
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Speaker 1: for not giving what we ask for or what we expected,
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Speaker 1: but for staying with your plan and bending and shaping
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Speaker 1: our will to yours. Continue to do that, Father, from
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Speaker 1: one class to the next, from one day to the next,
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Speaker 1: from one semester to another, until we are long gone
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Speaker 1: from here, the place is only a memory, and we're
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Speaker 1: in the midst of misfortune. Then bring these things to mind,
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Speaker 1: and use them to encourage us. I pray in the
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Speaker 1: name of Jesus. Everybody said amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message, Meaningful Messages in Misfortune, was copyrighted in
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Speaker 2: twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen, and the sound recording was
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Speaker 2: copyrighted in twenty nineteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All
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Speaker 2: rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial
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Speaker 2: use is strictly prohibited.