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God Isn't Looking For The Strong · Bible Tract Echoes Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much for taking your time and joining me right here today.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to ask you if you would tune your hearts to your minds to what God has for us.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're speaking about what God is looking for.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Verse, what we are looking for.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we can just kind of tune out.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: We can zone out.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: You've been there.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're driving.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: You plugged in your destination to the GPS.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you didn't know the quite the exact way to get there.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so there it is.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's plugged in but you have your phone set to silent.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe the alerts from the GPS are not on.
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: You ever looked down and realized, oh no, it's been recalculating for the last 20, 30, 40 miles, and I've been going the wrong way.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wants me to get off here, and it's the worst.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you realize, you zoom out on the map and you realize there's not even a good way back.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: You just have to get off the next exit and turn around, you're going northbound when you should be southbound or vice versa.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: and you are 15, 20 miles, I'm a guy that I can't attend towards, I don't mean this to brag, but I kind of tend towards grace over truth, and that can be a fault sometimes.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, the means I can be, I can give a little bit too much rope sometimes, but of all the people that I give grace to, I probably don't give myself enough grace.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I, yes, I can't get irritable about other people's mistakes, especially if they've made the same mistake before, but there are a few things that torque me more than my own mistakes.
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I look down at a GPS and realize I've been driving the wrong way, wasting fuel, wasting
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Time completely throwing off my schedule for the day because now we got to drive We've driven 15 miles the wrong direction.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have to backtrack that entire time.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's 30 minutes.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna be late now
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are a few times that I can get more hot under their collar.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then when I realize I have not been looking for the right exit signs.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have not been following the directions.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've all been there before, but as bad as it might be when we're driving a vehicle.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: how much worse isn't when we are not looking for, when we are lost, when we are pointed wrong, when it comes to spiritual things.
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: you'll find today and this week on Bible Trek Deco's from Scripture that God may be looking for some different things, some different items, than we are.
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd encourage you as we look at Scripture for just a moment here where I'm going to ask you to go to a Saint Samuel chapter 9, as you are looking at Scripture.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to ask you to ask God to speak to you.
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm convinced that God can hear more than one person pray at a time.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't do this every single day, nor even every week, maybe I should.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe I should put a higher premium on prayer, but I realize each of these is Monday through Friday broadcast.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're only about 15 minutes a day.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I keep thinking, I've got a talk, I've got to give a Bible study, I've got to give a devotion, I've got to give a challenge and maybe just maybe I should spend a little bit more time.
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I do in preparation of prayer, but I don't spend a lot of time on air in prayer.
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: But while I pray here in just a moment, I'm going to ask you to pray as well.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you feel like your GPS, spiritually speaking, has been either set to the wrong day destination or you just haven't been paying attention to it.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to pray, I'm going to ask God to speak to us.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know He wants to.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm going to ask you to talk to God as well at the same time and ask him to speak to you.
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Father, we thank you for this grand opportunity to open your word and to learn from your principles from your precepts.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: God, I asked that we would not just be ready for you to speak, but that we'd be willing to put into action, that which you lay on our heart today.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bless each and every listener under the sound of my voice right now in your Son's name we pray.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: What is God looking for?
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Verse.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: What are men looking for?
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: We spoke about on Monday.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: The fact that men are looking to be the biggest.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Men are looking to be the best.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Men are looking to be the boldest.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we can all identify in our own minds, in our own ways.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: The ways that we want to be better, the ways that we want to be bolder, the ways that maybe not, at least for me, not my waistline to be bigger, but maybe it's about to prestige, maybe it's about the power, maybe it's about the paycheck, we want all those things to be bigger.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: But what is God looking for?
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yesterday, on the program, we talked about the fact that God is looking for the fragments.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: We looked at the book of John chapter number six.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Today, look at a second Samuel chapter nine.
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to turn there myself, a second Samuel chapter nine.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: This account of Mephiba Sheth.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I know I'm sure I've spoken about Mephiba Sheth on this program before.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: But second Samuel nine, David said,
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's unusual that the king would be looking for the descendants of his predecessor.
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: You see, Saul was the previous king.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Normally, if a king is looking for the descendants of their predecessor, it's for a specific purpose.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's to kill them, to imprison them, to banish them, to remove them as a potential opponent
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: to your reign, but David was looking with kind intentions.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: David asked this young man Maphibasheth.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: His servant, Zeba, he talks David talks to Zeba and finds out where Maphibasheth is at, Zeba is Maphibasheth's servant.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then in verse 5 King David sent, and fetched him Maphibasheth out the house of Maker, the son of Amel from Lodubar.
• 6:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now Lodubar was not
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: a popular place.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't a place where big wigs were from.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't a place of prestige.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: There wasn't anyone popular from Lodobar.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: But verse 6, now in the Fibba Sheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul was commented David.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: He fell on his face.
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And in reverence, in David said, in the Fibba Sheth, an answer would be, hold thy servant.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we've skipped over a point here, David invites Yass with a bishop to his table.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: He asks him to be part of essentially his family, but in verse 3, Zeeba, a middle of verse 3, Zeeba said in the king, Jonathan Yass, half yet a son, which is lame on his feet.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: You see, God is looking for the fragments, as we spoke about yesterday, but just like David was looking for him a phobosheath, God, the king of kings is looking for you and me because he is looking for not just the fragments he's looking for the frail.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: You see, in second Samuel chapter 4, phobosheath, Jonathan's son was crippled in both of his feet.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when David became king instead of destroying Saul's lineage, as was the custom, it would have been completely normal, it would not have been unusual.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: He invited me to his table and restored him to a place of prominence.
• 8:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, we are called, we are told we are of our Father the Devil, but God in his great mercy sent his son Jesus Christ, but God commendeth his love to us in that while we were yet sinners.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: He didn't wait for us to clean up our act.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're thinking right now, I have to give up the alcohol before I can accept Christ.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have to change my ways, I have to get clean before God will accept me.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Friend, God is looking for the frail.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Many feel unworthy because of their weakness or past failures.
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: But God calls the frail to sit at His table.
• 9:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think of the apostle Paul.
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now we often think of his strength.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was quite the orator.
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was quite the writer.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: God used him in a great way on the auspices of Holy Spirit right, much of the New Testament.
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: But Paul, for all his education, for all his learning, for all his status,
• 9:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had a thorn in the flesh.
• 9:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Remember in St. Corinthians chapter 12, but aren't you glad that God's strength is made perfect in weakness?
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Think about Psalm 34 verse 18.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and
• 9:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: does not just use and actually he very seldom and rarely uses those that had everything together.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: God is looking for the frail.
• 10:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's looking for the fragments.
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder in your life what you would consider your greatest weakness.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's pause for a moment here.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Think about this.
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: What are those deepest darkest things?
• 10:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: The ones that you can't seem to forgive yourself for.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of those moments in life that if you could go back and do anything over again, that would be where you would go.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: What are those weaknesses that you struggle with the most?
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe even, let's call them the besetting sins.
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those things you think if I could just get victory over this, God might actually be able to use me.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: You realize there has never been a perfect tool that God has made use of except for his own son.
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus was 100% man while he was 100% God.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was both at the same time.
• 11:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was divinity, deity.
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, he was perfect.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: But go down through the list, Abraham, imperfect.
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Isaac, nope.
• 11:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jacob, oh, he most certainly had his failures.
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And yes, though Joseph, there was nothing necessarily recorded wrong that he did to our knowledge.
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Joseph was not perfect.
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was a man.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: David, oh, think of all the mistakes he made, the lives that were hurt.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even just when he numbered the people against God's will, and then Bathsheba, and how he mishandled Absalom, the murders, the deaths, the elicit affair, David wasn't perfect.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's not a Bible account that shares except for those about Jesus that share someone being perfect.
• 12:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder, if this bit of this tiny ray of sunshine, this little bit of encouragement makes you go, all right, Lord?
• 12:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll give myself, or should I say, I'll give you God another chance to use me because I've been closed off.
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've been too frail, or I've thought myself too frail.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you think you're too much of a fragment, you think you're too frail.
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here we are, middle of the week, Pat and courage you to pause for a moment and take it to the Lord in prayer.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: He will help bear your burden.
• 12:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: His Yoke is easy, his burden is light.
• 12:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he is always looking for another frail fragment.
• 12:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: My prayer is always as simple.
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: That you would have a great day for his glory.
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I look forward to speaking to you tomorrow as we continue this thought of what God is looking for.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening today.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: God bless.
• 13:13
  [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to Bible Tract Echoes, the radio ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated.
• 13:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Want to see our gospel tracks and other resources?
• 13:29
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• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord richly bless you as you live for Him.