Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 3, 2019 | Patty Diliberto - Called To Surrender - Session 4

Transcript

April 3, 2019 | Patty Diliberto - Called To Surrender - Session 4 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you so much for this time.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you that we get to do community together, and I thank you that there's such good community that happens in this study and with one another.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I just ask that you continue to do that.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we we just invite you to come and minister to us in the deepest places in our in our souls.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And Father, that you would come and give us a demonstration of the Spirit's power in through your word and what we see today.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I just ask these things in Jesus' name.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: This week you read my story, the story of how God worked out the things in my life that needed to be worked out, right?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you've all read that.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: You read what an important role the Word of God was in that whole process.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: As deception and sin and self came out, the Word of God was coming in in large doses.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I was dealing with those things one at a time as God brought them to the surface.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: If my availability had only been one day a week that I could have devoted to that process, it would have been a much longer process.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Six months seemed like a really long time and a long process, but it really isn't.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Each time I doubt was something with God, trust was built.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Day after day after day after day, trust was built.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And as my knowledge of God grew through what the Holy Spirit was revealing through the Word, His Word, it was used to build love.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So love and trust.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Love and trust go hand in hand.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And God is very, very committed to our growth in these areas.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's more committed, I think, than we can ever completely realize.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: We can never underestimate the impact, impact of the Word of God in our lives, in and how powerfully God can use that to build our trust and to build our love for Him.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So these things go hand in hand.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Number of years ago, Jim Congden, Pastor Congdon, gave a great illustration of what I'm talking about right now.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Jim grew up in Oregon, and his family had a small house on several acres of ground.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And all of the 12 children had chores.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Of course they would.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't you give 12 children chores?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they um that they had to do on this little farmette.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it was Jim's job to make sure that the cows had fresh water.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so they had a claw foot tub out in the field where the cows were.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jim would go out there and he would scoop up the slime and the bugs and the snot and the whatever.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he would he would scoop it up and he would put it out of the tub like that.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then he would put water in it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And one day his father came out and he said, Jim, why are you doing it that way?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just put the water in the tub and all the junk will rise to the surface.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what Jim did from then on, and and made it a great illustration for him because you put the fresh water in and all the impurities will rise.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that's a great illustration for the things that I've just said.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: You fill your life up with the fresh water of the Word, and the impurities and the yuck and the sin is just going to rise to the surface, right?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And God's going to be able to make you deal with them and get rid of them.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we make this process harder than it actually is.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: I know in the past I've done that.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: If we only deal with the deception and the sin and the impurities on our own without the word, then we might end up feeling condemned by God.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that would be wrong.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: That would be a bad outcome to feel condemned.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because in Romans 8:1, Paul says, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So feeling condemned is not what God wants us to do.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: But if we do this process in our own strength and in our own power, minus the Word of God, then we could end up feeling condemnation.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: John R.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Stott says, to walk in the truth is more than to give assent to it.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: It means to apply it to one's behavior.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: He who walks in the truth is an integrated Christian in whom there is no dichotomy between profession and practice.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, there is in him an exact correspondence between his creed and his conduct.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I love that statement.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Integration, integrity.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be integrated people.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Before I allowed God to deal with all of my junk during my 40th year, I felt very disintegrated.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was disintegrated.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like there were fragmented pieces of me all over the place.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And a large part of that was because of my past and what I dealt with as a kid or tried to deal with as a kid.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just felt fragmented all over the place.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't feel like I was an integrated, cohesive person with integrity.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: I knew I didn't have integrity for sure.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: The work of God and the word of God brought all the pieces that were me together in a cohesive, integrated kind of way.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And rather than being scattered and fragmented, he brought me together and brought, and I was more a whole person than I had ever been before.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was more the me that God created me to be than I had ever been, ever been.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: That is one of the outcomes of doing this kind of work with God.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: You end up being more you than you've ever been before, more the you that God created you to be.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: We can't depend on ourselves alone when dealing with the junk of our lives.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons we can't depend upon ourselves is because we of what we read in Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Who can understand it?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: We are not to trust ourselves.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: We really, our our thinking, at least my thinking, was so messed up that there was no way I could trust myself.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because our thinking and our reasoning is temporal, it's finite, it's tainted by our sin natures.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Why would we ever trust ourselves more than we would trust God?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: But we do that, don't we?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: We can't figure some of these tough things out on our own, no matter how brilliant we are, and I am not brilliant.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: We need God, we need his word, and we need his spirit to do these kinds of works in us.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 3:7 says, Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord, and shun evil.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: God has the power, he has the knowledge, he has the ability.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the desire, the desire to put us together again.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: He does.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's what he wants to do with each one of us.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it's his process that we are surrendering to.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's his process.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: We all are humpty dumpties who fell off the wall.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And all the king's horses and all the king's men can't put us humpties together again, but the king can.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he will, and he does, when we submit ourselves to him and surrender to that process with him.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: A.W.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Tozer says, with the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Surely we are the most favored of all creatures.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: What do we lack?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: The wisdom of God, the power of God, and the knowledge of God.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: What do we lack?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have to trust ourselves to our trustworthy God.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: The words trust, translated trust in the Bible literally mean a bold, confident, sure security or action based on that security, based on God.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: The dictionary defines trust as the belief that someone, someone or something is reliable, good, honest, or effective.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is God reliable, good, honest, and effective?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: He is.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, he is.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: We can trust him.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Trust is not exactly the same thing as faith.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: The verses that we turn to for faith are Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Trusting is what you do because you have faith.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Trusting is believing in the promises of God, with all with um believing in the promises of God and in all circumstances, even those where the evidence seems to be contrary to what we see or or understand.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then the classic verse for trust is Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: This particular verse, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, kind of sum up trust for us.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is the Lord, trust in the Lord in whom we are not to trust, not in ourselves and not in our plans.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we trust in the Lord because he and he alone is trustworthy.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: He is the only one who is trustworthy.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's none other.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: We trust in the Lord because his word is trustworthy.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: We trust in the Lord because his nature is trustworthy.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we trust in the Lord because his plans for us are perfect and they are purposeful and they're trustworthy.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: We are told positively to trust in the Lord and negatively not to trust in our own understanding.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And really, those are those two things are mutually exclusive because if we are trusting on leaning and trusting on the Lord, then we're not going to be trusting on ourselves.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: If we're doing it doing a really good job of that over here, then we're not going to be leaning on ourselves.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 55, 8 through 9 says, For my thoughts are not are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: For as high as the heavens, for as sorry, I'm saying it in the King James, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: That tells us why we don't understand often what God is doing.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have his thoughts all the time.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: God sees the entire whole picture, and we see this teeny tiny little corner of what he's doing in that perspective.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we see.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And to trust in the Lord with all our hearts means that we can't place our own understanding and rights and confidence in that above his right to direct us in our lives in the way that he sees fit.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: When we insist on God making sense and the plans all making sense to us, even though we do that, we are sometimes setting ourselves up for disappointments.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And like we talked about with the suffering, we we have that need to understand why something is happening, but when we can't, because God's not revealing a bigger part of the picture, then we can get discouraged.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: We can sometimes even turn to a point of accusing God.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this great analogy by Tim Handel from his book Holy Sweat.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Great title, Holy Sweat.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: At first, I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: He was out there sort of like a president.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: But later, later on, when I met Christ, it seemed as though life were rather like a bike ride.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was a tandem bike.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know just when it was that he suggested we change places.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: But life has not been the same since.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: When I had control, I knew the way.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was rather boring but predictable.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was the shortest distance between two points.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: But when he took the lead, he knew delightful long cuts up mountains and through rocky places at breakneck speeds.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was all I could do to hang on.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Even though it looked like madness, he said, peddle! I worried and was anxious and asked, Where are you taking me?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: He laughed and didn't answer.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I started to learn to trust.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when I would say, I'm scared, he'd lean back and touch my hand.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance, joy.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: They gave me gifts to take on my journey, my Lord's and mine.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we were off again.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Give the gifts away.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: They are extra baggage, too much weight.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I did to the people we met, and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I did not trust him at first in control of my life.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he'd wreck it.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: But he knows bike secrets.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: He knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, knows how to jump to clear high rocks, knows how to fly to short and scary passages.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful, constant companion, Jesus Christ.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And when I'm sure I just can't do any more, he just smiles and says, pedal.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's such a great analogy for what we're talking about today.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: A.W.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Tozer in the Knowledge of the Holy says, our insistence upon seeing ahead is natural enough, but it is a real hindrance to our spiritual progress.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: God has charged himself, God has charged himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn to faith in him.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: We might think that God is taking us off course, or that he's out of control, or that we're out of control when he allows difficult situations and suffering to come into our lives, but thinking that we are off course is just from our perspective.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: God knows where he's taking us, and to him it makes sense.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have a great illustration of this from the book of Exodus that we're gonna look at today.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: There are times in life that God takes us on detours.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: On detours.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the detours?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the detours that people face in life?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: What sickness, illnesses, or death?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Job loss, job or move having to move someplace that's new.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: The ending of a relationship, a divorce, the ending of a relationship that you thought was gonna last.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: In fertility.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's definitely a detour.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: The collapse of the plans that seemed so sure and you were so sure about, but they fall apart.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: All of those things.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Detours, yeah.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna Yeah, a new baby, yeah, have a positive outcome, sure.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Detours come in many different shapes and sizes, but all of them share two things in common.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't see them coming, and we don't usually like them, especially the negative ones.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: We we don't like them.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: They catch us off guard and they leave us, can leave us frustrated and confused and curious and even heartbroken for some for sure.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: These detours take us places we don't like to travel and make us travel roads that we would just rather not be on ever.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you who have had those kinds of journeys and detours, you know what I'm talking about, and you know how difficult they are.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they are.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: We question why things had to happen this way at this time, and one of the worst outcomes that can come from a detour is whenever we get discouraged enough that it causes us to doubt God.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's the worst outcome that can come from the detours.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: The hard truth is that God does sometimes take us on detours.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Usually these detours are for some very good reasons, but that doesn't mean that we're ever going to understand what the detour was was for.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: But let's see an example of this.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the detour that God took the children of Israel on.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: We read about it in Exodus chapters 13 and 14.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is 13, 17 through 18.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter, for God said, If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: So God let the people around the God led the people around the desert road toward the Red Sea.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Israelites went up out of Egypt, ready for battle.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why was God taking them on this detour?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: To protect them.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: To protect them.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: They were fearful.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: They would think, ah, this is too hard, I want to go back to Egypt, which they ended up saying anyway.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: But uh but he he had a purpose in this detour, right?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: God had a reason for taking them on this detour.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And do you think the people were wondering to themselves, what in the world is God doing?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they might have been talking to themselves, saying, This seems rather awkward.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this route seems kind of roundabout, and wouldn't it just be easier to go to Phil through Philistia?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, really.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's the shortest distance between two places, but our detours are designed, are by God's design, and he has his reasons for the detours, even when we can't see them.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: If we continue to read in Exodus, we discover that this detour is taking them to the Red Sea, where they will face an impossible situation.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: So God is leading them from a fearful situation to an impossible situation on this detour.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Exodus 14, 1 through 4.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Heroth, between Migdal and the sea.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: They are to encamp by the sea directly opposite Belzephon.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh will think, the Israelites are wandering around in the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, but I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the Israelites did this.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the Israelites are starting to go one way, and then they stop.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Moses leading them, they go the back the other way, at God's command.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: The desert is on one side, and in the other direction is the sea, and there are two million of them at this point.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: They knew that Moses was taking directions from God.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: They they trusted that that's what was happening.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: But um this wasn't making much sense to them at this point.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and um I can just hear them talking.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't we already go past that bush?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this seems like we're going in circles, right?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm pretty sure that there was some of that going around.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then this was a trap, though, that God alone was leading them to.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: He was trapping them.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And they are in essence sitting ducks now at this point, encamped right at the edge of the sea.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the Egyptians are up on the hill watching them, scratching their heads and laughing and saying, What are those crazy Israelites doing?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know their left hand from their right.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: What are they doing?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But God knew.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And God knew that Pharaoh would hear about their course correction and how they were trapped, and he would see this as an opportunity to come because they were easy targets for him.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: From the outside looking in, these apparently helpless, muddled ex-slaves don't know what they're doing, and they are terribly confused, and they are ripe for the picking, according to Pharaoh, which is exactly what God wanted them to think, right?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then look at verse 4 again.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: What was the outcome God was after on this detour?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: His glory.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: His glory.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: His glory.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that all the people, all the Egyptians would know about him.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: His glory must be pretty important to send two million people on a detour, to put them in an impossible situation.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: His glory must have been very important to him.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: One of the purposes of detours is to showcase God's glory both to our enemies and for the sake of our own precious faith.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: God is so committed to building our faith and trust that He's willing to take us on some detours to accomplish it.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this promise in Isaiah 42, 16.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths, I will guide them.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: These are the things I will do.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I will not forsake them.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: God will not and does not forsake us in our detours, no matter how it feels to us, no matter how much we think he's abandoned us, he hasn't.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because his word is he is faithful and true.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Even when we can't see him, we have to trust that he is here on this detour.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: He will not forsake us.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Is that blind trust, or is that trust built on something?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's built on something, the word of God.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's not blind trust.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you take a stand and you say, I'm gonna trust God, even though I can't see him, even though I haven't heard from him, I'm gonna trust him until some of this makes sense or until I get through this.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh that's based on the truth of who God is.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's based on who God has revealed himself in his word.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's based on him, not on you, not on the circumstances.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Another purpose of the detours is for the testing.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is for testing to teach us.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: God was giving these Israelites a test to teach them to trust.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to challenge them to be his people and to live differently than all the other nations and the nation that they have just been in for 400 years.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he needed to teach them how to worship him in a manner that was acceptable to him, to worship him in the way that God says to do it.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that would be different from all the other nations.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes our detours are so we can see the impossible happen.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see in Exodus 5, 14, 5 through 9.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, What have we done?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: He took 600 of the best chariots along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites who were marching out boldly.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops, pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea by Pi Haroth, opposite Belziphan.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the sea is before them, directly before them.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: This vast army of Egypt is behind them, and they are in impossible situation, and for God's purposes right where he wants them.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Exodus 14, 10 through 12.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: They were terrified, and they cried out to the Lord.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: They said to Moses, Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone, let us serve the Egyptians?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: In essence, we didn't choose this detour.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: The one we were in felt just fine, even though it was bondage, it was at least familiar bondage that we knew, something we knew.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the people were forgetting some very important things as they're yelling at poor Moses.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: They are not standing there empty-handed.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: They are standing there in freedom, having carried off valuable treasures from the people of Egypt.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember this?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: In Exodus 11, 2 and 3, it says, Tell the people that tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officers and the people.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: These people, the people of Egypt, literally are just handing them buckets of gold and silver and cloth and all of this stuff.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they plunder the people of Egypt.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Literally.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the proof is that of that is that whenever they they get into the wilderness and Moses goes up on the mountain and they they give Moses all their gold and say, here, use it to make an idol for us.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he does, a huge calf that they fall down and worship.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: They were slaves.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: How did they have that much money?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: They plundered.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was God who loosened the fists of Pharaoh and all the people of Egypt to the point of abundance.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was God who, through his unmistakable wonders and powers, and miracles brought the most powerful civilization in the world to its knees.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: God has done this.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they have forgotten how powerfully God has worked for them.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Our detours don't make sense if we take God out of the equation.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we see with that one.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we, if we forget how powerfully God has worked in our lives, we could possibly give in to despair.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: But we could literally sit around this room for the rest of the day, all of us, telling stories about how powerfully God has worked for us.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: We could sit here for the rest of the day and all night telling stories of how powerful God has been to us and for us.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: We could.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: After all he's done in our lives, why would he quit now?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why would he not show up and show off in our current detours in the places that we're traversing that are difficult and we don't like?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why would he do that?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Why would he bring you from darkness to light and then abandon you?
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: He would not do that.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why would he bring two million people out of slavery if he wasn't going to stay committed to them and provide for them?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: He had already invested so much in them.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: How much more has he invested in us?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: So much more.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: The life and death of his own precious son, why would he ever even think about abandoning us?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the midst of our detours, we can often lose sight of all that God has already done for us.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: The people are ready to cut their losses and see if Pharaoh might just happen to take them back and go back to their servitude.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're about to really panic and they have that fighting, that mob mentality of chaos and fear and or fight or flight and to turn and rush away, and it would have been a total stampede at this point for poor Moses.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a critical situation for Moses.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's standing, what's he gonna say to them?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that in this crowd of Israelites, there would have been a whole range of emotions and responses and feelings.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we're talking about Jewish people who can really make themselves, their feelings known.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: So his next words would be incredibly crucial.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And what are his next words?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: What they don't want to hear.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: You need only be still.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he tells them.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Moses answered the people, do not be afraid.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: These Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord will fight for you.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: You need only be still.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: In that moment of fear and a very real and legitimate danger and fear because the powerful Egyptians are bearing down on them, on the men and the women and the children, all of them.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: In this moment, Moses tells them, just be still.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't move.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, stay here.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: God's gonna fight for you and you don't need to worry.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just be still.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: It reminds us of Psalm 46, 10.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Be still and know that I am God.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: I will be exalted among the nations.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: I will be exalted in the earth.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Truth.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Truth.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: He will.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: He is.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: He was.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Stand still.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like to be told to wait, do we?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like waiting.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're not we're not very patient people.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: We want to try to help God out in the situation and help ourselves out.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just standing still is kind of unthinkable in our cultural mindset today.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: The most popular words in advertising today are now, instant, immediate, fast.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, instant, immediate, and fast.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like to wait.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're used to taking action and we want everything now.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Waiting on the Lord is when we when we quietly and calmly and confidently trust in our God and then He provides clear protect direction.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is the opposite of panic.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's very it's different than trying to fix things or make things happen on our own.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, there are times when you ask for a second opinion.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there are times when you continue to pursue answers for situations and things.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: But but we can't do those things without trusting in the Lord, because that's what he wants us to do.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to build our trust.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: The only way the people of Israel would walk away to freedom from this powerful army of the Egyptians is if God fights for them again, again.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was their only hope in this detour.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Did you remember seeing the verse in the verse Exodus 13, 18, it said the Israel Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Did you remember seeing that?
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: That caught me off guard whenever I first saw it.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um because they are um they are ready for battle, but was it enough?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Was it enough?
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even when we put forth the effort to prepare for a detour, it won't be sufficient.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: Their preparation wasn't sufficient.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't enough for the impossible, because they are in an impossible detour here.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: And their their preparation, their arming themselves was not enough.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And neither is ours.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: And neither is ours.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: God had totally set them up, God had totally set them up and orchestrated this entire event from their captivity all the way to their freedom, right?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's his responsibility.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: This probably felt like a dead end to the Israelites, and it looked a whole lot like a dead end, but it wasn't a dead end.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was in fact an opportunity, an opportunity for them to witness God's power in action once again.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Exodus 14, 15 through 20.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Tell the Israelites to move on, raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water, so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army through his chariots and his horsemen.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then the angel of the God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to one side and light to the other side.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: So neither went near the other all night long.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is so interesting.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: The angel of God switched from guiding them to guarding them in this moment.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: The cloud moved behind them and covered the stars and the moon and everything so that it is so dark and black over there on their side.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: But on Israel's side, it's light enough for them to cross all night long.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: The cloud and the pillar continued to guide them for the next 40 years.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: And in the daytime, that cloud would have been a shield to shield them from the intense sun of the desert sun.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: And at night it would have provided heat for them and a light source for them.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: So God was faithful all the way through this.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: This cloud and pillar of fire was a wall between them and the Egyptians, and it was a very tangible demonstration of the power of God to them.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: It must have been pretty important to the God of Egypt.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, to the to God, that Egypt and all the other nations knew how powerful he was, right?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was doing something so important.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: And later, after their 40 years of wandering in the desert, it would be imperative that the nations of the land that they were going in to conquer in the conquest would know that God had fought powerfully for Israel, right?
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: And do they know that?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is that an outcome that they know?
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: We see that in when when the two spies go into Jericho and Rahab hides the spies, and what does she say to them?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: She says in Joshua 2, 9 and 10, we have heard how the Lord fought for Israel and he dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've all heard about it.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we're literally terrified at what God is going to do.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone was terrified because of them in this detour, because in this detour, God had fought powerfully for them.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Our detours are not always just for our benefit.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they are for the benefit of others.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: And in Rahab's case, it caused her to repent.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then it caused her to be engrafted into the nation of Israel and into the lineage of Christ, for crying out loud.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes our detours are to help others catch a glimpse of our all-powerful God.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're not always just for us, right?
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when trust is present even through the detour, God is glorified.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever doubt it.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: When trust is present even in the detour, God is glorified.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we can't doubt that.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's always more.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to Exodus 14, 21 through 31.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and a wall of water on their left.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sonic Light says, The two million Israelites could have passed through the sea at in the time, the text says, all night, perhaps six to eight hours, if they crossed in a wide column, perhaps as much as a half mile wide.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some tornadoes and hurricanes have been known to cut a swath of devastation this wide, right?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: Joplin, Missouri.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: During the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the Egyptians said, Let us get away from the Israelites.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: You think so?
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen, and the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea, not one of them survived.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses, his servant.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: The tin plagues had broken Pharaoh's hold on the Israelites, but the sea delivered them completely into freedom from them.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sonic Light says, God redeemed Israel on the Passover night, but he fully liberated Israel from slavery, finally at the Red Sea, but they only began to experience true freedom after they crossed the Red Sea.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: This might seem harsh for God to destroy an entire army of people.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to remember, Pharaoh was reaping what he had sown.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because what had Pharaoh done to all the male Jewish children when Moses was born?
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: He had thrown them into the Nile to drown them.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians 6 7 says, Do not be deceived.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: God is not mocked, a man reaps what he sows.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: God made a way where there seemed absolutely no way on dry ground.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: God makes good on his promises to deliver his people from slavery, and he brings them completely to freedom, and he does it miraculously.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: Again.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher taught you?
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: His mother asked.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, no, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you'd never believe it.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: We'd never believe it.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever found yourself standing on the edge of an impossible situation or what felt like an impossible situation?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: You've taken a risk or you've stepped away from something that you knew that was familiar, that that that That helped you or was comfortable, and even, or maybe you were forced to step away from something or events or circumstances that were just beyond your control.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: And now you find yourself facing obstacles and you have no clue how to handle it.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Our God is faithful.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: Our God is trustworthy.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think of women who have to bravely pick up after they've left a very abusive relationship and have to put the pieces of their lives back together.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: And how terrifying that is.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: We each have those moments when we step out to make a change in our life only to find that it's really much, much harder than we thought it was going to be.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: But like Israel, once we take that step into the impossible, God is there to show us his sufficiency.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: God is there to give us his strength and to give us his mind and to give us everything that we need.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: We take the step and he shows up because he's faithful and he's trustworthy.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: We all know where the Israelites end up after they cross the Red Sea, wandering in the desert for 40 years because of disobedience, yet another testing that God has them on.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, there's always still more going on behind the scenes than we can even realize in that situation, too.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: God's way of leading us to freedom is taking us from what we know and the familiar to what we don't know.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: In our lives, our redemption and our freedom came at the same time.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Our redemption and our freedom from slavery, from bondage came at the same time.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the same place, the death of Christ on the cross.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's when our redemption and our freedom came.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus split the chasm that separated us from God so that we could walk right through on dry ground up to heaven.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: God uses detours to make us firm in our hope until we reach heaven.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 5, 15-13.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: Karen Watson was one of four humanitarian aid workers who died in Iraq after their vehicle was ambushed.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this letter, dated March 7, 2003, was written just before Karen left for the Middle East and was meant to be opened upon her death.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: She wrote, You should only be opening this letter in the event of death.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: When God calls, there are no regrets.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to share my heart with you as much as possible, my heart for the nations.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't called to a place.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was called to Him.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: To obey was my objective, to suffer was expected.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: His glory was my reward.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: His glory is my reward.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: In regards to any service, keep it small and simple.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, simple.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: Just preach the gospel.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Be bold and preach the life-saving, life-changing, forever eternal gospel.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: Give glory and honor to our Father.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: In closing, Karen wrote, There is no joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving him.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then she included the missionary heart.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Care more than some think is wise.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: Risk more than some think is safe.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: Dream more than some think is practical.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: Expect more than some think is possible.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was called not to comfort or success, but to obedience.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: That was the motto that Kieran Watson lived and died by.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: Kieran had a realistic view of God and the detours of life, didn't she?
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: Detours are for an eternal purpose.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: God gives us promises and he hides treasured secrets for those who are on a detour.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: He has a way of making the suffering in the detour worth it.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 45, 3 says, I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: Our treasures are stored up in heaven for us.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: Successfully traversing the detours of life and maintaining our trust in God in those difficult times stores up rewards for us.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: Without the difficulties, we wouldn't have the rewards.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: Without the difficulties that we go through and the detours, we wouldn't, and traversing them successfully, we wouldn't have the rewards.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: We all want to hear Jesus say, Well done, my good and faithful servant.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, we have to do some good things.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to be be faithful in some hard situations in order to hear those words.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: In this life, in these detours, lies the opportunity to hear the words that I'm sure Karen Watson heard.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well done, my good and faithful servant.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: Her heart attitude of obedience put her in a place of blessing with the Lord.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: Lamentations 3, 21 and 24 says, Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord's of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: They are new every morning.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_00: Great is your faithfulness.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: I say to myself, the Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for him.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you so much.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for this incredible example in Scripture that you've given us today.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the truths of your word.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_00: God, none of us like detours.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: We hate them.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I thank you that you have some treasures stored in the midst of those detours.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when we traverse them in the way that you want us to traverse them, it not only builds our trust and our love here, but it builds our rewards in heaven.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: God, thank you that you are so committed to teaching us to trust and love.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're committed enough to sometimes make circumstances hard for us.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like it when it happens, but we're grateful for what comes of it, Lord.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your faithfulness, God.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that it is new every morning because we need it every morning.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: We praise you and we worship and adore you, Lord.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's in your name I pray.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.