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Max Lucado – The Battle We All Face: Understanding the Fight Within · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

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Speaker 1: We are about to begin lesson three of our study
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Speaker 1: of the book of Romans. It's somewhat of a flyover
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Speaker 1: of the book of Romans. Trusting the Holy Spirit to
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Speaker 1: get our hearts because we know when we get Romans,
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Speaker 1: God gets us. I think, however, before the message, I'd
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Speaker 1: like to offer a prayer for healing. Do you feel
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Speaker 1: like we've just come out of a battle or feel
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Speaker 1: like we're still coming out of a battle? What a year.
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Speaker 1: I wonder if somehow we could reveal the state of
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Speaker 1: our souls, how many of us would be black and blue,
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Speaker 1: just beaten up after the whiplash of everything from political
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Speaker 1: turmoil to global pandemic, to economic insecurity and uncertainty. Let
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Speaker 1: me pray for you. Let me pray for you. I
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Speaker 1: just really sense in my heart that some of us
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Speaker 1: are wounded. Just a few moments ago, we sang that
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Speaker 1: great song, Just One Word. With one word, Jesus can
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Speaker 1: heal you. With one word, He can heal you. No
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Speaker 1: elaborate staging. No overdramatic moment. Just a word from Christ
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Speaker 1: and He'll bring healing into your heart. If you want
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Speaker 1: to be a recipient of a prayer for healing, just
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Speaker 1: stand where you are. We'll enter into a spirit of prayer.
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Speaker 1: Gracious Lord. Gracious Lord. Look kindly upon these who come
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Speaker 1: to stand before you and ask for a special blessing today.
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Speaker 1: Do not let one of them, do not let one
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Speaker 1: of them leave with any doubt about your love. Come
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Speaker 1: among us, blessed spirit, just float among us. Fill this place.
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Speaker 1: We welcome you. We welcome you. I invite each and
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Speaker 1: every one of you, myself included, to just open the
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Speaker 1: door to your heart. Kind of mentally just open the
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Speaker 1: door And say, come in, Lord. Come in. Some of
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Speaker 1: our hearts are broken. Some of our hearts are hard
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Speaker 1: or weary. But welcome Him in. Welcome Him in. Say,
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Speaker 1: come in, Lord. Now, where do you want the Lord
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Speaker 1: to touch you? Just tell Him, please. Just say, Lord,
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Speaker 1: I'm hurting about this. My family's in turmoil. My future's insecure.
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Speaker 1: I'm wounded because of something somebody said. Physically, I'm tired.
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Speaker 2: I'm tired.
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Speaker 1: Tell him. He is near to all who seek him.
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Speaker 1: Bless you. May the Lord bless you. May the Lord
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Speaker 1: bless you. May the Lord bless you. In the way
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Speaker 1: God taught Aaron to pray, which is really the first
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Speaker 1: prayer that a priest was told to offer. He just said,
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Speaker 1: the Lord bless you. Bless you. And keep you. Sustain you.
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Speaker 1: Build a hedge around you. Keep you. Keep you from falling.
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Speaker 1: Keep you from stumbling. May he keep you. And then
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Speaker 1: may the Lord shine his face upon you. Direct his
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Speaker 1: countenance upon you. May you sense him. the joy of
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Speaker 1: the Father's face as He looks upon you and may
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Speaker 1: He give you peace. Peace, that inner rest. May He
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Speaker 1: speak over the inner disturbances. The same word He spoke
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Speaker 1: over the Galilean storm. Peace. Peace be still. I hope
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Speaker 1: you don't mind if we just linger here for a.
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Speaker 2: Moment.
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Speaker 1: There is healing happening right now. Now just tell the
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Speaker 1: Lord thank you. Say thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank
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Speaker 1: you that you have touched me so deeply. Thank you.
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Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, we pray. And all God's
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Speaker 1: people said, amen, amen. Well, let's go home. I mean,
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Speaker 1: that's the work, right? That's the work right there. One
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Speaker 1: word from Jesus is worth a billion from a preacher. Amen. Amen. Amen.
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Speaker 3: Amen.
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Speaker 1: But you're expecting a sermon, so. We are doing a
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Speaker 1: dash through the book of Romans. The great epistle of grace.
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Speaker 1: This will be lesson number three. And as we begin it,
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Speaker 1: I invite you to use your imagination to envision a prison. Large,
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Speaker 1: imposing structure. Maybe with two or three stories tall. Complete
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Speaker 1: with guards and barbed wire. The whole works. And picture
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Speaker 1: the main entrance. The entrance to the prison. And maybe
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Speaker 1: you can watch in your mind and see the gates open.
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Speaker 1: And a gentleman steps out. He's not wearing prison clothing.
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Speaker 1: He's just wearing, I don't know, street clothes. He's a
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Speaker 1: bit elderly. And you begin connecting a few dots and
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Speaker 1: realize here's a man stepping out of prison. He's being released.
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Speaker 1: He's feeling the wind in his air and the sun
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Speaker 1: on his face. He's not restrained. He was. He was
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Speaker 1: in prison. He does know the feeling of handcuffs. He
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Speaker 1: knows what it's like. But now today he's been released.
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Speaker 1: The road is clear before him. He can go wherever
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Speaker 1: he wants. He can go to the right. He can
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Speaker 1: go to the left. I mean, the future is wide open.
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Speaker 1: His time in prison is over. It's his choice to make.
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Speaker 1: He can go wherever he wants. No one's going to
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Speaker 1: hinder him. No one's going to tell him where he
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Speaker 1: can go or where he has to go, what he
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Speaker 1: should do. Now, imagine this man stopping in his tracks
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Speaker 1: after just a few steps and looking at the path
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Speaker 1: and saying, no. And he turns and he goes back
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Speaker 1: into the prison. and he re-robes himself in the prison garb,
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Speaker 1: and he enters his jail cell, and he takes his
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Speaker 1: seat on a metal bed frame and thin mattress, choosing
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Speaker 1: instead to spend the rest of his life under lock
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Speaker 1: and key. Would that make sense to you? Of course not.
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Speaker 1: I mean, the whole scene is just impossible. It's laughable. Yet,
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Speaker 1: it's more realistic than you might imagine. As we turn
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Speaker 1: our pages in the book of Romans, we enter the
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Speaker 1: center section of it. Romans 6 and 7 and 8.
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Speaker 1: In Romans 6 and 7 and 8, deal with this
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Speaker 1: mindset that having been set free, we Christians have a
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Speaker 1: proclivity to return to slavery, to oppression. That we find
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Speaker 1: it very difficult to feel like we are truly released
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Speaker 1: and forgiven. And sometimes the hardest, most challenging part is
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Speaker 1: to believe that grace that saved us is the grace
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Speaker 1: that sustains us. Paul begins this discussion in verses 6
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Speaker 1: and 7 of Romans 6. He says, we know that
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Speaker 1: our old life died with Christ on the cross. so
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Speaker 1: that our sinful selves would have no power over us,
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Speaker 1: and we would not be slaves to sin. Anyone who
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Speaker 1: has died is made free from sin's control. Remarkable statement,
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Speaker 1: don't you agree? Paul is saying there is the potential
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Speaker 1: within your life to be free from the sin, free
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Speaker 1: from the prison. He continues in verses 20 through 23.
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Speaker 1: When you were slaves to sin, you were free from
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Speaker 1: the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at
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Speaker 1: that time from the things you are now ashamed of?
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Speaker 1: Those things result in death. But now that you've been
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Speaker 1: set free from sin and become slaves of God, the
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Speaker 1: benefit you reap leads to holiness. And the result is
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Speaker 1: eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. But
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Speaker 1: the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus,
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Speaker 1: our Lord. The wages of sin is death, but you
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Speaker 1: don't have to pay those wages any longer because you've
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Speaker 1: been set free and you're receiving the gift, the greatest
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Speaker 1: gift of God's great grace, and that is eternal life.
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Speaker 1: And so Paul is about to pose the possibility that
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Speaker 1: the curiosity and deal with the proclivity of Christians who
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Speaker 1: return back to their old behavior, even though they've been
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Speaker 1: set free. It's almost like going back to the old life,
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Speaker 1: returning to the old habits, assuming that you can never
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Speaker 1: give that up, move out of that, move into a
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Speaker 1: new life. Many years ago, I committed a serious, serious felony. Well,
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Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't a felony. But I did violate a
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Speaker 1: traffic law. But I didn't know I was doing it
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Speaker 1: until my wife told me. That's happened a lot. There
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Speaker 1: was a season of our life when we lived in
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Speaker 1: a certain neighborhood and to get to the church office,
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Speaker 1: I had to go through the most congested intersection in
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Speaker 1: the history of humanity. Every car in Texas was trying
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Speaker 1: to turn left where I was needing to turn left.
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Speaker 1: It would happen every morning, no matter how early I
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Speaker 1: got there. There was a long line. The light was
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Speaker 1: too short and you had to wait and you had
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Speaker 1: to wait and you had to wait. One day, I
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Speaker 1: noticed an alley about a mile away from the intersection
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Speaker 1: or this side of the intersection. I saw an alley
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Speaker 1: and this alley wrapped around a shopping center. And I
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Speaker 1: thought to myself, hmm, if I take that alley, I
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Speaker 1: can scoot around all this traffic. I can bypass that intersection.
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Speaker 1: I'll try it. I did. I was set free. Before
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Speaker 1: I knew it, I said goodbye to all those folks
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Speaker 1: stuck in the intersection. And I just flew, turned left,
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Speaker 1: and I was already gone while they were still waiting. Oh,
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Speaker 1: I was so happy. This went on day after day
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Speaker 1: after day until one day Deanland was in the car
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Speaker 1: with me. And I said, honey, watch this. And I
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Speaker 1: turned my blinker on, my left blinker, and I whipped
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Speaker 1: into that alley. And I said, look what I'm doing, honey.
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Speaker 1: And I looked to my right to expecting a look
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Speaker 1: of admiration. All love. But what I saw was disdain.
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Speaker 1: She said, Max, you broke the law. You didn't see
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Speaker 1: the one-way sign. You're going the wrong way on a
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Speaker 1: one-way street. I said, honey, you didn't have to tell
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Speaker 1: me that. I was fine not knowing. I was really fine.
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Speaker 1: Why did you have to tell me that? All of
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Speaker 1: a sudden, I was left with this inner turmoil. Because
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Speaker 1: just moments before, I was innocent. But now I knew
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Speaker 1: the law. But there was this civil war of the
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Speaker 1: soul taking place. I knew what to do, but I
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Speaker 1: didn't want to do it. I just didn't want to.
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Speaker 1: Can you relate? I didn't want to. I didn't want
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Speaker 1: to go sit in the traffic again. But what could
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Speaker 1: I do? Now I knew. The same is true for
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Speaker 1: each and every one of us. If you are in Christ,
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Speaker 1: you can reflect back to your pre-Christ days. And you
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Speaker 1: can recall some shortcuts you took. Shortcuts. Immorality was a
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Speaker 1: shortcut to pleasure. Cheating was a shortcut to success. Boasting
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Speaker 1: was a shortcut to popularity. Lying was a shortcut to power.
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Speaker 1: But then you found Christ and he called you to
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Speaker 1: a higher level of life. The Bible calls this holiness, righteousness.
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Speaker 1: And you agreed, okay, Lord, you know more about the
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Speaker 1: right road than I do. And if you say that's
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Speaker 1: a wrong way on a one-way street, then I'm going
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Speaker 1: to trust you. But every so often, oh, are we
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Speaker 1: not tempted to turn left? Do we not find ourselves thinking, oh,
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Speaker 1: life would be so much easier if I just did
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Speaker 1: what I used to do? This inner battle, this struggle
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Speaker 1: that we have to succumb to sin is actually the
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Speaker 1: old self versus the new self. Paul got this. And
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Speaker 1: right at the heart of the epistle, Romans chapter 7,
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Speaker 1: he has this great confession. I have the desire to
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Speaker 1: do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
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Speaker 1: For I do not do the good I want to do,
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Speaker 1: but the evil I do not want to do, I
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Speaker 1: keep on doing. And he goes on to lament in
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Speaker 1: verse 24, what a wretched man that I am. Who
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Speaker 1: will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Paul, for your honesty. Thank you. Because if you,
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Speaker 1: an apostle, a writer of epistles, had to battle with
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Speaker 1: the temptation to drive down the one-way street, how much
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Speaker 1: do the rest of us? He was amazed by God's grace,
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Speaker 1: but he was equally amazed by his own propensity to sin,
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Speaker 1: to go back to the old way. This is the
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Speaker 1: time of year that, at least around our house, we
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Speaker 1: start seeing a lot of redbirds. And all this week,
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Speaker 1: there has been a redbird banging his head against a
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Speaker 1: window outside my office. Do you ever see this happen?
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Speaker 1: Poor fella. He or she, I can't tell. But he
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Speaker 1: continues to see a reflection of himself in the window
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Speaker 1: and just flies, boom. Boom. Just this morning, as I
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Speaker 1: was looking over this message, I heard boom, boom, boom.
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Speaker 1: And I said, you bird brain. How long are you
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Speaker 1: going to do this? I wonder how many times our
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Speaker 1: heavenly father has said that to Lakedo. Why are you
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Speaker 1: just beating your head? This is not the right way.
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Speaker 1: The apostle Paul said, I know I'm beating my head.
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Speaker 1: I keep doing, I know it's not going to work,
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Speaker 1: but I just keep doing it. Maybe you've noticed a
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Speaker 1: similar pattern in your life. And you're stunned by your
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Speaker 1: ability and interest in returning to the way that you
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Speaker 1: used to live your life. And that struggle gives birth
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Speaker 1: to some terrible hours for the Christians. So, two ideas
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Speaker 1: that come from the pen of the apostle. Number one,
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Speaker 1: he says to us, just remember your position in God.
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Speaker 1: Remember your position in God the logic goes something like
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Speaker 1: this I call myself a Christian But I still have
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Speaker 1: desires that a Christian should not have so I guess
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Speaker 1: I'm really not born into the family of God hogwash
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Speaker 1: Hogwash don't you listen to that lie? Don't you listen
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Speaker 1: to that lie? You have been born again by the
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Speaker 1: blood of Jesus Christ and once you have been born
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Speaker 1: again in Satan cannot have you. He cannot have you.
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Speaker 1: He can influence you. He can tempt you. And he
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Speaker 1: will try to trip you. But he cannot have you.
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Speaker 1: Am I talking to anyone who believes that the grace
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Speaker 1: that saved you initially is enough to sustain you eternally?
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Speaker 1: The grace... that saved you initially is enough to sustain
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Speaker 1: you eternally. May God deliver you from yo-yo salvation. Yo-yo
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Speaker 1: salvation says, well, I was saved this morning, but then
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Speaker 1: I sinned at lunch, so I'm lost, but then I repented,
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Speaker 1: now I'm saved again. Oh, I fell again, I'm lost.
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Speaker 1: And by the time you go to bed, you've been
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Speaker 1: in and out of the kingdom of God like a
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Speaker 1: yo-yo a dozen times. Friend, that disempowers a life. That
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Speaker 1: disempowers a life. When you have been born into the
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Speaker 1: family of God, you are a member of the family
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Speaker 1: of God. God has a great grace. And there will
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Speaker 1: be seasons in which you do not behave like your father.
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Speaker 1: There will be seasons in which you do not reflect
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Speaker 1: the nature of your family. I get that. I've done that.
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Speaker 1: But you're not going to convince me that God kicked me.
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Speaker 1: You remember your position in the family. It's God's grip
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Speaker 1: on you. that matters more than your grip on God.
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Speaker 1: If it ever comes to the point where it's your
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Speaker 1: grip that matters and not his, that's not grace. That's legalism.
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Speaker 1: You've placed yourself in charge of staying saved. Oh, you
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Speaker 1: talk about something that'll turn you into an old sour cynic.
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Speaker 1: Going to sleep every night with such fear. Would you
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Speaker 1: please allow yourself to rest in the hammock of God's
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Speaker 1: great grace? Remember your position. And then the second truth
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Speaker 1: Paul would quickly say, remember your progression the reason that
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Speaker 1: you have struggles is because god's not finished with you
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Speaker 1: yet we're in boot camp folks we're being trained for
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Speaker 1: eternal life we're also still in the battle and satan
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Speaker 1: is doing his best to take away our influence and
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Speaker 1: our joy but the writer of hebrews summarized it in
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Speaker 1: one sentence he said with one sacrifice he made perfect
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Speaker 1: forever Those who are being made holy. He made perfect.
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Speaker 1: That's positional sanctification. You're positioned in the family. You are
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Speaker 1: made holy. But you are also being made holy. You're
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Speaker 1: being made more and more into the image of Christ.
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Speaker 1: And as long as this progression goes, you're going to
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Speaker 1: have days in which you're strong, days in which you
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Speaker 1: are weak. But take encouragement. From Romans 7 and verse 25.
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Speaker 1: After Paul confessed, what a wretched man that I am.
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Speaker 1: He said, thanks be to God who delivers me through
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ our Lord. So who is the one who
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Speaker 1: delivers the saint? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Paul has so
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Speaker 1: many powerful passages on this teaching. Can I share just
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Speaker 1: one more? Of course I can. I have the microphone.
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Speaker 1: Second Corinthians chapter 12, verses seven through nine. He says,
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Speaker 1: there was given to me a thorn in my flesh,
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Speaker 1: a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I
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Speaker 1: pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
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Speaker 1: But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.
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Speaker 1: My power is made perfect in weakness. When I meet
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Speaker 1: the apostle Paul in heaven, I'm going to ask him,
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Speaker 1: what was that thorn? We do not know. We are
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Speaker 1: not told. Oh, how many people have speculated. Maybe it
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Speaker 1: was sexual temptation. Maybe it was a temper. Maybe it
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Speaker 1: was his desire to control. Maybe it was his possible
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Speaker 1: inability to see. Maybe he was partially blind. All kinds
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Speaker 1: of suggestions. But what we do know is he kept
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Speaker 1: going to Jesus saying, Lord, take this away from me.
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Speaker 1: Take this away from me. Take this away from me.
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Speaker 1: He pleaded with the Lord three times and he heard
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Speaker 1: from the Lord this wonderful phrase, my grace is sufficient
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Speaker 1: for you. My grace is so great, Jesus is saying.
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Speaker 1: It offsets this temporary struggle that you have. What thorn
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Speaker 1: have you been praying about? You keep looking to heaven
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Speaker 1: for some divine tweezers that maybe God will come in
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Speaker 1: and just remove this from you. I pray he does.
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Speaker 1: But until he does, and even if he doesn't, Jesus says, oh,
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Speaker 1: you've got everything you need with my grace. My grace,
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Speaker 1: my forgiveness, my devotion, my commitment, my sacrifice for you
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Speaker 1: on the cross. My grace is sufficient for your temptation,
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Speaker 1: for your crisis, for your struggle, for your questions. My
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Speaker 1: grace is sufficient. I'm with you. Do we not fear
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Speaker 1: the antonym? Do we not fear the word insufficient? Oh,
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Speaker 1: I have insufficient grace for you. Friend, that's a phrase
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Speaker 1: you'll never, you may have insufficient funds. You may have
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Speaker 1: insufficient gasoline. There are many areas in life that you
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Speaker 1: may suffer from a deficiency, but you will never hear
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Speaker 1: heaven say, oh my goodness, I just looked and you
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Speaker 1: have expired all the grace in your account. You did
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Speaker 1: that last week. Don't you remember when you came and
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Speaker 1: you prayed and all of a sudden you went from
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Speaker 1: being in the black and now you're in the red. Sorry,
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Speaker 1: that does not happen in the kingdom of God. It
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Speaker 1: just does not happen. And to the person who says,
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Speaker 1: you know, I've asked for forgiveness so many times. I'm
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Speaker 1: afraid that I've asked for it. I don't deserve it.
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Speaker 1: God says, you're right. You didn't deserve it the very
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Speaker 1: first time. That's why we call it grace. His grace
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Speaker 1: is sufficient to forgive you, friend. Oh, I'm just begging
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Speaker 1: the Lord to let somebody hear this for the first time.
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Speaker 1: Who has carried so much guilt, so much guilt for
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Speaker 1: something in your past. It just pulls you down. It's
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Speaker 1: wearing you down. Would you please today come out of prison?
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Speaker 1: Let the Lord forgive you. Receive grace over a part
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Speaker 1: of your life, perhaps where you've never received grace before.
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Speaker 1: His grace is sufficient for you. Isn't that a beautiful phrase?
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Speaker 1: My grace is sufficient for you. Speaking of birds, not
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Speaker 1: too long ago, I saw a bird come out of
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Speaker 1: the sky and sit on the edge of our swimming
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Speaker 1: pool in the backyard. And that bird leaned over with
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Speaker 1: his beak and took a dream. And when that bird
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Speaker 1: took a drink out of our pool, this verse came
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Speaker 1: to my mind. As if the Lord was saying, that
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Speaker 1: bird will never drink up all that water. There is
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Speaker 1: sufficient water for that bird. Friend, you dip your beak
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Speaker 1: into the well of God's grace. You're going to find
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Speaker 1: ample refreshment every single time.
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Speaker 3: Amen.
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Speaker 1: Call Barth. believe this. That name's not real well known
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Speaker 1: to many people, but those of us who labored our
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Speaker 1: way through New Testament theology and seminary came to know
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Speaker 1: Karl Barth. He was recognized as really the best, or
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Speaker 1: at least the most widely recognized theologian of last century.
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Speaker 1: He's got this paragraph about this verse that's a favorite
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Speaker 1: of mine. He said, I've written many books about Some large.
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Speaker 1: I will freely and frankly and gladly admit that these
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Speaker 1: six words say much more and much better things than
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Speaker 1: all the heaps of paper with which I have surrounded myself.
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Speaker 1: And when my books are long since outdated and forgotten,
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Speaker 1: and every book in the world with them, these words
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Speaker 1: will shine with everlasting fullness. My grace is sufficient for thee.
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Speaker 1: Sufficient grace. Sufficient to transform you into an eternal being.
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Speaker 1: Sufficient to shape you into the person with whom God
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Speaker 1: will spend eternity. Sufficient to forgive every sin. Sufficient to
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Speaker 1: love every person who feels unloved. Sufficient to heal every wound.
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Speaker 1: Sufficient grace. Sufficient to cause the apostle Paul to proclaim.
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Speaker 1: Therefore now there is no condemnation. No condemnation for those
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Speaker 1: who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the
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Speaker 1: law of the Spirit who gives life has set you
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Speaker 1: free from the law of sin and death. There is
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Speaker 1: no condemnation, friend. None. Paul doesn't say, well, there's just
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Speaker 1: a little bit of condemnation or limited condemnation or maybe
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Speaker 1: get your act together and there will be no condemnation.
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Speaker 1: He says there's no condemnation. No one in heaven is
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Speaker 1: pointing their finger at you.
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Speaker 3: No one.
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Speaker 1: Your heavenly father is extending his arms towards you. Don't
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Speaker 1: look at me in that tone of voice. Some of
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Speaker 1: you don't believe me. You've been carrying guilt so long. Oh,
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Speaker 1: heavenly father, break through today. No condemnation. That's why Paul
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Speaker 1: could proclaim in verses 14 and 15 of Romans chapter 8,
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Speaker 1: those who are led by the spirit of God are
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Speaker 1: children of God. And the spirit you received does not
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Speaker 1: make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather,
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Speaker 1: the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
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Speaker 1: And by him we cry, Abba, Father. Abba, that tender word,
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Speaker 1: that pedestrian word, the most homely phrase that the Hebrews
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Speaker 1: or the Jews would use to call out to their father. Abba, Abba, Papa, Daddy.
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Speaker 1: You can call God Abba. Remember your position and remember
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Speaker 1: the progression. We are children of God. And then he
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Speaker 1: triumphantly declares in Romans 8, 37 through 39, we are
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Speaker 1: more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I
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Speaker 1: am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, no demons,
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Speaker 1: neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
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Speaker 1: height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will
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Speaker 1: be able to separate us from the love of God
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Speaker 1: that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul said I'm
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Speaker 1: convinced so he begins this section of scripture by acknowledging
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Speaker 1: the struggle but then he comes to this point of
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Speaker 1: triumph and he says in spite of it all I'm
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Speaker 1: convinced are you are you convinced that nothing can separate
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Speaker 1: you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Speaker 1: In one of his fine books, Chuck Swindoll tells a
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Speaker 1: story about a bazaar that was held in northern India
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Speaker 1: and everyone brought wares to trade and sell and one
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Speaker 1: farmer brought a covey of quail. He had tied a
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Speaker 1: string around one leg of each bird And the other
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Speaker 1: ends of the strings were tied to a ring which
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Speaker 1: fit loosely over a central stick. And he had taught
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Speaker 1: the quail to walk in a circle, dolefully in a circle,
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Speaker 1: kind of like mules at a sugar cane mill. A
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Speaker 1: priest came upon the quail and he felt sorry for
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Speaker 1: the birds and he purchased them all. And then he
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Speaker 1: turned to the farmer and he said, just cut the twine.
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Speaker 1: Set them free. I'm not going to take them home.
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Speaker 1: I just want to set them free. And the farmer
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Speaker 1: looked at him and said, well, they're yours now. So
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Speaker 1: he went about cutting the strings. But even though he
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Speaker 1: cut the strings, you know what the quail still did?
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Speaker 1: They just kept walking in circles, kept walking in circles.
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Speaker 1: The farmer shooed them and they flew just a few
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Speaker 1: yards away and they stopped and they started walking in
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Speaker 1: circles again, walking in circles again. They were free. but
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Speaker 1: they didn't believe it. No more walking in circles for you,
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Speaker 1: my friend. No more prison life for you, my friend.
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Speaker 1: The doors are open. A new you is about to happen.
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Speaker 1: May God have mercy upon you as you enter into
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Speaker 1: this new season of a soul set free. Amen. Oh,
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Speaker 1: gracious Lord, for the story of grace, we just can't
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Speaker 1: thank you enough. Where would we be? Some of us
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Speaker 1: have tried to save ourselves. How exhausting, how impossible. And
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Speaker 1: some of us have let you save us, but then thought, oh,
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Speaker 1: it's up to us to stay saved. Equally exhausting and
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Speaker 1: even more shameful. Oh, Lord. Thank you. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: amazing grace. Lord, grant that we can have strength as
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Speaker 1: we do face these inner battles, these temptations. We pray
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Speaker 1: for strength to move forward. We pray for victories. We
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Speaker 1: pray for a new day. We pray that we would
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Speaker 1: not be like we used to be, but we can
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Speaker 1: be better tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you for the work
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Speaker 1: you've done here today and continue to do. In Jesus' name,
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Speaker 1: so so.
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Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you. Loving you alone.
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Speaker 1: Feels so beautiful And yet It hurts the.
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Speaker 3: Most You became my quiet sunrise The dream I never
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Speaker 3: dared to say Every smile you gave so freely took
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Speaker 3: my breath a little away I held this love like
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Speaker 3: fragile glass so precious soft and true but every beat
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Speaker 3: inside my heart was only reaching out to you.
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Speaker 2: Unspoken love is sweet and painful like honey mixed with
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Speaker 2: rain a tender hope I hold so tightly while it
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Speaker 2: Slowly breaks me. Loving you from just one side now
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Speaker 2: leaves my soul in silent blue. Cause the deeper that
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Speaker 2: I fall alone, the lonelier I do. I can't blame
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Speaker 2: my heart for choosing someone it could never keep. So
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Speaker 2: I smile through hidden heartache and love you quietly. Unspoken
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Speaker 2: love is sweet and painful like.
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Speaker 3: Honey mixed with rain.
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Speaker 2: A tender hope I hold so tightly while it slowly
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Speaker 2: breaks me. Loving you from just one side now leaves.
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Speaker 3: My soul in silent blues.
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Speaker 2: Cause the deeper that I fall alone, the lonelier I do.
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Speaker 2: Maybe loving you in silence is the closest I can stay.
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Speaker 2: Though it leaves behind a sorrow that may never fade away.
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Speaker 2: Unspoken love is sweet and painful, like honey mixed with rain.
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Speaker 2: A tender hope I hold so tightly while it Slowly
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Speaker 2: breaks me loving you.
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Speaker 3: From just one side now.
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Speaker 2: Leaves my soul in silent blue. Cause the deeper that
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Speaker 2: I fall alone, the lonelier I do.