Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / For These Reasons, Lord, We Thank You (Part 2) Msg 22 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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For These Reasons, Lord, We Thank You (Part 2) Msg 22 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: We're spending these two days, Sundays, in Psalm 139. We
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  Speaker 1: were in the first 12 verses last Sunday, and we
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  Speaker 1: learned that God knows everything. Not only everything about us,
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  Speaker 1: but everything about everything. That is known as the doctrine
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  Speaker 1: of omniscience. He knows it all, verses 1 through 6.
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  Speaker 1: When we got to verse 7 down through verse 12,
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  Speaker 1: we discovered that God is everywhere at once and no
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  Speaker 1: more in one place than another and always fully aware
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  Speaker 1: of wherever he may be, and that's everywhere, of everything
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  Speaker 1: that's happening. So God does not learn or discover, nor
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  Speaker 1: does God ever late, never delayed. He is forever there.
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  Speaker 1: Today in verses 13 through 18, we're going to make
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  Speaker 1: a journey where the scriptures rarely go. To the womb
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  Speaker 1: of a mother. We're going to see an unborn child
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  Speaker 1: being formed by the hand of God. As we realize
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  Speaker 1: right down to the minutia of that prenatal stage, God
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  Speaker 1: is omnipotent. all-powerful, at work in the life of each
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  Speaker 1: one of us as we are formed in the womb.
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  Speaker 1: These unique verses are found in Psalm 139, 13 through 18,
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  Speaker 1: and then we'll conclude our reading with the last two
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  Speaker 1: verses of the psalm. Once you find your place, please
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  Speaker 1: stand for the reading of the scriptures. Remain standing for prayer.
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  Speaker 1: I'm reading from the New Living Translation. Please follow along,
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  Speaker 1: beginning in verse 13. You made all the delicate inner
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  Speaker 1: parts of my body and knit me together in my
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  Speaker 1: mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex.
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  Speaker 1: Your workmanship is marvelous. How well I know it. You
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  Speaker 1: watched me as I was being formed in utter joy. seclusion,
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  Speaker 1: as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
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  Speaker 1: You saw me before I was born. Every day of
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  Speaker 1: my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was
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  Speaker 1: laid out before a single day had passed. How precious
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  Speaker 1: are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered.
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  Speaker 1: I can't even count them. They outnumber the grains of sand,
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  Speaker 1: and when I wake up, you are still with me.
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  Speaker 1: Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me
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  Speaker 1: and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me
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  Speaker 1: that offends you, And lead me along the path of
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  Speaker 1: everlasting life. What a prayer. And we join our voices
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  Speaker 1: with David, the psalmist, as we pray together. How grateful
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  Speaker 1: we are, our Father, for the minutiae interest of your
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  Speaker 1: will and plan. Right down to the very details of
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  Speaker 1: our lives from conception to to the end of our days,
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  Speaker 1: from the womb to the tomb. You are there. You
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  Speaker 1: are ever aware. You are touched with the feelings of
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  Speaker 1: our infirmities. You care about the things that make us anxious.
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  Speaker 1: You meet our needs. You remind us again and again
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  Speaker 1: that you are here, now, ever available, full of compassion,
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  Speaker 1: marked by mercy and always grace. Thank you for giving
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  Speaker 1: us what we don't deserve. Thank you for doing so
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  Speaker 1: in such a bountiful manner that we run out of
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  Speaker 1: ways to express our gratitude. At this time of the year,
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  Speaker 1: we're especially aware of your provisions, and we need them.
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  Speaker 1: The pandemic continues. Many sigh and mourn as they bid
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  Speaker 1: farewell to loved ones that have been taken. Others sit
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  Speaker 1: anxiously beside the sick and even those dying. Give us
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  Speaker 1: the grace to endure, the strength to be sustained by you,
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  Speaker 1: to trust you, to lean on you. Now minister to us,
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  Speaker 1: our Father, and remind us of the truth that our
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  Speaker 1: worth is not in what we own. It is found
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  Speaker 1: only through your grace in our lives. In the name
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus, we pray. Everyone said amen. Please be seated.
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  Speaker 1: The obstetrician who delivered our firstborn, had a fascinating testimony.
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  Speaker 1: We had chosen him because he was known in the
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  Speaker 1: city as one of the best in his career and
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  Speaker 1: in his field of work. We respected him, though we
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  Speaker 1: really didn't know much about him until that period of
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  Speaker 1: time when he worked with us as Cynthia was preparing
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  Speaker 1: for our firstborn, who was a little boy that God
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  Speaker 1: gave us. When our physician began his schooling, he was
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  Speaker 1: interested in the sciences, and he found that the more
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  Speaker 1: he studied in that field, the less he was drawn
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  Speaker 1: to the things of God, and the more he was
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  Speaker 1: attracted to humanism and the things that would normally be
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  Speaker 1: a part of the intellectual world. In fact, he came
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  Speaker 1: to the place where the idea of faith in God
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  Speaker 1: was rather naive and unsophisticated. His years in medical school
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  Speaker 1: didn't help his faith. In fact, his profs, almost to
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  Speaker 1: a person, drew him further and further away until finally,
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  Speaker 1: by the time he graduated with his medical degree and
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  Speaker 1: began to practice his OBGYN work, He took pride in
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  Speaker 1: telling patients from time to time that he was an
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  Speaker 1: atheist without question. But his career worked against him, as
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  Speaker 1: he put it. For he said, if not every day,
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  Speaker 1: certainly every week, sometimes several times a day, he found
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  Speaker 1: himself holding what amounted to a miracle in his hands.
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  Speaker 1: a newborn. The closer he studied those features, the adorable
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  Speaker 1: little eyes and eyelashes and fingers and tiny fingernails and
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  Speaker 1: toes and toenails and different parts of this wriggling little squirming,
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  Speaker 1: screaming creature, he realized that The design of something like
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  Speaker 1: this certainly called for a designer, though he never talked
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  Speaker 1: about that. He simply and secretly bought a Bible. Now
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  Speaker 1: track me on this. Having had no teaching in spiritual things,
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  Speaker 1: he started with Genesis 1, and began to read through
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  Speaker 1: the Bible all the way into the Gospels where he
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  Speaker 1: realized the one who had been predicted a number of
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  Speaker 1: times in the Old Testament was now fulfilling those predictions
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  Speaker 1: in the New. As Jesus came, born of a virgin,
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  Speaker 1: grew up to minister to those in need, helping the sick,
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  Speaker 1: raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, and in fact, dying
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  Speaker 1: for the sins of the world, and remarkably, miraculously, bodily
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  Speaker 1: coming back after his death in the grave, he rose triumphant.
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  Speaker 1: And our physician, all alone, trusted in Christ, As his savior.
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  Speaker 1: I never did. But I. Thinking back. Wish I would
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  Speaker 1: have asked. him, when you got to Psalm 139, did
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  Speaker 1: you pay much attention to verses 13 to 18? For
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  Speaker 1: like no other scripture, the Lord uses those verses to
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  Speaker 1: take us into the most sacred place on earth, where
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  Speaker 1: life is formed in the womb of a mother. And there,
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  Speaker 1: God is at work in an intricate, incredible way. Even
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  Speaker 1: though he's beginning with and initiates life when it's smaller
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  Speaker 1: than a period at the end of a sentence, tiny,
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  Speaker 1: tiny microscopic cells coming together, life forming. There's no other
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  Speaker 1: scripture like this as omnipotence pays attention to each conception,
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  Speaker 1: each prenatal stage, all the way from conception to birth.
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  Speaker 1: God is right there. Now, to make this even more intriguing,
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  Speaker 1: the psalm is written not by a medical doctor. And
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  Speaker 1: even if it had been, the study of embryology was
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  Speaker 1: unheard of. When this psalm was written, there were no
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  Speaker 1: advanced medical schools. And if there had been, David certainly
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  Speaker 1: wasn't a student in one of them. He's a shepherd.
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  Speaker 1: Here is a shepherd, no doubt unschooled, who had kept
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  Speaker 1: his father's sheep during his growing up years. If he
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  Speaker 1: was schooled, it would be in the local synagogue, and
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  Speaker 1: they wouldn't learn of anatomy there or of the things
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  Speaker 1: of medicine there. They would study the scriptures there if,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, he attended, for he wasn't really that appreciated
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  Speaker 1: by his father. You remember when Samuel came to choose
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  Speaker 1: the king, God had led him to the home of Jesse.
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  Speaker 1: And Jesse paraded his sons in front of Samuel. And
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  Speaker 1: Samuel said, the Lord's anointed is not here. Are these
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  Speaker 1: all your sons? And Jesse thinks for a moment, says,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I've got one more. He's out in the field.
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  Speaker 1: He's keeping the sheep. And Samuel said, bring him. And
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  Speaker 1: when David walks in, because, of course, David's never read Samuel.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't know what's coming. Suddenly there's oil running down
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  Speaker 1: his neck, and he hears words like the king's, the
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  Speaker 1: anointed one is standing before us, the one who will
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  Speaker 1: be king. David knew nothing more of that than he
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  Speaker 1: did of this, as he's led by the Spirit of
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  Speaker 1: God to write truth that is intriguing. And whoever gives
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  Speaker 1: attention to it, as we want to do today, leaves
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  Speaker 1: realizing how carefully God has put each one of us together.
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  Speaker 1: No two alike. Each one of us unique. because of
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  Speaker 1: what we learned from these verses. So at the risk
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  Speaker 1: of sounding a bit pedantic at times, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: do a little dissecting of nouns and verbs and pronouns. Well,
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  Speaker 1: let's take this first word, you. Verse 13 begins, you,
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  Speaker 1: and it's an emphatic you in the Hebrew. You and
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  Speaker 1: no other you. Not nature, not mother nature. There is
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  Speaker 1: no mother nature. It's God. You alone, God, and God alone.
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  Speaker 1: And look at how the verse reads. You made all
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  Speaker 1: the delicate inner parts of my body. See those words,
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  Speaker 1: the inner parts of my body? It's a reference to
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  Speaker 1: the visceral vital organs, the brain, the heart, the lungs,
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  Speaker 1: the kidneys, the liver. That which is such a vital
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  Speaker 1: part of our lives. You were right there shaping, forming, placing,
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  Speaker 1: connecting those inner delicate parts of my body. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: in doing so, you knit me together. Look at your Bible.
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  Speaker 1: You knit me together in my mother's womb. This is
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  Speaker 1: the inception of life. Knit me together has in mind
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  Speaker 1: the idea of a network like this. Like a thicket.
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  Speaker 1: Except in this case, the network is the veritable thicket
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  Speaker 1: of bones and muscles and glands and veins and tendons
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  Speaker 1: and arteries. Along with the lungs with the air later
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  Speaker 1: in life and after birth. And the blood that flows
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  Speaker 1: through the system to cleanse and consistently flow there again.
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  Speaker 1: energizing the body. It's a phenomenal system. You put it
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  Speaker 1: all together. You did that, oh God. You and none other.
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  Speaker 1: Several years ago, I came across an interesting article titled,
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  Speaker 1: This is You. And in that article, I found these words. Today,
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  Speaker 1: your heart will beat an average of 103,000 times Your
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  Speaker 1: blood will travel 168,000 miles, causing 250 pounds of blood
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  Speaker 1: to pass through your heart. You will breathe 23,000 times,
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  Speaker 1: inhaling 438 cubic feet of air. You will speak an
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  Speaker 1: average of 36,000 words. You will move 750 major muscles.
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  Speaker 1: and you will use seven billion brain cells. Truly, we're
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  Speaker 1: fearfully and wonderfully made, and it all begins within the womb.
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  Speaker 1: When you stop and realize that that speck of cells,
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  Speaker 1: so tiny, leads to all of that, the wonder is,
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  Speaker 1: David doesn't go on before verse 14. He has a
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  Speaker 1: burst of praise to God. Thank you, he says. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you for making me so wonderfully complex. The message reads,
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  Speaker 1: thank you, high God. You're breathtaking. Body and soul, I
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  Speaker 1: am marvelously made. The new American Standard Bible renders this
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  Speaker 1: in the familiar words, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't it true? The human body is a phenomenal, phenomenal
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  Speaker 1: blend of strength and beauty and coordination and balance and efficiency.
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  Speaker 1: And the deeper you look and study the makeup within,
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  Speaker 1: it gets even more complex and intriguing. Think about it.
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  Speaker 1: Your temperament is uniquely yours. Your set of emotions, uniquely given.
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  Speaker 1: Your giftedness, your personality. Your glands, your senses, your memories.
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  Speaker 1: Your fingerprints, like no other. Your DNA, like no other.
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  Speaker 1: All part of this intricate system made by our one
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  Speaker 1: and only God. I wondered if the physician, when he
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  Speaker 1: read those words, connected it to the very things he
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  Speaker 1: had been training himself not to believe in. I never
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  Speaker 1: ask him, and so I will never know. But as
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  Speaker 1: we read these, David's words end with, how marvelous, how
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  Speaker 1: well I know this. And then he goes back, says,
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  Speaker 1: you watched me as I was being formed in utter
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  Speaker 1: seclusion and As I was woven together in the dark
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  Speaker 1: of the womb. Look at that. He goes where at
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  Speaker 1: that time in life no one had ever gone. And
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  Speaker 1: he looks deeply at the secret place where our frame
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  Speaker 1: is put together. The word means bony substance. It would
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  Speaker 1: have reference to the spine and the skeletal structure of
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  Speaker 1: our body. And next you will observe, he says, it
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  Speaker 1: is all woven together in the dark of the womb.
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  Speaker 1: The term has in mind, get this, variegated body. like
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  Speaker 1: multicolored tapestry, like fine needlepoint, we might say, or even
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  Speaker 1: intricate embroidery. Not unlike the veil in the ancient tabernacle,
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  Speaker 1: when you stop to study it, you'll find in Exodus 28,
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  Speaker 1: verse 8, that it too was multicolored. Remember the colors? Gold, blue, purple,
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  Speaker 1: and scarlet. But this isn't referring to the veil of
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  Speaker 1: the tabernacle. It's referring to the veins and arteries and
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  Speaker 1: organic tissue and the nerves within our anatomy. Perhaps a
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  Speaker 1: paraphrase will help. My skeletal structure was not hidden from
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  Speaker 1: you when I was being formed in that place of
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  Speaker 1: complete protection within my mother. when my veins, arteries, nerves,
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  Speaker 1: and organic tissue were embroidered together in variegated colors just
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  Speaker 1: like fine needlepoint, prepared by the skill of your hands
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  Speaker 1: according to your sovereign plan. In our earliest days and hours, actually,
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  Speaker 1: of life, God is there shaping us, forming us, making
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  Speaker 1: us who we would become The early part of verse
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  Speaker 1: 16 is equally intriguing. You saw me before I was born.
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  Speaker 1: If anyone attempts to tell you that life doesn't begin
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  Speaker 1: until after birth, remind them of Psalm 139, 13 to 18.
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  Speaker 1: God is at work. Not as Planned Parenthood would tell
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  Speaker 1: you with fetal tissues. fetal matter with a baby a
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  Speaker 1: living human being he watched as we were in that
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  Speaker 1: womb before birth your eyes have seen my unformed substance
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  Speaker 1: the words come from the Hebrew word to wrap or
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  Speaker 1: to fold to fold together And in this particular noun form,
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  Speaker 1: it appears only here in the sacred text. And it
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  Speaker 1: has reference to the embryo. It appears first in the sentence.
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  Speaker 1: My embryo, your eyes saw me in my very first
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  Speaker 1: stage of life. Hours and days of existence still wrapped
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  Speaker 1: in embryonic form. You were there watching over every moment
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  Speaker 1: of my being formed. He goes on and looks at
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  Speaker 1: life after birth. Did you notice in verse 16? Every
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  Speaker 1: day of my life was recorded in your book. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I pause because this is mind boggling. You and I
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  Speaker 1: are able to handle the dimensions of life fairly well.
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  Speaker 1: But when we get beyond that ability, we get into
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  Speaker 1: the foreknowledge of God, the sovereignty of God. Theologians have
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  Speaker 1: for centuries attempted to unscrew the inscrutable, explain this which
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  Speaker 1: is inexplicable, but we believe it. Look at what he says.
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  Speaker 1: Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
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  Speaker 1: Every moment was laid out. Your Bible reads ordained. Good
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  Speaker 1: word there. It's often used in the scriptures to refer
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  Speaker 1: to the potter at his or her wheel as she
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  Speaker 1: works with a lump of clay, shapes it, informs it,
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  Speaker 1: rendered here ordained. Every moment was ordained or laid out
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  Speaker 1: before a single day had passed. Now, for a moment,
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  Speaker 1: hold your finger here and go back to Job 14.
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  Speaker 1: Just a quick glance at two verses in Job 14.
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  Speaker 1: I love these cross-references that verify what is said in
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  Speaker 1: the previous passage. 14.1, Job writes, How frail is humanity!
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  Speaker 1: How short is life! How full of trouble! That sort
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  Speaker 1: of wraps up life in one sentence, doesn't it? How
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  Speaker 1: frail is humanity? How fleeting is life? How full of trouble?
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  Speaker 1: Now look at verse 5. Hold on now. Verse 5.
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  Speaker 1: You have decided the length of our lives. You know
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  Speaker 1: how many months we will live. And we are not
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  Speaker 1: given a minute longer. Isn't that great? I got people
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  Speaker 1: worried about when they're going to die. You have to
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  Speaker 1: worry about it. God's got it under control. When it's
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  Speaker 1: the moment you go, guess what? You don't stay. You're gone.
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  Speaker 1: I see people on the airplane going through their beads.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to go, please. You know, if we're going
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  Speaker 1: to go down, we're going to go down. And this
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  Speaker 1: may be our last flight. I just don't have the
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  Speaker 1: heart to say that to somebody who's worried sick over it.
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  Speaker 1: But the fact is, one day will be our last day.
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  Speaker 1: For my mother, it took place when she laid down
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  Speaker 1: for a nap and never woke up. Only 63 years old.
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  Speaker 1: My dad lingered ill and infirm for seven or more years.
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  Speaker 1: Lived with us. when we were living in California and
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  Speaker 1: we literally watched the process of death transpire. But he lingered.
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  Speaker 1: And your loved one may linger or may be taken
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  Speaker 1: suddenly or it may seem to you prematurely. There's no
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  Speaker 1: such thing. There's no such thing. We need to get
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  Speaker 1: words like mistake and fate together. Out of our vocabulary.
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  Speaker 1: And luck. Oh, I guess he had good luck. He
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  Speaker 1: lived a long time. Had nothing to do with luck.
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  Speaker 1: Had everything to do with the book of God. God's
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  Speaker 1: got it all under control. And he's making you, or
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  Speaker 1: he has made you like you are. Back to Psalm 139.
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  Speaker 1: He's intimately engaged in our, what my dad used to
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  Speaker 1: call our put together. He is determined because of our
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  Speaker 1: skeletal structure, our size, our height. And that gives your
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  Speaker 1: kids encouragement. Let's say you've got one who is six
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  Speaker 1: feet seven in middle school. And she's a girl. Guess what?
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  Speaker 1: She needs to know Psalm 139, 13 to 18. It's
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  Speaker 1: not a freak of nature. She's exactly the height her
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  Speaker 1: God wanted her to be. There's a purpose. There's a reason.
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  Speaker 1: There's a difference. And this is a great moment for
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  Speaker 1: me to add. Let's stop comparing. That's why I used
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  Speaker 1: to say to parents, and I still do on occasion
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  Speaker 1: when I speak to them and they'll listen, somebody my age,
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  Speaker 1: don't compare report cards. It proves nothing except that you
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  Speaker 1: can read. It doesn't help any kid, especially the one
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  Speaker 1: who doesn't bring home a boring report card. My brother,
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  Speaker 1: who had an IQ approaching genius, true. I think it's 168, 172,
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  Speaker 1: some ridiculous number. And he would bring home the same
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  Speaker 1: letters week after month after month. My devil, oh, look
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  Speaker 1: at that. I had variety. I offered a lot of letters.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't seem to value the letters that I offered. Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because he compared the two of them. My brother was
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  Speaker 1: interested in science and the things of science, and he's
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  Speaker 1: still brilliant. I love him dearly. We no longer are
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  Speaker 1: being compared. But it's hard for my folks. And then
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  Speaker 1: there's my sister, Along she came. Yeah, she knows my
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  Speaker 1: sister back here. My sister never liked to study that much.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: And so my dad paid my brother to be her tutor.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: The problem was she hated my brother. So when you
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: hate your tutor, you don't learn very well. Finally, I
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: remember my brother brought back the money and said, Dad,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: here's the $ 5. She can't learn. She took it. No,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: she says, I won't learn because I hate you. That
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: would be her response. Loving family, delightful time. My brother
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: would be in there playing Paderewski's minuet and Bach's Solveigetto
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: on the piano. My sister and I are in there
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: doing dishes, singing You Are My Sunshine or whatever. Different,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: different kids. When I got to high school, they thought
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: I'd be as brilliant as my brother or as popular
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: as my sister. And all I could do was stutter.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I couldn't get my words out. And thanks to a
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: wonderful high school teacher, I learned to speak. How helpful
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: was that? And Dick Neamey didn't even know the contribution
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: he was making to my life. That's another subject. Three
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: different kids, born from the same womb, Born in the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: same place. My dad used to brag, same bed on
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: which you were conceived, you were born. My mother never
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: liked it that he told people that, but he was
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: proud of it. Little, little tiny garage apartment in El Campo, Texas.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Three kids. Made by God. Planned by God. To be
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: used for his purposes. Every day of our lives recorded
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: in his book. I never knew my sister would die
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: before my brother or I. My brother's older. And I've
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: not lived such a great life that I deserve to
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: live longer. She was terrific, by the way. Don't get
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: me started. She was a terrific athlete. She was all
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: city and volleyball and swimming and popular everywhere she went.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: So they expected me to be a little bit of
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Orville and a little bit of Lucy. And I was
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: none of either. Here I am taking algebra. And our
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: teacher says, you're really going to use it. Right. I've
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: really used algebra a whole lot in my life. It's
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: another subject. I'm not made to be a mathematician. My
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: brother could do that stuff thinking about something else. He
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: built his own radios. Unbelievable. Not really. It's the way
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: God made him. You see, we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: And look at verse 17. How precious are your thoughts
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: about us, O God? You really vote for all of us.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Because you made all of us. There's no reason to
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: doubt your importance or the reason for your being here,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: your significance. God made you. You're made by God. And
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: it reads, I can't even count those thoughts. They outnumber
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: with you. Remarkable. Stop and think. You are the height
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: you are because of God's plan in your life. You
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: have the color of skin because of God's plan for
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: you in your life. You have the color of hair. Well,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: you used to. The color of hair that God wanted
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: you to have. The color of eyes that God wants
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: you to have. The type of personality. Interwoven within you
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: are innate abilities. and intelligence capacity and level. Artistic gifts
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: that others don't have and others even have more of.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Some of you have athletic skills and you can just
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: shine when you get in that field of athletics. Others
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: are not coordinated at all. Some have an inner determination
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: and others are emotionally frail. And they're given to a
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: much more delicate form of life or way of thinking.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: It's the way we're made. How priceless are his thoughts?
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: How numerous are his plans for us? How near and
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: dear he remains to us. Realizing how thoroughly and beautifully
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: we're made, David pauses and makes a final prayer. Verse 23.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Search me, O God. Now, the one who makes us
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: is certainly able to search. He knows every particle of
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: our being. Search me, O God. Know my heart. Now,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: God doesn't search us so he can learn. He never
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: learns anything. He's omniscient, remember? He searches us so that
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: we can learn the condition of our hearts. He can
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: reveal to us the truth. See, he's able to search
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: under every rug of cover-up, every closet, every room of
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: our house, every secret, every passing thought. He even knows
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: our anxious thoughts. Search me, O God, and know my
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: heart and Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: literally the Hebrew says, any way of pain in me.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Isn't that an interesting way to put it? Anything that
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: pains you in my life, show me. He does that.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: I've asked the Lord to do that in my life,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and there have been times that he's revealed things that
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: had been there for some time and I had never
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: realized it until I'd come to him and genuinely said,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: show me anything that brings you pain. Within a matter
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: of minutes, it's like, it's clear as the screen we
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: look at. It's as clear as the hands in front
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: of us. And then lead me along a path of
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: everlasting life. Help me, Heavenly Father, to shape my life
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: according to your plan, which is always perfect. Now, I've
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: saved something important to last, to the last. Not only
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: a fact, but also a story, a true story. My
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: message today is really politically incorrect. Because we live in
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: a day when life really is not that valuable. One
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: of the most unprotected and scariest places to be is
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: the womb of a mother where a helpless child awaits
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: birth to breathe and to carry on life that began
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: nine months earlier. There are those who will take that
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: life in the last term, or even after birth, of
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: all things. But you see, Psalm 139 is so pro-life,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: you can't see any other position as you could defend.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: How grateful we are that Our mothers had us when
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: they didn't have to have us. Years ago, a couple
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: married in the Great Depression. Ten months after their wedding day,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: she gave birth to her firstborn. Thirteen months later, she
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: gave birth to her secondborn. The first one, barely a toddler,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: and along comes the second. She wasn't too strong and
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: didn't do real well with small children. Her husband traveled
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: quite a bit selling insurance. and so he was on
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: the road a lot and she was alone a lot
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: and the place where they lived was small and they
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: didn't have much money and adding a child only added
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: to the stress of the great depression which must have
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: been a terrible time and then wouldn't you know it
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Before their fourth anniversary in January of that year, 1934,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: she was pregnant again. Abortion at that time was illegal,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't impossible. You could get one. There were
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: physicians who would perform that, but you just had to
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: do so in hiding, and you told no one. But
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: she chose not to do that. Sickly, struggling, financially strapped,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: she and her husband decided, we're Christians, we are to
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: accept this even though this baby wasn't planned by us. Obviously,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: he was by God. So in October of 1934, I
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: was born because that is my family story The first
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: two children were, shall we say, planned. But as my
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: mother reminded me rather often, you were a mistake. She,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I'm sure, meant that nicely, but just didn't sound quite
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: like you would hope. But I grew up realizing I
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: was the mistake in the family.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Huh.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: But in God's book, all of my days were written
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: exactly as he would have me live them. The same
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: for my brother. And the same for my sister. We
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: were close. We sang trios together. We used to stand
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: on the counter of Red Helmershack's pharmacy and sing, Heil, Heil,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: right in the viewer's face. It was a great trio.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: We sang for... ice cream cones, and played together and
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: did all kinds of stuff together. But we couldn't have
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: been more different. All three of us engaged in ministry.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: My brother over 33 years, missionary in Argentina. My sister
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: over 20 years with Women of Faith. I've been involved
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: in ministry for not quite 60 years. And here we
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: are coming from a little financially strapped family in a
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: little tiny garage apartment in El Campo, Texas. By the
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: grace of God. When this is true in your own life,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: you realize God's sovereign plan is at work. He gets
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: all the credit, all the glory, even in the life
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: of a mistake. I kind of like being a mistake.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: I kind of think that's good. That means they didn't
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: plan real hard to have me. I sort of went, hi.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: And from then on, oh, the changes. Oh, the grace
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: that brought salvation's plan. I speak to you today, though,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: it's not about me. This is about you and what
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: you need to hear. Some of you quite likely have
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Or right there. You may even be carrying a child
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: you hadn't planned. But God had planned. You maybe weren't
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: ready for what it would bring. But that's part of
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: his plan. Having you not ready requires you to trust him.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: Like my mom and dad did. when they had no
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: way of knowing what the future held. It's also a
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: great moment for you to give thanks for your precious
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: mother who bore you and reared you and trained you
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: in a day when parents really are sort of glossed
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: over like necessary evils. when in fact we are the
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: secret of the next generation and the next and the next.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: May God use you to help young mothers and mothers-to-be
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: to learn from what we have learned that God is
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: at work even when we can't see the plan unfold. Oh,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: and by the way, since we're here together, It's a
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: great moment for me to tell you that the Savior
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: is available to each one of you. Maybe you didn't
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: know it. You may be a little like my physician,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: our physician, who helped in the birth of our firstborn.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: You may just think there isn't a God. And all
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: you have to do is look at your hands and
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: realize just from the wrist down, you're a miracle. what
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: your hands can do, and the eyes, what they can see,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: and the ears, what they can hear. Your life is
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: a gift from God. How great that you give it
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: back to him in faith and trust. Let's take care
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: of that right now. Bow with me, will you? Let's
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: say you're just sitting alone in this big room, It's
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: just you and your thoughts. Think back. Can you return
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: to a time when you trusted in Christ? I don't
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: mean you could name the hour, the day, or the date.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: That's not important. The fact is you remember when you
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: and Christ began to relate to one another. You believed
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: in him. If you can't remember that that ever happened,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: it probably didn't So this is a great moment to
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: take care of that. Simple words and a prayer. Lord,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: thank you for making me. Thank you for my birth.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you for giving me my life. I now want
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: to give it to you. I want to trust your
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: son as my savior. Just like my physician did all alone.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: I believe in him now. I trust in Jesus. I
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: take him as my own. He will hear you and
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: he will come to live within. He will forgive you
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: of all those things in your past that bother you.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: As far as east is from west, he'll remove them
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: from you. And he'll use you from this day on.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: Trust him now. Now to him who is able to
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: guard us from stumbling and to present us faultless before
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: the presence of his glory with exceeding great joy to
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: the only wise God be glory and majesty Forever and ever.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: And ever and ever. World without end. Everyone said. Amen. Amen.
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: The preceding message. For these reasons Lord. We thank you.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: Part 2. Was copyrighted in 2020 and 2021. And the
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in 2021. by Charles R.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: Swindoll, Inc.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited.