Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Can-We-Talk-Msg-7-22

Transcript

Can-We-Talk-Msg-7-22 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:03
Speaker 1: I never hear that great hymn Jesus paid it all
0:06
Speaker 1: without remembering the words of a great preacher of yesteryear
0:12
Speaker 1: named Donald Barnhause. His favorite part of the hymn was
0:16
Speaker 1: the word all. Jesus paid it all. To illustrate the
0:23
Speaker 1: importance of it, he once said, the hymn does not
0:27
Speaker 1: say Jesus paid ninety eight percent two percent. I owe
0:35
Speaker 1: sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it light pink.
0:40
Speaker 1: There's just something about it that doesn't work. If you've
0:45
Speaker 1: never met Christ as Lord and savior, you need to
0:49
Speaker 1: know that there is nothing you can bring to make
0:53
Speaker 1: yourself a little bit better in God's eyes, that He
0:57
Speaker 1: might smile on your life out of being impressed and say, oh,
1:02
Speaker 1: welcome to my family. We don't come to God because
1:07
Speaker 1: of something we are. We come to our God because
1:12
Speaker 1: of something his son did. He paid it what all,
1:20
Speaker 1: He picked up the tab, as one person put it,
1:25
Speaker 1: He paid it all, completely covered our sins with his blood.
1:33
Speaker 1: And by trusting in Christ, you're acknowledging there's really nothing
1:38
Speaker 1: you can bring except your trust in what Christ has done.
1:45
Speaker 1: And that is an invitation today. If you have never
1:49
Speaker 1: heard it before, this is the day for you to
1:52
Speaker 1: respond to the one who paid it all on your behalf.
2:00
Speaker 1: We're engaged in a study of the life of Abraham
2:03
Speaker 1: out of the Book of Genesis. We've come today to
2:06
Speaker 1: the fifteenth chapter. If you brought a Bible with you,
2:10
Speaker 1: and I hope you have without it, you'll be a
2:13
Speaker 1: little lost here at Stonebrier. Always make a habit to
2:18
Speaker 1: bring a Bible when you come to the worship service
2:21
Speaker 1: or any of our adult fellowships. Everything we have to
2:25
Speaker 1: say is based on this book. It is our standard
2:29
Speaker 1: for life. It is our reason for following our God
2:34
Speaker 1: in obedience. It is His will in written form. We're
2:39
Speaker 1: in the fifteenth chapter in this wonderful story that we
2:44
Speaker 1: are unfolding from the scriptures, and I'll read excerpts from
2:48
Speaker 1: this chapter for us and out of respect for the
2:52
Speaker 1: word of God. May we stand together as it is
2:55
Speaker 1: read fifteen verse one. After these things, the word of
3:06
Speaker 1: the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, do
3:11
Speaker 1: not fear Abram. I am a shield to you. Your
3:17
Speaker 1: reward shall be very great. Abram said, O, Lord God,
3:25
Speaker 1: what will you give me? Since I am childless and
3:28
Speaker 1: the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And
3:33
Speaker 1: Abram said, since you have given no offspring to me,
3:39
Speaker 1: one born in my house is my heir. Then behold
3:43
Speaker 1: the word of the Lord came to him, saying, this
3:45
Speaker 1: man will not be your heir, but one who shall
3:52
Speaker 1: come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.
3:59
Speaker 1: And he took him outside and said, now look toward
4:02
Speaker 1: the heavens and count the stars. If you are able
4:07
Speaker 1: to count them, And he said to him, so shall
4:09
Speaker 1: your descendants be. Then he believed in the Lord, and
4:17
Speaker 1: he reckoned it to him as righteousness verse eighteen. On
4:25
Speaker 1: that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying,
4:30
Speaker 1: to your descendants, I have given this land from the
4:33
Speaker 1: river of Egypt, as far as the Great River, the
4:35
Speaker 1: River of Euphrates, the Kenite and the Kennzite, and the Cadmanite,
4:41
Speaker 1: and the Hittite, and the Perizite, and the Rephaem and
4:44
Speaker 1: the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Gurgisite, and the Jebusite,
4:50
Speaker 1: and as a dear doctor Walt Kayser used to say,
4:53
Speaker 1: and the termites, all of them will discover my will.
4:59
Speaker 1: Please be seated our father. We acknowledged that if you
5:13
Speaker 1: had not paid at all, and we were left with
5:15
Speaker 1: a debt. We'd never know what it is to meet
5:22
Speaker 1: you when we die because we couldn't even pay two percent.
5:30
Speaker 1: The whole stack of sin that has contaminated us through
5:37
Speaker 1: our lives would condemn us. For you were holy, we
5:42
Speaker 1: are unholy. You were pure, and we are impure. You
5:47
Speaker 1: are righteous and we are unrighteous. You know no sin
5:55
Speaker 1: in ourselves. We know nothing but sin. So thank you
6:02
Speaker 1: for sending your son to pay it all and with
6:08
Speaker 1: his coming, thank you for those blessings which come in abundance,
6:14
Speaker 1: Even as we must wait on occasion for those blessings
6:19
Speaker 1: to occur. Those who wait on the Lord shall renew
6:24
Speaker 1: their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles.
6:30
Speaker 1: It shall run and not be weary, shall walk, and
6:36
Speaker 1: not faint thanke you for your plan, Lord, in the
6:42
Speaker 1: blessings of our lives, as you chose for us the
6:47
Speaker 1: families into which we would be born, and the people
6:52
Speaker 1: who would be a part of our growing up years,
6:58
Speaker 1: our mentors, our friends, our commanding officers, our grandparents, those
7:14
Speaker 1: on whose shoulders we stand, giving us a fresh perspective
7:20
Speaker 1: of what lies ahead. Forgive us, our Father, for those
7:26
Speaker 1: nights that we doubted you, and those times we run
7:32
Speaker 1: away from you, And we will never thank you sufficiently,
7:39
Speaker 1: our Father, for giving us this great land, this magnificent
7:45
Speaker 1: nation in which to grow up, the pleasure of growing
7:54
Speaker 1: up in the land of the free and the home
8:00
Speaker 1: of the brave. We worship you today because of Jesus,
8:09
Speaker 1: and as in his name, we give our gifts with
8:13
Speaker 1: great gratitude. And everyone said amen. For the next few moments,
8:22
Speaker 1: I want you to think about a friend, your friend.
8:30
Speaker 1: I know we all have more than one, and so
8:34
Speaker 1: why don't we settle on our best friend. Think about
8:41
Speaker 1: that person for the next few moments. You know each
8:48
Speaker 1: other well, it's taken time, and through the passing of
8:52
Speaker 1: time you have begun to share in the information of
8:58
Speaker 1: each other's lives. You know each other's dreams and hopes
9:05
Speaker 1: and secrets and shames your friends. If that person were
9:14
Speaker 1: in trouble, you'd be there, even without being invited. You
9:19
Speaker 1: would give anything to have more time with that friend,
9:26
Speaker 1: because you have learned over the years that in the
9:29
Speaker 1: give and take of your friendship, you're a better person
9:32
Speaker 1: for it. Truth be told, your commitment is without reservation,
9:40
Speaker 1: and your trust is without hesitation your friends. Mainly you
9:50
Speaker 1: talk together. You talk, and of course you listen to
9:56
Speaker 1: one another. In this discourse through life, you discover just
10:05
Speaker 1: how much you treasure that friendship, how rich your life
10:11
Speaker 1: has become because of that individual. Now, then, keeping all
10:18
Speaker 1: of that in mind, think God called Abraham his friend.
10:33
Speaker 1: Unless I'm mistaken, he is the only one in all
10:36
Speaker 1: the Bible who has called the friend of God. Wow.
10:43
Speaker 1: So in light of the things we just talked about
10:47
Speaker 1: and thought about regarding friendships, those things were true with
10:54
Speaker 1: Abraham and his God. They spent time together, They were
11:00
Speaker 1: committed to each other, They felt comfortable in each other's presence,
11:06
Speaker 1: They learned each other's secrets. They began to trust one
11:14
Speaker 1: another and to believe in the goodness and the greatness
11:22
Speaker 1: of each other. If we forget that, the Genesis fifteen
11:31
Speaker 1: is one boring chapter. It's just boring. There's no war
11:37
Speaker 1: going on, so that somebody goes into the battle and
11:41
Speaker 1: comes back of victor. There's not even an argument to
11:46
Speaker 1: add a little spark and fire to the conversation. There's
11:50
Speaker 1: just a couple of friends. Oh but how great that
12:00
Speaker 1: makes the whole story, because you see, this is a
12:05
Speaker 1: conversation that we're allowed to listen in on. Sometimes it
12:12
Speaker 1: would be fun to be a bug on the wall
12:13
Speaker 1: and listen to two friends as they talk. Today we're
12:18
Speaker 1: the bug on the wall. We're going to listen as
12:22
Speaker 1: God speaks, and Abraham listens and talks, and as God
12:26
Speaker 1: listens while Abraham shares what's on his heart, and as
12:29
Speaker 1: they This is called among people who interpret the Bible
12:34
Speaker 1: interchange interchange. I've charted that for you in the outline
12:41
Speaker 1: that you received, and your worship holder right there at
12:43
Speaker 1: the top. Please observe it. It's so simple, but it
12:49
Speaker 1: helps the chapter come alive. The first verse, the Lord
12:54
Speaker 1: is in focus. Not surprisingly, Abraham responds in verses two
12:58
Speaker 1: and three, and that brings about a response from the
13:01
Speaker 1: Lord verses four and five. So the dialogue continues. Abram's
13:07
Speaker 1: back in the scene in verse six, the Lord is
13:09
Speaker 1: back in in verse seven, Abraham is in verse eight,
13:12
Speaker 1: and suddenly, suddenly at that point it's a monologue. And
13:17
Speaker 1: from verse nine all the way to the end. Well,
13:22
Speaker 1: there's not only conversation, there's a prophetic revelation, which is
13:28
Speaker 1: rather remarkable. As we look back on it, we don't
13:32
Speaker 1: realize how remarkable that it became to Abram, who had
13:38
Speaker 1: no clue that that was coming. So what we have
13:42
Speaker 1: is a dialogue followed by a monologue. The dialogue is
13:47
Speaker 1: between two friends, and I don't mean to bring God
13:50
Speaker 1: down to a human level, so don't go there. I
13:53
Speaker 1: understand the difference between a man and God is in
14:00
Speaker 1: possible to a graph. In no senses, God like we are,
14:08
Speaker 1: and I think it's high time we stop thinking of
14:11
Speaker 1: him as that. Like on the old maps. He's a
14:14
Speaker 1: big face with pooch cheeks, blowing cold wind out of
14:17
Speaker 1: the north. That's not God, please, And he doesn't have
14:22
Speaker 1: a beard. God's timeless, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. God is pure, righteous, holy,
14:34
Speaker 1: just love, goodness. Abram and in himself, is none of
14:41
Speaker 1: these things. So he really does need a friend like God.
14:46
Speaker 1: You see, truth be told. God doesn't really need Abram,
14:52
Speaker 1: but Abram really needs God. My favorite part the beginning
15:00
Speaker 1: of this section is the first three words, which interestingly
15:04
Speaker 1: most people would quickly pass over to get to the
15:06
Speaker 1: other part that's also boring. After these things, huh, think
15:15
Speaker 1: about it. Don't ever race over words that you see
15:20
Speaker 1: in the scriptures. They are never there, just to fill
15:24
Speaker 1: up space till you get to the important part. After
15:29
Speaker 1: what things is the most common or the most logical
15:32
Speaker 1: question you could ask. Think about it. Go back ten
15:36
Speaker 1: years when he was seventy five. The lord called him
15:39
Speaker 1: out of her of the Chaldeans, and he left everything,
15:42
Speaker 1: packed up, all of his goods, put it all on
15:44
Speaker 1: a cart, and brought with him the servants and his
15:47
Speaker 1: wife and she. At age sixty five, they strike out,
15:50
Speaker 1: not knowing where they were going. After that, after they
15:54
Speaker 1: made their way to the land of Canaan and began
15:58
Speaker 1: to get established in the severe faith came and Abram
16:01
Speaker 1: went down and made a mess of things in Egypt.
16:04
Speaker 1: Remember remember Egypt where he told Pharaoh that his wife
16:08
Speaker 1: was really his sister, and Pharaoh says, great, I want
16:11
Speaker 1: her in my harem. So he brings Sarah and it
16:14
Speaker 1: gets all discombobulated, and Pharaoh comes back and says, you
16:18
Speaker 1: lied to me, and Abram, yeah, I did. Actually, I'll
16:21
Speaker 1: lie to you after all of that, and then he
16:25
Speaker 1: gets back into Canaan, and then there's impossible situation because
16:30
Speaker 1: all of their crops could not feed all of their herds,
16:34
Speaker 1: and so he gave a lot of choice and naturally
16:37
Speaker 1: being selfish, a Lot chose the valley land, which is
16:41
Speaker 1: full of rain and green grass and sodom and gamorrow
16:48
Speaker 1: after that, and so the war breaks out, and keer
16:54
Speaker 1: Laomer remember him, rises up against these other vassal kings,
16:59
Speaker 1: and before long they're at war, and Lot is taken
17:03
Speaker 1: and brought into captivity. And Abram, because he's a great man,
17:06
Speaker 1: goes and rescues Lot from captivity, brings him back in
17:10
Speaker 1: the land. Lot never says thank you after all of that.
17:14
Speaker 1: Abram is back at the altar after these things. By
17:18
Speaker 1: the way, your life is full of after these things.
17:24
Speaker 1: And unless you keep a good journal or have a
17:26
Speaker 1: great memory, you'll forget what those things included, because you're finite,
17:37
Speaker 1: and you have no way of remembering them if you
17:39
Speaker 1: don't keep a record of them or have a friend
17:41
Speaker 1: to talk with about them. But how valuable it is
17:46
Speaker 1: to know what's been in light of what is and
17:52
Speaker 1: what is yet to be. God's in it all aw
17:57
Speaker 1: Tozer was right. We think of ourselves as inhabiting some
18:00
Speaker 1: parenthetic interval between the God who was and the God
18:03
Speaker 1: who will be. But in this ever present now we
18:06
Speaker 1: are lonely with that ancient and cosmic loneliness. What a
18:10
Speaker 1: great statement. God is in our past, he is in
18:14
Speaker 1: our future, and he's certainly in our present. Abram, I
18:19
Speaker 1: know exactly where you are. I know the scars you have,
18:22
Speaker 1: I know the places you have hurt, and I know
18:25
Speaker 1: your situation fully. I'm God. So let's talk. Let's talk now.
18:34
Speaker 1: We're ready for the rest of us. One after these things,
18:38
Speaker 1: the word of the Lord came to Abram and a vision.
18:41
Speaker 1: Put the brakes on. Stop right there, because some of
18:44
Speaker 1: you are waiting for a vision. You're hoping some night
18:48
Speaker 1: to hear the voice. Shuck, this is God, now up here.
19:00
Speaker 1: I'm up here. That's not going to happen unless I've
19:03
Speaker 1: had a bad taco or something for supper, and then
19:07
Speaker 1: you're lobel of all kind of visions. We don't go
19:09
Speaker 1: about visions today because we have the Book of God.
19:15
Speaker 1: He's given us sixty six books, and the books for
19:20
Speaker 1: him an inerrant record of his will and word. We
19:24
Speaker 1: don't wait on the rooftop for a vision. We don't
19:27
Speaker 1: stand on our front porch looking for visions or listening
19:32
Speaker 1: for some vision or message. But in those days there
19:36
Speaker 1: was no Bible. Abram had not one shred a printed
19:43
Speaker 1: evidence of God's word and God's will. He only had
19:48
Speaker 1: visions and dreams and voices in the night and moments
19:58
Speaker 1: during the day when the lords spoke to him and
20:01
Speaker 1: revealed himself to him in his divine revelation. This is
20:06
Speaker 1: one of those times Vision came to Abram saying, do
20:15
Speaker 1: not fear. What would he fear? Well, think about it,
20:20
Speaker 1: kettereral Leomer could retaliate kings didn't like to lose. Maybe
20:25
Speaker 1: he could come back over the horizon and take back
20:28
Speaker 1: all the things he had before. Don't fear. Maybe Solom
20:33
Speaker 1: down there is gonna spread its venom up into our
20:36
Speaker 1: area and bring all of the evil from the valley
20:39
Speaker 1: up into cape. Don't fear, don't fear. Stop it. I
20:45
Speaker 1: am a shield to you. How good is that? Abram
20:49
Speaker 1: doesn't have a shield. All he has is an altar,
20:52
Speaker 1: But he has his God, and he's God's friend. And
20:57
Speaker 1: God says, I'll put my arms around you, and I
20:59
Speaker 1: won't let you get hurt. I'm watching over you, I'm
21:04
Speaker 1: protecting you. In fact, he says, your reward shall be
21:09
Speaker 1: very great. Don't forget that, friends, don't exaggerate. It's gonna
21:15
Speaker 1: be very great. I'll show you how great in a minute.
21:19
Speaker 1: So Abram's standing there by now, if I figure correctly,
21:22
Speaker 1: he's about eighty five years old, which means his wife's
21:25
Speaker 1: seventy five. He's never heard her say lately that she's expecting.
21:31
Speaker 1: And the Lord had said to Abram ten years ago,
21:34
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a baby, and it's gonna be an
21:37
Speaker 1: enormous group of descendants, and you're gonna have a whole
21:41
Speaker 1: race of people called the Hebrews. It's gonna be yours,
21:44
Speaker 1: and your reward is gonna be great. So Abram, now
21:48
Speaker 1: remember their friends answers, Oh, Lord God, what will you
21:55
Speaker 1: give me? Since I am you know what the Hebrews says, stripped?
22:00
Speaker 1: What would you give me? Since we're stripped? We don't
22:04
Speaker 1: have any kids. You said, we're gonna have kids. And
22:09
Speaker 1: it's been good night, Lord ten years. And the air
22:14
Speaker 1: of my house is Eliezar of Damascus. He's probably the
22:18
Speaker 1: first born among the house servants living there in Abram's tents.
22:25
Speaker 1: And Abram said, since you have given no offspring to me,
22:29
Speaker 1: one born in my house is my heir. It's gotta
22:32
Speaker 1: be Eliazar. If you could read the Hebrew, you would
22:35
Speaker 1: find in the very next verse a very emphatic no. No,
22:42
Speaker 1: I love it when God answers like that. There's no
22:44
Speaker 1: question at that point. Oh okay, got it. Look at
22:47
Speaker 1: verse four. The word of the Lord came to him
22:50
Speaker 1: saying no. But the way it reads here doesn't sound
22:53
Speaker 1: as emphatic. The man will not be your heir. But
22:56
Speaker 1: if we were to emphasize that the man will not
22:58
Speaker 1: be your heir, would read and Hebrew. The word was
23:02
Speaker 1: put at the first of the sentence to emphasize it,
23:05
Speaker 1: and would be set aside out of its normal place,
23:08
Speaker 1: so you would see it's to be underscored and put
23:11
Speaker 1: in on italics. No, no, not Eliazar. That's not my plan.
23:18
Speaker 1: You see, the way we're built, we all figure things
23:21
Speaker 1: out and we think, well, this is this makes sense.
23:23
Speaker 1: I got Eliezar. He's already here, he knows the language,
23:27
Speaker 1: he knows our family. I mean, that'll work fine, and
23:29
Speaker 1: I'm not too choosy. And the Lord says, will you
23:32
Speaker 1: let me lead you my way? And it's not through Eliezar.
23:39
Speaker 1: This man will not be your heir, but one who
23:41
Speaker 1: will come forth from your own body. He shall be
23:45
Speaker 1: your heir. And he took him outside before we get there.
23:49
Speaker 1: Get the point, your reward will be great. And he
23:58
Speaker 1: took him outside to give him a celestial object lesson.
24:05
Speaker 1: Before I get there, I have to pause right here
24:09
Speaker 1: and say, it's wonderful to be the bug on the
24:14
Speaker 1: wall and hear the conversation. You learn a whole lot
24:19
Speaker 1: about people when you overhear what they talk about. We're
24:25
Speaker 1: allowed to do that. Last Tuesday, I sitting at the
24:29
Speaker 1: kitchen table and the thought dawned on me, I need
24:35
Speaker 1: to just spend a few hours reading. So I thought, well,
24:42
Speaker 1: will I read? So I decided I would choose a
24:45
Speaker 1: book about a president I could trust, named Ronald Reagan.
24:51
Speaker 1: So I got Peggy Newnan's book out. You need to
24:55
Speaker 1: read it when character was king okay, And I read
25:01
Speaker 1: these words as Peggy quotes Reagan's daughter Patty Davis about
25:10
Speaker 1: Patty and her daddy. Patty's speaking a lot of things
25:17
Speaker 1: my dad taught me as a child. I didn't reject,
25:19
Speaker 1: but I didn't take them on big time until I
25:23
Speaker 1: got much older. He did have something special with God.
25:31
Speaker 1: He talked to God all the time. It didn't mean
25:37
Speaker 1: that he was any more special in God's eyes, or
25:40
Speaker 1: that he believed that we all are special with God.
25:44
Speaker 1: It's not that God's speaking to anybody more than anyone else.
25:47
Speaker 1: It's that some people choose to listen that's a great lie,
25:54
Speaker 1: and talk back. And my dad did both. My father
26:01
Speaker 1: talked to God. That's what I got as a child.
26:04
Speaker 1: I got that he just talked to God all the time.
26:09
Speaker 1: He just had conversations with God. And that's the way
26:15
Speaker 1: I talked to God when I was a child. My
26:17
Speaker 1: idea of prayer, writes Patty, or says Patty, my idea
26:21
Speaker 1: of prayer was never that you sit down, clean up
26:23
Speaker 1: your room, clean up your act before you can talk
26:26
Speaker 1: to God. Never. Never. It was always that I knew
26:30
Speaker 1: I could take my mess to God, and I knew
26:34
Speaker 1: that I could just get down and talk to God
26:37
Speaker 1: like my father all the time. Well, now I'm really
26:41
Speaker 1: getting interested in this book as I'm reading this account
26:45
Speaker 1: in light of what I'm going to be dealing with
26:47
Speaker 1: this Sunday. She goes on when we'd go horseback riding
26:51
Speaker 1: at the Malibu Ranch, just the two of us, I
26:54
Speaker 1: knew the way to get him to talk and to
26:56
Speaker 1: have a conversation was to talk about God and to
27:00
Speaker 1: talk about heaven to ask him about heaven. What do
27:06
Speaker 1: you think God thinks of this? What do you think
27:08
Speaker 1: heaven is like? If I went to that place, we
27:11
Speaker 1: would have these wonderful conversations and he would just tell me. Sometimes, Well,
27:18
Speaker 1: I asked God about this, and this is what he
27:20
Speaker 1: said back to me. My father told me that my
27:24
Speaker 1: whole life. You ask God something, he will answer you.
27:28
Speaker 1: He will answer very specifically. Might not be the answer
27:31
Speaker 1: you want to hear, but God will give you an answer.
27:33
Speaker 1: That's why he felt confidence about the big decisions in
27:37
Speaker 1: his wife. Oh that's Fabril. This is God's friend. In
27:48
Speaker 1: this narrative, no wonder, Abram becomes the father of the faithful.
27:54
Speaker 1: He spent time with his God. He listened, he talked,
28:03
Speaker 1: and about the time he was struggling with what might
28:06
Speaker 1: be the plan of God, the Lord decides to do
28:10
Speaker 1: something very special. He takes him outside where it's dark.
28:19
Speaker 1: It's like he would say, Abram, come on out here.
28:25
Speaker 1: Verse five. So he took watch your step, Abram, and
28:29
Speaker 1: start watch where you step. He said, Now look toward
28:36
Speaker 1: the heavens and count the stars right on him. Hey,
28:45
Speaker 1: four six million, four hundred and seventy five thousand, nine
28:50
Speaker 1: fifty nine eighty five million, four hundred and thirty five thousand.
28:54
Speaker 1: I can't count the stars. God knows that. He's not saying,
28:59
Speaker 1: little Relie count the start. He said, look at how
29:04
Speaker 1: many and how vash? Remember when you were kids and
29:09
Speaker 1: you laid on the grass, you put your hands behind
29:11
Speaker 1: your head and you looked up and you and you
29:14
Speaker 1: saw stars. You're so thrilled you found a milky way. Wow,
29:19
Speaker 1: there's a milky way. I used to do that with
29:21
Speaker 1: my sister. There's the big Dipper and she'd say, there's
29:25
Speaker 1: a guy smoking a pipe. There's no guy smoking up. Yeah,
29:29
Speaker 1: look it's right there. And then she'd say, look over here.
29:32
Speaker 1: This is mother, but she's spanking you see right there.
29:36
Speaker 1: Look at that right the scar. Here's a gown. And
29:40
Speaker 1: I'd say, you're sick, You're really sick. You know. Well,
29:43
Speaker 1: they're all there. They're there, by the by the millions.
29:50
Speaker 1: We see a lot of things up there. But that
29:52
Speaker 1: that's not the point. The point is, look at how many?
30:02
Speaker 1: Oh have I got a couple of great illustrations for this.
30:08
Speaker 1: If it were possible to travel the speed of light,
30:11
Speaker 1: last time I checked, it's about one hundred and eighty
30:13
Speaker 1: six thousand miles a second, and we didn't have to
30:15
Speaker 1: orbit anything. We could go directly to whatever planet. You
30:19
Speaker 1: know how long it takes to get to the Moon
30:22
Speaker 1: one and one third seconds. But continuing on that same speed,
30:29
Speaker 1: you know how long did it take to get to
30:31
Speaker 1: the first star? Four years. If that's not enough, New
30:42
Speaker 1: York City's Hayden Planetarium has a miniature replica of our
30:45
Speaker 1: Solar system, showing the speeds and the sizes of our planets.
30:50
Speaker 1: What is interesting is the three outer planets are not
30:54
Speaker 1: even included. There wasn't room for Uranus and Neptune and Pluto.
31:00
Speaker 1: Uranus would be in the planetarium's outer corridor. Neptune would
31:04
Speaker 1: be around eighth Avenue, and Pluto, well, it's another three
31:09
Speaker 1: long avenues away in fifth avenue. And by the way,
31:12
Speaker 1: there'd be no stars included for obvious reasons. Can you
31:17
Speaker 1: imagine on the same scale where the nearest star would
31:20
Speaker 1: be located Cleveland, Ohio? Whoa? And if that's not enough,
31:30
Speaker 1: a scientist once suggested another interesting analogy. Stay with me
31:36
Speaker 1: to grasp the scene. Imagine a perfectly smooth glass pavement
31:43
Speaker 1: on which the finest speck can be seen. Then shrink
31:48
Speaker 1: the Sun from eight hundred and sixty five thousand miles
31:53
Speaker 1: in diameter to two feet and place the ball on
32:01
Speaker 1: the pavement. It's the Sun. Step off eighty two paces,
32:07
Speaker 1: about two feet per pace, and to represent proportionately the
32:13
Speaker 1: first planet Mercury, put down a tiny mustard seed. Take
32:20
Speaker 1: sixty more steps, and for Venus, put down an ordinary
32:25
Speaker 1: bb Mark seventy eight more steps and put down a
32:32
Speaker 1: green pea earth. Step off one hundred and eight paces
32:38
Speaker 1: from there, and for Mars, place a pin head think
32:46
Speaker 1: sprinkle around fine dust for the asteroids, and then take
32:49
Speaker 1: seven hundred and eighty eight more steps to place an
32:52
Speaker 1: orange on the glass representing Jupiter. After nine one hundred
33:00
Speaker 1: and thirty four more steps, put down a golf ball
33:05
Speaker 1: for Saturn. Now it gets really really involved. Mark two
33:12
Speaker 1: eighty six more steps. For Uranus a marble, another two
33:19
Speaker 1: three hundred and twenty two steps. From there you arrive
33:22
Speaker 1: at Neptune. A cherry will represent Neptune. This will take
33:28
Speaker 1: two and a half miles. And we haven't even discussed Pluto.
33:35
Speaker 1: We have a smooth glass surface five miles in diameter,
33:39
Speaker 1: yet just a fraction of the heavens excluding Pluto, in
33:42
Speaker 1: this one galaxy. Now, I guess how far we'd have
33:47
Speaker 1: to go to the same scale before we could put
33:49
Speaker 1: down another two football to represent the nearest star, six
33:54
Speaker 1: seven hundred and twenty miles, not pieces. While look up Abram,
34:05
Speaker 1: all right, cut the stars. Ah can't do it. By
34:15
Speaker 1: the way, it reminds me. You want to see a
34:18
Speaker 1: great versus scripture, Hold your place right here, just take
34:22
Speaker 1: a second. But you really need to see this. Go
34:24
Speaker 1: to the creation story of Genesis one. Oh, I love
34:27
Speaker 1: this verse Genesis chapter one. God has been making this
34:31
Speaker 1: and this is good, and that's good. And this is
34:33
Speaker 1: good and that's good. Now look at verse sixteen Genesis one.
34:37
Speaker 1: Verse sixteen can't be that hard to find. Okay, God
34:41
Speaker 1: made the two great lights, the greater light to govern
34:44
Speaker 1: the day. What's that? Sure, that's the sun, the lesser
34:49
Speaker 1: light to govern the night. What's that? That's the moon?
34:52
Speaker 1: You know what the Hebrew says? Next? Also the stars
35:01
Speaker 1: two Hebrew words, all the stars. I should say he
35:06
Speaker 1: did stars. Also, how phenomenal is our God? How vast
35:15
Speaker 1: is the glory of God? This is all his handiwork,
35:19
Speaker 1: all designed to make a suck at our breath and
35:23
Speaker 1: stare and realize he is God and we are not.
35:36
Speaker 1: That's what he's got Abram doing. You talk about a
35:40
Speaker 1: big family. Back to chapter fifteen, verse five, count the
35:48
Speaker 1: stars if you're able, And he said to him, so
35:52
Speaker 1: shall your descendants be going to be a lot of
35:58
Speaker 1: Hebrews that are coming from your lawins, all starting with
36:03
Speaker 1: your son, whom I will bring when I'm ready to
36:07
Speaker 1: bring him. Next verse. Remember it as an interchange. They're friends.
36:14
Speaker 1: I love this verse. He believed in the Lord Lord.
36:25
Speaker 1: I got it. I believe it, And the age is capitalized.
36:35
Speaker 1: He reckoned it to him as righteousness. It's like God
36:42
Speaker 1: said to Abram, give me a checkbook, give me your
36:46
Speaker 1: spiritual checkbook. Okay, all right, I'm going to credit to
36:53
Speaker 1: your account perfect righteousness lip And he did. It's a
37:04
Speaker 1: turning point for Abram. It is so significant that when
37:07
Speaker 1: Paul writes Romans and gets toward the end of chapter four,
37:10
Speaker 1: which is the kind of the zenith of this whole
37:13
Speaker 1: first section on doctrine, he says he staggered. He is Abram.
37:17
Speaker 1: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief,
37:20
Speaker 1: but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Being
37:23
Speaker 1: fully persuaded that what God had promised he was able
37:26
Speaker 1: also to perform. I believe it. I got it, And
37:34
Speaker 1: God said, my righteousness is credited to your account. But
37:44
Speaker 1: he doesn't stop there. He says, I am the Lord
37:49
Speaker 1: who brought you out of the err of the Chaldeans
37:52
Speaker 1: to give you this land to possess it. You will
37:54
Speaker 1: hear over and over and over and over in this generation.
37:58
Speaker 1: Who does the land of palace belong to? Who really
38:01
Speaker 1: owns Israel? Who is the rightful, rightful original owner? There?
38:06
Speaker 1: It is right in the book. I give it to
38:09
Speaker 1: you to possess it. It is yours claim it? And
38:13
Speaker 1: Abram gets it. But he needs a little extra proof
38:20
Speaker 1: verse eight, Old Lord, how may I know that I
38:24
Speaker 1: shall possess it? We're all like that. When our kids
38:30
Speaker 1: were little, we would at times talk about what we
38:32
Speaker 1: would do, and they would often follow that with do
38:36
Speaker 1: you promise? Because they knew if we said promise, cross
38:41
Speaker 1: your heart, hope does take a needle in your eye?
38:43
Speaker 1: Remember all those things you'd say, and yeah, I promise, Okay, Daddy,
38:47
Speaker 1: you promised, you promised. That's right, you can take it
38:52
Speaker 1: to the bank. They didn't know what that meant, so
38:55
Speaker 1: I'd use that phrase take it to the bank, and
39:00
Speaker 1: they would say, how can I know that you're going
39:02
Speaker 1: to do this? Rather than rebuking them, I would come
39:08
Speaker 1: up with a way to help convince them. And that's
39:11
Speaker 1: exactly what God does. What follows is a very strange ritual.
39:16
Speaker 1: It's called the cutting of a covenant. Now we don't
39:21
Speaker 1: have this this interesting process today. We have things in writing.
39:28
Speaker 1: We have documents that have a stamp on them, we
39:31
Speaker 1: have letter heads, and we have official signatures, and we
39:35
Speaker 1: have that seal that is pressed into the paper. In
39:39
Speaker 1: those days they had well, God used animals and birds.
39:48
Speaker 1: Look at what he says. So he said to him,
39:52
Speaker 1: he's answering the question, how can I know I'll possess? Okay,
39:56
Speaker 1: all right, thanks for asking. I'm gonna give you a project.
40:02
Speaker 1: Bring me a three year old heifer, a three year
40:05
Speaker 1: old female goat a three year old ram. Let's start there,
40:11
Speaker 1: and also bring a turtle, dove, and a young pigeon.
40:15
Speaker 1: So Abram went out, had all these things on his land.
40:19
Speaker 1: He brought them in, brought them all in. He brought
40:24
Speaker 1: all these things to God. Look at what he does.
40:26
Speaker 1: He cut them in two. He laid half of the heifer,
40:32
Speaker 1: half of the goat, half of the ram on one side.
40:35
Speaker 1: He laid the half of the goat, half of the heifer,
40:38
Speaker 1: half of the ram on the other side. Didn't cut
40:40
Speaker 1: the birds. That's another subject. But while he's laying these
40:45
Speaker 1: carcasses out on each side, birds of prey come and
40:50
Speaker 1: began to well attack the carcasses, and Abram is driving
40:58
Speaker 1: them away. And the birds of prey came down, and
41:03
Speaker 1: then Abram drove them away. As it's true to this day.
41:06
Speaker 1: When you hunt and you're in the wild and you
41:09
Speaker 1: are dressing the game that you have just shot, you've
41:12
Speaker 1: got to watch out for predators. Sometimes they fly in.
41:16
Speaker 1: You just got to guard the result of your hunt.
41:22
Speaker 1: And so it is here he drove them away. All
41:24
Speaker 1: of this has prophetic significance. Verse twelve. Now, when the
41:30
Speaker 1: sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram.
41:35
Speaker 1: Behold terror, and great darkness fell upon him. Maybe they
41:39
Speaker 1: came from fighting the birds, maybe it came from his imagination.
41:43
Speaker 1: But just as you and I sometime turn in and
41:46
Speaker 1: fall asleep troubled, so he's troubled in the darkness. And
41:51
Speaker 1: God said Abram, no, for certain, it's dark right now.
41:55
Speaker 1: But no, for certain that your descendants will be strangers
41:59
Speaker 1: in a land that is not theirs, where they will
42:02
Speaker 1: be enslaved and oppressed. Four hundred years. Look at that.
42:06
Speaker 1: Look at this, years before it happens, long before Moses
42:12
Speaker 1: is even born. He says, your people, your descendants are
42:16
Speaker 1: going to come into this very land, and they are
42:19
Speaker 1: going to become ultimately slaves. What's it? A reference to
42:26
Speaker 1: the whole Egyptian bondage living in Canaan, the famine that
42:31
Speaker 1: comes and Joseph brings him into the land. And they
42:35
Speaker 1: come into the land of Egypt where they where they
42:37
Speaker 1: are going to serve the oppressor four hundred years. He
42:42
Speaker 1: rounds off the number, and he said, I will judge
42:44
Speaker 1: the nation whom they will serve. And afterwards, here's the exodus.
42:48
Speaker 1: They will come out with many possessions. Look at that.
42:53
Speaker 1: God's giving him a directive right here in this vision
42:57
Speaker 1: while he's in this deep sleep that Abraham is both
43:02
Speaker 1: troubled over and amazed at. And then he says, as
43:08
Speaker 1: for you, you will go to your father's in peace,
43:12
Speaker 1: and you shall be buried at a good old age.
43:17
Speaker 1: Let me stop right there, because I'm interested in what
43:19
Speaker 1: good old age means best I can figure if you
43:24
Speaker 1: go on what's mentioned over here in this sixteenth chapter
43:29
Speaker 1: the verse I'm missing, But he's about eighty five years
43:32
Speaker 1: old right now, and he's going to die at a
43:35
Speaker 1: good old age. What age is that? Well, I'm glad
43:39
Speaker 1: you asked. Look at Genesis twenty four. Take a quick
43:44
Speaker 1: gander at Genesis twenty four. Okay, where is that verse?
44:00
Speaker 1: How did you cut that verse out of my Bible
44:03
Speaker 1: before this started? Maybe it's twenty three, maybe it's twenty two,
44:14
Speaker 1: Sit twenty five? Right? Would you like to come finish
44:22
Speaker 1: the twenty five? That's right, of course, of course, what's
44:27
Speaker 1: the matter with me? Twenty five to seven? Thank you?
44:34
Speaker 1: These are all the years of Abraham's life that he lived,
44:38
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy five year. You know why that's important? Well,
44:45
Speaker 1: when you get back to Genesis fifteen, he says you're
44:48
Speaker 1: going to die at a good old age. We know
44:50
Speaker 1: now it's age hundred and seventy five. He's got ninety
44:52
Speaker 1: more years to live. The guy's not even middle aged.
44:57
Speaker 1: How good is that you are eighty five? I've been
45:00
Speaker 1: looking for a walker. Stop that you got a lot
45:05
Speaker 1: of great years ahead of you. How great as now.
45:09
Speaker 1: I realize therese longevity back then, and you know, all
45:13
Speaker 1: those good things. But I found it interesting that he
45:16
Speaker 1: tells him, you're not gonna die soon. You're gonna live
45:20
Speaker 1: to see your own son become an adult. How marvelous
45:24
Speaker 1: is that hope after his birth, you're gonna live seventy
45:28
Speaker 1: five more years. And with all of that, he said,
45:36
Speaker 1: you will go to your father's in peace. It's a
45:38
Speaker 1: nice way of referring to his death. And in the
45:42
Speaker 1: fourth generation they shall return here for the iniquity of
45:45
Speaker 1: the amorit is not yet complete. When you'll bring you back,
45:49
Speaker 1: you're gonna wipe out those Amorites, that those enemies will
45:51
Speaker 1: be there. It will come about. When the sun had
45:54
Speaker 1: set that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared
45:57
Speaker 1: to smoking of it. God hasn't forgotten about the carcass
46:00
Speaker 1: on each side. He's going to cut a covenant. Look,
46:03
Speaker 1: a smoking oven appeared, a flaming torch which passed between
46:08
Speaker 1: the pieces pieces of what Heifer goat exactly what he
46:12
Speaker 1: cut earlier, the Ram. And on that day God, the
46:17
Speaker 1: Hebrew says, cut. God cut a covenant with Abram. It's
46:22
Speaker 1: like we would use the word cut a deal. God
46:25
Speaker 1: cut a covenant. He sent that fiery torch down in
46:29
Speaker 1: between these two pieces, as if to say, I'm going
46:31
Speaker 1: to bring it all together. I give you my word,
46:34
Speaker 1: and he repeats at the end of verse eighteen to
46:37
Speaker 1: your descendants, I have given this land. How many more
46:41
Speaker 1: times does he have to see it? Abram finally begins
46:45
Speaker 1: to dawn on him, and then he gives, for the
46:47
Speaker 1: first time in all the scripture, the boundaries of the
46:50
Speaker 1: Promised Land. From the Great River of Egypt. What's that?
46:55
Speaker 1: That's the Nile, as far as the great River, the
46:58
Speaker 1: River euphraed Ease, that's long whe away. This land will
47:01
Speaker 1: be broad, and in that land will be enemies. You'll
47:04
Speaker 1: be driving them out, the ken Heights and the Kennzites,
47:07
Speaker 1: and the Cadmanites, Hittites, and the Parasites and Amorites and
47:10
Speaker 1: Canaanites and Gurgosites, and the JB Site doesn't mean anything
47:14
Speaker 1: to it, just a list of boring names. It means
47:17
Speaker 1: everything in the history of the people of Israel. They're enemies,
47:23
Speaker 1: they're terrorists. Every one of them wants to wipe them out.
47:27
Speaker 1: By the way, that's still going on. They just aren't
47:30
Speaker 1: known as Gurgosites and Cadmanites and ken Heights. They go
47:37
Speaker 1: by other names. And you know what, at this point
47:44
Speaker 1: the conversation ends. That's what it is with friends. When
47:51
Speaker 1: you're with a friend and you get toward the end
47:52
Speaker 1: of the conversation, you don't say and now as I
47:57
Speaker 1: conclude my time with you, you don't do that, say Okay,
48:02
Speaker 1: see you later, Bud, all right, stay cool, or see
48:07
Speaker 1: you in the morning, or I'll send you an email,
48:09
Speaker 1: or I'll tweet you whatever that means, I'll tweet you, tweet. Now,
48:22
Speaker 1: there's some truth here for all of us. It's not
48:25
Speaker 1: about cutting animals. In two, it isn't about counting stars.
48:30
Speaker 1: It's about you're and my friendship with God. Here we
48:33
Speaker 1: go five come to mind. Don't miss this number one.
48:38
Speaker 1: God calms our fears and understands our questions. That goes
48:44
Speaker 1: back to verse one. Don't fear Abram, I'm your shield
48:48
Speaker 1: and your reward. And then Abram begins with two different questions,
48:52
Speaker 1: and the Lord never does rebuke him, never loses his
48:54
Speaker 1: patience because the Lord can handle our questions. Afraid to
49:00
Speaker 1: ask God questions, He'll never say, well, I am so
49:05
Speaker 1: ashamed of you. God doesn't do shame. He understands. He
49:12
Speaker 1: calms our fears. And when we ask a question, and
49:16
Speaker 1: even if it's a stupid question, and we may ask
49:18
Speaker 1: it more than once, he answers it more than once,
49:22
Speaker 1: because he's our friend. Number two, don't consider a delay
49:29
Speaker 1: a cancelation. Don't consider a delay a cancelation. Abram's been
49:38
Speaker 1: waiting all these years for the first sign of a
49:41
Speaker 1: pregnancy in his wife. It hasn't come. Now he's wondering,
49:44
Speaker 1: is it gonna be Elia's or no? No, no, no,
49:47
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be some servant that's been born into
49:50
Speaker 1: your family or into your house. No, I'm delaying this,
49:56
Speaker 1: but I haven't forgotten. Don't. Don't think of a delay
49:59
Speaker 1: as a calation. I think every person listening to me
50:03
Speaker 1: right now, I was waiting for something. Every one of
50:06
Speaker 1: you could fill out on a small card. Something you're
50:09
Speaker 1: waiting for. I know I am, I know my wife is,
50:14
Speaker 1: I know members of my family are. We're all waiting
50:18
Speaker 1: for something that only God can make happen. He didn't
50:22
Speaker 1: cancel the plan, He's just deleted. He's reminding us I
50:27
Speaker 1: have my timing. Relax. Just wait. Those who wait on
50:33
Speaker 1: the Lord shall what renew their strength. He will mount
50:37
Speaker 1: up his wings like eagles. They'll run and not be weary.
50:40
Speaker 1: They'll walk and not fate. All right, don't consider a cancelation.
50:47
Speaker 1: Here's a third. God loves it when we believe him.
50:52
Speaker 1: I get that out of verses six and seven. God
50:55
Speaker 1: loves it when we believe him. All the way through
51:00
Speaker 1: this book there are statements, and he is saying, with
51:03
Speaker 1: arms open, believe this, trust me. Trust in the Lord
51:10
Speaker 1: with all your heart, and don't lean to your own
51:12
Speaker 1: understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him. You'll make your
51:16
Speaker 1: path straight. Trust him. Trust him. I know it isn't
51:20
Speaker 1: where you want it to be. You trust him. Trust him.
51:24
Speaker 1: He loves it when we believe him. In fact, when
51:26
Speaker 1: Abram believed, he reckoned it to him for righteousness. God
51:31
Speaker 1: loves it when we believe him. Number four, Even when
51:37
Speaker 1: it's dark, we can know certain things for sure. Notice
51:44
Speaker 1: in the middle of the darkness Verse thirteen. No, for certain.
51:50
Speaker 1: Even when it's dark, we can know certain things for sure.
51:56
Speaker 1: I looked again at Psalm one thirty nine. Even though
52:01
Speaker 1: our time is short, I've got to have you look
52:03
Speaker 1: at this som Psalm one thirty nine. That's it, Verses
52:09
Speaker 1: eleven and twelve. Now I know this verse is right here.
52:13
Speaker 1: We are p. One thirty nine eleven. Surely the darkness
52:19
Speaker 1: will overwhelm me, says the Psalmist, and the light around
52:24
Speaker 1: me will be night. But even the darkness is not
52:27
Speaker 1: dark to you capitalized, the night is as bright as
52:33
Speaker 1: the day. Darkness and light are alike to you great,
52:40
Speaker 1: It's never dark. Where God is, He is light. We
52:44
Speaker 1: put all of our situation and then read God into it.
52:50
Speaker 1: He's not an old man with a beard blowing a
52:52
Speaker 1: strong wind out of the north. Please, He's not kind
52:57
Speaker 1: of crippled up hoping we'll get in line. And our
53:01
Speaker 1: God is ageless and timeless and eternal and holy and
53:05
Speaker 1: pure and omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. He is our God. There
53:10
Speaker 1: is no darkness with Him in the middle of our darkness.
53:14
Speaker 1: And that's when we really struggle. I know I do.
53:17
Speaker 1: My battle comes at night, often in the evening, as
53:21
Speaker 1: the sun starts to set. When I travel and I'm alone,
53:26
Speaker 1: I have to fight discouragement and depression at sunset darkness.
53:31
Speaker 1: I don't like darkness, but even in the darkness, we
53:36
Speaker 1: can know far certain Verse thirteen, God said to Abram, no,
53:41
Speaker 1: far certain, your descendants will be strangers in the lamp. Finally,
53:49
Speaker 1: in our future is as clear to God as our
53:55
Speaker 1: past is clear to us. Our future is as clear
54:00
Speaker 1: to God as our past is clear to us. Isn't
54:04
Speaker 1: that remarkable? He knew when the child was yet to
54:10
Speaker 1: be born. He knew the vastness of Abram's family. He
54:15
Speaker 1: knew the land would be Abrams for the Abram's descendants.
54:18
Speaker 1: He knew about the bondage in Egypt. He knew about Moses,
54:21
Speaker 1: he knew about the Exodus, he knew about Abrams dying
54:24
Speaker 1: at a good old age, and knew it at all.
54:27
Speaker 1: When will we finally realize he is not almost sovereign,
54:36
Speaker 1: he is altogether sovereign. He knows what it's all about. Okay, okay,
54:49
Speaker 1: please bow your head. Father, remind us over and over
54:56
Speaker 1: and over and over again that you are God and
55:02
Speaker 1: we are not. That you know what you were doing,
55:07
Speaker 1: and just as you could talk with your friend using
55:11
Speaker 1: whether it's stars or fire or whatever, even the cutting
55:14
Speaker 1: of animals to get your point across, you have not
55:19
Speaker 1: lost your place in the book. You know the end
55:24
Speaker 1: from the beginning. Deliver us from worry and fear and
55:30
Speaker 1: doomsday thinking. A lot of folks are sort of sitting
55:37
Speaker 1: on a razor wire right now. Lord, They're in a
55:39
Speaker 1: tough place. Things are coming apart. At home. They've made
55:44
Speaker 1: a mess of things. Some are really worried. Some are
55:49
Speaker 1: so afraid they can hardly sleep. Some are facing some
55:53
Speaker 1: pretty serious surgeries. Ohther's got kids that are going nuts,
56:00
Speaker 1: and they wonder if that's ever going to change. For some,
56:06
Speaker 1: they're alone and they're getting older. It seems like nobody cares,
56:11
Speaker 1: or certainly not as much as they used to. And
56:14
Speaker 1: there are those who once were in the very center
56:17
Speaker 1: and forefront of the limelight of your work, and now
56:21
Speaker 1: they've been sidelined by disabilities, disease, even the threat of death.
56:31
Speaker 1: It isn't all peaches and cream. And you have a
56:34
Speaker 1: way of helping remind us that darkness and light are
56:39
Speaker 1: the same to you. With you, there's no future, there's
56:45
Speaker 1: no past. It's all this ever present now that you
56:51
Speaker 1: fill with your presence and your goodness and love. Calm, our,
56:58
Speaker 1: fears and quiet are hearts. As we rest in you,
57:03
Speaker 1: our shield and our defender, regardless of what tomorrow may
57:10
Speaker 1: bring in the strong name of Jesus, I pray. Everyone
57:17
Speaker 1: said amen. Everyone said amen Amen. The preceding message can
57:28
Speaker 1: We Talk was copyrighted in twenty twelve, twenty fourteen, and
57:33
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty
57:36
Speaker 1: seventeen by Charles R. Swindall Ink. All rights are reserved worldwide.
57:42
Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited