Finding True Satisfaction In the Lord

Good morning. See some new faces. Welcome.

This is our home. We've been having home church for about 20 years, but maybe for about five here. And our desire is to bless people and to instruct them in the ways that are right.

And in a small group, we have opportunity to do that, to get to know each other more intimately, like as a home group. And we come from a Mennonite background. My dad was born in Russia, in Ukraine, and they fled during the Second World War.

He was only one year old, and they went to Germany. So he was there until he was five years old. And then someone sponsored them from Canada, and so they came to Canada.

My mom's family came a little earlier. They were from Tofield, Alberta. And they were poor, and they lived in a house with a dirt floor there in Alberta and Grand Prairie.

Eventually, my grandfather was a janitor at a high school, and then they became farmers. And so our background is from poverty and from fleeing persecution, and the Lord has brought us into a land that is plentiful. But just because we find plentiful land, it doesn't mean that we're prospering inwardly.

You know, in John chapter, 2nd John, it says that the prayer is that, or maybe 3rd John, that our soul would prosper, and that we would be prosperous inwardly toward God, and not just outwardly. And a lot of times in the culture in which we live, in North American cultures, we associate Jesus with blessings. And there's nothing wrong with that, except that when we focus on the blessings rather than on Jesus, we can get off from the gospel.

Because Jesus himself said, blessed are the poor in spirit, and those who are poor are rich in faith. And a lot of times when we have our needs satisfied, and we have security and pensions and things taken care of, and social assistance in our country, those are all maybe some good things, but our dependency is not on God. Our dependency is on the government, our dependency is on other things, and then our faith becomes very weak.

Then when we get in crisis, we don't have a sure foundation. You know, it talks about those who are elders in a church, they become pillars in their faith. They're strong in faith, and so when troubles come and the winds beat, they're able to be like a foundation of a house.

When you have a good foundation, the house can stand. But if you have a bad foundation, then the house can easily fall or collapse if there's no foundation. It's important for us to be strong in our faith.

It says to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Our faith has to be in Him. Our faith has to be in the Word of God.

Our faith has to be in the power of God, and not trusting in ourselves. Today you had the prayer for the children, and so sometimes our faith can be in the education. And you know, I've been to Haiti multiple times, maybe eight times, and tremendous emphasis on going to school.

And there's nothing wrong with that, because if you can't read, write, you know, you find a hard time finding a job. But if the emphasis is on education alone, and not on teaching the children the Word of God, and knowing God, and keeping the order right, then you can soon find your priorities off balance. You know, recently our son got a baseball scholarship, and he went to UBC.

You know, and he has the best education. But I find that his heart is waxing cold to the things of God, and more emphasis on career, and less emphasis on the Lord. And it says that our hearts can turn away from Him, and our hearts can become cold.

We sing that song, don't let your love grow cold. I'm calling out a light of fire again. So in our desire to set goals, and to have a vision, and to make a plan, not just in a structured sense, but there has to be a faith that the just shall live by faith.

You know, if I say, well I have a plan, I want to do this, and then at such and such a time, I will hope to find a spouse, get married, and then by the time I'm 30, I want to have a house, or you know, I'm hoping to have a business, or I want to accomplish something, or get my education. You know, it says a man plans his way, but God orchestrates our steps. And the steps of the Lord are orchestrated for us.

And sometimes what we can do is, we can get off the way, and we can force our plans, and get out of the will of God. And sometimes when we're not hearing God, I heard Dan often say that we should be patient. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Wait patiently on the Lord. And I think even as the people of God, as men of God, even a man who was the father of faith, Abraham. God led him out away from his relatives, get away from the pagan gods, to go to a place he would show him.

He didn't make it so clear. He just led him by faith. And he came to a land, and the famine showed up.

There was a famine there. You know, and he had made an altar there to the Lord, and the Lord hadn't been speaking. He didn't get clear direction.

And so he had heard something. You know, when you get out in the world, you know, you go to the restaurants, or you go to the places, maybe you go to a golf tournament, or you're somewhere in the business circles, and you hear people talking. And they're talking about where it's prosperous, and where things are good, and where people are making money, and, you know, where people are going to school, and the education they're getting, and how everything seems so great.

And you get in that circle, and you start hearing, and all of a sudden the devil whispers to you, man, you're missing out. You know, you're in a famine place. I mean, you need to get to where things are good.

You know, and you get that prosperity Jesus thing going, and you think, well, you know what? I'm gonna go to where they're going, because they're going to Egypt, because there's abundance there. And you know what? Our hearts can become swayed to go the worldly way to get down to Egypt to find help. What does it say of Jesus? He even patterned himself after our forefathers, even the ones who were stuck in Egypt for so many years.

He led them there, so he could lead them out of there. Even Jesus. He led Jesus as a baby to Egypt, so he could lead him out of there.

We have to see that he has, there's Egypt in our hearts. When I say Egypt, worldly ways, the worldly desires, the worldly passions, the desire for money, for pleasures, for things, for hopes, for dreams, for an education, for a good business, a good life, all these things. We hope for those things.

And perhaps God want to give us some things as good gifts, just like your children ask for gifts when you go to the store. Well, you can't buy them everything. You spoil them rotten.

But you want to give good gifts to your children, and God want to give good gifts to us. But if you're going to spoil us and make us rotten, then sometimes he says no. And when he says no, what's our response? Discouragement.

And when discouragement hits, is the Lord a strong power? Do the righteous run into it and they're safe? Or do they head down to Egypt for help, for encouragement, to find things easier? And I don't care what that is in your life, where you're at today, but we can all find ourselves, instead of running to the Lord, right, they that wait upon the Lord, they find renewed strength. They're the ones that mount up in the spirit with wings as eagles. They're the ones that run and don't go weary.

They're the ones that walk and don't faint. Or do we go to places where there's parched land and waste waters and there's no flowing river? Abraham did this. He didn't really hear from the Lord.

He took a decision. He'd heard that there was plenty in Egypt and he went down there to Egypt to get the help. You want to know what happened there? He became a very wealthy man there.

Very wealthy he got there. You want to know why? Because when he got there, he compromised. He said, okay, honey, I know you're a very beautiful woman.

I'm really happy to have you as my wife, but you know what? You're going to have to say you're my sister because it's true. You're my half-sister. That's how things were in those days.

Otherwise, they're going to kill me and take you and they sought to save his life in Egypt. That's where compromise is birthed on our way to Egypt. We go there because we want life easier because things are hard.

When the Lord's leading us, things get hard. When he led them out of Egypt, there was a year where he tried them and tested them to prove the things that were in their heart because Egypt was in them. He wanted them to see that their dependence was not on the Lord, that he wanted their dependence to be on him.

So he gave them manna to eat. At first they were happy with the manna, but then they came to loathe the manna. They were remembering the leeks and the onions and the potlucks and the picnics and the good times.

They forgot about the Egyptians whipping their backs and making them gather more straw and make more bricks. They forgot about all that when they were crying out to the Lord. They weren't crying out to the Lord anymore.

They were grumbling against the Lord. Weren't there enough graves in Egypt to drag us out here to give us even harder life? But you know what? The way to the promised land is through the wilderness. And if in the wilderness it weary you, then you're going to get there and you're going to be there for the wrong reasons.

Sometimes people come to church because there's a nice lunch. They like it for the lunch. Not just here, but wherever.

Or they go to a place because they have a good children's program. Or they go somewhere because they have nice singing and a better choir. Or they go somewhere because they can hide in the back and they don't have to be accountable.

Or they go somewhere because they're served. But the Lord show us that it's more blessed to give than to receive. And so the only way to become Christ-like is to go through the sufferings of Christ and experience the glories that follow.

And that doesn't happen without refining. When we run to other things to find temporary joy and pleasure, and they are joyful and pleasurous for a season, but we find it leaves us empty. You see, in the wilderness, He granted them a request because they asked for meat to eat.

Well, we had meat and we had everything in Egypt. So He gave them quail and He gave them meat to eat and He granted them the request. But you want to know what happened in their hearts? He sent leanness into their souls.

Have you ever experienced that where things are going good and the bills are getting paid? There's extra for vacations. You got to go fishing all summer and all these things. But then you're sitting there in your chair and you're somehow feeling like I haven't shared Jesus with anybody in a week.

There's leanness in your soul. Oh, sure, He'll grant your request, but He'll send leanness into your soul. Because you want us to desire Him.

We have to choose Him. And it's not that some of the other things are wrong, but we go after the gifts rather than the giver. We're so excited for the gifts because it makes our life easier, but then there's something wanting.

And you want to know the flesh is crafty. It's never satisfied with what it has. If you have one kid, you want two.

If you have two, you want four. If you have four, you want eight. If you have a hundred dollars, you want a thousand.

If you have a thousand, you want ten thousand. If you have ten thousand, you want a hundred thousand. There's never enough.

At what amount could you say, my soul, you have enough stored up. Take your ease. Luke in chapter 12.

Abram went down to Egypt for help. And when he got there, he said, tell them you're my sister. And he did that.

And you know what happened? They took his wife into Herod's harem. And she was there in preparation to become his wife. And he blessed her brother with donkeys and camels and bulls and goats and sheeps and herds and flocks and monies and gold and silver.

You damn it. He got it. And every time he'd be sitting there thinking that his wife is in that guy's palace and he'd be getting another load of gifts.

And in his heart, what he really wanted is he wanted his family. He just wanted his family to be together. You see, when you seek after something that's not the will of God for your life, you're going to get some things, but it's not going to be the things that are important to God.

And you're going to feel it in your heart. Luke chapter 12 verse 13. Then one from the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

But Jesus said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you? You know, a lot of us today we have the baby boomer generation. Maybe some of you are not from here. But hey, you know what the parents are going to pass and they have some houses paid off and life could get easier.

It could get a little easier for some of us. Because they've been working hard and the Lord's blessed them or perhaps, you know, they've really applied themselves. But then you have the dispute with family.

We have that going on right now. With family and with an inheritance, you know, everybody's, you know, well, we've got to try to protect mom and dad and the inheritance. And all of a sudden you start focusing on the inheritance and getting away from the giver of the inheritance.

We're looking at a natural inheritance rather than a spiritual inheritance. You know, Paul said, I count all things loss, including his reputation, the Pharisee of Pharisees. He could have been very successful in business.

He could have done great things because the amount of zeal he had for the gospel, he could have applied in other areas. But he said, I count it all loss for the excellence of an inheritance of knowing you, Jesus. Now, can we see past the fog of what is waiting for us on the other side of drawing near to God? Many of us can't.

Many of us only see what's right in front of us. Think of Moses, the special son that he was. How God protected him and how they hid him in the reeds and how Pharaoh's daughter found him and man, what a blessing the guy was brought up right into Pharaoh's house.

Just like Sarah is now in Pharaoh's harem. Moses is now in Pharaoh's house and he was trained in the education all the ways of Egypt. And the guy had it all going.

He was trained in war. He was gonna, he was a prince. Maybe he wouldn't have been the prince of Egypt because maybe he wasn't part of the bloodline, but he was in a good place, naturally speaking.

But then he saw his brothers. He knew he was Hebrew because his nurse was his mother. And he always felt guilty because here he was enjoying life to the full and there was his brothers and his mother and his family and his his friends and his countrymen and they were suffering and they were, he was watching them getting whipped and they had to work so hard and they got barely anything.

And they came to a point that says in Hebrews 11 where he forsook the passing pleasures of Egypt and he stepped away from all that to be associated with his brothers and that was the beginning of the fulfillment of the call of God, but it didn't start there. He took matters into his own hands and he tried to solve it with his own strength, not from faith, and he fled into the wilderness where he had to go through wilderness training for 40 years. He didn't marry a Hebrew.

He married a Voodoo priest's wife. That's what I'll call her because from Haiti. A Midianite had a different gods.

And that daughter, he took a daughter of a Midianite priest. Voodoo priest's daughter. That's what he had.

You know and God had called him to circumcision and he, you know, I think there was a strife there and it's like, you know, we probably should circumcise these boys. He had a couple kids with her you know, nothing happened. Nothing happened.

God had a call in his life. He sent him back to the Pharaoh to go show his power and his strength through faith and there's an angel standing there to resist Moses. Pinned him down to the ground.

Was going to kill him. He had the purpose and call of God in his life. He'd already walked away from Pharaoh's house.

He'd already got the commission at the burning bush and now all of a sudden an angel's there with the sword ready to deal with Moses. It doesn't matter how successful and highly favored if you're not walking in obedience to what you know. It doesn't say much about it, but it says that the wife circumcised those boys while the angel had him there.

What was the importance of that? Because he was called to be a forerunner, to be an ambassador, to be a deliverer for God's people. And God had called Abraham when he made covenant with him that the people would be a set-apart people in the old covenant. The sign was circumcision.

Moses knew that, but he was circumcised himself, but his children were not. And I think there was a bit of a dispute there and the woman had to decide right there. You're going to choose your husband, you choose your boys and she did what needed to be done.

Obviously, it had been discussed. She knew what to do. We are a set-apart people.

We are a peculiar people. We are called to be a holy people to fulfill the purpose and call of God in our life, but we have to do things his way. Abram had to learn that while he was Abram in Egypt.

A plague broke out in the Pharaoh's house and everybody got whatever boils or they got some kind of measles or they got some kind of leprosy. Who knows? They got some kind of sickness and it came known to them that why is this happening? Entreat your gods. Let's figure out what's going on.

And somebody got a word of knowledge. It's because you have Abram's wife, you need to give her back. And he said, why did you not tell us she was your wife? He said, I was scared.

He said, just get away from Egypt. Get out of here. You know, we sang that song, he will keep you fast.

You know, he'll never let me go. Well, there's some truth to that. But the other side of it is we have choice.

We have a choice. No one's going to snatch you from his hand when you have a desire to follow him. But when you go over to Egypt, you put yourself at risk.

And God intervened and banished Abram from Egypt. Otherwise, he'd still be there. He would have died there.

The mistake he made, which seemed hopeless, God did a miracle, gave him his wife back with all this stuff. And sent him back on the way. And he went back to that altar that he had built, where he first sacrificed to the Lord, and he sacrificed to the Lord there again, and burnt another offering to the Lord.

And I've often shared this. One of the churches, the first church, the compromise church, he said, you got all good things going. You make a fantastic lunch on Sundays.

You know, everybody put the chairs together, they clean up the tables, they vacuum the floors, and you know, they do good things. They give, they help the poor. They do all kinds of good things.

Very good things, but have one thing against you. That passion for Jesus that you had at the beginning, it's missing now. That love like you had for your husband or for your wife at the beginning.

You're washing the clothes, you're doing the laundry, you're cooking, you're cleaning, you go to work, you provide. But that passion is missing between you and Jesus. And he says, you've left your first love.

Abram left that walk of faith when he went down to Egypt. And he says that he needed to repent and return. That's what he tells the church.

They needed to repent and return. You didn't lose it. You took a wrong turn and you left it somewhere.

And so how do you right the wrong? Well, sometimes you got to sell something. Sometimes you got to quit something. Sometimes you got to walk away from something.

Sometimes you just have to repent of something to get that first love back. Because we fill the void that we had with Jesus with something else. It doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

It's just something that filled the void and now you're stuck. He granted your request, but there's leanness there. And we've been justifying it long enough.

But Abram had to humble himself and take the trail back to where the famine was to the altar that he had built and to go sacrifice on it again and wait to hear God call his voice and tell him where to go. It says my sheep from John 10 hear my voice and they do what? They follow me. It says in Romans 8 verse 12, Brethren, we're not debtors to the sinful nature to live according to the sinful nature.

Because if we live according to the flesh, we're going to die. That word is what we in Creole, you will die. But if by the Spirit's help, you put to death, that's crucifying the flesh, that's saying no to the thing that once took your heart away from Jesus.

That's where the cross comes in and it's tangible and it's real. You're not just hanging around your neck. It's like, okay, I got to deal with this thing that I went to for help, that I went to to satisfy something, a real need I had in my life.

And now I got to let this go and I got to get that first love back. Repent from where you've fallen and return. You left your first love.

Get back to where you left it. You took a wrong turn. And keep going by faith with the Lord Jesus Christ.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, Romans 8, 15, these are the sons of God. 14 and 15. These are the sons of God.

They're led by the Spirit of God. How? By faith. By faith, it says Moses left the palace, the passing pleasures of Egypt to be associated with his brethren.

And then God dealt with him. He dealt with things that needed dealing in his life and he returned 40 years later ready to do the mission. When he was 40 years younger, he had the zeal for the mission.

He had the strength for the mission. He was ready to tackle the mission. He knew he was God's deliverer.

But he had too much strength. He had too much self-confidence. He had too much ability.

Too much Egypt training. He had to go through a place where he realized that he was nothing. That he was too tired.

He was too old and he didn't have the strength and he had no more zeal. He even said just send someone else. Send my brother.

I can't even speak anymore. Yeah, I used to be able to talk circles around people. I could put Pharaoh in his place.

I can't even do that anymore. He said Moses will be, Aaron will be your spokesman. Here's a stick in your hand and the power of God will be with you.

And so it's not by might nor is it by power, but it's by his spirit. Don't let discouragement of the past hinder you from your faithful walk with the Lord moving forward in the future. It says in Hebrews in chapter 6, we are not of them and Hebrews in chapter 10.

We are not of them that shrink back to perdition, but them that press forward. We got to move forward to the saving of the soul, but it's by faith. Now if I come to you and I put my finger on something I say, hey, you got to get rid of this and you got to sell that.

That's not a faith. Because you'll do it because they go Pastor Randy said I should do it. So I did it.

That doesn't justify you before God. Children are like that. We tell our children, hey, clean your room.

You know, clean the house, make sure the weeds are pulled. We were just away for a while. We come back and the kids, they cleaned the garage, they cleaned.

Man, we didn't even ask them to do it. They just did it. There's some spiritual growth happening there because they know the father and the mother's heart.

If you know the father and the mother's heart and you do the things in your heart that you know, God wants you to do, it will go on your account for righteousness. But if you're just doing it as do's and don'ts, it won't bring life and it won't bring joy. Verse 15, and he said to them, Luke 12, 15, beware of covetousness.

You want to know what covetousness is? Wanting what you don't have. You see, buddy's got something you want. I don't care what it is.

His wife, his donkey, his horse, his camel, his dog, his cat. You want it, his car. If only you had that, things would be better.

You'd be happy. He's talking about inheritance. Tell my brother to share the inheritance.

If I had more money, I'd be happier. And Jesus says, be careful about this, man. Verse 15, beware of covetousness.

One's life does not consist, in other words, your happiness will not come from the abundance of things that you have. He want to bless you, but if you think you're going to find happiness in the blessings, you're mistaken. Our happiness comes from him, from knowing him, from being in a right relationship with him.

Then he spoke a parable to them, a ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. The rich man got blessed even more. The rich get richer.

And he thought to himself, I'm going to make a good decision. What am I going to do? I don't have any more room to store all my stuff, to do my business, to do, to store my gold. I mean, all my grain and my crops, I got no more room.

What am I going to do? Man, he started to think, he thought, you know what? I'm going to expand. There's nothing wrong with expanding, but you know what, where your treasure is? That's where your heart will be. And you're going to be happy until somebody comes and steals it from you.

You'll be happy until the tax man comes and takes 50% from you. You'll be happy until someone comes and takes advantage of you. You'll be happy until you find out all that grain that you stored, the rain got in somehow, someone left some door open and it molded, and you lost a bunch of your stuff.

Then you'll really find out where your heart is, where your treasure is. That's where your heart will be. You see, we cry when we lose something precious to us, but we don't cry because we're spiritually bankrupt.

Talk about, in repentance and rest is our salvation. In quietness, in trust is our strength. Like a weaned child with a mom.

She's sitting just so quietly on the lap. When I saw my little Lily sitting with her dad and just resting, you know, we're sitting in the boat to see the newborn baby, you know, to hold a newborn baby and just to see the rest of a child with their parent. To be like that with Jesus, guys.

To be at rest like that with him. So no matter what you have or don't have, what they're stealing or what's rotting, our heart is not carried away and moved to the left or the right because of these things. But to be still and know that he is God and he's in control.

These are tests. We just come from a little vacation, a little rest, and all of a sudden we get back into service, the phone starts lighting up, renters are moving out, and we're evil landlords and this and that, and you know, the place is all full of mold and I'm thinking, okay, I gotta get over to Prince George. I gotta just go run over there.

And then my wife just speaks some good reason to me. Says, you know what, like, let's just rest. Let's just pray about this.

Let's just see what the Lord will do. He's gonna make it beautiful in this time. And we're not just gonna have a panic attack and just get out of that rest and, you know, get in all this anxiety and everything, everything falling apart.

You know, it's like, okay, I gotta renew my mind here. I gotta think and meditate on things that are lovely and pure right now and think how we can solve this thing in a godly way, in a right way. And you know what, maybe I don't have to go there.

Maybe God will provide someone. See, there's gotta be some faith involved. That God already has a remedy.

He already has a solution. There's not have to be in my strength and my zeal to make it happen. And there's time for that.

But there's also allowing the Lord to show his power, to show his ability to raise a standard against the enemy schemes to destroy and rob our peace. What am I going to do to store my crops? He said, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to pull down my barns.

I'm going to build greater barns. And there I'm going to store all my crops, my goods, spending all of our energy and our time on trying to preserve our stuff, rather than sometimes just saying, letting go and letting go. I'm just like, you know what, enough.

I have enough. I'm just going to stay the course. I'm just going to trust the Lord.

We're going to keep going. But our tendency is to find our security in our things. And this is what 19 says.

And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid out for many years. You know, I got my education. I got my family.

I got my pension. I got this. I got that.

I got my 401ks for the U.S. guys. You know, things are taken care of for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.

And this is where we have to be careful. We want to find rest. We want to find these kinds of things.

And we enjoy those things as we're getting a little older to spend more time alone. But in that resting and in that taking ease, does it cause our soul to drift away from Him? We have to really be honest with the Lord and with ourselves about that. Because in our older years or even in our younger years, you don't know what tomorrow brings.

God said, fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then who will those things be which you have provided? Spend so much time doing all the smart decisions. Who will those things be? And so is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

We want to be rich toward God, rich in faith. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall be rich in faith. What is poverty of spirit? Does that mean you got to give all your money away to be poor in spirit? Or does it mean to be humble in heart? It says the humble at heart shall see God, to know Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.

You can't have one without the other. He calls us to walk as Jesus walked. I saw a post that Daniel Granaro posted that said, how can we say to a man who has his hands with holes in his side pierced, why are you allowing us to suffer? He suffered.

He gave us an example on how we can overcome in the midst of suffering. We're all going to suffer. Even worldly people suffer.

When they suffer, they go to self-medicate. They go on depression pills. They go and they go and they try to take the torment off rather than dealing with the root cause, which is sin.

Most cases, it's sin. Rather than repenting, we're trying to mask over. But if we humble ourselves, and we start to pray and do some soul searching, and we start to get some light as the Word of God began to speak to us, that there's some ways we need to turn from.

And those ways are not pleasing to the Lord. They're wicked ways. And all of a sudden, God's going to hear from heaven, and you're going to feel just as if you've never sinned.

That's what repentance does. He's going to heal your land. That land that He wants to possess is your heart.

To love the Lord thy God with what? All your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. If you're wholehearted for the Lord, then you will be at peace with Him. And I those places, but He wants us to live in that place.

He wants us to abide in His rest. We're in the right relationship with Him. We're not anxious and easily tossed with the problems of life.

We're able to just find our source in Him, casting all of our cares upon Him because He cares for us. He says, why worry about tomorrow? And so in a tangible sense, our faith has to grow legs where we say, Lord, here I have a cause. I'm bringing my cause to you.

I know you care whether my hair falls to the ground or stays in my head or turns black or white. I can't do anything about it. I need your help now.

Here's my petition. I shared two weeks ago about bringing a petition to the Lord. It says that in Hebrews in chapter five, that we who have a genuine faith in the Lord, we bring our petition before Him.

That's what prayer is. Prayer is bringing a cause before Him. I posted something yesterday on Hillside.

I saw this preacher preaching. Some of you, the ladies don't have this thing, and I thought I'd just mention it. So this guy's sharing and he's talking about this guy, and then the preacher sees this guy in church and he says, that was a bad man.

He's a very evil man, wasn't he? Pastor, was he an evil man? He was a guest visitor. He said, yeah, he was really evil, bad, bad guy. We would go witness to him for 20 years and we'd go there to witness and he'd shoot holes in our car.

And he said, well, you guys must be so happy. He's here at church. He got saved.

He said, more than that, he said, the woman weeping in the fourth row, that's his mom. She'd been praying for 20 years for her boy. And I had said to her, you know, woman, just let it go.

Give it to the Lord. It's not your burden. And she said, no.

She said, the devil's not going to have him. And every Sunday, he said, she never missed one Sunday. She was up at the front of the alt praying and weeping for her son.

She got the petition from him after 20 years. You could have a petition from the Lord. You say, well, I've been praying for my kids, no change.

I remember praying for my daughter, Kendra for 12 years. I prayed for her and she could have a child. We're getting our petitions from the Lord because the Lord is with faith.

The righteous shall live by their faith. You say, well, I asked and I didn't get. Disappointment came in my life.

So you ran over to Egypt. I'll repent and return. The Lord want to give us the desires of our heart, but he makes everything beautiful in his time.

There's a season for everything. And maybe he has more work to do in our marriage and in our relationship before he give us more blessings. Imagine if he give you another blessing and you got to send it off to daycare because you can't deal with it.

You got to ship it into foster. For those of you that have experienced foster because you can't handle it. That's not the Lord's will.

He won't give you more than you can handle. If you can't handle what you got, don't be discouraged if he don't give you more. How many of you don't want to give your kids the best things? I mean, we make sacrifices every day for our kids.

They might not see it. Maybe when they're old, they'll see some of it. You know, some of you, our children are having babies, you know, and they didn't think nothing of it.

And now they have some of their own babies and they realize that we carried nine. We lost, I think, four, but we carried nine. And the sacrifices, and you start thinking, mom and dad aren't half so bad.

They made a lot of sacrifices for us and not just us, for all of us. And they care for every one of us and they want every one of us to be saved. And they pray for our grandbabies, the grandbabies to be saved.

Abraham came to a place where God led him and he had no son. And God said, blessing, I'll bless you. Multiplying, I'll multiply you.

And he says, what are you going to bless me with? I got no son. Can you give me more, more gold? Can you give me more cows? I got to take care of. You're going to give me more goats.

You can increase my business. I can't even handle what I got now. I got no son.

I got no one to pour the inheritance into. I got no one to leave the blessing of God to. I'm not talking natural blessing.

Teach a child in the way they should go. You got a window, man. Use it.

When they're old, they won't depart from it. You and I, we departed from it, but we returned. We have to teach them in that window so that if they go astray, and God forbid, they'll repent and they'll return.

It don't have to take 20 years. Become a praying man, but praying woman. Pray for those kids.

Pray for the things that God puts on your heart to pray for. Don't pray for other people too. Remember the poor.

Pray for those who are persecuted. Pray for the government, man. They need help.

Pray for your spouse. Be patient and long-suffering. Ask the Lord to help you.

Don't be selfish and self-centered and self-seeking. What can I get out of it? How can my life be made easier? No, Lord, how can I be like you? For God so loved the world that He gave. He gave the one thing He loved the most, His only Son.

To what? To watch your sin and mine get put on Him and slaughtered like a dog. He was a lamb. They treated Him like a dog.

They spit on Him and they whipped Him. They kicked Him. They did all these things to Him, and He did it because He loved us so that we wouldn't have to go there.

He endured the agony of Sheol for us so that we could have peace, so we could find rest. Isaiah 55 says, why spend money on what is not bread? Why pour all your energy on what does not satisfy? Jeremiah 2 says, He has been the fountain of life. We've tasted the fountain of life that's come from Him, but now we're in a dry time.

We're in a wilderness time. We're thirsty. And so what are we going to do? He says, the children of Israel hewed themselves their own water pots, cisterns, water cisterns.

If you're in a third world country, you understand that you've got to store rainwater in a cistern. But it's a cistern that's got a big crack in it, and it won't hold any water. And you spent so much energy hewing yourself a cistern that's broken that won't hold any water.

This is what we do when we go to other things to find our joy, and our refreshment, and our help, and our strength. It leaves us parched and dry. We can repent and return.

Why are you downcast though, my soul? David says, why are you disheartened? Man, you've been looking at other things. Put your hope in God. I shall yet praise Him.

I shall yet praise Him. Sometimes you need to pull yourself, this is an old saying, pull yourself up by the bootstraps. You say, listen, I got to get out of the mud.

You're going to do that by repenting and returning. David had said this prayer. He said, he was found himself in the miry clay.

And the Lord lifted him up out of the miry clay and placed his feet upon a rock. You want to know what that rock is? Christ. Our foundation got to be Christ.

Our foundation got to be the Word of God. That's our foundation. Otherwise the house is going to come down, guys.

A man built his house on sand. He had no foundation. The wind come, the trials, the tests, and the house blow over because it did not have a foundation.

But the man who had a foundation, he got beat on too. And the wind come, and the flood come, and beat on his house. And the house stood.

It did not collapse. No big meltdown. Because on Christ, the solid rock, I stand.

All the other ground, sinking sand. I want to encourage you to continue to press on. That's why I want to leave that with you.

Press on to the upward call of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Looking unto him, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, because he saw you and me, endured the sufferings. He didn't enjoy the passing pleasures of Egypt.

He endured the sufferings. And we also have to embrace the sufferings of Christ and the glories that follow. What glories? I have five sons.

I have four daughters. I have some daughter-in-laws. I have some son-in-laws.

I have some grandchildren. I woke up this morning. I got to see one of my grandsons laying there in his shorts, with his belly out, with his hands behind his head.

I come out of my room, and he's there. And I said, are you happy? He said, yep. I said, see, my grandson's happy.

That makes me happy. He's content. You're not playing with toys.

You're not doing nothing. You're just sitting there thinking, sitting there looking up. Just that is what makes me happy, to see your children's children.

He said, Abraham, you are going to have, I know you don't see it now, but you need to get some faith so you can see it. The blessing of Abraham is the stars, as many as you can count them, godly seed in the heavens. Also, you're going to have a bunch in the sand of the seashore too.

The blessing of Abraham, a man of faith. Trust and wait on the Lord. Don't go grabbing.

Let God give it to you. He gives it to you. It's from him.

You go grabbing, you're going to lose it anyhow. Just grasping at the wind, Solomon says, like grabbing oil, grabbing wind with your hair. It's all vanity.

It's not going to satisfy. But the Lord Jesus, he's going to send rest in your soul. Peace like a river.

It's going to lead us in the way. Times of refreshment again from the Lord. So, I want to encourage you with that.

Put your hope in God and start praising him. Start thanking him. I shall yet praise him.

Amen.