Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/riversidehop/sermons/94441/wheels-of-experience-part-2/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] It's good to have everyone with us. If you had your Bibles, turn to the book of Genesis chapter 12. [0:13] And we talked about how we, all of us, can find ourselves on that wheel. [0:36] And this is God's purpose for you to know Him. We talked about it in Exodus when God spoke to Moses and said, This is who I am. I want to tell you who I am. [0:51] And He gave 12 names. Every single name means something different than the previous name mentioned. 12 different natures or identities. [1:03] You could say it that way. And I believe that when you go through life, you are riding the wheel of every one of those names that were you to learn who God is. [1:15] And sometimes it's hard to understand who God is. We talked about the first wheel was Lord, that He is the owner of all things. And sometimes it's hard to believe that, isn't it? [1:30] We talked about how some folks can go through their whole life trying to just ride the first wheel. Struggling with, does God really own it all? [1:40] Then why does some of the things that He lets happen happen to things that He owns that He wouldn't want? Does anybody else struggle with that? [1:53] And to struggle with it is not a bad thing. If you remember, Jacob wrestled with God. He wrestled with what it was. [2:05] And what was neat about Jacob is that he was so driven to not give up. So many of us find ourselves jumping off the wheel and saying, you know what? [2:15] I don't want to thank it anymore. I don't want to talk about it anymore. In fact, I'm done with it. I don't want to know anymore from God anymore. And we see Him just jump right off. Some of our family members probably have done so. [2:28] Some of the people we've known have probably have done so. But that's not what God wants. He wants you to wrestle with it until He shows you where you're different. In fact, Jacob wrestled until he walked different. [2:43] And changed his name. He wasn't the same person. Someone who went into the cave and wrestled with God did not come out the same. He was a different person. [2:54] A different nature. A different walk. He walked differently. People knew from the sight. Like, does that fit same Jacob that I remember? [3:06] And that's what He wants out of us. To be different every time. Every time we learn something new about Him. To be a little bit different. And in those wills of experience, part two, tonight, your will sometimes overlaps with someone else's will. [3:27] And I wish I had a chart or something to draw. You would see, I would draw two circles. And in that middle, you know, there's a middle section that they kind of touch. And that's being shared. When you decide to get married, my wife and I have joined our circles of experience to where much of it does touch. [3:47] Most of it does. There is a small part on each of our wills. That is our time and identity with the Lord that is special to each of us individually. But we have also made a decision to become one with Christ in marriage that most of our experiences are related to each other. [4:06] We are going to the same soccer games that Pierce has. We're going to the same church services that we go to. We're going, we live in the same home. We discuss. [4:18] Everything is joined and all of it is shared. Most of it is shared. But our circles are also touching other people's lives. My circle might touch other people's circles that her circle will never touch. [4:33] So I've got people that I work with. I've got people that come into my life and that have interactions with me that she may not ever interact with. And same for her. She's got. And so I want you to think about it. [4:43] Who is involved in your real experience? Who touches you? Who interacts with you that may not interact with me ever for the history of ever? [4:55] And this is what I want to talk about tonight. So we have got one thing we've got to understand is we, and I know this is one hot topic from Sister Missy. We have got to start obeying what God wants us to do. [5:08] If we continue, and all of us are guilty, myself included, I'm number one, of choosing not to obey or choosing not to do God's will. [5:20] There's a little voice inside of you that says, you know, you should probably do, and he tells you. Some of it, it's very specific. You don't have to think, well, what does God really want from me? A lot of the time it's very specific. [5:32] And no, most of the time it's not very loud, audible. And this big scene, great from heaven, don't expect a big dove in the sky to come and scream at you and tell you what God wants you to do. That's a small voice inside that talks to you. [5:45] He comes to you and speaks quietly. Lead me beside the still waters. Yes. Come on. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Lead me down the paths of righteousness. [5:57] For whose sake? Not mine. For his name's sake. Yes. So, when we start obeying, we're going to start seeing some of the things we want to see from God. [6:11] And he's going to start saying more to us, which is, I think, what we all want. So, if you have your Bible, let's turn to chapter 12. I've never heard this preached before. [6:22] I've never heard anybody talk about this. And so, I thought, Lord, am I just wacko crazy? Because I have never seen this. I've never heard anyone talk about it. [6:34] Surely, I'm not the only one. And so, I Googled it to see if there's anybody talking about this. And sure enough, there is. So, I'm like, man, praise the Lord. I'm not as crazy as I thought I was. So, if you're in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, let's read it together. [6:52] Now, the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. [7:06] And I will make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee, and make thy name great. Thou shalt be a blessing. [7:17] I will bless them that bless you, and I will curse you that curses you. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. [7:29] We've read that before. And if you fast forward to the Hebrews Hall of Fame, you'll find out that Abraham is right there. [7:41] Mentioned. Because of Abraham's obedience, Paul says. What Paul doesn't mention is his one act of disobedience. [7:56] Everybody go, Abraham disobeyed? No. By the way, there's only one perfect. [8:07] So, we don't need to be putting everybody in the Bible on a pedestal like they hadn't had made a mistake. Yeah. And I read that over and over and over. [8:21] I'm going to read verse 4 to you. So, Abram. You know what? I'm going to read verse 1, and then I'm going to jump to 4. The Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred. [8:34] And from thy kindred. Somebody say, and from thy kindred. And from thy kindred. And from thy kindred. Yeah. And from thy kindred. And from your father's house. Yeah. Jump to verse 4. [8:45] So, Abram departed as the Lord had spoken, and Lot went with him. Yeah. What? I thought he said, Get away from his kindred. [8:59] And Lot went with him? It was his nephew. Yeah. God didn't say, Take your nephew. He never said, Get away from your kindred. [9:11] No, but Lot can come too. Okay? He never said that. I couldn't find it. I kept reading it over and over. I'm like, Where am I? Misses. And Lot went with him. [9:24] Abraham was 75 old, and when he departed out of Haran. It's very specific. Lot doesn't have a dad. If you read before, and a few verses before that, Lot's dad's not there. [9:39] And in fact, it says that he died. So Lot was there fatherless. We don't know how old Lot was, but we know they didn't have a dad. Abraham didn't have what? [9:53] A son. You can see how tempting this would be to bring your nephew along the journey of a promise that you'd have a great nation. [10:05] A promise that you would have kids. A promise that your generations would fill the earth beyond the sands of the sea. And he's like, Oh, man, I got a nephew that doesn't have a dad, and I don't have a son. [10:18] I'm going to bring him. He keeps on keeping her. Now, you know, and I know, that only caused problems. The first problem was that his herdsmen started bickering with Abraham's herdsmen. [10:35] They're not having a good time. They're fighting back and forth. It escalates so much that Abraham's like, You know what, Lot? You go your way. I'm going to go my way. [10:46] We just need to separate. So taking him along was a joke. He should have never went. What? So they could separate? What kind of God's plan is that? [10:59] It wasn't God's plan. God's plan is that for Abraham to go from his kindred. Hello? Why did Lot go? No. Abraham asked him to go? [11:09] Or Lot begged Abram, and Abram caved in? I don't know. All I know is that Lot went right there. And then what happens? Lot goes to Sodom and gets in trouble. [11:24] It takes the whole group, right? I mean, the whole. You've got to remember that when they travel, they travel in camps. So it wasn't just four or five people. [11:37] It was a whole camp of folks. Herdsmen, cattle, all the, all Lot's kindred. Got Lot's wife, kids. If he had kids, you know, daughters. [11:47] Obviously he had daughters because you'll learn that later on in the story. That weird part of the story. But there's a lot going on. There's a lot there. So Lot doesn't travel to Sodom by himself. He's got other folks with him. [11:59] So it really paints the picture in your head when Abram is on the hilltop and he is bargaining with God. [12:09] How many people can I save? Think about that. Y'all follow me? Y'all remember that? [12:20] He's saying, God, don't destroy the city. There's people there. God's like, yeah, I'm destroying the city. What are you talking about? Well, there's Lot in his family. [12:31] What if we just saved? And he gives off some numbers. God's like, I don't know. What if we just saved this many? You know, I don't. Well, what if we just saved just a few? Even if it's just one. [12:42] That's why the bargaining from Abram was so passionate and so directed toward God that he not destroy Sodom. [12:53] Because it's a blood on Abram's hands. He should have never been there. Isn't that wild? Has anybody ever heard this? No. Me either. One, what could have fixed all this? [13:09] If they were just obeyed the Lord, not everybody would have gotten in trouble. Do you understand the circle of experience that Lot and his kids and his cattlemen and his herdsmen that eventually had to split away from him and forget Sodom? [13:23] Should have never even been there. Then they eventually split anyway. It's ridiculous. And how many people were involved in all that? I wonder how many people would have been saved if Abram just obeyed. [13:38] And I have to ask, would Lot ever go to Sodom? I don't think so. He would have stayed where he was from. He wouldn't be out there in the middle of nowhere looking for the next city to get food from. [13:51] Number two, I don't know so much that Sodom would have been destroyed. I really don't know. They were wicked before, but they had done a wicked thing so bad that apparently God had to destroy the city. [14:06] Why didn't he destroy it before Lot got there? So this episode of Lot being there, it also influenced the actions of the Lord towards Sodom even. [14:16] How many people? We're talking about thousands and thousands and thousands of people because Abram said, I'm taking my dad's view. Your obedience, the biggest lie the enemy wants to tell you and me, is that your actions only include you. [14:36] And he can say, hmm, if you just smoke this thing here, first of all, it's not really a big deal. And second of all, it's not hurting anybody. [14:48] Who cares? If I just take this drink of this, it's not going to hurt anyone else. But yeah, it only affects you. So who cares? If I just look at this, even though I'm not supposed to look at it, it's not going to hurt anybody. [15:06] So who cares? That's a lie from the devil. That your decisions affect your household. It affects everyone that is involved with your circle being. [15:18] On down and on down and on down. So I've been, this is my heart is to study this. Thank God, this is amazing that how many times have we chosen to disobey you and then someone else have to pay for it? [15:33] I don't want to talk about that. I don't want to think about that. But we know it's true. Those are things, I'm sure there's folks in here that are listening thinking, yeah, there's been some bad things happening in my family because of one total brain's decision that I didn't even want to be involved with in the first place. [15:54] And now I've got to deal with it. It's true. [16:25] I'm going to read to you too. After Lot, after Lot and Abram had their, you know, conversation about, you know, we need to split up. Don't be shocked if that's when God decides to talk to you. [16:40] You, when we start to obey what God needs us to do, then you'll hear from him. But the more we say, you know what, I think I know better than you, God. Don't expect to be told any more instruction. [16:52] 14 says in chapter 13, verse 14 in Genesis says, and the Lord said unto Abram, after that, Lot was separated from him. And the Lord said unto Abram, after Lot was separated from him, lift up your eyes, look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward for all the way in which you see to thee. [17:16] I will give it and thy seed forever. And I have to ask myself, have God ever been able to get the words out of Abram's kept disobeying? [17:27] What is he trying to tell you tonight that you won't let him? What are we, what is he trying to tell us tonight? [17:40] That because we know better, we know what we think we, you know, we, I've heard it said one time, you have got to resign as CEO of your world and let God take control. [17:50] That's right. You've got to turn in your papers. You're going to turn in the keys to the office, the office building and say, I am officially resigning as of today. You need to run the show. [18:01] I thought I could run the show. The stocks are plummeting. Give God the keys to run the show and he'll run it for us. And we won't drive it in the ground and people won't get messed up and in a hole because we decide that we know better. [18:19] And the Lord said unto Abram, after a lot was separated from him, anything that you see is yours and your kids. I just have to think, you know, what do you have ever got to see? What do you even got to say? If Abram's like, yeah, I'm going to keep all around. [18:32] I know it's my fault, but I'm going to keep him around anyway. It probably would have died right there in that land. And I have to move on to the next generation to complete God's purpose of will. [18:44] Jonah chapter 1. This is so powerful. And I'm going to read. [18:55] Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city. Cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. [19:05] Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa. He found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare thereof. [19:17] He went down into it to go with him to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. The Lord set down a great wind in the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea that the ship was like to be broken. [19:31] The mariners were afraid. They crowd everyone unto his God and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it. They're throwing stuff overboard, thinking we've got to do something. We're about to sink. [19:42] The wares are, I looked this up. It had anything to do with the tools that were aboard, any money that was on the board, all the clothes that were on board, all the food that was on board. [19:53] They're tossing everything, saying, I don't know what we're going to have to do, but we're going to have to throw everything off, and we're going to die on here. And he says, but Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he was sleeping. [20:05] So the shipmaster came to him and said, why are you sleeping? You need to wake up. We're calling on our gods. You need to call on whatever god you call god. Call on him. Arise, call upon thy God, if that God will think upon us that we will perish not. [20:24] And they said, everyone to his fellow, come, let us cast lots, that we may know whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. [20:36] And they said unto him, tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? [20:48] What country and what people do you come from? And he said unto him, I am a Hebrew. I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which made the sea and the dry land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said unto him, why have you done this? [21:09] For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Jonah, like us, thanks. [21:23] God hears, God tells them what to do. He's like, nah, I don't think so. No offense, God, but I don't think so. [21:34] And how many people get in trouble? The whole ship. Because of one man's disobedience? There's a verse on that, isn't there? Because of one man's disobedience? [21:47] Yes. Come on. That everybody has to suffer? Our obedience to God matters. What he's told you may not be what he told someone else. [22:00] He told you to do it. And he thinks that he's going to run away from what God needs him to do. And it involve everybody on the ship. They didn't even like, please tell me. [22:12] No, you? A Hebrew? We've seen what your God does. And you're running from him. No wonder we're in this storm. Praise God. [22:32] See, this is why it's so important that we find time in our home to pray. If we're not listening to God, asking him what he wants us to do, how many things can go wrong, I think? [22:49] How many things can go wrong? That's why it's important that we get here in time for service to pray. How many things could go right? Amen. What was the service that we're supposed to have? [23:04] And I think, how many services have we dismissed it? Just a little. Because nobody ever thought to ask, God, what do you want? Yeah, what do you want? Oh, hallelujah. [23:14] I know what I want. I know I'm going to sing this song. I know I'm going to preach this message. I know I'm going to say this testimony. Man, I know a lot of things what I want. I don't have a lot on the paper about what you want. [23:29] Anybody else guilty? That's what we're doing when we pray. If you don't know what to pray for, by the way, Brother David's got a whole list that we've put together. And if you run out of things on that list, you've got your country to pray for, which will take you all year. [23:44] You've got your state to pray for. You've got your county to pray for. You've got your city to pray for. You've got your family members to pray for. You've got your friends to pray for. You've got all the prayer concerns you see on Facebook to pray for. [23:56] And we think, how am I going to fill up 30 minutes? Man, it wouldn't take us 30 years to get done with praying what we need to pray for. Amen. Yeah. Come on. On top of all that, asking God what He wants. [24:12] But it's not all bad news. Because there's a good side to all this. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. In closing. Because I know we're all hungry. [24:26] It's a rainy night. But God's got something for us tonight. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about it. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. [24:42] Verse 14. Paul's talking to Corinthians, the church of the Corinth. And he's talking about how they're gathering together to have communion. [24:57] They're gathering together to have the Lord's Supper. And the very spirit of God's presence is there, right there in the meal. That's a lot of confusion comes from, this is my body. [25:11] They think, well, does it turn to His body? Do you turn into His body when you eat it? Is it just a symbol that it's His body? Paul says it's a spiritual reality. [25:23] Stop looking at the bread and looking for DNA. Stop looking in your stomach and looking for DNA of some sort from some alien origin. [25:35] It's a spiritual reality. When he says this is my bread, this is God's spiritual body. And so when he says this is my blood, this is God's spiritual blood. So don't think, oh, I'm drinking Jesus' blood. [25:49] Literal blood. We're not supposed to be drinking blood. The Bible says so. Hello? But this is a spiritual reality. Spiritual blood. So when we take the Lord's Supper, it is real. [26:01] Paul says in this passage, this is real. This is a spiritual reality. But there's also another spiritual reality is that we've got some folks out there having dinner with demons and devils. [26:16] That's a spiritual reality. Verse 14. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? [26:27] For we being many are one bread and one body. For we are all partakers of that one bread. Hold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? [26:39] What I say, that the idols anything, that which is offered and sacrificed to idols is anything. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils. [26:52] And not to God. And I would not that you have any fellowship with devils. The very involvement in that dinner or whatever that setting was back then, was a devilish, demonic fellowship. [27:09] Paul says that. Like, oh, come on, man, that sounds a lot like really bogus. It's right there. And then he says, how in the world? [27:19] You keep reading on it. It says, but I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils. They should have fellowship with devils. You can't drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. [27:33] You can't do that. We had, Paul said, we've got folks that are doing this. They're bringing it into the congregation. We don't want any part of that. But don't be partaking with the devils. [27:46] Your involvement with what you shouldn't be involved in, bringing it into church, is not what God wants you to do. Hello? How many people do that? [28:00] How many of us do that? And we wonder, well, God didn't move tonight. I mean, there's a real spiritual presence of the Holy Ghost. [28:13] You know when it's here. He allows us to feel it. He doesn't have to, but He allows us to feel it. But again, like I say, it's not all bad news. Jump over to the book of Acts. [28:25] I'm going to show you something. I'm going to repeat. It is not about you only. It involves everybody. Your actions involve everybody. [28:38] I'm going to do this and that. Well, that's going to impact other people's experience. I'll never forget one time I was at an airport. [28:50] I was flying somewhere for the military. And I walked. I'm on a connecting flight. I don't know which airport I'm at. I'm not in the middle of Atlanta or not. I'm on this connecting flight. [29:01] And I'm walking past this huge, exhausting line of people. And they got this look on their face like they got their calm people like you won't believe what just happened. [29:16] You won't believe what just happened. I mean 40, 50, 60, 70. And I keep walking. I'm like, oh, my gosh, 80, 90 people. And they're at the customer service at the Delta desk. [29:29] And I'm thinking, oh, I know what they're doing. And I feel bad for them. I've been there before. Their flights got canceled. Their flight has gotten rerouted. [29:41] And their bags, I mean, they don't know what to do. They don't know what time they're getting home tonight. They don't know if they can even get home tonight. A lot of deltas over there are like, can we get you a hotel? You know, all these people they're having to get hotels for. [29:53] And my heart just sank for them, Sister Robyn. I mean, just sank. I'm thinking, because I've been there. Like, man, I'm glad I'm going home to see Jordan Pierce. Because, you know, I've got to get home. [30:05] But, you know, I feel bad for you, you know. But I've got to, I'm walking. I don't want to miss my flight. And I get up there, Sister Melissa, to the gate. And I'm right here. And I look at the gate. [30:20] But there ain't nobody around. And the door's closed. And I'm not late. There's a worker there. [30:32] Sister Leslie, I said, hey. I said, what's going on? Where is everybody? He said, oh, haven't you heard? [30:43] That flight's canceled. It's not all. [30:56] We think, oh, man, this is just my world. We're living in it. We're living in this world with other people, whether we like it or not. And that guy, I said, what's going on? Why is it canceled? [31:06] Well, they had an issue with one of the axles. One person decides not to check the axle and messes up 200 people's plans. Because one person said, man, I'm going to go home early. [31:21] So it's real. Repeat this. We're all in this together. We're all in this together. We're all in this together. [31:32] We're all in this together. Remember that. Acts chapter 16. Acts 16. [31:51] This is so good. We have got to start asking the Lord what He wants us to do. We have got to stop being in such a hurry all the time and ask Him, am I supposed to pray for this person? [32:11] Give me a sign, God. Am I supposed to? Listen, I don't. There's times that you're supposed to step out outside of His will thinking you're doing God a service. [32:23] When you're praying for somebody and you're like, God's like, I wasn't ready for that yet. So it's good that we're speaking to Him so we're not off time. There's so many things. I've been off time before, believe it or not. [32:34] You think, how could you pray for somebody and that would be wrong? God wasn't ready for it. You know that it wasn't the right time because it was met with awkwardness. They rejected it or whatever it was. [32:48] You're like, man, maybe I shouldn't have did that. I mean, we appreciate the boldness. But was that God's time? [33:02] I think we get so much in a hurry that we jump to, you know, this is what I want it done. This is what I think I should. That's what I think should happen. 1 Corinthians 10. I'm sorry, Acts 16. [33:15] I'm jumping back. Verse 27. Paul and Silas were in prison. You know the story? Everybody's bands are set loose because they prayed. [33:31] Is that right? 27 says, And the keeper of the prison waked out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and was ready to stab himself. [33:42] It says, would have killed himself, supposing the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, Do thyself no harm. We're all here. Then he called for a light. [33:57] And sprang in. And came trembling. He fell down before Paul and Silas. And brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? [34:10] And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. And? Your house. [34:22] So they listened to God, and decided to pray for this guy. He says, Help this guy. Don't kill yourself. Gave him just a little bit of encouragement. [34:33] It wasn't much. Don't kill yourself. It's a nice word. We should all be equipped with that one. And he says, Well, what am I supposed to do to be saved? [34:46] Like, oh my. What if they didn't say that? What if he had stabbed himself? He wouldn't have gotten even to ask the question. And if he didn't ask the question, then? 32. [34:58] And they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. They went to his house and preached to his family. His kids. His wife. [35:10] And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized and all of his. Then he baptized his whole family. Can you believe that? [35:21] And when he had brought them into the house, he set me before them, rejoice, believe me in God, with all his house. All because of what? Paul and Silas said, Don't kill yourself. [35:33] That little word got his whole family baptized and saved in the same day. What little words of encouragement we have or we withhold from people. [35:49] It's okay to say, you know, man, I don't know what I'm going to do. Those people, they'd say, I don't know what I'm going to do. Just give them some word of encouragement. [36:00] Say, I'll be praying for your brother and I will be praying that the Lord tells you what to do. You'll know it. That's right. That's all. But how easy it for us to say, I don't know. [36:13] I'm going through it too. I'm going through it too. Ain't that the truth? I don't know. Well, when you find out, tell me. Tell me. I'm going to share this short story and I'm going to close. [36:32] Sometime last year, I had a guy come out and give us an estimate because one of our trees is rocked. And I'm like, I don't want to tear down this tree. [36:43] I like this big tree. It's our yard. I don't want to tear down a tree. If we have trees, it's the shade. It just makes the yard look full. It doesn't look like a brand new lot. [36:54] You know, it looks like this is a, you know, a home. And it makes the home, you know, look and it encourages it all. And I don't want to tear down the tree. [37:05] I call the guy. He comes over here and he says, I can tear down that tree for you. And I said, I don't want, I don't know. I'm not ready to tear down the tree right now. [37:16] I just wanted to see if you can save it. I said, all right, well, I don't, I think we saved it. And I said, well, take a look at this other tree because this one I think is dead. And he's got a pine tree that's dying. And he says, yep. [37:27] And he's over here and he's got this man. He says, man, he says, yep. Yep, that tree, you know, that one's dead. It's going to have to go sometime. [37:38] But you don't have to do it right now. And he's looking back like this, holding the back of his leg. And my, I want to think, do I really want to talk about God? [37:51] Talk about trees right now. And so I said, what's wrong with your leg? He said, I got a sciatic nerve from my back and it goes down my leg and it hurts. [38:08] I said, well, I'm just crazy enough to believe that God can heal you from that. Amen. It was just me and him in the yard talking about this dead tree. And he said, he said, I said, do you mind if I pray for you? [38:23] You know? And he said, no. I said, oh, okay. So I'm there in front of God and everybody and all the trees. I took his hand like this and I closed my eyes and I felt the Holy Ghost of the Lord. [38:39] And I said, Lord, you know what, what this man needs in his leg. I don't know this man from, I don't even know his name at the time, but I know it now. [38:51] I said, we're going to, I'm praying to heal. I'm commanding healing in this leg. You know, he's trying to walk, walk and do his job. He can't even do his job. He wants, because that pain goes through all the way back. [39:02] Healing in the name of Jesus. You know, I'm praying. And that was that. He said, thank you. Appreciate it. [39:13] He gave me an estimate of $3,000. I didn't want to see that. We didn't do anything about it. And he limped off back to his truck. [39:26] So just last week, last week, the limb came down. Big, big tree limb. Fell down in the middle of the night. And I'm like, well, I guess they've got to call that guy again. [39:40] Because it's, fell down. I can't save it. Rest of the tree's still up, but this huge limb is down. And I've got to get it hauled off. So, I got to save his number, and I called him. [39:51] I said, well, will you come? He said, sure, I'll come and look. And he came, and he said, I remember you. You prayed for me, but I don't remember what we prayed for. [40:02] That was about a year ago. And I said, I think it was your leg. And he says, that's what it was. He said, I'm going to tell you something. [40:15] The day you came, the day that I came to you, and you prayed for me, that's never happened to me before, other than church. I've never seen that happen. Just a person pray for somebody? [40:27] But ever since you did, my life has changed. I have been seeking God. I've been a church. My wife is on fire from God. [40:40] I'm ministering to people on the job. I'm helping people out with troubles. He said, you won't believe this, I was behind a lady in a stoplight. Her car wouldn't start, and I wanted to lay on the horn, he said. [40:54] And I said, but I didn't. I wanted to so bad, and I didn't, because I knew she was on her phone. And when I pulled up beside her, she couldn't speak to me. She said, I don't know, I don't know. And smoke's coming out of her hood. And then I said, and I got on Google Translate, and I tried to talk to her. [41:08] What's going on? Well, I just left the transmission shop, and they put me a new transmission, transmission fluid leaking all over the pavement. And he said, well, let me help you. And he pulled her car around, and she told him the story again. [41:21] And he called his wife and said, we're going to go take this lady out to eat. She said, who are you taking out to eat? I said, we're both taking this lady out to eat. No, we don't know who she is. She takes them, they take them out to eat. She's, she's, he offers to buy her car. [41:33] He said, you need to get a new car, a car that runs. I'll buy this old one from you. He buys her car, and she gets one that runs. She tells her cousin that lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, this is all a bone ring. She tells her cousin who lives in Indianapolis, she says, you have got to come and meet these folks. [41:46] These are good folks. They're, I'm starting to go to church with them. Her cousin, their cousin from Indianapolis is now derived from Indianapolis every single Sunday to come to church with this family with, from this Hispanic woman that doesn't even speak English because she's their help. [42:01] She goes out and he says, I'm looking for people to help every day. I asked God the other day, Lord, I'll do whatever it takes. I'll do whatever it takes, Lord. I want to hear from you. And I remember driving down the road, he said, and I was driving down the road and he said, pull over and get on your knees and pray on the side of the road. [42:18] And it was raining. It was raining that day, he said. And I said, God, you know it's raining. He said, I thought you said you'd do anything. [42:31] And he said, I pulled over on the side of the road. I started to pray. I said, I can't believe all this is happening to you. He said, ever since you prayed, my life has changed. [42:45] How many people were involved? Because I decided to ask, what's wrong with your leg? And I said, how's your leg doing, by the way? [43:00] He said, no problems. No problems. I want to encourage us all tonight. [43:16] What does God need for us to do every day? Ask him. What do you need me to do? Is there something that I should say to somebody? [43:27] Is there something I should do? Is there something I should separate myself from? Like Abraham did with what? Before you start talking to me. I don't want to miss it. [43:39] But there's a lot of folks involved. We're all in this together. We're all in this together. And your decisions matter. [43:53] So I encourage us all. Start asking God what he wants. Give the hand for the word of God. [44:03] Thank you.