Headwinds

push through some of the weaknesses that I feel, that these things are not to be regarded as something wrong, but we just, just a reminder that we need the Lord, and He's faithful. And I've thought of, oh, for weeks now, the Lord has touched me with one scripture, and I want to just be careful that I don't go everywhere preaching the gospel, but focus on what He wants to say. But anyway, Philippians 3 is the passage I'm thinking about. I spoke a little bit on this in Columbia a few weeks ago, but the Lord just keeps digging in deeper and pushing my mind to different parts of this truth, and He's doing it because I need it. Anybody else need the Lord? You're in a place, you're in your journey every day, and yet you're struggling with this. And one word just keeps coming to my mind, and it's the word headwinds. And you know, if you're in a boat and you're trying to go in a certain direction and there's wind coming at you, you've got resistance. Anybody have any headwinds lately? Anybody have any headwinds this morning? We just heard from April, yeah. But I'll tell you, God wants us to realize and come to a place where we realize that's the norm of living for Him in this world and is not meant to discourage us. And my mind went to a very familiar scripture that there's so much in here, you could preach on this for weeks and emphasize different aspects of it, but in Philippians 3, again, we have Paul's testimony of how he grew up learning how to supposedly make himself acceptable to God by keeping rules, keeping laws, discover that didn't work. And then when Jesus revealed himself to him, everything in his life changed and suddenly instead of being about rules, it became about Jesus. And so many times I think a lot of our trouble is that we begin to focus on ourselves and our weaknesses and our needs rather than on Jesus. And so Paul declared what the very central heart and purpose of his life and his everyday life became about. It wasn't about, I've got to keep the rules perfectly, it was about Jesus and how did

he put that? All right, first of all, he said everything in the past was garbage and why did he consider it that to be garbage? This is coming in to verse 9 that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. That's the only way anybody can gain a standing before God. It's what Jesus did, period end of story. Now one thing that we can find in ourselves that would ever commend us to Holy God, thank God, because the more you go, the more you realize there ain't nothing good in here. I need a Savior, don't you, thank God. All right, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith, that means my confidence is no longer in me, it's in Him in what He did. But now He declares what His purpose is. I want to know Christ, yes to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death and so somehow to attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Now I'll say something I probably said many times, but the word no here in Greek is not just simply sitting in a classroom and absorbing facts. This is not just knowing about Jesus, you could have all the facts. I mean you could, here's an example, I guess I've read somewhere, but anywhere, anyway, you could go to a cooking class and know everything there was to know about cooking, but if you never took food and cooked it, what good would that do? You wouldn't have any real knowledge. And what the Lord wants is a knowledge that is a personal knowledge of Him, where every day we know Him a little bit better than we did yesterday. That's the heart. That's meant to be what my day is about. Now I guess I'm jumping into things that, that's all right, I'm going to jump. [LAUGHTER] "Well, I've got a job to do.

I've got to eat breakfast. I've got to sleep. I've got to get up." You know, whatever your day consists of, house cleaning, schoolwork, that's not what Paul's day was about. Now, yes, there were things he did. Sometimes he was in prison and suffering. Sometimes he was preachy. Sometimes he had miracles that God performed through him. There were so many things that were a part of Paul's activities. Some days he just spent all day working on making tents. So he had food to eat, okay? So you could look and say, "That was what Paul's day was about." That's not what Paul's day was about in his heart. It was about knowing him and learning to know him better because that personal relationship is what everything is about. Praise God. So I'm going to go on. I jumped ahead a little bit, but that's all right. And then of course, he says, "Not that I have already obtained all this." So here's Paul well into his ministry saying, "I have not arrived. There's still stuff God has to do in me." Did that stop him from ministry? No, he didn't need a graduate degree in spirituality to minister, but there was always this sense. Whatever God puts in my path to do, in that doing, I am looking to know more about him in a very personal sense. I learn from him and I see needs in me and he is working to change me and that's what it's all about, okay? But I haven't arrived and I'm on the road, so here's where I'm at. He says, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,

but I press on to take hold of that, for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." All right? Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. He says it again, but what is the one thing that he does? He doesn't say the one thing I do is I'm going to be a good tent-maker. I want to be a good preacher. I want to, you know, all these kinds of things that we tend to focus our minds on so much. One thing, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on to toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. The very fact that he uses the word "pressed" reminds us that there is opposition. Boy, we have got it so wrong in America. We think serving God beings, getting God to solve all of our problems for life is easy. It's not the way it is. If we're serving God and going against what the kingdom that operates in this world, you will have headwinds. Get used to it and recognize that it's part of the process, that if God is going to do what is necessary in our lives, we are going to face opposition. It will come from within. That's the worst of it, because I've still got an old nature that operates in this body and it wants stuff that God doesn't want. It wants to live for self, all it wants to do is lift me up in some way. And here's Paul late well into his ministry, still having to discover things about himself. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Yeah. So that's normal. Don't ever let that discourage you. Praise God. And so, here's Paul pressing every day there are headwinds that are going. And you know, we've had a lot of proper emphasis lately on the fact that I need God's power. I do.

And one of the things Paul says about that is I want to know the power of the resurrection. Now again, that's not just to know about the power and then all of the theology going into that. I need to experience that. Now you know, we've heard so many times the testimonies, for example, of our brothers and sisters at Mercy Tree. Now there you've got cases where people have really been in the pit, in the mud, in jail as it were, sometimes literally. And yet they can look somebody in the eye and say, "Let me tell you what Jesus has done for me." That's not theology. And He does it, not to defeat us or discourages, but it's part of saving us, bringing us to a place where we can experience the power of His resurrection in special ways. And praise God. I guess I'll throw this one thing in, because we tend to think of the power of God in the sense that it's the power to do something. That is, perform a miracle. That's the power of God to preach with the anointing or whatever it is. I need, you know, God's power is what I need and it's going to have some effect that we can see and touch and feel. Folks, I need God's power in ways that, well, just like April was expressing. Things that nobody knows about. I need power every single day. Because I'm going to face things that will show me things about myself I might not want to face and think about. See how I can get to where I'm going with this. But Paul knew by very personal experience that there were tendencies in him, just as there are in every one of us, to react emotionally to life, to things that happen to us. And so he gets down to things like attitudes. Nobody here ever gets upset with somebody. No, you just wouldn't do that. I know you're too spiritual. But the reality is God is going to allow things to happen. They will involve other people, they'll involve the devil, they'll involve the world's culture. They'll simply obviously involve our nature, wants to go that way, to respond in a certain way.

How do I ever learn that I have that problem if I don't have that problem? In real experience. And so here's Paul serving the Lord, and all of a sudden that attitude wants to rise up. That reaction, that emotional condition, wants to rise up and just take control. What's that about? Oh God, make that go away. Well, you make it go away. This is where Paul said, "My God, I need power. I don't have the power. I know what I'm supposed to do, but it's not in me to do it. I've already been down that road, and all I discovered was I'm a mess and I just can't do it. No matter what I do, God saved me from myself." And so what Paul was doing, what Paul learned how to do was to access the power of God, the power of the resurrection. I don't even remember, I mean, like I said, there's so many ways, and I don't want to just, I don't want to go beyond what I need to say to get across what I believe the Lord wants to say to you this morning and to me. But how do you remember the passage that is read, I think was read recently from Ephesians 1 about what God wants us to know, and he wants us to know about what happened with Jesus and the power that brought him out of that tomb. What was it that brought him out of the tomb? It was power. It was power beyond everything the devil possesses. But he didn't just do it so we could say, "Wow." He said it because that power, that power is for us. Those are awesome words. How many of you can stop and think and say, "Jesus did all of that in spite of my needs, by everything is wrong with me." He went to a cross to take my sins upon himself, my guilt. It's God, not because I deserve it, not because I did anything. But not only that, how can I now live? How can I live in a way that is pleasing to him and be the person he means me to be? Oh yes, the power that brought him out of that tomb is for me. Has that ever dawned on you that that power that brought Jesus out of his grave was for you and you and you and me? Wow, what a profound truth. And so here's Paul recognizing, "Yeah, I'm going to confront needs in me no matter what I do, whether it's to stand up and minister." or just to get through my day with good attitudes and good thoughts. Oh God, I need power.

You know, we think about, if you were presented with a ministry opportunity, something you needed to do, and you know, oh God, I'm not able to do that. Oh God, please fill me with your spirit so that I can do this. How many of you have ever come to a place where there's a temptation and you've got a weakness in an area? Whatever it is. How many of you have ever stopped to think, oh God, fill me with your spirit so that I have power against this temptation? That's something I can say, yes, that's real. God will give us the power to live for him if we really want it. Because it's there, he paid the price in full. It's done, it was finished. To him be the glory, praise God, praise God. God helped me to realize, oh God, fill me with my spirit so I'm not impatient anymore in this circumstance. Fill me with your spirit so that I'm not upset with somebody or I'm just not stuck in some emotional pit. God, I need the fullness of your spirit just so I can be. And obviously that covers the whole gamut of Christian living again. It's not just about the person that I am and my character. It's about when he puts something in front of me to do. Obviously we begin to realize, oh God, I need you. I can't do any of this in a way that matters.

I may be able to do the activity, but oh God, if it's just me doing something that has no eternal value. But if it's you living in me doing something that has eternal value. That was what Paul's day was about. So even if he was sitting there making tents all day and maybe having a conversation with somebody and maybe just feeling really tired or the devil is just bombarding him with thoughts and you're, look at what you've gone through for Paul. You think anybody here gone through anything resembling what Paul has been through, had been through. My God, stone persecuted, beaten, imprisoned, hated, you name it. He went through all of that and he just looked right past it and said, that's not what it's about. It's about knowing him. And one thing, not just, oh God, get me through this day. I feel so bad. Where do I get the strength not to do that? The power of the resurrection. And I'll tell you, there's every one of us. God wants us to learn to live with more of a consciousness of recognizing what God has done for us and actually laying hold of it. 'Cause Paul talks about laying hold of that. In fact, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavily. I'm laying hold of something that He laid hold of me

to give me. That was the reason that He called you in me so that we could have that. But there's a part that you and I play in our day-to-day lives. And Paul realized it's not about the activity. It's not about this or that. It's not even about me. Trying to be a better person. It's about, Lord, I just need more of you in an experiential way. And the only way you and I are gonna experience what God has set before us is going through the storm. Because if I don't ever feel the need, then praise God. I'm just coasting along. I thank God that He puts headwinds in front of us. But I noticed something, and this was focused, my mind focused more on this. Since I visited the folks down in Columbia, that when it talks about what He wanted to know, the central part of the stuff that He wanted to really know, it wasn't just, I wanna know about the power. Because you could easily take that as a thing. I need a thing, obviously we know it's God's spirit. But it's almost like a technique. Bunch of principles, a formula to follow. Okay, God, I'm supposed to ask for the power. You could try to reduce spiritual things to just techniques and principles. But notice what comes before Paul says I want to know about the power of the resurrection. I want to know Him. I want to know Christ.

See this gets down to walking with a Savior in the way that I know Him better today than I know Him yesterday because I experienced something. And I know what He is to me and I know what He's done for me and it's real. Let me tell you how He got me through yesterday when the different headwind circumstances, whatever they are, whether it's just oppression in your mind. Jesus brought me through. He didn't leave me alone. He was there. The problem is we live almost as if that weren't true. And we're just kind of muddling through and generally believing in Him and then we show up at church and we kind of get through. God wants us every moment of every day, not in some mystical way. I'm not talking about some experience or feeling, but I'm talking about an acknowledgment of the Lord in how many of our ways, acknowledge the Lord in all of our ways. And there's this sense. See, Paul wasn't sitting there knowing he knew his needs, but Paul wasn't sitting there putting himself under a spiritual microscope. Okay, let me see what's wrong so I can go get power to fix it. God, if you focus on everything that's wrong and everything that you feel is just isn't what it's supposed to be, that's kind of discouraging, because you and I will find a whole lot. And not only that, the devil will be sitting there telling you, accusing you and reminding you and all that other stuff. And that brings in what he says about forgetting what's behind, because he'll bring up all your past. Oh, I don't care how hard you try. You look what you did, you failed. Anybody got any failures yesterday? Anybody got any failures this morning? Yeah, we have a power through what Jesus did to put that at the feet of the cross and leave it there. And know that as far as God is concerned, that is as if it never happened. Think about that. Think about what the incredible salvation that God has made available to us, to his son, to him be the glory, praise God. I'll tell you, there's a part of human nature that when we are conscious of a need in ourselves, oh, I can't go to him now. What does he think of me? Oh, God, just help me. But I'm afraid, if I look at him, what's he going to look at me like, I'm disappointed in you. What's the matter with you? Straighten up. Look at what I did for you, and now you're messing up again. Oh, what is a song we sing? What's in his eyes?

Love is in his eyes. Mercy, compassion. Does he ever leave us? I don't feel him all the time. He doesn't show up in a way that just stirs up my emotions and gives me icicles up and down my spine. But is he there? How much of the time is he there? All the time. Wouldn't it be good to focus on that? See, Paul's life was not going around looking at his needs under a microscope. It was looking at him. Do you know when we do that, we will see the things about ourselves that are not like him. Just like Isaiah realized who he was when he saw the Lord. I'll tell you, if I focus on who he is, and I ask, "Lord, make yourself more real to me. Help me to understand. Help me to know you better in my life experience right now." And I'll tell you, we're going to become conscious of needs. But the context of that will be looking into the eyes of someone who says, "I know your need. I've made provision for it. I'm not showing you your needs so that you will be discouraged and give up. I'm showing you your needs so that you can lay hold of what I paid the ultimate price to give you. It's there. And you have the right to ask me, "How many times lately have we rightly heard?" even though they're evil themselves. The father I'm talking about. But I'll tell you, how much more would your father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? And so every time I'm going through something, and I feel the head wins, and I realize that's just a spirit dealing with or working on me, or maybe it's a circumstance that's difficult, or it's something in me that's reacting to life. That's a time when I need to say, "Lord, I need you. I need you to fill me with your spirit," so that my attitude is more like yours, because I don't have the power to do that. Wouldn't that be a good thing to do through our day, and to realize, "This is what my day is really about. It's about learning to know Him better, learning how to access the power that He died to give me." See, it's not complicated, and yet how many people actually live that way. God brought Paul to a place where He understood, "This is what my days about. I can forget yesterday. It's done. He took care of it. I'm free." And I know He knows what's coming tomorrow, but my only job is to go against the head wins, to recognize there's nothing wrong if I feel head wins, but I have the power to continually, instead of looking at the winds, I'm looking to Him. And what I see in Him is that love, is that acceptance, that mercy, that one who holds my hand in the midst of the storm and never leaves me. And He says, "I've got the power. Ask me. Believe me. Look to me. Keep your eyes on what I have given you and not on what the devil's throwing at you." I thought of another scripture that plays into this. Again,

you could go into this in much greater detail. But how about 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13, very familiar scripture. And it uses the word temptation, but the word temptation could also be a test. It's something that's adverse. Whether it's literally, "I'm tempting you to commit a sin," is why we tend to think of that. But I'll tell you, if something happens and we have a bad attitude about it, that's not like going out and committing robbery or something, but that's just as much sin as the robbery. That's just as much unlike what God is making us into as any other kind of sin you can think of. But anyway, no temptation has overtaken you. There are no headwinds that have overtaken you, except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. Thank God. He will not let you be tempted or tested beyond what you can bear. I may feel like that sometimes, but that's his promise. But when you are tempted, doesn't say if. When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so you can get rid of it. Wait a minute. Doesn't say that so that you can endure it. God's not going to steal this kind of storm. I mean, there will always be headwinds if we're serving God. He's not going to eliminate all of the winds. What he will do is give us power that is greater than that wind so that we can move forward. And he's going to do it in a way that we will know him better and we will be able to say, we'll be able to say, we can't say, "Oh, look at me. I did it." We're going to look at Jesus and say, "He showed me mercy. He showed me grace. He showed me strength in the midst of all of my adversity." And I just give him the praise because the strength comes from him. It comes because of what he did. He died in order to share God's life, God's spirit with me, to lift me up out of what I was and to work in me to change me so that I'm more and more like him. How does that happen? You're going to have to overcome adversity by looking to him. Every day, laying hold of the strength that I need to have the right attitude to do my job, to handle the - when I'm tired, when I'm weak, whenever the - when that he will give us. And of course, you know, the example that we use so many times of what Paul went through and he sought the Lord when that spirit was bothering him and the Lord allowed it. And Paul didn't even realize he had a particular need. And yet it wasn't like, okay, Paul, you fixed this need and then I'll use you. God was already using him. But in the midst of that, yes, there were things that came up. Okay, now it's time to deal with this. You're serving me, but you could serve me a whole lot freer if we kind of touch on this area of your need. And it was pride. Nobody here has a problem with it, I understand. Yeah, not lately, right. I think it's pretty much more early, is all early and always,

that's just the way we're made. That's the way we were born into this world. But God has given us everything we need. And so, but what was God's answer again to take away, to stop the wind or to say my grace is enough, it's sufficient. And again, what is grace? It's God's power at work. It's just another way of saying the same thing. What is being filled with his spirit, his life, the power of the resurrection, grace, grace just simply adds the flavor that I don't deserve this. This is God's power that I don't deserve, but he gives it to me anyway because he loves me and wants to change me, it saved me. And if I'm willing, praise God, I can come and find the grace to help in time of need. I've always got a place I can go. So what does it come down to? Whatever the winds are, whether it's something that nobody knows about, whether it's a circumstance, whether it's just strength to get through your day and have a right attitude about it or strength to go out and minister. It could be any of those things. God wants our eyes not on the winds and the difficulties and all of that, but it'll be lifted up and to see a Savior. And when we look at him, what do we see in his eyes? We see his love, his mercy, not his disappointment and condemnation. We see a Savior who says, "I know, I understand, I've been there. I know what you're experiencing. And I'm right with you. You may not feel me, but I'm still here. I've got your hand. But I've also got the power that you need to keep putting one foot in front of another. You need power that you don't have and I've got it. Look at what happened when I came out of that tomb and all the kingdom of darkness was hovered there, trying to stop it. And they couldn't." That tells me that all the kingdom of darkness cannot stop a child of God who's looking to him and accessing that power and saying, "Lord, I want you and I'm living for you. I'm trusting in you this day. I can leave yesterday behind. I can put tomorrow in your hands and just look to you right now. And as I do, I will see needs, but I will see the solution. And I will ask and I will believe and I'm going to get through this. And I'm going to have a testimony out of that test that God be the glory. There's nothing new we've said here this morning, but that's what Paul's day was about. What's your day about? You just think about the problems, the duties, what's going on in an outward sense. And God's looking at, "Hey, this day is about me changing you so that you're more like my son. There will be winds that will blow. There will be difficulties. There will be challenges that you will face. Keep your eyes on me because you're going to see the love of a Savior who's standing right there who has the power that you need to get through. I'll tell you, to God be the glory. Praise God.

Praise God. Thank God for His presence, His promise, His word. Thank Him for being with us. Able to thank you for that testimony. Well, Phil, thank you for sharing that. I was thinking, and this kind of loses something happened last night, but I was just thinking the greatest headwind that ever came on anybody in the history of the earth is when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane. We can't even imagine He knew what His job was to do, and yet He found Himself. There's only one He could talk to. they had no idea what he was facing and some ways he didn't even know the degree of what he was facing because when he got there he was overwhelmed. I tell you what if he hadn't faced that headwind and got what he needed we wouldn't be talking about our great high priest this morning but that's who we're talking about because he has ultimate power and even you know what Paul referred to about partaking of his sufferings. Jesus had to encounter in himself something that had to be overcome for our good. That's incredible. I mean there's so many mysteries and things but the truth of the matter is he was made just like us and that's why we can go to him not just because he was made just like us but but that he overcame. He faced the headwind and then he became a great high priest because you think about it the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest thing that ever has happened in this earth. It's a greater than the creation itself because before the foundation of the world that was planned. You know the work says that we know that all things worked together for the good of those who love God to them recall according to his purpose. Are we called according to his purpose? Was Jesus called according to his purpose? Wow. Well if that's the case us, particularly us not so much Jesus but even he had to face that we have things in us that are not according to his purpose. In fact in order for those to be overcome the Lord has to put us in a position providentially so that we encounter it and we go to the source of all help. His name is Jesus Christ and I hadn't incidentally I had I had that thought yesterday morning. Does everybody like this weather? You don't walk a little bit. Isn't it beautiful? I think there may be some fall season in heaven somehow because it's just awesome but I was I was thinking and I'd go now

and just talk Lord a little bit and I thought about the issue of you know we have these issues very much like what April was saying. We encounter something in us it wells up and we realize okay I gotta talk to somebody. Well as she said she went to the right place but our nature and what we tend to do is try to fix it first. You can't fix it. We're going to dig deep into this darkness and overcome the darkness. That ain't the way it works. The Lord loves us so much. He wants us to know how much of a high priest he is so the first order of business is to go and obtain. I mean this is not about being good enough. We can't be good enough. We never can. We might try. It's hopeless. He is our hope and when and I had that thought men. The first thing I should do all of us is simply say Lord I'm encountering something in me that is totally contrary to the gospel but as it says in Hebrews 4 let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we might have obtained mercy. Well I think any of these says define it when we need it most and when you're encountering the part and you're strong that's when you most need Jesus Christ and you're not going to be able to dig deep enough and fix it. We're going to have to go to the source of all help and strength and ask him to give us the power through his spirit to do what we cannot do. Is the Lord awesome or what? I incidentally this was this was mentioned last night. There was a festival last night in our county. It's called say again yeah unity fast and it was interesting the guy that ministered he said you know I asked the Lord to give me something and I believe he's giving me this message it's a little difficult for me to say it but he said it and this is what he talked about. He said that you know my mom was diagnosed with a terminal condition. I think she was up in Virginia. He said I know the Lord specifically asked me to go pray for her. I knew it. It was so strong on me that I started interpreting the way it was going to work out. He said I already believed when I went and prayed for my mother that the Lord was going to heal her. She was going to walk out of the hospital. The daughters were going to be amazed and it was going to be incredible because he had given me the power to pray for her and this result to be produced two weeks ago she passed away.

I had plenty of time to argue with the Lord and ask him why." He said, "Honestly, I got a little ticked off." He said, "What did you let this happen?" And he said, "The Lord spoke to him." He said, "What he reminded him of was this Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane." "He is facing the terrible cup. That's the most...the cup that Jesus took is incredible." But he prayed, "Lord, if it sure will let this happen, nevertheless not my will but yours be done." Is that what he prayed? When we are having to take ourself and our baggage and everything to the Lord, look, we need the help that only he can give. And in order to do his will, we have to have his power to do it. And that fellow was talking about that. He said, "Now I realized what was more important than the way I interpreted what the Lord had to do for me was his will." And it included my mind and my thinking to be pushed down. He said, "It was a change. It's difficult. Well, it's part of his sufferings." But the most awesome thing about being a protector of his suffering is when we go the same route Jesus did, we experience, in some ways, it is the resurrection power, but he experienced that power before he died and was resurrected. He gained strength to do what he could not do. I am so thankful, and I'm so thankful that after he was raised from the dead to that resurrection power that was in God, that he is now seated at the right hand of God on our behalf. Isn't that amazing? I mean, that means whatever suffering we've got to go through, if we're going to be changing to his image and our ways are not his, you know, our ways are not his ways. His ways are not ours. His thoughts are far higher than our ways. Well, we have to be shaped into what he wants and what his purpose is.

That's going to include death to self. If any man will be motorcycle, let him first deny himself, take of his cross daily and follow after me. So the death is not easy, but the thing that's so wonderful about it is the replacement that he gives for that is so wonderful. It makes even the suffering worth it, does it not? Because we get to experience the power of Jesus Christ in our life, and guess what? That's for somebody else. It's not just for us. We have to, in order to know him, we have to experience that ourselves so we can give that to someone else. I mean, the next time we're going through something that we cannot control, that we do not like, that we're wrestling with, like Ms. April said this morning, "God, I need a counselor. I need a priest I can go to," and he says, "You got it. I'm here." You know? Isn't that wonderful? Incidentally. Betty, do you know how old Shirley Hearn is? Ninety. Thank you. I was thinking about her yesterday morning when I was thinking about this subject, about just getting from God what we need, and I sent her a text, I think he gave me a number, not a text, because she doesn't hear very well, and she text me back and said, "Yeah. I'd like a visit. Come on over here and see me," or something. I mean, you know how gracious she is. She's so sweet, and I was so amazed about what we've got in this conversation. And she was talking about, I mean, she's 90.

I didn't ask her how old she was. I knew she was up there. She was talking about walking around inside her house and saying, "God, I cannot do this." Someone's been serving God that long, and they're saying, "I don't have the power to serve you today." She was on, she said, "Lord, do you get tired of me saying this? I don't think the Lord is any more pleased with us, and when we yield to Him and say, "Lord, your will be done. Help me. I trust you. I trust you." So it came up about trust, and she's a lady who's 90 years old that's walking back, "Oh, she said, "Lord, I'm alone. I'm completely alone. What good can I do? I'm here by myself." And he said, "You're not by yourself. I'm right here." And she said, "I knew you was telling me the truth." And in that lesson for all of us, someone that's been on earth that long, she'll probably see this service that is uploaded, I'm sure it will, and she'll watch it in her house. You know, I'll tell you what, the Lord never leaves us nor forsakes us. And he knows intimately everything we're going through right now. That's been said. He experienced it himself in a far greater headwind than we will ever experience, and he overcame, and he is alive. - Yeah. but we have the power to do it in our resurrected Christ. Amen. I think that's all I have. When Phil was ministering this scripture came to me and it's a it applies. I just want to

share it as confirmation. It's in Colossians 2 I think it is. Yeah, Colossians 2. We all know it's a very familiar scripture. It says, "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." And I got the meditating on that and it's like what Phil was saying, this the Lord we're completed him when we're saved, that power is in us. We're like a child, you know, we just don't know how to use it, how to apply ourselves to it, but it says in earlier up in six as as he have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, it says, "So walk ye in him." That's how he do it. When we're walking in him, we're walking in his power. And there's a familiar scripture too that says it talks about a lot of people. Let me get back what I should say before I said that. You know, a lot of people that are religious and say they're Christians, they they dwell too much on the death of the cross and that was just that was just an event to get us to the life to come out in resurrection. We shouldn't dwell so much on the death of the cross because it kind of it humbles us. That's that's what it was meant to do, but the Lord doesn't want us to stay there or else he wouldn't arose again. He wants us to dwell on the resurrection. That's where the power comes out. That is where he showed us his power and all power and authority is his. So he wants us to live vibrantly and alive and not dwell on our family. I think Phil quoted this not looking at it at the back. I forget those things are behind. That's everything that we've buried at the cross with Christ. And the scripture always says I'm getting back to my thought with the second scripture. It says, ah, not being like those that have a form of God like this, but deny the power thereof. We have to move in the power. That's what we have to exercise ourselves in. Praise the Lord. This has been so good. I just wanted to share this because I believe so much of what Brother Phil shared and the testimony.

April shared really just connected. I want to read the scripture. I think Brother Phil may have if you read through it, I may even try to play catch up, but at least it'll give us maybe some highlight. But I was thinking of this verse in in relation to April's testimony and kind of what she described. And my thought here just to again, add to what's been really if I kind of narrow down with the Lord's really telling us is he's helping us to see what a mature Christian looks like. Now, if I had to ask everybody, I'm going to ask everybody, if you feel like there's a level of maturity in your life, raise your hand. See, we're all. Yeah, see, we're, we're, but let me tell you this and I'm not trying to just speak something untrue. There's actually more maturity in us than we realize in April's testimony to me and everybody can relate to similar testimonies. What we, what we witnessed there was actually a maturity of the Lord in her coming out. Am I right? And that's what God wants to encourage us here this morning is you look at what maturity it is. This is the verse that really hit me in Philippians 3, 15, it says all of us then. So again, Paul just got done listing all the things, oppressing towards the Lord. And he says, all of us then who are mature should take such a view of things. And if some of you, and if some of you at some point think differently, in other words, you may not believe it, everything, but God can actually work in us. He says, that too, God will make clear to you. He can do that. He says, and this is what really stuck out to me. And again, look at April's testimony. Again, all of us have a testimony what you share there about Sister Hearn. Wow. Again, I know. I feel touched on that earlier. God's given us something that we've attained, but yet we need His Spirit to help that to come out. There's a maturity that He wants us to come out. And I was thinking that April's first reaction was, "Number one, this is bigger than me." First thing that happens is we first have to humble ourselves, right? What's the next thing that came after she mentally humbled herself? The words started coming to her. God's promises started coming to her. That's what actually said her freeing helped her, right?

And then what's the result of that, like Brother Phil said, she actually now knows the Lord better. We talked a lot about knowing the Lord. Does she not know the Lord better now? Because there's a process of God's word was in her heart. She experienced those headwinds. She exercised herself. And she's free. Isn't that not the Christian walk? I thank God for that. But that verse really encouraged me for all of us. Again, I appreciate that testimony. And here in others that are going through things, but yet God's word and that maturity comes out, I just thank God for that. And Lord, help that in me, because this has been for me this morning. Help that in me to come out and where I can say, "Lord, with Your grace, I want to become more of a mature Christian." The fact is, there's more maturity in there than we realize God has just proven it. He's proven it. And it wants it to come out. Amen. Praise the Lord, this has been wonderful. It was definitely for me and it's been just a strength to my bones, I guess, as the word says. This will be quick. I just, as Matthew was talking there, at the very end, I just thought about the casting on the way of your confident scripture. So I looked it up. So Hebrews 10, and so hopefully I can tie this in because I really appreciate this, just how everything's come together.

Verse 34, just the end, I'm going to read the whole thing, "For you had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spooling of your goods." That's something not pleasant happening to you. "Knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance with our Lord, power, provision from on high. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great, recompense of reward. For you have need of patience that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise." To me, that little snoo, I'm going to stop right there, but that was kind of like you talked about, what is your day about? You know, it's, I don't know, to me, that kind of summed up some of it. And also in that, that's the Lord telling us, "Hey, don't cast away your confidence." You know, that's what it talks about, we're not trying to be more mature than he's already made us. He just wants us to step into what he's brought us to at this point. So, thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]